Sports: Let me tell you something, Mr. Columnist

Mar. 19—I realize sometimes things I write annoy people. Don't deny it, I've got the e-mails to prove it.

But, I also have to admit I often read something by one of these smart modern internet writers that riles me a little.

Today, I saw a story on a site called "Screen Rant" noting that although Walter Brennan won three actors back before WW2, he's not a household name like Frances McDormand or some of the great actors of today.

Well, look him up. He was the star of a network TV show for six years. At his peak, "The Real McCoys" was watched by more than 20 million viewers each week. The top show of 2023, Sunday Night Football, was only watched by a little more than 18 million.

Brennan was in little movies like "Rio Bravo", "Pride of the Yankees" and "To Have or Have Not, stealing scenes from John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Humphry Bogart"

The "Screen Rant" writer also said Brennan always played the same part, a crotchety old man.

Well, he often did, but not the same crotchety old man. Watch him play Stumpy, Sam Blake and Eddie in the aforementioned films and you'll see they're not the same character.

Sometimes he was used as a comic character, other times, like in "Support Your Local Sheriff", he was just mean.

Sam Blake in The Pride of the Yankees was a sportswriter proponent of Lou Gehrig during his rise to stardom with the Bronx Bombers. Blake, like Gehrig was an honorable man, just doing his job.

That's not the way Sportswriters are often portrayed on film. Some of then are like Oscar Madison in the "Odd Couple". He was grumpy, sloppy and prone to outbursts of anger. You got the feeling the only book he opened was his scorebook.

Ray Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond" was supposed to be a sports writer, but honestly he didn't seem smart enough to handle that job at a New York City paper. I Loved the show, though.

Dabney Coleman who was a wonderful actor playing obnoxious guys you'd never want to meet in films like Tootsie and 9 to 5, portrayed a sports writer for a TV season on "The Slap Maxwell Story." He didn't do much to advance the reputation of the profession either.

So, as sportswriters go, Brennan played one of the better ones.

It's not just old time actors who get short-changed by these smart modern writers. When's the last time you saw Roger Staubach on the list of Top 10 all-time NFL quarterbacks? They just look at the stats, that don't convey how good it was to have the "Dodger" on your team when the game was on the line.

I even saw a list of the Top 10 country singers of all time that didn't even mention Merle Haggard ....... Merle Haggard!

It's puzzling. To these new guys its like new is automatically better than old.

Shakespeare, Beethoven, they're coming for you.

And Babe Ruth — your career home run record is gone, Bobby Bonds and others have left your 60 home-run season in the dust.. These modern writers don't respect you.

So that's my rant — you may dismiss it as from someone who was born when Hank Aaron was still playing for the Indianapolis Clowns, but if you do a little research you might see my point of view. As Stumpy would say : How about them apples."