What I'm Reading: Where They Ain't

Where They Ain't, by Burt Solomon, is an excellent look at baseball in the immedate pre-modern era, from 1894 to 1902. It observes this era through the lens of the Baltimore Orioles, who invented a new style of baseball that made them the most successful team of the 1890s, and when they broke up, whose key players and manager formed the core of many of the most successful teams of the early 1900s.

Baseball in the 1880s was a leisurely affair of getting a man or two and base and waiting for a big home run to score (a lot like the 1950s--and to an extent, today's game as well). But after the 1892 season, the National League (the only league at the time) moved the pitcher's mound back to 60 feet, six inches, from its previous distance of 50 feet, and also required the pitcher to keep one foot on the pitching rubber when pitching. That may not seem like much of a change, but it was just enough. That extra split second the ball takes to get to the plate was just enough to give a quick player the time to judge what part of the field he could hit the ball to, allowing more precise hitting. It was just enough to make it that much harder for a pitcher to field a bunt. And it was just enough extra time for a sneaky base stealer to successfully make it to second or third before the catcher could throw him out.

The four main players on the Orioles--"Wee" Willie Keeler, John McGraw, Hughie Jennings, and Joe Kelley--along with their manager, "Foxy" Ned Hanlon, were the first to recognize the kind of baseball the change allowed: a scrappy, fast-paced, hitting and running type of game (similar to the 1970s-80s game) they called "scientific baseball." And they rode that recognition to first place finishes from 1894-96, and second place finishes in 1897-98, behind the Boston Beaneaters (later the Boston Braves), who had largely adopted their methods.

Unfortunately, the National League, and after 1901, the American League, used Baltimore as a pawn in fairly baroque baseball politics, and the result was that the Orioles after the 1902 season moved to New York and became the Highlanders (later named the Yankees), with the team's personnel spread across the major leagues. John McGraw, the diminutive but fiercely-willed third baseman for the Orioles, became the manager of the New York Giants in 1902 where he was known as the "Little Napoleon" for his controlling but winning style. He won 10 National League pennants and three World Series with the Giants and still holds the National League record for most wins.

From 1899 to 1905, Ned Hanlon managed the Brooklyn Superbas (later the Dodgers), bringing Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Joe Kelley with him as the right fielder, shortstop, and pitcher, respectively. Hanlon, Keeler, Jennings, and Kelley led the Superbas to first place finishes in 1899-1900. Jennings also managed the Detroit Tigers from 1907-1920, where he coached Ty Cobb and led the Tigers to three American League champtionships and several other good seasons.

One idiosyncrasy of the book is that it adopts some of the conventions of the language and baseball lingo of the 1890s. For instance, at that time fans were known as "cranks" and pitchers were called "twirlers." Fine. I probably could have done without not capitalizing avenues and streets in street names, i.e. 21st street or Maryland avenue. But after a few pages, you get used to it, and it does help with the effect of placing you in the 1890s.

I really like the way Solomon interwove history and current events into the baseball story. For instance, he describes the way attendance dropped off in the 1898 season because of the Spanish-American War--who worried about baseball when American sons were fighting overseas? Or how in 1902, Willie Keeler went to St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn with a suspected shoulder fracture to take advantage of a brand new invention--an X-ray machine, which St. Mary's was one of the first hospitals in the world to possess.

And those are just two examples of many. It is for that reason that Where They Ain't receives one of my coveted Shortcuts to Smartness awards, for books that provide a whole education in and of themselves. (Congratulations, Burt Solomon!) In this book you learn not just about baseball history, but also American history, and the history of the cities of Baltimore and Brooklyn, and 1890s politics, and what makes a team work, and how to achieve success. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in any of those subjects.

Ranking: Black Panther

Okay, I should've reviewed Black Panther weeks ago. I'm finally getting to it!

I have previously ranked the Batman movies, the Superman movies, the other DC movies, the Avengers movies, the X-Men movies, the summer 2015 comic movies, the Spider-Man movies, the non-Marvel and non-DC comic movies, Captain America: Civil War, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the Man-Thing, Thor: Ragnarok, and Wonder Woman.

I have a friend who mentioned this was his favorite Marvel superhero movie so far because the setting is different. It's not set in New York or San Francisco, with fights taking place in the city streets. Rather, it takes place in the jungles, mountains, and waterfalls of Wakanda, a fictional African country that enjoys advanced technology that it has long hidden from the world.

I agree, the settings were a high point of this movie. The first time we saw the capital of Wakanda, with its Afrocentric skyscrapers drawing on traditional African building styles for its architectural themes, I almost gasped. It was beautifully done in a way we haven't seen in Marvel movies before--maybe to an extent with Asgard in the Thor movies, but really Asgard is kind of cheesy. This felt like an architectural style that really should exist in the world--why don't Lagos or Nairobi or Johannesburg have buildings like that?

Alas, the rest of the movie wasn't quite as good. I mean, the plot, with Black Panther having to take back the kingdom from his nephew, who's usurped it, was more than serviceable. But the movie sort of struck me strangely--it's message seemed to be that what an advanced African economy really needs as an enlightened king to be in charge? I mean, shouldn't the Black Panther be trying to make the country into a democracy, rather than just being the best king he can be?

I was also disappointed in Klaw, although probably for a reason most movie-goers won't share. It's because in the comics, Klaw is a villain with an awesome costume, who after he lost his arm, crafted a new arm for himself out of pure sound, and can use his arm to blast concentrated sound waves at heroes. In the movie, he's just a mercenary who lost his arm and replaced it with a metal one. Ho hum. Definitely would've benefited from following the comics more closely, in this case.

I know this one was highly regarded, but other than the settings, it didn't really strike me as terrible memorable. It falls into the Okay category, although near the top.

As ever, my ranking system is
Green=excellent  Blue=pretty good  Black=Okay  Red=avoid

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Here's the master list of all comics movies I've rated so far, in order from best to worst:

Crumb
American Splendor
Iron Man
Heavy Metal (1981)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Avengers
Superman (1978)
Captain America
Wonder Woman (2017)
Batman Begins (2005)
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man (2002)
X-Men 2: X-Men United
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Superman II
Batman (1989)
Ant-Man
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Dr. Strange
The Dark Knight (2008)
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine (2013)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Sin City (2005)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men (2000)
Black Panther
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Swamp Thing (1982)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Iron Man 2
Watchmen (2009)
Batman Forever (1995)
Superman Returns (2006)
Thor 2: The Dark World
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Mystery Men (1999)
Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Man-Thing (2005)
Superman III
Supergirl (1984)
Thor
X-Men 3: Last Stand
Hulk (2003)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman Returns (1992)
Superman IV

Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (Haven't seen)
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (Haven't seen)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) (Haven't seen)
Batman (1966) (Haven't seen)
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Haven't seen)
Catwoman (Haven't seen)
Constantine (Haven't seen)
Deadpool (Haven't seen)
Green Lantern (Haven't seen)
Hellboy (Haven't seen)
Judge Dredd (Haven't seen)
Man of Steel (Haven't seen)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Haven't seen)
V for Vendetta (Haven't seen)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Haven't seen)

Scary Movies: A Quiet Place

I'm not sure why, but for some reason my kids really wanted to see A Quiet Place, a horror movie that's recently been in theaters. Maybe other kids at school were talking about it, I don't know. After researching the movie a little bit, my wife and I decided we'd go ahead and take them.

Actually, for kids, this is a pretty good horror movie--very little actual violence or gore and no cursing (not much talking at all, actually, as I'll explain in a minute). Still, it was probably a little scarier than I would have wanted my kids, especially my daughter, to see. And yet, on balance, maybe it was worthwhile, because we discussed this movie a lot in the following days. It does a lot to raise interesting questions, always a sign of a good movie.

It follows the Abbott family, who live on a farm in upstate New York. Earth has been invaded by aliens, who are blind and hunt humans with their extremely sharp hearing. Any sound above a whisper can be deadly, bringing a ravenous insectoid alien leaping from out of the trees. The Abbotts, in a way, have an advantage, for their teenage daughter is deaf, and they are able to communicate with each other in sign language. They also have a son, maybe 11 or 12, and they used to have a young son, who got eaten in the first scene in the movie. Also the mother, Evelyn, is pregnant and almost due. I'm not real sure what the parents were thinking, getting pregnant under these circumstances, but it certainly makes for a lot of tension when Evelyn goes into labor.

I can't remember the last movie I saw that was as quiet as this. Everybody in the movie is trying to be as silent as possible, and it spills over to the audience, which at our showing was absolutely hushed. Small sounds--a leaf crunching, a spoon falling--take on huge significance. Maybe some of M. Night Shyamalan's movies had this sort of quiet intensity--and actually, this reminds me more than a little of his movie, Signs. But whereas I was disappointed with that movie's ending, this movie had a twist at the end that was completely satisfying.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Story/Plot/Characters--Really top-notch acting, characters are believable and rounded, plot is perfectly executed. (4 points)
Special Effects-- Not much of a special effects movie and the aliens themselves were nothing special. (1 point)
Scariness--My children were quite frightened in the theater! Not the scariest movie I've ever seen, but up there. (1.5 points)
Atmosphere/Freakiness--An isolated and lonely farmhouse in a beautiful but spare natural setting, absolutely separate from the rest of the world, with abandoned barns and tractors littering the nearby countryside: this was exactly what I'm looking for in a horror movie. (2 points)
Total=8.5 points (Excellent)

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Here's the master list of horror movies I've rated so far. (Click the title for a link to a review of the movie.)

Excellent
Alien (1979)=10 points
Day of the Dead (1978)=9.5 points
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)=8.5 points
A Quiet Place (2018)=8.5 points
Frankenstein (1931)=8 points
King Kong (1933)=8 points
Village of the Damned (1960)=8 points
Night of the Living Dead (1968)=7.5 points
Carrie (1976)=7.5 points
Jaws (1975)=7 points
Pretty Good
Witch: A New England Folktale (2015)=6.5 points
Aliens (1986)=6.5 points
The Birds (1963)=6.5 points
Carnival of Souls (1962)=6.5 points
Night Creatures (1962)=6.5 points
Phantom of the Opera (1962)=6.5 points
The Thing (1982)=6 points
Tales of Terror (1962)=6 points
Okay
The House on Haunted Hill (1959)=5 points
Gremlins (1984)=5 points
Lady Frankenstein (1971)=4.5 points
Man-Thing (2005)=4 points
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)=3.5 points
Avoid
Alien 3 (1992)=3 points
The Wolf Man (1941)=3 points
The Last Man on Earth (1964)=2 points