Author Archives: B.P.

The No-hitter, Break-up King

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Cesar Tovar

Pitchers who come close to baseball immortality by throwing a one-hitter will always remember the batter who broke up their no-hitter.

Of all the players who have played big league baseball, you’d think some great or pesky contact hitter like Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Joe Sewell or Lloyd Waner would hold the record for getting the only hit in a game that otherwise would have been a no-hitter.

But the man who set the record for having the only hit in a game, that ended up being a one-hitter is Cesar Tovar.

Tovar, a .278 career hitter, who played from 1965-1976 spoiled five no-hitters, a record now shared with Eddie Milner.

Tovar got the only hit of the game off of:

  1. Barry Moore of the Washington Senators (April 30, 1967)
  2. Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles (May 15, 1969)
  3. Mike Cuellar  of the Baltimore Orioles (August 10, 1969)
  4. Dick Bosman of the Washington Senators (August 13, 1970)
  5. Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland Athletics (May 31, 1975)

The first four times, Tovar was playing for the Minnesota Twins.  The last time versus Hunter, he was with the Texas Rangers. Tovar’s hits against McNally and Cuellar came in the ninth inning.

Tovar is also one of four players to play all nine positions in one major league game.

Cesar Tovar died at the age of 54 on July 14, 1994.

Motörhead Live In Their Prime – 1980

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Concert At Nottingham Theatre Royal Is Well Worth Viewing

motorhead tour booklet photo Brian GoodmanFor those of you who are fans of Motörhead this is definitely worth watching.  If you are not a fan, then this video should help make you one. This show captures the band in full control playing a scorching set with good audio and video. The classic line-up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor perform the following set:

 

Overkill
Too Late Too Late
Shoot You In The Back
Step Down
Jailbait
Leavin’ Here
Metropolis
Train Kept a Rollin’
Bomber
Motörhead

 

Crime, Murder, Prisons, Hangings and Lynchings in 1891

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Some Interesting Facts The 1892 World Almanac

The 1892 World Almanac contains fascinating crime statistics.

Putting the crime numbers in perspective to the population, in 1890 the United States total population was 62,830,361.  The “colored” population  was 7,488,676. So, African-Americans made up about 12% of the population.

There were 45,233 people in penitentiaries, 14,687 were black. That means African-Americans comprised nearly one third of the inmates in the U.S. penitentiary system.

The number of murders and homicides reported by newspapers for 1891 was 5,906.

The murders and homicides are broken down as follows:

  1. Quarrels 2,820
  2. Liquor 877
  3. Unknown 859
  4. Jealousy 449
  5. By Highwaymen 241
  6. Infanticide 208
  7. Resisting Arrest 182
  8. Insanity 102
  9. Highway Men Killed 74
  10. Self Defense 74
  11. Strikes 10
  12. Outrages (?) 2

The number of legal executions reported in the U.S. was 123. The two leading states were Georgia and Texas with 19 and 12 executions respectively. The electric chair as a means of execution was first put into use in New York in 1890.  Almost all the executions in 1891, were by hanging.

The number of lynchings reported was 195. The leading three states were Louisiana 29, Alabama 26 and Mississippi with 23. Six of the people lynched were women.

Below is the full chart on all these statistics. (double-click to enlarge to full size)

 

Where Did The Saying “Up The River” Come From?

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A Movie Cliche’s New York Origins

If you ever watch any gangster films from the 1930’s or 40’s, one of the lines of dialogue that always pops up is: “up the river.”

Somebody would utter it: a criminal; prosecutor; police officer; or a fellow gangster. Listen and it will be said in most of these early crime movies.

Lines like:

“Didn’t you hear, Rocky’s going up the river.”

“If you don’t talk Ike, I can guarantee you’re going to spend a long stretch up the river.”

“I’m not takin’ the fall to go up the river for a heist you did, Spats.”

The term “up the river” as most people know refers to going to prison.

So where did the saying come from?

In the 1800’s, when you were charged with a crime and sent to prison in New York City, the accused would first be taken to the prison on Centre Street in lower Manhattan which was known as “the Tombs” built in 1838.

The Tombs were so named because the original structure had large granite columns on the outside of the building which  resembled Egyptian burial architecture, a.k.a. tombs. The Tombs though, were merely a holding prison for the accused criminals awaiting trial.

After sentencing, convicts were sent to a prison on Blackwell’s Island (today known as Roosevelt Island) in the middle of the East River.

However if you were a habitual offender or committed a very serious offense, you would be sent thirty miles north, up the Hudson River to Sing Sing prison. This is the origin of the phrase being sent, “up the river.” Sing Sing separated the hardened criminals from the run of the mill pickpockets, burglars and ordinary thieves.

Even though, the term “up the river” originally referred to Sing Sing, it was eventually applied to anyone being sent to any prison.

Babe Ruth’s 1920 Uniform Sells For $4.4 Million At Auction

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Babe Ruth, King Of The Sports Memorabilia World

Nearly sixty-four years after his death, Babe Ruth set another record on Sunday May 20, 2012 . His circa 1920 Yankees road jersey sold at SCP auctions for a staggering $4.4 million.

Photo © SCP auctions

This eclipses the previous highest amount paid for a piece of sports memorabilia, a Honus Wagner baseball card, which sold in 2008 for $2.8 million.

To put the amount of the sale price in some perspective, Babe Ruth earned approximately $910,000 during his entire major league baseball playing career from 1914 -1935. This of course does not account for inflation. In modern dollars with inflation Ruth would have earned $15.3 million.

Also Ruth made vast amounts of money during the off-season, barnstorming and doing various product endorsements and personal appearances.

How would Ruth have felt about his uniform selling for more than he made his entire career? I’d like to think Ruth would have had a good laugh at that fact.

Babe Ruth, second from left, with his Yankee teammates, early 1920’s

Here is a photograph of Babe Ruth early in his New York Yankee career during spring training, possibly wearing the multi-million dollar uniform.

On a side note

The Kansas City Royals defeated the New York Yankees last night, May 21 at Yankee Stadium by a score of 6-0.  What made me notice this otherwise unremarkable game was what the New York Times said today in the sports section:

But the clutch-hitting woes of the Yankees — not just their wheezing All-Star first baseman — remained for another game, a 6-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals in front of 39,229 fans.

Anyone attending or watching the game on television knows the announced attendance of 39,229 was a joke. Looking at the mostly empty stadium, there were probably no more than 8,000 people attending the dreary game, which was played under a constant, steady rain.

The idea that baseball attendance is counted not by clicks of the turnstile, but by tickets sold is ridiculous. It’s another slight problem in a laundry list of things that MLB should address before baseball becomes completely irrelevant.

Squealer’s End

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What Happens To Squealer’s

This is not The Sopranos or The Godfather.

75 years ago, gangsters did really nasty things to you, if you talked to the cops.

The back of this Acme news photograph sums it up:

Trussed from head to foot, the body of Samuel Silverman is examined by Deputy Medical Examiner Romeo Auerbach. The victim was found in a car parked in Brooklyn, N.Y. with three bullets in his skull. Police believe Silverman was killed for “putting the finger” on other men involved in a hold up, for which he was out on bail.  July 16, 1937

Silverman , 25, who lived at 869 Hopkinson Avenue, Brooklyn, was found in front of 324 East 91st Street, Brooklyn on July 15, 1937. The body was discovered at 5 pm by a youth who happened to glance inside the parked car.

Silverman had been arrested Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #13 – Betty Grable & Marilyn Monroe

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Candid Photographs of Marilyn Monroe

Instead of the typical movie publicity or glamor photographs of Marilyn Monroe, we thought we’d highlight three photographs that show Marilyn in a bit of a different light.

Betty Grable and her How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) co-star Marilyn Monroe emerge from a Hollywood restaurant. Grable who was 20th Century Fox’s blond bombshell for most of the 1940’s was being “replaced” by Monroe. Grable was relieved as she was getting tired of fighting with Daryl F. Zanuck, Fox’s studio chief. Supposedly she told Marilyn privately, “Honey, I’ve had my time in the spotlight, now it’s your turn!”

Marilyn takes a break and kneels on the steps of a brownstone while filming Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955).  A portion of the film was shot on location in New York City. The brownstone where the lead character, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) lives with Marilyn subletting the apartment above him, is located at 164 East 61st Street. The building is still there, though somewhat modified.

Marilyn Monroe with a very dour looking Joe DiMaggio in Florida in 1961. Monroe was visiting DiMaggio, who was a special instructor to the New York Yankees during spring training. After their nine month marriage ended in divorce in 1954, the couple remained friends and got closer as the years passed. There were rumors that Monroe and DiMaggio were contemplating remarrying one another when Monroe passed away in 1962.

Jim McCrary, Rock Photographer Dies at 72, Famous For Carole King Tapestry Photos

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Jim McCrary Photographed Over 300 Album Covers For A&M Records

Cover Photograph to Carole King’s Tapestry Album

Jim McCrary who will be remembered for taking in 1971 one of the most iconic album cover photos in music history, Carole King’s Tapestry, died  at the age of 72 on April 29, 2012 of complications from a chronic nervous system disorder at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, CA.

Jim McCrary self-portrait 1978

McCrary was a self-taught photographer beginning his career in 1952. He worked for many years as staff photographer for several portrait studios and in the photography department of Rockwell International during the 1950’s and 1960’s. McCrary joined Herb Alpert’s and Jerry Moss’ A&M Records in 1967 as chief photographer. For the next seven years he photographed most of A&M’s albums, publicity and advertising work.  Among his better known images are of Joe Cocker, Cat Stevens, Gram Parsons & The Carpenters.

  

McCrary left rock photography in the late 70’s after he felt he had lost touch with the music of the bands he was working with.  His work won many awards from the Los Angeles & New York Art Directors Clubs, and appeared in several “Best” Album Cover books.

McCrary shared his talent and taught at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Tom Upton, who was once a student of McCrary’s in the 70’s said “…he was magnanimous and kind. He expected hard work and absolute transparency when reviewing work. He was the antithesis of the celebrity photographer as guru, popular at the time. He required no fealty or brown-nosing, just honesty and plain backgrounds so you had to engage your subject. He taught us about hard light and soft light in a portrait, and what the consequences were.  You, the subject, the light, and no bull.  His assignments were affectionately termed ‘McCrary Portraits’ by his students.”

Survivors include his son Jason McCrary and two brothers Wylee Dale McCrary and Doug McCrary.

To read the story about how Carol King’s Tapestry photo shoot unfolded, click here.

Cell Providers Policies On Blocking Unwanted Cell Phone Calls

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AT&T’s Terrible Policy on Blocking Harassing Marketers and Other Unwanted Cell Phone Calls

Being somewhat of a Luddite, after much reluctance, I purchased my first cell phone in 2000 through AT&T. To my delight there was a great feature which allowed you to block a phone call by entering the number into a blocked number list directly on the phone.  That number would then not be able to dial into the phone. I don’t know where the call actually went, or what message, if any, the caller heard and furthermore I didn’t care. All I know is that the feature effectively blocked calls from repeat offenders who were not supposed to be calling my cell phone number.

It was especially useful for blocking marketing calls (always unsolicited), where they were repeatedly calling me and running up my minutes. Continue reading →

When Lyrics Meant Something – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and “Ohio”

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May 4th Marks the Anniversary of Four Kent State University Students Murdered For Protesting The U.S. Invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War

Do today’s songs have meaning?

One of the things I am confronted with in the 21st century is the degraded state of music today, especially lyrically. Do people really listen to the lyrics of songs and give them any serious thought?  Or are the majority of songs being written not worthy of deep examination?

In the 1960’s and 70’s music listeners certainly did pay attention to the words being sung. They pored over lyric sheets which were inserted into LP albums with artwork that was meant to be contemplated, pondered, discussed, interpreted and argued over. Beginning with the shift to CD’s in the late eighties with their micro-printing of lyrics Continue reading →