Soto, Harper, and Schwarber Move Up the All-time Lists of Home Run Hitters

    Harper has been moving up in the top hundred of all-time, and has been hitting a few long balls decently this year so far.

    Soto is younger, and keeps going. He was on the injured reserve, but has been doing some good things.

    Schwarber is powerful. This guy should pass up Bryce, but maybe not play as long? What is the age difference?

    

75.	Albert Belle (12)	381	6676	R	HR Log
76.	Orlando Cepeda+ (17)	379	8699	R	HR Log
	Tony Pérez+ (23)	379	10861	R	HR Log
78.	Matt Williams (17)	378	7595	R	HR Log
79.	Norm Cash (17)	377	7914	L	HR Log
	Paul Goldschmidt (16, 38)	377	8913	R	HR Log
	Jeff Kent+ (17)	377	9537	R	HR Log
82.	Carlton Fisk+ (24)	376	9853	R	HR Log
	Manny Machado (15, 33)	376	8391	R	HR Log
84.	Bryce Harper (15, 33)	375	7874	L	HR Log
85.	Rocky Colavito (14)	374	7559	R	HR Log
86.	Freddie Freeman (17, 36)	373	9567	L	HR Lo

87.	Gil Hodges+ (18)	370	8104	R	HR Log
88.	Todd Helton+ (17)	369	9453	L	HR Log
	Ralph Kiner+ (10)	369	6256	R	HR Log
90.	Lance Berkman (15)	366	7814	B	HR Log
91.	Joe DiMaggio+ (13)	361	7672	R	HR Log
92.	Nolan Arenado (14, 35)	360	7685	R	HR Log
	Gary Gaetti (20)	360	9817	R	HR Log
	Kyle Schwarber (12, 33)	360	5597	L	HR Log
95.	Johnny Mize+ (15)	359	7372	L	HR Log
96.	Yogi Berra+ (19)	358	8364	L	HR Log
	Carlos Lee (14)	358	8787	R	HR Log
98.	Joey Votto (17)	356	8746	L	HR Log
99.	Greg Vaughn (15)	355	7070	R	HR Log
100.	Luis Gonzalez (19)	354	10531	L	HR Log
Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Home Runs	PA	Bats	HR Log
	Lee May (18)	354	8219	R	HR Lo

    

245.	Kirk Gibson (17)	255	6656	L	HR Log
	Adam LaRoche (12)	255	6329	L	HR Log
	John Mayberry (15)	255	6447	L	HR Log
	John Olerud (17)	255	9063	L	HR Log
249.	Nick Castellanos (14, 34)	253	7053	R	HR Log
	Joe Gordon+ (11)	253	6537	R	HR Log
Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Home Runs	PA	Bats	HR Log
	Juan Soto (9, 27)	253	4951	L	HR Log
	Andre Thornton (14)	253	6295	R	HR Log
	Todd Zeile (16)	253	8649	R	HR Log
254.	Bret Boone (14)	252	7433	R	HR Log
	Bobby Murcer (17)	252	7718	L	HR Log
	Joe Torre+ (18)	252	8802	R	HR Log
257.	Tony Armas (14)	251	5502	R	HR Log
	Tony Clark (15)	251	5120	B	HR Log
	Cy Williams (19)	251	7727	L	HR Log
	Robin Yount+ (20)	251	12249	R	HR Log
261.	José Valentín (16)	249	6317	B	HR Log

 Sisters of My Parents : Aunts to Be Remembered

    Some thoughts about my aunts, most of whom have passed on by now. One remains: Alma. Well, my uncles' wives are still alive, plus the step-sister of of my dad. 

    Ann, Kay, and Mary. Ann is the second and long time wife my mom's only brother. They have been together over 50 years. Kay (Kaye) is the widow of the my dad's only brother, who had five sons, all with my last name. Marie moved to Montreal, Canada, and is one of the three Swiniarski children of my biological grandmother, the mom of my father, who died when he was 16 year-old.

    The grandparent legally adopted him, making his uncle and aunts his new official siblings.

    My mom's sisters were all older: Mary, Alma, and Jeannette. My dad's sisters (aunts) were below the age of his mom, Francis: Dorothy, Maude, Marjorie, and Barbara.

    I have some thoughts and memories of all of them. I will try to share a few.

    The living women are great. I will try to outlive them and speak more on them later.

The Downtrodden and Forgotten - We cannot leave them to Suffer

    Lately I was thinking of whole peoples, societies, that are suffering and going through incredibly hard times in 2026. South Sudan. Gaza Strip. Southern Lebanon. Who else? Perhaps some other African nations have particular suffering, like in the Congo. I think there has been more misery there in the last 30 years than any place on earth. Ukraine and so many others there have gone through awful misery and woe, more than Europe has seen in decades.

    I think of global hot spots or places of war and disease; we often forget of what is happening in our own back yard.

    This afternoon we drove through a large part of Baltimore, on a clear and sunny Sunday afternoon. I noticed some people hanging out in a plaza square. I commented, have jokingly, that they were homeless. No, they were just hanging out, right? I thought. But another observed that they were people without homes, or unhoused folks, as some refer to them as some refer to them trying not to offend.

    Can we forget them?

    No, we should not.

    What would Jesus do?

    What would Mohammed say?

    How would a great rabbi react?

    What would the Buddha wish or proclaim?

    How should we deal with the downtrodden and forgotten?

    Only let them remain so?

 Big Thinkers; Feeling Small, Write a Bit

    My certain friend accuses my daughter and I of being big thinkers. Sure, who cannot think big if you read Yuval Harari, Jared Diamond, and Peter Frankopan?

    We can think big. Many people do. That process and those feelings can make us feel rather small, but by "using our voices", a word that certain friend just used for her own identity and development, we can possibly make a difference.

    Possibly. We cannot know unless we try.

    We try to think, to establish thoughts. From them we alight upon words, paragraphs, poems and songs, even articles, reports, and books. Books! Gadzooks. Even books.

    Some books that I have tried writing have not come to fruition. However, my daughter is aware of them; she may go on and print the wisps and fringes of some of my incomplete notions. My own father has written and published at least three books. He has mentioned the story of a fourth, but that is not likely to happen.

    The seeds and inspirations lie within me, the son. And the grand daughter may be a beneficiary of the hopes and seeds as well. We plant hopes and dreams as we go.

    My book begun in Chile, that was supposed to be 52 chapters but only has turned into seven, was about a young brother and sister, perhaps around 500 A.D., who travel with their family across the north to south length of Chile in order to say good bye to their grandfather at the end of the world.

    Only seven chapters, each representing a province of Chile, as there were 52.

    Years before that as a graduate student at UCLA I was writing a book, more or less reflexive and with autobiographic underpinnings, about Mexico.

    Most recently a book about an American or U.S. contractor in Afghanistan.

    Books begun, developed, somewhat fleshed out, but unfinished and unpublished.

    Seeds in the hopper, ready to disseminate and bloom.

    Thinking big, acting small, but working their way to the surface, and the world.

    Inter-generational and inspirational, influential and ongoing.

    Writing a bit.

    Thinking a bit about those disempowered around the globe. 

    The Israelis have been put in between a rock and a few hard places, with millions of Arabs surrounding them and others around the world that care too much or too little, or somewhere in the middle.

    There a few million in South Sudan, on the edge of starvation, being malnourished, and no one cares much. Okay, maybe some paid United Nations folks, and some non-government organizations, and some well meaning people, including some churches and humanitarians.

    All right, there are people who care.

    But we cannot make enough of a difference for so many of them.

    So, a few of us write a bit.