A celebration of sorts

In Cleveland , Ohio major league baseball is a celebration of losing traditions. Like some sorry old dog that reappears after it's drunken owner whoops on it , baseball season rolls around back here every year since the inception of the American League in 1901. Since 1901 the Cleveland American League teams entered have managed to capture the world series flag only twice , 1920 and 1948. Second place finishes are not really worth mention. Losing is losing and Cleveland professional baseball is a career study in loss. Sitting in the grandstand a few rows back from the home team dugout this past Tuesday evening's game with the Baltimore Orioles with my old pal Steinie gave me plenty of time to get a real closeup view of two last place teams " playing out the string". Both of these teams seasons are over , all that remains is the month of September for their 2008 efforts. Watching the village idiot manager Eric Wedge visit the pitching mound gave me the feeling that the creepy cabal of dunces led by Wedge and GM Shapiro have managed to take a first place team in 2007 {whose choke in the ALCS remains my favorite example of Cleveland baseball losing traditions in the 21st century } and due to their off season inactivity resulted in a 2008 cellar dwelling . Baseball demands tradition and it is insulting to watch third base coach Joel Skinner at work this season. Skinner's pivotal error in base running judgement in the 2007 ALCS would have cost him his job in any major league city save Cleveland. Losing is rewarded here. The 2008 Cleveland American League team is more akin to the high minor league teams that were fielded here in the seventies and eighties , insulting any hometown fans sober enough to notice , and led by such rank amateur players as Rick Manning and his like. The reason for attending games then was always to watch the opposing teams real baseball clubs chew up the home team. Baltimore fielded great teams who fielded competitive teams from the mid sixties through the early eighties. I recall a night game in the mid seventies that went extra innings at the old Cleveland Stadium that was approaching the American League one a.m. cutoff , that forced Brooks Robinson to come off the Orioles bench to put away the hapless Cleveland team with a pinch hit home run down the left field line that made a deafening clatter as it bounced from seat to concrete. Lights out tribe fans , home a little after one a.m. Could not have been more than a few hundred fans left in the stadium to witness Brooks walk off dinger. A few years later I attended a game at the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium after dining at Brooks restaurant a few blocks from the Baltimore stadium. The food was all right , she crab soup , crab cakes , white tablecloths good service , though the baseball fans led by upper deck leather lunged " Wild Bill Nagy " a real trip to witness. We sat in the section occupied by this local rabid Baltimore Orioles fan Nagy and were amazed by his active antics versus the lonely drumbeat metered out by the Cleveland equivalent John Addams and his incessant annoying drumming in the Cleveland Stadium bleachers. Then who would have guessed it ? The Orioles fielded competitive teams based on superb pitching and stellar defense , led by real managers , a stellar roster , and embodied by playing baseball " the Oriole Way" , described by Cal Ripkin Senior as " perfect practice makes perfect". The opposite held sway in Cleveland baseball traditions , drunkenness , wife swapping , mental illness , horrible trades , and managerial incompetence the bell weather for losing that continues to this very day in Cleveland American league baseball traditions. The last real competent field manager the Cleveland American League team hired was Al Lopez , and he was gone by the late nineteen fifties....... It is with great sadness that I take my hat off to the sad fate suffered by Detroit baseball fans in the loss of their beloved baseball architectural gem Tiger Stadium. Having watched fifty or so games at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell from it's original green colored confines to it's later blue painted interiors , I feel that this is a loss of no small matter. The upper deck " Tigers Den" seats perhaps the best in baseball. The flagpole in deep center field unique as the lower deck bleachers. The right field overhang which dated back to it's original place as the area behind home plate. The legion of half nuts fans that graced the upper deck bleachers , giving it an insane asylum on holiday air unique in baseball. I could go on. Comerica Park is a large mistake and indicative of the new generation faux intimate baseball stadiums that plague professional baseball today. I would no sooner visit Comerica park than I would revisit Camden Yards. I visited Camden Yards to watch a game in the 1993 season and witnessed the end of traditional baseball from a fans point of view. We sat in the lower grandstand of Camden Yards past the third base line towards left field and spent the game staring into right field due to the position of the seating. To view the balls and strikes or infield play meant to spend the game with the neck tilted right. Good night! Same goes for the majority of the baseball stadiums constructed since. Commerica, Progressive , Camden Yards. All the same to me. Phony and without any real heart and soul. I do not easily suffer the fool these days so attendance out of pocket at any professional baseball game played at home or on the road best come with a positive hook. No Commerica Park in my future though I sure do miss Tiger Stadium already............In this season of loss , I prefer to end on a high note. I was fortunate enough to witness Cleveland catcher Kelly Shoppach's five extra base hit performance earlier this month. Rebuilding a team like the 2008 Cleveland American League baseball team starts with a solid catcher. Shoppach might fit the bill.The 2009 is sooner than you think , and it is time to start cleaning house now from the top , Shapiro , down , Wedge. Those tow jokers , like Rick Manning and his ilk need to be excised once nad for good from this town along with the sorry racist mascot wahoo and that little stinking pinko hallucination slider. Ughh!

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Central Market site chosen for downtown Cleveland, Mule Trekking comes to Cleveland

As all of us civic minded souls realize , within the web of any city worth it's salt in the world a vibrant central market exists. Cleveland , Ohio had in it's downtown design such an area for over two hundred years , until it was spirited away in a shady election fueled by the ignorant local fish wrap propaganda mill , da p.d. , and replaced by a faux intimate baseball stadium and indoor sports arena. All over the world , markets similar to the late Cleveland Central Market are being celebrated and given the dignity that they deserve. See Mimi Sheraton's New York Times article of November 18, 2007 " Markets as both Feast and Spectacle" , for an idea of the reverence and acclaim that public markets are in receipt of throughout the civilized world today. A tiny public space exists today between the corporate arena and corporate baseball stadium , comprised of a bench illustrated with some art works that commemorate the Central Market. A small insignificant homage to a rather large piece of Cleveland history. The powers that ran Cleveland into the current sad state of affairs that it is today from their cozy suburban digs , did not like the colorful Central Market , and made it their dire business to first run into the ground and then finish off by choosing it's grounds as the site for their corporate welfare plans involving publicly financed sports stadiums. Our loss as citizens , turned into a major gain for the vested powers that be , and those they serve. The Central Market and it's vendors were shipped east to George Forbes Glenville neighborhood , and existed in a diminished form at a new location at East 105Th and Saint Clair Avenue until closing for good in 2007.... Time has come to build a new Central Market in downtown Cleveland , Ohio. A legal end run was committed in the haste to destroy the old Central Market , and build the stadiums. Part of the land that the current baseball stadium is built upon had been donated in perpetuity as a site for a public market by it's previous owners who donated this space to the City of Cleveland with this proviso. Some foot gazing , gee whizzing , and shuffling of papers done , with the result being the ignorance of the benefactors wishes for a permanent Central Market in downtown Cleveland near the intersection of Carnegie and Ontario Streets. It seems that today in the year 2008 , just such a parcel of unused land exists in a triangular fashion at that very intersection of Carnegie and Ontario Streets. Perfect for a small Central Market to serve the burgeoning aesthetic tastes of new downtown citizens , chuckle loudly here, and the visitors to the baseball stadium alike.Just imagine the healthy alternatives of fresh fruits and vegetables that could be carried into the baseball stadium by the sack full , to augment the current slew of greasy meats and nacho cheese dishes served currently to the customers indulging in our National Game. Not to mention the ultimate end usage of these perishable fruits and vegetables in case the home team receives a bad call from an umpire , or a visiting teams player becomes obstreperous. Fresh barrel roasted truly hot peanuts , a variety of smoked meats , and fresh cheeses would be available as well. The honorable city of Baltimore , Maryland has six public markets that are City run and managed , and prove an integral part of the old world charm that graces that City. These markets are dotted throughout Baltimore and are open six days per week. A larger privately run market the historic Lexington market exists in downtown Baltimore and is the comparative size of our West Side Market. The Lexington Market has a great number of prepared food stands as well If you visit the Lexington Market be certain to visit the J.W. Faidley Seafood Company , faidleyscrabcakes.com, and sample their stupendous homemade lump crab cakes. One taste of this crab cake and you will be spoiled for life when ordering a similar knock off in any other City. The proof is in the crab cakes simple fresh preparation using Maryland shore blue crab backfin meat , and Faidley's does it best. Faidley's for local raw oysters as well. Just ask my pal Slipsy JR , who is a first class gourmand and trencherman of some repute. Visit the Baltimore Public Markets Internet home page at bpmarkets/markets.html , for a better view of these proud facilities and a glimpse of what could be in a truly , sic , progressive , Cleveland.....And what could possibly be more awarding than a nice vacation to Cleveland , Ohio and the opportunity to take your family mule - trekking around our fair city ? I have heard from a reliable source that the currently vacant East Ninth Street Pier , former home of the ultra fabulous Captain Frank's Seafood Restaurant, will be developed as a state of the arts stable building for a herd of mules to be used in our tourist trade sometime in early 2009. Some arguement is being tossed about by the adjoining tourist activities , rock and roll hall of fame , and Cleveland oranges football stadium. Seems that they are fighting over the scraps left over from the mule stalls. As if they do not have enough of their own! Mule trekking is quite the international rage , and acknowledged as a great family tourism event , why should we be denied of such a progressive activity here on the south shore of Lake Erie? Currently the mule trekking stable plans are tied into the potential jet boat pavilion and customs house planned to house the water ferry to Canada, and we will avail you of more information concerning these exciting downtown tourist attractions as it becomes available to us. Mule trekking routes are in their nascent planning stages , with routes to historic League Park via Superior Avenue and Payne Avenue onto Chinatown slated as a logical first choice. Future plans include 20 mule team wagons for the longer journey to University Circle , and our cultural institutions on Cleveland's east side , including a luxurious hay and straw station planned for the corner of East 18th and Superior. For more information concerning current mule trekking events visit www.muletrekking.com. Oh boy I can't wait for the mules to return to the street level in Cleveland , and crawl down from those lofty peaks they currently occupy. Book Selling Time! All this talk about mules , crabs ,and Baltimore , maketh me hungry. We offer today a copy of a famous cook book entitled MARYLAND'S WAY , The Hammond Harwood House Cook Book. A bargain at $5.90 , exactly .90 more than it was sold for when published in 1963. I will throw in my recipe for crab cakes for free. The first and most difficult task for cooking up qualitry crab cakes is to locate native blue crab meat these days. Living in Cleveland , Ohio presents a problem , so if you know any person travelling to our East Coast who can procur a few pounds please have them pick you up a pound or two of lump backfin meat , or claw meat if the lump is not available. The current one pound cans of fresh crab meat are rather oxymoronic in that they originate from southeast Asia , and are pasturized for safety purpouse , and lack any real flavor. When I resided in North Carolina thirty years ago , we would often take our crab traps , wire trap baskets with a long piece of rope attached , and find a piece of costal water and trap our own blue crabs for dinner. A fairly easy way of fetching your dinner> Using a mullet ,or other cheap fish attached to the traps bottom with fish line , merely drop the trap into the water , where the trap opens , wait for a crab[ s] to scurry and crawl into the trap and pull the rope up , closing the wire basket around the crabs. Heave ho , repeat process until a basket is filled, boil water with crab seasoning and a little vinegar , cook a few minutes and go to work with nut pick and hands , bib around your neck of course. Cold beverage optional but recommended. Natty Bo was our fave back in the day. Lets get back to the crab cakes at hand. I have found Asian markets to carry fresh blue crabs when they are in season , and it is work , but picking over three or four pounds of blue steamed crabs will provide a pound or so of meat for cakes , if you can stay focused on the task at hand , and not eat the catch prior to the cakes.Recipe on! Take a pound of native crab meat and combine it with a shot of Worcestershire sauce , salt and pepper , paprika , and dry mustard , old bay seasoning , to taste and a few slices of torn and lightly oven toasted commercial soft white bread that you have removed the crusts from and soaked in a quarter cup of whole cream or half and half. Combine all of these ingredients along with some melted butter and a small dab of commercial mayonnaise in a mixing bowl , and form by hand lightly into cakes. You should have mostly crab meat and spices staring back at you , not the dry bread crumb cakes that you are familiar with at your local restaurant. Take these cakes and place one or two to a low pie tin , and after dotting with a bit more butter place under your pre heated broiler for a maximum of two minutes or less.By using buttermilk or whole cream instead of the ubiquitous egg , you are able to taste more of the crab in the crab cake , not the egg flavor that requires frying the cake. If you have steamed and picked the crabs yourself , the meat is already prepared , so reheating it in cake form is merely introducing the crab meat to its natural friends butter and cream and spices. It has been a good many years since I have visited Baltimore , Maryland and the Chesapeake shore , yet I have amazing fond memories of this old and wise American country. Reading Shirley Povich baseball and sports columns in The Washington Post , spoiled me for life in that department. So di the great flavors of Baltimore, Maryland. Life provides kind moments , and it was not that many years ago , perhaps twelve or so, when a stunningly beautiful fair young woman wandered into this Book store and within the course of conversation mentioned that she was native to the Chesapeake shore . She also mentioned that her Father was an oysters man , and that by my description were the very oysters that I had purchased in previous trips to Baltimore at Faidley's market. How could I tell , you might ask? The oysters that this Maryland gentleman sold were tonged out by his very hands in ages old fashion and were the last to be received at Faidley's put up fresh in glass mason jars. Wouldn't you know it , but later that spring she returned bearing a glass jar that her Father had tonged the very day and sent her back to Cleveland with to give me as a present. I about broke into tears for the beauty of that moment , and it is that very sort of human kindness that now seems so rare and distant in this modern Internet age. Those very oysters came from this man's private beds , and he made for me the greatest of all gifts. Wild food , hand harvested , and no more process than sliding them into a cool glass jar , and sending them my way with his strikingly petite and gorgeous daughter. That my friends is life at it's best , and a true story to boot!

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