Baseball Toaster The Griddle
Help
A place where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure, but he has to keep his watch on Pacific Time.
Frozen Toast
Search
Google Search
Web
Toaster
The Griddle
Archives

2009
02  01 

2008
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2007
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2006
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2005
12  10  07 
06  05  04  03 
Suggestions, comments, ring the catcher's interference alarm?

Email me at btimmermann@gmail.com

The stuff I keep track of
Random Game Callbacks

Select a date:

Personal favorites that I wrote
FAQs
Not Aztec, Olmec!
2007-02-21 17:35
by Bob Timmermann

The Washington Nationals today announced a working agreement with a Mexican Summer League team, Los Olmecas de Tabasco.

The Olmecs, for those unfamiliar with Precolumbian Mexico except through watching episodes of "The Simpsons", lived mostly in the present day Mexican state of Tobasco, which is on the Gulf of Mexico in the south. The Olmecs, who predated the far more famous Aztecs and Mayans, are known for their colossal heads.

Not that actual Olmecs had heads that large, but they certainly liked carving them.

And what did the Olmecs give to civilization? Zero.

Literally. The Olmecs are generally considered to have introduced the concept of zero.

The Simpson family received a giant Olmec head in the episode "Blood Feud", which originally aired in 1991. Mr. Burns bought the head at "Plunderer Pete's." The writers gave the head a made-up name which sounded more Nahuatl (aka the language of the Aztecs). But we don't really know what the Olmecs spoke. And the colossal heads aren't talking!

Los Olmecas (yes, the article and noun agree in gender) don't use the colossal heads as their logo as you can see in their website linked above, although the heads do show up if you mouse over some of the links.

However on this site, there are older versions of Los Olmecas logos and they did incorporate the colossal heads. Were the colossal heads dropped because they wanted to avoid the mess of a Chief Illiniwek controversy? Or was it just hard to get someone dress up as a 20 ton head?

I'm still waiting for Los Olmecas to take on the Rapa Nui Moai.

Comments
2007-02-21 18:02:12
1.   Chyll Will
"Were the colossal heads dropped because they wanted to avoid the mess of a Chief Illiniwek controversy? Or was it just hard to get someone dress up as a 20 ton head?"

Luckily, neither San Francisco nor "The Apprentice" are forced to address that dilemma this spring...

2007-02-21 18:02:48
2.   El Lay Dave
The Olmec would likely have considered the arrival of Juan Pierre a forboding omen, a sign they had angered the gods (possibly Quetzalcoatl.)
2007-02-21 18:07:07
3.   Bob Timmermann
However Juan Pierre went to South Alabama whose mascot is the jaguar I believe. And the Olmec god was a ....

JAGUAR!

2007-02-21 18:16:05
4.   dianagramr
Now I have They Might Be Giants "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" in my head ....

thanks Bob .... :-)

2007-02-21 18:50:46
5.   Greg Brock
The Olmecs were an amazing civilization. I could make jokes, but hey, I do that enough.

The Olmecs are the Stan Musial of Precolumbian Mesoamerica.

2007-02-21 19:06:03
6.   El Lay Dave
4 I might was guessed "It's Alright" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

Kevin Mensch would be money on this team!

2007-02-22 10:04:42
7.   mehmattski
How can you not mention Legends of the Hidden Temple, hosted by a giant head called Olmec? Oh, because you probably didn't spend most of the 1990s watching Nickelodean. Fair enough.

The choices are yours, and yours alone...

2007-02-22 13:24:09
8.   El Lay Dave
7 We all deserve a spanking at the shrine of the Silver Monkey! Of course I watched that show with my daughter, b. 1989. I used to make her laugh be imitating the voiceover guy describing the "course". (Seriously, thanks for the happy memory!)
2007-02-22 21:08:03
9.   das411
7 - I saw a pair of Red Jaguars on Halloween here last fall, it was quite awesome.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.