Ramblin' with Roger

Dutifully, I wrote:

Three trips to hometown Binghamton in July. #1 took place right after the flooding in the area, yet a scheduled party near the convergence of two rivers took place, with one sister coming from San Diego, mom, another sister, her daughter niece from Charlotte, and cousins from NYC. #2 was an annual reunion of my wife’s family (http://olinfamilysociety.org/); my daughter is 11th generation from John Olin. #3 was my high school reunion, described here.

The editor wrote back last week and said: “Unfortunately, yours was the only summer vacation response we received so we ultimately decided against putting together the feature we had been planning. It does sound like you had a good summer, though!”

Yes, it was.

The Wall Street Journal is an interesting place to read about baseball. There was an article on September 27, Playoff Seats Get Harder to Score; Rank-and-File Fans Shut Out As Season Ticket Holders Gobble Up a Bigger Share. It reads that there is a “push by baseball teams to sell more season tickets by offering them in smaller packages and with extra perks, including early dibs on playoff seats. Some teams now offer a half-dozen different season-ticket packages — including ones for as few as six games.”

The WSJ of September 29 suggests that Batting Average Against is a far better reflection of post-season success than any other regular season factor. “Last year, in all six division and league championship series, the winner sported the better BAA. In 2004, it was five out of six. And since the beginning of divisional play in 1995, teams with the better BAA have won 43 of 66 series. That’s a remarkable .652 winning percentage.”
This means the San Diego Padres, the NL West champions on the last day, with a .250 BAA, should win the World Series. Other teams who were still in contention at the time of the article:
Detroit Tigers (.254 BAA). AL Wild Card. Swept by the KC Royals, who, to be fair, were thorns in the sides of a number of teams down the stretch. But now they have to go to Yankee Stadium, rather than host Oakland. Yikes! But the odds ARE in the Tigers’ favor, BAA-wise.
New York Mets (.255 BAA). First in the NL East, won a couple games at the end of the season. I’m STILL gonna pick them to win it all, even without Pedro (.220 BAA).
Houston Astros (.257 BAA). Eliminated on the last day; could have won the division if they could have only beaten the tomahawk-choppin’ Braves. I choose not to believe the allegations about Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte re: performance-enhancing drugs until provided further evidence.
New York Yankees (.262 BAA). 1st in the AL East. Looking formidable.
Minnesota Twins (.267 BAA). 1st in the AL Central. I heard that they’re the first team to never have been in first place solo until the last day of the season.
St. Louis Cardinals (.269 BAA). 1st in NL Central, though they backed in. My favorite Cards fan, Lou at the Y, has been saying for weeks, “Stick a fork in them. They’re done.”
Los Angeles Dodgers (.269). NL Wild Card. I’d swear that every team in this division was in first place at some point.
Oakland A’s (.270). 1st in AL West. Because a lot of their games are late in the east, I don’t see/hear as much about them as I should.
Philadelphia Phillies (.275). Eliminated on the last weekend. Yes, I want Ryan Howard for MVP, though I feel badly for St. Louis’ Albert Pujols, who came in second to Barry Bonds a couple times, and now will come in second, I’m guessing, to the sophomore Howard.

Speaking of Barry Bonds, he’s the National League all-time home run leader with 734, surpassing Hank Aaron, who had 733 for the Braves, and 22 for the (then-American League) Brewers. I’m waiting for the movement to attribute all of the Brewers’ games to the NL.

If you’re a serious sabermetric-type baseball fan, you’ll just HAVE to look at another September 29 WSJ article, “Baseball’s Greatest Hits; We Rank the Most Decisive Postseason Clutch Hits; Apologies to Mr. Dent”, which concludes a 7th inning double that only tied the game is THE most significant hit in baseball post-season history, while Yankee Bucky Dent’s homer against the Red Sox in 1978 doesn’t even make the Top 10.

The Immortals

PLAYER/TEAM: 10. Ivan Rodriguez, Florida Marlins SERIES/GAME/INNING: 2003 NLDS Game 3, 11th ODDS OF WINNING GAME BEFORE/AFTER HIT: 24%/100% ODDS OF PITCHER GIVING UP HIT: T. Worrell (22.1%) ODDS OF WINNING THE WS: +6% SCORE: 68.2 COMMENTS: Though it came in a division series game, this bases-loaded, two-out single overcame huge odds.

Meanwhile, while I was looking for the scores of the Twins and Tigers games on Sunday – they were tied for the AL Central lead, just as the Dodgers and Padres were tied in the NL West, I watched the last five minutes of the Jets-Colts game, where the Colts scored a touchdown, the Jets had a 103-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, then the Colts scored another touchdown (why did the Jets burn a timeout on defense when the Colts were at their 16?). The Jets tried to come back, lateraling the ball at least a half dozen times before fumbling it – it was very exciting – but they didn’t have enough time.

Well, after answering Eddie’s question recently about how much music was too much, and having the unique opportunity to actually work on my own project – Carol took Lydia to see Grandma and Grandpa last weekend – I pulled out all of my vinyl, and put it in broad alphabetical order. by that, I mean all the A’s are together, all the B’s are together. O.K., that’s not technically true either: there are A’s on the first floor and on the third floor, likewise B’s and C’s. But on each floor, they are in rough alpha order.

What I had discovered that there are certain artists where most of my music of theirs is on vinyl: the solo Beatles, especially John (IS there a CD version of The Wedding Album? And, if so, do I WANT it?); Joan Armatrading; Joe Jackson; the Supremes; the Temptations; XTC; pre-1971 Stevie Wonder. Then there are the artists who I have ONLY on vinyl: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass; the MC5; Don McLean; Moby Grape; Peter, Paul, and Mary; solo Todd Rundgren; Gil Scott-Heron; X. I must admit that I didn’t know I had any Bobby Vinton at all, but there it was Melodies of Love, featuring that big hit, “My Melody of Love”.

It finally hit me, because I had frankly forgotten: there were people who just GAVE me their LPs when they moved or were just going digital. I can tell, because some of their names are still on many of the album covers.

While working on the project, I listened to CDs on the boombox while I was on the third floor, but while this task was going on on the first floor, why not listen to some vinyl? Well, because the turntable is a bit funky. I turned it on, the arm automatically went to the beginning of a 12″ album, then stopped; I had to manually get the turntable going before it would run on its own. Then when it got to the end of a side, the arm just sat in the inner groove until I hit the stop button two or three times.

What to listen to? No, it wasn’t Bobby Vinton, though being from Binghamton, with its large Slavic population, I have an admitted affection for the first track. No, I started with Smile, a bootleg of the Beach Boys’ album that Brian Wilson finally put out 37 years after he started. It was not unfamiliar to me; between the legit Beach Boys albums, the outtakes from the Beach Boys box set and Brian’s SMiLE album, it all sounded a bit familiar. Except for some cacophonous saxophone piece, which, fortunately, I don’t think survived.

I should talk about bootlegs. I don’t have many, maybe 10, mostly Beatles, and with few exceptions, they are disappointing sonically. In retrospect, they are dubious to own morally, I suppose.

The next thing I played was Side One of Daryl Hall’s first solo album, Sacred Songs, produced by Robert Fripp. My favorite song is the second, “Something in 4/4 Time”. Lefty once asked if I liked vocal choruses, and I do, this song being the epitome of this. In the middle, it gets kind of Fripp-like, with a bunch of triplets, but never loses the beat. One of my favorite songs ever.

By the 1970s, though, it has fallen into disuse and disrepair. I walked in the arcade in 1977 and was nearly overwhelmed by the smell of bodily wastes. Yet, it was at that time when the revival of Proctor’s took place. Among the many supporters of Proctor’s was the Schenectady Arts Council, which obtained a grant to provide arts in the schools of Schenectady in 1978. The offices of the artists and the administrative staff, which included me doing the bookkeeping, were located on the second floor of Proctor’s. My very first task was to sell ad space for a program that would be a benefit for Proctor’s in April 1978. There were a number of performers on stage for that show, and even more including our secretary, Susan, two of her friends, and me, singing in the arcade. I was also in charge of an Artisans’ Arcade, a biweekly event, not surprisingly, in the Proctor’s Arcade.

So, I have a great deal of affection for the elegant Proctor’s, and am thrilled by its comeback. Its director, Philip Morris (really) is leading an expansion of the facility that will include two new theaters. Meanwhile, it’s a great place to see a film, with a BIG screen, rather than one the proportions of an oversized home entertainment theater. The ticket prices skyrocketed from $2 to $3 last year, though.

After the previews for Ant Bully, Superman Returns, and An Inconvenient Truth, all showing in the near future, the featured film came on. I liked it well enough. The performers are uniformly excellent, including Lindsay Lohan, who holds her own. Meryl Streep’s singing was a revelation. The music throughout was great. But…

Both my wife and I remember quite distinctly Ebert and Roeper’s review of the film. Roger gave it a thumbs up, while Richard gave it a thumbs down. The difference? Ebert listens to, and likes the radio program upon which the film is based, and Roeper does not, or more to the point, has heard it and hasn’t especially enjoyed it.

It is true that nothing much happens in the film. Yes, it’s “the last show” but Garrison Keillor’s character, GK, treats it like any other show; must be that Norwegian bachelor farmer reserve. Oh, Virginia Madsen wanders around, but that mystery is resolved soon enough. And there’s no “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon,” probably because it was decided that such a monologue wouldn’t be very interesting in a cinematic product.

James Lipton’s Ten Questions
Since I’m unlikely to appear on the show, here are the ten questions (compiled by Bernard Pivot) that James Lipton asks every guest on Inside the Actors Studio, along with my own responses.

1. What is your favorite word?
“Rendezvous.” I’m fond of words of French or Italian origin.

2. What is your least favorite word?
“Blitzkrieg”

3. What turns you on?
Curiosity.

4. What turns you off?
Hard-headed stupidity.

5. What is your favorite curse word?
It starts with an a, it has seven letters, we all have one, and my friend Karen says
it with such passion that it’s almost music.

6. What sound or noise do you love?
Actually, I like white noise- fans, certain vacuum cleaners, even. I’m thinking noise vs. music.

7. What sound or noise do you hate?
A jackhammer.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
It took me so long to figure THIS one out. I suppose law.

9. What profession would you not like to attempt?
Oh, so many. Medicine – don’t want to kill anyone.