I posted a few days back about the contest, and had a few remarks about sequels then. I've been thinking about it since: I may have low-balled Aliens and the Nolan-Batman sequels. Also since then Corrie and I watched the 1966 Batman: the Movie, the same cast and crew as the campy television show, and was designed to be a commercial for the show in Europe. For my Caps playing fellas, I snapped this picture of Batman fighting Joker:
Sploosh, baby! (That's a scoring play in a game of Caps.)
Dad, I'm glad you had a happy and successful trip to Missouri. I think the only time I was in Missouri was on the drive Corrie and I made from SLO to New York. We passed through under cover of darkness, and I remember taking a picture of the Arch in St. Louis. On the college football tip, the Missouri Tigers make a mistake and join the SEC.
Ahh...the Yankees, dammit.
The slow fade has been both hard and easy to follow. Hard in the sense that it's always hard to watch your team blow a ten game lead over three months, but easy in the sense that we're living 3000 miles away, and living through it back in Brooklyn would have been a little more agonizing. Sports in the City is so much more in your face.
One of the bad things about team collapses, especially in baseball, is that the length of time is such that hope is still there, and that hope is what'll have the ending, if things continue like this, hurting so bad.
But there're reasons hope exists in fans, always reasons. Like the Yankees this year: CC Sabbathia should be back strong, and Pettitte will be back soon, along with A-Rod and Teixeira, and the hitters won't be as shitty as they've been in the recent past. It's an old team, certainly, but they're accomplished, and we'll see.
That's that confounded hope again. With the Orioles, A's and Yankees all with the same record at this moment, these last few weeks will be interesting.
See Dan, when you care about a team, there's a lot more suffering than celebrations.
At least the Red Sox suck even worse this year, but when you suck the entire time, it's almost easier to go with it.
I'm still thinking about that big comic movie post, having just watched that Batman movie as well as the Captain America movie recently. Also, there's a new After Hours video up, one in which they discuss how all Pixar movies are one big movie about the post-apocalyptic world where the machines have taken over. An essay in the comments section is a necessary gem that accentuates the video like crazy. It's all pretty interesting.
This is a disloyal-sounding comment on your Yankee comments, Pat. I have felt for a long time that George Steinbrenner buying the team took a lot of fun out of rooting for it. He basically ruined it for guys who get a lot of enjoyment out of their team simply competing ... hanging tough against quality competition, being in the chase as the season winds down ... those things were thrilling when I was a lad in high school and college. Now, anything less than #28 is just a failure. I follow the Yanks on blogs that are frequented by fans a LOT younger than I am, and am sometimes amazed by how spoiled, demanding, and unreasonable they are. And yet ... the Bernie, Tino, Scott Brosius, and Paul O'Neill Yankees were SO amazingly wonderful, and I think they were so loved because the core were all home-grown. The 2012 team, I predict, will win the division, and make a good playoff run. They've gotten the suckiness out of their system. I hope.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a point that I tried to make repeatedly while living back in New York: that Yankee fans of my generation are too spoiled and expect far too much. There was something about being a Mets fan, like sucking was the base status, so doing well gave fans joy, whereas, like you say, it's number 28 or bust. Really only one team ends it's season with a meaningful victory. That late '90s team was certainly one for the ages.
ReplyDeleteDad, here's a thing I wrote the other day about Murakami's newest book, 1Q84:
http://normandpat.blogspot.com/2012/09/current-reading-material.html