The Phillies 1964 and Richie Allen

Richie Allen died this week at the age of 78. He was one of my childhood baseball heroes and the star of that amazing and ultimately frustrating 1964 season. He was also the 1964 Rookie of the Year. Although he was known as Dick Allen through most of his baseball career he was always Richie Allen in Philly.

He was also a very controversial player throughout his career but especially in Philadelphia and a lot of it was racially motivated.

I saw him play many times at Connie Mack Stadium from 1964 through 1969. The 1964 season was when my brother Tom and I went to several games by ourselves. Our Uncle Tom used to take us to games in earlier seasons but that is another story told here in my Extra Innings post. We would take the 23 trolley down to Lehigh Ave and then walk over to the ballpark. 1964 was an exciting year and the Phillies were in first place leading the league by six and a half games with twelve games left in the season. The Phillies collapsed and lost ten games in a row to end the season in second place. Allen continued to play at his usual high level but the rest of the team stunk. It was our first real sports heartbreak but it certainly wouldn't be the last but nothing ever hurt as much to a 13 year old.

I remember that season, those games and the players on the team like it was yesterday.

Chris Short, Clay Dalrymple, Bobby Wine, Tony Taylor, Ruben Amaro, Johnny Callison, Wes Covington, Tony Gonzalez, Danny Cater, John Herrstein, Cookie Rojas, Alex Johnson, Frank Thomas, Roy Sievers, Jim Bunning, Dallas Green, Rick Wise, Ray Culp, Cal McLish, Art Mahaffrey, so many familiar names.

I would never again look at a sports team the same way after that disappointing season ending. The worse can always happen in sports.

The Supreme Court Smacks Him Down

Earlier this evening we heard from the US Supreme Court concerning a lawsuit the trump "legal team" sent to the court where they requested all mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania be thrown out and trump declared the winner in the state. Trump had also made a public announcement that he expected the court to rule in his favor.

Denied

Well, the court gave a very brief one sentence rebuke of trump that was unanimous including the six conservatives three of whom were appointed by trump. The petition was denied. A classic smack down.

I'm sure trump will be tweeting that it doesn't matter and he is still pursuing other legal avenues. He's nuts.

John Lennon - Kitchen Listening

John Lennon died 40 years ago today. Another icon of my generation. What a loss and we can only imagine what he would have accomplished musically and socially over the past forty years if he had not been shot. I vividly remember that shocking day. It was something you couldn't believe had actually happened. Right after my birthday too. I had just turned 29. He had recently turned 40. We were also feeling bad about Ronald Reagan winning the recent election during the ongoing Iran Hostage Crises. Tough times made worse on this day in 1980.

John Lennon certainly had an impact on my life both musically and socially. I always followed what he was up to and collected all of his music. I also remember my older sister as a big Beatles fan in the 60's and her getting his book In His Own Write when it was published in 1964. I read it too. I read about everything Joh Lennon and the Beatles were up to and I followed his solo career very closely. Especially the political stuff. It was always interesting to hear what Lennon had to say about anything.

So today I put his multi disc box set John Lennon Anthology on the stereo. It's a collection of demos, outtakes and other unreleased material recorded by Lennon over the course of his solo career. After that I plan on listening to his Live in New York City album. If I still need to hear more Lennon than I can continue with any of his six or so studio albums in my collection and of course there are always the Beatles but that will probably be another day.

In September 1988 I read a John Lennon biography titled Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman, 1986. Then in July 1993 I read John Lennon: In His Own Words by Barry Miles, 1980 which was a compilation of Lennon interviews. I should look for a more recent biography.

I'm enjoying the music of John Lennon today. 

Did you know... that you may...

 

Finally over. The Medicare open enrollment period ended yesterday and today there are no more TV ads.  For about two months we have been bombarded with the incessantly nonstop obnoxious ramblings of commercial health insurance companies attempting to lure uninformed seniors into purchasing their additional Medicare supplement programs. 

We watch a lot of news programs and of course the companies chose these shows for their ad campaigns that have targeted seniors on Medicare. And I do mean targeted. There were at least six different companies running these ads and they were all long and rambling. All but a couple of them made themselves to look like an official statement of information from the Federal government all dressed up in red, white and blue. Very misleading. The ads would go on and on and would keep repeating the same misleading statements over and over again. It was always did you know and you may get this benefit or you may get that benefit but they weren't saying that you had to buy into their program. They must say their phone numbers at least 6 times per ad. It's sad that health care is such an issue in this country. Even a nice benefit like Medicare doesn't do enough and people are still preyed upon by profit seeking health care companies.

They were definitely preying on peoples' ignorance and lack of information literacy. Do they think everyone over 65 is a low information trump supporter?  I'm so glad that open enrollment period is over. 

The Grifter and his Marks

Trump is going on the election rigging rant for the purpose of raising money for himself from his gullible supporters. It's obvious to everyone. 

It's hard to believe people can be so stupid but he lets people wallow in their hate and bigotry. They feel better about their selves because he says all the things they think.

The grifter and his marks. The loser and the suckers.

Neil Young Live in the Morning - Kitchen Listening

Morning kitchen listening today began with some early live Neil Young. I could certainly listen to Neil Young all day. First up on the stereo was a couple of early quiet solo acoustic sets Live at Massey Hall 1971 and Live at the Cellar Door 1970. They are part of the Neil Young Archives series of live performances as is the next album lined up Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Fillmore East 1970.

Those first two solo acoustic sets are wonderful introductions to the music of Neil Young. He plays piano on some and acoustic guitar on others. It's interesting to hear Down by the River on just acoustic guitar. They all sound great and many of the songs we love and know so well are introduced as new and not recorded yet. He has sometimes has very interesting conversations between songs. So after the two acoustic albums I brought in Crazy Horse. That live show from 1970 is one of my favorite all time live albums.

Getting close to lunch and the next album in the lineup was Live Rust from 1979. Awesome  record I bought back when it was released. Still sounds great.

I have a few live Neil Young albums in my collection. 

• Live at the Fillmore East 1970 with Crazy Horse
• Live at Massey Hall 1971
• Dreamin' Man Live 1992
• Live at the Riverboat 1969
• Live Rust 1979 with Crazy Horse
• Live at the Cellar Door 1970
• Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968
• Weld 1991 with Crazy Horse
• Blue Note Cafe 1987-1988
• A Treasure 1984-1985

Glass of Beer - Liquid Paradise IPA

Voodoo Ranger Liquid Paradise IPA from New Belgium Brewing. Colorado. A bitter and hoppy IPA. I've had several other of their Voodoo Ranger IPAs but this is the first of this particular one. Very tasty.

And Happy Birthday to me. Not much going on in our Covid world. Nice dinner though.

Birthday Dinners

This will be the first time in many years that I've not gone out to dinner for my birthday. There have been times when we had heavy snow on December 6 and we went out another time during the week but not this pandemic year. We were able to go to a restaurant in September for Becky's birthday but it is different now. Too dangerous. Becky is making some nice chili for dinner tonight.

This is a tough time for restaurants. We would going out tonight in normal times but these certainly are not normal times. I feel really bad for restaurant owners and workers. We will do some take out this week like we did for our anniversary dinner in June. We had a wonderful take-out dinner from Ristorante Lombardo after we were unable to get a table on their patio. In September we were able to have a nice restaurant dinner on the patio of the Liberty Hound where there was plenty of space between tables and we had a wonderful view of the harbor.

Thanks to my regular posting on Facebook of restaurant check-ins I can make a list of where I've had birthday dinners over the past few years.

• Trattoria Aroma, 2019
• Paris Bistro, 2018 (in Philly)
• Tappo, 2017
• Osteria 166, 2016
• Shango New Orleans Bistro, 2015
• Ristorante Lombardo, 2014
• Betty's, 2013
• Blue Monk, 2012
• The Eights, 2011
• Seabar, 2010
• Saigon Bangkok, 2009
• Cole's, 2008

Dylan in the Morning - Kitchen Listening

Morning Kitchen Listening... Bob Dylan. Probably the most iconic and influential musician of my lifetime. Starting of with the Biograph box set for a nice overview up to a point.  Then on to Blonde on Blonde followed by Blood on the Tracks. I'll probably go with something much later at that point. 

I've been reading about Dylan lately. 

Biograph was the first CD box set I had purchased in 1986. Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks are two of my favorite albums. I can still vividly remember first reading about Blonde on Blonde back when it came out in 1966. This was around the time when I started incessantly reading record reviews in newspapers, magazines and wherever I could.

I only saw Bob Dylan perform live once. That was in 1974 when he was touring with The Band. We saw him at the Spectrum in Philly. Great show.

According to iTunes and my vinyl shelves I have 62 Bob Dylan albums in my collection. There are 9 live albums and 12 compilations most of which are box sets in his bootleg series.

Van Morrison - Wear a Friggin' Mask

I was playing some live Van Morrison today. I had his great live album It's Too Late Too Stop Now from 1974 on the stereo for some morning kitchen listening. It was actually the multi disc box set version with several other live shows included. Next in the lineup was his Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast live album from 1984 and then the Night in San Francesco live album from 1994. I have a couple of other live albums from him but this should last throughout the day.

Listening to Van all day also reminded me of his recent acts of pathetic craziness concerning the covid pandemic. Apparently he objects to the shutdowns that have occurred throughout Britain and has made some very public rants about losing his freedom. He has recorded several songs railing against the virus related shutdowns and he has been discouraging people from taking precautions. He even sings about not wearing a mask. Very sad. Just wear a friggin' mask Van.

What world is Van Morrison living in and now he is joined with Eric Clapton. They recently released a song together titled Stand and Deliver that is an anti-government rant against safety mandates at live events. They are a couple of tone deaf musicians endangering the lives of people.

Contrast that to Bruce Springsteen who has been sponsoring a campaign titles Wear a Friggin' Mask.