#Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball

[swiftsmash]

Step up to the plate and experience the 16-bit excitement of Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) console! Join us as the Texas Rangers take on the Atlanta Braves in this retro Super Nintendo baseball GamePlay video! ⚾

[corruptionasart]

[damien-x-damien]

[retropopcult]

Silver slugger Frank Thomas, aka, “The Big Hurt”, April 1997.  Hall of famer Thomas was one of the top hitters of the 1990s, arguably the best if it weren’t for steroids during that era.  With an impressive .301 lifetime batting average, he hit over .300 for ten seasons of his 20 year career including a .353 mark in 1994; averaged nearly 40 home runs a season during his first decade; was AL MVP twice; and won the batting title in 1997 (.347 average).  Drafted and played with the Chicago White Sox for most of his career, which unfortunately limited his post season opportunities although he finally did get a World Series ring in 2005.

Thomas, along with Ken Griffey, Jr and a few other elite players, did not take performance enhancing drugs during the 90s, unlike many of their peers.  On the contrary, he repeatedly asked for mandatory testing by the league and passed numerous random tests during his career.  Although he was voted an all-star five times, by today’s post-PED standards he probably would’ve been an all-star twice that.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 and remains the only player in major league history to have seven consecutive seasons of a .300 average and at least 100 walks, 100 runs, 100 runs batted in, and 20 home runs.  He also joined fellow hall of famers Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Jimmie Foxx, and Mel Ott in hitting at least 500 home runs while maintaining a career .300+ batting average.

[lunaticobscurity]

what publishers thought western saturn owners didn't want: arcade perfect x-men vs street fighter, more than a third of the story of shining force 3, castlevania: symphony of the night with exclusive extras, bulk slash, grandia

what publishers though western saturn owners did want: whizz, corpse killer, frank thomas big hurt baseball, trash it, casper

what western saturn owners actually wanted: arcade perfect x-men vs street fighter, more than a third of the story of shining force 3, castlevania: symphony of the night with exclusive extras, bulk slash, grandia

[lboogie1906]

Frank Edward Thomas Jr. (born May 27, 1968) nicknamed “The Big Hurt”, is a former baseball first baseman and designated hitter in MLB. He played for three AL teams, all but the last three years with the Chicago White Sox. A five-time All-Star, he is the only player in major league history to have seven consecutive seasons with at least a .300 batting average, 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, 100 walks, and 20 home runs. He won the AL batting title with a .347 mark.

He was named the AL’s MVP by a unanimous vote. He became the first White Sox player to hit 40 home runs and led the team to a division title. He repeated as MVP in the strike-shortened season, batting .353 and leading the league in slugging average and runs. He was named AL Comeback Player of the Year. In his final season in Chicago, he was limited to only 34 games after starting the year on the disabled list and then fracturing a bone in his foot close to where it was surgically repaired the previous off-season. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[501baseballbooks]

"Reports of my death..."

Come on, you can’t blame FOX for reporting on the death of The Big Hurt, mistaking him for the other Frank Thomas. What, you expect them to actually, like, fact check? It’s so ridiculous that even this British news outlet reported on it: “Fox News apologises after claiming baseball MLB Hall of Famer had died”    

[ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf]

"Reports of my death..."

Come on, you can’t blame FOX for reporting on the death of The Big Hurt, mistaking him for the other Frank Thomas. What, you expect them to actually, like, fact check? It’s so ridiculous that even this British news outlet reported on it: “Fox News apologises after claiming baseball MLB Hall of Famer had died”    

[doamarierose-honoka]

As reported by SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!, Saturn hacker Malenko, who created Saturn romhacks (For lack of a better word) Drift King ’97 and NBA Jam TE Walrus Edition, discovered two never before seen or reported on secret characters in NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, who seem to be exclusive to the Saturn version for whatever reason. The first, and most exciting, is NBA Jam’s legendary announcer, Mr. BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA himself, Tim Kitzrow. (Who was also featured in other sports titles like NFL Blitz, NBA Showtime, NCAA College Slam, and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball) The other is some guy named Fox. (We’re sure he’s a nice guy) To anyone’s knowledge, the existence of these characters has never been revealed by anyone after all this time. Who knows if even Tim Kitzrow himself was aware? (UPDATE: He was not.) Malenko discovered this just from perusing the Saturn game’s hex data and finding curious entries within the character data area, which allowed him to figure out the secret codes for both characters.

To play as these two, make sure you enter these names and birthdates at the name entry screen while holding L or R.

Kizrow: KIT – June 8th

Fox: FOX – August 3rd

So far, Malenko couldn’t find any sign of these two being in any other version of the game, having checked every other port besides the Atari Jaguar version. It’s not yet known why only the Saturn versions contain these two. It’s certainly not even known who the heck Fox is. Perhaps someday, the answers to all these mysteries will materialize…?

Special thanks goes to Malenko as well as SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! for reporting on this news as well as uploading the above video of the two hidden characters in action. Check out their article here for more info.

If you have NBA Jam: TE for Sega Saturn, try out these two and tell us what you think in the comments below. Were they on fire?

[retrocgads]

USA 1996

[humor-y-videojuegos]

Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball Año: 1995 Plataformas: Game Boy, Mega Drive, SNES, PlayStation, Saturn, PC

[corruptionasart]

[darklingichor]

Odd Thomas, Forever Odd & Brother Odd by Dean Koontz *MAJOR SPOILERS* Long post

I've written a little bit about these before. My goal was to listen to all seven of the Odd books plus the two short stories... I couldn't make myself do that.

I use to really love those books. I use to really love Dean Koontz, just recently, the writing has started to annoy me. Since I haven't read any of his new stuff since Saint Odd came out, I can't say it's because the writing has changed. I think I have changed, I'm just not sure in what way. So, I'm going to look at the first three books in the series because 1. I like them the most (sort of). 2. Because I honestly feel like the series should have either ended there or jumped to Saint Odd. 3. Because I'm going to see if by writing about them, I can figure out why reading Koontz in my 20's was like a breath of fresh air, but in my 30's it feels like when the air conditioner is some how making everything too cold, yet not cooling things down at all: uncomfortable and bafflingly frustrating.

Odd Thomas is a 20 year old fry cook in the small california desert town of Pico Mundo. He's seen as sweet but strange to all but a few people in town. He grew up with a mostly absent father, a crazy mother and a loving but wild grandmother, the last has already gone to the great beyond, so what family he has, he has found.

He has a girlfriend named Stormy, they've been together since they were sixteen, his boss at the Grill where he works, Terry, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Elvis Presley, a 300 lb mystery writer named P. Oswald Boone (Little Ozzie), his landlady who is afraid she'll turn invisible, and the cheif of police.

Odd also sees ghosts, or The Lingering Dead as he calls them. He trys to help them crossover. Sometimes it's as simple as talking to them (though they don't speak back, "the dead don't talk")  oftentimes is complicated and dangerous. Hence why his close relationship with the cheif comes in handy and also why it formed. He has other gifts. The occasional prophetic dream that usually only gives him bits and pieces to work off of, he sees these spectors of calamity that tend to show up right before something bad happens (like an earthquake or a shooting) they are black shadow things that Odd calls Bodochs, and psychic magmatism, where  he can find anyone he's looking for by wondering around with a clear picture in mind.

Everyone in his circle knows about his gift other than his landlady who is slightly and gently insane.

There is one other person in his circle, the ghost of Elvis who Odd had been trying to help crossover since he was in highschool.

The first book takes place over the course of three days.

To avoid a blow by blow, I'll summarize. After an eventful morning during which he helped a murdered twelve year old cross over by catching her killer, Odd goes to his shift a the Grill. There, he sees a creepy little man that reminds him if a mold and fungus, followed by a group of Bodochs. He finishes his shift, goes looking for the guy he's dubed Fungus Man.

He eventually finds his way to Fungus Man's house, breaks in and finds it unnaturally cold and silent. He discovers a room that is pitch black except for a small red light. He soon finds that what has made this room so black and the house so cold and quiet is the mob of Bodochs occupying it. After the Bodochs stream out, Odd is able to see that the room is an office and Fungus Man (aka Bob Roberts) is obsessed with serial and mass murderers, he has a file cabinet full of folders on them and posters of famous murders on his wall. Bob seems to be planning something, but Odd doesn't know what, as his only clue is a planner page in a folder from the killer cabinet. The folder is labeled with Bob's name and the date is two days away.

A series of happenings eventually leads to odd trying to stop a horrifying plan

*SPOILERS STOP READING RIGHT HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END*

So, Bob is a satanist in cahoots with a couple of other satanists to shoot up and blow up the Pico Mundo mall, among other places. He is able to stop them from completing their goal, but some people do die, including Stormy who was working at an ice cream shop at the mall.

Forever Odd

It's months later and Odd has moved into Stormy's apartment. He wakes up to find the ghost of one of his best friends's stepdad at his bedside. Strangely, Danny, a guy with brittle bone disease, with whom Odd grew up, was not mentioned in the last book.

So, the ghost of Danny's stepdad convinces Odd to go to his and Danny's house. Once there, Odd finds stepdad's body and discovers that Danny has been kidnapped.

What follows is a slightly weird story.

Odd eventually finds Danny and his kidnappers. One is a bug-shit woman Danny was talking with on a phone sex line. To impress her he told her about Odd. She's into her own twisted form of the Vudun religion and decides that Odd can show her the lingering dead and wants him become one of her crew. She kidnapped Danny to lure him out.

Danny is rescued, bad guys defeated, and Odd decides he needs to get out of Pico Mundo for a while.

Brother Odd

Odd has spent the last several months at the St. Bartholomew's Abbey, in the California Mountains, as a lay visitor among the monks and nuns. The Abbey is also home to a a community of disabled children. Odd becomes  close with four people in particular The Mother superior, The Priest at the head of the monks, Brother Knuckles, an ex mob guy turned monk, and Brother John, a wealthy guy turned monk. Only the first three know of his gift.

Waiting up to see a snow storm break, Odd finds Brother Timothy unconscious or dead on the grounds. He is then clubbed on the back of the head and knocked out. A search for Brother Tim leads to a strange mix of science and the spiritual that I for one found really cool.

** SECOND SPOILER**

Elvis crosses over in this one and Odd contemplates becoming a monk. Two reasons I think that this should have been the last one. Another reason is that he comes very very close to connecting with Stormy though a conduit to the otherside. Third, this is the last book where Odd is truly Odd.

See, Odd hates guns and will only use one as a last resort. In the first, Odd takes out most of the bad guys with a baseball bat, in the second, bug-shit lady was killed by a cougar, the bad guy in this one was killed by someone else.

Although his ability to see and help the lingering dead is not the main focus of the second or the third, it's still something he does. There is character progression from the first to the third. When we meet Odd he is trying to carve out a life dispite his traumatic childhood and while trying to do right with the gifts he has. After he loses Stormy, the second commitment becomes more intense, because of his conviction that the only way he will meet Stormy on the other side is to live his life in the best way he can, and that means using his gifts to help people. He's sadder, slightly less heedful of danger, but still fully committed to flighting the good flight, in his unconventional way.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, in the fourth through the seventh, the train is derailed, possessed, and also on fire.

Not only does his primary gift take a back seat, but the fight he is flighting isn't between the forces of good and evil, or even between justice and injustice, it's a culture war.

And the side of the war that Odd is on is peopled with climate change deniers, dooms day prepers, anti-government people who supply other "good guys" with guns,  other anti-personnal gear, tech that circumvents federal guidelines. All the "bad guys" are anyone with any sort of power judges, lawyers, cops, corporations, politicians. Their victims are the hard working Americans, the waitresses, the truck drivers... Strike that. The victims are the Christian hardworking Americans who evedently are being "persecuted in their own country" (this might be a different rant for a different blog but I maintain that there is a big difference between Persecution and Denial of Entitlement. Persecution is being in danger of being harassed, hurt, killed or imprisoned for your beliefs, ethnicity or culture. And when that happens justice is less likely to happen for the person or people targeted. Denial of Entitlement is when a person, or people, cry injustice because they either can't dress up their persecution of others in their beliefs, or can't force those beliefs on others, through law, or through being amazingly obnoxious).

Not only are anyone in power corupt, they are satanists, not are they satanists, they are the same sect of satanists who attacked Pico Mundo, not only are they the same satanists that attacked Pico Mundo, they have an actual connection to Satan. Like they can call up demons and monsters.... Yet for some reason they still use bombs, guns and weponized diseases to wreak havoc.

Now, if Koontz wanted to showcase some characterization of how to fight against a corupt system, that's cool, I mean I'm all for calling out people in power. But this vears into government lizard people territory, and if that was the type of book he wanted to write then that's cool too,but he essentially highjacked Odd's story to do it.

I have a hard time believing that when Odd picked up the ghost of Frank Sinatra at the end of Brother, and walked off into the sunset, that the original intent was to end up in the middle of a plot to plant nukes around the country and then, accompanied by pregnant girl who is some how The Virgin Mary's mother, to a house where time travel is possible and mutant pigs fade in from a post apocalyptic future and want to eat people, where they pick up a sort of dead, sort of immortal child, who is neither of those any more. Only to then to leave them to go on a road trip with an old lady, who some how has connections to the metaphysical, and a microchip planted in her ass that makes it to where she doesn't have to sleep, to rescue kids kidnapped by the powerful satanists to be used as human sacrifice. Along the way, they meet up with some fighters in this coming war, who while they do not wear tin foil hats, they have the cheerfully bloodthirsty air of cult members waiting for the end times. (Side note about the roadtrip book: Deeply Odd is the most boring, yet weird book I have read since Breaking Dawn. Say what you will about the crazy pigs and time travel in Odd Apocalypse, it's at least interesting).

And then to end up back in Pico Mundo to fight said satanists. The in increasingly nonsensical plots really just there to deliver commentary on how the world has gone to shit and everyone is to focused on the material.

Again, remember that Odd is pretty apolitical. He's never voted, owns only the clothes on his back, prefers Shakespeare and old movies to tv, which I figure also includes the news. How does this not equal out to a kid being a patsy for this group, which essentially takes over the narritive. I mean, yeah, he's still doing his thing, but he has many of his moves ditcatated by this group. This includes carrying a gun, all the time.

Again, Odd hates guns. Granted, by the last book, he has spent three books killing people with guns while talking about how much he hates killing people with guns, but up till the last two books, his hatered of guns is seen as a virtue, and then suddenly, he's an idiot if he doesn't arm himself to take a piss.

This makes very little sense to me. Odd is a simple guy, he wants to live his life as long as he has to, do right by the dead and make his way back to Stormy, all the while perfecting his pancake recipe. How the fuck did we get from this to "Everything is shit, there are three type of people, those in power who are working for the devil, those on the side of the angels and the idiots who don't see what's going on. And dispite all the supernatural stuff, we still need to busta cap in someone's ass.

I know that Koontz is Catholic, and I speculate that he had a renewal of his faith somewhere, but also somewhere along the line he took a turn into conservative libertarian territory if that is a thing that can exsist.

I feel like originally, the idea was to have Saint Odd follow Brother Odd, at least in some incarnation. It makes sense, the satanist sect want to come back and finish what was started, and take out the town and Odd, who cocked it up to begin with. In the first book Odd describes Roberts and his cohorts as playing satanists but just using it as a delivery system for their sick want to kill people and be famous for it. It follows that others who are also playing at being satanists would come back to town to get revenge for their fallen brethren. This also trucks with Forever Odd where the bug-shit lady was playing at being a Vudun, and with Brother Odd where people played at being faithful.

This is how ai think it should have gone:

Odd goes from the Abbey, where he is shown, yet again, that evil is a human driven force, that those who wallow in pride, in want of adoration and perfection can be the down fall of themselves and others, back to his home town to defeate these sad delusional people once and for all.

Or

Odd goes home for Christmas at the end of Brother, decides he wants to take vows, and goes about the process of becoming a man of the cloth. Maybe he goes back to St. Bart's, and he figures out a way to help the lingering dead from there, or, after he is confirmed in whatever capacity, he goes back to Pico Mundo and works along side Stormy's priest uncle. He sort of Father Dowlings it until he passes.

Instead, suddenly the structured feel of all of the supernatural things, which (implied by the third book) are based in science and the laws and rules of the universe that God laid down, turns into... Magic?

Doesn't matter how or why, what matters is there is a war! And the little fry cook shall lead them!

Seriously. Five years of Christian School has me seeing the turn that Odd's story takes, a couple of ways.

First it is either an overworked Christ story, where Odd is swept up in a war between the oppressed and the opressers, even though his life and mission is mostly one of mercy. In the end being a sacrifice that saves millions (by preventing the spread out f a weponized strain of rabies) but his sacrifice will only be remembered by a handful of people at first. The difference is of course that Odd buys into the culture war even though it make no sense.

Or, it's a Saint's story. Struggle, strife and miracles. See, it use to be that to be canonized, you had to have three miracles. His miracles? Well, first, his helping of the dead to cross over could be one, the preventing of whatever demon the satanists summoned in Deeply Odd, could be another, and finally, somehow managing to send Little Ozzie the manuscript for Saint Odd after Odd himself had already died, could be the last.

Either way, books four, five, and six are completely unnecessary.

So why does knootz's writing annoy me? It's self righteous and condicending. Poking fun a people who watch tv, enjoy unsophisticated things, bemoaning those who don't see just how stupid it is to buy into media, and how people are just marching their own way to misery because they just don't Get It.

It's the same time of people who look down on adults who do kid stuff sometimes "Why would you read John Green when you can read Dickens? Why would you watch Inside Out when you can watch Citizen Cane?"

Why would you eat coco puffs? Adults don't do that!"

I'm sorry, have I outgrown fun? A book is a book, a movie is a movie, breakfast cereal is breakfast cereal and you should be able to watch anything you want on tv without being shamed by a book that has an exploding cow in it.

[han-dsoff]

typing my favorite songs

these are just songs that remind me of each type not necessarily suppose to be representative of the type as a whole 

9w1 

banana pancakes - jack johnson   

season 2 episode 3 - glass animals 

this life - vampire weekend 

9w8

tidal wave - portugal. the man

longshot - catfish and the bottlemen 

way we go down - kaleo 

8w9

kamikaze - walk the moon 

your graduation - modern baseball 

all time low - jon bellion 

8w7

when you die - MGMT 

worst nites - foster the people 

you’re gonna go far kid - the offspring 

7w8

UGH! - the 1975

don’t threaten me with a good time - panic! at the disco

backstage - neffex 

7w6

astrovan - mt. joy

miss jackson - panic! at the disco 

sniffing vicodin in paris - blackbear 

6w7

louise - big brutus

menswear - the 1975

budapest - george ezra

6w5

free & lonely - x ambassadors 

i found - amber run 

rivers and roads - the head and the heart

5w6

come back to earth - mac miller

spirits - the strumbellas 

work song - hozier 

5w4

don’t cry for me - cobi 

iris - the goo goo dolls 

if i believe you - the 1975

4w5

her diamonds - rob thomas 

like real people do - hozier 

riptide - vance joy 

4w3

hallelujah - panic! at the disco  

jackie and wilson - hozier 

ophelia - the lumineers 

3w4

oh klahoma - jack stauber 

magic in the hamptons - social house 

wild child - the ghost of paul revere

3w2

feedback - kanye west

sinner’s prayer - lady gaga 

verbatim - blackbear 

2w3

jusfayu - KAMAUU

comin out strong - future 

don’t hurt yourself - beyonce 

2w1

high hopes - panic! at the disco 

pink + white - frank ocean 

take it all back - judah & the lion

1w2

over my head - judah & the lion

take me to church - hozier 

be - hozier 

1w9

trouble - cage the elephant 

harmony hall - vampire weekend 

unbearably white - vampire weekend 

Variants!!

sx/sp 

desperado - rihanna

famous - kanye west 

the middle - jimmy eat world 

sp/sx

woke the f*ck up - jon bellion

ocean eyes - billie eilish (blackbear remix)

runaway - kanye west 

sx/so

overwhelming - jon bellion

run - vampire weekend 

sex - the 1975 

so/sx

meet virginia - train 

seeing stars - borns 

someone new - hozier 

sp/so

people say - portugal. the man

lips of an angel - hinder 

if you ever come back - the script

so/sp

shake me down - cage the elephant 

sweet creature - harry styles  

tear in my heart - twenty one pilots 

[flowergirlmiwa]

there's a small joke in a scott the woz video rhetorically asking if you can name eighty non-sonic sega mega drive / genesis games off the top of your head and I wanted to see how many I could do

1 virtua racing 2. Virtua fighter 2 3. Fatal labyrinth 3. Toy story 4. Aladdin 5. The lion king 6. The jungle book 7. Ms pac man 8. Gain ground 9. Madden NFL 10. NHL 95

11. World series baseball 12. Earthworm Jim 13. Earthworm Jim 2 14. Comic zone 15. The ooze 16. Altered beast 17. Golden axe 18. Golden axe 2 19. Shining force 20. Phantasy star 2

21. Phantasy star 3 22. Bubsy 23. Bubsy 2 24. Ghostbusters 25. Ristar 26. Dynamite headdy 27. Tommy lasorda baseball 28. Joe Montana football 29. Michael Jackson's moonwalker 30. Beavis and butthead

31. Streets of rage 32. Streets of rage 2 33. Streets of rage 3 34. That prerendered looney tunes game released really late 35. Kid chameleon 36. Alien soldier 37. Garfield caught in the act 38. Mega Man the Wily wars 39. Columns 40. Hang on

41. Space harrier 42. Fantasy zone 2 43. Super Monaco gp 44. Road rash 45. Frogger 46. Ren and stimpy stimpys invention 47. Theme Park 48. Batman revenge of the joker 49. Batman returns 50. Spider-Man vs The kingpin

51. Lightening force 52. Zero wing 53. Street fighter 2 champion edition 54. Super street fighter 2 55. Mortal Kombat 56. Mortal Kombat 2 57 mortal Kombat 3 58 ultimate mortal Kombat 3 59 clay fighters 60. There's a dragon ball z fighting game but like only one

61. Hook 62. Shanghai 63. Rocket knight adventures 64. Frank Thomas big hurt baseball 65. X-Men 66. X-Men 2 67. That Ronald McDonald treasure game 68. Ninja gaiden 69. Shinobi 3 70. Shadow dancer

71. Shinobi 2 72. That pitfall! reboot game 73. WWF raw 74. WWF WrestleMania the arcade game 75. WWF royal rumble 76. outrun 77. ESWAT 78. Ecco the dolphin 79. Ecco 2 80. Ecco jr!!