All posts by Matthew Callan

1999 Project

The 1999 Project: The Director’s Cut

Last week, I announced that I would be reviewing all of the posts in The 1999 Project for typos, factual errors, and spiffability. This quick note is to let all you fine folks that I’ve completed that review. In most cases, the changes were extremely simple, although I did peep a few items that were just flat out wrong.

Which ones? NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS! Just know that I’ve corrected all such things, so you can sleep easy now.

As for the future, I should have at least one 1999 Project post up this week in order to keep pace. My goal is to post reviews of the various postseason games on their respective anniversaries.

Regarding the other item in my post of last week–migrating older posts to the new site interface–that’s going a little more slowly. But I still fully plan to have all posts from 2007 and 2008 up and running by the end of the year.

Carry on.

Tuneage, Videocracy

YouTubery Friday: Legion of Rock Stars and Autotune George Brett

It’s Friday! Procrastinate and countdown to happy hour with these lovely bits!

The Friends of Tom forum continues to be a fount of awesome. It was there that FOT icepants posted the video below, which was produced by The Legion of Rock Stars. From their website:

LEGION OF ROCK STARS has freed themselves from the shackles of practicing, instead perfecting a performance technique known as the Pure Pleasure Process.

While listening to songs on headphones equipped with 30dB sound blockers to blot out the outside world, the band plays and sing their hearts out, all while unable to hear themselves.

What this means: They record horrible versions of famous songs, and occasionally sync their versions up with the real videos and post them. YouTube has many LRS reworkings to feast on, but this rendition of Danzig’s “Mother” is probably my favorite (though I also recommend their take on Van Halen’s “Jump”, as it has some “amazing” keyboard and guitar solos in it; their rendition of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” is also quite hilarious).

Last year, the world cheered as a video surfaced of Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett torturing young Royals players with tales of shitting his pants. It was not really a gotcha video. If anything, it enhanced Mr. Brett’s reputation as a masterful raconteur and a purveyor of awesomeness.

How could this video possibly be improved upon? The way that everything is improved: with autotune. CuzzinLoutie pointed me to the video below, wherein someone has not only autotuned Brett’s poop story, but enhanced his monologue with hilarious visual cues.

This is probably the only good use of autotune ever (other than Autotune the News, of course).

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 141-147 (West Coast Swing #3)

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

johnrocker.jpgAs the Mets began the last of three lengthy cross-country road trips, they were 3.5 games behind the Braves. It was no small feat to be so close to Atlanta so late in the season. The Braves hadn’t had a serious rival for a division title since 1993, when they edged out San Francisco to take the NL West crown on the last day of the season. Ever since their transfer to the NL East, they strolled into the postseason every year; their closest shave came in 1996, when Montreal finished a mere eight games behind.

If there was any year to catch the Braves, 1999 should have been it. Andres Galarraga, Odalis Perez, Javy Lopez, and closer Kerry Ligtenberg were all lost for the year with injuries. John Smoltz spent time on the DL, and Tom Glavine pitched surprisingly mediocre. Rumblings began early that their dynasty was over.

And yet, between July 25 (when Lopez was sidelined indefinitely) and September 11, the Braves had a mind-boggling 30-11 record. For the season, they had an astounding 27 come-from-behind victories. Chipper Jones said, “No matter what happens this year, it’s going to be my most satisfying season. This is a team that really has overachieved.”

The Braves even said they welcomed the Mets nipping at their heels. Quoth Chipper again:

In years past, September was a month when we kind of took it easy and took some days off here and there to get ourselves prepared for the postseason. That may have an impact on what happens in the postseason, in that guys have trouble just flipping the switch on and off. I don’t foresee us having any problems flipping the switch this year.

As the Mets would soon find out.

Although the Mets had more than Atlanta to contend with. They began this trip 3.5 games ahead of Cincinnati for the wild card berth. The Reds were not picked by many baseball minds to seriously contend in 1999, but manager Jack McKeon had gotten the most out of them (as he would for a young Marlins club a few years later).

Plus, they would have the advantage of a softer schedule than the Mets down the stretch. While New York had six games left with the Braves, The Reds had only one series left against a team with a winning record (Houston), and would only play two games against them. During the series in LA, Darryl Hamilton admitted, “I think [now is] the first time I’ve actually looked to see what the Reds were doing. We’re not looking back, but we’d like to know who’s trying to get up on us.”

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