Shingo To The Yankees?

[Rooftop Shots]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-doug05.html

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page on the link.

I guess we'll have to see what happens.

[TLAK]

NEW TEAM: According to the Newark Star-Ledger, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has talked to reliever Shingo Takatsu's agent since the Sox released him Monday. Cashman reportedly also talked to the agent of Aaron Sele, released by the Seattle Mariners this week.

 

If Takatsu joins the Yankees by this weekend, he could pitch against his former teammates when the Sox play at Yankee Stadium next week

[3RDBASE]

we'll light his ass up!!!!!...lol naw that would suck...but yeah we'd go yard!

[Texsox]

The Yankees will try anything.

 

I still think he needs a trip to a NL contender.

[KevHead0881]

Alan Embree?

Hideo Nomo?

Al Leiter?

Shingo Takatsu?

 

Ain't it funny how the Yankees have become the baseball equivalent to Victory Auto Wreckers?

 

"Do you have old, beatup s*** that you're not using? We'll take it!"

Edited August 5, 2005 by KevHead0881

[knightni]

"That old relief pitcher could be worth a win."

"Call: 'Looking for a Victory' Yankee Pitcher Wreckers"

 

Embree's arm falls off onto Cashman's foot.

[LosMediasBlancas]

we'll light his ass up!!!!!...lol naw that would suck...but yeah we'd go yard!

 

Nah, his only problem is that he lost his control.

[Balta1701]

Alan Embree?

Hideo Nomo?

Al Leiter?

Shingo Takatsu?

 

Ain't it funny how the Yankees have become the baseball equivalent to Victory Auto Wreckers?

 

"Do you have old, beatup s*** that you're not using?  We'll take it!"

I'm just hoping it ends up not working. Leiter hasn't been terrible for them yet. Hopefully he will be. Nomo's not even with the big league club.

[BigSqwert]

Alan Embree?

Hideo Nomo?

Al Leiter?

Shingo Takatsu?

 

Ain't it funny how the Yankees have become the baseball equivalent to Victory Auto Wreckers?

 

"Do you have old, beatup s*** that you're not using?  We'll take it!"

[WHarris1]

Leiter hasn't been terrible for them yet.

He's been pretty damn awful

[Balta1701]

He's been pretty damn awful

Hmph, seems you're right...especially after a 2 inning start the other day. Dah well...

[Gene Honda Civic]

Push it. Pull it. Tow it to Golf Mill Ford the Yankees bullpen.

[knightni]

"That old relief pitcher could be worth a win."

"Call: 'Looking for a Victory' Yankee Pitcher Wreckers"

 

Embree's arm falls off onto Cashman's foot.

 

 

Push it. Pull it. Tow it to Golf Mill Ford the Yankees bullpen.

We think alike.

 

Edited August 5, 2005 by knightni

[FlaSoxxJim]

Embree's arm falls off onto Cashman's foot.

 

 

That old commercial is an eternal joy.

[KevHead0881]

This article was in the Sun-Times not too long ago.

 

You're up in the middle of the night watching an "Andy Griffith" rerun -- the one where Barney joins the choir -- when a most excellent Chicago commercial comes on.

 

This skinny guy with long blond hair, circa Judas Priest, steps up to an old green beater and tries to open the driver's door. It falls right off.

 

"That old car may be worth money!"

 

That's what the announcer says and, sitting there in the dark in your underwear, that's what you say along with him because you know every word.

 

"Call Victory Auto Wreckers at 630-860-2000 for a quote!"

 

The skinny guy jumps back when the door falls off. He jiggles his arms, and you notice his huge leather watchband, circa Styx.

 

"Victory will tow it away no matter what condition the car is in!"

 

The skinny guy hands over the car's title to another guy, who gives the skinny guy two $20 bills and a third bill you can't read. You hope it's another $20 because you can see the skinny guy could use it.

 

Then a Victory tow truck drags the beater away and "Andy Griffith" comes back on, and you find out -- if you can believe this -- that Barney can't really sing.

 

But you're still thinking about that commercial. Just how old is it, anyway? And whatever happened to the skinny guy?

 

Time for some serious investigative reporting.

 

'I had to jump'

 

 

 

After an exhaustive morning of legwork that consisted of two quick phone calls, here's the scoop:

 

The Victory Auto commercial has been running on local TV stations nonstop since 1981, sometimes as often as 25 times a week. It may well be the longest-running unchanged commercial in Chicago TV history.

 

And the skinny guy is Bob Zajdel of Elmwood Park. He is 45, drives a truck for a living and says he wasn't acting when he jumped back from that falling door.

 

"That was me just getting away," he says. "I was supposed to give a little fake jump, but when the door came down like a shear, I had to jump or I would have got hit. It could have really cut me."

 

Zajdel was a driver for Victory Auto in 1981 when the company's owner, Ken Weisner, asked him if he wanted to be in a commercial.

 

"We went out there one morning and shot it, and I went back to work," he says. "I was on the clock, so I didn't get paid anything extra. I was stupid enough to sign a waiver. They gave it to me about two minutes before the shooting."

 

Not that Zajdel is complaining. A deal's a deal, and he likes the folks at Victory. They give him a discount on auto parts.

 

"I just figured this thing would run like six months," he says. "I didn't think I'd be on for years."

 

Or decades.

 

The commercial made Zajdel a minor celebrity. Very minor. People in bars bought him drinks. They asked to touch his watchband.

 

"I've always been a fan of the ultra-wide watchband and the mullet -- or perhaps in those days it was called a gypsy shag," says WCKG radio host Steve Dahl, a connoisseur of cheesy commercials. "But in the last decade or so, I've really become fixated on the door that just falls off. That is pure genius."

 

But over the years, as styles have changed, Zajdel's style has not -- not on the commercial -- and there are days when he feels he's living in a time warp.

 

"People find out I'm that guy, and they still kid me," he says. "What's with that weird hairdo? What's with the watchband? But that was the style."

 

Does this mean Zajdel in real life has moved on?

 

"I'm built the same, but the hair's shorter. You wouldn't recognize me."

 

I am glad to hear this. Everybody in Chicago should be glad to hear this. But Zajdel's telling me this on the phone, and I need to see for myself. So I drive out to Elk Grove Village, where he works, and check him out.

 

I shake hands with a middle-age, skinny guy who's looking much better -- more squared away.

 

Or, as Harry Caray used to say about ballplayers and nobody raised an eyebrow: "Well now, folks, that's a fine looking fella there."

 

'Why change it?'

 

 

 

I ask Kyle Weisner, Ken's son and the manager at Victory, if maybe it's time to retire the skinny guy spot.

 

"Why change it?" he replies. "It's effective. We get calls."

 

But, I say, Bob looks like a roadie for a hair band, circa Journey.

 

"At this point, it actually works in our favor not to change," he says. "As soon as you see that grainy shot with Bob standing there with his long hair and his wristband, you know what it is. You might be annoyed, but you know."

 

To be precisely accurate, the ad has been altered once, by two words. When the price of scrap steel dropped, the announcer went from saying "That old car is worth money!" to "That old car may be worth money!"

 

For years, the commercial ran only on WGN-TV. Now, in the non-cable world, it also runs on channels 32, 44, 48 and 50. But to catch it, you usually have to sit through a bunch of other 30-second spots pitching hope to the lost and the broke.

 

You get your bankruptcy lawyer. Your high-risk auto insurance agent. Your personal injury lawyer. Your trade school offering an "exciting new career" in massage therapy or interior decorating.

 

And only then, thoroughly swimming in new possibilities, do you get the skinny guy with the falling door.

 

But what I really want to know is this: How large is that third bill the skinny guy gets, the one you can't see?

 

"Well, that's the big mystery, isn't it?" says Kyle. "No one will ever know. My father won't even tell me what that last bill was."

 

Whatever it was, I think Victory should give it -- and a lot more -- to Zajdel. For real. He's the star of a commercial that's been pulling in business for 24 years.

 

Time to cut him a check.

 

It's Valentine's Day.

 

Tom McNamee's "The Chicago Way" runs Mondays in the Sun-Times.

 

"That old car may be worth money!

 

Call . . . for a quote."

[Rowand44]

This is one move I would make if I were the yanks. Shingo was showing flashes of getting back to his form of last year, low risk high reward type move for them.

[White Sox Josh]

This is one move I would make if I were the yanks.  Shingo was showing flashes of getting back to his form of last year, low risk high reward type move for them.

i think he would have success with the yankees. He would be used for sure because of how weak their rotation is right now. Also that is a big ballpark which will benefit any pitcher.

[Kalapse]

i think he would have success with the yankees.  He would be used for sure because of how weak their rotation is right now.  Also that is a big ballpark which will benefit any pitcher.

The ball flies out of Yankee Stadium down the lines (318 to left | 314 to right + the HR porch). With Shingo throwing the ball 65 MPH, he could have huge trouble if hitters sit back on his slow s*** or look for the fastball and get it. In many ways Yankee Stadium could really turn out to be worse for Shingo than the Cell was for him even with 399 and 385 to the gaps.

[Rooftop Shots]

My concern. The Yanks always want veteran experience in the playoffs. Shingo has that experience. Not only that, but if we play the yanks in post season, how much will Shingo's addrenalin be flying to get back at us for letting him go after having a 2nd place fininish for rookie of the year last year, and then using him to help us land Gooch, and now when he was starting to work things out, and finally we say "Thanks for everything fella" "We got what we wanted out of you, now go take a hike!!!"

[Kalapse]

My concern. The Yanks always want veteran experience in the playoffs. Shingo has that experience. Not only that, but if we play the yanks in post season, how much will Shingo's addrenalin be flying to get back at us for letting him go after having a 2nd place fininish for rookie of the year last year, and then using him to help us land Gooch,  and now when he was starting to work things out, and finally we say "Thanks for everything fella" "We got what we wanted out of you, now go take a hike!!!"

We didn't tell him to take a hike we tried to send him down to Charlotte, as a matter of fact he accepted the assignment but changed his mind before reporting and requested his release.

[Benson&Rexage]

This article was in the Sun-Times not too long ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That s*** is hillarious that you found all of that out. I'm going to try and find the guy in the comercial an agent. That guy has potential. NObody gets out of the way of a falling car door better than that guy. I also wonder if you could find out what ever came of the car in the comercial. Besides the door falling off it was a nice piece of machinery.

I would also like to nominate the post abouve which I have quoted as the best ever on sox talk

[Benson&Rexage]

This article was in the Sun-Times not too long ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I ment the s*** about the victory auto

[White Sox Josh]

We didn't tell him to take a hike we tried to send him down to Charlotte, as a matter of fact he accepted the assignment but changed his mind before reporting and requested his release.

but that is exactly what Ozzie did to him by refusing to give him consistent work. Look what Viz was able to do when he got consistent work. Shingo is one of those guys and Ozzie should've given him that work especially when Marte went down since that was when Shingo was on his hot streak.

[Kalapse]

but that is exactly what Ozzie did to him by refusing to give him consistent work.  Look what Viz was able to do when he got consistent work.  Shingo is one of those guys and Ozzie should've given him that work especially when Marte went down since that was when Shingo was on his hot streak.

If he would have given Shingo anymore innings especially in clutch situations we'd probably have 3-4 more losses right now.

[Soxfest]

Bring him on gone for a reason.