

Spy Game and Notorious
Alfred Hitchcock had a pretty good sense of the landscape of the just before and just after World War II. His 1940 film not only foresaw the march to War, but of the need to get the US involved in the War, ending on a call to help the allies. Notorious, from 1946, foresaw some of the implications of Nazis and Nazi-sympathizers without a sanctuary in Europe and facing treason trials in the US. Notorious (1946) opens on a treason trial in the US for a Nazi sympathizer and the r


2001: An Attack on America
This installment is more than just the 2001 season, it also covers a couple of other games in other seasons of the twenty-first century where the season was interrupted in a couple of ways for just a single game. 2001 Highest paid player: Alex Rodriguez, $22 Million US President: George W. Bush In the News: US Spy Plane crash lands in China, 24 US crew members detained for 11 days by the Chinese Government. Timothy McVey executed for the Oklahoma City Bombing Still unsolved a


Watchmen and Comic Book Vigilantes
Superheroes are vigilantes working outside of the law for good, or their interpretation of "good." There are times in film that the public or lawmakers reach the limit of what extra-judicial behavior they are willing to take from these actors These vigilantes or super-powered people are then required to register with the government or make their behavior completely illegal. This concepts have been visited a number of times in comics and graphic novels and ultimately come to t


1995: Win Above Replacements
The game was going to come back in some form. We were saved from a sham of a season at the last moment and were treated with a new era of baseball that would shape nearly a decade of the game. Who saved baseball? They all did. 1995 Highest Paid Player: Cecil Fielder $9,237,500 US President: Bill Clinton In the News Oklahoma City Bombing Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin slain by Jewish extremist at peace rally US bail out of Mexican Economy as the price of the Peso crashed

1994: A Year Without Playoffs
It was a year as I was just starting to get excited by baseball and then it went away without a World Series. It was the heyday of cheap baseball cards, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and a slew of exciting stars of the 1990's. Ken Burns' Baseball documentary first aired on PBS. It was lost season that delayed a dynasty and was last shot for another franchise to succeed. Ironically, this was a great time for kids to get interested in the game that the league hasn't seen quite a