Leap of Dave

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Taking 2020 from 1677 and Staying Positive.

Penultimate is one of my favorite words. It means second to last. I use the word so often it drives my family a little crazy. So, when I woke up this morning on the day before New Years Eve, 2020, penultimate popped into my head pretty quickly.

I turned to the Merriam Webster website for the last word on penultimate. It seems the word was first used in print all the way back in 1677. Thanks to the time traveler feature at the MW site, I discovered many words that came into print in 1677 still had special significance in 2020. To illustrate I will jot a few words about 2020 as it draws nigh and embolden the words from 1677. I have also put links on each word to their definition as some of these 1677 words were new to me.

I always like to be veracious so as I look back at the year 2020 I must say that after some introspection I am somewhat glad that this is the penultimate day of a year that was as oppressive as it was implausible; as riveting as it was slatternly.

I don't like to sound huffy, but it upset me when I found out this March that both my jobs were inessential. I would turn on the television to watch the splutter of unsustainable overpromise. Never-mind the tug-of-war between the ballot box and the electoral college that tried to make the courtroom function as a middleman.

I'm sure that years from now when we unpack a yearbook from a duffel ,2020 will still be considered a difficult year; with some exertion and by being intentional we were able to configure a new normal. I'm sorry I hope you didn't doze off while I went on like someone giving a keynote at a quarterly meeting.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Remembering Dick Allen

Dick Allen died earlier this month on December 7,2020 at the age of 78. Allen was the NL rookie of the year for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964, the year I was born. He played for the White Sox form 1972 to 1974 and was a big part of the reason why I switched allegiances from the Chicago Cubs to their south side counterpart White Sox.

It transpired something like this. My sister was the grade ahead of me at school and achieved straight A's at school one year. Our school had a promotion with the White Sox that if you had straight A's or perfect attendance you would receive 2 vouchers for tickets to a White Sox game. My Dad took my sister to a game and I decided that the next year I would get perfect attendance and he could take me

Sure enough, the next year I had perfect attendance for the first and only time in my academic life. My Dad took me to a game in 1972 or out the roof shots and it was1973 against the Baltimore Orioles. He taught me how to keep score and Dick Allen hit a home run.

From that day on I was a White Sox fan. I watched games on T.V. and listened to the rest on the radio. I even became a country music fan as the White Sox games were broadcast on the local country station. The rest of the family remained Cubs fans (I still like the Cubs because no one told me other wise, ) but my exuberance was for the White Sox. Each year our family took a pilgrimage to Wrigley to watch a game. Each year my Dad found away usually near my birthday to take me to a White Sox game as well.

I liked all the players, Bucky Dent. Wilbur Wood, Jorge Orta, Bill Melton but Allen was by far my favorite. Over the years the players changed but my passion for the White Sox never ebbed. I have had many favorite White Sox players over the years Kessinger, Fisk, Thomas, Buehrle, and Konerko just to name a few, but those fond memories of watching Allen at first base or at the plate never did fully dissipate.

Click here to watch footage of Allen with commentary from teammate Bill Melton. I also have put some video and audio clips of Allen at my vlog, Dave Out Loud.