iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Just a end of summer ramble

Started by Jeff, August 30, 2010, 06:02:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Jeff

Growing up I was always a baseball fan. I loved the Detroit Tigers. I loved to listen to Ernie Harwell on the radio and wondered how he could instantly know, that a young man from Houghton Lake Michigan, or some other Michigan town had caught that foul ball or got that home run ball within seconds of its reaching the stands.

  I also loved to play. I'd ride my bike 7 miles to Little League practice with my mitt threaded on the handle bars of my old bike when my folks were to busy to take me. I was a pitcher. When I didn't pitch, I played first base.  Right handed kids feared me when I pitched because I was a right hander that threw a full side armed fastball that they always thought was going to hit them. I was a good pitcher, but that was back in the days before they understood that you could wreck a kid by using them to much. I was pretty much wrecked by my junior year in highschool.  But I still loved the game.  By then it was George Kell and Al Kaline doing the T.V. announcing and I loved to watch.  I never got to go to any games as a kid growing up in Northern Michigan, but I seldom missed one on radio or when they would play on one of the 3 T.V. stations we got.

Into my sawmill days, it was always a big deal to have the radio on in the saw booth for opening day so I could report to the other mill hands as the game progressed. I loved the game and when I watched them on T.V. I knew all of the players just by the way they stood at the plate.

Then came the 1994-95 season when the players walked out. They Struck. Cecil Fielder was our big gun back in those days and I loved to see him come to the plate. Then the players walked out.  I don't remember now what it was that big Cecil said, but it made my blood boil. It made me mad. I swore I was done watching those ungrateful millionaires play the game I loved and that's what I did. I quit watching, I quit following, I just removed it from my life. Yea, I'm a vindictive unforgiving SOB.

Fast forward 15 years.  I don't know why or how, but at the beginning of this season my disdain for professional baseball somehow disapeared. Maybe it was the HD T.V. we got at Christmas. I dunno. On our cable channels they broadcast every single Tiger game so I had plenty of chances to get hooked again. Early in the year I found myself watching a game without the past revulsion and found myself once again unconsciously enjoying it. I'm finding I've lost a whole generation of ball players in by absence as a fan, but I'm starting to know the names again, and have my favorites already. The Rookies are exciting and Cabrera is amazing. I'm getting to where I know many of the tigers again on how they stand at the plate.

   Our Tiger's looked liked they might have been contenders for awhile this year, then several injuries and losses after the all star break pretty much has them far enough back in the standings behind Minnesota and Chicago to have any real chance this year. But you never know.  :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Norm

I had the same reaction to the strike. Only in the last couple of years have I started watching again and then quite infrequently. Maybe it's time to let bygones be bygones. :)

We lived on a farm and baseball was not something my dad thought was worthwhile so no games for me.

SwampDonkey

With my father is was basketball and hockey. With me, I'm not really into sports. Dad goes to local hockey games in the winter months at the Woodstock arena. Our little village of Centreville had a really good basketball team back in the day. Dad used to take us the basketball games to watch them play, but we were quite young. We liked going to those Grand Prix Wrestling matches much better at the local arenas. Those guys basically began the WWF you see today and were mostly Canadian wrestlers. My father would watch those wrestling matches for hours on satellite TV. When we were younger we had our own home grown wrestling with father, but he always over powered us usually ending up being steam rolled. When your an 80 lb kid being steamed by a 280lb dad.........;) :D :D

Summer ain't over yet, it's 90 degrees during the day and about 70 at night. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Warbird

My experience has been different than yours.  I also gave up on baseball during 'the strike'.  I was never as avid a fan as you but even so, I tried getting back into a bit a few years ago.  And then I learned of all the steroid scandals and everything that goes along with that.  For me, whatever allure the game had way back when, it is still gone.

Now hockey...  that's a completely different story.  ;) 

If you've rediscovered an old friend in baseball, I'm happy for ya, Jeff.  Maybe someday I'll get back into it a bit but it ain't pulling at me, yet.

ps.  Summer ain't over yet!!  I got too much to get done!

LeeB

Summer shore enough ain't over here. I'm sweating buckets full. Gotta drink a half gallon of water every 3 - 4 hours to keep hydrated. I can't even imagine playing any sport in this heat and it's the middle of the night right now. They tell me it will cool off a little in November.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Jeff

Its not over but its near the end, and yea, it was in the 90's in Michigan today too. :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Mooseherder

Second Base was my position.
I used to be into Baseball big time until the second strike.  
I had forgave them the first time but they still haven't got me back.
We were in a Home Run Fantasy league and I was in the lead up until the strike.  :D
My Son In Law and my future Son In Law are both Pitchers and had great scholorships.
If I watch any Baseball it is because they come over and change the channel to Baseball. :D
Both of them have had Tommy John surgery. :(
My daughter's boyfriend Dan was on the championship Miami Hurricane Team and then chased his dream playing in the minors for a few years.  They are both Great guys and best of friends.
Dan now sells insurance for a Commercial division.  Kevin is Fleet Sales Manager at a Chevy Dealer.

http://hurricanesports.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/touchet_dan00.html

Don_Papenburg

I was never into pro  baseball ,But in the early 70s  a guy I worled with was a diehard cub fan . He would bring his radio to work and we would listen to the cubs lose .  One day they had a 9 run lead going into the 7th  .  Jack was so happy the cubs were going to win !  So I asked what inning is it? He said the 7th . I then said the game ain't over yet .  (I rootted for the other teams)  By the end of the 8th the cubs had blown the lead  and then lost it . 
I had a good time a few years ago at a game at wrigley the cubs vs the cards .  them diehard cub fans blamed me for the loss .  Oh what fun. 
I also like to mention the fact that the white sox have won  the world series a couple of times since the cubs were in the series a century ago
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

pigman

I have not been to or watched a major league game since the strike. We use to go to at least one game a year and did attend several when Cincinnati had the "Big Red Machine". We have been to a couple of minor league games at Louisville. Growing up on a farm, I never got to play any baseball, but did play some softball after military service.
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

metalspinner

Baseball is my favorate sport.  The Braves have been my team since the early 80's when Dale Murphey and Bob Horner were doing their thing.  I can remember watching them every night on TBS.  Boy, they had some bad teams in the mid to late 80's. ::)

But it all changed when Sid Bream came around third base and slid under the tag at home plate. 8) 8) 8) 

We got married in October of '95 and I can remember sneaking around the bed and breakfast during our honeymoon looking for a TV to watch the World Series. :D Hey, she knew what she was marrying! :D :D

The Braves organization seems to do things differently than the other large market teams.  Their minor league system feeds lots of talent into the majors and their young players stick with the team for long periods of time. That certainly is not the norm in this day and age.

I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

sawguy21

I got thoroughly ticked by the strike too, the Expo's had a real shot at the playoffs. We dreamed of them against the Jays at the big dance, :D Rumor had it was MLB management that killed that. The networks would not have stood for two furrin' teams in the world series.
The steroids scandal ruined it, I guess this was inevitable given the salaries and the egos, but a wonderful game got killed by greed. Saturday afternoon at Telus Field sucking on a hot dog watching the Edmonton Trappers... ah the memories.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Cedarman

St Louis for me in the 60's with Bob Gibson and Lou Brock stealing bases.  Strike did it in and I have never been back.  Have too many other things to do now.
Never played Little League, but we played a huge amount of pickup ball in our neighborhood.  All softball, no baseball.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

old joe

Yo
u guys are a good bit younger than I.  I gave it up when the dodgers left Brooklyn!!
They broke my little kid's heart

Joe
THE NEW YANKEE TIL A NEWER ONE ARRIVES THEN I\'LL BE THE OLD YANKEE

Jeff

Its amazing how many of us that strike effected.

Give it another go guys. I'm enjoying the games again. You can too.  :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

isawlogs

I used to love watching my grandmother sit back and her would be watching the Expo's play on tv. That was always intertainment, man good thing she did not get her hands on any one of the managers  :o :D :D :D
I had better things to do later on then watch them play ball  smiley_gorgeous smiley_beertoast
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Tom

Joe, It's funny you mention that. The Dodgers leaving Brooklyn broke my heart too.  I think that was the first of my disenchantment with Major League Baseball.

The Dodgers Spring Training Camp was in Vero, just 15 miles north of my hometown.  We kids, along about driving age, would go to watch.  Baseball was fun because it was a local competition.  We considered The Dodgers as our team but still reveled in the glory of stars on other teams.  The big day was when the New York Yankees would come to Dodger Field and there woujld be an exhibition game.  This was also my my first disenchantment with the "stars'.   It broke my heart to see Mickey Mantle  sitting in center field with his glove off and laying between his knees.  It just wasn't right for someone to not care like that.  I began to hate the Yankees.

The Player strike caught me as an adult and finished me as a fan of Major League Baseball.  I can still get a high off of the minors but really get excited with college, highschool and youth ball of all sorts.  Why?  It's because there is more to it than just watching a "star".  Youth ball is made up of teams of friends who are playing friends.  There is a real competition there the same as you find in High School Ball where the players who represent a town are actually from that town.  Baseball, and most sports, begin to fall apart when recruiters get involved.  The players no longer represent the community and the idea of a team begins to fall apart.  This begins in college ball.  When the Major league players begin to measure their allegiance to community by whomever pays them the most, the team theme is gone. I would just about as soon watch a game played by robots since the players no longer represent anything but themselves.

I still enjoy a good game of baseball, but I'd just about as soon watch a professional tire changer as those deserters who went to Los Angeles.

doctorb

Jeff-  great topic.

I am still a disgruntled SOB about it.  For years following the strike I pondered starting a charitable organization entitled " Just Don't Go".  I wanted to use single letters from each team's logo (Like the swirling O in Orioles or the overlapping NY in New York) and place one of them them into that title -Just Don't Go!  I would sell these regional bumper stickers throughout each team's geogaphic area for $1.00 and donate every penny to the downtrodden in those cities whose heroes had deserted them and who felt no allegiance to the town where they played.

I used to go to 30 - 40 games at Memorial stadium a year in Baltimore.  I would walk to the park and sit in the upper deck unreserved seats for $1.50.  We won pennants back then with 20,000 people in attendance each night.  Now we have Camden yards, which is filled with corporate people in skyboxes who don't know the first thing about baseball, watching millionaire players on a terrible baseball team. 

When professional sports shows a glimmer of understanding what they mean to the community in which they play, when they stop this free-agency merry-go-round that permits players to jump from one team to another without commitment, and when they show some decency in their personal lives....that's when I'll go back.  I am a big believer in forgiveness, but my life has become filled with so many other important and entertaining people and things, that it is better that baseball and I just parted ways.  Sorry about the rant.  Just Don't Go!  I would much rather have made it to the pigroast!

doctorb
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

Jeff

I guess, if I could point to one event that won me back this year, was an exhibition of sportsmanship that in my book has had no equal on the professional baseball field. I would think most of you would have heard about it, or saw something about it in the national news, even if you don't watch baseball or know nothing of the Detroit Tigers.  It was the reaction and conduct of Armando Galarraga after his "near-perfect game"

I've never seen such grace. I'd like to think I could react the same way as he did, and conduct myself as such a gentleman, but I truly don't think, that if I was placed in the exact same position, I could have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Galarraga%27s_near-perfect_game

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

doctorb

Jeff-

Agreed.  I should not paint with such a broad brush, and his calm throughout that incident was inspiring and remarkable.  On the other hand, Roger Clemens is sitting in front of Congress today spending our tax dollars because of steroids, cheating, deception, and a selfish lack of fair play.  I don't want to look at just the negative, but I sincerely believe that pro sports needs revamping.  It won't hapen, I am not that naive, but it would be nice.

Doctorb
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

DanG

Doc, I totally agree that pro sports needs an overhaul, but I'm not so sure about the Clemens issue.  He is not the one spending our tax money, it is a Congress who has chosen to install itself as a defacto court system.  They ordered him to be there.  Whatever happened to the "innocent until proven guilty" premise?  What are they going to do to him if they find him guilty?  Are they going to take all those wins away and award them to someone else who was also using steroids?

The root of the sports problems is the huge money that players are paid in salaries and endorsements.  I have a big problem with companies like Nike, who can pay Tiger Woods millions of $ for wearing a swoosh on his shirt, while making obscene profits with virtual slave labor. >:(

Enough ranting though, because I like baseball.  It is a very relaxing game to watch, and I enjoy seeing a good play no matter who makes it.  I really enjoyed a Devil Rays vs Red Sox game the other evening, watched with the sound muted with my Dad.  One of the Rays' players, I don't remember who, hit a homer with 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th.  The celebration at home plate was something to see! :) :) :)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

doctorb

DanG-
I agree that congress is acting rediculously over this issue.  They have no place spending one minute of their time on baseball and steroids.  Clemens is just an outstanding example of lack of fairness and arrogance and priviledge, unfortunate qualities of today's pro sports.  While I may sound like a madman over this issue, purging the avid baseball fan out of me has allowed more time with my family, my farm, and some good books.

I have a friend who is a director for NBC sports.  He agrees with you that the huge $ are the problem.  What he pointed out to me is that watching games on TV, while cheap for you and me, puts a significant amount of money on the table for these teams and players.  It's the TV contracts that allow these huge saleries, not the expensive tickets at the stadium.  I am not saying that you shouldn't enjoy the game.  I am saying that enough is enough and until the public takes a stand against the problem of pro sports, it will only get worse.  You can't ignore that scenario you described in the bottom of the 10th inning.  And with that kind of attraction, I don't see any movement back toward reality in pro sports in the near future.

Doctorb
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

gary

I tried watching a baseball game. I found watching paint dry more interesting

Jeff

Are you confusing baseball and soccer?
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

metalspinner

Anyone seen that fella in Cinncinatti throwing the 105 MPH heater? :o 

I always thought it would be cool to stand in the batters box and listen to a major league fastball fly by.  But I don't think I have the guts. :(
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

Jeff

Did you see the latest stones we picked up in superior?  You gotta get your boys up there. Its amazing. Everyone of them is spectacular in my book.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

pigman

You mean they are using stones for baseballs now. :o And throwing them at you at 105 MPH. ???
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

Jeff

I'm a dummy, I was sending a pm to metalspinner and I posted it instead.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

DanG

I thought you were hijacking your own thread! :D :D :D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

isawlogs


Jeff ....  brings back some memories  :o :D :D :D
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Jeff

Does anyone know who Ray Lane is?
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Thank You Sponsors!