30 Years Later But Still Burning About Missing Game 7

 

I have three Lou Brock autographs, all gifts from my older brother, who was big into baseball collectibles in the early 1980s. When I say big, I mean he had more than 250,000 baseball cards, including a Mickey Mantlerookie card, and hundreds of autographed bats.

 

Gary Jo had a booth at a card show where Brock was one of the celebrities signing autographs. He got several balls signed, and gave me one because he was a nice guy, and we were, you know, brothers.

 

He gave me a framed autographed photo for Christmas.

 

But the bat he gave to me purely out of guilt. We lived two houses away from each other, and went to quite a few Cardinals games in 1982. So when he bought two tickets to each of the four home games in the World Series against the Brewers, I was sure he would take me to at least one. It got to be Game 7, and I was so sure he would invite me that I called in sick to work and waited by the phone. The call never came. My brother, my only older brother, took some guy named Dan to Game 7 of the World Series, in St. Louis, which the Cardinals won. The party in the streets lasted for hours afterward, and I wasn’t there. I was at work, where I called in not sick after all, watching the game on a small black-and-white TV that I smuggled in to the plant.

To make it up to me, Gary Jo gave me this autographed Lou Brock edition Louisville Slugger, that Brock had actually used in games. It is a beautiful piece of wood, blonde, sleek, perfect for my grip and swing. A work of art. One of my favorite possessions.

 

But it still doesn’t make up for Game 7.

Head(phones) In The Cloud

I resisted the Amazon Cloud Player. Somehow it seemed risky having music I paid good money for just floating around out there in the ether, but I realized that I don’t know how my computer or my phone work either, digitally speaking, so the music on them is just as mysterious and far away.

Now I can’t get enough of it. The downloads are shockingly fast. I’ve had no trouble with the player, and no problem streaming the audio. It’s been perfect. Plus, all the MP3 music I ever downloaded from Amazon transferred right back up to the cloud, poof, one click, no questions asked.

Listening to it now, I have the music listed by song title, rather than by album or artist, so I could hear all 414 songs in alphabetical order, were I so inclined. Cool.

Not counting 20 Years by The Civil Wars, I have All Of Me (The Piano Guys), All The Roadrunning (Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris), All Summer Long (The Beach Boys), American Girl (Tom Petty), An Empty Cup And A Broken Date (Buddy Holly), And I Love Her (Paul McCartney Unplugged), Angel (Simply Red), Angelina (Bacon Brothers), Another Guitar (The Rainmakers), and Anywhere Anytime (Sara Melson).

And that’s just the As….

Whether Jesus Was Married Isn't As Interesting As How Hateful Some People Are On His Behalf

 

An apparently old piece of papyrus has helped resurrect the debate on whether Jesus was married, as it mentions Jesus referring to “my wife.” This isn’t so much a question of scriptural consistency or faith as it is simple logic. If one role of Jesus as savior is to suffer for us, then he surely was married, because marriage is the only way to know and understand true suffering. As Herb1038 said:

“… he was sent down to suffer pain, torture and humiliation – OF COURSE he was married.”

Of course, this is old news, and an unsolvable riddle. What fascinates me is the acrimony in the comments that follow the article, 1,421 of them at last count. They begin well enough, with thoughtful, well-reasoned opinions, but quickly degenerate into insulting vulgarity and name calling, as many Christians seem wont to do.

The most amusing comment came from TonyInDallas:

“Besides, if we can figure out when he got married, we can get not only Christmas and Good Friday off, we can get Jesus’ anniversary off.”

10 Minutes Of Sunshine A Day Keeps The Doctor Away (I Have Graphs, So It Must Be True)

Okay. About 45 percent of Americans die from heart disease.

 

 

Nearly 42 percent of us are vitamin D deficient.

 

Of Americans who have heart failure, 96 percent are vitamin D deficient.

 

So you do the math. About half die of heart disease, close to half are vitamin D deficient, and almost all of those who have heart failure are vitamin D deficient.

Do you see a trend here? It may be worth looking at your vitamin D levels to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke, among other things.

“Researchers found that patients with very low levels of Vitamin D were 77 percent more likely to die,” says Science Daily, “45 percent more likely to develop coronary artery disease, and 78 percent were more likely to have a stroke than patients with normal levels.”

 

So, more than 40 percent of us are nearly 80 more likely to die, probably from a stroke, because we are not getting enough vitamin D.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information agrees (NCBI): “Given that vitamin D deficiency is linked to some of the important risk factors of leading causes of death in the United States, it is important that health professionals are aware of this connection and offer dietary and other intervention strategies to correct vitamin D deficiency.”

 

The good news is that this is something you can fix immediately. Just go outside in the sun for 10 minutes every day to get your vitamin D, says WebMD: “Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to sunlight. It is also occurs naturally in a few foods -- including fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks.”

 

Walk in the sun and stoke up on omega-3s. Could it be any easier than that. Just don’t tell the FDA what you’re up to….

Imagination May Be More Important Than Knowledge, But A Cool T-Shirt Is Better Than Both

 

One of my favorite quotations is from Albert Einstein:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

My question is this: when and where did Einstein say it?

Okay, that’s two questions, I know, but the first person to comment with the correct answers will win this Einstein t-shirt, which has two sleeves.

 

 

 

A couple of other favorite quotations, from Groucho Marx, because I happen to be watching Duck Soup as I write this.

“Beyond the Alps are more Alps, and the Lord Alps those who Alps themselves.”

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

“If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.”

And a bonus quotation:

“Add another quote and make it a gallon.”

A Picture Is Worth What, Now, Exactly?

Doing some research on our car, I came across this ad for an aftermarket radio. What do you make of it?

Picture is for illustration purposes only.

Move Over, Dickens, Seuss, And O’Henry, There’s A New Holiday Classic In Town

 

If they can put Christmas decorations in the stores in September, then surely it isn’t too early to recommend a Christmas book. Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror is an original, a great read, imaginative and funny.

 

The story begins in sunny, warm California, the traditional setting for Christmas action. A little boy, shortcutting home through a stand of pine trees, sees an unhappy wife smack her husband, dressed as Santa, in the head with a shovel. Afraid to tell anyone, and afraid that Christmas is ruined, the boy is visited by the Archangel Raziel, sent to Earth following a string of botched assignments.

 

That’s enough set up. You will want to read it straight through, it is that good. I guarantee you will laugh, too. Ho ho ho.


Note: I just learned that The Stupidest Angel is available as a Kindle book for $1.99. Now there's a deal.