The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks you to grade Cubs left fielder Ian Happ
It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us. We’re waiving the cover charge for the duration of the playoffs. There are still a few tables available. 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.
I’m out with my wife for her birthday tonight (no, I won’t tell you how many candles) so I don’t know how the Yankees/Royals game turned out. But I do know that Kerry Carpenter hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth off of Emmanuel Clase as the Tigers beat the Guardians, 3-0 to even the best-of-five series at one game each. Clase had not gotten more than three outs in any game this season—and he was the best closer in the game this year. Today, he got the first three outs, but when manager Stephen Vogt asked him to get a fourth out, he couldn’t do it.
Last week, I asked you to weigh in on the decision to fire first base coach Mike Napoli and some other Cubs coaches. Second place with 42 percent was sure—manager Craig Counsell needs to pick his own coaches. But in first place with 44 percent was the “I don’t know—what do these people do anyways?” answer.
Here’s the part where we talk about music and movies. Those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
The great young vocalist Samara Joy is coming out with a new album on Friday. Here is the official video for “You Stepped Out of a Dream” from her forthcoming album. Jason Charos is on trumpet and flugelhorn, David Mason is on alto sax and flute, Donavan Austin is on trombone, Conor Rohrer on piano, Felix Moseholm on bass and Evan Sherman plays the drums.
I guess since it’s October, I need to be watching horror films. But I’ve got to admit, director Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood (1959) barely qualifies as a horror picture. In fact, Corman called it “comedy horror” picture or “a comedy of terrors” in the trailer. It’s mostly a ridiculous satire of the bohemian art scene of the late-fifties/early-sixties with a little bit of murder thrown in. Despite the film’s title, there’s no actual sights of blood in the movie. Fortunately, A Bucket of Blood manages to overcome its silly script and non-existant budget to become a fun movie and a cult classic.
Much of the appeal of A Bucket of Blood comes from the performance of its lead, Dick Miller, who plays Walter Paisley, a wannabe sculptor who is reduced to being a busboy at a beatnik cafe because he has no artist talent. Walter desperately wants to be accepted by the beatniks who make the art, play the music and recite the poems at this cafe, but because he’s a talentless nebbish, he’s mocked by the cool kids and yelled at by his boss to get back to work.
The only person who is kind to him (at the cafe, at least) is Carla (Barboura Morris), the pretty hostess at the coffee shop. Walter has an unrequited crush on Carla because of that.
One day after work, Walter accidentally stabs his landlady’s cat to death. (Don’t ask.) Walter is choked up about this, but he decides to hide the evidence of his actions by encasing the cat in clay and passing him off as a sculpture, complete with the knife sticking out of the cat’s side.
The beatniks at the cafe are, of course, blown away by this magnificent piece of art that highlights the fragility of life. One of the beatniks (not Carla) comes on to Walter, but he only has eyes for Carla and brushes her off. But she slips him a vial of heroin as a way to remember him—so she says—and Walter then gets followed home by an undercover cop Lou Raby, played by a pre-game show host Bert Convy. (But post-minor league career with the Phillies!) When Lou tries to arrest Walter, he freaks out and kills Lou by hitting him over the head with a frying pan.
Having no other way to hide the body, Walter encases Lou in clay for his newest work, “Murdered Man.” Once again, the beatniks at the club sing his praises and for the first time let Walter sit with them. They write poems in his honor. Walter lets all this attention go to his head. He also needs to keep making new sculptures to keep the adulation coming his way—which means becoming a serial killer. Walter also hopes that the fame he is achieving as a sculptor will help him win Carla’s heart.
Meanwhile, Walter’s boss at the cafe, Leonard (Antony Carbone), figures out what Walter is up to. He begs Walter to stop and is horrified by his artwork. But he also can’t give up the money and attention that Walter’s artwork is drawing to his cafe. So between reporting a serial killer to the police and profiting off said killer’s crimes, Leonard is torn.
As I noted, Miller’s performance is the best part of the film. He starts out as a stereotypical beaten-down loser who dreams of being accepted by the cool kids who really aren’t worth impressing. As he commits more and more murders, he alternates between moody depression, wallowing in the adulation and embracing a crazed psychosis. Miller had a long career as a noted character actor dating from the mid-fifties up until his death in 2019, often in horror films but also in TV shows and other movies. He often portrayed off-kilter everymen, and that’s what he does here. His performance A Bucket of Blood isn’t subtle, but this isn’t a script that lends itself to subtlety. It’s a silly movie that calls for a silly performance and Miller delivers.
In the memorial video that TCM aired when he died, Roger Corman is heard saying “You can’t make a cult film. The audience makes a cult film. The ingredients? You never know.” And that’s what Corman has done here with A Bucket of Blood. It’s a cheap, low-budget horror film that was filmed in five days. The script was an over-the-top parody of beatnik culture and the New York art scene. The lack of on-screen blood probably was a budget decision more than anything else. Corman later re-used the sets of A Bucket of Blood for the more famous Little Shop of Horrors. But somehow, we, the audience, recognized the ingredients of a great cult film and made it one. A Bucket of Blood is fun. And it checks in at just 65 minutes long, so like any good joke, it leaves the stage before it gets old.
A Bucket of Blood is in the public domain, so you can find copies of it everywhere. Here’s the trailer. You pretty much get the entire gist of the film here, including Miller’s over-the-top performance.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
Tonight I’m asking you to turn in your grades now that the school year is over. In particular, I’m asking you what grade would you give left fielder Ian Happ’s 2024 season?
Happ made his debut with the Cubs in 2017, making him the Cubs’ longest-tenured player now—or at least he will be when Kyle Hendricks officially files for free agency. He spent much of the 2019 season back in the minors, but came back up in late-July and has been a fixture in the Cubs lineup ever since.
Happ got off to a slow start this year in April, which led to a lot of calls here and on social media for the Cubs to trade or release him. The trade talk was shut down with the “I have a no-trade clause” meme and the “release him” position simply didn’t deserve a serious response, The Cubs weren’t going to just release an above-average hitting and fielding left fielder.
Happ turned his season around in June and was pretty solid the rest of the season. Happ is never the kind of guy to hit for a high batting average because he strikes out too much and this year was no exception. Happ struck out a career-high 168 times and posted a batting average of .243, which is not too far from his career average of .248. But Happ also walked 80 times, giving him an on-base percentage of .341, right in line with his career average of .343.
Happ finished the season with a tie for his career-high in home runs with 25. His OPS+ of 120 was the best of his career other than 2019 (where he was in the minors until late-July) and 2020, and you know why the 2020 season shouldn’t really be considered representative of anything.
On defense, Happ is a back-to-back Gold Glove Award winner. Critics would say this is because they changed the way they awarded Gold Gloves a few years ago. Instead of just picking the three best outfielders, which was almost always two center fielders and maybe a right fielder, they now have separate categories for left, center and right fielders. Since left field is often where teams try to hide their bat-first slugger, winning a Gold Glove as a left fielder is not as impressive as it used to be. However, I think it’s fair to say that for a left fielder, Happ is a very good defensive player. Whether you think that’s the equivalent of being the best football team in the Mid-American Conference is up to you, but I think it’s hard to argue that Happ didn’t deserve those two Gold Gloves. And after a shaky start for this season on defense, Happ straightened his glove out about the same time he started hitting. It certainly would not be a surprise for Happ to win his third-straight Gold Glove this year.
As far as the WAR stat that so many people like to use as a measuring stick, Happ had a 3.9 WAR by Baseball Reference and a 3.6 WAR according to Fangraphs.
Along with Dansby Swanson, Happ has emerged as a team leader and serves as the team’s representative in the union and is one of four players on the union’s pension committee. Happ also took over the leadoff spot in the order at the end of July. Despite having earlier in his career that he prefers to hit lower in the order, Happ accepted the move and showed professionalism the rest of the way. In fact, he said “But wherever he [Counsell] wants me to hit, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
So what grade would you give Ian Happ’s 2024 season? Does it matter that when the Cubs were sinking in May, Happ was one of the anchors dragging them down? Or does his play the next four months and strong finish to the season make the slow start water under the bridge?
Thank for stopping by this evening. It’s been nice having you around. We hope you’ve enjoyed it as well. Please get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.