Kicking Off the Tourist Season

I spoke to a former co-worker this morning. He’s a bartender at a Restaurant/Nightclub on Treasure Island.


After we exchanged the usual pleasantries, we spoke about the Super Bowl. The conversation centered on how it (being here in Tampa) will effect the bar business. More importantly how it will affect his pocket.

January is generally a slow month for Bars, Restaurants and Motels on the Beach. Although the snowbirds are already there, the tourists don’t start rolling in until mid February. Who wants to go to the Beach when the temperatures are in the fifties to low sixties during the day and in the 40’s at night?

My bartender friend told me that business was better than usual last night – a lot of Steelers’ fans. He also said that they expect to have a busier than normal Friday and Saturday. Pittsburgh fans do like to “drink and party; they just don’t tip that well”. The best case scenario would be the Jets playing the Bears; his team against my team. They drink and tip very well.

I asked him if there were any Cardinal fans on the beach and he said “nope, they are all in Tampa.” He also added that the cocktail waitress and the lap dancers in Tampa will be making a killing this weekend. I said “good for them, they deserve it.” He chuckled and said “Yeah, they’ve been having a bad year due the economy.”

I asked him if he was working on Super Bowl Sunday and he said “Nah, I’m going to a house party in St. Petersburg.” “I’m not going there to watch the game, just the Halftime Show with Springsteen and the Commercials.” I told him that I would be doing the same at home; not watching the game but the Commercials and Springsteen Show.

The Beach Bum

The New Mister October?

The Tampa Bay Rays are on their way to the MLB World Series. Including the playoffs, I’ve watched more than 130 of their games this year and I’m a Cubs fan. But the Rays are the local team and appear on television for most, if not all, of the games they play. In past years I probably only watched 80 to 100 games per year, I now have Rays fever.

The Tampa Bay area also has Rays fever. It’s about time. In the past all would hear about, when people talked about local pro sports teams, were the Buccaneers and the Lightning. The Bucs are having a very good year and still they have been overshadowed by the Rays.

But that is not really what this Blog is about. It’s about an individual player on the team.

In the 1970’s New York Yankee catcher Thurman Munson called Reggie Jackson “Mister October”. The nickname stuck because he lived up to the title. In 5 World Series his team won 4 times. In 98 World Series at bats Reggie had a Batting Average of .357 and a .755 Slugging Percentage. He hit 10 home runs and had 24 RBI’s. His lifetime regular season Batting Average was .262 and a Slugging Percentage of .490.


During the regular season this year Rays Outfielder/2nd baseman B.J. Upton hit .273 with a .401 SLG%, 9 Home Runs and 67 RBIs. This is the first time that Upton has played in the post season. His numbers for 11 Playoff games, 46 at bats, .304 BA, 7 HR’s , 15 RBI’s and a Slugging Percentage of .826.

If he keeps up pace this during the Series, I’ll be calling him the New Mister October.

The Beach Bum

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

I just read that a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl will cost advertisers $2.7 million per showing. There will be at least 63 – 30 second commercial breaks during the game on February 3rd. Do the math, that’s over 170 million dollars spent to tout products and services that less than 10% of the 90 plus million viewers will buy or use.

But those 9 million people will spend a lot of bucks during the course of a year.

I actually enjoy watching good commercials. At times they are better than some of the programming on the boob tube. Supposedly the best commercials of the year will debut on Super Bowl Sunday. Mad Avenue has been working overtime and charging the advertisers top dollars to produce the best Super Bowl commercial.

Now the question is; who is paying for all this nonsense. As Gomer Pyle would say; surprise – surprise, it must be the consumer.

I’m against having Beer, Liquor and Tobacco commercials on television.

Why? Because I use these products and it will ultimately cost me more money to use them. The cost of these commercials is always passed on to the user. The Corporations don’t spend advertising money to lose money. So I must, therefore, avoid the use of these products that are advertised on Super Bowl Sunday. It's simple logic, just ask Mr. Spock.

Are you going to switch from Coke to Pepsi because of a good commercial? Will you buy a Pizza from Pizza Hut rather than Dominos because of a commercial? Will you switch from your favorite brands because you were amused for 30 seconds? I hope not.

I believe that the advertisers deem that we are all just sheep, and we will follow in the direction into which they lead us. That is, if they spend 2.7 million dollars for a 30 second commercial that amuses us or somehow gives us a warm fuzzy feeling.

It’s a bunch of Bullshit!

All television commercials cost consumers money in the long run.

I will watch and enjoy many of the commercials aired during the Super Bowl.

But I will also boycott all the products and services that are advertised on the Super Bowl.

By the way I will be cheering for the Patriots to win!

The Beach Bum

The Heckler

Several years ago a good friend, who unfortunately lives in Wisconsin, sent a link to his son’s web site. His son lives in Chicago and is a Cubs fan. I have never met him but I like him and his writing style.

Like me, Pal Val is an old fart. We shared some good times together, years ago, in a place far, far away. No we weren’t on Tatooine. And no, we were not Jedi Knights!

Val was a “Do Good” person and I was a "Gross Guy". We were two worlds apart but still on the same planet.


The best correlation that I can make is that Val was the equivalent to Luke Skywalker and I was nearly the equal of Darth Vader (I was once a good person-turned evil by my lust for life). He stood for all the good things that an American Serviceman could do while overseas in the 1960’s. I have very much respect for him for this reason. He could have been easily seduced by the “Dark Side”, as I was, but he didn’t succumb to the foibles of mankind. Not that he was a saint; he was just a bit better than most the rest of us.

Excuse me, I digress!

Val’s son, Brad, is the Editor-in-Chief of a tabloid about Chicago Sports. He also has a Web Site by the same name –The Heckler.

The Heckler consists of humorous stories about Chicago Sports. More than humorous they are wry and sarcastic, plus they tend to distort the facts and figures. All in all it’s a good read. If you like sports humor you should take the time to visit this site. Although I do not visit it as often as I should, a visit is well worth 30 minutes of your time per week.

The Beach Bum

Shooting the Moon

A new world’s record has been established. 18,000 people in Mexico City’s Zocalo Plaza posed nude for American photographer Spencer Tunick. Tunick said in a press conference. "I think all eyes are looking south from the United Sates to Mexico City to see how a country can be free and treat the naked body as art. Not as pornography or as a crime, but with happiness and caring."


This same photograph would have been more interesting if it had been taken from a different angle. An 18,000 person Moon seems a bit more exciting than a bunch of naked people bent over in the fetal position. That would really be art.

Mooning was a popular sport in the 1960’s, especially on College Campuses. There were also variations of the standard Moon; the Pressed Ham, the Red Eye, the Baggie and the Double Inverted Baggie. Shooting a good Moon at the proper place and time was truly an art form.

I was stationed in Africa in the mid sixties when mooning was at it peak, and we attempted to take mooning to new heights. Several of us would climb up antennae towers (more than 100 feet tall) so that we could shoot a moon to Ethiopia. We also did Pyramid Moons and the Banana Split Moon.

But our most famous Moon was accomplished on a bridge on the road that led from Asmara to Massawa, Ethiopia (now Eritrea).


The above photo of this event is in Michela Wrong’s book about Eritrea; “I Didn’t Do It For You.” Michela writes:
“What is it about Anglo-Saxon males and their bottoms? A Frenchman or a Spaniard does not seem to feel the same compulsion to bare his bum, a gesture psychoanalysts would no doubt interpret as blending primeval defiance with homo-erotic bonding. Like generations of fraternity fellows before and after them, the Kagnew men, delighted in exposing their buttocks to the world.”

It was fun and it was a sport or contest. It was a distraction from the world of chaos that had existed around us. We were young and impetuous. We enjoyed ourselves and didn’t care about what others thought about us or our antics.

As we got older, some of us lost this feeling along the way. We became what are known as adult humans. I haven’t and I think that I never will. I didn’t want to turn into Jackie Paper:

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

The Beach Bum

Is This "The Year"?

I spent this afternoon watching the Chicago Cubs Home Opener against the Houston Astros on WGN Television. Although the Cubs lost, I still enjoyed watching the game. As a Cubs fan for more than 50 years, I am accustomed to seeing them lose. The relief pitching, which the Baseball pundits say is the best in the NL Central, blew the game.

It was good to see Wrigley Field again. The ivy that Bill Veeck planted on the outfield walls in the 1950’s was still brown, but the field itself looked as beautiful as ever. They have even re-painted the Scoreboard this year. I wasn’t too happy with the Ad that was placed on the outfield door, but it was not as bad as some of the other MLB Parks’ advertising displays.

I was hoping to see the son of one of my close friends when WGN panned the bleachers. I didn’t see him, but I know that he was there. Brad Zibung is the founder of a Website and Paper, named “The Heckler”. Brad is also a Chicago Cub Bleacher Bum. He is sarcastic and has a biting sense of humor; more like me than like his father. I admire his writing in the Heckler.

Not that Len Casper and Bob Brenly are bad broadcasters, but I really do miss Harry Caray and Steve Stone. Stone’s knowledge of the game and Caray’s witticisms made watching the Cubs lose more enjoyable. Harry would go mush-mouth from drinking too many Budweiser’s before the 7th inning stretch. After that point Steve would have to do both the play by play and the color commentary. Harry would rattle on about golf and fishing trips while Stoney called the game. And I really loved it when Harry would mispronounce a player's name or call a player by the wrong name.

The Cubs motto for this season is “This is the Year”. In the five games that I have seen, they could be right. The potential for a championship season is there. But I say that almost every year. Potential verses the actuality of a winning season is a Horse of another Color.

The Beach Bum

Joys of the New Season

I haven’t posted anything to this Blog during the past three days. For some reason I feel negligent and guilty. I’ve let my personal life and passions get in the way of my blogging.

On Saturday I spent most of the day participating in my Fantasy Baseball League Draft. It is a money league and has been around for 25 or more years. As I did not fare to well last year, I spent most of the morning studying and rehashing my list of the Players that I preferred on my team. I made some bad choices last year.

The draft started at 1600 hours and lasted for nearly 5 hours. The draft is held in Forest Park, Illinois, so I and several other team owners linked up using our computers via a chat room. The draft is a social event for most of the people who attend; meaning drinking beer and eating Pizza. I haven’t attended in person for four years; leaving the warmth of Florida for Chicago in March does not appeal to me. So to keep up with the spirit of the draft, I drank my first beer before noon.

I spent most of Sunday analyzing my picks and answering telephone calls. I usually do not get or make a lot of calls. Sunday was the exception! I must have spent an aggregate four hours on the phone. I had planned to write a Blog but by this time my mind was too addled. Plus the first game of the 2007 season was coming on shortly.

What can I say about Monday – it was Opening Day. I started with ESPN Sport’s Center and Baseball Tonight before the first game started at 1300 hours. I had access to every game that was played yesterday. I watch the Cubs’ game in it’s entirety but toggled my digital cable remote to other games while they were changing sides. The last game ended shortly before one in the morning. Again, I had my first beer before noon.

The Cubs lost! However this may not be a harbinger for this upcoming season. Last year they won their season’s opener against Cincinnati and went downhill from there. The team is healthy and seemingly very enthusiastic about playing the game. These are extremely important factors in the game of Baseball.

I hope that it was just a case of “opening day” jitters and the excitement of the day. The reining World Series Champions also lost their first game of the season, and on paper they are the second best team in Major League Baseball.

On another note, concerning Baseball; The Chicago Tribune has been sold and the new owner Sam Zell is planning to sell the Cubs. After I read more about this I will Blog on this subject.

The Beach Bum

Maybe This Year

In just four days the Chicago Cubs will play their season opener in Cincinnati. Yes I am, unfortunately, a die hard Cubs fan. One of those guys who always thinks, at the beginning of each Major League Baseball season, that “this will be the year”. And then when the season ends in the fall, I’ll always say “maybe next year”.

Cub fans are always optimists at the beginning of the season. I am basically a pessimist, I look at the glass being half empty. As strange as it seems, I become an optimist every spring just before opening day. I love to watch baseball and I love my Cubs. I just wish that they would fulfill my fantasy and win the World Series before I die. Even seeing the Cubs get into the World Series would be a nice thing.

The Cubs haven’t played in the World Series in 62 years (this was shortly before I was born) and haven’t won a World Series since 1908 (seven years before my Dad, who was also a Cubs Fan, was born).

Cubs fans also tend to be hopeless romantics who live in a fantasy world.

This year the Cubs look really good on paper. But, then again, I have said that for the past few years. They have acquired via Free Agency a new center fielder that will probably hit at least 40 Home Runs and steal 30 bases. They have strengthened the pitching staff, and they have hired a new manager.

Writers that are critical of the ball club say that the Cubs will never go to the World Series again because they are owned by the stingy Chicago Tribune. The Tribune is spending the big bucks this year. The Cubs, whether winning or losing will almost always fill the Ballpark and therefore there is no incentive for the Trib to put a winning team on the field. I’ve read a commentary from a noted Sports writer who said that Wrigley Field is the largest Beer Garden in the world. Win or lose, Cubs fans will come out to Wrigley to drink beer.

The connotation here is that people only go to Wrigley to drink beer and party. While drinking beer and partying is part of the fun of going to a game, the fans at Wrigley are truly Baseball fans. Most of them buy programs and use the scorecards. Most Cubs fans can also quote the stats of the opposing team’s players. These are real Baseball fans, not just a bunch of drunks going to a game just to party.

We Cubs fans know the transcendent aspects of the game and love the game for what it is, “America's Favorite Pastime“. And we love the sound of the “crack of a bat” that sends the ball flying far into the Bleachers or out of the Ballpark. This is sweet music to our ears. And, I’ll drink to that.

Maybe this year!

The Beach Bum

The Madness of March

It’s that time of year when I start to get excited about sports. The Cubs are in spring training in Mesa and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has begun.

Baseball is one of my passions! (I’ll write more about the Cubs and Baseball in a later post).

I’m not really a big Pro basketball fan, but I do enjoy College hoops. Contrary to my Chicago upbringing, I am an ACC fan. This stems from my college days at the University of Maryland. "Lefty" Driesell (sp?) was the coach at that time, and had had just come to Maryland from Davidson College. Tom McMillen, who later became a Congressman from Maryland, was the star of our team. This was in the early 1970’s when the Tobacco Road teams (North Carolina) dominated the ACC.

In 1978, a newly drafted Pro Basketball Player (Washington Bullets) from DePaul University (Chicago) became my neighbor. We often argued about College Hoops. He is (or was) in the NCAA record book as one of the top 10 point scorers in a single game in the NCAA playoffs.

But he was a player and I was a fan. We had different perspectives of the game.

I contended that ACC Basketball was the best all-around league in the NCAA. He claimed that the Big 10 was the best conference and that I being from Chicago, as he was, should be loyal to my home conference. I was instead loyal to my school and the conference in which they played!

My argument went down the drain when we watched Magic Johnson lead Michigan State (Big 10) to a victory in the NCAA final in March, 1979. My neighbor had been gloating for two days because none of my ACC teams had made it to the finals! I was pulling for Larry Bird and Indiana State. I lost $10 on a side bet with Dave that night.

He was so overjoyed that he scored 22 points for the Bullets on the next night. It was sort of an “in your face” kind of thing.

However, I’ve always cheered for the ACC teams in the tournament every year. As I want my school’s team or someone in our conference to win the tournament.

The Beach Bum