Month: December 2007

An Obscene Auction Entry from 1898

Robert Edward Auctions seems to have a dilemma on their hands. They have in possesion a baseball-related document from 1898 which rivals Lee Elia’s rant when it comes to blue language.

“Reading this document started out very drab for a sentence or two, but then quickly got our attention as the language used became very unexpected for an official Major League baseball document… It turned “blue,” and, well, got “bluer.” This piece is ironic as it provides many examples of exactly the kind of “brutal language” that was being outlawed. In fact, it is so over the top that at first we thought it was some type of a joke. But as we examined the paper, found that this language did exist in the 1890s… “

At the time of this post, they were still deciding what to do with the item. Let me say before throwing up the link that the language in the actual scanned document is indeed NOT for the easily offended. The post itself which you’ll find at Robert Edward Auctions’ website is fine.

(via Boing Boing)

DVD Review: “Hello Again Everybody” The Harry Caray Story

This afternoon I got a chance to watch the biographical DVD of legendary broadcaster Harry Caray called “Hello Again Everybody” The Harry Caray Story

Now I’ve been a Harry Caray fan since watching him call Cubs games in the 80s. I even saw him receive the Ford Frick award in Cooperstown in 1989. But I learned a lot from the video.

Hello Again takes you through Harry’s life beginning with his orphaned childhood, his early days with the Cardinals then his later days with the Sox and his hey day in Wrigleyville. Throughout the documentary we see interviews with baseball people, his wife, Dutchie, co-workers and the important people… the fans who recollect the impact Harry Caray had on the game.

No doubt, the film was looking at Harry Caray in a good light. It wasn’t a investigative journalist piece and nor it should have been. That said, they DID bring up the rumor of why Harry was fired from his Cardinals’ broadcasting position (if you don’t know why, look it up or better yet, watch the DVD). Of course they couldn’t shy away from the drinking thing. They addressed it, albeit lightly.

One of the more poignant moments was Pete Vonachen’s eulogy at Harry’s funeral service. I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in that church.

Anyway, a good portion of our readers are either Cub fans or Sox fans so some of you might have an interest in the DVD.  I highly recommend it.  You can find out more about it (and probably info how to buy it) at their website.

New Design for the Zealot

After a few days of work, The Baseball Zealot has a new layout. I hope you like it. I do.

A few of the reasons I like it over the last one:

  • it has a wider page for the content
  • the comments are much more readable
  • the blogging interface is more flexible
  • quite honestly, it was just time for a change

I’ve been able to import all the current postings into the new system. Addtionally, any links to the old pages should be redirected to the new pages.

Also for those of you who use rss, this is our new RSS 2.0 url. If you are using the old one, it will redirect to the new one for time being.

comments are welcome on the new format. Let me know how you like it!