It’s Monday night here at BCB After Dark: the hippest dive for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the fall chill. We’ve got room for one more. The fire marshal hasn’t shut us down yet. There’s no cover charge. The hostess can seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged
to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last week I asked you when you thought baseball would return after the certain lockout that starts on December 2. We got a somewhat-decent bell curve on the responses and 42 percent of you picked the middle option, which was sometime in May. Another 24 percent thought the season would be delayed but that baseball would restart in April
Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You’re free to join us.
So I’ve got one sorta Halloween jazz song left to go. This is one of those “Live from Emmet’s Place” videos with pianist Emmet Cohen. Joining him tonight is Seamus Blake and Troy Roberts, both on tenor saxophone, Russell Hall on bass and Jonathan Barber on drums.
This is “Old Devil Moon” from 2025.
For lack of a better option, I have one last Halloween movie for you, which is 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The film was directed by Charles Barton and starred, naturally enough, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. But it also had Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and unfortunately, no Boris Karloff, as Frankenstein’s Monster was played by Glenn Strange.
I feel like I should listen to the commentary track on this film before writing about it and yes, I couldn’t believe that Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein has a commentary track either. I suppose there could be a lot of great stories about the actors. That would be more productive than analyzing the mise-en-scène of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. But I haven’t listened to the commentary because I don’t think the film is really worth watching more than once. It’s a disposable slapstick comedy that misuses its characters, both Abbott and Costello and the Universal Monsters.
I don’t have a problem with horror comedy. Young Frankenstein and Army of Darkness are great films. You should be watching Widow’s Bay on Apple TV. But sticking the Universal Monsters in a silly slapstick film with a couple of comedians whose strength wasn’t slapstick was a dumb idea. Except the film made money, so I guess it wasn’t that dumb to the studio execs.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello obvious hold a dear space in the hearts of baseball fans for their “Who’s on First?” routine. That’s a terrific example of the wordplay that the two of them could pull off. But while Abbott and Costello got their start in Vaudeville, they really cut their teeth on radio, where their clever routines and vocal patter were terrific. But here, most of the humor is slapstick, with the monsters chasing around Costello while straight man Abbott insists that nothing wrong is going on. The wordplay that was their strength is mostly absent.
The plot is that a guy with a wax museum has bought Dracula’s coffin and the remains of Frankenstein and has them shipped to the US. Larry Talbot, aka The Wolf Man, calls Costello (called “Wilbur” in this film, but there’s no reason to refer to him as that) to warn them not to deliver the the crates. But of course, Talbot turns into the Wolf Man before he can finish his warning.
Abbott and Costello are working for a shipping firm, so they get tasked with delivering the crates to the wax museum. Of course, the issue is that neither Dracula nor Frankenstein are dead and the contents of the crates go missing when the monsters wake up.
The plot of the film is that Dracula, with the help of a mad scientist who looks like a fashion model (because she was, Lenore Aubert) is trying to control the Monster by replacing his current brain with a dumber and more compliant one—i.e. Lou Costello’s. So the model/scientist seduces Costello to keep him close until the operation. There’s another plot about an attractive insurance investigator (Jane Randolph) trying to seduce Costello because there’s an insurance claim on the two missing crates that contained Dracula and the Monster. So there’s two hot babes going after the frumpy Costello, which doesn’t make Abbott very happy.
Larry Talbot finally gets to America to help Abbott and Costello stop Dracula and Frankenstein, but a full moon comes out everytime he does and he turns into the Wolf Man and goes crazy.
As someone who re-watched the original 1931 Dracula right before this, I found it infuriating that Dracula shows up clearly in mirrors that he passes by. That vampires don’t show up in mirrors is a major plot point in that film. No one cares here. Not just about mirrors, but about everything.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was a big hit in 1948, so of course it spawned several sequels—Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). The internet tells me that Abbott and Costello fans don’t have a very high opinion of any of these films.
One point of note. There’s an uncredited voice-only cameo featuring Vincent Price as the Invisible Man in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. As far as I can tell, it was the first time Vincent Price ever appeared in a “horror” film. Or at least his unmistakable voice appeared.
You can see Universal’s thinking on this movie. Abbott and Costello are two of our biggest stars. Our monster films are popular. Let’s put them together! But ice cream is great. Ahi tuna sushi is great. That doesn’t mean I want to eat sushi ice cream.
Here’s the trailer for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Welcome back to everyone who skipped the culture stuff.
Today was the deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers to their free agents. As a quick reminder, a qualifying offer is a one-year, $23.15 million (this year) contract offer to a team’s free agent player. Players can either accept the offer and return to their current team for one year (as Shōta Imanaga did last winter) or they can opt for free agency. If they do become a free agent and they sign with a different team, the team that signs them loses a draft pick and the team that loses the player gains a draft pick according to a formula too convoluted to go into here.
Some free agents are ineligible to get a qualifying offer. Any player that changed teams mid-season is ineligible to get a QO. Players may also only be given an QO once in their career.
In the history of qualifying offers, only 18 of 157 players have accepted the offer.
The Cubs only gave out one qualifying offer today. Right fielder Seiya Suzuki was given the QO. Left fielder Ian Happ and lefty Matthew Boyd were also eligible for a QO but did not receive one.
It was a foregone conclusion that the 32-year-old Suzuki would get a qualifying offer. Suzuki signed a five-year, $85 million deal of of Japan’s NPB before the 2022 season. After a somewhat “meh” 2022 as he adjusted the the American game, Suzuki has been a very productive hitter in the final four years of the deal. This past season, he hit .270/.368/.473 with 26 home runs. He also struggled to adapt to the MLB game defensively in right field initially, but this year he had, according to the metrics, his best defensive season yet. Suzuki was one of three “finalists” for the National League Gold Glove in right field this past season.
It was considered possible, but unlikely, that Happ and Boyd would receive qualifying offers. Happ, 32, is the Cubs’ longest-tenured player, joining the team as a rookie in the 2017 season. He’s been a steady, good but unspectacular, performer over the past ten seasons, but this past year was one of his worst as a Cub. It wasn’t terrible—.218/.326/.412 with 24 home runs, but his OPS+ of 103 just barely beat his career low of 102 in his sophomore season (after which he was sent back down to the minors).
Boyd signed a two-year deal with the Cubs before the 2025 season. He was strong that year with a record of 14-8 and an ERA of 3.21. But he battled injuries and inconsistency in his age-35 season this year. His traditional numbers of 10-5 and an ERA of 3.91 in 2026 weren’t bad, but they weren’t “$23 million a year” numbers eitehr.
Overall, eight players received qualifying offers. They are, along with their age and former team:
Outfielder Randy Arozarena (31) Seattle Mariners.
Second baseman Brandon Lowe (32) Pittsburgh Pirates
Left-handed starter Trevor Rogers (28) Baltimore Orioles
First baseman Jake Bauers (31) Milwaukee Brewers
Right-hander reliever Adrían Morejón (27) San Diego Padres
Catcher Ryan Jeffers (29) Minnesota Twins.
So tonight’s question is “How many of these players will accept their qualifying offer?” In a normal year, I’d say either zero or one, but with the lockout looming, many some of these players will get cold feet and settle for the certainty of a $23 million deal and try their luck again next winter. But what do you think? It is widely believed that Seiya Suzuki will reject the QO, but you never know what he’s thinking with the lockout looming.
In the comments, tell us which players you think will accept. And if you want, tell us which players should accept even if they won’t.
Finally, the Cubs did make one more move today. claiming right-handed reliever Eric Orze off of waivers. Perhaps we’ll have more on Orze tomorrow, but for now, Orze appears to be a pitcher with a nasty splitter and overall good stuff. However, that hasn’t translated into a lot of success with either the Mets, Rays or Twins. However, his 5.66 ERA with the Twins last year was accompanied by a 3.34 FIP, which indicates that Orze may have been the victim of bad luck or bad defense.
Thanks everyone for stopping by. We’re always happen to see you. Please get home safely. Stay warm. Call a ride if you need one. Please recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow evening for more BCB After Dark.
