The Baseball Digest Archive
June 1980
Now that’s the stuff. It’s hard to think of a more aesthetically pleasing cover photo than J.R. Richard & Nolan Ryan in the classic Tequila Sunrise threads. I make no apology for loving those uniforms, as garish as they were. The photo demonstrates how physically imposing Richard was; he makes Ryan look like a child in comparison & Ryan was no shrinking violet. And yet you can’t help but feel sad looking at the photo. It’s from an issue with a cover date of June 1980, shortly before Richard suffered the stroke that would end his career.
This month’s eye-opening article shone a spotlight on young players for whom the magazine was predicting stardom. There’s always the potential to look foolish making this sort of projection, so using the sort of hindsight that decades can provide, how did they do?
They were correct on Dale Murphy, a future 2-time MVP. Willie Wilson was already a premiere base stealer, which he continued to be for the next few years. Bob Stanley’s reputation took a major hit following the 1986 World Series, but he was an exceptional relief pitcher in the early 1980’s, the type that you never see anymore, routinely tallying more than 100 innings pitched. I suppose you can make an argument for Dave Collins. He was your basic leadoff hitter of the time; he would steal a lot of bases but his SB % was rarely all that impressive. I have zero memory of Rupert Jones playing for the Yankees; I picture him as a Mariner. Dennis Lamp was a bit of a journeyman. Ross Baumgarten was the big miss; he had a misleading 2-12 record in 1980 in which he didn’t pitch all that badly; but after that season his decline was rapid. He was out of the league by 1983. As a kicker, the article predicted that the 3 pitchers they chose each had the potential to become 20 game winners; none of them did.
You can always count on a good “the future frightens me” story, and this time it asked if computers will find a place in the game. The subhead on the article said “Maybe not, but…” Reading this today is reminiscent of that old Today Show clip that intermittently goes in viral in which Bryant Gumbel & Katie Couric are confused over the concept of email. The anti-computer argument basically said that the cost of a computer system - $10-12K! - is prohibitive. The counterpoint comes from Houston GM Tal Smith: “At the moment, most managers would resist the computer idea but look at Earl Weaver’s index cards. That’s basically what he’s doing.” Yet another reminder that despite his old school reputation Weaver was a man ahead of his time.
This month’s retro ad was an old standby. The ads for the Doyle Brothers baseball academy were as constant a presence in baseball magazines as ads for sea monkeys were in vintage comic books. I’m not sure if that school produced any big league players, but if it had stuck around a few years longer it could have been as renowned as the Tom Emanski school.
I’ll close on this note. The article on the California Angels looked at the colorful history of the franchise. It spent a lot of time discussing former pitcher and famous tomcat Bo Belinsky, and they were considerate enough to include a photo of his onetime girlfriend, Mamie Van Doren.
SNL Recap
I don’t want today’s newsletter to be as lengthy as a Robert Caro book, so I’ll save my thoughts on this week’s episode until tomorrow. Being that I’m not terribly anxious to dive into it, you can probably guess that it’s not a rave.
Ballot Breakdown - Dave Matthews Band
One factor that can really improve an artist’s Hall Of Fame credentials is the level of intensity in their fandom. It’s one thing to have a large fanbase, it’s something else entirely if the vast majority of a band’s audience would call them their favorite band. The Dave Matthews Band exemplifies that. There aren’t very many casual DMB fans; instead there is a truckload of passionate, devoted fans, people who have seen them in concert dozens of times, in some cases well over a hundred.
As you may have seen from reading some of my earlier posts, I’m drawn to artists from genres that don’t have much representation. There are few true jam bands in the Hall. There’s a difference between a band that jams - think The Allman Brothers or any number of prog rock bands - and one that you can call a jam band. My litmus test is if you can easily picture a bunch of frat bros kicking a hacky sack in the parking lot pre-show, then you’re probably a jam band. How many bands that fall under that classification are in the Hall? Not many, which leaves a niche for the Dave Matthews Band to fill.
One thing that helps DMB a stand out from other artists of their ilk is this. They could noodle around with the best of them, but the song itself remained of the utmost importance. Think of all the other bands that fall under the jam band umbrella and then try to think of how many truly memorable songs each has had. Your mileage may vary of course, but I would suspect that the total from of all of those other artists combined falls short of that of the Dave Matthews Band by themselves.
Another big factor in their success is Matthews’ unique cadence. Born in South Africa, he spent much of his early years in his native country as well as in the United States & the UK. As a result both his speaking voice and his signing voice contain an unidentifiable mixture of regional accents. Add that to the fact that few bands feature the violin as such a prominent instrument, and you have a band that does not sound like anyone else.
They also deserve a whole lot of credit for their importance in the live music scene. Let’s be honest, the majority of the legacy rock acts that are major concert draws are nearing the finish line. The industry must be feeling very anxious about the future, and even though Matthews himself in his fifties, that still theoretically leaves him a lot of time to fill stadiums and amphitheaters for years to come. In a similar vein, he joined the Farm Aid board of directors several years ago, so he can keep the charity running if/when Willie, Neil, & Mellencamp step aside.
When DMB was first nominated a few years ago they earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first act to win the fan vote but not able to draw enough votes in the overall election. That surprised me, but I suspect that they’ll break through on this second look.
If elected, will they perform? - Certainly. Matthews appeared at last year’s ceremony, and they are as active of a touring band as always. No doubt about their attendance.
Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hit - The Space Between (It should be noted that the bulk of their biggest hits came out when Billboard still had a policy that barred songs from the chart if they were not available as physical singles. None of their most familiar songs were eligible under this restriction.)
My Personal Favorite - Crash Into Me
And The Oscars Went To…
After years of jokes about the lengths of Oscar telecasts, this one didn’t just end on time, it was flying by so fast that Jimmy Kimmel had to stretch for time near the end. That’s even with the show beginning around 5 minutes late - that was due to pro-Palestinian protests near the venue, which was causing arrival delays for some of the attendees. This was also helped to some extent by the fact that 2 of the victors did not attend, but I can’t help but wonder if the producers would have carved out more time to show film clips had they known ahead of time that the show would run ahead of schedule. (For the record, the absent winners were the teams from The Boy & the Heron, and The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar. Had they been there, Hayao Miyazaki and Wes Anderson would have each received uproarious ovations.)
As anticipated, there were few surprises among the major awards. Early on as Poor Things was racking up victories the possibility arose that Oppenheimer might not have as big of a night as people had thought, but eventually the awards for Oppy came fast and furious. It won 4 of the big 6, and was easily the most honored movie of the evening.
As for the ceremony itself, it was a predictably strong showing from Kimmel with the exception of some uncomfortably awkward jokes at Robert Downey Jr.’s expense. Kudos to the visual effects team from Godzilla Minus One for bringing Godzilla plush dolls up to the stage with them. In separate presentations John Mulaney and Kate McKinnon continue to prove that they are 2 of the funniest human beings on the planet. I loved Michael Keaton’s reaction to the appearance of 2 former Batman villains on stage; although as many noted Arnold Schwarzenegger actually faced the Clooney Batman, as much as we all want to pretend that movie never happened. And the Ryan Gosling I’m Just Ken performance was an absolute delight.
For the longest time one of the great traditions was seeing Jack Nicholson own the house while seated in the front row. As he has largely withdrawn from public life, no one has completely seized that mantle. It basically gets passed along from year to year depending upon who attends. This year it was clearly Downey. It sure seemed as if there was an iso camera solely dedicated to capturing his reactions. On a related note, it may be time to reconsider the impulse to having aging legend present awards. As I was sitting through what seemed like a piece of conceptual performance art from Al Pacino it brought back memories of the time that Bette Davis rambled endlessly on stage before someone finally got her to open the envelope.
Finally, I beg the producers of all awards shows to do the In Memoriam segment correctly. I try to avoid playing the “you left this person out” game; there are only so many names they can fit in in a short amount of time. But please, please, focus on those deceased people. Don’t train the camera on the singers and dancers on stage at the expense of the names. There was at least one moment in which a name was partially obscured. And overreliance on long shots means that unless a viewer is watching the show on a large screen they may need to squint to make out some of the names.
50 Years Ago - Earthquake
Since I was so young at the time, I’m not entirely certain what the first movie I ever saw in a theater was. Yes, I clearly remember some of the movies I saw as a very young child. But the first? Not sure. I have zero doubt, however, about what was the first movie I went to with my best friend, with no adult supervision, and which I paid to see with my own allowance money. That would be Earthquake.
That movie may have been pure schlock, but it was actually a good “first” cinema experience. In 1974 my local theater hadn’t yet converted to a multiplex, so it was still an old school palace with a huge screen and a balcony. Plus, this movie was presented in Sensurround. That basically meant that the speakers were situated in such a way and with the bass levels cranked up so that when the quake took place, the audience could feel the sensation. So, it might not have been a great movie but it was a great moviegoing experience.
There were soooooo many disaster movies in that time period. Unlike many of the others, Earthquake was not an Irwin Allen production, but it did fill the standard template. It took an all-star cast, some of whom were Hollywood legends, and placed them in a dangerous situation. Some movies, such as this, focused on a natural disaster. Others focused on some sort of man-made disaster. We even had a killer bees movie, however you wish to classify that. The two key factors were to have impressive for their time special effects, and to dial the melodrama up to 11.
Earthquake starred Charlton Heston, and this story gave him prime opportunity to jam it up as only he could. The second lead was Ava Gardner as his boozy wife, with Genevieve Bujold filling out the third part of the love triangle as a widowed mother with whom Heston was having a poorly hidden affair. This movie was also apparently part of the George Kennedy Extended Universe. Kennedy was a regular in the series of Airport movies, but I guess where disaster comes, he follows. In this one he played an LAPD cop who was suspended earlier that day for punching another officer in the face. At the time of the quake he was drowning his sorrows at a bar & for some reason Walter Matthau, who was credited under a pseudonym, was also at the bar. My theory is that he wandered on the set & just started drinking and no one had the heart to ask him to leave.
I always find it interesting to see how & when younger generations learn about older stars. For example, several months back a tweet went viral in which someone was astonished to learn that the actress who portrayed Moira on Schitt’s Creek is the same one who was Kevin’s mother in Home Alone. When I saw that I chuckled to myself and thought “you still have no idea how big of a legend Catherine O’Hara is.” But I shouldn’t be smug. Earthquake was the first time I had ever heard of Ava Gardner, so my initial impression of her was as this gin-soaked middle aged woman. It wasn’t until years later that I learned what a big deal she was in her younger days.
Every generation has their share of celebrities with a bit of inexplicable fame. Try to imagine how difficult it will be to describe some of today’s reality stars in the future. It won’t make sense. One such example from the 70’s was Marjoe Gortner. He first gained fame as a child evangelist and the subject of an Oscar winning documentary. When he turned to acting he maintained that same intense manic preacher mode, which was partially evident here. His character was a grocery store clerk who was also a National Guard reservist called to duty following the pre-quake tremors. The aftermath of the disaster proved him to be a massive creep, dangerously obsessed with Victoria Principal’s character.
This was a movie I loved when I was 8 years old; I have no desire to ever watch it again. I’m fairly confident it won’t hold up so I prefer to keep it in my memory. The quake scenes were very well done (or at least they seemed so at the time,) the rescue efforts were filled with edge of the seat tension, and Heston got to play noble hero in between his scenery chewing. And as I mentioned when Richard Roundtree died several months ago, the movie contained a scene with the perfect blend of cool and cheesiness - his motorcycle daredevil character racing away from the raging waters following a dam burst. Outstanding work.
Closing Laughs
Hope everyone survived a weekend in Katie Britt’s dystopia. Thanks for reading & we shall be right back here tomorrow. Don’t miss it!