Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I just read Superman #662 and was surprised to see that Boston's internationally renowned starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisuke_Matsuzaka) (aka "Dice-K") beat the Metropolis Monarchs, 4-0.  Another win for his already incredible record, it must have been the precursor to his victory over the Toronto Blue Jays last Wednesday.

With the Metropolis Monarchs up against the Boston Red Sox in the American League, and the Meteors up against the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League; it's obvious that the Monarchs and the Meteors are analogies for the Yankees and the Mets.

(http://superman.nu/images/dice-k-detail.jpg) (http://superman.nu/images/dice-k-page.jpg)

Well if Derek Jeter shows up on the Monarchs, we'll know for sure.  :D

I never got around to reading issue 662, any good?

What other instances have real-life athletes' Earth-1 (or -2, etc.) counterparts shown up in the comics? Think it was Hank Aaron showed up in the Johnny Nevada's-been-kidnapped story (as a guest on the "Midnight Show") as a guest on the show...

Know there's various stories (flashback tales/Superboy tales) that mentioned or showed Babe Ruth...

 somewhere in the archives, I have a early 60's Superman with Antonio Rocca, the wrestler featured on the cover.  I'll look up the number

I'm certain there were other instances, though none come to mind right now

here you go: http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Antonino_Rocca

I seem to recall Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra appearing in Superman family mags in the 60s -- as adverts
only?

And the ubiquitous Mr. Met.  ;)

Pelé was in one of the Maggin novels, IIRC.


Yes, it was.

Thanks, saves me the trouble of digging through the long boxes !

first of all the Monarchs have no long relief pitching, and Earth-1 Dice K is actually a super powered shape shifting pile of purple goo from a parrellel universe created so that the Red Sox could actually win another world series in our life time.

Too bad for the Monarchs that their starters need to be relieved so early.  Dice-K defeated the Detroit Tigers this evening (7-1) and he pitched all nine innings!

Hopefully I'm not being too analytical for the discussion, and it's certainly not a facet in which I have any trouble suspending disbelief, but the part about the Earth 1 Dice K in Carmine's quote reminds me that Waid probably got it right in Kingdom Come when we see that baseball had died out.  Probably a logical conclusion in a world with super powers.  It would be hard to maintain interest in watching "human" athletes when meta-humans were around [just look at how the public is ambivalent about Bonds' chasing Aaron's record because there's the perception he was enhanced for at least a couple hundred of those homers], even if there were some way to keep the metas from competing [and when you think of all the trouble sports has had with detecting performance-enhacing substances, it's easy to think that knowing who did and who didn't have super-powers would be lots harder].  In one story of mine [that's never going to be completed] there's a super-powered attack at a 1941 major league game, and one of the players [who's secretly super-powered himself] must wrestle with whether to use his powers to save his teammates, since he knows that if he does, he's going to be outed and will be banned from the game for life.  I never decided if his super abilities would even be useful in baseball.  If they weren't [let's say it was energy projection or something], then the lack of acceptance of him would seem unfair, and he would be a sympathetic character.  But, if they were useful [say, enhanced speed or strength or mind-reading], and let's say that he only used them "enough" to make himself pretty good [but not Babe Ruth good], then he wouldn't be so sympathetic, since that would mean that he'd been holding himself back, which is in effect what you do when you throw a game.  No doubt someone out there has already done this storyline, but I thought it had some interesting dimensions to it.  Anyway, sorry if I digress, since my point was that I doubt that human sports could persist in a world with metahumans.  Maybe metahumans would take over sports if there were enough of them, but then you could argue that the unpredictability of super-powers would kill that too.  Competition isn't much fun when there are no rules...so maybe all a world with metahumans would be left with in the way of sports would be something like American Gladiator.  Ugh. I see why Wes Dodds was so depressed.   :)
 

Muhammad Ali knows Clark Kent's secret identity.  :)

Funny how you never see Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali in the same room together.

or Andrew Dice Clay for that matter

I bet Superman didn't like Andrew Dice Clay but is a big Lisa Lampenelli(SP?) fan simply because of her intials.

No, that why he hates her ;)

see...

http://www.nealadams.com/DC/superman/204.JPG

Not too long ago, I heard her talking with Artie Lang(e)

Coincidence? I think not?

Hmmmm....Andrew Dice Clayface....now THERE'S a character !

DC Comics Presents: Superman and Andrew Dice Clayface. that would be a hot team up!!!

Not at all.

For one thing, the Monarchs aren't evil.

kdb

and they are not stinking up ballparks everywhere.

I knew it. Dice-K is the third Kryptonian.  :D

I think the Meteors were also the name of the team Steve Lombard played football for, so maybe the baseball Meteors are actually the never-moved-to-San Francisco analogue of the old New York Giants, and the Earth-1 Mets franchise was awarded to Coast City back in the early 60s.  If the Earth-1 Dodgers didn't move either, then E1 has probably seen several Subway World Series in the last 45 years. 

(http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/4814/dc298dx6.th.jpg) (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dc298dx6.jpg)



I finally figured out how to post it

click on it for fun !