Remember, Remember The 5th Of November (Again)

Do you remember, remember, the fifth of November? Aside from being the day after the New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series, it's also widely known as Guy Fawkes Day—a day that has some significance not just for our revolutionary-minded readers, but also for comic book fans in general thanks to Alan Moore's "V For Vendetta."

Guy Fawkes, a 17th century revolutionary, attempted to blow up England's Parliament building on November 5, 1605, in what is now commonly referred to as as the Gunpowder Plot. After getting caught, tortured and subsequently executed by British authorities, Fawkes' efforts and likeness became immortalized through parables, rhymes and other such stories—including comic books.

Moore's "V For Vendetta"—the graphic novel that inspired James McTeigue's 2005 film starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman—focuses on a vigilante named V that's taken more than a few cues from the long-deceased Fawkes, including the constant use of a mask resembling Fawkes' face. Like Fawkes, V works to overthrow a government that he deems thoroughly corrupt, systematically targeting many of England's landmarks including the aforementioned Parliament.

"V For Vendetta" boasts no shortage of memorable dialogue, but the words that most readers seem to remember involve that fateful day of November 5th.

(source:mtv.com)

Remembering Sparky Anderson

Tigers manager Sparky Anderson was in hospice care suffering from the effects of dementia, the Hall of Famer manager passed away on Thursday, at the age of 76. Anderson is best known for his back-to-back World Series titles as manager of the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati teams in 1975 and 1976. Two years later, he was fired after leading the team to two second-place finishes, losing the pennant race in the National League West by 10 games and two and a half games, respectively, in his final two seasons (if it had existed in the two-division format 32 years ago, Anderson’s Reds would have won the 1978 Wild Card). He was quickly picked up by the Tigers, and, by his seventh season at the helm, transformed them from a fifth-place team to a World Series winner, in 1984.

When he resigned as manager of the Tigers in 1995, Anderson ranked third in all-time managerial wins (he is now sixth), and left the game as the first manager to win titles in both leagues. “His players loved him, he loved his players, and he loved the game of baseball,” former Red Pete Rose told ESPN on Thursday. “There isn’t another person in baseball like Sparky Anderson. He gave his whole life to the game.” Jerry Crown of the Los Angeles Times notes that, six times in eight seasons, from 1970 to 1977, Anderson managed the National League MVP: Johnny Bench in 1970 and 1972, Rose in 1973, Joe Morgan in 1975 and 1976, and George Foster in 1977. “Only Joe Torre of the St. Louis Cardinals in ‘71 and Steve Garvey of the Dodgers in ‘74 broke the Reds’ stranglehold,” Crowe writes.

Anderson also became a bit of a legend for his unique, sometimes circuitous way of doing three things:

1. He was nicknamed “Captain Hook” for his yanking of starters. “People say I was five years ahead of the league, having more saves than complete games,” Anderson wrote in the foreword to the Cincinnati Inquirer’s 2006 baseball preview section. “But I didn’t do it because it was in some book. I did it because we didn’t have but a couple of guys who could go much past six innings.”

2. He had a way of butchering words, player names, and sentences. Writers loved him for it, and often mistook him for an extrovert, but in a 1993 story by Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin, Anderson refuted that notion. “My real name is George, and that’s the name I like best, and it’s who I am. Sparky was given to me as a player, and it stayed with me. But George is who I am, and when I hit spring training, it takes me four or five days to become Sparky again. My wife, she always knows when I switch over from George to Sparky.”

3. He tweaked lineups constantly. “Sparky was sometimes the only one who understood his Byzantine lineup changes,” Rushin wrote on Thursday. “A confused scoreboard operator at Tiger Stadium once posted in lights: Now Batting Number 11 Sparky Anderson.”

With all of his accomplishments, it’s actually a surprise when one finds out that Anderson’s number hasn’t been retired by the team. “The Tigers deprived their fans from being able to show their love and gratitude for the manager who helped give Detroit some of its finest baseball memories,” MLive.com’s Ian Casselberry writes. “And now, it’s too late.”

(source:blogs.wsj.com)