The Washington Nationals Choke Again

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

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.

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.

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:

• Matt Macintosh defeated Bobby Wayard
• Sammi Pandora defeated Terra Calaway
• "The Flyin' Hawaiian" Kekoa defeated Connor Claxton
• PPW Tag Team Championship Match
  South Philly's Finest (Jimmy Konway and Luza Brazzi) defeated The Exerguys (JP and M3)
• PPW Television Title Match
  Triple Threat Match
  The British Wolf defeated Chris Payne and Havoc
• David Starr defeated Steve Shields
• PPW Heavyweight Championship Match
  "Smooth" Tommy Suede* defeated Afa Jr.
  *new champions

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.

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.

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.

Sad Truth

Calvin and Hobbes street art
Portland, OR
Source: Colossal

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.

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

Hazleton 1965

1965 Downtown
Broad Street - Hazleton, PA

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.

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.

Troll Book Club

Troll Book Club (1985)
Book club catalogs used to be handed out in my elementary school when I was a kid.  I think I might still have a book or two in the attic that was ordered through a flyer like this.

That's Some Big Hat, Billy

William Penn Statue
City Hall - Philadelphia, PA (1993)
During the 1993 World Series, the statue of William Penn at the top of City Hall in Philadelphia was given a massive seven foot tall Phillies hat.  A year later, a local sports memorabilia dealer named Glen Spence found the hat in a dumpster outside of Veterans Stadium and put it on the roof of his shop on Oregon Avenue.  The shop eventually closed and the hat was kept in storage until a few weeks ago when Mr. Spence put it up on eBay.  If you've got ten grand to spare, it can be yours.

Yeah, But We've Got Better Music

Late Night with Seth Meyers

Q*Bert Comes Alive On Paper

Q*Bert
Presto Magix Transfers
American Publishing Corporation (1983)
I found this last month at Black Diamond Antiques & Collectibles in the Schuylkill Mall.  When this was available for sale at stores in 1983, Q*Bert was a cultural phenomenon.  It was one of the hottest games at the arcade, and the character was marketed like crazy with countless toys, games, and other merchandise.  The game characters even became television stars on the Saturday Supercade cartoon series on CBS.

Presto Magix was kind of like a disposable Colorforms toy.  Like Colorforms, it came with a set of objects and characters that could be placed on a themed background.  The difference is that Colorforms were made up of vinyl clings that could be stuck onto and peeled off of a shiny background whereas Presto Magix were more like a temporary tattoo that was permanently transferred onto a paper background.

The toy folded out like a pamphlet to make a two foot long background with two Q*Bert pyramids set on a field of starts.  Artwork of the game characters are placed around the pyramids with the star of the game riding on his flying disc at the center.  The bottom left hand corner has a box where the little boy or girl could sign their artwork.  This one was mostly unused except for one Q*Bert and one Coily that had been transferred to the pyramid on the right hand side.

The transfer sheet of characters was included.  As expected, the Q*Bert and Coily characters that were transferred to the background were missing from the sheet, but all of the others were there, including Slick, Wrongway, Sam, Ugg, duplicates of Coily, and a generous amount of Q*Bert in various poses.  There were also a few Q*Bert logos and, for some reason, a couple of miniature pyramids, which I'm not sure where they were supposed to fit into the background.  I wish they made a little Q*Bert arcade machine for the transfer sheet, but it's still a really cool collection of characters.

The Red Monochrome Headache Machine

Virtual Boy
Nintendo (1995)
The first attempt at a 3-D gaming console from Nintendo was introduced in North America 20 years ago today.  Sadly, it flopped pretty hard.  There were only 22 Virtual Boy games released in the United States before it was discontinued just over six months later.

I had one and I thought it was a lot of fun, but I also wasn't one of the suckers who paid $179.95 for it.  I found it on clearance at Electronics Boutique for $30 sometime in 1996, and I picked up a handful of games (both American and Japanese imports) for $5 each.  My favorite games were Mario Tennis (which came packed in), V-Tetris, Vertical Force and Wario Land.

Frankenball

Hollywood Charity Baseball Game
Wrigley Field - Los Angeles, CA (1940)

This photo and its caption was published in the 1981 book It's Alive! The Classic Cinema Saga Of Frankenstein by Gregory William Mank.  The photo was taken at a charity baseball game that took place 75 years ago today at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.  This was the ballpark where the Los Angeles Angels played when they were a Pacific Coast League team and for their first season in MLB.

The legendary Boris Karloff took the field in full Frankenstein's Monster costume and makeup playing for a team of Hollywood stars against a team of comedians and comic actors.

Spokane Chronicle - Spokane, WA  (August 8, 1940)
click to enlarge

The Cushing Daily Citizen - Cushing, OK  (August 9, 1940)
click to enlarge

Karloff hit an inside-the-park home run in this game because The Three Stooges, who were fielding their positions at first, second, and third base, cowered in fear of the monster as he slowly lumbered around the bases.

Wild Boys At The Steel Stacks

Duran Duran
Musikfest - Steel Stacks - Bethlehem, PA

I have loved Duran Duran for nearly as long as I've known what music was, so this concert is a dream come true for me.  It was held at the Sands Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, which is known around here as the Steel Stacks.  The stage is in front of the five blast furnaces that once were part of the Bethlehem Steel plant, which makes for a pretty incredible atmosphere for a rock concert.

Musikfest is a music festival in Bethlehem that takes place over several miles around the Steel Stacks. Although the major acts who perform at the festival sell tickets to their shows, there is no charge to get into the festival itself, and there are plenty of concerts on free stages.  There's also plenty to eat and drink, and lots of things do see and do.

This photo shows the blast furnaces (aka: the Steel Stacks) from outside of the concert venue.  It really is a pretty gnarly backdrop for a rock concert.

Although there was lots of things set up, today is technically considered "Preview Night".  Musikfest officially starts tomorrow and runs through August 16'th.

Rubix Kube was one of the acts that was playing on a free stage tonight.  We caught the second half of their set after Duran Duran, and they were awesome as always.

 

Our seats were pretty far back, so I really wasn't able to take photos, but they weren't bad seats.  We were close enough to see the stage, and we were sitting near some pretty cool folks who were just as obsessed with the music as we were.

The show had a good mix of their classics from the 80's and 90's with a few newer hits sprinkled throughout.  They performed one song from their upcoming album, Paper Gods (Pressure Off), two songs from their 2010 album (Girl Panic and All You Need Is Now), and one song off of 2004's Astronaut (Reach Up For The Sunrise) with the rest coming from their vintage catalog.  They kicked off the set with Wild Boys and followed that up with their classic 007 theme, A View To A Kill (one of the best Bond songs of all time).  I was extremely happy to get to hear Come Undone and Ordinary World - two of my favorite Duran Duran songs.  Toward the end of the regular setlist, they played Notorious, Planet Earth and Hungry Like The Wolf.  They began the encore with their 1995 cover of White Lines before finishing the night off with Rio.

Nostalgia Inception

Atari 2600 Action Pack: Volume 1, 2 and 3
Activision (1995)
These days, it's common to see game companies release their classic games.  There are virtual consoles, plug-and-play consoles and collections of retro games available for dozens, if not hundreds of titles from the past.  However, back in the summer of 1995, the term "retro gaming" didn't exist.  The 16-bit war between the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo in its final year.  The release of the Sega Saturn on May 11th and the Sony Playstation on September 9th had gamers dreaming of 32 bit games on CD-Rom as the future of the industry.  Few were thinking back to the days of the 80's and the Atari 2600, but for those who were, Activision had the Atari 2600 Action Pack.

It's funny to look back on this series today.  They were released 20 years ago for Windows 95 and Macintosh computers, and they were available on CD-Rom and 3.5" floppy discs.  These discs are older today than these Atari games were when they were re-released in 1995.  The retro compilations have become retro themselves.

I had Volume 1 for my IBM Aptiva when I was 15 years old.  I remember being amazed to be able to play games like Pitfall, River Raid and Frostbite on my Gravis Gamepad with Z-Rock playing from the boombox on the top shelf of my computer desk.  It was the moment that I first realized that gaming isn't all about the latest graphics and CD quality sound, and a game that was fun in 1985 is just as fun in 1995.  Twenty years later, I still play these games because they're just as fun in 2015.

Schweitzer's Wildwood Vacation

Nana, Dad and Grandma
The Boardwalk - Wildwood, NJ
My grandfather took this photo of my great-grandfather, my dad and my grandmother in August, 1985 on the Wildwood boardwalk.  In the background, the theater marquee is shown.  National Lampoon's European Vacation was playing.

Tree in Solid Rock

Tree in Solid Rock
Interstate 80 - Buford, WY
Not long after my 10th birthday, I went on a cross-country trip with my family to visit my uncle in Provo, Utah.  On the way home, we stopped in Wyoming and saw this tree growing out of a rock.  According to the sign, they diverted the path of the Union Pacific Railroad when they were building it so that they could preserve this tree.

I later learned that this tree is in a small Wyoming town called Buford.  In 1990 when I saw this tree, the town had a population of three residents.  By 2007, the population of Buford was down to one.

Say Goodbye To Hollywood

In his last start six days ago, Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs.  Sadly, it will end up being his final start in a Phillies uniform as he was traded to the Texas Rangers earlier today.

The Phillies ended up getting a pretty decent haul in return, including three of the Rangers top 10 prospects and a veteran starter who may take Hamels place in the rotation when he comes off of the disabled list.  I hate to see Hamels go, but there's reason to be optimistic for the future.

It's Hip To Be Square

South Main Street from Public Square (1975)
Wilkes-Barre, PA
The building on the left is now Dunkin Donuts.  The Woolworth's is now a Barnes & Noble that also has the Wilkes University and King's College campus bookstore.  To the left of Woolworth's is Boscov's.  The Kresge store has been a bunch of different things over the years.  I believe it's a bar today.

Congratulations, Pedro Martinez

Earlier today, the 2015 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame were inducted in Cooperstown.  Among them was my favorite pitcher, Pedro Martinez.

Although he'll always be associated in the eyes of fans in a Red Sox uniform, Pedro ended his career in a Phillies uniform in 2009.  He pitched well in the half-season he spent in Philadelphia, going 5 - 1 and pitching well in the playoffs, including 7 scoreless innings against the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The photo above was taken on September 13th, 2009.  We went to a day / night double header at Citizen's Bank Park against the Mets, and Pedro was the starting pitcher in the night game.  It was a memorable evening.  Tony Danza sang the National Anthem, and my favorite pitcher took the mound against our most hated rivals and his former team.

As excited as I was to get to see Pedro pitch in person, I never could have predicted how dominant he would be.  Pedro threw 130 pitches, struck out 7, and shut down the Mets over 8 scoreless innings.  Ryan Madson came in for the save in the 9th inning and locked down the game for the Phillies.  This was Pedro's fifth win of the season, and the 219th win of his career.  Although I didn't know it at the time, this would be the final win of his career.

Congratulations, Mr. Pedro Martinez - one of the most dominant pitchers in the history of the game.  Thank you for your contribution to this game, and for your short, but memorable time in Philadelphia - especially that one September night.

Closing The Boardwalk

Boardwalk Boulevard
Laurel Mall - Hazleton, PA

For over a quarter century, the corner of the Laurel Mall next to one of its anchor stores was occupied by Boardwalk Blvd.  It was an arcade that opened in 1989, giving the Hazleton mall two arcades for a very brief period of time before the older Aladdin's Castle closed up shop.

Even the shoppers who didn't play games couldn't escape the presence of the arcade as it serenaded everyone within 20 feet with "Daaaytooooooona, let's go away!" from the Daytona USA machine that was once parked near the entrance to the arcade.  When I was a teenager, there was a Mortal Kombat 2, and later a Mortal Kombat 3 machine where I spent plenty of tokens.  Unfortunately, as the 90's drew to a close, the arcade began to get filled with more ticket-based games and fewer video games, but there were still enough traditional arcade games to make me stop in when I went to the mall.

Now, for the first time since Aladdin's Castle opened in 1976, the Laurel Mall does not have an arcade.

2007

2015

This is what remains of Boardwalk Blvd today - just a few areas that still have the carpeting.  I'm not sure what the mall has planned for this location, but it's a safe bet that it won't be as much fun as the little arcade that opened at the tail end of the 80's and thrived through the 90's, the 2000's and the first half of the 2010's before succumbing to the same fate as nearly every other mall arcade.

Thanks for the memories, Boardwalk Blvd.