#2009 Yankees

[dinosaurwithablog]

Michael Kay and Paul O'Neil are now interviewing 5 time World Champion, Jorge Posasa, one of the greatest catchers to play the game. He's sitting next to Paul O'Neil, thanking him for all the help and support that Paul gave to him and all the players. That's a beautiful moment, indeed. I love seeing all the retired players here for Old Timer's Day! Let's go Yankees!!!!!

[mayasdeluca]

The New York Yankees are going to the World Series. Life has meaning. Lets go!!!

[wiedzm1n]

officially got my tickets to game 3 of the world series tomorrow night let’s go 🫡

[constanze-1782]

[m00sebaby]

the amount of revisionist history i can do in my head with the yankees is incredible. if you asked me when we last clinched the al east i would've told you 2009. but no. we clinched in 2022. but i have blacked out every single year since 2009 so none of that actually happened.

[1863-project]

(video and tweet source)

THE HANSHIN TIGERS HAVE BROKEN THE CURSE OF THE COLONEL!

For the people who don't know, in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers won their first (and at the time, only) Japan Series victory. Traditionally, they've been hard luck losers, and they're often compared to the Red Sox in the sense of their being overshadowed by the Yomiuri Giants, who, like the Yankees, have won more championships than any other team in their league.

When they won, fans resembling the players on the team were jumping into the Dotonbori Canal in Osaka - the fans would yell out a player's name, and a fan who looked like them would jump in. The problem was when they got to Randy Bass, who none of the Japanese fans looked like. They needed to find something resembling him and selected a statue of Colonel Sanders, who was white and had a beard like Bass, and threw it into the canal.

Colonel Sanders sank underwater, and the Hanshin Tigers did...horribly after that, usually coming in last in the league or close to it, to the point where the team was considered cursed by his presence in the canal. The team made the Japan Series a few times after that in the 2000s and once in the 2010s, but lost each time.

In 2009, the Colonel was located and recovered from the Dotonbori Canal, save for his left hand and his glasses. He's now at a location near Koshien Stadium, where the Tigers play their home games (and where the famed national high school baseball championships are played), and can be viewed there to this day.

Fans were, however, not convinced that they had earned the Colonel's forgiveness, since his hand and glasses were missing. In the image above, he's been given some replacement glasses, but he still lacks a left hand.

This year, Hanshin beat the Orix Buffaloes, a team that plays roughly 20 minutes away by train in Nishinomiya, 4-3 in a seven-game series. The curse is thus considered broken...so the fans did what they do best, and threw a fan dressed like Colonel Sanders into the Dotonbori Canal.

For years, this has been my favorite baseball story, and I'm so happy that I was alive to see it seen all the way through. Congratulations, Hanshin fans!

[khakilike]

Fun game, fun video. This is one of my favorite MLB trades ever, and the instant I saw the thumbnail I knew that the missing piece was Ian Kennedy.

[ghostofkathrine]

Yankee candle boney bunch 2009

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

hey silly question maybe. do you know why cars are so boring now? like im on the wikipedia page for the cadillac eldorado for Reasons and it's a really visually interesting car through all the generations up until like. the tenth in 1979 when it just kinda looks like. every other car (if a bit more square) is this just like, the Capitalism Thing of shit getting more and more boring and samey over the years? or is there like a reason. idk much about cars but this has always annoyed and confused me, i miss interesting looking cars :(

Well, it should be noted that the tenth generation Eldorado's case is a peculiar one. As I've gone over, old American cars tended to be refreshed every other year, and the Eldorado, meant to represent the top of the top of that uniquely American idea of opulence, was perhaps the car most supposed to do so. Hence, as you'll have found, its ninth generation launched in 1971, just 18 years after the first - thats' how long the only generation of Italy's best selling car at the time, the Fiat 500, was sold for.

You wouldn't have expected that generation to stick around for more than four years - no other generation did, and almost all lasted half that. However, 1973 had other plans. Namely, the fuel crisis that completely eviscerated demand for mastodonic fuel guzzlers.

Sales would decline the following years, with little tweaks here and there but no major update, which would have been money down the drain as existing owners could barely afford to fill up the damn things, let alone upgrade, and what were potential customers before couldn't afford to fill up the damn things full stop. So when the new model finally came, this big aspirational car was shrunken down to get on with times of shrinking aspirations.

Nigh on 5.20 meters (for yankees, that's roughly 4/207ths of a Titanic) will hardly seem short to European sensibilities, but let's remember, that's coming from 5.70. You could walk between two walls that far apart. The width, too, decreased by a whole 20cm (for yankees, that's roughly half a rabbit), which in car width terms is massive - like, it's the difference between a Mini and a Mustang.

This to say, the tenth generation Eldorado is oft maligned as a fall from grace, one of the most popular examples of why the malaise moniker stuck to this era of American cars - so not exactly the fairest assessment of how cars changed with time. How about, then, we start our analysis by looking at a car with a much better received update, shall we?

Of course, the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf (for yankees, that's roughly a Rabbit) was a smash hit the world over, so much so that in Mexico it remained on sale as the Citi Golf as recently as 2009(!), and if I didn't think it the best looking Golf that ever was I probably wouldn't own one...

...but unless the only kink you're into is the Hofmeister, I don't see how the second generation's styling is such a downgrade as to bemoan the state of things. And frankly...

...maybe it's just the boiled frog syndrome, but I can't spot a point in which anything 'went wrong', so to speak. Which leads to the all-important question:

You say you miss interesting looking cars, but I do have to ask - when did they ever leave?

Have a browse of my pride post (no, really, go read it, I think it's one of my best ever) and point me to the boring cars within it, because me, I don't see any. And I suspect the reasons are similar to why you see older cars as more interesting.

For one, given the point of the post, all the cars shown are some flashy color, and each is different from every other. This, however, is increasingly becoming an anomaly as greyscale gobbles up an ever increasing share of the market, meaning on average, modern cars are less colorful, and thus less visually interesting. I've written about cause and effect of the greyscalification of cars, and suffice to say I'm not a fan of it - but I feel like that is a discussion separate from car design itself.

Then, of course, there's that those in the post are all cars that I like, so that selection was curated (albeit only by my personal taste). But that is also the case when we look back at older cars: what you see around and what you hear about is what people cared enough about to preserve and to discuss - not just in terms of models but of versions, specs and even colors. If you look at car shows like Radwood or Oblivion, which celebrate 80s and 90s cars, the very time period you referred to as the beginning of the end for interesting design looks like its heyday!

Yes, that trailer is factory.

Unfortunately, it must be said that unique and interesting cars have become fewer and fewer, as the ever increasing regulations make it even more expensive than it already was for smaller brands to emerge and the economic status of things makes it increasingly harder to justify a funky, daring picks for the biggest purchase of the average person's life - let alone the purchase of a second car, which tends to be what more extreme offerings were bought as. A brighter future seems to be ahead, though, with Toyota's incredible GR Corolla/Yaris and 86 apparently about to be joined by yet more spicy goodness and Mazda teasing a return of the rotary engined sportscar. For the twentieth time, sure, but after having seen the Motocompo revival actually happen, I am ready to kick that football.

(because you knew about the new electric Motocompacto, right?)

But there's another thing that post's selection had going for it: variety. Pretty much every car in it was in a wholly different category from all the others, and that is bound to make each car within it seem a lot more interesting than if it had been surrounded by cars of its same segment.

The survivorship bias outlined above also results in far more variety than you would find in normal traffic: even setting aside the halo car dynamic whereby the most special -and therefore most interesting- cars are usually niche offerings with very low sales figures, people tend to remember, discuss and seek out cars that represent some extreme - be it the fastest, the most expensive, the greatest, but also the slowest, the cheapest, the worst... and the tallest, the lowest, the biggest, the smallest, and so on. In short, the cars you'll find the least interest for are the everyday, quietly competent cars that make up the bulk of vehicles on the road.

Although, going far enough back in time, even those appear interesting to us, because their context's norm was so different from ours that even the cars that most adhered to it seem exotic to our sensibilities.

But when actually viewed in their own context...

...that impression tends to be stifled.

Unfortunately, it seems to me as though variety is also being stifled nowadays, with a growing share of body styles on sale becoming SUV/crossovers, and the increase in platform sharing reducing automotive outliers (for better and for worse).

And I should note: as for the other industry shifts I mentioned, the driving force isn't Big Capital or The Evil Economic System or what have you. It's the consumers. Sure, we can blame manufacturers for turning every model into a more profitable SUV, but they couldn't do this if they didn't sell, and they wouldn't do this if people didn't see them as more prestigious vehicles worth paying more for. We can blame manufacturers for killing weird car projects, but usually they get axed because people don't buy the things. Dealerships still order grey cars because no one digs their heels about having theirs yellow. So on.

So in short, old cars have always looked more interesting, because time alters our perception of them in ways that make them seem as much - and it also happens that lately the car industry has gone in the opposite direction to those alterations, causing new cars to seem less interesting. So, in short, the problem is the comparison just isn't apples to apples.

I think this is why that Golf evolution does not show any trend towards boring or away from interesting in my eyes - because it mostly strips those factors away. Here's a bunch of generations of the same car, all silver, all presented with no context bar the version before or after, all in the same body style which, for its entire history, was a common sight pretty much anywhere. (Also helps, of course, that the Golf's evolution had no wacky twists and always nailed the zeitgeist.)

This not to say that I can't complain about modern car designs - but for that, don't compare apple to apple... compare it to Microsoft.

See, I can think of many modern designs I find bland and devoid of personality, not because of a lack of styling effort but precisely due to an overabundance of it: so keen were the designers to put a crease here and a fold there and a kink somewhere to make the brand's seventh SUV set itself apart from the other six that the design became too overburdened with details to have a clear message - like a story with too many events for them to express a cohesive point.

Or, indeed, like this parody of Microsoft packaging in which their design principles are applied to the iconic, nay, legendary packaging of the original iPod.

This is an actual Microsoft video btw. This was made internally by Microsoft's marketing department.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question: if you liked this post, you might like those - or the blog’s Discord server, linked in the pinned post!

[finnglas]

Let me tell you a funny story about baseball.

I'm not a sports gay. I enjoy some sports a moderate amount. (I discovered during the 2024 Paralympics that I really enjoy women's wheelchair basketball. Hot ladies with shoulders, and no squeaky basketball shoe sounds to make me want to rupture both eardrums! But I digress.) The one sport that I've traditionally enjoyed, both playing and watching, is baseball.

For a brief period of time, around 2008-2009, I followed MLB pretty closely. I very carefully decided I was going to have A Team that was my team, and deliberately chose said team. I had some requirements: I wanted a team who was in the American League, not the National League (don't ask, idk), and I wanted one that had been around since the beginning of said league, not one of the newcomers. I also wanted them to have some connection to something I enjoyed, even if it was only that I liked the team uniforms. I ended up with a primary team (the Chicago White Sox) and a secondary team (the Boston Red Sox). (Did I call myself a polysoxxer? I did. Leave me alone.)

Anyway. I followed them religiously. I had the best experience of living in Charlotte, NC, where the White Sox had a farm team in the Charlotte Knights, and I knew exactly which players were in town while they were recovering from an injury - oh, and one time they played an exhibition game and I paid extra for a seat directly behind the White Sox dugout, and was in arm's reach of Carlos Quentin, my absolute favorite player.

Anyway. Things happened. The White Sox traded Quentin and fired Ozzie Guillen. Half my Red Sox got traded - some of them to the *mutters* Yankees. Varitek retired in 2012. I got busy. I hit a period of deep clinical depression. I finally admitted to myself I was queer and started getting more into connecting with the queer scene in town. And I quit following both teams. They weren't "mine" anymore.

For a period of several years, any time I'd express any interest in baseball, people would ask who my team was, and I'd joke that I needed to do some interviews and find a new one. Couldn't be the Tampa Bay Rays because I'm still mad at them for changing the name from the Devil Rays because the new owner is some weirdo Christian, didn't really care about the rest. (My dad, who has been loyal to the St Louis Cardinals since he was eight years old, is baffled as to why I didn't just come over to his team. Well, Dad, they're National League for one thing.)

Well, a few weeks ago, I was traveling for work and I wanted some background noise in the hotel room so I turned on the television. It was on MLB, but on commercial break. I was like you know what? It's time I got a new baseball team. Whoever is playing, I'm going to pick one of these two teams as my new team, provided it's not the Cardinals or the Rays.

Reader. Do you know who was playing that night?

It was the Chicago White Sox vs the Boston Red Sox.

Anyway so I got back together with both my exes during the worst season in the White Sox's history, and every time I see a new update about how bad they're doing I just have to be like, yep, that's my team.

[super-duper-mart]

THE YANKEES MAKE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️THEIR FIRST SERIES APPEARANCE SINCE 2009

[dinosaurwithablog]

I realized that it's Old Timer's Day so I turned the game back on. I'm glad that I did because they were interviewing all time great pitcher C.C. Sabathia!! The first thing that I heard him say was that, at first, he did not want to play for New York, but now that's he's here, he's never leaving. He said this with a shirt that reads, New York or Nowhere. I think he's hooked. 🤣😍 I love watching this great man pitch!! He was sooooooo good. It's great to see him again. Let's go Yankees!!!!!

His passion for the game is apparent, dontcha think 🤔

[bacchilles]

i NEEEEEED to go to a yankee candle store and sniff some wax that smells like sandalwood and a hyperspecific yet deeply mundane memory from 2009

[swarnpert]

in 2009 the day after the yankees beat the phillies in the world series our middle school principal started playing new york new york over the loudspeakers and i honestly think we should have killed him over that

[ausetkmt]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 21: Rakim performs during the "Dj Cassidy's Pass the Mic Live" at Radio ... [+] City Music Hall on July 21, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Richard Bord/Getty Images)Getty Images

Set to release his fourth solo album in 15 years, hip-hop luminary Rakim Allah is making a return to the hip-hop cipher.

Although 15 years have elapsed since the God MC’s last solo project, his stance remains interwoven in the fabric of hip-hop culture, ensuring he has never truly left the scene.

Two weeks ago (May 16), Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan took to Instagram and posted an image with Kurupt and Rakim, announcing the upcoming release of a single featuring the three renowned lyricists. Though Masta Killa did not reveal the single's name, he shared it would come from the “#GODSNETWORK” and instructed followers to remain attentive.

Cover of Rakim Allah's single, "Rebirth (N.M.A.) featuring Kurupt and Masta KillaInstagram | @almightym80

On Friday (May 24), Matthew Markoff, a markerting A&R for the project, announced on Instagram the solidification of a contract with Rakim for the release of his fourth studio album, G.O.Ds Network (REB7RTH).

Set for a worldwide release on July 26, there will also be a special edition released as a six-inch A and B side vinyl, with “REB7RTH” on one side and “Love is the Message” on the other. This special edition, limited to 500 pieces, will feature an array of hip-hop heavyweights such as Masta Killa, Kurupt, Nipsey Hussle, Snoop Dogg, Planet Asia, as well as seasoned creatives including Sally Green, Louis King, Kobe Honeycutt, Summer Yuki, and more.

The debut single from the album, “Rebirth (N.M.A.),” also produced by the “I Ain’t No Joke” lyricist, featuring Masta Killa and Kurupt, is set to drop next month on June 21, coinciding with the web and pre-order launch. Kurupt shared the single’s official cover on Instagram Friday (May 24), confirming the coming of Rakim’s new album. “July 26th - ‘Rebirth’ Rakim new album…Produced by Tha God Mc himself,” the caption noted.

Cover for six-inch special edition side A and B side vinyl, “Love is the Message” side.

The album is thoroughly produced by Rakim Allah, with Markoff also serving as an executive producer.

G.O.Ds Network (REB7RTH) marks Rakim’s first solo effort since 2009. He transformed the landscape of rap in 1987 with Eric B. on Paid In Full, and the duo went on to shape the Golden Era of rap with three additional albums: Follow The Leader (1988), Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (1990), and Don’t Sweat The Technique (1992), all deemed classics of the Golden Era.

Rakim’s solo debut came in 1997 with The 18th Letter, featuring production from Pete Rock, DJ Premier, DJ Clark Kent, Father Shaheed of Poor Righteous Teachers, and more. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and went certified Gold. In 1999, he quickly followed up with his second solo album, The Master, which includes the DJ Premier-produced standout single, “When I B on tha Mic." Afterward, Rakim took a 10-year hiatus before releasing The Seventh Seal in 2009, the first project on his record label Ra Records.

Throughout the years, Rakim has made guest appearances on unapologetic rap songs including G-Dep’s 2001 track “I Am” with Kool G Rap, the 2003 Dr. Dre-produced Jay-Z track “The Watcher 2,” Lloyd Banks’ 2006 song “You Know the Deal,” and he even added a surprise verse on Linkin Park’s 2014 track “Guilty All the Same.”

With his latest performance alongside Slum Village and Talib Kweli at Panic in L.A., the hip-hop luminary has been making his presence felt in the culture. He narrated a Bronx history video for the New York Yankees' opening season, and last month, he joined DJ Jazzy Jeff and Ravi Coltrane for a showcase at the Kennedy Center. As hip-hop enters its 51st year and Rakim makes a comeback, it's safe to conclude that hip-hop was never a fad and is bound to continue dominating and persisting as not only a music genre but a culture.

[historyofglee]

On this day in 2009:

led by Amber Riley, the cast of Glee performed the US National Anthem at Game 3 of the Major League Baseball World Series (New York Yankees vs Philadelphia Phillies).

The event was held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was attended by Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer, Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron, and Kevin McHale.