Bob Friend

Robert Bartmess Friend (born November 24, 1930) is a former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who pitched primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1951–1965), joining the New York Yankees and New York Mets in his final season of 1966. He is the first man ever to lead the league in ERA while pitching for a last place team.

Early life

Friend was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and grew up in nearby West Lafayette. His father was an orchestra leader, and Friend studied piano seriously until age sixteen, about the same time as his father died. At West Lafayette High School, Friend was an all-state football halfback and an all-state pitcher on the baseball team, and also played basketball and golf.

Friend's father and many other family members had attended Purdue University, and Friend dreamed of playing college football for Purdue, as well as pursuing a baseball career. However, a high school shoulder injury led him to focus on baseball, and he signed a professional contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He enrolled at Purdue in the fall of 1949, but was ineligible for college athletics. Friend attended Purdue during baseball off-seasons for eight years, eventually earning a bachelor's degree in economics in 1957, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Bob Friend (golfer)

Bob Friend (born December 5, 1963) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

Friend joined the Ben Hogan Tour (now Nationwide Tour) in 1990 and recorded five top-10 finished including a second-place finish at the Ben Hogan El Paso Open during his rookie year on Tour. The following year he won the Ben Hogan Fort Wayne Open and earned his PGA Tour card for 1992 through qualifying school. In his rookie year on Tour he didn't play well enough to retain full-time status on Tour but his 137th-place finish gave him partial status. He split time between Tours in 1993 with the highlights of his year coming on the Nationwide Tour where he recorded a second-place finish and a tied for third finish. He played full-time on the Nationwide Tour in 1994 where he recorded five top-10 finishes and two third-place finishes. He struggled in 1995 but recorded two top-10 finishes. He didn't play on Tour in 1996 and returned to the Nationwide Tour in 1997 where he recorded three top-10 finishes. He returned to the PGA Tour in 1998, earning his card through qualifying school. He played very well during his second stint on Tour, finishing 57th on the money list. He lost in a playoff to Billy Andrade at the Bell Canadian Open and recorded three top-10 finishes. He didn't play as well the following year and had to go through qualifying school to retain his card. In 2000, his final year on the PGA Tour, he struggled and returned to the Nationwide Tour the following year where he would play until 2003.

Bob Friend (newscaster)

Bob Friend, MBE (20 January 1938 – 8 October 2008) was one of the original news anchors for the Sky News channel from its launch in 1989 until his retirement in late 2003.

Friend started his career in 1953 aged 15 as a cub reporter on the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, reporting on the Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation. After he undertook National Service as a corporal clerk with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Hong Kong, Friend served a ten year freelance career in various British newspapers before starting his broadcast career with the BBC in 1969.

Starting out as the Northern Ireland correspondent of the Radio 4's Today programme, Friend served four years in Northern Ireland witnessing sectarian violence at the start of The Troubles. After a short stint in Vietnam he got his first official overseas TV posting as the BBC's first Australia correspondent in 1973, five years as the BBC's Tokyo correspondent, and finally New York city as BBC Breakfast correspondent where his producer was Mark Thompson, who went on to become Director General of the BBC