The Big Schill

The only thing even close to a highlight for the Red Sox in August was Curt Schilling's 3,000th career strikeout, which came against the Oakland A's on Wednesday. Congrats, G38.

I hadn't realized that only 14 ML pitchers have done this -- the Boston Globe published the list here. It's also interesting to note that Cesar Geronimo appears on the list twice -- as Bob Gibson's and Nolan Ryan's 3,000th victim respectively (six years apart).

The 3,000-K club is actually one of the more exclusive ones -- its 14 members are less than other "clubs" of greater notoriety. There are 22 300-game winners (although that list includes several from the 19th Century) and 20 500-HR hitters and 25 members of the 3000-hit club.

The full story is here.

While looking for the above links, I stumbled across the following blog -- Baseball Fever. Not responsible for external content.

And then there were Eight

(no, that's not a disco ball -- just a grainy photograph taken at a distance)

So much for the rudimentary astronomy I learned in grade school. The International Astronomical Union -- an organization with apparently a great deal of time on its hands -- has reclassified the Planet Formerly Known As Pluto (PFKAP) as a "Dwarf Planet."

One could perhaps detect a hint of European elitism, in that PFKAP is (was?) the only planet to have been discovered by an American -- Clyde Trombaugh (1906-1997) in 1930.

Of course, not only does this unilateral decision mandate that we completely overhaul textbooks, museums, web pages and the NASA probe program, now we can't tell corny jokes like "Why did Mickey Mouse go to outer space?"

Oh well -- at least now we've settled the question of Pluto and can get back to important stuff like winning the war on terrorism.

More BB

If you can't get enough, try: http://www.allthingsbillbelichick.com/

Education of a Coach

My latest audiobook was The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam and narrated by Eric Conger.

Certainly a worthwhile "read" for a New England Patriots fan and, indeed, for any fan of the game, particularly the professional version. It traces Bill Belichick's development from virtually a toddler to the pinnacle of his profession as a 5-time SuperBowl winner (including the 2 rings with the NY Giants working with some other guy named Bill).

Halberstam's writing is crisp and clear, as always, and Conger brings it to life with a thick, booming voice that's perfect for a gridiron narrative. I've read several audiobooks recently that were well-written but with mismatched narrators, so this was particularly refreshing.

Belichick's mentors are many and varied, and Halberstam interweaves the vignettes in a manner allowing us to see how each one influenced him differently. His early (pre-Giant) career is particularly interesting -- even a fairly knowledgable fan like me didn't know that he once worked for the Detroit Lions, as is the dissection of his first head coaching job in Cleveland and the lessons learned therefrom.

And with baseball season basically in a nosedive, it was the perfect book for the preseason.

Joe Rosenthal (1911-2006)

Joe Rosenthal has died.

WTC

I don't get out to the movies too much (I think the last time was 2004 for Polar Express), but my in-laws had given Mrs. Salad & me a gift card, so last night -- at her recommendation -- we saw WORLD TRADE CENTER.

It's been less than 12 hours since screen time, so I'm still processing everything. My strongest impression was that it's certainly not a typical Oliver Stone picture, lacking both the good (superb editing, rapid pace, and tight storyline) and the bad (conspiratorial undertones and assorted looniness). That may not be a fair generalization, as Oliver's given us everything from The Joy Luck Club (as producer) to JFK, but you can understand my expectations.

Even knowing the outcome of the two main characters, Stone manages to create a fair amount of suspense and intrigue and, most notably, without any political cheap shots or subtleties that I could detect. Even two US Marines who play a key role in the plot are portrayed honorably.

At the same time, WTC was somewhat narrow in its focus and did not, as I expected, portray too much of the bigger picture of 9/11 -- it essentially lacked any sub-plot (at best, two parallel main plots), although there were background references to the events of 9/11 as the unfolded, and a clear portrayal of the confusion that surrounded that day (another blog for another time).

The Curse of the Bob-ino

Towards the end of July, Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan ran a series of photo essays on the Globe website about some of the core Red Sox players (and, presumably, some of his favorites). There were profiles of David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, Terry Francona, and others.

As far as I can tell, the essays are no longer on www.boston.com/sports, otherwise I'd provide links.

ANYWAY -- it was about this time that three of those players -- Nixon, Varitek and Wakefield -- suffered apparently serious injuries and will be lost for about a month, if not the rest of the season.

This was a severe blow to the Sox for obvious reasons -- Varitek is the team captain and all-star catcher, Wakefield is the senior man on the team, and Nixon has been with the organization the longest. All of them are valuable performers in their own right, and their loss is compounded by the fact that it came too late (either shortly before or right after) the 7/31 trading deadline, so Theo et al weren't able to make any moves to bolster the roster.

The Sox have struggled in August and have had several problems throughout the season, but this didn't help.

Coincidence? We'll see. Maybe Dan Shaughnessy will have to write another book...

Ford Foundation

Former President Gerald Ford is in the news. This article from YAHOO! has the story, but also a link to Kevin Sites' -- uh -- SITE which today is entitled "A Time to Heal." That was the title of Ford's autobiography written after he left the presidency.

One of my earliest datable memories is watching President Nixon walk out to the helicopter after he resigned -- 32 years ago this month -- and gave his famous wave, and then seeing Ford sworn in. I asked my mother what had happened, and she told me that "the president had to quit his job because he told a lie." Surely a condensed version of the whole Watergate episode, but enough to compel a preschooler away from mendacity for the foreseeable future.

Ronald Reagan was 93 years and 4 months old when he passed away two years ago, making him the longest-lived president up to that time (John Adams and Herbert Hoover both lived to 90). Ford turned 93 last month, so he's got about 3 months to go to surpass the Gipper. Ford has had some health issues in recent years -- as one might expect -- but he still seems pretty vigorous and hopefully this latest episode is just a temporary setback.

I do find it unusual that the media is referring to Ford as the "oldest living ex-president." This, I suppose, as compared to the "oldest dead ex-president."

Ford is also the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, achieving this distinction when Sen. John Sherman Cooper died in 1991.

Elden Auker (1910-2006)

Elden Auker died last week -- he was a MLB submarine pitcher who spent a season in Boston as a teammate of Ted Williams but spent six years with the Tigers and 3 with the St. Louis Browns.

This was ironic (for me, not so much for him) as I had been watching my videotapes of When it Was a Game beginning the previous week while riding the stationary bike. Auker provides some commentary throughout, and I had looked him up on Wikipedia to see if he was still alive -- which, at the time, he was. He passed away the day after I finished watching Part 2.

I see he wrote a book 5 years ago -- that's probably a good read if I can find it.

Sox sweep O's

The Red Sox beat the Orioles today for what seems like the 700th time out of the last 701 times they've played. A lot of my extended family are Orioles fans, so I'll be (sort of) nice. Really, I have to sympathize. I spent a number of years in the Baltimore area and, although the Red Sox have always been my favorite team, I always enjoyed listening the the O's broadcasts (Jon Miller and Joe Angel), and, during the days of Edward Bennett Williams, they had pretty decent teams most of the time, and always a classy organization. On top of that, they had a solid, loyal fanbase in an outstanding baseball city.

Now, not only is the team lousy, but there's not a whole lot to like about them. Some talent, but poor management, a wealthy socialist as an owner (it doesn't get much worse than that), and a demoralized fan base. It's a shame to see all those empty seats at Camden Yards, but after ten years of bad baseball, it really shouldn't surprise anybody.

Of course, the Sox were swept this past week by KANSAS CITY (?!?!), which is basically a Double-A team, so who really knows? They swept the O's, but now face a week of the Tigers and NYY's. This should show what they're made of...

The Strike II

So, last night my almost-six-year-old son and I were out and stopped at a park and I got our baseball gloves. His is a rather cheap plastic (or pleather, at best) imitation glove that is really too small for him and, to make matters worse, is autographed by Alex Rodriguez (aka "Pay-Rod").

Nonetheless, he persevered and did rather well catching and throwing. I was so impressed that I determined on the way home that I would get him a real glove for his birthday this week. But then this afternoon he was moping around for something to do so I took him and his big sister over the the local box store in search of a new glove as a "surprise." Of course, it's hard to get a new glove in AUGUST, and there was but one glove in the entire store. As luck would have it, however, it was the right size (a little big for him, but he'll grow into it), for the right hand (he's a southpaw), and, above all, the right price (60% off). Sold.

I had the forethought to bring along a bottle of glove oil and our other gloves, as well as a T-ball bat, so we drove to a nearby park and the three of us messed around for awhile. Again, he did very, very well for (a) having a new glove and (b) not having played much to begin with.

So we drove home and, of course, the first thing he wants to do is show Mom how good he's doing. So I have him stand in the backyard and lob an underhand throw to him exactly as I'd done about 100 times for the past hour.

STRIKE -- right on the forehead.

Two glasses of milk and a once-frozen bag of vegetables later, he was fine and no visible blemishes, but that endeth the ballgame for the time being. Mom will have to take my word for it for now.

The Strike

I just realized that 12 years ago today (8/12/94) the Major League Baseball players went on strike, and the rest of that season was wiped out.

I was in Anaheim, California at the time, staying with some friends for about a week while I was doing research on a writing project (another post for another time). We actually managed to catch a game between the Angels and . . . . some other team . . . . two days before the strike.

It was also at this time that I saw the only live football game I've ever seen at any level -- an NFL pre-season game between the (then) Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots. Yes, that's right -- I've only seen one live football game in five decades. Neither my HS nor my college had a football team. I've always found it ironic that the only game I've seen was between the Rams and Pats, whose POSTseason tilt seven seasons later would be the happiest day of my life.

Funnily enough, with all the nonsense going on right now with air travel, August 1994 was also the last time I've flown anywhere. Can't say I miss it, either.