Variations on Top Ten

I saw this in a newsletter recently and thought it an interesting variation of one of those intrusive getting-to-know you questionnaires that often circulate via e-mail, so I'll give it a shot:

Potato Salad's Top Ten:

10 out of 10 almost describes my passion for: Exercise -- just don't do it enough.

9 times out of 10 I'd eat (calories aside): Cheeseburger pie or Mrs. Salad's famous Broccoli Salad.

8 hours a day at my dream job would be: 8 hours a day in my current job would be a blessing, actually.

7 days on a dream vacation would be spent: Somewhere historic; probably Washington DC.

6 seconds after I launch my Internet browser I'm on: Usually Salad Days, checking some of my links.

5 minutes is all the time I have for (pet peeve): Phony people.

4 stars is my rating for:
TV - Hogan's Heroes
Book - The Magic Touch by Joseph Kessel
Movie - Hoosiers, of course.

3 things always on my desk: Files, adding machine, and sharpened pencils.

2 people (living or dead) I wish I could meet: Winston Churchill and Robert Kraft.

1 thing that might surprise most people about me: To date, I've only been to one live, in-person football game at any level (and it was a preseason NFL game 12 years ago). Partial explanation -- I never played, and neither my high school or college had a football team.

Of Meredith and Millionaires

Old friend JB -- the game show fanatic -- procured tickets for a taping of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" in NYC two weeks ago, so I met him there and spent the day with him in Manhattan. A few observations --

(1) It was COLD. I'd been there an hour and already lost feeling in eight of my remaining nine toes. And I had a jacket, hat, gloves, scarf and earmuffs. JB showed up with little more than a windbreaker, but he's a heartier soul.

(2) The taping was fun. We saw three shows being produced, which will air in May 2007. Enjoyed cheering the contestants and participating when called upon (each one "asked the audience"). They said we'd be there about 3 hours and it was really close to 5 because it took about 2 hours for them to start the tapings. Still, a good time.

(3) There was also a 30-question multiple-choice audition test which we had 10 minutes to complete. During the last taping the announced about 12 names that had "passed." Yours truly was the first name called, and even more ironically, JB missed the cut. Following the last taping I did a 60-second interview with one of the producers and had a polaroid taken, while submitting a previously-completed questionnaire. For one of those reasons (interview, polaroid, questionnaire), I was advised about a week later that I would not be considered in the future as a contestant. Must have been the glare from my bald spot.

(4) Dinner at the ESPNZone in Times Square -- a reasonable wait for a Friday night, and surprisingly reasonable prices. JB then caught his train back up north and I wandered around Rockefeller Center for a few minutes before catching the bus.

(5) While leaving the aforementioned R-Center, I was accosted by a pizza delivery man on a bicycle who asked me to clarify an address affixed to his precious cargo. I had to tell him I had not a clue -- I hadn't even been to NYC in nearly eighteen years.

(6) The "slick" map I purchased the day before was worth its weight in gold. Not only did it help me maintain my orientation in a city of tall buildings and on a day of virtually no sunlight, it also had most subway stops marked, allowing for greater ease of travel.

We'll try to do it next year . . . hopefully before December!

All is quiet . . . finally

Well, it's the 23rd of December and I haven't posted anything in over a month. Oddly enough, things are rather quiet in the Salad household this weekend, two days until Christmas. Mrs. Salad took care of all the planning and shopping this year while yours truly was slaving away with his agency. It was actually enjoyable to go to Wal-Mart this afternoon. Although the place was nothing short of a Roman circus, I felt strangely at ease and under absolutely no pressure once I had located the final package of economy C-cells this side of the Mason-Dixon line. Looking forward to some relaxing days ahead, with no travel or other adventures planned. Maybe I'll even have some more entries here. Merry Christmas to all!

M*A*S*H*E*D

Robert Altman has died. His filmography is here.

I can't say I was a big fan of his -- another Hollywood leftist whose work followed his politics. His most famous work, M*A*S*H is often cited among top-100 lists and so forth, but only because (1) it resulted in a wildly successful television series (with which Altman had no involvement) and (2) it reinforced the left's mealy-mouthed antiwar sentiments.

Altman was said to have joked that Johnny Mandel made more profit from M*A*S*H simply by writing the theme song, thus gaining exponential royalties when it moved to TV.

While the movie has its moments, I found it rather uneven -- kind of an attempt to stretch a half-hour sitcom into a feature-length picture, which in itself is odd since of course the movie came first, but, again, Altman and Ring Lardner Jr. had an agenda.

Politics and inaccuracies aside, M*A*S*H is palatable and at times even enjoyable until the completely incongruous football sequence at the end, at which point the entire picture degenerates from a comedic yet at least somewhat thoughtful antiwar commentary into an almost unwatchable slapstick. "Hotlips" O'Houlihan goes from Nurse Ratchet to Britney Spears with one cut -- again, completely in contradiction to the first 3/4 of the movie. I've never figured out what Altman et al were trying to do with that.

For its part, the TV series -- although a different breed of humor than Hogan's Heroes -- is very well done if you can accept the underlying anti-war / anti-establishment tone and you can handle Alan Alda in small doses. Perhaps the only case where the spinoff TV show was better -- and (much) more successful -- than the movie which inspired it.

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.

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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.

The Big Schill

The only thing even close to a highlight for the Red Sox in August was Curt Schilling's 3,000th career strikeout, which came against the Oakland A's on Wednesday. Congrats, G38.

I hadn't realized that only 14 ML pitchers have done this -- the Boston Globe published the list here. It's also interesting to note that Cesar Geronimo appears on the list twice -- as Bob Gibson's and Nolan Ryan's 3,000th victim respectively (six years apart).

The 3,000-K club is actually one of the more exclusive ones -- its 14 members are less than other "clubs" of greater notoriety. There are 22 300-game winners (although that list includes several from the 19th Century) and 20 500-HR hitters and 25 members of the 3000-hit club.

The full story is here.

While looking for the above links, I stumbled across the following blog -- Baseball Fever. Not responsible for external content.

And then there were Eight

(no, that's not a disco ball -- just a grainy photograph taken at a distance)

So much for the rudimentary astronomy I learned in grade school. The International Astronomical Union -- an organization with apparently a great deal of time on its hands -- has reclassified the Planet Formerly Known As Pluto (PFKAP) as a "Dwarf Planet."

One could perhaps detect a hint of European elitism, in that PFKAP is (was?) the only planet to have been discovered by an American -- Clyde Trombaugh (1906-1997) in 1930.

Of course, not only does this unilateral decision mandate that we completely overhaul textbooks, museums, web pages and the NASA probe program, now we can't tell corny jokes like "Why did Mickey Mouse go to outer space?"

Oh well -- at least now we've settled the question of Pluto and can get back to important stuff like winning the war on terrorism.

More BB

If you can't get enough, try: http://www.allthingsbillbelichick.com/

Education of a Coach

My latest audiobook was The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam and narrated by Eric Conger.

Certainly a worthwhile "read" for a New England Patriots fan and, indeed, for any fan of the game, particularly the professional version. It traces Bill Belichick's development from virtually a toddler to the pinnacle of his profession as a 5-time SuperBowl winner (including the 2 rings with the NY Giants working with some other guy named Bill).

Halberstam's writing is crisp and clear, as always, and Conger brings it to life with a thick, booming voice that's perfect for a gridiron narrative. I've read several audiobooks recently that were well-written but with mismatched narrators, so this was particularly refreshing.

Belichick's mentors are many and varied, and Halberstam interweaves the vignettes in a manner allowing us to see how each one influenced him differently. His early (pre-Giant) career is particularly interesting -- even a fairly knowledgable fan like me didn't know that he once worked for the Detroit Lions, as is the dissection of his first head coaching job in Cleveland and the lessons learned therefrom.

And with baseball season basically in a nosedive, it was the perfect book for the preseason.

Joe Rosenthal (1911-2006)

Joe Rosenthal has died.

WTC

I don't get out to the movies too much (I think the last time was 2004 for Polar Express), but my in-laws had given Mrs. Salad & me a gift card, so last night -- at her recommendation -- we saw WORLD TRADE CENTER.

It's been less than 12 hours since screen time, so I'm still processing everything. My strongest impression was that it's certainly not a typical Oliver Stone picture, lacking both the good (superb editing, rapid pace, and tight storyline) and the bad (conspiratorial undertones and assorted looniness). That may not be a fair generalization, as Oliver's given us everything from The Joy Luck Club (as producer) to JFK, but you can understand my expectations.

Even knowing the outcome of the two main characters, Stone manages to create a fair amount of suspense and intrigue and, most notably, without any political cheap shots or subtleties that I could detect. Even two US Marines who play a key role in the plot are portrayed honorably.

At the same time, WTC was somewhat narrow in its focus and did not, as I expected, portray too much of the bigger picture of 9/11 -- it essentially lacked any sub-plot (at best, two parallel main plots), although there were background references to the events of 9/11 as the unfolded, and a clear portrayal of the confusion that surrounded that day (another blog for another time).

The Curse of the Bob-ino

Towards the end of July, Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan ran a series of photo essays on the Globe website about some of the core Red Sox players (and, presumably, some of his favorites). There were profiles of David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, Terry Francona, and others.

As far as I can tell, the essays are no longer on www.boston.com/sports, otherwise I'd provide links.

ANYWAY -- it was about this time that three of those players -- Nixon, Varitek and Wakefield -- suffered apparently serious injuries and will be lost for about a month, if not the rest of the season.

This was a severe blow to the Sox for obvious reasons -- Varitek is the team captain and all-star catcher, Wakefield is the senior man on the team, and Nixon has been with the organization the longest. All of them are valuable performers in their own right, and their loss is compounded by the fact that it came too late (either shortly before or right after) the 7/31 trading deadline, so Theo et al weren't able to make any moves to bolster the roster.

The Sox have struggled in August and have had several problems throughout the season, but this didn't help.

Coincidence? We'll see. Maybe Dan Shaughnessy will have to write another book...

Ford Foundation

Former President Gerald Ford is in the news. This article from YAHOO! has the story, but also a link to Kevin Sites' -- uh -- SITE which today is entitled "A Time to Heal." That was the title of Ford's autobiography written after he left the presidency.

One of my earliest datable memories is watching President Nixon walk out to the helicopter after he resigned -- 32 years ago this month -- and gave his famous wave, and then seeing Ford sworn in. I asked my mother what had happened, and she told me that "the president had to quit his job because he told a lie." Surely a condensed version of the whole Watergate episode, but enough to compel a preschooler away from mendacity for the foreseeable future.

Ronald Reagan was 93 years and 4 months old when he passed away two years ago, making him the longest-lived president up to that time (John Adams and Herbert Hoover both lived to 90). Ford turned 93 last month, so he's got about 3 months to go to surpass the Gipper. Ford has had some health issues in recent years -- as one might expect -- but he still seems pretty vigorous and hopefully this latest episode is just a temporary setback.

I do find it unusual that the media is referring to Ford as the "oldest living ex-president." This, I suppose, as compared to the "oldest dead ex-president."

Ford is also the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, achieving this distinction when Sen. John Sherman Cooper died in 1991.

Elden Auker (1910-2006)

Elden Auker died last week -- he was a MLB submarine pitcher who spent a season in Boston as a teammate of Ted Williams but spent six years with the Tigers and 3 with the St. Louis Browns.

This was ironic (for me, not so much for him) as I had been watching my videotapes of When it Was a Game beginning the previous week while riding the stationary bike. Auker provides some commentary throughout, and I had looked him up on Wikipedia to see if he was still alive -- which, at the time, he was. He passed away the day after I finished watching Part 2.

I see he wrote a book 5 years ago -- that's probably a good read if I can find it.

Sox sweep O's

The Red Sox beat the Orioles today for what seems like the 700th time out of the last 701 times they've played. A lot of my extended family are Orioles fans, so I'll be (sort of) nice. Really, I have to sympathize. I spent a number of years in the Baltimore area and, although the Red Sox have always been my favorite team, I always enjoyed listening the the O's broadcasts (Jon Miller and Joe Angel), and, during the days of Edward Bennett Williams, they had pretty decent teams most of the time, and always a classy organization. On top of that, they had a solid, loyal fanbase in an outstanding baseball city.

Now, not only is the team lousy, but there's not a whole lot to like about them. Some talent, but poor management, a wealthy socialist as an owner (it doesn't get much worse than that), and a demoralized fan base. It's a shame to see all those empty seats at Camden Yards, but after ten years of bad baseball, it really shouldn't surprise anybody.

Of course, the Sox were swept this past week by KANSAS CITY (?!?!), which is basically a Double-A team, so who really knows? They swept the O's, but now face a week of the Tigers and NYY's. This should show what they're made of...

The Strike II

So, last night my almost-six-year-old son and I were out and stopped at a park and I got our baseball gloves. His is a rather cheap plastic (or pleather, at best) imitation glove that is really too small for him and, to make matters worse, is autographed by Alex Rodriguez (aka "Pay-Rod").

Nonetheless, he persevered and did rather well catching and throwing. I was so impressed that I determined on the way home that I would get him a real glove for his birthday this week. But then this afternoon he was moping around for something to do so I took him and his big sister over the the local box store in search of a new glove as a "surprise." Of course, it's hard to get a new glove in AUGUST, and there was but one glove in the entire store. As luck would have it, however, it was the right size (a little big for him, but he'll grow into it), for the right hand (he's a southpaw), and, above all, the right price (60% off). Sold.

I had the forethought to bring along a bottle of glove oil and our other gloves, as well as a T-ball bat, so we drove to a nearby park and the three of us messed around for awhile. Again, he did very, very well for (a) having a new glove and (b) not having played much to begin with.

So we drove home and, of course, the first thing he wants to do is show Mom how good he's doing. So I have him stand in the backyard and lob an underhand throw to him exactly as I'd done about 100 times for the past hour.

STRIKE -- right on the forehead.

Two glasses of milk and a once-frozen bag of vegetables later, he was fine and no visible blemishes, but that endeth the ballgame for the time being. Mom will have to take my word for it for now.

The Strike

I just realized that 12 years ago today (8/12/94) the Major League Baseball players went on strike, and the rest of that season was wiped out.

I was in Anaheim, California at the time, staying with some friends for about a week while I was doing research on a writing project (another post for another time). We actually managed to catch a game between the Angels and . . . . some other team . . . . two days before the strike.

It was also at this time that I saw the only live football game I've ever seen at any level -- an NFL pre-season game between the (then) Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots. Yes, that's right -- I've only seen one live football game in five decades. Neither my HS nor my college had a football team. I've always found it ironic that the only game I've seen was between the Rams and Pats, whose POSTseason tilt seven seasons later would be the happiest day of my life.

Funnily enough, with all the nonsense going on right now with air travel, August 1994 was also the last time I've flown anywhere. Can't say I miss it, either.