June 2010 - Page 6 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

The Imperfect Game QUESTIONS

Is this the worst blown call ever? Probably not.

It surprises me that I am feeling rather uncertain about the whole Major League Baseball perfect game* issue this week. If you missed it, and it was so weird that it made ABC News’ primary broadcast: a Detroit Tigers pitcher named Armando Galarraga got the first 26 batters out, without giving up a walk or a hit batsman. No one got on via an error or a third strike passed ball. One more out, and he would achieve something only 20 other pitchers had achieved: a perfect game, though, oddly, two of them were in May 2010. The umpire, Jim Joyce, called the runner safe, though almost everyone else thought, and ultimately the instant replay shows the runner to be out.

So there’s a whole debate about whether the ruling should be reversed by the baseball commissioner and award Galarraga a perfect game. And I just don’t know. I’ve read what the local sports guy and Keith Olbermann, formerly of ESPN, and Jaquandor, who thinks we should just turn off the lights on baseball, have to say. Yet I still have ambivalence.

The fact that both the player and the umpire, who have engendered a lot of genuine good will, even by the Tigers fans towards the repentant ump, is a real feel-good story. For you don’t have to follow baseball to want people to receive what they worked for, for things to be “fair”, and for obvious wrongs to be righted. It’s difficult to achieve that in our politics, so we crave it all the more in our sports.

1. Should the umpire’s ruling be overturned? Dodgers’ radio announcer Ken Levine says YES.
2. Baseball has introduced instant reply to determine whether a home run shot is fair or foul. Should there be more instant replay, which would slow down a sport than already takes longer per 9 innings than it used to? If they do, I don’t think it can be on balls and strikes. Perhaps each team gets one challenge per game. It could be for fair/foul ball hit down the lines, or a play at a base.
3. Why the heck did we almost have three perfect games in less than 30 days? Two of these guys, including Dallas Braden of the Oakland A’s and Galarraga, I had never heard of. Only Roy Halladay is an experienced front-line pitcher. Is it just luck? Is pitching and defense getting THAT much better?
4. Is this the worst blown call ever? Don Denkinger, an umpire who infamous blew a call, also at first base, in the 1985 World Series.
5. On a different matter, is there any doubt that Ken Griffey, Jr., who retired this week with 630 home runs, fifth on the list behind only Bonds, Aaron, Ruth and Mays, and without hint of scandal, such as steroid use, will be picked for the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility?
***
John Wooden, the UCLA men’s basketball coach, who guided the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national championships in 27 years during the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 99.

But he may best be remembered for teaching his player how to tie their shoes, every year, initially confounding his players, but eventually they got it.

30-Day Challenge: Day 5 – Favorite Food

Do I HAVE a favorite food?

It’s much easier to pick the things I DON’T like.

Ah, a tough one. Certainly, I’ve stated my love of spinach lasagna. Partly, it came from the realization that I didn’t have to cook the noodles beforehand; no, you don’t need to buy those special noodles, you just need extra tomato sauce. But I don’t have it very often. Same goes for dishes with duck, or a beef steak.

I do know that I tend to like things mixed more than plain. Cheerios and shredded wheat is better than either component.
Ditto:
orange juice and cranberry juice
cottage cheese and apple sauce
sharp Cheddar cheese and a Ritz cracker

Thing is, I don’t like that many things over and over. I eat a lot of chicken, but it becomes tolerable only because it’s prepared in different ways.

Though I have gotten into ruts. If I have a bagel, it’ll always be cinnamon raisin, if it’s available. Likewise, strawberry ice cream, lamb saag (spinach) from the local Indian restaurant. My candy choice tends to be plain M&Ms, which I eat in color order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown); it’s part of the enjoyment.

Do I HAVE a favorite food? I suppose it’s spinach, a function of propaganda from daily doses of Popeye on television as a child.

It’s much easier to pick the things I DON’T like: things with peanut butter; things with the artificial banana flavor (I like bananas) or almost any fruit; anchovy; cauliflower; sauerkraut. Don’t drink coffee, beer, vermouth or Scotch, so I don’t like coffee ice cream, e.g.

EW 100 Greatest Characters of Last 20 Years

I know her getting a haircut was apparently a national tragedy.

Entertainment Weekly, to which I have a subscription and sometimes actually read, has one of THOSE lists. Naturally, they’re subjective, but I’m assuming they are supposed to capture not just popularity but the zeitgeist of the characters mentioned.

For some reason, I feel compelled to comment. Feel free to suggest who you would move up or down, or add or remove from the list. My comment of “yes” means that it’s placed more or less correctly on the list.

1. Homer Simpson – The Simpsons. The word d’oh has made it into the dictionary. Interesting how the program went from being Bart’s show to Homer’s. Homer has engendered theological discussion.
2. Harry Potter – seven books, the last five or six of which got people to stay up past midnight to pick up. Plus six films (and counting) plus a theme park. Arguably, could be #1.
3. Buffy Summers – Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Phenom, yet I think it’s a little high; maybe top 20.
4. Tony Soprano – The Sopranos. Never saw but four minutes of this, yet there was no arguing about the significance of the DEEPLY flawed character.
5. The Joker – The Dark Knight. Great performance and tragic ending, but can’t help but wonder if people will still be talking about it in 10 years.
6. Rachel Green – Friends. If for the hairdo alone.
7. Edward Scissorhands. I liked this movie, but I think it’s too high on the list.
8. Hannibal Lecter – The Silence of the Lambs. Couldn’t get through the movie, yet I can quote dialogue from it. Definitely worthy of its placement.
9. Carrie Bradshaw – Sex and the City. Even if you hate the series, and apparently the second movie is cringe-inducing, significant.
10. Spongebob Squarepants – lots of adults actually watch this, including some that i know. Yes.

11. Cosmo Kramer – Seinfeld. Yes.
12. Fox Mulder & Dana Scully – The X-Files. Yes.
13. Jack Sparrow – Pirates of the Caribbean. Saw the first movie. More worthy choice of a Johnny Depp role that #7.
14. Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski – The Big Lebowski. Possibly should be in the Top 10.
15. Shrek – Sure.
16. Bridget Jones – It WAS a phenom for a time, wasn’t it?
17. Lara Croft – not my cuppa, but seems rightly placed on the list.
18. Sue Sylvester – Glee. I LOVE this character. Still, I think it’s an awfully high ranking for a show with such a short history, compared to other choices.
19. Morpheus – The Matrix. Sure.
20. Ally McBeal – made the cover of TIME magazine re: the death of feminism, which wasn’t the message of the show, I don’t think. Worthy choice.

21. Rosanne Conner – she became the epitome of some blue-collar ethos. Yes.
22. Cartman – South Park. Guess so.
23. Austin Powers – shagalicious; is that still a word? (Was it ever?) Yes.
24. Felicity Porter – I know her getting a haircut was apparently a national tragedy, but this feels too high.
25. Woody – Toy Story. wouldn’t have thought of him, but yes.
26. Kavalier & Clay – comic book novel done right, but did it have a larger reach? Seems high.
27. Frasier Crane – as the epitome of a smart person lacking self-awareness, yes.
28. Madea – Tyler Perry’s creation is more popular than some folks might think; yes.
29. Vincent Vega & Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction. Yes, the smart dialogue reached well beyond those who actually saw the movie, which spawned countless imitators.
30. Stephen Colbert – The Colbert Report. Yes, though it wouldn’t have occurred to me to include.

31. Forrest Gump -Yes, you can quote lines from this movie, even if you didn’t particularly like it.
32. Bevis and Butt-Head -Yes, I’m afraid so.
33. Sarah Connor – Terminator 2 – Yes.
34. Cher – Clueless. saw the movie, recall enjoying the movie, but seems a bit high.
35. Dexter Morgan – Dexter. Haven’t seen one minute of this, yet I know a great deal about it. Maybe a little high.
36. Gollum – Lord of the Rings. Yes, that technological magic.
37. Kyser Söze – The Usual Suspects. Had its day in the sun, but too high on the list.
38. Elmo – Sesame Street. WAY too low. This is the go-to Muppet. If you’ve watched Sesame Street, he has his own segment. Toys with his likeness became difficult to find.
39. GOB Bluth – Arrested Development. Great character, and the actor is great on 30 Rock, but I think, most people wouldn’t know the name. Too high.
40. Ron Burgundy – Anchorman. Yes, though I never saw the film.

41. Harold and Kumar -Yes.
42. Sydney Bristow – Alias – Yes.
43. Cal Stephanides – Middlesex – Can’t say; don’t know it at all. Which, by definition, means too high.
44. Jack Bauer – 24. WAY too low. As much as I grew to dislike the character, “Jack Bauer” became code word for a certain tough, take no prisoners, do what you have to do attitude. Should be Top 10.

45. Stewie Griffin – Family Guy. Just caught a bit of Family Guy; remember why so many hate it. Yes.
46. Jerry Maguire – has a couple catchphrases said TO him, involving money and hello; too low.
47. Corky St. Clair – Waiting for Guffman. I love this movie, but I doubt its impact in the broader market. Too high.
48. Red – The Shawshank Redemption. Yes, from a movie with so-so box office, it’s done extremely well as a rental.
49. Vivian Ward – Pretty Woman. Had all sorts of sociological conversations about the Cinderella aspect of the story. Made Julia Roberts’ career. Yes.
50. Pearl the Landlord – Funny or Die video. Do people who aren’t online even know what this is? The first one I saw was funny, though it lost its enjoyment. Too high.

51. Omar Little – The Wire. the show as a whole is influential beyond its viewership. But do people know the individual characters? Too high.
52. Annie Wilkes – Misery. Yes. Saw this.
53. Edward Cullen – Twilight. As much as I’m REALLY NOT interested, this may be a bit too low, considering the phenomenon.
54. Juno – Yes. briefly was the source of debate about abortion, choice and how to deal with teen pregnancy.
55. Tracy Jordan – 30 Rock. Hmm. I would have picked Liz or even Jack from the show. Maybe a little high.
56. Barney Stinson – How I Met Your Mother -Yes, and it’s done wonders for Neil Patrick Harris’ career to boot.
57. Clayton Bigsby (blind white supremacist) – Chappelle’s Show. Was this watercooler conversation? Feels a little high.
58. Thelma & Louise – THE female buddy movie. The ending was greatly debated. Yes.
59. Master Chief – Halo. I’m the wrong demographic, but seems high.
60. Mary Jones – Precious. with the book, and the movie, yes or a little high.

61. Vic Mackey – The Shield. Yes. the epitome of the conflicted cop.
62. Jimmy Corrigan – Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Yes.
63. John Locke – Lost. Yes, or maybe it’s a little low.
64. Maximus – Gladiator. Yes.
65. Lorelai & Rory Gilmore – Gilmore Girls. Yes. I watched every episode.

66. Allie & Noah – The Notebook. Yes, I guess.
67. Borat – Yes, or maybe a little low. Generated a national controversy about taste and honesty. Did not see myself either film.
68. (Jennifer Hudson’s) Effie White – Dreamgirls. Yes. The debate here was whether it was appropriate to applaud in the movie theater after her big number, given the fact that the performer couldn’t hear it. (I say, “Why not?” If you can laugh at a comedy, or cry at a melodramatic moment…)
69. Miranda Priestly – The Devil Wears Prada. Yes.
70. Mary Katherine Gallagher – SNL, Superstar. REALLY? Seems high.

71. Det. Alonzo Harris – Training Day. You do know Denzel really got his Oscar for his other roles. Seems high.
72. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace – Battlestar Galactica. Yes.
73. Catherine Tramell – Basic Instinct. Oh, yes, if only for the interrogation scene and the dearth of vital apparel.
74. Don Draper – Mad Men. Yes, even though I’ve never seen it, the show has generated conversation about truth in advertising, women’s roles, and smoking. This character’s confused identity is a plus.
75. David Brent – The Office. Yes, without whom there would be no Michael Scott or other Office managers around the globe.
76. Tyler Durden – Fight Club. Yes.
77. Mimi Marquez – Rent. Yes, a moving musical.
78. Patty Hewes – Damages. Glenn Close’s award-winning performances. The reach is greater than the ratings. Yes.
79. Elphaba – Wicked. in both book and musical, it’s about seeing things from someone else’s POV. Yes.
80. Gorillaz, the world’s greatest virtual band (supplanting The Archies?) Yes.

81. Amanda Woodward – Melrose Place. No fan of the show, even I know this is Heather Locklear’s character. Yes.
82. Tracy Flick – Election. Great movie, but do people know this character?
83. Jen Yu – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yes.
84. House – Yes to Doctor Grumpy.
85. Daniel Plainview – There Will Be Blood. Great performance, but will people still be talking about this movie?
86. Karen Walker & Jack McFarland – Will & Grace – Yes.
87. Tony Stark – Iron Man. Yes.
88. Napoleon Dynamite. Having never seen this, nevertheless think this is too low; gets mentioned often.
89. Wilkus van de Merwe – District 9. Saw this. Time will tell if this is too high or low.
90. Marge Gunderson – Fargo. Ah yup. I mean yes.

91. Hancock – REALLY? It was a popular movie, but will anyone care later? If I wanted a Will Smith role, I’d pick the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, or with Tommy Lee Jones, Men in Black.
92. Christopher Boone – The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time – don’t know enough about it.
93. “Game Boys”: Nathan Drake – Uncharted, Kratos – God of War, Niko Bellic – Grand Theft Auto IV – certainly GTA has a huge sociological significance. Don’t know the particular players.
94. Truman – The Truman Show. YES. What’s real? Seems to presage the glut of reality TV we are exposed to.

95. Wilhelmina Slater – Ugly Betty. Yes to Vanessa Williams’ role.
96. Bernie Mac – The Bernie Mac Show. Yes
97. Violet Weston – August: Osage County. From a Broadway play that’s now touring, don’t know enough about this character.
98. Lisbeth Salander – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Don’t know.
99. The Bride – Kill Bill. Yes. Totally NOT interested in seeing this, yet I know all about it.
100. Tim Riggins – Friday Night Lights. Yes. Probably a show I should watch.

30-Day Challenge: Day 4 – Favorite Book

What about “real” books, books with actual sentences?

About a month before Carol and I got married, some of our friends threw us a party. We were supposed to answer a series of questions about each other. I was supposed to pick her favorite book; don’t know what I chose, but it was wrong. It was 100 Years of Solitude, which I had never heard her ever mention.

She guessed the World Almanac. Some folks declared skepticism about her pick, but it was dead-on right. It’s a book I’ve gotten every year except maybe a couple since I was 10.
Now that the computer is so ubiquitous, can’t I find the same info online? Probably most of it. But I know where to find it in this book, with a notation for the source of additional data; in some ways, THAT is more significant than the initial information. Besides, sometimes I don’t WANT to be on the computer.

Indeed I love my reference books on music, TV, movies; that’s why the former is on my list for The Giveaway (see right column until July 3, 2010).

But what about “real” books, books with actual sentences? Certainly, one of the most significant is Lying by Sissela Bok; except for a couple books on the Beatles, it’s one of the books I’ve read more than once all the way through as an adult.

Another would be the Bible, but that’s a special case. Sometimes it’s just too oblique for me. In our Bible study, one of the goals is to ascertain what the reading means for today. But there are plenty of readings, in Leviticus, e.g., that I can’t fathom., even after repeated study.

So I pick the book with the facts and figures as my favorite.

T is for Titans

Three actors were on NBC programs that started after their appearance in the movie.

Uncharacteristically, I was flipping through the TV channels recently. This is highly unusual, because generally, when I watch television, I go to a particular show, usually prerecorded. I came across this 2000 movie I saw in the theaters, Remember the Titans. Part of the IMBD synopsis:
“It’s 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia and successful high school football coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) has just been deprived of the head coaching job at the new integrated T.C. Williams High School to make way for equally successful black coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). Yoast debates pursuing opportunities elsewhere, but when most of his white players vow to sit out the season unless he coaches, he changes his mind and stays on as Boone’s assistant.”
The Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: “An inspirational crowd-pleaser with a healthy dose of social commentary, Remember the Titans may be predictable, but it’s also well-crafted and features terrific performances.”

Well, yes, predictable, including having the Big Game. I enjoyed it well enough, and it at least tried to tackle the issue of race.

Looking back at it, though, I noticed an interesting coincidence:

Donald Faison, who played football star Petey Jones, became Dr. Christopher Turk, best friend of quirky Dr. John Dorian on the TV comedy Scrubs (2001-2010), with seven years on NBC, and the final two on ABC. Turk and JD were probably the epitome of a word I’m not fond of, “bromance”.

Ethan Suplee, who played big-hearted lineman Louie Lastik, was the some-what simple-minded younger brother Randy Hickey to the title character on the comedy My Name Is Earl (2005-2009, NBC). Earl dragged Randy into his plans to fix the outcomes of some of their less-than-desirable activities after the elder brother discovered karma following a car accident.

Hayden Panettiere played Sheryl Yoast, daughter of Coach Yoast: “My daddy coached in Alexandria, he worked so hard my momma left him, but I stayed with coach, he needed me on that field.” She initially resents Coach Boone for supplanting her daddy, but:
Sheryl Yoast: Coach Boone, you did a good job up here. You ran a tough camp from what I can see.
Coach Boone: Well I’m very happy to have the approval of a 5-year-old.
Sheryl Yoast: I’m 9 and a half, thank you very much.
Coach Boone: Why don’t you get this little girl some pretty dolls or something, coach?
Coach Yoast: I’ve tried. She loves football.
After playing Ally McBeal’s daughter in that program’s last season (2002), Hayden played Claire “Save the cheerleader” Bennet on Heroes (NBC) from 2006 until its cancellation in 2010.

So all three actors were on NBC programs that started after their appearance in the movie but that are all now off the air.
***

When the upstart American Football League (AFL) was formed in 1960 to challenge the long-established National Football League, the franchise in the US’s largest city was called the New York Titans. Major League Baseball’s National League experienced an expansion in 1962, and the city got the New York Mets. When the Titans were sold to new owners in 1964, the team changed its name to the New York Jets, to nominally link it to the popular, though inept, baseball franchise. The AFL merged with the NFL in 1966, though it wasn’t finalized until 1970. the Jets, of course, were the first AFL team to beat an established NFL in what became known as the Super Bowl, in January 1969. (The Mets would win the World Series later that same year.)

Another of the charter members of the AFL was the Houston Oilers, which relocated to the “state of Tennessee in 1997, first playing temporarily in Memphis for one season before moving to Nashville. For two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing its name to Titans in 1999.” So the Titans’ name lives again.

When I was collecting comics in the 1970s through the mid-1990s, I was pretty much a Marvel fan (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four) rather than a DC fan (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman). I never read, never even sought out, the original Teen Titans, a book about the sidekicks of the established stars from back in the 1960s. But because of the creative team of writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez, I did collect the NEW Teen Titans, starting in 1980, even though Robin was the only character I knew, and it became one of the most popular titles of its time.

There was also a Teen Titans TV series in the first decade of the century. New episodes stopped in 2006, but they are rerun often; I watched a part of an episode just this week to get into the spirit of this post.

Here is an extensive team history of the Teen Titans.

Finally, there is Clash of the Titans, the cheesy 1981 film with Harry Hamlin, and the 2010 remake. But I’ve seen neither, so I thought I’d just do the photo comparison.

ABC Wednesday