The Class of 2017

Congratulations to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2017.  Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza become the 311th and 312th members of the National Hall of Fame.

I consider myself fortunate to have seen both Griffey and Piazza play in person.  I saw Piazza when he played for the Dodgers early in his career and then later in his career when he was with the New York Mets when he would play against my beloved St. Louis Cardinals.  Piazza had a .308 lifetime average over his 16 season career.  I initially questioned his election to the Hall.  This was his fourth year on the ballot and he made it with over 80 percent of the vote this time around.  I think his election may help other catchers with similar numbers make it into the Hall.














I saw "The Kid" play in Seattle in the early 90s at the old King dome when vacationing in the Pacific Northwest and then later in his career when he and the Reds would come to visit the Cardinals.  Griffey was elected on the first ballot and there is no doubt he belongs in the Hall.  Griffey's 630 Home Runs were all natural unlike many of the juicers of his era.  Griffey was always fun to watch in the outfield and would make the difficult look routine.  I can remember watching Junior go above the wall in the old Seattle ballpark and rob more than one player of what looked like a sure home run off of the bat.  Griffey is one of the best outfielders I have seen and to me his talent and likeability brought many fans back to the game after the strike of 1993.



In addition to Griffey and Piazza two other men joined the Hall of Fame this afternoon.  Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe was the recipient of the J.G Taylor Spink Award and was enshrined into the writers wing of the Hall in Cooperstown.

Joining him in the broadcaster's wing was the late Graham McNamee who is the recipient of this year's Ford C. Frick  Award.  McNamee was a well known announcer of the 20's and was among the first to broadcast a World Series on the radio for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

Congratulations to all four of these gentlemen on their selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

SNL Knocks It Out of the Park

If you missed Saturday Night Live this weekend, you missed one of it's finest efforts of the year. The show was outstanding with Will Ferrell hosting and Green Day providing the musical entertainment.

The regular cast was joined by former cast members Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Norm MacDonald and Ferrell. In addition actor Tom Hanks joined in several sketches. (The fact that his new picture "Angels & Demons" just came out probably motivated him to join the cast this week, as it did Ferrell who also has a new film opening soon).

From the opening sketch featuring Ferrell as George Bush and Darryl Hammond as Dick Cheney (apparently this was Hammond's final appearance as a regular on the show) to the last skit it was full of laughs. The final sketch featured all of this year's cast members, those former cast members, Hanks and cameos from Artie Lange, Paul Rudd & Ann Hathaway as well as Green Day "playing" musical instruments in a take off of the song "Goodnight Saigon".

The funniest segment all night was the spoof of "Jeopardy", with Ferrell playing a beleaguered Alex Trebek. If you missed the segment Saturday night you may see it by clicking here. It's also the funniest skit the cast did all year.

SNL is again funny and full of talented performers. I am looking forward to the start of the show's 2009-2010 season.

It May be the Worst Show Ever

I have been meaning to write this for several weeks. There is a show on NBC on Thursday nights called "Kath and Kim".

It's awful. The writing is lame, the acting is lame and the whole show sucks. Avoid this program and change the channel if it comes on your TV.

Sleezy Move by SNL and NBC

Did you see Saturday Night Live this weekend? Well, if you did you saw three skits named "McGruber". The skits are funny and have recurred off and on over the past several years with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig portraying the main characters. They are a takeoff on the old MacGyver series.

The problem this past Saturday night is what appeared to be comedy was in fact paid advertisements by Pepsi. And then on Sunday afternoon one of the "skits" was used in the Super Bowl. The Pepsi Cola ad was named PepsUber. There was no mention by NBC on Saturday night that the skits were really paid commercials.

I have a problem with this. The spots should have been clearly labelled as advertisements by NBC when they aired. I wasn't sure what I was watching when I saw them. At first I thought it was just a satire of all the Super Bowl ads that would air the next day. Then, I thought it might have just been the ever encroaching product placement we see all the time. But, no, in the long run they were just a sleazy move by NBC permitting the lease of an SNL property to PepsiCo. And to add insult to injury, SNL is displaying the advertisements on it's vido page as if they are just sketches from the show. Some low life must be very pleased with themself.