Cleaning out the Inbox-Baseball

Before I start, please allow me to mention this to Blogger and Google- the new Blogger Interface SUCKS!

This will be the third rewrite of the same post as the new version wouldn't allow me to save, move pictures, or even label.
I've returned to the "legacy" version which has served me so well for 13 years, but Google/Blogger plans an elimination of this by late July and a forced move to the new version.
I'm sure that they are working on the flaws and hopefully fix them before then because if not, I'll be looking for a new home for TRS.
This is supposed to be fun and it's not fun to spend hours writing the same thing three times because what you expect to be reliable lets you down.
On to what's more fun to write and hopefully for you-read.


Bob Watson's recent passing (I'll have more on Watson in the next passings post) made me think of the contest to see who would score the one-millionth run in baseball history in 1976.
The contest sponsored by Tootsie Roll (what a way to have kids pay attention!) and Seiko would give prizes to the player that scored it and prizes to various fans had more interest than one would think and came down to Watson in San Francisco and Dave Concepcion in Cincinnati racing around the bases as fast as they could in an attempt to be number one million.
The 2015 article from the New York Daily News looked back at the contest and then estimated that MLB's two-millionth run was on track to be scored sometime in the 2020 season, but I've been unable to find any other notes on the status.

Will Clark's era in San Francisco was before my start of Giants fandom, but I've always been a fan of Clark, who had such a beautiful swing from the left side of the plate, is starting to gather some steam as a potential induction to the Hall of Fame and this article from The Athletic uses the oral history format to speak with "the Thrill's" teammates to talk about Clark's Giants tenure.
While I am a fan of Clark, I'm not sure I'm quite on board for a Cooperstown train.
His Giants numbers are certainly of that ilk, but after leaving San Francisco ( the surprising thing is the numbers declining after leaving Candlestick Park!), Clark hit more than 20 homers only twice and exceeded 100 RBI once along with some problems staying in the lineup with nagging injuries.
As a fan, I'd like to see Clark in, but honestly, I think his numbers fall a little short.

Slate takes a swing at one of the oldest myths from the life of Donald Trump- Was he a baseball player of the level that would have major league teams scouting him in the middle 1960s?
In what would surprise few, that doesn't appear to be the case in the slightest, although Trump did play on his high school team as what appears to be an extremely light-hitting first baseman.
The "best" part was reading the Trump claim that he appeared to be "the best player in New York State" and the even better- "Pro Ball was in the equation until a Giants tryout with a young player named Willie McCovey".
Yes, as in Hall of Famer Willie McCovey.
For the record, when Donald Trump was a high school senior for this supposed tryout, Willie McCovey was entering his sixth year in the big leagues, was coming off a season that saw him smack 44 homers to lead the National League, and had already hit 108 homers in his career.
Insert your snicker here.

Sports Illustrated writes of the "sports card boom" during the pandemic and what is "Fueling it", which is "Box Breaks" online.
Box Breaking is basically this- someone breaks a box of cards, oftentimes as much as a case of cards, and after you purchase a team either on a straight purchase or in an auction, you receive all of the cards from that particular team from the opened product.
The auction is streamed live online to keep everything above board and apparently it is very popular.
I've never participated in any of these, although I'm not against it, I don't see it happening anytime soon!

The Athletic writes about baseball cards as well with an article about Topps and mostly about the card that every modern card traces back to in the 1952 Topps set.
The 1952 Topps set was the first with stats, thicker card stock, and is far closer in size to the modern baseball card than those of the leader in the industry before 1952 in Bowman.
Bowman sued Topps over the set for using players that Bowman had exclusive contracts with, but by the time the suit hit the courts (which Topps would lose), Topps had shoved Bowman aside for dominance in the hobby and would buy the Bowman company in 1956.
Honestly, while the Topps sets of the 50s are the sets that started baseball cards toward the trail traveled today, I've never been a huge fan of those seasons.
I like the simplistic look of 1957, but the photographs often look like they were taken at dusk and for some reason, they seem to fade easier than other sets of the era and that's my favorite set of the decade.
If I'm placing 1957 against the sets of the sixties, it doesn't beat the top five (in order 1965, 1963, 1968, 1967, and 1962) and would be in a tough battle to lead the bottom five (my sixth choice would be 1966).

Cleaning out the inbox-Non-Sports Version

Photo Credit: Jeremy Black Photography

The inbox has plenty of non-sports items this week, so let's get right to it!

Joe Plum posted about the rare mutation of a pure Yellow Cardinal that has been sighted in Alabama ( Imagine the late Keith Jackson talking about "the yellow Cardinal of ALABAMA"!).
Auburn University professor Geoffrey Hill says that the otherwise normal bird simply carries a genetic mutation that has changed the normally red feathers of the male Cardinal into the far rarer yellow.
How rare? Literally over one in a million according to Hill, who says in 40 years of birdwatching that he has never seen a yellow Cardinal in the wild and that in a given year that there could be one or two yellow Cardinals in the country!


Christine over at Look Along The Way, where she writes about her traveling stops with her husband,
writes about her trip to the Truman and Eisenhower Presidential Libraries here.
It's a very interesting look at what's offered at both libraries (I've written before about wanting to combine a baseball trip with these two and other libraries some year) and with Christine's blog has just started, I'm sure more of her posts will appear here as part of the inbox in the future!

National Review is a longtime conservative website and Richard Brookhiser has long been a pundit and writer on the right side of the batters' box.
I'm known as a moderate, so I'm only occasionally in agreement with the Review, but Brookhiser writes about the late William F.Buckley and his major voice in the conservative movement and how Buckley would have never been ( and therefore conservatism ) been on the side of Trump and his maneuverings.
Brookshiser makes the argument that true conservatives might be seeing the end of the movement thanks to Trump and the Republican party that has so willing sold out to him for a short-term victory.
It's an article worth reading, no matter what your political views are.

Watergate will always be the political scandal that all other scandals are measured again, which is why the addendum "Gate" is slapped on the end of them as they are reported about in the media.
Politico posted an excerpt from Joseph Rodota's upcoming book about the Watergate complex and how can you write about the history of the Watergate complex without writing about the Watergate scandal?
What was interesting was how the Democratic National Committee found its way to Watergate and how they stayed there despite being in financial difficulties.
I won't spoil it for you, but I enjoyed the final paragraph where you think about what the break-in scandal could have been named had the DNC been located elsewhere!

McDonald's is removing cheeseburgers from Happy Meals in order to reduce calories as Fox News reports.
You can still have cheese on your child's Happy Meal burger if you wish, but customers will have to special order it.
And the small fries order? Downsized to a smaller "child-size".
I guess the eight fries in the small was just too many calories for the child to handle.
Here are my thoughts on that- We all need to eat healthily, I do (and I'm trying to do reasonably well), but if you are eating at McDonald's, to begin with, you aren't eating that great to start with and a piece of cheese being left off isn't suddenly going to make a difference in your health.
To paraphrase a quote- "let McDonald's be McDonald's" and enjoy the cheese or even better, go somewhere else and eat a better burger with plenty of cheese!!

Finally, sad to hear of the passing of Nanette Fabray at the age of 97.
Fabray was one of the early stars of television on the Sid Caesar Hour, winning two Emmy awards before being forced off the show due to a misunderstanding that neither Fabray nor Caesar knew about for years.
The multi-talented Fabray was a dancer and Broadway star as well, winning a Tony award in 1949.
Fabray was better known to me as a child for several guest-starring roles in television, being a staple on game shows, and for being the aunt of Shelley Fabares, who she would portray her mother on the television show "Coach".

Behind the typewriter: Jemele Hill

I was thinking about what I do here.
My amount of hits have gone up of late and as happy as that has made me,I wondered about TRS.
I like making this a fun site, talking about sports, television, my life, etc, but I felt like every once in a while, I wanted to write about something of substance.

So that led to the shaping of this occasional series-Behind the typewriter.
Today, my good friend Ramon Malpica encouraged me to offer my take on today's controversy and I decided that the time was right to debut the series.
Thanks to Ramon for the encouragement and hopefully I am able to not make any of you that disagree with me mad, but will be able to make you think a bit, even if you still disagree....

I'm sure you know about ESPN's Jemele Hill's comments on Twitter about Donald Trump and his being a "white supremacist" and a "bigot".

Jemele Hill is a ESPN personality and writer (she used to write for the website, not sure if she still does or not) that co-hosts the 6 PM hour of Sportscenter with Michael Smith.
I'm not overly familiar with Ms.Hill's work, but from the limited amount that I have seen, I'm not a fan.
She's pretty loud, likes to be controversial and for someone that has worked in sports media for years, doesn't seem to be as knowledgeable as one with the level of exposure that she is currently receiving should be and her show with Smith doesn't seem to be my preferred sports show.
I'm OK with that the nature of their show with sports, pop culture etc isn't aimed at my demographic, so I'm going to have trouble relating.
Those of you that listen to me on Fightheads know that I'm clueless on the hip-hop/rap artists that Ramon talks about on our show with guests and that the few that I know of are looked at by younger people in the way that I looked at Willie Mays-before my time to see and knowledge by name only.
As far as Michael Smith goes-I liked him years ago when I watched stuff like Around the Horn, but I don't watch those type shows anymore and haven't really seen what he does currently other than his 6 PM Sportscenter.

Here's my issue-As long-time readers know I have a severe dislike for Donald Trump dating back years,but I do have respect for the office of the Presidency of my country.
I don't have an issue with Jemele Hill having an opinion on the President.
I don't even have a problem with expressing an opinion on social media, but you had better not be over the top-your employers are always watching.
I have one as well on the President (I'm pretty sure you can figure it out) and it isn't a positive one, but if I am on social media and say something controversial, the people that employ me can understandably be upset because one could connect my words with them.
That's me doing my everyday job, not someone in the media.
ESPN has every right to be upset with her words because their company is connected with her at every turn-ESPN's Jemele Hill.
When you work in the media, everyone is connected with the employer that allows their voice (through television, radio, print or digitally)  to be heard.
When I write something and I try not to be anything but respectful for the most part on topics, I am always aware that someone could take offense, so imagine when someone that is heard by so many says something inflammatory...

I'm not saying that Jemele Hill's comments were right or wrong and I'll refrain from commenting with agreeing or disagreeing with her content.
What I will say is that I think she was very disrespectful to the office, not that she's alone in that right now or in the previous sixteen years in the Bush or Obama administrations.
I'm pretty sure that the days of civility from either side are gone, but it still doesn't give one free reign to represent your employer with your views.
The President may or may not be what Hill claims he is, but it's pretty myopic not to believe that he doesn't have that base as a chunk of his voting group.
However, that doesn't mean that Hill knows this for a fact and she has no proof of such-simply an opinion.

The remarks of some about "Sticking to Sports" and from others that believe that has been changed and won't be returning to form anytime soon,frustrate me.
I look at sports as one of my escapes from the "real world", but I also don't begrudge others (athletes, front office or media) opinions.
However, I cannot control whether my favorite baseball player or actress has an opinion,I can somewhat control how the networks covering them and their employees offer their opinion-I can choose not to watch.
Just realize that your employer is not like others, your employer sees all and knows all-thanks to media, social and otherwise.

In the end my problem with Jemele Hill wasn't what she said or how she said it, it was more that people shouldn't be mad about her employer being unhappy or even her employer not terminating her employment.
Still, Hill should have been smarter in this day and age, as should ESPN.....

Random Thoughts

Just a few random thoughts before the busy week that is coming up from various things that happened or just plain popped into my mind...

Yes,that was your author lying on the decrepit walkway that is Hagerstown Municipal Stadium yesterday.
I fell down as one of the many boards that are warped and stick upwards with its gremlins finally grabbed me after all these years of walking.
I ripped my right knee and turned my chronically bad left ankle,so of course it hurts,but not to the point of non-functioning.
It was not the fault of the Suns as the fault of these conditions are the fault of the city,who is responsible for maintenance.
It's a miracle more people don't get hurt there and I wonder with packed crowds possible for Tim Tebow and the Columbia Fireflies in less than two weeks,if more people could get hurt and worse than me..

I watch a decent amount of television series,but right now,the best show that I watch has to be FX's The Americans.
I like some other,but on the heels of FX's past "best show I watch" Justified,The Americans ranks as must see.
The story of 1980's Russian spies as American residents stars actors that I have never heard of (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) before the show began,but both are standouts as is Holly Taylor as their teenage daughter.
Taylor is going to be a star in the business as she progresses to eventual vehicles of her own.
The Americans can be a bit racy and pretty violent,so might want to keep the kids away (too bad,could have been a great teaching tool),but it's very well done and you should be giving it a try.

Spicy food and spices are a usual staple of my dining,but one that has become huge favorite is the sadly named Kick Your Ass Hot Salt with Ghost Pepper.
The lovely Cherie bought me a container as a Christmas gift and it's been a must have ever since.
I used to be a massive salt (over) user and over the last year or so,I have greatly reduced it down almost nil.
Peppers and the various seasonings go a long way towards making the loss of salt not so bad...

The first two of many new ballparks this year starts soon with the first visits being Norfolk,Virginia (AAA Norfolk Tides) and Lexington,Kentucky (Low A Lexington Legends).
Of course,I'll have road trip recaps and looks at the stadiums themselves.

I have my opinions on the scandals surrounding the President and I'll keep them to myself.
Resisting the urge to say "I told you so" on Donald Trump is difficult,but needed to be withheld because we have seen nothing yet but speculation,but here's where I'll take the side of Trump mildly for a bit.
I do think that CNN (and I guess MSNBC too,although I rarely watch them) is beating the horse perhaps too much and give the 35 percent of the people that would believe Donald Trump if he said that the Atlantic Ocean is filled with cherry Kool-Aid,an out that the media is out to get him.
Fox does the same thing,but in a different way as they defend everything that Trump does etc.
The media should be a valuable tool,but the cable networks are just crazy with the need to play "gotcha".
Reverse the name of Barack Obama for Donald Trump and reverse the networks names and you aren't far off in treatment.
As a middle of the road moderate that has things that I agree with from both parties,it's very tough to find a network that reflects my place on the spectrum..

Wrapping up with thoughts on President Trump.
I'm not going to say my opinions on the particulars,but I will step out a bit with a guess-Donald Trump is already looking for a way out.
It's a matter of time and it might come down to when does Donald Trump think that he can spin a loss into a "win" and walk away...

Missed a few...

I've missed a few days,haven't had much to say,but I'm starting to get motivated again.

I have a few things planned for the next few days to a week such as the return of the TRS boxing rankings,a forgotten superstar and some other things in the pipeline.

For now,a few things of note..

The Browns didn't receive the return of Josh Gordon as the NFL turned down his request for reinstatement.
I'm not sure if Gordon had failed to live up to the terms of reinstatement or not,but one thing is clear-the NFL hits potheads far harder than they do than they do other miscreants that have done far worse during the years...

The bidding and battling has begun for the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez middleweight championship fight in September.
The leaders are thought to be Las Vegas and Dallas with New York not out of the running.
If it's Dallas,it's an intriguing thought to consider a possible Dallas trip for the fight.
Don't bet on it,but you never know!!

I also want to use some downtime from live baseball to not only stay ahead of the upcoming schedule,but to get some of the results of the first six weeks or so of the graphing season noted,so look for a signing front soon!

Finally,a note to those that wanted an "outsider" to "clean up Washington".
Donald Trump's behavior is an embarrassment to our country and has lived up to my fears in electing him- a egomaniac that that goes awry at the mildest criticism.
It's much more than that of course and I certainly am not pining away for Hillary Clinton,but he has proven to me what he is-a corrupt businessman with overrated deal making skills that has discovered that running the government is not like running a business-In a business,the guy at the top has the final say,that's not the case in government-you have to be able to work with others and Trump simply cannot.
I have both good friends and people that I respect that voted for Trump and/or believed in the "outsider" mantra,so I'm not throwing stones at his voters,but I cannot imagine anyone thinking that he is anything but an abject embarrassment to our country.
The big winner in all of this? George Bush-who incredibly looks not nearly as awful as the current President.
I would have never imagined typing those words this soon or ever!!

Back later tonight with what I think will be a Forgotten Superstar.
.

The Day After

Yep,it's finally concluded as election 2016 (that began in the first part of 2015) became official as Donald Trump was sworn in.

I'm sure you know my opinion of Trump,I've been pretty open from day one about my dislike-which goes all the way back to the mid-1980's and his destruction of the United States Football League and the loss of a friendship over Trump and my opinions of him.
Still,there are people who I respect for being very intelligent and they are Trump supporters-so I am open to being wrong.

I'd like to see some more Presidential behavior,but when it comes to Donald Trump,I'm dubious of any changes as far his comportment goes.

For all that I think and worry about Trump-I still blame one group and it's not the group that you might think for putting him in position to run the country
That group is the Democratic party hierarchy.
Had the Democratic party not insisted on shoving Hillary Clinton down the throats of a voting populace that wanted no part of her by giving her every break in the primaries and basically fixing the whole process-perhaps we wouldn't be having Donald Trump today.
Hillary Clinton was such an unlikable and flawed candidate and still won the popular vote against Donald Trump.
I blame the Democratic party establishment for all of this.
The results are on their hands.

I'm not a person that roots against our President or our country,although I'm not afraid to criticize either when they are in error,so I'm hoping for the best while expecting the worst.
Win or lose,I'm an American first and I don't root for things to go bad,just so I can say I was right.
I've been wrong so often with Donald Trump-I hope I'm wrong one more time....

Post-Election Blues

Damn, I was wrong.
I've kept believing that the Donald Trump phenomenon was going to be a comet that burnt itself out.
I was wrong-Donald Trump-the man that destroyed the USFL is about to become the President of the United States.

Let's face it-I'm not a fan of Mr.Trump and didn't even ponder voting for him.
I lost many things on my opinions of Trump,his qualifications and my lack of understanding of how people could even consider this-most notably a good friend.
I think this could (Could means maybe folks- not a definite) be a disaster and we may about to find out that when you vote an outsider in with zero experience,what you usually get is even more of what we have had for years-gridlock.
You have to be able to work with people and the experience inside the political machine is like everything else-it comes at a cost.
Can Trump put ego and personal gain aside to do what needs to be done?
Can he avoid any personal entanglements (eventually a tax release,his business put in a blind trust or not or any further issues from his past with women) to be able to govern?
Can he manage to deal with a system that despite him being the leader does not have to jump when he beckons?
Intriguing to think about and interesting to see how this plays out.

If Donald Trump is a successful President,then he has re-written how we look at Presidencies,candidates and how one runs campaigns.
If not-then this could be a disaster that takes years to recover from.
We'll see.I'm not in the business of not supporting my country because the President isn't my guy.
I've seen one side of the bench behave that way towards Barack Obama and that wasn't right and I bet I'll now watch the other side act in that manner towards Donald Trump-Neither side will be right.

I've been wrong before,I didn't think that Trump would get anywhere near the White House,so what do I know-but I do know this-I'll be rooting for him.
Because I root for my country first.

On the Democratic side,this might be a wakeup call.
Hillary Clinton was a disliked candidate that was shoved down voters throat like a child is forced to eat a hated food and in this regard,the Democratic party got just what they deserved.
It has traditionally been the GOP that ran the candidate that was "their turn" and this time it was the Democrats turn to make this mistake.
I think Joe Biden would have won this going away and dare I say it-Bernie Sanders would have made a better candidate than Hillary Clinton because he would have fired up the left wing base that was never going to accept Hillary Clinton as representing their hopes.
In hindsight,the revealing of the DNC emails that the party was working against Bernie Sanders looks awful large for the base that didn't appear at the ballot box.
To me,it appeared that the Democratic base rebelled against the chosen candidate and therefore didn't have the motivation to turn out for her.
Only themselves to blame for losing to the least (well,maybe second least since he won) liked President candidate since these things were measured.

And now to you-the reader.
I used to write about politics a lot and I even mentioned it on the podcast.
I've tried to avoid that anymore,especially after my feelings on Donald Trump and what that cost me on a personal level.
I still have the desire to write about these things,but for the most part,I feel like it just isn't worth the effort despite the creative part of me that comes out during those times.
I consider myself pretty middle of the road.reasonably liberal socially (being that what you are and do personally is none of my business) and pretty conservative fiscally,but I'm not sure that is where most are anymore.
Our country has been cleaved into such dividing halves that people only want to watch,read and listen to that will cater to their personal beliefs and I'm not in that place anymore.
It's one thing for me to write on sports and have people disagree-sports are supposed to be our vacation from the day to day struggles and the fun is the discussion and conversation.
However,Politics is personal-often intensely so and people take it that way,as if their beliefs are being attacked,when actually it's opinion.
I wonder why we cannot converse as civilly on Clinton vs Trump as we do Indians vs Cubs.
I think we'd be better off for it,but those are the reasons that I have faded away from writing as much about the political game..

Few things are worth losing friends and relationships over-especially opinion,whether they agree or not.
Between the issues,the candidates and opinions both mine and others-It just isn't worth it.
Thanks for reading.....

Cleaning out the inbox

Time for an inbox cleaning before things start to build up too much.

We start with the passing of Nate Thurmond, who as a basketball hall of famer is best known as a Golden State Warrior, but will always be a Cavalier to me.
Thurmond was acquired in the middle of the Miracle of Richfield season and gave that team a lacking frontcourt veteran presence that they lacked.
Thurmond only played a year and a half for Cleveland before retiring, but his number was still retired by the team (For as highly as I thought of Thurmond, I still believe World B.Free was more deserving of a number retirement) after his tenure.
Thurmond was more of a rebounder/shot-blocker than a pure scorer and spent most of his career as the third-best big man in basketball, first behind Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, then behind Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and finally behind Abdul-Jabbar and Bob Lanier.
The hall of famer died of leukemia at the age of 74.

I've written in the past about the greatest pro football writer ever in my opinion -Paul Zimmerman.
I even put Zimmerman in the Forgotten Superstars segment (now that I mention it, isn't it time for another installment of Forgotten Superstars?) and his work is sorely missed.
Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback spent a whole week looking at the work of Dr.Z and his unfinished memoir.
The best part for me was Dr. Z's all-time NFL team and lots of interesting things to read from the link...

Peter King also writes in MMQ about Donald Trump and his involvement in the United States Football League.
Trump, who has been cited for the ridiculous decision for the league to invade the fall to challenge the NFL, which was responsible for the league's eventual demise, owned the New Jersey Generals and the story deals with some of the stories with Trump's ownership of the team.
The story with Trump pushing his way to the end of the league is the first and arguably major reason for my dislike for the Republican nominee for President...

We finish with Style Blueprint's interview with long-time TRS favorite Christi Paul.
Those of you familiar with the Pigskin Picking Machine will likely remember Christi as the face of the PPM in 2015.
Who will be this year's face?
Stay tuned for more!