Archive for Audio and/or Visual

NotGraphs knows a pop-culture meme when it sees one.

Video — and amusing tale — very much courtesy of (the recently re-designed) Pitchers and Poets and (also, apparently) Let’s Go Dodgers.

I actually can’t confirm officially that the look on Mr. Dirk Hayhurst’s face is one indicating mischief. What I can confirm is that the photo in question (a) is pretty funny and (b) comes to us courtesy the very amiable Mr. Hayhurst himself via his Twitter feed.

What I can also confirm is that, owing the fact that this photo is a tall, rectangular shape, it’s now incumbent upon me to supply, like, two more inches of text. Let’s do so with a quote from either Samuel Johnson or Ben Jonson (the internet can’t quite decide), as follows:

“Let them call it mischief; Then it is past and prosper’d, ’twill be virtue.”

And how here’s that same quote in much bigger letters:

Jason Kendall rules the indie scene.

In case you missed it, Jason Kendall had one of the oddest meltdowns in Spring Training interview history on Monday. Will McDonald, as always, breaks it down in expert fashion over at Royals Review, which you should definitely check out. The money moment comes when Jason Kendall implores Nick Wright, who was interviewing hot prospect Mike Moustakas, to “rewind yourself.”

As I was reading the comments section at said Royals Review piece, I couldn’t help but be inspired by the suggestion by a few people that “rewind yourself” would make a fantastic album title. And thus, the album cover above was born. Check out the track listing, too:
1. Leader
2. The Ballad of Dave Kerwin
3. Grit
4. All The Adders
5. Scrap
6. Ground Out
7. No Rest For The Bad (At Baseball)
8. Ground Out (Reprise)

With such a monster track list on his very first foray into the music business, there’s no question that Jason will have a long career in the music industry after his playing days are over.

Did you know that Major League Baseball 2K10 is available for the PSP game console?

In case you did not, I’m here to help. What follows will be an exhaustive, penetrating review of this gaming product. It will be rich in tech-speak, measured and sober in its appraisals and free from any whiff of mixed motive. If there’s one thing on earth I take seriously, it’s my ability to provide expert guidance when it comes to gaming, gaming machines, and the gamers who game them. If games and gaming are your River Styx, then I am your Charon, and I propel and steer our ferry not with a mere boatman’s pole, but rather with something long and electronic and related to playing video games. Otherwise the metaphor wouldn’t work. Anyhow, without further throat-clearing, please enjoy this REVIEW among reviews.

First, the packaging. It’s sensible, adequate and even charming in its tethered exuberance — early adopters like us won’t be surprised that the modest bifold laminate sheathing evokes a Hockney painting glimpsed in the gauzy half-light of late morning —

Actually, no. Nope. Nope. Nope. No, I’m not going to review this product because I’ve never played it. I don’t play video games. Putting me at the switch of the contemporary video game would be much like watching a howler monkey trying to open a coconut.

No, all of this strained and affected video-game talk on my part has been nothing more than tidy baseball-y rationale to post this: some guy who batters, deep-fries and then tries to eat a PSP …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81j9M64Ssc&feature=player_embedded

And the people say: apropos of nothing!

Lewie Pollis — of both Wahoo Blues and our very own Community blog — has written a post at the first of those two sites in which he does his best to find comparables for the cast of 1989’s smash-hit comedy Major League among the actual current squad of his Cleveland Indians.

That in itself is a commendable-enough undertaking. What raises his effort to Totes Delightful status, though, is that the videos Mr. Pollis has found to illustrate his selections happen to be in the Italian language.

At the risk of sounding boastful, allow me to announce for the benefit of the readership that this (i.e. Italian) is a language in which I happen to possess some expertise. And, as I have some time on my hands and am the sort of person to help his fellow man, allow me — once again, for the benefit of the readership — to present this brief, but important, Italian lesson.

Below are are three Italian phrases that you will almost definitely find yourself using within the next 24 hours — with the corresponding time-elapsed marks for the embedded video.

Now, learn!

0:21
Ecco Jake Taylor.
Behold, Jake Taylor.

1:30
Gioco come Mays, corro come Hayes.
I play like Mays, I run like Hayes.

2:19
Questa squadra mi piace blah blah blah blah.
I like this team blah blah blah blah.

On the afternoon of April 29, 1983, Cubs skipper Lee Elia treated Americans to the most gorgeous, most resplendent managerial tirade in the history of history. Please, drink humbly, thankfully and deeply of his perfect words, which will forevermore redound through the vaulted halls of this fine Republic.

Now fast forward to the year 2083, when Robot Lee Elia will regale the adoring Chicago crowd at Panda Express Ballstadium (formerly Wrigley Field) with a dramatic reading of Human Lee Elia’s sacred, inerrant utterances. By the way, the video that follows, because of Human Lee Elia’s sacred, inerrant utterances, is so not safe for the conventional workplace that I have not the words to warn you sufficiently.

Now, the power and the glory …

This video comes to us courtesy the year 1989. The footage appears to be from their Scottsdale spring-training facility of that same year.

Among its multiple splendors, one can find in this video:

0:06 — Will Clark (I think, right?) talking about an itch he has.

0:41 — Roger Craig, Patron Saint of Heroic Nonsense, do what comes natural.

0:53 & 1:05 — Kevin Mitchell’s funny body.

Video also courtesy the efforts of YouTube user sfgiants22.

Just a little eyewear mix up at my last key party.

The plight of the bespectacled athlete is worth some attention. After our fearless leader immortalized the younger DiMaggio in prose this week, it seems appropriate to turn our attention to a visual ode to the goggled gods of baseball.

Yes, there is a site dedicated solely to baseball players wearing eyeglasses. Sometimes BespectacledBaseball seems to cheat with the odd pair of sunglasses from time to time, but rest assured – those are prescription. And not only does the site provide the visitor with visuals worth recommending, it also adorns those images with poetic captions – in Craig Kusik’s case, “I tied the Major League record for most times hit by a pitch in an extra-inning game with 3 in 11 inning contest, August 27, 1975.” Practically William-Carlos-Williams-ian.

Bespectacled Baseball is just a baby, man, but the urge to laud players with face windows is not. Check this Wikipedia list of major leaguers with glasses, including this historical fact worth enshrining somewhere:

The first major-league player to wear spectacles was Will ‘Whoop-La’ White in 1878-86.[1][2] Only pitchers dared wear glasses while playing until the early 1920s, when George ‘Specs’ Toporcer of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first outfielder to sport eyewear. Bespectacled pitchers are less rare as they have less need to field the ball.

‘Whoop-La’ there it is. Let’s end with the most famous of spectacular athletes – Reggie Jackson. After all, he’s one (of two) bespectacled baseballers to ever make the Hall of Fame, and with the advent of contacts and Lasik surgery, he will be a member of what may remain a rare breed in the future. NotGraphs salutes you, oh meister of (double) monacles and star of shades.

Hat/Tip: My mother (seriously). And Esquire for the Reggie picture.

So that these guys never, ever make hip-hop music, if I can call it that, again.

Please note: some of the language is a touch NSFW.

Go Bears. And: You’re welcome I’m sorry.

Hey, that’s Peter Buck of R.E.M. and three other musician-y types with whom I am measurably less familiar! What are they doing in this space usually reserved for matters at least tangentially related to baseball? Well, if, like the kids today, you’re a fan of the Rock and/or Roll music, then you should know that those four above plus others have cut an album (CD? Gathering of mp3 files? What do you call albums now?) of songs about our fair game of ball and base. The dirty:

The Baseball Project is a band featuring R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey, the Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn, and his wife, drummer Linda Pitmon, who geek out about their favorite baseball players and teams over power-pop riffage. See, indie nerds can play sports.

Their new album, Volume 2: High and Inside, is on deck for a March 1 release via Yep Roc, and it features an all-star lineup of collaborators, including Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, the Decemberists’ Chris Funk and John Moen, and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard.

Hey, some names I recognize and enjoy! Best of all, follow the link above and you can hear a song from this musical All-Star team (see what I did there!) — a track wondrously titled, “Ichiro Goes to the Moon.” It sounds like something the Ramones would’ve written if they had surfed, which is to say I like and approve, which is also to say I wish the Ramones had surfed. And by all means, please take a jaunt through the lyrics of every song on the album.

Speaking of those lyrics, this, plucked from “Panda and the Freak,” is as fitting a description of a certain Giants third baseman as I’ve ever seen:

When it comes to kung fu fighting, he’s no better than Hong Chi Quo. He’s kind of like Bruce Lee if you cross Bruce Lee with a buffalo. He barrels round the bases; he scrambles for ground balls. Zito named him Kung Fu Panda — that’s our Pablo Sandoval.

Respect, yo.