Ron Cameron

[Bobbert]

Another day without Ron’s quizzes, but how about one about Ron? Not too long ago, Ron was asked if he played any sports when he was younger. Ron sidestepped the question, but he did note that he excelled in a certain sporting activity. Does anyone recall what that was? And as Ron would say, don’t be looking it up.

Didn't he once say that he was the ping pong champion one year at Arizona spring training?

[Momo]

Another day without Ron’s quizzes, but how about one about Ron? Not too long ago, Ron was asked if he played any sports when he was younger. Ron sidestepped the question, but he did note that he excelled in a certain sporting activity. Does anyone recall what that was? And as Ron would say, don’t be looking it up.

Didn't he once say that he was the ping pong champion one year at Arizona spring training?

Yes, we have a winner!

[Trophyhead]

The latest from "The X..."

Ron Cameron Sports Talk
@CameronSportsTk
·
2h
Good Morning friend,

I am still in the hospital but for another medical matter.

Hope to let you know more when the Drs come to talk with me.

Prayers are welcome.

Thank you.

[MWmetalhead]

1,012,016 views for this thread so far, for those who are curious and unable to see that data.

[radiofan1974]

The latest from "The X..."

Ron Cameron Sports Talk
@CameronSportsTk
·
2h
Good Morning friend,

I am still in the hospital but for another medical matter.

Hope to let you know more when the Drs come to talk with me.

Prayers are welcome.

Thank you.

Bob Paige replied

Asking to cut the BS, but wanting to know and hoping Ron will be ok

[Bobbert]

While we're waiting for Ron, here's another feature article from the Detroit Free Press (July 6, 1980).

Superfan

Sports Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk: It's Cameron's job, and he loves it

By KATY WILLIAMS
Free Press Sports Writer

He is brash, opinionated, and, to some people, downright obnoxious.

But for six nights a week, Detroit sports fans go to phones and wait as long as 20 minutes on hold to talk with him.

In a city where losing teams have become a trademark, Ron Cameron still regards himself as "Superfan."

As host of WXYZ's Sports Talk radio program (Monday through Saturday, 6:30 to 8 p.m., he says, "I love to talk, and I can talk sports all day."

The man who once earned his living as an all-night hotel clerk and later a minor-league umpire now does it by updating Detroit fans on trades and saves and last-second baskets—all interwoven with his own opinions. (He's big on Red Wing goalie Jim Rutherford, down on ex-Tiger Ron Leflore, and adamant that the Tigers can win 90 games.)

HIS ASSETS include a mental warehouse of sports statistics and an unbridled enthusiasm for Detroit teams. "I've missed only one home Tigers game in five years, and that was because the Pistons had a playoff game that night." Three years ago, he vacationed in Anaheim just to see the Tigers' series against the Angels.

On the debit side is Cameron's style, which clearly lacks the smooth delivery common to most broadcasters. In a business where poise is a byword, he is apt to run words together when he's excited—which is often.

Cameron's approach is more casual than that of sports show hosts in other cities. Ken Beatrice of WMAL's "SportsCall" in Washington, for example, has a stable of scouts who feed him tips and statistics and keep his technical knowledge current. Cameron, however, relies on getting facts over the telephone from coaches, players, and general managers around the country. "I've made connections," he says simply.

CAMERON, 34, came out of the Parkside housing project on Detroit's east side. He dropped out of high school to take a job in an all-night restaurant. "My shift didn't start until midnight," he recalls. "I could watch an entire baseball or hockey game before I had to go to work."

At age 18 he was sweeping floors in Olympia, where he could hang around and talk hockey with John Ziegler, a long-time Red Wings lawyer. "Ron was always there with the questions," says Ziegler, now National Hockey League commissioner. "He'd ask me what I thought of the different trades and players. He kept informed way back In the early '60s. Now it shows."

He later became a hotel clerk at the Ft. Shelby, where the major league umpires stayed, and soon borrowed money for umpire school in Florida. But he lasted less than two seasons in the bush leagues—one in South Dakota, the other in Quebec, where the fans were French, and the players mostly Puerto Rican. Cameron, who wasn't as good in a chest protector as he had hoped, quit in midseason.

HE LANDED his first radio sports talk show eight years ago, parlaying on-the-spot reports from ballparks and arenas.

In early 1977, he took his show to WMZK, where his was the only English program on the multi-language station. He sold his own air time, and could count on making about $200 a show if advertisers paid their bills.

Cameron came to WXYZ nearly two years ago. He loaded his show with heavy-hitting guests like Green Bay Packers coach Bart Starr, oldtime Red Wing Gordie Howe, ex-Tiger Al Kaline, Keith Jackson of ABC, and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

"The guests are nice, but why the Tigers (or Pistons, or Red Wings, or Lions) don't win is what the fans want to know," Cameron says. "I'm the guy who can tell them. I'm the guy who has seen all the games."

NOT EVERYONE loves Cameron, and he knows it. "I'm controversial, and some people don't like the fact that I know more than they do. That's the way it's always been. I'd hear about players getting released before they would. I'd walk up to a guy and say, 'Pack up, you're going home.' "

He gloats over breaking the news of Bobby Kromm's firing from his Red Wings coaching job last winter. Since that Cameronism, Ted Lindsay, then general manager of the Red Wings, has refused to appear on Sports Talk.

"Lindsay told me to stop spreading rumors," Cameron said. "I said, 'They're not rumors, my sources say that Kromm is on his way out.' Lindsay said it wasn't true, but fired him two months later. Now Lindsay won't talk to me."

Nor does Lindsay listen to Cameron's show—he thinks it is "unnecessary."

Cameron was also first among Detroit sports media to know that Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey was coming to the team last season ("I gave hints on the air"), and he correctly picked the Pirates to win last season's World Series.

"I took a lot of heat for saying that," Cameron said, "because they were nine and a half games out when I picked them. Nine and a half games, that's a lot. No one believed me. I just liked their bullpen—Tekulve, of course, and Robinson, Grant Jackson, and Romo."

Even if he had to watch them between pushups.

DURING A televised Tigers game last season, Cameron, plainly overweight at the time, did more than 1,800 pushups between pitches and innings. "Yeah, it was when Rozema beat Toronto," he said. "I'd do 50, write the total, and rest a minute. I was in my living room in front of the TV. I was doing the tough kind of pushups, too. I missed only two pitches."

Now some 50 pounds lighter, Cameron plans to buy into a restaurant and fill the menu with plates like the All-American Burger, the Touchdown Treat, and the Triple Play.

"I love eating burgers—I eat out all the time," he said. "This way, I can both eat and talk sports with all the people.

"See, I never had anything growing up," he said. "I used to borrow money for bus fare to see Detroit's teams play in Cleveland and Chicago and Cincinnati."

Farm clubs and not-ready-for-big-league players have found a soft spot with Cameron. Whenever players were sent out of Detroit, Cameron would follow their minor league progress by reading out-of-town newspapers in the Detroit Public Library. "I like to see these young guys do well," Cameron says. "Maybe it's because nobody ever gave me anything. If I can help someone else, I'm going to. I'm going to go down scrambling."

Wins or no wins, sports will always be Cameron's first love. "That's why I'm not married," he said. "I'd have to stop going to all the games."

[radiofan1974]

Great find as always Bobbert!

Would be interesting to hear him during his wxyz heyday, any different then today?

[Bobbert]

Great find as always Bobbert!

Would be interesting to hear him during his wxyz heyday, any different then today?

Here's a couple of interviews he did with Budd Lynch before WXYZ and at WXYZ:

https://mcrfb.com/?p=22041

[Momo]

The latest from "The X..."

Ron Cameron Sports Talk
@CameronSportsTk
·
2h
Good Morning friend,

I am still in the hospital but for another medical matter.

Hope to let you know more when the Drs come to talk with me.

Prayers are welcome.

Thank you.

Just think of all the new stories - real, embellished & fabricated - Ron has in store for us on his triumphal return. I'm imagining Ron dictating these new stories to his traveling secretary.

https://www.alamy.com/secretary-and-bos ... archtype=0[/googlevid][/img][/youtube]

[Momo]

The latest from "The X..."

Ron Cameron Sports Talk
@CameronSportsTk
·
2h
Good Morning friend,

I am still in the hospital but for another medical matter.

Hope to let you know more when the Drs come to talk with me.

Prayers are welcome.

Thank you.

Bob Paige replied

Asking to cut the BS, but wanting to know and hoping Ron will be ok

And to think Ron didn't believe Page cared about him.

[Momo]

While we're waiting for Ron, here's another feature article from the Detroit Free Press (July 6, 1980).

Superfan

Sports Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk: It's Cameron's job, and he loves it

By KATY WILLIAMS
Free Press Sports Writer

He is brash, opinionated, and, to some people, downright obnoxious.

But for six nights a week, Detroit sports fans go to phones and wait as long as 20 minutes on hold to talk with him.

In a city where losing teams have become a trademark, Ron Cameron still regards himself as "Superfan."

As host of WXYZ's Sports Talk radio program (Monday through Saturday, 6:30 to 8 p.m., he says, "I love to talk, and I can talk sports all day."

The man who once earned his living as an all-night hotel clerk and later a minor-league umpire now does it by updating Detroit fans on trades and saves and last-second baskets—all interwoven with his own opinions. (He's big on Red Wing goalie Jim Rutherford, down on ex-Tiger Ron Leflore, and adamant that the Tigers can win 90 games.)

HIS ASSETS include a mental warehouse of sports statistics and an unbridled enthusiasm for Detroit teams. "I've missed only one home Tigers game in five years, and that was because the Pistons had a playoff game that night." Three years ago, he vacationed in Anaheim just to see the Tigers' series against the Angels.

On the debit side is Cameron's style, which clearly lacks the smooth delivery common to most broadcasters. In a business where poise is a byword, he is apt to run words together when he's excited—which is often.

Cameron's approach is more casual than that of sports show hosts in other cities. Ken Beatrice of WMAL's "SportsCall" in Washington, for example, has a stable of scouts who feed him tips and statistics and keep his technical knowledge current. Cameron, however, relies on getting facts over the telephone from coaches, players, and general managers around the country. "I've made connections," he says simply.

CAMERON, 34, came out of the Parkside housing project on Detroit's east side. He dropped out of high school to take a job in an all-night restaurant. "My shift didn't start until midnight," he recalls. "I could watch an entire baseball or hockey game before I had to go to work."

At age 18 he was sweeping floors in Olympia, where he could hang around and talk hockey with John Ziegler, a long-time Red Wings lawyer. "Ron was always there with the questions," says Ziegler, now National Hockey League commissioner. "He'd ask me what I thought of the different trades and players. He kept informed way back In the early '60s. Now it shows."

He later became a hotel clerk at the Ft. Shelby, where the major league umpires stayed, and soon borrowed money for umpire school in Florida. But he lasted less than two seasons in the bush leagues—one in South Dakota, the other in Quebec, where the fans were French, and the players mostly Puerto Rican. Cameron, who wasn't as good in a chest protector as he had hoped, quit in midseason.

HE LANDED his first radio sports talk show eight years ago, parlaying on-the-spot reports from ballparks and arenas.

In early 1977, he took his show to WMZK, where his was the only English program on the multi-language station. He sold his own air time, and could count on making about $200 a show if advertisers paid their bills.

Cameron came to WXYZ nearly two years ago. He loaded his show with heavy-hitting guests like Green Bay Packers coach Bart Starr, oldtime Red Wing Gordie Howe, ex-Tiger Al Kaline, Keith Jackson of ABC, and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

"The guests are nice, but why the Tigers (or Pistons, or Red Wings, or Lions) don't win is what the fans want to know," Cameron says. "I'm the guy who can tell them. I'm the guy who has seen all the games."

NOT EVERYONE loves Cameron, and he knows it. "I'm controversial, and some people don't like the fact that I know more than they do. That's the way it's always been. I'd hear about players getting released before they would. I'd walk up to a guy and say, 'Pack up, you're going home.' "

He gloats over breaking the news of Bobby Kromm's firing from his Red Wings coaching job last winter. Since that Cameronism, Ted Lindsay, then general manager of the Red Wings, has refused to appear on Sports Talk.

"Lindsay told me to stop spreading rumors," Cameron said. "I said, 'They're not rumors, my sources say that Kromm is on his way out.' Lindsay said it wasn't true, but fired him two months later. Now Lindsay won't talk to me."

Nor does Lindsay listen to Cameron's show—he thinks it is "unnecessary."

Cameron was also first among Detroit sports media to know that Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey was coming to the team last season ("I gave hints on the air"), and he correctly picked the Pirates to win last season's World Series.

"I took a lot of heat for saying that," Cameron said, "because they were nine and a half games out when I picked them. Nine and a half games, that's a lot. No one believed me. I just liked their bullpen—Tekulve, of course, and Robinson, Grant Jackson, and Romo."

Even if he had to watch them between pushups.

DURING A televised Tigers game last season, Cameron, plainly overweight at the time, did more than 1,800 pushups between pitches and innings. "Yeah, it was when Rozema beat Toronto," he said. "I'd do 50, write the total, and rest a minute. I was in my living room in front of the TV. I was doing the tough kind of pushups, too. I missed only two pitches."

Now some 50 pounds lighter, Cameron plans to buy into a restaurant and fill the menu with plates like the All-American Burger, the Touchdown Treat, and the Triple Play.

"I love eating burgers—I eat out all the time," he said. "This way, I can both eat and talk sports with all the people.

"See, I never had anything growing up," he said. "I used to borrow money for bus fare to see Detroit's teams play in Cleveland and Chicago and Cincinnati."

Farm clubs and not-ready-for-big-league players have found a soft spot with Cameron. Whenever players were sent out of Detroit, Cameron would follow their minor league progress by reading out-of-town newspapers in the Detroit Public Library. "I like to see these young guys do well," Cameron says. "Maybe it's because nobody ever gave me anything. If I can help someone else, I'm going to. I'm going to go down scrambling."

Wins or no wins, sports will always be Cameron's first love. "That's why I'm not married," he said. "I'd have to stop going to all the games."

Thanks, Bobbert. All those callers patiently on hold must now be dead. I don't remember Ron talking about his half-season umpiring in Quebec. And I didn't know - or remember - that his pre-WXYZ show, on WMKZ, was a brokered affair. And the image of Ron doing 1,800 pushups - "the tough kind" - between pitches & innings is one that I'll have trouble getting out of my head.

[Bobbert]

While we're waiting for Ron, here's another feature article from the Detroit Free Press (July 6, 1980).

Superfan

Sports Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk: It's Cameron's job, and he loves it

By KATY WILLIAMS
Free Press Sports Writer

He is brash, opinionated, and, to some people, downright obnoxious.

But for six nights a week, Detroit sports fans go to phones and wait as long as 20 minutes on hold to talk with him.

In a city where losing teams have become a trademark, Ron Cameron still regards himself as "Superfan."

As host of WXYZ's Sports Talk radio program (Monday through Saturday, 6:30 to 8 p.m., he says, "I love to talk, and I can talk sports all day."

The man who once earned his living as an all-night hotel clerk and later a minor-league umpire now does it by updating Detroit fans on trades and saves and last-second baskets—all interwoven with his own opinions. (He's big on Red Wing goalie Jim Rutherford, down on ex-Tiger Ron Leflore, and adamant that the Tigers can win 90 games.)

HIS ASSETS include a mental warehouse of sports statistics and an unbridled enthusiasm for Detroit teams. "I've missed only one home Tigers game in five years, and that was because the Pistons had a playoff game that night." Three years ago, he vacationed in Anaheim just to see the Tigers' series against the Angels.

On the debit side is Cameron's style, which clearly lacks the smooth delivery common to most broadcasters. In a business where poise is a byword, he is apt to run words together when he's excited—which is often.

Cameron's approach is more casual than that of sports show hosts in other cities. Ken Beatrice of WMAL's "SportsCall" in Washington, for example, has a stable of scouts who feed him tips and statistics and keep his technical knowledge current. Cameron, however, relies on getting facts over the telephone from coaches, players, and general managers around the country. "I've made connections," he says simply.

CAMERON, 34, came out of the Parkside housing project on Detroit's east side. He dropped out of high school to take a job in an all-night restaurant. "My shift didn't start until midnight," he recalls. "I could watch an entire baseball or hockey game before I had to go to work."

At age 18 he was sweeping floors in Olympia, where he could hang around and talk hockey with John Ziegler, a long-time Red Wings lawyer. "Ron was always there with the questions," says Ziegler, now National Hockey League commissioner. "He'd ask me what I thought of the different trades and players. He kept informed way back In the early '60s. Now it shows."

He later became a hotel clerk at the Ft. Shelby, where the major league umpires stayed, and soon borrowed money for umpire school in Florida. But he lasted less than two seasons in the bush leagues—one in South Dakota, the other in Quebec, where the fans were French, and the players mostly Puerto Rican. Cameron, who wasn't as good in a chest protector as he had hoped, quit in midseason.

HE LANDED his first radio sports talk show eight years ago, parlaying on-the-spot reports from ballparks and arenas.

In early 1977, he took his show to WMZK, where his was the only English program on the multi-language station. He sold his own air time, and could count on making about $200 a show if advertisers paid their bills.

Cameron came to WXYZ nearly two years ago. He loaded his show with heavy-hitting guests like Green Bay Packers coach Bart Starr, oldtime Red Wing Gordie Howe, ex-Tiger Al Kaline, Keith Jackson of ABC, and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

"The guests are nice, but why the Tigers (or Pistons, or Red Wings, or Lions) don't win is what the fans want to know," Cameron says. "I'm the guy who can tell them. I'm the guy who has seen all the games."

NOT EVERYONE loves Cameron, and he knows it. "I'm controversial, and some people don't like the fact that I know more than they do. That's the way it's always been. I'd hear about players getting released before they would. I'd walk up to a guy and say, 'Pack up, you're going home.' "

He gloats over breaking the news of Bobby Kromm's firing from his Red Wings coaching job last winter. Since that Cameronism, Ted Lindsay, then general manager of the Red Wings, has refused to appear on Sports Talk.

"Lindsay told me to stop spreading rumors," Cameron said. "I said, 'They're not rumors, my sources say that Kromm is on his way out.' Lindsay said it wasn't true, but fired him two months later. Now Lindsay won't talk to me."

Nor does Lindsay listen to Cameron's show—he thinks it is "unnecessary."

Cameron was also first among Detroit sports media to know that Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey was coming to the team last season ("I gave hints on the air"), and he correctly picked the Pirates to win last season's World Series.

"I took a lot of heat for saying that," Cameron said, "because they were nine and a half games out when I picked them. Nine and a half games, that's a lot. No one believed me. I just liked their bullpen—Tekulve, of course, and Robinson, Grant Jackson, and Romo."

Even if he had to watch them between pushups.

DURING A televised Tigers game last season, Cameron, plainly overweight at the time, did more than 1,800 pushups between pitches and innings. "Yeah, it was when Rozema beat Toronto," he said. "I'd do 50, write the total, and rest a minute. I was in my living room in front of the TV. I was doing the tough kind of pushups, too. I missed only two pitches."

Now some 50 pounds lighter, Cameron plans to buy into a restaurant and fill the menu with plates like the All-American Burger, the Touchdown Treat, and the Triple Play.

"I love eating burgers—I eat out all the time," he said. "This way, I can both eat and talk sports with all the people.

"See, I never had anything growing up," he said. "I used to borrow money for bus fare to see Detroit's teams play in Cleveland and Chicago and Cincinnati."

Farm clubs and not-ready-for-big-league players have found a soft spot with Cameron. Whenever players were sent out of Detroit, Cameron would follow their minor league progress by reading out-of-town newspapers in the Detroit Public Library. "I like to see these young guys do well," Cameron says. "Maybe it's because nobody ever gave me anything. If I can help someone else, I'm going to. I'm going to go down scrambling."

Wins or no wins, sports will always be Cameron's first love. "That's why I'm not married," he said. "I'd have to stop going to all the games."

Thanks, Bobbert. All those callers patiently on hold must now be dead. I don't remember Ron talking about his half-season umpiring in Quebec. And I didn't know - or remember - that his pre-WXYZ show, on WMKZ, was a brokered affair. And the image of Ron doing 1,800 pushups - "the tough kind" - between pitches & innings is one that I'll have trouble getting out of my head.

My compliments to the reporter for this clever and ironic line:

Now some 50 pounds lighter, Cameron plans to buy into a restaurant and fill the menu with plates like the All-American Burger, the Touchdown Treat, and the Triple Play.

Ron's pushup fitness program could inspire his listeners to exercise during his ads.

[Bobbert]

Here's some further proof that Ralph Owen, and not Ron Cameron, is responsible for the 3 ball/2 strike rule in Detroit Catholic League baseball:

https://www.chsl.com/baseball-ralph-owen-award

[billmich88888]

its the worst modification rule in sports,
just play 5 innings instead of 7

[Bobbert]

And I didn't know - or remember - that his pre-WXYZ show, on WMKZ, was a brokered affair.

Here's how WMZK was described in the Free Press on 10/23/76:

WMZK is only full-time ethnic station in Detroit, with programs in Scandinavian languages as well as Russian, Korean, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Croatian.

(I'm really trying to suppress the urge to make a joke about Ron Cameron's show adding to wide variety of foreign languages on the station.)

The first WMZK program for Ron that I can find is on Monday, 1/24/77, when he interviewed Ron LeFlore. The show was at 10 p.m.

Other interviewees in 1977 include:

• Red Wing goalie Jim Rutherford

• Red Wing Dan Maloney

• Piston M.L Carr

• Pistons coach Herb Brown

...and of course...

• UD basketball coach Dick Vitale