For the 2nd straight year, we were guests of the Philadelphia Phillies on the occasion of Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2012. The statue is a one-of-a-kind, hand-carved, solid-wood statue, depicting Robinson in a 1955 home Dodger uniform. Everything you see on that statue is wood; the shoes, shoelaces, hat, skin, uniform: everything. Fans enjoyed taking photos with it all game long. It was a great experience and I want to thank the Phillies, particularly Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi, for their work in making this come off so easily.
Jackie’s next stop is scheduled to be the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO, in time for this Summer’s All-Star game, which is in KC this year.
The Phillies crew gets some close ups of Jackie right off the bat.
The boys eat lunch behind the sign. It’s a long drive down for them and they need some fuel.
The boys each got a Phillie Phanatic from the guys at the Phillies. It was a very generous gift for them and they loved them! All day, they were our constant companions.
Here’s Gregg Murphy of the Phillies going over our in-game spot in the 5th inning. They could not get a camera to show the statue live, so they used the shots they had gotten earlier and we did the spot from the standing room section behind the left field foul pole. Murphy was very nice and put me at ease and the spot came off nice and relaxed.
The boys were tired but rallied in the suite. We only had an inning or two up there, because we have to be with the statue mostly, but we did get up there. The two gentlemen in the background are the fellows who played for the Phildelphia Stars in the early 1950′s. They signed the ball we got last year and we were glad to see them again. The Tuskegee Airmen were in a different suite and I got over there in time to speak to a few of them and that was a real nice treat. They are great guys and the country should be aware of their sacrifices under trying conditions.
The boys pose with their Phanatics.
The boys loved the doughnut car and even got some freebies.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. Both boys were old enough to go and really enjoyed it. The Phillies’ staff was just great as always and we hit all of our marks during the day. Many, many people said very nice things about the statue and it’s always great to get the statue out in front of baseball fans and hear their comments. It makes all the hours spent covered with sawdust seem worth it. Thanks, everybody. Hope to see you next year.
I have been in discussions with the curator of that museum to have my Jackie Robinson statue displayed out there this Summer in conjunction with the All Star game. It is a great museum. There is also a Jazz museum near that (16th & Vine) and that is very appropriate as KC was a huge hub of Jazz; as much as New Orleans and Chicago certainly. All Jazz roads led to, or through, KC at one time.
Please support this worthy and most excellent museum with whatever you can. Every little bit counts in preserving some important chunks of our history.
Recently completed: a solid-wood, hand carved, life size statue of Curt Schilling’s leg (yes, leg). The sculpture will be auctioned off to benefit ALS at a future date to be determined.
I had a ball making this item and I really like it although it generates some interesting responses, from bemused to, “who’s Curt Schilling?” from the non-sporting crowd. I have had it in front of people and the responses have been nice.
I got so tired of people not understanding that my art was 100% wood, even, at times, when they were standing in front of it and being told by me that it was wood. You would be surprised. So with this piece, I put it right out there and I plan on doing that with all of my pieces from now on.
* And before anyone asks me, I’ll tell you. ALS is handling the auction. It’s not on any fast track right now. Yes, I have tried to contact Curt Schilling through social media to propose the idea that he sign it to give it legs in the auction. Since I’m not making a dime off of it, I figured that I’d at least be acknowledged and to date I have not been. Am I disappointed in that? Well, to be completely honest, I am a little, I have to admit, but, I know he’s doing this huge launch to a product that his company has sweated blood to produce, so I understand the busyness.
I know he has people coming at him from all angles with his gaming company and on and on, so I do respect the demands placed on him, however, when someone spends the time I did, meticulously creating an art object for a charity auction for a cause that he champions, then I would hope for an acknowledgement at least. Even if the answer is “no”, which it could easily be. He may be uncomfortable getting too close to something that might appear self-serving. I would totally respect that. But I would like to at least hear, “message rcvd. great work. sorry, no can do good luck”. That’s it. Would that be too much? I read 10 tweets a day from him about the video games and sundry so it’s not like he’s not plugged in. Oh well, everything happens for a reason. So don’t ask me this question again! Got it? haha. Thanks.
Addendum: The Jackie Robinson statue looks like it will be appearing at Citizens Bank Park for the Mets-Phils on Sun April 15, 2012, but I do not have confirmation on that as of right now. It’s a strong possibility however. Love to see everyone there. Day game! Very pleased that the schedule makers did that.
Also, I am in talks with the Negro League Baseball Museum to have Jackie shipped out to Kansas City and displayed at the museum through the All-Star Game period. I’m very happy about that as well. Jackie belongs there and I hope a lot of folks get to see him.
Buried Treasure, Fox 5 NY, Wed 8pm, w/ 2nd show at 9pm
My family, like a lot of others, is into collectibles and antiques. I have, along with my brothers, collected antique glass since I was in gramar school. I’ve literally dug antique glass out of 150 year old rubbish heaps as well as bought & sold it at shows, auctions, online and through magazine want ads. I’ve been a dealer at shows as well. So naturally, we like Antiques Roadshow. It’s a great show. It was one of the first reality shows. It made stars of the Keno brothers, the identical twins who do the furniture reviews on Roadshow.
In the last 2 years, you have seen several shows get into that space: Pawn Stars and Pickers namely, but there are several others that center around auctions and appraisals and even restorations. Apparently, PBS’s show just scratched the surface of the true demand in this space that they so expertly pioneered. Now, after over a decade, they have spun off the Keno’s into their own show. My first thought was “boy, was that late–they should have done this 7 years ago!”.
My mother and I watched the first shows and even though we were really fired up about the concept, we were scratching our heads as to how they decided to implement it. I don’t know a lot about TV, but I assume that the Producer or Executive Producer is the one who shapes the show’s final look and feel. Here is the blurb on the website as to who this is:
BURIED TREASURE is a production of ITV Studios America. The series is co-created by Joe Livecchi (“What Not to Wear”) and Tim Miller (“White House: Behind Closed Doors”), and executive produced by Livecchi, Miller, Paul Buccieri (“Eleventh Hour”), Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno. Tim Eagan (HELL’S KITCHEN) serves as co-executive producer.
So I guess our beefs are directed at one or all of these folks.
Anyway, our beefs are many. First off, we watch these shows to
(a) learn about the pieces and to
(b) see the pieces and
(c) then hear an appraisal with regard to condition issues.
In this show, we don’t learn much about the pieces. On Roadshow, which is the gold standard, we get a real concise but thorough education about a piece by an expert.
We don’t always see the pieces long enough or in enough detail. There are too many edits to the Kenos and to the people sitting there trying to ratchet up artificial drama. Treat it more like Roadshow. Put everyone in one big shot for the “payoff” moment. While we’re building up to it, let’s see the piece!
The single most annoying thing about the show is the producer attempting to build tension and tease the big price reveals. DON’T ABUSE your audience! We know you’re going to talk price so just do it and get ON WITH IT! For heaven’s sake, don’t have the Keno’s stutter in their sentences to build up phony tension! It’s annoying! Ask the Kenos if they would EVER treat a client that way in their biz–they wouldn’t DREAM OF IT! But you think nothing of doing that to your audience like we are idiots! Speak plainly like they do on Roadshow! Save it for last, ok fine, but don’t tease it so much and don’t have them try to add drama with spoken pauses! That’s just obnoxious!
There are other more mildly annoying things about the show. One is that they try very hard to inject some personal tales of woe into the narrative. Most of the time, it’s a reach. One woman was a borderline hoarder; one wanted money for a child’s education; one wanted to (get this) feel “closer” to his dead brother! These are thinly disguised and thoroughly manufactured premises. We see through them. Just reveal the items and educate us and appraise them. It’s nice that they might want the money for a child’s education, but it doesn’t materially change the item, what it’s worth and the appraisal. I honestly DO NOT care if someone will, or will NOT, sell their item. It’s moot. I am not all tied in knots because a guy won’t sell his Superman comic book worth 20 G’s. I just don’t care. It’s his book and his life. If finding out you have a 20 thousand dollar bill there is causing you conflict, I think that’s phony-baloney. I suspect the producer is TELLING you to act this way for his dopey vision of what a good show is, or is not. I smell a rat. It’s immaterial. The item, the history and the appraisal, are why I’m tuning in and the phony, ginned-up “drama” is why I probably WON’T be tuning in much longer.
Look, it’s a neat idea. Keep it simple. Some people have big jumbles of old stuff and may not know what they have. You want to bring in pros to sort through it and highlight the highlights, then great! That concept stands on it’s own merit. The teases and delays and repeating things after the break are just obnoxious and get in the way of a nice concept. You have something the other shows do not–the Kenos! Put them in the best light, doing what they do best and LET THEM DO IT! People LIKE them and what’s more, people feel they know them and trust them so let them lead in an uncluttered way.
It’s not too late for the show, but you have to be ready to really rethink some of the things you’re doing and simplify it. Force it less. Let it flow more via the Kenos, otherwise, why have them?
After 3 hours of sleep, it was up at 3am and driving down from NY with the Jackie Robinson statue to do the first of many interviews and appearances at Fox. Ably assisted by Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi of the Phillies, we hit our marks out in front of Fox at 7:20am. A few teaser shots and then a short interview with Fox 29′s John Anderson. Click here to see the interview in a new window
Here’s a small clip my brother took from a little way away during the Uke Washington interview:
Then it was on to a community Jackie Robinson Event at the Philadelphia Stars Memorial at Belmont and Parkside Aves, in Philadelphia. That crossroads was the location of the Philadelphia Stars ballpark. The Stars were Philly’s entry in the old Negro League. Later this day, my family would get to meet two of the last surviving members of that franchise.
There were many groups attending and special promotions from the Phillies. The children were having a ball and posed for this photo.
There were several groups and this particular group did a dance number before posing.
There were many nice monuments marking the site and those who were a part of it. I really enjoyed meeting regular folks from this community and just listening to the older fellows tell me how much Jackie Robinson and Monte Irvin and Larry Doby meant to them growing up. You know, when you do an event like this, those dusty pages in a history book become real live anecdotes and recollections and it was amazing to take it all in. It was also very flattering to hear the very sincere compliments for the statue. When you spend that long covered with itchy sawdust, it is very gratifying to hear these things and see the sparkle in their eyes, as opposed to words on a page.
Here we are finally at The Bank. It’s early; well before batting practice and my amazing handlers with the Phillies (Kenny Johnson & Deb Rinaldi) lined up a couple of more interviews. The first was with John Mayberry, the man who’s hit won the exciting Phils opener. I don’t have any photos of that interview but it went very well and it was nice to see and hear John’s reaction to the statue. It was probably the first time I had spoken to someone who was directly in line with Robinson’s courageous work, so it was extra special for me.
After that piece, we did a short interview with Comcast out in dead center field. What a beautiful backdrop! I have been to 40 different major league ballparks in my lifetime and Citizens’ Bank Park is my favorite building. Everything about it just feels right.
All night it was the same thing: folks lined up in a semi circle around it, taking photos and asking questions. It never gets old. I met some really tremendous people and heard just an amazing array of stories and anecdotes about Robinson, Civil Rights, baseball, art and on and on. This part of it is easy and never feels like work.
By this point in the day, I’m feeling my 3 hours of sleep and nonstop itinerary pretty acutely, however, a great subplot was that my 3.5 year old son, Thomas, came to the game and it was his first time in a big league ballpark! What a way to break in! His uncle Bob, shown below, was holding him up to see the Phillies take batting practice and he caught a BP homer left handed while holding Thomas in his right hand! So on his first game day, Thomas gets a ball!
Later on this evening, Thomas got the ball signed by the last two remaining Phildelphia Stars and for that I am very grateful and want to thank both the Stars and again, my Phillies guardian angel, Kenny Johnson. Kenny is just a pro’s pro and he hit his marks (and kept me hitting mine) all day long with aplomb. He put on a clinic. It’s a pleasure to watch someone do something that they are so good at, whether it be art, or sports, or even business.
Below is Thomas showing off his baseball. How great is that?
Here’s the family; my wife Carol and Thomas (Jack Benny is too little and is spending the day with his grandparents). I’m looking a bit tired by this point and perhaps a bit cold as the temp dropped towards gametime, but on April 15th in the East, you are going to have that. I was just thanking God all day that there was no rain as that was the one thing that would have given us a problem.
Since my statues are 100% solid wood, they will not hold up to weather, so it was a concern. All around baseball, there are many life size statues that honor players but they are all bronze. Bronze is great for holding up to weather and can be outdoors permanently. But Bronze is one color. The great thing about the wooden statues is that I can show color and isn’t baseball a colorful thing anyway? Add to that the color component of the Robinson story and it makes a nice fit. There are currently no color statues such as this permanently residing in any major league ballpark. Wouldn’t it be nice (and somehow fitting) for this statue to be the first?
After a little breather, I did two more spots thanks to Deb Rinaldi and Kenny Johnson. The first was a spot right behind the statue that went very well. It was what they call a “talkback”, which means, I wore an earpiece and had to listen for a cue from an unseen host. It was hard to hear with the crowds and I was worried that I would miss the cue or not be able to make out what the host was asking me, but it turned out to be the best one all day just about. I think I was too tired to be nervous! I’ll tell you, I have new respect for anyone who makes their living with a mike and a camera. They make it look easy–it isn’t.
Here’s what it looked like. I sure look rigid in this shot, but I felt pretty loose, all in all.
After that, I had to run halfway around the stadium and do a pregame radio spot and that was fun and went really well. By then I suppose, it didn’t seem so strange to be doing this stuff.
On the way back to the statue from the plate area, I heard my voice on the PA and quickly ran down the tunnel to the seating area, so that I could see the Phanavision screen. They were showing my 2 minute video which I had narrated. It was the strangest sensation to hear my voice blaring around Citizens Bank Park like that, but there it was. It was a day of things like that and one that I’ll never forget.
I mentioned that two of the old Philadelphia Stars had signed Thomas’ ball and here are their names on the statue by their old stomping grounds which we had visited earlier.
The gentlemen who signed were Mahlon Duckett and Harold Gould. I also got a chance to meet some of the Tuskegee Airmen and that was a big thrill. My father and just about all of my uncles were WWII vets. Men of that generation shaped me more than any other and I have read a great deal about that war and so it was just tremendous to shake the hand of men who flew Jugs and P-51′s against the Germans in those dark days.
Guys like that gave us a lot of freedom and I think it gets taken for granted sometimes, unfortunately. The Tuskegee Airmen, not only had to deal with bombs and bullets, but the institutionalized racism of the day: a double whammy. They are great men for having done all of that and children should know their story.
And again and again, all night, folks stopped by to talk, take photos and ask questions. It was great.
April 15th 2011, a day in which the Jackie Robinson statue went many places and met many nice folks, hopefully, making them happy and spreading awareness of what went on, not that long ago. The statue is tentatively slated to visit the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City later this Summer but as of right now, there are no details.
I want to thank the Philadelphia Phillies for all of their support. I have worked with various organizations and baseball clubs through the years, but I have never seen the professionalism and can-do spirit that I did these past few weeks while working with the Phillies. As I have said, much of that was through the hard work of Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi, who made it easy to do all of these things without one single hitch. As I look back at the itinerary and see all the marks we hit from 7am to 10pm, I am amazed that it went so seamlessly and that is a testament to their diligence. I hope to work with them again in the future.
Here’s my takeaway shot for the day: the first time my little buddy is at a big league game. It was filled with memorable things. I have to wonder, however, that at 3 and a half, will he remember it years from now? I hope he does. I know I will.
Thanks for all the kind words and stories! Enjoy the game.
With perhaps days/hours to go before the baby, I’m doing a big push on Jackie Robinson to see how far I can get before my life changes so much. I had a big day in the shop yesterday and took these stereo photos.
Together, they can be viewed in 3-D. If you were one of those who could left your eyes relax and see those old 3-D, computer-generated drawings, then you SHOULD be able to do this the same way. I can do it. But it takes a few moments to get it.
The trick, for me, is to get far enough away from the two photos, so that they are a little smaller than a postcard, held at arms length. Then you stare, allowing your eyes to relax and not truly focus. When your eyes are relaxed correctly, you should see double–that’s 4 images. Keep trying different pressures on your focus until the two center photos become 1 photo and it will be 3-D. It’s eerie. When you get it, you will KNOW, so if you are wondering, then you don’t have it. Remember: Try and make the middle two images merge into one, so that overall, there are 3 photos, and only concentrate on that middle photo–that’s the one that will become 3-dimensional.
How did I take this photo? With a 3-D camera? Nahh, with my own camera. Since I’m working with a tripod, and nothing is in motion, the time lapse between photo1 and photo2 can be ignored. You couldn’t do this trick with live action, because p1 and p2 would not match. But in the studio, you just take one photo and then move the tripod 80mm to the right and take another one. 80mm is about the distance between people’s eyes. The “interpupillary distance”. Actually, in the population, it’s much smaller for most and is smaller for women and bigger for some ethnic groups. It runs between 65 and 83 mm. At 25.4 mm per inch, you do the inch-math.
With the two photos of EXATLY the same thing and yet from two slight different (80mm apart) vantage points, they are about what your brain takes in and processes into one, 3-D image. The slightly different perspective means that the right eye sees a little further around Jackie’s left side, than the left eye can see. That info is used by your wonderful brain to give you all sorts of depth and distance information. Imagine trying to golf without it! “How far to the pin?” “Where’s the 150 yd marker?”
And for you Liberals out there, remember, the beauty of the eye and the brain and the depth is pure chance–we’re talking NO INTELLIGENT DESIGN, right? Don’t even think those words in a public school.
Before you go thinking I’m some kind of techy person, realize that 3-D cameras and looking at “stereo-images” like we are here, originated at about the time of the Civil War. Stereo view photos were all the rage from about 1870 to 1910. They looked like this:
They were viewed in a viewer that looked like this:
The slides were available as canned, commercially produced photos of current events and famous places and landmarks. Think GAF-viewmaster from the 1970′s:
I’m not sure why they fell out of favor. Perhaps WWI, which destroyed so much of what good was happening in the world around 1914.
Anyway, they did commercially produce stereo cameras for the home-gamer and here is one:
All you need is the ability to take TWO images simultaneously, one interpupillary distance apart. Now if you search for these things, you will only find, I believe, film cameras from yesteryear. There doesn’t seem to be any digital stereo cameras available. There are a couple of guys who have hacked together two digital cameras, but the hack is never simple and the mounting and alignment is never easy. Both lenses have to point at the same focal point out in space, or the pictures will look hokey–like mine!
What I want to know is why doesn’t SOMEone produce a decent digital stereo camera? WHY? With PC’s bringing down photography prices and giving us all sorts of exotic ways to display them, it’s a perfect marriage! I have searched, but not recently, so it’s possible that there is something out there now. If anyone knows of a product, comment in please.
For Jackie fans, Jackie may be getting his first paint today on the lower legs and shoes and pants. It’s always the single biggest, quickest change in the statue and for a medium that goes crawling by in the hundreds of hours, this is a welcome thing.
Nothing much new today. Seeing the oil refinery explosion and realizing that oil isn’t going to pull back below $90 anytime soon. My strategy is to wait for the next big pullback, hopefully into the mid 80′s and then, assuming that that pullback pulls down MRO Marathon Oil to a nice, sub-45 price, I load up on some Marathon Oil and am pretty certain I’ll see it at 60 sometime in the next 12 months. Remember though, I’m no Jim Kramer.
Also trying to figure out a way to see Liverpool-Inter tomorrow at 2:45pm here Eastern Standard Time or Daylight Time or whatever. Options now are to see if Fox Soccer Channel will air it and tape it while at work. The other option is to go to work at 5am and not take a lunch (mostly don’t anyway) and then ride down to the Bronx at 2:30 and go to Rory Dolan’s and watch it. That’s where I saw them win the European Cup in 2005. Which reminds me. I had thought to list my “top greatest sports thrills” list, for anyone who cares. Here goes:
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).
After hearing that, I half wished that Babe were done and we could truck him out there and display him as a temporary exhibit in Nashville, before putting him in his permanent home in the Gaylord National On The Potomac, in Washington DC.
Various things that have come up recently:
The Discovery Channel’s Mount Everest show – History Channel and Discovery have really slipped. There are no more WWII footage shows. It’s all human combat and Dirty Jobs and UFO’s and Ghosts and nonsense. If I see one more show on bootleggers or Bonnie and Clyde I’ll scream. WHEN, as a society, are we going to stop glorifying a**h***s who robbed banks and shot up people who got in their way? What suckers we all are. This stuff gets ratings and sells books and newspapers or we would not keep seeing it. The Wild West stuff is just as bad. We just heap glory on, and romanticize these illiterates who played with guns. Great lesson for the kids. ***
The Everest show is one of the ones I will watch these days. It is year 2 for this one and there is a guy who has come back. He was very problematic for the expedition last year and almost got himself and a sherpa killed by being insubordinate. So of course he’s back. And I’m thinking that there’s no way Russell, the organizer, would ever take this guy back but then it dawns on me that the producers of the show probably paid for this guy to return and made it a condition of year 2. He’s the big antagonist. Otherwise, it’s pretty vanilla. Just goes to show you that 99% of what you see on TV is hooey. Maybe more.
The whole Everest game is creepy really when you look at it. The “climbers” pay a huge sum to have everything arranged so that they just turn up and climb. They go up with sherpas who will bail them out if they get into trouble and who also, schlep a lot of the food and Oxygen up to the camps so that they can make their run. All the climbing is on fixed ropes that are in place before any paying customer goes up. Are they really climbing? What ARE they doing? They are risking their health to bag the big peak but it’s all very “arranged”. And they say the climb is not technically difficult but is just so absurdly high and remote that it is more of an endurance/weather gamble than a climb. I think 11 people died last season doing the “climb”.
One guy was trying a double traverse. He wanted to be the first. That’s up and over and then back up and back over. He was with Purbah, a superman of a sherpa who has 14 summits of Everest under his belt. This guy did the first up and over with Purbah and then retired from moutaineering. He admitted that he realized that he wasn’t fit to shine Purbah’s crampons and to go back over the mountain and try and claim to be the first “double traverser” would be a joke because the guy with him, Purbah, could whip his butt in anything climbing, anytime. So here’s a guy who does actually “get” the absurdity of some of it, but only after he’s actually been in it up to his eyeballs. Strange world. ***
Capn Crunch – I bought the Crunchberry version recently and realize that they have added 3 other colors to the crunch berries. There is almost no original Capn Crunch in there. It’s all crunchberries. And they are dyed with some horrible green and blue food dye that I think, in large enough quantities, could actually kill you. I suggest to General Mills a spinoff cereal of all crunchberries, called: “Poison Cruchberries”; you’re almost there now. ***
Why would ANY Mets fan listen to Mike Francesa? That’s my question. His hatred and disdain for all things Mets just permeates all of his pompous comments. He’s not even good at hiding it. It’s an insult to your intelligence. Why does he feel so threatened? Why do Yankee fans seem to have a higher incidence of that “pile-on” nastiness? Their money has bought them 1 in about every 4.5 world champeenships and yet STILL they are insecure. ***
Only 5 or 6 teams can afford Santana – I keep reading & hearing that the only teams that can afford Santana and Tori Hunter and really any big Free Agents these days are the Mets/Yanks/Boston/Cubs/Dodgers and Angels. It’s becoming more and more clear to thinking fans that there are 2 leagues in MLB: those 6 clubs and the rest of the miserable, poor teams. I don’t want to hear that the Royals pocket the lousy 10 million in revenue share which never made any sense to me as the Yanks are paying their squad 220 million. I also don’t want to hear that more recently, each year a different team wins it. I ain’t buying it, no sir. No thanks. Baseball has a major problem with that IMO and really should just get it over with and spin off the rich clubs into their own “super-major-league” and stop blowing smoke up the fans behinds. It won’t happen because most fans are easily fooled or just all too willing to go head first into major, lifelong denial (See Yankees fans).
There’s plenty of room in this “space”, as they say in business, for a 3rd major circuit. I have half a mind to devote the rest of my life to putting it together. Not since 1959 has there been a credible threat of a 3rd major league circuit (Branch Rickey and Bill Shea’s “Continental League”). There is plenty of room for more teams. New York alone could support 5 or 6 teams but the Mets and Yanks don’t want ANY part of that noise. If I were starting up a league, I’d structure it from the ground up for “family-affordability”. No A-Rods making 30 million a year because if you have them, you need to charge me 100 per ticket and then I can’t afford to take my kids. And of course, if you don’t pay, the big players don’t play, and then they say you’re a “minor” league, but no matter, if the regular guy can take his family and it seems major enough, I think it could succeed. Just imagine: no long term contracts! Everyone paid on a formula for their actual production in the season just passed. Player movement could be handled in lottery form or with ordinals. It’s doable. I can dream, can’t I?
Did you know that Wrigley Field was built for the Federal League? That was a 2 year circuit that gave the NL-AL monopoly a good run in 1914-1915. There was an attempt in 1946 called the Mexican League and it folded but not before raiding a few players. The Continental League scared the NL and AL so much that New York (Mets) and Houston were granted expansion franchises. There is strong precedent. The AL, after all, is called “The Junior Circuit” because it was started from scratch in 1900 as a competitor to the National League. The NL didn’t take them seriously and even played the bad joke on them of making them wait outside their meeting and then slipping out the side door. In about 2 years, they were not laughing anymore. By 1903, the Boston Pilgrims were beating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first true Woil Serious. In 1904, John J. McGraw of the NY Giants refused to play the AL champs as he felt that it was beneath the National League’s dignity. He played the A’s in 1905 however, in one of the best series ever. Every game was a shutout by a Hall of Famer. Christy Mathewson pitched 3 shutouts. Iron Man Joe McGinnity, the other. Plank or Bender or Waddell may have tossed one for the A’s. 1905. The AL was there to stay. ***
The aoogah horn that I installed on my car has stopped working. Need to get that fixed. Aoogah horn: Not optional.
They were viewed in a viewer that looked like this:
The slides were available as canned, commercially produced photos of current events and famous places and landmarks. Think GAF-viewmaster from the 1970′s:
All you need is the ability to take TWO images simultaneously, one interpupillary distance apart. Now if you search for these things, you will only find, I believe, film cameras from yesteryear. There doesn’t seem to be any digital stereo cameras available. There are a couple of guys who have hacked together two digital cameras, but the hack is never simple and the mounting and alignment is never easy. Both lenses have to point at the same focal point out in space, or the pictures will look hokey–like mine!
