Oct 072007
Okay, so the fish saved *Pittsburgh* — it’s the best I could do, okay?
Dude — I’m sorry about your Phillies. As a sincere token of my sympathies, please accept this obscure Thom Bell number I thrifted just this morning. Perhaps it will make you feel good about what could yet be in your home state.
Thanks, again, Hrrundi, for your understanding and empathy. This track helps a lot; even better was my boys winning their soccer tournament this weekend, giving two previously undefeated teams their first tastes of defeat for the season in the process! We celebrated by cranking up “Baba O’Riley” and “Gimme Three Steps”.
By the way, Townspeople, feel free to use this thread as a spot for sharing comments on This Week in Baseball.
Go…somebody!
Is it OK to take some solace in knowing that a Diamondbacks/Rockies NLCS is going to die a horrible ratings death for TBS as payback for the terrible schedule they gave the Phillies/Rockies series?
Ron Darling kinda creeped me out on the games he did. He sounded like a highly medicated James Woods.
The biggest sports event that happened during the games last week was LeBron being outed as a “Yankees fan”, “Cowboys fan” and “Bulls fan” of the Jordan-era. Is there any kind of rock equivalent to that level of shameful front-running? I finally feel justified for never warming to him.
By the way, Moddie — have you ever seen this flick? When I told fellow Thom Bell fan-boy E. Pluribus I had found this single, he laughed and asked if I’d ever seen the movie, in a kind of “it’s-so-bad-it’s-good” kind of way. All I know is what I can gather from the InterWeb — that it was a basketball movie of some sort. The music tells me most of what I need to know, anyway. I assume 1970s male-panty-style basketball shorts and chicks wearing satin baseball jackets were involved. And there’s an upful vibe to the music that makes me assume all was well in the end — that Pittsburgh went on to win the division, and that Clevon’s mom didn’t lose her soul food restaurant to the bank.
I have never seen this flick. I believe I’d be afraid to watch it if it ever came on tv. Isn’t Dr. J one of the stars?
Here’s the cast:
Julius Erving … Moses Guthrie
Jonathan Winters … H.S. and Harvey Tilson
Meadowlark Lemon … Rev. Grady Jackson
Jack Kehoe … Setshot
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar … Himself
Margaret Avery … Toby Millman
James Bond III … Tyrone Millman
Michael V. Gazzo … Harry the Trainer
Peter Isacksen … Driftwood
Nicholas Pryor … George Brockington
M. Emmet Walsh … Wally Cantrell
Stockard Channing … Mona Mondieu
Flip Wilson … Coach ‘Jock’ Delaney
Marv Albert … Himself (as Marvin Albert)
Debbie Allen … Ola (as Debra Allen)
The Yankees can’t even lose properly. How cool would it have been for all four of the Divisional playoff series to have been three game sweeps?
Several teams have gone up 2-0 on the Yankees in the division series and never won another game.
Personally, I hate sweeps, even if I’m rooting for the team that wins in one. I want to watch some serious nailbiting postseason action. So far, at least a number of the games have been good.
Somehow I thought Gabe Kaplan was in this fine fine movie. I looked him up in IMDB and while he was not in the movie, I was amazed at the body of work he ammased. Did you know that he was on the first 5 “Battle of the Network Stars?? Besides Kotter, that may have been his only steady gig
This reminds me, when do we get a new Thrifty Music from you, hrrundivbakshi? It’s been too long.
So…somebody remind me why exactly we’re supposed to think the Yankees are the Ozymandias of the American League? When was their last title again? Oh right, LAST CENTURY.
Update that resume, Torre. And suck it, A-Rod.
i’ve seen “the fish that saved pittsburgh”.
i think it was shot and released after the ’77 choke to the Blazers, but before the ’83 redemption by Moses. I always thought Doc must’ve been self-conscious about starring in a movie where he wins the championship before actually winning one.
andy, the film you’re thinking of “fast break”. Here’s the tagline: “Gabe Kaplan’s having a ball! – His dream team’s got a preacher, a jailbird, a pool shark, a muscleman. And the best guy on the team is a girl.”
pretty lame….
other weird details about “fish”:
erving’s character is named “moses”.
they have to “beat LA” to win the championship.
LA’s coach is played by Jerry Tarkanian.
btw, a quick check on imbd: it was filmed in ’79.
Yeah, but Saturn — does Clevon’s mom lose the soul food restaurant to the bank or not?
Actually, characteristic of the ‘70s, the ending to The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is surprisingly bleak. The Pisces beat LA for the championship, ruining the plans of the owner’s evil twin H.S. Tilson (Jonathan Winters). He responds by hiring crooked cops, who shoot and kill Grady Jackson (Meadowlark Lemon) as he dribbles his basketball home in the rain after the celebration.
Trivia from a Fish That Saved Pittsburgh fan site: While The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (or, as it is known in Spain, Basket Music) is Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb’s favorite movie, it’s only the secondfavorite movie of Doctor J. Behind The Great Escape. Huh.