Mother Nature helped California with their drought concerns by dumping a lot of rain throughout the state over February Break. It cleared up on Saturday enough to motivate me to check out the Branham Flea Market.
The ground was dry and the skies were fairly clear, but I think the cold temperatures scared away a lot of the regular vendors.
I did manage to purchase a few items for my collection though...
Purchase #1: Sports Related LP's $13
There's one vendor with sports memorabilia that you can always count on to be there. I've purchased plenty of stuff from him over the years. He's the guy that sold me the uncut Mother's Cookies sheets last month.
He had a box filled with sports related record albums, but only two were still sealed in cellophane:
Terry Cashman One Stop Along The Way
The Ballad of Johnny Bench (1983)
Terry Cashman Talkin' Baseball
American League (1982)
Sometimes I buy record albums because I enjoy the band. Other times I just think it's a cool piece of history that fits into my collection. These two LP's fall into the latter category.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cashman's Willie, Mickey, & The Duke found on Talkin' Baseball. If not, it's a classic you can listen to here. I wasn't familiar with the other song, but I found it on YouTube. If you want to hear a slow jam about The Little General, click here.
Purchase #2: A Classic from my Childhood $1
My second purchase was from a vendor I hadn't seen before. He had a bunch of old books. I'm always on the lookout for books I read as a kid. I might have struck out on finding baseball cards, but I did find this:
Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno
I don't remember owning this book when I was little, but I was very familiar with the cover. It's one of those books I checked out during our weekly trips to the library.
It's a story about a boy who received too much change from the tofu salesman and is faced with the decision to keep the money or give it back. Not going to try and convince you that this is a timeless piece of literature, but I will say that it's a tale that stuck with me all these years.
That wraps up my flea market finds for this past Saturday. I still have some free time, so I'm going to continue sharing some gifts from Ryan's advent calendar.
Let's start from the beginning with his Day 1 haiku:
Here's a look at the card back:
Thanks to Google... I was able to translate the card back which essentially talks about Enoshima and Mt. Fuji being in perfect harmony and beauty.
The second half of the Day 1 present was this Christmas card from 1912:
The cover features another great look at Mt. Fuji. Here's a peek inside:
According to Google, this image shows off Itsukushima Shrine located on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Bay. I'm super impressed at how well crafted this Christmas card was for being 114 years old.
Well that's it for today. Hopefully the weather is nice in two weeks for the De Anza Flea Market, because this recent trip to the flea market wasn't very memorable.
And thank you Ryan for these two vintage Mt. Fuji items. They're awesome!
Everyone else, here is your question of the day:
When you think of sports, are there any songs that immediately pop into your head?
I've got two:
#1: Celebration by Kool & the Gang (1980)
Whenever the A's won at the Oakland Coliseum, this song played. Can't hear this song without it taking me back there.
#2: Winning It All by The Outfield (1992)
I was a huge basketball fan for decades and I watched as many NBA Finals games as I could. This song played after the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Title in 1996. It's a great song by an under-appreciated group.
I look forward to reading and responding to your comments. Until then...
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
18 comments:
Centerfield, by John Fogerty.
"...put me in coach, I wanna play...today!"
Great finds!
In terms of songs, I've got many: Talkin' Baseball is a great song, and also 'To The Veteran's Committee' (About putting Dale Murphy in the Hall of Fame)
I also have a lot of hype songs that I would use in a baseball game, such as Skid Row's 'Youth Gone Wild.' There's also a band called Outskrts which only makes music for that kind of thing ('Let's Do This' and 'Get it Going' are my two favorites).
I'm really passionate about my music lol
"The Ballad of Johnny Bench", who knew? Awesome item still.
"Cotton Eye Joe". They always play it at the Rangers games and "Calling All Angels" at Angels games.
two songs come to mind. The National Anthem and of course Take me out to the ball game.
Like John, Centerfield came to mind first. Me and the kids enjoy "Go Cubs Go". Van Halen's "Right Now" - the intro for the 90s Bulls. Those are some favorites.
Whoops, Mandela Effect memory. It was actually Sirius by the Alan Parsons project for the Bulls.
Kernkraft 400's Zombie Nation is entirely a sports song for me.
You find some of the cooler non-card items of the folks in the blogosphere, I must say. That book looks interesting too and I kind of want to check it out to see what I think compared to some of the classics I remember as a kid. More interesting stuff from Ryan, and kudos to him for the effort he put into that advent calendar! And as for sports songs, I'll agree with John about "Centerfield" having heard that a ton at Tigers games. Also "Seven Nation Army," for better or for worse (generally worse given how overplayed it is everywhere. Good song, but absolutely beaten to death when it comes to sports)
Tinker to Evers to Chance is one thing I think of, but it actually may be a poem. My grandpa used to tell it to me back when I was a kid!
The soundtrack from Field of Dreams always brings back memories too…
Three songs come to mind. We are Family by Sister Sledge was the song of the '79 Pittsburgh Pirates. Let's Go Blue Jays which gets played during the 7th inning stretch at Jays home games. The last is Sweet Caroline which is played at BoSox home games.
So cool they named a mountain after you! Well deserved.
Wish we could send all of our snow to California where you need it.
"Centerfield". And "Hurricane".
Of course, Dr. J gets a shout out in "You Be Illin'" and Ice Cube reps the Lakers and mentions MJ in "It Was a Good Day". And there's the Joe DiMaggio reference in "Mrs. Robinson".
Very cool Bench pickup Fuji!
I remember Terry Cashman and talkin Baseball very well. I also remember hearing the Dodger specific song he had. To answer your question, the songs that come to mind are the this week in baseball closing theme “gathering crowds”, that Gary Glitter song that the LA Kings used to skate out to, and take me out to the ballgame. The dodgers also had a catchy tune to start their radio broadcasts that I still think of from time to time. I also have the soundtrack to Ken Burns’ Baseball which has a bunch of songs that were used in the series that are now familiar to me.
Joltin' Joe Dimaggio
Those albums are cool especially the Ballard of Johnny Bench. Do you know who manufactured that album?? I remember the song Centerfield and another thing I like is at a sporting event when they play a song to get the home team pumped up. There are several songs as in hockey. Black Betty is a great song that is one I remember hearing years ago and played at games for getting the players pumped.
john sharp - that's a great song. definitely a classic.
ginko-5 - that dale murphy song is cool. just looked it up on yt. i can't say i was the biggest skid row fan, but i did (maybe still do) own their debut album with that song. never heard of outskrts, but i just listened to it and you're right. definitely pump up the crowd music.
batting out of order - cotton eye joe was (maybe still is) popular at sharks games when i used to go.
johnnys trading spot - yup. both are guarantees at baseball games
wax pack wonders - i feel like both of the songs you listed have been used for basketball introductions over the years. that instrumental from app is awesome. and i can literally hear that piano intro from vh right now :D
cardboredom - great call. i honestly didn't recognize it from the title... or even the beginning of the song. but once it kicked in, i was like "yeah". this is a sporting event jam. the sj sharks use it a lot.
dennis - if you're interested, you can listen to someone read the book on yt. not exactly one of those mind-blowing kid stories, but very nostalgic (for me at least). yeah... ryan doesn't play around when picking stuff for his advent calendar. he's very thoughtful. and seven nation army is a classic.
uncle charlie's shoebox - baseball's sad lexicon! yeah... not sure if it's a song or a poem... but it's awesome and one for the ages.
anonymous - we are family and sweet caroline are excellent picks.
bo - lol. if anything... it's the other way around. at some point i should research the history of my family's name. sorry to hear about the crazy blizzard. my friend lives in nyc and she says the streets were pretty crazy. but she was staying home and bundling up.
elliptical man - all of those are great songs. don't forget rod carew gets a shout out in a beastie boys song :D
reds card collector - if this is something you're interested in... they're actually pretty cheap on ebay
gcrl - i didn't know it was called gathering crowds, but i love that instrumental. same thing goes for the gary glitter song. as soon as i heard that beat, i recognized it. sharks use it a lot too.
xavier higgins - now that's a jam my parents can appreciate
rr - according to discogs, the album was manufactured by lifesong. black betty is a classic. not 100% sure i've heard the sharks use it... but they might.
Funny enough, the first music I think of is the soundtrack from one of the early NHL Hockey video games for Sega Genesis. (Probably 1993 or 1994.) During the opening face-off in any game, the home team had a specific song that you'd hear being played on a digital pipe organ type of thing. The one that comes to mind the most is the Hartford Whalers' song, called "Brass Bonanza".
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