A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2024

Jesse Chavez lists All The MLB teammates he's been on.

 Jesse Chavez the most traded player in the history of Major League Baseball has made his way to White Sox Spring training by signing a minor league contract with the Chicago American League team,  While not officially with the Sox yet, the 40 year old pitcher talked about all his former teams in this video.



Thursday, February 22, 2024

Tim Anderson Signs With Miami Marlins

On June 10th 2016 Tim Anderson made his Major League Debut for the Chicago White Sox. Last year On As of September 30th 2023 TA batted .288 with a .317 while playing home games for the  South Siders.  On the road he batted .276 with a .308 OBA. For his career so far Anderson has a .282 Batting average, an OBA of .312 and a slugging percentage of .422. 

2023 was a regrettable/forgettable year for bot the White Sox and Anderson in particular. Anderson In 123 games Anderson hit only.245 lowering his career batting average 6 points from the end of 2022.  Anderson only hit 21 extra base hits last year with only 1 home run, dropping his career slugging percentage 20 points in the process.

At The end of the dismal season the White Sox, declined on Anderson's 14 million dollar contract option for the 2024 season, buying it out instead for $1,000,000.00. After becoming a free agent in November of 2023 Anderson was signed in February by The Miami Marlins and have agreed on a 5 million dollar contract for the season.   


Monday, May 22, 2023

Reason To Be (Somewhat) Optimistic On The South Side

 Happy Monday Baseball Fans.


The White Sox are 19-29 after 48 games and are in 4th place in the A.L central 6.5 games out of first place.  This is not great news for a team that was expected to compete for the division this year and possibly cash in on their World Series window.  

But if you look at the stats there are some gleams of optimism shining through an otherwise storm start to the year.

The White Sox are 10 games below .500 but they were also 10 games below .500 (an unimpressive 7-17) 24 games ago. This means that the White Sox have gone 12-12 in their last 24 games.  They have also won 6 of their last 8 games.  In essence they have stopped the bleeding and perhaps have made themselves a stepping stone for success.

After their successful homestand the Sox are just one game below 500 at the former U.S. Cellular Field which used to be called Comiskey Park prior to that.  They now go on a very important road trip with 7 games against the 2nd and 3rd place teams in their division (Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers ).  The Sox are a lowly 7-16 on the road and only 9-7 against their division so they have their work cut out for them if they want to inch their way back into contention.  






Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Jim Kaat Full Baseball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech and Jim Kaat on Dick Allen

Amy gave me some White Sox Ticket vouchers as a Christmas gift and while I am excited for the future of the White Sox, I still love the past of the White Sox. Here are some videos featuring HOF pitcher Jim Kaat, The former White SOx hurler. The first is his induction speech at the Hall if Fame last summer.



 



The second is an interview he did on the MLB network after the passing of Dick Allen.





 




I was very glad to see Kaat finally make it to Cooperstown. It's too bad Allen did not make it in his lifetime, I hope that He will make it soon. Love, Crazy Uncle Dave

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Spiritual Thursdays: One Little Word .

 

I am trying to get into the New Year blogging.  So I have decided to participate in Spiritual Journey Thursdays.  It's a first Thursday blog hop that is being hosted this month  by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Margaret is part of the Poetry Friday community.  Her theme this month is One Little Word.  

Given the theme I immediately went into full Martin Luther mode and started belting out the third verse of A Mighty Fortress is Our God.  For future reference 10:45 on a weeknight is not the best time for belting out reformation hymns.  At least that's what my wife tells me.  Click here to have it belted out for you by the good folks at Hymnary.


1 A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

2 Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God's own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.

3 And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

4 That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!

Psalter Hymnal, (Gray), 1987





There is an excellent article from Desiringgod.org entitled 'What "One Little Word" will fell Satan?'  In it, the author speculates what Luther may have meant by what word is being referred to at the end of verse 3.  He states that Luther wrote that the word he meant was "liar." Or at least the German word for liar.  

I can tell you that this makes perfect sense to me.  

Many times in the course of my life I have told myself and believed lies.  The past few months have been a particularly difficult season in what has been a very difficult series of years for me and my family.  

These past months as I alluded to in my Last Poetry Friday submission have been some of my most challenging in my work life.  They have also been extremely taxing in almost every aspect of my life.  

In September my family left a church we had been at for 10 years that never really felt like our home.  We have spent the fall and early winter looking for a new church which has brought both comforts and challenges to us.  

In September on my wife's birthday, I went to visit my Dad in the hospital and was told that day that his leg needed to be amputated. His foot was amputated on that very day.  On my birthday a few weeks later my Mom and I had a phone appointment with a neuropsychologist who diagnosed her  of having some type of dementia, perhaps Alzheimer's.  We cancelled birthdays for a while after that.

Somewhere in that time a part of me snapped.  I didn't notice it at first, but my wife did. I still did all the things you do to get from one day to the other.  I'd been in full on crisis mode before but this was different.  I tell you that even right now I can hardly function  at work or anywhere.  

But I think I am beginning to figure it out.  I've been believing lies.  I've been believing that I am powerless in the train wreck season I've been going through and in reality I've tied myself to the track with those lies.  I have two daughters who both have mental health issues.  My wife and I continually tell them to stop believing lies and tell themselves the truth,  As Tom Hanks's character Jimmy Dugan (sp?) said in A League of Their Own. "That's good advice! 

 John 8:31 through 8:36 says (in the NIV), 

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘ You will become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35“The slave does not remain in the house forever; . the son does remain forever. 36“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 

 The truth is that God has been with me every step of this journey. Today I received what I perceived to be a body blow but when I told that perception to my wife, she told me the truth and I decided to believe that truth, then act upon that truth, and pray that truth. This evening what can usually be a very stress filled event was pleasant. When I got home instead of being in a zombie like stupor I was ready for the next thing. I know I'm still many miles away from a new normal but I'm closer than I even imagined I could be on New Years Eve. 

 Love, Dave

For more SJT click HERE

Friday, September 23, 2022

27 years ago today ... Lance Johnson Triples Three Times in Six-Hit Game

Today is my birthday and a few months ago I noticed that one of my White Sox heroes, Lance Johnson, had a 6 hit 3 triple game against the Minnesota Twins on my birthday back in 1995. Here's the footage ...

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Down to the Last Strike: A Six Sentence Story

 I am participating today in the Six Sentence Story Thursday Link Up at Girlie on the Edge's blog. 

The basic idea is to write a story consisting of six sentences only.  Each week a word prompt is given to base the story on. This week's prompt was: strike. 

Down to the Last Strike. 

Frank only understood one thing in his life, baseball; everything else was like watching a movie in one unintelligible language with subtitles in another unintelligble language.

Baseball had absorbed his life for too long now: obsessed with it as a kid, endowed with an incredible gift to play his favorite game on a high level, and then lucky enough to get drafted by his favorite team.

His luck and his signing bonus-grubbing wife ran out nearly simultaneously after a career-ending injury before his professional career really even started. 

He stumbled at first but soon, Frank was making the transition from player to scout; until he got the news about his Dad's cancer.

Frank only understood one thing in his life, and that was baseball - everything he knew, his Dad had taught him; the greatest of those lessons was you play the game down to your last strike. 

Frank knew that life wasn't all peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and was now absorbed with something more than baseball: rooting for the home team.  



For more six-sentence stories, click here.

Monday, June 27, 2022

What Jim Edmonds Greatest Career Catches has to do with my ADD

My ADD gets in the way of my everyday life but it often leaves a pleasant wake in it's path.  Today, right now in fact,I was getting ready to leave the house on what will be a very busy day. I couldn't find my phone and when I found it it was totally uncharged so I needed to charge it.  I noticed it had earbuds in it that were not working on my phone last night when I was trying to listen to Moby Dick before I went to bed.  So, instead of plugging in the phone and continuing to get ready to leave.  I took the earbuds plus the phone to the computer to check if the earbuds worked on the computer, which they did.

I thought the best way to check it, would be to go to YouTube .  Instead of going to the video I was going to look up, I got distracted by a Jim Edmonds video and began watching the video of his 8 amazing catches.  I liked it so much, I decided to post it here. I also googled Jim Edmonds HOF and found this good article about his qualifications to be voted in by the veteran's committee.  I was right about to go back in my archives and see  if I voted for him on my mock ballot when he was eligible, when my wife walked by and asked if I found my phone and then reminded me it still needed to be charged.  I'm going to go back now to my busy day, which I just made a little busier for myself. Thanks ADD!.

When I post this in a few days, the today referenced at the top of this (6/24/2022) will actually be in the past.  How long in the past? Only my ADD can say for sure.  For now: enjoy this video of great Edmonds catches that my ADD left in it's wake. 



Monday, June 20, 2022

"A Song About Baseball"



I saw this on Bob Bennet's website just about 30 minutes too late for Father's day.  I worked Father's Day at a K.C. COugars game selling concessions.  Kids were playing catch with their Dads.  I watched them do it and remembered playing catch on that field with my son just a few years ago.  

I really enjoyed this new look at one of my favorite songs.



Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Streaks are over! White Sox Lose to Guardians in 11, Cubs beat Padres .

 I've been waiting for the last few hours for the White Sox to win their 7th game in a row.  It did not happen after having a comfortable 4 run lead the Sox allowed 11 of the 12 Cleveland Guardian Runs after the 9th inning and failed to score winning runs in the 9th and the 10th.    Losses like this at home are always hard to take, but when ever you are on a plus 5 game winning streak you know it has to end at sometime.  It is frustrating that this is the 4th loss in a row to the Cleveland Guardians.  They have not beat Cleveland since they changed team names.  The best thing to do in this situation is shake it off and come back the next game and start a new winning streak.

While the Sox were losing in extra's the Cubs stopped a 5 game losing streak by shutting out the Padres 6-0.  Jason Heyward put 20 points on his batting average by going 2 for 4 tonight bringing it to .232.  Even so, his average at the end of April was .270 and previous to tonight's performance, he had only 1 hit in 17 at bats in the month of May.  Hopefully the Cubs and Heyward will enjoy tonight's success and build on itf 

At the beginning of the Cubs Sox series last week they both owned a record 9 wins and 13 losses.  The Sox went 5-1 since then and are now 14-14.  The Cubs went the other way with 1 win and 5 losses putting them at 10-18.  The Cubs next 5 games are on the road with the Padres and Diamondbacks.  The White Sox play 6 more games on their current homestand, 2 more with the Guardians and 4 against the Yankees.  







Tuesday, April 26, 2022

V is for Vladimir, Vladimir and Voice

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter


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 TThis 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.  


Saturday, April 23, 2022

T is for Tupelo, Thomas & Tower

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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 areBabe 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 good 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

Monday, April 18, 2022

O is for Orange, Oliva, and Overt

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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


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.  

Thursday, April 14, 2022

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

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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 DAdded 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.  


Wednesday, April 13, 2022

K is for Kilometer , King Kong and Krill

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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 TI 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.  


Monday, April 11, 2022

I is for Illinois, Ibanez and Imago

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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.  

Saturday, April 9, 2022

H is for Hammer, Hank, and Hairy

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 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.  

Friday, April 8, 2022

G is for Grief , Griffey, and Geode

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

 


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.  

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip