Meet You Tube's Batting Stance Guy. His channel is nothing but batting stances. Seriously.
Here's his take on Detroit Tigers past and present...
He does damn well, I have to admit I giggled through the whole thing. Batting Stance Guy has it all down, from Placido Ploanco's flipping the bat back and forth to Sweet Lou Whitaker's flexing his back before stepping into the box. I have only one issue. Johnny B. Wockenfuss' stance was not nearly closed enough!
Just another reason why the internet is a wonderful thing...
Allow me to take a short break away from sports...
As what tends to happen when I see my youth being co-opted by corporations in order to sell us crap, I have a fit of righteous indignation. What sent me off this time was seeing songs by Meat Loaf and (Can't forget the umlaut) Blue Öyster Cult used in commercials.
I know you've seen the ads, as they seem to be in heavy rotation. I'm talking "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" being used to pimp Go Phones, and "Godzilla" shilling for Auto Trader. (I realize artists have every right to make money off of their labor, and licensing their music as they see fit is commonplace practice in the 21st century. But it still bugs the living Hell out of me. I also realize I come off as a cranky old Grandpa Simpson geezer type bitching about the selling out of rock 'n' roll. But there's still the remnants of an 18 year old lurking beneath the goatee that's beginning to gray, and that 18 year old doesn't like his fave music being used for advertising one bit!
Now you kids git off my lawn!)
Once I survived the commercials, I was suddenly in the mood to see and hear the real thing. I surfed over to You Tube and searched for BÖC. I found "Godzilla,"(Warning: Long drum solo alert!) but I also found something even better.
What did I unearth? Maybe the most 80's video I've ever seen. It's oozes 80's. It reeks of 80's. We're talking the early days of music video, where low budgets and odd, incomprehensible or nonexistent plots ruled the day.
This video features BÖC lip syncing while people aimlessly wander around the band, grainy film stock, bad lighting, fog machines, the pointless driving around of old American iron, cheesy fire special effects, inexplicable cuts and lead guitarist/singer Buck Dharma wearing what may be the ugliest shirt I've ever seen.
In my mind, the earnest seriousness of all the nonsense going on just adds to the already high entertainment value of what's one of my favorite 80's tunes.
Without further ado...From 1981, here's Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' for You."
Kids, you may not get it, but I'm not ashamed to say we found this sort of thing utterly fascinating back in the day. Hell, I get a big ass smile watching it again today.
They my sell their music to the "Man," but they'll never sell my memories....
I'm not one to normally pass along You Tube video mashups. But this mashup of Chris Berman exploding in pretentious anger, and Emmitt Smith's malaprops, is hysterical. When you factor in my utter disdain for all things ESPN, this clip makes me a happy man.
The reason the web exists is so brilliance like this gets mass exposure. The internet is a wonderful thing...
I'm sure you've all heard the "He's giving him the business" penalty call from this past Saturday's Maryland - NC State game. For the 1 or 2 of you that have been living under a rock, here's the most excellent call by ACC Official, and the favorite ref of football fans everywhere, Ron Cherry.
Thing is, there is so much more you could do with calling penalties. If refs had the leeway to call more than just holding, offsides, and the like, imagine the fun that could be had...
"15 yard Personal foul, 69, offense..."
He was giving him the what for!
He was giving him the stink eye!
He was giving him the bird!
He was giving him the the Heimlich!
He was giving him the heebie jeebies!
He was giving him some shit!
He was giving him the love!
He was giving him the chills!
He was giving him the kiss o' death!
He was giving him the silent treatment!
He was being a prick!
He was being a stick in the mud!
He was being a dick!
He was mindfucking him!
He was claiming the mission accomplished!
He was failing miserably!
For not showing me the proper respect!
For not saying he was sorry!
For being an arrogant ass!
For being a Detroit Lion!
For being a brown nose!
He double dog dared me to!
Because he had it comin'!
On general principle!
I don't meed no stinkin' reason, or no stinkin' badges!
I know that I rarely venture out of sports into other realms, but this You Tube clip is too good not to share.
This is a live 1973 performance by Detroit's own Stevie Wonder, at the height of his considerable powers, singing "Superstition." If this doesn't get you moving, you're dead inside...
Even more interesting that this appearance is from "Sesame Street." Yes, from "Sesame Street."
Shows how times have changed in an era of political correctness, you think? And I'm not talking about the day-go clothing, spectacular as it may be... Would something as, dare I say, "Funky" as this ever show up on a children's show today? I'm glad I grew up in that crazy decade...
If you are of a certain age, and grew up in Detroit or Cleveland during the 70's and 80's, you know exactly where the post title comes from. If you are over the age of 30, you fondly remember the best late night horror movie host to ever grace the airwaves, The Ghoul.
You'll also remember jokes about Parma, Ohio, his nemesis, Froggy, Cheez Whiz abuse, his constant use of "Hey gang!" and "Overdey!" and his blowing shit up with M-80's.
For you youngsters out there who missed out on the fun, believe me, I'm just scratching the surface of the televised insanity. Late Saturday nights on channel 50 were total anarchy! It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it...
So in the spirit of Halloween, here's the classic opening from "The Ghoul Show!"
Here's Froggy catching some grief from The Ghoul...
The Ghoul would give us these words to live by at the end of every show... "Stay sick, scratch glass, climb walls, turn blue! But most importantly of all...Do it while you can, but don't get caught!"
As soon I finished my "Another One Bites the Dust" post, about not buying into the Lions hype, the Fanhouse found this "Gem" of a Detroit Lions fan made fight song called "MARINELLI-YA!" The performer? A young "Rapper" named Lionfan941.
I shudder to think what may be next if the Lions actually beat the Eagles...
As I was reading Bill Simmons' column today, to my delight, a reader sent him the You Tube link to one of the more infamous incidents in pro baseball history...
Rod Allen nearly starting World War III.
I can't remember the last time Fox Sports Detroit ran the clip during a Tigers game, so it's been ages since I've seen it. We are talking a slice of baseball history here, along with it being a mainstay of the "Rod Allen Drinking Game."
So, without further ado, here's Rod Allen's one shining moment, his chasing a Japanese pitcher around an entire stadium.
One warning: The clip has strange music and Japanese narration. It looks to have taken from some sort of sports bloopers clip show.
I've seen the Detroit Red Wings numerous times over the years, more than I'd care to count. My Red Wings fandom goes far back, before all the Hockeytown hype, before Joe Louis Arena, before Ted Lindsay and his "Aggressive hockey's back in town" mantra, which was sadly misleading.
My fandom goes all the way back to the very late 60's and the old barn on Grand River, The Olympia. My dad would take me 4-5 games a season, and I have vauge memories of watching Alex Delvecchio, Nick Libett, Roger Crozier, Garry Unger, and of course, Gordie Howe. But I wouldn't call them players of my era, so to speak. That would be the next generation of Red Wings.
Unfortunately, I have much clearer memories of that generation of Red Wings players, which we all know, not so fondly, as the "Darkness with Harkness" and "Dead Things" years.
The Wings that I grew up watching, the teams of the mid to late 70's, were horrid beyond belief. My best memory, and pretty much the only pleasant one, being Bill Lochead's one moment in the spotlight, his highlight reel goal that beat the Atlanta Flames in the first round of the 77-78 playoffs. For a fan who knew nothing more than Detroit sports despair, that was a glorious goal. To the Red Wings fans that grew up in the 70's, that was, sad to say, in our young minds, the greatest moment in Red Wings history.
Obviously, the Wings gradually got better, as do my memories. The 2nd date with my now ex-wife was Red Wings opening night in 1984. I was actually able to buy tickets to the game that same day, and only be halfway up the lower bowl. Things sure have changed...
I would occasionally get SRO tix, and bond with drunk Canucks. I had SRO tix the night me and ny 2 best buds saw Lee Norwood tangle with Tiger Williams. Norwood won the fight with a memorable, and bloody as Hell, head butt. (Amazingly enough, a quick Google search led me to dropyourgloves.com, which confirmed that Norwood took on Williams on 3/25/87. Obsessive hockey fight fans are a wonderful bunch.)
One of my best memories was of being in a suite the night Bob Probert took on Troy Crowder in 1991. Earlier that season, Crowder had beat Probie, and this was one of the most hyped rematches ever. The local papers even ran a "Tale of the Tape," and it was a given that they were going to go a couple of times. Dropyourgloves.com confirms what I remember, as my friends and I had their 2 brawls scored a draw. Probie winning the first fight, and Crowder taking the second. The Wings lost big to the Devils that night, and to be honest, no one cared. It was all about Probert vs. Crowder. And Don Cherry making an appearance. Lord, I miss hockey fights...
I guess the previous paragraphs are my drawn out way of saying that I'm a long time Red Wings fan who's let himself fall out of the hockey loop over the past few years.
As I told you on Thursday, I was going to be attending Friday's Red Wings - Minnesota Wild game. Last night was the first Red Wings game I've seen in person since before the lockout. So we are talking at least 3 years since I'd last been to Joe Louis.
I'm used to sitting in the top couple of rows of the upper bowl, with the hard core hockey riff-raff. Last night though, we had great seats, mid ice, top row of the lower bowl. It's been quite a while since I've had the opportunity to sit relatively close to the action, with Detroit's hoi polloi.
Without question, the night confirmed one thing for me. I'd forgotten just how wonderful hockey is to watch live. God damn, it's a great game in person!
I took some lame photos and video, and I doubt you want to see them. But as it's my blog, I can post whatever the Hell I want. So you get to see the results of my lack of any photography skill.
This is the GF and I during the game. She pulled up her hoodie in hopes of keeping her identity secret. Sorry, Kiddo.
This is an incredibly lame picture taken with my Sprint bribe phone's camera. If you squint your eyes, you can see that it was very early in the first period whem I took this pic.
I'm doing my Popeye imitiation while drinking my Festivus gift, an $8.50 Miller Genuine Draft. Festivus for the rest of us! I'm quite obviously ready to pin the head of the household at this point of the night.
And here is TWFE first official You Tube video. Grainy, no discernable action, and me talking incoherently. I'm so proud...
What I'm trying to say with this post is just one thing. Despite what many outside of the Original 6 cities might think, hockey still matters. This blogger just needed to be reminded of it.
You Tube is a wonderful place. Just search any combination of Scrubs + Turk + Poison for an example of its greatness. But...You Tube can also be a very scary and dark place. The following video is an example of such.
TWFE presnts a You Tube find, produced by what has to be the biggest Detroit Lions fan on the planet, a character named Kitna2Furrey. The name alone scares me. What's even scarier is his prediction for this weekends Lions - Pats game. Mr. Kitna2Furrey predicts a shutout. Not for the Patriots, but the for the Lions?
You have been warned, watch at you own risk...
First, before you press play, I have to give one disclaimer. THIS IS NOT ME!
I'm Al Beaton, aka Big Al, a life-long Detroit sports fan. Being fed up with the lack of quality sports coverage by the MSM, I started "The Wayne Fontes Experience.". 1100+ posts later, it remains to be seen if that was a good idea... (And no, I'm not Eddie Munster, despite what my widow's peak may have you thinking)
