Category Archives: Uncategorized

Now a member of the IBWAA

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Yes, as you saw with the above tweet, I am now a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. As the name suggests, it is a internet version of the Baseball Writers Association of America, with it’s own awards, HoF, and the like. Except it’s way less formal and will even let people like me in.

So what does this mean for the Baseball Continuum? Well, partly it means you’ll be seeing my thoughts on awards and Hall of Fame tied in with the IBWAA, as opposed to just being to nobody in particular. For another, you may see some of my stuff be retweeted by the IBWAA Twitter feed, which is nice.

But other than that… not much will change! So… thank you for coming to the Baseball Continuum and I hope you keep coming here.

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Coming Soon: A Retrospective on Rochester Red Wings Yearbooks/Programs

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Coming soon will be a new feature on this blog, in which I look back at the programs and yearbooks of the Rochester Red Wings, collected over the years by myself, my father, and in some cases myself through other means (like eBay or Red Wings yard sales).

Among the fun things that we shall see:

  • Famous ballplayers when they were younger!
  • Unintentionally comedic advertisements, prospect previews, and hairstyles! Hey, hindsight is always 20/20.
  • The fall of the Orioles-Red Wings marriage!
  • The rise of the Twins-Red Wings marriage!
  • Special appearances by two current MLB announcers and one of the most powerful people in Buffalo sports, amongst others!
  • And also a look at the 2000 AAA All-Star Game program!

So look out in the coming days as we begin back in a mysterious time known as…. THE EIGHTIES!

 

 

 

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Popeye and “The Twisker Pitcher”

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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

Today we have a cartoon from 1937 starring Popeye the Sailor Man. It’s called The Twisker Pitcher, and it’s dark as hell. Seriously, this cartoon has…

A) Rampant steroid use (the spinach)

B) Violence, both on the field and in the stands

C) A near total disregard for rules and the space-time continuum

D) A total disregard for player safety.

Oof. So, go below the jump for a summary of this, the 47th Popeye Cartoon:

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Coming this weekend….

Aside

This weekend…

  • An interesting look at T-Shirts. Yes… T-Shirts.
  • FINALLY the latest and greatest BIZARRE BASEBALL CULTURE
  • …and maybe something else. Not sure.

MVP of Yesterday (September 2, 2015): Clayton Kershaw

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Throwing a 15-strikeout masterpiece, Kershaw is an easy choice for MVP of Yesterday.

Standings, as always, after the jump:

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The Full Scientific Names for Baseball Teams

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Your webmaster is on vacation, and as a result some of his posting might be erratic. Thankfully, he has set up some stuff go up in his absence. This is one of them.

Ever wonder what the scientific names for your favorite animal-named baseball teams would be?

No?

Well, too bad, because here we go:

The Toronto Cyanocitta cristata

The Baltimore Icterus galbula

The St. Louis Cardinalis cardinalis

The Tampa Bay Rhinoptera bonasus

The Detroit Panthera tigris

The Miami Makaira nigricans

The Arizona Crotalus atrox

 …But, wait, we can go deeper! Let’s go into the Minor Leagues and sample some of the animal teams there!

The Toledo Fulica americana (It turns out a “Mud Hen” is actually a duck-like bird called the American Coot, which is a type of Rail)

The Buffalo Bison bison

The Durham Bos taurus

The Memphis Cardinalis cardinalis (yes, the name Redbird is literally a synonym for Cardinal)

The Fresno Ursus arctos

The El Paso Canis lupus familiaris (a Chihuahua, in the end, is just a dog)

The Salt Lake Apis mellifera

The Richmond Glaucomys volans

The Carolina Ameiurus natalis

The Myrtle Beach Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

The Brevard County Trichechus manatus

The Clearwater Alopias vulpinus

The Charlotte (Florida) Menippe mercenaria

The Jupiter Sphyrna mokarran

The Beloit Chelydra serpentina

The Wisconsin Crotalus horridus

The West Virginia Ursus americanus

The Missoula Pandion haliaetus

The Idaho Falls Alectoris chukar

The Ogden Utahraptor ostrommaysorum (Yeah, they have a dinosaur.)

AND NOW YOU KNOW!

 

“Fantastic Four” Bizarre Baseball Cultures that are probably way better than the new movie

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The new Fantastic Four movie recently came out. It was a total and utter disaster, with a Rotten Tomatoes score that can only be seen with a microscope and a box office performance so pitiful it couldn’t even win it’s week. It’s hardly surprising, really, as A) it was not made by Marvel itself, but rather FOX, which only has the rights to make these movies due to a deal it made way back in the early 1990s when Marvel was in the direst of financial straits, and B) it was trying to turn what is arguably the most optimistic and adventuresome of comic books into a dark and moody techno-thriller. I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?!?

With luck, this failure will lead to the Fantastic Four and their stable of villains (most notably DOCTOR DOOM) back to the Marvel line, so we can see a real and proper movie featuring the FF, with Doctor Doom done right, and maybe with a Hulk-Thing fight thrown in, too, because after how badly this and the previous movies have hurt the reputation of “Marvel’s First Family”, they’re going to have to go all out to win back the crowd.

But, anyway, enough rambling. Here are the Bizarre Baseball Cultures that featured the Fantastic Four. All of them, no doubt, are better than the current film:

2007’s AAA Baseball Heroes

This Marvel/AAA Baseball crossover is great in that it shows off how the Fantastic Four are basically an ordinary family who happen to go exploring alternate dimensions and fight space-gods in their spare time. I mean, look, they all are at a ballgame together!

 

2007GiveawayComicPage1From what I understand, the latest movie has none of this stuff. And it flopped big time. Coincidence? I think not.

It also has a Hulk-Thing fight and this, the greatest image in the history of art:

Screen Shot 2013-06-18 at 5.53.33 PM2008’s AAA Baseball Heroes

This installment of the Marvel/AAA Baseball didn’t have as much Fantastic Four fun, really only featuring Reed Richards and the Mole-Man (who served as the villain). However, unlike the new movie, it showed the Fantastic Four as part of a large and vibrant universe and as close allies and friends with characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man. Which, if you ask me, instantly makes it better than whatever piece of crap 20th Century Fox just put out.

We also see the Mole Man cry tears of joy, which still makes me laugh for some reason:

And the Mole Man wept...

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius Super Summer Spectacular

A good, innocent, all-ages comedy comic about Franklin Richards, the eldest son of Reed and Sue Richards, as he tries to cheat in little league by using a Flubber-like explosive substance on his bat to hit some home runs.

It also has this image:

Screen Shot 2013-11-30 at 10.37.50 PMAh, such light-hearted whimsy. If only the new Fantastic Four movie had some of that, maybe it wouldn’t have been called something that “not only scrapes the bottom of the barrel; it knocks out the floor and sucks audiences into a black hole of soul-crushing, coma-inducing dullness.”

That’s something that somebody actually wrote. Go look on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cameos

The FF has also made brief appearances in my run-down of Marvel Universe appearances by Yankee Stadium, and in the Bullseye miniseries. I won’t go in depth on those, as we are forgetting about the unofficial fifth member of the Fantastic Four, their arch-nemesis, the greatest villain in Marvel comics….

DOCTOR DOOM….. who once tried to kidnap Jeff Conine

Okay, this is what Doctor Doom apparently looks like in the new movie:

What. The. Hell. That isn’t Doctor Doom. That’s, like, I dunno, what would happen if evil C3PO had a baby with a Gothic Crash-Test Dummy. Jeez, is it THAT EFFING HARD, FOX?!?! THIS IS WHAT DOOM LOOKS LIKE, IN BATTLE WITH TWO OF HIS GREATEST FOES:

BILLY THE MARLIN and SPIDER-MAN!

MarlinsSpideyCoverI mean, jeez, that’s one of the most iconic things in comic books. It was the partial inspiration for Darth freaking Vader. But, NOOOOOOOO, you have to go make Doom like like a human vacuum cleaner that just got put in the oven for too long.

…Seriously, FOX, give back the rights to Marvel. They’re Disney. They have the money. They have the X-Men television rights you want. For the good of all that is holy. PLEASE!

(ahem)

Anyway, Doctor Doom made one of the most notable appearances in Bizarre Baseball Culture when he went and tried to kidnap Jeff Conine to force him to play for the Latverian national baseball team, only to be foiled by Billy the Marlin and Spider-Man. Truly, words cannot describe the greatness of this story. If Marvel ever gets the rights to Doctor Doom back, the very first thing they should do is make a deal with a Marlins and put into production a adaptation of this, albeit with Giancarlo Stanton taking the Jeff Conine spot.

I mean, look at this brilliance:

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 11.05.15 PMI mean, behold this:

Screen Shot 2013-09-28 at 1.44.38 PMSeriously, this is probably better than that new movie, and the Fantastic Four aren’t even in it!

…So, anyway, that concludes a look back at Fantastic Four appearances in Bizarre Baseball Culture. Keep an eye open in the next few days for the next installment, featuring Popeye the Sailor Man, a known user of performance-enhancing substances (i.e. spinach).

 

MVPs of Thursday (July 30) through the Weekend (July 31, Aug. 1, Aug. 2, 2015):

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Okay, so, I screwed up these past few days. So… let’s get caught up:
Thursday’s MVP was Brandon Phillips.

Friday’s was Taijuan Walker.

Saturday’s was Clayton Kershaw.

Sunday’s was Andre Ethier.

Standings, as always, after the jump:

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The Rochester Red Wings went all-in on their “Miracle on Ice” theme last night

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Themed nights are a mainstay of Minor League Baseball, and at times Major League Baseball. Superhero Night! Throwback Night! (Insert Cultural Group Here) Appreciation Night!

However, a lot of times, these nights are half-hearted. Maybe there will be some music changes, some special guests, or a specially themed firework display. And, yes, there usually will be some sort of special uniform, auctioned off for charity. But few of them are willing to combine every single one of these aspects.

But last night, the Rochester Red Wings went all out for their “Miracle on Ice Night” event, in honor of the 35th anniversary of 1980’s Miracle on Ice. There were….

Special Guests!

Not one, not two, but three members of the Gold-Medal team came: Mike Ramsey, John Harrington, and Ken Morrow. They signed autographs, sure, but they also slap-shotted their first pitches:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESAnd did a post-game interview about the 1980 Olympics and other topics. The biggest difference between Miracle and the real events, by the way, is that the real Herb Brooks wasn’t as nice as Kurt Russell’s version. Ha!

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSpecial Uniforms:

Presumably because the Syracuse management wouldn’t have liked to have their players and managers wearing CCCP jerseys, both teams wore 1980 Team USA jerseys.

The Red Wings wore the white jersey, the Chiefs wore the blue ones… and the umpires wore hockey-style stripes. SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESI have to say, given that these uniforms are based off the uniforms of an entirely different sport, they didn’t look half-bad. And plus it allowed everyone to see the amazing site of Mike Quade in a Team USA argue and be ejected from the game by a umpire dressed like a hockey ref, which isn’t something you see every day:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSurreal.

Food and Little Touches

At the ballpark last night was something called the Hat Trick, which the Wings website described as “Consisting of a 1/2 pound cheeseburger, a 1/4 pound hot dog and a 1/3 pound Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a DiPaolo sub roll”. I didn’t eat it, but I was able to take a picture of it:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESIn addition, little changes were done throughout the game. Instead of the usual “Mario getting a coin” sound when the Wings scored, the stadium played a hockey arena horn. Instead of having a little league team be introduced before the game, they had a pee-wee hockey team be honored. Highlights of the game were given between innings and a replica of the newspaper from the day after the game in 1980 was given out. Also, to fit with the 1980s theme, all of the walk-up music was replaced with music from the era. Oh, and on the scoreboards they made it so that the players looked like they were in hockey gear:

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Note: James Beresford is Australian and it is entirely possible that he has never seen a game of ice hockey in person his entire life.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES Fireworks!:

And, finally, the fireworks show consisted entirely of music from 1980. I can’t remember them doing that before. Here’s pictures of fireworks to end this:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESAll in all, a well put-together night. Well, other than the fact the home team lost 10-4.

MVPs of the last two days (July 28 and 29, 2015)

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I was so caught up in Trade Deadline Fever that I forgot to do a MVP yesterday.

 

So, YESTERDAY’s MVP was Chris Archer (edging out Jon Lester). The MVP of TUESDAY was Sonny Gray.

Standings, as always, after the jump:

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