On this date in 1978, Giants slugger (and future Hall of Famer) Willie McCovey cranks the 500th home run of his major league career in a game against the Braves at Fulton County Stadium. Braves hurler Jamie Easterly is the victim; catcher Joe Nolan watches to see how many pieces the ball comes down in.
"Stretch," one of the few players to play in four different decades, will retire after the 1980 season with 521 career homers — most of 'em hit during an era of low offense, using only a bat, killer sideburns, and sheer intrinsic badassery.
There's so much 70s baseball love in the air right now, it's getting difficult to keep track of it all. Last night, the Houston Astros donned 70s-style "Tequila Sunrise" throwbacks (complete with crotch-accentuating uniform number on the right leg!) for their game against the Cleveland Indians — an interleague match-up that might have made more conceptual sense if the Tribe had donned their infamous all-red "World's Biggest Bloody Mary" (copyright Boog Powell) 70s unis for the contest. I'm not sure if the Astros' old orange-red-and-yellow stripes have aged surprisingly well, or if they just look good compared to the dreary 90s softball jerseys the team wears now; but even without stirrups (which would have really completed the look), this pic of Jose Altuve was so eye-catching, I had to look at it four or five times before I even noticed the broken bat. Memo to the Astros: If you guys just wanna alternate between these and the Colt 45s throwbacks for the rest of the season, I don't think anyone would complain...
And then there's the Tampa Bay Rays, who — despite not even existing in 1979 — have unveiled the above "1979 throwback" unis for their upcoming homestand against the Detroit Tigers. I know I should hate these on principle, since a) it's fake history, and b) I hate pretty much everything that's come out of Florida in the past fifteen years (including but not limited to Limp Bizkit and voter disenfranchisement), but I actually kinda dig 'em — they look to me like the result of a three-way between the '78 Padres, the '69 Seattle Pilots, and a mid-70s Whirpool appliance catalog. Or maybe I like it because it looks oddly similar to the funky/clunky uniforms I was designing for imaginary teams on the back of my sixth grade notebook in 1978.
The Tigers, it should be noted, will be wearing actual 70s throwbacks against the Rays, similar to the road jersey and cap sported above by the late, great Mark Fidrych on his 1977 Topps card. I would flat-out LOVE to see the Tigers re-adopt this look full-time, especially the fat orange-and-white "D" logo on the cap. To me, their 70s road unis were one of the few examples of the era where a classic team effectively "modernized" their road unis without looking like clowns in the process...
Tomorrow, as they've done for every Sunday home game this season, the Chicago White Sox will don their red 1972 pinstripes, as sported above by the inimitable Dick Allen. But this time, the aforementioned Mr. Allen will actually be on hand to throw out the first pitch, and veteran Chicago rockers The Ides of March — who ruled the Windy City airwaves back in the day with such tunes as "Vehicle" and "L.A. Goodbye" — will be there to kick out the horn-rock jams.
Speaking of uniforms (albeit not necessarily of the 70s variety), the topic of this week's "High and Tight" — the weekly baseball and rock n' roll column I pen for Rolling Stone online — is memorabilia, specifically the most prized stuff in our various panelists' collections. I had to give a shout-out to my very own piece of "plastic grass," as pictured below. It's a chunk of fake sod from the Comiskey Park infield, which was liberated in the spring of 1976 (and sent to me last month) by BH&PG reader Bob Kale. The column also contains some illuminating quotes from memorabilia collector/authenticator Dave Grob, who recently authenticated the 1920 Babe Ruth Yankees jersey that sold at auction for $4.4 million; part of Dave's drool-worthy personal collection can be seen here.
And on a sad note, this week marked the passing of artist LeRoy Neiman at the age of 91. Neiman was best known for his kinetic and brightly-colored paintings of sporting events, many of which were created on the sidelines while the events were actually occurring. I have to admit that (like many things from the 1970s that I now love and appreciate) I once thought Neiman's work was incredibly cheesy; hell, they gave away Neiman posters at Burger King! And, truth be told, many still do — a brief but lively debate broke out this week on the Big Hair Facebook page about the worth of Neiman's work. But like afros and Astroturf, Neiman's paintings were an intrinsic part of the 70s sports landscape, and I can't help smiling every time I see one of his paintings, like this one of Willie Mays in his Mets days...
Plus, Neiman had a moustache that might have even made Rollie Fingers turn kelly green with envy...
RIP, man. Thanks for helping make the 1970s such a fantastically colorful time.
Coupla quick but worthwhile things to mention today:
1) I've got a piece on Dave Parker (pictured above in stylish protective headgear during the summer of '78) up on my man Shawn Anderson's Hall of Very Good site today. It's part of his new "HOVG Heroes" series, which will feature a variety of guest writers saluting players who haven't been enshrined in Cooperstown, but coulda/woulda/shoulda been. Yesterday's piece was a fine appreciation of Dwight Evans by Mike Lynch, and there will be many more to come in the next few weeks. Keep an eye on the HOVG page...
2) Big Hair & Plastic Grass is now out in paperback, and I have five copies to give away courtesy of the fine folks at Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's. Beginning tomorrow, I will be holding daily drawings on the Big Hair & Plastic Grass Facebook page; I will ask a question in the morning, and everyone who answers it before a specified time will automatically be entered into the drawing for an autographed copy. So be sure to check out the BH&PG FB page on a daily basis, as well, if you're not doing so already.
3) I'm finally up on Twitter, and would like to build my currently meagre following. So if you're into that kinda thing, please follow me at @BigHairPlasGras.
4) Rhino's Single Notes line of eBooks, a project which I have been managing-editing for nearly a year now, finally launched last week. Our sixth title has dropped today, and it's a doozy (as my late Grandpa Joe would say): Davin Seay's Super Freak: The Last Days Of Rick James. It's easily the best thing I've ever read about the late, great King of Punk-Funk; cocaine's one helluva drug, and this is one helluva book. It's intimate, it's funny, it's funky, it's raunchy, and there's even a segment in the book about Rick swallowing cellophane-wrapped crack rocks in order to avoid imprisonment, and then smoking them later after he's shit them out. Really, what more could you want, in terms of summer reading? Super Freak: The Last Days Of Rick James is available as a digital download on the Amazon Kindle Store and the iTunes iBookstore, and it'll cost you less than a latte.
Now that I'm back in Los Angeles after a whirlwind Big Hair & Plastic Grass promo trip to New York City, brains scrambled from long flights, too little sleep and (possibly) too much alcohol, I finally have a free minute to look back on this past week, scratch my head and wonder, "Did that all really happen?" And I'm not just talking about Matt Cain's perfecto and R.A. Dickey's one-hitter, either...
It was, by any standards, an incredibly exciting and inspiring week for me, on personal and professional levels alike; but everything kinda peaked on Tuesday night, at my Big Hair reading/signing event at Manitoba's in the East Village. The party was extremely well-attended despite the buckets of rain that started pissing down around 5 pm, and I got a chance to drink and shoot the shit with some amazing people, ranging from high school and college classmates to colleagues, heroes, Facebook friends I'd never met, and just plain diehard baseball fans. Handsome Dick Manitoba (pictured above) was as charming and hospitable a host as I could have hoped for, and he really made me, Miss Howerton, and everyone else in attendance (with the possible exception of Red Sox fans) feel welcome in his watering hole. Baseball love was in the air, as was the heady fragrance of Hebrew National hot dogs and sauerkraut, and the groovy sounds of the 70s as purveyed by DJ Mr. Tim. We even got to see A-Rod tie Lou Gehrig in the all-time grand slam department on the bar TVs; Handsome Dick's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas (Hannukah?) when he saw it happen...
As Tuesday night coincided with the 42nd anniversary of Dock Ellis's LSD-fueled no-hitter, I kept the evening's selections pretty Dock-centric, including a non-Big Hair tribute to the late, great hurler that I'd originally penned following his untimely death in December 2008. Nobody was feeling any pain (least of all your humble author) by the time I hit the mic following a hilarious intro from Mr. Manitoba himself, and there was plenty of hooting and hollering throughout the reading. It was great to read to a crowd like that (Rob Kirkpatrick, my editor at St. Martin's, told me it was the most raucous author event he'd ever attended), but I must admit I was also briefly thrown by the slurred interjections of an extremely wasted young woman who sat near the podium and interrupted me with questions like, "What about Eric Clapton?" I was laughing too hard to come up with a comeback to that one, but when she asked me, "Do you like Paul Simon?", I did manage to shoot back, "I've never met the man"...
One of the amazing things about this past Tuesday was how much Dock love was in the air — not just at Manitoba's, but in the pop cultural firmament in general; even compared to two years ago, when Big Hair first hit the shelves and the 40th anniversary of his no-no was observed by several outlets , Dock is a bigger presence than ever... which is probably a testament to just how ahead of his time Dock was, both as a player and as a human being. Donnell Alexander's mind-blowing multi-media ibook, Beyond Ellis D, has just hit the digital shelves, and I highly recommend it to anyone who owns an iPad; in fact, if I didn't already own an iPad, I would probably run out to buy one right now just so I could enjoy Alexander's work. You've undoubtedly already seen James Blagden's "Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No," clip right? Well, Dock's wonderful narration for that short film was just a snippet from an extended set of illuminating interviews that Alexander did with Dock towards the end of his life, and which form the basis of Beyond Ellis D. Here's another animated clip set to Dock's words, which is part of the iBook...
Also just released this week is the "sizzle reel" for No No: A Doc(k)umentary (About Dock Ellis), a film that has been in the works for sometime, and which — as with Beyond Ellis D — will prove to the world that there was much, much more to the man than that acid-fried day on the mound. The filmmakers need your help to finish it, and they've set up a Kickstarter account in hopes of raising $35,000 by July 17. Full disclosure: I'm one of the interview subjects in this film, but I'd be dying to see the completed version even if I wasn't in it. Watch the preview below — and if it moves you, please consider donating some much-needed moolah to the cause.
But wait — there's more! "High and Tight," my weekly column for Rolling Stone Online, vibrates at the intersection of baseball and rock n' roll — and, of course, Dock's lysergic no-no was one of the most rock n' roll things to ever happen on a baseball diamond. So in this week's "High and Tight," our esteemed panelists (including the aforementioned Mr. Manitoba) and I reflect upon Dock's unique achievement, and offer up a ringing riposte to the skeptics who insist that such a thing couldn't have possibly happened...
Oh, there's much more to tell, of course — but that's about enough for this week, right? Have a great weekend, and don't take any bullshit from The Man. Dock certainly wouldn't want you to...
Well, I'm not quite there yet — but I'll be there in spirit tonight (and in disembodied voice) around 10:30 pm EST, when I'll be interviewed live on Mike Silva's "NY Baseball" radio show on 1240 AM WGBB outta Long Island. I rapped with Mike about two years ago, and we had a great chat, so I'm really looking forward to it. Tune in, turn on, and get down — Billy Baldwin and his massive 'fro would want it that way.
Tonight's interview should be a nice warm-up for the NYC Big Hair & Plastic Grass paperback release party on Tuesday night, which will be going down on from 6:30 pm to 9 pm at Manitoba's Bar in the East Village, and will be hosted by the legendary Handsome Dick Manitoba himself. I will be signing paperback copies of the book (which will be on sale at the bar) and reading some choice bits from it. Join us for tales of baseball weirdness, hot dogs, peanuts, crackerjacks, liquid refreshments and good times...
And speaking of tales of baseball weirdness, today is the 37th anniversary of the night that army cannons blew holes in the outfield wall at Shea Stadium. You can read about the incident in greater detail HERE, or you can let Walter Cronkite give you the basic lowdown, below...
Dave Parker turns 61 today. Love him or hate him, "The Cobra" was unquestionably a badass — and never looked more impossibly menacing than when he briefly sported this hockey mask in 1978 to protect his fractured cheekbone. Unsuspectic Padres rookie first baseman Broderick Perkins looks like he's about to catch a meat cleaver between the shoulder blades...
In other news, it's only a few days until the NYC paperback release party for Big Hair & Plastic Grass, which happens Tuesday June 12 from 6:30 pm to 9 pm at Manitoba's, which is located at 99 Ave. B (between 6th and 7th streets) in the East Village. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event, but if you can't make it and still want to get a signed and personalized copy or three, all you've gotta do is email your contact information (before 12 noon EST on Sunday, June 10) to Harriet at [email protected]. She will email or call you back regarding personalization (let her know if you have a favorite team or player from the era), payment and shipping.
The price for each signed copy, which includes the book and tax ($17.00) plus shipping ($5.25) will total $22.25. I will sign the book for you on June 12 at Manitoba's, and Harriet will wing it to you forthwith! Once again, though, you've gotta email Harriet before noon EST tomorrow in order to get your order in...
Oh, and speaking of The Cobra... well, I can't blow the surprise, but let's just say that my pal Shawn over at The Hall of Very Good has a big announcement coming on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled accordingly...
Forgive me while I briefly set the BH&PG time machine controls to the present day, where the first two months of the 2012 season are up for discussion in this week's "High and Tight," the weekly rock n' roll baseball column I pen for Rolling Stone. Our esteemed panel — which now includes Vinnie Paul of Pantera/Hellyeah fame — weighs in on the year's biggest surprises and disappointments. And believe me, speaking as a Cubs and Tigers fan, there have been many...
Not that I'm remotely surprised by the Cubs' overall performance; at this point, Theo Epstein and Dale Sveum seem to be the only ones caught off guard by the unrelenting suckitude. Before the season started, I told my girlfriend that I thought the Cubs had a chance to win the NL Central... so long as all the players on all the rest of the teams in the division died. And even I'm not a hardcore-enough Cubs fan to hope for that outcome...
So let's flash back to a happier time in the Friendly Confines, eh? Dig this great minute-and-a-half of silent 8mm home movie footage taken before a Cubs home game against the Mets in 1971; considering that you can catch a glimpse of Tom Seaver warming up, I'm gonna guess that it's from July 22. Great sideburns abound, most notably those of Joe Pepitone, who can be spotted engaging in deep conversation with Jesse Jackson — probably about the best places in Chicago to pick up chicks.
Can't let this day pass without acknowledging that it's the 38th anniversary of Cleveland's jaw-droppingly ill-conceived "Ten Cent Beer Night" promotion, when the Indians organization invited fans to drink their fill of Stroh's at a dime a pop on a Tuesday night at the "Mistake by the Lake". Over 25,000 fans took them up on it, and a notable percentage of them wound up either drunk, naked, in a pitched battle with both Rangers and Indians players, or all of the above. Indians reliever Tom Hilgendorf (above) took a folding chair to the head, and the always-up-for-a-fight Rangers manager Billy Martin told his players and coaches to arm themselves with bats. It's kinda surprising that no one was killed in the melee.
For a few more hours, you can celebrate that iconic and emblematic 70s baseball event by taking advantage of the HOMAGE website's deal on "Ten Cent Beer Night" cups, koozies and t-shirts. I have no affiliation or financial stake in these folks, but I commend them for doing God's work. (I also bought THIS t-shirt, which you Pirates/Dave Parker fans will surely appreciate.)
But there's sad news out of Ohio tonight, too — Pedro Borbón, the iron-armed reliever for the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, has passed away from cancer at the age of 65. Borbón is best known today for being referenced in the movie Airplane!, for chewing up Buzz Capra's cap following the infamous Pete Rose-Bud Harrelson brawl in the 1973 NLCS, and for allegedly placing a voodoo curse on the Reds after they traded him to the Giants in 1979. But he was also a formidable (and seemingly indefatigable) competitor, who anchored the Reds' bullpen from 1972 up until that aforementioned 1979 deal. From 1972 through 1977, Borbon pitched over 121 innings per season, appearing in four different NLCS and three World Series in the process, including the 1975 and 1976 ones that the Reds won. He was well-loved in Cincinnati, where he was elected to the Reds Hall of Fame in 2010. (His son, Pedro Jr., pitched in the 90s and 00s for several teams; given Pedro Sr.'s alleged penchant for voodoo, I initially thought there might be some kind of Marie Lavieux thing going on...) Rest in peace, Señor Borbón...
In other news, I have nailed down a date for a Big Hair & Plastic Grass paperback publication celebration in Chicago: It will take place Friday, July 20 at Liars Club, and will be a reprise of the immensely successful "AOR Demolition Night" event we held there in 2010. (I don't generally like to repeat myself; but that was so nice, I just gotta do it twice!) Might even be a few special guests this time... more information to come — but if you're gonna be in Chicago that weekend, by all means save the date!
And yes, the Big Hair & Plastic Grass paperback comes out tomorrow, which I'm incredibly excited about — and I'm just as stoked for next week's reading/signing/selling event, which happens 6:30-9 pm at Manitoba's in NYC on Tuesday, June 12. Some folks have asked if there will be books for sale at the event, so let me reiterate — YES, there will indeed be books for sale! And if you can't make the scene, but would still like a signed, personalized copy of Big Hair & Plastic Grass, all you've gotta do is email your contact information (before 12 noon on Sunday, June 10) to Harriet at [email protected]. She will email or call you back regarding personalization (let her know if you have a favorite team or player from the era), payment and shipping. The price for each signed copy, which includes the book and tax ($17.00) plus shipping ($5.25) will total $22.25. I will sign the book for you on June 12 at Manitoba's, and Harriet will wing it to you forthwith!
Okay, that's all for now. I'm off to drink my fill of Stroh's, and maybe fling a few folding chairs around.
But let's say you're not going to be in NYC, or you're busy that night, and you'd like to get a signed, personalized copy of Big Hair — a book that the Onion AV Club called "Enormously entertaining" while giving it an A- grade — for yourself, a friend, or a loved one. WHAT (as Karl Malden used to ask on those fear-mongering American Express commercials) WILL YOU DO?!?!?
Easy! For those of you who can't make the scene on June 12, we've made arrangements to hook you up with your very own copy, signed and personalized by Dan Epstein, the man Josh Wilker of Cardboard Gods fame called "The Bangsian Herodotus of 70s Baseball". (Thanks again, Josh! Cashiers check is in the mail...)
All you've gotta do is email your contact information (before 12 noon on Sunday, June 10) to Harriet at [email protected]. She will email or call you back regarding personalization (let her know if you have a favorite team or player from the era), payment and shipping. The price for each signed copy, which includes the book and tax ($17.00) plus shipping ($5.25) will total $22.25. I will sign the book for you on June 12 at Manitoba's, and Harriet will wing it to you forthwith!
Oh yeah, before I forget — funky birthday wishes going out today to Randy "Rebel" Hundley, perhaps the greatest defensive catcher the Cubs ever had, and an absolute whiz at handling a pitching staff. nd a whiz at handling pitchers. As Hall of Famer teammate Fergie Jenkins once said, "Having Hundley catch for you was like sitting down to a steak dinner with a steak knife. Without Hundley, all you had was a fork." Here's a cool and rare Randy Hundley card from 1971, found on the bottom of a Bazooka Bubble Gum box...
Dan Epstein
About Me
Dan Epstein is the author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s and Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, both published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. He writes about baseball, music and other cultural obsessions for a variety of outlets and publications. He lives in Greensboro, NC, and is available for speaking engagements.