Sorry for the long absence. I’ve been struggling to produce anything blog-worthy lately. I haven’t even been able to compose shitty content, which is my specialty. Call it a “supply chain disruption” of creative juices. Wait- what the hell is in these juices? Hang on, I’m gonna look this up… apparently the phrase was first used in a Finnish epic poem from 1846 entitled Kalevala that recounts a mythical story of the development of steel, and yikes I’m sorry I even bothered. My point is: topics be hard to come by, yo!

Late one night, I went down one of those Youtube rabbit holes that starts with a trailer for the new David O. Russell film and devolves into ALF blooper videos. Of course, I ended up on a clip of highlights from the May 18, 1969 game between the Boston Red Sox and the Seattle Pilots. And this is where things get somewhat interesting.

Late one night, I went down one of those Youtube rabbit holes that starts with a trailer for the new David O. Russell film and devolves into ALF blooper videos. Of course, I ended up on a clip of highlights from the May 18, 1969 game between the Boston Red Sox and the Seattle Pilots. And this is where things get somewhat interesting. 

First, some context. I’m a resident of Portland where, as writer Chuck Pahlaniuk once put it, “Even wealthy people buy second-hand clothes and look a bit homeless.” Portlanders love being weird, biking, and food carts — and we think they had a hand in inventing all three. It’s not a “sports town” by most metrics: there’s no MLB or NFL franchise, and when I go to my gym the TVs are more often tuned to The Food Network than ESPN. But PDX loves its Trailblazers. The lone NBA championship, won in 1977, is known to induce glassy eyes and wistful smiles among those who witnessed it (and even among those who didn’t). The longtime Blazers announcer, Bill Schonely, inspires nearly as much, if not more, reverence among the diehards. He was there from the beginning, calling games from the inaugural season of 1970-71 until 1998. During that first season, in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Blazers guard Jim Barnett hit a long jumper to cap a furious comeback. The Schonz excitedly intoned, “Rip City! All right!” (if the term “Rip City” seems nonsensical now, imagine how it sounded a half century ago). Schonely claimed he had no idea how he came up with the term, but it quickly became his primary catchphrase…and eventually became a rallying cry for fans…and somehow morphed into a nickname for Portland. You’re not gonna believe this, but they sell a ton of “Rip City”-branded merchandise. “Rip City” definitely belongs in the Branding Hall of Fame.

But!

Schonely didn’t actually invent “Rip City.”

Back to that grainy old Sox video (thanks for sticking with me through all that exposition). Unless you love the old-timey highlights of two mediocre teams playing a meaningless game, skip ahead to 1:35 of the video. 

That’s Red Sox broadcaster Ken Coleman clearly intoning “Rip City!” (I’m not even sure if I should capitalize his usage). Obviously, I have so much questions. Was this actually a phrase that a few people were using back then? If so, it had to have been very limited for its invention to be attributed to Schonely. Did Coleman say this more than a few times on-air? My guess is no, or else someone would have pointed this out before now. Why is it that a throwaway line is lost forever on the Boston airwaves becomes a phenomenon in another city? Finally, can Portland survive the potential scandal this may cause?