Author: Jim Ellwanger

Jingle bells — you know, ho ho ho and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls

A new acquisition for the baseball-related radio station jingle collection: this one, from WBLG in Lexington, Kentucky (which now has different call letters and an ugly web site that hasn’t been updated in months). I don’t think this was a Reds network-wide jingle campaign; I think this particular affiliate had it done on their own. I believe it’s from about 1976 or 1977, which would make the lyric particularly apt.

Pure good meets pure evil; hair cut, universe destroyed

Well, despite my unemployment, I’ve been feeling pretty good recently. Hmm, as long as I’m sitting here in front of my computer waiting for “Deal or No Deal” to accumulate on the TiVo, I’ll activate iChat. Why, I’ve got an instant message popping up already! It’s from hanger-on Maura. She usually has something interesting to say, often about baseball. I’ll just bring the message window to the front, and…OH, MY GOD, NO!

They needed a big empty space, and…

On tonight’s episode of “The Amazing Race,” one of the tasks for the three teams of four remaining in the race was to search among the seats of Olympic Stadium in Montreal for one of three small

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boxes containing a departure time for a flight the next morning — and then nap on cots on the floor of the stadium until time to go to the airport.

So there were 12 people (plus an indeterminate number of cameramen and other production people) inside Olympic Stadium, which is probably more than they’ve had in there in quite a while, and yet the concession stands did not appear to be open and serving poutine! What a travesty.

Remember these golden classics

Bet you weren’t expecting this at this late date! Courtesy of Mrs. Levi, we have some late additions to the pool of photographs of the 2004 trip. In Cleveland, here are Maura, Jim, Dan, and Dianne, and you may notice that Dan is eagerly showing off a Hostess Baseball:

And eight days before that, in St. Louis, standing in a location that doesn’t exist anymore, here are The Flash, Trainman, Cap’n Slap, and Bicycle Repairman (in their not-so-secret identities as Tony, Jim, Levi, and Luke):

What good is this blog if we can’t use it to embarrass people we know?

Here is Oakland Tribune Giants beat reporter Andrew Baggarly appearing on Young People’s Week on the syndicated version of “Card Sharks” (with host Bill Rafferty) in 1987.

Unfortunately, it’s the last game of the week, so it’s a rushed, sudden-death kind of thing, and we don’t get to hear much from li’l Andy — especially since he doesn’t get to play the bonus round for the trip to Hawaii. (Oh, sorry, should I not have spoiled an 18-year-old game show?)

Thanks to TiVo for religiously recording the Rafferty “Card Sharks” once GSN started rerunning it earlier this year, and thanks to Jason for pointing out that this does have a connection to baseball and was therefore eligible for posting here.

Back to Bill James

From the 1988 Baseball Abstract, preceded by six pages of imaginary dialogue, here’s Bill James’s list of the 20 best players in baseball:

  1. Wade Boggs
  2. Tim Raines
  3. Ozzie Smith
  4. Don Mattingly
  5. Tony Gwynn
  6. Darryl Strawberry
  7. Dale Murphy
  8. Roger Clemens
  9. Rickey Henderson
  10. Kirby Puckett
  11. Mike Schmidt
  12. George Bell
  13. Jack Morris
  14. Pedro Guerrero
  15. Alan Trammell
  16. Eric Davis
  17. Ryne Sandberg
  18. Phil Bradley
  19. Dwight Gooden
  20. Dwight Evans

With the benefit of hindsight, this still looks like a pretty good list, except maybe for Phil Bradley.

By the way, if Levi is even more scarce around here than usual, it’s because he’s got his very own blog now, solely devoted to books he’s been reading lately. He reads a lot.

Radio from space

On Tuesday, DirecTV replaced their Music Choice audio-only channels with a selection of channels from XM Radio. They’re carrying many of XM’s music channels, but only two talk channels — so no Bob Edwards, no BBC World Service, and no old-time radio (although I’m sure Chuck Schaden does a better job than XM).

However, one of the XM talk channels that is on DirecTV is MLB Home Plate — just in time for it to not be baseball season! When I tuned in briefly this morning to research this post, what I heard was a woman talking via phone about putting up sun shades for elementary school playgrounds because it’s 115 degrees during the day in Arizona. Guess they can only talk so much about steroids and/or Ned Colletti. Helpfully, DirecTV’s on-screen display said, “You are listening to Sports talk.” (The other talk channel available on DirecTV features some people apparently named “Opie & Anthony” and “Ron & Fez” — just thinking about it makes my ears hurt.)

On the other hand, listening to the XM ’60s channel is surprisingly similar to listening to my iPod, except that there’s probably no chance of a They Might Be Giants song popping up, and all the jingles are for XM — well, and there’s a DJ who actually does things like talking during the part of the jingle where a DJ is supposed to talk, which I have not managed to duplicate on my iPod. (Also, while I’m sure DirecTV’s numbering system for the XM channels makes sense to someone, it seems a little strange to have “The ’60s on 6” on Channel 803 instead of, say, 806 — and “Highway 16” on 814, and “Top 20 on 20” on 816.)

Let that be a lesson to you

In the opening segment of last night’s episode of “The Simpsons” — the episode that was incessantly promoted during Fox’s baseball coverage — an attempt to speed up a baseball game ends with the entire universe being destroyed, so there.

Actually, the whole thing was completely unbelievable, because it depicted a World Series game, broadcast by Fox, that was not only being played during the day, but also had Harry-Shearer-imitating-Vin-Scully doing the announcing, rather than Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Come to think of it, if the universe is going to be destroyed anyway, that wouldn’t be the worst way to go out.