The NBA season is just a few days away, and already Phoenix is awash in Suns Fever. The team held a series of "Paint the Town Orange" fan fests and this one, at the Desert Ridge Marketplace, is probably pretty typical. Featured in this clip is TV announcer Tom Leander and former NBA and Notre Dame star John Shumate. Shumate was the coach of the WNBA Phoenix Mercury, but I somehow recall he's longer at the helm of the team.

I borrowed a minute from the classic sports arena song, "Rock and Roll, Part Two," by Gary Glitter. Since Glitter is behind bars in Vietnam, he's in no position to collect royalties.

I have been waiting for this one for a while--The Dodgers' Chin-Lung Hu gets a single, and the logical comment brings Abbott and Costello to mind.

Celebrating 15 years as quiet but powerful force in Major League Baseball, the Arizona Fall League commemorating its anniversary with a mid-season All-Star Game, featuring the best players in the league, many of whom are top draft picks destined for stardom. I read somewhere that nearly half of the players in this year's World Series were former AFL stand outs. That speaks volumes.

The game featured a rematch between the Mets Mike Pelfrey and the Phillies Gio Gonzalez. The spotlight in this clip is on three other players: Hunter Pence of the Astros who is one of the best young players I have seen in a while (he can hit, hit with power, field and throw), Dewon Day of the White Sox (his proud mom and dad gave us free tickets before the game) and Scott Tyler of the Marlins. We learned about Tyler, a Philadelphia-area kid, from his proud father who sat behind us. His dad, Toby Tyler, is a former ABA player who flew to Arizona to see his son (a second round pick) show his stuff.

The West team lost 3-1, and the sad note here is that the losing pitcher, Devin Perrin, is a Phoenix area guy with a huge cheering section of friends and family.

One bright spot in three weeks of grueling travel was a great train ride from San Diego up the Pacific Coast to Santa Ana. Here's a short clip of the beach scene around the Dana Point area. Podsafe music from Robin Stine--it's called "Daydream." How fitting.

I am not sure where first we heard of Point Loma Seafoods in San Diego. Could have been Jane and Michael Stern, but I seem to recall some book maybe 20 years ago about great places to eat in beach towns. This is our sixth or seventh visit to Point Loma Seafood, and it’s as good as ever. It’s also been featured on $40 A Day on the Food Network.

 

We saw someone eating outside, along the water, who was wearing a t-shirt from “Smitty’s,” the clam bar we love in Somers Point, NJ. My producer commented seafood nuts think alike.

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Back in March, when we attended the World Baseball Classic in San Diego, we happened upon the great Hillcrest Market. We are in town to see Dylan perform, so we went back to the market and were entertained by the 7^th Day Buskers. And we were pleased to see pluots still are in season.

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For five of the past six years, I have celebrated my birthday at an Arizona Fall League game. Today was no different. A beautiful sunny day at Phoenix Muni where we have seen a wide assortment of games this year, ranging from Spring Training to celebrity softball to the Oakland A's hosting South Africa in a World Baseball Classic tune-up.

Today, the Desert Dogs hosted the Scorpions, and while the focus yesterday was on pitching, today we saw home runs a plenty with Ryan Braun, a former first round pick slugging one and Diamondbacks outfielder (and MLB blogger) Mark Reynolds belting two. Blue Jay Chip Cannon, true to his name, launched one over the fence in right field.

What's worth noting today was how attentive Braun, Giants first baseman Travis Ishikawa, and Devil Rays outfielder Fernando Perez were to the young fans. Perez told one youngster that if he got two hits in the game, he's award him the bat. (For the record, he had three hits). It's heartwarming to see these young stars show some class as they rise through the ranks.
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Another season of Arizona Fall League begins on a sunny Friday afternoon as the Peoria Saguaros host the Mesa Solar Sox. A lot of featured players today, most notably the starting pitchers: Mike Pelfrey of the Mets (former first round pick) and Gio Gonzalez (former first round pick) who came to the Phillies as part of the Jim Thome trade with the White Sox. After seeing Gonzalez pitch (and we also saw him in the Futures Game in Pittsburgh), the Chisox soon will be sorry the dealt him. Both he and Pelfrey displayed major league stuff in their individual three scoreless innings on the mound.

One humorous note: as a Phillies fan, I stopped young catcher Jason Jaramillo (played with Reading last year) to wish him good luck and identified myself as a Philadelphia native. He pointed to my shirt and asked me why I was wearing a Cubs Spring Training shirt if I was a Phillies fan. He walked away laughing.

One notable player not featured in this clip is 18-year-old Fernando Martinez of the Mets. He is the youngest player in AFL history having just turned 18. In the 5th inning, he came up, flicked his wrists, and hit one out in dead center field. Quite impressive.

I have to admit, Schaumburg, Il is not a metro hot spot, but the Renaissance Hotel there sure is cool. Where else can you find a TV embedded in the bathroom mirror? Maybe in some place like a 5-star hotel in Japan, Korea or Bangkok, but not the sort of thing you’d expect in the heartland. Maybe I need to get out more?

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It was with some sadness and nostalgia that we read that Tower Records (and Video) was finally going out of business. The company, which started as a record department in a Sacramento drugstore, was sold to a liquidator on October 6th. There is no final date announced, but it’s coming...soon.

Alas, Amazon’s low prices for physical CDs and Apple’s iTunes did Tower in. Here’s an example of a bricks and mortar store totally unable to see the digital business coming. Could they have taken advantage of the Tower brand and made headway as an online presence ahead of the more nimble cyber-competition? We’ll never know.
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It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of former Phillies great, Johnny Callison. What great irony that Callison wore number 6 and Ryan Howard, who wears that now, stands poised to perhaps be the MVP. Callison, a great right fielder who is know for winning the 1964 All-Star game with a home run, was a slugger who was a great RBI man and had a terrific throwing arm.

Callison probably never earned more than 15 or 20 thousand in his best year. Today, he’s be worth millions upon millions. I would compare him to someone like Moises Alou or maybe Jason Bay. In his prime, he was one of the top 10 outfielders in the game, and that’s saying a lot if you think who played in the ‘60s.

Featured here is a clip taken at Citizens Bank Park in July, 2005. It features the Phillies All-Century Team monuments which includes a nice look at Johnny Callison.

Number 6, you will always be in our hearts.

In my line of work, I get to see (and sometimes trial) quite a few media-related products. I have to say, I am very impressed with the Sonos music system which offers music portability throughout the home. You can set up 32 different music listening posts if money is no object (and you have a home the size of the Grand Canyon). The setup was fairly straightforward (made easy if you have a home WiFi network). Within 30 minutes, I was playing Capital FM, a London-based radio station in my bedroom while playing Steely Dan in my office.

One of the cool things about the Sonos system is how it plays the Rhapsody music service even if your computer is turned off. So, I am waiting to be able to port our XM Radio service throughout the house...I imagine that’s coming soon.

As Siskel & Ebert would have said, two thumbs up!
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It’s difficult for me to remember if I ever went to a baseball stadium with no intention of going to the game being played that day. Today, we went to Chase Field to grab some of the color in and around Luis Gonzalez’s last day as an Arizona Diamondback. The fans were out in full force to provide a proper goodbye to the man who is the face of the Arizona baseball franchise. For the record, it’s also the last Diamondbacks game for Craig Counsell who is a class act, but is no Gonzo.

This clip contains TV footage of Gonzo’s last at-bat. Enjoy.