Rest In Peace Ted Turner

Let me do a play on one of the closing lines from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Animal Farm:

• All people are unique, but some people are more unique than others.

The world lost one of its “more unique” inhabitants yesterday; Ted Turner died.  Ted Turner had an impact – – and a lasting legacy – – on society as we know it today.  I’ll get to some of his impact on the sports world in a moment, but just consider that one person accomplished all the following:

• He created from nothing CNN which used to be a 24-hour newscast that covered worldwide news.  Now it covers news as an adjunct to its commentary programs.
• He created CNN Headline News which did news summaries every 30 minutes 24 hours a day.  That network went belly-up after folks realized that not much happens from one 30-minute roundup to the next.
• He created Cartoon Network.  Many parents should thank him for that.
• He bought the MGM library of films and created Turner Classic Movies – – the TCM Channel on your cable system
• He created the satellite-connected TV station – – the so- called “superstation” – – in Atlanta named WTBS Channel 17.
• He created Turner Broadcasting and Turner Network Television which continue to exist today.
• At one point he was the fourth largest landowner in the US and those millions of acres of land were dedicated to remaining as a wildlife preserve.
• He gave a donation of $1B to the United Nations to establish a foundation intended to help refugees worldwide fight disease and clear land mines.

And then there are his legacies for the sports world too:

• He won the America’s Cup race trophy in 1977.  He and his crew were a hardworking and then a hard drinking bunch and at one point he had to write a letter of apology to one of the tony social clubs in Newport RI for his behavior there after admittedly over-imbibing.
• He owned the Atlanta Braves – – which provided a lot of programming time for his “superstation”.
• He owned the Atlanta Hawks – – which provided a lot of programming for his “superstation” when there was no baseball.
• He owned a pro ‘rassling enterprise – – which provided programming for his “superstation” year-round.
• He managed his Atlanta Braves for one game until MLB Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, ordered him to stop.  The basis for that edict by the Commish has never been clear to me.
• My favorite of his ‘stunts” was when he offered a bonus to his star pitcher, Andy Messersmith, to change his name to “Andy Channel”.  The reason was that Messersmith wore the number 17 and Turner’s superstation was Channel 17 so when Messersmith was pitching his name and number on the uniform would be “Channel 17”.

Finally, the closing thoughts today must originate with Ted Turner:

“Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.”

And …

“My son is now an ‘entrepreneur.’ That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.”

And …

“I lost 80 percent of my wealth and then gave away over half of the rest. So, I’m a man of modest means now. But if you budget carefully and watch your expenditures, you can get by on a couple billion dollars.”

Rest in peace, Ted Turner.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………