centerfield maz

Hard rock is alive and well but not in the United States. For me, most of the best new music is coming out of Europe. Gothic Metal is currently pretty much the mainstream in Europe right now. This sub genre of Heavy Metal takes many different forms. I have become a huge fan of the female fronted Goth bands. Some of it can be labeled as Gothic Femme Metal and others as Symphonic Metal. I only hope America will catch on and this wave can save the music scene over here. There are still the classic rock acts which will continue to dominate the concert venues, and some good female jazz vocalist as well. #1 LACUNA COIL: SHALLOW LIFE This great Italian ba nd is out of Milan, Italy and have broken into the American mainstream. H opefully they will open the door on European Gothic Metal in America. The SHALLOW LIFE debuted at #16 on the US Billboard charts & became Lacuna Coil's first top 20 US Album. They have toured North America in small clubs. The band is fronted by two singers ...

George Michael was born on March 24, 1939 at St. Louis Missouri. He began promoting Motown in the Mid West and later moved to the Philadelphia area as an AM DJ, until 1966. He then came to New York City and remained there for over a decade on 77 WABC AM Radio during it's hey day. I remember him when I first started getting into music, during my grade school years of the mid seventies. AM radio was still the thing and 77 WABC was #1, before 66 NBC took over and then we all switched to FM by the end of the decade. Next time Michael appeared in my life was on Sunday Nights, on the first nationally syndicated sports highlight show. The show was simply titled The Ge orge Michael Sports Machine and it began in the early eighties. Back in the day before ESPN & s ports networks, all we had was Howard Cosell's Monday Night Football, Halftime highlights & the baseball Games of the Week to know what was happening around the leagues. Every Sunday before going to bed for school...

In the late sixties A’s owned Charlie Finley was putting together a team that would win three straight World Series titles and five straight divisions. He believed in anything that would lead to wins, and speed was a big part of the game. In 1967 he brought in the first of his full time pinch runners, his name was Alan Lewis “the Panamanian Express”. Alan Sydney Lewis was born on December 12, 1941 in Panama. He had success in the minors, batting .300 and stealing 116 bases in 1966. He was brought up to the A’s in 1967 appearing in 34 games, coming to bat only six times getting one hit. He was primarily used as pinch runner, stealing 14 bases while scoring 7 runs. He played for six years with Oakland, appearing in 156 games, batting a lowly .206 (6 hits in only 29 at bats). He stole an average of seven to eight bases a year after his rookie season, scoring 47 runs, an average of eight runs scored per season. In his last season of 1973, he never came to bat at all, but was still success...

Edwin Richard Doheny goes way back to the 1800s New York Giants baseball team. He was born in Northfield, Vemont on November 24, 1873 and was a star pitcher on the sandlots. A Boston reporter turned the Giants on to him and he was signed and brought to the early Polo Grounds. He pitched for the Giants for six seasons, never having a winning recod. He did win 14 games in 1899 and went 37-65 overall never living up to his billing. He was sent over to Pittsburgh and went 6-2, followed by two 16 win seasons, (going 16-4, and 16-8). Then suddenly he began to act strange, fighting with his own team mates and drinking heavily. He became very paranoid and beli eved detectives were on his trail following him. The Pirates couldn’t even find him as he was hiding out in his home in Massachusetts. He returned to pitch but his behavior became totally irrational. His brother brought him to get treatment. When he got word the Pirates had lost the 1903 World Series he beat a male nurse unconcious with...

The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle!! It was like being home again. Another great night of Bruce at Madison Square Garden, a much more cozier venue than the huge Giants Stadium show I saw last month. The New York crowd was very enthusiastic last night and were on their feet all night long. In keeping with the entire album performance theme, tonight marked the first time ever that Bruce & the E Street Band played his second album; The Wild The Innocent & The E Street shuffle in its entirety. As Bruce always changes set lists & pulls out surprises, he kept with his form opening the show. He announced "this was an out take from that album" as the band broke into THUNDER CRACK as the opener. As for the WILD THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE set,it was incredible. The E Street band was accompanied by a five piece horn section and background singers. You could tell Bruce was totally into playing this set as he & the band rocked. They did incredi...

If you can't imagine how one guy with a powerful band behind him, is able to bring a full house at Giants Stadium to it's feet from the front row to the last row, you have never been to a Bruce Springsteen concert. Last night, Bruce rocked the house under the stars, for the next to last concert ever at Giants Stadium. The weather was perfect for October. I was in short sleeves all night, wishing I had opted for the shorts. Bruce came on later than scheduled, by a good 1/2 hour (approx. 8:20) the show clocked in at a bit over 3 hours. Worth every dollar of the price of admission, as Bruce always gives you your moneys worth. I didn't have good seats for this one, top deck straight ahead of the stage but in the first row, on the edge. I felt there was a little too much chatter in the crowd behind me, throughout various points of the concert. This is a truce artist at work on stage, any slower songs or quieter moments in music is not meant for talking. Tonight's concert wou...