FanHouse Ty Cobb

Earlier today, in a great example of PostmanE being PostmanE, Fanhouse reported on An Evening With Ty Cobb, your only opportunity this Spring to see an old man wearing a Tigers jersey in Central Florida assuming you don't run into Lou Whitaker at Disney World.

If you haven't already, watch the video. In it, a guy who looks a lot like Kevin Sullivan gets to the heart of the man behind Ty Cobb by explaining how he got a lot of hits and liked to hold his hands far apart when he held the bat. It's a chilling look into the psyche of a madman. He wears dress slacks with a baseball jersey!

There is no preview image because results for "SAD OLD FELLER" didn't bring up a plethora of Getty Images. An Evening (or whatever) with the displaced Georgia Peach after the jump...

In case you're wondering, this is some dude named Norm Coleman acting like Ty Cobb, a performance will apparently reprise soon at the Dining Hall at Tiger Town for the Detroit Tigers Foundation of Florida. Coleman is apparently a specialist in this sort of behavior, though it's difficult to tell when his own accent leaves off and Ty Cobb's kicks in. There's also no telling when Coleman will really drive home Ty Cobb's lasting legacy: virulent racism, unrelenting hatred, and all-around spite.

On the eve of a new election, it's natural to grow more curious about your fellow Americans. What do people enjoy? What are they like? Why are they voting they way they're voting? What is the world made of, outside this little tiny circle of mine? I'll say this: If getting to know my fellow Americans involves the above video passing as entertainment, well, I think I'll go back into my circle now.

(HT: CStB, BBTF)

On Sunday night, as I watched Eli Manning's perfectly thrown fade fall gently into Plaxico Burress's hands in the corner of the end zone, three thoughts immediately flew through my head. They were, in order:

1. Holy crap! Plaxico Burress caught a fade in the corner of the end zone!!! (I'm a Steeler fan. This is an issue.)
2. Belichick and Brady are going to lose! There is a God! (Again, Steelers fan.)
3. It's baseball season!

Clearly, that third one is the important one. Pitchers and catchers are reporting to Florida and Arizona in less than two weeks and we can finally put the 2007 season behind us.

2007 was a weird year for baseball. On one hand, you'd think that with the most hallowed record in sports falling, numerous milestones being reached (Tom Glavine won his 300th game, Craig Biggio picked up his 3,000th hit, and Frank Thomas hit his 500th homer), the Rockies' memorable playoff run, and the Red Sox dominant playoff performance, 2007 was a great year for baseball fans.

With his single off of Oakland's Lenny Dinardo in the second inning on Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the third fastest player in baseball history to reach 1,500 hits in his career. It took Suzuki only 1,060 games to get 1,500, which has only been bested by Al Simmons (1,040 games) and George Sisler (1,048). Ty Cobb took 1,070 games to do it himself.

Does Ichiro realize the importance of what he's done? Of course he does, he's Ichiro, man.

"Unless I get to 1,500, I can't get 1,501. So in that sense, all numbers are important to me."

That is sooooooo deep. At this point if Ichiro came down from a mountain top with a couple of stone tablets written by a burning tree, you'd believe every word he told you, and you would do as he said.

The 1,501 hits Ichiro now has don't include his hits from Japan. In nine seasons in Japan, Ichiro had 1,278 hits which would bring his career total to 2,779. It's too bad he didn't get to play his entire career in the States because it's entirely possible he could break Pete Rose's record before he retired.

Let's go back. Back to the days before Youtube existed, back before Nolan Ryan started habitually decking people, back before steroids infected the American pastime ... back when racism was openly encouraged and black players were forced to play in their own league, regardless of talent. Those were the days.

I'm being incredibly sarcastic here, if you couldn't tell. But before you play this sort of beautiful video honoring early baseball photography, it's important with to preface it with a bit of a reality check. As nice and pastoral and pretty as these grayscale photos are, let's not let the absence of black faces slip past us unnoticed, OK? Let's remember that the "good old days" are usually only as good as our memories are selective, hmm?

We cool? I knew we would be. OK, enjoy ...