Oct 21, 2015

Video Games in Back To The Future


Today is October 21, 2015.  Every blog, message board, social media page, newspaper, talk show and office water cooler in the country is talking about Back To The Future II.

If you're reading this on the day that it was written, you are very likely sick of hearing about this movie for one day, and that's ok.  I'm doing nothing to promote this, so nobody's going to read it today anyway.  If you're seeing this at all, it may be because I post a lot of things you want to read in the future, and so you decided to go back in time and check out the archives.  Or, it could mean that this point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance; Almost as if it were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.

What isn't a coincidence is the video games that appear in Hill Valley in the Back To The Futurnaverse.

Wild Gunman
Nintendo - 1985


Perhaps the most often cited video game from the Back to the Future franchise, a Wild Gunman arcade unit sits at the Cafe 80's.  It is being studied by Elijah Wood, who went on to become Frodo Baggins, and John Thornton, who went on to become that guy who can go the rest of his life saying "I played Wild Gunman with Frodo Baggins and Marty McFly."

While the NES edition of Wild Gunman never had its own arcade unit, the 8-bit classic is actually based on a 1974 arcade game of the same name that used a 16mm projector,  The original was created by Nintendo visionary Gunpei Yokoi - the man who invented the Game & Watch series, the Game Boy and the traditional d-pad from the Famicom and NES (he came up with the Virtual Boy and R.O.B. too, but they can't all be hits).

As for the version that Marty played back in the Hill Valley 7-Eleven, it was one of the original 17 games that launched the NES on October 18th, 1985, and one of only 10 games for the NES that require the use of the Zapper.  While the technology isn't likely to impress the 8-year-old kids of 2015, I don't think any of them would mistake it for a baby's toy.  It's a fun gun game that anybody can pick up and play without a tutorial.

If you want to play it today, you'll need the cartridge and an NES with a working Zapper for now, but that may change very soon.  It's being released by Nintendo Europe on the Wii U Virtual Console tomorrow, so a US release is probably not far behind.


Pac-Man
Namco - 1980


If you blinked, you may have missed it, but the godfather of modern gaming makes an appearance at the Cafe 80's.  It sits at the opposite end of the restaurant from Wild Gunman, behind two exercise bikes, and under a sign that reads "PRICELESS ARTIFACT - DO NOT TOUCH".  That's a bit of a stretch.  An original Pac-Man arcade unit will cost between $500 - $2,000 on eBay in 2015, not counting the various knock off "Multicade" machines.

Incidentally, why would a business owner put a "priceless artifact" in a restaurant that seems to have no human employees to look after it?

If you asked someone to name one video game that virtually everyone in the free world has tried at least once in their lives, there's a pretty good chance that they would choose Pac-Man.  To this day, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, if I see a Pac-Man machine, somebody is making a quarter off of me.  It's a timeless classic that has challenged and entertained millions for the past 35 years.  Few other entertainment entities have had half as much success.

The rest of the video games that can be found in Hill Valley are in the display window of Blast From The Past - the antique shop where Marty finds a copy of Grays Sports Almanac.  I find that this store is the most realistic prediction of 2015, and the most fascinating part of the film.  In fact, the items in this store have inspired a group of collectors from TheRPF.com who are trying to collect everything that can be seen in the shop, but that's another story for another time.


You can't see it too well in this screencap, but there's a Pac-Man lunchbox in the window between Marty's arm and the bust of John F. Kennedy.  However, there are a few NES games (complete-in-box) that can be seen more clearly.

Jaws
LJN - 1987


While the 3-D shark from Jaws 19 gets all of the recognition, it's not the only appearance of the deadly great white in Hill Valley, 2015.

Jaws from LJN can be seen sitting in front of the VHS of Jaws 2 and on top of a Betamax. LJN had a large catalog of NES games that were inspired by major motion pictures (including a Back To The Future game that was released in 1989).  Unfortunately, most of these games are pretty bad, and Jaws is no exception.

A large part of the game has you controlling a character that dives off of a ship to shoot jellyfish and stingrays.  You also get to shoot at the shark, but in the words of The Angry Video Game Nerd, he dies "slower than hairs grow on a moose's scrotum."  This isn't just a step down from Pac-Man and Wild Gunman - it's a massive drop to the ocean floor.

Burgertime
Data East - 1987


The original Burgertime was released by Data East as an arcade game in 1982, and it is rightly considered to be a gaming classic.

One of the many food-inspired games of the early 80's (a genre of sorts that has a surprising number of fun games), Burgertime stars Peter Pepper, a chef who makes massive hamburgers the only way he knows how - by climbing ladders and walking across the ingredients on scaffolds.  Standing in his way are Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle and Mr. Egg - three very grumpy food items which are much smaller in size than the hamburgers, but equal in size to our intrepid chef.

The NES version isn't a perfect translation of the original, but it's not bad.  That being said, the music will drive you absolutely insane.




Now, if you thought Pac-Man was difficult to spot in Back To The Future II, the final game on this list is ridiculously difficult to see.  I assure you, it's there.  In fact, you've already seen a picture of it.  Look closely above the letter "A" in the Jaws photo.

Need some help?


That, my friends, is a copy of R.C. Pro-Am for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  If you don't believe me, have a look at this Continuity Polaroid from the now defunct Outatime.co.uk fan site:


I think maybe that I'm the one who needs some help.  But it's in the film, so...

R.C. Pro-Am
Rare - 1987


Rare is one of the most successful game designers in the industry, and R.C. Pro-Am was the first big hit.  I can tell you that every kid that I knew in third grade either had this game, or they frequently played it at a friend's house.

As a kid, it reminded me of a game that I played at Aladdin's Castle called Super Sprint, but when I play this game in 2015, I see the grandfather of the Mario Kart series.  It's got weapons and power ups, it has red speed boost arrows, and you earn trophies. Also, despite the missiles and bombs that you'll frequently use (if you're lucky), it's a non-violent game because you're racing remote control trucks.  We had to have something to distract Mom from the blood and guts of Castlevania.

R.C. Pro-Am was re-released earlier this year for Xbox One on the Rare Replay compilation.  Whether you opt for the modern console or the original recipe, this game is definitely worth your time.  If you haven't played it before, check it out.  If you have, I'm sure that you're already thinking about doing so right now.  Just don't travel back to 1987 and play against your younger self.  The consequences could be disastrous.

Oct 20, 2015

The Decade That Could Have Been


Thirty-five years ago, the Phillies won their first World Series Championship.  It was the beginning of a strange decade for the team.  Throughout the 80's, the team had one championship, two World Series appearances (1980 and 1983), three National League MVPs (Mike Schmidt in '80, '81 and '86) and four Cy Young Awards (Steve Carlton in '80 and '82, John Denny in '83 and Steve Bedrosian in '87).  Looking at these facts in isolation, it seems as if the '80s were a successful decade for the franchise, but the dropoff after 1983 and the losing seasons that followed have defined the era.  The 1980 Champions seem more like the end of the era that began in the mid '70s than the start of a successful decade.

Eight transactions took place in the 1980's that took the Phillies from a championship team to the cellar dwellers of the NL East.  Had the following events never taken place, it's likely that the team that began the decade as champions would have found prolonged success.

The purpose of this exercise is to examine those transactions and the Phillies lineup that would have been had those transactions not taken place.  It's not without a leap of faith.  There's no way to know that the players that the Phillies lost in the 80's would have performed equally well had they remained with the Phillies, but using that same logic, there's no way to know that they wouldn't have performed better in Philadelphia.  For this reason, I'm just looking at their performance as it played out in the real world and changing only the player's uniform.

Additionally, I'm not going to examine any hypothetical trades or missed opportunities with players that could have been signed.  A good example of this is Vince Coleman, who was taken by the Phillies in the 20th round of the 1981 draft, but didn't sign (he signed a year later when he was taken in the 10th round by the Cardinals).  All of the players that will be discussed in this entry were members of the Phillies organization and under team control, but were surrendered to other clubs.

So, flawed though it may be, here are eight transactions that the Phillies could have avoided to be a dominant club throughout the 1980s.

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The Phillies have had a number of great Rule 5 pickups, but this is one that burned them.  Had the team protected George Bell, they would have a left field bat that hit for average and power throughout the decade.  Bell hit over 20 homers in six seasons in the 80's, including his 1987 MVP season in which he bat .308 with 47 home runs and 134 RBI.

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Giving Boone to the Angels and getting nothing of value in return was a petty move by the Phillies front office.  Boone was a key negotiator for the players union during the 1981 strike and it is thought that the team dumped their World Series Champion catcher in retaliation.  He went on to have seven productive seasons with the Angels and played a key role in the Angels winning the division in '82.

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Any time you come across a list of the most lopsided trades in the history of the game, this deal is part of the discussion.  In his time with the Phillies, manager Dallas Green led the franchise to their first World Championship.  He was also instrumental in the team drafting several key players, including Sandberg.  The Phillies front office wanted DeJesús for some reason, and Green took the opportunity to demand that they include the minor leaguer in the deal.  DeJesús was anemic at the plate in three seasons with the Phillies and was out of baseball before 1989, while Sandberg would go on to have a Hall of Fame career and would go down as one of the greatest second basemen of all time.

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The infamous "5 for 1" trade is one of the most debated transactions in franchise history.  It would have been an incredible deal for the Phillies had they not included Julio Franco.  The trade was focused around Trillo and Vukovich, and the Indians insisted on getting Jay Baller, who they viewed as the next Goose Gossage.  Had they known the type of player that Franco would have developed into, they probably could have gotten away with including someone else in the deal (maybe even Larry Bowa). But the point of this exercise isn't to hypothesize about trades that could have happened, but to imagine the team we could have had if they didn't make the trade at all.

It has been argued that the Phillies still got the better end of this deal, but Franco delivered production from the middle infield at a time when that wasn't as common as it is today.  He stayed healthy, he hit for a high average (over .300 for half of the decade and never below .273), and Vukovich was effective over the next two seasons - particularly in 1984.

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This was a deal that helped the Phillies in the short term, but burned them in the long term.  Joe Morgan was a piece of the 70's Big Red Machine that reunited in Philadelphia, but he didn't do a lot in the Phillies 1983 NL Championship season.  Al Holland was an effective closer for the '83 and '84 seasons before drugs derailed his career.

Mike Krukow would go on to be an effective starter for the Giants for the rest of the decade, including a 1987 20 win season in which he finished third for the NL Cy Young Award.  Davis would go on a career rejuvenation out of the bullpen, and he capped off the decade with a 44 save season and a Cy Young Award in 1989.

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Let's pause here for a moment.  Had the Phillies avoided the four transactions above, the 1983 team would have included the following players at the major league level. 
1B - Pete Rose
2B - Ryne Sandberg
SS - Julio Franco
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Bob Boone / Bo Diaz
LF - Gary Matthews
CF - Garry Maddox / Bob Dernier
RF - George Vukovich / Joe Lefebvre
Starting Pitchers - Steve Carlton, John Denny, Charles Hudson, Mike Krukow, Marty Bystrom, Mark Davis
Bullpen - Tug McGraw, Willie Hernández, Ron Reed, Porfirio Altamirano, Larry Andersen, Jay Baller 
In the real world, the 1983 Phillies would be known as the "Wheeze Kids" with a lineup that included 39 year old Joe Morgan and 40 year old Tony Perez.  The would go on to reach the World Series and lose to the Baltimore Orioles in five games, after which the team began a ten year downward spiral. 
In this parallel world in which the five transactions above never happened, we begin to see the rise of 23 year old Ryne Sandberg and 24 year old Julio Franco when he first entered the majors as a shortstop.  Both played a full season in 1983 and hit over .260 with glimpses of the brilliant careers they would go on to have.  George Bell (23) and Juan Samuel (22) would be late season call ups getting their first experience in the major leagues.  Following the 1983 season, Bell would go on to take Lefebvre's role in right field, while Franco would replace Pete Rose who had moved on to the Expos in 1984.  This would allow Samuel to move into shortstop.
On the pitching side, Mark Davis was the fifth starter for the Giants in 1983, but with a Phillies rotation that includes Steve Carlton and the eventual 1983 Cy Young winner John Denny, I can't say if he would have won a rotation job or if he could have pitched out of the bullpen (replacing the innings that Al Holland provided).  I think it's a safe bet that this team would have had a better chance against the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.
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Although Glenn Wilson was a good hitting outfielder who made the All-Star Team in 1985, the Phillies traded Willie Hernández at exactly the wrong time.  The left handed closer would go on to have a phenomenal season for the Tigers in 1984, going 9-4 with a 1.93 ERA and 32 saves in 33 chances.  He won the AL MVP and Cy Young Award, and helped lead the Tigers to the 1984 World Championship.

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The Cubs really knew how to screw the Phillies in the 80's.  Philadelphia was the second stop in the Soup Farewell Tour in which he pitched for five teams in five seasons, none of whom had many reasons to miss him when he was gone.  The Phillies shipped their bountiful return from the Cubs to the Cardinals when they flipped Campbell and Iván DeJesús for three seasons of middle reliever Dave Rucker, who was released after the 1986 season.  I didn't mention Mike Diaz because he never played a single game in Philadelphia.  He was traded to the Pirates on April 27th, 1985 for minor league catcher Steve Herz, who also did not reach the major leagues.

In exchange for this domino effect of baseball stardom, the Phillies gave up Gary Matthews.  Sarge went on to have an excellent year for the Cubs, batting .291 and leading the league in walks and OPS and finishing fifth in the NL MVP vote (the year that Sandberg won).  He wasn't able to replicate that same level of success in his remaining three years with the Cubs, but he was serviceable, and a damn sight more valuable than either Bill Campbell or Mike Diaz.  Meanwhile, Bob Dernier was a quality center fielder for the Cubs for the next four years, winning a Gold Glove in 1984.  The Phillies brought him back when they signed him as a free agent after the 1987 season.

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The descent into mediocrity began for the Phillies in the 1984 season as they went from National League Champions to 4th place in the NL East with a .500 record.  Had the Phillies not participated in the seven transactions above, their 1984 lineup may have looked something like this: 
1B - Julio Franco
2B - Ryne Sandberg
SS - Juan Samuel
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Bob Boone / Bo Diaz
LF - Gary Matthews
CF - Garry Maddox / Bob Dernier
RF - George Bell 
Starting Pitchers - Steve Carlton, John Denny, Shane Rawley, Charles Hudson, Mike Krukow
Bullpen - Willie Hernández, Tug McGraw, Porfirio Altamirano, Larry Andersen, Mark Davis 
This is where it gets really interesting, at least from an offensive perspective.  In 1984, Ryne Sandberg was the NL MVP who batted .314 with an .887 OPS.  He also won his second of nine consecutive gold gloves.  Gary Matthews finished fifth in the NL MVP voting after having one of the best seasons of his career, hitting .291 with 82 RBI and a career high 103 walks. 
In his first full season, George Bell hit .292 with 26 home runs and 87 RBI, while Julio Franco continued to develop, batting .286 with 79 RBI.  Add this production to the numbers put up by Mike Schmidt and Juan Samuel in 1984 and you have one of the best offensive lineups in franchise history. 
Pitching is another story.  Steve Carlton was serviceable, but this should have been his last season.  John Denny was also alright, but he wasn't able to replicate his success from the previous season, but Shane Rawley (acquired from the Yankees for Marty Bystrom and Keith Hughes) had a decent season and would steadily improve.  Having Mike Krukow in this rotation definitely would have helped, and with the potential of this offense, the 1984 season of Willie Hernandez would have locked down a lot of games.  I don't doubt that this incarnation of the 1984 Phillies would have been a playoff team, and their bats would have kept them in contention throughout the decade.
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  • May 9, 1986
    The Philadelphia Phillies released Dave Stewart.
The last transaction on this list is the icing on the cake.  Dave Stewart had a pretty rough start to his career.  He made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had moments where he looked to be a promising young pitcher.  He was traded to the Texas Rangers in 1983 and had some troubles on and off the field.  The Rangers then traded him to the Phillies on September 13, 1985 at which point he was a reclamation project on a sub .500 team.  He would appear in a dozen games with the Phillies over the '85 and '86 seasons before being released just over a month into the 1986 season.

Had the Phillies remained patient, their faith would have been rewarded.  Stewart had one of the most impressive career resurgences in modern baseball history after being picked up by the Oakland Athletics on May 23, 1986.  He would finish the season with a 9-5 record and then go on to perfect his forkball and have four consecutive 20 win seasons.  He helped lead the A's to a World Championship in 1989 and was the World Series MVP.

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To wrap this up, let's look at our fantasy lineup for the 1987 season: 
1B - Julio Franco
2B - Ryne Sandberg
SS - Juan Samuel
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Lance Parrish / Bob Boone
LF - Gary Matthews
CF - Milt Thompson
RF - George Bell
Starting Pitchers - Dave Stewart, Shane Rawley, Bruce Ruffin, Don Carman, Kevin Gross
Bullpen - Steve Bedrosian, Kent Tekulve, Willie Hernández, Mark Davis
This version of the 1987 Phillies would have been an absolute beast.  Having 20 game winner Dave Stewart and 17 game winner Shane Rawley anchoring a rotation with NL Cy Young Award winner Steve Bedrosian locking down 40 saves would have been an incredible experience. 
As good as the pitching would have been, the '87 Phillies offense would have been epic.  Let's just look at a few stats and imagine how they would have worked on the same ballclub, starting with the 1987 NL MVP:
  • George Bell: .308 average - 32 doubles - 47 HR - 134 RBI
  • Mike Schmidt: .293 average - 28 doubles - 35 HR - 113 RBI
  • Juan Samuel: .272 average - 37 doubles - 15 triples - 28 HR - 100 RBI - 35 SB 
  • Ryne Sandberg: .294 average - 29 doubles - 16 HR - 21 SB
  • Julio Franco: .319 average - 24 doubles - 32 SB
  • Milt Thompson: .302 average - 26 doubles - 46 SB 
  • Lance Parish: .245 average - 21 doubles - 17 HR - 67 RBI 
That combination of consistency, speed and power throughout the lineup is more than enough to knock out the Cardinals in the NLCS and take the World Series trophy away from the '87 Twins.
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Granted, this analysis is certainly not an expert account of what would have been, but it's fun to imagine what might have been had the Phillies avoided eight transactions in the 80's.

Oct 17, 2015

The Higher Truth




Hemming - Chris Cornell
The Higher Truth Acoustic Tour
FM Kirby Center - Wilkes-Barre, PA
When I was in middle school and high school in the 90's, I had a Soundgarden Superunknown blacklight poster hanging on my bedroom wall.  I can't even begin to count the number of hours I laid back in my bedroom with my CD boombox and a pile of albums and listened to music while I stared at that poster with the lights off and the blacklight bar shining down on it from above.  It helped me to forget about the everyday stress of life so that I could relax and get out of my own head for a little while.  Soundgarden and Temple Of The Dog were always in the rotation of music that I would play on those nights.  Chris Cornell was my favorite singer then, and he's still my favorite singer today.


This tour was advertised a one-man acoustic performance of Chris Cornell playing guitar and singing hits that he recorded with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave and his solo work, including his most recent album, Higher Truth, which was released last month.  It wasn't a strictly solo performance though, as Mr. Cornell was joined by Bryan Gibson who backed him on cello and mandolin.  He also sang a few songs with a vinyl record providing the instrumentals, Andy Kaufman-style, which was very cool.

However, before I get into the main show, I don't want to forget about the opening performer: Hemming.
 

Hemming is a young woman from Philadelphia who the music contest show Make Or Break on VH1 not long ago.  I haven't heard of her before tonight, but I was blown away.  Her voice reminded me of Dolores O'Riordan without the Irish accent, and her songs have a lot of the same qualities that Chris Cornell brings to his music; a haunting, raw and beautiful sound.  Between the end of her set and the start of Cornell's, I stopped by the merchandise booth in the lobby to pick up album, which came out earlier this year.  She was there too, meeting fans and signing autographs.  I asked her to sign the cover of the liner notes, and she couldn't have been a nicer person.  I hope she goes on to great success because she most certainly deserves to.


The show was as close to perfect as any concert I've ever been fortunate enough to attend.  He performed twenty-three songs from the Temple Of The Dog album that was released over twenty years ago to Higher Truth, which came out just last month.  There were also five brilliant covers, including The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan), Thank You (Led Zeppelin), River Of Deceit (Mad Season), Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinéad O'Connor) and Billie Jean (Michael Jackson).  The latter also appeared on Cornell's second solo album, Carry On, from 2007.

The songs off of the new album were all incredible, but my favorite two were Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart, and the song he closed the show with: Higher Truth.  It was the most powerfully moving end to a concert I've ever been to.  I had shivers go up my spine as his voice echoed through the building at the end.

In total, he performed 28 songs, and I swear it felt like it went by in the blink of an eye.  I could have stayed there all night listening to him sing and tell stories.  It was absolutely wonderful.

Here is the breakdown of his songs that were performed than night, and the albums that they're from:


Singles soundtrack (1992)

Great Expectations soundtrack (1998)

Euphoria Morning (solo album - 1999)

Carry On (solo album - 2007)
You Know My Name (this was also the theme song to to Casino Royale)

Scream (solo album - 2009)
As Hope & Promise Fade (this was a hidden track that went by the title "Two Drink Minimum".  It was re-released on his 2011 live acoustic album - Songbook)

Higher Truth (solo album - 2015)


The only thing that kept this show from being absolutely perfect was the audience, who were absolutely obnoxious throughout Mr. Cornell's performance.  The show had a relaxed, chill tone, with Chris talking about the music and telling stories between songs.  It was a truly awesome experience to sit back and listen to the artist who I've listened to and admired since I was 14 years old talk as if he was sitting in my living room with his guitar, but it would have been much better if not for the jackasses in the crowd shouting out the names of songs they wanted him to perform.  I swear, I must have heard some idiot drunkenly screaming "Sunshower" while Chris was speaking at least 50 times during the show.  By the halfway point, it became pretty obvious from his change in tone that Chris was getting even more annoyed by that crap than I was.  He handled it with more grace that I would have.  If it were me, I would have refused to play Sunshower purely out of spite.  Thankfully, he is a more patient man than I am or else I would have missed hearing one of my favorite songs, but I wouldn't have blamed him for a second if he would have made an executive decision to cut it from the setlist then and there.
 

Oct 15, 2015

Every Sign Has A Story


We take our toast very seriously 'round these parts.

Oct 14, 2015

Bake McBride Comes Through


1980 World Series: Game One
Kansas City Royals @ Philadelphia Phillies
Veteran's Stadium
October 14, 1980
The first game of the 1980 World Series took place 35 years ago today.  The Phillies held off a 9th inning rally by Kansas City to win 7 - 6.  This win was largely due to Bake McBride.  In the third inning, with Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt on base, Shake N' Bake hit a three run homer off of Dennis Leonard to give the Phillies the lead.

Oct 10, 2015

We Should Have A Phone In The Car



Can It Be Done
Ray Gross (1935)
An interesting idea from 80 years ago.

Oct 9, 2015

Zombie Meat Sticks


Slim Jim
ConAgra Foods (2015)

Oct 8, 2015

A Night Of Firsts


1915 World Series Game One
Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies
Baker Bowl - Philadelphia, PA
October 8, 1915
One hundred years ago today, the Boston Red Sox faced the Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the World Series.  Phillies ace Grover Cleveland Alexander wasn't his dominant self, but he and the Phillies held the Sox scoreless through 7 innings and went on to win the game 3 - 1.

The Phillies were founded in 1883, and this was their very first appearance in the World Series.  It was also their first victory in a World Series game in franchise history.  It was the only game they would win in the 1915 Fall Classic.  They wouldn't make it to the World Series again for another 35 years, and they wouldn't win another World Series game until 1980 - 75 years and a few days after this night.

Although the Phillies first ever win in a World Series game is a huge part of the history of my favorite team, this game was memorable for another reason, although I doubt anyone watching the game knew it at the time.  A 20 year old rookie came into the game for the Red Sox as a pinch hitter in the top of the 9th.  It was a slightly odd move because the kid was a pitcher, but he was known to be a reliable bat.  He hit a sacrifice fly to advance the runner, and the next batter flied out to end the game.  It would be his only appearance in the 1915 World Series, but it was the first of many for a young kid who would go on to become perhaps the most known and beloved athlete in the history of the world.  This was the first World Series appearance of Babe Ruth.


Oct 7, 2015

Strong Like Bull


1980 National League Championship Series: Game One
Houston Astros @ Philadelphia Phillies
Veteran's Stadium
October 7, 1980
Game One of the 1980 NLCS was played in Philadelphia 35 years ago.  The Phillies were down 1 - 0 until the bottom of the 6th when Greg "The Bull" Luzinski hit a two run homer off of Ken Forsch, scoring he and Pete Rose.  The Phillies would go on to win the game; their first victory in a post-season game since 1915.

Oct 6, 2015

This Time It's Really Really Personal


Jaws 19 Trailer
Universal Pictures (2015)
Directed by Max Spielberg and coming to a Holomax near you!


If they actually ever do come up with a Jaws hologram movie, I'll be first in line... well... behind Marty McFly.

Oct 4, 2015

A Legend Takes The Mound


Ichiro Suzuki
In the eighth inning of the final game of the 2015 season, Ichiro Suzuki made his MLB pitching debut in a relief appearance against the Phillies.  He gave up a run on two doubles by Odubel Herrera and Darnell Sweeney in a game that the Phillies won 7-2.

Oct 3, 2015

The Panana


The Panana
Bloomsburg Fair, PA
The Bloomsburg Fair is the best place to delight your taste buds while shortening your life expectancy with culinary oddities.  This tasty treat was invented by Phil Delzeit.  It's made up of a peanut butter and banana sandwich that has been deep-fried in funnel cake batter and topped with powdered sugar.  The little white cup is filled with a raspberry chocolate sauce that you dip your Panana into as you eat it.  This was the first thing I ate at the Fair this year and it turned out to be an excellent choice!

Sep 27, 2015

The Washington Nationals Choke Again


Nice to see Jonathan Papelbon making friends with his new teammates.

Sep 25, 2015

Halloween Whopper


Halloween Whopper
Burger King (2015)
The Halloween Whopper has A1 Steak Sauce infused into the bun to make it black and spooky.  It also comes wrapped in a special mummy-themed wrapper.  Didn't seem too different to me than an ordinary Whopper.

Sep 23, 2015

Last Run Of The Foxx



Jimmie Foxx
1987 Topps Nestle All Time Dream Team - Card #11
Double X ended his legendary career with the 1945 Philadelphia Phillies.  In his final season, the first ballot Hall Of Famer hit .268 with 7 home runs and 38 RBI.  He was also surprisingly effective as a pitcher.  He had only ever pitched a single inning in the Major Leagues, but he ended the 1945 season with a 1-0 record and a 1.59 ERA over 22 ⅔ innings for the Phillies.

Jimmie Foxx played his last game 70 years ago today.  He played first base and went 1-3 with a double and two RBI in his final Major League appearance.



His career was honored in one of the cards from the Nestle All Time Dream Team set.  The set was produced by Topps in 1987 for inclusion in specially marked Nestle candy bars, including Nestle Milk Chocolate, Nestle Crunch, Chunky, Oh Henry, and my childhood favorite, Alpine White.

Sep 19, 2015

Mick Foley In Hazleton

Pennsylvania Premier Wrestling
Hard Knocks (September 19, 2015)
Two of our friends will soon be moving to Georgia, so we took them to meet Mick Foley at the PPW show in Hazleton today.  There was a long line, but he met with everybody and was very kind.  He took a photo with each of us, and he signed my copy of his first two books: Have A Nice Day and Foley Is Good.  I'm especially glad to have the first one autographed.  It was a Christmas present from my grandparents in 1999, and having the opportunity to meet the author and hand him the book that I unwrapped on Christmas Eve with my family, and that I've read so many times in the years that followed is special to me.


I've been watching Mr. Foley wrestle as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love for many years.  Like most wrestling fans, I'll never forget the Hell In A Cell match he had with The Undertaker at WWF King Of The Ring in 1998.  I was watching the show with my dad, and I had never seen anything like that before or since.  That's probably for the best.  I have no idea how the man is still walking after that performance.


I'm not familiar with all of the wrestlers on the PPW roster, but I've seen some of them wrestle before.  In a battle of WXW alumni, "Smooth" Tommy Suede defeated Afa Jr. to win the PPW Heavyweight Championship in the main event.  I haven't seen Afa Jr. since he was around 18 years old.  Back then, he was a high flying babyface,  These days, he's put on some weight and is playing the Wild Samoan character that his father made famous.  It's been about the same length of time since I was at a show with Tommy Suede on the card, but I bumped into him back in 2009 was I worked as an extra on the set of The Wrestler.

The match of the night was David Starr defeating Steve Shields.  I heard good things about Starr, but I haven't seen him wrestle before.  He's a talented and charismatic performer.  I expect that he's going to make it to a televised promotion sooner than later.

The other familiar face at the show was Lance Anoa'i, the 23 year old son of Headshrinker Samu.  I've never seen him in a ring before, but this wasn't the first time I saw him at a wrestling show in Hazleton.  Back in 1999, I was in the crowd at the WXW Owen Hart Memorial Show.  Samu wrestled that night, and one of the other fans pointed out his seven year old son, Lance, who was running around the venue during the show.  Now, he's four years older than I was on that night back in 1999 and he's been wrestling for five years.  This is the kind of moment that really makes you feel old and when you recognize how fast time goes by.

Results:

Sep 17, 2015

The National Anthem Of Dream Pop


Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins (1990)
The sixth studio album released by Cocteau Twins is turning 25 years old today.


Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins (1990)
The title track of this album is one of my favorite songs that I've ever heard.  This space is where I would normally put the lyrics, but singer Elizabeth Fraser doesn't much like when people try to write out her lyrics.  Out of respect for her and for the band, I'm going to skip the lyrics and let the song speak for itself.

Sep 12, 2015

The Jean Ad Controversy



Calvin Klein billboard
Times Square - New York, NY (1995)
Photo Credit: Evan Agostini
Twenty years ago, this Calvin Klein ad campaign was the subject of an FBI investigation.  The problem they had with it was the fact that the model, Bijou Phillips, was 15 years old.  I was also 15 years old at the time, and I remember thinking that the outrage was absolutely ridiculous.  She's fully dressed in jeans and a tank top.  There was more skin being revealed by girls of this age in the underwear and swimsuit section of an average K-Mart flyer in the Sunday newspaper, but when you're selling expensive jeans and using a famous person as the model, suddenly the standards of decency are called into question.

After 20 years, my opinion on this matter hasn't changed at all.  If you see something inappropriate about this billboard, the problem isn't the advertisement or the model... the problem is you.  If you can't look at a photograph of a fully clothed girl without intrusive thoughts that make you feel uncomfortable, you might want to consider seeing a therapist to work through your problems.

Sep 11, 2015

A Great Blog From A Fellow Phillies fan



14,000 Phillies
2011 - 2015
It saddens me to learn that one of my favorite Phillies baseball card blogs is moving on from the hobby.  I totally understand.  It's expensive and overwhelming to keep up with, and the business practices of the major card manufacturers leave a lot to be desired.

I made the decision in my adult life to narrow the scope of my collection to only players who have appeared in at least one game for the Phillies at the major league level.  They don't have to be in a Phillies uniform on the card - just so they spent time in their career with the club, even if that time was very brief.  I have made a few exceptions to that rule for my favorite non-Phillies (Hank Aaron, Bill Lee, Ricky Henderson, Nolan Ryan, Ichiro, and a handful of others), but aside from a select few, I've kept to that rule.

Despite this, and despite the fact that I've limited my spending to just a few cards a year, I've found that the time, money and space that they take up are ebbing very close to being too much to deal with.  It might be a different story if I had someone to share them with or to pass them down to, but I don't.  I'm sure there will come a day when I reach the same point that the author of 14,000 is at.  That day isn't today, but I'm thinking it will probably be sooner than I expect.

Happy trails, Matt.  Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into 14,000 Phillies and for sharing your thoughts and your collection.

Sep 10, 2015

Sad Truth


Calvin and Hobbes street art
Portland, OR
Source: Colossal

Sep 9, 2015

Twilight of a Foxx


Chuck Klein and Jimmie Foxx
March 15, 1945
In 1932, both the American League and National League MVP played for Philadelphia teams.  Jimmie Foxx won the first of his three MVP awards for the Athletics while Chuck Klein won the award in the NL for the Phillies.

This photo was taken at the Phillies Spring Training camp in Wilmington, DE.  Klein was a coach for the Phillies having retired in June of the previous season, and Foxx was preparing for what would be his 20th and final season of his playing career.  Although his days of being the right-handed Babe Ruth were behind him, Foxx gave Phillies fans something to be proud of.  Playing first and third base, Foxx hit the final seven home runs of his career in a Phillies uniform, but the highlight of his season came when he fulfilled a goal of pitching in the big leagues.  Remarkably, the 37 year old had a very good season on the mound, appearing in 9 games including two starts, and finishing the season with a 1 - 0 record and a 1.59 ERA in 22 2⁄3 innings.

Seventy years ago today, Foxx led the Phillies in a 14 - 3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He went 4 - 5 in the game, including a double and the last home run of his career.  Foxx retired at the end of the season with 534 career homers, second only to Babe Ruth.  He remained second on the career home run list until he was passed by the great Willie Mays 21 years later.

Sep 8, 2015

Free Prize Inside


Cereal Box Collecting
Robb Berry
I've always loved breakfast cereal.  I was a kid in the 80's and 90's, I considered collecting cereal boxes.  I saved a few here and there over the years, but it never really got to the level of being a collection.  This dude came to the same crossroads and took the other path, and he now has a museum in his basement with over 8,000 boxes.

On a side note, if any company could ever get the rights to use all of the trademarks, cereal boxes would make a pretty awesome trading card series.  The front and back of the cards could be exact replicas of the cereal boxes themselves, so you could have different versions of the same cereal depending on the year it was released or the prize inside.

Video source: Perfect Duluth Day

Sep 7, 2015

Hazleton 1965


1965 Downtown
Broad Street - Hazleton, PA

Sep 6, 2015

Sweet Dreams You Can't Resist


The Alpine White bar was one of my favorite candy bars when I was a kid.  It was a creamy white chocolate bar with almonds, and there's nothing quite like it on the market today (Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar isn't even close).

It's very rare for Nestle to bring back something that has been discontinued (particularly a confections product), so I decided to go ahead and make my own using a bag of Toll House Premier White Morsels, minced almonds and a chocolate bar mold.  It didn't taste exactly like the Alpine White (no cocoa butter), but it was reasonably close and very tasty.

Sep 2, 2015

I Ain't Afraid Of No Kindergarten


Look at that suave son of a bitch with the Ghostbusters lunchbox on his first day of school.  My dad took this photo of me 30 years ago.
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