Signatures

Pigskin Preview

A week ago I was visiting my best friend Skip and enjoying a full day of college football on his massive 85" Ultra-HD television. The picture was pretty amazing, and for the most part the game results were awesome as well.

That is going to be more of a problem today. Iowa State plays
on the road at Oklahoma State,
Notre Dame is on the road at North Carolina State, Army is on the road at Duke, and undefeated Air Force
is on the road at Wyoming.

Skip's Penn State Nittany Lions are at home, but have to play 4-0 Maryland. Navy plays at home as well, but faces No. 6 Houston. Boston College already got my weekend off to a losing start, falling 56-10 at home to No. 3 Clemson Friday night.

"There's going to be a lot of cursing today, isn't there?"

That is a definite possibility, yes...

Postseason Perfecto

On October 8, 1956 Don Larsen of the New York Yankees threw the only perfect game in major league postseason history, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 in Game 5 of the World Series. The Yankees won that series in seven games despite losing the first two.

The only other no-hitter in postseason history was thrown by Philadelphia Phillies star Roy Halladay against the Cincinnati Reds in the 2010 National League Division Series, giving up only a 5th inning walk.

In one of those baseball coincidences that
I love so much, during the 2010 regular season Halladay also threw one of the other 22 perfect games in major league history, against the Florida Marlins.

"Larsen wasn't even a big star or anything, was he?"

Far from it...he pitched for seven different teams in his career, and finished with a losing career record...but that's one of the great things about baseball...on any given day...

Dad Humor

From the droll comic strip Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, which you should read every day, as I do.

Until Next Time...

There are countless stories in the entertainment business of phenomenal talents whose careers were derailed by their own self-destructive impulses, but it is tough to top the meteoric rise and epic fall of Jerry Lee Lewis.

When scandal derailed his career in 1958 he was one of the biggest stars in rock and roll music, thanks in no small part to his April 1957 release "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." That legendary breakthrough quickly became his signature song, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and No. 1 on the R&B and Country charts. Jerry Lee's recording made Rolling Stone magazine's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and
in 2005 it was selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry curated by the Library of Congress.

And "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" wasn't even Lewis's biggest hit that year...

Original 1957 45 rpm single

On October 8, 1957 Jerry Lee sat down in the Sun Studio recording room and pounded out a raucous cover of "Great Balls of Fire,"
a high-octane rocker written by pianists Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer.

That single sold more than a million copies in the first 10 days after its release, and went on to sell several million more. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was also eventually picked for the Rolling Stone greatest-songs list.


Not many artists have two signature songs, much less two released within a few months of each other. Despite his career struggles, Jerry Lee deservedly made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of its inaugural class of inductees in 1986.

Today's send-off is the iconic hit Jerry Lee recorded in Memphis 59 years ago today. Enjoy...