Here are some links you’ll be enriched by:

*A feel-good night for the Clippers over the Chiefs.

*Godzilla vs Youkilis.

*Delino DeShields’ kid stole four bags yesterday.

*Terrelle Pryor, out of the shadows.

*They’re referring to Albert as “Boojols”

Chiefs and Clippers tonight at 6:35.  Our airtime is 6:35 on The Score 1260 and thescore1260.com.

Jason

The Chiefs have won seven straight.  Here are some other things you’ll enjoy:

*The Columbus Dispatch’s view of hot Chiefs.

*A contestant on Wheel of Fortune….uh….struggles.

*If Albert’s not hitting, someone else must be to blame.

*If only Seattle could retroactively save the Sonics.

*The story of one family remaining in a town that may not exist.

Join us at 6:20 for the Chiefs and Clippers on The Score 1260 or online at thescore1260.com.

Jason

Good morning from Columbus.

*Lindsay Kramer’s game story from the Chiefs’ sixth-straight win.

*High praise for Craig Stammen.

*Horrible news about new Nats catcher Sandy Leon.

*Bad blood already in the Dodgers’ section of La La Land.

*The Sing-Off (and other, less important shows) canceled.

Hope you can join us at 6:20 for the Chiefs and Clippers from Huntington Park.

Jason

Here are some things that’ll interest you:

*Bad news for the Nats (should be posted under Stuff You’ll Dislike).

*A neat story on Mother’s Day about former-Chief Ian Desmond.

*Mother’s Day can be traced back to Isis of the Egyptians.

*Don Nelson got a degree.

*One fan base’s passion kept a team home.

Hope you enjoy the game today on Time Warner Cable Sports, The Score 1260 or thescore1260.com.

Jason

The Chiefs have won four of five on this homestand.  Here are some other things you’ll like:

*Bryce Harper’s self-inflicted wounds made him fit in with Cincinnati.

*Pittsburgh’s Ron Cook does the Strasburg thing.

*Army’s single-season rushing leader goes to Tennessee

*In case you missed it yesterday, Fab Four Friday.

*Pawtucket’s in first–in the standings and in cartoons.

2 P.M. start today on Time Warner Cable Sports and The Score 1260.  Join us.

Jason

Hello folks, time for another trip down Beatles memory lane with JPGR historian and Chiefs pitching coach Greg Booker.  This week, Book has taken us back to 1966 and the band’s attack on the high rate they had to pay the British government under its 95% supertax.  Here’s Booker’s primer on Taxman:

Jason Benetti: Do you think they knew how across the line they were being?

Booker: Definitely they have the devil may care attitude.  There was not a whole lot of shame in anything they did.  They made us believe they felt like they were above all.  They felt like they were above the law and above politics and above anything else.  When John comes out and says, “We’re more popular than Jesus”, that tells you a little bit right there.  They felt like they had a right to do anything they wanted to do.  In 1991, George went on a solo tour of Japan and when he did the song, he substituted–instead of saying Mr. Wilson and Mr. Heath–he substituted Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush in there.  That was the time when they were running for the ’92 campaign.  Bush being the incumbent and Clinton being against him.

Benetti: Yet they end up being so mainstream.

Booker: Not that I would side with any of the stupidity they did back in the day, but they still came across as lovable characters.  Even with the venom spewing from their mouth and outspoken as they were about things, they were the Fab Four.  This song is one of my favorite ones.

Taxman is one of Booker’s favorite bass guitar songs for the group.  That’s the instrument that George Harrison was known for within the group.  But there was a twist in Taxman:

Here are Book’s notes on the song:

Benetti:  Early on you’ve got the driving push.

Booker:  Any song that you can tell what it is from the very first note or two is exciting to me.

Benetti:  Sort of a sinister minor in there.

Booker:  They’re so subtly sarcastic, it’s unbelievable.

Benetti:  They were really mad, weren’t they?  George especially.

Booker:  You know, they went for so long.  This is 1966.  They started five or six years earlier.  They didn’t have cash, they signed for stuff.  Get a new car and sent the agents the bill.  I guess when [George] got word of how much it was, he didn’t like it.  That’s why they actually left the country and started appearing more over here.  George didn’t go back to England until the structure of taxes was reformed.  They were dead serious about this.

Benetti:  They had to have been to name two of the head politicos in England at the time.

Booker:  It was unheard of for anyone in upper Parliament to be named in a bad light.

Mr. Heath with JPGR

See, this is Paul playing the solo.  You can’t make me believe George couldn’t get that as brilliant as he was with the guitar.  But I guess they wanted a certain sound.

Benetti:  You would think after a song like that, they spent time showing how mad they were and how aware they were of the tax rate and what it did to their finances.  Still, when they broke up, one of the major concerns was how much money was left.  Apple Records sorta dissipated.  There was a lot of anger over money.  You would think that with the awareness of that song that might not have happened down the line, but it still did.

Booker: They wouldn’t have woke up to the fact.  John and Paul would have never looked into it and Ringo was just happy to be there.  George was the youngest of the group, the baby of the group.  In a lot of the early interviews, he’s the one that’ll say, “We never know when this’ll be over.”

——————

If you have a song you’d like to hear about from the Chiefs pitching coach, email in to jasonbenetti@syracusechiefs.com.

*The Chiefs and Bulls combined for 23 runs last night.

**Evidently, the Nats had a similarly eerie night.

*Stephen Strasburg detailed.

*The KC Star takes us back to 1989 with Bo Jackson.

*A West coast view of Hamels v. Harper.

*A golf boy band.

Chiefs and Bulls in the series finale tonight at 7:00.  Hope you can join us at 6:45 on The Score 1260 and online at thescore1260.com.

Jason

Ladies and gentlemen….boys and girls…..fish and chips…..Max and Erma’s…..Rowan and Martin……

“We get the idea!”

Whoa.  Sorry.  Testy studio audience.  It’s time for America’s fastest-growing sensation which involves an arbitrary rating system and not Wayne Brady…..

RATE THE IL HOTEL!!!!

And here’s your host for Rate the IL Hotel……Jason Benetti!

Good day folks and welcome to the show which never puts too many pillows on the bed, Rate the IL Hotel.  We’re glad to be around for one more season.  If we go much longer, we might be forced by the networks to do Celebrity Rate the IL Hotel.  Nobody wants to hear about Phyllis Diller’s experience at the Sheraton Waterside Norfolk.

If you’ve just joined us, Rate the IL Hotel is very simple.  We give you three positives and three negatives about a recent hotel the Syracuse Chiefs have stayed in.  Then, we assign a number between 0 and 100 to the hotel.

Today’s contestant:  The Hilton Garden Inn Allentown, Pennsylvania.

For those keeping track, we have not rated an Allentown establishment since 2010 when the Hotel Bethlehem was the preferred lodging of the IronPigs.  Since then, the Staybridge Suites has taken over as the hotel for visiting ballplayers.  But, last weekend the Staybridge was oversold and sent the Chiefs next door to the Hilton Garden Inn.  Here’s how it was:

Pros:

1) It’s not the Staybridge.  The first time we traveled to Allentown last year, the Staybridge could only offer me and Kevin a smoking room.  Because we hadn’t steeled ourselves to spend the night under a craps table at the Bellagio, this was not ideal and has colored my view of the Staybridge.

2) Continental breakfast selection.  Waffles, pancakes, loads of cereals, tasty hash browns, at least four muffin choices.  A dazzling array.  The only negative was the melon-heavy fruit salad.  A little pineapple goes a long way.

3) Clean.  A few decades ago, the folks who ran White Castle had all of their employees wear white lab coats.  At the time, fast food was under fire for being generally unkempt.  So, the White Castle gurus thought being as pristine as possible–say, in a castle colored white–might draw customers.  There’s a chance the Hilton Garden Inn braintrust descended from White Castle CEOs.  This hotel–and every other HGI I’ve personally been to–has been clean as a whistle.  Beautiful.

Cons:

1) Low elevation.  Hotel beds typically are raised above ground.  These beds were rather, say, terranian.  If I wanted to sleep in a dojo, I’d have checked into the set of Kung Fu Panda.

2) Breakfast anarchy.  I brought my plate to the table I chose near a window in the lobby.  Realizing I had no fork with which to eat hash browns, I got up.  After scouring the nook with the food for a while, I asked a staff member for silverware.  She told me it was on the table.  Thinking I had gone totally insane, I went back to the table and found nothing of the sort.  I asked the woman again and she handed me a rolled-up napkin with a spoon, fork and knife inside.  I got up again later in search of apple juice, but couldn’t locate a glass.  The woman I asked for one told me that it was on the table.  Feeling like Allen Funt was somewhere in the business office, I asked then and there that she just give me one.  I’m not the rube who falls for the “your stuff is on the table” routine twice.  Just once, thanks.

3) Coupons.  Our team got breakfast vouchers.  I attempted to hand mine to the woman manning the front desk (aside: can a woman man a desk?  Or does she woman the desk?).  She wouldn’t take it.  Told me to leave it on my table.  Well, let’s be honest.  They don’t know how many people were at each table.  The human memory can store +/- seven things at once.  Good luck.

Rating:  82.  Nice work.

Join us next time on Rate the IL Hotel!!!!

Jason

P.S. Special thanks to Brandon Massey, Chief graphic guru for the great image.  I’ve never looked better with two glasses of shiraz.

*A tweet that solidifies the Chiefs’ 2011 season as awesome.

*The Nats were walked-off upon last night.

*Josh Hamilton and his four homers in perspective.

*The 20 best companies to work for.

*Chien-Ming Wang is starting here tonight.

Hope you can join us on The Score 1260 or online on thescore1260.com or on milb.tv.

Jason

Here’s today’s stuff you’ll like more than a rainout:

*The Nats might need even stronger pitching for a while.

*Kevin’s detailed blog post on the incoming Durham Bulls.

*A guess at the Nats’ Werthless lineup.

*Guillermo Mota might be done, according to one S.F. writer.

*I’ve got a golden ticket.

*Former Bison Jordany Valdespin beat the Phillies.

5 P.M. DH tonight against Durham.  Be there or be square.  The Score 1260 and thescore1260.com.  Also, for a nominal fee, you can check out our new video feed at milb.tv.

Jason