Our buddy George Michael has passed away

[nyyanksghr]

George Michael passed away last night at 230 a.m. after a 2 year battle with cancer. While most of the world knows George from The George Michael Sports Machine that ran for 27 years, many board members knew George as a dedicated collector of vintage baseball photos. George collected pre 1960 photos of ballplayers in sliding, game action. George was full of life and was collecting right up to the last minute. I spoke at length with him Sunday. He was enthusiastic about so many pre 1920 sliding photos we purchased from the Sun Times.
From a selfish standpoint, I will miss George for his kindness, business guidance, wisdom, and friendship. George was a consultant on my recent purchases of The Chicago Sun Times photo archives as well as many other large deals over the last 10 years. George...I already miss you. The only thing he loved more than his sliding photos was his wife Pat. Please keep her in your prayers. Pat called this morning and says a memorial service will be after Jan. 1st. I'll post when the date is set. John Rogers

[ullmandds]

My condolences...I used to watch the sports machine late sunday nights when I was younger....and I always enjoyed George's commentary.

[Rich Klein]

We also remember George from is WABC days as the evening disc jockey. George also announced Islander games for several years and was very versatile in his interests. The work he did on baseball photography was lovingly notated in several SABR research journals.

Condolonces to all who knew him

Regards
Rich Klein

[calvindog]

My prayers are with George and his family.

[Leon]

Always sad to hear of another collector passing away. My condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.

[Robextend]

Sad news, always looked forward to watching the Sports Machine when I was growing up. He will be missed.

[Rich Klein]

Allan Sniffen; webmaster of the WABC tribute site in New York has added a nice "radio-centric" tribute to Mr. Michael on his site.

http://www.musicradio77.com/index.html

There is a fee for this site; but if you are into old radio "air-checks"; this is a terrific site to listen to old school Top 40

http://www.reelradio.com/rf/gmwabc12...l#gmwabc121974

Regards
Rich

[Rob D.]

Last few weeks have been rough ones for our hobby.

[williamcohon]

George gave a wonderful presentation at the Cincinnati SABR convention, a few years ago. He had a monumental knowledge base, and was overflowing with energy and enthusiasm.

[scgaynor]

That is terrible, I really liked George. I spoke with him a few weeks ago, but have not seen him in a few years.

Scott

[Potomac Yank]

We've lost an Icon.

My warmest thoughts to the family, and friends.

[RichardSimon]

I was really saddened by this news. George had been a customer of mine, though in the past few years I had not been in touch with him. I always admired his tenacity in tracking down those "sliding into a base" photos and I would always contact him when I obtained some.
He will be missed and my condolences to his family.

[Jewish-collector]

He was a long time sportscaster here in Washington, DC on WRC Channel 4. The radio station WTEM 980 has been all day "Remembering George Michael".

[bmarlowe1]

George was one of the few people I have encountered who was really excellent at analyzing the content of early baseball images and his articles on that subject which appeared in SABR publications influenced me.

George was also aware of how messed up the photo ID's were in many well-known baseball history books, but he was just too nice a guy to call people out on it.

[KNH]

I used to watch his show at 11:30pm on I believe it was Sunday night. He did an excellent job and will sure be missed.

[chris6net]

George You will be missed. Condolences to your family 70 years old is to young these days but I know you got your moneys worth. CN

[ethicsprof]

my deepest sympathy to family and friends

barry

[Rich Klein]

[George was also aware of how messed up the photo ID's were in many well-known baseball history books, but he was just too nice a guy to call people out on it.[/QUOTE]

One of my favorite stories was when Marty Appel was writing his biography of King Kelly; he saw a photo of someone purported to be Kelly in the Ken Burns baseball series. He called up Burns' office and was told something to the effect that the person pictured looked like Kelly but we just used that because it was close enough and there weren't many photos of King Kelly available.

So it's not just in biographies but also in TV shows (and we once spent a very heated month on SABR-L discussing the Ken Burns series)

Regards
Rich