Great Books

Reading a couple of awesome books, either of which I would highly recommend. One is “Pitching Around Fidel” by SL Price. After Ozzie Guillen’s comments a few weeks ago, I thought I’d research a bit more about Cuba, and about baseball in Cuba. Price made numerous trips to Cuba to write the book, and spoke with seemingly every great Cuban athlete past and present. Does a great job balancing the romance Americans have with Cuba with the cold reality. Very evenhanded look at Castro and Cuba. Terrific book. If you want to educate yourself more on Cuba, and do it while reading something that is highly entertaining, I highly recommend it.

The other book I’ve been enjoying lately is “Travels in Philadelphia“. This one was written by a great writer named Christopher Morley. It’s basically a series of essays he wrote for the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger in 1919. Basically, he just walked around the city and wrote about what he saw, the people he met, and the shops and taverns on the different blocks he walked down. And unlike a lot of old history books, this isn’t dry at all. He’s a master of words, and furthermore has a great sense of humor. It’s almost like a time machine. And here’s the really cool thing: you can read the whole thing online for free. He’s also the author of one of my favorite quotes:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

And while we’re at it, why don’t you friend me on Goodreads?

Springvitational Scores are Posted!

We’ve now played 6 weeks of the Springvitational, and here are our latest scores (this does not include last night’s scores). Teams in yellow would be eligible for the “bonus prize”. Teams in green would make the cut, and teams in blue still have some work to do. But good news: there are lots of bonus points to be earned this week. Our first physical challenge has been posted on facebook, and the event this Sunday at Trestle Inn will feature double points.

Philly Quiz This Sunday

We’ve got a very fun plan for Sunday. The big time Philly Quiz is going down at the Trestle Inn (11th and Callowhill) at 6:30 p.m. Let’s see exactly how much you know about your home city: there will be questions on everything from Aramingo to Zahav, questions on everyone from Frank Furness to Frank Rizzo. Sports, history, food, you name it, I’m going to try to cover as much ground as possible. This is going to be a celebration of the city. I sense that this could very well be a 5-rounder.

Furthermore, more great drink specials this time as well. $3 local canned beers (Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Lancaster Rumspringa, and Yuengling) and $4 for their excellent Whiskey Sour. $5 gets you a shot of whiskey and a can of PBR. Gonna be a lot of fun. Oh, and double points for the JGTSpI.

And to get you in the mood, I’ll be posting Philly trivia questions all week on twitter.

UPDATE: Start time has been moved back to 6:30 sharp. I mean, let’s face it, when I say 6 I pretty much mean 6:30 anyway, but we just wanted to make sure we gave people time to get down there after watching the Flyers game. So start time is 6:30 sharp.

TV Week at Quizzo

It’s all television, all the time this week. From Philo Farnsworth to Milton Berle to Mike the Situation, this week we’ll find out how much you know about one of the silver screen. Going to be a fun quiz. We kick it off tonight at North Star at 7, where hummus is half-off and Kenzingers are $3. On to Sidecar, where all bitter beers are a buck off. Action starts at 9:15 p.m.  See ya tonight!

Right Now in Sports

We’re down to the Finals of Philly’s Most Infuriating, and remarkably, they both come from WIP. It’s Eskin vs. Cataldi to see who is most infuriating. You decide! Vote, and please spread the word!

We’ve been working on a project of Philly’s Most Underrated Athletes, and the new one should cause some controversy. The much maligned Bobby Abreu checks in at #6.

Cliff Lee pitched brilliantly on Wednesday and came away with a ND. The last Phillie to throw 10-shutout innings? Lefty, of course. And the Phils lost that one 1-0 as well.

The latest podcast for Comcast where we talk NFL schedule, the Bobby Valentine disaster in Boston, and Lee takes the Robots quiz.

In case you missed it last week, I wrote a pretty interesting piece on the history of Negro League baseball in Philadelphia for Hidden City Philly.

Here’s my latest for Philly Mag: 10 Things You Don’t Know About the Current Phillies.