Baseball’s Regular Season Is Too Long or The Post-Season Starts Too Late
An Easy Out Jackie Robinson is an easy force out at second in first inning of fourth game of World Series at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York , Oct. 3. Yankee second baseman Billy Martin has thrown to first too late to make double play on Gil Hodges who started play on a grounder to third baseman Gil McDougald – 10/3/1953 credit Wide World Photos
On October 3, 1953 The New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers played game four of the World Series.
On October 3, 2021 baseball’s regular season finally concluded. There will be 10 teams competing in the post-season.
It’s no longer as simple as the best team in each league squaring up against each other. Continue reading →
The trees lining The Mall in Central Park are mature American Elms, over 100-years-old.
You don’t need to be a dendrophile to appreciate the American Elm. But, most people take for granted the canopy of trees that surround The Mall.
For the last 93 years the American Elm has been decimated by the spread of Dutch Elm Disease. Those who study plant pathology, phytopathologists, first identified the fungus which causes Dutch Elm Disease in 1921. Continue reading →
If you have been watching Ken Burns excellent documentary about Muhammad Ali on PBS, you can only wonder how Muhammad Ali’s views on everything would be taken today. Ali was always unabashedly honest expressing his opinions. Ali said and did things that always created controversy. Continue reading →
Never Before Seen Photographs Around The World Trade Center After The 9/11 Attacks
It was one week after the September 11 attacks. America and New York City was still in a state of disbelief. There was fear and grief. There was apprehension, And there were heroes. People who ventured into ground zero endangering their own lives for search and rescue. Continue reading →
A Once Exciting Annual Contest Has Become Pathetically Bad
Photo below: 1968 All-Star Game Hank Aaron Swipes 2nd Base In A Competitive Game
National League’s Hank Aaron (44) steals second base in sixth inning. Rod Carew takes throw with umpire Mel Steiner on top of play in All-Star game. July 9, 1968 Photo :George Honeycutt Houston Chronicle
While reluctantly watching this year’s baseball All-Star Game there was a pre-game tribute to Hank Aaron who passed away January 22, 2021. This may have been the high point of the evening as the Fox broadcast and the game itself was lacking in any drama or competitiveness.
Where’s The Drama?
The All-Star Game has become a love-fest between the players and interleague play has ruined what was once a fierce rivalry between the American and National Leagues. In the 1950 All-Star Game in Chicago, Ted Williams fractured his left elbow making a leaping, off-the-wall catch on a Ralph Kiner smash in the 1st inning. Williams remained in the game, and put the American League ahead, 3 – 2, in the fifth inning with an RBI single. Ted Williams said he was never the same after fracturing his elbow. Williams, like many players went all out playing in the All-Star Game, which is an exhibition game with no meaning in the standings. The AL and NL teams used to badly want to beat the opposition in the annual showdown.
Part II – Advertising From The Century Magazine October 1904 – Companies That Are Extinct
Underwood began production of typewriters in 1895. Up until 1959 when they were acquired by Olivetti, Underwood sold millions of typewriters. They made their last typewriter in the 1980s.
Part I – Advertising From The Century Magazine October 1904
Companies That Have Survived
Whitman’s chocolate as it was advertised in 1904. The company was started in Philadelphia in 1842 by Stephen Whitman. In 1877 he began to box chocolates. Russell Stover Candies is the current owner.
While browsing through The Century Magazine issue for October 1904 I couldn’t help but notice the advertisements.
While a great many of the firms are out of business, a surprising number are still around today. For part one we will look at the ads of the companies that are still here in 2021. They’ve survived different owners, mergers and changing public tastes. It’s interesting to see how these enduring products once portrayed themselves with strong images or many words or a combination of the two.
Let’s have a look.
We may not have servants drawing baths for us now, but you can still buy a bar of Pears’ Soap and give yourself a bath. Founded in 1807, the worldwide company is now run by Unilever. Continue reading →
“Is there really a body in there?” is usually not one of the questions you ask yourself when visiting a grave. But this is no ordinary grave. Continue reading →
Answer – A Field Box Seat Ticket To All 81 Yankee Home Games
In 2021, Two Field Level Tickets For Just One Game Costs More
Digging around my closet I came up with this memento. It’s the 1984 Yankees home schedule.
It should come as no surprise that the ticket prices 37 years ago were very fair especially compared to today.
At $675 per seat you could buy a field, main, mezzanine or upper box seat for the entire season.
Crazy Modern Prices
Checking the Yankee schedule of 2021, a single field level ticket to an upcoming Yankees – White Sox game costs $388.35 including Ticketmaster fees. Continue reading →
Five 1980s Rock Videos Where The Band Is Not The Star
Whitesnake definitely owes a large portion of their late 1980s popularity to Tawny Kitaen, the actress model who suddenly passed away on May 7, 2021 at the age of 59. Tawny Kitaen was the real star in the videos for Here I Go Again; Still of The Night and Is This Love. Kitaen later married lead singer David Coverdale. The constant playing of these videos on MTV no doubt greatly contributed to helping the band eventually sell 15 million copies (8 million plus in the United States) of the 1987 eponymously titled Whitesnake album. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the previous seven Whitesnake albums sold a total of less than two million units combined before Tawny Kitaen’s addition to Whitesnake’s arsenal of sales tactics.
Not that Tawny Kitaen started a trend, but bands have always known that a good song can be made into a VERY popular song by featuring sexy women in their videos.
Here are five cases where the band is not the primary focus of the video, but a very attractive woman is.
Ric Ocasek -Something To Grab For (1982)
Ric Ocasek of The Cars released seven solo albums over his career which had modest sales. His first solo LP 1982’s Beatitude was the most successful, hitting number 28 on the Billboard charts. Starring in Something To Grab For is future 1983 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Marianne Gravatte (b. 1959). Gravatte, a stunningly beautiful woman, was also featured in Ratt’s Lay It Down.
