Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Jim Rome's Rookie Card?

Jim Rome is a polarizing figure in sports talk radio and television, to some he's the greatest talking head on tv/radio, and to others he's a pompous jackass who's not much better than Rush Limbaugh. My own personal opinion is more on the positive side than the negative, since I've been listening to him for YEARS.

That's right, I count myself as an original clone. I was listening to Rome waaaaay back in the early 90's when he did his Saturday Scrub Show on XTRA 690 in San Diego. I even remember calling him up about some boxing match sometime in 1992 or 1993. Why I can recall sitting next to Natrone Means in the stands at Charger Training Camp while he was being interview by the young Pimp in the Box.

Once he got moved to the day-time shifts I became an avid, daily listener. I compiled lists of "Jungle Glossary Terms" before the Internet is what it is today. I remember the first couple of Smack-Offs too. I have though, never called the show because mostly I don't have a take and if I did, it would suck.

Now I haven't listened to Rome on a regular basis the entire time he's been on radio. There were a number of years where I was working when I couldn't have a radio at my desk so I never paid that much attention. Today though I get to listen to him when and where I want to, thanks to the internet and 570 AM KLAC's streaming coverage, oh and my car radio. So while I think the days of him calling athletes women's names are over, he's still up to his old antics.

So this brings me to his "rookie card." This is a set of trading cards that 690 used to hand out at events and I managed to snake one over the years. IN fact, I managed to get at least one of the autographed - the late, great Chet Forte was kind enough to his card for me, as did his partner and still a Loose Cannon Steve Hartman. You don't see these sets pop up very often, in fact I can't find another reference to the set on the internet machines. Cool hunh?

And hey, it's another post about sports cards, go figure. At least I'm not pumping my eBay auctions. Oh wait...see what I did there?


6 comments:

Chris Harris said...

"IIIIIII.... WANT TO HEAR..... FROM YOU CHARGERFAN! SHOW ME YOUR LIGHTNING BOLT!"

GOODNIGHTNOW!

William Noetling said...

"Smacksaw" - I heard he finally left whatever 690's legacy was and moved to a new station. I guess you just can't get rid of the guy.

gcrl said...

here i thought maybe you were the mayor of poway.

hacksaw was supposed to become a vikings announcer in the late 90s but some minority groups protested over some comments he had made and he never came to town. hands down my favorite hacksaw quote of all time is 'down it, firefighter!'. i still use that one from time to time.

William Noetling said...

Rome was KILLING it this morning doing his impression of Smacksaw...I was HOWLING.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting the cards, it sure brings back a lot of memories.

Back in the day, Jim's webmaster would at least keep the names of grassroots contributors who helped put together The Gloss on usenet, but it looks like that has changed too.

Smacksaw is still on the air in San Diego, he can be heard on 1090AM.

William Noetling said...

Yeah I haven't seen an accurate "gloss" in a long time, since the days of "American Chewy".