Bob Uecker RIP; Thanks for all the Laughs

    He made it to 90. Almost 91. How many humans live that long? Maybe not enough. He had quite a life. I know he had some great affects on me. The combination of his baseball and humor was tremendous. 

    He was a truly funny guy, with great energy, which to me makes him a genius.

    Sometimes I think that the sport of baseball, and even other sports, but especially baseball, is a chance for all of us to talk to each other. We talk while watching it on TV, at the game from the stands, between coaches and players in the dugouts and bull pens... Even the opposing players talk to each other around the base paths. 

    I remember Uecker doing funny commercials back in the 1980s. His self-deprecating presence and personality was refreshing and so funny. He made me laugh, even more when interviewing and speaking in impromptu venues. Hilarious.

    Thanks for the laughter and the good times!

    I was thinking of all the people that have made me laugh. It is a very long list. Who and what makes us laugh? Why do we or not find things funny? What do we sound like when we laugh? How do we come across.

    It is usually a good thing, when it is not derisive or disrespectful.

    I am watching the best of him now, with my wife...

    Good times.

    Thanks again.

    See you up above, and I think I would love to have some more laughs.

Hoosier Men Be Stinky -- Basketball Team is Getting Whooped

    A lot of us had some high hopes in January. Despite struggling mightily in the earlier part of the season, losing embarrassingly to Louisville and another team in their tropical massacre of paradise, holding on to beat a so so Providence. They got whooped by Nebraska, away in the plains, as they usually do lately, because Indiana is no longer what we thought we had been... the 1970s, the 1980s, even the 1990s... Only a couple of teams this century have lived up to any Indiana nostalgia and wistful longing of championships. Ugh. Alas.

    I thought that we would have some good chances this year. Big man Oumar Ballo was supposed to bigger, better. Not really. At least he has improved his free throw shooting from the past. But his defense is not that great. Malik Reneau has been hurt, which has been good and bad. They learned to play without him, a powerful scoring forward inside, and beat Penn State and... who else? Rutgers, and... was it a lesser team like Minnesota? Oh, yeah, the other early losses now seem the norm, with Iowa in the plains again and now Illinois smashing us in the so-called friendly confines of Assembly Hall. 60-32 at the half. And then the second half surge could not even be sustained.

    Pathetic. We expected more out of these new guards from Washington State and Stanford. And Goode from Illinois. And what about Tre Galloway? Man! We cannot play well enough.

    Then there is the enigma Mackenzie Mbako. He should be playing so much better. He has disappeared for stretches of multiple games. Leal comes off the bench and brings some sparks but goofs up, too.

    I thought he was part of the IU renaissance. Mike Woodson and all them. It looks bad.

    We are desperate to play well, just comepetively.

    Maybe not this year, either.

    Maybe not this decade? Ever? When will the terrible losing end?

    Now, to be fair, Tennessee or undefeated Florida can get their wheels blown off on any given night. UConn and Duke and everyone else loses. But not like this.

    My Hoosiers are on the brink of being losers. Like too many years since.. 2002... or the early 1990s.

    Can we get better?

    Next up: struggling Ohio State. Stay tuned. Maybe.

    Ugh.

All You Need is 14 Saves to be Among the Best Thousand Closers of All Time

    Some baseball fans like stats, too. That is part of the charm. Maybe nerdy, maybe not so cool, but sometimes we like to investigate the numbers that been generating since the late 1800s.

    In all the years of baseball, truncated a few times because of strikes or pandemic shutdowns, or perhaps even a major terrorist attack, baseball plays so many games with so many various athletes that it can be interesting to break down, to chop up, to put in a fish bowl and gawk at.

    The "save" is a statistic earned by pitchers when they come in the end of a game and close out the side while maintaining the lead for the win. So, a classic example is a pitcher who comes in the 9th inning with a one run lead, mows down the three batters he faces, and the crowd, assuming this is the home pitcher, goes wild. He would earn a "save" if this team is up 4-1, because the three batters represent those potential three runs. However, if it is 5-1, and he strikes out all the batters, or gets them out, perhaps he does not get the save. Right?

    I or someone will have to check if I am right.

    If, on the other hand, a guy or two gets on base, or if he pitches over two innings, accounting for 6 outs, or 4 or 5, say, then the potential run scorers would add up to a save if the distance of runs to catch up were 4, or 5, or 6. Closer wins are imperative for pitchers to earn a save. Even giving up late runs is okay if the pitcher finishes the deal getting the win, say, giving up five runs but still winning, 6-5 or 11-10.

    Capiche? Makes sense? It makes sense to me. 

    What I find incredible is that in the day and age of almost no pitcher pitching an entire complete game, by throwing all nine innings (or perhaps a weather-shortened game would qualify in 6-8 innings) for the win, there are still a large number of pitchers--closers as it were-- that do not have many saves yet are still in the top thousand of all time.

    14 is the threshold, the bar! That is amazing to me.

    Contrast that with the top thousand home run hitters of all time, and now that bar is 100.

    Numbers of saves by a great pitcher in a great year can rival a really good home run year. A superb closer on a very competitive team can get 50 saves. Hitting 50 home runs in a season is great by any major league baseball standard. Shohei Ohtani did it this year, plus he stole than many bases, and had one of the best seasons for any baseball player of all time. He is an elite pitcher, too. He is a starter, so he does not normally qualify for saves. A pitcher can be brought in to save, at times, but normally more extreme situations, like in the playoffs or the world series. And, those stats do not count towards career totals, which is what we are talking about.

    The top closers statistically of all time have numbers that remind me of the best numbers of home run hitters, like Bonds and Ruth and Rodriguez, or now Pujols.

    The top closing pitchers with career saves are:

    

1.	Mariano Rivera+ (19)	652	1283.2	R
2.	Trevor Hoffman+ (18)	601	1089.1	R
3.	Lee Smith+ (18)	478	1289.1	R
4.	Kenley Jansen (15, 36)	447	868.1	R
5.	Craig Kimbrel (15, 36)	440	809.2	R
6.	Francisco Rodríguez (16)	437	976.0	R
7.	John Franco (21)	424	1245.2	L
8.	Billy Wagner (16)	422	903.0	L
9.	Dennis Eckersley+ (24)	390	3285.2	R
10.	Joe Nathan (16)	377	923.1	R
11.	Jonathan Papelbon (12)	368	725.2	R
12.	Jeff Reardon (16)	367	1132.1	R
13.	Troy Percival (14)	358	708.2	R
14.	Randy Myers (14)	347	884.2	L
15.	Rollie Fingers+ (17)	341	1701.1	R
16.	Aroldis Chapman (15, 36)	335	760.0	L
17.	John Wetteland (12)

Go to the site to see the rest, like Wetteland, that I did not capture fully.

    I get it that many pitchers cannot throw as hard as they do for endless years. Many guys blow out their arms, wear out their elbows or shoulders, and cannot get those monster seasons. There are many closers on each team; guys need rest and cannot always pitch. And wins can prove difficult, too. 

    But, 14? Who are the guys at the end of the list? When did they play?

    986.Al Aber (6)14389.1L

 Steve Barber (15)141999.0L 

Jesse Barnes (13)142569.2R 

Frank Baumann (11)14797.1L 

Matt Belisle (15)14928.2R 

Warren Brusstar (9)14484.2R 

Bud Byerly (11)14491.2R 

Greg Cadaret (10)14724.1L 

Dave Campbell (2)14158.0R 

Miguel Castro (10, 29)14460.2R 

Bob Chipman (12)14880.2L 

Alex Claudio (10)14348.0L 

Wilbur Cooper (15)143480.0L

 Roosevelt Davis (20)141537.2R 

Art Ditmar (9)141268.0R 

Pete Donohue (12)142112.1R 

Justin Duchscherer (8)14454.2R 

Bob Duliba (7)14257.0R 

Arnold Earley (8)14381.1L 

Jamie Easterly (13)14611.1L 

Harry Eisenstat (8)14478.2L 

Roenis Elías (7)14395.2L 

Lucas Erceg (2, 29)14116.2R 

John Ericks (3)14162.0R 

Wes Gardner (8)14466.1R 

Joe Grzenda (8)14308.0L 

Larry Gura (16)142047.0L

 Mark Guthrie (15)14978.2L 

Bill Hands (11)141951.0R 

Dwayne Henry (11)14334.2R 

Oral Hildebrand (10)141430.2R

 Tom Hilgendorf (6)14313.2L 

Howie Judson (7)14615.0R 

Justin Lawrence (4, 29)14194.0R 

Jensen Lewis (4)14198.0R 

Javier López (14)14533.1L 

Sal Maglie (10)141723.0R 

Chris Martin (9, 38)14346.2R 

Mickey McDermott (12)141316.2L 

Sam McDowell (15)142492.1L 

George McQuillan (10)141576.1R

 Andy Messersmith (12)142230.1R 

Mike Myers (13)14541.2L 

Art Nehf (15)142707.2L

 Al Osuna (6)14192.2L 

George Pipgras (11)141488.1R

 Mel Queen (9)14389.2R 

Eppa Rixey+ (21)144494.2L 

Nap Rucker (10)142375.1L 

Ray Scarborough (10)141428.2R 

Charley Schanz (5)14626.2R 

Chuck Seelbach (4)14130.2R 

Jim Slaton (16)142683.2R 

Carson Smith (5)14102.0R 

Lil Stoner (9)141003.2R

 Lon Warneke (15)142782.1R 

Les Webber (6)14432.0R 

Harry Wright+ (7)14100.1R

    A few Hall of Famers in there. They had to be starters, we must surmise. Harry Wright, the last one listed with 14 saves. Maybe this season, 2025, the bar will rise with the present closers getting more saves. That is the way of states, especially in a day and age when closers and mid-relievers are coming in at all points of the game. Close games favor the closer, when it comes to these stats, and one dominant guy and team like Mariano Rivera or Lee Smith can mean a lot.

    Eric Gagne in Los Angelese was an interesting case, because he flamed so bright but then lost his predominance. Or Thigpen with the White Sox in the early 1990s. Or Eckersley, or a litany of others.

    Who are the most dominant closers of all time? Who have been the save masters, meisters of the close?

    Maybe nerd on that for a while.

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 Global Warming: It's a Thing

    I think that a lot of willfully ignorant or stupid people ignore the basic and nuanced scientific evidence that the temperatures of the earth are going up, over decade--that we humans are doing it, and global warming affects current weather patterns and exacerbates natural phenomena, to include worse catastrophic results in hurricanes, winds, fires. Some ocean temperatures have heated up and killed off millions or billions of sea creatures and other life in the seas.

    This past week large parts of Los Angeles burnt up in awful fires. The fires are still going. Today is Saturday. There were Santa Ana winds pushing the fires to sweep vast swathes of neighborhoods getting up to 100 miles per hour. In January. Why? Higher ocean temperatures lead to higher amounts of warm winds. There is a lack of water, from previous droughts, and the embers wreck havoc across California.

    Higher ocean temperatures. Why? Hotter global temperatures from all types of mankind causes, from fossil fuels and engines burning up their gases that work on the air quality, to all kinds of heat entering through the atmosphere that is weakened by carbon dioxides or chlorofluorocarbons, and all other manner of pollutants and toxins, plus the destruction of our natural environments, the trees or corals or ocean life (plastics and other contaminants killing off ocean habitats), plus the over killing of plants and animals by fishermen, or oil depletion, or maybe even all the cruise ships.

    Plants, vehicles, all of us burning up things, plus depleting lands and lakes and lowlands with less trees and bushes and water ways, plus the very cattle that emit their gases that ruin the air and lands.

    I am an environmentalist, and a Republican, which should not be an oxymoron.

    We can be intelligent and conservative. A conservative should want to preserve our planet, our natural resources, and be efficient in producing and consuming energy.

    I read a book about Greenland. The huge ice sheets have been melting and heating up for decades.

    We are the cause, and we must slow it down. Antarctica, the same. Ice is melting. The oceans are rising and getting more polluted and are warming.

    Don't stick your head under a rock or in the sand. 

    Wake up and don't be a dummy. We need to save our planet and burn less fossil fuels.

    We need to clean up our acts.

    Admit it.

 L.A. Dreams, Fires and Mayhem

    Poetry and prose come into our lives, sometimes sorting visions, offering other points of view, recounting experiences, summing up feelings, calculating moods or capturing lives and people, alive, dead and in between. Perhaps the psychotherapists know why we count on the art of narrative and aesthetic of words evoking meanings and memories and maybe even further enlightenment, elucidation, and answers. Or at least the questions. Questions. All of these things may lead to something. Understanding. Expression. Meaning.

    I found myself looking up into the heavens

    Into the sunny blue sky

    Under a slight California canopy

    Six thousand feet above the sea

    We went as a big group.

    Climbing on a ship called Radiance

    We had fun times

    Created good and pleasant memories

    However 

    In life there has to be contrasts

    Perhaps maybe as my colleague

    Said

    As I explained things to her yesterday

    The cooks and servers get the salad

    From places where norovirus breeds

    The salads are delicious, as my wife avows

    Yet these tiny, vicious microbes

    Are passed into our bloodstreams and sinuses

    Which transposes themselves to our stomachs

    Which causes a toxicity

    And pain

    Finding ourselves bent over on our knees

    Lying in helpless repose

    A fever, a headache, agony of varying degrees

    And loved ones hoping the best, giving items

    Of relief

    We pray, we make well wishes

    We that suffer offer any manner of hopes

    To feel better

    To hold down our food, or even water

    I laid down on the ground,

    I remember

    Looking into the tranquil ceiling of the earth

    Trees and leaves 

    A peaceful reminder     

    Life is okay

    Things are all right

    Outside of me, trembling and churling inside

    Long nights followed by long days,

    Little TV, or books, a vacation of determination

    To finish out the time off

    Alive

    Survive to the next round

    I was laying somewhere in the mountains of 

    San Bernardino

    Seeing the peaceful frames of the blueness

    Looking up high above

    I found myself again in Pasadena

    Lying on my back

    Seeing more trees and leaves

    Branches holding their treasures

    While I could contemplate 

    A peaceful time for my body

    While the sun alighted upon us

    Giving warmth, providing hope

    The trees of Pasadena

    Giving me some respite

    yet

    There are always 

    Worse circumstances, more terrible trials

    Such as the devastating fires

    Or earthquakes, of which I was shushed

    When I mentioned

    A week later those trees and leaves

    Are strained and possibly consumed

    By huge winds and flames of destruction

    The buds and branches that gave me peace

    Are now struggling to exist

    As do the inhabitants, seeing their homes

    Their possessions, all the dreams 

    Collected

    Now burnt

    Charred and discarded

    By winds and heat

    A week's difference

    Thousands of people had no idea

    Their trees, bushes, lawns, and homes

    Would be left

    in ashes.

    Some died

    Many more are left bereft

    Lost their valuables

    Their dreams

    Vanquished

    The higher ocean temperatures

    Caused bigger, warmer winds

    Small embers carry the flames

    That will not be forgotten

    For the lifetime

    of the Souls that it touched

    And overwhelmed

    Unlike the norovirus

    Which has done its internal damage

    and wrecked some moments for a short period

    But allowed us to make it through

    To be whole once more

    I dream of Los Angeles

    My years there, the beaches, the streets

    The hills, the harbors

    The traffic, the people

    

    Even celebrities and famous buildings

    Many sweet moments of nostalgia

    Restaurants and parties

    Barbeques and games

    Yet, now, the dreams have been ruined

    For the lack of water, the rise of air currents

    The forces of nature

    Have left many lying down

    Looking up to the faithful skies

    Pleading, praying

    Can we grow back what has been lost?

    May the trees and nature give us peace again.

    May it happen, L.A.

    We dream of being there.

    We beseech the Gods

    And God, for you.

Mexico: An Itinerant History Chapter 8 La Bufadora and Ensenada Segunda Parte

Ach, nein! I lost the Second Part, after finishing it this morning.

Problems with posting and saving. Had problems with other sites like this.

Basically, I wrote about the four people that did not go on the chartered van to La Bufadora.

80-year-old mother and grandmother (and great-grandmother) born and raised in Pasadena, California.

77-year-old father, step-father, and all of the above, born and raised in San Diego, California.

50ish year-old wife, born and raised in San Bernardino.

40ish year-old sister-in-law, born and raised in San Bernardino.

    I broke down some of their backgrounds, some of how they may view Mexico based on their perspectives. Living in southern California with many Mexican-Americans, the various travels that they have done and experiences that would give them insight into a visit like this, to downtown Ensenada, with good reminiscing and service and relaxing.

PUBLISH CHECK.

    The matriarch of 8 children and umpteen grandchildren, in the 30s now, plus the next generation, she lived in Provo, Utah, shortly, was married in Hawai'i, and taught for decades in highly Latino San Bernardino, both as a public middle school teacher and community college professor. She learned quite a bit of Spanish, enough to communicate many things.

    She has been the mother to full-time missionaries to Portugal (and Cape Verde), Spain (and Morocco), the Philippines, and Spain again. I lived in her home for two years while I served in the Spanish branch in the Waterman building, mixing with Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and some extractions of Colombia, Peru, and few other outliers.

    She has definitely been in and around Mexicans and the country, she has many life interactions with the peoples of Mexico and those that have come and gone. 

    Zoltan, as he has been known, fought in the Vietnam War as a Marine. He returned, injured, surviving a IED explosion, and drummed. He had two sons, both of whom married a European, an Italian and a German. That is an American thing, right? Marrying outsiders and all becoming one big melting pot. Zoltan recently retired for good, done with the junior college career after selling outdoor pools most of his adult life. He had been to Mexico a little bit, but not as much as the grandma (we call her abuela because of the proliferation of grandmothers), and I believe he can give you the rundown on the U.S. -Mexico relations over the decades.

    My wife grew up going to Mexico, to Ensenada beaches, not too far from home, then with her mom, her best friend, and her mother to Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, of the big jewels of Jalisco state, a place that I desired to go to many years later, having my own journey to discover the places in Mexico to go. Trying to catch up with my wife. She and I did our trips together, mostly between 2000 and 2005, plus the 2018-day trip to Tijuana. Was that 2018, or the year before or after? It was mostly a Doheny Beach reunion, near San Clemente, Orange County. My wife and I checked out the historically significant San Juan Capistrano mission up the road. Earlier iterations of Mexico.

    My wife and kids made it Roatan, Honduras, and two more stops in Mexico along the Caribbean, including the big excursion to Chichen Itza, in the heart of the Yucatan. This was end of the year 2021.

    We divide and conquer Mexico, like the time I walked into Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila. 

    The sister-in-law, like my wife, grew up going to the Baja Peninsula (North), and later married a man who lived in Chile, so now she has been there twice. Based in the nice suburbs of Dallas, they now go abroad and see different countries. I am impressed by what she learns of the local histories and cultures. She has gone to Mexico on some trips with her family, including to the northeast Sea of Cortez. She sent her oldest daughter to a mission in and around Phoenix, Arizona, where she worked mostly with Mexicans and Spanish speakers in that part of the States, which is a huge mix of all of the peoples.

    So, the four of them had a good time eating and relaxing in Ensenada, near downtown, while the 18 of us others went to the three stops in about 8 hours. More of that in the Tercera Parte.

UPDATE: President-elect Trump has been talking a lot of international geography, like Panama, and Greenland, and even the Gulf of Mexico, which he thinks would be better known as the Gulf of America.

    Claudia Scheinbaum, the first female Mexican president, came back with a few retorts, which I do not blame her for. While Prime Minister Trudeau is now ending his lengthy Canadian reign, there is discussion about they become our "51st" state. Yes, ridiculous. 

    But, that is what we get with open elections and free society.

    Long live freedom. And the United States. And Mexico! ! Viva mejico! Viva la revolucion continua.

    TO BE CONTINUED...