No Hit Stuff: Abbott baffles Indians (1993)

In honor of Ubaldo Jimenez's no-hitter, I've decided to look at some of my favorite N0-No's excluding Dock Ellis (because I already blogged that one)

Jim Abbott is one of my favorite stories ever in baseball. The former University of Michigan standout was born without a right hand, but still made it to the major leagues where he pitched for 10 years from 1989-1999. He appeared with the Angels, Brewers, Yankees and White Sox.

Though he finished with an 87-108 record and a 4.25 ERA Abbott should be forever remembered for his perseverance and toughness. Abbott even had two hits in his major league career with the Brewers against the Yankees in Interleague Play.

On September 4, 1993, Jim Abbott had N0-Hit stuff and the Cleveland Indians found out first hand. Held hittless on the "cloudy day game" as Abbott recalls were Kenny Lofton, Felix Fermin, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Randy Milligan, Manny Ramirez, Candy Maldonado, Jim Thome, Junior Ortiz and Sandy Alomar Jr. in a pinch hit situation. Abbott struck out three, but walked five.

In fact, six days before hand, Abbott was shelled by the very same Indians for seven runs on nine hits in 3.1 innings.

In case your wondering how Abbott was able to field and throw its really quite remarkable. Abbott would rest his glove on his stub of a right hand while pitching with his left. As soon as he would throw, he would slip the glove onto his left hand and then slip it off when he needed to throw it back.

Abbott's no-hitter was the first for a Yankee since Dave Righetti in 1983 did it against Boston. It would also be the first of four no-hitters thrown by Yankee pitchers in the decade. Doc Gooden in 1996, David Wells in 1998 and David Cone in 1999 with the last two being perfect games.

New members in the 20+ movies club

Bruce Willis has closed the gap on Samuel L. Jackson with my recent viewing of Four Rooms (2.5/5) and Tears of the Sun (2.5/5). While Johnny Depp has moved soley into third with Nightmare on Elm Street 6(1/5). Matt Damon is tied with Morgan Freeman for fourth with his cameo in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind(3.5/5).

However, I now have some new actors in the 20+ movies seen club.

Adam Sandler joined the 20+ club when I recently watched his work in Punch Drunk Love (3/5)
Favorite Sandler Film:Funny People
Least:Going Overboard
Surprise: Dirty Work

Brad Pitt hopped up to 21 films with the supporting role in Thelma and Louise(2.5/5) and a very brief cameo in Less Than Zero (3/5) and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Favorite Pitt film: Seven
Least: Meet Joe Black
Surprise:Less Than Zero

I also realized that I should have included those with 20 films seen in my last post of this topic, so here they are.

Bill Murray: Favorite: The Life Aquatic
Least Favorite: What About Bob?
Surprise: Zombieland

Christopher McDonald: Favorite: SLC Punk
Least Favorite: Superhero Movie
Surprise: Requiem for a Dream

Harrison Ford: Favorite: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Least Favorite: Six Days and Seven Nights
Surprise: The Conversation

M Emmett Walsh: Favorite: Blood Simple
Least Favorite:Wild Wild West
Surprise: Critters (2.5/5)

Finally Sean Connery surged his way with Highlander (3/5), The Avengers (1/5) and Entrapment (2.5/5)
Favorite: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Least: The Avengers
Surprise: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves


Clint Eastwood, David Koechner, George Clooney, Jack Black, Larry Miller, Nick Cage, Owen Wilson and Rob Schneider are all waiting to join. Clooney and Cage are sure things with Face/Off and Leatherheads sitting in my room to be watched.

Team Breakdown 2/30: Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox or America's new favorite team for those who hate the Yankees but love to be bandwagon fans, were the first winners of the World Series (1903) and would go on to win in 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918. Then their fans moaned about how they hadn't won a World Series in over 80 years. Try not winning more than 81 games for 18 years and see how that goes. After 2004 the number of "Red Sox fans" quadrupled overnight, but I digress.

So here's the team breakdown

World Series wins (03, 12, 15,16, 18, 04, 07)

Favorite Red Sox moment: Red Sox break curse and win World Series in 2004 and I can stop hearing about the curse right? Dammit I forgot about the Cubs

Stupidest moment: Boston (Americans) defeat Pirates in 1903 W.S. Bill Bucker, Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone.

Total cards: 809 (used to live outside of Boston resulting in heavy concentration of Red Sox cards)

Roger Clemens-21, David Ortiz-19 Wade Boggs-19

Favorite Card: Green Monster: Red Sox Mascot

Forgot he played for them: Jose Canseco

Never Knew: Rickey Henderson

Player I think of right away: Nomar Garciaparra

Best Names: Dick Drago, Oil Can Boyd, Tom "Flash" Gordon and Ugueth Urbina

Team Breakdown 1/30:Baltimore Orioles

I have a large baseball card collection which I have always looked at as a time capsule of events that have happened in baseball history. With a yet to be diagnosed neurological disorder running rampant in my brain which tells me I need to reorganize things as often as possible, I am retooling my baseball card order and have decided to log/blog about this process.
I have completed 1/30 of this project with the assembly of all the Baltimore Orioles cards I have and placed them chronologically. Although a 2006 Satchel Paige St. Louis Browns (now the Orioles) card and Brooks Robinson card are placed at the beginning since they did not play at the same time as Miguel Tejada and Brian Roberts.

So here's a team breakdown

World Series wins: 3 (66,70,83)

Favorite Orioles moment: Ripken sets record for most consecutive games/ Pirates beat Orioles twice in the 70's to win their last two World Series

Stupidest Orioles moment: That stupid Yankees fan (Jeffrey Maier) who interferes with Tony Torassco's attempt at catching a fly ball that instead turns into the tying home run because Maier reaches over the fence to grab the ball. I don't care if he was 12, he's a Yankees fan and that was bullshit
Total Cards: 685
Most appearances: Cal Ripken Jr. (34 or 5 percent) Brady Anderson (19) Gregg Olson (17)

Favorite Card: Any Sammy Stewart card, but especially his 1981 Donruss card, because there is so much going on with the hair on his head.

Forgot he played for them: Curt Schilling

Never knew until now: Fernando Valenzuela

Franchise Player I think of right away: Cal Ripken Jr.

Best names: Radhames Liz, Felix Pie, Rocky Coppinger

EMU Alum: Chris Hoiles (GO EMU)

Not in the genetics: Pete Rose Jr never got past the minors in Baltimore and only made a brief stint in Cincinnati in 1997 (11 games). Billy Ripken played 11 seasons in the bigs but never matched the success of his brother. Ripken does have a baseball card with the words fuck face on it (true story, but not in my collection...)

Ouch that's gross Pt. 1: Jason Kendall breaks an ankle

Note that this may not be for the faint of heart. Before he was exiled to places like Milwaukee and Kansas City, Jason Kendall was a hustle guy trying to make a name for himself. In an attempt to show his hustle, Kendall tried to beat out a bunt and paid the price (see below)

Note how the ankle breaks. Gross. Now imagine they show this on Sportscenter repeatedly and then zoom in a bunch while Linda Cohn reads the highlight in disgust. What's amazing is that this happened in 1999 and he's played every year since the injury.

Player Bio:

Drafted in 1992 by the Pirates

Debuted: April 1, 1996

Traded in after the 2004 season to Oakland for Mark Redman, Arthur Rhodes and cash (Redman would go 5-15 for the Pirates in 05. Rhodes was traded to Cleveland for Matt Lawton. Rhodes would be traded to Philly for Jason Michaels in 2006 who ended up being traded to Pittsburgh which could explain why neither teams has had a World Series victory in my lifetime. As for the cash, it was most likely spent on those disgusting red alternate jerseys http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070126&content_id=1787457&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit)

Played for the Cubs, Brewers and now the Royals

Lifetime .290 hitter with just 75 home runs in 14 years (only hit seven in the last three years) and is also a three time all-star/forced to represent Pirates (was selected in 1999 but his injury allowed former Blue Jays standout Ed Sprague to go instead)

Injury:Compound dislocation of the ankle.

Pirates Legends: Dock Ellis

In 1997 Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon gave the Pittsburgh Pirates just their third no-hitter since 1970 with John Candelaria (1976) and Dock Ellis (1970). Bob Moose also added one in 1969.

What is special about Cordova and Rincon's no-hitter is that it was the first one to be a combined no-hitter in extra innings(10). For Dock Ellis, to my knowledge, is the only no-hitter to be thrown while on LSD.

However, Mr. Ellis was no one trick pony. He was the NL Starting Pitcher on the All-Star team in 1971 which is the same year the Pirates won the first of two World Series in the decade against the Baltimore Orioles.

Ellis compiled a 138-119 record for the Pirates, Yankees, Angels, A's, Rangers and Mets over 11 years. He also took home Comeback Player of the Year in 1976 with the Bronx Bombers.

In his All-Star appearance Ellis notably hit Reggie Jackson in the face presumably after Jackson hit a home run off of him earlier in the game.

Ellis also had poor luck in Cincinnati as he was maced by a security guard in 1972 and attempted to hit every batter in the Reds lineup with succesful attempts on Joe Morgan and Pete Rose and two failed attempts on Tony Perez and Johnny Bench before he was removed from the game.

For more read: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2008/12/20/2008-12-20_from_nohitter_on_lsd_to_hair_curlers_to_.html

The 20 Worst Films Ever Made (According to me of course)

Here are the worst films in no particular order as they are all rank...get it.



1.) Santa Claus (1959) A film that sits in my DVD collection because I have a fine taste for bad movies and it was only $2 at K-Mart along with another great Christmas film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The movie starts with a stereotyped sing-along and then goes into a battle between one of Satan's helpers and Santa Claus...oh and Merlin is also helping the cause.

2.) The Creeping Terror (1964) More MST3K material as a giant carpet (aka the creeping terror) attacks a small town and countryside. Oh the horror.

3.) Xanadu (1980) Roller disco! Olivia Newton John! Gene Kelly's last film! I hate musicals and I hate disco and rollerskates so the combination of the three makes me wish that my mom didn't own the soundtrack and the movie so she could watch and listen multiple times.

4.)Silent Night, Deadly Night Pt.II (1987) Garbage Day! Full of one-liners that are funnier than they are supposed to be (in a bad way) and the fact that 75% of this movie is showing via flashback what happened in the first movie. Needless to say a waste of film. Red Car....good point.

5.) Blackbelt II:Fatal Force (1993) I've never heard of Blackbelt, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to rent the VHS from my library and I watched as a bad version of Black Cobra and B-rated Kung Fu film unfolded before my eyes as the main character must avenge his partner's death.

6.) Two Bits and Pepper (1995) Drunk driving+plus talking horses+two Joe Piscapo's= One bad family film. Also one of the worst parenting jobs ever.

7.) Baby Geniuses (1999) I hate talking babies. I also hate it when talking babies to stupid things. This movie is full of both. Kids movie or not this movie sucks.

8.) From Justin to Kelly (2003) I understand that one likes to strike while the iron is hot, but this felt like someone to the iron and struck me in the face.

9.)George of the Jungle 2 (2003) Watched as part of an agreement the second installment takes a film which I enjoyed as a kid and took all the bad things and multiplied them by ten in this film. Poor John Cleese why do you appear in some of the films you do. Also look out for Julie Benz pre-Dexter as Leslie Mann's replacement.

10.) Hood Angels (2003) Sometimes faking one's death can be a great plot twist. Not in this movie. The cover of the movie shows a girl who's not even in the movie or she looks much different. There is a chase (a very slow) in what seems to be an abandoned mall and a girl uses her braid to kick some ass. Oh and it stars rapper Juvenile.

11.) Zombie Nation (2004) is a mess of a film that also in the process steals a famous line from The Marathon Man and has zombies, but no scares are to be found in this film. Is it safe?

12.) Haunted Boat (2005) I watched this movie because of a cat. The cat was seen at the very end and much like the members of the boat, I wish that I would have disappeared. Slow and dreary, this movie is a great cure for insomnia.

13.)Son of the Mask (2005) to say Jamie Kennedy is not funny is an understatement. Obviously this film is aimed towards a younger audience, but when done right kids films can be entertaining for everyone. If you like seeing kids pee on people and stupid effects and jokes then by all means see this movie.

14.) The Gingerdead Man (2005) One of Gary Busey's finest roles as the voice of a killer gingerbread man which holds the spirit of a convicted killer. It's pretty much the same premise as Child's Play and Jack Frost (1996) but with a gingerbread man instead.

15.)Bottom's Up (2006) Paris Hilton and Jason Mewes make for a not so convincing couple and a highly unentertaining film. Watch for a cameo from Mewes old pal Kevin Smith.

16.) Stupid Teenagers Must Die (2006) Low budget, bad acting, tries to be clever and fails.

17.) AVH: Alien Vs. Hunter (2007) the straight to DVD rip-off of AVP goes straight to DVD for a reason as the hunter and the alien are corny and the surprise ending makes you rip your hair out.

18.) Disaster Movie (2008) the worst out of the parody movies (haven't seen Meet the Spartans) I feel like the don't even try to make a story, they just throw a bunch of movies they want to make fun of together and just say...get it...we're making fun of this movie.

19.)Thankskilling (2009) made in the great state of Ohio, Thankskilling has a handpuppet killer turkey that has kills someone after he has sex with them, a scene in which the people are fooled by the turkey puppet wearing the skin of one of the girl's father and then to top it off the turkey becomes radioactive. It does have a guy named General Bastard though.

20.) Jack Frost 2 (2000) joins where the first movie left off as the killer snowman mixes with the hero's DNA and takes on a life of his own while our hero vacations at a tropical resort. Jack Frost turns the paradise into a tundra and can only be stopped by bananas, see the film to find out why.

Movie Review: Sugar (2008)

From the writer and director of Half Nelson comes a story about a Domincan Pitcher who's got the goods to make it to the United States. Just 20 years old, Sugar explores the start of Miguel "Sugar" Santos' career start as he goes from big shot to just another kid trying to make it in Double A Ball in Iowa for the Kansas City Knights (Royals)

This movie does a great job at capturing what happens to a prospect coming up. He goes through highs and lows all while supporting his family in his native D.R. It doesn't feature any cliches and is a pure baseball/life after baseball movie. 3.5/5

Top Actors: As Seen by Me

I've watched a lot of movies...a lot. I've also made a lot of lists...a lot. I decided to make one that tracked the actors who I've seen in films and here are the actors that have made the most appearances in front of my very eyes.

1.) Samuel L. Jackson (38) Favorite:Unbreakable Least Favorite:Twisted

2.) Bruce Willis (30) Favorite: Unbreakable Least Favorite: Look Who's Taking Too

T3.) Johnny Depp (22) Favorite:Ed Wood Least Favorite: Chocolat

T3.) Morgan Freeman (22) Favorite: Shawshank Redemption Least Favorite: Wanted

T5.) Christopher Walken (21) Favorite: The Deer Hunter Least Favorite:A View to a Kill

T5.) Danny DeVito (21) Favorite: Big Fish Least Favorite:What's the Worst that Could Happen

T5.) Danny Glover (21) Favorite:Royal Tenenbaums Least Favorite:Adventures of Brer Rabbit

T5.) Matt Damon (21) Favorite: The Departed Least Favorite:Brothers Grimm

T5.) Robert DeNiro (21) Favorite: Godfather Pt. II Least Favorite: Wag the Dog

T5.) Robin Williams (21) Favorite: Dead Poets Society Least Favorite: Bicentennial Man

T5.) Will Ferrell (21) Favorite: Anchorman Least Favorite: Winter Passing

Not his real name Pt.1: Oil Can Boyd

Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd

Nickname derives from: His beer drinking days in Mississippi where beer if referred to as oil.

Played for: The Red Sox, Expos and Rangers.

Reoccurring Trend: Much like Sammy Stewart, Oil Can has been arrested. Although Oil Can's offense for threating his former girlfriend resulted in him surrendering to the FBI.

Stat of the day: W-L record was 78-77

Fat Lever

Born Lafayette Lever he shortened his name to Fat

Stat: Nearly Averaged a triple double for the 1988-89 season with almost 20 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists.

Movie Review: The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

The Asphalt Jungle is a film from acclaimed director John Huston who was nominated for his work along with Sam Jaffe for supporting actor. The film stars Sterling Hayden (Dr. Strangelove, The Killing) and features a very new to the scene Marilyn Monroe (only her second credited film)

The film revolves around a heist that goes well at first, but falls apart as the men who partook go down one by one thanks to the new, strict, direction the police have taken on crime and corruption.

This films suffers for me from a slow start. It builds up with heist scene an hour into the film, but never quite reaches the acclaim that it has received. I've seen five other films from Huston with my favorite being The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and least favorite being Annie (1982). My expectations were high as I enjoy this type of film usually, but for me The Asphalt Jungle is average and gets an average rating: 2.5/5

Great Unibrows in Baseball History Pt.1: Sammy Stewart

As I've collected baseball cards for many years I've come across some great facial hair. To my recollection, no one has a better unibrow than former Orioles and Indians pitcher Sammy Stewart. It is complimented by one of the finest mustaches as well. So enjoy Sammy Stewart.

Also while searching for pictures of Sammy, one of my fellow google bloggers found his prison record which is quite lengthy, but since he's given me joy from his look from the 70's and 80's he gets a free pass.

Also here's a good write up about him by the Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/gallery/10_24_06_grossfeld_sam_stewart/

K is for Kevin

My first blog!!!! I've decided to blog because somebody once told me that all I had to do is have one big blog and I could be fame-ers. However with the topics I will choose this will never happen, but I have lots of free time and I love to make lists. As far as the title goes, it would be a reference to my favorite Hitchcock film Dial M for Murder. If you hate: lists, movies, sports, music, baseball cards, stupid jokes and other things then you have come to the wrong place. Please enjoy...