Comments on: Bake McBride

By: ajw627

ajw627 — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:10:37 +0000

In college, we used to refer to the stoner in the room next door as Bake McBride.

By: bobabooie

bobabooie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:09:33 +0000

Whom the (cardboard) gods wish to destroy they first make mad. (Anonymous ancient poverb.)

By: Ennui Willie Keeler

Ennui Willie Keeler — Tue, 08 May 2007 02:10:40 +0000

13. Dressed to the Nines is great. I met the guy that wrote the book that most of it was based on. IIRC, he was middle-aged and had a desk job, but he left it, and his wife to become a fulltime baseball researcher.

By: Brent is a Dodger Fan

Brent is a Dodger Fan — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:33:06 +0000

12. 10 I had always thought it had something to do with the bi-centennial, but I was under the impression that everything in 1976 was in honor of the US bicentennial.

Dressed to the Nines is a great site.

“The striped “pillbox” cap also made a comeback in 1976 when five National League clubs celebrated the “Senior Circuit’s” 100th anniversary by adopting the nostalgic style. While the Reds, Mets, Phillies and Cardinals wore the caps during the centennial season alone, the Pittsburgh Pirates retained the style from 1976 through 1986, including their Championship season of 1979.”

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/dressed_to_the_nines/caps.htm

By: chiros13

chiros13 — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:45:09 +0000

11. Slightly aprapos of Bake McBride, since he was a Philly at the time, but more in line with jonm’s comment (9), the Phils actually gave out full size bottlebats on one giveaway day. I was there. I’m surprised someone wasn’t killed.

Hey, maybe those fads had something to do with the bicentennial.

As for Josh’s writing, I think we’re the exact same in age, and I can very much relate to many of your posts. (I think the one about going to see 3000 hits in Montreal–and then missing it–is my favorite.)

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, and checking in here helps a bit. For a while, I was always on the upside of the curve–younger than others in my field for my job, salary, titles, etc.–but now I’ve flattened out. I’m realizing I’m no longer young. I don’t think its an about-to-turn-40 thing, I think its more just a realization that you’re not what you used to be.

And seeing the retirement of guys with long careers who happen to be your same age, like Jeff Bagwell, doesn’t help either.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:41:46 +0000

10. 9: Great question about the old-timey caps. I actually thought about making that one of the main points of the post but ended up getting sidetracked. I have a feeling Ennui Wille Keeler, among other of us amateur '70s historians, might have some input on this, but my recollection is that a few National League teams sported the old-time caps in 1976 (the Cardinals, obviously, plus the Pirates, who continued to wear them for a few more years, and one other team, I think--maybe the Reds?), and I believe this was done as a celebration of the 100th year of the National League, which began in 1876.

By: jonm

jonm — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:30:19 +0000

9. That’s interesting about “Keep on Truckin’” “Crumb” the documentary is one of my favorite movies and I should have known that he drew that in the late sixties. For some reason, I associate it with the 70s. My number one favorite movie is Nashville and you reference that too here — the traffic jam and the mysterious Jeff Goldblum character on the chopper.

I’m the same age as Josh and Josh has hit on something in this blog that is really uncanny about the 70s — especially as seen through the eyes of a child at the time — that is, the fads and just the strangeness of what actually made it as fads. Even in baseball. Why, in the 70s, did it seem like a good idea to wear the kind of old-timey caps that McBride is wearing here? Why was there seemingly a turn-of-the-century fad?

By: Ennui Willie Keeler

Ennui Willie Keeler — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:02:20 +0000

8. paulz, that cards only @ 30 years old, not 40. I remember McBride, but I guess that I forgot the Cards wore painter hats. Josh, you forgot McGinley's portrayal of Jefferson D'Arcy in [i]Married WIth Children[/i]. It's a fine entry anyways.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:24:42 +0000

7. Uh, as for that film title, I meant to say "Convoy" not "Convey." I also meant to mention the Grateful Dead as contributing to the initial meaning of "Truckin'", but oh well. I guess sometimes the light's all shining on me, other times I can barely see.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:21:31 +0000

6. 1: “Keep on truckin’” was actually first a ’60s thing, courtesy of R. Crumb, and had little if anything to do with motorized vehicles: http://tinyurl.com/2t53e7

The truckin’/CB thing caught fire in the fad-heavy, populist mid-’70s, bolstered by the Peckinpah movie Convey and the hit song of the same name. I think there was a feeling at that time that the life of America was on the freeway. The opening moments of another film of that time, Nashville, really capture that feeling.

Thanks to Jon and Bob for the encouragement and to Benaiah for the interesting “aftermath of culture” observations.

paulz: very interesting stuff. Thanks for checking in, and I hope you A) enjoy the sub and nap and B) check in again. This site needs someone who can bust out the Heidegger when necessary. (I think I tried to read some Heidegger a long time ago after getting an intro to him in William Barret’s Irrational Man, but I didn’t manage to stick with it.)