2022 A to Z Challenge Reflection

 

 In 2012 I completed my first A to Z Challenge. In 2019 I had gotten away from blogging for about an 18 month period. I got back in to it shortly before the 2019 challenge my theme that year was the Songs of the Sherman Brothers.  In 2020 My theme was Capital Cities and In 2021 My theme was people who were alive 100 years before in 1921

My plan as the 2021 challenge drew to an end was to participate in the challenge from all 4 of my tive blogs at the time.  Random Acts of Roller, HSD (Previously known as Home School Dad), Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Page and Dave Out Loud.

The past 12 months has been some of the happiest and trying months of my life.  I at times worked 3 different jobs concurrently, I have spent large percentages of my time helping care for my aging parents and my disabled daughter just among many moving parts in my life.  Creating content while still a passion and a priority needed to diminish in some ways.  

At the beginning of this year I began consolidating the 4 remaining blogs into HSD but changing the name to Leap of Dave.  The previously mentioned things have kept me from fully completing that task but having just one blog to maintain has alleviated a world of pressure.

This year instead of having 4 different entries to the challenge, I just had 3 different themes for the challlenge.  The first was A to Z limericks.  I seem to be a limerick whisperer able to turn anything into a 5 lined AABBA poem.  Here's one off the top of my head

There once was a blogger  named Dave

whom during the challenge neglected to shave

And just as we feared

He grew out his beard

and looked like he crawled out of a cave

The above limericks not true

It's just a show of what I can do

If you give me  time

I'll come up with a rhyme

But now let us talk Rod Carew

Wow, was that a non sequitir or what?

Actually that's an ideal segue to my 2nd theme.

My 2nd theme was home run hitters in my life time.  I was born in 1964 but late in the baseball season, so for ease of use I counted the entire 1964 season as part of my life time.  Besides dividing the players alphabetically, I also divided my life time into 5 segments: 1964-1975, 1976-1987, 1988-1999, 2000-2010, 2011-2022.

The first thing I did was made a list of the top home run hitters in each of those periods.  I used a tool called the day by day data base from the blog Baseball Musings to make these lists.  

You can pick a range of dates and a range of stats to look at,

When I seleected 1964 to 1975 for batting average (for players with a minimum of 1000)  plate appearances, it gave me this list ...

The aforementioned Rod Carew is listed 3rd with a batting average of .328.  I wont put in the screen shot but from 1976 to 1987 he also batted .328 and was 4th place on the list.  He was a consistent hit machine but not a power hitter only hitting 92 homeruns out of 9315 career at bats.  I will be making an index of the homerun hitters I did include this year and will be making some lists of who I left out.

To start that off I will turn to the Cubs from 1964 to 1975.  They had 3 players who hit more than 100 homers for them during that period.  All 3 of them Hall of Famers and when preparing for this list I felt certain that at least some of them would have been included.  Not one of them was.  They  are in  order of home runs :

 

Billy Williams 381

Ron Santo 263

and 

Ernie Banks.  159

That is 740 homers between them by far the most of any 3 teammates between 1963 and 1974.

My 3rd a -z challenge theme was wordle starting words.  This took actually the most preparation.  On March 1st I started beginning my wordles with a different letter for the first 26 days of the month and then recording all my guesses guess in a notebook.  Starting on April 1st I took out the notebook and recounted my wordle guessess for the previous month.  For continuity's sake I started my wordles in April with the same starting word as the previous month's guess.  

Personally April 2022 has been an extremely busy  month for me.  This at times really got in my way of enjoying the a to z challenge as much as I have in years past.  Unfortunately May has not gotten any less busy, which may explain why I am writing my a-z reflection an hour before it is due.  I have a few ideas for themes for next year, but I think I'll limit myself to just 1 next year.  

Z is for Zoo, Zisk and Zones

The day is here the final day of the A to Z challenge ! This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

On 3 continents I've been to the zoo

Europe and Asia are two

It's more than I can bare (ika) 

Not been to South America

Maybe soon I will go to Peru. 

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

They say good things come in 3's.  In the year 1977 that was certainly true for me, the White Sox and Richie Zisk.  In 1976 the White Sox finished last in the A.L. West and were in need of  a major shake up.  Iconic owner Bill Veeck (as in Wreck) was up for the task.  He traded Hall of Fame Reliever Rich Gossage and starting pitcher Terry Forster to the Pirates for Zisk. In 1977 Zisk had his best season having his best career years in RBI and Home Runs.  In 1977 8 White Sox players had  10 or more homers, (Oscar Gamble had 31, Zisk had 30).  more than 50 RBI (Zisk led the team with 102), and batting .247 or higher (Richie hit .290) earning the moniker of the Southside Hitmen.  Old Comiskey was a magic place that year and I (turning 13 at the end of the season) was at a perfect age to enjoy it.  

Richie Zisk only played 1 year for the White Sox but he made an indelible impression on the fans.  From 1976 to 1987 Zisk hit 159 of his 207career home runs.  Besides the 30 for the Sox, he hit 59 for the Texas Rangers,  49 fir the Seattle Mariners and 21 in his final season for the Pirates.  

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 26th starting word was zones. 

Z O N E S - Two letters in solutuion but not in right pace

W R O T E - Got O in right place.

E M O J I-  Added E in right place

P L A C E - I usually dont make guesses like 4 and 5 

D O U G H - but my notebook says I did

E P O X Y - Epoxy in 5 

Thanks for joining me for the  A to Z challenge.  For more click here.  

Y is for Yin, Yang, Yaz and Young

 Good morning and welcome to day 24, the penultimate of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

I don't give a darn or a dang

for the yin or even the yang

Don't meant to alarm ya

I'm just not into karma.

I think God controls whole shebang.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

 

Carl Yastrzemski played his entire career  (1961-1983) with the Boston Red Sox. Yaz is 39th overall in homeruns over his career with 452.  (Nelson Cruz will tie him with his next homer and surpass him with the one after that.) From 1961 to 1963 Yastrzemski pummeled 44 homers for the BoSox in his first 3 years in the Bigs.  From 1964 to 1975 he established himself as a hall of fame caliber outfielder hitting 273 homers with a .290 batting average and a slugging percentage of .480.  In that Era he was 1 of only 4 players to be in the top 40 of homers, doubles and stolen bases along with Dick Allen, Hank Aaron, and Jimmy Wynn.  Yaz hit 135 more dingers for Boston in his final 8 years with the team.

  

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 25tg starting word was young. 

Y O U N G- I guessed one letter (o) correctly but not in the reight place...

S T O R E - Added 2 more letters (T and  E) still nonr in their correct positions.

O C T E T-  It took 8 people to get the t in the right place.

D E P O T - Depot in 4.

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

V is for Vladimir, Vladimir and Voice

Good Morning and welcome to day 22, the 2nd day of the final week  of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

I know this guy Vladimir

He is a true friend ,very dear

His name in Russian means swan

I would like to go on

But a limerick's lengths very clear

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Speaking of Vladimir our home run hitter under V is Vladimir Guerrero.  Vladimir in Russian literally means one who rules the world.  Vladimir Guerrero rules the world of Montreal Expo home run hitters with 234 in his 8 years with the team.  Ryan Zimmerman now owns the franchise record but all of his 4 baggers came after the team move to D.C>) 

over his career The hall of famer  hit 449 homers from 1996 to 2011 while maintaining a batting average of .318.  From 2000 to 2010 Guerrero hit 357 of those 449 homers. Putting him 17th among the prestigious sluggers of the 1st decade of the 21st century.  He was one of only 3 during that era with a batting average of .300 or higher. (The other 2 were Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera) and his .318 was the best of the bunch. During that period Vladimir sr. hit 173 of those homers with the Angels, 142 with the Expos and 29 with the Rangers before ending his career in 20011 with the Orioles where he hit an unlucky 13 dingers finishing 1 short of 450 for his career.

I say Vladimir, Sr. because his Son Vladimir, Jr. now plays for the only remaining Canadian team in the MLB, the Toronto Blue Jays where he has hit 77 homers since beginning his career in 2019.  Maybe if we revisit this list again in a few  years we will have anither world ruler to contend with.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 22nd starting word was voice. 

V O I C E - The O is in the word but in the wrong place.  I removed vice from my next guess. 

D R O O P - The only thing I learned in this guess was where the O went. 

S H O O T- This was a mistake as I already knew there was only 1 O. 

S L O S H-  Slosh in 4..

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

U is for Umbrella, Double U, and Urban

 

Good Morning and welcome to day 21, the start of the final week  of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

If you want to stay dry for hours

Without using your super powers

Well, go gal or fella

Buy yourself an umbrella 

It is great for these April showers!

.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Today I chose two brothers to represent the letter U for my a to z home run hitters. J.R. (Melvin)  and Justin Upton are both in the top 500 all time longballers with a combined total of 488 between them. BJ hit 97 of his 164 homers between 2011 and 2016 while playing for the Rays, Padres, Braves and Blue Jays.  The Brave's were not only the one team that did not rhyme with the others but where he was able to play with his brother in 2013 & 2014.  The Brothers Upton combined for a total of 77 homers in those 2 years.  

Justin hit 264 of his career 324 round trippers between 2011, and 2021.  In additioned to the aforementioned Braves, Justin played for the D-Backs, Padres, Tigers and Angels in that timespan.  Justin was cut from the Angels prior to the beginning of this season and at this point has not been picked up by any other teams 

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 21st my starting word was urban, as I mentioned yesterday.  I had spent that weekend in downtown Chicago that weekend and I had my starting words (Sears, Tower, and Urban) match my locale.  

U R B A N  - I was able to get the letter r, but in the wrong place

R O D E O - Unlike the common phrase, this I believe was my first rodeo.  At least as far as Wordle was concerned.  I did add an E to the  but also not in the right right place 

M I T E R - This got me R in the right place and added 2 more incorrectplaced letters

T H E I R- with their I got there in 4.

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

 I

T is for Tupelo, Thomas & Tower

 Good evening and welcome to day 20 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

Yesterday's limerick was pep talk to others in the challenge.  This one's more for me.  

8 years ago we had a bit of a polar vortex in Illinois.  I got myself in a little bit of a Roller Vortex and write a limerick on my Facebook page about the 28 degree difference in temps between the Chicago are and Tupelo, MS.

 If I spent the day in Tupelo

Where it's 14 above not below

While water would still freeze

28 more degrees 

Would increase by old get up and go

From my Facebook account in the winter of 2014

.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Choosing some  players for this list has been more difficult than others.  There was absolutely  no difficulty in choosing Frank Thomas for this list.  I drove from Chicago to upstate New York to see him enshrined in Cooperstown, so it's no trouble at all to reserve a letter for him.

Thomas is tied for 20th all time in homeruns with Ted Williams, and Willie Stargell with 521.  He hit 301 of those in the era of 1988 through 1999 all with my beloved White Sox. He hit 448 total dingers with the ChiSox and knocked 73 more between the A's and the Jays at the end of his storied career. Only 8 players hit more homers than the Big Hurt in the 1990's and none of those 8 had a better batting average than his .320 for the decade.  He finished his career with over 500 homers and a batting average of .301. Among the 6 other players who have accomplished this are Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams and Willie Mays.  When your career stats match favorably with what could easily be considered the Mount Rushmore of hitting you are in grand company indeed.  

.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 20th my starting word was tower. It had been Sears the day prior and this was because I was in Chicago proper running a 1 mile and 5 mile race that weekend and my starters were an homage to the Willis Tower FKA Sears Tower.  

T O W E R  - My first guess netted 3 letters but none in the right place 

S H R E W - Got the EW sorted and still had the r in the wrong place.

R E N E W-  For the first time since March 14th I renewed my acquaintance with the feelings of getting a wordle in 3 guesses.

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

 I

S is , Stan Lee, Sammy Sosa and Sears

Good Evening and welcome to day 19 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

There once was a "Marvel"ous man

A comic book writer named Stan

when the books came to screen

His cameos would be seen

As an Easter egg for the true fan.

.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Sammy Sosa was not my first choice for a slugger in my life time for the letter S.  I would have rather been able to insert Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, Ron Santo or even Alfonso Soriano.  What it came down to was era.  When I decided to make an a to z list of hommer hitters over my life time, I decided to split the eras into 11-12 year increments (1964-1975, 1976-1987, 1988-1999, 2000-2010, and 2011-2021) I decided to fit 5 players from each era and a 6th from whichever era had the quintessential q hitter.  This meant that sometimes I could not put in all the players I wanted to make room for 5 in each era and 1 with each letter.  I needed another player form the 1988-1999 era and Sammy Sosa was the only person in the top 25 of homerun hitters from that era who had an s in his name.  

Sosa like Reggie Jackson, and Albert Pujols was actually in the top 25 of 2 eras, his 273 homers between 2000 and 2010 was tied for 23 of players from that time period.  It was in 1988 to 1999 when he hit 336 dingers that he made the top 10 o.  It is that time frame that he comes into the list. Add both eras home run production together and you get 609 long balls good enough for 9th on the all time list.  Between 1988 and 1999, he hit 1 while playing for the Texas Rangers, 28 with the Chicago White Sox and 307 with the Chicago Cubs.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 19th starting word was Sears.

S E A R S - Got an A in the incorrect place

A N N U L-  Got A in right place added l but in wrong place. .

A L L O Y - 4 letter in correct spots!

A L L O W -  Wordle  in 4 guesses.

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

O is for Orange, Oliva, and Overt

 Good morning  and welcome to day 15  of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

From the thet can't all be winners department ...

Orange, is a wonderful fruit.

And has vitamin C to boot.

While it's no crime,

That it has no good rhyme.

It does make me want to say "shoot!"

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Tony Oliva got elected to the Hall of Fame by the veteran's comittee this year receiving 12 of the 16 votes he needed.  Oliva played for the Minnesota Twins from 1962 to 1976 and hit all but 1 of his 220 career homers from 1964-1975.  

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

C 

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My March 15th starting word was overt.

O V E R T - Guessed the E and T the T but not in their proper place.

T E P I D-  Got the T and E in their proper spots.

T E A C H  - Added a third letter in the right spot.

T E A S E - Correct in 4 guesses

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

L is for Lima Beans, (E)L Caballo and Llama

 Good morning  and welcome to day 12  of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

I don't mean to go to extremes

But the worst food in the world is lima beans 

I do not know who

Thought of those in Peru

But they certainly did not know beans!

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Carlos Lee is definitely in my nick name hall of fame.  They call him El Caballo which is spanish for the horse.  I loved watching El Caballo play for the White Sox from 1999 to 2004. He got traded to the Brewers and I was glad that we got Scottie Pods in that deal and I know that Podsednik was a major part of our World Series Championship but I was still a little sad that Lee left. Lee played in the MLB from 1999 to 2012. He hit 315 of his 358 career home runs from 2000 to 2010.  In that time span, he hit 136 for the White Sox, 110 for the Astros, 60 for the Brewers, and 9 for the Rangers.  

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

Some of my a-z wordle opening guesses have multitudes of meaning to me and my family. Llama is one of the most significant.  There was a period of my life when my kids were growing up that I could not keep myself from saying the word llama.  It got so bad that I offered to pay the kids a nickel each time I said the word.  One night they as before bedked me to read some books to them for bedtime, which was big part of our not time routine so I wasn't suspicious until they pulled out books like Is your Mama a Llama, and Llama Llama Red Pajama.  They made some big money that evening!

For the letter K, I opened with Krill and for L I opened with Llama.  I find it interesting that I ended one opener  with a double L and then came back the very next day to start the word with the very same double L

L

L L A M A - got an a in the wrong place

B R E A K-  Placed that A in the right place

S Q U A D- Added a D but in the wrong place. 

D I V A N - Did not find out anything new.

T O D A Y- 5th guess, added t,o, and y and got the word 

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

K is for Kilometer , King Kong and Krill

 Good Evening and welcome to day 11 of the A-to-Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. Due to the incredible busyness of my week I am posting more than 16 hours late today.  Usually I would post at 4:13 a.m to coincide with the date 4/13.  Speaking of 4/13 stay tuned and I will have a special 17th birthday shout out for someone who was born today.  

Part I: A to Z Limericks

our This limerick was written 3/20/22 about an hour after I finished the Shamrock Shuffle, a Chicago 5 mile run.  Special 17th birthday shout out to my niece Olivia who ran in that race much much faster than I did and is celebrating her birthday today.

 Just finished my first 8 K

A 5 mile race, so they say

I'll admit it was fun

But I'm glad that it's done

No more runs for a week and a day

Actually I have not run for 3 weeks and 2 days.  Although I have taught some gym and played some full court basketball.  I hope to get back on track (Oh boy, was the pun intended!) soon.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

When I think of Dave Kingman, I think of Wrigley Field.  Kingman only played for the Cubs for 3 years (1978-1980) but during that time hit 49 home runs at the friendly confines.  When not with the Cubs he hit 20 more home runs at Wrigley as a  member of the visiting team. Kingman once hit a home run 550 feet.  

Kingman played from 1971 to 1986.  In the era of 1976-1987 he hit 329 of his career 442 homers, 3rd most of that era. Only Mike Schmidt (1st with 437) and Jim Rice (2nd with 341) hit more in that time period.  During that time King Kong belted  118 homers with the Mets, Creamed 100, for the A's,  hit 94 dingers with the Cubs.  He also hit 11 for the Padres, 4 for the Yankees and 2 for the Angels.  

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My opening word for K on March 11th was Krill

K R I L L  - There was something fishy about that guess not netting letters

G H O S T-  I didn't get spooked by my first guess and got h and t on the second , but in wrong places.

H A U T E - this guess got A in the right position and added h to t as letters in the wrong position

W A T C H - got it in 4

This morning I started again with Krill and like last month guessed the wordle in 4 guesses.  

I better call it a night. Hopefully I can finish my 3 l topics before 4:14 tomorrow morning.  For more A to Z challenge click here.  

I is for Illinois, Ibanez and Imago

 Good morning  and welcome to  a new week  of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

If me, you want to annoy

Go ahead mispronounce Illinois

Please be compliant

Let the s remain silent

And no, I am not being coy

The first 4 lines of that limerick stayed on my open computer screen all night as I could not think of an adequate final line.  This morning I asked my wife who volunteered the closer.  Thanks Amy. How fitting that the limerick dropping on our 24th wedding anniversary  shows yet another example of how wonderful it is to be on a team with you.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

When I was thinking which homer smasher I would choose for the letter I.  I did not immediately think of Raul Ibanez.  I immideiately thought of Jason Isringhausen, forgetting for a moment he was   and gave up far more homers (85 in a 16 year career) than he hit (2).  My thoughts then went to Pete Incaviglia for a moment before settling on Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez. With 311 dingers, Pudge does have more homers than any other I player.  I was pretty settled on I-Rod when I did a little more stat surfing.

In the period between 1988 and 1999 Incaviglia hit 149 bombs. Pudge only hit 109.  In the period of 2000 through 2010 Rodriguez hit 161 homers while Raul Ibanez slammed 204 (99 for the Mariners, 55 for the Royals, and 50 with the Phillies ). That means that I-Rod was the I with the most homers in either time period.  Ibanez hit only 6 less (305) career homers than I-Rod so I decided to give not to Raul.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

In March when I was going alphabetically to pick my opening wordle words some were just random, and some held a great bit of meaning to me. Imago was one of the latter.

For several years my family and I went to the local college film festival called the Imago Film Festival click  on Wikipedia for more information about this festival.

I M A G O - Got M and O but in wrong places.

M O U N D-  M and O were correctly placed on my 2nd guess and I added n as well.

M O R O N- I felt a little like a moron not getting any more info from my 3rd guess as I did on my 2nd. 

M O N E Y -Throwing money on your problems, doesn't always solve them.  This maxim came true on guess 4, but I did get my N in the right place.

M O N K S - 5th guess got me no further than the fourth.

M O N T H - This was not the only 6 guess wordle I have had.  But it's the only one that took me a month to get.

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

H is for Hammer, Hank, and Hairy

 Good morning  and welcome to Day 8 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

Today's limerick is also about today's home run hitter.  I don't consider Hank Aaaron a home run hitter.  I consider him the home run hitter.  On April 8,1974 he hit his 715th al time home run to break the record of Babe Ruth.  I am writing this post on Friday April 8th just a few hours before Saturdays H post drops.  That means 48 years ago I watched Hank Hammer 715 on television.  Here is what it looked like       

On April 8 '74

Hammering Hank #44

Hit home run 7 1 5

I felt so alive

To be part of such great baseball lore.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Yesterday I talked about Ken Griffey Jr. the 7th leading homerun hitter of all time.  For over 33 years Hank Aaron was the all time leading home run hitter.    He is now 2nd behind Barry Bonds.

I was born in 1964.  I was 9 years old when Aaaron broke Ruth's record.  Aaronhit his first homer in 1954 and his last in 1976.  From 1954 to1963 Hank hit 342 home runs.  This was 5th most of all players over that time period and only 40 less than Willie Mays who hit the most in that time period.

From 1964 to 1975 Aaron hit 403 homers  387 for the Braves and 16 for the Brewers.  Aaron led all of baseball by 46 homers during that period.  In 1976 Aaron hit the last 10 of his 755 dingers while finishing his HOF career in Milwaukee. Aaron batted .305 in the course of his career so he was much more than just a home run hitter.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

Playing wordle every day can be a big hairy deal.  On March 8th I began my wordle with ...

H A I R Y - I may as well have been bald as none of those letters were in the answer

Q U E S T -  This got me a e and t in the right places and s in the wrong one.

S W E P T - On my third guess I was exteremely closing getting 4 of the letters in the right position.

S W E E T - .  How sweet it was to get it in 4.

For more A to Z challenge click here.  

G is for Grief , Griffey, and Geode

 

Good morning  and welcome to Day 7 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

As I prepare to write the limerick for April 8th it is A pril 7th and today is the 13th anniversary of my brother's death.  He was 38 years old and died of a heart attack in a nursing home in what is now my home town of Elgin, Illinois.  Today's limerick is dedicated to him, Keith Bertram Roller.

The funny thing about grief

Is that time only gives some relief

Whether 1 year or thirteen

I know one thing for certain .

I know that I'll always miss Keith.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Of the 6 home run specialists we've profiled this month only 1, Cal Ripken Jr. has been in the to 50 in career long balls.  Ripken's 431 blasts put him exactly 50th on the all time list.  Today and tomorrow we get back to back players in the top 10.  

Only 6 players in MLB history have gone yard more times than Ken Griffey Jr.. Griffey hit 398 of his 630 homers between 1988 and 1999.  All of these were with the Seattle Mariners his original team.  Those home runs alone would tie him for 60th all time with Dale Murphy.  After 1999 he hit   210 with his Dad's former team the Cincinnati Reds and 3 more with my beloved White Sox before hitting 19 more for the Mariners after returning to Seattle for his final 2 seasons.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

A geode is a rock contained with crystals or other mineral matter. My best friend form my college days grew up on farmland not far from the university.  There is a dried up creek bed on the property and we have collected geodes from there on multiple occasions.  So on March 7th, I used geode as my opening word for that day's wordle.

G E O D E - I went digging with Geode and I came up with the O and the D in incorrect positions.

B L O O D - Blood was my first of 2 illogical guesses as I had already determined that the O was not in the medial position.  I was able to determine that the D was in the final position.

S O U N D - On my third guess I still only had the O and the D which I had since geode, but now I had them in their proper places.

H A R D Y - This was my second illogical guess as I neglected to use the O altogether and I put the D in what I knew to be the wrong place.  Some people do place this way I like to only guess words that have a chance of being the word.  That being said the guess did reveal all5 letters needed for the actual solution.

H O A R D - I may have actually solved it sooner if I stuck with logical guesses. I did find it interesting that I started with geode and ended with hoard because when my kids were growing up I used to hoard their geodes so they could use them at nature swap at our local zoo.  

Todays topics were a mixture of many emotional memories in my life.  My memories of my brother, my friendships over the years, my love for baseball and being able to share all those with my wife and children are some of the truest treasure of my life.  For more A to Z challenge click here.  

F is for Freud, Freddie Freeman, and Fugue

Good morning  and welcome to Day 6 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

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Part I: A to Z Limericks

There once was a young man from Madrid

Who cared more for his ego than id

So he pulled out his android

Took a selfie, now Freud

Can explain why he's done what he did.

Facebook March 7, 2014

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Freddie Freeman played for the Atlanta Braves from 2010 to 2021. The Braves are the current reigning World Series champions He recently signed as a free agent with the L.A. Dodgers.  Freeman was the 2020 NL MVP and finished 2nd in voting for NL Rookie of the Year in 2011 his first full season.

Between 2011 and 2021 Freeman hit 270 homers for the Braves.  This places him 6th in  both all time homers for the Braves and most home runs between 2010 and 2021.  This is fitting for a player whose first and last names begin with the 6th letter of the alphabet.

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

On March 7th I started my wordle with the word fugue.

F U G U E - This was my first opening word all month that did not get any letters right. As this was a bad start I countered with ...

S T A R T - This yielded a T in the wrong place. I switched the T to the first place with ...

T H I N K - which gave me no more information than the T in a new wrong place. By that time I had guessed all the vowels except so I doubled down with ...

B O O T H - Having oth in the right places, my 5th guess was ...

C L O T H - Mission completed in 5 guesses.  

That does it for another day of the challenge.  for more A to Z click here.

E is for Edmonds, Eustace and Equal

Good morning  and welcome to Day 5 pf the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here. 

Part I: A to Z Limericks

Today is my first day writing a limerick within 24 hours of posting it for the challenge.  I have been listening recently to the voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis  so I'll attempt a limerick about one of the principal characters of both books.

There once was a fellow name Scrubb

An egotistical bully this bub

inside and outside a dragon

until he met Aslan

now he's not as useless as he was.  

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Jim Edmonds played Major League Baseball from 1993 to 2010 . He hit his first 121 homers with the Anaheim Angels from 1993 to 1999.  It was after he left Anaheim ,in the period between  2000 and  2010 that  he was his most prolific at the plate.  During that time he  hit 272 of his 393 career home runs.  (241 with the St. Louis Cardinals, 19 for the Chicago Cubs, 8 for the Milwaukee Brewers, 3 for the Cincinnati Reds and 1 for the San Diego Padres.) 

Part III: Wordle Starting Words from A to Z

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

On March 5th I started my wordle by guessing equal.

E Q U A L this got me the e but in the wrong position.  I then guessed ...

R E I G N that guess neeted me 4 correct letters with I in the right place. my next guess

B R I N E was correct in 3 guesses!

That's all for today.  for more A to Z challenge click here.