Hmmm......

I always have a lot of questions.  I don't always or even often have the answers.

Why, for instance, out on my run this AM, from out of nowhere, did the name "Doug Finsterwald" come into mind?  It was followed by "Cary Middlecoff."  These guys were golfers back in the '50s.  I wasn't a golf fan then (nor now), but I knew and apparently still know the names.  Now, why did these names crop up?  When I thought "Gene Littler," I forced myself to stop thinking......

I went to donate blood and what's happened far more often than not in the past 5 or 6 years occurred again.  I walked in and said, "I'm here to donate."  "Do you have an appointment?"  "No, I don't."  (I don't make appointments because of my hectic schedule; I often don't know what I'm doing--in more ways that one!)  "Then I'm sorry," the worker politely said, "but we can't take you today."  I looked around, at the empty chairs (The drive was open for another hour or so.) in front of me.  Nobody was waiting.  I saw five or six empty cots/beds, nobody donating on them.  Hmmm......  "OK, thanks," and I walked out and returned home.

As I noted, this has happened frequently, but just over the past five or six years.  I understand if others have appointments and there are waiting lines, but almost always there are no people in front of me, no people waiting, and there are empty cots.  It's not just one place, but four or five places I've tried.  I know the workers are volunteers and are only doing what they've been told to do, but who is telling them that?

What is particularly upsetting is that I get at least five or six phone calls a week asking me to donate because "There's a critical shortage of your blood type."  I must get an equal number of e-mails, too, urging me to donate "to save up to three lives with one pint of blood."  Hmmm......  Perhaps the "shortage" isn't so "critical?"  I have addressed this to phone callers, who again are likely volunteers who can't really answer my questions or effectuate change, and in e-mails to the Red Cross.  Still, no change in this policy.

Why are some people left out of the Baseball Hall of Fame?  One sportswriter this AM opined on the possible nominees for 2017, the newly eligible names and those holdovers from recent years who've not yet gained enough votes.  I can't really argue one way or the other on many of the players, since I don't know much about them.  But, esp considering some who've made it in recent years, it's a mystery as to who others haven't.  I am thinking of Alan Trammell, Ted Simmons, and Thurman Munson as definites.  Strong candidates, but maybe not locks include Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris.  Can it really be, as some have suggested, that where players play has an influence?  Does playing in a major market play a role?  If so, it shouldn't.  Don't take my word for these players' merit; as Casey Stengel once said, "You could look it up."