Ramblin' with Roger

Greg did his Top 10 Sports Moments last month. I thought to do the same. Of course, there are moments I loved at the time but have faded into memory, including many of the exciting NCAA men’s basketball finals.

I was flicking through the channels last month and came onto women’s volleyball. The game is to 30, win by two, and in the second game of the match Siena (a college near Albany) beat Binghamton (my hometown) 40-38. It was exciting, but the memory will fade.

The rules Greg laid out is that I have had to actually witness it, not seen it on ESPN Sportscenter later.

10. I know how Greg hates Brett Favre, but even he must admit that the game Favre played on December 22, 2003, right after his father died was magnificent.

9. Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run on September 8, 1998. Yeah, the steroid controversy taints this record. But I still think that the home run race between McGwire and Sammy Sosa that season energized the fans in the way they hadn’t been since the 1994 strike. In fact, this was Labor Day weekend, and I saw three Cardinals games in a row on FOX, who were looking to capture the historic moment. I loved all of it, Sosa running in from right field, McGwire’s graciousness to the family of Roger Maris.

8. Magic Johnson plays center during the NBA Finals. The rookie point guard replaces an injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the middle, scores 42 points, and creates a legend.

7. “Villanova beats Georgetown 66-64 to win the 1985 NCAA Basketball Championship … on April Fools’ Day.” It seems like most of the finals were thrilling games during that period. I was watching the game with mixed emotions. On one hand, I liked Georgetown coach John Thompson. On the other hand, ‘Nova was SUCH an underdog. This is on Greg’s list (item 3), so you can read his description.

6. I was never a big Reggie Jackson fan, but I was rooting for the Yankees against the Dodgers in the 1977 World Series. The Yankees had made it to the Series the year before, but were swept by the Big Red Machine. Before that, they hadn’t been in the World Series since 1964 and hadn’t won since 1962. When Reggie hit a homer in Game 6 on the first pitch, I nodded approvingly. When he hit a second home run, also on the first pitch, I was very happy. But when he hit a third home run, again on the first pitch, I involuntarily jumped out of my seat.

4. Sarah Hughes winning Olympic gold in figure skating in 2002. Mostly, it was because I didn’t think she had a chance after finishing fourth in the short program. In the stupid ordinal scoring system they had until fairly recently, if any of the top three leaders (Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya, and I think Sasha Cohen) won the free skate, they would have won the medal. But Hughes skated flawlessly, Michelle Kwan (my wife’s favorite skater) slipped to third, and the upset was complete.

3. The January 3, 1993 NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers. I must admit that I didn’t see the first half; I was grocery shopping with my then-wife, who slipped on the black ice on the way home. We turned on the game in time for the second half kickoff, and almost turned off the TV when Buffalo’s Frank Reich threw the interception early in the third quarter to make it 35-3, Houston. But we’re talking about the only team in the NFL that actually plays in New York State, so I stuck with it and was richly rewarded with an unprecedented Bills win. Sometimes, when I’m watching a sporting event and am getting excited by the events, I stand up. I stood up a LOT in that game.

2. For a few years in the 1990s, Central Park in Schenectady, NY, was home to a recognized tennis tournament. In 1991, Michael Stich won Wimbledon singles championship. He then went to Schenectady, and won. The next year, Michael Stich returned to defend his title in Schenectady, but lost in the second round to a tournament wild card named Andrei Olhovskiy, in straight sets, no less. I was in the stands, and I was as shocked as anyone. This ranks so high because it’s the only one I saw in person.

I’m saving my #1 for tomorrow.

Gordon started with a song that, for whatever reason, didn’t grab me, but much of the rest was quite enjoyable, even though he stole my Clash song. For some reason I was particulatrly fond of how
Der Komissar by After the Fire worked with Cheap Trick’s Dream Police. And Slip Away was an inspired choice, which never would have occurred to me.

Curiously, I didn’t much like the first cut on the contribution by Lefty either, which surprised me, because it often means that I won’t like what follows, but this is not the case. Fiona Apple’s Criminal was on my briefly considered list for my own mix. I loved the flow from Condi, Condi (Steve Earle) to another song about her and her ilk, Sweet Neo Con (The Rolling Stones), to a Rolling Stones cover, Street Fighting Man (Rod Stewart). The Hey Joe/Down by the River pairing was going to be on my disc; I may STILL do a requested “murder ballads” disc for someone, and they most assuredly would be included. Heroes and Villains by the Beach Boys – an inspired choice for the finale. The only other song I didn’t enjoy was the RATM, which after the fifth or sixth curse in a row, I had to just hit fast forward. Oh, and Lydia described the White Stripes cut as noise; I wouldn’t csll it that.

Tosy puts together a much more theatrical mix, with mostly unfamiliar (to me) pieces. I must say, the second listen was better than the first, and the third better than the second. It requires a bit of active listening. I did like The Vampires/Mack the Knife/Strange Fruit grouping, which were the only familiar tunes besides Miss Otis Regrets and the songs from West Side Story. Worth another listen.

I didn’t find a list of Eddie’s songs for this exchange, but I should note the Chieftains/Mick Jagger version of Long Black Veil was on my list. I do find descriptions of the previous mix or two, but I do like them all, even though they’re all mostly a slice of Americana, as he’s described them. BTW, Eddie, both the Del McCoury Band and Emmylou Harris played here in October. Unfortunately, I saw neither, but I’ve provided reviews. Ms. Harris was sold out, and we couldn’t get a sitter to see your man Del.

The issue of music is more complicated, and I’m not going to get into the law, except to say that I have (probably) violated it recently, and yet I’m all right with that. Mostly.

When music CDs first came out, I had lots of LPs, in excess of 1000, so I was rather disinclined to replicate digitally what I already had in vinyl. So most of my early CD purchases were new product, with an occasional acquisition of a Greatest Hits package. Eventually, though, as I found myself not listening as much to the records, I would buy certain albums I already owned on LP as CDs: Purple Rain by Prince; Who’s Next by The Who, Graceland by Paul Simon; The Beatles’ oeuvre – I own the British LP box set; the Police CD box set, which covers all of their albums; early 1970s Stevie Wonder, just to name a few. Well, no more.

I am hereby declaring war on the W.W.C.T.G.Y.T.B.N.C.O.S.Y.A.O., which, as described by Mark Evanier is the World Wide Conspiracy To Get You To Buy New Copies Of Stuff You Already Own. Tom the Dog and others have also touched on this topic.

I know people go the library and burn music all of the time; I just reflect endlessly on it. Someone asked, in reference to my (near-obsessive) desire to get the new Dylan album, if I might get it at the library. Well, yeah, I could, but it would be wrong. For me.

Whereas I feel no such compunction about going to the library and buying digitized versions of music I already own. Call it rationalization if you want. I call it fighting back against the W.W.C.T.G.Y.T.B.N.C.O.S.Y.A.O.

So what did I copy this week? I didn’t really look for anything specific, just flipped through the racks until I found a half dozen discs, which is the maximum.
Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen (1982). My Bruce collection was neatly divided into the mid-’80s boxed set and before, which was vinyl, and the post-boxed set, which was all CD. Then I ended up getting Born in the USA on CD, even though I had it on LP. For Christmas one year, my (now late) brother-in-law John asked me what I wanted, and I put together a list of Bruce LPs I owned that I might want on CD (plus The River, which I had, strangely, never gotten). He gave me ALL of them: Asbury Park, Born in the USA, Darkness, and The River. I had forgotten to ask for Nebraska and The Wild, the Innocent… Well, now I have all but the latter.

Breakfast in America – Supertramp (1982). Scowl if you wish, but tell me: isn’t The Logical song still relevant?
Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical,
Liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won’t you sign up your name, wed like to feel you’re
Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

Those two were morally easy, compared to the other two.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen – Joe Cocker. I found the two-disc, 35th anniversary edition of the classic 1970 album. I had forgotten the story how an exhausted Cocker wanted some rest but was contracted to do this extra tour, lest he never play in America again, how Leon Russell helped put together a bunch of musicians, and how everything was sweetness and light in the beginning between Cocker and Russell, only to sour over the time of the tour.
This special edition has songs that were not the original LP, including the singles versions. Did I pass on those songs? I did not. Not a purist, I reckon.

Aladdin Sane – David Bowie. Another double album, this one the 30th anniversary of the 1973 follow-up to Ziggy Stardust. The second disc has alternate and live versions. It would have been easy not to copy it, logistically. Alas, I succumbed to the ease of the electronic download.
Now, one of the things I STILL won’t have are the extensive liner notes, some 30 pages, including a Bowie timetable for 1972 and 1973. Bowie was an early hit on the coasts, but sold only 180 tickets out of 11,000 seats in St. Louis.
I’ll miss out on David’s musings on many things, including Detroit, where he is quoted as saying that he can’t believe there’s really such a raw city. He meant this in a GOOD way. Panic in Detroit is my favorite song on the album, BTW.
There was a record company ploy to make a star out of David by having him act the part, with expensive accoutrements; Bowie was ambivalent at best about the plan, which, arguably, worked.
The writer, noting that this tour was less elaborate than the later Diamond Dogs tour, reflected that middle America found that the “lead singer [Bowie] mock-felating his lead guitarist [Mick Ronson] was a little hard to swallow.”
A Lad Insane was one of the possible album titles.

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006
“People are bewildered because of the weak response by the Americans. They used to patrol the city every day, but when the violence started, we didn’t see any sign of them.” – Unidentified Balad (Iraq) Resident, asking why American troops had not intervened when sectarian killings had begun

“The President has made it obvious, we’re going to win. And that means, ultimately, providing an Iraq that is safe, secure, and an ally in the war on terror.” – Tony Snow, the White House spokesman responded when asked if the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006
“The fact is, America has achieved successes here by removing a dictatorship and establishing a stable, democratic system.” – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi leader, during an interview

“It’s not going to be ‘stay the course.’ The bottom line is, [current U.S. policy] isn’t working… there’s got to be another way.” – Iraq Options Committee Participant, on the one thing on which the 10-member panel has reached a unanimous consensus

So my questions are:

1. What do you think will be the US position in Iraq in six months, in a year? I’m increasingly convinced that the Baker panel, whose report will come out after the elections, will have a timetable – the same term, or a euphemism meaning the same thing – that will give political cover to the Administration that it had “stayed the course” while, in fact, cutting their losses, not to be confused with “cutting and running”. There will be lots of troop in the region, probably in Kuwait.

2. The Democrats need 15 seats to take the House and 6 to take the Senate. How do they do? I think the Democrats might barely take the House (16-20 seats). The Senate could go either way (5-7 seats).

I fully expect that the headline in one of the New York City tabloids will feature my title, quite possibly not on the back page, but on the front. And it was terrible game to watch, because of the emotional roller coaster. Endy Chavez takes a 2-run homer for the Cards and turns it into a double play defensively for the Mets; then he comes up in the bottom of that inning, only to pop up. The crowd (and I ) were deflated when the Mets fell behind in the top of the 9th, but energized when Valentin and Chavez get on. A called third strike on Beltran to end the inning, the game, the season for the ‘Mazins.

Don’t have a strong rooting interest for the World Series now, though I suppose I’ll support those upstart Tigers of Scott’s; the Cards were in the Series two years ago after all, though the Redbirds were swept by the Red Sox.

This week, George Will, who I agree with a lot on baseball (and infrequently on other topics) wrote about Baseball’s Real ‘Golden Age’, which was not in the post WWII era, when there was a Subway Series in 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1953, and almost in 1950 as well, but now, because of revenue sharing and other factors, a number of teams have a chance at the postseason. I wasn’t looking for a Subway Series, which, BTW, also took place in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1936, 1937, 1941, 1947, 1955, 1956, and 2000. I recognize that it’s a bore for those non-New Yorkers. I just wanted one team, the one from Queens.

This means my streak of picking one, not two, not none, but precisely one of the participants in the World Series is still intact.