Senator No

This was an opportunity.

A chance.

A chance to declare to the world.

Reporting for duty.

A Mountaineer coal baron responds.

Nope. 

Addendum July 2022 - from the New Yorker

On the occasion of the 3rd failure of the US Congress to act on Climate Change 

"Most of the bad decisions that politicians make are forgotten in the fullness of time—there have been Manchins before, and there will be Manchins again. But this Manchin, in 2022, will never be forgotten, not as long as humans are grappling with the most fundamental challenge we’ve ever faced."  

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart

                                           Howard Thurman

Reality Bites

The body of a 25 year old lives in my mind. I know that is delusional but I think it is a belief held by a majority of American males of a certain age. It gets me in trouble occasionally; on a 35 mile bike ride or trying to stand up after kneeling on a cold garage floor. 

Daily, I experience poignant moments that belie my illusions and are likely wake up calls from the Almighty.  

Reality bites. A proper english sentence, subject & verb.

When I walk up to an intersection and the light turns to "Don't Walk" and there are 18 seconds on the clock, I get the urge to jog. As I near the opposite curb, I wonder if my knees will fail me.  Not 25

Each day I read aloud the name of each deceased in the Star Tribune obituary section. I know, it's weird. But why do families post obits? Because they loved and they want the world to acknowledge their loved one's existence. So I dedicate a second of my time in their honor. When I encounter someone of my own age, I read it. Not 25. Besides, some of the world's greatest fiction is published in the obit columns.

I turn my entire upper torso to look left or right. The reason being is my range of motion in my neck is about 30°.  Arthritis. It can make negotiating intersections or checking the rear-view-mirror somewhat painful. And all this twisting is hard on my back. Not 25.

Speaking of my back, we got 16" of snow the other day and after the plow went by the banks at the bottom of the drive were 3' high, which I dug out. Happily, my neighbor with a mega-snow blower came to my rescue. Not 25.

I like to watch Jeopardy. It's quick recall challenge. I used to be better at it. I have convinced myself that's because the categories are more contemporary and pop-culture oriented. I draw a blank at those clues. Not 25. Try me on baseball or the Civil War and I rock.

Speaking of pop culture, the local paper has a daily feature of highlighting 6 famous birthdays . I'm happy if I recognize half the names and I'm frequently skunked.  Not 25.

I occasionally play catch (baseball) with the neighbor boy. He's 10.  My comfortable 90' throws are a distant memory. 20' is about my limit and break out the Bengay.  When I get invited to throw out the first pitch at a Twins game, I fear I will produce an embarrassing YouTube video. Not 25.

Aches and Pains. Carpometacarpal (CMC) Joint. Periformis Syndrome. Plantar Fasciitis. And long bike rides invariably lead to wicked evening leg cramps. My wife giggles behind my back at my writhing agony, unable to stand, punishment for sins of omission. Not 25.

My music tastes tend toward Peter, Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and college choirs. You get the picture. Not 25.

I've never been good at names but when it takes several seconds to come up with your neighbor's last name, the fear of old-timers disease creeps. Considered that ginkgo supplement, but chose to stick with caffeine as my brain altering drug of choice. I can recite the entire Twins lineup from 1965, but can't recall the name of this year's manager. Not 25.

I like to go over to the park and shoot baskets for the exercise and fun. My vertical is now about 2".  And usually, when I release my devastating jump shot, my toes are touching the court surface.  Not 25.

I start thinking about supper at 4:30 and start yawning at 9:00.  Not 25.

We have grandkids in college. Do the math. Not 25.

And then, of course, there is the mirror on the wall. Not 25.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

The Greatest Generation's Kids

The Greatest Generation endured the Great Depression, fought WWII to save Democracy from Fascism and built the greatest economic power the world has ever seen. They also spawned the baby boom.

I, as part of the "Baby Boomer" generation (1946-1964) the offspring of the Greatest Generation, belong to the Greatest Disappointment generation - or perhaps the Great Failure generation. We began with the youthful optimism & idealism of JFK's Best & Brightest and the promise to bring forth a better world. It went badly off the rails.

We are the "bulge inside the python", the luckiest in history living in almost continuous prosperity, catered to at every stage of our lives. That should imbue a responsibility to pay it forward, be good stewards of our environment, show empathy for those less well off and work to ensure the health and well-being of future generations.

Instead, we pull up the ladder behind us; play the "he who dies with the most toys wins" game; convincing ourselves we are the poor me victim while drawing social security and medicare coverage; opposing universal health care and a social safety net because people "might become dependent" on it. (Look up "sanctimonious"). The sad fact is, ".. them's whats gots, keeps". And endlessly pursues more. We are the "I am the Greatest" posers. But, Millennials, hang on, Boomers over 70 are are sitting on $35 trillion.

Baby Boomers occupy 68/100 Senate seats, 230/435 House seats.  Here's my recommendation:  vote 'em out. 

Of course, I generalize. None of this universally applies. But nevertheless - Gen Xer's, Millennials, Gen Z ... my apologies. 

Perhaps there is still time for restitution.  We took to the streets once .. perhaps once again beating sticks against our walkers.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

Gophers for Mickey

News of the election of Minnesota Twins' greats, Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat to Baseball's Hall of Fame tickled me. About time. Both were part of my treasured baseball card collection. When I was around 12 years old, I received a 25¢ /week allowance. to which I added a buck or two mowing Heggestad's & my grandfather’s lawn. (I didn’t get any extra for mowing our own). Some of my wealth had to go to the Sunday School offering but with the exception of an occasional nickel ice cream cone or a Sugar Daddy from the Dahl House, the rest went to baseball cards.  

Ray & Eva Vrooman

I almost always bought my cards at Vrooman’s Grocery.I believed their supply was fresher and less picked over than Hank’s or the Dahl House, so I only tapped those occasionally to test my theory.  And at Vrooman's, the box of cards was on the counter so you could pick out each package and use perspicacity to pick a winner.   Penny-a-piece for a card and stick of bubble gum. I don’t think McIver’s carried cards. 

Around this time, Topps switched from the single, penny-a-piece cards, each with a chunk of bubble gum, to a nickel 5-pack with just a single slab of gum. A rip-off and a kill-joy. Five pieces of bubble gum at a time worked great to create an imitation of Nellie Fox's chewing tobacco cheek. With the 5-pack you were stuck with the pre-packaged five, invariably 4 utility players & 1 recognizable player. You were left hoping for Rocky Colavito and Roy Campanella and opening Rocky Bridges and Roy McMillan.  Of course, part of the fun of collecting was trading, but no one would give up an all-star unless they had 2.

So my income was just not sufficient to cover the outlay necessary to buy the volume needed to acquire a Mantle or a Mays or a Snider.  

So I let Big Time talk me into a scheme to legally improve my financial well-being. It involved gophers. Not the University football team, rather the 4 legged variety. There were 2 targets: striped gophers and pocket gophers. The bounty on striped gophers was only a dime so it was hardly worth the effort. Pocket gophers on the other hand brought a quarter - a whole week’s allowance. Furthermore, Big Time had wrangled a deal with a farmer south of town to pay another quarter, so 50¢ per head, actually per feet. The county agent didn’t want to deal in gopher carcasses but needed proof, so a quarter was paid for gopher feet. My mother frowned on storing this evidence in the fridge until Saturday night when the county agent would appear in Lowry.

There were startup costs of course,  a gopher trap went for something like 75¢ at Hoplin Nelson hardware and I got no family discount on this purchase.

Big Time taught me the trapping ropes. Pocket gophers form mounds of dirt in farmers’ fields making them a big enough nuisance to warrant the 25¢ outlay. To set the trap you needed to find the tunnel entry along the edge of the mound. We had a steel poker to probe for it. Once found, you had to dig out the area around the tunnel opening and set the trap and anchor the chain and cover the trap over using a piece of wood to keep dirt from clogging the trap.

(I failed to note that Big Time would get me up at 6 AM to bike out to Melvin’s to check traps)

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, you are right. And to this day, I don’t know how I got talked into it. I was altogether too lazy for this to succeed. So I gave my traps to Big Time and I decided that washing my (generous) great uncle’s black Buick once a week was a far better economic arrangement and eventually I got my Mickey Mantle. Unfortunately, when I went off to Augsburg, my mother "disposed" of my card collection. Woe is I.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

Bob Casey's Dream Team

 

Bob Casey was the Twins Public Address Announcer for 55 years, from the beginnings of the franchise in 1961 until his death in 2005. If you are a longtime Twins fan you probably have Casey's "Now batting, #34 Kirrrrrby Puckett" well etched in your memory. 

In honor of Bob and to combat the baseball winter lockout doldrums I offer you a Twins all-star team,  a "greatest name" lineup that would tickle Bob Casey’s tonsils.  This is my take on the most announcer pleasing names in Twins history. Note: nothing official here, just my musings. 

Imagine Bob Casey’s “Now batting ..” call in your head as you read these names.

First Team 

C     A.J. Pierzynski 

1st   Doug Mientkiewicz

2nd  Tim Teufel

SS   Zoilo Versalles

3rd  Trevor Plouffe

LF   Bombo Rivera

CF   Kirby Puckett

RF   Michael Cuddyer

SP   Camilo Pascual

RP   Eddie Guardado

Second Team

C     Butch Wynegar

1st   Harmon Killebrew

2nd  Steve Lombardozzi

SS   Christian Guzman

3rd  Mike Pagliarulo

LF   Cesar Tovar

CF   Torii Hunter

RF   Tony Oliva

SP   Mudcat Grant

RP   Rick Aguilara

Honorable Mention

Mike Cubbage, Tom Brunansky, Sal Butera, Dan Gladden, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Bert Blyleven

Can you come up with a better lineup?

                        

 Bonus question. Did Tim Teufel ever face Jim Gott?  If so, what was the outcome?

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

Strangelish

I am a word nerd, a fanboy of William Safire who made a living writing words about words. With his "On Language" column for NYT and books such as The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time, No Uncertain Terms and Take My Word For It, he set the standard for erudition.  What a great gig.  (William Safire died in 2009).

According the the OED, English has 171,476 words in current use + another 47,156 that are classified as obsolete. Including obsolete, Olde English, multiple forms of words ... you get over a million. You probably know 20,000 - 40,000. 

English's longest word is a medical diagnosis - of course. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (look it up. It's on page 625-629 in your dictionary)

There's a 2-way tie for shortest word.

These are a few of my favorite words.

Dohicky - as I age seems I am always finding one of these

Fika - slow down and appreciate. (Visit the Fika Cafe in the American Swedish Institute)

Quixotic - exceedingly idealistic, a la Don Quixote

Unleave - what happens to trees in the fall or a creative way to say 'return'
Lede - and you always thought it was lead.

Copasetic - my father's favorite word. How are you?  Copasetic.

Invaluable - as in accurate/inaccurate.  You are 'invaluable' may not mean what you think.

Procrastination - become good at this and you need be good at nothing else

Dicker - derived from the Latin decum.  Bargaining for a lot of 10 items.

Gerrymander - from Elbridge Gerry's electoral maps 1800.  Curses upon him.

Bailiwick - everyone should have one

Bedlam -  see also: a London prison

Fudge - a fine example of a double meaning word

Canard -  no not the shipping line

Miscreant -  an excellent behavioral condemnation word (see also: scofflaw)

Nabob - made infamous by Spiro Agnew's "... nattering nabobs of negativism".

Malaprop - see 'foot in mouth'

Diphthong - sounds like an insult, but no ..

Schadenfreude - a character flaw in the most of us

Onomatopeia  / Catamaran  / Rigamarole - fun to say

Serendipity - see also: Eureka 

Language of course is the combination of words. 

And so we move on to phrases.

Fat Chance - see also: Slim Chance.

Sticky Wicket  - see also: Wicked Googly

Ill at ease

The Sounds of Silence

Aim to please

On the fritz - see also: Gone haywire

Skate to the puck

...

Which leads to poetry.

"She walks in beauty like the night ..."  Byron

"One equal temper of heroic hearts ..."  Tennyson

"The Lord to me a shepherd is ..."  Psalm

"Lord, thank you for the goddamned birds singing ..."  Lux

"A people sometimes will step back from war: elect an honest man; decide they care ..." Pugh 

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone ..." Wilcox

"When your father dies, say the Irish, you lose your umbrella against bad weather ..." 

Der-Hovanessian

Which leads to the ultimate: novels.  Here's my 2021 favs list.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

 

The Quirky Cup

The Quirky Cup

Every Thanksgiving, Patrick Reusse, sports columnist for the Star Tribune, would offer up his "Turkey of the Year" award, given to the year's most egregious sports fail, usually a Minnesotan. This award went defunct in 2017 but made a brief reappearance in 2020 . 

To fill the gap I am instituting a coveted new award, The Quirky Cup, to be awarded to that person who has exhibited the most consistent quirky behavior, one prone to behaving in strange, sometimes comical but mostly harmless ways. We have more than enough celebrity awards, it's time to honor the common man.

The inaugural 2021 award will go back in time to my childhood memories and tap the robust history of quirky folk from my little home town of Lowry.

The Candidates.

The Lowry School  served grades 1-8. In the 50's, Lloyd was the principal and 7th-8th grade teacher. Every teacher had 2 grades, a staff of 4.  (That's my Lowry School math education at work.)  Lloyd had pets that he brought with him to school. Every noon, he would drive around town in his '52 Dodge with one of the pets at the steering wheel.  Quirky. He was also a target for the 8th grade yahoo boys. They apparently thought it was funny to plug the Dodge's tailpipe with a potato.  Lloyd drove it home that way, sputtering down Hedlin's Hill. Quirked.

Boo had an old Studebaker with "suicide doors", rear doors that swung opposite of a normal 4-door. He'd give kids rides. In one frightening case, taking a corner at reckless speed, the rear door popped and Johnny went rolling out into a ditch. Yikes. Boo on another instance put a railroad spike on the tracks and nearly derailed a train.Yikes. Soo Line didn't think so and sent a detective to Lowry to investigate. He also played chicken with a school bus, driving at it on the wrong side of the road. Yikes. A bit beyond Quirky.

Arnold was a world-class ditch digger. My father relied on him when the village installed city sewer and water lines to all homes within the village limits. He was also a accomplished grave digger. Perfect vertical 6' deep rectangles to receive the casket. I never heard Arnold speak - but I did hear him laugh. He liked to prank. My father was stranded on the canopy of the hardware store when the ladder somehow disappeared with Arnold walking away chuckling. Arnold would also spend hours rocking back and forth from back foot to front standing by McIver's store.  Quirky.

There was a window well about 5' deep on the south side of the bank, covered by a metal grate. Howard would drop coins through the grate on random summer days and watch laughing from across the street while kids tried to retrieve the nickels. Quirky. Big Time was the king of coin harvesting as he had a long stick handy and chewed baseball card bubble gum. A model Boy Scout. 

Doc Wright managed the Lowry town team in the mid-50's. Tubba was the batboy. They made a trip to a Benson sporting goods store to buy some bats. On the way back to Lowry, Tubba told the Doc that black bats were bad luck. He immediately turned back to Benson and swapped the black bat for a standard Louisville Slugger.  Quirky.

Before the separate cafeteria building was built, the school lunch room was in the basement. Along the ceiling above the steps leading down to the lunch room were exposed steam pipes. The temptation to tear down the steps and leap to swing on the pipe was overwhelming to some. Kenny jumped and missed, landing on his back to some ill-effect. No more pipe swinging.  Quirked.

The school bell tower room doubled as the nurses office, although there was no nurse. During a time of a flu epidemic, Big Time told the teacher he felt sick and was sent to the "Nurses Office" and told to take his temp. He held the thermometer against a steam pipe - 103°F.  “You get right home and don't come back until you have a normal temp”. Creative truancy.

There are a number of Spook stories that are NSFW - or anywhere else for that matter. Extreme quirky.

Gary would walk all over town on stilts made from 16’ 2x4's. He stood 8-10' off the ground.  How he got on/off those things is a mystery. And how he avoided breaking his neck is another. Quirky.

Courtesy of Davey. On Halloween, Bennie & I would cover the town twice. I had a Sylvester the cat costume. After the first round, we would change costumes. At Loftingmoes, Mrs Loftingmoe said: "You've been here before. You're that little fat kid that's was here before." Ha. That ended it. 

Hank operated a small grocery store in the former Farmer's & Mechanics Bank that had failed during the Great Depression. He lived there and slept in the vault. He also stashed cash in cereal boxes. Quirky.

Lee the Barber somehow managed to procure the Lowry bank president's chair for his waiting area, the bank president who committed suicide in that chair, the chair with the bullet hole. Freaky Quirky.

There was a local braggart named Mitchell, just discharged from the Great War, who claimed he was the best shot in the county. Dave set up a contest with targets against some hay bales. Unbeknownst, Dave had positioned a few sticks of dynamite behind the bulls-eye. 

Hank Applequist was a traveling salesman and every time he arrived in Lowry he invariable made a beeline to the basement to use the hardware’s toilet facilities. On one occasion he discovered the toilet covered with what turned out to be peanut butter. Dave, the mischievous prankster.

I’m sure you noticed that all these candidates are men or boys. That is a pity, but it is just a testimony to the limited knowledge of feminine wonkiness of the nominating committee. Submit your nominees for the 2022 award - of either sex. You do not have to limit yourself to Lowry. Feel free to range as far as Farwell, Starbuck or New Prairie. Contribute in the comments section!

And the 2021 Award goes to ... drum roll ...

Runner-up:  Hank the Grocer

Winner: Lee the Barber.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

There is no Planet B - Postscript

The Glasgow COP26 Climate Summit is over.  Unfortunately, it met my expectations.  Expecting politicians to gather and come up with the dramatic action the warming world requires appears to be a delusion. 

The one-word change in a declaration on coal usage tells you all you need to know. "The conference ended on a sour note when delegates from China and India proposed a last-minute change to crucial text around moving away from coal, saying they would agree only to “phase-down unabated coal,” rather than “phase out.”

Some sorry outcomes.

• Climate experts state that the COP26 actions will shave 0.1°C off.  “The 1.5C goal was already on life support before Glasgow and now it’s about time to declare it dead,” Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheim . “There is no plausible way to limit warming to 1.5 or even 2 [degrees] if coal is not phased out ... and as rapidly as possible, along with oil and gas,” Jon Sterman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

•  The United Nations calculated that to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, countries need to cut their emissions in half by 2030. Emissions are now going up, not down, by about 14% since 2010,  United Nations climate chief Patricia Espinosa said. 

• The final agreement at COP26 did recognize the scientific reality that putting the brakes on climate change will require nations to speed efforts to cut emissions soon, rather than merely commit to far off “net zero” targets.

So the world was asking these questions of the Glasgow conference: 

1. Can nations muster the political will to deliver on the soaring rhetoric that marked the summit’s start? 
2.  Can COP26 mark the start of a “decisive” decade to turn the tide on global warming? 
3. Can the lurching progress of these annual conferences keep pace with the problem they were designed to solve?  

Grade: F or D- if you're feeling generous.

And here's a couple further depressing items end to this post. 

• Shortly upon the close of COP26, the US Government is proceeding with the largest offshore oil & gas leasing in history.
• White House negotiators and a group of senators struck a deal on a bipartisan infrastructure agreement on Thursday that slashes measures to combat climate change

We must demand more from our leaders. We are betraying our grandchildren.

Further reading:  There Is No Planet B 

Addenda: December 2021. The Build Back Better bill, containing ~$500B towards climate initiatives is dead, with a single senator blocking its passage. American leadership in the climate crisis is non-existent.   

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics

Mark Twain, or perhaps Benjamin Disraeli, is credited with the proclamation:  "Lies, damned lies and statistics" which cleverly warns of the dangers of misinformation.  Sounds more like Twain to me. Of course, we're all aware that 79% of all statistics are false. [I jest, I hope you realize.]

Were Twain alive today, I am sure he would have something insightful to offer on "gaslighting", which is putting forth false narratives to deceive and make people doubt their own perceptions, a bright light on a topic intended to blind. It's an epidemic in our country. It's so common you likely don't realize it is operating on you.

Big tobacco wrote the book on truth denial and propaganda to block efforts to expose the hazards of smoking.  Deny, deny, deny.  Find (and pay) scientists to testify that smoking is not a health hazard.  e.g. "Cigarettes may cause lung cancer, heart disease and other health problems, but the evidence is not conclusive."  Over time big tobacco gradually confessed there might be a case for smoking causing cancer but new “low tar” products and then vaping, mitigate the hazards.  It’s a pattern that other industries have copied over and over, depending on the power of a repeated lie until it becomes truth in peoples' minds. 

And so, from climate change deniers we get, "Scientists of course are in disagreement about whether this is happening and whether humans have a role.”

The old style gas lighters wanted to establish a level of doubt in your mind. But the new-form gaslighting wants you to believe fantastical conspiracies - and demonizes anyone who dares call them out as false. So anti-vaxers - politicians and radio talk hosts in particular - claim that the pandemic is fake, or Bill Gates is putting nanobots in each dose, or that the jab is the Biblical “mark of the beast”.  And this malarkey get accepted by millions of people. It beggars belief.

Social media makes these disinformation efforts even easier and more troubling, as we the people propagate false statements, intentionally or ignorantly, through our comments, likes and shares. A recent 60 Minutes segment interviewed a Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen, who revealed internal documents showing that Facebook's algorithms encouraged hateful and angry interchanges.  Hate attracts more engagement and hence more ad revenue than the professed defense of family values stance. Facebook's motto is "Move fast and break things".  Comforting business model, eh?

In response to the whistleblower claims, Zuckerberg in his best Spock impersonation stated:“the argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical.” Except that it's not. If the goal is to maximize Facebook's profit, accomplished by increased engagement by more people, making people angry is deeply logical.  Hate is stronger than love as Steve Bannon famously advised. Hate and anger equals more posts, more outrageous comments, more likes, more shares, more ad money.

Americans used to hold to the "common good". But these days, the common good is pretty uncommon, relegated to the dusty confines of philosophy classes.  A good read on the subject - the Constitution - has a great outline for achieving the common good.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Importantly, the first 3 words of our Constitution’s Preamble are "We the People". Not we the government, not we the states, not we the political parties, not we the Facebook. We the people. We are responsible for assuring the rights of all are respected, regardless of race, color or creed, and that truth wins out. Our nation needs to remember how it felt to work toward a common - meaning for everyone - good.  We need to stop shouting, start thinking and look for common ground, common good.

We could start by adopting a commitment to truth and a touch of civility.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin 

World Series Blues

I have been a baseball fan since I was 6 years old.  I remember when the baseball playoff was called The World Series, featuring the pennant winner from the American & National Leagues - win it all or go home. I remember Don Larsen's perfect game. I remember Bill Mazeroski's walk-off 7th game home run. I know I have written about baseball in this blog more than most readers can handle. Apologies to the non-baseball fan. I don't understand you, but there you go. I love October baseball and it has been rare that I have missed watching a World Series game. Even this year with the cheating Astros and the chop & chant Braves I am tuned in. (I cannot tolerate that chant  - I watch with the TV on mute. I'm a better color commentator than Darling or Smoltz anyway) 

But ... I fear Major League Baseball is committing suicide. Game one, a nine inning 6-2 victory for the Braves took 4 hours 6 minutes to complete. Who can tolerate that? Not even me. I can remember double-headers that took less time than that. Atlanta used 5 pitchers, Houston 6. No pitcher worked more than 2 1/3 innings. This is today's game and I hate it. When did starting pitching become irrelevant?

In 1957, Milwaukee starting pitcher Lew Burdette won 3 games, all three complete games and shutouts in both games 5 and 7. The Milwaukee Braves topped the Yankees in 7. That was gripping.  [By the way, a complete game is when the starting pitcher pitches all nine innings, something as rare as a leadoff home run in game 1 of the World Series. Lew Burdette was the fidgetiest pitcher in history and used his fidgets to obfuscate doctoring the ball for his unhittable spitball.] 

Here are the scores and game times for those 1957 games.

Game 1: 3-1 Yankees  2:10

Game 2: 4-2 Braves 2:26

Game 3: 12-3 Yankees 3:18

Game 4: 7-5 Braves 2:31

Game 5: 1-0 Braves 2:00

Game 6: 3-2 Yankees 2:09

Game 7: 5-0 Braves 2:34

I rest my case.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin

There Is No Planet B

Earth Held Hostage (2023)

Once again I republish. This time in frustration over the farce that is COP28, the climate conference in Dubai. The goal is for a plan to phase-out of fossil fuel. Saudi Arabia objects to any language on fossil fuel in any agreement. The UN rules say any declaration must be unanimous so any one of the 198 participating nations can blow up a deal.  God help my grandchildren.

Wake up and smell the smoke! (2022)

I'm republishing this post in the hope that you will join the chorus in an attempt to at long last induce action by the US Congress. We are at the mercy of old white guys whose only thought is power, the planet be damned. Vote them out. My grandchildren's' lives are in the balance.

I am going to violate my very good rule to avoid sports metaphors with one that probably leaves you cold, unless you live north of the 45th parallel. "Skate to the Puck" (credit: Wayne Gretsky).  It is an exception to the usual sport trope as it conveys a subtle and poignant life message.  In a hockey game "skate to the puck" says that to be successful, you must not focus on where the puck is but where it will be as the play develops. It argues against passivity. Anticipate and act, take some risks.  Don't "let the game come to you".

To belabor the metaphor, the ice we skate on is rapidly disappearing from the planet. If we continue on our do nothing course, the puck will be underwater. We are running out of time to address effects of climate change. 

I have preached on climate change often in this forum and it remains for me the most pressing issue or our time and the current passivity in our nation portends dire consequences for the planet and the next generation - my grandchildren.  99.9% of scientific studies agree that humans have caused climate change and yet Senator Manchin sits on his pot of coal and urges that we "go slow" on transitioning from fossil fuel. 50 Republican members of Congress are so afraid of being primary'd and McConnell'd, they will sit obediently quiet while the world burns. I have had it up to my gills with dithering politicians.

I imagine every generation feels theirs faces the greatest challenges and greatest hardships.  And it is hard to argue that my parents, with the Depression & WWII, dealt with much greater personal travail than my privileged life. But climate change is an existential problem, a problem without easy answers. Sitting back and hoping for someone(s) to solve this is not working. We are reaching a tipping point and the world requires some bold action. 

It is frustrating to watch the lack of urgency.  To use another sports analogy, it's like running a quarterback sneak during the 2 minute drill when you're down 2 touchdowns. (Sorry). The temptation is to collapse into helplessness and despair in the face of it. What impact can one average citizen have?  Well, we can do a lot if enough of us do a little.

1. Call/Write/Email Congress https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/contact-congress/  Do this repeatedly. Be a pest.

2. Add your voice and donations to a grassroots organization. Citizens' Climate Lobby is a good one 

3. It should not surprise you that in 2018, 89% of global CO2 emissions came from fossil fuels usage with the biggest culprit being coal burning production of electricity.  Lobbying for a carbon tax or other means to rein in the big polluters is perhaps the most important thing you can do. Draft your friends and neighbors. The policy makers need to hear  this message from a broad audience.  

4. Of course, we can all reduce our carbon footprint. Every bit helps. From simple things like keeping your tire pressure up, replacing your lightbulbs with LED's -  to more dramatic (expensive) things like replacing your furnace with a heat pump or installing solar panels or driving a hybrid. There are plenty of  'what you can do' guides out there. e.g. .https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming

5. Obviously, climate change is a global issue. China, US & Russia are the top 3 carbon emitters.  However, there are 20 international corporations responsible for 50% of carbon emissions.  Support global efforts:  The Paris Accord, Glasgow Climate Summit.  Demand global cooperation in the fight. 

6. Listen to Greta.  “The change is going to come when people are demanding change. So we can't expect everything to happen at these conferences".  (The Kyoto Protocol dates from 1997)   https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59022846

This is our challenge.  This is not a case where we can learn from a failure. 

Time is running out. 

In the words of Martin Luther: “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.” 

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin