Detail Oriented Stadium Meister

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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).

Joe DiMaggio’s Eyes

Babe and I Live in Squalor

Since someone gave me the tip to include some scale in these photos, I have to jump in there. And I’m not really dressed for it but that is reality in the cold cellar. That’s two pairs of insulated undies and about three or four shirts. Class.

And although the shelves look dishevelled, everything has a place where it goes. Not a place for storage, just the place I found it and the place I keep leaving it. It’s amazing how much time gets lost if any of that stuff is moved even 2 feet. Some things have not been moved since the early 1990s. Some of those things have been used just once or even never, but they’re still there and they are reference points I guess. Like the garbage collector, I’m not going to give up on certain ideas and tools. You know, the neighbor with the 1939 Ford rotting in the yard? It’s always like, “…it’s still good…it’s worth like, a LOT of money…” Some of the things are there for nostalgia as in, “…yea, I remember when I was that stupid!”. Or, you find a relic and immediately remember exactly what you were doing the night it came to be: “…that was ‘92, Tom was hanging out and Johnny Carson did his last show that night…” It could be a tool, a business card or even a little piece of wood that was going to be just right for something. There are times when I wouldn’t trade ANY of this space for the entire Hearst Castle at San Simeon.

Lifesize Babe Ruth (and Mickey)

There were some discussions at Floyd’s last night on the photos found here and one point (a good one) was that you really can’t see the scale too easily from the photos.  I agree.  Photos are my bane. These great looking statues just get crushed by photography.  I have had pros (and paid plenty) shoot them and the results aren’t a whole lot better.  There is NOTHING like standing next to one.  Photos don’t tell the whole story.  But here is a scale shot.  I have to use the timer and as you can see, it isn’t great.  But now you know.

In the other big development at Floyd’s, I learned that Murray’s Cheese Shop is not really on Bleeker Street, but faces another street.  But it looks like it could be on Bleeker to anyone but a postman, who get very precise about these sort of things.

These two shots are of Mickey Mantle, also life size.  This statue was completed in 1996 and needs a sprucing up.  I plan to do some work on the face as well.   Mickey’s face was the hardest one I’ve done and the reason is that he was so good looking, that he didn’t have any stand-out feature.  Ruth and DiMaggio have cartoonish faces that are easy to nail, comparitively.  Mickey spent a few months in Mickey Mantle’s restaurant in the 1990’s as the feature thing that you saw when you walked in the door.  That’s why he needs a refit mostly, because there was no room to create a buffer and the patrons could touch him, and, of course they did.

Last point.  Yesterday, I heard that the Mets will be charging $29 to park at Citi Field?  Are they for real?  That does it.  I hereby formally renounce my Mets fandom.  They can have it back, those plumbers.  I will not go to Citi Field and I will not pay $29 dollars to park my car for 3.5 hours by the airport and the stink of the chop shops on Roosevelt Ave.  I am hereby a fan of the Washington Nationals.  Go Nats.  **** the Mets. **** Fred Wilpon.   And Omar.  And Willy.  And the black uniforms that cater to gang inspired fashions.  And the drunken violence that makes my nephew say to me, “Uncle Fog, I’m scared” while watching a game against Philly in the upper deck last year.  And the ridiculously high percentage of Spanish players and promotions that make me feel like I might be in a foriegn country when I’m at the game.  And the EAR DAMAGING music that they blare out of the speakers all game long so that you go horse trying to converse with the person next to you.  And because Steve Phillips actually worked there.  Bu-bye.

Babe: Not on the Yankee Juicing List

I spoke to Swami yesterday and it is final. He was serious. He’s not going to LA. He did say in his best Brooklyn wisea*s, that he’d, “…see [me] in section 8″, and then just to make sure, added, “…you know what section 8 used to be, dontcha?”

I know it’s childish (but I’m having a ball with the sheer depths of Yankee denial) and yet I can’t help hammering the Yankee fans. They are spinning the steroid thing now as if nothing has happened. It’s like team Clinton got their talking points: “It’s only about ***”. Steroids: Everyone was doing it, right? Yea, sure. They’re the most objective people in the world. That’s why they root for a team that costs 212 million and they get all serious and righteous about the 18 games played with the Rays who pay their squad, what? 27 million? I think A-Rod has an indigestion clause that pays him close to that.

So I’m supposed to swallow that everyone was doing it. But supppose 50% of the 2004 Red Sox pitchers turned up on that list? Hmm? How about if Lowe, Schilling and Timlin were on there? Would you hear anything from Yankee fans? Would it be all, “…oh, everyone was on them…”??? hahahaha…I don’t think so. [ClintonVoice] “I did not take steroids and then go out and beat the Mets, not one time…” hahaha

I’m closing in on the finished Babe and have really no margins now for slowdowns. I am determined to hit my mark on the timeline. Trouble now is that the work is more boring and more difficult to stomach. It’s a lot of tedious sanding. It’s not fun anymore. The thrill of creating something from nothing has turned into the tedium of making sure that it is what you originally wanted it to be. The other problem is dry-time. I need to plan around multiple coats of sealer which take hours to dry. It doesn’t sound like much but it is.

And ‘good job’ to anyone who realized that Babe isn’t a righty–of course not. He’s being photographed in a mirror. If you watch baseball in a mirror, the guys will run to third…

The Pinetar Three (Thanks for the Shirts, McBean)

In these times of Photoshop, where a skilled operator could easily put Dr. Zaius’ head on my body and make is seamless, you never know if you are looking at a real photo or a doctored one. I assure the readers that this photo is real. We really have the Pinetar shirts, his/hers/baby. They are compliments of a very silly man down in Atlanta, Georgia who likes to go by the name McBean. I don’t know what I like better, the gags or the 2nd row, behind-the-plate seats to the Red Sox (or Dodgers this year?). He’s a true old friend. In high school, we worked many jobs together; cleaning toilets, painting etc. Scarily, he can recite the lines to “Battle of the Planet of the Apes” almost verbatim and while doing it, he’ll crack himself up at the same time, perhaps out of embarrassment? One of the last times I was down at his house in Atlanta, we made deep fried twinkies. I have proof:

And yes, that’s a Norman (Chubby) Chainey t-shirt I’m wearing. Another of his creations. If you are goint to eat like Chainey, you need to honor him. Chubby would have like the twinkies.

***

Bonds game on: Already I have heard Charles Barkley on the radio being interviewed re Bonds and already he has played the race card FOR Barry Bonds. Has anyone heard of Martha Stewart? (Would it matter if they had?).

My initial thoughts on this were that if the feds take 4 years aim at you, you have nowhere to hide (cue the Barretta theme song), but now I think that Bonds and his attorneys will remain defiant and sling mud at MLB and the US DOJ, playing the race card and any other card they can play. The facts, as I understand them are this: Bonds took roids. He admitted to taking the roids. He DIDN’T admit to KNOWING they were roids. To prove perjury, they have to get inside his head and prove that a reasonable person would have KNOWN that they were taking roids all along and that to say he didn’t know would be a lie. As we have seen in the OJ case, even facts that cry out for common sense can be obfuscated to dopey jurors with racial agendas, pretty easily by lawyers. If they got the right people on the jury, they might be able to convince them that a priest doesn’t know what he’s doing when he’s consecrating the host in The Mass. In other words, it ain’t all about common sense. Put your political G-Suit on and get ready for all-Barry, all the time, particularly if it is a slow news day.

I would venture that within about 6 months, you’ll “know” more than you ever dreamed about Barry Lamar Bonds. Question is, “who will play Kato?”.

***

Babe Ruth statue goes on despite a wicked cold and sore throat I’ve picked up after having a flu shot at work. I’m never getting the flu shot again. I don’t think they do a damn thing and in this case, I think they pushed me over the edge into this thing I have now. Now I have to spend hours with my stuffy face in a mask that’s uncomfortable at best on a good day.

The statue is coming along and I’m excited about it. I just had a nice talk with the buyer and we are on track to get this thing installed when the Gaylord opens in January.

Yanks Outweigh Opponents by 3.4 Billion in Sept 2007

Yankees fans always amaze me with the depth of their denial. They are right up there with the OJ jury. I keep hearing the Yankee-nation talking points: (1) the other teams just pocket the revenue sharing money (2) The Mets spend just as much (3) Most of the Yankees are home grown like Jeter and Posada. (For the record, the Mets currently sit at 120 million while the Yankees sit at 212 million — can Yank fans do math? That’s 8 million bucks shy of 100 million! Real close.)

With the Yankees turning MLB into a rigged deck, Globetrotter-like, pro-wrestling setup with their disgusting salary bloat, I thought I’d sit down and calculate just how much they outpay the teams they will be facing in their remaining “pennant race” games. Even I was astounded. It totes up to 3. 4 BILLION dollars. That’s BILLION with a “B”. Ooh, Yankee fans, I’m getting goose bumps watching these “contests”. How can you stand the suspense?

You know, 8 men on the 1919 Chicago White Sox were banned from the game for life for gambling on the games. Pete Rose, as we know, was also banned for gambling. Every major league clubhouse in professional ball has the anti-gambling caveat painted on the clubhouse wall for all to see. It’s THE core concept. Why is it so? Because baseball believes that if the public thought that the games were not on the level (fair contests), then they would not spend their time and money on it.

My question is, what is the difference between a game that gamblers may have rigged and ANY Yankee game when they outweigh their opponents by so much money? It’s as if you had a pickup game on your playground and gave the first 9 picks to one captain. Why are people so entertained by this rigged deck? The only thing remarkable about the Yankees is a game like last night, when the 23.8 million dollar Devil Rays ACTUALLY beat the 212 million dollar Yankees. –fog

* figures for salaries came from USA Today and Sportscity.com

The USA today salaries are from the start of the year.  The Sportscity ones appear to be updated to include things like Roger Clemens.  I find it interesting that the Yankees’ team salary increased 23 million from the beginning of the season to now.  23 million is the figure that the Devil Rays pay their whole squad.  Breathtaking gluttony.

How does this come to be?

Click here:  Absolutely a must read.  Beautiful.

 

and top it off with this one.  Also a gem: Click here 

Babe Ruth Grave Robbers

It used to be that if you were famous, you’d be buried in Westchester, NY.  The place is crawling with cemeteries.  Right across the street from my workplace is Kensico, where Lou Gerhig is buried and on the other side of the valley is the Catholic burial ground where Babe Ruth and Billy Martin are buried.  I was on the website for the place and noticed that even though they are Roman Catholic, Arthur Flegenheimer is buried in there.  Anyone know who that was?  That’s right, it’s Dutch Schultz.  Schultz was perhaps one of the worst mass murdering gangsters the USA has ever harbored, and, by the way, he was Jewish.  Go figure.

When I did my Yankee talk at the home, many were surprised that I hadn’t been to Ruth’s grave.  I’m not into graves, what can I say?  I DID carve a life size statue of the guy, however, and am carving another, so I thought that someday I’d go over there.  Yesterday was that day.  It took 5 minutes to drive over.  What fascinates me about this stuff (besides the unbelievable ornateness of the cemeteries up there) is what kind of stuff people think to leave at the grave.  We saw quite a few bats and balls and weird stuff at Gehrig’s grave and so I thought this would be no different.  It wasn’t.

This is the view as you walk up a sharp hillside from the access road.  Behind you is a fantastic view of the valley.  It’s a shame that they waste the view on the stiffs. 

At first, Ruth’s stone looks overblown, but it gets lost in the grandeur of the other monuments and mausoleums in this place.  We’re talking top shelf.  In fact, all in all, I’d say the Bambino estate has shown some restraint, believe it or not. 

 

The first thing that you notice is the flags.  Little Yankee flags.  Not too bad.  Go Yanks, right?  Then it gets better. 

 

I love this.  There were maybe 5 different of those little “helmet Sundae” helmets.  You know, the kind that the ice cream comes in?  The 9 dollar ice cream is great and apparently, they make a great tribute to the Babe.  The “K” hat?  I have no idea.  The stones?  Anyone know who does this or why?  Gehrig’s grave and Martin’s grave all have the little rocks on them.  I do not understand that.  DaVinci Code?  Harry Potter?  Col. Potter? 

 

I wonder if Cardinal Spellman knew how many professional girls that Babe took up with?

I love this one: Sunflower seeds!  Haha, as if the Babe can enjoy them!  Sure, he’ll love that.  I don’t think they even knew what those seeds were in the 1920’s, but hey, go for it.  Score some posthumous points with the Babe.  Another little sundae helmet. 

 

The baseball cards strew around were another puzzling one.  There were dozens of them.  And almost no Yankees of any kind.  Guys like Marcus Giles and Joe McEwing.  Guys who had NO POSSIBLE connection to the Babe or the Yanks or the Roaring Twenties or baseball greatness.  I mean, we’re talking Joe McEwing!

And there were all manner of balls left there.  Mostly baseballs but a few softballs and several plastic whiffle type balls as well.  Most of them were signed by the leavers.  Some just said things like “To: Babe From: Maria” as if Ruth would know and appreciate Maria’s gesture.  Some of it was kid handwriting, so you can give that a pass, but others were definitely left by adults. 

 

Here’s a good one: A Yankee Schedule and soggy.  Perhaps the Babe needs to KNOW who the Yankees are playing today?  Now, he can reach up and thumb through the soggy schedule.  How thoughtful.  And the Yo-Yo was a nice touch.  Maybe the Babe would get bored in there and need to “walk the dog” with the light up YoYo.  Note the sunflower seeds as well.  Hey, a guy can’t YoYo without some chaw, right?

 

The usual: balls, rocks and cards but I really love the Yankee beer-stand concession cup.  Only 10 bucks for a beer and wouldn’t George Herman love a beer about now?  Hoo Yea.

 

Here’s a mixed bag: A 1979 penny, deliberately placed there, no doubt.  No idea re significance.  A Rockies baseball card–because you know, Ruth played a lot of games in Denver.  The bracelet is one of those Lance Armstrong jobs but another color.  The Cigar is classic.  You KNOW he’d want to take a haul off of that, having died from oral cancer from smoking those things!  And the ticket on the right is apparently from the recent Hall of Fame inductions as it has Oriole/Ripken overtones and says Cooperstown Hall of…you know.  On the bottom is the ball point pen inscription, “Babe, you are better than Hank Aaron and [unintelligible]“  No words on Bonds but it’s a safe bet that if they didn’t like Aaron, they weren’t digging Bonds’ act. 

 

There you have it.  A snapshot of the flotsam and jetsam that people actually take the time to leave on the grave of a person that they have never met and do not know, although each and everyone THINKS they know him.  The lesson?  If you get mega-watt famous.  Really, really famous.  We’re not talking Paris Hilton, flavor of the month famous, but really, really Winston Churchill famous, people will leave odd things on your grave.

How about this for a measure of fame.  If, after everyone who you physically met in the flesh while you were still alive had passed away, and people were STILL visiting your grave, you were famous.  But even that if fleeting.  Mary Pickford was by far the most famous female human in the world for over ten years and she couldn’t get arrested now if she came back to life.  –fog 

Putin Shaves his Chest

It’s fun to stay at the…