Veteran's Day

Here's a Veteran's Day tribute worth a pittance of your time.


We were at the WWII Memorial on Veteran's Day. They were indeed the greatest generation.

12077322

The Greatest Pumpkin

It's the 40th Anniversary of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," which needs no further introduction. Here are some celebrity stories, trivia and related fun stuff.

Hard to believe that there was a time in our nation's history that the term "Great Pumpkin" was unknown.

Game Show Mania

Long-time game show authority JB brought this site to my attention:

http://www.pageoclips.com/

Comments Welcome

I've changed the settings on Salad Days to allow for comments from "anyone" subject to word verification (you'll see what that means if you leave a comment). So you don't have to be a registered user if you want to harass me. We'll see if this works...

Earl Weaver Forever

From a fan:

You still play "Earl Weaver Baseball"? What is this - 1985???

Mike

I play it on my old 386SX machine I have from college. I can play a full game in about 12 minutes -- 5 if I speed it up.

Hard as it may be to believe, I've tried various programs over the past twenty years or so, and none has been able to emulate the features that I get with EWB -- obviously, the newer stuff has better graphics and more bells & whistles, but I still prefer EWB. It also has several bugs that I wish I was smart enough to fix (it can't be that hard, considering it's an old DOS program).

Have a Coke and a...

There really are too many people out there with too much time on their hands. You have to see this.

halp us jon carry

Many of you may have seen this. The story is here (I couldn't post the photograph here for some reason).

Kerrying On

I interviewed John Kerry many years ago when I was a (very) fledgling radio reporter in Pittsfield MA. Politics aside, I came away with the unshakable impression that he was the classic "empty suit" -- an aristocratic bearing, a haughty delivery, and the repitition of boilerplate liberal platitudes seemed all that he was capable of (albeit, characteristics not entirely unwelcomed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). His only sliver of credibility seemed to depend on the fact that his speech pattern was so unbearably heavy-handed that many were apparently convinced that he actually knew what he was talking about (and, heaven forbid, many have even believed it). His Senior partner in the US Senate -- not exactly a favorite of this reporter, either -- has at least compiled a substantial legislative record through combination of hard work, his family name, and 40 years of influence. Kerry, it would seem, had none of this. Even his initials -- JFK -- seemed at least a semi-intentional grasping at credibility. I've seen very little in the past three years that would disabuse this notion.

So earlier this week JFK-2 was at a political rally and wanted to take a cheap shot at the president. Okay, that's politics. The problem, however, is something his handlers -- and, of course, Kerry himself -- should know by now: People who have no sense of humor should not be given the additional burden of trying to be funny.

Granted, even if he'd said "get us stuck" instead of "get stuck," it wouldn't exactly have been worth inclusion in a Jay Leno monologue, but beyond that, this guy has the delivery of a walrus and the timing of an epileptic kitten. John Kerry trying to tell jokes is like me trying to wire a ceiling fan, except that I know I can't do it. He really should know better.

Rob Long must be loving this. I'm surprised he hasn't weighed in on it (to my knowledge). Others have said this is (was) the "Dean Scream" of the 2008 Kerry Campaign. He's done.

One final note -- President GWB once said to a group of graduating seniors (I believe at Yale, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now and I'll paraphrase the quote) -- "To all you A-students, congratulations. You've done great! To you C-students -- just think, you, too can become president of the United States." Can we get Kerry for plagiarism, too? (Maybe we could, if he'd actually deliver his material correctly.

Big Red's Machine

That Red Auerbach (1917-2006) was the greatest coach in NBA history is so far beyond question that it seems frivilous to even raise the point. Phil Jackson may have the same number of titles (as a coach) and Lenny Wilkens might have more career wins, but neither of them would have jobs in professional basketball if it hadn't been for Red. A true legend that it's hard to imagine the Celtics -- or the NBA -- without him.

There are, of course, media reports everywhere on Red. All I have to add is:

1. Len Bias. Red -- and, consequently, the entire organization, never recovered from this one.

2. The 16 championships are nice, but Red also needs to be remembered as an early crusader against racial and ethnic prejudices in a relatively hostile city.

3. Every NBA team needs to do something to honor Red. He built the NBA in its early days from a afterthought to the highly profitable enterprise it is today.

4. The Celtics, too, should honor Red -- by putting a winner on the floor! It would take a magical move or two, but zero banners in twenty years (after 16 out of 30) is ridiculous.

Comings and Goings

I've removed the Sons of Sam Horn link; I've tried for a year to get privileges on their site with no response, and they've made it more difficult to get to the other threads on the site even as a lurker. Enough of their elitism; I'll find intelligent sports discussion elsewhere.

In the meantime, welcome RudyBaga's blog for some intelligent commentary on current events.

In The News

Blogger has finally (albeit perhaps temporarily) resolved my account & password issues, so I can finally start getting caught up on all the wonderful postings I had been formulating in my mind.

First, some recent deaths worth noticing:

Christopher Glenn (10/17/06) -- Growing up on Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970's, Christopher Glenn is most remembered by my generation for his "In the News" segments.

Joe Niekro (10/27/06) -- Phil's little brother. I didn't even know he was sick.

Trevor Berbick (10/28/06) -- Jamaican legend and the last boxer to face Mohammad Ali.

P.W. Botha (10/31/06) -- Last of the Apartheid hard-liners has finally crossed the Rubicon.

Richard Reeves' Imagination

My most recently-completed book-on-tape is by Richard Reeves -- President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination. I entered into this endeavor with full knowledge that Reeves is a bona fide left-winger, but with the hopes that he'd at least have some semblance of objectivity.

For the first several chapters, it wasn't too bad. I have pretty clear memories of the Reagan administration, particularly the early years, and Reeves provides a good narration of the inauguration, assassination attempt and budget legislation.

Unfortunately, the book has several shortcomings. First of all it is, literally, about President Reagan -- beginning at his inauguration and ending in January 1989, with a brief epilogue about his later years and death. First and foremost, this makes it a biography without context. Stylistically (and, for that matter, philosophically), it becomes tediously bogged down in unending recitation of obscure details and statistics.

The philosphical problem is that while Liberals such as Reeves might enjoy the chance to point out the mistakes and mis-steps of the Reagan Administration (I await with great anticipation Reeves' chronicle of the first two years of the Clinton Administration), members of the VRWC such as this observer will be quick to point out that Reagan and his Administration weren't exactly detail-oriented in terms of their attitude towards governnance in the first place. In other words, Reagan was about big ideas and getting the big issues right.

Since Reeves can't deny that the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists, he can only resort to insignificant minutia, while while taking cheap shots at his primary subject and those around him (including not-so-subtle insinuations that Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease during his presidency), but at Republican leaders that are still visible today -- Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, George H.W. Bush, etc.

While Reeves is obsessed with detail and jabs at conservatives, it is ironic that the book contains a large number of errors that any editor -- regardless of political leanings -- should have noticed. Reference to John Hinkley as having "shot and killed a Washington policeman" indicates that Reeves may have suffered a memory warp to his JFK project. Trent Lott is identified as the Senate Majority Leader while he was still in the House of Representatives (he was elected to the Senate in 1988). Since I listen to this in the car, I can't exactly write down everything, but there's many more. Maybe not critical in and of themselves, but if a writer can't get the simple things right, then what about the important stuff? Reeves should know better.

On the positive side, I will say that the narration by George K. Wilson is exceptional, particularly in Wilson's somewhat unusual ability for changing his voice to match all of the principal characters. Reagan's is a voice that has been parodied by many, but Wilson imitates his voice almost to perfection without giving into the obvious temptation. In addition, he shifts gears flawlessly to Vice President Bush, James Baker, Oliver North, Donald Regan, Tip O'Neill and others. An impressive accomplishment; too bad the author can't produce material worthy of the narration.

Eddie Pellagrini (1918-2006)

Former Red Sox SS and longtime Boston fixture Eddie Pellagrini has died. Bob Ryan has an article here.

New York, New York

I really don't hate the Yankees. Really. At least not all of them. Joe Torre is a class act. I've never been a huge Jeter fan, but I can appreciate his talent. I respect Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and I've admired Mariano Rivera for years. Johnny Damon may be duplicitous, but I can't hate the guy because he wanted more money. Robinson Cano is a terrific young talent. Their coaching staff includes Ron Guidry, Don Mattingly and Tony Pena, all of whom I admired as players, as well as Joe Kerrigan, who was Boston's very successful pitching coach for several years (before a misadventure at the front of the dugout that we won't get into).

Even George Steinbrenner -- with his reputation as a blustering, obnoxious, unspeakably wealthy boor -- is less well known for being immeasuably generous towards worthy causes (including the Jimmy Fund) and supporting players in need.

The Yankees won in the 90's (1996, 1998-2000), with this core group of players and a good portion of home-grown talent, augmented by additional players from other organizations to complete the puzzle. Then they started to get bloated, even by their standards. Mike Mussina. Jason Giambi. Hideki Matsui. Jaret Wright. Gary Sheffield. Carl Pavano. And, of course, Alex Rodriguez. Generally, moderately-talented or, at best, above-average players who were acquired for obscene amounts of money and all of whom have yet to deliver another ring to the Bronx. It's really easy to root against the majority of the Yanks' roster. Hating the Yankees because they have lots of money and a successful history is one thing; hating them because their roster is full of unlikable players that are largely past their prime is another.

When the Yankees pounced on A-Rod in early 2004, I had a theory that was largely half-baked but is beginning to make sense -- the Red Sox had pursued A-Rod not so much to acquire him, but to bait the Yankees into pulling the trigger, which they did, but at the expense of not acquiring the pitching help they needed. Murderer's Row or otherwise, the Yankees have only won when they've had strong pitching. Now they don't, and Detroit made that obvious.

Thanks Yanks

First of all, I'd like to specially thank the New York Yankees for falling apart so magnificently at the hands of the Detroit Tigers. That really made my year. It was almost as enjoyable as their complete and utter collapse in 2004.

Twenty-First Century World Series Scoreboard:

Boston Red Sox - 1
NY Yankees - 0

"Year Two-Thou-Sand"
"Year Two-Thou-Sand"

Back Again

Not that anybody cares, but I haven't been able to post anything for the past few weeks because Blogger somehow had me locked out and had changed my password. So I've got some catching up to do...

Glory Road

HOOSIERS is the greatest movie ever made. Consequently, I've seen it about 30 times, and, in fact, just watched it a few weeks ago. Last night I watched Glory Road.

The parallels are obvious -- both are basketball-themed movies about underdog teams with a fairly predictable conclusion. Both are based on true stories, but each takes a fair number of liberties for dramatic and other purposes. While I'm sure that Jerry Bruckenheimer (producer) and James Gartner (director) had seen HOOSIERS, I'm equally sure they endeavored to make their own movie. Nonetheless, it was difficult to watch Glory Road and not see countless cinemagraphic similarities between the two. Maybe unavoidable, but hard to miss.

Glory Road is a good enough movie -- the drama is there, of course, and I was pleasantly surprised that there was literally no profanity (the PG rating is due to the racial themes and related scenes). It did, however, have a few disappointments --

(1) In one of the early games, the team is struggling and the players beg their coach to let them play "their game" -- finally, the coach gives in, and the team wins. All's well that ends well, but Coach Norman Dale would have never done this.

(2) Even allowing a reasonable amount of license, Glory Road takes a number that are unnecessary and could have been easily avoided -- making one wonder if their intent was to be misleading. The "Goofs" list from IMDB highlights several outright mistakes about logos, team names, conferences, and players, but most notably are the liberties taken with Coach Haskins' biography -- 1.) Haskins didn't come to Texas Western directly from being a high school girl's coach 2.) the team was already integrated before he got there 3.) the group of black players he recruited weren't part of the same class 4.) the team didn't win a national championship until Haskins' fourth year at the school 5.) Haskins started coaching there in 1961, not 1965.

I'm quite sure they could have built a pretty good screenplay around the actual facts, so I'm puzzled as to why they made these rather significant changes. The skeptic in me wonders if the filmakers were traying to make the racial crisis in west Texas in 1965 worse than it really was, but I don't know why they would have to do that.

Hogan's Heroes & the Holocaust

This article has been around for awhile (April 2000) but HH junkies might be interested:

http://www.geocities.com/lrampey/hogan.htm

Endorsed by Robert Clary (Cpl. LeBeau), a Holocaust survivor and a pretty good actor.

More Broadway

I scanned his bio from the 2002 Red Sox Media Guide (the most recent I have).


The Boston Globe has another obituary.

Also the NY Times.

Broadway Charlie Wagner (1912-2006)

Longtime Red Sox consultant and Pennsylvania native "Broadway" Charlie Wagner has died -- Boston Globe.

Ironically, Wagner had just been honored at a Reading (PA) Phillies (AA) game that night, where the press box at First Energy Stadium is named in his honor.

One report I heard was that he was found in his car outside the stadium after the game. The R-Phils staged a tribute for him the following night.

He was one of those guys who appeared in the Red Sox media guide year after year. I stopped collecting media guides in 2002 (it got too expensive to keep up), but he was still there in uniform as a consultant.

A Wikipedia report is here. RIP, Broadway.

8/30/06 also saw the passing of actor Glenn Ford (I always enjoyed his performance in Imitation General), and George Johnson, one of the few remaining WWI veterans.