..... Say that five times fast.
The next time you make a pilgrimage back to your old hometown, be certain to visit the new Lane Library and explore Oxville's newest mixed-development neighborhood. Therein you'll discover the city's newest streets and, if you're anything like me (and - really - who is?), draw strength from the righteous Right-Wing icons of Truth, Justice and the (Anglo-)American Way whose names must surely cause revulsion among this college town's Comintern dark overlords.
When I grow up I want to live on Eisenhower Way!
Someday I'll get around to circulating the Heavy Artillery Book o' the Month Club. Until then, you may bide your time by reading Eisenhower by Geoffrey Perret. Good read, highly informative. Yeah, yeah Phat Daddy. I know about Ike's criticism of the military-industrial complex. No man is perfectly correct. Save for PJ O'Rourke. Maybe.
The Iron Lady. No, no, no! Hmm, where I have I heard that sentiment echoed?
It's morning again in Oxford.
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender....."
Roll the credits!
Among the daunting tasks which swirl around the effort to publish my photos and experiences from this summer's All-Star Game festivities is how to organize said photos and experiences in a logical, cohesive format.
The five-day All-Star FanFest, held at the Duke Energy Convention Center on Fifth Street in downtown Cincinnati, began the Friday before the following Tuesday night's playing of the 86th Midsummer Classic. There was a Celebrity softball game. A Futures Game for minor league all-stars. The Home Run Derby. The non-stop Block Party at The Banks. These events ran concurrently and, in some cases, continuously for almost six days. In terms of Heavy Artillery uploads, the 1,760 photos (mostly from big brother Lou) which remain after deletions provide ample ammunition for publication but not as much in the sense of isolated big impacts but rather as a blizzardly hail of blanketing crossfire. Duck and cover might be the better part of valor when you wade deep into the following multi-part series of "All-Star Summer" postings.
Thus, I have settled upon organizing the photos, more or less, by solitary events rather than as a day-by-day, hour-by-hour serial chronology. Therefore, in coming weeks the postings will focus respectively on the FanFest or the Futures Game or the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game individually rather than, for example, include with each new posting yet more photos from the FanFest (which I attended all five days). In all likelihood, one or more events may be subdivided in several subsets.
As such, we'll begin with some sights of Cincinnati ranging from Friday July 10 through Tuesday July 14 [there's that number again!] to give you some small sense of the setting.
8am on Second Street, Saturday morning, July 11. Overcast. Nearly desolate. Heading east into downtown.
The logos, the imagery, the iconography of the 2015 All-Star Game was creative and attractive. Here (above), one of the multitude of designs is draped across the front of venerable Union Terminal. Some of you may know that the area directly in front of where Union Terminal stands today, almost precisely where you see the entertainment tent set up, was the old Union Grounds home ballpark of the undefeated 1869 Red Stockings.
The few remaining vestiges of the old Skywalk were similarly festooned with ASG regalia. This one (above) spans Fifth Street, just a few blocks east of the Convention Center.
You'll note the wet street. Cincinnati summers, as is true for most temperate latitudes, carries with it the threat for afternoon thunderstorms and nearly every day of the city's five-day event would see warm-to-hot sunny days interrupted by a brief cloudburst and, in one case, a fierce storm front race across the Queen City. Aside from a brief light shower during the Futures Game, the big events at Great American Ball Park escaped precipitation.
The art deco downtown landmark, Carew Tower, sported this banner and, at night, had projected upon its side a giant stylized newsprint image of an 1860s-era ballplayer.
The E.W. Scripps Company building wore the Mr Redlegs ballcap and handlebar 'stache. This very cool-looking decoration was wildly popular among both visitors to the city and Reds Country natives.
The iconic Roebling Bridge maintained its status as a visual focal-point for the riverfront.
Ballplayers, team owners and the scions of Castellini, Lindner, Proctor and Gamble, General and Electric rolled their flashiest wheels around town. Above, a Lamborghini Gallardo is seen prowling Central Avenue, presumably as someone films his or her audition tape for Top Gear version 3.0.
The skies over Cincinnati, too, were filled with exotic machinery. [Insert ubiquitous Heavy Artillery Led Zeppelin reference here.]
Down at the ballyard, the image of bat and ball from Pete Rose's record-breaking hit - which graced the reverse side of the scoreboard since the year 2003 - found itself replaced with this ASG and Red Stocking artwork.
What celebratory day at the ballpark could be considered complete without patriotic bunting?
Over at The Jungle, the PLARF's Cincinnati franchise got into the spirit of things.
I spent more time walking the downtown streets of Cin City over those five All-Star days than I have perhaps, in toto, over the past several years. My camera lens captured a few of the still-standing ancient structures that may be found within a block or two of the Convention Center:
In 1879, according to Redleg Journal, the Reds Opening Day attendance figure was a cozy 1,250. That season the Reds were led by player-manager Cal McVey, the last hold-over from the undefeated 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first all-professional baseball team. Reds pitcher Will White set National League records that season for starts and complete games (75 for both) and innings pitched (680) which remain unbroken. And on the 13th of July, 136 years ago to the day that Reds' All-Star Todd Frazier won the 2015 Home Run Derby, for the first time in Reds franchise history the club hit more than one homer in a game (against the long-since defunct Troy Haymakers).
Following the 1880 season, the National League drafted new rules specifically targeted at punishing the Reds and in the process setting a precedent which survives to this day [see; MLB commissioner Fay Vincent strong-arming the Hall of Fame into changing its voting rules in order to exclude The Hit King from appearing on the HOF ballot in 1991]. The governing body of the N.L., in October of 1880, prohibited Sunday baseball and also, with Cincinnati's native Rhinelanders squarely in the crosshairs, enacted a prohibition of alcohol sales at ballparks. Rather than deprive its loyal German-immigrant patrons a frothy lager and having to operate a dry ballpark, Reds ownership told the bluenoses at the League offices, in not so many anachronistic words, We quit this b*itch! And so in 1881 there was no Reds baseball for the saintly burghers of Cincinnati.
The Crown Overall Manufacturing Company was an interesting discovery.
Roll the credits!
As I continue the arduous task of sifting through 1,700 photographs from the week's worth of this summer's All-Star Game festivities (1,760 photos to be precise), here are some sneak previews that will have you on the edge of your seat:
True tales ripped from the headlines!
Espionage!
Fast-paced action!
Legends of the past!
Stars of the future!
A boy's dream of one day playing in the Big League!
Intermission for a coffee break!
Men against the elements!
Big-budget special effects!
A life-or-death struggle for existence!
Heroes!
Villains!
Fast cars!
Beautiful women!
Grown men hugging one another!
This multi-part blockbuster epic coming soon to a display screen near you!
Roll the credits!
The interwebs have in recent months been abuzz with palpable excitement and eager - bordering on fanatical - anticipation, fueled by widely-viewed YouTube trailers, for the return of the greatest franchise in the history of science fiction!
Greater than Superman.
Greater than The Twilight Zone.
Greater than The Brown Hornet.
Wait a minute. Did you think this was about Star Wars; The Force Awakens?
This Saturday night on BBC America (and elsewhere worldwide; check your global listings), Doctor Who returns for it's 52nd year! Here is the trailer that has everyone talking. I mean everyone. [Note: The preceding claim does not in fact mean to imply or suggest and should not be construed as being understood to mean every living person on this planet.]
For those few of you, a nearly imperceptibly small number, who missed last season here and here and here and here and here are just a few brief examples of what you missed which undoubtedly will whet your appetite!
Inexplicably, almost incomprehensively, in all probability you therefore missed:
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor, and
This Doctor.
Roll the credits!
News this week that the 8-year old gelding Wise Dan, also known in these parts as "The Free Money Express," was retired. Following ankle surgery in 2014 that brought a premature end to last year's campaign, Wise Dan had been training regularly and impressively this summer for a planned return to the track this weekend in Canada for the $1-million dollar Woodbine Mile. The Woodbine Mile was expected to serve as a tune-up for Wise Dan's triumphant return to Keeneland, his home track, for this autumn's Breeders' Cup. However, swelling was discovered in a tendon following Wise Dan's most recent workout and, at this late stage in his career, the decision was made to bring an end to his legendary career and to turn Wise Dan lose into the bucolic pastures of equine retirement.
Wise Dan compiled a lifetime record of 23 wins and two second-place finishes in 31 starts. As the old saying goes, like a fine wine he improved with age. In six 2012 starts he had five wins and a second-place finish. In 2013, six wins and a second in seven starts. Wise Dan was undefeated in four starts in 2014, his final season of racing. In just his last three racing years he had 17 starts, 15 wins and two seconds. Ergo, "The Free Money Express."
The owners, trainer and racing public are now denied the storybook ending that could have been Wise Dan winning the Breeders' Cup Mile for a third time (a feat only achieved by one other horse in Breeders' Cup history) before his home track fans in the World Thoroughbred Championship's historic first-ever visit to scenic Keeneland (among the historic aspects of this year's Breeders' Cup; the participation of a Triple Crown winner [American Pharoah]) . Alas, retiring Wise Dan is the correct decision in the best interest of this magnificent horse.
Here is a two-minute video of Wise Dan at Keeneland on October 4, 2014, the day of his last victory in, now, his last-ever race.
One presumes that Wise Dan will be paraded to thunderous ovations, throaty cheers and not a few moist eyes before the Keeneland grandstand on Breeders' Cup day. There can be no question that, if they do, it will be the most electric moment of the day on a day which will see an abundance of equine and human electricity.
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On the subject of Keeneland, if you've been wondering about how things are progressing in terms of construction projects and other assorted preparations for this October's Breeders' Cup, the Keeneland YouTube page has a selection of brief video clips that offer a glimpse into the transformation.
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For those of you who enjoyed reading and - particularly - viewing The Blood-Horse's pictorial feature Calumet Farm: The Rebirth of a Legend, you will find yourself agog at their most recent presentation (full disclosure for the Elizabeth Warren anti-capitalist faction out there [i.e.; 99% of my loyal subscribers], it's a prospectus) titled Ireland and the Thoroughbred. If you have an affinity for the Emerald Isle, if you are drawn to sprawling Old World estates, if you like to spend untold minutes/hours gazing lovingly upon images of horses and horse farms (and you know who you are), then this 50-photo collection is for you! No fear; there's a minimum of text and a maximum of high-definition photographic charm.
Roll the credits!
