Tag Archives: weird baseball

Best of 2015- Bizarre Baseball Culture: Fallout 4’s surprisingly-high level of Baseball

Posted on by
Reply

Originally published November 24, 2015.

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.

(Note: The following contains spoilers for Fallout 4. Click on each picture to make it larger if you are having trouble reading text or seeing something.)

It is October 23, 2077. The world is at war, and fear of nuclear annihilation is high. However, for you, it is just another day in a Boston suburb with your spouse and your young son. And, obviously, your son, Shaun, is a baseball fan in the making, as you can see a small glove and ball that you can comment on:

ShaunGlove

shaunball

As you receive your coffee and paper from your robotic butler, Codsworth, you hear something in the corner of your living room. On a black-and-white TV, a newsman with the voice of Ron Perlman (who has a role in every Fallout game, usually as a narrator of some kind) updates you on the day’s events and weather before going to sports:

perlman1

perlman2

perlman3

Yes, it’s World Series time in Boston, as the Red Sox are looking to win their first title in over a century and a half!

You are then interrupted by a salesman selling a spot in a underground fallout shelter, called a Vault. After that’s done, you go check on your son and talk to your wife. She thinks maybe everyone should go for a walk in the park this afternoon. Pffft, you say:

misstheworldseries

Of course, you do end up missing the World Series. After this conversation, you get news that atomic missiles are incoming. You rush to the nearest vault. Stuff happens, and you wake up 210 years later with your wife gone and your son missing.

(More below the jump!)

Continue reading →

Advertisement

BEST OF 2015: BIZARRE BASEBALL CULTURE- The Time That Bullseye had a 2-issue Baseball Miniseries

Posted on by
Reply

Originally published May 16, 2015.
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.

One of the things you realize when you think about superhero fiction too hard is that a lot of the criminals could probably become rich using their technology or skills in more legal pursuits. For example, find the right quiz show for the Riddler, and he’s rolling in dough. Captain Cold or Mister Freeze could easily make a mint if they applied their freeze-weapons toward something like refrigeration. Heck, even the people who write the comics know this, and in the 1980s they turned Lex Luthor from a supergenius with lots of high-tech inventions into a corrupt supergenius billionaire superexecutive who had made his money from his many high-tech inventions.

Which leads me to Bullseye. Bullseye’s a Daredevil villain, created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr. in the 1976 and perfected by Frank Miller in his run on Daredevil’s comic book. Bullseye’s entire shtick is that he basically has perfect killer accuracy with basically everything, even harmless stuff like playing cards. He’s arguably Daredevil’s second-greatest foe (after the Kingpin), and is directly or indirectly responsible for the death of at least two of Daredevil’s girlfriends (only one of whom got better).

But, still, that shtick with the accuracy, wouldn’t you think he could make a great pitcher?

Well, there was a 2-part miniseries at the turn of this decade that basically grabbed a hold of that idea and ran with it… Bullseye: Perfect Game.

It’s a surprisingly good short look at obsession and perfection, with some nice easter eggs for fans of baseball and of comics and a great ending that I’m sort of bummed out I’ll spoil in my summary…. BELOW THE JUMP:

Continue reading →

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Fallout 4’s surprisingly-high level of Baseball

Posted on by
15

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.

(Note: The following contains spoilers for Fallout 4. Click on each picture to make it larger if you are having trouble reading text or seeing something.)

It is October 23, 2077. The world is at war, and fear of nuclear annihilation is high. However, for you, it is just another day in a Boston suburb with your spouse and your young son. And, obviously, your son, Shaun, is a baseball fan in the making, as you can see a small glove and ball that you can comment on:

ShaunGlove

shaunball

As you receive your coffee and paper from your robotic butler, Codsworth, you hear something in the corner of your living room. On a black-and-white TV, a newsman with the voice of Ron Perlman (who has a role in every Fallout game, usually as a narrator of some kind) updates you on the day’s events and weather before going to sports:

perlman1

perlman2

perlman3

Yes, it’s World Series time in Boston, as the Red Sox are looking to win their first title in over a century and a half!

You are then interrupted by a salesman selling a spot in a underground fallout shelter, called a Vault. After that’s done, you go check on your son and talk to your wife. She thinks maybe everyone should go for a walk in the park this afternoon. Pffft, you say:

misstheworldseries

Of course, you do end up missing the World Series. After this conversation, you get news that atomic missiles are incoming. You rush to the nearest vault. Stuff happens, and you wake up 210 years later with your wife gone and your son missing.

(More below the jump!)

Continue reading →

BIZARRE BASEBALL CULTURE- The Time That Bullseye had a 2-issue Baseball Miniseries

Posted on by
17

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.

One of the things you realize when you think about superhero fiction too hard is that a lot of the criminals could probably become rich using their technology or skills in more legal pursuits. For example, find the right quiz show for the Riddler, and he’s rolling in dough. Captain Cold or Mister Freeze could easily make a mint if they applied their freeze-weapons toward something like refrigeration. Heck, even the people who write the comics know this, and in the 1980s they turned Lex Luthor from a supergenius with lots of high-tech inventions into a corrupt supergenius billionaire superexecutive who had made his money from his many high-tech inventions.

Which leads me to Bullseye. Bullseye’s a Daredevil villain, created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr. in the 1976 and perfected by Frank Miller in his run on Daredevil’s comic book. Bullseye’s entire shtick is that he basically has perfect killer accuracy with basically everything, even harmless stuff like playing cards. He’s arguably Daredevil’s second-greatest foe (after the Kingpin), and is directly or indirectly responsible for the death of at least two of Daredevil’s girlfriends (only one of whom got better).

But, still, that shtick with the accuracy, wouldn’t you think he could make a great pitcher?

Well, there was a 2-part miniseries at the turn of this decade that basically grabbed a hold of that idea and ran with it… Bullseye: Perfect Game.

It’s a surprisingly good short look at obsession and perfection, with some nice easter eggs for fans of baseball and of comics and a great ending that I’m sort of bummed out I’ll spoil in my summary…. BELOW THE JUMP:

Continue reading →

BIZARRE BASEBALL CULTURE/CONTINUUCAST 4: “THE DAY BASEBALL DIED”

Posted on by
16

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.

This installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture can only be found through the Baseball Continuum’s Continuucast! Hit play above, download by right-clicking here, follow the RSS feed here or follow on iTunes here (if the latest episode isn’t up yet, it will be shortly).

The Continuucast has it’s first true “Bizarre Baseball Culture” segment as Dan looks at the 1946 Columbia Workshop radio-play, “The Day Baseball Died.” In addition, he takes a quick look “Around the Continuum” of international baseball and has a brief complaint about the fact MLB Network doesn’t show the Caribbean World Series.

Music/Sounds Featured:

“The National Game” by John Phillip Sousa

“Flight of the Bumblebee” (AKA The Green Hornet Theme) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov performed by the US Army Band (special “Bizarre Baseball Culture” remix by Dan Glickman featuring the Pablo Sanchez Theme and clips from previous and future Bizarre Baseball Culture pieces)

“Prelude to Act I” from Carmen by Georges Bizet (AKA the Bad News Bears theme)

Excerpt of “Pennant Fever” from the Major League soundtrack

All sound and music used is either public domain or is a short snippet that falls under fair use.

 

Go below the jump for links to previous Bizarre Baseball Cultures.

Continue reading →

Coming Up in Bizarre Baseball Culture

Posted on by
Reply

Some of you may be wondering what the next installments of Bizarre Baseball Culture will be. Well, here’s a little sneak preview- not really giving out exactly what and exactly when, but some good hints:

Actual Books: There hasn’t been a Bizarre Baseball Culture on fully-written material since the short story that acted as a prologue to this feature. That will soon change, as I am currently reading two books that fit into the realm of Bizarre Baseball Culture. One of them involves time travel, the other involves the Frankenstein Monster. I’m not sure what one I will do, but one of these WILL be the next installment.

Ultimate Sports Force: At the turn of the century, there was a comic company called Ultimate Sports Force that made it’s name making giveaway comics that depicted athletes as actually being superheroes. I have obtained some of these comics, and I can confirm they are as crazy as you could think. How crazy? Well, as I told Michael “Old Time Family Baseball” Clair on Twitter, one of them involves four members of the New York Yankees fighting off meteor-monsters by order of Cal Ripken Jr. and the United States Military. Go back and read that sentence again, and not look for the pieces of your mind, as it has just been blown. Expect to see some Ultimate Sports Force comics between now and winter, although I’m not quite sure of the order yet.

Public Domain Comics: The backbone of early Bizarre Baseball Culture installments, there still are some tales left to tell from way back. There is, however, one public domain story I will not be doing, at least anytime soon: a Captain Marvel Jr. story in which he goes and helps American POWs in a game against the Japanese. The reason I am not covering it is because it is incredibly racist, and even considering that it was a product of being in wartime, I don’t feel comfortable printing any images of it here.

Television: There are other television things I’ll be covering, both live action and cartoon. They will range from shorts like the Goofy segment to longer-form things like the Pokemon and the Pinky and the Brain episodes.

So, keep an eye open….

Do you have any suggestions for “Bizarre Baseball Culture”? Let me know.