AC Milan's season so far

I have tried several times to write a post about how incredibly disastrous this year has been for AC Milan so far, but I just can't do it.

Above: Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri urges his team on

Below: Anderlecht goalkeeper Silvio Proto

What I have been reading lately #53

Hillsborough: The Truth-- Phil Scraton

In April of 1989, at the start of an FA Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death on the terraces at Hillsborough Stadium. Despite what some thought at the time, the deaths were caused not by drunken hooligans but by a combination of poor planning, incompetence, and inaction primarily by the South Yorkshire police. Phil Scraton's disturbing book, a comprehensive narrative covering the entire event and its aftermath (i.e. the attempted police cover-up) , was the first book I read this summer.

The Day of the Hillsborough Disaster: A Narrative Account-- compiled and edited by Rogan Taylor, Andrew Ward, and Tim Newburn

Why read just one book about a horrible sports-related, crushing disaster caused by government and corporate complacency when you can read two? This book was an oral history of the events at Hillsborough and complemented Scraton's book very well. Needless to say, my summer was off to a rosy start.

Above and below: Scenes from the Hillsborough disaster 

The Education of Hopey Glass-- Jaime Hernandez 

The Girl From H.O.P.P.E.R.S.-- Jaime Hernandez

I am not sure why I read things like this. All I can say is a) it seemed like a good idea at the time, and b) neither of these graphic novels involved people being crushed to death in pens while police officers stood idly by and watched.

The Catcher in the Rye-- J.D. Salinger

I take great satisfaction from the fact that I still own the copy of this book I first read in high school (not pictured above, although mine looks almost exactly like that)

Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga (2008 edition)-- Stephen Davis

Growing up in suburban St. Louis in the early 1980s, I tried very, very hard to learn to like Led Zeppelin. (It didn't work.) This book did go a little ways towards reminding me that Led Zeppelin are, despite everything, actually a pretty good band.

LZ - '75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour-- Stephen Davis; photographs by Peter Simon

Why read just one book about the most overblown and preposterous rock band of the 1970s when you can read two? This book covered just one of Led Zeppelin's US tours, and it was actually quite enjoyable-- the photographer, Peter Simon, turned out to be singer Carly Simon's brother. Additionally, this book raised an important question for me-- is it possible for an author (in this case, Stephen Davis) to plagiarize their own work?

On High Steel: The Education of an Ironworker-- Mike Cherry

By far the best book I read all summer (and the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2004)-- everyone should read this book. Good luck finding it, though (and no, you can't borrow my copy).

A live version of Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine"

Someone doing a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine"


For all you guitar players, Bob from Toronto, Canada teaches how to play Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine" on your own

World Soccer update

Real Madrid defeated Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey. However, during the parade celebrating the victory, there was a small disaster involving the winner's trophy.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, the Celtic-Rangers match did not quite live up to the excitement generated by a recent spate of letter bombs sent to prominent figures associated with Celtic.

FA Cup Final: Chelsea 1 - Portsmouth 0

Above: Portsmouth players attempt to console Kevin-Prince Boateng after he missed a penalty that would have given Portsmouth the lead. Moments later, Drogba scored to put Chelsea ahead.

Portsmouth's season has been a complete disaster-- relegated from the Premier League, unable to pay their players and creditors, facing possible bankruptcy. Somehow, though, they managed to make it all the way to the FA Cup Final against Chelsea. Somehow they managed to survive a first half in which Chelsea hit the goal post/cross bar five times. Somehow they managed to win a penalty early in the second half. Boateng, however, rather than scoring, managed to drive his shot straight into the feet of the diving Petr Cech. Not surprisingly, at the end of the match, Boateng could be seen on the bench with a jacket over his head to hide the fact the he was crying.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #5

Finn McCool's Football Club: The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead by Stephen Rea

Stephen Rea is from Northern Ireland. His wife is from North Carolina. In 2004 they moved to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Stephen Rea found a pub called Finn McCool's where he liked to hang out, drink, and watch European football matches on cable television. He and his friends there formed a soccer team of their own. Soon after that, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. After the hurricane was over, some of the members of the team moved back to New Orleans, began rebuilding, and reformed the team. Later, Stephen Rea wrote a book about the whole thing.

The book covers three areas:

• Watching, talking about, and occasionally playing soccer; these parts of the book were boring.
• Stephen Rea's views on U.S. life and culture; these parts were uninformed and often insulting.
• Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; these parts were interesting-- I tried to find and read most of them.

The Monkees: The Zany Adventures of Davy, Peter, Micky, and Mike -- Those Lovable and Wonderful Monkees by Gene Fawcette and Howard Liss

This book was published in 1966 for an original price of 50 cents. It is a comic book about the Monkees having adventures on a dude ranch, at a beauty contest, and battling corrupt Mexican inventors. For obvious reasons, I was unable to finish this book.

A bad night for St. Louis area sports fans

Last night was a rather terrible night for St. Louis area sports fans--

• The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Blues 4-2 in the Blues' home opener;
• An escalator at the Scottrade Center malfunctioned after the game and injured 13 fans;
• Nebraska beat Mizzou 27-12 in football; and, of course,
• The Cardinals lost.

Baseball Playoff Update #2

Above: The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of the National League Division series. Losing 2-1 with two outs in the 9th inning, the Dodgers came back to win after Cardinal outfielder Matt Holliday dropped what should have been the game ending fly ball. Holliday later told reporters that he lost the ball in the lights.

Prior to the 9th inning collapse, this posting was going to be all about how brilliant Adam Wainwright is.

The disaster continues

Champions League Group Stage:

Milan 0 - Zurich 1

This game was not shown on television in the United States, so it is not possible to put up a full match report. Given the result, that is probably a good thing. Anybody who has gone to Brazil for the 2009-2010 season should consider themselves lucky that they do not have to watch what is happening to Milan right now.

Below: Leonardo

Below: Pato

Historically significant baseball games I have attended #2

Who was playing? Cleveland Indians versus Seattle Mariners

Where did they play? The Kingdome, Seattle, WA

When did they play? May 2, 1996

Did I know this game might be significant before it started? No. I was just looking forward to seeing the Indians play the Mariners, a rematch of the previous year's American League Championship Series.

What happened? Ken Behring, owner of the Seattle Seahawks, had been publicly demanding a new stadium for his football team. If not given one, he threatened to move the Seahawks to some other city where they appreciated and supported football. Behring claimed that the Kingdome would collapse in the event of an earthquake. King County owned the stadium, and their officials and engineers insisted that the Kingdome was completely safe, even though there had already been serious problems back in 1994 - collapsing ceiling tiles, cancelled baseball games, and two deaths during repair work.

On May 2, 1996, in the 7th inning of the Indians-Mariners game, Seattle was struck by an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale.

Ken Behring doing charitable work.

What do I remember? My friend Jeremy was visiting from New York, and we wanted to see the Indians play, mostly because they had Albert Belle. (For those of you too young to remember Albert Belle, just imagine Milton Bradley on steroids.)

Jeremy and I had seats pretty high up on the third base side. The box score shows that Albert Belle hit a home run, but I don't remember anything about that. All I remember is that Orel Hershiser pitched well for Cleveland until the 7th inning. Indians manager Mike Hargrove was walking out to the mound to replace Hershiser when the earthquake struck.

I remember how the entire row we were sitting in suddenly started rocking forwards and backwards and a little bit to the right. When I looked around to see what kind of moron was kicking the seats so hard, I saw that all the seats everywhere were doing the same thing. My next thought was that the building was spontaneously collapsing (it happens sometimes). Finally I either heard or thought the magic word - "earthquake" - and figured out what was happening. Jeremy later told me I had a big smile on my face. I remember mostly just wondering who was right - Ken Behring or the King County engineers.

The earthquake was over pretty quickly. It was very quiet, and there was no noticeable damage. Everyone evacuated the Kingdome in a calm and orderly fashion, except for one short, agitated woman who came shoving her way down the exit ramp - "There's an earthquake! Earthquake! Earthquake! Everyone out of my way! Earthquake! Earthquake!" We all stepped aside and let her go through and then continued our own evacuation.

Was there an aftermath? The game was obviously suspended at that point, and the Kingdome was declared safe by the engineers and inspectors in time for the next day's game. The two teams finished the suspended game (the Indians won) before playing their regularly-scheduled game (the Indians won that, too). I didn't go see the ending of the game, but I have enjoyed telling this story for many years.

Albert Belle shows the Boston Red Sox where his power comes from during the 1995 playoffs.