Old Hoot Owls

Owls are something. When I take Winnie outside and an owl is hooting off somewhere in the distance, she will stop and listen. Then when we are inside I will make noises to Winnie, (1) a dog growling, (2) a cat meowing, and (3) an owl hooting.

I may have told you that when Winnie was a tiny puppy I had her outside. I just just a few feet away from her. Just when I bent over to pick her up, an owl swooped over us. If I hadn’t been there the owl would’ve snatched Winnie and taken her away.

Sometimes when I walk/run in the neighborhood in the morning before sunrise I will hear owls hooting in the trees near the street. I always remember two owls hooting back and forth at each other from trees on opposite sides of the street, with me in between.

ROD CAREW [SABR Bio] s the only player to triple twice in an All-Star game, in the 1978 ASG. Both came off Vida Blue, once to lead off the game and also to lead off the third.  Carew once won a batting title in a season where he had only 27 extra-base hits. He hit .318 in 1972 with 21 doubles, six triples, and no home runs. Only Ty Cobb won more American League batting titles. Carew won seven, in 1969; 1972-73-74-75; 1977-78, all with the Twins. Cobb won twelve.

MILLER HUGGINS  [SABR Bio] player/manager whose teams only began winning once he pulled himself off the field. Huggins managed the Cardinals from 1913-1917, only once with a winning season and all but the last season as player/manager. He then managed the Yankees for 12 years, 1918-1929, lodging a record under .500 only twice, winning six AL pennants and three World Series. Huggins earned a law degree and career advice from future U.S. president William Howard Taft at the University of Cincinnati, who advised that baseball was really where Huggins’ talent lay. One of Huggins’ nicknames was “Rabbit”. His speed was well-known by the time he reached the majors. Huggins died of blood poisoning toward the end of the 1929 season, still managing NYY. His D-U status seems secure for years to come.