Greatest Song Evah 5/31/24

Gypsy Blood

Mason Ruffner came and went fairly quickly, which still puzzles me a bit. A fast-fingered blues guitarist, he came out of Fort Worth and released his major label debut (with a back cover photo taken at McSorley’s) in 1985. This was at the height of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s popularity and shortly before Robert Cray’s emergence, so the time was right for a similar artist such as Ruffner. Commercial success did not happen for him, however. Which is a shame, because he is a damn good player.

Gypsy Blood was the title track from his sophomore release, and it kicks major ass. Lyrically it tells a common blues story; the narrator is a man addicted to the road, so he can’t stay in one place with one woman for too long before it’s time to move on once again. His musicianship is what makes this song stand out from the pack; the instrumental breaks in the song, and his solo in particular, are spectacular.

As I mentioned, neither of his first two albums made much of a commercial impact. It happens. You can probably look at your local concert listings and find any number of artists with similar profiles who constantly tour and will be playing at theatres or small clubs in your area. That’s not the tactic that Mason Ruffner chose. He did some session work in the late 80’s - for example, he plays on Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy - but he spent almost all of the 1990’s away from the music scene and even after his reemergence he limited himself to low profile releases on small labels.

He did not establish a large enough presence at the time to set the cultural footprint that he deserved. But those first two albums were perfect examples of mid 1980’s blues rock; not quite up to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s level, but reasonably close. And as I said, this song rocks.

Presented Without Comment

A Dive Into Negro League Stats

In 2020 MLB announced that a total of 7 Negro Leagues that operated between 1920-1948 were now classified as major leagues. To be precise, they are now major leagues, but not MLB. That’s a subtle difference, but worth noting. Earlier this week the next step became official; the statistical records from those leagues have now been fully incorporated into the major league database. This has had major ramifications for what we have long understood about the game’s history.

Baseball Reference had already included stats from these assorted Negro Leagues since 2020, and I had spent a considerable amount of time digging into that rabbit hole. There are a few important considerations to keep in mind while examining this updated historical record. First is that this is still an ongoing process. The amount of hours it has taken to find the old box scores and verify their accuracy is mind boggling. More information will certainly be found as time goes on, so the numbers should continue to change.

Second, and more importantly, a lot of what we know about the Negro Leagues is connected to its mythology. We’ve heard the legends. Josh Gibson hit 800 home runs, Satchel Paige won 600 games, and so on. What is being added to the historical record, however, are the results from league games. The number of games varied from league to league - sometimes as few as 25, rarely more than 80; the average was around 60 games or so. To use Gibson as an example, he is currently credited with 166 career home runs. Being that when exhibition and barnstorming games are taking into account, it wasn’t unheard of for a team to play more than 200 games in a year, but the vast majority of those games don’t count in these stats. Hence the relatively modest career totals.

Where Gibson and his peers stand out is in the rate categories. Gibson is now the all time major league leader in batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS. And his Baseball Reference page is glorious. He played 12 full seasons, and just check out the amount of black ink to be found. He led his league in home runs 11 times, in RBI 7 times, in batting average 3 times, on base percentage 7 times, slugging percentage 9 times, OPS 8 times, OPS+ 8 times. Wow. The other best known Negro League star, Satchel Paige is also just as great as his reputation suggests, with 1 big caveat. His page doesn’t have as much bold type as expected. There’s a logical reason for that, his yearly innings pitched totals were lower than many of his contemporaries. That’s likely because his teams usually saved him to pitch more often in barnstorming games than in official games because he was such a box office draw.

Any reasonable person should make the argument that the quality of play in the Negro Leagues was comparable to that of the segregated major leagues. Because of the disparity in the number of games played it’s tough to make an apples to apples comparison, so the best thing to do is to take a great player from the Negro Leagues, judge how much better he was than his contemporaries, and then match that dominance against a similar player from the major leagues. To use one example, I took a close look at Buck Leonard’s record and determined that yes, he was just as great as Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx were.

One of the greats who really caught my eye was John Henry Lloyd. The bulk of his career took place in the pre-Negro Leagues era, so his first season in the new official database came in his age 37 season. Despite that, he still put up outstanding numbers. If he had an OPS above .900 as a full time shortstop in his age 39 season, I can only imagine how amazing his numbers would have been when he was in his twenties.

The additional stats also further elevate players who were great players in MLB, but whose record looks even better with Negro League stats added in. Roy Campanella’s greatness solely based on his MLB record is self evident, but in the Negro Leagues he was already a major star at the age of 19, and the additional stats make it crystal clear that he belongs in Bench/Berra territory. (I’m comfortable in declaring Gibson as history’s greatest catcher.) Similarly, when you add in their Negro League records, it almost seems criminal that it took as long as it did to induct Larry Doby and Minnie Minoso into the Hall of Fame.

Speaking of Cooperstown, in 2006 the Hall inducted a total of 17 players and executives. It was intended at the time that this would serve as a closing of the book for that population, but that has thankfully changed and potential inductees from the Negro Leagues are back in circulation. Among those inducted were a few whose numbers were so outstanding that I’m shocked they had not been inducted years earlier. I’m thinking of Jud Wilson, Mule Suttles, Biz Mackey, and most notably, Turkey Stearnes. There are certainly many historians who have greater expertise in the matter than I do, but I can pick out 5 more Negro League players who have very strong cases for HOF induction - Newt Allen, William Bell, Jerry Benjamin, Bill Byrd, and Dewey Creacy.

This new addition to the statistical record in no way undoes the historical tragedy of segregation. What it does do is add a couple thousand new names to the list of major league players and that’s not nothing. There are only a small handful of Negro League players that are still alive, but their descendants now know that grandpa was a major league baseball player. I have loads of criticism for Rob Manfred, but credit where credit is due. This was an objectively good move on his part to make this happen.

Sometimes Ya Gotta Laugh To Keep From Crying

I was a bit premature. I was certain that with new ownership, the LOLMets talking point could finally be put to bed. Little did I realize that the Wilpon stank has so permeated this franchise that it’s still gonna take some time to fix whatever bad mojo remains. The events of this week are further evidence.

I’m glad that what I hopefully say is the nadir of the season took place on Wednesday, because that gave me an extra day to gather my thoughts and also sit back so that I could gain better perspective. As you probably know by now, the Dodgers completed a three game sweep of the Mets on Wednesday afternoon, punctuated by a complete bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning. The lowlight was an ejection of reliever Jorge Lopez by the third base umpire, which led to Lopez throwing his glove into the stands in a fit of anger. Or should I say now ex-Met reliever Jorge Lopez, who seemingly made his feelings about the Mets known postgame.

Here is where it’s important to be fair to Lopez. He chose not to use an interpreter when he spoke to the press, and at first he sounded like he said that the Mets are the “worst team in the whole f***ing MLB.” A closer listen revealed that he was actually calling himself the “worst teammate” but the damage was already done, especially being that when asked for clarification, he said that that he meant both worst team and worst teammate. To make matters worse, he also claimed that he had not spoken with Mets manager Carlos Mendoza before speaking with the press, but that was not true.

The Mets DFA’d Lopez. His comments had only a little to do with the decision; the team explained that his onfield actions, along with the lie, were unacceptable. This is a situation in which neither side comes out looking good. It’s true that Lopez would have been better off waiting until he was a little calmer before speaking with the press; his emotions were still too raw. In addition, he’s obviously comfortable enough with his English that he speaks to the press without a translator, but there are times when the situation is serious enough that it makes better sense to speak in your native language to reduce the risk of misinterpretation. In this instance, the team should have been more proactive in protecting their player and more strongly encouraged the use of a translator here.

It is also worth noting that Lopez missed some time when he was with the Twins last year to take a mental health break. It also came out yesterday that his 11 year old son, who has a rare autoimmune disorder is in need of an intestinal transplant. Lopez is clearly dealing with a lot of stuff. Not that this fully excuses his behavior, but the team could have shown him a little more empathy.

All this and I haven’t even mentioned that the day began with Edwin Diaz’s placement on the IL with a shoulder impingement, which may at least partially explain his recent struggles. And then Pete Alonso had to leave the game in the first inning after getting hit in the knuckles by a pitch. But hear me out, can my irrational optimism resurface? The Mets held a team meeting after Wednesday’s game and they won on Thursday, highlighted by an 4-hit game from Francisco Lindor. In addition, imaging showed that Alonso is OK and he was well enough to enter Thursday’s game, contributing a pinch hit double to the cause. As many ulcers as this team has given me, I just can’t quit them.

50 Years Ago - The Godfather Part II

This is always a tough question to answer - which is the better of the first 2 Godfather movies? For me, it usually comes down to recency bias. My choice for the best is whichever is the one I’ve seen most recently. Part II it is, and I’m reasonably certain that I will change my mind the next time that I watch Part I.

The reason why this question exists in the first place is that Part II is one of the few sequels which equals, if not surpasses, the original. The sequel switches back and forth in time, telling the story of the secret origin of Vito Corleone along with the continuing descent into darkness of Michael.

In the past timeline, 9 year old Vito escapes from Sicily (Corleone is the name of his hometown, a clerk at Ellis Island mistakenly thought that was his last name) as the local mob kingpin had ordered the killing of his family. From there he gradually rises in the ranks in 1910’s Little Italy from a small time criminal - along with a couple of young associates named Clemenza & Tessio - to his eventual dominance once he whacks the head of the local gang. This was the role that brought Robert De Niro to a whole new level of stardom, winning his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor, a feat even more impressive considering that he spoke Italian throughout the film. (A special nod as well to Bruno Kirby, who similarly portrayed Clemenza while not speaking his native language.) Today’s trivia - that made Vito Corleone the first character who produced Oscar wins for 2 different actors, a feat later matched by The Joker & Anita from West Side Story.

Meanwhile, the contemporary portion of the film focused on Michael’s expansion of the Corleone empire into Las Vegas and Cuba in 1958, aka the eve of the Cuban Revolution. Just as in the first movie, Michael loses more and more of his humanity as the film goes on, punctuated by another montage of 3 simultaneous hits which serve to consolidate his power even further.

Michael Corleone is one of the most complex and tragic fictional characters, he is almost Shakespearean. From his introduction in the first movie, his potential as a man was obvious. He was intelligent enough that he did not need to live a life of crime, but he was both unable and unwilling to escape his fate. The irony is that this is precisely what made him a worthy heir to the throne. Sonny was too volatile to be the next godfather, Frodo was too weak willed.

This movie is overflowing with legendary characters and great acting performances (it earned Oscar nominations for 5 different actors) but 2 stand out; other than De Niro of course. For the last 40 years or so Al Pacino has too often defaulted into “whoo-hah!” scenery chewing, but young Pacino was amazing. He had a unique ability to keep his rage simmering beneath the surface, releasing that fury only when absolutely necessary.

And when I said this movie had 5 acting nominations? Those were for De Niro & Pacino, along with Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg, and Michael V. Gazzo. One name missing from that list is John Cazale, but his performance was just as strong as anyone else’s. Fredo’s story arc over the course of the two movies is heartbreaking. Cazale has an interesting place in film history. He mainly focused on theatre work, and he died of cancer relatively young. As a result he only acted in 5 movies in his lifetime. Each of those 5 received a nomination for Best Picture. Hard to beat that track record.

I’m not gonna hate too much on Part III, it certainly has its weaknesses but its main sin is that it doesn’t match up to its predecessors, which were cultural landmarks. Years ago a special edition was released, which combined the two movies and rearranged the chronology so that the story was told linearly. It’s best experienced as intended, however. Contrasting Vito’s rise with the continuing destruction of Michael’s soul makes for a more powerful story. It also makes the final scene of Part II - a flashback sequence that brings back some characters that had been killed in the first one - that much more effective.

Truth and Fiction Can Be Equally Strange

Regular readers are aware of my annoyance with the overdone security at chain stores. Which I why I got a kick out of this piece from Clickhole earlier this week. Not only is it not all that far removed from reality, but I can almost picture some CEO reading this, not realizing that it’s satire, and having a eureka moment. On second thought, replicating this scenario would necessitate hiring additional staff, so it’s a non-starter.

Closing Laughs

Time to put my quill down and call it a day. Have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you all again on Monday.