JohnO

I caught the tail end of an ad for an ESPN special the other day, where they mentioned something about the "real Rocky". I assume this is the Wepner special? Stallone, if I recall, used (or was inspired by) Wepner twice - first, the Ali-Wepner fight, where he "knocked down" Ali in a late round, but may have pushed him or tripped him, making Ali so mad that he beat the living Hell out of Chuck the rest of the fight - breaking his nose and badly cutting him up - and that was allegedly the inspiration for the first "Rocky" film. Then, I believe he used that ridiculous Wepner - Andre The Giant boxer-wrestler match the night of the Ali-Inoki fiasco, as inspiration for "Rocky 3" and the Rocky-Hulk Hogan (Thunderlips?) fight. Did Wepner ever receive formal credit (or, for that matter, any money) from Stallone for these??? Just wondering......

Truth be told, the poor bastard who caught most of the crap from Wally on Saturday was his guitar tech for the night - an African-American gentleman with the unfortunate name of Terry Hatcher......so Wally, of course, mentions early that he thought he was getting the actress (Terri H.) to tune his guitars....and commented - "look how she's changed over the years!....Just not the same...", and similar comments several other times throughout the show.

The funny thing is -I just tossed out the very first crack that Wally made. . . it certainly wasn't the last one of that type he made on Saturday night. . . but Hello! The show was billed as Wally Bryson & Friends, so I expected to see / hear Wally doing what he does best. As Marv stated earlier, he was nervous going on at the start - and he started unaccompanied on his first song. The ABM reference fit the situation to a tee. Clever play on words or childish insult? I guess it depends on how one views Wally. Frankly, having seen more than a few of the Berries Meet & Greet rehearsals/soundchecks, I would have been very disappointed, had Wally not gotten in a slew of irreverent comments! That's just his personality. Childish? Maybe. Funny? If the audience's laughter was any indication, a resounding yes! As Mr. Borack used to say here - but your mileage may vary.

One disappointment - although not a major one - nothing from The Sittin' Ducks album. Some excellent Wally tunes on that album. . .

Also, I loved Wally's comment at the very start of the show, regarding just his guitar and voice doing "I'd Rather You Leave Me". . . ."I'm gonna do this - all by myself! Oops, did I just say that?" (accompanied by sh*t-eating grin. . .)

And while we're on the subject of set lists, anybody wanna know The Misfits' set list from Friday's show at Peabody's (about 1/2 mile from the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Cleveland)? Didn't think so. . . . (If anyone does, I do remember their first 11 or 12 songs (out of about 36-38 in total) were from their brand new album. Beyond that,somewhat of a blur. . .)

Marv - I counted 23 songs by Wally & co. last night - they played 2 versions of "It's Cold Outside" - first, a slow version much like Tattoo's, which segued into The Choir's version (great to hear Wally sing it, though). Also, they did "Thanks For The Ride" from Scott's album. . . I think it was Scott's first song last night.

Marv - Have a great one today! Good seeing you, even if just for a few minutes. . . . .

Me too! (But I'm just a disinterested 4th or 5th party here. . .)

Sh*t! Why is Girardi doing his pitching-by-committee schtick in the most important game of the year??? This crap worked one time out of three the past couple of weeks.. . . . . (It would still be 2-0 now in the 4th had he left Nova in. If Fister's on the rest of the night, it won't matter anyway.)

Paulie - While we Yankees fans appreciate your rooting, it'll do little good tonight, since they play tomorrow! P.S. Is being hired to announce playoff games really the same as "making the playoffs"? Even if it is. . .. .is Francona still employed by the Red Sox, or has he resigned? Not sure. . .

For some reason, I thought Lew got married awhile back, but I could be wrong. If so, congrats and good luck, Lew! P.S. That bit about Tommy marrying his hand. . . .nah, I heard his hand turned him down!

Ira got married? I thought he had just started dating again.....that was quick!

"....if an owner can't afford to field a competitive team... one that is competitve financially as well as between the lines... he should not own a team." No argument from me on this. To me, perhaps the saddest thing about MLB these days is the way that some once-proud franchises have seemingly fallen into disarray, and for very long periods of time - Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati (last year aside), Kansas City, the Cubs, etc.

Paulie - Just read an on-line article where the Rays owner Sternberg is b*tching about how something's going to give in Tampa if attendance doesn't start picking up there. This is their 4th winning year there, including 3 playoff berths, but they couldn't sell out today's game there. (Article does mention in passing that the owner cut the team's payroll from $71M in '10 to $41M this past year, giving the team the 2nd lowest payroll in MLB.)

Giro - You sure hit the nail on the head about AJ tonight!. . . . although things looked very shaky at first, he settled down, and just left in the 6th after giving up just 1 run. What a frustrating pitcher he is - with that stuff, he's capable of doing this every start - so how come we only get to see it 5-6 times per year at most? Oh well, it's in their bullpen's hands now. . . . .

Paulie - Sorry. . . .I thought the Rays might be this year's Giants, 2011's team of destiny. It wasn't to be. God, I wish anyone other than Burnett were pitching tonight!

At least Maddon's job is safe, even if the Rays lose today. Girardi, I'm not too sure about if the Yanks lose..... If so, then in 4 years, he's gone from not making the playoffs ('08) to winning it all ('09), to making the ALCS ('10), to being eliminated in the first round ('11). Those aren't exactly steps in the right direction since '09.....and that's exactly what got Torre canned. Plus, Girardi will forever be second-guessed for perhaps going into the tank in the last Tampa Bay series in the regular season, seemingly killing any momentum the team could have had going into the post-season. Personally, I think Joe G. did about the best he could in getting 97 wins out of Colon, Garcia, Martin, Nova, etc., considering the age of the team. But I'm not Yankee upper management.

Tommy - Scherzer looked pretty damn good to me! Speaking of pitchers and playoffs, though.......Since Cliff Lee started out 7-0 in the playoffs, with an ERA of 1.26, dating from the start of the '09 playoffs through last year's ALCS.....he has gone 0-3 (including last night's loss) with an ERA of 7.13!!! Not exactly what the Phillies were counting on in the post-season, I suspect.....

It's a very well done movie that I found fascinating - if, for no other reason, the depictions of how trades are pulled off by GMs - with 3-4 GMs on hold while Beane is talking with yet another, playing them against each other. Just picked up the latest Sports Illustrated today, which has a cover story on the current state of moneyball, with Brad Pitt on the cover. While Beane's philosophy on how stats should be used certainly changed MLB scouting forever, I also agree to an extent with the old fart scouts portrayed in the movie, who insist that solely relying on one or two stats (such as on base %) won't tell the whole story about a player - intangibles such as heart, desire are left out. One of the players pretty much trashed in the movie by Jonah Hill's character is Johnny Damon, to use one obvious example. His OBP has never been that strong. . . .but he's been a clubhouse leader and a winner every place he's ever played.

Paulie - I also enjoyed it, right up to the epilogue, where it stated that the Red Sox 2 years later won their first championship in umpteen years, after BB turned down their offer to be GM, by subscribing to Billy B's philosophy. . . .not a false statement, per se, but they left out the part about Boston in '04 having far and away the 2nd largest payroll in MLB. Beane's philosophy was/is based on competing and being successful, using statistics and probabilities, in spite of not having tons of dough.. . . . .it's on getting the most value for your money - not on throwing the most dough at the best available free agents. Boston, having hired Bill James, does use the same stats and analyses as Oakland in '02. I'd say their overall philosophy of running that team, though, is one Hell of a lot closer to that of the "Evil Empire" than they'd care to admit now! (I doubt that Billy B would have gone after Dice-K, for example, and his agent's outrageous demands, considering he had never pitchefd in MLB.)

Tommy -This is very odd. . . .you look a lot like Paul Rodgers in some of these photos!. . . . (& the guitarist next to you looks just like Howard Leese. . .)

I'd suggest Cartmill, but Tony would go out of character in less than a minute or two, and start ranting about how some Gub-ment conspiracy or another is behind all of this.....

More likely a replay of Mayweather-Ortiz from Saturday - one of them WILL sucker punch the other - just a question of whether it's Tommy or Lew who does it first!

Paulie - Have a great one today!