Glory Days

My friend Harry Bryans emailed me yesterday commenting on this Jayson Stark column on the amazing play Chase Utley made in the 2008 World Series. This is part of the email I wrote him back, that I am posting here for posterity:

For many years in our 30's, my buddy (since 5th grade) Jim Daly and I used to play in a co-ed softball league. (And we took it a little too seriously sometimes, I'm now willing to admit. Adam Bratis actually saw me provoke a bench-clearing brawl - true story - when I slid too hard in the other team's catcher.) Jim was, and in some respects is still, a very good athlete. Jim played shortstop in the J-Roll way - not many spectacular plays but incredibly dependable - made every throw right on the money. I, on the other hand, was very undependable at third base, but they kind of tried to hide me there, particularly because in co-ed softball, there were so many baserunners, I often only had to touch my base or throw home or to second, which was almost the max distance for my candy arm. But the reason for telling all this, is that to Jim's horror, I was always trying plays like Utley's, like dropping popups and line drives on purpose to try to get double plays or to force a faster runner at a base to allow the slower batter to get on (still drives me crazy when major leaguers don't think of that.) My favorite was when there was a runner on second base who I knew was particularly (like me), aggressive on the bases, I had a play pre-set with our second baseman that if the batter grounded one to me, I would fake a throw to first, knowing the runner on second would take off for third, and our 2B would sneak in behind him and we'd throw behind him to get him out. 

(If you haven't already, you can stop reading here, the rest is as much for my own enjoyment in remembering and telling it as it is intended for you to enjoy it) My favorite story semi-related is that one time I was on first base and Jim grounded a single to centerfield. I saw the CFer taking his time fielding it (we couldn't take leads), so I rounded second and headed for third and slid in safely. Jim, seeing this, rounded first and took off for second where the third baseman threw and where Jim slid in safely. I, seeing this, got up at third and headed home, where I slid in safely...and you know the rest, Jim, seeing this, took off for third where the catcher threw the ball over the third baseman's head and Jim scored standing up. He and I go to at least one game a year together and have recounted the tale as often as we can find reason to fit it in. I think our wives even know the story by heart by now. (Side note - even though Jim and I met as students at Owen J Roberts, his wife Leigh and I first met in Kindergarten at...Downingtown Friends School. She was a cutie even then. :-) )

Thanks for hanging in and giving me a chance to tell that story again!

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose? Just not much sign of the change part

Interesting conversation with a young (20ish) voter last night when I questioned her lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden in the upcoming election even though she is a clear liberal/progressive.

When I asked why she found it hard to support him, her main thrust was not about his age, per se, but about his being part of the old guard, wanting to do things the way they've always been done, in a capitalist system young people don't trust or value. And she understands some of the appeal for Donald Trump, despite being almost as old, in that he wants to shake things up or, more excitingly, blow things up. 

I told her that reminded me of us when we were her age when Richard Nixon represented all that was evil and wrong with the world. He was the epitome of what we called The Establishment. Totally resistant to any kind of change or accepting that things were way out of whack, the country wasn't going in the wrong direction - it wasn't going in any new direction that would right the wrongs of racism, sexism, big business, and most specifically, that would get us out of war, in this case, Vietnam. (All complaints today's young voters might have.)

She also referenced Biden's carte blanche support of Israel's genocide in Gaza as evidence of how stuck in the past he is, when clearly that is the wrong policy.

I told her that her answer fascinated me, both because I found it incredibly illuminating, but also because the answer didn't include any references to climate change or college debt, to which she replied: "Oh, I wasn't done!"

The uncommitted vote in November might come down to their walking into the voting booth on election day and picturing waking up the day after the election and considering which scenario scares them more. 

 It seems unfair for me to just list, as I did a few days ago, the things I wish the media, and more importantly our government, would spend less time on, without also listing that which I wish they'd give more attention to, so here ya go:

- Universal health care

- Affordable housing; finding places for unsheltered people to live with dignity

- Universal basic income, in JamieWorld, replacing all welfare of every kind

- Good news, as shown at this amazing website on a weekly basis

- Fair funding of education

- Laws to increase gun safety

- Reducing college debt but on a grander scale, free college, starting with community colleges

- Pathways to citizenship for those wanting to immigrate here

Most importantly, promoting love instead of war. Moving toward a foreign policy where we help other countries with anything but weapons. Working as a peacemaker to bring people together instead of arming them to fight each other. Helping people around the world improve their lives when we are requested by them to do so.

This was a great article listing all the ways war has failed not just the USA, but any countries involved in them.

My frustrations and apologies

 

Looking at this blog a few days ago, I decided I didn't like the colors of it, so out of boredom, I decided to change it, choosing one of their choices of "themes", and boy do I regret it. Not only did it lose many of the "widgets", as they call them, on the sides, some of which I was able to eventually recover, though I still don't like the way it presents them, but it incorrectly and incompletely displays the posts. The one right below this one, if you click on it, shows correctly that the items I listed were written as bullet points but when one looks just at the blog, it throws them all together as if they are part of a sentence. So I apologize for the new look.

Yet once again, I've had to sacrifice reality in favor of beauty.

Of course, the Republican Congress didn't get anything done last year anyway, so maybe it's for the best

 Things the media seem obsessed with that I just pass over as soon as I see what the article is about:

•  AI
• Anything to do with Israel, especially the latest war
• Abortion
• Crime
• Donald Trump
• Fantasy Football
• Golf
• Space of the Outer variety
• Women's sports (sorry!)

On the other hand, climate change applies in terms of my (not) wanting to read about it, but they actually should be writing about it far more often.

Interestingly, it seems like national level politicians spend way more time on things I don't care about than the things I wish they would, too. 

So wrong...but so right

There are just too many applicable punchlines to this actually very important NY Times story about how flowers are learning to self-pollinate (I know!), but I'll provide one direct quote from it here and let you take it in any direction you feel (in-?)appropriate:

"(Pansies) can also use their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds, a process called selfing. Selfing is more convenient than sex." Actual verbatim quote from the story.

But the best part, again, besides the important bigger ramifications, were the comments from NY Times readers, 90% of which were very serious, scientific observations. But because well, I'm me, this was my favorite comment:

"I am a 55 year old married man. I have undergone similar evolution."

And I'll add that it gives new meaning to the expression "Go F__ yourself!"

That and try to lose 10-20 pounds, of course

 This is my mantra for 2024: 

Focus on the basics. When in doubt, choose love.