Wednesday Mind Wanderings

The other day, a couple of miles down the road, I was startled during my run by a herd of 11 or 12 deer.  (Why is the plural of deer deer, not deers?  The plural of bear isn't bear, but bears, of dog not dog, but dogs, etc.)  I've seen large herds of them around here before, namely a dozen or so swimming across the Huron River in a nearby park, oh, about 20 or more years ago.  But I haven't seen that many so close to home, not in a pack.  We've had a half dozen or so romp in the backyard or between houses, but......  For this city-slicker, the herd was pretty cool to see.

I've really enjoyed the Chaim Potok novels I've been re-reading.  I didn't remember much of My Name Is Asher Lev, but recalled some of The Chosen and The Promise.  But The Gift of Asher Lev, yes a sequel, doesn't seem to ring any bells for me.  Still, I'm learning a lot, being entertained, and challenged to do some thinking.  What else can one ask from a well-written novel?

I got a bit of a chuckle out of some newspapers' grousing about Supreme Gorsuch and his siding with the other four conservative justices in the recent challenge to a scheduled Arkansas execution.  First and foremost, I have no sympathy for the two men who were executed, none at all.  Nobody asked them to murder other people.  Perhaps a bit of a contradiction, although I still waver (or is it "waiver?") sometimes, I think I oppose the death penalty.  I know there are a lot of scumballs who likely deserve to be executed.  But I have some problems.  Namely, I don't like giving the state power over life and death, power to kill people.  The state (meaning government) has far too much power over our lives now.  This is the ultimate power, isn't it?  And how many innocent folks have been executed over the years, that we know of?  How many have been executed on the basis of eyewitness testimony, which we know is hardly 100% reliable?  Courts and juries don't always get it right.  If anything, is there a way to determine a test of "strength of evidence" to perhaps come closer to ensuring we aren't executing innocent people?  I don't know.  Perhaps I'm naive in this, but isn't there still a possibility that a person can turn around his/her life, if even still in prison?  Don't we have to afford the opportunities to repent?  Otherwise, where is the end of the cycle of hate, revenge, and suffering?  Also, and this is the second point, why this outcry (from three different national media sources who support abortion) for the lives of convicted murders (see my views above), yet not a peep to save the lives of unborn babies?  The murderers have committed heinous crimes; the babies haven't done anything wrong.  To add, Gorsuch's vote did nothing but uphold Arkansas state law, which has never been ruled unconstitutional nor, except in "special circumstances," have any state laws regarding capital punishment.  Perhaps I missed one or two, but I don't think so.  Again, I repeat, I think I oppose the death penalty, but still......  And had Gorsuch not been confirmed, the 4-4 vote of the Supremes would have resulted in the decision of the next highest court as the ruling--and it upheld the executions.  Too, Arkansas law holds that if a convict is to be executed, but lethal injection is not available (as in the lethal drugs having expired, no pun intended), the "dead men walking" get the electric chair.

This game of lacrosse is sometimes puzzling.  Michael is playing it for the first time, on the high school JV team.  I'm often puzzled by the rules.  Why does a team that shoots the ball at the goal only to have it leave the field of play get to retain possession, while a team that passes the ball out of bounds loses it?  Why can a defender club an offensive player with his stick only if his hands are together, but is penalized if his hands are apart?  As least that is what I've gathered from calls by the officials after a few weeks.  Is it that there's less leverage/force if the hands are together?  I'm still trying to figure out the call that looks like "traveling" in basketball, but haven't yet.  But I'm learning, I hope.  And the kids seem to really enjoy playing the game.  Michael's other grandparents were at the last game and wondered if this is a relatively "new game."  No, I noted.  The Indians were playing this game, or a version of it called "baggataway," hundreds of years ago.  In fact, they used it as a ploy to take the British fort at Mackinac in 1763.

Speaking of sports, baseball remains a funny, funny game.  That's not "ha-ha" funny, but peculiar.  Last week Miguel Cabrera, who started the season very slowly, but raised his BA about 200 points in a week and a half, hit four balls in a game right the button.  I didn't see the game, but the last time up the radio announcers noted that "He's squared up all four balls, but doesn't have a thing to show for it."  That is, he hammered four balls, but didn't get a hit.  The next game, the baseball gods evened up things, well, as much as they do.  (I don't believe that well hit balls that are caught are balanced by what we called "bleeders.")  Miggy got three hits, a flair to left, a pop-up that managed to find the grass just between three charging fielders, and a seeing-eye bounder (not particularly well hit) up the middle.  Funny game......

I'm still not sure many folks appreciate the important of good defensive play in the outfield.  I think they certainly do on the infield, esp at shortstop.  But in the outfield.....?  Oh, the guys on the radio or boob tube will ooh and aah at the great catches, but I wonder if they realize more ordinary plays  are often made "ordinary" by great defense or that many balls that fall and look like legitimate hits could be caught with some better defense.  I'm not at all saying outfield defense is easy; it's not.  There's a lot that goes into outstanding defensive play in the OF; it takes a lot of work.  I'd guess most spectator don't realize that.  I think that goes back to little league where the worst players get stuck in the outfield.  That is eventually outgrown, but maybe in the backs of people's minds, that thought is still there:  the worst.  People probably can tell how many games, say, Al Kaline or Ken Griffey have won with their bats.  I wonder how many can tell how many games they've won with their gloves.  I don't know if they have or not, but had I been running the Tigers, Kaline would have been working with all of the outfielders on a consistent basis.  Here's a tip:  if a centerfielder rarely makes a great catch, either he's terrible or, more likely, he's great and makes hard catches look routine.