The World Series was more engrossing than…

The scandal du jour in my hometown is that, back in October, a fire department captain invited two strippers and a couple of photographers to a fire station so they could take some photos, in which the women were both fully nude and partially clad in firefighter uniforms.

The Tampa Tribune’s in-depth account of the evening says, of the firefighters who were on duty at the fire station that night: “Berwald, Campbell and Layton said they hung around in the truck bay out of curiosity when the women and men arrived. They said they were focused on the World Series, however, and went back to watch television as soon as one woman was completely naked.

“Layton said he later learned one woman wore his uniform pants in the pictures.”

Original comments…

thatbob: To be fair, it was a very engrossing World Series, and 80% of firemen are gay. There aren’t many other professions where you get paid to lay around the house, lift weights, and gossip – when there isn’t a fire, of course.

maura: the scandal du jour in your hometown should be the rays’ willingness to give money to denny neagle.

Levi: I was talking to a coworker the other day, and I said, “You know: no matter how much we screw up at work, we can’t screw up so that it costs our company $75 over five years like Dave Dombrowski did by signing Magglio.” It was a freeing realization.

Not that I don’t love Magglio. But the guy is old, and he’s going to cost more than Scott Rolen, who’s younger and better and plays a tougher position.

And the figurine is going for big bucks on eBay

Back in the olden days, before they had cast members of “Desperate Housewives” on the cover every other week, TV Guide always contained a lot of ads for local TV stations. This is because they would trade out advertising space in the magazine in exchange for the stations running commercials for TV Guide.

This is the best baseball-related local TV Guide ad I’ve found in my collection; it’s from Saturday, May 18, 1968, and is the work of WJIM-TV in Lansing, Michigan, which is now called WLNS.

Channel 6 viewers that day saw the Senators beat the Tigers. Just a bump in the road for Detroit, though, on their way to winning the pennant and the World Series.

Original comments…

Jason: I can’t tell…is that a bobblehead or a figurine? Either way, it would be a great giveaway this season!

Jim: I’m pretty sure it’s a figurine, because it looks like the bat is attached both to the paws and the head, which would make it hard for the head to bobble. But remind me next time you’re going to be in my apartment, and I’ll let you take a closer look at this TV Guide ad.

Jason: Well, I actually looked up on eBay, but this was the only Detroit Tigers figurine they had:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=25136&item=5161759737&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Here we go again

For the second straight year, Pepsi is giving away iTunes downloads to improve their sales during the dead of winter. The actual promotion apparently starts January 31st. We’ll have to see how long it takes the Pepsis with the promotional caps to show up in the Los Angeles area. (Last year it took about six weeks from the time the promtion started nationwide, because the local Pepsi bottler was running a promotion of their own.) But the good news for me is that the caps are supposed to be on 20-ounce bottles of all Pepsi products, including Wild Cherry Pepsi — and Mountain Dew Code Red, although I don’t recall ever seeing that in a 20-ounce bottle.

I’m not sure how many baseball songs have been added to the iTunes Music Store since last year, but I guess I’ll find out. It’ll be fun!

Kline time

Hanger-on Jay passes along this note about the August 22, 2004 Cardinals-Pirates game: “At the game you attended in St. Louis, reliever Steve Kline got on base on a sacrifice and a fielder’s choice and then scored on either a triple or a grand slam from Larry Walker. Well, it turns out you have personally witnessed every run that Kline ever scored.”

Original comments…

Levi: I do love Steve Kline. I’ve been imagining him playing with his kids in the snow while wearing his new Orioles cap. Hunting deer while wearing his new Orioles cap. Changing the oil on Tony Womack’s purple Lamborghini while wearing his new Orioles cap.

He’ll be ready for Spring Training.

Luke, hanger-on: I’m not big on recounting dreams, but …

Last night I dreamt I saw Stacey at a Critical Mass. I asked where Levi was — and he was on a baseball-related trip to Florida.

Unfortunately that’s all I remember.

Luke, hanger-on: I’m so sorry: Another dream. Apropos of nothing but baseball.

In this dream I’m organizing a trip to the ballpark with Owen, someone I went to school with in Oregon 10 years ago and haven’t thought of since. It occurs to us that a lot of the people who would come to a game with us were named Ed, so I propose we call our event “Eds Go Out to the Ballgame.” We’d invite anyone whose name was Ed, and those whose name wasn’t Ed could change theirs, and we’d get Ed Debevic’s to sponsor us.

Two minor dreams about baseball in one week. I’m now thinking of the Peanuts series where Charlie Brown wakes up and the sun is a baseball, and by the end of the week his head is a baseball.

Three weeks, pitchers and catchers.

A great trip deserves a second look

Since the trip is now officially last year, I figured it was about time to put it into the archives, so to speak.

I went back to the original posts about the trip and edited them into a full trip report, including the photos and even some of the comments. I also wrote a page on which I discuss some of the planning that went into the trip. The best news for people who want to read about the trip is that you don’t have to start at the “bottom” and work up; now that it’s not in blog form, it reads normally. The link to the narrative is also at the top of this page.

Don’t worry, I didn’t delete the original posts. They’re still in the blog archives (scroll down to the bottom of this page and select “August 2004” or “September 2004”).

Original comments…

Jason: A fine read. So, how many ballparks remain that you yet have to visit?

Jim: There are now 13 major league ballparks I haven’t been to (counting RFK Stadium in Washington). Any interest in a long weekend trip to Phoenix and Denver at some point this year?

Jason: Sure. Any interest in checking out a whole bunch of minor league games in California next year?

Jason: And I just noticed the new title of the site. Funny!

Jim: Re the previous comment, for posterity: this blog was briefly named “Baseball-Related Program Activities of Anaheim.” (I almost named it “Los Angeles Baseball-Related Program Activites of Anaheim,” but decided that was just a little too ridiculous. Maybe that’s why I’m not a baseball team owner!)

thatbob: Why schedule a long weekend roadtrip to Phoenix later this year when it might be easier to include it in a Baseball Related Programing Activities West Coast Road Trip 2005. After all, it’s only a 5.5 hour drive from San Diego, but a whole 7(!) hours from Los Angeles!

Now there's the Devil Rays we know and love

I set the TiVo to record the MLB Extra Innings feed of this morning’s game. If I’d been 100% sure it would be showing up for free, I might have woken up earlier to watch it; as it was, I had to fast-forward through major portions of the game, which turned out to be a good thing. It was the Yankees’ YES Network coverage, and it looked like they had dug up a lot of old films of teams and players visiting Japan in the past, including Mickey Mantle celebrating his 24th birthday while the Yankees were on a barnstorming tour of Asia. (Actually, maybe ESPN showed the same footage yesterday morning, but I wouldn’t know.) Also, there will be a suitable-for-framing 8×10 photo of a Yankee great inside the Sunday Daily News every week.

Anyway, now that we know I’ll be getting MLB Extra Innings free for the first week of the season, Levi, you’re invited to my nameless apartment for the real Opening Day on Monday. It kicks off with Tigers at Blue Jays at 10:00 A.M. (And then the question is, since this morning’s game was the first one in the Extra Innings package, will they define “first week” as lasting only until next Wednesday, or all the way through Sunday the 11th?)