OT: RIP, Al Ackerman
The sportscaster who coined the phrase "Bless You, Boys" for the 1984 Tigers has died. After every Tigers win that season, Al Ackerman would end the segment by saying, "Bless you, boys, this is the year." I don't think Detroit's ever had a sportscaster so identified with a single catchphrase.
Bless you, Al. Rest in peace.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/sports/detroit-sports-casting-legend-al-a…
RIP Al
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Bonds. Kelly. Ackerman. Turner.
RIP Al
was a really good baseball and football player who attended my high school. I guess she and Kelly are still married and living in Florida most of the time.
Marilyn Turner's son played Hockey for Michigan. Am I wrong?
EDIT: I am correct. He played for Michigan in 76-78 and then a journeyman pro. Later, he and mom got into a legal fight.
and the stupid song that went along with it. I hope it dies too.
However, RIP Mr. Ackerman. You were a legend.
My parents stood in that line at Northland Mall - that unreal line - to get a copy of "Bless You, Boys" signed in 1984, although of course that was Sparky Anderson doing the signing. It was Al's phrase, and we heard it a lot that year. He was a household name in the Detroit area and he will be missed.
His verbal sparring with Dick Vitale is great:
You were the first sports caster I remember.
Can't really get past how Taco Bell was marketing themselves. That whole promo was a time warp for me like no other.
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Loved the Bless You Boys song in 1984. I still have a Christmas ornament that I hang on the tree every year that has "Bless You Boys" 1984 World Series Champions on it.
It was a terrific year for Tiger baseball - and almost nothing else in the city of Detroit. We needed that season and that phrase.
Bless You, Al.
For those who don't know, "acerbic" was the best way to describe Al Ackerman on the air. He had been so critical of the Tigers that "Bless You, Boys" started out as a joke. I will always remember how his sports shows would have the graphic "Pathetic Pistons" for a couple of years when they were the laughingstock of the NBA. IIRC, he also came up with "Dead Wings" for the equallly horrible Red Wings during that period.
Ackerman would have been a multi-millionaire if he had been born 25 years later. I'm sure he didn't give a fuck, though.
RIP, Al. Thanks for making sports in Detroit entertaining, even when the on-field products were terrible.
And not only did it start out as a sarcastic joke by Ackerman, he started using it in 1983, not 1984. Sparky had been manager for four years by the '83 season and the Tigers hadn't really done anything yet, and Ackerman wasn't going to let that fact go by without his trademark acid commentary.
It was only after the '84 team started out of the gate 35-5 that it acquired a totally opposite meaning from what it had originally.
WDIV just posted a clip of Ackerman interviewing Michigan AD Don Canham during the 1984 season. Ackerman pushes Canham pretty hard on the subject of whether or not Michigan should accept the Holiday Bowl bid with the 6-5 record. Canham closes the interview with probably a classic line that gets Ackerman to laugh.