Juan Soto Cracks his 99th Career Homer, Joins Elite Young Hitters Club

     I was streaming the first game of the season on Dofu sports on the phone, and listening to the local radio broadcast on the Alexa electronic smart listening device, or whatever you call those. The Nats lost to the Mets 5-1 in a delayed game that started at 8:25 instead of the original 4 pm opening day start at National's Park.

    Opening Day. Not a big one, in my opinion, but significant in this day of the lockout overcome, shortened exhibition season, and post-pandemic times of April 2022.

    The crowd was not that great. People are high on the Metropolitans and low on our local DMV team. Soto is great, as always.

Look at this list of youngest to hit 100, which La Verdad (my nickname for him) is about to join:

1.	NL	Mel Ott	New York	22y 132d
2.	AL	Tony Conigliaro	Boston	22y 197d
3.	NL	Eddie Mathews	Boston/Milwaukee	22y 292d
4.	AL	Alex Rodriguez	Seattle	23y 016d
5.	NL	Andruw Jones	Atlanta	23y 062d
6.	NL	Miguel Cabrera	Florida	23y 127d
7.	NL	Johnny Bench	Cincinnati	23y 161d
8.	NL	Bryce Harper	Washington	23y 181d
9.	NL	Ronald Acuna Jr.	Atlanta	23y 184d
10.	NL	Albert Pujols	St. Louis	23y 185d
11.	NL	Hank Aaron	Milwaukee	23y 200d
12.	AL	Ken Griffey, Jr.	Seattle	23y 206d
13.	NL	Giancarlo Stanton	Miami	23y 221d
14.	NL	Frank Robinson	Cincinnati	23y 230d
15.	AL	Mickey Mantle	New York	23y 242d
16.	AL	Jimmie Foxx	Philadelphia	23y 250d
17.	AL	Mike Trout	Los Angeles	23y 253d
18.	AL	Ted Williams	Boston	23y 264d
19.	AL	Juan Gonzalez	Texas	23y 269d
20.	AL	Joe DiMaggio	New York	23y 273d
21.	NL	Orlando Cepeda	San Francisco	23y 295d
22.	AL	Hal Trosky	Cleveland	23y 307d

Here is Juan's current age:

Born: October 25, 1998 (Age: 23-165d) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic do

Debut: May 20, 2018 (Age 19-207d, 21,652nd in major league history)
   vs. LAD 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB

He is between Jonny Bench and Bryce Harper to join the list.

It was relatively chilly last night, but the Childish Bambino still sent the ball 428 feet to right center. I think that he can hit 50 this year. Then again, he does walk a lot, and there are not a lot of great hitters in the lineup.

The rest of the division is expected to spank the Nats this season. The Braves won it all, New York, Philly, and Miami have all improved, allegedly.

He was on the 968 all time list with these other players at the end of last season:

968.	Michael Barrett (12)	98	3873	R	HR Log
	Welington Castillo (10, 34)	98	2701	R	HR Log
	Greg Colbrunn (13)	98	3017	R	HR Log
	Gordy Coleman (9)	98	2604	L	HR Log
	Frankie Crosetti (17)	98	7274	R	HR Log
	Danny Espinosa (8)	98	3267	B	HR Log
	Hoot Evers (12)	98	4310	R	HR Log
	Butch Hobson (8)	98	2799	R	HR Log
	Todd Hollandsworth (12)	98	3492	L	HR Log
	Chuck Knoblauch (12)	98	7387	R	HR Log
	David Peralta (8, 33)	98	3418	L	HR Log
	Lonnie Smith (17)	98	5952	R	HR Log
	Juan Soto (4, 22)	98	2003	L	HR Log
	Jonathan Villar (9, 30)	98	3714	B	HR Log
	Ozzie Virgil (11)	98	2555	R	HR Log
	Pete Ward (9)	98	3512	L	HR Log
	Glenn Wilson (10)	98	4468	R	HR Log

Now, as of yesterday April 7, 2022.

962.	Garrett Atkins (8)	99	3273	R	HR Log
	Geoff Blum (14)	99	4393	B	HR Log
	David DeJesus (13)	99	5916	L	HR Log
	Johnny Grubb (16)	99	4823	L	HR Log
	Craig Paquette (11)	99	2766	R	HR Log
	Juan Soto (5, 23)	99	2007	L	HR Log
	Craig Wilson (7)	99	2311	R	HR Log

Pretty good, Truth. The Truth is Juan Ese.

Hunter Biden - Ugly Things

I have been reading the Hunter Biden memoir "Beautiful Things".

I feel for the guy; I recognize that he has had his share of pain and tragedy. I also acknowledge that you have worked on some good humane and philanthropical causes. Thank you for that. However, I think the thing that bothers me the most about Hunter's life, and his lack of awareness, is that through his drug use, which he has survived personally to an admirable degree, from all accounts, is that his illegal drug consumption has probably killed a good number of Black and brown people.

Check that, no matter what color or ethnic group we are, we are all people, and we all count.

Don't follow?

Hear me out.

    Whether you are white, American, Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian, Black, Asian, male or female, high income or low income, pro-drug or anti-drug, here is what the world is and how our laws work: illicit drug production, distribution, and consumption are against the law. Like it or not, those are the rules and how our society is based.

    Lately, marijuana and cannabis laws have eased up a bit in most parts of the United States. Fine. Laws that allow drugs to be legalized are what they are. Nicotine and alcohol, among other chemicals, have had a long history of legality and propriety among the people. Hunter Biden himself tells us of the travails of alcohol addiction.

    Understood, loud and clear. Pernicious. But unless you literally poison yourself to death, or drive drunk and kill others by that line of irresponsible stupidity, then the sales and consumption of legal spirits is not leading to many deaths.

    That is on the individual and the family, until it isn't, in thousands or by now millions of drunk driving fatalities.

    Hunter has opened up to lots of crack cocaine purchases and consumption.

    Hunter and everyone, I am here to inform you. These purchases lead to a lot of deaths, usually violent and under-noticed. Why under-noticed?

    Because the main victims of the illegal drug trade are brown and Black, and most of our "white formatted" society does not recognize what kills our brothers and sisters in the thousands yearly through these illegal sales. I am not talking only Americans, either. I value the lives of Mexicans and Salvadorans, Colombians, Bolivians, and Peruvians.

    Thousands upon thousands die, from the middle of South America all the way to the local neighborhoods and ghettos among us privileged Americans.

Hunter, how much has your addiction and consumption of crack, aka "hard" as you know it intimately, has contributed to the deaths, most of them violent, against your fellow human beings? Two? Five? Fifteen?

Hunter, you have killed a lot of humanity, like it or not.

Don't buy my narrative? Don't believe that this process is true?

Like it or not, it is true. The illegal drug trade kills people regularly and viciously.

When you are a part of it, you have become complicit.

If you don't like it, fine. Fight the system legally and legislate and vote against it.

Again, when you buy illegal drugs, you are taking part in the death of gang members and their innocent victims domestically, and many growers and runners and law enforcement and other extorted victims externally.

Mexico is out of control. Death upon death, as gruesome, grotesque, horrific, and terrifying as anything in Iraq or Afghanistan.

HUNTER BIDEN. Own your guilt.

Your Chinese or Ukrainian money, (you tell journalists that you will not "open your kimono" about your earnings), funded death upon death upon death. Mostly Black  and brown people.

Shame on you.

SHAME ON YOU!

I know from your book that Beau, your beloved brother, was a great guy.

He went to Iraq. He fought for us, for you.

What will you do to redeem yourself? I believe in redemption, foregiveness.

However, part of the repentance process is to recognize your guilt, complicity, and impact. Consequences of our actions.

Start now.

Best of luck. God bless you and us.

I mean that.

 CCR sings "I ain't no Senator's son! No!"

Hunter: "it ain't me". It's you.

Hergeisa - It Does not Exist to Most of Us

 Hergeisa - It Does not Exist to Most of Us

    And much of it just burned in a fire. Two billion dollars worth.

     A large marketplace had a tragic fire destroying much of the goods and wealth of those that gather and sell in the center of the capital of Somaliland.

    For many of us who like to pay attention to the matters of the world, I cannot recall seeing this city on a map, or listed many places. Although, there are thousands of cities that I have looked at on maps, and it is hard to remember them all.

    But this one is considered a capital, albeit of a land that is not officially recognized.

    Somaliland broke off from Somalia - Mogadishu back in 1991, when I was living in South America and not supposed to be paying attention to world news.

    No one died, this is good. However, the lives of many have been put in extreme stress, I would guess, based on the financial losses.

    Much worse things are going on in the world, with random shootings in the United States, a war in Ukraine now stretching over a month, continued fighting in the country of Yemen, violence in forgotten places like eastern Congo. 

    But I would like to recognize that a lot of people of our planet have lost a lot, not too many days ago.

    Hergeisa. It exists to me.

2022 NCAA Final Four: My Point of View

 2022 NCAA Final Four: My Point of View

This far into any college basketball season I usually have written a few things about it, especially in relation to Indiana University and occasionally BYU. Even women's, which in both cases were better than the men's teams this year. 

But now we are at the Final Four, and I wanted to share my thoughts and hopes.

By way of explanation, I am a lifelong Indiana University fan, and I was spoiled as a kid when we used to win national championships. It has been a long haul ever since. 

I watch the other blue bloods, Indiana no longer being a part of it, adding rings to their lifetime numbers, specifically Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, and now Villanova and even Connecticut. All are surpassing or catching up with IU's all-time NCAA final victories, accomplished in 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, and 1987. 

Ancient history to many. The closest wiff of a final victory came and went in 2002, and yes, that is now two decades in the rear window.

As we speak, or as I am writing, UNC is playing #15 St. Peter's, who just upset Purdue to be the first seed of this number to make it to the Elite 8. The Peacocks will lose, and the Tar Heels will advance. (Tar Heels off to a 7-0 lead to start.)

Between these schools which have made it to the end, UNC has 6 championships, Duke has 5, Kansas has 4, and Villanova 3.

So, I would rather Duke win 6 than UNC get 7. This would mean Mike Kwieshevsky would win his sixth ever. His last year. Fitting for some. A Bob Knight protégé, he did spend one year in my hometown Bloomington. Then went back to Army, where Knight trained him, and then to Duke to make a lot of history. He has made his 13th Final Four, which breaks the record by John Wooden of UCLA. And yes, UCLA still has their overall all-time 11 rings. Most of them achieved from before the Knight era ranging from 1971 to 2000. And Wooden, for the record, is from Martinsville, Indiana, a mere 25 miles from Bloomington in southern Indiana, again, where I am born and raised.

    Wooden also graduated from Purdue University, an Indiana state school with many great teams over the decades, many of whom have choked, as they just did as a 4 seed two nights ago. They even claim that they won a couple national championships BEFORE the NCAA tournament began in 1939. For the record, the NIT tourney had a huge prestige and respect along the lines of the NCAA before Wooden cemented the March Madness of the dejour times as defined now.

So, I would rather Duke win than UNC, and I would rather have Kansas win than either; I would rather have Villanova win than the Carolina teams, but the Wildcats have won too many too recently, so the Jayhawks would be better. IU beat them twice in the 1940s and 1950s, so it is about time that the great program catches up with IU at five, maybe. They definitely have had many excellent teams the last 25 years, and only have won it all once.

So there's that. 

Make sense?

It will be decided a week from now.

So be it, college basketball.

Love it, hate it, dream it, long for it. 

Next year, Mike Woodson will be better. In Bloomington.

So will BYU, right.

Of course.

Thinking of Mama on her 8th Anniversary of Passing

The day passed like many others. Yesterday. March Fourth.

But I did remember her often. I walked from my barracks and I heard the birds sing.

Asfoor. Ittuyur. Ghorabi.

I made mention of her a few times during the day. I told a joke or two that she shared with me. 

I remarked on some advice that she gave me.

8 years. I remember my mom when I was 8. And 18. and 28. And 38.

When I was 48 it had been 5 years since she was gone.

Such is life. And death.

And longing.

I love and remember my mom.

__________

I was going to write more. But I will end it with that.

I love you. I remember you.

Silly and fun, spiritual and giving.

Blessed and lucky to have her.

She called me, and wrote me over a hundred letters in South America and Utah, her # 1 son.

March Fourth, mom, as your mother Nellie said is the only date mentioned in the Holy Bible.

We will march fourth into eternity, smiling and laughing, and hearing the birds sing.