The Baseball Book Club discussion
Current Books & Discussions
>
Non-baseball items, part II
Russell Martin has been sacked as Rangers manager. I know the fans have been unhappy with the team's performance recently. In fact after their last game, an away loss to Falkirk, they surrounded the team bus and wouldn't let it move. The players were forced to wait in the tunnel while things got sorted out. As well Mr. Martin ended up with a police escort as he was trying to leave.
The song that is currently playing on the playlist I have on, one of Spotify's Daily Mixes which change every day, if 'The Yellow Rose of Texas, by Mitch Miller and His Orchestra. Man, I remember watching Miller on television. For someone who only conducted, in a herky jerky manner no less, he did pretty good. I think he was also in charge of A&R at Columbia at one point.
Listening to a collaboration between Phil Everly and Cliff Richard. Both artists of course got their start back in the sixties, Everly in the US with his brother and Bennett in England. One of the Thunderbirds movies from that period has an appearance by Cliff Richard, Jr and the Sons of the Shadows, the original Shadows being Cliff's backup band, as well as releasing a lot of records under their own name.
The documentary season on Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels has been scrapped. Nobody is sure who pulled the plug and why but the suggestion has been made the Tar Heels season doesn't exactly excite people. Apparently the team was also going to appear in a college version of something called Hard Knocks. That called off as well but in that case it was because Jennifer Hudson was demanding too much influence on the program.
i forget who it was but somebody else complained about Bad Bunny's being the headliner for the Super Bowl half-time show. They suggested Lee Hazelwood instead. The only thing I remember him for is a couple of duets with Nancy Sinatra. The more these people complain about this choice the more I am liking it.
Supposedly the verdict in the charges against Manchester City will be released this month. I will believe that when I see them.
Well we seem to finally have a modicum of peace in the middle east. I believe though that the Nobel Peace Prize is announced tomorrow so it might be too late for him. Of course there is always next year.
Happy Leif Erikson Day. Apparently it is a holiday in the US. It is a holiday up here in Canada but only in the province of Saskatchewan. I have no idea why.
You can tell that hockey season is starting. Tim Hortons hockey cards are back. Picked up a pack the other day. At least the one closest too me actually has them. They didn't get the spring release earlier this year.
A Saudi official has dropped a hint they may be looking at making an offer of Manchester United.
In Football News Inter Miami is moving they are going from Fort Lauderdale to Miami.
In Football action last night England defeated Wales 3-0 in their friendly. Had to chuckle at one headline which read "England's heroes are Villains. The first two goals were scored by guys who play their club football for Aston Villa of the Premier League.England has a match against Latvia which is a World Cup qualifier. England will probably be doing some scoreboard watching as an England win and a Serbia loss will guarantee England a place in the World Cup. Wales should also be playing a qualifying match as well but they are in a different group than England.
Sister Jean has passed away. Anyone who follows college basketball likely knows who I am talking about. For those who don't, like me. she was the chaplain of the Loyola men's basketball team. She also apparently became a national sports icon.
John Lodge, the singer and bassist with The Moody Blues, at age 82. His family has not revealed a cause of death but did say that it was suddenly and unexpectedly.
Quite a few Football scores for you from World Cup Qualifying in Europe.Northern Ireland 2-0 Slovakia
Germany 4-0 Luxembourg
North Macedonia 0-0 Belgium
France 3-0 Azerbaijan
Ukraine 5-3 Iceland
Switzerland 2-0 Sweden
Diane Keaton who starred in Annie Hall has passed away at age 79.
Mod
I was saddened to hear this….such a wonderful person. Although she certainly led a fulfilling life
Certainly not a life one would expect a num to be living.
Listening to my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. Not sure why but for some reason there is a lot of country music on this one. Mind you Josie Cotton is also on this list. Haven't heard that name in a while. Not sure but I might have her hit from the 80's "Johnny Are You Queer?" somewhere in my music library.
In World Cup qualifying it was Scotland 2-1 Belarus, putting Scotland closer to qualifying for the finals.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving C. John.
Harold wrote: "Happy Canadian Thanksgiving C. John."Oh man, I meant to do a post wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving but I went and forgot, Thanks, Harold.
Another World Cup qualifying result, Belgium 4-2 Wales. Apparently this makes qualifying more difficult for Wales, though not impossible.
Cape Verde will be going to the World Cup. It is the second-smallest country to ever qualify. Presuming they are going by population for the record the smallest was Iceland in 2018.
Latvia 0-5 England. England have qualified for the World Cup. So my second or third favourite team, depending on who else qualifies, has made it in.
Sweden are sitting at the bottom of their qualifying group and have sacked their manager as a result. They do still have a chance to qualify via a playoff as they topped their EUFA Nations League group.
Some Football news. Players will be 'taking the knee' this weekend. After that the players will decide whether to continue with the gesture. Currently the gesture is used with the No Room for Racism matches, which are in October and March, the Boxing Day fixtures and the final matches of the season. The Women's league has stopped as the players felt it had lost its effectiveness. And of course it is a target for all the Neanderthals out there.
Supposedly today is Global Handwashing Day. Never heard of that one before. Of course it was mentioned in an advertisement in my email from Bath and Body Works.
The Guardian's Football newsletter has taken to referring to next year's World Cup as the Geopolitics World Cup. Not sure why but it might have to do with the fact there are three host countries.
Sheffield Wednesday who play in the Championship are facing the prospect of a winding down order. The owe the government a lot of money in taxes, let alone a lot of other financial problems (the players haven't been paid for a couple of months or so for instance). There are several groups willing to purchase the team but nothing has happened yet.
Another situation where sports and politics are colliding, this time over in the U.K. Aston Villa is due to play a game in the Europa League. Their opponent is Maccabi Tel Aviv. Last night the police announced that Maccabi fans would not be able to attend due to "safety concerns". They cited the riots that happened when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam. Fans of both teams rioted. However Sir Keir Starmer, the PM, is not happy about the decision and is trying to get it reversed. In fact almost all the political parties in the UK are annoyed with the police on this one, a rare show of unity. Starmer in fact labelled the decision anti-Semitic. I will also note that the PM is a big Football fan.
Some may find this interesting. Cavalry Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh has some new stained glass windows. One of them is of Fred Rogers. The other two windows honour The Philadelphia 11 and Absalom Jones who was the first black priest in the Episcopal church.
Figured people over in the UK would be talking about England qualifying for the GWC (as The Guardian likes to refer to it) and if the other home countries would as well. However I daresay the news about Prince Andrew has knocked all that off the front pages. By the way, he actually attended school here in Canada for awhile and had a girlfriend while there. I suspect she is glad nothing came of that relationship.
The latest newsletter from Simon & Schuster focuses on books related to sports. First time this has happened. One of them is a biography of Natalya Neidhart, who of course is a member of one of the three most prominent wrestling families in Canada. That one might be an interesting read. Of course there are several hockey books.
Ange Postecoglou has been fired by Nottingham Forest after suffering eight losses in his first eight matches as manager. He was the team's second manager this season. Given that he ahs been a successful manager elsewhere and this was regarded as a very good hire at first I daresay the problems may lie elsewhere.
C. John wrote: "Here's the Mirror's pub quiz.https://www.mirror.co.uk/play/quizzes......"
Did it and got ten correct. One of these days I will get them all. Yeah, right.
Football fans in the British Isles are starting to get a mite testy it seems, to wit.https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footb...
A very nice article on Ian Fleming's other major creation, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.https://downthetubes.net/chitty-chitt...
Was going to post this in post season thread but it's not baseball related. Hubby is having a bad sports year. Angel's ended up in last place. And unfortunately his fav football team is Raiders. So he's given up on sports for a while. Instead spending his time working in the yard, tinkering on his 63 VW bug and watching free streaming TV series.
Here are some interesting statistics from the NBAnumber of foreign-born players this season 135
top three countries: Canada - 23, France - 19, Australia - 13
the last seven MVP's were born outside the US
News out of the NBA. Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier have been arrested by the FBI as part of an investigation into gambling.
David Ball, one half of the duo Soft Cell, has passed away at age 66. They are best known for the hit Tainted Love.
Reading an item on the Super Bowl half-time show kerfuffle brought something to mind. The event is going to be telecast world wide so they want someone who has international appeal headlining the show. Bad Bunny is an internationally popular artist. I daresay the names I have heard mentioned as replacements (Lee Greenwood for example) do not have that appeal. People are going to have to get used to the idea that the Super Bowl is now an international event and the Powers That Be at the NFL are going to treat it like that.
I have posted about Sheffield Wednesday's financial problems previously. Well the owner has now put them into administration. I am not sure what this entails but I do know that the team was immediately docked 12 points. Since they only had six they now have a total of -6 points. Can anyone say relegation. One possible outcome is the team being sold. Just have to wait and see I guess.
Mod
I’m thinking that Rozier was really part of his chemo, but I think it’s plausible that Billups wasn’t aware of the criminal aspects and he was just playing poker and encouraging people to join him. And this just adds more fuel to the fire that Adam Silver has encouraged, or at east turned a blind eye to, gambling since he ecame commissioner
A bit of news out of the UK that may interest some. I am sure you are aware of the Booker Prize in literature. Well it seems that they are going to introduce a Booker Prize for Childrens' literature. Be interesting to see how this goes.
June Lockhart of Leave it to Beaver and Lost in Space fame has passed away. It appears she was 100.
The Baseball Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers (other topics)Sense and Sensibility (other topics)
The Game (other topics)
The Game (other topics)
Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jenny Adams (other topics)Susan Elia MacNeal (other topics)
Oh yeah, this one lasted 12 hours. Probably a record.