Your Next Jimmy Scott's High & Tight Monday Morning Interview: Lary Sorensen

I shant ramble here like a precocious teen studying for mid-terms while surviving on a diet of Red Bull and amphetamines.  Instead, I'll ramble like I always do and expect your full attention.  Do you remember Lary Sorensen?  Does his name ring a bell?  If you grew up in the 70s and 80s following baseball, you might recall his name for a few reasons, three of which are:

1) He was a 1978 All-Star with your Milwaukee Brewers

B) You collected baseball cards and memorized every name because that's what we did

3) He was a figure in the 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials. 

"Jimmy, please," you say, hopping up and down in place because you have to pee and the bathroom is taken by the precocious teen smoking something illegal behind your back, "you're saying you expect me to memorize every name on every baseball card I ever collected?  You joke to no end and I want it to stop now."

I shant stop because this would happen:

See?  A whole lotta nothin'.  You want a whole lotta nothin' or you want me to continue?  Okay.  I accept your apology.  I shall continue and ignore your antics in front of the lavatory door (FYI: Knock real hard and say, "I know what's going on in there."  It'll be funny to see the kid's face.  Then ground him/her for life.  Don't get specific on whose life.  It'll ruin the "funny.")

I'm completely lost.  Um... Sure.  Okay.  Back on track.  We're talking about Lary Sorensen.  Here're three reasons why you want to hear your next Jimmy Scott's High & Tight Monday Morning Interview with Lary Sorensen:

1) Since the end of his career, he's been a radio announcer.  For a time, he was one of the voices of your Detroit Tigers.  So when he speaks, it sounds good. 

B)  The 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials ("Boring!" the precocious teen says and now I ask you to chain the kid up in the basement until I'm done here).  Recapping the beginning of this sentence: The 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials were, at the time, one of the biggest scandals in baseball history.  There were big names involved: Keith Hernandez, Dave Parker, Willie Mays, Willie Stargell, the Pirates mascot.  There were huge suspensions, from a full season to 60 days (yet nobody missed a game).  And there was national news coverage because these trials were a reflection of what was going on in American society at the time.  If baseball is a barometer of our culture, then there was a lot of coke shooting up noses in the 1980s. 

3) Yes, there's a #3.  I'll figure it out in a sec - Oh, Lary, on his own, is an incredibly interesting man because of 1 and B and because, after his Tigers radio gig, he lost it due to alcoholism.  This battle with drink goes back many years, includes jail time, a failed marriage, and a man working hard every day to pick up the pieces and move ahead with his life.  Listen to Lary and realize you can't help but root for him.

I'll make a bargain with you and plea that you return here Monday in the early AM time period (or anytime after that).  My super-fantastic interview with Lary Sorensen will knock your white and red sox off and remind you that, before Clemens and Bonds and The Steroid Era, there was another era that was just as damaging.  And if you're really good, I'll come over and take the blame for when you locked your kid in the basement.  He/She will still love you and you'll owe me big time.  Listen on Monday and we'll call it even.  Deal?

Deal.