Ramblin' with Roger

Baseball by the (uniform) numbers

Only three players each have worn numbers 78, 79, 81, 91 and 94.

This is a picture of Ed Glynn. You probably never heard of him, and I barely remember him myself. He was a journeyman pitcher, for the New York Mets in 1979-1980, and other teams over a ten-year career.

I mention him only because my friend Walter is Glynn’s cousin, and he mentioned that the current #48 for the Mets is the great young pitcher Jacob deGrom. If one goes to the page about the Mets at baseball-reference.com, one finds all sorts of information about the team’s history, including the fact that they’ve retired the number of only one Mets player in its history, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, #41.

Further into the minutia hole, one can discover the name of every single player who ever donned a Mets uniform. I’m using the Mets as an example here, but this is true of every team in Major League Baseball, past, and present, though some of those very early teams didn’t use numbered uniforms.

And, one can find out how many people in all of MLB have worn a particular uniform number. 862 players have worn #22 over the years, and 839 have had #27. Glynn and deGrom are two of 506 players to wear #48.

The higher numbers are not as well regarded. Only three players each have worn numbers 78, 79, 81, 91, and 94. Two each have donned 83, 84, 85, and 96. There has only been one person to have worn, as a regular player, not just spring training, the numbers 80, 82, 87, 95, 97, and 98. And NO one has had 86, 89, 90, 92, or 93.

This means that, if you’re going to be a Major League Baseball player, pick a high uniform number. You’ll have a better chance at being the best #89 ever!
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For the First Time in History, the World Series Is Between 2 Teams That Were Never Segregated.

Twenty-Five Fun Facts About the 2015 Mets.

P is for popularity of names

“Roger” was the 31st most popular boy’s name in 1953.

My friend Arthur did this some time back, based on this TIME magazine article, which, not incidentally, is US-centric.

“The popularity of your name is likely far different today than it was the year you were born. Maybe you’re one of those men born in 1983 and named Michael, the most popular name of the year.

“Today, if you were given the most popular boy’s name, you’d be named Noah. The following interactive shows you which name had the same popularity in the past year and every decade since 1890 as yours did the year you were born, using [then] newly released baby name data for 2014.”

The premise is slightly misleading in that, early on, there was a paucity in the diversity of names. For boys, John and William were heavily used in the 1880s (89,951 and 84,881, respectively), well ahead of James (54,058). For girls, Mary (91,669) was even more dominant; Anna (38,159) and Emma (25,404) were far behind.

Still: “Roger” was the 31st most popular boy’s name in 1953. It was MOST popular in 1945, hitting its peak of #22, I dare say, because of World War II: “Roger that. Roger over and out.”

My name today would be Oliver, a name I associate with the TV show Green Acres, Charles Dickens, and Elvis Costello.

My 2000s name is Isaac, a good biblical name, son of Abraham (nearly sacrificed) and Sarah, and father of Jacob and Esau.
My 1990s name is Mark, my brother-in-law’s name, and the shortest of the Gospels in the Bible.
My 1980s name is Edward, my great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1970s name is Terry. I knew a guy named Terry in the 1970s at college and worked with a woman named Terry in the 1990s.
My 1960s name is Alan. Not incidentally, the Social Security list does not combine spellings, such as Allan and Allen.
My 1950s name is Henry, the VIII, and Aldrich.
My 1940s name is Ernest, another great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1930s name is Leonard, as in Bernstein, and Nimoy.
My 1920s name is Elmer, as in Bernstein, and Fudd.
My 1910s name is Eddie, as in the Renaissance Geek, though that’s not his given name.
My 1900s name is Alfred, as in Tennyson or Batman’s butler.
My 1890s name is Sam, promoter of Green Eggs and Ham, or the Sham.

“Name trends are provided by the Social Security Administration… This tool only searches for names of the same gender as what you entered at the top. Many names have drifted from being associated with boys to being associated with girls over the years, so it can appear as though female names are showing up in the male results.”

ABC Wednesday – Round 17

The Lydster, Part 139: Random music

She sees a title she recognizes, because Pentatonix had subsequently performed it.

The Daughter likes to perform, on her own terms.

Over the summer, she arranged an impromptu dance performance, which is not all that unusual, having taken ballet in the past. What was noteworthy was that she danced to Sail On by the Commodores [LISTEN]. She just took a random compact disc from my CD holder, a greatest hits album, and decided on that. She was unfamiliar with the song, and the group. Yet it was a nice routine.

A couple of weeks later, she decided that she and her mother ought to do a fashion show of some of the clothes they bought over a weekend in anticipation of going back to school. Again, she picks a random CD, Hand on the Torch by US3, also a group unknown to her. She sees a title she recognizes, because Pentatonix had subsequently performed it, and she uses that for the show. The song was I Got It Goin’ On [LISTEN]. It fit with the fashion model motif, and at a little more than five minutes, it was just the right length.

It’d be one thing if she’d perused a list of MP3 tracks and glommed onto these titles, but this was some sort of inspired musical alchemy where she takes a random disc, from over a thousand of them, and makes something of it.

(Image from here.)

Movie Review: He Named Me Malala

In 2014, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were awarded as Nobel Peace Prize laureates for “their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education” At the age of 17, Malala became the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Prize.

Malala is therefore an appropriate choice for a documentary movie. The Daughter has been reading her autobiography, I Am Malala, upon which the film was based. The family plus The Daughter’s friend N went to the Spectrum in Albany to see He Named Me Malala.

It is a very nonlinear film, with some of the history, including the source of the protagonist’s first name, depicted in a very engaging animation style. We find that Malala is human, struggling with her studies in England, picking on her little brother, fascinated with Roger Federer’s hair. Yet she’s such an impressive person, feeling no antipathy for the Taliban man who shot, and nearly killed her.

The “he” in the title is Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who was a bit of a rabble-rouser in favor of education for girls himself. He describes his relationship with his daughter as them being two parts of the same persona.

The movie was produced and directed by Davis Guggenheim, who put out An Inconvenient Truth(2006) and Waiting for ‘Superman’ (2010). The Malala movie was less well-received, by both audiences and critics, perhaps because, I’ve read, the family tried to keep some privacy for a very public figure. And, since she’s still known to be alive, and a Nobel winner, there was not as much suspense as to the outcome.

I’d agree with the criticism that the film is more educational than engrossing. But it’s mighty educational, though I wish it were more so. This is an especially useful film for those less familiar with her story and is worthy on that level.

Music Throwback Saturday: Weird Al, Part 1

There are several songs, that I had never heard in their original forms until I had heard them in the medley.

The illustrious Illinois blogger SamuraiFrog decided to rank all of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s songs, 165 of them, an impressive undertaking. So, I decided to come up with a list of my 33 favorite Weird Al songs. Why 33? Because LPs play at 33 revolutions per minute. And I’m going to break them up into three posts of 11 songs each, mostly because posting 11 posts of three songs each would be weird.

Why now? Other than the fact that yesterday was Al’s 56th birthday, no real reason. I just like it, and isn’t what blogging is supposed to be about? I’ll post Part 2 in a month or so, and part 3 a month after that, unless I’m desperate for blog content.

First, a couple of nearly on the list:
* The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
(sort-of-based on Harry Chapin’s “30,000 Pounds of Bananas,” from UHF and Other Stuff, 1989)

*This Is the Life
(Original; single from the motion picture Johnny Dangerously, 1984)
This is from some apparently terrible Michael Keaton movie I’ve never seen.

33. Ode to a Superhero
(Parody of “Piano Man” by Billy Joel; from Poodle Hat, 2003)
Spider-Man was the character I most related to in the Marvel Universe, and I own the first two Sam Raimi movies on DVD. No, that’s not true; it was Peter Parker, his beleaguered alter ego. I’m fond of Billy Joel’s music; I saw him live in concert c 1974. If it’s merely telling the story of Raimi’s Spider-Man, that’s OK.

32. First World Problems
(Style parody of the Pixies; from Mandatory Fun, 2014)
When The Daughter made her list of favorite Weird Al songs last year, this was #1. Love the hair, and the acting: the facial expressions, the walk. The misplaced outrage would be funnier if it weren’t often so true.

This is from Al’s first #1 album, and the first comedy album since Allan Sherman’s over a half-century earlier to hit the top of the charts.

31. My Bologna
(Parody of “My Sharona” by The Knack; from “Weird Al” Yankovic, 1983)
Those early parody versions were not as polished as they would develop into. It uses accordion (in lieu of guitar), like much of his early work. If it’s a dumb song, I enjoyed it at that level.

30. Jurassic Park; #5 in Canada, #84 in Australia in 1993
(Parody of “MacArthur Park” by Richard Harris; from Alapalooza, 1993)
Have I actually seen the movie Jurassic Park? I’ve seen big chunks of it. The song MacArthur Park is such over-the-top kitsch that I developed an odd affection for the Richard Harris performance. A great pairing.

29. The Brady Bunch
(Parody of “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats; from “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D, 1984)
I never actually watched one minute of The Brady Bunch, until it went into reruns. I discovered it was a pretty terrible show, as the protagonist in the Al song notes. At least the theme song at least told you what the show was about.

28. Callin’ in Sick
(Original; from Bad Hair Day, 1996)
From SamuraiFrog: “Man, Given Al’s ability to absurdly paint small dissatisfactions as life-defining (and life-thwarting) obstacles of epic proportions, he really ran with the joke. I think it says a lot that, 19 years later, this song sounds less like a parody of a popular style and more like a legitimate grunge single. He nailed it.” I have over 125 sick days right now; I don’t call nearly often enough.

27. Bob
(Style parody of Bob Dylan; from Poodle Hat, 2003)
Mr. Frog got it right: “I’m a Dylan fan, but if you’ve ever gritted your teeth in patience when someone goes on and on and on and on and on about how deep Bob Dylan’s lyrics are, someone doing a parody of Dylan with nothing but palindromes for lyrics is deeply refreshing.” I especially love the cue card motif, which was used in Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.

26. Hardware Store
(Style parody of Oingo Boingo; from Poodle Hat, 2003)
As Mr. Frog said: “That refrain is just pure genius. This is one of those great little songs where Al turns the mundane into the glorious.”

25. Mr. Popeil
(Style parody of the B-52’s; from “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D, 1984)
Not only is this a great style parody, it reminds me of all those endless Ron Popeil ads where he says, “But wait–there’s more!”

24. The Alternative Polka
(Medley; from Bad Hair Day, 1996) – songs listed HERE
My specific affection for this is that there are several songs, “Loser” by Beck, and “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden, for two, that I had never heard in their original forms until I had heard them in the medley, so it was informative. And his treatment of the angst-ridden “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette just cracked me up

23. Pancreas
(Style parody of Brian Wilson; from Straight Outta Lynwood, 2006)
This is SO much Beach Boys, circa 1967. And given that the Daughter is now studying biology, maybe this should be part of her educational curriculum.