Every once in awhile, if you're lucky in life, you meet a guy like Jay Strassner.
Chances are, 99% of you don't know who Jay was. But it doesn't matter, for each of you, as I said, has met someone like him in your life.
Jay Strassner was 62 when he collapsed and died suddenly last Monday from a presumed heart attack. He was still working as a part-time cable TV sports announcer Downriver (south of Detroit for you non-Detroiters), which is how I met him, back in the early-1990s.
I worked in cable as a producer/director from 1986-1998, and Jay was our Ken Rosenthal for high school sports broadcasts. Our Jack Arute. Our Craig Sager. Sometimes he worked in the booth, but mostly he was on the field or on the court, gathering info on injuries or simply giving us his perspective. Bob Zahari, our play-by-play guy, would get the cue from me that Jay was ready with a report.
"Now let's go down to Jay Strassner," Bob would say, and Jay would do his thing.
But it wasn't what he did that made Jay special. It's who he was. He worked a full-time job, so that meant he rushed to wherever we were broadcasting that evening, always with a smile and a happy attitude. And always with professionalism, even though we were paying him peanuts -- if we were paying him at all. He was a big, teddy bear of a man who had a round face and a simple outlook on life. And he simply loved helping us cover high school sports. In fact, his last gig, I'm told, was a Junior League World Series game in Taylor.
I remember Jay losing his brother, circa 1992 or 1993, I believe. I wondered if that would affect somehow his being available to us. It didn't. We all offered our sympathies, of course, but Jay seemed much more interested in doing the game he showed up to do.
I lost touch with Jay after I left the company, but I was no less shocked and saddened by the news of his passing last week.
They're having a memorial service this evening in Riverview (another Downriver suburb). I imagine it will be filled mostly with smiles and laughter, as opposed to long faces and sadness. It better be -- Jay would insist on it.
Bob should now say, "Let's go UP to Jay Strassner."
2 comments:
Your post came up on my google search of "Jay Strassner" and I am proud to say that I did know Jay Strassner and I could not agree more with every word of your tribute. I worked with him in the early 80's at Market Opinion Research in Dearborn. He was the consummate team player, hard worker, and all around nice guy with lot of integrity and a great sense of humor to boot. I, too, regret not keeping in touch with him, but I find great comfort in knowing that we, even though complete strangers, share a common bond of admiration for the life and works of Gerald "Jay" Strassner. May he rest in well-deserved peace.
jay was my father in law thanks for the kind words we miss him . the hardest part is knowing he won;t get to do play by plays of his grandsons i wanted to see the pride on his face and the joy the kids would have had if anybody has video or tape of jay (joey and jonhhy realy miss seeing him) Joey wants to see him on tv one more time .
thamks again
kristy
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