Crossroads

I turned gay earlier today.

I don't want to be going off prematurely here but from all early reports today's Pride Parade was a smashing success and everyone had a fabulous time. I'm talking FAB-yew-lusssss. News reports are putting the crowd at about 350-400,000. Brent Sopel carried the Stanley Cup, and for a brief moment, even for those of us unable to attend, we were all very very very very gay. Extremely gay. Flamboyantly I'm Going To Paint Myself Silver and Stencil Men's Names All Over Myself Just Like on the Stanley Cup gay. Burning Man gay.

But then, I realized that this year's Grand Marshal was Chely Wright, and I reverted to being not gay, as well as mildly disappointed that Chely is. It's like losing a really good veteran left hander to the cross-town rival cubs. I've always felt like I was a lesbian trapped in a man's body, and that inner-lesbian of mine is extremely gay for Chely Wright.

Also this weekend, according to Greg Kot, during the show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Eric Clapton decided that, despite previous statements, this year would not be the final Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Kot's a customer of mine, and I was lucky enough to cop a peak at his music collection while working on his house. Well, okay he let me look. His entire basement looks like the aisles at your library, only instead of books, the shelves are filled with albums, CDs, and DVDs. He also has entire aisles devoted to books about music. You know that music freak from college with the ungodly huge music collection? Multiply by 100 and you approach Greg Kot. His column has been appearing in the Trib for about 20 years now. Along with Sound Opinions co-host Jim DeRogatis, they're the musical version of Siskel and Ebert.

Dude knows music.

Anyway, Greg filed a column on the Crossroads Guitar Festival, as well as a diary from the event. (And I'll expect a full report from you Robert.)

Our own Bill Murray hosted again. He's still funny. He keeps being funny. I'm sure he was funny again yesterday. In '07, he kicked things off by trying to find his way through the three chord into to Gloria, (perhaps the easiest song to play that's ever been written,) on a borrowed Fender Strat. (Dave Berry said of the Gloria intro that you could drop an electric guitar down a flight of stairs and it will play Gloria on its way down.) Murray must have started taking lessons earlier that day, cuz it was brutal! And then Clapton strolled out with his Strat, the place went nuts, and Eric saved Murray from further embarrassment...not that anyone could possibly embarrass Bill Murray. This year, the song Bill tried to play Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" and according to Greg's diary, badly out of tune. Clapton stepped in again. Bill Murray is fucking funny.

Heavy on the Blues this year, and according to Kot and just like back in 2007, Clapton's set with Steve Winwood was a highlight. Can't wait for the DVD to come out, if only to see them do what Greg calls an "epic version of (Hendrix's) Voodoo Chile." As soon as they launched into "Presence of The Lord" in '07, I went digging for my old Blind Faith albums. By the time they played "Can't Find My Way Home", I decided that I gotta unpack all that old Traffic stuff, and the Cream as well.

Kot doesn't say anything about Albert Lee, who was also on this years bill, but oh man can that guy play. Another reason to buy the DVD. That's too fast for words.

The last time around, Jeff Beck got upstaged by his bassist, Tal Wilkenfeld, an astonishing young talent, and apparently Beck did a repeat with Rhonda Smith this year.

The Allman Brothers was scheduled to appear, but liver replacement surgery for Greg Allman caused them to cancel. Warren Haynes joined Derek Trucks and Susan Tedsci as a replacement, so I'm sure it was excellent. Trucks plays a lot like Duane, so there's that. Back in 2007, Trucks just smoked the place all day long, sliding up and down his cherry Gibson SG like it was an extension of his fingers. If you can watch this video, and not hear hints of Duane Allman, well...I can't help ya. (Kot mentioned the likeness in his review, so it's not just me. )

Ya know, a true Geezer would buy the DVD from this year's show, not only to hear Albert Lee, semi- Allman Brothers Band (sorry Robert), BB King, Bert Jansch, Buddy Guy, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Doyle Bramhall II, Earl Klugh, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Hubert Sumlin, James Burton, Jeff Beck, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Johnny Winter, Jonny Lang, Keb' Mo', Pino Daniele, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Sheryl Crow, Sonny Landreth, Stefan Grossman, Steve Winwood, Vince Gill, and ZZ Top....deep breath, but because the money goes to a great cause.

“This was going to be the last one,” Clapton said, “but I don’t think it will be. … We’re gonna have to do it again.”

Works for me, and if I had decided to stay gay like earlier this afternoon, I'd have very gay thoughts about Eric Clapton.

Stephen Strasburg

Okay, I'm convinced.

In the first inning, he let Juan Pierre reach first because he was late getting off the mound to cover. Visquel dumped a gorp down the right field line that somehow wound up being a double. Men on 2nd and 3rd, Rios grounds out to drive in a run, and that was it

Strasburg mowed down the next 11 Sox or something, including 8 Ks.

Sox pitcher Gavin Floyd was so late catching up to a Strasburg fastball that he looked like he was actually trying to go to the opposite field for a single, but his astonished look as he stood on first told the tale. Sox pitchers don't swing the stick very often, and when they do they usually suck. Floyd's single was the second hit off Strasburg all night.

Strasburg struck out 2 more Sox, bringing his total for the night to 10. That, added to the 22 guys he struck out in his first two starts, gave him the all-time record for strikeouts by a rookie in his first three starts. He left after throwing 85 pitches, and the Nats still trailing 1-0.

In the bottom of the inning, Adam Dunn jacked a double to the track to drive in I Don'tremember, and it was tied 1-1.Strasburg would not be the pitcher of record, but holy shit. The Sox pushed one across in extra innings to win 2-1, but holy shit.

Here's my half-assed scouting report on Stephen Strasburg. He has a fastball that he locates well, and it's coming at 98-99-100 mph. He has a curveball that starts at 1 O'Clock and hits the catcher's mitt at 7. I'd say it moves at least 18 inches. He throws that at about 82-83 mph. It buckles knees. And, he has a change-up , a CHANGE-UP!!!, that he throws 91 mph. He throws all three for strikes.



The Sox are a fastball hitting team. Konerko, Rios, Quentin, Ramirez, Beckham, and shit even AJ can crack a fastball once they get it timed up. Any major league hitter can eventually time up any fastball given enough at-bats. If all you have is heat, you won't make it in the bigs. Ask Nuke.

The thing about Stephen Strasburg is that he's crafty. He saw quickly that the Sox were fouling fastballs straight back, and so he went away from the heat on 1-2, 2-2, and 3-2 counts ( I'm not sure he went full on anybody now that I think about it, fucker only threw 85 pitches and 55 or 60 of those were for strikes.) It was at that point the Sox batters just started guessing, and guessing wrong.

Holy shit.

Assuming he avoids injuries, a really big assumption cough Mark Prior cough, the thing that's going to make Stephen Strasburg the dominant pitcher in the National League for the next decade or so is his change-up. It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing. It's like watching guys waving at Bruce Sutter's split-finger back in the 80s, before anybody had figured out what the fuck they were seeing. Missing the pitch by 4 and 5 inches. Remember, it's coming at 91 mph. So at first it looks like a big fat BP fastball. It's relatively flat, as if rolling along on a table. But about 2 feet before it crosses the plate, ...right....it falls off the table. The bottom falls out of the thing. Quentin took one hack at what he thought was a thigh-high pitch, and yet Pudge had to dig the thing out of the dirt.



I saw Kerry Wood strike out 20 Houston Astros one day. His pitches that day were 99 mph heat and a slider that started over the plate and wound up 8 inches outside to righties. Kerry Wood's arm eventually turned to jell-o. I saw Mark Prior dominate an entire league for most of 2003 before his arm exploded. I saw Dwight Gooden go 24-4 in his second year ('85 I think) with an ERA around 1.9. I saw Bruce Sutter develop that split-finger as a cub, and finish his career embarrassing people with it as a cardinal (sorry Atlanta, those last 2 years don't count.)

If I had to describe Stephen Strasburg after watching him last night in DC, I'd say he has Gooden's fastball (or Nolan Ryan's if you prefer), he has Prior's curve, and his change-up has basically the same effect as Bruce Sutter's split-finger.

Nobody's entirely unhittable, but this 21 year old kid is damned close.