Saying Good-bye to a Comfortable Sound!

 

On August 2^nd, around 8pm PDT, the news started to filter through the world that a long time voice, and a sound that was comfortable to listen to, on a warm (or hot) summer evening.

This voice started out in Brooklyn, New York, with a team called the Dodgers, and with names like Pee Wee, and Bragen, and Robinson. DEM BUMS as some would call them moved in the 50’s to Los Angeles, and started his tenure that lasted between Brooklyn to LA, 67 years behind the microphone for not only radio but Television broadcast as well.

The ONE and THE only- Vin Scully, who passed away at the age of 95, and with that, the microphone grew silent once again.

Our lives—if you are a fan of sports, sometimes, can be associated with the sound of a voice, through the magic of radio, that kept us company at night—or when we were younger--- tuning in to listen to the World Series during school (if you could get away with it, or better yet your Teacher was a fan of the game as well)

The voice at the other end was comforting, and like a warm blanket that would wrap itself around you and give you that solace that, everything was alright in the world.

When you think, and reflect, on the voices of your life, what impacted you, what were the sounds that were comforting. It might have been the voices of your parents, or grandparents. It might have been the voices that were that of your friends, or someone close to you!

I had the opportunity to meet Vin Scully when the Dallas All Sports Association honored him in the early 2000’s at a dinner. Listening to him talk about his career, and the greats that he had been associated with, and being at the microphone for monumental moments, such as World Series, Perfect Games, No Hitters, then there were College Games, and Football games, and Golf Tournaments—his voice was marking that of time that we spent watching the those events.

He lent his voice and talent to a movie with Kevin Costner in it, called “For the Love of the Game” which also starred the late Kelly Preston (John Travolta’s wife). A sports movie with a Love Story twist and turn, about an aging pitcher, in the twilight of his career, and staring at the perfect game, and every line uttered by Vin Scully was an absolute gem. Now its not as quoted as those of Bob Eucker in “Major League”, but none the less they are gems, such as “Pushing the Sun back up into the sky” or my favorite, “The Cathedral that is known as Yankee Stadium--- belongs to a Chapel!” In reference to the fictional pitcher, Billy Chapel in the movie.

During his talk at the DASA banquet, he spoke of his broadcasting style, and to this day I have stolen some of this thoughts, one was—” A picture may paint a thousand words, but we use a thousand words to paint a picture” referring to radio broadcasters, and the other was about the game of baseball, that while broadcasting the game its more about the drama you bring to the game through your words, and therefore a baseball game is nothing more than a good story interrupted by a game.”

His was about poetry, and how he could weave the stories into the game, and make them a part of his style and his ability to bring YOU the listener into the game.

He will be remembered for calling Kirk Gibson’s Home Run against the A’s in the World Series, where Gibson was hobbled, and hurting and took a swing and sent it to the right field bleachers—the Fist Pump of Gibson rounding second, and the sounds of Vin Scully just ever so slightly come across to emphasize the moment.

He was the master of being subtle, let the crowd tell the story best, and you just absorb, as a listener or a viewer, to the event.

He was the same when Sandy Kofax threw a perfect game, or when the Dodger or any other team won the World Series, Scully knew to let the moment have its own, and let the fans enjoy what was transpiring.

Eighteen NO Hitters 3 Perfect Games- Three World Series, and countless Game of the Weeks broadcast, along with being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Ford Frick award winner, and other accomplishments.

What will be missed the most, well since he fully retired in 2016 from the booth, and his age of over 90 years of age, when you think about it, most of what he had done in broadcasting is still archived, and we can still go back and listen to it over and over again. So in reality, Vin Scully, much like, Mel Allen, or Red Barber, or Jack Buck—Harry Carry, John Facenda, Pat Summerall, Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and the list goes on of those voices that shaped our lives and brought to life the games that we watched or listen to. (Didn’t wish to leave out Keith Jackson).

Its “So Long for now”, and until we meet again—from that great Press Box in the sky—Vin Scully you have been and always be a part of our time line of our lives.

Just a thought.

 

AT THE BREAK!

 

The 2022 Major League All Star Break is upon us, the Mid Summer Classic as some once called it, and for what it is worth, it’s the time of year that Major League Baseball usually celebrates the STARS of the game.

Well with that being said—in recent years, not so much. I mean this is when MLB gets to bring out NEW uniforms so they can sell them and make some extra schekel out of the public, because Lord knows, how the average fan will go out of their way to purchase a jersey that doesn’t even look the ones that they wear on an every day basis at the ball park.

They are off white for the home team (National League) or Charcoal Gray for the Visitors (American League)—and GOLD writing across their breast. SO now this is not what your teams colors are at all, and we take away that look when they do this. Its NOT TRADITIONAL!

Alright so that being said, locally the Texas Rangers finished up their 10 game homestand, and in doing so, they lost to the Seattle Mariners by a final of 6-2, with leaving 10 men on the bases for the game and if that’s not bad enough they left the bases loaded in the 4^th inning—and that just blew up in their faces.

Not sure what the Rangers are looking to do in the 2022 MLB Draft- it will be up to the front office to pick the right players and are they going to be Impact players at that.

IMPACT! There’s a word that for the last several years, if you’re a Ranger fan, have not been anything! Truly—they can explain some of this away, but YOU, the average fan, not since the Ryan Era of owning this team, has this Ranger franchise done anything to increase their on the field value.

Even when Jeff Bannister was the Manager of this team, and yes they took TWO Western Division titles in his tenure, but never getting out of the first round of the playoffs. Again go back to the Ryan era, they had something there—there was a little bit of heat going on, when we say HEAT, we mean that they were a hot Team!

Yes Jon Daniels was the GM in those days too, but lets face it, if you sit at the knee of a man who has the MOST strike outs in the History of MLB, and the most NO-Hitters (7) and over 300 career wins, I would listen too!

Remember in his time as the owner of the Rangers—they won not one but TWO American League Pennants, and appeared in TWO World Series, then on top of that, they were one strike away—one OUT away from taking the Commissioner’s trophy home to North Texas!

But alas, that was not the case—as the old Poem goes—“The Might Casey had struck out” and the clock struck 12 on the Cinderella team for Arlington.

Here we are 11 years after that, we lost that manager – Ron Washington, hired Jeff Bannister, was here a few years, again 2 Western Divisions under his belt but nothing else to show for it, anow we have a young man who was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, including a World Series run, and he is managing this ball club, and from the seats that we are in, there is a lot of questions that have to be answered, before we can go forward.

Question one! Is this the RIGHT person for the team as a leader, they explained that “He can relate to the players” because he is young—and that he understands their mindset, and so on, or “Woody is capable of working with the young players and get the most oof them”, is that really the case? Truly, is a manager that relates to players because of their age that important, or is it more important to have a manager who will work your tail off and make you better because HE knows how to make you better, not because he understands what TIC-TOC is, or Twitter, or whatever challenge or trend there is on the internet.

Truthfully, the ball club needs an infusion of arms and youth, that know the game of baseball from the fundamentals, running, catching, throwing, and hitting. Pitching is so scientific now, it didn’t use to be, it used to be throw the ball until your arm fell off, I mean look at the old guys when there weren’t that many teams, and NON on the west coast in the 1800’s through the 1950’s. The furthest west club in those days was the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now you have the Rockies, the Royals the Astros, the Rangers, and all the California teams and the State of Washington.

Can’t expect a starting pitcher to go pass 120 pitches in a game, and most of that is through the first 6 to 8 innings depending on their arms.

NOT many pitchers will give complete games, and not many of them will throw over the 120 mark (some will, but most won’t!)

So here are—MLB Draft 2022, and once again we will await who will draft what and see if any of these players will make in impact. For the record, the Rangers are at the break with a record of 41-49 8 games under .500, and dog paddling in 3^rd place in the American league West division, with the Astros leading with a pretty good head of steam.

Its time for the Rangers and the front office to do something right or wrong—DO SOMETHING!

Just a thought

Hit one for the Home Team

 

Corey Seager, the Ranger representative in the All Star Home Run Derby—even after someone asked WHY was he selected to the All Star Game, truth be told, its because he earned his place.

Why would anyone ask that, or question it, this is a ball player that shows up to the park and give 100% every game—solid with the glove, and as shown a pretty good bat at that.

The Rangers as a whole? Well that’s a different beast by a different color. They are not showing anything when it comes to pitching. In fact that had to make a start against the division rival Seattle Mariners, by committee. If you are not certain of that phrase, it means that its going to be a Bull Pen night, where your starter goes ONE inning, and then the rest is picked up by relievers. In the case of this particular evening, they brought back Taylor Hearn the young man from Royce City, Texas, and was recalled from Triple A Round Rock earlier in the week.

His outing was pretty good aside from the runs that were give up—including an error by the outfield, but SEVEN STRIKE OUTS, to go with the  5 hits he allowed—and the four runs he gave up. Two of those runs were UN-EARNED.

So there is a message being sent clearly to the man in the carpeted office, and hopefully—the Rangers will indeed get him some Run Support in the interim.

Though sitting here, just thinking out loud, about how baseball has changed and is changing, some for the better, some not so much.

For instance, this “ghost” runner at 2^nd base to start extra innings, is just plain simple, ridiculous! Simply put—JUST PLAY THE GAME as it was meant to be played. Extra innings is just the by product of the rules of the game. The other thing that they wish to implement is the ROBO UMPIRE! That’s right, they want a “machine” to call balls and strikes, and take it out of the human factor. There’s already instant replay to help overturn or confirm calls in the field, and that takes time and away (once again) from the game that they are trying to speed up.

The other thing I wish that they would outlaw—and this really has nothing to do with the game, this is more of fan participation, but for goodness sakes, PLEASE STOP THE WAVE! Oh dear heaven—there has to be something more productive that fans can do, other than just stand up and cheer when that thing hits your section in the stadium. I mean Football was one thing back in the 80s (thank you Seattle Seahawks at the KINGDOME) where that started.  Talk about annoying, and not just to the players, but the fans at home watching on TV. It just makes for bad viewing. OH I know, its something to do during the game for the fans have an interaction, but truthfully, you can become interactive if you were to watch the game, get your faces out of your phones, and maybe—by a score card and score the game.

I’m just saying, its another way to become involved in the game. And something else, why is it that the Stadium has to throw up on the scoreboard a CUE CARD for you the fan to read—to know when to Cheer or scream! WHY? I mean as a fan you should know when there is TWO strikes on the batter—and your pitcher is throwing BB’s—to stand up and cheer him on! YOU should not have to be reminded to do so! OH wait that means you would have to pay attention during the game—

Refreshing to hear the fans on a particular night, cheer without the help of the scoreboard—they were clapping and cheering and with the bases full of the opposing team and no outs in the inning—the reliever came on and struck out the first two batters he faced—and even went full count on one batter only to strike him out on a high fast ball looking! However—with the bases still full,  one batter took that relievers fast ball deep to center field for a grand slam—and for all the cheering and paying attention for 1/3 of an inning—it all came to naught.

So the top of the 9^th we headed—and that reliever is still on the hill, and will try and close this portion of the inning out without anymore damage—and see if his teammates can bring it back being down by five!

Just a thought

For What It’s Worth!

 

MY two cents worth—the Texas Rangers at the half way point in the season, with the All Star Game coming up in a few weeks, in Los Angeles, the main Ranger that is going to be representing this team is starting pitcher Martin Perez, who, with no doubt, deserves, it, had a tremendous month of May—June was pretty good, and mid July still looks like he is continue to be strong.

 HOWEVER! That brings us to the rest of the staff, and the team.

Lets take a look, shall we? Dane Dunning, has had maybe ONE or TWO quality starts, and is a 1-6 on the season, with 17 starts, and an ERA of 4.15. Now if I am Chris Woodward, (manager of the Rangers) I would say that Dunning is a sacrificial lamb, and that he’s on the mound to manage minimal damage. Not an overpowering pitcher, only recording 2 strike outs but gave up four walks—THREE in one inning to load the bases—and then added salt to the injury—hit a batter to drive in a run. YES, not a great outing.

Bullpen comes in and tries to keep the damage to a minimum, but Brock Burke enters the game and gives a solo shot to the number 9 hitter batting .209 with six homers coming into the game now has 7 on the season—lets add more misery to the situation in a game that the Rangers should, most likely have had to win, when an error on the Matt Bush who came on in relief threw the ball into the first base dugout area, and that sent the runner he had put on with a walk to third—the next batter up hits a single and that drives in the sixth run of the ball game for the Twins.

 Rangers do get a run back in the bottom of the 8^th with a solo shot to left field by Corey Seager—and that brings to with in one—and the Rangers are scrappy—they fight til the bitter end, but that’s just it they will get close the break your heart at the end.

 Bright spot for this Rangers team is the offense—the bats are there, though they lose Mitch Garver for the rest of the season due to elbow surgery that might be taking place as early as this week (July 11^th 2022), and from there who do the Rangers call up to replace him—if its Sam Huff, they will not have any more options for him if they were to send him back down, but since this is a season ending injury—there’s a possibility that he would stay up with the Big Team, and not have to worry—though the Rangers have a pretty good back up to Heim at Catcher, with #60 Miebrys Viloria, who took two runners down at second base, and beat them both by a pretty good mile. NO way that it was going to be contested that they were out.

 So the Rangers will get ready for the Swingin A’s as they come to Arlington, and take on the Good Guys, for a three game set, then Seattle after that—division rivals, and a chance to move up in the standings, they are in 3^rd place behind Houston and Seattle—15.5 games out of first place—and only 3.5 behind Seattle for 2^nd.

From this vantage point, the Rangers MIGHT be dealing before the trade deadline—however the ONLY player(s) that might be on the block for trade could be Seager (doubt anyone wants to eat that contract), Semien (again contract woes), MAYBE Heim, but that would have to be packaged with something else, prospects or draft picks, and we know that Perez has stated that he wants to STAY right here in Arlington, and work with the young staff and help them mature.

 The Garage sale sign is up, lets see if there are any takers and what sort of deals Chris Young (GM) and Jon Daniels (Pres) will make with other teams in MLB.

 Just a thought

Mental Health

May is the time for Mental Health awareness—and in some cases—to check on those who we know might be in danger of going down the rabbit hole, not able to get out and return to themselves.

 

I am one of those who suffers from this horrible mental ailment. Sixteen years ago—I was committed to a hospital to be evaluated—from there, I was analyzed, and poked and prodded with questions and had to answer them, to the point that they declared me a RECOVERING ALCOHOL!             ME???? REALLY???? In order to be recovering, you have to be ONE! And I am not. The doctor tried to inform me that “there are plenty of ways of hiding that problem” and denying it is one way! Of course I knew what they meant in the term ‘Hiding” it. Like drinking your orange juice with Vodka, or others types of fruit juices…. Well let me squelch that—I might be of Russian Decent on my mother’s side—however I can’t stand the smell nor the taste of Vodka—sorry folks, taste like Rubbing Alcohol to me, SO NO! I am not a recovering alcoholic!

 

That has irritating me since August of 2006- now move sixteen years after, and I am dealing with this crap—Part of it is Work—yes I work for State Farm, and have been for 2 and half years.  The pressure of that job is not all that—but over a period of time it can be—meaning you are constantly being rated by not just the Clients but also the AGENTS (the brick and mortar agents) The other part that has caused this is the personal side—the not being confidant enough to think I can do this job—it beats you up, and you bring that inside your home, and then question yourself with your home life—are you doing the best you can for them—are the choices that you make the right kind—or are they causing more issues than you would like.

It’s a horrible feeling, its makes you think the absolute UNTHINKABE, stepping off of this earth. Doing it YOUR way—and not waiting for something else—natural causes or accident or whatever. Death is final, there is no return, there is nothing coming back from the dead.

I can tell you from where I stand, the thought has been there, but the action, well 16 years ago, its what took me inside the asylum! All sorts of drugs to control me, my sleep, my thoughts, it was horrible. I NEVER wish to do that again, but here I am once again, going through this ordeal and they (Doctors, Therapist, Family) have said it might be the best thing for me.

 

I have used this platform for others to seek help, and to get better, my own ordeal though is one OXYMORON after another. Lets face it—I wanted to step off this earth in 2006, and in 2007 I saved MYSELF by going to the ER with a full blown heart attack! Then again in 2017 I am the one that called 911 to come again and save me with a massive heart attack. I have saved myself from death, and if I wanted to really step off, I would have just allowed it.

There are those who say that I just want attention- that this is all dramatic on my part, and that its just an act! Hmmm—I am the one dealing with it—and I don’t see anything dramatic about it! I see darkness, I see despair, and I feel empty—I don’t like the reflection I see in the mirror—I don’t like how I feel, and I am doing everything in my power to be better. But there are obstacles, and there are those who keep throwing up road blocks for my recovery.

 

I like my job, I like those who I work with, I consider them friends, but when I go down with this type of crap, all I can think of is how I shoot myself in the foot, and how I lose myself in this crap. I am not wanting to lose this job because of this crap. I would like to return but maybe in a less capacity, part time maybe, and go semi retired through Social Security.

 

My life is important to those around me, not just my wife Amanda, and her children and now granddaughter, but of course my family of my sister and her husband and their son--- my G-dDaughter and her family (the man I call my big brother) and of course the friends who consider me a part of their lives. Though I never saw that side of myself as the mentor, the teacher, the one who they consider getting them to where they needed to be. Its funny I can do all of that for others, but for myself, I have the self doubt—the low self esteem at times,. The river of tears need to stop and I need to get back to who and what I am. I miss David… Dave is great at making people laugh and entertained (Trust me I know) but I need to be David for my family, and for those who depend on me for things.

 

For what its worth, if someone struggles with Depression, or sleep deprivation, or any other type of mental illness, PDST, (which I also have) help THEM, get them help! And most of all, be patient with them—this is not like the flu or an operation that gets well in a few days or weeks, this is a delipidating illness—it will take you or them a while to get back to where they need to be.

 

Thank you for allowing me to open up and to explain, and to ask for your patience until I can get back to David!

 

Just a thought