Cut it out.

Did you know the first edit of the Charleston Heston epic "Ben Hur" was over four and a half hours long? After numerous changes, the final release was 213 minutes (3 hours 43 minutes long). The classic movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was first previewed at the Cinerama Dome theater at 192 minutes. It was trimmed to 162 minutes when it went to general release. By the time it hit television, it was at 154 minutes.

To no one's surprise, it's common to chop apart a movie to fit into a certain time frame. The issue, though, is you can end up with some confusing story lines. Without knowledge of the Anchorhead scene of Biggs telling Luke he's jumping ship to the Rebellion, it's weird how Luke is so torn up over the death of some random X-Wing pilot, as he was introduced in the original theatrical release. A brilliant dance scene was cut from the Wizard of Oz to shorten the movie. And let's not go into the numerous cuts of Blade Runner.

Music has the same issue. The phrases "album cut" and "radio edit" describe what happens. They will do their best to chop down a song so it fits well in the flow of a station's format, but some great songs get horrible versions. The radio edit of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" chops out the whole third verse, having the ending of the third verse become the ending of the 2nd verse. When Manfred Mann redid Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light", it was over 7 minutes. It clocks in at under 4 minutes on your local classic rock station, slicing out a 3 min plus jam in the middle. I could go on - Sultans of Swing, Love is Like Oxygen, Hocus Pocus, Hard to Say I'm Sorry....

2015 Topps, while a strong, strong release compared to the past decade, has some pretty bad cropping. There are some glaring omissions when you look at series 1. Stuff like:

Bases.

Part of a leg.

Feet.

Did I mention feet?

No really...feet.

A lot of feet.

Someone really hates feet.

To like a Dexter level of hate.

Elbows too.

Plus hands.

And tops of the head.

Even lopping it off at the neck.

Why do you hate God, Topps?

This post was inspired by the following song, which for years I only heard on the radio, realizing that the 90 second guitar solo was chopped to under 40 seconds. It's a much better 5 minute tune. Compare and enjoy at about 2:40.