Rant #880: A Little Bit Now

Baseball's Hall of Fame voters signified with their non-vote yesterday that they at least need more time to examine those who flourished in the steroid era.

They didn't vote in anybody, steroid-tarnished or not, so they have made their priorities very clear indeed, doing "a little bit now" to show that those circumstances might not be tolerated by the voters, at least at the present time.

The perfect segueway ...

"A Little Bit Now" was one of the last U.S. charted singles by one of my favorite rock and roll groups of the 1960s, the Dave Clark Five.

It only reached No. 67 on the U.S. charts, but it always resonated with me.

I guess I like big, loud, fun music, and that is what this song is.

The Dave Clark Five (or DC5 for those who like shortened names) created the Tottenham Sound--a rocking, stomping sound--and they followed the Beatles to America.

The Beatles and the DC5 were the two top bands in the then-emerging "British Invasion" of music on our shores, where everything British was considered to be in and "mod."

Not only the Beatles and the DC5, but also Herman's Hermits, Petula Clark, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddy and the Dreamers, and later the Rolling Stones and the Who became popular over here, topping the charts with their music, seemingly out of nowhere.

The DC5's sound was almost like the music equivalent of the sound a DC5 jet makes when it takes off. With much of their music propelled by a saxophone, of all instruments, Dave Clark, Dennis Payton, Rick Huxley, Lenny Davidson and Mike Smith had the sound, the look, and the talent to win over our ears.

Of course, Smith's lead vocals were always a standout, too, and he is one of rock's most underrated vocalists for sure.

They had many, many hits in a short period of time: "Glad All Over," "Over and Over," "Bits and Pieces," "Catch Us If You Can," "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)" ... the list goes on and on.

"A Little Bit Now" was really not one of them, making the lower reaches of the chart.

1967 was a great year for music. The Monkees were probably the world's top rock act, but the Beatles were not going quietly, releasing their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" masterpiece that year.

Rumblings of new music were coming out of America's West Coast, and the music scene was changing.

The DC5 were pretty much past their prime in America, although earlier in the year, they did have their one last, great hit, "You Got What It Takes."

However, with the release of "Sgt. Pepper" in late June, popular music was about ready to change, and the DC5 were starting to be considered old hat.

"A Little Bit Now" came out in August of that year, and by that point, with "Sgt. Pepper" residing at the No. 1 spot in the album charts for two months at this time, well, the DC5 weren't going very far on the American charts.

But I loved the record, loved the picture sleeve, and really, I was a huge DC5 fan, so the record resonated with me.

It's one of those forgotten songs that no oldies station would ever play, because it didn't connect with enough people to move up the chart like their previous hits did.

The DC5 had a couple more chart hits in the U.S., but their popularity as a high-charting act was basically done here.

In England, however, for whatever reason, they picked up in popularity, and had numerous big hits there through 1970.

The DC5's good-timey, pounding music was finally recognized a few years back when they went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under a black cloud, but that is another story for another time.

I really liked the Dave Clark Five, and give a listen to the tune--if you haven't heard it, this song might just make you a fan, too.

Rant #879: Ban Rolls On

In 1991, 22 years ago today, Pete Rose was officially banned from Major League Baseball due to his gambling activities.

Baseball's all-time hits leader was banned from the game he excelled in because he bet on the game he loved, put wagers on games even while he was a manager.

Rose may not be the nicest person ever to play the game, but he certainly wasn't the worst. But betting on baseball--while in a position to affect outcomes of games--made him a pariah.

He claimed he never bet on games involving his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. But what difference did it make? He bet on baseball games as an active manager of a team.

The ban was a good one, one that has withstood more than two decades' time.

And since he was effectively banned from baseball, he was also banned from ever being voted into the Hall of Fame.

Today, baseball's erstwhile Hall of Fame will have to deal with another matter.

Steroids seeped into baseball in the 1990s, and for all intents and purposes, still ravages the game, even though MLB has a substance abuse policy in place.

Whether it is "the cream," andro, or some other foreign agent, baseball was infected with this virus starting about 20 years ago, and it affected everything having to do with the game, including personal performance.

Today, the Hall of Fame will vote on who should get into its hallowed halls, and for the first time, many prominent players from that era will be on the voters' ballot, many players who defined the era--even though they weren't convicted of doing anything illegal.

Names like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Mark McGwire are all on the ballot this year.

They either took performance enhancing drugs (PED) openly or were heavily suspected of taking them during at least part of their careers, leading to heroics related to offensive statistics, and in Clemens' case pitching statistics.

Bonds is the all-time home run leader, the others put up gargantuan numbers.

If you are a Hall of Fame voter, what do you do?

Do you take into account that these players may have taken steroids, may have been so ahead of the curve that they did it when it wasn't illegal to do so, or do you simply judge these players by the edge that they gained by taking these substances, and discount them totally?

Today we are a bit more enlightened about the use of steroids than we were way back when.

We know that the use of steroids for performance enhancement can damage parts of your body, make your mood swing abruptly, turn you into a walking/talking pharmaceutical chest, and ultimately, their use can kill you.

So what do you do with these players?

Not all ballplayers who took steroids excelled. For every Bonds, there were probably hundreds of players who really didn't benefit from their use.

But these guys did.

As a baseball fan since a very young age, I hate the fact that steroids tarnished the game. I hate the fact that steroids might have boosted certain players' statistics through the roof.

But they are a fact. And they are part of an era that we can't ever take back.

Certain players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because of the cumulative wallop they made during their careers. They may have used steroids, but even prior to using them, they were absolutely gifted players who performed at a level that was almost beyond comprehension.

And that is why if I were voting for entrance into the Hall of Fame this year, I would put Bonds and Clemens on my ballot. Maybe not at No.1 and No. 2 on my ballot, but they would be on there.

They have never been convicted of anything, if they did use steroids--which is open to guess, but by all accounts they used something to boost their performance--they excelled while using them. They had long careers and very productive careers.

I won't lean to including McGwire or Sosa, because I don't think they had careers like Clemens and Bonds did. They were terrific players, but not Hall of Fame material.

Look, you can't take back that era. Every player who played during that era is, unfortunately, suspect.

But players have been using "substances" for decades to get them "up" for games. Read Jim Bouton's classic "Ball Four" and you will find that players had been using uppers and downers in the 1960s and early 1970s to get themselves ready for games, later drowning everything out with drink.

Not all players, mind you, but many players.

Again, uppers and downers are not steroids. They don't push performance. But many players, for decades, have been using things that the average weekend athlete would never think of to get read for games.

I would put Bonds and Clemens in.

And decades after Rose was banned, I might look at his story again too.

I think he has paid the ultimate price for what he did. Maybe it is time to re-examine him, or maybe the time hasn't come yet.

Whatever the case, I think baseball, and the other professional sports, must continue to attack this steroids plague, which still goes on today. New and better--and less detectable--substances are being created every year, and players are still being found out through drug tests.

I don't think this is going away anytime soon, and no, I don't think that either Clemens or Bonds will be getting in anytime soon, and the same goes for Rose.

It's just my opinion that it is time to not forgive and forget, but to take the whole ball of wax into account when judging players from that era.

Rant #878: The Weight of the World

I am overweight.

I weigh more than I should for my frame and body.

I am 5 feet, 9 inches, and I weigh over 200 pounds.

I wasn't always like this, but as I've gotten older, I have put on the weight.

Do I exercise? Yes, I do. I have been exercising since I was hit with that nasty pinched nerve in my neck that I have told you about in previous Rants. It's still there, not going away anytime soon, and I have to exercise to make it at the very least tolerable, which I have done.

I exercise about 10-12 minutes a day because of this. No, that's not much, but that was what was prescribed by my doctor, a low-impact regimen, which I do after lunch and after dinner.

Do I eat well? Yes, I do. My wife makes sure of that. We don't eat that much meat, and we have lots of pasta and fish.

Do I also eat things I shouldn't eat? You bet I do. I eat cake, and I just love cookies. I have never been a candy eater, even as a child, so I rarely have a piece of candy, but I just love cookies. And I love snacks like chips, too.

Does my job add to my weight? Yes it does. As a writer, I am sitting by my computer more than 10 hours a day, so although I try to move around, yes, my job contributes to my weight.

I am sure you heard recently that there is a study out where researchers claim that having a little extra fat is actually OK for you, and prolongs your life. That extra layer acts as something of a padding, and helps you get through times that those without such extra weight have trouble managing.

It's early in the year, and I could say that one of my New Year's resolutions is to lose weight.

I could say that, couldn't I?

But I won't. New Year's resolutions are made to be broken, designed to be sabotaged somewhere down the line.

Let's just say that although I am quite content at my current situation, and my health is very good, according to my last physical just a few weeks ago, I could stand to lose a couple of pounds.

I am not going to get crazy about it, but if I could lose just a little weight, I think that would be good.

The first thing I have to do is not eat so many cookies. I just love cookies, and what is better than cookies with a glass of milk?

I have to stop that, or at least lessen it.

Let's see where this journey takes me ... maybe nowhere, but at least I am cognizant of it.

Let's weight ... err ... wait and see what happens.

Rant #877: Saturday Night Is Not All Right

I read on Friday that Mark Simone, the host of WABC Radio's "Saturday Night" show, was moving over to radio rival WOR and that this eight-year-old show would be no more.

This was the last gasp of radio for me, the last show I really listened to on radio, and now, it's gone.

If you don't know anything about the show, let me fill you in.

About nine years ago, WCBS-FM, the No. 1 oldies station in the country, suddenly dropped that programming for something called "Jack," which was basically nameless, faceless, personality-less rock/pop radio that had worked quite well in other markets.

People who had listened to WCBS-FM were aghast at the change, and WABC saw a niche that needed to be filled.

WABC-AM was the top Top 40 radio station in the country in the 1960s through much of the 1970s, drawing in rating numbers that are hard to believe today. Millions of people in the New York area listened to the station, as well as millions of others who were able to get the station's strong signal for thousands of miles during the evening, both south and west.

The station had legendary disk jockeys like Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy and Bruce Morrow, and WABC was really the station that most others aspired to be, but never could be.

But tastes changed, and in the early 1980s, the station turned to all talk, and once again, it rose to the top of the ratings, standing today as the top talk radio station in the country.

Anyway, with a void to be filled without WCBS-FM doing oldies, they premiered a show originally called "Saturday Night Oldies," to run on Saturday nights, naturally. It was supposed to be a one-off mix of oldies music and reminiscences of the old WABC format, hosted by Mark Simone.

The one-off became so popular that it became a staple of New York radio, even when WCBS-FM finally came to its senses and returned to the oldies format just a few years after abandoning it.

Simone's show featured artists that you wouldn't hear anywhere else, people who had had their time, but people who hadn't crawled into a hole and faded away, either. Such artists as Jay Black, Gary Puckett, Micky Dolenz and the like were right at home on the show.

The show took on a life of its own, and listeners even had their own gatherings to salute the program, and to salute Simone.

Later in its existence, the show's name was changed to simply "Saturday Night," so it wouldn't be pigeon-holed into simply an oldies show.

The premise was basically the same, but the show expanded its guest list by doing this.

Heck, it even had newer performers, like Clay Aiken, as guests with this slightly changed focus.

Personally, I would record the show off the Internet, and listen to it later, so I was never caught up with the current program.

But wasn't it fun to listen to Todd Rundgren speak, or to hear what Pat Cooper had to say?

Well, it is no more.

On the show, especially for the past two years or so, you could hear in Simone's voice that he was tiring of the grind of doing a live, Saturday night show. He had other duties at the station--he certainly was WABC's top fill-in host, often subbing for Don Imus--and working six or seven days a week was not to his liking.

And then, he just picked up and left.

All good things must come to an end, and I guess that the "Saturday Night" show just ran its course.

But to many listeners like myself, we have just lost a good friend, our Saturday night companion, so to speak.

It's a sad time, because no one had a chance to say goodbye to the show. 

Simone's WABC exit seemed to be abrupt, but I had a feeling something was going on, because his podcasts weren't on the WABC website any more.

The whole thing is too bad, so this is my personal goodbye to the show and Simone.

Thank goodness I have a storehouse of these shows recorded, and can refer back to them if I wanted.

It really was radio at its best.

Rant #876: WWE ... EEEEE!

A week ago, last Friday, my son and I went to another professional wrestling show at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

We attended the WWE Raw Holiday Show, and once again, we were quite entertained.

Right before the dawn of the New Year, the WWE put on a nice show at the old arena.

The place was only about two-thirds sold out, but since the event wasn't televised--and was going smack dab against the televised WWE Smackdown program on television--you have to respect the amount of people who actually bought tickets for this thing.

Of the maybe 8,000-9,000 people were there, a huge percentage were kids, and I mean kids from about three up to pre-teens.

Thus, to me, the WWE show is more like a 21st century circus, but all the action takes place inside of one, single ring.

Many of the big names were there, including John Cena, the Derek Jeter of professional wrestling, who fought in a cage match against the guy who has emerged as the No. 1 villain in the WWE, Dolph Ziggler.

The match was as staged as all heck--and with so many kids in the audience, you weren't going to see anything but a staged match--but it was fun nonetheless.

There were several other bouts on the card, starring the likes of 21st century wrestling "superstars" Santino Marella, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger and many, many others. In the WWE, every wrestler is considered a "superstar," so you have some superstars who are actually pretty good, and some who are pretty bad, pretty much depending on the character that they are playing.

Yes, professional wrestling is often not only a circus, but it is a live cartoon.

Wrestlers often seemingly get pummeled, then somehow get back on their feet and gain a victory.

Yes, wrestlers do get hurt, they do get injured. I have seen it first hand in many of the matches my son and I have seen.

But the injury often happens when a wrestler misses his cue, isn't at the right place at the right time.

Sometimes the injury just happens because of the way a wrestler falls, or jumps, or lands.

But at this show, right before the New Year and with so many kids in attendance, this wasn't going to happen, or at least they were going to do everything to prevent it from happening.

That being said, a fun night was had by all, including my son and I.

My son loves wrestling, it is his passion, and I go along for the ride each time.

I was once like him when I was a kid, and I understand it. It is almost a right of passage.

So when the WWE comes around again, we will probably be there.

It's fun, not expensive compared to other professional sports, and it is entertaining.

What more can you ask for?

Rant #875: World Wide Webb

Sixty-one years ago today, in 1951, the TV show "Dragnet" made its television debut, and the world of TV police drama has never been the same since.

Starring Jack Webb, its creator, as no-nonsense cop Sgt. Joe Friday, the NBC-TV show not only made Webb a star, but it changed the face of that genre forever.

Beginning its long run on radio, Webb had definite messages he wanted to bestow on the public, and he used "Dragnet" as a springboard for his anti-crime crusade, with Los Angeles as his landscape.

In black and white, of course.

Unlike Rod Serling, who used the sci-fi angle of "Twilight Zone" to push his own agenda, Webb couldn't hide behind space aliens to show you what he believed in.

He was forced to do it in an "in your face" manner, and he did it really well.

He strived for realism, and he showed that "cops and robbers" isn't all excitement.

There is lots of boredom, lots of behind the scenes work leading up to catching a criminal.

It wasn't all guns and bullets flying. Paperwork had to be done, leads had to be sorted out, every page had to be turned to weed out criminals, and you saw it all on "Dragnet."

As for Webb as Joe Friday, he had that "no-nonsense" look, and his delivery was non-stop, like a machine gun with words. Lots of close-ups were used during the show, which accentuated that in-your-face manner.

And lots of cigarette puffs too.

The actual grit of downtown Los Angeles was also shown, which made the show very realistic.

And who can forget that theme song, or at least the beginning of it?

It stays in your mind forever.

The success of the original "Dragnet" lasted through the late 1950s, and allowed Webb to do many other things, including make movies and music.

He was also married for a time to sultry singer Julie London.

Anyway, when NBC wanted a gritty police drama in the late 1960s, they once again turned to Webb, and "Dragnet" was resurrected.

In color, of course.

The crimes were different in the second show--a lot about drugs, of course--but Webb was back as Sgt. Joe Friday. He added Harry Morgan as his sidekick, Bill Gannon, and off they went throughout Los Angeles, smelling out every drug dealer and nefarious crook imaginable.

That is my touch point for the show. I watched it as a kid, and I loved it.

Once again, that no-nonsense approach to crime, and the way Webb dealt with it within the confines of a TV show, was the drawing card.

And again, that theme just drew you in.

The show was successful, ran a few seasons, and once again allowed Webb to venture into other areas.

He was also involved with other shows, such as "Adam-12," another favorite of mine, and "Emergency," a show which I really didn't care for, but among its stars was Julie London, his former wife.

Webb passed on, but efforts to resurrect "Dragnet" and "Adam-12" continued without him in the 1990s, as two short-lived revivals appeared in syndication.

Each one was worse than the other, and without Webb's guidance, they died quick deaths.

You can still find the second "Dragnet" series on TV. I know Antenna TV runs it daily.

The original series is also available, but you will have to look a bit harder for it. It has been put out on DVD, so go to amazon.com for a search.

Sure, "Dragnet" is very dated when you watch it today, almost funny, almost camp.

But it still reverberates with me.

I watch the show, and I am brought back to another time and place, but the themes hold up even today.

Obey the law, and you will benefit from that law.

But break the law, and Sgt. Joe Friday--and his real life counterparts--will be after you.

And you will be caught and prosecuted in a court of law.

And if found guilty, you will serve time.

Simple as that.

And Webb got that point across each and every episode.

"The story you are about to see is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent ... ."

Rant #874: Back To Basics

OK, how was your New Year?

Mine was OK.

For the first time in ages, we actually went out, went to my brother in law's house for the celebration.

My wife and I were tired as heck, it is a total 80-plus mile drive back and forth, and by the time the ball dropped, I was pooped, but it went OK.

I didn't eat too much or drink too much--and I don't mean liquor, which I don't drink, I mean soft drinks--and that was the way to keep awake.

Being out, I broke my long-standing tradition of watching the ball drop and then turning right to "The Honeymooners" marathon locally on Channel 11, but when we got home, I did watch an episode and then went to sleep.

On January 1, I decided since I was off, that would be a good day to get my computer in the running order and look that I was used to.

I set about doing that, but little did I know that it would take a whole day and then some--and I am still not done.

Many, if not all, of my files were backed up onto an exterior hard drive, and transferring them over to my desktop became an almost Herculean job.

I started doing this at about 11 a.m., and I was not done with it until the wee hours of this morning.

Exactly when, I don't know, because I let the thing go while I was asleep.

So I have all my files like I had them before, but there are a lot of other things I still have to do--and figure out.

And today is back to school and back to work day, so we all have to deal with that.

Me, I am going to be late for work today, because I have a doctor's appointment.

At least it isn't like last year, when I had an appointment with jury duty in Brooklyn, and which started my year off just dandy, if you know what I mean.

As we all get back to basics, I don't look back on the past year fondly, and as I said in my previous Rant, I am so glad to be rid of 2012.

It was a horrible year, to say the least, and honestly, I don't know if 2013 will be any better ...

But I am sure hoping it will be. I can't take another year like last, and I don't know if our country can take another year like 2012.

But as we do with any new year, we go in with our eyes wide open.

Every year starts off with promise, and then we face the realities of what we are dealing with.

This year it is higher taxes, less extra money to spend, maybe even a recession.

At least we won't be paying $6 for a gallon of milk.

But again, I hope this year is better than last.

It almost has to be better, because looking back, it can't be any worse.

Can it?