GA Russell

Greg and VB, in '94 their name was the Baltimore CFL Colts. The NFL sued, saying that the Indianapolis Colts owned the name. So they dropped the "Colts" midway through the season and were officially known as the Baltimore CFLs. Sportscasters in Canada referred to them as the CFLers. I saw them that year host the Calgary Stampeders with Doug Flutie. In the offseason, as a settlement of the NFL's lawsuit, they purchased from the NFL the name Stallions, and it was with that name that they won the Grey Cup in '95. That was the year that Damon Allen and Reggie Pleasant came to my Grey Cup party in Atlanta. edit for typo

All of the American written material that I am aware of (i.e., the Consumer Reports guides) classes and compares vehicles by their size and type. Toyota and other foreign companies make better vehicles than the Big Three do, but the Big Three vehicles are at lower price points. It's easy to say that a Toyota midsize is a better vehicle than a Chevrolet midsize, but maybe not so easy to say that a $15,000. Toyota is better than a $15,000. Chevrolet. The Big Three (both management and labor) never got it into their heads that the American customer wants quality when paying big bucks for something. I remember in the 70s when Honda cars were first sold in the American market, the standard Detroit refrain was that the Japanese cars were less expensive than American cars. But everyone I knew who had a Honda would tell me how pleased he was with the quality of the car, never about what its price was.

I can't help but notice that the letter does not contain a spelling or grammatical error except the one word which was scratched out. I suspect that Sonny's education was far superior to what many Americans receive today.

I have a dvd player hooked up to my stereo system instead of a cd player, so I have been listening to the In Vienne dvd quite a bit for the past week. (Vienne, by the way, is not to be confused with Vienna. Vienne is a town in France.) I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I like the band, which is made up of Clifton Anderson on trombone, Bobby Broom on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on electric bass, Victor Lewis on drums and Kimati Dinizulu on percussion. Unlike Road Shows, whose selections prominently feature Sonny soloing, In Vienne gives a great deal of time over to the sidemen. There is a nice balance of ballads and flag wavers (as Art Pepper used to say). I've got to scratch my head over the thinking of the operation of Sonny's label Doxy Records. With the first release, Sonny, Please, they first made it available for months only via download before it was available for hardcopy purchase. Then they waited two years. Now they simultaneously release two great albums! If you only have the money for one of the new items at the present, I would say that I like Road Shows better because it has more Sonny on it. But every Sonny Rollins fan should consider getting In Vienne as well. And I suppose that as a concert dvd it is a historical document as well as a collection of great music.

Here's the link to this year's Grey Cup contest. Win a Mosaic gift certificate! http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47959

Here's my pick: Montreal Alouettes, 50 points. I'm going to go with the team I expect to be the underdog because of the home field advantage, and because I think that Montreal's quarterback Anthony Calvillo will perform better under pressure than Calgary's quarterback Henry Burris. Calvillo and Burris were the two best QBs in the league this year, and they are the two finalists for the league's Most Outstanding Player Award, which will be announced Thursday. By the way, NFL fans will be familiar with Calgary's first-year head coach, John Hufnagel.

It's that time of year again! It's time for the annual Grey Cup contest. Here are the rules: 1) Pick the winning team. 2) Pick the number of total points scored by both teams. (aka the tiebreaker) Since approximately half of us will pick the winning team, picking the total points is necessary to win the contest. Your total points prediction must be a number which is a multiple of five (5). The winning tiebreaker will be the one closest to the correct answer. If two are equally close, the winner will be the lower pick. If two people pick the same thing, the first to make the pick will be the winner. THE PRIZE: A Seventeen Dollar gift certificate from Mosaic Records. That is the equivalent of one CD of a box set. Deadline: Sunday Nov. 23, 6:00 pm eastern. ***** The Grey Cup game: The Grey Cup is awarded to the world champion of what I think is the greatest game in the world, Canadian rules football. That is to say, the champion of the Canadian Football League. This year's game will be played by the Eastern champion Montreal Alouettes and the Western champion Calgary Stampeders. The location of the game is chosen years in advance. This year's game will be played in Montreal. Calgary was the better team over the course of the year, but Montreal has the unusual home field advantage. How much of a home field advantage remains to be seen, however, because fans from all over Canada have bought tickets to the game because Montreal is a great city to party in. The game's kickoff will be at 6:00 pm eastern, so that time has been designated the deadline for this contest. You can listen to the game here: http://www.am770chqr.com/index.aspx Those of you in the US with cable television can watch it on the Versus channel, which is the channel that carries the NHL hockey games. You can study the season as it has developed with the CFL thread, starting about post #100: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;#entry855325 Good luck!

Montreal Alouettes 36....Edmonton Eskimos 26 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4191210 A tale of two games. For the first quarter and a half, the Eskimos dominated and led 13-3. Then the Als woke up and dominated the rest of the game. Edmonton's offense disappeared till the fourth quarter. Montreal was greatly aided by two punt returns for TDs by Larry Taylor of 64 and 97 yards. ***** Calgary Stampeders 22....British Columbia Lions 18 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...7424961-cp.html Exciting defensive game. Calgary held BC to six Paul McCallum field goals.

I have read that Cannonball's Mercy, Mercy, Mercy album was not as advertised. I don't recall if it was recorded in front of a few people in the studio (which I think is what happened), or if it was recorded in another club.

Congratulations guys! I wonder if Downbeat has reviewed other self-produced privately-issued albums. It's been a long time since I've been to a store that carries it.

Fred Williams Finals preview http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4190906 ***** As I recall, the league discourages teams from making any news (such as firings or trades or signings) during Grey Cup Week, so that the media attention will be focused on the game and the Awards. So I expect that there won't be any headlines between tomorrow's games and Thursday's Awards banquet.

When this album first came out (in August of '64 as I recall), Al Hirt appeared at the downtown Maison Blanche department store to autograph copies, so I got mine inscribed. It said something like, "To GA, Al Hirt"!

Congratulations Jim, Joe and Randy! I was thinking along the same line as Moose - that eight years was about the length of The Beatles' recording career.

Happy Birthday Eric! You seem to me to be a different person without your Kansas Jayhawk logo!

The offensive all star team was announced today. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...lobeSports/home

The Quebec Liberal government is offering to contribute $50 million (if they win the election) to a proposed $660 million Quebec City complex which will include a football stadium for a CFL team and a hockey arena for an NHL team. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports

Today I received an email from JHS saying that I would no longer be required to decline the monthly offer. So if they want to spend money sending me their newsletter each month, I don't care.

This comes as a surprise to me. The Bombers fired Doug Berry today. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...lobeSports/home ***** The league's defensive all-star team was named today. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...7389221-cp.html The offensive team will be announced tomorrow.

RIP. Another artist from my youth gone. I read not long ago a critic's comment (could be b.s., I don't know) that Mitchell attempted to apply Elvin Jones drumming to rock music.

LOL at all of you! Lon, I will step back and allow you to be the king of Latin here! I struggled through four years of high school Latin. Each grading period, I would get straight F's, only to be given a D out of pity as the final grade for the semester. I guess it shows, huh?

I noticed this morning that the winner of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile race the other day was a horse named Albertus Maximus, which is Latin for Big Al. Al, do you have more money than we realize to spend on horse racing? http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/bre...tory?id=3663387

I cancelled my membership tonight. I only placed a couple of orders over the time I was a member. There was always an album or two in each catalogue that appealled to me, but by and large the selection wasn't compelling, and the prices weren't motivating.

Herb Score died Tuesday. If you ever see the film clip of the ball hitting his face, you'll never forget it. I have read that Gil McDougall was never the same player after that either. I read an interview a few years ago in which he said that it was not widely known that after he recovered from his injury he developed a sore arm, and that caused him to lose his greatness. From the AP: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,2234049.story Herb Score dies at 75; Cleveland Indians pitcher turned to broadcasting after line drive altered his pitching career Email Picture Mark Duncan / Associated Press Cleveland Indians broadcaster Herb Score waves to the crowd as he is honored before a game in 1997. Score died on Tuesday at his home in Rocky River, Ohio. Associated Press 4:25 PM PST, November 11, 2008 Herb Score, the Cleveland Indians pitcher and former broadcaster whose promise on the mound was shattered by a line drive, died Tuesday at his home in Rocky River, Ohio, the team said in a statement. He was 75 and had needed a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2002. A hard-throwing left-hander, Score pitched for the Indians from 1955 to '59. He was named American League Rookie of the Year in 1955 after going 16-10. He went 20-9 in 1956 and was twice named to the All-Star team. He also led the American League in strikeouts in 1955 and 1956. But Score's career took a sad and nearly tragic turn on May 7, 1957, when Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees lined a ball off Score's right eye, breaking his nose and a number of bones in his face. As Score lay on the field covered in blood, the public-address announcer asked the crowd at Municipal Stadium, "If there is a doctor in the stands, will he please report to the playing field." Fearful of being hit again, Score changed his pitching motion, with less than favorable results. After two losing seasons in Cleveland he pitched parts of three seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He didn't win more than nine games a season after the injury and retired in 1962 with a 55-46 record and 837 strikeouts in 858-plus innings. "Herb Score . . . would've been just as good if not better than Sandy Koufax if it wouldn't have been for his injury to his eye," Bob Feller, a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Indians, said Tuesday "And Sandy Koufax was the best pitcher I ever saw in my lifetime. Herb was a very dear friend of mine." Not long after ending his playing career, Score began a second one when he joined the Indians' TV broadcast team in 1964. He moved to radio in 1968, where his deep voice and thick New York accent became a fixture for generations of Indians fans. He retired from broadcasting after the 1997 season, his 34th in the booth. Score was named to Cleveland's 100th anniversary team in 2001. He was inducted into the Indians Hall of Fame in 2006. From the outset, Score showed as much promise as the three future Hall of Famers -- Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Feller -- he joined on the Cleveland staff. During his 1955 rookie year, Score recorded 245 strikeouts, a rookie record that stood until 1984, when it was broken by the New York Mets' Dwight Gooden. Score followed that up by going 20-9 with a 2.53 earned-run average and a league-leading 263 strikeouts in 1956. But the solidly built lefty had an awkward pitching motion that left him vulnerable to balls hit back through the mound. Although the Indians languished for decades during Score's broadcasting tenure, his last game was Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. As it turned out, the Indians blew a ninth-inning lead and lost it in the 11th, missing a chance to end a World Series title drought dating to 1948. Score offered a brief personal send-off to listeners that night. "And so that is the season for 1997," he said. "And there's very little else we can say except to tell you it's been a pleasure. I would like to thank all the fans for their kindness over the years. You've been very good to me. And we hope that whoever sits in this chair next, you'll be as kind to them as you have been to me." Score was born June 7, 1933, in Rosedale, N.Y. He was signed by the Indians as an amateur free agent on June 7, 1952. He is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Nancy, and three children.

Happy Birthday S.O.W.!