My hyperlocal class has launched its site

The Raritan River Review has launched. The site, developed as part of my Hyperlocal Newsroom site at Rutgers, was developed, designed, written and edited by students in my class. You can find it here.
RRR for blog
This is the announcement post:

Welcome new readers. The Raritan River Review is a project of the Rutgers School of Communications and Information. My Hyperlocal Newsroom class is launching the site, which is run by the students and will include news, opinion and multimedia. We are planning to launch within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned here for news or follow the Raritan River Review on Twitter @RRR_News. Shoot me a message if you have any questions or suggestions.

Southside still has it

It’s been 38 years since his debut album was release, and Southside Johnny hasn’t lost a step — well, maybe a step, but it hasn’t affected what the man can do on stage.

The 68-year-old is one-part old-time R&B shouter, one part crooner and one part straight-up rocker, and if that sounds like rowdy mix, well, it is. Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes know how to put on a show.

I hadn’t seen the then 11-piece Jukes live in 33 years — since an outdoor show at Freehold Raceway in1981 (opening acts: Hall & Oates and Willie Nile). That show was raucous and charged and the closest thing to Springsteen I’d seen at that point. There’s no accident, of course. Bruce and Johnny run in the same circles and grew upon the same bars and on the same stages. They even swapped band members.

I’ve been promising myself I’d catch him live again but, for reasons I can’t really explain even to myself, it never happened. Until Saturday.

Southside didn’t disappoint. With a set list mixing great early cuts (a good helping from This Time It’s For Real and Hearts of Stone) with later songs (“Pills and Ammo”) and covers (“Walk Away Renee, “Can I Get a Witness”), Johnny led a smaller version of the Jukes (eight members) on a two-hour romp that had the crowd singing and dancing along.

The band was tight, even with two subs (on bass and sax), and keyboardist Jeff Kazee acted a perfect foil, even taking lead vocals at one point.

My only complaint was that two hours wasn’t enough.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Slim Kings can rock

One tho give learned going to concerts for nearly 40 years is that you never know what to expect from an opening act.

More often than not, they are mediocre. But sometimes they surprise you and they make you want to see them again.

That’s what happened tonight with a little rock ‘n’ roll act out of Brooklyn called the Slim Kings. The four-piece band, which features the legendary Liberty DeVito on drums, can flat-out play. The half dozen or so songs they ran through were blues based, revved up and loud. And they made me want to buy their record. And that is the highest praise anyone can give an opening band.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Who’s on first? For Mets, it should be Ike Davis, for now

ESPN photo

Ike Davis was a disaster at the plate last year. He was so bad, in fact, that the Mets considered using the dreadful Lucas Duda there on a permanent basis as an alternative.

The plan, according to all the press reports, was to move Davis in the offseason — mostly because he still had some value, unlike Duda. There were no takers, or none, at least, who wanted to pay the Mets’ price.

So Davis and Duda entered spring in competition for the job. Injuries have slowed the competition, but it shouldn’t matter. Davis was a former top pick by the Mets, is a good defensive first-baseman and, most importantly, has upside — even if he did not show it last year.

My argument is pretty simple: Davis is 26 and has shown flashes of what he can do. His second half in 2012 was impressive (flawed, but impressive). And, more importantly, his numbers match up with some decent first-basemen:

Here are Ike’s career numbers:

He has played 442 games, hit 67 homers, walked 207 times while striking out 411 times. His splits (batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage) are .242/.334/.434. These are not all-star numbers, to be sure. And his career arc is troubling — good start, but little improvement with his worst year coming last year.

That said, consider these numbers: 436 games played, 77 homers, 107 walks, 510 strikeouts and a .258/.309/.466 split. Not much better, right? Those are the numbers put up by Chris “Crash” Davis, the slugging first-baseman of the Orioles. Davis was a rock-headed, swing-at-anything hitter until he showed up in Baltimore and they subjected him to some very targeted hitting exercises (contrast this with the Mets’ efforts — send Ike to Vegas but do nothing with him). The results for Crash — 33 homers in 2012 (included in the above numbers) and a whopping 53 in 2013, with 138 runs batted in and .286/.370/.634 splits. Davis turned 27 last year, the same age as Ike will be this year.

How about these numbers: 402 games, 57 homers, 136 walks, 213 strikeouts and a .254/.320/.434 split. Again, a very familiar stat line. These were the numbers Tino Martinez put up through age 26.
I am in no way saying that Ike can turn into Chris Davis or Tino Martinez. All I am doing is making the case that Davis deserves one last long look at first for the Mets. He should be there everyday, for the most part, though the clock must be ticking. See if there are signs of the 2011 Ike — before he went down for the year, he was hitting .302 with 8 homers in 36 games — or even the Ike of 2012’s second half. If he doesn’t show up, send him packing. What are the alternatives this year? Lucas Duda? Josh Satin? Zack Lutz? Exactly.

Send me an e-mail.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.