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.  

D is for Dirty, Dawson, Drain

Good morning and welcome to Day 4 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 

In researching all things limerick, I have discovered that many limericks are ribald, offensive, or dirty. I have decided to try my hand at a dirty one ...

If you happen to go to the zoo

You might see lots of kangaroo poo

And a whole lot of feces

From bunches of species

Yes, I know it sounds gross, but it's true.

Adapted from my FB post 1/24/2014

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

One of the challenges in doing an a to z challenge that is a list of people is figuring out who to include and exclude based on what letter their name begins with. It is especially difficult if a players first name and last name begin with the same letter. If I want to include Freddie Freeman in my homerun list, I have no choice but to use him as F which is where I was planning on putting Frank Thomas. Another problem is when 2 players cancel everyone else out. I knew I wanted to include both Dick Allen (who I featured on April 1st) and Andre Dawson on this list, but since they both use up the same letters it squeezes out players like Adam Dunn who hit 354 homers between 2000 and 2010. Allen and Dawson are good choices though as they both revitalized their careers when moving to Chicago.

Dawson hit 274 of his 438 homers between 1976-1987 tied with Don Baylor for 10th for most homers in that era. This included all 225 of his career home runs with the Montreal Expos and 49 with the Cubs in 1987 the year he won his MVP award. Dawson hit another 100 with the Cubs playing 5 additional seasons on the Norths Side before finishing his HOF career with the Red Sox and Marlins.

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 4, 2022 my opening word was drain

D R A I N- A was the only correct letter and it was in the correct place, I went from drain to blade.

B L A D E - D and E were in the word but not in the tight place. I countered with stead

S T E A D - This put the last 3 letters in the right place, so I forged ahead with ahead.

A H E A D - which was right!

For more A to Z challenge click here,

C is for Capital Punishment, Cal, and Codex

 

Good morning and welcome to Day 3 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

2 years ago my theme was state capitals.  Last month in preparation for this years challenge. With memories of that challenge  I wrote this limerick...

I once had a friend in Cheyenne

Who hated his cell phone plan

He got charged for roaming

Without leaving Wyoming

He's better off with a string and a can.  

Written in March 2022 in anticipation of the challenge.

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

When you think of Cal Ripken you don't necessarily think of home runs.  I think of the streak.  I think of the period between May 30, 1982 and 9/19/1998 when he started 2,632 straight baseball games.  Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals currently has a 467 consecutive game streak. Merrifield would have to play more than 13 seasons to get near that record.  Merrifield is already 33 years old.  Ripken was 38 when the streak ended.  

Yet Ripken was a prolific homerun hitter.  He hit 431 homers in his hall of fame career, 242 between 1988 and 1999 all with the Baltimore Orioles. 

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 3, 2022 I started with codex.

C O D E X - This gave me an O in the right place so I followed up with aorta.

A O R T A - In addition to the O, I got a T out of position. My next guess was robin.

R O B I N - This gave me the O and the N and also the R as there was no other space for it.  That helped me get Mourn in 4.

M O U R N

For more A to Z challenge click here,