Memories of Sid, Don and Puck

WCCO-TV sports anchor Mark Rosen got roughed up at his book-signing last week by the person to whom the "Best Seat in the House" is always dedicated -- his mother.

Doris Rosen, the irrepressible Emmy winner, arrived at her son's Nicollet Mall Barnes & Noble book-signing, smiling and making demands. "Can I get a hug?" she asked me. Our hug accomplished, I asked if she was proud of her boy. "No!" she barked with a big playful laugh. "She's real tough," said Mark, leaning down to give his mom another hug. This may have been Mark's book-signing, but Doris was having the best time of anybody. She played in the hair of Bud Grant, Vikings Hall of Fame coach. And about 43 seconds into my startribune.com/video you can hear me react to her unexpectedly tickling my belly while my mind and eyes were focused on shooting video. Asked why she was distracting me while I was working, she said, "Well, because I can!" And she was right. Although Mark understandably made a priority of personally delivering the first copy of his book to his mother, I have not yet received my copy of the book he wrote with Jim Bruton. I do, however, have a nice month-old letter promising that my book was in the mail. Even without my own copy, I can report that in addition to his mom, Mark also dedicated the memoir to the memory of his late WCCO colleagues, Darcy Pohland, Bob Rainey, Bill Carlson and Dave Moore.

Q Another Twin Cities anchor paid you a compliment by wondering how you manage to seem so engaged and enthused every time you read a story.

A That's very nice. I take that as the highest compliment. That's always been me. I've been around enough sportswriters who seem like it's almost a chore to go and cover a game [while] I'm thinking, "Do you know how many people would trade places with you right now? You're at a Twins game or a Vikings game and you're complaining about the food or this or that? Come on, it's a great job."

Q What's juicy in the book?

A As far as juicy goes, my relationship with Kirby Puckett. Like everyone else, I was enamored with the Pied Piper of Minnesota, but there was a moment that we had when Kirby was going through his tough time personally and I was asked by Children's HeartLink to take over his pool tournament/gala. I thought it was quite an honor. He didn't like it because his ex-wife [I believe they were only estranged at this point] was involved with the charity. I said, "I really haven't had anything to do with Tonya; I'm sorry you feel that way." It was tough, but I understood where his feelings were coming from; it was real personal with him. I said, "Puckett, I would never do anything to hurt you. I thought you'd be happy I was doing it." It got smoothed over. I didn't write a kiss-and-tell book. I'm not going Hank Haney and describing Tiger Woods' situation here. If there was going to be any dirt, it would have been about [Don] Shelby, and that would have been a whole other book. Just kidding...

Q You had a special fondness for Puckett.

Q Which local sports franchise is your favorite?

A The Twins will always be my favorite, only because I grew up when the Twins were the first franchise in town. [Although this clip didn't make the video, as Rosen was answering the question, his KFAN radio colleague, Dan "Common Man" Cole, popped up behind Mark, who later quipped, "I could feel breathing on me."]

Q Give me an embarrassing Sid story [referring, of course, to the Star Tribune's own sports legend, Sid Hartman].

A A couple of them. OK, back in Sid's traveling days on the Minnesota Vikings charter, he was being his usual self, going up to Fred Zamberletti, longtime trainer, and [Sid] would say, Why don't you take care of this guy? Why don't you take care of that guy? Fred had finally had it. Took out his athletic scissors and cut [Sid's] tie in half right on the airplane.

[Story No. 2:] We had sticker nametags so you know where to sit. And every single time Sid would walk off the airplane, [everyone would] smack him on the back, Hey Sid, nice to see you. And he'd walk off the airplane with everybody's name on the back of his trenchcoat. He'd walk out in the middle of the airport with 50 names on his back and never know.

A Oh my God, I was a nerd. I admit it.

Q Tell me about these glasses. I'm hearing that you need different specs.

A Oh really? I'm hearing just the opposite. I'm hearing people love my glasses. I got them from Envision and like them a lot.

Q Does this book mean you're hanging up your mike sometime soon?

A No, this is not my goodbye. I hope to be at WCCO television a long, long time. They're happy with me; I'm very happy to be there. This is just one of those opportunities I had to really pay tribute to my mentors. This is the best time in my career to do it.