Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn and Jake Taylor are warming up for a new season.

As the exciting, action packed Vancouver 2010 Winter Games draw to a close with Team USA (that’s right!!!!!) battling Canada for Olympic Gold in men’s hockey later today, believe it or not baseball’s around the corner.

February’s gotta be the fastest month ever. Especially with President’s Week and you know. The whole leap year thing. Normally, I don’t mind it but this winter’s been one of the craziest with plenty of white stuff here in Shaolin and all over NYC, the Garden State, CT and the East coast. Just wild. We got hit pretty bad the other night with another foot-plus flying down in the morning hours. Should’ve seen how it looked outside my window. As Crazy Eddie might chime:

“Insane!”

March can’t get here soon enough and is tomorrow! Spring Training will be in full bloom as prognosticators get ready for another season. Can the Yankees do it again minus World Series MVP Godzilla and Johnny Damon? Will Curtis Granderson light it up in center field and Nick Johnson make fans forget Hideki Matsui? Can Jason Bay carry the Mets until Carlos Beltran gets back? Is Jose Reyes batting third a novel concept or just more proof that Jerry Manuel has lost it? What about Oliver Perez, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey? Bounce back or Amazin’ attack? Can Javier Vazquez II work in the Bronx? Will Da Melkman be missed? What of Joba and Phil Hughes?

All are great questions for locals. Getting more to the point, baseball’s already started up in the land of BK. Park Slope to be exact where coach Walter Paller’s Berkeley Carroll Lions take aim at defending their title. Last year was a coming out party for one of the best baseball programs this city has to offer.

The BC Lions dethroned heavy favorite Poly Prep in a classic, hanging on for dear life thanks to a great diving catch by right fielder Theo Guest (Dayton University) and superb closing from Phil Seay (Denison College), who look to help their new schools this Spring as will former ace James McDonagh (Trinity College). Senior backstop Walker Harrison returns looking to lead Paller’s club to the promised land again along with slugger Rob Paller. He’ll be joined by plenty of hoop ‘mates such as Sean Cunningham, Nate Barr, Jesse Chalfin, Joey Martinez, Mike Andria and Adam Kochman.

With the crack of the bat and pounding of the mitt coming before you know it, one of our favorites from Major League to get warmed up and melt away all the snow. Paging Willie Mays Hayes, Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn, Jake Taylor, Roger Dorn and Pedro Cerrano!

“Musical Flow”

D Flex

High as the sky

And it’s oh so fly

Can’t quite figure out why
Just that i’m feeling spry

Let my brain float
In the clouds
Speeding like a motor boat
With music making me proud

As I flow
Across the universe
Making love grow
Quenching my first

Bringing passion
And smiles to faces
Along with epic fashion
Transformed into mysterious cases

Creating a new domain

That you never heard of

Sweet as candy canes

Spreading its wings like a dove

Bringing everyone together

Bob Marley singing One Love

Jimi Hendrix jamming forever

Feels like heaven above

Painting faces red

Burning like Fire

Are we all dead

Or is God a liar

Beats rolling like thunder

Got to make some changes screams 2Pac

Before it takes us under

Get on the block

Dancing rain drops beating like drums

With a purpose

Telling ya to load the gun

Fire on all circuits

It’s your chance

To elevate your game

So dance dance dance

Move and groove the train

Jigga and GaGa think outside the box
Spring into action

Rock your socks

Just remember to blast them

Get Naughty Everything’s Gonna Be Alright

Keep on pushing

Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock make it outta sight

Ya’ll must be looking

When it all feels lost

Just Keep Your Head Up

Cause you are The Boss

Always Born To Run

Watching Voltron growing up even as a kid, I could tell the amazing chemistry Voltron force leader Keith and Princess Allura had. There was plenty of affection. So, why didn’t they make it part of the series? Maybe cause it was a different time.

To any viewer who was a fan of the show, it made complete sense for them to be with each other just based on the words and expressions in their body language.

Didn’t Allura, such a beautiful princess deserve her prince or knight in shining armor? And they helped team up with Hunk, Lance and Pidge to form Voltron. Defender of the Universe. Oh well. I can dream. At least I’m not alone in this thought process as great YouTuber Sabrina (sapphirestone99) has put together another winning video tribute to the Voltron couple.

It’s appropriately entitled, “What If…” The clips she chose were wonderful and it just might be her best Voltron work to date featuring Red’s “Pieces” as the music for over a six minute video.

Watch it and admire. Fall in love all over again with this great cartoon which shall always have a special place in my heart. Hey. The kid in ya never ever dies!

Besides. The day that happens is the day it’s over.

Part of Voltron’s appeal was watching the great lengths the devious Prince Lotor would go to try to win over Princess Allura. But the fifth and final member of the Voltron Force effectively replacing Hans to defend her own Planet Arus never gave into Lotor’s charms.

She saw Lotor for what he really was which was King Zarkon’s evil son of Planet Doom who was part of their schemes along with the ugly Witch Haggar to conquer Arus and rule the world. While he disagreed plenty with his father wanting to do things his own way and get all the recognition, Lotor was still dangerous and could even go as far as to double cross the Voltron Force pretending to be good just to lure them into a trap as he did in one episode. That’s why he never could really be trusted though at times, you weren’t sure what was going on in his head due to his affection for Allura.

Understanding Lotor sometimes became a chore cause you felt that there just might be some human qualities in him. But just when he looked like he wanted to be good, he’d quickly resort and reveal his true colors. Like in one dialogue, he talked about how he could never really be good. It just wasn’t in his blood or human nature. Did we just say that?

Last time out, we looked at a very good video depicting the lost prince’s affection for Princess Allura.

Here, we see another well executed video on Lotor’s fascination with the beautiful Arus ruler:

Voltron: “Lotor’s Obsession”

there are some excellent scenes including a few great exchanges between the two during various episodes. you can even pickup where they were taken from if you remember well enough. excellent song selection too featuring one of my fave bands Depeche Mode appropriately entitled, “It’s No Good.” plus the finish is classic.

A while ago, I made an entry dedicated to Voltron which still ranks as my fave cartoon for its creativity. While the characters lines could’ve been better and a couple of storylines more developed by creator Peter Keefe, it definitely had its appeal.

The classic robot and defender of the universe and all things on Planet Arus was larger than life successfully formed by five lions. One of my favorite storylines was the evil Prince Lotor’s fascination with Princess Allura. King Zarkon’s son from Planet Doom was quite taken with the lovely Planet Arus ruler.

Allura never liked him though and refrained choosing loyalty to her planet and black lion leader and commander Keith. Why they didn’t develop that storyline further remains a mystery. Chalk it up to the time period as the mid-1980’s were quite different than today.

In any event, I always felt Lotor’s character was misunderstood. Here, we see a quality video on the Prince’s relationship with Allura.

The Lost Prince

an excellent video with great imagery and good music.