Category Archives: Commentary

Players Who Could Wallop A Baseball & Rarely Struck Out

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Sluggers With Discriminating Eyes

Players With 25 or More Home Runs In A Season & Fewer Strikeouts Than Home Runs

Johnny Mize hit the most home runs in a season, having more homers (51) than strikeouts (42)

As baseball commentators rave about all the power hitters with their prodigious home run numbers, few broadcasters and writers will allude to the obscene strikeout totals put up by these same power hitters.

Not that most players are capable of hitting a lot of home runs and avoiding striking out, but the great players of the past could.

This list from baseball-reference.com shows the top 37 players with more home runs than strikeouts in a season.

Rank Player HR SO Year Tm G AB H RBI BB BA
1 Johnny Mize 51 42 1947 NYG 154 586 177 138 74 .302
2 Ted Kluszewski 49 35 1954 CIN 149 573 187 141 78 .326
3 Lou Gehrig 49 46 1936 NYY 155 579 205 152 130 .354
4 Lou Gehrig 49 31 1934 NYY 154 579 210 165 109 .363
5 Ted Kluszewski 47 40 1955 CIN 153 612 192 113 66 .314
6 Joe DiMaggio 46 37 1937 NYY 151 621 215 167 64 .346
7 Barry Bonds 45 41 2004 SFG 147 373 135 101 232 .362
8 Mel Ott 42 38 1929 NYG 150 545 179 151 113 .328
9 Ted Kluszewski 40 34 1953 CIN 149 570 180 108 55 .316
10 Johnny Mize 40 37 1948 NYG 152 560 162 125 94 .289
11 Joe DiMaggio 39 30 1948 NYY 153 594 190 155 67 .320
12 Stan Musial 39 34 1948 STL 155 611 230 131 79 .376
13 Ken Williams 39 31 1922 SLB 153 585 194 155 74 .332
14 Ted Williams 37 27 1941 BOS 143 456 185 120 147 .406
15 Andy Pafko 36 32 1950 CHC 146 514 156 92 69 .304
16 Willard Marshall 36 30 1947 NYG 155 587 171 107 67 .291
17 Al Simmons 36 34 1930 PHA 138 554 211 165 39 .381
18 Ted Kluszewski 35 31 1956 CIN 138 517 156 102 49 .302
19 Joe DiMaggio 32 21 1938 NYY 145 599 194 140 59 .324
20 Lefty O’Doul 32 19 1929 PHI 154 638 254 122 76 .398
21 Joe DiMaggio 31 30 1940 NYY 132 508 179 133 61 .352
22 Yogi Berra 30 29 1956 NYY 140 521 155 105 65 .298
23 Yogi Berra 30 24 1952 NYY 142 534 146 98 66 .273
24 Joe DiMaggio 30 13 1941 NYY 139 541 193 125 76 .357
25 Joe DiMaggio 30 20 1939 NYY 120 462 176 126 52 .381
26 Bill Dickey 29 22 1937 NYY 140 530 176 133 73 .332
27 Ted Williams 28 24 1955 BOS 98 320 114 83 91 .356
28 Yogi Berra 28 12 1950 NYY 151 597 192 124 55 .322
29 Ted Williams 28 21 1950 BOS 89 334 106 97 82 .317
30 Tommy Holmes 28 9 1945 BSN 154 636 224 117 70 .352
31 Bill Terry 28 23 1932 NYG 154 643 225 117 32 .350
32 Yogi Berra 27 20 1955 NYY 147 541 147 108 60 .272
33 Yogi Berra 27 20 1951 NYY 141 547 161 88 44 .294
34 Bill Dickey 27 22 1938 NYY 132 454 142 115 75 .313
35 Johnny Mize 25 24 1950 NYY 90 274 76 72 29 .277
36 Joe DiMaggio 25 24 1946 NYY 132 503 146 95 59 .290
37 Ken Williams 25 14 1925 SLB 102 411 136 105 37 .331

It’s a rarity today to find players with a great batting eye and good power like, Joey Votto. Continue reading →

How To Choose A Mistress – In The “Politically Incorrect” 1960s

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A 1960s Magazine Article on How To Choose A Mistress

In the article, “The Art of Selecting a Mistress” it is pointed out right at the beginning, “Love has nothing to do with it says this expert. You pick her like a car – for performance.”

Here is the quiz you are supposed to take before reading the article:

  1. The perfect mistress is:
    17 years of age (a)
    21 years of age (b)
    26 years of age (c)
    40 Years of age (d)
    75 years of age (e)
  2. The perfect mistress is (a) married (b) single (c) divorced
  3.  The perfect mistress is (a) in love with you (b) fond of you (c) crazy about herself
  4. The perfect mistress is (a) a working girl (b) well fixed (c) a working girl who needs a protector
  5. The perfect mistress is (a) intelligent (b) stupid (c) indifferent
  6. The perfect mistress is (a) owner of her own car (b) prefers cabs (c) likes men with expensive cars

A great number of topics written about in the 1960s would almost certainly be considered politically incorrect today. For many people, Selecting a Mistress from Monsieur Magazine by Mel Bennett would fall into that P.I. class.

Monsieur was a nudie titillation magazine published from 1957 through the mid- 1960s which  was several notches below Playboy in literary quality. Monsieur’s typical articles such as “Manhattan – Island of Sex Starved Men”, “Women Love To Be Unfaithful”, “Girl-Pinching Goes International” and “Making a Dame on A Plane” was not meant to attract many female readers.

 

While the answers to the quiz are on page 71 of Monsieur, unfortunately we can’t provide them.

The article image is from the New York Historical Society. As the Historical Society points out about this donated collection: “While not your standard scholarly fare, the Harvey Rosen and El Borracho Collection provides valuable insights into the supper club scene in New York as well as the decidedly un-feminist perception of women that characterized this era.”

In 2017 Aaron Judge Broke Another Record That No One Talks About

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In 2017 Aaron Judge Became The New Single Season Strikeout King

When Aaron Judge makes contact with a baseball it can be an breathtaking sight. His home runs are the definition of tape measure shots, some balls traveling 500 feet or more. Not since Mickey Mantle has a ballplayer hit such long distance bombs with such regularity.

When Aaron Judge doesn’t make contact, the big swing breeze he creates can cool off fans in the first ten rows near the dugouts. And Judge’s propensity for striking out in 2017 was prodigious.

Last season Judge struck out 236 times, 208 strikeouts in the regular season and 28 times in the postseason establishing a new major league record for most total strikeouts in a season. No news outlet bothered to point this out.

Granted, Judge’s strikeout record gets an asterisk because of his postseason participation. Continue reading →

“Fast” Eddie Clarke Motörhead’s Greatest Guitarist

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Some Highlights Of The Late, Great, “Fast” Eddie Clarke, Guitarist Of Motörhead

The “classic” Motorhead line-up on stage circa 1980 (l-r) Phil Taylor, Eddie Clarke & Lemmy Kilmister photo: Simon Fowler

When “Fast” Eddie Clarke (October 5, 1950 – January 10, 2018), guitarist with Motörhead from 1976-1982 died from pneumonia last week at the age of 67, it closed the book on what many consider Motörhead’s greatest line-up.

In the space of a little over two years, Eddie Clarke, singer-bassist and founder Lemmy Kilmister and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor, all died.

The trio put out albums that are considered the high points of Motörhead’s career: Motörhead (1977), Bomber (1979), Overkill (1979), Ace of Spades (1980), No Sleep ’til Hammersmith (Live 1981) and Iron Fist (1982).

After being forced out or leaving Motörhead in 1982 (stories conflict on the departure), “Fast” Eddie formed Fastway with bassist Pete Way of UFO. Continue reading →

New Yorkers Welcome In The New Year 1907 – But No Horn Blowing Allowed

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New Year’s Celebration 1907 – New York Police Commissioner Bans Horn Blowing

A photographer from the Montauk Photo Concern decided to photograph the scene inside the Cafe Martin, at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue on New Year’s Eve December 31, 1906.

As midnight approached the revelers at Cafe Martin noisily whooped it up, raised their glasses and toasted the coming New Year of 1907. This photograph captures a singular moment: right before the stroke of midnight the lights were put out and at exactly twelve, were put on again. The guests then sang along as the band broke into the Star Spangled Banner. Afterwards guests blew horns and confetti was strewn everywhere. Young men filled with the idea of making a speech got up on chairs and spoke to the heart’s content without anyone to stop them.

The guests, all elegantly attired, look like they are having an extraordinary time.

Outside the restaurant it was supposed to be quieter. A city ordinance forbidding horn blowing in the streets had been on the books for years. Earlier in the day Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham informed the newspapers that the bells of Trinity and Grace Church would be heard when they tolled the midnight hour.

Bingham instructed the police to enforce the noise law. All horn blowing was prohibited on New Year’s Eve! Continue reading →

45 Years Ago President Truman Died – Remembering A Man of Conviction and Courage

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Harry Truman Died December 26, 1972 At Age 88.

Some Words About and From President Truman

Here’s how the CBS Evening News covered the death of the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. This three minute clip reflects the simplicity of Harry Truman.

https://youtu.be/6qQXaJSzu8M?si=52pXjqVOnzyZvAK7

Throughout his life Harry Truman spoke his mind and was honest and ethical, highly unusual traits for a politician.

How much of a straight shooter was Harry Truman? The following story clearly illustrates it.

President Nixon tours Truman Library with President Truman March 21 1969 photo: Harry S. Truman Library

When he retired from public life in 1953, President Truman and his wife Bess moved into his mother-in-law’s house in Independence, MO. They had almost no money.

Truman had been offered many jobs, but turned them all down. Truman had not exploited his fame or former power of the high office he had held for monetary gain.

“I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency,” Truman would later write of his refusal to influence-peddle to get by.

No president received a pension until 1958 when Congress established a law giving former presidents a pension of $25,000 per year.

Truman would frequently recite this prayer…and mean it:

“Oh! Almighty and Everlasting God, Creator of Heaven, Earth and the Universe: Help me to be, to think, to act what is right, because it is right; make me truthful, honest and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me. Give me the ability to be charitable, forgiving and patient with my fellowmen—help me to understand their motives and their shortcomings—even as Thou understandest mine! Amen.”

To get a sense of Harry Truman, Continue reading →

Mendicants In New York City – 1910

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Mendicants 1910

This photograph taken at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street by Lewis Hine in 1910 is simply labeled “Mendicants.”

It’s a word you don’t often hear today. Mendicant – a beggar; panhandler.

While you may think the main subject here is the blind man sitting by the pole of the el, that would not be the case The focus of the photograph is the little girl who is begging. She appears aged and streetwise beyond her years. But both of them are mendicants.

Hine’s photographs of children at work in major cities usually focuses on newspaper sellers, shoe shiners, telegraph boys, delivery boys and other street trades. In 1910 mendicant was considered a street trade.

Who are these two people? Father and daughter? Grandfather and granddaughter? Or just two people in need who have teamed up to ply their trade?

Where did they live?

Unfortunately Hine did not get the names, ages and addresses of this girl and blind man, as he did with many of his other subjects. Continue reading →

The Myth of Congestion Pricing – A Plan To Tax and Punish Car Drivers

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New York City and State Are Getting Ready To Implement Congestion Pricing – Which Doesn’t Solve The Underlying Issues And Imposes A Regressive Tax That Punishes All But The Very Wealthy

Second Avenue 3 pm – What’s causing the traffic? It’s not the cars.

What I’m about to say will not be popular because most readers do not own a car and live in Manhattan. But if you disagree, don’t bother to write back because you can’t convince me and I probably can’t convince you.

There is a war on cars and their drivers in New York City. And the city’s solution in this war is congestion pricing, which is not the answer.

A preface- I bicycle a minimum of 50 miles a week on city streets. I walk at least another five miles and take public transportation whenever possible. But I also own a car. Why car owners are despised and have scorn heaped upon them I’ve yet to understand. Maybe because so many drivers are dangerous and don’t actually know the proper way to drive. Seeing someone speeding up to a red light is just one of my pet peeves.

It doesn’t take a car driver to notice that in New York City, especially in Manhattan, traffic is moving slower than ever.

Over the last eight years traffic’s gotten progressively worse. At first glance you might say; well there are just too many cars and why should people be driving into Manhattan? Let those who drive in Manhattan pay for the privilege.

There are several things wrong with that logic. Let’s start with the most basic problem.

The city, not the vehicles have purposely made traffic worse.

If you think that this was an unintended consequence think again.

What is causing the actual horrific bumper to bumper traffic? Guess what, it is definitely not passenger automobiles. I long suspected this and now I had to go out and prove it. Continue reading →

It’s True, A Group Wants To Entirely Rebuild The Original Penn Station

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A Serious Proposal To Rebuild The Original Penn Station

New Main Waiting Room Penn Station Credit: Jeff Stikeman for Rebuild Penn Station.

The National Civic Art Society has developed a plan to entirely rebuild the original Penn Station.

The biggest and most obvious hurdle to accomplishing the Society’s plan would be demolishing the many buildings that currently stand on the site including Madison Square Garden and a 34 story office building. Then the next question arises: who would fund such an enterprise?

As crazy as all this sounds, the actual rebuilding plan sounds feasible. You would just need all the corrupt politicians and greedy real estate entities to cooperate. That will almost certainly not occur.

But that doesn’t stop one from hoping. The organizers have an executable plan and want to drum up support among the public. Here is the opening statement from their website rebuildpennstation.org

New York City’s original Penn Station was one of the finest buildings ever constructed. With its vast main hall and soaring concourse, it provided a triumphant gateway into the city. Its demolition in 1963 was one of the greatest architectural and civic crimes in American history.

That wrong is all the worse given the current station, which is cramped, dismal, and hard to navigate. As the historian Vincent Scully said about the original station, “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.”

We aim to reconstruct the original station to return it to its former glory. Click here to join our cause.

The video the Society produced explains more.

As the rebuild Penn Station group pointed out, New York’s greatest architectural loss occurred 54 years ago.

On October 28, 1963 the demolition of Penn Station began and three years later the majestic station was gone, its marble and debris trucked out in pieces to the New Jersey Meadowlands and used as landfill.

Trains still go in and out of Penn Station. But the Penn Station that replaced the original has nothing in common with the original but the name.

Main Post Office completed 1912 photo: Underhill

Directly across from the original Penn Station between 31st to 33rd Streets and Continue reading →

AC/DC’s Malcolm Young Is Dead And So Is AC/DC

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AC/DC Was Dead Long Before Founder Malcolm Young Died

Malcolm Young’s death does not end AC/DC.

The end unofficially came at the conclusion of the Black Ice tour in Bilbao Spain on June 28, 2010. That was the last show Malcolm Young performed with AC/DC.

In 2014 when Malcolm Young left the band because he was suffering from dementia, that more or less sealed the deal. Any song put out in the future by AC/DC would not be written by Malcolm Young.

Though there is a band called AC/DC and they are still recording and touring, the 2008 Black Ice album was the last that Malcolm Young had a hand in writing. Musically, that is what is important.

Guitar players are replaceable. Great songwriters are not.

As great as a rhythm guitar player he was, writing music is what Malcolm Young did best.

Not just writing amazing songs, but incredible memorable riffs and jaw dropping solos performed by his brother Angus. They are deceptively simple, yet undeniably catchy songs and riffs that changed rock n’ roll and influenced, and will continue to influence generations of musicians.

Proof? Listen to the magical 1977 AC/DC album Let There Be Rock.

As hard as it may be, ignore Bon Scott’s brilliant tongue in cheek lyrics and just listen to the main riff of every song.

How many rock albums have two memorable songs? Let There Be Rock has, “Go Down”, “Dog Eat Dog” ,”Let There Be Rock”, “Bad Boy Boogie”,  “Problem Child”, “Overdose”, “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”, and “Whole Lotta Rosie”. Eight catchy songs, heard once – remembered forever.

Lead guitarist Angus Young, the only remaining original band member, has continued AC/DC.

I feel sorry for Angus Young. Angus certainly keeps AC/DC going not for the money, but  because honestly what else is there for him to do? An entertainer, a performer has a need to perform.

However without retired bassist Cliff Williams, the unceremoniously dispatched lead singer Brian Johnson and drummer Phil Rudd and the late rhythm guitarist and main songwriter Malcolm Young, this is not AC/DC.

This is like calling Paul McCartney and his recent 2017 touring band The Beatles. It’s not and McCartney knows better.

The touring AC/DC is is basically a juggernaut of explosions, lights,and sound. Even with the great Angus Young heading them up, AC/DC are truthfully now no better than an AC/DC tribute band.

How many post-1982 songs were in AC/DC’s live set list in 2016 with Axl Rose on lead vocals? Continue reading →