Baltimore is where poet Edgar Allan Poe died mysteriously and the town even named its NFL franchise the Ravens after Poe’s most famous poem. I never got a chance to visit his grave nor his home when I was there and I kind of regret that.

The story of Poe’s death at the age of 40 was always one of the most interesting biographical things to teach my students about a poet. If you get a chance read about it on here on Wikipedia.

I only liked the Cubs because they were so bad and their announcer, Harry Carey, was so goofy. He was drunk most of the time on the air and often bumbled names and slurred his speech. One time I was watching a Cubs-White Sox exhibition game and he called (now Marlins manager) second baseman Ozzie Guillen “Willie Gwillen.” Other than Harry, I wasn’t much of a Cubs fan.

The Braves were where it was at for me. The team was pretty good. Joe Torre was their manager and they had players like Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Rafael Ramirez, Glenn Hubbard, Chris Chambliss, Claudell Washington, Bruce Benedict, and Gerald Perry. They had a few good pitchers: Steve Bedrosian, Terry Forster, Rick Mahler, Pasqual Perez and Craig McMurtry.

Every game for the Braves was on TV. They had some OK uniforms and Dale Murphy was my favorite player. Skip Carey, Harry’s son, was their play-by-play guy, and I thought he was much better on air than his dad.

Dale Murphy

When we would play stickball in the backyard, my brothers and I would have makeshift lineups where we’d have to imitate at-bats as close to the professional lineup as we could. I would switch from left to right-handed with each part of the Braves order, which I had memorized. I mimicked their stances and actually ended up hitting very well left-handed because of it. But it was Murphy whom I could hit the furthest home runs at the bat.

I’ve still never been to Atlanta, but someday I’d like to get there and see where old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium stood. The Braves played there before they moved into the Olympic stadium that is now their home.

Prince Fielder

Prince Fielder as a boy (from Sports Illustrated vault)

In 1990 a guy few had heard of started clunking out long homeruns for the Detroit Tigers. He had just returned from the Japanese Nippon League where he went for a few years after playing earlier for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Photo found on Detroit News (http://www.detroitnews.com)

The big first basement for Detroit Tigers had a huge “hitch” in his swing and swung mightedly at every strike he saw. Cecil Fielder, the 26-year-old player, was a MLB sensation. He ended that year with a whopping 51 homeruns and 132 RBI. He also led the American League in strikeouts, whiffing 182 times. Cecil grew as his legend did (was some of it due to steroids?), gaining a bunch of weight and swinging even harder. He smacked 44 homers in 1991 with 133 RBI. He played until 1998, finishing his career with the New York Yankees, Anaheim Angels and a handful of games for the Cleveland Indians. He had 319 homeruns in his career and is beloved in Detroit. Cecil was 6-foot-3 and listed as 230 pounds in his heyday, but he was closer to 300 pounds.

In 2005 Cecil’s then-21-year-old son entered the Major Leagues as a first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Prince is listed at 5-11, 275 pounds, and is built very much like his daddy. He hit 50 homeruns in 2007 with 121 RBI. He swings left-handed, but sure looks and swings like his dad. He’s hit 230 homeruns in the Major Leagues so far and appears to a little better than Cecil, whom he no longer talks to.

Cecil and Prince Fielder in 2006 (photo found on http://www.hardballtalk.nbc.com)

Prince was signed as a free agent by the Tigers, his dad’s old team, over the winter. Detroit fans were elated. Not only did they get one of the best sluggers in all of baseball, but also the son of a beloved former Tiger.

I like that story. Prince seems like a pretty good guy. He’s always got his little kids on the field with him when he is interviewed after games and a few years back he became a vegetarian to try to improve his health.

My favorite part of this little story isn’t the baseball stats and lore; rather, it’s my memories of the photos of Cecil with “little” Prince when Cecil was playing. There were great photos of Prince hanging out with the big leaguers and his dad. They are funny photos. I found a few and added some from today.

 

I sold Coca-Cola as a vendor who walked the stands during those years. I believe I ended my stint there as the second highest volume soda vendor at the time. That meant I could move up to beer sales, but I wanted to stay with Coke. There are a million stories that go with vending at the Dome. In the catacombs of the Metrodome I got to talk to several players, broadcasters, celebrities and politicians. I have some great stories about Charlie Sheen at the 1987 AL Championship Series; meeting Reggie Jackson; hanging out with Tom Brunansky, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Randy Bush, and Gary Gaetti; shaking the (good) hand of Bob Dole; and, having fans ask me for my autograph thinking I was Twins player Chris Pittaro (I signed a few). 

Last year the Twins became a sorry excuse for a baseball team. Some of it was bad luck. Some of it was bad play. Some was bad coaching. All-in-all, it was not Twins baseball as we’ve known it.

There was one other thing to blame for the Twins dismal season last year, though.

Obamacare.

That’s right. Obamacare. As the entire GOP is doing, I am now blaming everything bad that happens on something called “Obamacare.” That term doesn’t even make sense, but Republicans toss it out like it’s the most logical reason for anything bad that happens. I guess I could tie the Twins losing season to terrible injuries to Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Denard Span, and most of the pitchers. But in reality, I’m sure these millionaires have pretty good healthcare at Target Field.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes, I blame Obamacare for the Vikings shitty season and the collapse of the Minnesota Wild this winter.

The ones that are neat to me are the ones that have interesting backstories and names that no one today would pick. The Twins are a good nickname for that purpose. I mean, what marketer would pick out twin brothers as a nickname to solve the problem of competition between the battling cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul? There are other good ones, like the Dodgers, who were formerly the Brooklyn Dodgers before moving to Los Angeles. Dodgers were people who dodged between street cars in the bustling streets of New York City. The Kansas City Royals represent the Royal American Livestock Show, which is a big deal there. The Cincinnati Reds, the first ever professional baseball team, wore red socks and were called the Red Stockings back in 1869 simply because that’s what the guys wore with their knickers.

That’s fun, right? Somehow the name “Raptors” doesn’t ring the same.

San Diego had professional baseball teams from the 1930s on, but because the city is on the west coast (and nearly in Mexico), it only had minor league baseball for a long time. The early minor league teams were called the Padres, which means “Father” in Spanish. The name was chosen because of the influence of Catholic Spanish missionaries in the area.  In 1969, San Diego got a MLB team and kept the name.

The stories are fun – and I like San Diego’s goofy nickname – but their hideous uniforms enhance the story. Their color scheme is based off of a monk’s robe. Their colors have always been brown and yellow with some black and white tossed in. Their mascot is a swinging monk that looks like he came straight out of the old animated Disney Robin Hood movie. Of course, Dave Winfield went from the University of Minnesota to play for the Padres in 1974, so he is often associated with their goofy uniforms of the day. Here are a few images for you to enjoy the Catholic baseball team …

If the Twins can’t figure out a way to win again, I’m tossing my support behind the Kansas City Royals this year. They’ve been so unbelievably terrible the past 15 years that I think they deserve a winner. I always hoped Kansas City and Pittsburgh would finally figure out how to win a game and meet in the World Series.

The last time the Pirates won more games than they lost in a season was 1992. Yep, that’s 20 years ago. Heck, Barry Bonds wasn’t even on steroids back then. The Royals went 83-79 in 2003 and were good leading up to 1994, so they’re about the same class of terrible since the mid-1990s.

One of my favorite Royals of all time was George Brett, the outstanding hitting third baseman who played all 21 of his seasons in Kansas City. I recently found out my mother-in-law has (and had) a HUGE crush on Brett. She thinks he’s the hottest thing ever.

Both the Royals and Pirates will have their places in my favorite baseball uniforms post, coming later this month. Stay tuned.

This one shouldn’t be difficult. The difficult part is to try to include every one of the 30 MLB teams over the course of the challenge. I can solve that in many ways, but some to look forward to will be my favorite MLB uniforms and other assorted tidbits.

For today, I’m watching the Twins Spring Training game on FSN. They’re playing the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are an interesting team. They play in the difficult AL East Division where they have to compete with the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The Rays have a great pitching staff and a fantastic manager in Joe Maddon. An added bonus for the Rays is that Don Zimmer is on their coaching staff. He’s 81 years old and has a storied baseball past.

The big thing about the Rays is that they changed their name from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to just Rays in 2007. They new name is supposed to be ray as in “ray of sunlight,” which is dumb. I thought the Devil Rays nickname was a good one and could easily be shortened to Rays in headlines and other references.

The Rays play in the worst stadium in baseball, Tropicana Field. The Trop may be worse than the Metrodome or the Seattle Kingdome were for baseball. Just horrible, terrible and shitty. Worse yet, the Rays have this dome in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Bradenton/Clearwater/St. Cloud area and no one goes to games. The Rays have trouble selling tickets and I’m guessing a big part of it is their stupid dome in the middle of Florida.

I like their new uniforms. I like some of their players (Evan Longoria, BJ Upton, David Price). I root for them against the Yankees and Red Sox.

It’s a weak beginning to the challenge, but I thought I’d drop a few notes on the Rays while the Twins were beating them 3-2 in Spring Training while I wrote this. See you folks around!

Champlin House Fire 1.21.11 from Jim Hatten on Vimeo.

Minutes before I went out to look to see what was causing all the smoke in her neighborhood, three neighborhood men checked to make sure there wasnt’ anyone in the house, pounded on doors and called the fire department. It was terribly sad to watch as we all helplessly waited for the fire trucks to arrive.

This will be the heaviest class load I’ve ever taken — four classes — but if today is an indication, the learning should be exponential and strong in preparing me for dissertation time next winter.

Now, back to two chapters and a paper I need to write before 8 a.m. tomorrow ….