Hockey Goon HOF - Bob Probert videos

In my latest installment to my "Hockey Goon Hall of Fame" I present my ten favorite Bob Probert fights (wins)... well, make it 11.  Numerous classics that didn't make the cut include scraps with Todd Ewen, Bob McGill, Kevin Maguire, Stu Grimson and "Bruise Brother" teammate Joey Kocur.

11. Probert vs Dave Semenko (10/17/1987)
Probert avenges a beating he took from Semenko who jumped him earlier in the year.

10. Probert vs Craig Berube (10/25/91)
One of their many fights (some won by Berube), this might be the most fun to watch.

9. Probert vs Darin Kimble (3/10/91)
Probert puts a beating on one of the tougher players of his era.

8. Probert vs Scott Parker (1/12/99)
I liked Parker, but the arrogant kid takes on the old champ and does not fare well.

7. Probert vs Link Gaetz (11/14/91)
Slugfest between two of the toughest in the game.

6. Probert vs Troy Crowder (1/28/91)
Revenge for a loss earlier in the season that cost Probert the heavyweight champ title for a few months.

5. Probert vs Dave Brown (1/9/91)
Under-rated fight historically between arguably the two toughest in NHL history.

4. Probert vs Glen Cochrane (3/6/88)
Probert dispatches another of the toughest in the game during his epic 87-88 season.

3. Probert vs Craig Coxe (11/19/87)
You could argue that the 85-86 season fight between Probert and Coxe was maybe his best fight, yet I didn't even put it on my list... I've always been partial to this one, the marque fight on the first fight tape I ever owned.

2. Probert vs Tie Domi (12/2/92)
After Domi got the decision in their 91-92 fight, everyone knew the rematch was coming... sure enough, in Probert fashion, he destroyed his opponent in one of the most famous fights in NHL history.

1. Probert vs Marty McSorley (2/4/94)
Maybe the greatest hockey fight of all time.  Both guys landing major shots and not going down... an epic battle.

M*A*S*H Top 20 Episodes (1-5)

And finally...I present MY top five M*A*S*H episodes of all time... these are the best of the best to me for being able to watch over and over and laugh every time.  Thanks to my good friend Justin for letting me borrow and watch the full collection on his DVDs, to see parts that are lost in syndicated re-runs, and take on one of the largest ranking projects I've ever done.  In the future, I hope to rank the Seinfeld, Friends and Grounded For Life episodes.

5. House Arrest (Season 3)
Frank Burns has Hawkeye placed under house arrest after Hawkeye punches him. It takes Frank being falsely accused of rape by a visiting female colonel (and subsequently under house arrest himself) to get the charges dropped.

4. To Market, To Market (Season 1)
Thieves hold up a truck full of medical supplies for the 4077, thus rendering them in desperate need of hydrocortisone. In retaliation, Hawkeye and Trapper meet with a notorious black marketeer, hoping to get some replacements. When they realize they have nothing to trade with him, they are forced to go to drastic measures to get what they need.

3. Deal Me Out (Season 2)
As everybody gathers for the regular poker game (including visiting senior officers), a wounded intelligence agent is brought in to the operating room. Hawkeye must choose between standing orders against treating him (for fear the agent will divulge secrets under anesthesia) or saving his life. Radar accidentally runs over "Whiplash Hwang," a Korean who makes a career of faking injuries and filing personal injury lawsuits. This episode sees the first appearance of Lieutenant Colonel Flagg (after season 3, a Colonel), albeit under a different identity (possibly a pseudonym).

2. 5 O'Clock Charlie (Season 2)
At exactly 5:00 every afternoon, an inept North Korean pilot in an obsolete plane flies over the 4077th, trying (and failing) to hit a nearby ammunition dump with a hand-thrown bomb. The whole camp finds him amusing except for Major Burns, who has an anti-aircraft gun delivered to the camp in hopes of shooting him down. Worried that the gun might draw enemy fire, Hawkeye and Trapper come up with a plan to get rid of both it and the dump.

1. Major Fred C. Dobbs (Season 1)
Hawkeye and Trapper's latest scheme succeeds where no other one has; Frank has finally demanded that he be transferred to another unit and Hot Lips has followed suit. However, when Hawkeye and Trapper discover they will be assigned double duty until replacements are found, they decide to trick Frank into staying by convincing him there a fortune in gold to be found near the camp.

Ironically, per Wikipedia - "Among those involved in the making of M*A*S*H, this is often considered to be the worst episode, centering as it does on Hawkeye and Trapper trying to keep Majs. Burns and Houlihan at the 4077th."

M*A*S*H Top 20 Episodes (6-10)

Into the top ten episodes... these are all classics at this point.

10. The Joker is Wild (Season 11)
After an argument, B.J. bets the others that he can get each of them with a practical joke in the next 24 hours. As the day wears on, Hawkeye gets increasingly paranoid, not trusting anybody or anything, even refusing to take seriously a patient's attempted choking of a visiting doctor.

9. Adam's Ribs (Season 3)
Sick and tired of being served the same meal choices (fish or liver and onions) for 11 straight days, Hawkeye throws a fit and hatches an elaborate plan to get some ribs and barbecue sauce shipped in from a restaurant in Chicago. The shipment arrives, but a fresh wave of wounded disrupts the feast before anyone can enjoy it.

8. A Night at Rosie's (Season 7)
One by one, the staff takes refuge in Rosie's Bar, trying to forget for just one day the war that surrounds them. This is the first appearance of Joshua Bryant as Sgt. Jack Scully, a new love interest for Margaret.

7. The Ringbanger (Season 1)
Hawkeye and Trapper try to have Buzz Brighton (Leslie Nielsen), a colonel with a high casualty record, sent back to America by convincing him that he is insane.

6. Germ Warfare (Season 1)
Hawkeye and Trapper discover that an injured North Korean in the 4077th care has a rare blood type and requires a transfusion. Since Frank has the same blood type, they furtively steal some of Frank's blood in the night. However, when the patient develops hepatitis, they suspect Frank is the carrier.

M*A*S*H Top 20 Episodes (11-15)

Continuing with my M*A*S*H countdown...

15. The Army-Navy Game (Season 1)
The 4077th is under enemy fire and an unexploded bomb lands in the compound. Henry calls the Army and Navy for aid, but both are too busy listening to the football game to provide sufficient help. The Navy eventually identifies the bomb as belonging to the CIA and gives them advice on how to disarm it. The bomb explodes after the doctors cut the wrong wire, but it turns out to be a leaflet bomb.

14. The Billfold Syndrome (Season 7)
Major Winchester suffers a setback to his civilian career and vows to never speak to anyone in camp again (a promise Hawkeye and B.J. enthusiastically try to get him to break), while Dr. Freedman shows up to treat a medic who has lost his memory.

13. The Winchester Tapes (Season 6)
After a month at M*A*S*H, Charles records a taped message home to his parents, begging them to do whatever it takes to get him home. Hawkeye is invited to spend the weekend with a newly single nurse formerly assigned to the camp, but duty calls--over and over and over.

12. No Sweat (Season 9)
In a particularly powerful heat wave, everybody is trying to keep cool, despite problems ranging from Margaret's prickly-heat rash to Winchester's tax problems. Comic relief is provided by Klinger trying to teach himself electronics on the PA system and Winchester and Houlihan having to convince Colonel Potter, stoned on sleeping pills, to order supplies.

11. Rally Round the Flagg, Boys (Season 7)
Colonel Flagg returns to the camp, this time trying to recruit Major Winchester to spy for him against Hawkeye, who is under suspicion of being a communist sympathizer after Hawkeye operates on a North Korean soldier before an American, due to the North Korean being in worse shape. However, Winchester proves to be far more cunning than anyone suspected, and B.J. loses his cool in the face of the angry American soldier attacking Hawkeye.

Hockey Goon Hall of Fame - Part I

My Hockey Goon Hall of Fame is a part of my blog that will be periodically updated as a celebration of Hockey's greatest enforcers, who do not get their proper respect in the regular NHL Hall of Fame.  The first class is, to me, the four most absolutely necessary members in any NHL Goon Hall of Fame.  Numerous other solid candidates will be included in future classes.

JOHN FERGUSON

John Bowie "Fergy" Ferguson Sr. (born September 5, 1938 - died July 14, 2007) is widely considered to be
the NHL's first "enforcer", and a winner of five Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens.

Ferguson was called up by Montreal in 1963-64 to help protect captain Jean Beliveau and promptly pummeled Boston's Ted Green to take the unofficial title of Heavyweight Champ, a title he would hold until his retirement in 1971.

A potent offensive threat, Ferguson scored the Cup winning goal in 1969, a year which saw him score a career best 29 goals.  He finished his career with 500 games, 145 goals and 1,214 penalty minutes playing in an era when penalty minute totals were not so high as the next several decades.

DAVE SCHULTZ

David William "The Hammer" Schultz (born October, 14, 1949) was one of hockey's greatest enforcers and holds the NHL record for most penalty minutes in a single season with 472.

As a left wing on the Philadelphia Flyers, Schultz earned the nickname "The Hammer" for his aggressive style.  He was the most notable enforcer on the Flyers "Broad Steet Bullies" teams of the early and mid-1970s that won two Stanley Cups. 

His 472 penalty minutes in 1974-75 with Philadelphia still stand as the NHL single season record, and his 405 minutes in 1977-78 with Los Angeles and Pittsburgh is the fourth most in a single season.  Schultz has a career total of 2,294 penalty minutes in just 535 games.

Schultz is generally considered to have been the "Heavyweight Champ" of the NHL for a period from early 1973 to May 8, 1975, with a loss to Clark Gillies largely responsible for his losing that spot.  Schultz was a good but not great fighter, but his general craziness and fear instilled into opponents is what set him apart and made him a legend of sorts.

DAVE "TIGER" WILLIAMS

David James "Tiger" Williams (born February 3, 1954) is the NHL's all-time leader in penalty minutes with 3,966.

Williams played with several teams, most notably the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks.  He was considered an enforcer and agitator, although with modest size (5' 11") he was never considered a heavyweight fighter.

His 1980-81 season was his best, as he scored a career high 35 goals while amassing a NHL best 343 penalty minutes and making the All-Star game where he skated on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy.  Later that same season, his Vancouver Canucks made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing.

Williams career total of 3,966 penalty minutes came in 962 games.  He played for five different NHL teams, surpassing 300 penalty minutes in a season six times, and leading the league in penalty minutes three different seasons.

BOB PROBERT

Robert Alan Probert (born June 5, 1965 - died July 5, 2010) was arguably the greatest fighter in NHL history.

As a left wing on the Detroit Red Wings, he was one half of the "Bruise Brothers" with fellow enforcer Joe Kocur.  His best season came in 1987-88 where he made the All-Star game and scored 62 points to go with a league best 398 penalty minutes and numerous impressive fights.

After eight seasons in Detroit, Probert joined the Chicago Blackhawks for the final seven years of his career.  His career totals include 3,300 penalty minutes in 935 games.  He is well known for his off-ice problems with drugs and alcohol.

It is generally considered that he assumed the NHL Heavyweight Champion title in the 1987 season, briefly losing it to Troy Crowder in 1991, before re-claiming the title for several more years before loses to younger, bigger fighters like Sandy McCarthy and Chris Simon.  His list of epic bouts and rivalries includes Tie Domi, Marty McSorley, Craig Coxe, Craig Berube, Todd Ewen and Crowder.  A win over Dave Brown in 1991 perhaps ensured his spot as the toughest man in hockey in what was hockey's toughest era.

M*A*S*H Top 20 Episodes (16-20)

M*A*S*H is, in my opinion, the greatest television series of all time. No show combined comedy and drama as well, then or now. This ranking isn't to rate the best overall episodes, or most historically significant, but the most enjoyable episodes.  

20. No Laughing Matter (Season 9)
Hawkeye makes a bet with B.J. that he can go 24 hours without making a joke, while Major Winchester has a confrontation with the Colonel who had him sent to Korea, and both must practice extreme self control.

19. Bug Out (Season 5) 
A one-hour episode. With North Korean forces on the march, the 4077th must bug out and move the entire camp, but a soldier who has just had serious spinal surgery cannot be moved. Hawkeye, Radar and Major Houlihan stay behind as the rest of the camp tries to set up a new base. Hawkeye is told MASH 4077 is on the "front Lines".

18. The Korean Surgeon (Season 5) 
An escaped North Korean prisoner of war who is a skilled surgeon passes himself off as South Korean (with the help of Hawkeye and BJ) so he can work at the 4077th. They are glad for any help they can get, but Majors Burns and Houlihan suspect he is not who he says he is. In a subplot, Major Burns is taken as a POW by North Korean soldiers pretending to be South Koreans.

17. The Trial of Henry Blake (Season 2) 
Henry Blake is accused of aiding the enemy, and to prevent Hawkeye and Trapper John from getting evidence to exonerate him, Major Burns (in temporary command) confines them to quarters. Trapper and Hawkeye escape and go to the courtroom with proof that the North Koreans who Henry is accused of aiding were refugees and children at a civilian clinic near the border. Frank refuses to drop their charges, so Hawkeye and Trapper use what they know best to change his mind: blackmail.

 
16. An Eye for a Tooth (Season 7) 
Angry to be passed over for a promotion once again, Father Mulcahy boldly takes matters into his own hands with near disastrous results. Hawkeye and B.J. and Margaret embark on a practical joke war, but unbeknownst to them, the entire thing is being masterminded by Winchester.

Scooby Doo - Best Villains

Scooby Doo was my favorite cartoon as a child.  I was obsessed with it.  I ranked all the episodes, figured out the syndicated order they were shown, and would look forward to it every day after school.  I was crushed the day they replaced it with another show and called the TV station to complain (to no avail).  Most of those classics I had not seen for many years, but with my two kids I've seen all of the re-broadcast on Cartoon Network.  Updating my old childhood rankings of best Scooby Doo villains seemed like an excellent choice for my first blog ranking!  Naturally, any Scooby shows post 1978 (i.e. Scrappy) are sub-par and will not be considered.

1. 10,000 Volt Ghost

"Watt A Shocking Ghost"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1976

2. Phantom Shadows
"A Night Of Fright Is No Delight"
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, 1969

3. Ghost Clown
"Bedlam In The Big Top"
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, 1969

4. Tar Monster
"The Tar Monster"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1978

5. Creeper
"Jeepers It's The Creeper"
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, 1970

6. Phantom Racer
"The Spooky Case Of The Grand Prix Race"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1977

7. Dr. Coffin
"The Harum Scarum Sanitarium"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1976

8. Medicine Man Ghost
"A Bum Steer For Scooby"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1976

9. Ghost of Red Beard
"Go Away Ghost Ship"
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, 1969

10. Ice Cream Phantoms
"The Ghost Of The Bad Humor Man"
The Scooby Doo Show, 1976