Although he played many roles over his illustrious career, Ed Asner will always be remembered as Lou Grant, the gruff but fair boss of Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and later as the eponymous character in his own series).
![Amazon.com: Perfect Game [VHS] : Edward Asner, Patrick Duffy, Cameron Finley, Tracy Nelson, Drake Bell, Orlando Brown, Paul Robert Langdon, Shelley Malil, Christopher Naoki Lee, Bryan Matsuura, Hayley Palmer, Chelsea Parnell, John](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WA34E88EL._AC_.jpg)
The long-time actor passed away yesterday at the age of 91.
His baseball connections:
Asner portrayed Lenny Crowley, a Vin Scully-type baseball broadcaster who begins to show signs of dementia, on Arli$$ (“Last Call“). Tommy Lasorda, Al Leiter, and Jon Miller appeared as themselves in the sad episode. I wasn’t a regular watcher of the series, but I do remember this one, where Crowley starts speaking to players and associates who had long since departed.
Asner was also in a Bad News Bears knock-off, Perfect Game (Disney, 2000) in which he played, in the words of one Amazon reviewer, “a past-his-prime coach” who helps the rag-tag team come together after their previous, smarmy leader bails on them. The IMDB synopsis puts it a bit more Disneyesque: “An eleven-year-old boy finds a way of overcoming life’s obstacles with the help of a grumpy coach who aids him in having the best summer of his life.” I must admit I missed that one (not really).
Asner was also know for his political activism and charitable work. Here’s the obit from The New York Times.
Here he is in the first episode of TMTMS, and the bit for which he is probably most remembered:
is available on Amazon.com,
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