Hank

Like many of the Atlanta area guys of my generation (i.e: on the first steps of geezerhood), I was a little verklempt with the passing of baseball legend Henry Aaron.

We saw Aaron go from player-to executive-to a living breathing icon. His last couple of appearances in Atlanta Braves related matter showed an old man that was an absolute delight.  He announced Freddie Freeman's MVP award last November and he looked happier than Freeman.

What is amazing is that Aaron flew under the radar as far as the national sports world was concerned for years. That's because he played in Milwaukee (ick) and then Atlanta (Eek! The South!) when the Braves moved here.

No, the sports media complex was more in tune to whatever was going on with The Yankees. Of course, The Giants had Willie Mays and The Dodgers were in L.A. and appearing on "Mr.Ed".  Aaron was applying his trade in the backwaters of the country quietly building up his stats. 

Back then, baseball appeared nationally once a week with a program titled "The Game of The Week". At one time, the great Dizzy Dean was the color commentator. It was Dean who commented on an amorous couple in the stands. "Yas, pardner, she's huggin' him on the strikes and kissing him on the balls".

To get on "The Game Of The Week", a team had to be doing well and in the "pennant race".  The Braves, most of this time. was out of the pennant race in May and was an afterthought as far as the nation's sports media was concerned. 

In Atlanta, The Braves were on WSB-TV and the announcers were Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson. More often than not you would hear Hamilton yelp "There's a drive" when Aaron was at bat.

I was in 9th grade the day Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record.  It was an odd day. A tornado hit town in the early morning and there was some talk the game would be delayed. It wasn't.  Aaron hit a high Al Downing fastball over the fence.  It was probably the best day ever in the history of The Atlanta Braves and that includes 1991 and 1995. 

If Aaron wasn't the best player in his generation, he is definitely in the top five. The ones that are close are Mays, Mantle, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente. 

Aaron just made everything look so easy.  He had smooth swing. He was deceptively fast. It looked like he was almost jogging but he managed to get there first.  

One of the interesting things about sports media is that you will always find those who belittle the accomplishments of players. Example:  Aaron received 406 of 415 votes for The Hall of Fame.  97% is not too shabby, but it means there were 9 voters that did not believe Aaron deserved to be in The Hall Of Fame.  

I would like to hear the reasoning for not voting for Aaron into The Hall Of Fame. What more could he had done?

You used to hear a lot about Atlanta being 1050 feet above sea level, which meant balls would fly out of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium more easily than they would have other ballparks.  Yeah, maybe.

It ignores the fact that Aaron hit a ton of home runs during the era in which pitching was dominate. He had to hit against Koufax (7 home runs), Marichal (8 home runs), Drysdale (17 home runs), Seaver (4 home runs), and Gibson (8 home runs).

On top of everything, Aaron seemed like a regular guy with a good sense of humor. When Hank died, the great Johnny Bench tweeted out this picture of a play at the plate.  

 

It says "I WISH THE HELL YOU'D STAY OUT OF MY WAY".  I think Hank was safe.

When Aaron was inducted into The Hall Of Fame he said, "I never want them to forget Babe Ruth. I just want them to remember Henry Aaron."

We'll remember.

30 Years A Dad

 

My son, Ben, just turned 30 years old the other day.  I can't believe someone as young as me has a 30 year old son.  Ha!

It seems like yesterday my wife had the baby. It wasn't. It was 1991. George Bush, the first one, was the President then. I turned around one day and there was another President George Bush but he didn't look like the first one.

In between, was President Bill Clinton and his lovely wife Hillary. You may remember them. Bill went into "public service" (that's what politicians call running for office) because he wanted to serve all mankind and perhaps see all womankind naked. At least, that's what I sort of remembered.

In any event, the first part of my son's life was spent in the car taking him to various parties (you'd be amazed at how many birthday parties you go to), rec league sports games, school functions, church functions, and a billion other things. You're basically a personal Uber.

By the way, you come to hate Chuck E. Cheese.  It's where a kid can be a kid and you can eat frozen pizza.

Coming home from one church function, six year old Ben announced he wished he was  half Jewish because he would get Christmas and Hanukkah presents  ("Hanukkah is eight crazy nights!', he said.) 

In fact, a lot of parenthood is just hearing and seeing what your kids do and then making fun of them for the rest of your life about it.

Another example,  one time Ben and my wife went to a "Harvest Festival" (Baptist talk for a Halloween party) at a local church named "Fortified Hills Baptist Church".  The next day, he told me about the Harvest Festival at "Four Or Five Hills Baptist Church".

Of course, I've never let him forget that because he lives close to that church. For what it is worth, I think "Four Or Five Hills Baptist Church" would be a great name for a church.

You go to a lot of movies (you remember going to the movies don't you?)  when you have small kids. There were a lot of great ones when Ben was a kid, my favorite being "Aladdin".  "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" were great. A lot were not.

 I feel sleep in both "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "The Pokemon Movie".

The Power Rangers were just stupid.  Pokemon (or as we in The South called it: "Pokey Man") was just stupid squared.  But it taught boy children a very valuable lesson:  make sure you fill your brain with useless trivia like which "Pokey Man" you can use in a battle versus whoever the heck Pokey Men face (it was a bad guy, but I never cared enough to learn what they were called.) 

Being a parent is a lot of work. It's not hard work, per se, it is just work because you are always doing what you think is best for the kid, but you are never really sure if it is the best until later.

When we were in rec league baseball, we were on a team which had a kid who was really good. His dad was a college baseball player. I was a near sighted twerp that couldn't hit a beach ball thrown at me underhanded. 

One day, at practice, this dad said to me that sometimes he and his son go out to the batting cage he built (with lights!) and have batting practice at 11:30 at night. I felt bad because: A) I couldn't build a batting cage with lights even if given a batting cage kit  and B) I was always asleep at 11:30 at night.

But, both kids grew up and ended up okay, which is the point of rec league sports.

After my parents died, sometimes I would sit around and wonder why they did this or why didn't they do that.  Then I realized they did the best they could with the information they had at the time. That's all you can ask.

A little bit of advice for young parents.  Your kids are growing up and you are aging. The most important thing you can do for your kids has nothing to do with schools, sports, and money. It is to be the best husband to your wife or the best wife to your husband. 

It is the best gift you can give to your children. After all, as my son reminds me, they are the ones that will decide which nursing home to put you in. Yes, he usually tells me this after I make a joke about Four or Five Hills Baptist Church.

 

 

The Planet Of The Trousered Apes

 

"Hold my beer" - Year 2021 to 2020

 

I thought 2021 would be just a little more "saner" than 2020.  Oops, wrong again.

Leave it to Donald Trump to figure out a way to destroy whatever legacy he has.  I can't say what history will say about Donald Trump. As Georgia's recently elected Senator said about an actual dictator who tortured his critics, Trump's presidency is complex and it is filled with nuance.  However, I feel confident in saying that the people in the universities that write the history books won't put Trump up there with Washington and Lincoln.  Mr. Trump, may I introduce you to Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan?

To put it nicely, Trump's behavior has always been boorish, rude, and impolite. He is a builder from Queens, New York. What did we expect?

Since the election, his behavior has been abysmal. 

Basically, Trump didn't understand that this election was a flip side of his election in 2016. While he improved in some segment of voters, he got crushed by suburban women, who turn out do not like boorish, rude, and impolite men.  Suburban women, am I right?

Instead of taking his defeat like a man, he began propagating a tale that he not only won, but that he won by a landslide! 

This enabled a bunch of weird stuff to pop up in social media. For example: Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia was going to be arrested for treason. 

By the time January 6th got here, Trump and some of his MAGA buddies have concocted a theory that Mike Pence could somehow  do some parliamentarian magic and install Trump for a second term. Forgetting, of course, that he couldn't do that even if he wanted to.  You think Richard Nixon or Al Gore would have thought of it first.

Trump holds his rally and sends them to Congress to "protest" the certification of the Electoral College results.  Here's where things get a little cloudy.

Do I think Trump sent them to Congress like they were some Flying Monkeys of the Wicked Witch of Mar-a-Lago to do his bidding?  Or did he think they would circle the Capitol complex and chant "Stop The Steal" and then look at #stopthesteal Twitter thread?

I can't say.

However, I can say this. Trump has a history of things ending badly. Think of some of his properties, brands, marriages, and friendships. Add to this, the GOP, which he acquired through basically a hostile takeover.

I was re-reading some of my blog posts from 2015 and 2016. My opposition to Trump was that he would lead the GOP to defeat and practically destroy it in the process.  I was only off by four years.

I know it was not funny, but I laughed at his taped message to the Flying Monkeys telling them that he loved them.  Could you see FDR say, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. And I love you"?

Trump apparently gave little thought what would happen when he sent people on their way. Just like he didn't think about the other 74 million that voted for him.  Did this empower them?  No, it left them ashamed to associated with such a group of trousered apes.

As I always say, things could have been worse. More people could have been killed. We could have fallen into a Civil War. (One side has tanks, the other side has a man wearing a Viking hat). 

I don't know who thought this was a good idea. It wasn't. We're going to have to deal with it for the next couple of years. Or decades.