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.

Grand Ole Babe Ruth

I’m back after a pause of several months.  As I explained in my last comment, I was curtailing the blogging activities in favor or regaining some kind of time/impulse management for my life.  A lot has gone on in the past few months and many have written emails to me ask why I’m not commenting and what do I think of this and/or that?  I’ll try and cover the basics and also try to post at least 3 things per week, so those who got out of the habit of coming here, may want to swing by now and again.

The Tommy Show: Going strong and now in its 4th sold out month.  Tommy is getting bigger and smiling and laughing and grabbing things.  He looks around.  He likes to do the “assisted sit up” and he makes faces.  We love him.  He’ll be rolling over any day now.  And, he still has the long arms.

The Babe Ruth Statue: (This is one big reason I’m no longer posting) is sold.  I have a tentative agreement at this point to complete and deliver The Babe to the Gaylord National on the Potomac, Hotel in Washington DC by Jan 1.  This is the reason that I spend every night at my “second job” and get full of sawdust until midnight or 1am, if things are going well.

The photo above is from last Feb, about the time that I had halted work on him to coach 8U baseball with my nephew (and write this blog–but since the blog is apparently how the folks at the Gaylord found me, my lack of impulse control paid off in this case).   My point is, the statue is well beyond this point and per our discussions, I have concentrated on the head so that I can get that finished and send some photos down to the buyer so they know better what they are acquiring.   To that end, the head is 80% finished and it looks like a disembodied Babe Ruth head–a ringer.  And a bit unnerving due to the realism.  Already, it has freaked out Mrs. Pinetar and grandma.  Tommy doesn’t seem to register it yet.  In a week or two, I should have some shots of it fully painted and looking like The Babe.  I should also have some better progress shots up soon.  Stay tuned.  We’re excited and the further into this I get, the more convinced I become that The Gaylord Hotel folks are going to be floored by the finished Babe.  This thing will be turning heads for a long time.

A word about the Gaylord properties.  Click here to launch their site in a new window 

I had not heard of them prior to their contacting me.  Their original property is the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, or, Opryland.  This is a major, signature property in Americana.  Now I know that most of my readers are NorthEasterners who know nothing of country music, but trust me, this is baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and American music all rolled up into one.  They also have top shelf, first cabin properties in Dallas and Kissimmee, FL.  The newest property is the DC property and the hotel has 5 or 6 restaurants, one of which, is the sports bar in which The Babe will reside.  I’m excited to see it.  I’m also excited about the Nationals opening their brand new ballpark next April.

Which brings me to the next topic.  The Mets.  Most thought I was despondent when they lost in spectacular fashion.  Truth?  I was not bothered at all.  The older I get, the more I watch baseball for individual and team stories.  I do not just root for one team.  That worked great up until 1986 and then as I got older and realized the business side of it and what was really happening, it became less and less important to me that the Mets “win”.

I’m also annoyed at how the team is run.  I don’t feel any connection to the Mets of my youth.  When I go to the game at Shea with my 8 year old nephew, I am afraid of where they are going to park me (mostly a riddle inside a puzzle), annoyed at the $14 parking charge.  Then, when I get into my seats, the PA system literally deafens me.  I can’t even speak to my nephew in the seat next to me because the jackass marketing wizards at Los Mets think that I paid $75.00 to hear 25 year old Bachman Turner Overdrive music blared at pain-threshold levels.  After that, the Mets usually put on some type of Spanish-themed dance or musical act (also ear-splittingly loud), to the point where, I feel like I might be in Puerto Rico or the Caribbean.  Now I have many Hispanic friends, and I’m not prejudiced at all, but going to Shea now makes me feel like I’m in a foreign country.

And the players now dance, seemingly after every base hit.  I don’t want my little Tommy thinking that celebrating after every play is ok: It isn’t.  It’s unprofessional and it shows up the other team.  It is insecure.  It says to the world, “I’m so insecure, that I have to try and remind you that I just succeeded”.  To me, there is nothing cooler than just doing the bit on the field and letting the crowd cheer.  To do anything else is to be an a**.  But Los Mets would rather dance, at times, it seems, than play.  And don’t think the other teams and especially the umps, see this.  Think you saw the Mets get a lot of close calls down the stretch?  Hmm?  I saw them get jobbed.  I don’t blame the umps.

And now I hear that the Mets are looking at getting  A-Rod.  Nothing more needs to be said.  I’m not surprised.  He has no class and the Mets are long devoid of class.  He’s probably taking the dancing lessons from Reyes right now.

The Mets are also spending 120 million.  That’s the most in the NL, kiddies.  I don’t want to root for dopey Fred and Jeff Wilpon’s real estate wallet.  Face it, most of what people think of as pro sports is rooting for a non-sporting, rich (nothing wrong with being rich) guy’s wallet.  Kids might-as-well be on the playground taunting each other, “…my owner’s got more assets than YOUR owner…” Because that’s what it comes down to.  That’s why I like to see new stories each year.  Stories like the Rockies and Tulo and Braun and Fausto.  Great stuff.  And Cleveland.  Haven’t won since 1948 when they had the last, good, player manager in Lou Boudreau.  That’s exciting.  That’s fun.  Not the Yankees spending 220 million every year and pummeling everyone.  That’s pro wrestling.  That’s the Harlem Globetrotters. 

I’m this close to being a Washington Nationals fan.  Long live Joel Hanrahan!

Many asked me about Torre.  He turned down a LOT of money.  I never understood why the Yankees overpay for the manager.  The job is unique in all the world.  Geez, take a micro economics course.  The people who do that job are fetted by kings and emporers.  Why would you OVER pay a guy to hang out with McCartney and Rudi and get a table at LeCirque just for walking in the door?  All the endorsements and perks?  My goodness.  Why do they pay Joe Torre 7 million when the next highest paid guy is 2.5 or 3 million?  Collossal stupidity.  Joe should pay THEM to have that job.

And get this straight.  I don’t think Joe Torre is all that.  Look kids, he wasn’t Miller Huggins with the Mets and Braves.  Repeat after me Yankee fans: He managed the largest payroll in MLB EVERY SINGLE YEAR HE WAS THERE, with the exception of 1997, when Baltimore edged the Yanks by like a million or so.  I think 72 million to 71.  He ALWAYS had the highest payroll in the industry.  Winning with the 1996 Yanks doesn’t make you Houdini.  You SHOULD win with all that talent.  His biggest skill, for my money, was having the thick skin to take all of George’s insults and degradations over the years.  But George was stupid enough to pay him f***-you money and eventually, he had enough money to be the first guy to tell Big Stein, “Shove it”.

And that’s the beauty of Joe Torre (and old New York baseball Giants fan btw).  He was the only guy to tell George, “I’m not your boy…” and for that we love him.  And now that he has taken Mattingly out of moneystripes, I mean, pinstripes, and put him in the NL, in Dodger Blue, I love him even more.  Go Joe!  Win it all!  Ethier, Kemp, Loney, Broxton, Saito, Martin, Penny…win it all and laugh all the way to the bank that George has missed the playoffs without you! hoo hooo.

Last point that has been driving me buggy.  During the world series, when I was carving the Babe Ruth head hour after hour.  I kept seeing this advertisement on TV about how people wanted their cars to be more “green”.  They said that they wanted to “plug their car in” and have the car’s fuel “grown”.

Because the media is being completely slanted politically on this, people are being misinformed.  And now the car companies and oil companies are reinforcing the myths surrounding the hybrids and “green” fuels.  And folks like Al Gore are either too stupid (I know, a guy who invented the internet?) or just too calculating to set the record straight, so people continue to be misled.

While it’s admirable to drive a smaller car and look to curtail personal fossil fuel consumption, one glaring thing is missing.  Many folks think that is something is electrical, it is somehow non-polluting.  That’s nonsense.  It doesn’t pollute locally, where the machine is being run, but somewhere, to be sure, there is a coal or oil, or gas-fired generating plant that BURNS FOSSIL FUELS and converts the chemical energy stored in the fossil fuels to mechanical energy that turns dynamos to generate electricity.  ANYtime you are using electricity that didn’t come from a solar cell or a hydro plant, you are burning fossil fuels, genius!  The actual carbon emissions might be in Oshkosh, but they are there.

And we’re not done yet.  Anytime that you convert energy from one source to another form, you LOSE in the conversion.  Add to that they electrical engines are less efficient than gas, and what you have is that the “green” person is actually burning MORE fossil fuels than if he had a traditional, gasoline engine.  Now that doesn’t figure in the disparity between the huge SUV and the little hybrid and I get that, but how many people really understand, or are being told, what lays behind the phrase, “plug my car in”? 

Pumpkin at the Chef’s Table

What a different kind of day it shaped up to be.  Leaving work earlyish, I approached the Tappan Zee bridge only to see a really dark, scary storm right over the bridge.  To my right as I approached (North) I saw an unbelievable amount of tan colored dust blown up off the ground and into the air until it merged with the low clouds.

Agressive drivers CAUSE volume jams

Commuting to New York these past few years has given me hours of time to wonder about why people drive as idiotically as they do. You know the type. Usually an SUV. If it’s a sedan, it’s typically a BMW. The volume on the road is heavy. You’re pretty much stuck in the lane you’re in unless you work at it to change.
You know from years of driving the same route at the same time that on any given day, you’d gladly “sign” for an average speed over 50 the whole way. And today you are tooling along at 77mph. Really cooking and happy about it. There’s a guy ahead of you doing 77 and a guy ahead of him doing the same. Only feet seperate the cars. Pass me and you have the exact same issue in front of you: Another car just a few feet ahead. So what do they dbags do? They drive a foot off your bumper and sometimes give you the brights. They aren’t happy with the precariously balanced, high-volume 77mph. They want to do 80mph. And you’re in their way. And if you get tired of them (or scared) and you let them pass you, you always laugh because
(1) They drive right up the guy in front of you’s arse and you invariably see brakelights and
(2) You invariably go through the bridge tolls right even with them (and beep and wave–that’s what my aoogah horn is for) even though they risked their lives and beat on their machines and made the drive just a little bit more unpleasant for all of us.

Besides getting annoyed with these guys threatening my life for no real upside gain, I have come to hypothesis that THESE A**H***S actually CAUSE many of the volume delays that we all deal with! Yes that’s right.

What causes volume delays? Well, if a car slows down enough, in heavy enough traffic, the cars behind it will all pile up and have to stop. The thing can only be unglued from the front as the very front car speeds up and then the next one is eligible to proceed, and so on.
We all know how a rubbernecker who stops to look at a guy changing his tire will cause a 10 mile delay. That’s obvious. In heavy volume, someone stopped. The backup begins from that car and propagates backwards. It only takes one car.

But in heavy volume the aggressive driver is following too close (that’s how they like to drive–trying to intimidate one car at a time into letting them pass). If you are following too close, and a driver ahead of you has to slow down, even as a precaution for a pothole or debris or an errant “move” of another car, you will have to react. If you are too close to that car and speeds are high enough, you will have to over react. You’re too close and you have little time to think it through, you hit the brake and you slow down even MORE than the guy in front of you. Now what happens to the a**wipe who’s following you too close? He’s got to over react as well and from an initial 75 to 60 slow down, only two cars back it might have the third card down to 25mph. And there’s your half hour rubbernecking delay with nothing to rubberneck.
If people allowed a decent following distance, then they wouldn’t have to OVER react to the guy in front of them because they’d have the time to do it right. And many, many of these delays WOULDN’T HAPPEN AT ALL.

So you see aggressive driving is costing you more than just the aggravation of watching the anti-social behavior. It’s making you late for work.

Last thought: You know you aggressive ah’s out there.  Your day is coming.  There will come a day in our lifetimes when cars will have a sensor that will sense that based on “X” speed, you are too close to a vehicle in front of you and it will damp down your speed automatically.  And it won’t be a matter of your rights to annoy others but simply to assist the free flow of traffic.  Besides, with fuel costs going higher, these jams are costing us plenty as well as being enviro-damaging.  Toll booths as well are wastes in that regard and should be done away with but that’s another post.

Addendum: Someday when I have time, I’d like to write the computer program that will prove my theory.  I’ve thought about the design enough to know that it is harder than you think.  I was thinking that each car in the sim should be a separate threaded object.  Each object is “born” on one side of a 1-d array and “travels” down the array at x-speed.  The object would have to have a speed property, a location property, an acceleration property and a braking property.  Also a “following distance” property that it would seek to maintain at all times.  This could be varied to simulate “aggressive” drivers.

Tonka

Click here for Amazon link to a great Tonka book

From the used book store in Seattle: Elliot Bay Books: It’s a book called Tonka purchased mainly for the photos of all the old Tonka Toys that define childhood.  However, upon reading it, I found that there was much more than just photos. The authors (one is a former Veep of the Co.), tell an interesting story about a small toy manufacturer from Mounds Minnesota.

There are interesting profiles of Tonka employees and a detailed history of the company before manufacturing was moved from Lake Minnetonka to El Paso, TX. The company was bought in 1991 by Hasbro and although the Tonka brand still rings up millions a year, most of the manufacturing now takes place in (surprise) China. –fog

Your Homeland Security Dollars At Work

Driving in on the NY Thruway each day I see they are building huge telephone-pole-goalposts on each side of the road and on the divider right where the high-tension wires cross. I imagine that it’s my Homeland Security dollars at work and they are building this so if the high-tension wires are CUT, they won’t land in the Thruway but will be suspended on the goalposts.  –fog

Cardboard Cops?

You know, I’ve always wondered why they don’t do more of this.

If you are building a new road especially, put berms in that a squad car could hide behind and that the drivers wouldn’t be sure was manned or not until they passed. Then only a random squad car here and there would do the trick and keep speeds down.

Also this idea of the silhouette squad car could be used but it would have to be moved around as daily commuters would figure it out in a day or so. It would occasionally have to be a real car to work.

And I’m not fond of getting pulled over — it’s a dignity-losing experience. However, as a commuter who goes an hour each way into and out of NYC each day, I see some of the craziest stuff going on and always wonder, “WHERE are the cops for THIS guy???”. And you want to know something? It’s always an SUV doing the most anti-social, selfish, me-first driving. Always.

Guys in the SUVs, listen up: We know you’re good at the driving games. We know you could turn our morning commute into a video game but the roads are used by the public and everyone is not as good as you at risk-taking. When volume is high, and you’re not going to get ahead far anyway, why don’t you just let us all breathe a little? I know they showed you the SUV doing stunts in the snow on the commercial during the football game, but some of us haven’t gone to stunt driving school and we just want to live long enough to get to work and have our bosses chew us out one more day.

And Mr-angry-Hindenburg-sized-SUV-driver, when you’re all bent out of shape because the car in front of you will “only” do 70 mph, try and picture you mother driving it before you angrily pass them with a centimeter to spare.  Thanks pal.

 

–fog

Fans Fear Gehrig’s Grave

Coming back from lunch today, a cement truck was blocking the way so Nick and I cut through the famous Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY, right across the street from our complex. On the way, we stopped at one of the more famous graves which is right near the road— Lou and Eleanor Gehrig.

 

Sure enough, there are baseballs, buttons and even a nice Louisville Slugger left at the grave. Almost 70 years after his death and people are still leaving the stuff there. How famous is that? And I wondered what people thought would come of it? They had a big bet on a Yankee game? People do funny things, you know? Perhaps it’s tied in with ALS, at least that I understand somewhat. Oh well, no harm, right? It’s like people leaving onions (for the song ‘Glass Onion’ on the White Album) on the Imagine mosaic on Central Park in New York City. Go figure.

 

Nick, a big Yankee fan, would not let me take his picture at the Gehrig’s grave (and he would not go any closer than this). He had the heebie-jeebies, the willies. He said he felt weird and didn’t want Gehrig to get mad and maybe jinx his softball play. I snuck a shot anyway. There he is with his Yankee jacket on. Interestingly enough, two Yankee owners are buried nearby: Ruppert and Webb. It made me wonder, “…WHAT will they leave on George’s grave? Cancelled checks? Old credit cards? Calzones? Costanza jerseys? Turtlenecks? Aviator Sunglasses?”

 

The grave is really a holder for the urns of Gehrig and his wife. I know this because a co-worker and I went to the stockholder’s meeting to eat the free sandwiches and take the tour (Bozo the clown is in there, as is David Sarnoff, Flo Ziegfeld, Danny Kaye, Tommy Dorsey and many others) that they give in a big bus, pointing out the markers of famous people.

The front of the marker has a metal door with a keyhole in it and the urns are inside. We couldn’t help wondering how no one has stolen the things. The tour mentioned that in the early 1980’s, they had to start providing a 24 hour guard because antique dealers were coming at night and breaking into the big mausoleums to take drapes, carpets, busts, urns and candelabras (Sarnoff’s mausoleum is nicer than my house). We just wondered how, with a figure as popular as Columbia Lou, the Iron Horse, that some idiot hasn’t tried this? Perhaps being as popular and respected as Lou is, is the answer. –fog

Rubbernecking Channel Makes Its Cable Debut

Dateline - Topeka, KN: In order to speed traffic delays caused by accidents and distractions such as tire-changers on the side of the road in high volume areas, the F.F. Saik company has announced the launch of a new Cable Channel: The Rubberneck Channel.

New Federal Law Makes Fog Lights Illegal

My wife calls me Foggy and that’s ok because I am–I get why, and it’s not so bad. Recently, while changing my headlight, I realized that I have Fog lights!  And darned if there isn’t a little switch to work them on the column that I never noticed before (I’ve had the car for two years). 

Since then, I’ve played with them and my suspicions are confirmed: they don’t do a blessed thing for the driver’s vision (be honest!)  What they DO do is blind the oncoming driver.  And the considerate folks who have them on in all weather just love that I guess.  I will admit that occasionally, I have, out of desperation mind you, kicked on my highbeams to combat it.  Hey, if they can employ four headlights, then I can use four headlights too.

And why are automakers allowed to place the headlamps of these Hindenburg-sized SUV’s and pickups WAY up high where they just scorch the retinas of the drivers in front of them as well as oncoming drivers?  I’m getting a TAN from these things!  

(I think I was behind this guy tonight)

In addition to that, everyone now has these new halogen bulbs–they’re like WWII searchlights.  We have so many silly, needless regs–so much law-pollution and yet this is this allowed!  I can’t see for being blinded sometimes.

You wanna have a big car?  Make you feel big?  Ok, fine.  But the headlights should not be above a typical sedan’s height.  And shove the foglights up your bippy. –fog