Mo's Manic Monday - Lick
Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008 by Travis Cody in
Welcome to another Manic Monday with Morgen. Don't forget to cruise by MM HQ at It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Today's theme is Lick. MM graphic courtesy of Mr Tucker, and my rudmentary skills with my PhotoPlus software.
I have three Licks for you today.
In 1979, Mario Mendoza hit .198 for the season in 373 at bats with the Seattle Mariners, then in their third year of existence. George Brett is credited with the coining of the term The Mendoza Line, which essentially describes ball players who's batting averages dip below .200 and basically can't hit a lick.
Sports announcer Chris Berman of ESPN turned it into a catch phrase, and it has been a part of baseball jargon ever since.
In his nine year career with Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Texas, Mendoza had a career batting average of .215. He actually pitched two innings in 1977 with Pittsburgh, giving up 3 hits and 3 runs. He was a dependable infielder who played 2nd, 3rd, and short with a career fielding percentage of .960.
When I was collecting baseball cards, Mendoza's was so common that I must have 25 of them from 1976 through 1980.
The rock band KISS released the album Lick It Up on 18 Sept 1983. They were on MTV that day, without the legendary make-up for the first time since their early days. The line up included original members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, with Vinnie Vincent and Eric Carr.
I've been a KISS fan ever since a junior high talent show. A whole new world of music had been opening up for me. Some guys I knew played around with a garage band. They weren't very good, but it was cool. They decided to do a lip sync in the talent show, and they chose KISS because of the make-up. They had a full drum kit, guitars, mic stands, and amps. 
It took forever to set everything up and they new the school wouldn't allow that much time for a 4 minute lip sync performance. So they recruited five of us guys, and we practiced moving the equipment around until we could get it set up in under 3 minutes.
They got the sound system cranked up and it really looked and sounded like they were KISS wailing Rock And Roll All Nite. They ended up winning the talent show and the $50 grand prize. They split $40 for themselves and paid us $2 each for helping set up.
I added that $2 to my allowance savings and bought the Destroyer album.
Finally, has anyone ever figured out how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
I've been forgetting to add Mr Linky. I remembered this time, but when I went to get the MM linky, I had forgotten my log in. Sheesh!
Anything to do with heavy rock is ok with me. It took up a significant part of my youth.
A great album.