Duarte: RIP Carl Beane
BOSTON (CBS) -It was October 1986 when I got my first accreditation to the Boston Bruins.
Tom Cuddy acquired it for me as I had just began to work for him, and told me when I get into the Garden to go upstairs and ask for the Bruins PR man, the Great Nate Greenberg. As a rookie, he would tell me what I needed to know and what to do.
But he also told me to ask for Carl Beane, who also did work for Tom. Carl would help me down in the locker room after the game, because it can be intimidating the first time.
Carl took me up to the ridiculously small press box and we watched the game together. Not only was I happy about being in press row watching the team that I had worshiped since 1970, but I got to laugh. If you knew anything about "Beanie", which is what I called him, he could make anyone laugh. He loved to make me laugh because I was an easy target for him. Whenever I saw Carl, he would always greet me with that loud booming voice with "REE-CARDO" (my name is Ricardo) and I would light up.
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Back in the late 80's, when the Red Sox were sorta good and the Toronto Blue Jays were also pretty good, I had the pleasure/chore of covering those games for CBC Radio. But sitting next to me up in the third row of the press box would be Beanie, and of course he would do things to make me laugh (and if you know me, I laughed out loud... long before the acronym LOL was even thought of). The "unmade beds" -- as he called the knights of the keyboards down front -- would turn around and look at us as if we were crazy. We were, but we didn't care. It was a baseball game not a church service. "Have a little fun," Beanie would always say.
When Carl won the job as the "Voice of Fenway Park," he and everyone that knew him knew he would be perfect. He was at the ballpark every day covering the team, now he would be a part of the Red Sox.
And he loved it. It would never pay the bills but he loved it. After the World Series victory in 2004, it not only paid off for the team, but it paid off for Carl. He got to do all the speaking engagements with the World Series Trophy where he shared stories of the team and, of course, from the booth. He was more than happy to talk about the team -- and job -- he was proud to represent.
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One thing that Carl and I always had a rift about was he was a tried and true Montreal Canadiens fan. He knew how much I hated them and we always had fun with each other when the two teams played.
I last saw Beanie on March 10, up on the ninth floor of the Garden. He was the same jovial, dirty old man he always was, and I loved it.
Beanie was an unforgettable character who I will miss.
Goodbye my friend. Sleep well!
~REE-CARDO
Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.
