There Will Be Another Joe Nuxhall

But there will never be another Joe Nuxhall

Joe Nuxhall would have been 94 Tuesday. It’s not hard at all, imagining the Ol’ Lefthander still alive, pounding breakfast at Frisch’s or Bob Evans in Hamilton or Fairfield, swapping lies with a posse of people he’d known forever. Or, you know, people he’d met 10 minutes ago. With Nux, it didn’t matter.

Have you ever known someone, anyone, about whom an unkind word was never said? I count two: Joe Nuxhall and Sean Casey. That’s it. It’s no coincidence that Casey teamed with Joe and Joe’s son Kim as a compelling force behind Joe’s eternal gift to Cincinnati, the Character Education Fund

The fund celebrates its 20th year in ‘23. Its Miracle Fields have brought baseball to kids with disabilities. Calling Joe’s creation a miracle is not a stretch.

I miss Joe. But more than that, I miss the idea of Joe. His kindness was effortless and without agenda. He spent his life being a good guy. Easy to say, hard to do.

There will be another Joe. But there will never be another Joe.

The world will produce another local broadcaster who trades in folksiness, who shows up at all the charity chicken dinners and church festivals, who's in big demand during Stag Season, if only because part of a local broadcaster’s job is to ingratiate himself with the community. Especially in a place like Cincinnati. When you’re seen by the public as One Of Us, your job becomes pretty secure.

The guy might not describe a flyball as being hit to “left-right center.’’ But he’ll be embraced.

There will never be another Joe, though. Today’s times wouldn’t allow it. Cynicism has won. Nice-for-the-heck-of-it is out of style. What might social media have done with Joe Nuxhall?

2022 doesn’t allow for sincerity, unless it’s sincere insincerity. If you are kind in the way Joe was, people assume you’re looking for something. Big hearts are suspect. We worship Me.

It’s cool to be snarky, to act as if we’re perpetually smarter than the next guy. And we’re not even talking about the decline of baseball, our most gentle game. Seen through the current lens, Joe Nuxhall in 2022 would risk being seen as a cliche.

He managed the daily double of doing good and being good. We’ll see another Nuxy. But we won’t see another Nuxy.

Now, then. . .

HEMINGWAYS WANTED. I wanted to get this in close to the top, for all you skimmers. The 17-year life of TML 1.0 celebrated the contributions of Mobsters. The Friday Hemingway brought welcome new voices. Jay Brinker routinely bellied up to the virtual bar. Jay was a homerun hitter. My man Pogo claims to have been a Hemingway star, a real five-tool player, but he hasn’t made an appearance since Keystone was three-fifty a six-pack.

C’mon, people.

The only Hemingway we’ve had in the three months of 2.0 was a guy who wrote a great pitch for electric vehicles. The floor is open for anyone with opinions and a working knowledge of English.

Mad about something, got a personal interest to plug? Lemme know. pdoc53@gmail.com. Let’s resurrect the free-for-all.

THE OTHER SIDE of the Pete Issue is represented convincingly here, by Ken Rosenthal. I can’t argue with much he writes, except his conclusion. Pete’s “reconfigured’’ life has been hit or miss. His complete lack of nuance and grace (and let’s be honest, intelligence) has never helped his reinstatement case. He has gone through life bumping into the furniture.

But what Rosenthal — and everyone else on the anti-Pete side of the courtroom — declines to address is Baseball’s selective enforcement of its apparently sacrosanct rules. Zero mention in Ken’s piece of the ‘17 Astros, who still have their rings. Zero mention of PED rule-breakers — notably A-Rod — who have not been ex-communicated by the selectively righteous National Passed Time.

How’d you like Alex’s work on national TV broadcasts?

And sorry, but there is a need to consider the times in which we lived, and live. Baseball lost the moral high ground the moment a casino ad appeared on an outfield wall. Appearances matter. You can’t make whoopee with gambling on one side of the backseat, while keeping Rose on the other side for 33 years.

Murderers have been paroled in less time. Lots of ‘em. Lookitup.

Maybe this is what grabs me the most: The current commissioner is a smug suit, with not a lot to be smug about. He thinks the game is above Pete. It’s not.

NOW WE’LL BEGIN TO FIND OUT about the golfers who defected from the PGA Tour to LIV. From NBC Sports:

The court case is set to begin in February, which will determine whether the circuit can ban LIV players and thus make them ineligible for the Ryder Cup. It also remains to be seen whether the majors will alter their qualification criteria to account for the LIV defections.

If the court rules against the LIVers, they must decide: Money? Or legacy?

By real-world standards, even the poorest PGA Tour defectors live very well. Is the money more important than winning a major or any legit PGA event? Meantime, I wouldn’t want any player on my Ryder Cup team who chose money over glory.

J THINWALLET WOULD LOVE TO GO TO NKU TONIGHT, to watch the Norse host UC. Two programs seemingly on the rise, each with lots of proving to do. Intriguing to track the fortunes of Darrin Horn and Wes Miller.

I ain’t payin’ 50 bucks for the privilege.

That’s the cheapest available ticket online. If I wanted to sit down low, it’d be $200.

I love NKU. They took wonderful care of Jillian The Magnificent in the four years she was a student there. She was also a manager of the men’s basketball team. Forever grateful to Dave Bezold, John Brannen and Horn — and AD Ken Bothof — for the priceless opportunity they gave my daughter.

But $200 for four hoops tix — me, my wife, Jillian and her husband Ryan — is a bit rich for my blood.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. Much blowback for what was seen as shoddy treatment of James Taylor by Yours Truly. I give Sweet Baby credit for this. He had great taste in women. And Carly could actually sing. This one is a little obscure. It’s also my favorite of hers, and that’s a long list.

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