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. 

Love The Walt

Walt Weiss seems to have the team in a better state of mind, more hard charging, less laid back - battling to win every game. Sometimes a change at the top is needed. Another reason to like Weiss: the Braves have have been wearing their grey road jerseys almost exclusively this year. They've only worn their red jerseys and their navy jerseys one time each.    

We listened to the last part of the Sunday game on the radio while driving home from the recital. It is nice to finally be able to watch every game on TV for the first time in several years.

Lots of Ted Turner tributes,  including the Mariners. Drake Baldwin batting leadoff for the third straight game. Michael Harris in left field for only the second time in years. I just hope his early success doesn't have him swinging for the fences and messing up his swing. Gwinnett shortstop Jim Jarvis makes his MLB debut 90 minutes after flying cross country to join the team. He was hitting over 300 for the Stripers.

I think the Braves lost Wednesday’s game in an effort to honor Ted Turner, since they lost so many games back he first bought the team. With today’s loss, the Braves go to 16-5 in their last 21 games.

I grew up in the same Presbyterian church with Attorney General candidate Bill Cowsert. A normal kid, back then. I pretty much haven't seen him since high school. He went off to UGA and became a lawyer in Athens. Comes off like a good ole Southern boy in his commercials. I have no doubt that's who he is. I'd vote for him. My beef: his commercials would be a whole heck of lot more effective if he would just stand up! Is he handicapped? He looks like FDR, sitting there on his back porch. Not a good look at all.

Tuesday: I set my alarm and woke up to play golf, but I still didn't feel up to climbing all those hills at Candler Park. Went back to bed for a couple more hours. Felt a little better. Went to the gym and took it easy on the treadmill. After the sauna I actually felt almost back to normal. Cooled off on the treadmill. Cashed in a free milkshake deal at Whataburger for lunch. It was okay. Ordered chocolate but they brought me banana. 

Tuesday afternoon I spent time out in the garage, organizing and sorting out stuff M had left. Made a decent amount of progress. Still a long way to go. C had small group. I fixed quesadillas from leftovers. Later C texted that she needed me to pick up her prescription, but specified the wrong Publix. I rewarded myself with a $2 Arby’s jamoca milkshake. Very good, but it caused me to have a terrible night’s sleep. 

Wednesday: repairman showed up at 1:40 to install the smoke detectors. Took him awhile. Lady just delivered a chair that we had reupholstered. I spent the morning cleaning up real good. Picked up two jars of all natural peanut butter that C had left on the counter. Somehow the lids of both jars were loose. Both jars fell to the floor, spilling peanut butter all over the place. I had an idea: I called Winnie over, and she cleaned it all up. 

Thursday: 4 pm Braves game. We ate at Longhorn, using a gift card I’d been given over three months ago. The burger was great. C enjoyed her salmon. I drank too much Coke Zero, so I wasn’t able to sleeping well. There was a PBS special on Johnny "The Big Cat" Mize from Demorest GA that I have track down and watch.

Noted local Christian apologist Jefrey Breshears polled well-informed and thoughtful Christians and conservatives on the current Georgia ballot. His results: 

GOVERNOR: Burt Jones - 60%, Chris Carr - 25%

LT GOVERNOR: G Dolezal - 45%, B Tillery - 25%, J Kennedy - 25%

SEC OF STATE     Kelvin King  --  94%

ATTY GENERAL B Strickland - 56% Bill Cowsert - 44%

STATE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: 

R Woods - 45%, F Longgrear - 36%, R Trammel - 18%

GEORGIA SUPREME COURT

    Vote for both incumbents: 

    Charles Bethel and Sarrah Warren  --  100%

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

    Dist. 3 --  Fitz Johnson

    Dist. 5 -- Carolyn Roddy

    

U.S. SENATE: Mike Collins - 67% Derek Dooley - 20%

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    7th Dist - Rich McCormack

    9th Dist -  Andrew Clyde

    11th Dist - Robert Adkerson 67%; Chris Mora 33%

    14th Dist - Clayton Fuller

This is national nurse appreciation week. I know this because I was driving down the road and a nurse jumped out in front of me waving a big sign to let me know. She pounded on my hood, reminding me of the time she heard a rumor that I had a little bit of a cough that I hadn't told anyone about, but she showed up at my door to give me lots of unsolicited advice that I hadn't asked for. Now she was wanting me to thank her for this. I'm still waiting for national supply chain manager's appreciation week. I suppose that's every week, huh?

Why Isn't Adrian Grenier in The Devil Wears Prada 2? Inside His Small Town Life After Leaving Hollywood, and why he dropped out of the Hollywood scene.

  Quote for the day: “God has ambitious plans for us. The same one who saved your soul longs to remake your heart. His plan is nothing short of a total transformation.” — Max Lucado.

Best Ever NBA Players

Youngsters these days talk about the greatest ever NBA players, and list far more current players - hardly any back before Kareem and Wit. No Jerry West, John Havlicek, Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson. 

Not sure if the Basketball Reference Value over Replacement Player measurement can be trusted. Luka is already rated above Moses Malone, Chris Mullin, and Robert Parish. Lebron has 50% more value than MJ. I don't understand - is it simply a longevity thing?

I will admit that Lebron is an all time top ten player, and there are other current players who may also belong in the top 20. But just scanning the list of hall of farmers, here's my top 20 all time.

Michael Jordan

Bill Russell

Kobe Bryant

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Larry Bird

Magic Johnson

Wilt Chamberlain

Lebron James

Tim Duncan

Oscar Robertson

Shaquille O'Neal

Jerry West

Julius Erving

Charles Barkley

John Havlicek

Hakeem Olajuwon

Steph Curry

Elgin Baylor

Rick Barry 

Karl Malone

Honorable mention: George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Bill Bradley, Kevin Garnett, Pete Maravich, Dirk Nowitzki

For all the youngsters saying Steph Curry and Barkley are on the same level as Larry Bird, it simply ain't so. That MJ went through so many years of losing - he never went out and recruited himself a team of all stars so he could win a title. Did Steph really change the game any more so than Maravich?

For those listing current players in their top 10 all time / best ever, ahead of those hall of famers that I've listed - the HOF is full of other players just as good, if not better. How soon they forget Moses, Willis Reed, Carmelo, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Dwyane Wade, Manu Ginobili, Lou Hudson, Walt Bellamy, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Dominique.

Best ever - by sneaker sales...

850M Jordan

400M Shaq

130M Kobe

120M Lebron

080M Durant 

Much To Do About Murals

The gift of being an exceptional content creator is to be able to come up with the arcane tidbit that no one else is talking about, the new and fresh angle that no one has thought of yet - not just saying the exact same thing that 50 other people have already said. Lang does this every day. It’s my challenge. Yesterday everyone was posting tributes to Ted Turner, including me. I tried to put my own personal touch on my tribute, offering the obscure tidbits that I remembered.

Seems like everyone at WSB just has to line up and take Bellwood Coffee to task, kind of like that scene in the movie Airplane!. I’m finally figuring out why. They need content to talk and write about, and the juicier the better. They’re too busy to analyze, to step back and provide a deep response. They don't realize they're saying the same thing everyone else has already said. They’re just concerned with clicks. Don’t stand in their way. 

This week I’ve looked at how many impressions some of these so-called content creators are getting, and it really ain’t much - not too much more than I get, which is embarrassing. 

Radio dude says if a Chipper mural was painted over, there’d be a huge protest, but when I point out that an Aaron mural in Buckhead was replaced with an ad for mayonnaise, there was hardly any outrage. Radio guy failed to make the connection, and I didn’t feel the need to spoon feed him. I was left feeling dirty just for getting sucked into the “conversation”. 

But really Grant Park is different from Buckhead, and Jovita is different than Hank. The Jovita mural was Grant Park’s mural, even if she lived in suburban Dunwoody. People identified with Jovita because of the mural - she was their girl, their icon. But a huge percentage of other Atlantans had no idea that Jovita was so beloved. Nothing wrong with that. Just different worlds. 

Similarly, some were offended when the decades old Hank Aaron tribute wall in the parking lot that used to be Atlanta Stadium was recently torn down to make way for the new Georgia State baseball stadium - even though a brand new, much nicer Aaron memorial would be built in it’s place. Some would rather keep the old run down parking lot, progress be damned. 

The Ponce mural was painted over. No outcry. Same with the Buckhead mural. Different icons. Different neighborhoods. Different outcomes. Jovita was WSBs. I just wish WSB would stop rehashing the story.

Murals mean so much to some people. To others just an afterthought. After a week of murals being in the spotlight, I happened to notice that in Keisha Lance Bottoms political ad, three or four murals are featured. All from Atlanta, if I’m not mistaken. She’s running for governor. Perhaps she should show murals from other places as well. 

Sounds like the Knicks are said to be one of the mightiest teams in the East, and the underdog Hawks took them to 6 games without much effort. 

I listened to 680’s interview with longtime Hawks executive Steve Koonin, who first met Ted as a Coke advertising associate. The 68 year old Koonin sounds like an okay guy, likening himself to Senator Blutarsky from Animal House. Koonin hinted that the Hawks would be working to sign their head coach to a long term contract. 

Ernie Johnson Jr also gave tribute to Turner, and introduced a short video that included quotes from Andrew Young, Dale Murphy, Jimmy Carter, and others.

R.I.P. Ted Turner

Former Braves and Hawks owner Ted Turner passed away today. He was 87.

After expanding his father's billboard business, Turner bought a small TV station in Atlanta. Needing programming, Ted bought the Braves and later the Hawks, and hosted professional wrestling matches in his studios in the old mansion on Techwood Drive, just down from Alexander Coliseum. 

Turner did whatever possible to promote attendance and viewership. He completed against announcers Pete Van Wieren and Skip Carey in a pregame ostrich race.

Today 680 had great interviews with two former executives from Ted's early days, Stan Kasten and Steve Koonin. Bill Shanks wrote a nice tribute.

Turner famously challenged Phillies relief pitcher Tug McGraw to see who could roll a baseball from the base to home using only their nose. McGraw quickly gave up but Ted, in full uniform, gave it his all. Turner finished, with a bloody nose to show for his efforts. 

After a nine game losing streak, Ted gave his manager time off - and took over managerial duties himself. After losing in Pittsburgh, commission Bowie Kuhn told Ted that owners couldn't also manage. 

After this particular road jersey became available for purchase in 2019, I ordered a replica TURNER 27 jersey. I'll be sure to wear it the the Braves game next week in tribute.

In 1980 Turner founded CNN, the first 24 hour news channel. CNN 's 11 pm sports show became must see TV, hosted by luminaries Dan Patrick, Van Earl Wright, Fred Hickman, Nick Charles, and Vince Cellini. The network moved its headquarters downtown to the Omni International building (later renamed CNN Center). Late one night I was walking though the building, perhaps after a Hawks game in the adjacent Omni arena. I looked across at another walkway and saw Turner, alone, walking back to his living quarters in the building. A few years later I was Turner's grandson's basketball coach, though Ted never attended a game.

Turner was a fixture on the sidelines of Hawks games, often sitting next to GM Mike Gearon, the father of Hannah Storm, then a student at the Lovett School. Gearon always wore the exact same thing: navy blazer, white dress shirt, no tie, kaiki slacks, no socks, and expensive loafers. Gearon refused to accept a salary from the team, instead working for a salary of one dollar per year.

Turner would often wear a Hawks or Braves tie, like in the top photo. It was Ted who got me interested in sports themed ties. Below he posted with Hawks forward Tom McMillen, who later served as a US Representative from the state of Maryland.

Ted, then wife Jane Fonda, and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were fixtures in the president's box at World Series games.

Below: Turner (right) celebrates with GM John Schuerholz (left) and Stan Kasten (middle).

Turner was active in environmental causes, and almost singlehandedly rescued the American buffalo from extinction. In later years Ted became one of the largest private landowners in the US. His efforts to lobby the United Nations for world popular reduction became the predecessor to the current climate change and new world order movements.

For many years I've thought a great Ted Turner tribute patch would be to take Ted's face from his Sports Illustrated America's Cup cover and use as the patch - as it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Braves old laughing Indian sleeve patch from the 1960's.

I asked Perplexity A I to make up this patch, but it refuses to have anything to do with the laughing Indian. Not exactly what I was looking for, but somewhat close.

Many suggest the Braves change the new City Connect sleeve patch from TBS to TED. Not a bad idea. Or just add a second TED patch.

Some may scoff, but in many ways Ted Turner is very much like an earlier Southern version of Donald Trump - an womanizing entrepreneur who loved his city and country. Certainly not a saint by any measure, yet still a force for good.