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Wednesday, September 23, 2020

R.I.P. Kansas Comet

Gale Sayers passed away today. He was 77 years old.


The Braves clinched, and Blooper's act was out of this world.

Back in the mid-80’s David Hurt drove a red 2-door VW Golf GTI, a real sporty car. One day he got pulled over on East Wesley right by the SPdL children’s building. Hurt was ticketed for an expired driver’s license, expired tag, a moving violation, and no proof of insurance. His friend Robert de La Salle happened to be walking by, and called “Hey Hurt! What’s up?” Hurt held up the four tickets and replied “I have a full house.”

One of fun parts of attending the Cobb EMC annual meeting is for the chance to win a prize. They didn’t give away a pickup truck this year, but after they gave away five prizes during the meeting they said they’d be contacting other winners this week. There were 5500 members logged into the meeting, and about 150 prizes – so about one winner for every 37 attendees. Just learned I won a $100.00 gift card to a steak restaurant in The Avenue East Cobb. I’ve eaten there once before. I’ve attended the annual meeting 2 or 3 times before, but never won a prize.

Yesterday I worked until 5:30, later than I’d hoped. Stopped by Dollar Tree then Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream: apple pie (great but too sweet) and chocolate peanut butter. Very good. Saved some for breakfast.

Went home and scrubbed the back deck. Could only finish half the deck before dark. Ceil turned on a Hallmark Channel movie, this one about a young teacher assigned to a class in a homeless shelter. Based on a true story. Very good.

I was following the Braves game on my phone as I played on my laptop. When the movie ended I flipped over for the last inning, and the postgame celebration. The Braves passed the Yankees for the most division championships in history (20 to New York’s 19). 

There is a person (or maybe a couple) that makes out the entire MLB schedule “by hand”. No computers involved. There are all these rules, that teams play so many games against other teams in their division, so many home and road, homestands can’t be too long, this team needs to be on the road on this date because the stadium isn’t available. East coast teams can only have so many trips out west, you don’t want a team playing Thursday on the west coast and Friday on the east coast. All by hand. I think.

EDDIE MATHEWS [SABR Bio] joined former catcher Wes Westrum and retired umpire Augie Donatelli to re-create a famous photo. They gathered in Milwaukee in 1979 to simulate Sports Illustrated magazine’s first-issue cover on its 25th anniversary. Born in Texas, he grew up in California, but owns a baseball geography record that can never be broken. He is the only player in the 20th century to play for a franchise in each of the three cities where it was domiciled. Played for the Braves in Boston in 1952, the Braves in Milwaukee 1953-65 and the Braves in Atlanta in 1966. He led the majors in strikeouts as a rookie, fanning that year more than any player had in either league for the previous eight seasons - K’d 115 times in 1952 but had the 3rd-best WAR on the team among position players. This info provided by my Hot Stove friend John Hill.

ROBIN ROBERTS  [SABR Bio] a former Michigan State basketball player, he led not only his league but the majors in Wins, Games Started, Games Completed, Innings Pitched and Batters Faced for each of FOUR consecutive seasons. From 1952 through 1955, Roberts was the best pitcher in baseball. He also led the majors in strikeouts during 2 of those seasons. In college, Roberts was twice elected captain of the Spartan basketball team but was merely a walk-on for the baseball team. During that period, his team finished fourth, third, fourth and fourth. That :Phillies team had the misfortune of playing against some strong NL competition. He led his team in WAR for the first three of those campaigns, but slipped to second in the fourth season, just behind a fellow Hall of Famer. Richie Ashburn led PHI in WAR in 1955.

Good Denison column on why the Supreme Court nominations have become so divisive: they’re now ruling on “rights” not addressed in the US Constitution (abortion, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ advocacy), so the Supreme Court has adopted a legislative role instead of judicial. 

George Washington: "Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people."

Benjamin Franklin: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom."

Denison: A team cannot win if its members do what they want to the exclusion of what is best for the team. An orchestra cannot perform well if each member plays what they want rather than what the conductor directs. When a society loses its collective moral compass, it outsources moral standards to the government to legislate morality. But Rabbi Sacks warns that this cannot work: "Morality cannot be outsourced because it depends on each of us. Without self-restraint, without the capacity to defer the gratification of instinct, and without the habits of heart and deed that we call virtues, we will eventually lose our freedom." 

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/two-reasons-the-supreme-court-has-become-so-divisive-the-most-important-book-i-have-read-this-year-and-a-calling-beyond-compare/   

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