Happy Independence Day America!

-
1976 Mr. Met Bicentennial Edition

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenated. I
Read more

Remembering Mets History: (1977) The Felix Millan / Ed Ott Brawl In Pittsburgh

-
Image
Friday August 12th, 1977: Joe Torre's last place Mets (47-66) traveled to Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh for a double header with Chuck Tanner's second place Pirates (66-49). The bad times were underway for the late seventies Mets and tonight marked the end of another key player's career from the 1973 NL Champion team. In the first game of a double header, Jerry Koosman (8-13) took a 3-1 loss to Jim Rooker (10-6) & the Pirates. Both pitchers went the distance, with Koosman giving up three runs on six hits & Rooker giving up the lone Met run on nine hits. In the night cap Mets started Bob Myrick against Pittsburgh's  Bruce Kison.  In the 2nd inning Myrick himself added an RBI base hit making it 1-0 Mets. Lee Mazzilli added a two run HR in the 4th putting the Mets up 3-2. The Mets were battling, but the Pirates tied it up at 3-3 in the sixth inning.  Met Manager; Joe Torre made a double switch bringing in Felix Millan to play second base, as Do
Read more