Two of the greatest icons in Philadelphia's history ... Veteran's Stadium and Rocky Balboa
Take the quiz:
What Philadelphia Phillie Are You?
I am Jimmy Rollins
I hit leadoff in high school and drove the ball to the power alleys. I played solid defensively and used my speed on the basepaths. And my eye was a lot more disciplined than J-Roll.
I'd like to meet:
"The Life of a Philadelphia Sports Fan: 23 (at this point 25) Years of Passion and Tears"
By: John Gale
Music:
Rock: Metallica, Linkin Park, Guns N Roses, Aerosmith. Classic Rock: Springsteen, Seger, Billy Joel, The Eagles, The Police, Led Zeppelin. Rap: 2Pac, DMX, Eminem. There's a lot more, I'll listen to anything.
Movies:
Terence: "What happened to your father?"
Ray: "He never made it as a ballplayer so he tried to get his son to make it for him. By the time I was 10, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14 I started to refuse ... can you believe that? An American boy refusing to have a catch with his father?"
Terence: "Why 14?"
Ray: "That's when I read The Boat Rocker by Terence Mann."
Terence: "Oh God ... "
Ray: "I never played catch with him again."
Terence: "You see, that's the kind of crap people always have to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father!"
Ray: "I know! Anyway, when I was 17, I packed my things, said something awful, and left. After a while, I wanted to come home, but I didn't know how ... made it back for the funeral, though."
[The scene turns to night, hours after their initial conversation]
Terence: "What was the awful thing you said ... "
[Ray, having forgotten the conversation, looks confused]
Terence: "... to your father?"
Ray: "Oh ... I said I could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal."
Terence: "Who was his hero?"
Ray: "Shoeless Joe Jackson."
Terence: "You knew he wasn't a criminal."
[Ray nods and agrees]
Terence: "Then why'd you say it?"
Ray: "I was 17 .......... the son of a bitch died before I could take it back .... before I could tell him ...... you know ...... he never met my wife. He never saw his grandaughter ... "
Terence: "This is your penance."
Ray: "I know. I can't bring my father back ... "
Terence: " ... so the least you can do is bring back his hero. Well ..... now I know what everybody's purpose here is ......... except mine."
Figgsy: "It's all bullshit."
Freddy: "You, Figgs, are the bullshit!"
Figgsy: "Smarten fuckin up!"
Freddy: "You even turned your back on Tunney when he needed your help! Figgs! I'm gonna find Superboy and I'm gonna bring him in! And for once everybody in this town is gonna tell the truth!"
Figgsy: "You gotta find him first, Freddy!"
Freddy: "I'll find him!"
Figgsy: "Listen to me: I got a check in my pocket for two hundred thousand dollars. I got a chance to start my life again. I don't give a shit about this town, I don't give a shit about that town, and I don't give a shit about your fuckin justice! Being right is not a bulletproof vest, Freddy!"
Parole Board Guy: "Ellis Boyd Redding: your files say you've served forty years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?"
Red: "Rehabilitated? Well now, let me see ... I don't have any idea what that means."
Parole Board Guy: "Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society ---"
[Red cuts him off]
Red: "I know what you think it means, sonny. To me it's just a made up word. A politician's word so that young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?"
Parole Board Guy: "All right."
Red: "There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him ... tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I gotta live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit."
[The Parole Board Guy approves Red's request]
Books:
In high school, I read these:
The Grapes of Wrath
The Hot Zone
A Time to Kill
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Good Earth
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead
... as well as a bunch of Shakespeare plays ...
I've since read:
What Cops Know
Blue Blood
Philadelphia: A 300 Year History
The Great Philadelphia Fan Book
Pouring Six Beers at a Time and Other Stories from a Lifetime of Baseball
I'm in the middle of reading:
Murdered By Mumia
Books I'll read in the future:
Open to suggestions - maybe that NE Philly book my sister told me about
Heroes:
Mom and Dad.
.. ..
"There's shooting going on over here! I need the police here right away!"
Saint Michael, heaven's glorious commissioner of police, who once so neatly and successfully cleared God's premises of all its undesirables, look with kindly and professional eyes on your earthly force.
Give us cool heads, stout hearts, and uncanny flair for investigation and wise judgment.
Make us the terror of burglars, the friend of children and law-abiding citizens, kind to strangers, polite to bores, strict with law-breakers and impervious to temptations.
You know, Saint Michael, from your own experiences with the devil, that the police officer's lot on earth is not always a happy one; but your sense of duty that so pleased God, your hard knocks that so surprised the devil, and your angelic self-control give us inspiration.
And when we lay down our night sticks, enroll us in your heavenly force, where we will be as proud to guard the throne of God as we have been to guard the city of all the people.
Amen.
Daniel Faulkner
Pat Tillman
