Mar 17A wee bit o’ baseball history for St. Paddy’s DayHughie Jennings: From Coal Mines to Cooperstown In 1869, Hughie Jennings became the ninth of 12 children born into a Pittston, Pa., coal mining family. At age 12, Jennings dropped out of school to work as a breaker boy in the mines near Scranton where he picked slate from coal…Baseball History3 min readBaseball History3 min read
Feb 20Parolees Arriving in U.S. Want White-Collar JobsPresident Joe Biden, the magic man who can convert illegal immigration into legal immigration with the stroke of his pen, took bows at his State of the Union address. Biden tried to convey the impression that granting immigration parole to illegal aliens from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba converted their…Immigration3 min readImmigration3 min read
Feb 20Presidents’ DayWoodrow Wilson’s Lifelong Love Affair with America’s Game U.S. presidents’ love affair with baseball dates back to George Washington who wrote in his journal that during Valley Forge he “sometimes throws and catches a ball for hours with his aide-de-camp.” Every president since Washington, except Teddy Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge…Baseball3 min readBaseball3 min read
Feb 14A Valentine’s Day Love Story, with Some Baseball HistoryDon Zimmer Married Soot Bauerle at Home Plate, 1951 During Don Zimmer’s 66-year career in professional baseball, the scrappy infielder shook Babe Ruth’s hand, posed for pictures with Clark Gable and Lana Turner, and played with Brooklyn Dodgers’ Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. Zimmer also played as…4 min read4 min read
Jan 27MLB-China Partnership Sending Ballplayers to U.S.The New Year we’re moving into this week under the Chinese Lunar calendar is the Year of the Rabbit, considered the luckiest of the 12 animal signs to be born under in the Chinese zodiac. While some may be born to it, others’ luck is made through lucrative CCP deals. …Baseball4 min readBaseball4 min read
Jan 19Population Pressures Contribute to Great Salt Lake Going DryUtah’s Great Salt Lake may disappear within the next five years, experts predict. A Brigham Young University report found that as of January 2023, the lake is 19 feet below its average level. …Great Salt Lake3 min readGreat Salt Lake3 min read
Jan 5Mid-Term Voters Prefer Status QuoThat’s Bad News for Change Advocates Voters are, to understate their mood, disenchanted with Congress. Yet paradoxically, voters re-elect, over and over, the same representatives they hold in dismally low esteem, consider ineffectual and out-of-touch. On average for 2022, about 80 percent of polling respondents disapproved of how congressional representatives…3 min read3 min read
Dec 7, 2022MLF Umpire Augie Donatelli Learned his Trade in German POW CampDuring World War II, 130,000 American soldiers and nearly 19,000 U.S. civilians were prisoners of war. In all but the worst circumstances, usually the Japanese camps where POWs lived in brutally inhumane conditions, a little recreation was possible, and baseball was the preferred pastime. In his book, “POW Baseball in…Baseball3 min readBaseball3 min read
Nov 30, 2022Race to Earth’s 9 Billionth Human is UnderwayThe arrival of the planet’s 8 billionth human inhabitant, which the United Nations excitedly announced in mid-November, was greeted in some circles as a joyous event. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed 8 billion people as an occasion “to celebrate diversity and enhancements.” For other population growth enthusiasts, 2037 can’t come…Overpopulation3 min readOverpopulation3 min read
Nov 10, 2022On Veterans Day, Washington Senators’ Cecil Travis, Forgotten HeroBaseball history is rich with inspiring stories about Hall of Fame players who served with distinction during World War II, then returned to the diamond, and picked up their stellar careers exactly where they left off. In 1942, Marine Corp Captain Ted Williams hit .356; came back in 1946 to…Baseball3 min readBaseball3 min read
