Kirk Cousins 2.0

The Las Vegas Raiders produced a funny schedule release video with QBs Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins. Many Atlantans don’t like Cousins after he didn’t reveal that he was injured late in the 2024 season. He obviously thought he gave the team the best chance to win. The team had really messed up by signing Cousins to a huge contract, then drafting another QB with the #8 pick in the draft - a move that eventually cost the GM his job. 

But I’m a big Cousins fan. He’s a hard worker, loves Jesus, is a family man, and establishes deeper than usual relationships with his teammates and coaches. In fact, Fernando Mendoza may just be Kirk Cousins 2.0.

Heard someone say that Vans are the new dad shoes. Also Hokas. In fact it doesn’t matter what brand of sneakers an old white guy wears - he’s not going to look cool, even if it’s the same exact sneaker the cool 20-something’s are rocking. 

Speaking of the cool 29-something’s, looks like they all wear golf shirts and kaiki shorts to Braves games, and probably to everywhere else. It wouldn’t be cool for them to be seen wearing a Braves jersey or cap. They gotta stick to their uniform. Now get off my lawn. 

Reminds me: I need to check eBay and Poshmark for one of those cool dude golf shirts with the tiny Bloopers or Braves feather designs on them. 

BREAKING NEWS: "Numerous Residents are furious after dozens of empty Waymo autonomous vehicles reportedly flooded an Atlanta neighborhood, circling a cul-de-sac for hours without passengers and causing major frustration among locals". ME: I love how the media uses words like "furious" and "major frustration".

Yesterday afternoon Matthew stopped by to visit. We watched the Braves game last night. 

This morning Ceil and I went on a walk after 10:30 am - 1.75 miles with Winnie. Then I cleaned out her car and drove over to the CarSpa on Windy Hill and Cobb Parkway. Ran it through the wash and detailed the inside. Stopped by Taco Bell on the way back for a free burrito and free senior citizen soft drink.  

Article reveals the actual source of covid, which also answers the question of why. The truth is out there.  

TED WILLIAMS  [SABR Bio] was the AL MVP in 1946 & 1949. However, he led in WAR four other years: 1941 (10.4) 2^nd; 1942 (10.5) 2^nd; 1946 (10.6) 1^st; 1947  (9.5)  2^nd; 1949  (9.0)  1^st; and 1951 (7.3) 13^th. – Ordinals indicate AL MVP voting position. He led the majors twelve times in on-base percentage and ended his career as the all-time OBP leader. His lead in OBP, .482, will not be challenged any time soon. His memorable home run in post-World-War-II Fenway Park has been scrutinized extensively. In Boston on 09-Jun-1946(1), he hit a ball that stands as the record distance, 502’, for any home run ever hit there.  A good explanation here:  SABR. 

Denison: more details come to light about the 2024 sinking of the Russian 'ghost ship". 

Rivals

Question of the day: who is your favorite comedic rival? The obvious answer...Newman!

Article: The Passions of Jerry Seinfeld. Baseball, comedy, and Porshes. 

Two hantavirus patients are being treated at Emory Hospital in Atlanta (where Will works). Both test positive, one is showing symptoms.

I skipped the Stripers 11 am game Wednesday and hit the gym. Wore my new black Hoka Clifton 10's, which I'd picked up on the way to the game yesterday. Tried them on, and wore them out of the store. 

After the gym I drove down to Sandy Springs for a free burger with purchase at Sonic. Just so so. C was still feeling poorly. I offered to go out and get her dinner, but she fixed herself beans and rice. I fixed myself a sandwich for Wednesday supper and today's lunch. Watched the Braves beat the Cubs.

C took Winnie to the vet, but no tooth extraction was needed.

Thursday: up early to golf. Nice not teeing off in the dark. Teed off at 6:50 am and hit the ball well - even on chips and wedge shots. When I was finishing the first hole, two guys were getting ready to tee off on one. I was able to take my time the whole round without them getting close behind me.    

Then I drove straight to the gym. Treadmill and sauna. Ceil is visiting with Miller this afternoon. She just passed the one month mark.

LOU GEHRIG  [SABR Bio] first career stolen base in the majors was a steal of home. In his  third year with the Yankees, on 24-Jun-1925, Gehrig stole home off Washington catch Allen Russell and pitcher Muddy Ruel. Gehrig had sips of coffee with the Yankees in 1923 & 1924 and then never missed another game. Gehrig’s 185 RBI in 1931 is topped only by Hack  Wilson's 191 in 1930 with the Cubs. Among players who walked more than 100 times in a season, no one ever had more hits in the same year. Not only is Gehrig the leader with 220 hits and 101 BB in 1930, he’s also 2nd, 7th, 8th, and 11th on the same list.

    Quote for the day: “It is not your business to succeed, but to do right: when you have done so, the rest lies with God" - C. S. Lewis.od.” —C. S. Lewis

Braves 5 Cubs 2

I had fun at the Braves game last night. I was sitting around and decided to drive over early. Walked around The Battery and was able to go into the Braves Team Store. Forgot to look for a new keychain. I did see a fun Blooper shirt.

Checked out the memorial to Bobby Cox and Ted Turner - both their jerseys on display. Flowers on the Bobby Cox statue. I saw my old friend Darrell. Hadn't seen him in over a year, I don't think, but he recognized me. Walked down to the red parking deck, but the Ford Bronco display hadn't opened yet. 

Walked back and sat in the shade near the Roxy Theater to people watch. I was wearing my 1977 Ted Turner #27 Braves road jersey, and at least four people went out of their way to compliment me on it.

I got in line way too early, but still was able to people watch, and chat with the fans around me. Super fan Norman Warrick walked by, and he stopped to chat. He was dressed out in all his Chocolate Papa gear. The fans around me were impressed. 

All sorts of fan gear, and lots of Cubs fans. Quite a few Dansby Swanson jerseys. I only saw one Speedway Classic cap all night.

Got inside and took a clockwise path around the ballpark. Stopped in the A List office for a bag for the giveaway Hawaiian shirt and game program. I'd been given two pairs of pink sunglasses, that I saved for Shivonne and Millie. Scored a white Braves t-shirt at the Chevy display, and a free designated driver Coke. Later I received a free Dr Pepper Zero as well.

The Cubs were taking batting practice, so I thought about taking a seat in the bleachers - but I was ready to sit in the shade. Kept walking clockwise and eventually up to my seat in section 412. The breeze made it kinda chilly. Lots of people were wearing their Hawaiian shirts to keep warm. 

A nice pregame tribute to Turner and Cox. Both teams lined up on the baselines to watch the tribute videos. A man with a bagpipe played Amazing Grace. Terry McGuirk announced that the Braves would wear a number 6 on the back of their caps. Fans were upset that the team hadn't mowed a huge number 6 in the outfield grass, forgetting that today's celebration was for Turner as well.  

This was also Breast Cancer Awareness Night. There was a pregame parade, and the mother in law of Braves reliever Dylan Lee, a breast cancer survivor, threw out the first pitch. Interesting that Lee was wearing a red belt, instead of navy.

A good game. The Braves only allowed one hit (a home run).

Riley and Yaz slugged homers for the Braves.

It was my first time at a game for a pitching change, when the lights are turned off, the fans do the tomahawk chop, and a spotlight is trained on the relief pitcher coming out of the bullpen. 

The Braves bullpen has a 3.20 ERA, the best in baseball. They shut down the Cubs for the final five innings.

Braves have the best record in baseball, and lead the majors in batting average and runs scored. All this despite Strider having only made two starts, Acuna and Harris missing time, and no contributions from Schwellenbach, Smith-Shauber, and Profar. Catcher Sean Murphy just returned, but now will miss another 8 weeks with a hand injury. But some fans still complain.

Fans were mad when the Cubs overpaid for Dansby. He's hitting .200 and batting eighth. Braves fans were made when the Yankees overpaid for Max Fried. He's out of the rotation with a sore elbow. He breaks down every year.

Greatest Sitcoms Ever

Greatest Ever Sitcoms, in order starting with the best.

1-10: Seinfeld, The Andy Griffith Show, MASH, Newhart, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Cosby Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Modern Family.

11-20: Cheers, I Love Lucy, The Big Bang Theory, Happy Days, The Beverly Hillbillies, Family Ties, The Honeymooners, The Middle, Designing Women, Friends.

21-30: Home Improvement, Gomer Pyle, Laverne & Shirley, All In the Family, I Dream of Genie, The Office, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, The Brady Bunch, The Simpsons.

31-40: Sanford & Son, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Taxi, Welcome Back Kotter, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Murphy Brown, The Wonder Years, Square Pegs, Two and a Half Men.

41-50: The Jeffersons, 30 Rock, Room 222, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Golden Girls, Three's Company, Sgt Bilko, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, A Different World.

51-60: Barney Miller, Different Strokes, Good Times, Bewitched, Mork & Mindy, Roseanne, Perfect Strangers, The Nanny, Full House, Night Court.

HM: Wings, Frasier, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl, Will & Grace, Scrubs, Arrested Development, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Married With Children, Schitt's Creek, Malcolm in the Middle, Boy Meets World, Mad About You, That 70's Show, Black-ish, Young Sheldon, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, Happy's Place, The Neighborhood, A Man on the Inside. Fresh Off the Boat. The Kids Are All Right. Police Squad.

Saw this crappy list on line (below), that had left out numerous great shows, and had other hits ranked far too low. Inspired me to quickly cobble together my own list. I probably spent about as much time on the list as he did.

I like me some meatloaf. When C makes meatloaf, she always fixes mashed potatoes and English peas. We'll have meatloaf about four times a year.

On Sunday evening Caleb grilled prime rib roast and a couple of steaks. He also prepared the mashed potatoes and grilled broccoli, both from scratch. Ceil took a tossed salad, and Caleb’s mom Mary brought three pies: an onion pie, a key lime pie, and a lemon pie. Reminds me, she sent a piece of each one home with me.

Baby Miller was been a little fussy the past few days. We didn’t get home until after 9:30 night. I’d spent the warm afternoon trying to organize the garage, so I was tired and sore from using different muscles than usual. 

I had loaded up my pressure washer and an iron bench that had been taking up space in our garage, and took them over to A&C’s big garage. They’ve set up a home gym in their garage, with a large yoga mat, treadmill, and rowing machine. They have a shed behind the garage for the lawnmower and other tools. 

Monday morning C took Winnie to get a haircut. Winnie may have a sore tooth, so she’ll have to go to the vet this week. Wednesday is Ceil’s last day at school. I went to the gym. Treadmill and sauna.  

I'd had leftovers for lunch yesterday. C had leftovers for supper, and she fixed me a toasted turkey sandwich with leftover tomato parmesan soup. 

This morning we woke up at 5:15 am and drove down to W&MC's. MC was out of town and W had to get to work. We woke up the girls and walked them the 3/10ths of a mile to school. Took Winnie with is. 

We ate lunch at The Daily, a fancy place off Howell Mill next to the water works. Steak Shapiro had been raving about the breakfast sandwich, so that's what I'd ordered. A fried egg, cheese, bacon, and onion sauce on a sesame seed bun. Usually at places like that the bread is hard or weird, but this bun was soft and tasted okay. Didn't really fit on a breakfast sandwich. 

Ceil ordered the breakfast burrito, then ordered a plate of bacon to add to the burrito. I wound up eating a third of hers. Lots of egg. C of course got coffee, but she said it wasn't good. She says we don't have to go back. They had a cooler by the cash register, so instead of water I got an 8 ounce bottle of Diet Coke to drink. 

On the way home we stopped by to early vote. No wait. Got home and took a nap.

LUKE APPLING [SABR Bio] - Ans. “Lucious Luke” was one of his nicknames. His better-known nickname was “Old Aches and Pains”. Appling finished just beind NYY pitcher Spud Chandler for the 1943 AL MVP. Both men were tied for WAR that year with 7.3 but Chandler’s team had won the pennant and the World Series. Then Appling reported for military duty at Camp Lee, Virginia in January 1944. Between Al Simmons in 1931 and Ted Williams in 1941, no one had a higher qualifying batting average than Appling's .388 for the White Sox in 1936.

The Game That Wouldn't End

The book that I finally finished reading - The Iowa Baseball Confederacy - was written by WP Kinsella, the author of Shoeless Joe, which was made into the movie Field of Dreams. In The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the Tinker to Evers to Chance Chicago Cubs of 1908 travel to the small town of Big Inning, Iowa to play a team of all stars from a small regional baseball league. Years later there's no record of the game, but the main character travels back in time to prove the game took place.

At the end of nine innings the game is tied, so Frank Chance vows to play on. At dusk the game is still tied, so the game will be resumed the next morning. This continues for days and weeks, the two teams playing from dawn to dusk, thousands of innings - despite a rain shower that continues along with the game. The river floods, the town is washed away, but the game continues. President Teddy Roosevelt visits (on horseback), in an effort to end the game. All the Cubs backup players had returned to Chicago to resume the season, but fell from first place to last. An interesting read, with much more going on than just the baseball.

Last summer the Braves played the Reds in the Speedway Classic, at the Bristol Motor Speedway in western Virginia. I would've loved the special Braves cap with fire on the bill, but thought I'd missed the chance to get one. 

This past winter the fitted versions were sold out in stores, and the adjustable style is always too small for my head (and double the price of other caps. 

From time to time I'd check the internet for one in my size. Finally found one: my size, for a reasonable price. Just now bought it and get to pay for it spread out over four payments. Sweet cap, as if I needed another one.

Thursday: after two hours at the gym this morning, I drove out to North Point for a free large order of Steak & Shakes' beef tallow stringy french fries. Just okay. Didn't change my life. On the way home I grabbed a free Coke Zero from RaceTrac.    

On Friday evening, Ceil wasn't feeling well. Saturday morning she was still sick, but she still went on a garden tour with a friend. When she got home she crashed on the couch, sick. Hardly moved until bedtime. I was full from my huge lunch at Shake Shack. Around 8:30 we finally ate leftovers. I warmed her up some leftover spaghetti. 

We stayed up late and watched a good chunk of the Braves game. A good win. I enjoyed watching all the tributes to Bobby Cox.

Saturday: lunch at the Shake Shack up in Alpharetta. Burger was good but the bun was a little doughy. Spend $10 and the burger was free. Ordering through the app, I got a $5 chocolate milkshake and two $3 orders of the crinkle fries, which came out piping hot. The shake was good but not huge, and for some reason had a couple of pieces of plastic in the bottom. 

Saturday morning C sent me to the Sandy Springs farmers market, but she had failed to place an order with Fry’s Farm, so it was a wasted trip. While I was out, I also stopped by (2) Goodwill, (3) Shake Shack, then back to East Cobb for (4) a haircut, (5) Whole Foods, (6) Big Peach Running Company to try on some Hokas, (7) to the Trader Joe’s in Pine Straw Plaza but the parking lot was gridlocked, (8) Kroger, (9) Dollar Tree, and (10) finally home. Mowed the lawn.

Sunday: Ceil went to church early, to keep the babies during the 8:30 hour. She said she sounded worse that she felt. We passed each other when I was driving to church. Over 43 in Sunday School, to hear about the seven college kids leaving to be summer missionaries. 

After church I stopped by Whole Foods to get C some tomato parmesan soup, and flowers. I'd already given her a card, candy, and balloon. After I gave her the soup I went back to Kroger for more medicine for her. 

Winnie has bad breath. We're working on a way to fix it. 

Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, Kevin Durant's Board Room inexplicably listed Caitlin Clark as only the third most marketable player in the WNBA. Her college teammate Kate Martin was cut by Golden State - but may be signed by Indiana.  

Is Listening to an Audiobook as Good as Reading? According to a recent study, the answer is yes. Science.

RED RUFFING  [SABR Bio] pitched with four toes missing from his left foot as a result of a mining accident. Still, he was drafted into the Army Air Corps during WWII, despite being nearly 38 years old. Red was the first Yankee pitcher to hit a grand slam. In his first game of the season, 14-Apr-1933, with three runners on base, Ruffing homered off Boston’s Bob Weiland. He  and only three other Yankee pitchers ever hit grand slams: Spud Chandler,  Don Larsen, and Mel Stottlemyre. Ruffing’s first team was the Red Sox. His final team was the White Sox.

C. S. Lewis recognized: "The case against Christianity that is made out in the world is quite strong. Every war, every shipwreck, every cancer case, every calamity, contributes to making a case against Christianity. It is not easy to be a believer in the face of this surface evidence. It calls for a strong faith in Jesus Christ".

    Quote for the day: “Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil.” —A. W. Tozer.

R.I.P. Bobby Cox

Former Braves Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox passed away on Saturday. 

Bobby got hos start in the Yankees organization, learning baseball from manager Ralph Houk. He was hired by the Braves as manager in the late 70's.  

Former longtime Braves beat writer Dave O'Brien wrote:

Cox would set the MLB record for most times being thrown out of a game.

His players always knew that Bobby had their back. Stories of Bobby's tirades are legion.

Turner fired Bobby after the 1981 season. Ted was asked what kind of new manager he was looking for. Turner replied "Someone like Bobby Cox". The Blue Jays hired Cox as manager, and Toronto won their first division championship.   

Cox was rehired by the Braves, and the rest is history. Atlanta became the team of the 90's, winning a record number of consecutive division championships, and the 1995 World Series. 

Cox was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame the same year as Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. 

Ceil saw Bobby at the nearby Stinky Kroger several times, before Bobby's stroke. Cox kept a low profile afterwards, though many former coaches, players, and executives would often visit Cox at home.

BOBBY COX [SABR Bio] [MLB Obit] Toronto won the AL East for the first time in 1985 with Cox. The Jays had never finished any place but last (1977-1981) until Cox became their manager. For that accomplishment he was voted American League Manager of the Year. He became a hero in Canada. He described it as four of the happiest years of his life. Cox National League Manager of the Year three different times, in ATL in 1991, 2004, & 2005, the first NL manager to win it in consecutive seasons. As a player, he completed a triple play on 03-Jun-1968 in Minnesota. Cox took the toss from P Dooley Womack and fired it to Mickey Mantle at first base for the 3rd out. Cox ranks fourth in career games won as a manager. All three ahead of him required more seasons.

Manger          Wins  Years %

Connie Mack   3731    53  .486

Tony LaRussa 2884    35  .536

John McGraw  2763    33  .586

Bobby Cox       2504   29   .556

Cox was kicked out of 162 MLB games, 41 more than 2nd-place McGraw.