photo courtesy of philly.com

Apparently, Michael Vick is an Eagle now.  He’s an incredibly talented athlete who did a terrible thing, as many do.  He went to prison for it, which most don’t.  The situation has been and will be talked to death, but it will change nothing.  This is happening and the focus will eventually shift to what he does on the field.  Redemption and second chances did not make this decision, money did.  The NFL is a business.  People have a right to be upset or even outraged by this, but there are a lot of highly paid athletes and celebrities who do bad things.  This is the unfortunate nature of modern sports and entertainment.  This signing won’t affect the team’s or the league’s bottom line, it may even increase it as everyone will be paying attention to what happens as the season goes on.

For the record, I don’t like this.  I’d prefer the team I root for not have this guy.  This will not change when he scores his first touchdown, or if they win a Super Bowl.  It just bothers me that many analysts said upon Vick’s reinstatement that there will be a team desperate enough to sign him, and the Eagles are now that team.

Also, someone in Chicago threw a beer on Shane Victorino while making a catch at the center field wall.  Honestly, who throws a beer?

I’ve seen my share of contrived fighting, and I think I saw some tonight.  The much hyped (in some circles) fight between Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg was presented by Strikeforce on Showtime tonight and things were definitely suspect.  First of all, the one girl is named Cyborg.  She may as well be part of Techno Team 2000 at that point, because that’s got WWE written all over it.  The fight seemed like it was being stretched for time throughout, and despite my rooting interests was soundly going in favor of the machine-woman.

Then I found myself asking “why would the clock disappear from the screen at the five second mark?” just before the referee called the match in favor of the Cyborg at the moment the horn sounded to end the first round.  I’m really surprised there weren’t twin referees at that point.  Despite the controversy the commentators kept pointing to, the decision stood and a new 145-pound Strikeforce Women’s World Champion was crowned.

I’m sure there will be a rematch, but I honestly hope there isn’t.  Gina “Crush” Carano could be doing so many better things with her time.  I can wait until she gets into some real fake fighting.

Thursday night, July 30th, Christy and I went to the Face 2 Face tour of Billy Joel and Elton John at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This is cool for two reasons: 1) neither of us had been to Citizens Bank Park before (not being baseball fans of any caliber) and 2) we were going to see a show with arguably the two biggest and best piano men in rock and roll history. I had been worried earlier in the week, as Billy Joel had been struck with the flu, forcing the cancellation of two dates in upstate NY. Elton was well, but the design of the sets, with both men playing on each other’s songs at the front and back of the show, made it next to impossible for it just to become an Elton John show. So, I worried that Billy would not be well for Philadelphia. No cancellation notices came through, so we went.

Citizens Bank Park is nice. I don’t need to tell the rest of the MLD crew that. They already know, being Philadelphia Phillies fans. It’s so nice, I actually wondered about going to games there in the future, and sitting in the 400s (which is where our tickets were, above home plate, directly across from the stage), so that if I get bored with farming (whoops, I mean BASEBALL) I can look out on a really impressive view of Philadelphia proper, and thrill to the fact that I don’t have to be in Camden to see that view. Oh… wait, this is a concert review. Right…

Elton and Billy have done this sort of package thing before, and I attended, back in 96 when it was the Heart and Soul tour. There was fire, there was gusto, there was two men who still had full heads of hair, and a Veterans Stadium jam-packed with fans all the way to the 700 level. Fast forward to now, and only Elton still has hair (plugs/hair transplants for Reg, still going strong, and looking good!), and… well, it was sort of a repeat of that 13 years-in-the-past concert, with a few notable exceptions: Billy has no hair to speak of now, except of the facial variety, Billy’s longtime drummer, Liberty DeVitto was NOT on this tour, and Elton… just didn’t seem into it. That’s okay, most of the stadium didn’t seem really into it, either. Whether it was because it was still daylight through the entire Elton John set, or he was dreading having to play the only songs Philadelphia seems to know from his catalog (which are, for the record: Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting, Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me, I’m Still Standing and, yes, Philadelphia Freedom), Elton played a solid, professional and very distant set.

Billy Joel on the other hand, started out slow, and I feared the show would suck completely. I mean, the man HAD just come off 72 hours of doctor-ordered rest from a bout with the flu. Angry Young Man felt more like Tired Old Geezer in the way Billy played it, but cripes, only one song later, during Big Shot, Billy hit his stride. His between song banter hadn’t changed too much since last I’d seen him live at the Wachovia center, though he did keep it fresh for the CBP. He also gave a shout out to his daugther, Alexa Ray Joel, who was going to be playing her own show at the Tin Angel, the night after. He looked really proud to have his daughter “continue in the family business”. Even though he seemed to be just hanging on in some of his songs, Billy kicked out the piano jams with his band. It was almost a disappointment when Elton John came back for some more dueling pianos action at the end, but lo and behold, Elton finally looked like he was ENJOYING himself at the end of the concert. Go figure!

A couple of weird notes:

• Two “ain’t gonna see the sunny side of 45” blondes behind us at the show, with their obnoxious kids, kept yakking their way through most of Elton John’s set, sending the one gal’s husband repeatedly for beers. The kids themselves gave us such eloquent food for thought as this: “This song is SOOO long!” and after only one song into Elton John’s set, “All these songs sound the same.” My favorite of these mooks, though, is this brilliant line, from the blond-headed mullet wearing kid with the Phillies shirt on: “This is SOOO not the studio version. This is DEFINITELY the live version of this song.” Really? At a concert, which is LIVE, there’s the LIVE version? You don’t say, Aristotle?!

• During the last part of the show, when EJ rejoined Billy on stage, Billy had a fly swatter in his hand, that he was beating himself with, while playing one handed, and would get up from the piano during songs and walk away for bits. Antibiotics a little strong, Billy?

• Christy and I got lost searching for our car, and walked through all the surrounding parking lots, until I remembered the movable landmark of a Winnebago, which finally led us back to our car after about 30 minutes of searching. I can only chalk this up to my training with ComedySportzPhilly, and call it a callback.

Even after all this time, I still love Billy Joel. Even after being knocked down by the flu, the man can still get up and give a rock-n-roll show worth your ticket price. Tell your grandparents to try that on for size!

End verdicts: Elton John: dislike. Billy Joel: like! Mook morons behind us: dislike! View of the city: like! Sitting at the ballpark watching rock and roll with my wife: like!

Overall: Like!

Yours truly,

Lydonlistens

One of the things I really like about MLD is the professional dedication to not allowing any personal bias impact our writing that each of our writers constantly displays. Unlike the current President of the United States who during the Major League Baseball All-Star game earlier this week seemed to forget that he needs to appeal to more than just a small group of fans of that other team from Chicago, we at MLD recognize that our audience is not only national, but global. We cannot make such a petty mistake as displaying any type of loyalty to a brand, sports team, corporation, musician, writer, artist, etc.

It’s just not appropriate.

Having said that, I’d like to welcome back to Major League Baseball Pedro Martinez. I hope he shoves a few 90 mile per hour fast balls up David Wright’s left nostril as the Phillies grind the Mets down with the back of their heel like a used up, spit out cigarette again this September.

And if he sucks on the field, I’m sure he’ll at least be good for a laugh. When a team sells out two out of every three games they can afford to spend a million dollars on renting a clown who used to be a brilliant athlete for two months on the off chance his tank’s not empty.

Anyone growing up in the Delaware Valley during the last 25 years or so, and who watched Channel 6 ABC, is feeling the same distraction I am right now: the sadness at the passing of veteran sportscaster Gary Papa.

I could say more here, but I’ve already said it in my regular blog. Read it, please. Mr. Papa would have wanted it that way.