Andy Beyer on TGJB

[drbillym]

I enjoyed listening to Andy Beyer\'s comments during yesterday\'s At the Races show from Steve Byk.  Beyer made a point of mentioning how he dissed Jerry\'s comments that I Want Revenge would bounce for the Derby.  He admitted that Jerry\'s call was phenomenal and hoped he found a way to bet on him not even making the race!  I like to see when someone has enough class to eat crow.

[flushedstraight]

link to the show, hour 3

http://www.thoroughbredracingradionetwork.com/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=507&year=2009&month=05&day=13&Itemid=35


Beyer regarding JB\'s opinion on I Want Revenge:

\"The logic may have been crazy\"


crazy like a fox?

[TGJB]

Andy is a good guy, unusual in this end of the pool, which features some very sensitive egos. He cares about the game, too, and tries to use his column to bring attention to bettor\'s issues-- very important.

When we did the DRF Expo a few years ago, Andy was seated between me and Friedman, trying to duck under the incoming. One point I should have made clearer back then was that my comments about the Donaldson book and nobody alive inventing speed figures was not aimed at Andy, but at Ragozin, who has gone to great lengths to foster that idea.

[Barry Irwin]

Andy is the best turf writer of his generation.

His prose is a thing of beauty.

Plus he gives a shit.

[alm]

In 1965 I boarded a bus in DC to make the races one night at Charlestown in West Virginia, such was my desperation for horse action.  The last guy to get on the bus was a dishelved guy, in a crappy raincoat, hair flying in all directions, and the last seat was next to me.  I thought OH GOD please, no.

This guys plops down next to me, sticks out his hand to shake and says \"Hi I\'m Andy Beyer...do you come often?\"

He loaded me up on his selections on the long drive, which I of course ignored to my great dismay.  He hit several big winners, exactas, etc.  When we got back on the bus later that night he was also a real gentleman, never once saying \'I told you.\'

Just a little vignette.

[TGJB]

Yeah, well on a bus to Hollywood Park I once sat next to Strother Martin, the guy who made famous \"What we have here is failure to communicate\".

Best I could do.

[Thehoarsehorseplayer]

On the bus to Hollywood (from Anaheim) I sat next to a guy who went to high school with Bob Cousy.  Didn\'t take him more than five minutes to tell me that.
The other 90 minutes were spent telling me that the track authorities would not let him win. Under any circumstances. He knew how crazy it sounded, why would the track authorities not let him win?  Who knows, maybe it wasn\'t the authorities, maybe it was the track Gods who were jinxing him. But there could be no other logical explanation for his losing as consistently as he lost without it being a personal vendetta designed to keep him from winning. Everybody wins at least sometimes, but not him.  Why not him?  Who knows,  All he knows is the jockey\'s must know which horse he bet.  And they weren\'t going to give a top effort on any horse he bet, for sure. For personal reasons, you see. And the photos, what he could tell me about how they doctored photos to cheat him.

Well, I tried to get him back to talking about Bob Cousy.  

Still, I miss my days aboard the track buses.

[Silver Charm]

Barry I gotta go with Jay Hovdey.

But Andy\'s shadow is about the size of King Kong and he didn\'t get it by being loud and obnoxious.

Which is quite a compliment

[Flighted Iron]

wasn\'t he also the cut-man in Hard Times?