For many reasons, he retires overrated and unappreciated (as opposed to underappreciated). For example, Bisher is why Bear Bryant hated the City of Atlanta.
On an unrelated note, did you ever notice how much Furman Bisher looks like Jack Warden?
Jack Warden
Furman BisherIn his entire career, if Bisher had written an column one-tenth as entertaining as Used Cars, I might actually be sad to see him go.
Not just a movie. Cinema.
25 comments:
Article excerpt (Concordia Sentinel.....
Dery's article also talks about another story asserting that Bryant had been getting scouting reports from former Georgia coach Wally Butts. Butts was an infamous alcoholic and womanizer who'd been forced from his job as head coach at Georgia due to both his off the field antics and his inability to win games. Butts was known to spend weekends in Atlanta getting drunk and hopping from one unseemly night club to another with young women half his age.
Believe it or not, that was not acceptable back then.
Dery continued, saying allegedly bitter over his treatment, Butts was accused of giving inside information to Bryant that helped Alabama destroy his former team. The primary source of this accusation was an Atlanta businessman named George Burnett who claimed to have overheard a conversation wherein Butts spoke to Bear Bryant at length giving him very specific details about what Georgia would do and how he would best be able to counter their movements.
Bryant and Butts denied the charges, suing The Saturday Evening Post for libel. Butts won his case. Bryant settled out of court. The Post tried to appeal Butts' victory but the appeal was denied and The Post ultimately printed a half-hearted retraction.
Dery states there is ample evidence to suggest that Burnett's story was true. Butts’ phone records for the day Burnett claimed to have overheard the two coaches talking included two long distance calls that corresponded to the exact time Burnett claims Butts was in his office speaking with Bryant. The first was to Frank Scoby, a well-known Chicago gambler who admitted to betting on college football games and described himself as a "compulsive gambler." Immediately after speaking with Scoby, Butts called Bear Bryant and spoke with him for over an hour.
If Bisher is out, does that mean that Terrence Moore takes over as 'Editor' of the Sports page at the AJC? If so, can we talk Bisher back off the ledge? I mean, I'm tired of hearing about GTU Foobaw, Golf, and old people, but I'd rather read that than find out what other vestiges of racism Terrence has dug up from his latest order of onion rings from the Varsity...
so i know everyone is still ripping stickers off thier bumpers and and jumping off bridges but Im still going to nashville this weekend. I havent been downtown nash in a few years. Anybody know of any gathering spots for Dawg fans saturday. Either before or after the game?
GOOD RIDDANCE BISHER!!!!
Paradise Park. woooooooooo
Bisher wrote back in May that "Braves Talent on the farm has dried up."
The same season that produced Tommy Hanson. Plus the Braves have one of the best prospects in the bigs (Heyward). The guy simply doesn't know what he's talking about anymore.
Schultz or Bradley's next. There's really no reason to pay two guys to write the same exact Tech/Florida fluff pieces. You can easily do it with one.
No one has read that paper since Grizzard retired.
It really is a shame that you can't see what an asset Furman was to the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia generally. Yeah, he likes Tech (seeing as he knew Bobby Dodd I don't really blame him). Yeah, he likes golf (ditto re everyone who won the masters).
The guy is the definition of a living legend though. He conducted the ONLY interview shoeless joe jackson ever gave about the black sox.
I mean, hell, our biggest homer (Barnhart) loves the guy.
http://blogs.ajc.com/barnhart-college-football/2009/10/12/bisher-was-the-best-he-still-is/?cxntfid=blogs_barnhart_college_football
If you didn't like his articles, that's fine. But its childish to say its good news that he's leaving the biz. He's another member of the old guard we won't get back.
Re the talent on the farm piece, I think you missed the point of his article. It's not that the Braves have NO talent on the farm system, its that they have been trading it away instead of cultivating it. We had Wainwright and let him go for a one year Drew rental. Same goes for Teixera. Point is, the Braves DO have less talent than we did. We got NO help at outfield or first base this year and had to trade people away to shore up help at both (LaRoche, McLouth). That's his point, that we no longer have the "bumper crop" of multiple prospects.
Last, re the whole Butts-Bryant thing, Bisher wasn't the reporter of record, nor was he named in the lawsuit. Even the article you point to recognizes that Frank Graham Jr., not Bisher, wrote the article. Bisher admitted that his involvement (which was remote) was "the ugliest part of his career" but remarked that "some people in Alabama still think I wrote it." I used to think you were smarter than the tide dawgnoxious. Apparently that thought was misplaced.
Should he have recognized that the source was poor and asked the magazine to hold the article? Probably. But he didn't write it. Get your facts right next time noxious.
Thanks for posting this Dawgnoxious. I held back from adding to the love-fest over at AJC, where the nerds and other uncultured swine were praising Bisher like he was Socrates.
BTW anon@5:29 -
Spare us your outrage and just go join in at the AJC with your outpouring of love. The Shoeless Joe Jackson interview was in 1949. Bisher should probably have retired no later than 1979. The only thing he has contributed to the AJC in the past 30 years is the downfall of the rag as an interesting read.
Bisher was/is a Class Act.
Glad to see Bisher finally leave. He's been mailing it in for the last 30 years, and he rarely wrote good articles before that.
Just because you're old doesn't mean you're a legend.
Get that old f##t the hell out of Atlanta - good riddance! Did anyone see how many thank you emails the SOB had his family members write to the AJC today?
The 3 biggest Aholes ever to be in our great city - Furman Bisher, Terrance Moore, and Cynthia Tucker. The hell with the 3 of them!
Many of you may not realize that Ol Lewis Grizzard thought the world of Bisher...some of you guys would know a class act if it bit you on the AZZ.
Anon @ 5:29, Bear Bryant banned Furman Bisher from practice, so it's not like Bisher was as remotely involved in the Post article as you indicated.
I respect Barnhart's opinion, even though it's formed wholly on emotion. I'm sure Furman is a very nice man. But his columns are the literary equivalent of a conversation with your elderly great uncle who thinks he's a Viking.
I'm glad he's retiring, but I wish him happiness and health from here on out.
Used Cars....oh my what a truly bad movie....I had a number of friends that worked as extras on that movie.
It's a truly bad movie, but when that truck hits the mud puddle and the kids fall out of the back, it kills me.
And the dollar bill on the fishing pole is good stuff too.
I take particular offense to the golf comment. I've heard many tests for whether a sport is a sport. The best one I've heard is if a girl with "B" cups or bigger needs a sports bra to play, it is a sport. Though I'm a guy, I don't think a girl with Bs can generate clubhead speed of 100 miles per hour without needing a sports bra.
If you disagree, I'm sure we can find some guys that would be willing to judge this theory.
I'm sorry but if an overweight old man can play a "game" very effectively, then it is not a sport.
Golf falls into this category. It's nothing more than a glorified hobby. It takes skill yes, but so does long division.
Kingdawg, no offense intended, but in no way is golf a sport. While I like your B-cup theory, golf is the exception to the rule.
If you can do it smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, it isn't a sport. At best, golf is a leisure activity, like lawn darts or bocce ball. It should be covered in the Living section of the paper, next to the crossword puzzle and the bridge column.
And please don't trot out that hoary argument that golf is a sport because it is difficult and requires technical skill. So does brain surgery, which is also not a sport.
I understand the vitriol aimed at Furman. Hell, my 78-year-old father used to call him "Vermin" Bisher. One thing the man doesn't get enough credit for is his impact on making Atlanta the city it is today. Not through his writing though. He was instrumental in getting the Braves to move here from Milwaukee, and once that happened (because Atlanta built a stadium, at Furman's urging to Ivan Allen), the NFL awarded a franchise to the city, industry started moving here more etc. Atlanta and Birmingham were roughly the same size prior to the mid-60's, and the perception of the city changed dramatically once major league sports started arriving, and things snowballed. And yes, there are a lot of bad things about that too, but I like being able to work in my industry at a national level, and still be able to live in the south, near Athens, etc.
Furman had a LOT to do with that, and he rarely gets the credit.
Dawgnoxious,
With all due respect, Golf is more of a sport than what I witnessed from Georgia last Saturday.
I am curious how you define "sport". If it involves competing in a physical manner versus an opponent, then arguing in favor of golf as a sport is, indeed, difficult. I must say, however, that one can play baseball while smoking a cigarette, chewing tobacco, drinking beer, etc. (I've done all three while playing in the outfield of a softball game).
I think that football is the greatest sport because it is comprised of two main elements:
1. Physical contact and/or exsertion
2. A target
Very few sports comprise both of these elements. While golf satisfies only #2, there are many so-called "sports" that only satisfy #1, (i.e. swimming, wrestling, running, etc.).
I suspect that you do not like golf, since you probably knew that the statement "golf is not a sport" would ruffle some feathers. That is fine. You are entitled to that opinion.
By my definition, a sport is defined as having either one or both of the elements that I have described above. While I will agree with you that football is more of a sport than golf, I refuse to agree that golf is not a sport.
Golf is more than a sport. Golf is life.
Dawgma,
'Golf is life' in the way a permanent vegetative state is life. I see you conceded the point golf involves little or no physical exertion. I think your definition is flawed because merely requiring a target converts a number of leisure activities into sports.
For instance, darts requires no physical exertion but does include a target. Although satisfying your definition, it's absurd to argue by playing darts while drunk in a bar you are engaged in a sport. So it is with golf. It may be a glorious leisure activity, but it is not a sport.
There was one instance, (way back in 1991 on the lawn of the SAE house in Athens) in which we turned golf into a game that you may qualify as sport...
It was around midnight on a Tuesday in May that some friends and me took a bag of golf balls and proceeded to hit them with a four-iron into the adjacent 8-story BellSouth building. We were trying to see who would be the first to break a window, but what transpired was a lot more fun.
Every time we missed a window,(which was 100% of the time) the ball would richochet off of the brick building, and back at us on the front lawn of the fraternity house. Everyone had to duck for cover, because it was dark outside and we could barely see the balls being hit.
It was sort of like dodge-ball on acid. Now, if you qualify dodge-ball as sport, perhaps this form of golf has some merit from your point of view.
- Cheers!
ps - when someone finally did get hit, it was about as painful as Tim Tebow's recent lick in the Kentucky game.
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