Wabbit Season. Duck Season. A-Rod Season.

Hard to post with Tommy now so you do what you can. Emailing Cincinnati Bill on the game he attended last night at Cincy and the hotdogs I consumed last time there reminded me of a story from another game in Philly: Story: We are leaving Citizen’s bank park in Philly and Kranepooligans and I hit the men’s room before the long drive home. On the way into the men’s room, there was a slight line. A guy put a big tote of hotdogs next to the line by the door and said, “free hotdogs”. I did not take one but I p’d next to many men who had their ****s in one hand and a frank in the other, happily chomping away at the “free”, old, raggety dogs….mmmmm…ambiance.

Chipper Jones has opened the season on A-Rod by being the first fairly credible guy (Canseco has said some ominous things) to speculate that A-Rod may break the record but get ready for the same speculation as to his “legitimacy” as well. I agree. He played in the rampant era of only a few years ago and as far as I’m concerned, once you take HGH, you are forever tainted, because your body fundamentally changes after that. I’m NOT SAYING that I know anything or that he did anything; just that the speculation will be increasing and it has to be entertained on he and really, all others. What they’re doing is superhuman so you wonder. That’s all.

Tony LaRussa is batting the pitcher 8th. Hooray! I agree, Tone. I used to do it in Strat-O-Matic and I used to do it in Earl Weaver Baseball. Of course in Earl Weaver, I was batting Christy Mathewson 8th and Frank Frisch 9th. It makes for an around-the-corner lineup. The first time through, the cleanup hitter is cleanup. Subsequently, there is another good hitter in front of the #3 hitter, who is really your team’s best hitter, power and average considered. Leadoff is over rated. The leadoff hitter is only guaranteed to hit leadoff, ONCE per game.

The difference between 8th and 9th isn’t going to amount to anything: perhaps a handful of AB’s lost per season. And in later innings, in the NATIONAL LEAGUE (real baseball), you are typically hitting for the pitcher after 6 anyhow. So for 2 or 3 cycles, you are putting a better hitter in front of your lineup meat. What’s wrong with that? Baseball is amazing in the stodginess and slowness to deal with new ideas. It has taken baseball 125 years to start playing the 2nd baseman in the outfield with no one on base. WHY? It makes too much sense? Look at Moneyball. Moneyball threatens so much of the baseball hokum that most just curse it rather than realize that it is sound. You know, it’s funny, because we laugh at ancient civilazations for doing dopey things like blaming the weather on the “gods” and throwing young girls into the volcano to “appease” the “gods”, but really, for many things today there is as much hooey as ever. Look at Al Gore. He won the popular vote for US Pres and he is mad as a hatter with the dopey, anti-West, anti-USA global warming nonsense that has more holes in it than Carlos DelGado’s swing. We are not immune to dopiness, is my point. Good job Tony LaRussa on the pitcher in the 8 hole. Wow. Long way around on that one, eh?

Luis Castillo was a great pickup for the Mets. The more I see of this man, the more I like. This guy has an IDEA out there. This man is a PRO. And maybe I can forget Jose Valentin, who looks like Snidely Whiplash of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. It has passed Valentin by mostly, and it was clear in the playoffs last year. Go Luis.

(Whiplash)

Great piece on some breathtaking “news creation” by the liberal, hate-Bush, hate-America media. Have a look. It is blatant. It is unabashed. It is sad. It is happening all the time. Click here to read

Tommy on Tommy

Here is Tommy getting weighed on the same scale that my mom used to weigh her children. He doesn’t seem to mind but sometimes he squawks. This thing is pretty darned accurate–down to the ounce.

Here is the very first time that Tommy hears ANY Mississippi Delta Blues at all and of cour

The Battle of the Bulge

The 28th Pennsylvania : Their Finest Hour

Going through the Europe files last night and I came to Luxembourg. During December 16 to December 26, 1944 in Luxembourg, in a place called the Ardennes forest, Hitler threw his last roundhouse of the war against a stretch of front that was considered impassable due to the rugged terrain. It was felt that no attack would come at this point so Eisenhower was rotating units here for rest and the front was patrolled fairly thinly. My uncle’s division, the 28th Pennsylvania, was put here after 100+ days of straight combat going all the way back to Normandy in June 1944.

Cheny is Evil. The Taliban? Misunderstood.

I got to talking politics a little with the woman next to me at work. Somehow it came up where she repeated the oft-chanted, Democratic/Liberal-talking-point, “Cheney is evil”. Now this woman is older (50′s) and is pretty darned smart, so when I heard the talking point come out of her, verbatim, I was fascinated. I asked her if she was joking. “No”, she said she was serious, and kept repeating that “he is just evil”. I said, “well, what has he done that is evil? Can you give me some examples?”

Steinbrenner, that old softie

This is an addendum to the post with Max, the Yankee fan (and CBI Theater Vet) who attended his first game in 1926. It seems that in 1978, he wrote to Steinbrenner and asked if he could shag flies in the outfield at Yankee Stadium for his 62nd birthday. Steinbrenner wrote back in longhand (shown below) and even included a letter on Yankee-stationary from legal that mentions insurance regs and why he couldn’t actually do it.

CBI: The Forgotten Theatre

CBI stands for China, India Burma.  It was “the forgotten theater” of WWII.  Today, I had the pleasure of having lunch with a +90 year old CBI vet and his wife.  They had attended my talk at their home (where I work) re my Mickey Mantle statue and they were so into it all, that they insisted that I have lunch.  I picked a Saturday so that work would not interfere.

These older guys are just amazing and if you listen, you will hear some great stories.  Max told me today how he escaped completely doing basic training!  Imagine that! No rockhead DI screaming in his face.  No 20 mile hikes in full pack.  He went to the hospital with a fever and didn’t catch up with his unit until they shipped out.

China India Burma is called “the forgotten theater” because it wasn’t Europe and it wasn’t the Pacific.  But these men did brave and important work in that theater and people need to remember that. 

Max told me that his first baseball game was a 1926 Yankee game~!  Astounding.  He lived at 161st and Grand Concourse so he LIVED at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds across the Harlem River in Manhattan.  (When you’re passing Yankee Stadium going south on the Harlem River Drive, just before you come truly abrest of Yankee Stadium across the River, look to your right at the cluster of red brick buildings–THAT is where the Polo Grounds stood.  THAT was baseball ground zero from 1902 to 1925 or so, when it shifted across the river for that Ruth fellow) .

Max was at the Polo Grounds the day that the man was shot in the upper deck by the stray bullet fired into the air from a nearby apartment (yes, the bullets do come down and they can be lethal).  He saw Hubble and Dean hook up.  He saw John J. McGraw manage.  He saw Ruth and Gerhig and Earl Combes and Bob Muesel and Lazzeri.  He even went to Ebbet’s Field–one time.  He’s telling me he was at the game that Hubble went 16 innings in and I’m telling him, “Max, I read about that game!  You were AT that game?”  

When it was all over, he showed me his handwritten George M. Steinbrenner letter from 30 years ago, when he was 60.  He had written to Big Stein to ask if he could shag balls in the outfield.  Steinbrenner answered the thing in PEN!  And included a typewritten letter from legal that said that because of insurance implications, they couldn’t allow it.  Big Stein even referred to the “lousy start” that the ’78 Yanks were off to.  That’s the start that ended up in “The Boston Masacre”.  I wouldn’t bet against that letter ending up at Christie’s someday.  

Here’s the emblem of the CBI Theatre.  Now you know:

Click here to learn a little more

–fog

What Exit, Liberty?

 

Mrs. Pinetar and I went to Princeton, NJ today just to look around and shop and see what there was to see. It’s a unique and historic American town (and it’s in New Jersey–no “exit” jokes, please~) I liked this marker placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Poland to Honor Reagan with Statue?

Could we raise this money in America and “Gift” them the Gipper?

Feller, 88, Pitches His Age

You know, as Feller is carrying the torch for my father’s generation, I can’t tell you how much I like this story.

Saw those bats off, Rapid Robert!

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer and referenced in Buster Olney’s column today:

“On the last day of the Indians’ recently completed Fantasy Camp in Winter Haven, Fla., eight teams of campers faced a team of former Indians big-leaguers. Hall of Famer Bob Feller faced 24 batters — the first three batters from each of the eight teams — and allowed four hits.

 

Feller, 88, threw from the required distance of 60 feet, 6 inches.

His defense included Max Alvis at first, Davey Nelson at second, Pat Tabler at shortstop, Brook Jacoby at third, catcher Kevin Rhomberg, Rick Manning in center, Cory Snyder in left and Joe Charboneau in right.”

***

My take on Bob Feller has always been that he deserves a mention as a real stand up guy. A true American rugged individual. When guys like DiMaggio waited as long as possible to enlist in WWII to continue raking in that major league money, Bob Feller enlisted. And when they offered him a cushy job touring around playing ball for entertainment value, he said, “…hell no, I want to fight”. And fight he did. He was an AA gunner on a Naval vessel and got into some bad fights in the Pacific and in so doing, missed three full seasons in his prime. Americans should realize that even in the big war, there were degrees of sacrifice and service and Feller was the real deal. –Fog