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

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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.  

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

R is for Race, Reggie and Robin

 Good morning and welcome to day 18 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.  

This challenge is quite like a race

It goes by at a blistering pace

Marathon not sprint

Not trying to win it

I'll  finish with grin on my face.

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Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

They call Reggie Jackson Mr. October because he excelled on the biggest stage in baseball, The World Series.  That does not mean he has many substandard April through September's by any stretch.  Like Albert Pujols who we discussed on Tuesday Jackson made the top 25 in homeruns for 2 eras in my life.  Today we will be focusing on that 2nd era 1976 through 1987. 

Jackson in a career that spanned from 1967 to 1987 played for 4 major league teams in 5 cities.  (He started with the Kansas City Athletics and finished his playing days with the same team who had since moved to Oakland.  From 1976 to 1987 Jackson hit 309 of his career 563 homers. He hit 144 for the Yankees, 123 for the Angels, 27 for the Orioles, and 15 in his final stint with the Athletics.

Jackson is ranked 14th in career homeruns.  He is ranked 5th between 1976 and 1987 behind Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice, Dave Kingman, and Dale Murphy. Interestingly enough Jackson is ranked above all of them on the all-time list.  

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 18th starting word was robin.

R O B I  N - Robin was not exactly a rockin' way to start with 0 letters guessed correctly.

S T E P S-  Steps had some pep, with S in the correct position and T and E in the final answer.

S L A T E - From here it was a quick trip to

S A U T E - And voila!, Wordle is served in 4 guesses.

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

 

Q is for Quit, Quentin, and Quest

 Good Evening  and welcome to day 17  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 am composing tonight's limerick as an encouragement to anyone considering checking out and giving up on the challenge.

Stop thinking that you can't do it.

You've come too far now just to quit.

If you're working on Q

10 more than you're through.

And remember your much too Legit!

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

Traditionally Q is often the hardest letter along with X for the A to Z challenge.  For me this year Q was no problem when it came to homerun hitters because I'm a big fan of the Chicago White Sox and we had Carlos Quentin. Quentin played major league ball from 2006 to 2014 starting with Arizona and finishing with San Diego but his prime was spent with t he beloved White Sox where he hit 107 of his 154  (approximately 70 %) homers between 2008 and 2011.  That averages out to 36 homers in a 162 games season during his time with the pale hose.  That's compared to 30 homers in a 162 game average over the course of his career.

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 17th starting word was quest.

Q U E ST- The E  is in the final answer but not in the right location

L E A R N-  I didn't learn too much from learn, no new letters and E still out of place.

C O P E D -  This got  me a new  letter in the right place.

M O V I E - Cut and print in 4 takes.  

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

 

P is for Philippians 4, Pujols, and Piano.

 Good morning  and welcome to day 16  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 like Philippians 4:4

I should attempt to follow it more.

Paul, in emphatic voice

Says always rejoice

Cause there's much to rejoice in the Lord.

Adapted from my 2/3/2014 Facebook post

Part II: A to Z Homerun hitters of my lifetime

From 2011 -2021 Albert Pujols hit 280 homers mostly while playing with the LA Angels.  former Ro This was the 5th most homer output during those years.  That is not why were talking about the 3 time MVP, 2 time World Series Champ. He is also the 5th all time homerun hitter in MLB history  and just has to hit 15 more in this his final MLB season to tie A-Rod for 4th place overall. 4 more dingers and he's be in the rarified air of Bonds, Aaron and Ruth the only players to have 700 or more.  If this turns out not to be his last season or if he hits a total of 35 or more long balls this season (which he has accomplished 10 other times in his storied career) he could surpass Babe Ruth for 3rd all time.  Between the years 2000 and 2010 Pujols hit 408 dingers and was 2nd only to A-Rod in that time frame.  Pujols is the only player to be in the top 5 in 2 of the 4 quadrants of my life that I divided these homers by.  Pujols hit all 408 of these 1st decade 21st century bombs for the St. Louis Cardinals.  Pujols has been reunited with the Cardinals for this supposedly final season.  He has already hit 2 homers in this young season,  

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 16th starting word was piano.

P I A N O - The A is in the final answer but not in the right location

D R E A M-  Added the R and E but nonr of the 3 letters are yet in their proper places. Leaving only 1 spot for R in the next guess 

C A T E R - There are at least 4 words that fit with c a (blank) e r. . Caper and caner will not work as the p and n were eliminated on the first guess.  I went with Cater as it's much more common than cager and it turned out well for me.  Cater in 4. 

For more A to Z challenge click here. 

 

Last 5 Next 10 Tax day Edition

As it turns out I didn't finish any books in the  traditional way since our last edition.  Each year I read the chronicles of Narnia through.  I have been doing this for about 40 years.  This year I decided to mix it up a little and listen to the books being read rather than reading them myself.  4 of the 5 selections here are from the CHronicles of Narnia and the only one that wasn't was a comic book anthology.

Voyage of The Dawn Treader- C.S. Lewis

Listened to via Hoopla

4/1/22

The Essential Defenders - Len Wein

Read myself, borrowed from a friend.

4/1/22

The Silver Chair by C.S, Lewis

Listened to via Hoopla

4/6/22

The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis

Listened to Via Hoopla

4/14/22

The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

Listened to Via Hoopla

4/18/22

Ten books I am currently reading or planning to read soon are .

God's Forgetful Pilgrims - Michael Griffiths

The Case For Easter - Lee Strobel

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Love, Dance & Egg Rolls - Jason Tanamor

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Until Tuesday, A Wounded Warrior and The Golden Retriever who saved Him - Luis Carlos Montalvan

First Degree - David Rosenfelt 

Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Devin Brown

Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007 - Roger Ebert

The Collected Short Stories of Louis Lamour - Vol I

I finished book 15 on 3/24 and finished book 20 today (4/18). This means I completed 5 books in 25 days.  Over the course of 1 year at that rate I would finish 73 books.  In the first 108 days of this year I have averaged reading 1 book every 5.4 days.  If I keep up that pace I should finish approximately 68 books by years end. I am not sure I can sustain such a pace this month while completing the a to z challenge.  But after the challenge I hope to finish a lot of these books I've been working on.