Babe Ruth In The Papers

Click here to open the story in the Washington Post in a new window. You may have to register a username and password but it is not a big deal.

This is the photo that is currently on the front page of the Washington Post’s Sunday Metro section:

Before I go any further, let me make sure that I take time to thank the staff at the Gaylord National Hotel inWashington, DC for their tremendous professionalism and attention to every detail. These people are the standard for their industry. I have, in all honesty, never seen such elan in my life. It was a real treat. With the hotel slated to open in a few days, you could ride on the energy of these folks as they readied their jewel of a hotel.

I would also like to thank Michael Hudson of Gaylord Hotels. He is a throwback to a more civil time in America and in business. He is a true gentleman and a visionary in his field. You don’t run into too many people like him and it was my good fortune to have done so. Thanks Michael, for everything.

This is a shot someone took for me with my camera during the installation.

The Babe Ruth statue is now permanently on display at the Gaylord National Hotel & Resort in Washington, DC at the new National Harbor area.

I went down there on Tuesday and stayed until Thursday and The Babe was installed and well received. The Washington Post came by and did a story on the hotel opening and included a fair amount of interest on the statue. I was not sure how much would run on the statue but I was pleased to have folks in Washington DC call and tell me the good news.

The full story of the statue and everything surrounding it is on the Birrerart.com website:

Click here to open the Birrerart.com website up in a new window

Other things that were noteworthy while I was down there was the fact that the Nationals has declared the sportsbar in the Gaylord as the official sportsbar of the team. Because of this, they had sent over the last home plate used at RFK stadium so it could be permanently installed at the entrance to the sportsbar. Here are a few shots of that and the Washington Post getting their story at the time:

That’s Michael Hudson, Director of Brands at Gaylord Hotels, with homeplate from RFK Stadium.

And here is the laying ceremony while the PR folks take photos.

***
The Gaylord National Hotel is so immense that it is difficult to photograph it all in one frame. The atrium that overlooks the Potomac River and Old Alexandria, Virginia, on the opposite bank, is 18 stories high. There is a village of little shops and fountains and trees and restaurants all inside the enclosure. It is so big that you mostly aren’t aware that you are inside.

Here is a view of the upper part of the atrium. These gaslights are 20 feet high. The scale is just hard to fathom.

On the 24th floor, there is a state of the art nightclub and one of the unique features is, believe it or not, the men’s room. Here are the fixtures and the view is outrageous. The Washington Monument can be seen while you are, well…ahem, you know. It’s just one of a myriad of details that make this hotel one of the most amazing in the world.

Detail Oriented Stadium Meister

Click here to open the site in a new window

http://www.majorleaguemodels.com/about.asp

This is something interesting I found while looking for the little plaster model of Yankee Stadium for 93-year-old-Max’s grandson. This man builds huge, tabletop scale models of old ballparks from scratch. You know, the exacto knife and the balsa wood and a thousand other things. I can relate to this man because of what I do with the wood products and all and will even admit to having built a cardboard model Shea Stadium in 1976 that was pretty darned good.

I love this kind of wacky, I’m-going-to-build-this-thing-in-my-cellar-and-sell-it-for-150k attitude. Take 5 minutes and visit the guy’s site. Look at the original wooden 1888 Polo Grounds model and see how baseball was just after the Civil War. It’s amazing work.

It also points out that I need to do better on my website. But now, we’re 7 minutes from the kickoff of Liverpool-Chelsea. The first league encounter of the year was way back in August, on the day we had our boy christened. I left for the church at half up 1-0 only to come home and find out that the ref called a silly PK and GIFTED the point to Chelsea. So strange was the call, that the next day, the ref PUBLICLY stated that he was wrong to point at the spot! I’ve never heard of such a thing but when taking points from the Reds, the refs have done some funny things. I think it’s because they all grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Liverpool won every darned thing and I think there is some lingering resentment. Kind of like if I worked the plate at a Yankee game.

To give you an idea of how big these things get (he does different scales), take a look at the Old Comiskey Park. Old Comiskey is my favorite of the 38 ballparks I’ve been to. It was a real timewarp to go there and the place just felt right. They say that Jimmy Foxx hit two homers completely over the roof in left between the two light towers. Double-X was the best hitter no one’s ever heard of.

If the first 10 minutes of Liverpool Chelsea are any indicator, then Chelsea will get the points. They seem a whole gear faster than Liverpool and more confident and more creative. Liverpool look slow and I think it’s only a matter of time. Chelsea’s defense is so fast and shuts everything down so tightly, that I don’t see Kuyt and Crouchy cracking it. What we need is the pace of Fernando Torres.

Well, at least ManU lost their derby to City today. No points for Alex. That’s what you get for ripping your boss, Sir. With United coming away with none…if Chelsea could be beaten…oh stop dreaming. Wake up!  And I have to say: After watching only 25 minutes: Dirk Kuyt shouldn’t be in the first team.  Really.  He looks slow and lost.  Zero confidence.  And his play on the right is atrocious.  He can’t beat his man deep and he can’t do anything on the cut inside–every posession that reaches him, goes awry.  Perhaps he can be productive in the middle, but Crouchy is there now.  Play another midfielder and let them go forward.  Kuyt should come off.  Caragher has more mojo going up the right wing than this guy.  Oy.  Rafa.  Help. (Of course Kuyt till make an a** of me and score the winner but I’ll take it and eat my words if that is so).

Antique Roadshow Appraisals

I love Phil Mushnick. This guy gets it like no other. I’ve read every word he’s written for a decade or more. No one is more on top of the ways that sports and television is hurting our society and our kids. He’s so right about so many things that it was with some surprise that I read this piece in the Sunday paper and just couldn’t believe how wrong he could get it. Because he reads and answers (most times) his email, I shot him the email you see below.

Click here to open a new window to Phil Mushnick’s column on Antiques Roadshow and the Unitas Jacket

Click here to open a new window to UK Roadshow

Click here to open a new window to Roadshow’s site

Mr. M–

It has finally happened! After years of agreeing with you, I totally disagree with a column. The Roadshow column. You were not close to being fair. Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

Roadshow is one of the few places on TV today where there is no crotch-material; the kind of material that you rightly point out is rampant on TV. Not only that, but you actually LEARN things on Roadshow and now how many shows can you say THAT about? So for that alone, I’m giving them a wide berth. You didn’t.

The show has experts in their field doing the appraisals. That’s what these people do for a living and it is big business. You undercut all of them in one shot and really only gave the Unitas jacket as an example–even though you didn’t follow up on it. You cited the fact that you never see the appraiser offer to buy the item from the layman. Did it occur to you that that may be borderline unethical? And does the fact that you don’t see it in the final edit mean that it can not happen? I’ve no doubt that the appraisers are passing out cards like crazy and doing some business, but it would be gauche to show it that way.

Many times the appraisers are giving a value for insurance. You didn’t do your homework as there are three different numbers you can put on any antique: Insurance value or replacement value, which is typically market value. Auction value, which is more like wholesale because it is net of the hammer premium and seller’s premium. Also, an antique dealer would sell something for retail value, which is 30 to 100% over cost, as they have overhead.

When you go to an auction or follow auctions, you’ll see in the catalog, a minimum bid and a range. The low number, or minimum, is the number where bidding will begin at. If there is no interest, the auctioneer will oftentimes drop below that figure to get the bidding started. If there is no interest at that lower figure, he may withdraw it to protect his consigner.

The range is the proffessioanl estimate of the auctioneer as to where he thinks that hammer price will fall. After looking at this in the glass realm for years and years, I’ve found that one third of the items land in this range; one third above it and one third below it or withdrawn. There’s no way to tell. The batting average of a lifetime expert, is STILL only .333.

Now you say that sports memorabilia is lousy with bad actors and sports stars like Pete Rose who flood their own market with product and depress the demand for their products–and you’re right. It is all so true. But Johnny Unitas is in rarified air as a footballer. He’s a figure of Yogi/Musial type stature at least. And no matter how many things he signs to depress the signature market, he probably only had one of these jackets and it’s a highly personal, life-used item perhaps. So it is possible that in the right room, on a given day, it could be bid up to that figure. And more importantly, as a professional, that appraiser is willing to put that in writing so that the item can be scheduled on home owner’s insurance at that replacement figure. It’s not an exact science.

Do the figures they talk about on that show seem too good to be true? Sure. I get it. But you have to do more homework before ripping that guy and certainly the show. That show is one of the sanest, calmest and learned shows on TV. History, culture, craftsmanship, artistry, engineering and audience participation and learing! Geez, Mushnick, whattayawant!!??

–Fog

Life Size Babe Ruth Statue Solid Wood

Just the facts.  He’s almost ready for delivery.  It’s down to touching up and a few hard-to-reach stripes and then deck work really.  Not much.  Maybe 20 hours.  Maybe only 10.  I have to call up some people now and get them to see it before he goes permanently to the Gaylord Hotel in Washington DC.  I understand that the Washington Nationals will be having a shindig there and Babe is sure to cause a stir.  I think the new park down in DC needs a life sized Walter Johnson, of Washington Senators fame.  Or Joel Hanrahan even?  Go Nats! 

Babe Ruth Bigger Than Jack Benny?

Ok, YOU think of another Babe Ruth headline.

Here, here is Jack Benny…

Babe Ruth In Satin

Since you liked that one, here’s another. The pile of stuff between his feet is masking tape. Every single pinstripe is the result of two pieces of masking tape. You take 1″ tape and razor blade it down the middle. Then you use the good straight edge to define the outside of one stripe. Repeat for the other. Then you paint the stripe by hand, between the tape, with the Yankee blue acrylic paint. You peel the tape off, and there’s your stripe. I’ve experimented with many other methods: stamping, freehand, rolling. All of them are N/G. This is the best way. As you figured, it is slllloooooowwwww.

Also remember that any sheen on the figure will be removed by overspraying with the top secret window froster. Cloth, and skin for the most part, are flat. Not glossy. Not semi. Not satin.

The edges of the base will be hemmed in 6″ oak planks, which I have just purchased.

 

[There's the Oak on top of the pine and basswood.  You can see the airbrush compressor as well.  In the background is the life size Mickey Mantle statue, awaiting his sprucing up.  Those headphones are fantastic.  They are totally soundproof and also a great am/fm radio.] 

The deck will be coated with a thing called “Turface”. Turface is the stuff that sometimes is referred to as “diamond dry”. It is kiln fired clay that is ground up. It is very light and granular (think unground pepper kernel size) and apparently absorbs water like a son-of-a-gun, however, I don’t care about it’s water properties; only that it is the cleanest “dirt” that I can find that also looks realistic.

Bactine for Babe

Another in the Babe series.  Here is proof that I can shift gears a little.  There was too much meat on the shoulder so out come the 1/4″ die grinders and belt sanders and off comes some shoulder.  It feels weird because the thing is mostly done back there and then I’m taking a step back to get something right.  That’s why I like to start striping up finished areas because that helps you see the right things.  Things that you wouldn’t see in wood or primer will become more apparent.  Remeber my mantra: do the easy stuff first and then the hard stuff becomes easy.

Yes, you are seeing the hands on the big guy now.  That’s as of 1am yesterday morning and now the job is to get them looking right, sanded and sealed.  Tonight was more of that and today was a really light day for a Saturday because of the stuff I talked about in the last post.  Too much family stuff going on to do much but I did force myself down there to get a coat on because when dry time is in play, you have to take advantage of the time.  Tomorrow has to be a big day.  I was hoping to be past this point by this time but you do what you can do.

And the Andy Griffith 4-pack was disappointing.  Two of them were on last night.  So I watched Antiques Roadshow.  Roadshow is a good program to work to because I don’t have to look at the screen really at all.  I can just listen to what the appraisers say and the laymen jabber and I’m ok.  If the piece is stunning, I can quickly glance and then get my eyes back to the end of the die grinder or what have you.

I have a little FM base station plugged into the TV and I wear wireless headphones to pick up the sound.  It’s great because they block the sound of the machines and act as noise dampers (that I would have to wear anyway) and with a little flick, I can mute all the dopey ads–every *** **** one of them.  Did you ever really stop and listen to how they scream and yell at you and insult your intelligence in just about any TV commercial you can name?  It’s really amazing when you think about it.  And movie trailers?  Don’t get me started.  Why does EVERYthing in a movie trailer have to WHOOOOSH and BOOOM at you like you have your ear on the subway track at rush hour?  Do they think we are monkeys?  It’s just raw f****n noise people!  I don’t know about you all, but if an ad is obnoxious enough, I will avoid buying it within reason.  –fog 

Holiday Cheer Everywhere. Even My Lungs.

My kid keeps breaking out of his swaddle blanket.  The kid is like Houdini~  He gets a hand out of the little swaddle blanket (which looks an awful lot like a tiny straight jacket) pretty much before you get the light out.  And he likes it.  He gets a little thrill out of it. 

Just when I thought the dust phase of the statue was over, I got a full 8 hours of it today, a vacation day, no less.  The hands are on and I’ll be posting out some photos of that this w/e.  And I do wear a mask when the dust is flying but it can be darned uncomfortable.

Tomorrow, I need to have another big day with the work on the statue but will be shoveling frozen ice off a driveway (still doing that) and taking my nephew to his hitting workout as his dad is in dialysis.  Then after hitting, we are working out the kids for tryouts for the last 2 slots and we have ringers coming in who should be good; but we have to go through the whole thing.  Then we take the boy to get measured for a custom baseball glove.  They measure his hand and build it to suit.  It is quite cheap on a deal that the coach has arranged, so I’m all over it.  He may get 3 years out of this glove.

Then it’s over to the nursing home that my dad is in now with the broken hip.  He was released from the hospital and is there for rehab.  I was a little p****d to find out that this place charges.  Where I work, if someone is on a full Medicare A stay, the first 20 days of your 100 days are free in essence, because you are collecting 100% from Med-A.  Whatever that person’s RUG score is, THAT’S what they pay the facility.  Well, at least this place is close and that money could be an incentive to get the walking in and get out.  He will most likely be there for Xmas but it still may only be for 4, 5, or 6 days.  All in all, for his age, he has come through remarkably well.

After all this stuff, I will be able to work.  Maybe get in a 6pm to 1am shift.  That’s when I get all my work done anyway.  At least there’s an Andy Griffith 4-pack on at 8pm.  2 hours of Mayberry.  I want to live in Mayberry.  There isn’t much to watch on TV when I’m trapped in the shop.  Why isn’t there more pool on TV?  I love it.  All I see is poker: Where’s the pool?  And when it is pool, it’s always 9-ball.  How about some Rotation (Chicago) or one pocket or something other than 9-ball?  And when they show you the table with the ball diagrams on there, can they show that more?  I mean longer?  So I have a chance to map out 3 or 4 shots ahead?  That’s the whole game and they rush it but boy, they make sure they have the stupid, “pocket cam”.  That is a little camera that gives the view of an ant, standing in the pocket as the ball comes AT you.  Now why in the hell would you EVER want that vantage point?  I wouldn’t mind seeing the whole match from above the table.

Also today, I bought 100 shares of YUM and now I’m hoping that those guys can sell a lot of our bad food (and lifestyle) to the Chinese.  They have some dough in their pockets now so naturally, they’re going to want jalapeno poppers, doesn’t everyone?  And I will profit like Cheney….[evil laugh]. 

Last item.  See the photo below?

This is my tax money being spent on town, curbside, leaf collection.  Yea, that’s how they do it here and you don’t have a choice.  I rake my stuff to the curb on a busy county road and the cars and wind blow it all the hell all over the place.  I re-rake it daily for a couple of weeks and then these guys come around and vaccuum them up.

Only here, this year, they can’t vaccuum up my neighbor Bill’s leaves because the da*n things are frozen~  So there were as many as 4 guys hacking away at Bill’s leaves with shovels and backing up traffic for 10 minutes.  The pile on the right?  That’s the ice from my driveway.  The leaves are behind Bill’s blow-fence.  Unsure if the blow fence is helping the leave-entropy.  They might be because Bill is the only one on the street with any leaves at all.  The mayor wants us to know that the system is working and can he please raise our taxes? Again.

Washington: First In War, First In Peace…ahead of the Wilpons

Since we were looking at the new parks that will be built in the next 5 years: Mets, Yanks, Twins, Oakland A’s, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington. In Washington’s case, they are open in April and here it is. It has the split upper deck that works so well in the newest yards like Philly and St. Louis but something about the joint leaves me thinking, “this is it?”

I mean, it’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but it lacks some character or defining attribute. My first reaction was, “why don’t they point it at the Potomac?”, but I know the answer to that. Major League diamonds are designed to be oriented so that the sun sets over the 3rd base stands. That’s because way, way back when, it was thought that there were fewer lefties and thus there’d be fewer fly balls to RF than LF. (Lefties are 10% of the population). The “Sun Field” is Right Field just about everywhere (except in domes). Even Babe Ruth was moved out of the sun field to protect his hung over assets.

Click here to open a graph of ballpark orientations in a new window

So if you have this plot of land on the banks of the Potomac, and you want to point the park AT the Potomac, you’d have to pretty much face it away from the setting sun, and they can’t do that. This is the same deal in Cincinnati, where they aim the park at the Ohio River and not the downtown skyline. ***

When you talk about orientation, you have to look at Shea. The wind at Shea is cold and blows very hard. If you go to a night game at Shea, even in the Summer, bring a jacket or a couple of sweatshirts because Shea is on a bay and it gets windy and cold. The wind blows from top to bottom in this diagram. I sat in the top row of the upper deck for the Beltran-homer-off-the-scoreboard game against Weaver in the 2006 playoffs (It was Game 2 on the ticket, but since Game 1 was a rainout, it was Game 1). The top row of Shea in late October, on the windy 3rd base side is un-f****n-believably cold and windy. I was sick for weeks after that game. With the little roof over our head and the grate behind us in that top row there, it was like we were in a big, giant harmonica.

So the new Mets yard is pointed more or less AT the wind. And the left field stands jut out and probably block some of it down the left field line but the center and right center areas are, I predict, NOT going to be kind to power hitters on these nights. Day game (there are a few) and you’re fine. Night game early, and you’re fine. 6th inning on 10pm+ and balls will not carry to Right and Right Center. And unless you put this thing in a wind tunnel like Mythbusters, I wouldn’t want to bet that it is good for right handers, either.

This stuff doesn’t stop the Mets brass (Wilpons and marketing people) from getting all lathered up that, [drumroll] “…It looks like Ebbet’s Field from the front”. Everyone: “ooh, ahh”. That’s it. The rest of it isn’t very noteworthy. But it looks like Ebbet’s Field from one angle and that’s why we’re all supposed to praise it. The Wilpons grew up in Brooklyn and Fred played ball with a young Koufax (really, not the made up Larry King story where Koufax claims he never met Larry King), so naturally, the Ebbet’s Field look is the big deal.

It’s a nice, new modern (expensive) ballpark that looks perhaps a bit like Coors in mirror image but it’s IN A PARKING LOT IN QUEENS OUT BY THE AIRPORT people! It’s a dump out there. Willet’s Point is a dump. That part of Queens is a dump. The planes are booming over head and it will never be ANYwhere you want to spend time after a game, ah-la the shangri-la of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. SUCKERS~! Now all bow to the Wilpons; Fred knew Koufax.

***

The last three shots are the New Yankee Stadium or Death Star, home of Hankenstein. Like all the others, it will be new and have all the bells, but it is a newer version of a stadium which is, itself, a newer version of a stadium in which guys like Ruth and Muesel abused lesser teams. The Yankees problem here is that they have to stay true to the old design, more or less, and so, they aren’t really free to do anything else. The park is oriented the same way and is just a block north. Pretty ho hum and as a building full of Yankee fans, isn’t a place I’d like to spend a lot of time anyhow. Yankee fans: The Haarlem Globetrotter fans of baseball.”…you better plug him again, Doc, just to make sure…”

Babe Deserves A Hand

More progress shots. Err, well, actually, they’re from the same batch as yesterday. I worked the hands again and are two days beyond my estimates on that. Denial. Tomorrow, I have a vacation day so with any luck, I can put in a 12 hour day and get some things squared away. When I walk out of the shop tomorrow, the hands may be glued in place, or at least, glue-fit and not glued in so I can still work behind them. Ready to glue, how about that?

Remember that I’m not crazy about all of the folds and I will be working on the ones that annoy me. That’s one of the processes you have to go through. Get the white on and then look at it…a lot. Photos too. The bad stuff then jumps out at you in a few days. Take your sharpie, draw your lines and fire up the chainsaw.

It’s nice for me to see the head because mostly, he looks like the photo below–bag on head. Too much dust and although I am NOT done painting the kopf, I don’t want it dusty either. Dust clogs the woodburned lines in places like the hair or skin lines.

Another nice close up of the head–there aren’t many. It’s difficult to photograph. The eyes need work, don’t forget. I made the hat ride up high so that you can see his face. The bill is actually a bit more modern than the old time hats, which, if you study photos, can be downright short. I have found from doing shows and installations that SOMEtimes, if you try too hard to be historically accurate, you will annoy the generic onlooker. Remember, if you are the only one who knows it’s accurate and regular folks just don’t think it looks right, you will hear all sorts of rude from them. They’ll look you in the eye and tell you they know better. “…But I went to the library in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, to do research on this~”, you’ll say, but it won’t matter. And don’t get me wrong, most people are just happy as heck to see it and take a snap| with it or ask you, “…how long did it take you? how much does it weigh? Is the uniform wood?”. But I have found that every 100 or even 300 people contains that one, negative, know-it-all who just HAS to point out something that they think is not right, or SHOW you that they are cognoscenti.

Take the numbers on the backs of the jerseys. I view Babe Ruth as a once in every 500 years type of athlete. I think that he was so much better than his peers that it has never been matched since we’ve been paying attention. Muhamed Ali? Don’t make me laugh. A good fighter, but really, the fight game is mostly a smokeshow–just a step above wrestling. Ali’s real gift to mankind was trash-talking and I wish he’d take it back. Guys like DiMaggio and even Cobb were great, no doubt, but they weren’t better than everyone else in the ridiculous proportion that this man was. Go ahead, give me your “guys” that are up there with Jidge: Jordan, Tiger, Mays, Montana, Rice…all good but not in the proportion.

So the point is that I revere Ruth and I know the legend is that he was fat and you will see photos of him as a big fat guy but for every photo of him (and I have looked at thousands) as a fat man, there were 2 others of him as a svelt athlete. He spent many years at respectable weights and that is how I chose to depict him; a little more in shape than some will want to see. So I expect to hear that he was fatter, and that was true. But he was also skinnier for many seasons as well. The skinny seasons tend to be pre 1930 or so. Trouble is, if I don’t put that number 3 on the back, some will howl. But the Yankees didn’t number the uniforms until 1929, when most of your really fat Ruth photos were taken. So for the purist, I have depicted a fairly in-shape Ruth, post-1929, or at least equal. Will anyone care? Naah, except for the occasional comment that, “…he was fatter”, most don’t know that numbers were an innovation in 1929 and they EXPECT to see that number and they will insist that it is wrong if it isn’t there.  Give the people what they want.