The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks who is likely to win the NL Central, if not the Cubs.
Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us. There are still a few tables available. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you. The show will start shortly. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night I asked you if you thought it would be a good idea for the Cubs to sign free agent third baseman Matt Chapman if they fail to sign Cody Bellinger. Basically, you were only in favor of it if it were a “pillow contract” of two years with an option. That option got 58 percent of the vote. Thirty percent didn’t want Chapman even at that price. The rest wanted to sign him to a five-year deal (or so).
Here’s the part where I put the music and the movies. Those of you who skip that can do so now. You wont hurt my feelings.
It’s Valentine’s Day, so I guess it’s mandatory to feature “My Funny Valentine.” I think last year I presented the famous Chet Baker version, so this year I’m presenting the equally-famous Miles Davis version. This is a live performance in at the Philharmonic in New York in 1964.
It’s not quite the “second great Miles Davis Quintet” because Wayne Shorter hadn’t left the Jazz Messengers quite yet and the tenor saxophonist is the still very good George Coleman. But the rest of the quintet is here already with Tony Williams on drums, Ron Carter on bass and Herbie Hancock on piano.
You voted in the BCB Winter Western Classic and the results are in. The number-one seed The Searchers (1956) topped the eight-seed, Once Upon A Time in the West (1968) with 64 percent of the vote.
That leaves us with just three contests left. The two semifinals and the final. The Searchers against Red River and Stagecoach against Rio Bravo. And as coincidence would have it, both semifinal contests feature a matchup of a John Ford-directed movie and a Howard Hawks directed movie. We also have a color film taking on a black-and-white effort in both semis—one from each director. And all four pictures star The Duke, John Wayne.* So we have two of the greatest directors of the studio era—maybe the two best directors of that time, although there is a lot of competition for that claim—and the greatest Western actor of all time.
