#Leo Dimaggio

[prismatoxic]

4KIDS DUNGEON MESHI CHARACTER LIST

Laios Touden - Larry Thorton (he's smart and knowledgeable about monsters and his friends always support him) Falin Touden - Felicity Thorton Marcille Donato - Mary DiMaggio (she's more italian now. refers to felicity as her "bestie" on numerous occasions. heavily implied to be in love with larry) Chilchuck Tims - Charles Chuck (he has a goatee and all instances of his age being questioned in canon are replaced with him being made fun of for his bad facial hair. all mentions of a union are gone) Senshi - Samuel Izutsumi - Isabelle (was tulip in the old party)

Kabru - Kyle (very overtly an evil antagonist who wants to hurt larry, also openly in love with rebecca) Rin - Rebecca Holm - Harold Daya - Denise Kuro - Fido Mickbell - Maddison (a girl now and HEAVILY gendered so nobody is confused)

Mithrun - Michael (also blatantly evil, like kyle) Pattadol - Patty Cithis - Cindy Otta - Oswald (a man now, and given pants) Fleki - Fran (a crazy lady now, but not because of drugs! she's just kooky and silly) Lycion - Lupin

Mr. and Mrs. Tansu - Mr. and Mrs. Thompson Kaka - Kenneth Kiki - Kennedy Namari - Nancy (her dad vanished one day without a trace for unknown reasons and she's been trying to get him back)

Toshiro Nakamoto - Thaddeus Nicholson (everyone thinks his name is chad, he and felicity are openly engaged) Maizuru - Marigold Hien - Holly Benichidori - Bluebell Inutade - Ivy

Sissel/Thistle - Poppy (a girl now) Delgal - Dennis Yaad - Edward The Winged Lion - Leo, until his true nature is revealed, and then Lucifer

and now, some screenshots from @sleepiercreature:

[astroa3h]

Marilyn Monroe & Joe DiMaggio’s Composite Chart Explained

For Personal Readings Visit: astroash.net TikTok - astroa3h

Virgo Sun in the 11th House

Opposite Moon

Their partnership revolved around a shared dedication to humanitarian causes, friendships, and dreams. However, Virgo's perfectionism may have created an unrealistic expectation of their relationship. The sun's opposition to the moon suggests inner tension between their practical nature and emotional needs.

Pisces Moon in the 5th House

Conjunct Uranus

The moon indicates a deep emotional connection, emphasized in the house of romance and creativity. Their love was sensitive and dreamy, but Uranus' conjunction brought unexpected shifts and intense emotions, contributing to an unpredictable, roller-coaster-like relationship. Their quick marriage and divorce, defying Hollywood norms, aligns with this conjunction.

Libra Rising

Square Lilith

This shows me a public image of harmony, grace, and charm. However, the square with Lilith points to a private struggle with taboos and societal expectations, reflecting their struggle with public image and personal life.

Leo Mercury in the 11th House

Opposite Jupiter

Their communication was flamboyant and dramatic, with a tendency to dramatize their thoughts and ideas, possibly for public attention. The opposition with Jupiter may have led to overstatements or exaggerations. Big news like Marilyn's iconic 'skirt-blowing' scene for 'The Seven Year Itch,' which reportedly upset DiMaggio, fits the dramatic communication style indicated here.

Aquarius Venus in the 5th House 17° (Fame Degree)

Conjunct Jupiter

his emphasized their attraction to each other's uniqueness and eccentricities. Being on the "fame degree", it points to their relationship being in the public eye. Jupiter's conjunction indicates a magnifying effect, making their love story larger than life. Public demonstrations of love come to mind, DiMaggio's 20-year ritual of sending roses to Monroe's grave.

Aquarius Mars in the 4th House

This suggests their home life was filled with energy and spontaneity. However, the unconventional nature of Aquarius could have caused disagreements and tension on the home front. Mars in the 4th House is a cause of concern for me when looking at composite charts do to issues with domestic violence.

[chezzabellesworld]

Jane Mansfield with some celebrity that I never wanted to, they called her, the king size, Marilyn Monroe, meaning she was the Marilyn Monroe who wanted to be Marilyn Monroe even Anna Nicole Smith wanted to be Marilyn Monroe. It was only Marilyn who didn’t want to be. Marilyn Marilyn felt I fed her life, she felt trapped in this role of being the beautiful bimbo, but also in the waist intelligent wise woman who tried to escape it all with addiction.

Her being a Leo rising makes so much sense to me. Many Leo placements can have fertility issues have fertility issues often, and Marilyn supposedly suffered from endometriosis and possibly polycystic ovary syndrome much pain than anyone can imagine and was used and abused by Hollywood. She wanted to escape the abusive childhood that she enjoyed and got married at a very young age to do so to get out of the children’s home. She didn’t want to be with her husband, and then she gets married to Joe DiMaggio, who I do believe in many ways was her proper love, and she still spoke to up to her death, because he was the one who didn’t want her to have a Hollywood funeral and just have a low-key ceremony

Arthur Miller was a playwright and he was a libra. He would often leave little clues round the house on the paper and write about Marilyn and a derogatory way, so Libra very nasty for Marilyn to find that her Gemini son would be in the 11th house and her MC, tori or Aries for many Leo rising, but being a Gemini son she connected with people very easily is, especially at being in the 11th house, which was Aquarius and Uranus. You want to look for the chart ruler, and the Sun is a chart ruler in this case, so that in the 11,th 🏡 is very prevalent to how she was so popular, maybe not in her personal life, but at the public at large inside, she could’ve been going through a much more internal damage going onto Jane Mansfield, Jane Mansfield almost looked white passing. She was a Aries son cancer rising the cancer rising is obvious when you see that picture of her and Sophia Loren, who is the Virgo looking down our breathe swinging all they’re gonna pop out at any second, I have a Virgo rising brother, he’s constantly telling me to put mine away but if you have strong cancer placements motherly placements, you’re also going to have a big bust. I am going to put some pictures up now of comparing Marilyn to Jane, but both these things are quite different we don’t compare people we just showing the difference. Jane has an appeal. Marilyn had an appeal and they two completely different humans.

[charlieconwayy]

What are ur issues w Hulu Futurama?

tbh when it was announced i did have excitement in me about my number one show ever returning, but then i remembered all the bullshit that i hated in the cc run and i was just immediately skeptical and for good reason bc i am usually right. i will say that i rly am a fry/leela as characters and as a couple girlie so i am being insanely biased (my man stays dragging me saying i need to put more energy into other aspects of the show lol) but i do like other characters if the show cares about them. but that's the main issue with this revamp. the show put care into literally EVERYONE except fry and leela who are the MAIN characters. (i do think a lot of the weird "there's no main character" kinda stuff was due to bendergate - and yes i am annoyed that dimaggio allegedly has billing over billy who plays the LEAD as well as two other main characters - but it's also strange that w all that fuss, even if it was just for publicity which i doubt at this point, that bender didn't rly do all that much either?) i started noticing like two series rewatches ago that as we get later into the series, we get more planet express crew centric episodes rather than fry/leela/bender episodes, and i'm fine with that for the most part bc i adore amy and hermes, but it feels weird that they kept so much of the vibe of the cc stuff in the show considering how much most people despise those seasons.

to answer simply, almost every episode was either bad, boring, far too fanservicey (looking at you pointless parasites lost "sequel" bc how dare u shit on that episode's legacy so fucking badly), or just forgettable. the episodes i genuinely liked were children of a lesser bog, related to items you've viewed and i know what you did less xmas. i found all of those to be enjoyable and everything else to be complete and utter shit. COALB honestly surprised me bc i have never cared about kif/amy bc the show didn't rly ever care about them (always felt soooo bad for their shippers w the zapp shit and then the bender shit), and i rly rly like that they did a major status quo shift by letting them have children and actually letting those children be a part of the cast. lauren tom is mother and she killed that episode and i am so happy for her that they allowed her to show her acting chops bc i think her line delivery is insanely underrated in general. (off topic but anyone complaining ab them switching leo's voice actor to an asian man needs to grow up, that should've been the case from day one.) i knew i would enjoy RTIYV bc it was a freela status quo shift but i actually also really enjoyed the momazon plot and found it amusing/funny. very very odd that there wasn't any~major freela moments in their ONE focused episode, but w/e. it's a mixed bag bc i also would've literally died for the cc seasons to give us background stuff w them. i do love that they kind of threw back to the fry/leela/bender days with this, it felt nice and nostalgic. the xmas episode was GREAT esp bc i always hate the xmas episodes (the first one has a special place in my heart bc you're lonely and i'm lonely but together we're lonely together <3), it was so fun getting to see everyone as a family (SO happy they're acknowledging dwight and cubert exist again even tho canonically they should be grown men by now lmao) and the bender/zoidberg stuff was surprisingly sweet (honestly when they give zoidberg an ep where he bonds w any of the pe crew it's enjoyable, the hermes episode was good, the professor episode was good, now this episode is good)

now to get to my issues. i don't want to say that they shouldn't have listened to fans and given us what we want to see, but i feel like there was so much weird shit that no one was asking for? parasites regained is the most egregious example bc who tf was like "omg we need to see the worms again but this time in a gross out potty humor episode!" no one. they need to STOP with bringing back every fucking character too, like barbados slim is a good example of this. he's been used so sparingly that he is pretty loved in the fandom, but w them making hermes/labarbara an actual stable relationship (a good thing that they then immediately ruined for jokes no one finds all that funny) it was SO weird and annoying for them to play back into the "haha labarbara is cheating on hermes!" schtick again. why was the whale biologist back? why was the time machine brought back?! like i know i said i liked the xmas episode but certain things are just so iconic to the show that they need to remain untouched. pissed me off. why can't they give us shit we actually want to see? robot devil song and dance number. zoidberg/marianne (just give her another fucking voice actor if they can't get emilia clarke jfc). hedonismbot as long as he's not overused and just given a few one-off lines (did we even see him????) hmmm idk the main thing a HUGE majority of fans have been asking for for twenty fucking years in a SEQUEL TO THE WHY OF FRY????

also did anyone think it was odd how after the cc seasons cramming zapp down our throats every other episode we barely saw him?? even in COALB he was kind of irrelevant. my guess would be they didn't want to over exert billy but the professor had a ton to do so ???

there's so much else that i could probably complain about and go into but i will leave it at this: i do not like the cc seasons BUT i am glad they exist bc of the late philip j fry which is not just a perfect episode of futurama, it's a perfect episode of television. until the hulu seasons give me a TLPJF than they don't have a reason to exist. this sadly just felt like a money grab and yes, i will admit that there were good moments/episodes but as a whole, it did not need to come back. i'm hoping they're saving the masterful writing that i KNOW they can do for the next season (look at season 4! banger after banger. kif gets knocked up a notch, jurassic bark, the why of fry, the sting, the farnsworth parabox. three hundred big boys, the devil's hands are idle playthings) but tbh i feel like that fire/spark is just gone from the production team.

[necroneos]

Records (1.4k words), Melone x OC (Anguria Eccitato)

Summary: Having heard from Anguria about her coworker Dante bullying and harassing her many times, Melone decides to take action.

CW: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AND PEDOPHILIA

 “You've had your face buried in your computer all day, the hell are you doing Melone? I mean, your face is almost always buried in it but you've been typing away without stopping. Clearly it's something important or else your face wouldn't be two inches away from the screen.”

    Formaggio stared at the focused lilac-haired man from two feet away, sitting on the same couch. It was weird seeing him work so fervently like now. Usually he worked at a casual yet quick pace and finished his tasks easily. But the gray-haired male shrugged it off as Melone being Melone.

    A small ping came from the busy male's phone. Melone stopped his feverish typing to pick up the phone without a word.

    9:35 – Today sucked. Dante tried something new today and it was so gross. I know he doesn't like me and has been trying to get me fired, but today he actually tried to cop a feel! The guy grabbed at my ass and gave it a squeeze. Ew...I feel so gross.

    9:35 – B

    9:36 – Oh, sorry, didn't know you were still working. Talk to you later then

    Although his expression remained calm, he felt a mild anger begin to bubble within. Only another reason for him to continue his current task.

    By the time it was one in the morning, the male had finally got ahold of everything he needed. The only thing left to do was take action. He closed his laptop and rubbed at his uncovered eye, blinking a bit afterwards. He needed to sleep for tomorrow's event.

~*~

Neuroscience Institute of Italy, 8:30pm

    Dante decided today that he'd put in some overtime hours. But it wasn't just that, he also had to finish his report for the day. It was a pain to do but he always got it done. After the report he'd start on the overtime he set out to do. As he typed away at the computer in the empty building, he stopped when he heard a male speaking in a thoughtful voice.

    “Hmmm...Dante DiMaggio, 52 years old and born August 21, 1949. A Leo, which makes sense. A well known and respected man in both his field and community. Known as a hard-worker and has discovered new and amazing things in regards to neuroscience. Has also helped some doctors in solving patient's cases.”

    Dante swiveled his chair and stood up quickly. “Wha - ! Who the hell are you!? This building is closed to everyone but the employees. How did you get in here?”

    Sitting on a nearby desk was Melone, blue-green eyes scanning some papers held in his right hand.. His lips curled up into a small smile and he looked up, his eyes cold as he stared into Dante's.

    “How interesting. Four counts of rape. Two of four were with underage individuals. But with the power of money, you were able to keep yourself from being put on the list of known pedophiles. I also see here you have a history of sexual harassment in the work place. That seems to have been covered up as well.”

    “With the field you're in now, you'd need to cover it up to get through college and earn the PhD you currently hold. My, Dr. DiMaggio. Not only are you respected by people in your field and community, but you're also considered an expert. I wonder what would happen if everybody learned of this.”

    The doctor swallowed, gaze nervous. “W-What do you want?”

    Melone chuckled. “Well, you see, somebody I know works here. I'd appreciate it if you stop copping feels and trying to get her fired. She works very hard and I'd hate to see her in trouble.”

    “Just what are you getting at?” Dante demanded, growing even more anxious.

    “Well, I could leak all this information,” The mafia member waved the papers in his hand,”Or I can just keep it to myself. That all depends on you though, doctor. Keep bothering her or lose your job.”

    His casual smile was still plastered on his face and his eyes were still icy as he continued to stare at the other man in the room.

    “F-Fine...just don't leak that information, I beg you.”

    “A reasonable man. I like that.”

    The lilac-haired male jumped down from the desk and turned away from Dante, waving at him from over his shoulder.

    “Addio~”

~*~

The next day, 7:23pm

    7:23 – Melone, you won't believe it! For once that damn doctor didn't try anything! He seemed oddly nervous around me though. Kinda weird but whatever.

    7:30 – That's good. I was starting to get a little worried with how much you were talking about him.

    7:31 – Aw, you were worried about little old me? How cute.

    Melone stared at his phone screen with a small smile and chuckled. He set it down and got back to the many tabs open in his browser window. He had some work to do.

    After he finished his work, he walked out of the main room in his team's headquarters. He made his way to the cordless phone that sit in the other room and picked it up, dialing down the first number on his written list. With this phone, he was able to stay anonymous while he called.

    “Yes, hello. Is this Station 9? I'd like to inform you of something I believe you'll like.”

~*~

Friday, 6am

    Melone sat in his apartment on the couch, grabbing his remote. He'd called nearly all the local news stations and sent e-mails of Dr. DiMaggio's criminal record last night alongside it. He'd never planned to just let those records stay secret in the first place. While he himself could be quite the cold and calculated individual, he seemed to lose some of that cool he had when it came to Anguria. He flipped through the channels until he reached the first news channel.

    “...And in other news, shocking information was submitted last night by an anonymous caller. An e-mail containing the criminal records of Dr. Dante DiMaggio was submitted as well. A respected man in his field and community, as well as a leading expert in neuroscience.”

    “His records have revealed four counts of rape and numerous charges of sexual harassment of female coworkers. Two of these counts of rape have been found to be with underage individuals. These actions taken by Dr. DiMaggio were covered up by him through a hefty sum of money many years ago before he acquired his PhD. The board of directors are currently looking over the information with Mr. DiMaggio currently suspended.”

    The assassin's lips quirked up into a confident smirk. His work had paid off.

~*~

Friday, 4pm

    4:10 – HOLY CRAP, MEL!!!

    4:15 – What's up?

    4:17 – It's Dante! He wasn't here today and I asked a few of our coworkers. They didn't know what was up themselves. So I went to the manager and asked about it. He told me that Dante was put on suspension! I asked why and thankfully since the manager trusts me he told me. Four counts of rape and some sexual harassment! I almost can't believe it.

    4:23 – Mind if I come over at 7?

    4:23 – You don't even need to ask anymore at this point, silly. You have a copy of the apartment key.

    4:27 – A poor decision, really. I just thought I should at least ask first.

~*~

Friday, 9pm

    Anguria laid in bed tiredly, her arms wrapped around the slim and slightly bony frame of Melone. His arms were wrapped around her as well, absently drawing aimless patterns on her back with his thumb.

    “I wonder how those records got leaked though...” She murmured.

    “Doesn't matter now.” Melone only replied.

    He leaned over slightly, pressing a gentle kiss onto her head. She blushed and was thankful that he wouldn't catch it in her position. She wasn't ready to say anything to him yet as she still wasn't sure the nature of his feelings. He was a hard person to read. But she also didn't major in psychology.

    Bashfully, she leaned upwards and pressed a few slow kisses on his jaw, leading up to his cheek and eventually stopping at his neck where she nipped twice.

    “Keep going and I think we'll be awake all night.” He mused teasingly.

    “You know we both wouldn't mind~” She replied, wiggling her eyebrows and grinning.

    Because right now, Anguria only wanted to focus on the bright side. Things were going to be easier for her now.

[esoutherngolf]

The Florida Historic Golf Trail

THE FLORIDA HISTORIC GOLF TRAIL:  A HANGOUT FOR GOLF’S LEGENDS Many of today’s stars from the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, and LPGA tend to prefer playing and practicing at golf courses such as Doral, Bay Hill, The Medalist, TPC Sawgrass, Tiburon, Heathrow, and The Bear’s Club, but that’s not always been the case.  Back in the day, when golf’s household names were Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, ‘Long’ Jim Barnes, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, and Byron Nelson, the stars of yesteryear chose to play and practice on many of Florida’s first golf courses, many of which are now part of the Florida Historic Golf Trail.  Many of these golf courses were also designed by many of the game’s great golf course architects -- Donald Ross, Bertie Way, Tom Bendelow, Wayne Stiles, John van Cleek, William Langford, and Theodore Moreau.  The game’s great players followed the lead of the game’s great architects, which brought everybody to Florida. When you visit many of these 53 Florida Historic Golf Trail courses, which are as far south as the Key West Golf Club and as far west as the Pensacola Golf Club, you’ll quickly discover that many of the game’s early legends spent a great deal of time, especially during the winter, playing exhibitions, challenge matches, and tournaments on these municipal layouts.  When you play these Florida Historic Golf Trail courses, you will follow in the footsteps of the game’s early superstars – players and architects. Listed below are a series of events in the early days of Florida golf that can best be described as star-studded moments: In 1925, the Florida Open was held at the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club, a course designed by Bendelow.  The event was labeled the “Greatest Field of Golfers Ever to Play in Florida.”  Leo Diegel won the tournament.  The head pro/host of the event at Temple Terrace was Barnes, winner of the 1916 and 1919 PGA, 1921 U.S. Open, and 1925 British Open. The Miami Springs Golf and Country Club -- designed by Langford and Moreau and known initially as the Miami-Hialeah Golf Course -- was the host of the Miami Open from 1925-1955.  Many of the great legends of golf – Sarazen, Hogan, Nelson, Demaret, Snead, Nelson, and Arnold Palmer – played in the Miami Open.  Snead won it six times.  The Miami Open was the site of Palmer’s professional debut. The Fort Myers Country Club, designed by Ross and opened in 1917, has attracted several significant championship golfers such as Hagen, Sarazen, Palmer, Jock Hutchison, Horton Smith, and ‘Babe’ Didrikson Zaharias, the winner of 10 LPGA major championships. The Resort Course at the Boca Raton Resort & Club has had two of golf’s greatest champions serve as golf professionals:  Scotland’s Tommy Armour from 1926 to 1955 and Snead from 1956 to 1969.  By the way, one of Armour’s pupils was Zaharias. The Delray Beach Golf Club, designed by Ross, was the ‘home away from home for LPGA superstar Betty Jameson, the 1947 U.S. Women’s Open champion. The Miami Shores Country Club has hosted many Florida State Open golf tournaments. It has welcomed many Hall of Fame golfers such as Snead, Palmer, and Lee Trevino, the great entertainer Bob Hope and the late baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio. The Riviera Country Club hosts the longest-running mini-tour event in the nation.  It’s The Riviera Open, which began in 1960.  Some of the winners of this annual 36-hole event, held each December, including former PGA Tour regulars J.C. Goosie, Jim Dent, Morris Hatalsky, and Slugger White, a retired, longtime PGA Tour rules official.  Other past and present PGA Tour players who have played in the event include Larry Ziegler and Matt Every, a two-time winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando who played junior golf at Riviera. For more information on star sightings, back in the day, along today’s Florida Historic Golf Trail, please access FloridaHistoricGolfTrail.com Read the full article

[leothesplicer]

[norsehorse-art]

Recent drawing based on Panic! at the Disco’s song, Nicotine. I was thinking about this for a whole day before I got to actually draw it. Featuring Leo My commissions are open! Reblogs are great!

[eight-legged-norsehorse]

My beehive splicer Leo

One day I’ll run that ask blog again

[phoebehalliwell]

What bugs me about Cole is his philological age. If his human part was suppressed all that time and he wasn’t responsible for Balthazar’s action than how old was he really? How come, he was old enough to have relationships with a woman but couldn’t be held accountable for literal murders.

tbh it’s always kinda bugged me in fantasy relationships when one half (like almost always the guy) is like 1000 years old and then the girl is like. 20. and it bugs me that her endgame managed to be someone even older than cole lmao!! and then it bugs me Even More that literally no one made any jokes about this!!!!! like hello!!?!??!?! at least in buffy proper jokes are made about falling in love with men who are 400 years old like at least acknowledge it and for coop i don’t mind As much as i do with cole bc like. he wasn’t murdering people in the hundred years prior and then another reason cole’s is worse is because it was so unnecessary. like we have met demons that are just presumably like a normal age. not all demons were born in the 19th century. like he could have just been a 30 year old demon. it would have given him a lot less time to be evil. like if you really want cole to be your good guy if you really wanted him to be this misunderstood demon dude. like a century’s worth of murder is not the way to go. the source’s right hand man is Not the way to go!!

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Movie Review

I don't know how I never saw this movie before. Obviously I am a huge Batman fan and I used to love TMNT cartoon as a kid. I even enjoyed the first live action movie when it came out. I was always a big Leo fan. I never read the Batman/TMNT crossover comics, but this is definitely something I would have watched at the time of its release if I had been aware about it. The 'vs' in the title is a misnomer as this is a true blue Batfamily and TMNT team up against Shredder and Ra's al Ghul. And its quite a fun team up.

The film in essence is another plot to destroy Gotham as Ra's plans to use the Ooze given to him by Shredder, and combining it with Joker Venom to turn all of Gotham's citizens into monsters, so the city would tear itself apart. In returns, he promises to give Shredder access to the lazarus pit. So obviously, the TMNT follow Shredder to Gotham and run into Batman, who is investigating the robberies being committed by the foot clan. The film's fun is definitely watching all the various interactions between character. Its fun to see Batman fight Shredder on two separate occasions and its fun to see Batman team up with Leo, given they are the two leaders of the respective families. You see Raph and Robin bond and you see Batgirl and Donnie work together to come up with a antidote to the Ooze. The plot is clearly a fairly silly one. There is an entire section where the Arkham inmates get turned into various animals, led by the Joker and Batman, Batgirl, Robin, and the TMNT fight all the various Arkham inmates. But the film has a few inserts of some dark stuff, like Leo being exposed to Scarecrow's gas and seeing his brother be killed in a vision, which later leads him to push past his fear when he's fighting Ra's at the end. Then there is a section when Batman is turned into a monsterous Bat monster and there is a pretty strong implication that he kills Mr. Freeze. But the film knows its general tone because you have Batman saying 'cowabanga', Mikey riding a skateboard around Wayne manor to Alfred's exasperation, Mr Freeze turns into a polar bear and Ivy turns into a literal plant. So the film knows just how goofy it is by the very essence of its premise but it doesn't compromise on the essence of the Batman characters. The action scenes are fun. Definitely the Batman vs Shredder fights were a highlight for me, and the whole Arkham sequence was a lot of fun with Freeze, Ivy, Harley, Joker, Two Face, Scarecrow, Bane turning into a variety of animals. Also, the post credit scene is actually pretty neat.

When it comes to negatives, there is definitely some tonal clash. Clearly TMNT is aimed at a slightly more humor filled audience than Batman and at times it does feel a bit eye rollingly silly. The plot of turning Gotham citizens into animals is definitely something that is very much aimed at children and the fact that all the Arkham inmates are so happy to be turned into animals is also a little dumb. Shredder and the foot clan are also basically left to be side villains for Ra's, since Ra's is the one who devises the master plan. Some of the voice acting is also a little flat.

I will say that Troy Baker is a little meh as Batman. I feel he makes for a much better Joker. Cas Anwar also isn't particularly menacing as Ra's. Eric Bauza, Darren Criss, Baron Vaughn, and Kyle Mooney are all good as Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey respectively. Rachel Bloom is a solid Batgirl as is Ben Giroux as Robin. Brian George as Alfred, Tara Strong as Ivy/Harley, Dimaggio as Mr Freeze, and Andrew Kishino as Shredder are also notable. All in all, this delivers exactly what you would think would be delivered in a Batman/TMNT crossover. I hope the post credit scene of Shredder Joker means that there will be a sequel because I would love that. A 7/10 for me.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.15

221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. 589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility. 756 – Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain. 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury. 1602 – Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made). 1648 – The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty. 1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance. 1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1849 – The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished. 1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina. 1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching. 1905 – Las Vegas founded in Nevada. 1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up. 1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales. 1918 – The Finnish Civil War was ended, when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops. 1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades. 1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 – In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated. 1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe. 1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus. 1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation. 1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant. 1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft. 1941 – Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak. 1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone. 1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals. 1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren. 1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister. 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. 1997 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir. 2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles". 2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional. 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

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Willie Mays

Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "The Say Hey Kid", is an American former professional baseball center fielder, who spent almost all of his 22-season Major League Baseball (MLB) career playing for the New York/San Francisco Giants, before finishing with the New York Mets. He is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

Mays won two National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, ended his career with 660 home runs—third at the time of his retirement and currently fifth all-time—and won a record-tying 12 Gold Glove awards beginning in 1957, when the award was introduced.

Mays shares the record of most All-Star Games played with 24, with Hank Aaron and Stan Musial. In appreciation of his All-Star record, Ted Williams said "They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays."

Mays' career statistics and his longevity in the pre-performance-enhancing drugs era have drawn speculation that he may be the finest five-tool player ever, and many surveys and expert analyses, which have examined Mays' relative performance, have led to a growing opinion that Mays was possibly the greatest all-around offensive baseball player of all time. In 1999, Mays placed second on The Sporting News's "List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players", making him the highest-ranking living player. Later that year, he was also elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Mays is one of five National League players to have had eight consecutive 100-RBI seasons, along with Mel Ott, Sammy Sosa, Chipper Jones, and Albert Pujols. Mays hit over 50 home runs in 1955 and 1965, representing the longest time span between 50-plus home run seasons for any player in Major League Baseball history. His final Major League Baseball appearance came on October 16 during Game 3 of the 1973 World Series.

Early life

Mays was born in 1931 in Westfield, Alabama, a former primarily black company town near Fairfield. His father, Cat Mays, was a talented baseball player with the Negro team for the local iron plant. His mother, Annie Satterwhite, was a gifted basketball and track star in high school. His parents never married and separated when Mays was three. Mays was raised by his father growing up. His father worked as a railway porter when Mays was born, but he later got a job at the steel mills in Westfield so he could be closer to home. When two girls in Mays's neighborhood were orphaned, his father took them in. Sarah and Ernestine helped raise young Willie, who always saw these two as his aunts. His father exposed him to baseball at an early age, playing catch with his son by the time Willie was five. At age 10, Mays was allowed to sit on the bench of his father's games in the Birmingham Industrial League, which Mays remembered as attracting six thousand fans per game at times.

Mays played multiple sports at Fairfield Industrial High School, averaging a then-record 17 points a game in basketball and more than 40 yards a punt in football, while also playing quarterback. Since he started playing professional baseball while still in high school, he quit playing high school sports when he was 16. Mays graduated from Fairfield in 1950.

Professional baseball

Negro leagues

Mays' professional baseball career began in 1947, while he was still in high school; he played briefly with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos in Tennessee during the summer. Later that year, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. He had first caught the eye of Barons' manager Piper Davis in tenth grade, when Davis had Mays try out for the team. Davis encouraged Mays to work on hitting the curveball, coached him periodically for a couple years, and gave Mays a chance to play for the Barons starting in 1947, when Mays was just 16. When E. T. Oliver, principal at Mays's high school, threatened to suspend Mays for playing professional ball, Davis and Mays's father convinced him that Mays would still be able to concentrate on his studies. Mays helped Birmingham win the pennant and advance to the 1948 Negro League World Series, which they lost 4-1 to the Homestead Grays. Mays hit a respectable .262 for the season, but it was also his excellent fielding and baserunning that made him a standout.

Over the next several years, a number of major league baseball franchises sent scouts to watch him play. The first was the Boston Braves. The scout who discovered him, Bud Maughn, had been following him for over a year and referred him to the Braves, who then packaged a deal that called for $7,500 down and $7,500 in 30 days. They also planned to give Mays $6,000. The obstacle in the deal was that Tom Hayes, owner of the Birmingham Black Barons, wanted to keep Mays for the balance of the season. Had the team been able to act more quickly, the Braves franchise might have had both Mays and Hank Aaron in their outfield from 1954 to 1973. The Brooklyn Dodgers also scouted him and wanted Ray Blades to negotiate a deal, but they were too late. The New York Giants had already signed Mays for $4,000 and assigned him to their Class-B affiliate in Trenton, New Jersey.

Minor leagues

According to Mays, Eddie Montague had been sent to Birmingham to scout Alonzo Perry as a potential first baseman for the Sioux City Soos of the Class-A Western League, but Montague became interested in Mays instead after watching a doubleheader. Due to a scandal in Sioux City concerning a Native American's burial in a whites-only cemetery at the time, Sioux City decided not to take Mays, and he was assigned to the Trenton Giants of the Interstate League instead.

After Mays batted .353 in Trenton, he began the 1951 season with the class AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association. During his short time span in Minneapolis, Mays played with two other future Hall of Famers: Hoyt Wilhelm and Ray Dandridge. Batting .477 in 35 games and playing excellent defense, Mays was called up to the Giants on May 24, 1951. Mays was at a movie theater in Sioux City, Iowa, when he found out he was being called up. A message flashed up on the screen that said: "WILLIE MAYS CALL YOUR HOTEL." He appeared in his first major league game the next day in Philadelphia. Mays moved to Harlem, New York, where his mentor was a New York State Boxing Commission official and former Harlem Rens basketball legend "Strangler" Frank Forbes.

Major leaguesNew York Giants (1951–1957)

Mays began his major league career on a sour note, with no hits in his first 12 at bats. On his 13th at-bat, however, he hit a towering home-run up and over the left field roof of the Polo Grounds off future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn. Spahn later joked, "I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out." Mays' batting average improved steadily throughout the rest of the season. Although his .274 average, 68 RBI and 20 homers (in 121 games) were among the lowest of his career, he still won the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award. During the Giants' comeback in August and September 1951 to tie the Dodgers in the pennant race, Mays' fielding and strong throwing arm were instrumental to several important Giants victories. Mays was in the on-deck circle when Bobby Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World against Ralph Branca and the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the three-game playoff 2-1 after the teams were tied at the end of the regular season.

The Giants went on to meet the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series. In Game 1, Mays, Hank Thompson and Hall of Famer Monte Irvin comprised the first all-African-American outfield in major league history four years after the color line was broken. Mays hit poorly while the Giants lost the series 4–2. The six-game set was the only time that Mays and retiring Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio (Mays's boyhood hero) would compete against each other.

U.S. Army (1952–53)

The United States Army drafted Mays in 1952 during the Korean War (1950–53) and he subsequently missed most of that season and all of the 1953 season. Mays spent much of his time in the Army playing baseball at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It was at Fort Eustis that Mays learned the basket catch from a fellow Fort Eustis outfielder, Al Fortunato. Mays missed about 266 games due to military service.

1954-57

In 1954, Mays returned to the Giants and hit for a league-leading .345 batting average while slugging 41 home runs en route to his only World Series championship. Mays won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. He also became the first player in history to hit 30 home runs before the All-Star Game and was selected as an All-Star for the first of 19 consecutive seasons (20 total). Mays had 38 through July 28, but around that time, manager Leo Durocher asked him to stop swinging for home runs, explaining that the team wanted him to reach base more so run producers like Monte Irvin, Dusty Rhodes, or Hank Thompson could try to drive him home. Mays only hit five home runs after July 8 but upped his batting average from .326 to .345 to win the batting title, becoming the first Giant to lead the league in average since Bill Terry hit .401 in 1930. The Giants won the National League pennant and the 1954 World Series, sweeping the Cleveland Indians in four games. The 1954 series is perhaps best remembered for "The Catch", an over-the-shoulder running grab by Mays in deep center field of the Polo Grounds of a long drive off the bat of Vic Wertz during the eighth inning of Game 1. Considered the iconic image of Mays' playing career and one of baseball's most memorable fielding plays, the catch prevented two Indian runners from scoring, preserving a tie game. Mays said he realized as he ran that he was going to have to make a running catch, which is why he did not turn to look at it until the ball was almost at the wall. The Giants won the game in the 10th inning on a three-run home run by Dusty Rhodes, with Mays scoring the winning run. The 1954 World Series was the team's last championship while based in New York. The next time the franchise won was 56 years later when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010.

Mays went on to perform at a high level each of the last three years the Giants were in New York. In the middle of May, 1955, Durocher asked him to try for more home runs. Mays led the league with 51. In 1956, he hit 36 homers and stole 40 bases, being only the second player, and first National League player, to join the "30–30 club". In 1957, the first season the Gold Glove award was presented, he won the first of 12 consecutive Gold Glove Awards. At the same time, Mays continued to finish in the National League's top-five in a variety of offensive categories. Mays, Roberto Clemente (also with 12), Al Kaline, Andruw Jones, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki are the only outfielders to have ten or more career Gold Gloves. In 1957, Mays became the fourth player in major league history to join the 20–20–20 club (2B, 3B, HR), something no player had accomplished since 1941. Mays also stole 38 bases that year, making him the second player in baseball history (after Frank Schulte in 1911) to reach 20 in each of those four categories (doubles, triples, homers, steals) in the same season.

San Francisco Giants (1958–1972)

After the 1957 season, the Giants franchise relocated to San Francisco, California. Mays bought two homes in San Francisco, then lived in nearby Atherton. Manager Bill Rigney wanted him to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season home run record that year and did not play Mays much in spring training in hopes of using his best hitter every day in 1958. As he had in 1954, Mays vied for the National League batting title in 1958 until the final game of the season. Moved to the leadoff slot the last day to increase his at bats, Mays collected three hits in the game to finish with a career-high .347, but Philadelphia Phillies' Richie Ashburn won the title with a .350 batting average. Mays did manage to share the inaugural NL Player of the Month award with Stan Musial in May (no such award was given out in April until 1969), batting .405 with 12 HR and 29 RBI; he won a second such award in September (.434, 4 HR, 18 RBIs). He played all but two games for the Giants, but his 29 home runs were his lowest total since returning from the military.

Owner Horace Stoneham made Mays the highest-paid player in baseball with a $75,000 contract for 1959; Mays would be the highest-paid player through the 1972 season, with the exceptions of 1962 (when he and Mickey Mantle tied at $90,000) and 1966 (when Sandy Koufax received more in his final season). Mays had his first serious injury in 1959, a collision with Sammy White in spring training that resulted in 35 stitches in his leg and two weeks of exhibition ball missed; however, he was ready for the start of the season. During a series against the Reds in August, Mays also broke a finger but kept it a secret from other teams in order to keep opposing pitchers from throwing at it. In 1959, the Giants led by two games with only eight games to play, but won just two of their remaining games and finished fourth, as their pitching staff collapsed due to overwork of their top hurlers. The Dodgers won the pennant following a playoff with the Milwaukee Braves. As he did in New York, Mays would "play around" with kids playing sandlot ball in San Francisco. On three occasions in 1959 or 1960, he visited Julius Kahn Playground, five blocks from where he lived, including one time Giant players Jim Davenport and Tom Haller.

Alvin Dark was hired to manage the Giants before the start of the 1961 season and named Mays team captain. The improving Giants finished 1961 in third place and won 85 games, more than any of the previous six campaigns. Mays had one of his best games on April 30, 1961, hitting four home runs and driving in eight runs in a 14–4 win against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium. Mays went 4-for-5 at the plate and was on deck for a chance to hit a record fifth home run when the Giants' half of the ninth inning ended. Mays is the only Major Leaguer to have both three triples in a game and four home runs in a game. According to Mays, the four-homer game came after a night in which he got sick eating spareribs; Mays was not even sure he would play the next day until batting practice.

Mays led the team in eight offensive categories in 1962. He hit a game-winning home run in the eighth inning against Turk Farrell of the Houston Colt .45's in the Giants' final regularly-scheduled game of the year September 30, forcing the team into a tie for first place with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants went on to win a three-game playoff series against the Dodgers, advancing to play in the World Series. The Giants lost to the Yankees in seven games, and Mays batted .250 with two extra-base hits. It was his last World Series appearance as a member of the Giants.

Before the 1963 season, Mays signed a contract worth a record-setting $105,000 per season (equivalent to $876,864 in 2019) in the same offseason during which Mickey Mantle signed a deal for what would have been a record-tying $100,000 per season.

In the 1963 and 1964 seasons Mays batted in over 100 runs and hit 85 total home runs. On July 2, 1963, Mays played in a game when future Hall of Fame members Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal each threw 15 scoreless innings. In the bottom of the 16th inning, Mays hit a home run off Spahn for a 1–0 Giants victory. He won his third NL Player of the Month Award in August (.387, 8 HR, 27 RBI). Normally the third hitter in the lineup, Mays was moved to fourth in the lineup in 1964 before returning to third in subsequent years. Mays took part in another long game May 31, 1964, when, after playing all nine innings of the first Game of a doubleheader against the New York Mets, he played all 23 innings of the Giants' 8-6 victory in Game 2. He was moved to shortstop for three innings of the game and grew so tired over the course of it that he used a 31-ounce bat (four ounces smaller than his standard) for his final at bat, in the 23rd inning.

A torn shoulder muscle sustained in a game against Atlanta impaired Mays's ability to throw in 1965. He compensated for this by keeping the injury a secret from opposing players, making two or three practice throws before games to discourage players from running on him. Mays won his second MVP award in 1965 behind a career-high 52 home runs. On August 22, 1965, Mays and Sandy Koufax acted as peacemakers during a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and Dodgers after San Francisco pitcher Juan Marichal had bloodied Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays grabbed Roseboro by the waist and helped him off the field, then tackled Lou Johnson to keep him from attacking an umpire. Johnson kicked him in the head and nearly knocked him out. After the brawl, Mays hit a game-winning three-run home run against the Koufax, but he did not finish the game, feeling dizzy after the home run. Mays also won his fourth and final NL Player of the Month award in August (.363, 17 HR, 29 RBI), while setting the NL record for most home runs in the month of August (since tied by Sammy Sosa in 2001). On September 13, 1965, he hit his 500th career home run off Don Nottebart. Warren Spahn, off whom Mays hit his first career home run, was his teammate at the time. After the home run, Spahn greeted Mays in the dugout, asking "Was it anything like the same feeling?" Mays replied "It was exactly the same feeling. Same pitch, too." The next night, Mays hit one that he considered his most dramatic. With the Giants trailing the Astros by two runs with two outs in the ninth, Mays swung and missed at the first two pitches, took three balls to load the count, and fouled off three pitches before hitting the tying home run off Claude Raymond on the ninth pitch of the at bat. The Giants went on to win 6-5 in 10 innings.

Mays played in over 150 games for 13 consecutive years (a major-league record) from 1954 to 1966. Mays tied Mel Ott's NL record of 511 home runs on April 24 against the Astros. After that, he went nine days without a home run. "I started thinking home run every time I got up," Mays explained his slump. He finally set the record May 4 with his 512th against Claude Osteen of the Dodgers. In 1966, his last with 100 RBIs, Mays finished third in the National League MVP voting. It was the ninth and final time he finished in the top five in the voting for the award. In 1970, the Sporting News named Mays as the 1960s "Player of the Decade."

Mays had 12 home runs and 38 RBI through his first 60 games of 1967 but went into a slump after that. He came down with a fever July 14 and asked manager Herman Franks's permission for the night off but then had to play anyway after Ty Cline, his replacement, hurt himself in the first inning. Mays left the game after the sixth due to fatigue and spent the next five days in a hospital. "After I got back into the lineup, I never felt strong again for the rest of the season." In 141 games (his lowest total since returning from the war), Mays hit .263 with 83 runs scored, 128 hits, and 22 home runs. He had only 70 RBI for the year, the first time since 1958 he had failed to reach 100.

"Maybe if I played a little first base in 1968, I could keep from getting tired," Mays speculated in his autobiography, but he only played one game at the position all year. In Houston for a series against the Astros May 6, Mays was presented by Astro owner Roy Hofheinz with a 569-pound birthday cake for his 37th birthday—the pounds represented all the home runs Mays had hit in his career. After sharing some of it with his teammates, Mays sent the rest to the Texas Children's Hospital. He played 148 games and upped his batting average to .289, accumulating 84 runs scored, 144 hits, 23 home runs, and 79 RBI.

In 1969, new Giants' manager Clyde King moved Mays to the leadoff role. King explained to Mays that this was because he was not "hitting home runs like he used to." Mays did not complain about the move in public that year but privately chafed at it, saying in his 1988 autobiography it was like "O. J. Simpson blocking for the fullback." Mays hit his 600th home run off San Diego's Mike Corkins in September 1969. He said of the milestone, "Winning the game was more important to me than any individual achievements." Plagued by injuries that season, he managed only 13 home runs. Mays enjoyed a resurgence in 1970, hitting 28 homers, and got off to a fast start in 1971, the year he turned 40. He had 15 home runs and a .290 average at the All-Star break but faded down the stretch, only hitting three home runs and batting .241 for the rest of the year. One reason he hit so few home runs was that Mays walked 112 times, 30 more times than he had at any point in his career. This was partly because Willie McCovey, who often batted behind Mays in the lineup, missed several games with injuries, causing pitchers to pitch carefully to Mays so they could concentrate on getting less-skilled hitters out. Mays helped the Giants win the division title that year, but they lost the 1971 NLCS to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

During his time on the Giants, Mays and fellow player Bobby Bonds were friends. When Bobby's son, Barry Bonds, was born, Bobby asked Mays to be Barry's godfather. Mays and the younger Bonds have maintained a close relationship ever since.

New York Mets (1972–73)

In May 1972, 41-year-old Mays was traded to the Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000 ($310,000 today). At the time, the Giants franchise was losing money. Owner Horace Stoneham could not guarantee Mays a pension after retirement and the Mets offered Mays a coaching position upon his retirement.

Mays had remained popular in New York long after the Giants had left for San Francisco, and the trade was seen as a public relations coup for the Mets. Mets owner Joan Payson, who was a minority shareholder of the Giants when the team was in New York, had long desired to bring Mays back to his baseball roots and was instrumental in making the trade. In his Mets debut on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Shea Stadium on May 14, 1972, Mays put New York ahead to stay with a fifth-inning home run against Don Carrithers and his former team, the Giants. On August 16, 1973 of the following season, in a game against the Cincinnati Reds with Don Gullett on the mound, Mays hit a fourth inning solo home run over the right-center field fence. It was the 660th and final home run of his major league career.

Mays played a season and a half with the Mets before retiring; he appeared in 133 games. The Mets honored him on September 25, 1973 (Willie Mays Night), where he thanked the New York fans and said goodbye to baseball. He considered making that his final game, but Payson convinced him to finish out the season. He finished his career in the 1973 World Series, which the Mets lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games. Mays got the first hit of the Series, but had only seven at-bats (with two hits). The final hit of his career came in Game 2, a key single to help the Mets win. He also fell down in the outfield during a play where he was hindered by the glare of the sun and by the hard outfield. Mays later said, "growing old is just a helpless hurt." His final at bat came on October 16, in Game 3 where he came in as a pinch hitter but grounded into a force play. Mays had made his 20th and last All-Star appearance (20 seasons) and 24th All-Star Game appearance on July 24, 1973 when he was used as a pinch hitter.

In 1972 and 1973, Mays was the oldest regular position player in baseball. At age 42, he became the oldest position player to appear in a World Series game.Mays retired after the 1973 season with a lifetime batting average of .302 and 660 home runs. His lifetime total of 7,095 outfield putouts remains the major league record. Mays is the only major league player to have hit a home run in every inning from the 1st through the 16th innings. He finished his career with a record 22 extra-inning home runs. He has the third-highest career power–speed number, behind Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson, at 447.1.

Legacy

Mays was a popular figure in Harlem. Magazine photographers were fond of chronicling his participation in local stickball games with kids. It was said that in the urban game of hitting a rubber ball with an adapted broomstick handle, Mays could hit a shot that measured "six sewers" (the distance of six consecutive New York City manhole covers, nearly 300 feet). Once he got married, Mays stopped playing stickball in order to devote more time to his family.

Sudden collapses plagued Mays sporadically throughout his career, which occasionally led to hospital stays. He attributed them to his style of play. "My style was always to go all out, whether I played four innings or nine. That's how I played all my life, and I think that's the reason I would suddenly collapse from exhaustion or nervous energy or whatever it was called."

During his career, Mays would charge a hundred dollars per on-air interview, more than the standard twenty-five dollars at the time. However, he would split the money four ways and give it to the last four players on the Giants' roster.

Post-MLB baseball

After Mays retired as a player, he remained an active personality. Just as he had during his playing days, Mays continued to appear on various TV shows, in films and in other forms of non-sports-related media. He remained in the New York Mets organization as their hitting instructor until the end of the 1979 season. It was there where he taught future Mets star Lee Mazzilli his famous basket catch.

On January 23, 1979, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He garnered 409 of the 432 ballots cast (94.68%); referring to the other 23 voters, acerbic New York Daily News columnist Dick Young wrote, "If Jesus Christ were to show up with his old baseball glove, some guys wouldn't vote for him. He dropped the cross three times, didn't he?" In his induction speech, Mays said, "What can I say? This country is made up of a great many things. You can grow up to be what you want. I chose baseball, and I loved every minute of it. I give you one word—love. It means dedication. You have to sacrifice many things to play baseball. I sacrificed a bad marriage and I sacrificed a good marriage. But I'm here today because baseball is my number one love."

Mays took up golf a few years after his promotion to the major leagues and quickly became an accomplished player, playing to a handicap of about nine. "I realized I could use a sport to keep me active once I hung up the glove," Mays said of golf. "I approach it the same way I did baseball. I want to win." He discovered during the 1960s "that people would pay tremendous amounts of money just to play a round of golf with me. And, what the heck, I loved golf." After he retired, he played golf frequently in the San Francisco area.

Shortly after his Hall of Fame election, Mays took a job at the Park Place Casino (now Bally's Atlantic City) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. While there, he served as a Special Assistant to the Casino's President and as a greeter. After being told by Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn that he could not be a coach and baseball goodwill ambassador while at the same time working for Bally's, Mays chose to terminate his baseball relationships. In 1985 Peter Ueberroth, Kuhn's successor, decided to allow Mays and Mickey Mantle to return to baseball. Like Mays, Mantle had gone to work for an Atlantic City casino and had to give up any baseball positions he held.

At the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, former Mets teammate John Milner testified that Mays kept a bottle of liquid amphetamine in his locker at Shea Stadium. Milner admitted, however, that he had never seen Mays use amphetamines and Mays himself denied ever having taken any drugs during his career.

Since 1986, Mays has served as Special Assistant to the President of the San Francisco Giants. Mays' number 24 is retired by the San Francisco Giants. Oracle Park, the Giants stadium, is located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. In front of the main entrance to the stadium is a larger-than-life statue of Mays. He also serves on the advisory board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro league players through financial and medical difficulties.

Special honors and tributes

Following Mays's MVP season of 1965, Sargent Shriver, head of the United States Job Corps, and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey asked Mays to speak to kids in the Job Corps. "Willie, the kids will listen to you. All you have to do is talk to them. They look up to you," Humphrey told Mays. Set to go on a nationwide tour, Mays passed out for five to ten minutes just before a meeting in Salt Lake City. He returned to San Francisco to rest, and Lou Johnson (whom he'd battled in a brawl earlier that year) stepped in to take his place.

In 1975, Mays received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement

When Mays' godson Barry Bonds tied him for third on the all-time home run list, Mays greeted and presented him with a diamond-studded Olympic torch (given to Mays when he carried the torch during its tour through the United States). In 1992, when Bonds signed a free agent contract with the Giants, Mays personally offered Bonds his retired #24 (the number Bonds wore in Pittsburgh) but Bonds declined, electing to wear #25 instead, honoring his father, Bobby Bonds, who wore that number with the Giants.

Willie Mays Day was proclaimed by former mayor Willie Brown and reaffirmed by mayor Gavin Newsom to be every May 24 in San Francisco, paying tribute not only to his birth in the month (May 6), but also to his name (Mays) and jersey number (24). The date is also the anniversary of his call-up to the major leagues.

On May 24, 2004, during the 50-year anniversary of The Catch, Mays received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Yale University.

On December 6, 2005, he received the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for his accomplishments on and off the field.

On July 30, 2006, he was the Tee Ball Commissioner at the 2006 White House Tee Ball Initiative.

On June 10, 2007, Mays received an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College.

At the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco, Mays received a special tribute for his legendary contributions to the game and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Mays into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

On June 4, 2008, Community Board 10 in Harlem voted unanimously to give the name "Willie Mays Drive" to an eight-block service road that connects to the Harlem River Drive from 155th Street to 163rd Street, running adjacent to the Polo Grounds.

On May 23, 2009, Mays gave the commencement address at San Francisco State University and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

On July 14, 2009, he accompanied U.S. President Barack Obama to St. Louis aboard Air Force One for the Major League All-Star Game.

On March 19, 2010, he was inducted into the African-American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame.

On May 6, 2010, on the occasion of his 79th birthday, Mays appeared on the floor of the California State Senate where they proclaimed it Willie Mays Day in the state.

On May 15, 2010, Mays was awarded the Major League Baseball Beacon of Life Award at the Civil Rights game at Great American Ball Park.

Mays has been mentioned or referenced in many popular songs. The Treniers recorded the song "Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)" in 1955. The band Widespread Panic makes reference to Mays in the song "One Arm Steve" from their album 'Til the Medicine Takes. Terry Cashman's song "Talkin' Baseball" has the refrain "Willie, Mickey and the Duke", which subsequently became the title of an award given by the New York Baseball Writers Association. John Fogerty mentioned Mays, Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio in his song "Centerfield". His name was also used on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in the song "I Shall Be Free", and in Gil Scott-Heron's song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Chuck Prophet and Kurt Lipschutz (pen name, klipschutz) co-wrote the song "Willie Mays is Up at Bat" for Prophet's 2012 Temple Beautiful album, a tribute to San Francisco. Mays is also mentioned in "Our Song" by singer-songwriter Joe Henry from the 2007 album Civilians. He is also the subject of the 1994 Americana music song "Homerun Willie" by John Dunnigan.

Mays was mentioned numerous times in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. One of the most famous of these strips was originally published on February 9, 1966. In it, Charlie Brown is competing in a class spelling bee and he is asked to spell the word, "Maze". He erroneously spells it M-A-Y-S and screams out his dismay when he is eliminated. When Charlie Brown is later sent to the principal's office for raising his voice at the teacher regarding the incident, he wonders if one day he will meet Willie Mays and will have a good laugh together about the incident.

Willie Mays Parkway and Willie Mays Park in Orlando, Florida were named after Mays.

Mays also appears on Calle 13's "Adentro" music video, where he gives to lead singer, René Pérez a bag containing a pair of sunglasses, a Roberto Clemente baseball uniform, and a baseball bat signed by him, which then was used by René to destroy his own luxury car, a Maserati, in an attempt to spread a message to youth about how irresponsible promoting of ostentatious luxury excesses in urban music as a status symbol, have them all killing each other.

In the movies Major League and Major League II, the center fielder for the Cleveland Indians is named Willie Mays Hayes. He was originally portrayed by a then-unknown Wesley Snipes, but Omar Epps replaced Snipes in the sequel.

1956 Willie Mays Major League Negro-American All-Stars Tour

In 1956, Mays persuaded many of Major League Baseball's biggest black stars to go on a tour around the country after the season had ended to play exhibition games. While much of the tour was undocumented, one venue was Andrews Field, located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on October 16. Among the players who played in that game were Mays, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Elston Howard, Monte Irvin, Gene Baker, Charlie Johnson, Sam Jones, Hank Thompson and Joe Black.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

In November 2015, Mays was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama during a ceremony at the White House. At the ceremony Obama credited Mays' baseball career with his own success, saying, "Willie also served our country: In his quiet example while excelling on one of America's biggest stages [he] helped carry forward the banner of civil rights", adding, "It's because of giants like Willie that someone like me could even think about running for president."

Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award

In September 2017, Major League Baseball announced their decision to rename the World Series Most Valuable Player Award after Mays, and it has since been referred to as the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award. The first recipient of the rechristened award was Houston Astros Outfielder, George Springer.

Television appearances

In addition to appearances in baseball documentaries and on talk shows, Mays has appeared in several sitcoms over the years, always as himself. He appeared as the mystery guest during different incarnations of the long-running game show What's My Line?. He was in three episodes of ABC's The Donna Reed Show: "Play Ball" and "My Son the Catcher" (both 1964) and "Calling Willie Mays" (1966). Also in 1966, he appeared in the "Twitch or Treat" episode of Bewitched, in which Darrin Stephens asks if Mays is a warlock, and Samantha Stephens replies, "The way he hits? What else?"

In 1989, Mays appeared in My Two Dads, in the episode "You Love Me, Right?", and in the episode "The Field" of Mr. Belvedere. Additionally, he performed "Say Hey: The Willie Mays Song" on episode 4.46 of the Colgate Comedy Hour in 1954. Years later, Mays made a cameo appearance on a 2004 episode of Wheel of Fortune, while the series was taping on location in San Francisco. On February 10, 2010, Mays appeared on The Daily Show, discussing his career and a new biography, Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend, by James S. Hirsch.

Mays also voiced himself in the 1972 animated film Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid.

Personal life

Mays married Marghuerite Wendell Chapman (1926–2010), a woman who had been married twice before, in 1956. Mays said, "We decided to get married so quickly, we had to go to Elkton, Maryland, where you didn't have to wait." They adopted a son Michael, five days after he was born in 1959. Mays remembered driving Michael around the block as an infant to put him to sleep. The couple separated in 1962, with Marghuerite taking Michael for the majority of the time. They formally divorced in 1963. The divorce hearings often took place the mornings of Giants games, once causing Mays to be late to one. Eight years later, Mays married Mae Louise Allen. Wilt Chamberlain gave Mays her number in 1961, and they had their first date in Pittsburgh when the Giants were in town for a Pirates game. They dated off and on the next several years before Mays finally proposed; they were married in Mexico City over Thanksgiving weekend in 1971. She died on April 19, 2013, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Following Mays's 3,000th hit in 1971, the Giants presented Michael with a four-year college scholarship.

When Mays first joined the Giants, Forbes made arrangements for him to stay with David and Anna Goosby, who lived on St. Nicholas Avenue and 151st Street. "Mrs. Goosby reminded me of my Aunt Sarah, the way she took care of me," Mays said. "Her husband was a kind man who had retired from the railroad. They made me feel at home." Just before his marriage in 1956, he bought a home near Columbia University in Upper Manhattan. When the Giants moved to San Francisco, Mays bought a house in the Sherwood Woods neighborhood adjacent to St. Francis Wood, San Francisco in 1957. However, the purchase was initially met with backlash from neighbors who urged developer Walter Gnesdiloff to reconsider the repercussions "if colored people moved in". According to Mays, when mayor George Christopher heard he had been denied housing, he offered to share his house with Mays and his wife until they could get one. Ultimately, Mays and his wife moved into the house in November of 1957, and Mays wrote that when a brick was thrown through the window, "Some neighbors actually called to ask if they could help. So I didn't feel concerned about racial tensions in my neighborhood once the [1958] season was about to start." They only lived there for two years before moving back to New York. As of 2000, Mays lived in Atherton, California, in a house he bought in 1969.

A frequent traveler, Mays is one of 66 holders of American Airlines' lifetime passes.

In 2020, Mays will publish his memoir, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (with John Shea; St. Martin's Press, 2020).

"Say Hey Kid" and other nicknames

It is not clear how Mays became known as the "Say Hey Kid." One story is that in 1951, Barney Kremenko, a writer for the New York Journal, began to refer to Mays as the 'Say Hey Kid' after he overheard Mays say, "'Say who,' 'Say what,' 'Say where,' 'Say hey'". Another story is that Jimmy Cannon created the nickname because Mays did not know everybody's names when he arrived in the minors. "You see a guy, you say, 'Hey, man. Say hey, man,'" Mays said. "Ted [Williams] was the 'Splinter'. Joe [DiMaggio] was 'Joltin' Joe'. Stan [Musial] was 'The Man'. I guess I hit a few home runs, and they said 'There goes the 'Say Hey Kid."

Years before he became the "Say Hey Kid", when he began his professional career with the Black Barons, Mays was called "Buck" by teammates and fans. Some Giants players referred to him, their team captain, as "Cap."

[2k18leo]

Do you understand my LOVE for this movie ??

I know I’ve been talking about the TMNT 2007 film A LOT lately (mostly because I just watched it really recently) but I just really adore so many things about it.

First off, the animation is fantastic. Incredible CGI work that does NOT get enough credit. I mean, this movie is just beautiful to look at. It has a great balance of dark to light that you would expect in a ninja turtles film. And I mean the rooftop fight scene between Raph and Leo. Bruh. That scene is breathtaking to look at. The attention to detail on the fighting between the boys and falling rain just makes my jaw drop every time. And I mean this film had to compete with a load of other CGI films that same year: Shrek the Third, Bee Movie, Ratatouille, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Meet the Robinsons, Surf’s Up ((good lord I didn’t realize how many great movies came out in 2007))

Secondly, the voice acting. I loooove this cast. Everyone fits their character’s voice so well.

I mean, we’ve got James Arnold Taylor (Leo), who is a phenomenal voice actor by the way. He provided Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice in the Clone Wars series, and even Ratchet’s voice in the Ratchet and Clank franchise. Not kidding, if you get a chance to look him up, watch one of his voice acting videos cause he’s so entertaining. He has done so many of your childhood voices you didn’t even realize it was him.

And then there’s Nolan North (Raph). Wow. Do I even need to explain how fantastic of a voice actor he is ?? Honestly, I look up to this guy. He deserves so much praise. If you’re unaware of his other work, he provided the voice of the protagonist, Nathan Drake, in the Uncharted franchise. Also included in his 385 credits as an actor, he provided the voice behind the Kraang in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 tv series. He is absolutely one of my favorite voice actors (if it ain’t already obvious) and such an inspiration.

Next we’ve got Chris Evans (Casey), who provides a wonderful voice to the laid-back vigilante we all love. As I’m sure you’re all aware, Chris Evans = Captain America. I don’t know much more of what he does in the booth rather than on screen, but he was (IMO) a great Casey Jones.

Then we have Mitchell Whitfield (Donnie), who I am actually very unfamiliar with. Looking at his IMDb page, however, some of you guys will probably know him from the 2014 Transformers animated series. Anyway, he played a great Donnie.

And Mako (Splinter) !! Ugh I love Mako’s voice acting. If you didn’t know, he was Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Honestly, what more reason do you need to like Mako ? He was an awesome fit for the old Japanese rat.

Other voice actors who have worked on other ninja turtle projects include the talented voices of John DiMaggio, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Fred Tatasciore who all portrayed the Stone generals. DiMaggio also provided the voice for Zeno and Pizza Face in the 2012 series. Also in the 2012 series, Kevin Michael Richardson went on to play the Shredder, with Fred Tatasciore as Rocksteady.

Even though I loved the story of TMNT with Leo battling conflicts within himself and striving to be the best leader for his team, and then Raph striving to lead the team himself after the loss of Leo, but taking it upon himself because the team just didn’t feel right without Leo. And then the both of them just using their own conflicts against each other. I really do love that. I mean yeah, I’m a sucker for a traditional Leo and Raph quarrel. However, there were obviously some characters that were left in the dark a bit (*cough *cough Mikey *cough Donnie) but that’s something that could have been altered with a sequel. Now, I realize the storyline isn’t the best and that’s probably one of the main reasons it was never greenlit for a sequel. But damn, if I don’t love this movie so much.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I have for now. But really, I could talk about this movie for hours. So thanks for coming to my TED talk ~

[fromthedust]

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra

St. James Infirmary Blues

Victor 27895

NY, November 12, 1941

Lee Castle, Steve Lipkins, Max Kaminsky (tp) Hot Lips Page (tp,vcl) Ray Conniff, Jack Jenney, Morey Samuel (tb) Artie Shaw (cl) Les Robinson, Chuck DiMaggio (as) Georgie Auld, Mickey Folus (ts) Artie Baker (bar) Johnny Guarnieri (p) Mike Bryan (g) Leo Pevsner, Raoul Poliakin, Bernard Tinterow, Leonard Posner, Alex Beller, Irv Raymond, Bill Ehrenkranz, Truman Boardman (vln) Morris Kohn, Leonard Atkins, Max Berman, Sam Rosenblum (viola) Fred Goerner, George Pollakin, Edgardo Sodero (cello) Eddie McKinney (b) Dave Tough (d)

Went down to the St. James Infirmary I saw my baby there, Stretched out on a long white table, So cold, so sweet, so fair. Let her go, let her go, God bless her; Wherever she may be She can look this wide world over She'll never find another sweet man like me. Though she treated me mean and low-down Somehow I didn't care Well the Lord knows she was a good girl And I'll see her again up there. Now, when I die, I want you to bury me in Edwin Clapp shoes A box-back suit and a Stetson hat; Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain So the boys know I died standin' pat.

The compositional origin of St. James Infirmary Blues is complicated — tracing the song to a single author or set of authors is elusive. The earliest published version of the song is credited to Carl Moore and Phil Baxter, but given how commonly folk blues songs would float around for years before being officially copyrighted, this hardly settles the matter.  Don Redman was credited as the composer on the 1928 Louis Armstrong recording, but the song St. James Infirmary was copyrighted in 1929 by Joe Primrose (a pseudonym of music publisher Irving Mills).

Music historians claim that the song was cobbled together from motifs, bits of melody and scraps of lyrics that swirled around for decades, or even centuries, in 18th century English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" or later the "Gambler's Blues."

For Robert Harwood, tracing the elusive and often contradictory history of “St. James Infirmary” has been something approaching an obsession. He’s a writer, music historian and photographer, and he’s the author of I Went Down to St. James Infirmary.

www.jazz-on-line.com

Read (& listen) more:

https://hawkingsbaydispatch.com/2019/05/06/backstory-st-james-infirmary-blues-song/

[solo1y]

"Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”

Sometimes it’s hard to work out where a band or musician gets their ideas from or who they’re influenced by. You could always ask them, but sometimes they’re good enough to make songs where they just tell you.

Madonna’s 1990 hit single, Vogue, includes, "Greta Garbo, and Monroe Dietrich and DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean,” which is probably more about what influenced that particular song, but it’s close enough for jazz.

On his 1994 album, Promenade, the Divine Comedy has a track called The Booklovers which includes, interspersed with various informal conversational interjections, the writers, "Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, Leo Tolstoy, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Nikolai Gogol". Neil Hannon chooses baroque pop as his genre, which often features references to literature.

Daft Punk, on their 1997 debut album, Homework, have a track called Teachers, which includes, among a litany, "Brian Wilson, George Clinton, Lil Louis, Ashley Beatto, Neil Landstrumm, Kenny Dope”, and so on.

The LCD Soundsystem’s debut single from 2002 was Losing My Edge, a song for everyone who feels like they’re too old to be relevant, which features lots of artists, including "the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra".

On 2005′s Nite Versions, Soulwax directly reference Daft Punk in a track of their own, effectively a cover version also called Teachers, which includes, among a litany, "Jane's Addiction, Grand Funk Railroad, Sonic Youth, The Sonics, Raging Slab, Guns N’ Roses".

Now you know.