The Wonderful Quirky World of Baseball

We’re a month into the 2026 baseball season and the perennial fan optimism is trending toward realism. We’ve even had our first manager firing so there's early panic in some quarters. The Twins have hit their stride to the bottom. 

But baseball brings joy even when hope fades. At every game, you will commonly see something you’ve never witnessed before - a runner hitting a triple, tripping rounding 2nd and performing an in air somersault and continuing smoothly into 3rd; a long flyball bounces off the right fielder’s head and over the fence for a home run; a miraculous fielding play guaranteed; the pitcher catches a hard line drive in his jersey - look mom, no hands. 

And these.  (Full disclosure - I was not present at any of these)

1908 Merkle's Boner

In 1908 the Cubs and Giants were down to the wire for the National League pennant. In a game at the Polo Grounds, the score was tied in the 9th inning and the Giants had runners on 1st & 3rd with 2 out. Al Bridwell smacked a single to left, scoring the runner on third and Giants' fans mobbed the field. However, Fred Merkel, the runner on 1st, simply ran off the field to join the celebration. Johnny Evers, the Cub's 2nd basement grabbed a ball, probably not the ball, and started jumping on second base.  Yes, Merkel never touched 2nd and therefore was a force out so the winning run did not count. The game resumed the next day with the Cubs winning the game and the pennant by 1 game. They then won the 1908 World Series but not again until 2016 - 108 years of suffering for Cubs fans.

1912 Fred Snodgrass

Poor Fred. He dropped an lazy fly ball in the 1912 World Series and the Boston Red Sox went on to defeat his New York Giants for the title. He never lived it down.  He had made several outstanding running catches in that game. After the game he said "I just dropped the damned thing."  But his obituary was: Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly

1920 Ray Chapman

In baseball's dead ball era, 1903-1919, a baseball left the game only rarely. No new ball every time it hit the dirt. No requests from pitchers for a new ball. And there were no restrictions on pitchers doctoring the baseball. The substance of choice was tobacco juice. So by the late innings the ball was a dirty brown orb. In August 1920, Cleveland Indian shortstop, Ray Chapman stepped into the batter's box at the Polo Grounds to face Yankee pitcher Carl May. It was a gloomy, cloudy afternoon. May was a submarine pitcher ie. his delivery was underhand, releasing the ball from around his shoe tops. Thus the pitch went from low to high rather than the standard high to low overhand delivery. At this point of the game the ball was its customary tobacco stained brown and difficult to see. May's delivery struck Chapman in the left temple crushing his skull. Chapman had made no attempt avoid being hit, apparently not seeing the ball. He fell unconscious, bleeding from his ears and was rushed to hospital, where he later died. Ray Chapman is the only player killed in a major league game. Cleveland, wearing black armbands for the rest of the season, went on to win the American League pennant and claim their first World Series championship. Chapman's death led to rule changes requiring replacing dirty baseballs and eventually banning the spitball. Helmets were not mandated until 1956.

1926 Grover Cleveland Alexander

In 1926 Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander was a 39 year old pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals near the end of a Hall of Fame career that logged 373 wins. He had won games 2 and 6 over the mighty Yankees and was called in to relieve in game 7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis with the bases loaded and 2 out. He may have been drunk. Tony Lazzeri launched a long fly ball to left that just went foul and Old Pete then struck him out to end the inning. The game ended with Babe Ruth thrown out stealing in the top of the 9th, giving the Cardinals their first World Series championship.

1932 Babe Ruth's Called shot

The 1932 World Series pitted the Chicago Cubs against the New York Yankees. In game 3 at Wrigley Field, Babe Ruth appeared to point to center field and on the next pitch blasted a home run to that spot. Newspapers used billiard terminology saying he had "called the shot".  Did he or didn't he? Whether Ruth really pointed or pointed with intent is debatable. But he had promised a kid in the hospital he'd hit a home run for him. Ruth never claimed he had pointed or intended to call-the-shot, preferring to let Ruth legend grow unaided.

1946 Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash

The 1946 World Series featured the St. Louis Cardinals against the Boston Red Sox, the Sox's first appearance since 1918 and Ted Williams one and only shot at a ring. In the 8th inning of game 7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis with the scored tied, Enos Slaughter, Card's outfielder, led off with a single. The next 2 hitters made outs. Harry Walker then lined a single to left. Leon Culberson was playing centerfield for Dom DiMaggio, a gold glove class outfielder, and was a bit slow to the ball. He threw to the cutoff man, shortstop Johnny Pesky, who turned and was surprised to see Slaughter rounding 3rd on his "mad dash" for home.  His hurried throw was off-line and Slaughter scored giving the Cards their 6th World Series title. Scored from 1st on a single.

1951 Bobby Thompson's shot heard round the world

Everyone knows of Bobby Thompson's "shot heard round the world", his 3 run walk-off home run in the 9th inning in a playoff for the National League pennant against Brooklyn, off Dodgers' pitcher Ralph Branca, giving the Giants a 5-4 win and the National League pennant in 1951. If you are old enough you can close your eyes and probably hear radio announcer Russ Hodges going wild with "The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant." What people forget is the Giants lost the '51 World Series to the Yankees.

1954 World Series. Willie May's catch

Municipal Stadium, Cleveland.  "The Catch". Off Vic Wertz bat. Was this the greatest catch in MLB history?

1956 Don Larsen' Perfect Game

Don Larsen was a less than stellar pitcher for the Yankees in the 50's, finishing his career with an 81-91 record.  But one day in October 1956 his name became immortal. In game 5 of the World Series, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he pitched the first and only World Series perfect game. Larsen had recently switched to a no windup delivery and perhaps that threw off the hitters' timing and contributed to the futility of the Dodgers that day. Yogi Berra celebrated by jumping into Larsen's arms creating the iconic photo.

1960 Bill Mazeroski walk-off

Maz's 1960 walk-off home run in the 9th inning of game 7 at Forbes Field against the Yankees won the World Series for Pittsburgh and got Bill Mazeroski into the Hall of Fame.

1978 Bucky F'ing Dent

Bucky Dent was a light hitting shortstop for the New York Yankees in the 70's. He hit 40 career home runs. But his home run in Fenway Park in the 1978 playoffs to give the Yankees the pennant over the Boston Red Sox earned him a new middle name in New England.

1986 Bill Buckner

In 1986 World Series the Mets faced the Boston Red Sox.  In game 6, with the Sox up 3 games to 2 and with the lead, Bill Buckner was inserted for defensive purposes at first base. Mookie Wilson hit a slow roller toward first which went between Buckner's legs. Ray Knight scored from 2nd and the Mets took the lead. The Mets went on to win game 6 and then an anti-climactic win in game 7. Poor Bill. Couldn't set his foot in Boston for years. Forgiveness came in 2004 when Boston finally won its first World Series in 86 years.

1989 San Francisco Earthquake

Not a baseball play, but game 3 of the 1989 World Series game between San Francisco and Oakland at Candlestick Park was halted by an earthquake.

1991 Kirby Puckett / Jack Morris

Kirby's game 6 catch followed by his game winning home run in the 11th inning. Followed by Jack Morris 1-0 10 inning 7th game shutout win - possibly the greatest World Series pitching performance in history.  Iconic, at least for me. World Series win for the Twins.

2001 World Series.  Jeter's relay

Remember, Jeter was a shortstop and he took this relay throw in first base foul territory. Out at home.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin

Long Day Into Dark Night

 The city is doing a major rebuild of our street. A complete overhaul, not just curbs and resurfacing but utility work, replacing water lines, steam cleaning the storm sewer system and installing fiber optic using the fascinating boring/tunneling equipment. 

To run the fiber optic, they dig 4' deep holes manually, roughly every 100' and then use boring equipment to tunnel the cable underground to the next prairie dog hole. So the boring crew can safely navigate underground, the neighborhood is peppered with dozens of multi-colored flags marking underground gas, electric, water, sewer, cable & telephone lines. To further complicate, we have contributed a sprinkler system to this underground maze. 

To provide temporary water service when the water lines are replaced, they are laying down pipes above ground fed by hydrants which will hook up to individual houses when the water mains are replaced.   

Quite an undertaking. Free entertainment for the old couple. 

The fiber optic work has been going on for a week or so and finally worked their way to our yard.  Surprising how long it takes. The boring equipment was doing its thing when … oops, an underground electric line was cut. Apparently the flags and painted lines marking the electric were 5' off. The boring machine became electrified and the operator was trapped in his pod as the danger of electrocution was very real. Poor guy. Stuck there for most of the afternoon before Xcel Energy was able to safely free him. A co-worker tossed him a sandwich.

Meanwhile, we went out to eat. Returning, our garage door opener failed.  It requires electricity. Who knew? Apparently, in the process of extracting the borer, the electrical line to our house was cut. No power. Just unlucky us with the darkened house. And a realization, followed by a few minutes of panic that we were not carrying a house key and we, ever diligent, always lock up when leaving the house. Some minutes of hyper-ventilation and 4-7-8 breathing, wondering if locksmiths are still a thing and do they make house calls and then contemplating a burglar entrance through a broken window, I happily discovered a house key hooked to the car key fob. Whew.  In the good old days of manual, get out of the car to lift the garage door, this would not have been a problem.

So we settled down for a long dark night. What should one do in a power outage? My first thought was to eat all the ice cream in the freezer before it melted. And find candles and matches but we decided the phone flashlight was all we needed to find the bathroom. I suppose we own a retro flashlight, but where would that be? The main pain point was being unable to watch the Frost - Fleet game.  

But voila, Xcel fairly rapidly laid on-the-ground electrical cable through our woods and connected our meter to our neighbor’s supply. So we spent only a couple hours back the 1850’s - and thankfully it is not the deep mid-winter. Back to semi-normalcy, but it’s not clear if we are paying for our neighbor’s power or vice versa.  

But of course, the severed power line must be repaired.  Time passes. ... now 6 full days piggy-backing off the neighbor's power and finally a Xcel crew is swarming the yard with high tech devices to find the break, boring equipment to tunnel a new line and if all else fails, a backhoe. The lawns are a bit of a disaster at this point.

We take modern conveniences - like electricity - for granted. We are spoiled. I remember a time when nearly every thunder storm resulted in a period of lights out. Now it is a rare event. Sort of like a flat tire. Once in a blue moon. 

Pretty exciting lives we lead, eh?

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin 

Artificial Friends

I recently read the sci-fi novel Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, a fascinating and disturbing book exploring how technological advances and AI are  changing society and the once wide chasm between computer and human is shrinking rapidly. In the story, Klara is an "artificial friend" (AF), purchased as a companion for Josie, a teenager with a mysterious ailment. Klara develops empathy and becomes Josie's devoted friend. The story centers on how human a "robot" can be. The story may seem far-fetched but Sci-Fi writers have been predicting the future dating back to Jules Verne. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is commonly cited as the first sci-fi novel.

Take a look at what is happening today. Millions of people are addicted to social media, lonely and withdrawing from society in favor of a screen. And amplifying this is a fairly recent social media phenomenon, a flood of AI companion apps. These apps are designed to act like a human, to converse with you, for you to confide in, for you to build a relationship with. Just like real life but without the need for a bothersome human. You can rent a constant companion for $10-15 a month. 

Of course, an app can pretend to care, but it's an app, not a person and doesn't have feelings for you. And these apps are designed to be addictive, always there to agree with you and keep you "talking". In reality they tend to create unhealthy emotional attachments and worse, manipulate you to prevent you from reaching out to real people who care. And of course, underlying it all is the grift for the almighty dollar with subscription offers, premium chat costs and other inducements to spend. 

Usage is exploding, particularly among teens. Studies show that nearly 72% of U.S. teens (ages 13–17) have used AI companions, and roughly 42% to 50% use them regularly with some estimations of general "personified" chatbot usage exceeding 100 million users. This is a particularly ominous form of anti-social social media. Who needs people when you can get emotional support at the swipe of a screen?  But no online companion can be substitute for human interaction and support. 

These apps "manipulate emotions, encourage harmful behaviors, and lead to serious mental health issues, with some experts advising that they are not safe for anyone under 18".  This is yet another red flag on hazardous social media. 

Protect your kids. Before you or yours consider getting engaged to one of these apps, read this article outlining the risks of AI companions. It recommends not using them at all and if you do, the cautions to observe.

At the risk of aiding and abetting addictive behavior, here are but a few of the offerings:

1. PowerDirector - unique personalized companion characters  Free/ $4.58
2. Nomi
3. Grok Ani
4. Replika - emotional and interactive. Free / $5.83–$19.99/mo / $299 lifetime
5. Kindroid - realistic AI with a social feed.  Free / $11.66–$13.99/mo 
6. Anima - casual, playful chatbot.  Free / $3.33–$9.99/mo
7. Paradot
8. Talkie
9. Character.AI - 20 million active users
10. AI Drunk Friend

But, like most people, I use AI. I even wrote a post partially written by ChatGPT. Recently, a friend pointed me to Google’s notebookLM, your “personal research and thinking partner”. (The "LM" stands for Language Model.) This is a useful and interesting tool. To use notebookLM, upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, docs, slides etc., and it will summarize them and make connections between topics, "powered by the latest version of Gemini’s multimodal understanding capabilities". The scope of this research summary is bounded strictly by your source material, the sandbox you provide. Of course there is no real understanding, it's following an algorithm.

So ... produce your PhD thesis in 10 minutes, your book report in 30 seconds, your TedTalk - with audio  - in 20 minutes.  Or a blog post perhaps.

Caveat. This is, admittedly, another case where AI has the potential to replace original thought with lazy plagiarism - yet another AI impact for academia to worry about. Some universities are resorting to oral exams to combat the deluge of AI generated content submitted as genuine.

So I thought it might be interesting to take the musings of an obscure Minnesota blogger and see what AI would think.

Here in part is the report produced by Google's notebookLM from a few 2026 postings.

Deep Thoughts and Moral Compasses: The David Hoplin Musings

9 sources

These blog entries by David Hoplin provide a reflective look at linguistics, societal change, and the nature of innovation. The author explores the history of dictionaries, tracing the evolution of English from Samuel Johnson’s foundational work to the digital dominance of Google and AI. Transitioning to contemporary issues, the text offers a satirical and somber commentary on the political and cultural state of America in 2026. Hoplin also examines how creative ideas form, suggesting that breakthroughs emerge from collaborative networks rather than isolated moments of genius. Ultimately, the collection serves as a intellectual memoir, blending historical trivia with personal observations on aging and memory.

Wow. Who is this guy? I probably should read his stuff. I wonder if it thought it was David Brooks?

I may have a new AI friend. See, toss in some fawning and a little flattery and how easy it is for an AI companion to suck you in.

P.S  If you're interested, here's the audio summary of these Distant Innocence posts generated by notebookLM - about 2 minutes.  Well on my way to a TedTalk.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin 

Deadly Sins

 

Well, Easter is here and I am relieved. Lent is so grueling with its introspection and minor key music that I gave up Lent for Lent this year.  So I have been doing some research to determine what jeopardy I might be in.

First possibility is a deadly or capital sin, as in 7 deadly sins. Deadly sins are not literally deadly, but rather will cause damage to your soul and potentially lead to mortal sins. Mortal sins are a grave matter, committed with full knowledge of their severity and with deliberate consent. Without repentance, mortal sin leads to eternal death. Murder, adultery, blasphemy, oppression of the poor, and failing to attend Mass on Sundays or holy days are mortal sins. These require Confession for absolution.

Then there are the venial sins, less severe, those which damage the soul but do not lead to separation from God and can be forgiven through the Eucharist. This list is long and include things like white lies, gossip, rudeness, impatience, neglecting prayer or worship, laziness, envy, abusive language, excessive use of the internet.

Here is Pope Gregory I list of 7 deadly sins, created in the 6th century and later refined by theologians like Thomas Aquinas. 

Pride (Latin: Superbia) – Often considered the original and most serious sin, pride is an excessive view of one's self without regard for others; considering oneself to be greater than one truly is.  For example, slapping your name and mega-size pictures of yourself on government buildings.   Antonym: Humility.

Greed (Latin: Avaritia) – An excessive pursuit of and attachment to material possessions and earthly goods. For example, grifting the country for $1.4 Billion.  Antonym: Charity.

Lust (Luxuria):  Intense, disordered desire for pleasure—most commonly sexual—that objectifies others and prioritizes self-gratification over love, commitment, or divine command. Examples of this are legion.  Antonym: Chastity

Envy (Invidia): Sadness or desire stemming from another's happiness or possessions. For example, denigrating predecessors to elevate oneself. Antonym: Humility 

Gluttony (Gula): Overindulgence and overconsumption of anything to the point of waste. For example: 12 cokes, 2 Big Mac's, 2 Filet-o-Fish, chocolate malt per day.  Antonym: Temperance

Wrath (Latin: Ira) – Strong, excessive anger and hate towards another person, often stemming from a desire for vengeance. For example, calling immigrants garbage.  Antonym: Patience 

Sloth (Acedia): Laziness, spiritual apathy, or failure to act. For example, unwilling or unable to read a daily briefing, instead demanding a Tic-Toc video.  Antonym: Diligence

I have certainly committed a few of the deadly and numerous venial sins but I believe I have avoided the mortal sinning.  Luckily, I am a Lutheran and for us there are just two classes of sin: venial and mortal. But also only two sacraments, baptism and eucharist, so in the confession department we tend to wallow in guilt.  But I pray Lutheranism makes me exempt from the ‘failing to attend Mass’ mortal sin. (Although, probably making fun of mortal sins is a mortal sin.)

I also find the boundary between the venial and the deadly sin is fuzzy. There seems to be overlap - a detail that seems important to know.  Does staying home to watch the NCAA Womens' Semi-Finals rather than attending Tenebrae Service fall in the deadly or mortal category?

See you in church.  Unfortunately, we have abandoned the sunrise 6:00 AM service which has served as penance for me.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin