When a TV show uses a real persons name for a fictional character.

So last night I was minding my own business watching the stupid Chicago shows when I burst out laughing. You see on Chicago PD  they had a character who played a corrupt drug dealing cop. His name?

Jake Gibbs..

You know the old Yankee catcher from the 1960's. He was the transition between Elston Howard and Thurman Munson. I remember talking to him on the first base line one game in the late sixties. Just like the kid in this commercial. I got one of his bats at Bat Day.

Jake was a great all around athlete. A star quarterback at OLe Miss he was named to the All American team and was SEC player of the year in 1960. He is in the college football Hall of Fame. Jake decided to play baseball even though he was drafted by both the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Oilers of the old AFL.

This commercial brings back a lot of memories. Jake Gibbs. Steve Hamilton. Roy White. Hector Lopez. All of my favorites from the old Yankees of the Horace Clarke era. They were losers but we still loved them. It was inbetween the Mickey Mantle Yankees and the Billy Martin Yankees. The commercial is amazing too! Imagine promoting a boy and his Dad flying away to see a ball game! There would be a revolt and a protest because it wasn't a girl or the kid wasn't gay or transsexual. Simple traditional love of the game would be demonized. Along with a gasoline company. Retarded Swedish girls would run into the commercial and scream "How Dare You!"

The world was a simpler place when Jake Gibbs was squatting behind the plate. Why did some dumb ass TV show have to soil his name? Is nothing scared?

The Babe Abides

"Smile for the camera there Suzie Wong."
"Me Japanese not Chinese Mr Babe-san."
"I dom't care kid as long as you ain't slanty where it counts."
"You funny Mr Babe-san. You come back to my pagoda and I show you what is under my kimono."
"Oh baby that sounds great. I fell in love with a slant-eyed lady by the light of an eastern moon,,,,,hey that sounds like a song. Lets go keed. And bring a couple of your friends, I think in a half an hour I am going to be horny again."

Memories.....Misty water-colored memories of the way we were!

 I used to love Bat Day. Remember those? That was when you went to Yankee stadium and they actually gave you a bat. It was inscribed with the name of one of the players. The first one I ever got was an Elston Howard bat in 1965. That was a real bat. It was heavy. To heavy for a young Trooper York to use in the softball games we used to play in Carroll Park or Red Hook field, You see we used to go to the park with a team made up of kids from the block. We would bring our gloves and bats and a couple of clinchers and get into a game. Sometimes it was almost a tournament. You kept the field if you won. It was usually a triple header. 

I always would bring my Jim Lyttle bat that I got in 1970. It was perfect. It wasn't too heavy and I could whip it around like a wiffle ball bat which is what I had the most practice using. I loved that bat.

sleeper