Off-Topic And Buying Time: My Bottom Ten Beatles Tracks

What are the 10 weakest Beatles tracks? That’s precisely the question I asked when I started pondering ways to write a quick post.

For the record, I’m limiting this to official releases through 1970. No “Free As A Bird” or “What’s The New Mary Jane” here.

Revolution 9, from the album “The Beatles” (a.k.a. The White Album) – I can still remember the first time I heard this, I spent 8 minutes and 22 seconds waiting for the actual song to start… and then it was over.

Good Night, “The Beatles”  – As far as I’m concerned, the White Album ends with Paul’s little doodle after Cry Baby Cry:  “Can you take me back where I came from, can you take me back…”

The Inner Light, B-Side to “Lady Madonna” – I first heard this in the early 1980’s, when I found the 45 at a yard sale. When I got it home and listened to it, the disappointment was palpable.

Till There Was You, “With The Beatles” – A show tune? Really? Well, I guess they needed something to play for the Queen.

Honey Pie, “The Beatles” – I would be far from the first person to state that The White Album is a tremendously uneven effort.

Mr. Moonlight, “Beatles For Sale” – The song doesn’t live up to John’s introductory wail.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, “The Beatles” – Years ago, this song would’ve fared much better. It has not aged well.

Bad Boy, originally on the U.S. album “Beatles VI” – not a bad song, but a relatively weak effort.

I Wanna Be Your Man, “With The Beatles” – This Lennon/McCartney song was recorded and released by the Rolling Stones a few weeks before the Beatles version.

A Taste Of Honey, “Please Please Me” – Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I have to say that Herb’s version is far better. Heck, I even prefer the version by The Hassles, a Long Island “Blue-Eyed Soul” band from the 1960’s that featured a young Billy Joel.

Please note that some decidedly odd tracks like “Wild Honey Pie” or “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” did not make the cut. Sue me, I like them….

…And I freakin’ love “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”!  Let’s hear it for Dennis! HA HEY!

So tell me I’m an idiot. Tell me I’m deranged. Tell me what Beatle-y travesty I missed while quickly whipping this post together.

 

 

No Rhyme Or Reason #1: A Clearinghouse Of Cards, Comments & Questions

My local Walgreen’s had 2012 Topps Series 1 packs on clearance for $0.49 apiece, in case anyone might want to check their own Walgreen’s.  I bought 4 packs for grins, and for my $2 I knocked 4 base cards off my wantlist and got one of last year’s “1987 minis” of Andrew McCutchen… So the ROI wasn’t there for me.  Maybe it will be for you.

A few weeks ago I had a baseball game on the TV in the background, and I heard someone mention Barney Jackson DeJesus. Just as I was starting to wonder who the heck Mr. Barney J. DeJesus is, I realized that they were giving the three Cubs coming to bat in the next half-inning: Darwin Barney, Edwin Jackson, David DeJesus.

Are hand-collated sets a thing of the past?  That question occurred to me when I was at a show a couple of weeks ago.  I walked the floor and saw hand-collated sets from 10-20 years ago, but I didn’t see anything more recent.  Has it gotten to the point where the only people interested in sets are the ones who want to build it themselves?

If you ever want to look around the showroom of a car dealer without being bothered by a salesman, tell them “I’m just waiting on my wife, she’s picking her car up from service”.  I did that the other day, and I was waiting on my wife, but I instantly became invisible to the salesmen.  I will keep that little trick in mind for the future.

Has “retail” Pro Debut ever surfaced in a retail store?

You can’t read the last name on this scan, but it’s Manny Machado.

The San Jose Sharks’ new uniforms are boring.  Not quite as boring as the generic snooze-a-aplooza that the Phoenix Coyote’s wear, but pretty darn close.

Leaf Got It Bass-Ackwards In 1993

The front of 1993 Leaf cards are nothing special… Typical early 1990’s upscale cards. The backs are another story…

…so much so that I recently turned my 1993 Leaf Mets around in the plastic sheets so as to feature the back rather than the front.

I grew up 30+ miles from Manhattan, and I went there a couple of times a year and… well, it’s not that I wasn’t impressed by it, but I didn’t think about it. It was what it was.

The last time I was in New York I was stuck in traffic on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge which goes from Staten Island to Brooklyn. Traffic had come to a complete halt, and I got frustrated because I wanted to get where I was going, see friends and family, not get stuck on a bridge.  After I was done cursing out my bad luck, I turned and started absentmindedly looking out the window.  I realized that from on that bridge I had a great view of the lights of New York City and I gained a new appreciation for how beautiful and amazing and impressive New York can be.  It wasn’t until I left the area and came back that it really sunk in.

I guess that’s just the way things go, isn’t it?  You sometimes don’t appreciate what’s around you until after it’s no longer around you.

Fun At The Ballpark

It certainly seems like the Mets are having fun at the ballpark this year; while it’s early yet, they’re exceeding expectations with their 7-4 record, second in the NL East only to the red-hot Braves. There was also a lot of fun at the ballpark this past Saturday when rookie Matt Harvey no-hit the Twins through 7.2 innings.

…And all of this is meant as a lead in for my apology to Mets fans everywhere: I jinxed Matt Harvey.

On Saturday I had the TV on MLB Network, but I wasn’t paying much attention to it until I saw a crawl on the screen saying that Harvey had a no-hitter through six. I thought “Wow, wouldn’t it be something if the Mets went 50 years without a no-hitter, then have two less than 12 months apart?”

I had to take care of some things in another room, but when I got back to the TV I was happy to see that MLB Network had live coverage. Naturally, the very first pitch that I saw was hit out of the park by Justin Morneau.

Goodbye no-hitter, goodbye shutout.

Sorry. It’s all my fault.

It’s just like the bowling league I’m in; any time someone tells me to check out another bowler with a perfect game in the works, as soon as I start watching they leave a pin standing.

Just call me “Death To Perfect Things”.

College World Series Cinderella: Stony Brook Seawolves

I don’t always follow the College World Series, but Stony Brook is a team that anybody who likes an underdog or is from the Northeast can get behind.  I’m declaring them to be the official CWS team of The Shlabotnik Report.

The Seawolves have made an impressive ascent through college baseball; bear with me while I give you some perspective on how far they’ve come.  I grew up on Long Island, and at the time SUNY Stony Brook was a state school with a large percentage of commuter students, an emphasis on science and technology.  The Division III sports teams went by some team name which I don’t remember because I was barely aware that they had teams.  They’ve since re-branded the teams as Seawolves and have only been Division I since 2000.  This year they beat Miami and other teams to win the Regionals, and then pulled off a major upset by eliminating the host LSU Tigers in the Super Regionals, playing in front of a bigger LSU crowd for that one game than the Seawolves had drawn at home all season.

Aside from the fact that they’ve advanced to the College World Series for the first time in school history, they’re also the first CWS team from the northeast since Maine in 1986 (Mike Bordick played on that team) and the first team from New York State to make the CWS since St. John’s in 1980.  That team included these guys:

Although the roster has a significant number of Long Islanders, the entire northeast is represented, as there are players from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, other parts of New York state, as well as 4 players from Ontario, Canada.

Seven Seawolves were taken in the MLB draft, including OF Travis Jankowski (drafted 44th overall by the Padres with a supplemental pick) and C Pat Cantwell (Taken in the 3rd round by the Rangers.)  The one Major Leaguer to have played for Stony Brook is Joe Nathan, who donated a large sum of money to the baseball program;  not coincidentally, the Seawolves play their home games at Joe Nathan Field.

If you ask a Stony Brook student, faculty member or alumnus “What is a Seawolf?”, the answer you will get is apparently “I am a Seawolf!”

Stony Brook, NY is on the north shore of Long Island, about a 55 mile drive from midtown Manhattan (for those of you who think that the entirety of Long Island is a 20 minute train ride away from NYC).