Relief Pitcher's Crime Brought In To Close Out Newscast

St. Paul, MN — Former relief ace Jeff Reardon’s arrest for armed robbery came in to wrap up a local news program last Wednesday night.

Raved Bill Bergoffen, the show’s producer, about Reardon’s burglary of Hamilton Jewelers at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, FL:  “Oh, Jeff came up big for us tonight; he really slammed the door.  Weather and sports were kind of lagging—no precipitation, no local teams in action—but we felt pretty confident that Jeff could go out there and nail down the final minute.

“During his career he racked up saves for the Expos, Twins, Red Sox…Well, you can add KSTP 5 Twin Cities to that list.”

The 45-second segment featured interviews with a witness to the crime and former teammate Dan Gladden, and was Reardon’s first appearance since pitching nine and two-thirds ineffective innings for the Yankees in 1994.

His previous showing in the Twin Cities had been in November 1989, when NBC's local affiliate showed six seconds of Reardon serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless a week before signing as a free agent with Boston.

Noted ESPN baseball expert Peter Gammons, “When you see a former starting pitcher of similar stature have legal or criminal troubles—Denny McLain and Dwight Gooden come to mind—you can pretty much count on them to follow the lead on the nightly newscast, in the first 6 or 7 minutes.  But with a guy like Jeff, he’s usually just brought in for mop-up work.”

This was Reardon’s 882nd television appearance, all in relief.