The incredibly great, Bill King, has passed on...

[Zinfandel]

Bill King!

As Bill would excitedly, say..."Holy Toledo", Barry for TWO!

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

(King, called that great, 1975 Warrior Championship Season---that everyone forgets)!!!!

Ray Ratto...

Bill King, as told to anybody he wanted. And maybe, because he was a stridently private man when it came to the subject of Bill King, there is a book somewhere, just begging for a publisher. ..

Bill was fearless. He said what he saw, not what he was told to say. He was accurate always, and he was witheringly critical when it was required. Listeners knew they were getting the straight deal every time, because he not only wouldn't lie to gussy up a player's profile, he couldn't. He wasn't trained that way, as so many broadcasters are now. He loathed homers, announcers who tart up the home team because they think they are providing a service, because being a homer requires an essential dishonesty he could not abide.

More's the pity if there isn't, though. He was eye-searingly brilliant in so many ways that his story would, if properly told, be a biography for the ages.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. If you want to know some stuff about King

read Hank Greenwald's bio, "This Copyrighted Broadcast." The book sucks; way too much stuff about Greenwald's obsession with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his world travels and not enough about the Giants, Warriors and Yankees. But he tells a few stories on King — like the times he swore on the air and the time he walked home to Marin County after an all-night party in SF.

King was one of a kind. Gonna miss him.

[Kickin_Donkey]

2. HOLY TOLEDO!!!

I heard about it Monday.

I doubt many people outside of Northern California know who he is.

Bill King hated refs. He always ripped them.

I have fond memories of Bill King, including with the mid-1970s Warriors. But my favorite Bay Area sports announcer is Lon Simmons.