Thursday, July 12, 2007

Baseball 2Q: The Lingering After-Effects of McGuire and McGwire

101…. 101…. Seeee Beeeeee Essssssssssssssssssssss FM….

Hey folks CBS-FM is back and if you hit the play button right now you will see that you have 8 seconds to read this before the words start.. … It’s the Mamas and The Papas with Creeque Alley.. Oldies Radio is back in NY!!





It’s great to have CBS-FM back! Now people will get to hear these legendary songs again so they can understand the song parodies!! Today in honor of the return of CBS FM we bring you the video premiere of “The Ballad of Melanie McGuire”. See the 2 prior Melanie columns in the archives on the left if you are not up to date on what has gone on to this point. Again, apologies to anyone who is offended.. the song was created to portray the incredible evil of Ms. McGuire. Her narcissism is captured in the video in the shot where we address the absurdity of her tale that she went to AC to move her husband's car just to mess with his mind!… How stupid does she think the police and jury are? The sentencing is set for July 19th; an mp3 will be available soon.. and now the Premiere of the video for “The Ballad of Melanie McGuire” c2007.




The Giants hosted Tuesdays All Star Game and the San Francisco fans are the only ones who seem to be rooting for Barry Bonds to break Hank Aaron’s home run record. It’s just a matter of time before Hank Aaron’s 30+ year run as Home Run King comes to an end. But legacy-wise, Bonds will forever be linked to another one who shares Melanie’s last name.. Mark McGwire. While Melanie went to Walgreen’s to buy poison, Mark was allegedly stocking up on other stuff.. and both he and Bonds will always be looked at as having padded their power numbers by using muscle enhancing supplements.

McGwire’s former manager Tony LaRussa really came off as being quite the idiot as The National League went down to their 10th consecutive All Star loss.. How does he not send up Albert Pujols, arguably the best player in the game (and McGwire’s replacement as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman) to bat for Aaron Rowand with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 9th inning? The stupid All Star Game rules stipulate that the winner gets home field advantage and La Russa knew full well that his lousy Cardinals weren’t going to be going to The World Series this year.. LaRussa claims that if the game went extra innings he would have been out of bench players. Well as Warner Wolf would say.. “Change The Rule”… I say that if all the players are used during the 9 regulation innings, they should allow the 8 starting position players voted in by the fans to come back into the game! Baseball is the only sport that doesn’t allow a player who leaves the game to come back.. why not make the game more fan friendly.. that way you get all the position players in the game and if it goes late…. the popular ones come right back in for a 2nd time!


This losing streak has gotten really bad…The last time the National League won the game was way back on July 9, 1996. That day the Nationals scored 4 runs in the first 3 innings and shut out the American League 6-0. This current AL winning streak is now 1 short of the National League’s 11 game winning streak from 1972-1982. Now those were the good old days!

I remember as a kid that the National League always featured a Met or 2… and I would always show up to day camp the next day beaming with pride after yet another NL victory. As I mentioned in the June 29 column, I was a counselor at a local day camp in 1982 and I remember that in the morning I would always gather my little Pac Men together to chat for a few minutes as we were getting ready to start the day. I remember asking… how many of the guys in my bunk saw the Game… At that point the previously mentioned kid with the Rather Unusual First Name asked me why I called it a bunk if we were in a day camp. And my literate camper asked me if they allowed free substitution in the All Star Game.. wouldn’t it be anti Paradigmatic? I shook my head and told the kids to get their lanyards ready for Arts and Crafts.. . Incidentally, my buddy Steve tells me that since that June 29th column his friend has signed emails as "The Kid With The Rather Unusual First Name"!

I remember the 1982 game.. it was 25 years ago tom’w on July 13, 1982.. it was played in Olympic Stadium in Montreal… the home of the Expos. The game was also known that year as Partie D’etoiles. Local Expo hero Steve Rogers and Dennis Eckersely were the starters.. My homeboys won the game 4-1 thanks to a spectacular defensive play in the first by Ozzie Smith that saved 2 runs. Smith’s fellow Cardinal Lonnie Smith also made the team.. at least that year Tommy Lasorda had the common sense to play the Cardinals on his team. The AL was managed by Billy Martin.. and if you have been watching that ESPN miniseries.. it’s quite impressive how John Turturro resembles the late Yankee skipper.

Baseball is always looking for a kick in the tuchis and one of the agents.. Scott Boras had an idea about changing the World Series to a best of 9 and having the first 2 games played at a neutral spot and making a whole big showcase out of it like the Super Bowl. That big baseball weekend would also include the Post Season Awards for MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year. I agree except I would keep it as a best of 7 series.. Play games 1 and 2 at the neutral spot to kick off the event.. then give games 3 and 4 to the World Series team with the best record, send the series to the other city for Games 5 and 6 and back to the host city for Game 7. Granted, one team will be on the road for four games and could be swept right out without a home game.. but it might not be a bad idea to create more excitement.

One other point – has any baseball player fallen downhill more dramatically than White Sox Pitcher Jose Contreras? Maybe a trade to the Mets might jump start him out of his slump. Last year at the All Star Break, Contreras had a 17 game winning streak but since then he has gone 9-19! Before this year long slump, his career record was 44-18! I know this because Contreras along with El Duque are both on my rotiserrie baseball team… and both are Cuban defectors. In honor of their adventurous arrival from the land of Castro, I named my team Havana-Gila and my team logo is a hat that says “Uruachim”.

When the season started we presented our picks (see the March 2007 archives) and some of them are right on the money. Some aren’t.


It looks like I’m eating crow on the Red Sox not making the playoffs.. so Im gonna change my pick of the (White) Sox winning their division to the (Red) Sox. I still like the Indians to make the post season…. Probably as division winners and the Angels look like they are the team from the West. Who pray tell will be The Wild Card? Well if the Yankees can pull it off., then I would have 3 of the 4 teams picked correctly from the AL>.. Yankee fans may not want to hear this, but I never get 3 of 4 teams right. My surprise team was the Mariners and they are definite Wild Card contenders, and my pick for Disappointment was the Oriole fans who were buying all the hype.

In the National League it looks I was totally wrong on the Astros,.. they seem too far back at this point… and if anyone can catch the Brewers, it should be the Cubs. After all they have 3 studs in their line up in Alfonso Soirano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. I’m stunned theyre not in first place, but the Brewers have some great young players and potential MVP Prince Fielder looks to be the Justin Morneau of the Brew Crew. It looks like I missed the boat with Phillies, Astros and D-Backs as division winners.. but in reality, my wild card pick the Mets look like they will pull off the division and Im going with the Phils to win the Wild Card.. I think the Brewers should hold on, and my Dodger pick looks weak now that off season acquisitions Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf have turned out to be injury prone duds. Chris Young has turned out to be a great pitcher on the Padres (he was the loser in the All Star Game by the way) and Jake Peavy who started the game is also having a great year… They currently rank 1-2 in ERA. If Greg Maddux can pull out a 15 win season yet again.. and fellow old timer David Wells can keep his temper in gear and pitch well, it looks like the Pods are the team. They have also made some shrewd moves by picking up some good spare parts in Milton Bradley and Michael Barrett.

I’m staying with my Mets-Phillies prediction for the NLCS…although common sense would indicate that the Phils probably are not going that far . My preseason surprise pick – The Cubs..they will probably be in the Wild Card race right to the very end. My preseason NL Disappointment team – St. Louis… I think that has turned out to be quite accurate!

My World Series pick.. I’m sticking to my guns.. Indians against the Mets. The only bummer is the Mets will have to travel to Jacobs Field if the series goes 7.

Thank you Tony LaRussa.


Now time for the Bonus Clip of the Week.. continuing our theme this summer of musical geniuses named Neil (Fein and Diamond) … and my Cuban baseball players… and 25 years since the 82 All Star Game.. (Watch for the 25) here is Neil Diamond from The Jazz Singer with his version of….. Hava Nagila!!



Up Next ----> The Movie Club Reviews Come Back!!

2 comments:

Neil said...

I'm finding the comments on the Melanie McGuire song pretty entertaining. Can't say as I'm all that surprised, there are many people with an extremely narrow sense of humor. I'm wondering if blog-revenge will be coming along shortly.

Keep in mind that, more often than not, a critic is someone who can't make art, so has decided to tear apart that of other people.

Nate said...

Neil, some of those people just dont get "it" and by "it" I mean the point of the song. It's about the crime and the criminal and its brutality and her narcisism.

The CTV posters think I'm attacking the poor guy. Nothing is further from the truth. These posters seem to spend so much time focusing on the case that their hatred of her has turned into a "bond" with him... They think he was their friend, yet he never knew them.

IF these words were in a book nobody would say anything. Just because it's in a clever song they get up in arms. In reality if they listened to the words, they would realize what the song is really about.