Sat AM Thoughts

Sometimes I think it's far too early for "thoughts."  But I have them anyway.  I find, more and more commonly, that I need to write them down--or else I forget them.  Often I forget them in a matter of moments.

It's good the Tigers won yesterday.  Had they lost their opener, they'd not have been able to serve beer all season.  OK, old and rotten joke, but I remember it at the beginning of each season.  And Miggy has a couple of two-hit games already.  Michael turned on the game the other day and we were lucky.  Cabrera was coming to the plate.  The screen said he'd whiffed his first to times up.  He took a strike and then swung and missed at a second one.  Then, he barely moved his front/left foot and drilled a ball between first and second for a hit.  Just brilliant!  I could watch him hit forever.  And, many times over the winter, I read articles which lauded his baseball mind, that he knows the game far better than most.  Good for him.  I love to watch him hit and I love to watch him have fun with baseball.

I was thinking baseball the other day after talking with someone.  I quit playing back when I was 22 or 23.  Oh, there were reasons.  I was an hour away from any league and I liked to drive the as little as I like to drive now.  And I was bummed out and not having been picked up.  Over the years I have wondered if I gave it up too soon, that is, if I should have kept playing--just for fun.  I still enjoy getting out there and coaching Michael's team(s).  (And I just registered for yet another season!  My goal is to match my college coach, still pitching BP at 73 years old.)  I like to throw him BP, just on our own, although I really need the L-Screen to protect myself from both my growing lack of reaction time and his line-drives.  Hmmm......  I don't know.  Maybe had I not moved so far away......

I read a nice piece in the newspaper this AM that had some recent relevance to me.  It discussed being "lost" and finding the way back home or someplace.  That, it was suggested, is not necessarily a bad thing, getting lost.  Maybe on the path back, good things will be discovered. This happened last night, on our run on the trails.  OK, we weren't lost, not really, but were on a trail that we didn't recognize from past runs.  It was tough--many short, steep hills along with twists/turns/switchbacks. (The twists/turns/switchbacks were about 2.5 miles and the trip back was not quite 2 miles!)  But being "lost" led us to a road, a quiet back road, and a very nice run back to the start and our cars.  In that sense, we did find something good--a nice new place to run.  Being "lost...wasn't so hard."

Only in America......  Wasn't that a song title by Jay and the Americans about 50 years ago?  But I'm pretty sure Jay and his Americans weren't thinking of what we have today.  This Presidential campaign is beyond disgusting.  And, in fact, I always capitalize "President" and like terms, but more and more think maybe I'll stop.  The respect that leads to the capitalization is fading and fading quickly.  Last week there was an op-ed in the Free Press of all places that included this gem, "Both of the front runners [in the race] are pathological liars."  I think we can toss in the current office-holder, too.  If we know they are "pathological liars" and they continually prove and reinforce that, why in Heaven's name are they "front runners?"  What is wrong with us?

A recent poll came out and suggested that the two "front runners" have approval ratings of 26% (Trump) and 40% (Clinton).  60-some% had unfavorable views of Trump, quite understandably as readers of "One Man's Lonely Opinions" know.  55% had similar views of Clinton.  Just as baffling to me is how 40% of the people can view Clinton "favorably."  ??????  Have we stooped to such lows?

Talk about "hijacked conventions?"  Maybe Americans should hijack both parties' conventions!  Picture waking on Nov 9 and seeing that our next President will be either Trump or Clinton.  After Obama, can anything be much more devastating?

I was sent a great e-mail that included a presentation a college baseball coach made at a coaching clinic.  Thanks, Don.  It reminded me of another coach who spoke to a small group of us when I was still coaching high school football and baseball--oh more than 40 years ago.  I remember something he said, something very important.  "If you accept it, you condone it."  He was talking, in the short run, about behavior of athletes.  But he was also making a much larger point.  I think of this often, as we frequently overlook our behaviors and what they say about us.  Why did the Rolling Stones play a concert in Havana, Cuba?  In doing that, weren't they in reality "accepting" the dictatorial regime of the Castros?  If so, weren't they also implicitly condoning the imprisonment of thousands of Cubans for their political views?  (According to reports, many thousands were rounded up and slapped into jail before Obama's visit.)  And what about the President?  It might be one thing to meet with Castro; it's quite another to go to a baseball game and be photographed enjoying the whole thing, as if Obama and Raul are great buddies.  And how about our own state governor and even American corporations dealing with the Chinese?  The Chinese openly steal our corporate and military information. The government there has a terrible human rights record.  Yet, there we are, seeking the almighty dollar despite the Chinese behaviors.  Is money all that important--more important than everything?  Apparently it is.