Sounds of Summer

Memorial Day weekend is here! As this weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer, I thought it would be a good time to share my "Sounds of Summer" playlist.  These are songs that, for one reason or another, say "summer" to me.  I love to listen to these songs while washing the car or driving with the windows down and the sunroof open.

In alphabetical order:

• "Anything But Mine" by Kenny Chesney - I'm not a big Kenny Chesney fan, but I like this one.  It's about a summer romance as summer comes to an end and talks about sand, a boardwalk and sunburn.
• "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes - Yes, I know what the song is really about but it's catchy and poppy and it mentions the sun so it makes the list.
• "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley - I realize this song is actually about the end of summer or fall, but it always makes me think of summer.  One of my favorites from the '80s.
• "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & The Papas - Another song that is actually not about summer - "all the leaves are brown/and the sky is gray" - but it still makes me think of summer because of the sunny sound and the idyllic vision of California that it paints.
• "California Girls" by The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys are the quintessential "summer" group and this one is one of my favorites by them.
• "Californication" by Red Hot Chili Peppers -The whole song is about the myth that California represents - sunshine, Hollywood, etc.
• "Centerfield" by John Fogerty - It's not summer without baseball and this is a great song about our National Pastime.
• "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffett - This one is pretty self explanatory, even if I'd forego the kosher pickle and mustard and I wouldn't want mine medium rare.
• "4th of July" by Shooter Jennings - It's a summer road trip song that references the holiday at the very core of summer.
• "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys - Perhaps their greatest song, I remember them performing it live at the VP Fair under the Arch back in the early 1980s.
• "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles - A gem from George about the long awaited warmth of spring and summer after a long, cold winter.
• "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots - My favorite STP song and 3 minutes of sunny rock perfection.
• "Island in the Sun" by Weezer - Another one that is pretty self explanatory
• "John Deere Green" by Joe Diffie - A song that paints a great picture of summer in a small town.  Also, Joe Diffie is about the greatest name for a country singer ever.  There's no way a guy with a name like that could've been a rock singer.
• "Knee Deep" by Zach Brown Band with Jimmy Buffett - "Knee deep in the water somewhere/Got the blue sky breeze blowin' wind through my hair/Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair"
• "Long Hot Summer Day" by Turnpike Troubadours - It's a song about life working on a towboat on the Illinois River during summer.  It's also been the walk-up song for Cardinals' player Matt Carpenter for several seasons.
• "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett - A no brainer, especially since an entire brand (restaurants, radio station, etc.) are built around this song and the summer vibe it creates.
• "Mud on the Tires" by Brad Paisley - Summer time, country style. A pick-up, a lake out in the boonies. Crickets. The sun not setting until 9.  I didn't grow up in the country or in a small town, but if I had, this is how I imagine summer would be.
• "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by Eagles - "I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight/With a billion stars all around"
• "Santa Monica" by Everclear - Wanting to feel sunshine, live beside the ocean and swim out past the breakers.  Need I say more?
• "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams - Another '80s gem that never fails to take me back to summers as a kid.
• "Summerhouse" by Better Than Ezra - This is probably one of the lesser known songs on this list. The lyrics are actually pretty dark (it's about a murder, after all), but it talks about summer and the titular abode, so it makes the cut.
• "Surfer Girl" by The Beach Boys - It's about a girl, the beach and surfing.  Enough said.
• "Take It Easy" by Eagles - While there's nothing explicitly about summer in the lyrics, this is one that always makes me want roll down the windows and crank up the radio.
• "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley - It's nearly impossible to be in a bad mood while listening to this reggae classic.  My wife and I danced to this on our honeymoon when a live reggae band played it at a club.  It reminds me of that week we spent in paradise. 
• "Toes" by Zach Brown Band - The whole song is about a trip to Mexico and having your toes in the water and your ass in the sand.
• "Water" by Brad Paisley - Swimsuits, skinny dipping, a wet t-shirt contest, shades and a cooler full of beer.  This one also has the great summer vacation lyric of "Drive until the map turns blue."
•  "Your Love" by The Outfield - It's an '80s pop/rock gem whose first line mentions vacation.  This is another one that transports me back to being at the pool during the summer as a kid.

There's my list.  It spans decades and genres but all of these songs say "summer" to me.  What songs would make your list?  Let me know so that I can expand my playlist.

Thanks for reading!

Hypocrite-in-Chief

Regular readers of this blog know that hypocrisy is one of my biggest pet peeves.  People who say one thing and do another anger me to no end.  While there are certainly hypocrites in every industry and line of work, they are more readily apparent in the arena of politics than they are anywhere else.  Unfortunately, one of the biggest hypocrites of all is the so-called "leader of the free world," President Donald Trump.

I've written about Trump before, so most of you know where I stand when it comes to him.  However, some of his actions and statements since being sworn in as president in January illustrate - in glaring lights that rival Times Square - the extent to which Donald Trump may be the biggest hypocrite of all.

For instance, remember in 2013 when Trump was on Twitter lambasting Obama for getting involved in Syria?  In case you've forgotten, here are some examples of the things he said:

 

 

Pretty straightforward, right?  The U.S. should stay out of Syria and, if we're not going to, Obama needed get Congressional approval before attacking them.  So, what does Trump do during his first 100 days in office?  He bombs Syria without first getting Congressional approval.  In other words, he does the very thing he told Obama he shouldn't do a few years ago.  That's a little hypocritical, don't you think? Whether you agree that we should or should not get involved in Syria (I say we shouldn't) and whether or not the president needs to get Congressional approval before carrying out a military action is irrelevant.  The bottom line is he did the exact thing for which he previously criticized Obama, a textbook example of hypocrisy.

 

Another thing that Trump frequently complained about when Obama was in office was the amount of time he spend away from Washington - while playing golf or vacationing with his family.  Do you need a refresher on those?  OK, here you go:

 

 

 

So what has Trump done during his first 4 months in office?  He's made countless trips to the golf course and to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.  He's spent a far higher percentage of his time doing those things so far during his presidency than Obama did.  Once again, I'm not necessarily defending Obama.  I'm simply pointing out that Trump is, once again, doing the very things for which he excoriated his predecessor.  Again, that's pretty much the definition of hypocrisy.

 

Then, last week, Trump put the icing of the hypocrisy cake when he criticized recently fired FBI director James Comey as being "a showboat" and "a grand stander."  Seriously?  This coming from a guy whose entire brand is BUILT on being a showboat and grand stander.  This is a guy who kicked off his campaign for president by riding down an escalator in a posh building with his much younger, supermodel wife.  This is a guy whose first inclination is to slap his last name on everything he touches, from office buildings and casinos to steaks and fake universities.  It's the business world equivalent of a dog peeing on every tree in the neighborhood to mark his territory.  This is a guy who called his principal opponents during the presidential primaries "Crooked Hillary" and "Lyin' Ted" while surrounding himself with yes men who will regularly lie....oops....put forth "alternative facts" for him and, when they don't cotton to that, he fires them.  Everything about Trump is gratuitous and ostentatious, from his ridiculous hair and orange skin to his string of model wives and gaudy, gold plated office buildings.  The man may be the greatest showboat and grand stander to ever grace the streets of Washington, D.C. and he wants to point the finger at someone else and criticize them for doing what he's made a ridiculous living doing?  That, my friends, is the very height of hypocrisy.

 

Something tells me that, before his presidency is over, he will have many more chances to up the hypocrisy game to levels we've never seen before.  A part of me thinks he wants to go down in a blaze of ignominy just to be able to brag that he created a bigger mess than even Nixon.  He'd probably wear impeachment and removal from office as a badge of honor, that he was the first president to ever accomplish the feat. It's just the sort of thing that a showboat and grand stander would do.

 

Thanks for reading!





Best & Worst Sports Logos - Major League Baseball Edition

In my previous blog post, I gave my take on the best and worst NHL logos.  I'd like to continue that theme while switching to baseball.  For now, I'm only going to focus on Major League Baseball logos.  There are a lot of great (and really bad) minor league baseball logos, so I'll deal with those in a separate post.

Judging/ranking baseball logos was much harder for me than doing the hockey logos.  First of all, there really aren't that many really good or really bad baseball logos.  Also, whereas hockey logos are generally obvious (most of them are right there on the jersey), oftentimes baseball logos don't appear anywhere on the uniform.  Some teams have logos on their caps or on their jerseys.  For other teams, the logo is completely absent from the uniforms altogether.

Having said that, here are my picks for the best and worst MLB logos.

Best Logos - National League

5.  Arizona Diamondbacks

The Dbacks have only been around for about 20 years and they've had about that many different logos and uniform combinations in that time.  They've changed their official team colors multiple times and have no fewer than 7 current uniform combinations.  Yes, they have a primary home uniform and primary road uniform and then 5 (yes, 5) alternate uniform combinations.  While most of those combinations are ugly, they do have 2 cool logos.

At left is their official logo, the one that normally appears on their caps.  It does a nice job of blending the "A" for Arizona and the coloring and tongue of the diamondback.  Pretty simple but effective.

This is their "alternate" logo that appears on their sleeve of some of their uniform combinations.  This one is also a play on the team name with the snake head being made out of a "d" and a "b" for diamondbacks.  Yes, I realize some people see the logo and think of something a little less innocent, but I still think it's a simple, clever logo. 





4. Atlanta Braves

The Braves are one of the few teams who actually have their logo appear on their uniform - similar to our number 1 team below.  I like that fact because most team's uniforms just have the team name and little else.

The tomahawk is a nod to the team name without using any pictures of Native Americans.  Similar to the Chicago Blackhawks alternate logo, it uses the tomahawk to evoke the team name.  Sharp!


3.  Philadelphia Phillies

While the Phillies logo doesn't appear anywhere on their uniform, I think the logo itself is great. 

The liberty bell is a nice touch, as it is an obvious nod to the most famous thing in Philadelphia and I'm a sucker of logos that - in a simple way - point to the city in which the team is based.  The fact that the team has a huge, neon light-up liberty bell in their stadium helps to tie it all together, too.




2.  New York Mets

 

While I dislike the Mets (they're pond scum!), I do think their logo is very cool.  For those who aren't aware, the Mets' colors - blue and orange - pay homage to the two former National League teams that were based in New York prior to leaving for the West Coast in the 1950s: blue for the Dodgers and orange for the Giants. 

 

The logo is a baseball with a skyline of New York in the background with a bridge (the Brooklyn Bridge, I presume) at the bottom.  Many of the buildings in the skyline actually have a meaning, too:  at the left is a church spire; symbolic of Brooklyn; the borough of churches; the second building from the left is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank; the tallest building in Brooklyn; next is the Woolworth Building; after a general skyline view of midtown comes the Empire State Building; at the far right is the United Nations Building.

 

So, it's a relatively simple logo that accomplishes a bunch of things well without being too busy.  Is it any wonder that the guy who came up with it was a sports cartoonist? 

1.  St. Louis Cardinals

Yeah, I know.  This is my favorite team.  I'm biased, blah blah blah.  In this case, I don't think that comes into play here.  This is simply, in my opinion, the best logo in baseball.  Like the Braves, this is one of the few logos that is also on the actual uniforms.  It's a classic logo that has appeared (with minor tweaks over the years) since the 1930s.

It graced the jerseys of Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang in the 1930s, Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst in the 1940s, Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in the 1960s, Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee in the 1980s and the Cardinals of today.  The "birds on the bat" is an iconic logo for an iconic franchise and that makes it my pick for the top logo in the National League.



 

Worst Logo - National League

 

Washington Nationals

 

This one was easy and easily one of the worst logos in any sport.  How bad is it?  Here are two logos - one is the Nationals logo and the other is the Walgreens logo.  Can you tell which is which?

 

 

Do you see my point?  You can barely distinguish between the two logos!  By the way, the first one is the Walgreens logo, while the second logo is the Nationals logo.  That's the best they could come up with?  Actually, no.  They came up with something better, but (for some reason) they have elected to not use it:

 

I'll never understand why they went with the dumb, generic "W" logo than the interlocking "DC".

 

Best Logos - American League

 

4. Seattle Mariners

 

 

While I don't like this logo as much as one of their original logo (see below), this logo makes sense.  It has a compass and a baseball, which makes a lot of sense for a baseball team named after sailors.  The colors make sense for a team based in the Pacific Northwest, too, helping to complete a sharp overall logo. 

 

3. Baltimore Orioles

 

Affectionately known as the "cartoon bird," this logo - introduced in 2012 - is an updated version of the logo the Orioles used from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, the team's greatest period of success.  They replaced this logo with an ornithologically correct bird that graced their caps and helmets for the next 20+ years. 

The Orioles then re-introduced the cartoon bird in 2012.  I've always liked the cartoon bird and it's one of the rare team logos that appears on the team uniforms, which is another reason why it slides in at #3.

 

2.  Kansas City Royals

 

Missouri is home to two of the best logos in baseball - the aforementioned Cardinals logo - and the Royals.  The Royals logo has the crown for the team name - on a royal blue background - and the

"KC" for Kansas City.  Simple yet classic.  The fact that their main scoreboard at Kaufmann Stadium has that logo on the back of it (facing I-70) helps tie it all together.

 

1. Boston Red Sox

 

When your team name is the "red sox," your logo better have some red socks in it.  Boston's does. While the logo has received some small tweaks over the years, the pair of red socks has been a

constant since the 1920s.  Like the Cardinals' logo, it's a simple, classic logo for an iconic franchise.  It's just a shame the logo doesn't appear anywhere on their uniforms.

 

Worst Logo - American League

 

Tampa Bay Rays

 

This logo is so lame and generic, it's almost like some middle schooler designed it in a basic computer design class.  Originally, the team was known as the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays" and the logo included an outline of a manta ray. Not the best name or logo, but not bad.  Then, in 2008, they decided to drop the "Devil" from their name and just be known as the Tampa Bay Rays.  They also dropped any hint of the manta ray and instead include what the team calls a "sunburst" on the R.  So now it's tough to know if they are named of the animal or sun.  Either way, it stinks.

 

Best MLB Logos - Throwback/Retro Version

 

Sadly, some of the all-time best logos in MLB are old school, retro logos that teams no longer use outside of the occasional throwback uniform games.  In most cases, these logos have been replaced with something far inferior, which is a shame.

 

4.  Seattle Mariners (original logo, 1977-79)

 

The Mariners' original logo was an upside trident forming an "M."  The modified the logo in 1980,

while still sticking with the upside trident until 1987.  Simple yet effective, it has a nautical theme that also ties in to the team name.  Good stuff.

 

3. San Diego Padres (Swinging Friar logo, 1969-1984)

 

This is an awesome, creative logo that the Padres should have never dropped.  The team is named after the Franciscan friars who founded the city of San Diego is the 1700s.  As such, their original

logo was a friar swinging a baseball bat.  To come up with a logo the incorporates baseball and a religious leader that has historical significance in the community?  Brilliant!  How anyone decided that it was a good idea to dump this logo baffles me.





2. Houston Colt .45s

The team now known as the Houston Astros (which is a great name that ties in with the city's role in the country's history of space travel) was originally known as the Houston Colt .45s.  Maybe not the

most politically correct name and it doesn't really flow very well.  Perhaps that's why the team only used that name for three seasons before changing to the Astros.  Regardless, without that moniker, we never get this great logo.  A pistol with smoke from the barrel making the "C" in Colts.  Simple, clever and classic.




1. Milwaukee Brewers (ball-in-glove)

This logo is terrific and I don't understand why the Brewers ever dumped it and moved to their generic, M with a head of barley under it logo.  Like the Hartford Whalers logo that I praised in my blog post about NHL logos, this logo works on more than one level.  At first glance, it's a baseball

glove with a baseball in it.  But a closer look shows that the glove is made up of an "M" for Milwaukee and a "B" for Brewers.  While the Brewers dumped this logo in favor of something far less awesome in the mid-90s, they have brought it back as part of their alternate uniforms.  Instead of only giving people what they want (watch any Brewers game on TV and see how many people are wearing gear with the ball-in-glove logo on it) only every so often, the team should go back to this logo full time.  When you have one of the best logos in all of sports, why would you ever mess with it?



There you have it - my best and worst logos in MLB.  I'd be curious to hear your picks and whether or not you agree with mine.

Thanks for reading!


Best & Worst Sports Logos - Hockey Edition

Anyone who knows me - or, let's be honest, anyone who has read this blog - knows that I love sports.  I love watching sports, playing sports and watching my kids play sports.  In fact, a Facebook friend recently asked me if I actually have a home or if I just live at various sports events.  With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to share my thoughts on what I consider to be the best and worst sports logos.  Since we are in the midst of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (LGB!), I thought I'd kick it off by sharing what I think are the best and worst logos in hockey.

Best Hockey Logo - Original Six Edition

From the 1942-43 season through the 1966-67 season, the NHL only had 6 teams: four in the U.S. (Blackhawks, Bruins, Rangers and Red Wings) and two in Canada (Canadiens and Maple Leafs).  This era is called the "Original Six," which is a bit of a misnomer since there were other teams that were in the NHL prior to 1942 and there were teams that preceded some of the so called "Original Six" into the league.  Regardless, for 25 years, the league's membership was stable with those six teams, so they are referred to as the Original Six.  Of those six teams, the best logo belongs to...

Detroit Red Wings

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong.  I hate the Red Wings and that hatred stems from the 30+ years that the Blues and Red Wings were in the same division, first the Norris Division and later the Central Division.  Still, the "winged wheel" is a great, classic logo and a terrific nod to the automotive industry that was the backbone of Detroit's economy for decades.

Worst Hockey Logo - Original Six Edition

New York Rangers

Not only is it much of a logo, it's not even anywhere on their uniforms.  It's a bunch of words and not much else. Lame.










Best Hockey Logo - Original Expansion Era

In 1967, the NHL doubled in size by adding six expansion franchises: Blues, Flyers, Kings, North Stars, Penguins and Seals.  While three of the six have/had cool logos, I think one stands above the rest:

St. Louis Blues

Am I biased?  Sure.  But I do think it's a great logo.  The team is named after the famous W.C. Handy song "The St. Louis Blues" and the logo is a stylized musical note.  It all ties together and it's a simple, clean, classic logo.  The team has tweaked it over the years, but what they have now (shown here) is close to what they had from the 1960s until the mid 1980s.




Best Hockey Logo - 2nd Expansion Era

After doubling size in 1967, the NHL added several more franchises through the 1970s, to the point that the league had tripled in size to 1968 by the end of the decade.  Of all of those new teams, one team's logo stands out as being the best.

Buffalo Sabres

I've always loved the Sabres' logo because it has the team name in it, but does so via pictures.  A buffalo and some sabres.  It's brilliant - like the hockey version of hieroglyphics.










Worst Hockey Logo - Expansion Era

Buffalo Sabres

In spite of having a spectacular logo (shown above) for years, some morons in the Buffalo front office decided to not only ditch it but change the team's colors.  They got rid of the blue and gold and did the predictable thing by making black a primary color.  Black = cool, right?  They replaced the awesome above logo with a buffalo that is apparently demonic, hence the red eyes.

Predictably, fans hated the new logo and color scheme and wanted the team to reverse course.  However, instead of doing so, some other morons in the Buffalo front office chose a different approach. 





They ditched the black and went back to the blue and gold, which was good.  However, in doing so, they also introduced one of the ugliest, most ridiculous logos in the history of North American sports.

It's supposed to be a charging buffalo (I guess), but it was derisively called things such as "Barney Rubble's hair" and, most commonly, the "buffaslug," owing to its similarities to a banana slug.

You be the judge...



Barney Rubble's hair

A banana slug

Fortunately, the doofuses in the Buffalo front office (yes, doofuses is a word) finally came to their senses and returned to a modified version of the awesome logo.  Better late than never, I suppose.


Best Hockey Logo - Defunct Team Edition

OK, technically this team isn't "defunct" per se - they just moved to a different city and changed their name.  Regardless, the logo is now longer used.

Hartford Whalers

This is one of my favorite sports logos of all time.  It's seemingly simple, but it accomplishes a lot.  It has the whale tail splashing out of the water, with the splash making an "H" for Hartford and a "W" for Whalers.  A great logo with great colors, because you don't see royal blue and kelly green together very often.

Unfortunately, the team relocated south to Raleigh, North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes, who routinely play in front of thousands of empty seats.  So a city lost its team and fans everywhere we deprived of one of the world's greatest sports logos.


 
Worst Hockey Logo - Defunct Team Edition

California Golden Seals

The Seals were one of the original 1967 expansion teams.  They only existed for 9 seasons before moving to Cleveland, where they became the Barons.  In that 9 seasons, they went through 3 different names (originally California Seals then Oakland Seals then California Golden Seals) and they had this goofy logo.  To me, the "seal" looks more like a rocket or an airplane than a seal.  It also looks like something designed by a high schooler using rudimentary 1960s computer design software.


Best Hockey Logo - Secondary Logo Category

Chicago Blackhawks

I hate the Blackhawks more than any other team.  Most of that, like Detroit, is the longtime division rivalry thing.  Some of it, like Cards-Cubs in baseball, in the St. Louis-Chicago thing.  The hatred reached its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Blackhawks featured the likes of Eddie Belfour, Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer and Dirk Graham. While their primary logo could be considered racist if you are opposed to Native American imagery, I've always thought this secondary logo was great.  It has the "C" for Chicago and the tomahawks for Blackhawks.  Good, simple, classic stuff.

 

Worst Hockey Logo - Secondary Logo Category

Ottawa Senators

To illustrate how dumb Ottawa's secondary logo is, I'm going to post three logos below.  One is the Senators secondary logo, one is the Oprah network logo and one is the logo for Opera software.  You have to guess which is which.

 

What was your guess?  The last one is the Ottawa secondary logo.  But you had to think about it, didn't you?  And that's my point.  It's not at all unique.  It's an O with a bi-color flag behind it.  Anyone with a basic computer program could come up with this logo, which is never a good thing.

 

Worst Hockey Logo - Miscellaneous Category

 

Columbus Blue Jackets

 



 

This logo doesn't fit neatly into any of the aforementioned categories, but I believe it belongs in a category all to itself based on, if nothing more, this absolutely ridiculous description of the logo.  This description - which I swear I am not making up - comes from the Blue Jackets website:

 

"The primary Blue Jackets logo that was selected features a star-studded red ribbon unfurled in the shape of the team’s initials, CBJ, with an electric green hockey stick cutting through the center to represent the “J.” The 13 stars represent each of the original 13 U.S. Colonies and signify patriotism. The star on top of the stick signifies Columbus as the state capital."

 

This is a perfect example of some graphic design nerd trying to put too many different symbols into one logo.  Simple is better and this logo is a muddled mess.  Never mind the fact that the initials for the team are "BJs".  C'mon....is it any wonder that won the "Name the Team" contest?

 

Fortunately, they wised up and replaced this logo a few years ago. 

 

There you have it - my take on the best and worst hockey logos.  I'll follow up soon with my take on the best and worst logos in other sports.  Until then, thanks for reading!