Patent bread bowl?

Finished re-skimming Dale Carnegie’s 1920’s era meisterwerk, How to Win Friends and Influence People”.  Like I said, I had read it before (Sioux Falls, SD on a February, 2-week business trip) and thought I might benefit from a re-read.  I ended up skimming it.  Probably read 60% of it but I reviewed the stuff I wanted to.  Mrs. Pinetar makes fun of me for “skimming” certain (not all) books and I say that it’s just time-management.  By skipping (and not suffering) certain lame parts of books that don’t interest me, or don’t apply to me, I get through more material that DOES.  Nothing wrong with that.

I thought I needed the re-read because lately I’ve found that I have been wasting time getting drawn into stupid arguments.  (Spoiler alert!)(If you can have a spoiler for a book written in 1927) One of Carnegie’s big tenets in the book is that you don’t argue: almost never; with anyone.  It’s a losing proposition.  He says, and I mostly agree, that even if you win, you have only won a small, academic point and yet in the bigger picture, you have antagonized the man you beat and lost him.  He goes on that there is a way to point things out to folks who need learnin’, but do it right or you gain nothing.

I find myself arguing too much.  It’s not good.  Most people are not even considering your ideas in the typical argument IN GOOD FAITH.  You may THINK your ideas are having their day in court, but the other person is not even considering them–not giving them a chance.  He’s waiting for you to take a breath, so he can dazzle you with his stuff…long story short, you’re both wasting your time–get back to work.

Other gems in the book are the idea that to “Win friends” and “Influence People”, you need to be a smiling, active, engaged LISTENER.  Carnegie says that people don’t care about YOU at all.  They only care about themselves and if you let them bloviate on about themselves, they’ll walk away from that lecture (Carnegie says “let it BE a lecture”) LIKING you.  That’s it.  That’s all.  Shutupayourmouth and listen.  Be genuinely intersted; ask engaged questions but SHUT UP and let THEM talk.

I never did sales, but imagine that lots of this Carnegie stuff is now long-boilerplate in the sales-force-training manual; particularly the part that says: “NEVER argue with a customer!”  In fact, if the customer says that the competitor’s product is great, you are supposed to AGREE with that immediately!  Yikes.  But really, anything else you say devolves into an argument and you are then DEFENDING your own product instead of selling it.  Carnegie was big on the sales stuff, so if you are a sales person and you haven’t read this book, shame on you.

In fact, I’m throwing a big “shame on anyone” who hasn’t read this book.  It’s that core.  It’s basic.  It’s worth it.  You might learn something about yourself that you can tweak.  I know of a person who holds a big government job (where else?) and he is NOT liked by his charges.  They gave him this book anonymously for Christmas one year to send a message.  If your employees send you this book anonymously, they are trying to tell you something, but STILL, you should read it and think it over.

Where I work, I have a guy reading a book I thought was great, “Baseball Between the Numbers”.  He’s reading it reluctantly but has a real attitude about it BEFORE even reading the ideas presented.  And he was telling me basically that I’m going to be the one DEFENDING the Baseball Prospectus guys’ work.  I told him “no, I’m not”.  If you don’t like a piece, email the author!  I’m not going to be put in that position.  I enjoyed the book, and I hope that you do too, but if you can’t accept the fact that they found no mathematical evidence to support ‘hitting protection’ in the lineup, or that they found most sac bunts, stolen bases and hit-and-runs to be HURTING the team that does it, then it isn’t my fault.

What it does mean is that people, for the most part, are not objective.  They get an emotional attachment to an IDEA and to do that you must SURRENDER ALL OBJECTIVITY.  That’s why you don’t argue with anyone.  Because most people get emotionally attached to ideas and can NOT stand off and be a passive, truly objective observer; which is what you need for a true “debate” to have meaning, and not just be two guys shouting their “stuff” at each other.

I’m sure I’m guilty of it too, but I try to look at objective facts and evidence on its merit and incorporate that info into my view.  I think my ability to do that, to the extent that I can, reflects my education in Accounting and Computer Science.  I also have always loved Science and read every bit of non-fiction science-history that I can get my hands on.

The Accounting and Comp-Sci trains you to be objective and look at measures and build up assumptions off of them.  I carry this out even in an emotional avocation like fantasy baseball–building spreadsheets and then trusting what those numbers tell me.  For many, a thing like baseball is a very emotional, seat-0f-the-pants thing.  Don’t go showing those guys any numbers that say the way their daddy or their high school coach showed them was wrong–it only gets them mad.  They are totally convinced that they KNOW, so don’t go showing them anything else–it’s noise.  If it’s numbers, there’s a built in prejudice that, well, “…you cooked those numbers to have them say what you wanted”.

Reading Science-history books (there are so few good ones) is the other thing that I think helps me to be more objective at times.  It always fascinated me how certain really brilliant things came to be.  We always take for granted that a telephone or a computer or transistor, just WORKS.  But I always think that at some point in the past, some person had to MAKE it work for the first time.

And so you read about these people and it seems that the ones who succeed and make the breakthrough are ALWAYS the ones who question the current state of the art.  They question the conventional wisdom.

I just finished the Wright Brothers book, and they doubted the published, accepted figures for the day for lift and drag on a surface.  They built their own wind tunnel and derived their own numbers and when their numbers were far OFF the published, academically-accepted marks, they had the guts to TRUST their own results and proceed from that assumption.

Another example is in the great book “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” ( a must read for anyone–tremendous book).  They explain very well how Einstein’s real breakthrough was the simple fact that he was the first to ACCEPT the experimental results that had been accumulating, that said light traveled the SAME speed no matter the speed of the source or, of the observer.

That concept didn’t make sense to people because it is so fantastic; so counter-intuitive to everyday life.  People were not willing to ACCEPT that result after experimental result was piling up and confirming this odd “fact”.

Einstein’s genius is that he was just the first person to think,”…ok, let’s assume that is true, where does that lead?”.  That’s what led to his theory of relativity–just being WILLING to believe experimental results.

The analogy is a baseball fan when they first hear that the numbers show that hit-and-run, stealing and bunting almost always HURT the team doing it.  That’s not what they have been taught all their lives.  To accept that means that not only have THEY been wrong their whole lives, but all their peers and teachers (dad) were dead-wrong too.  Some are able get past being “wrong” or “fooled”, and say, “thank you very much, I am glad to have this knowledge!”, while others will not yield: “…light speed MUST vary with the speed of the observer or source! It MUST!” (“All those people can’t be wrong!”)

So you read the science history and you see how many times the accepted stuff was WRONG and the challenger was the breakthrough guy.  You see it over and over and over.  Lister and hospital cleanliness.  The Wrights.  Edison.  Einstein.  Heisenberg.  And on and on and on.

I’m not saying I’m smart like Einstein or anything dopey like that.  I’m saying that I’m working on the Jackie Robinson statue and I’m spending long hours doing that and you end up thinking about prejudice and where it comes from and why and so forth.  Prejudice can be about numbers and everyday notions too–work or play, it’s everywhere.  It is the human tendency to ASSUME things without looking at evidence; it is the human tendency to get EMOTIONALLY INVESTED in IDEAS for no reason.  It’s usually damaging in some way.  Some, obviously, more than others.  It’s beneficial to try and avoid it for yourself, if you can.  (I think this is also why I like Mythbusters so much)

***

For anyone still reading this far, the book we’re reading now is “Patent it Yourself” 13th ed by Patent Attorney David Pressman. I love it!  It’s reading like a text book, but it covers Intellectual Property, which is a bigger area than I originally thought: Patents: Utility, Design and Plant; Trademarks/Trade names, Copyrights & Trade Secrets.  It is fascinating.

For instance: To get a patent, you apply and pay a fee.  There are two levels: one for small guys and one for big institutions.  Then, when they grant the patent, if they do, you pay again.  This usually takes 3 years.  Then, at 3.5 years and 7 and 10 years, you will have to pay “maintenance fees” that add up to more than you lay out to get it or get it issued.

How this jag started was that I have been working on an “invention”, let’s just say, for a few years.  It was an idea for a year or two before I built a prototype last January.  My nephew and I were having fun dreaming about taking it commercial when I did what I always do, which is, bought a used patent book on Amazon used books.  In the first 15 minutes of reading that, I realized, “oh no! If I don’t have a patent for this and I take it out in public or publish it in ANY way, I have one year to file a patent or I LOSE the ability to EVER patent my own idea!”

So that put the breaks on our plans (not that we had time anyway–there were little league games to win).  I was amazed at that, but after reading Pressman (a much more in depth book), I understand why it has to be this way.  And I’m starting to see what my options are and that is making my planning much easier.  It takes the paranoia out of it.

Patent searching, has also never been easier than it is now.  You can go to google patents and look to see if anyone has thought of your idea but be careful, these online patent searches are not full.  They don’t go all the way back.  To do that, you need to go to Alexandria, Virginia, to the PTO library there.  Oddly enough, when you look out the front window of the Gaylord National Hotel in Washington, DC, you see Alexandria.  So we may be heading over the Potomac River to hit the library.  But there’s  a lot of work that would have to be done first.

Looking through the patents online is also very entertaining.  Check out this one.

Click here to open the patent in google-patents in a new window

One of the big takeaways of looking through the patents is the realization that some pretty dopey stuff gets issued.  And that’s not cheap.  If you are a small business or individual, you will be paying $1,100 minimum if you patent something COMPLETELY yourself.  That’s doing the writeup yourself, the full patent search (Alexandria, VA) yourself as well as filling out all the gov forms and the drawings!

Paying a patent attorney, a searcher and draftsman to do all that typically runs between $5,000 and $15,000,  so it makes you wonder who would bother to draw up, search and file a basically frivolous patent.  But apparently, some do.

And no, Phil, I’m not looking to patent the bread bowl, although it is a nifty idea…

I’ll end this longest ever post with my favorite Edison quotes:

Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.

I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists – proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.

I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

I start where the last man left off.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.

The Greatest Single Inning of Baseball

Just finished The Glory Of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter. Probably my 3rd reading in 20 years or so. I’m glad I hung on to it.

Taped in front of a live audience

Taping and striping goes on and on. And on. And then touching up

The question comes up: Why do you keep the tape? Why not throw it out? Well, a couple of reasons. One, it is simply easier to unstick it from your hands if you can just pass it over the other tape and pull away. Functional. Two, it is a nice visual cue that I have done some work when I see all the tape. Psychological.

I’m finally (yesterday) at the point where I’m at peace with the final statue. Is it done? No. But I no longer see more negative things (details that annoy me) than the overall positive impact. Make sense? There’s a point where the piece is 99% unchanging and you either accept it or get mad every time you look at it because, in the words of Tommy LaSorda, you “…swam 4 miles and drowned a yard offshore…” I’m not a big LaSorda fan, but I like the visual. It means you did a lot of work but quit right at the very finish and ruined it all. But you didn’t need me to tell you that.

***
I always thought it would be cool to build my own pool table. I’m not doing it, mind you. I don’t have the (1) space (2) time (3) money etc. But you think about it. And then you think, “…if I’m building it, I’m not limited to traditional shapes.” Why not round? What would that be like…hmm. Then you wonder, “Where would the pockets go?” Or would it be a pocketless billiard table (the way the game was originally invented, where points are scored for contact between cue and object ball and not sinking them in pockets)

Then I found this guy [Click here to launch the math-pool-guy in a new window]

I stole a few of his animated gifs here. My high school algebra teacher would be all over this…

Overstimulation

I really like the Clarinet (Bassinet) that Mrs. Pinetar bought (or was given) for the Tomster. It has these little controls on the side and it will play a little music (something they played at our wedding but I didn’t know that-was told) and it has a little “activity center” for Tommy’s “activity time”.

Anyway, it has these bears that hang on a little dry-cleaning rack and you press a button and the bears spin around over Tommy.

But you have to swing it into position first.

 So I’m admiring the thing and we put him down and I swing the thing into position and Mrs. Pinetar says, “…Wait! You can’t do that yet.”

“Why?”, I say.

“You’ll overstimulate him. It’s too much for him”, She replied.

“Oh”, I said.

How cute is it, that the three little flying stuffed bears will overstimulate him?

***

This clarinet has one other thing that I really, really love. The vibration button. You can even adjust the frequency (although not as low as I would like, but I’ll take it). It is like Tommy is at the belly of a big cat that is purring. It’s very soothing and pacifying.

There is some newer research that indicates that the vibrations that cats produce is very, very healing and beneficial to the cats themselves. They actually have been shown to HEAL faster from wounds for purring. This is verifiable data, not the global warming hooey that you see on CNN.

I went through a phase a few years ago where I read anything I could get my hands on re ‘after death experiences’ or, NDE (Near Death Experiences). They have gone on for all history but are more prevalent now due to advancing medical technology (the same amazing medical discovery and technology that Al Gore and Hillary say isn’t fair and needs to be curtailed by government intervention). What’s even more true today is that with medical tech being what it is, people are simply more inclined to entertain the POSSIBILITY that these folks come by some information that they really don’t or shouldn’t have access to, if you discount the “experience”.

The books are fascinating reading and they make you think plenty, especially about some of our downright silly religious customs and institutionalized hokum. The book, “Embraced by the Light” by Betty J. Eadie, is by far, the best book I’ve ever read in my life. I’ve read it over 10 times and it has influenced me far more than any other book, no question. There is a bookend book to it that is also amazing: “Beyond the Darkness” by Angie Fenimore. They compliment each other and should be read together, and read in the order listed. They are quite different so don’t assume…

Anyway, in the dozens of books I’ve read on this topic, one of the things that strikes you about these experiences is their diversity. All are different and highly personal. However, there are still many similarities. One is that many of these folks report on the “music” or “vibrations” that run through and permeate EVERYTHING on the spiritual side. Everything vibrates and resonates and all things are in vibrational/musical harmony “over there”. In this other dimension, these vibrations are described as “healing” and “loving” and “containing great intelligence”.

It is interesting that we are finding out that cats’ purring heals wounds. I predict that in the future, more money and effort will be spent looking into the effect of vibrations on living tissue. I don’t think enough is being done but the vibration gizmo on the clarinet is a good start.

***

We had Tommy outside a lot yesterday and like rookie parents, got him a little too warm in his fleece swaddling blanket. But on day 4, the jaundice is at maximun, so I insisted that we get him some light (indirect) to break down that bad old Billy Rueben. I also decided it was time to fly the Bunker Hill flag. You don’t see many outside of New England.

And this morning he was opening his eyes more than usual. I used a no-flash setting and it was dark so don’t worry about his color there. He is looking great. It’s just hard to get him to open the eyes. A lot of the time, he just opens one eye. It’s funny to see him fall off the feeding spout and then get mad. Unfortunately, it’s a family trait to quickly get pretty mad at something very simple in the scheme of things. Oh well.

We are baptizing him at about 1 month. This shocked the church down the street. They grilled my wife about it. That’s how it was done in the old days (25 years ago and before) but now it is wigging them out. Almost any time I have “official dealings” of any sort with a member of the church, I walk away shaking my head. I’m trying.

Since Mrs. Pinetar may not be able to make the baptism class, I will have to go alone. I told Mrs. Pinetar, “…wait until they get a load of me…”

And she basically said, “Don’t get excommunicated again!”

And that would be the second time this year! The odds on excommunication are currently running about 7-1. We’ll see.

***

For the record, Julio Franco is now 1 for 12 with the Atlanta Braves. I’ll say it again: Somewhere out there, there is a golf-course missing a guy. –fog

Proven! MLB Balls Juiced

Years ago, I had written this and submitted it to a couple of magazines. I recently came across it looking for things on some old hard drives I’ve saved. Have a look: –fog

***************

The article that Baseball fears most:
The ball is juiced and it can be proven!

I am tired of hearing that Major League Baseballs are juiced but that we can’t prove it. WRONG! They ARE juiced and we CAN prove it! We can prove it scientifically using the same simple method that Major League Baseball itself devised to determine that 1943 wartime baseballs were 25% less lively than 1942 balls.

Wake Me When It’s Over

Well the Yanks have dodged a bullet as they got a nice game out of the kid and the Mets and Red Sox both played lackluster games. So now they’re on a modest 2-game winning streak and Torre and Cashman are safe for now. The Sunday night game was a big letdown. If you saw Reyes fan on the bounced curveball in the home first, then you could have turned it off right there. Foreshadowing.

I told people I would do this, so here I go:

Francesa Wrong Again

I have written about it before but today I have to mention it again.  Most people that criticize Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball” are jealous and do NOT understand it.  Case in point.  While Imus is fired, Mike Francesa and Chris Russo have taken his time slot on WFAN in NY.  Today they were talking about the book and the big blowhard himself, Mike Francesa, opines that “Moneyball doesn’t work because all you have to do is look at the playoffs.”

It doesn’t matter to these idiots that RIGHT IN THE BOOK, it talks about how the playoffs are too small of a sample and that none of the principals apply.  It’s basic mathematics!  But to jacka**es like Francesa, who worships a team that spends over 200 million dollars a year on payroll, it’s a failed policy.  Memo to Mike: He takes a small payroll team into the playoffs year after relentless year.  It’s an enormous undertaking.  He has no control over the few games in the playoffs.  Look at the glutton Yankees: They have been eliminated JUST LIKE OAKLAND in 2002 Angels; 2003 Marlins; 2004 Red Sox; 2005 Angles; 2006 Detroit.  So if a 200 million dollar team can be brushed aside all those years I guess Billy Beane is an idiot because his team lose too?  Mike, you’re a disgrace.  WHAT, is your problem with “Moneyball”?  Why does it threaten you so?

Cortez the Killer

I thought of titling this piece: How kids learn. Then I thought of “How liberals teach”. Anyway, this is part of how really bad liberal revisionist history ends up being taken quite seriously. Have a look:

“Cortez The Killer”

Baseball Must Read List

I’ve said it before but in the past 30 years, I’ve read about 150 books on baseball. Most of them in the late 1980’s but a steady clip over the years. The last post with Eagle mentioning Bill Veeck made me think of cobbling together a list of all-time best reads. Here we go:

1) Moneyball – the single most influential book (Ball Four aside) and frankly, if you don’t understand this material, you don’t fully understand what you’re watching. Those that criticize it, don’t understand it.

2) The Glory of Their Times, Lawrence Ritter: Old time players interviewed on their era. Guys like Wahoo Sam Crawford and Goose Goslin. Great, great stuff. A window into Victorian and Edwardian baseball (and times) . Baseball When the Grass Was Real, does this same interview concept with the players of the 1920-1940 range. Also amazing.

3) Ball Four – This book might literally have saved my life when I read and then re-read it while extremely depressed at college many years ago. It seemed that several of the things that Jim Bouton was talking about, were EXACTLY what I was feeling at that time. There’s a lot of social stuff and group dynamics in this book that has NOTHING to do with baseball and you will learn things even if you are not at all, a fan of the game. This book was the first tell-all book from the locker room perspective and it made a 100 most influential books of the 20th century list not too long ago. No joke. It came out in 1970 and was a diary of the 1969 season.

4) Anything by Roger Angel, most notably, “The Summer Game” and “Late Innings”. They say that some catchers make catching look easy. They say that they look like they are “sitting in a rocking chair”. Well Roger Angel makes writing look like sitting in a rocking chair. Just to see how this guy structures paragraphs and sentences, it is worth it. The story telling too. All good. And, it’s BASEBALL!

5) Veeck as in Wreck, by Bill Veeck. Seminal book on the marketing and business of baseball. Great innovative mind on display and the kinds of roadblocks that all forward thinkers encounter. A man truly ahead of his peers and his time. He doesn’t get enough credit for shaping modern sports.

6) The Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle. Diary of the 1978 Yankee season. Parts of it will make you laugh out loud when you are all by yourself. A great take on a great era from the eye of the hurricane. Sparky is a funny man. If you like this and can’t get enough of this team and this style, check out Nettles’ book, “Bal|s”. It is as good as the Bronx Zoo but runs over a few years.

7) John McGraw by Charles Alexander. Great era to read about. There are many worthy titles that cover this era but this one for me is special because of John J. McGraw. I don’t think the modern fan understands how big the New York Giants were in the oughts and teens and early twenties. They were the “Yankees” of the day and McGraw was the Giants. His battles with Connie Mack and the Athletics are early baseball.

Ty Cobb by Charles Alexander. Cobb is such a highly functioning psychotic that you have to read an in depth book about this guy. I read this in 1985 when Rose-Cobb mania was sweeping the land and so there may be a newer, better version of Cobb’s story out but read one of them. The man was a razor. A fanatic. Very disliked. He would have been great at whatever he set his mind to–it just happened to be baseball.

9) Pure Baseball – Keith Hernandez. I had to include Mex on the list. Actually, the book isn’t an all-time great but it does tackle a topic that is hard to do well, and it does it well. Hernandez watches two games and takes them apart pitch-by-pitch and you know what? I learned a whole lot more than I thought. If you want to know what counts to look for certain things and most importantly, WHY, then this is for you. Guys like Joe Morgan just repeat the baseball platitudes that you always hear but Hernandez will tell you WHY it is so. For instance, if you peek on location and see the target in, you know it’s a fastball. Why? You never call a hook or slider in. You just don’t. And if you see one in there, it’s a mistake. It will enhance your enjoyment of the game 100% or your money back. You will find yourself tuning in meaningless games and looking for pitch selection or bunt and hit and run counts and just really WATCHING the game.

10) “Bums, an oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers” I know, I know, “The Boys of Summer” is supposed to be THE Brooklyn Dodger book but to me, isn’t that good. And I think the author is a little to stuck on Jackie Robinson. The real book about the Bums is this one. It is all interview excerpts. The stuff from the MacPhail-Durocher era with Kirby-F***n-Higbe and Hugh Casey and Hemingway is just amazing stuff. You really feel like you know these guys and this zany, Damon Runyon time. Leo Durocher too, merits a book all by himself but there aren’t any, are there? His book “Nice Guys Finish Last” is so sanitized that it’s almost useless. This guy was a character. He was rehearsing the Jack Benny Show and he and Jack decided to play gin rummy. After Benny played four cards, Durocher recited every card in Benny’s hand. Benny says, “HOW do you KNOW?” and Leo says, “easy, if you’re playing it right, which I assume you are”. To that Benny said, “I don’t want to play with this guy!”

Or the time in Spring training, Leo found out that a guy beat several of the Dodgers out of $2000 at the hotel pool table. “Point him out to me”, Durocher said. They did and Leo walked up to him and said, “You are playing me for everything you have on you right now”. The guy said, “ahh, I don’t do that”, but Leo made him and Durocher beat him for $4,000 and gave back the players’ money and said, “That guy was a hustler from New York. I won’t bail you out next time”, and he walked away. He hadn’t picked up a cue in years!

11) “My Turn at Bat” and “Ted Williams” by Leigh Montville – Either one, or both really. I’ve read Montville’s book twice and My Turn at Bat about 4 times all the way through. Williams is just one of those amazing figures that was so single minded that he merits attention. Bigger than life. The anecdotes about this man are just fascinating. The batting titles, the .406 season, the WWII flying and then the jet crash landing that he walked away from in Korea flying with John Glenn. He’s what every kid wants to be. He’s a real life John Wayne.

The story I liked the best is when he came back from Korea and Sox owner Tom Yawkey begged him to go hit a few in the cage and finally he says, “ok” and he just picks up a bat and rips 10 straight balls into the seats, one after another. Everyone in the park is stopped dead, in awe. The batting practice pitcher is turning his head to see where they land and Williams is cursing him, “…just throw the gd ball over!”. After hitting the 10th bomb, his hands are one bloody blister (because they’re soft from not picking up a bat in a year) and he just tosses the bat and walks away. Everyone is thinking, “…did he just DO that?”. I mean, HOW can you not get into that?

And also, as you’re reading the Williams books, and he’s telling you the hitting theories in detail; especially the part where he can SEE the ball squishing flat against the bat on contact (Keith Hernandez also claimed this feat but ONLY when he was super hot–really only a week or two a season).  If you are reading this stuff, you WILL go down to the local batting cage and hit balls with relish.  You HAVE to.  No question.  And it will be the most fun hitting you ever did!   

–fog

A modern day DaVinci : Norm Saunders

Apparently, Wacky’s were painted mostly by

Norm Saunders (1907 -1989)

FROM WakckyPackages.org Bum Chex, along with Choke Wagon, was pulled early and replaced by Windhex, making it one of the toughest titles in a complete series 1 to 16. Bum Chex also has the distinction that it is the only one that artist Norm Saunders actually signed. He slipped his signature in by signing one of the checks, the green one. He was not allowed to sign the works because Topps wanted to keep their artists top secret, so as not to have them stolen by other companies. Norm slipped his intials in various other places, but this is the only one known where he got the full name in.

This is my favorite from series 2: Run Tony. The story goes that Italian Americans looked up from watching The Godfather and complained that this made light of their ethnicity so it was pulled early in the run, thus making it scarce.

I DO recall it being hard to get but I’m not sure if that is the answer. Unless a company’s legal department was sending in a “Cease & Desist” order, they probably wouldn’t have just pulled it.

If you come across this book in a garage sale, buy it! On Amazon, there is one used copy listed at $250.00

Reprint anyone? –fog