Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Never Seen That Before

My car is taking a beating. Friday, in the parking lot of a municipal court in a city out to the west of here, someone took a hammer to my car's windshield. He or she hit it twice, as far as I can figure, based on the pattern of the crack. Things like that happen ... it wouldn't have been my client, who was quite pleased with the outcome of his case; but it was probably someone who was not so satisfied and took it out on whatever was close at hand. We can be happy that there wasn't a skull close by.

I told you that to tell you this. Today, I actually saw the crack meander half-heartedly across the windshield, stopping in the middle, then a few minutes later, take a little downward turn right in front of me as I was driving, coursing toward the edge at the driver's side, then stop. Finally, it decided to drop down just before reaching the side and dived into the dashboard.

That was pretty cool. Little things tend to amuse me.

As you may or may not know, I'm a baseball fan.

I hate the American League's designated hitter rule. Also, having been a catcher, I find the practice of some guy on the bench signaling to the catcher what the next pitch to a batter should be insulting; however, I realize that the modern-day catcher, as opposed to someone in the Carlton Fisk or Johnny Bench or John Roseboro mold, lacks an education in the philosophy of pitching so as to give meaning, again, to the phrase "tools of ignorance," which the catcher wears for protection.

I could go on about my dissatisfaction with Major League baseball, but I will truncate my diatribe and say that I am extremely disappointed that my first childhood baseball idol, Minnie Minoso, was denied a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame today. Minnie played for the Cleveland Indians before I was born, breaking in for a cup of coffee in 1949 with the team that broke the American League color barrier, and, again, returning to Cleveland from the White Sox, for which he played from 1951 to 1957, and should have won the Rookie of the Year Award (after hitting .326 and leading the league in stolen bases) to the winner, Yankee Gil McDougald (.306 average, and whose major claim to fame was hitting a line drive into the eye of phenom pitcher Herb Score), when I first became acquainted with Major League baseball in 1958. Minnie Minoso started in the Negro Leagues and was one of the players to create the bridge to Major League baseball, who, by virtue of his play for three years for the New York Cubans (batting over .300 for those three years, helping beat the Cleveland Buckeyes in the Negro World Series in 1947 and 1948) and his play in the Majors, in which he hit a lifetime .298, made seven appearances as an All-Star, and won the Gold Glove three times, among his other accomplishments, deserves a bronze plaque and place in Cooperstown. And he is still alive. To deny him a spot, while alive, in the Hall of Fame is disgraceful.

The Negro Leagues special committee did, however, elect the first woman to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Effa Manley ran the Newark Eagles for 10 years. Under her leadership, the team won the Negro World Series in 1946. She was, in addition to being a successful businesswoman, a champion of Black civil rights.

Posted by Bill at February 27, 2006 06:15 PM