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Monday, April 02, 2007

Baseball!!...


©art Ryan Kelly

Edit:
Ok, I can do this right? I can edit. It's the internets, I can do anything, right? Ok, I had a really bad today. It was a reallreallyREALLY bad day today. That hating-your-life type of day that comes once or twice a year for me. And then I lash out against Republicans. It's not fair. They're responsible for most of the bad things in life but not everything, right? Everything's better now. The Twins won. Back-to-back homers. Opening day. No more rants. They won. The bad day is over.

This calls for a BASEBALL CARD OF THE MONTH:




A Gary Gaetti autographed 1984 Topps. Looking at Baseball cards is always calming and comforting for me. Everything's good now.



Looking at pictures of the long-deceased, great Nicollet Park comforts me. This is between 31st and Lake Street on Nicollet. A bank and a parking lot are now there. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't it good and right?



Look at it. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it grand?



Nicollet Park, Opening Day, 1925. Doesn't that make you happy? Don't think about the war. That's a beautiful urban ballpark right in the heart of the city.



I love baseball, I really do. Can you tell?

But I’m listening to Bob Davis, the junior Sean Hannity-in-training, on KSTP1500 right now and he just said, “I can’t ever remember a time I ever actually watched a baseball game! Ha!”


"Ha".

Twins announcer Herb Carneal died yesterday. Listening to the Twins is just not going to feel the same. No Carneal. No WCCO. Just a hollow broadcast sandwiched in between very angry and emotional radio talkers on an inferior signal alongside commercials for limousine services, wealth management, and hair transplants. To Herb Carneal, it was always about the game, not increased revenue streams.

Listen to the game,maybe it will have a little of the same magic-Dan Gladden and that cheesy 80's Opening soundtrack, but if you don’t like being called a Socialist because you think that maybe global warming exists, then turn it off after the ninth inning.

Play ball. put on your smiles, it's time to be happy now. The bad day is over.

©art Ryan Kelly

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7 Comments:

Blogger Dad Stuff said...

It was nice when WCCO would have pre-game, game, post-game and then a few other call in show about the Twins. NOt so with new station.
Your right, the new station has a very weak signal too.
It also was tough listening to Viking games between the Limbaugh talk. Come on, listening to Viking games are hard enough.

7:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

baseball makes me happy too, opening day should be a national holiday IMO.

Also, I have never seen the twins art of yours...how could one purchase a print?

6:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, I'd never seen that park on Nicollet before. Crap, that's awesome. When did that come down?

--Keith

1:23 PM  
Blogger Ryan Kelly said...

Baseball original and a custom print can be available for sale!
for price email:
funrama@gmail.com

2:59 PM  
Blogger Ryan Kelly said...

I think Nicollet park was there for 60 years, do you believe that? It was home of the Minneapolis Millers (our small-ball team before the Twins) .

hall of famers Ted Williams and Willie Mays (and many more)were once Minneapolis Millers and played ball at this stadium! Babe Ruth played a game there! 31st and Nicollet!!!

I don't know when it was torn down, but it became obsolete after Met Stadium in Bloomington (where the Mall of America now stands) was built.

if you go to the Wells Fargo bank there, there's a plaque in front dedicated to the park. That's all that's left!

3:04 PM  
Blogger Dik Pose said...

Oh man, Gary Gaetti was my favorite when he was on the Angels in 1992... he led the team with 12 homers or something pitful like that, man, my team sucked that year... it was the first year I REALLY followed baseball...

Good luck to the Twinkies, I always root for them in the central, just cant root for them when they play the Halos...

These are great pics you posted...

5:21 PM  
Blogger Ryan Kelly said...

Original post (rant):

My Baseball begins today. My Minnesota Twins. Life begins to feel right and just again. I loved the Twins when Marty Cordova was the best player on the team. I loved the Twins when Knoublach was second baseman , even when A.J. was catcher, even when Ron Coomer led the twins in Homeruns with, like, 12. I like Baseball. I love the game. I don’t like greed. Baseball and greed is not good.

So, the only slight downside to this is that the radio broadcasts have moved to KSTP 1500, a hardcore Republican station who loves Republicans and owned by Hubbard, a hardcore Republican who is dedicated to loving Republicans forever and ever, so shut up, you Communist.

I’m sorry, but Joe Soucheray is a Republican. He’s not the straight-talking average joe-on-the–street that he markets himself as. A lot of dudes in our “community” (foghorn sound…hilarity) believe that Barbara Streisand and Keith Ellison are trying to take away their way of life from them and that’s only because The Flashlight King told them that.

The Twins organization moved the Twins radio broadcasts from a 46-year marriage with WCCO (which has a stronger signal) to the proudly Republican, KSTP. Not a big deal, sure. But, when you consider this:

Point 1 -The talking heads representing KSTP LOUDLY spoke out against the Twins’ campaign to get public funding for their Stadium. They bashed it day in and day out. Ok, I’m not siding with The Twins owners; I was FOR the stadium, but against public finance for the stadium. So, this is like if a comic writer was calling me an evil little worm every day on his LiveJournal, then I join up with that writer to make a comicbook. Why?…

Why did this happen, If WCCO was a better Station?…

MONEY< MONEY< MONEY

Added Revenue Streams

So even though the Twins/KSTP-AM pact calls for the team to control inventory within the Games, “(KSTP-AM GM) enthusiastically explains, “We’ll have promotional opportunities, ancillary programming for and access to the team, and will be able to build revenue streams. It will be a huge promotional vehicle for us. It’s going to be great programming and it will help us dynamically build our audience. This is great news for the entire radio station – not just the sales department.”

So, I see. They want to use baseball as vehicle to bully in their Vote-McCain/Pawlenty '08 & "Taxcuts are good" garbage to a BIGGER audience.

Which brings me to my next point…

Point 2—The Republicans on KSTP’s AM1500 and the TV network work very hard to distract attention away from the Iraq war, their president and everything else they are ashamed of believing. No matter what the topic du jour of the day is, whether it is wacky animal stories or crying about smoking bans, it’s meant to avoid TALKING ABOUT IRAQ AT ALL COSTS.

There’s one other topic they do not like talking about—--BASEBALL.
When ever it’s time to talk sports with Reusse (the only person there with any kind of talent besides Mischke), the only sports “The Mayor of Garage Logic" (Joe Soucheray) or any of the Republicans really want to talk about is Golf, more golf, Gopher college sports, maybe Hockey, and…...horse racing!

Winning is important to Republicans. So is acquiring. Acquiring things they don’t even really care for, as long as they have it, and not the enemy side. And it just seems like they’re only really interested in Baseball when they’re winning or when they’re profiting from it.

Different Image

It is Fisher’s hope the addition of the Twins 162-game regular season schedule will complement what he describes as KSTP-AM’s “biggest show,” (early) afternoon drive’s (2-5:30pm) “Mayor of Garage Logic” Joe Soucheray. “He’s all about Minnesota values and common sense,” Fisher notes. “It’s a big, entertaining package. Alongside conservative programming like Rush Limbaugh, we’ve always had dynamic, fun and entertaining shows on this station.”

Yeah, sure, right. "Common Sense"

I love baseball, I really do. Can you tell?

But I’m listening to Bob Davis, the junior Sean Hannity-in-training, on KSTP1500 right now and he just said,“I can’t ever remember a time I ever actually watched a baseball game! Ha!”


"Ha".

Twins announcer died yesterday. Listening to the Twins is just not going to feel the same. No Carneal. No WCCO. Just a hollow broadcast sandwiched in between very angry and emotional radio talkers on an inferior signal alongside commercials for limousine services, wealth management, and hair transplants. To Herb Carneal, it was always about the game, not increased revenue streams.

Listen to the game,maybe it will have a little of the same magic-Dan Gladden and that cheesy 80's Opening soundtrack, but if you don’t like being called a Socialist because you think that maybe global warming exists, then turn it off after the ninth inning.

Play ball, I guess.

©art Ryan Kelly

4:53 PM  

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