While browsing eBay for baseball-related comics and Godzilla DVDs (easily two of the 50,000 best uses for eBay), I came across something interesting being auctioned that had originally come from an estate sale for Stan Musial. It’s not unprecedented, in fact, I’ve written about it before.
Yeah. Seriously. If you ever were a creeper enough to want to own a now-dead Hall of Famer’s family photos, insurance cards, proof of CPR training, honorary sheriff membership, devotional image of Pope John Paul II and a few hundred bucks… now you can.
And, guess what? You can even see the late, great, Stan the Man’s address, phone number and social security number.
Seriously. I’m not sure if this is funny or disgusting. Or, possibly, both.
But, of course, when most baseball fans think of Godzilla, they think of Hideki Matsui, the great Japanese slugger who had it as his nickname.
Did you know, however, that “Godzilla” actually once had a cameo in a Godzilla movie? In 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, he made this cameo (shown below in dubbed form):
Actually, he made two cameos: Later in the movie he shows up again practicing his swing indoors while the lights go out since Mechagodzilla is drawing upon Tokyo’s power-grid, if memory serves.
So, there you go: Hideki Matsui’s Godzilla cameo.
…Okay, so I guess you probably wish there was more here, so, without further ado, here are other connections between Godzilla and Baseball (I would like to thank the internet for basically giving me all of this information):
Shea Stadium was destroyed during a monster fight in Godzilla: The Series, the cartoon series that came out after the horrible 1998 movie that claimed to feature Godzilla but just featured an imposter that had his name.
Oscar-Nominated Actor Nick Adams, who ended up starring in Invasion of Astro-Monster (AKA Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) in 1966 (hey, he needed money), at one point turned down a offer from the St. Louis Cardinals to play minor league ball, mainly because he didn’t like the low pay offered.
David Straithairn, who plays a military leader in the new Godzilla film, was Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out and also had a role as Ira Lowenstein in A League of Their Own.
Thomas Tull, the CEO of Legendary Films and producer of the new film, tried out to be a replacement player for the Braves during the 1994-95 strike, and also made a failed bid to buy the Padres in 2012.
There are probably others that I’m missing, but those are the ones I found relatively quickly.
NEXT TIME ON BIZARRE BASEBALL CULTURE: …I’m not sure yet.
I told you. I told you Phil Hughes could be a possibly deceptive good deal, and now, after 7 shut-out innings, he’s got a 5-1 record and 3.15 ERA. MVP of Yesterday!
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.
Earlier this week, the season finale of the second year of Arrow aired. And, to belatedly honor that, here’s a look at the time that Green Arrow and the Elongated Man fought a guy dressed as a calculator during the World Series.
The MVPs of the past two days were David Price and Masahiro Tanaka… sorry about the lack of explanation, but I’ve been very busy the last few days. I’ll be making up for this, however. Oh yeah….
Yeah. Seriously. If you ever were a creeper enough to want to own a now-dead Hall of Famer’s family photos, insurance cards, proof of CPR training, honorary sheriff membership, devotional image of Pope John Paul II and a few hundred bucks… now you can.
The Baseball Continuum 