Yankee4Life

You're welcome. And if you can think of someone just let me know. Just be sure to check the list of completed players and if you do check the list that is in alphabetical order. It's easier that way.

You start over.

Sparky Lyle Albert Walter “Sparky” Lyle never started a game in his 16-year major league career, has 238 career saves, and was the first American League relief pitcher to win a Cy Young Award (1977). Breaking into the major leagues on July 4, 1967, in the seventh inning at Anaheim Stadium. Al “Sparky” Lyle made his big debut just 18 days before his 23rd birthday, facing the California Angels. After Russ Gibson batted for Sox pitcher Darrell Brandon in the top of the seventh, Lyle came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning with the Red Sox down, 4-1. He gave up a base hit to Jimmie Hall, but then struck out Rick Reichardt, got Buck Rodgers on a ground out (catcher to first), and struck out Tom Satriano. In the eighth inning, he walked a batter and threw a wild pitch but escaped other damage. Ken Poulsen batted for Lyle in the ninth, but the Red Sox lost the game, 4-3. In the two innings he pitched, Lyle gave up one hit, walked one, allowed no runs, and struck out three. From then until season’s end, he pitched 43 1/3 innings, gave up 33 hits and struck out 42, and had a 1-2 won-lost record. He did not appear in the World Series due to a sore arm. In 1968, Lyle was 6-1 with 11 saves, settling in to a role as the team’s primary left-handed reliever. The following season, he pitched 102 2/3 innings, chalked up 17 saves and had 93 strikeouts, along with his 8-3 record. This season made him one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. In the next two seasons he logged 36 more saves, leading the team in that category three straight seasons. His future looked bright. Lyle became one of the game’s dominant relievers of the 1970’s, but it most of his best seasons came with the team’s hated rivals. In what many Red Sox fans consider the team’s worst trade of the past 50 years, Lyle was traded during spring training in 1972, to the New York Yankees for first baseman Danny Cater and a player to be named later (Mario Guerrero). Cater batted an abysmal .237 in his first year with the Red Sox, although he rebounded in 1973, hitting .313 in 63 games. Meanwhile, the Dominican shortstop Guerrero struggled with a .233 batting average in 1973. From 1972 through 1978, Lyle established himself as the Yankees’ bullpen ace. He helped lead the Yankees to three straight pennants from 1976-1978 and World Series titles in 1977 and 1978. Saving 35 games in 1972, he set a major league record for left-handed relievers. (Just the next year, John Hiller of the Detroit Tigers surpassed Lyle’s total, recording 38 saves.) In 1972, Lyle had become the first lefty to compile 100 saves in the American League, helping him earn the 1972 Fireman of the Year award from The Sporting News. Leading the league again in 1976 with 23 saves, he broke future Hall of Fame pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm‘s American League record of 154 career saves, and proceeded to break Ron Perranoski‘s major league record for left handers of 179 career saves. By 1977, Lyle had collected 201 career saves and was fast closing in on Wilhelm’s career record of 227. Lyle did briefly hold the record when he tied Wilhelm on May 26th at 227. That record was itself equaled by Rollie Fingers of the San Diego Padres a few days later on May 31. Lyle went to 228 on June 4; Fingers tied him June 7. Lyle then went up by two with saves on June 13 and again on June 16. Fingers tied him at 230 on June 25, but Fingers then went ahead for good June 1. In 1973, he was named to his first of three American League All-Star teams. He pitched one full inning, giving up one hit and striking out one. He was again named to the AL All-Star teams in both 1976 and 1977; he didn’t appear in the 1976 game and pitched two innings in the 1977 game. Sparky Lyle’s contributions to the New York Yankees from 1972 through 1977 were so paramount to their success that the team played “Pomp and Circumstance” as theme music at Yankee Stadium each time he entered from the bullpen. Primarily using his superb slider, which became his signature pitch, he also had a great fastball and a very impressive curve ball in his arsenal. His career year, 1977, produced a 13-5 record, a 2.17 ERA, 26 saves and the first American League Cy Young Award for a relief pitcher. Lyle worked 137 innings in 72 appearances.

Hank Bauer Right fielder Hank Bauer was a mainstay of the Casey Stengel–Yogi Berra Yankee dynasty who sparkled in the World Series spotlight. In the final game of the 1951 Series his bases-loaded triple broke a tie and gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead. After the Giants narrowed the margin to 4-3 in the ninth, with the tying run on second base, Bauer made a sliding catch of a sinking line drive for the last out. He hit safely in a record 17 consecutive World Series games — all seven in the 1956 and 1957 classics and the first three games in 1958. After the Braves’ Warren Spahn ended his streak in Game Four, he homered off Spahn in the sixth game. It was his fourth home run in that Series, a record he shared at the time with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Duke Snider. Before joining the Yankees, Bauer won two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts as a marine in World War II. After the Yankees he managed the Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series championship. He was tough and looked it. Sportswriter Jim Murray said Bauer had “a face like a clenched fist.” He grew up watching the St. Louis Cardinals Gashouse Gang and played the game their way: all-out. Before Pete Rose was born, Bauer learned from the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter how to run hard to first when he drew a walk. “It’s no fun playing if you don’t make somebody else unhappy,” he said. “I do everything hard.” After finishing third in 1948, the Yankees brought in Stengel as manager and began working young players into the lineup. Bauer, a 26-year-old rookie, was one of six position players his age or younger. That was partly out of necessity, because the club was hit with an epidemic of injuries in 1949. Bauer played center field early in the season while DiMaggio was recovering from surgery on his heel. He batted .272/.354/.432 in 103 games. The Yankees won the 1949 pennant by beating Boston in the last two games of the season, then defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. It was the first of five consecutive Series championships, a run unmatched in baseball history. Bauer, a right-handed batter, was primarily a platoon player in his first three seasons. (It is a misconception that he was platooned throughout his career.) He often shared time with Gene Woodling, although Woodling played left field and Bauer right. They were close friends, and each man believed he should be playing every day. Stengel “used to keep us both mad,” Bauer said, “and once we got in there we busted our butts to stay in the lineup.” During the Yankees’ five-year championship streak, Bauer batted .298 with an OPS over .800. He won a regular spot in the lineup, though Stengel sat him down against certain tough right-handers. In 1953 Stengel installed him as the leadoff hitter; his on-base percentage topped .350 for his first 10 full seasons. He was the American League’s starting right fielder in the 1952-53-54 All-Star Games. The most infamous moment of Bauer’s career happened at a birthday celebration for Billy Martin on May 15, 1957. Several Yankees and some of their wives went to the Copacabana night club to see Sammy Davis Jr. perform. Later testimony revealed that at least one drunken member of a bowling team taunted the African American entertainer with racial slurs, and Bauer told him to pipe down. What came next was in dispute. The loudest drunk bowler wound up on a bathroom floor with a broken nose and bloody face. He said Bauer had slugged him, but Bauer insisted, “I know it was not me, and it was not Billy Martin.” The truth remained a mystery for six decades, until a former Copa bouncer, 88-year-old Joey Silvestri, claimed he had thrown the punches. One tabloid headline screamed “Bauer in Brawl.” The injured man swore out a warrant for Bauer’s arrest, and he was fingerprinted and booked. After Berra testified, “Nobody never hit nobody nohow,” a grand jury threw out the charges. The victim in the case turned out to be Martin, whose crime was having a birthday party. He was soon traded to Kansas City. General manager George Weiss had been looking for an excuse to get rid of him, believing he was a bad influence on his pal Mantle. Bauer had notched career highs in 1956 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs, but his batting average slipped as he reached his mid-30s. Still, Stengel defended him: “He hits the long ball and he gets the hit when you need it. He’s the hardest-running thirty-six-year-old I’ve ever seen, and he gives you every ounce of his energy for nine full innings every day.” The Yanks won nine pennants and seven World Series in Bauer’s first 10 full years. As the roster turned over from the prewar DiMaggio generation to the Mantle era, only Bauer and Berra played in all nine Series. Bauer’s 53 games in the Fall Classic are tied for fourth all-time, his 46 hits tied for fifth. (Berra, who played in 14 World Series, leads in both categories.) After the club sank to third place in 1959, Bauer was traded to the Kansas City Athletics as part of a deal for a younger right fielder, Roger Maris. Bauer heard of the trade on the radio. He thought he deserved better. The Athletics were a dumping ground for unwanted Yankees. They were also the American League’s doormat, only once finishing as high as sixth in their 13 years in Kansas City. In June 1961 new owner Charles O. Finley made Bauer the manager with Finleyesque flair. In mid-game he had the stadium public address announcer say, “Hank Bauer, your playing days are over. You have been named manager of the Kansas City A’s.” Bauer always said he had no ambition to manage, but he agreed to give it a try. He was a popular choice. He had settled his family in Kansas City, Charlene’s hometown. The club finished ninth in the 10-team league in 1961, besting only the expansion Washington Senators. The volatile Finley dictated lineup changes and meddled in personnel decisions. Bauer said, “The only bad thing about Charlie is, he hires you to do a job but he wants to do it for you.” After a 90-loss season in 1962, Bauer resigned before Finley could fire him. He found work as a coach for the Baltimore Orioles, whose general manager, Lee MacPhail, had been a Yankee executive and his wife’s boss. The Orioles, after contending for the pennant in 1960 and 1961, dropped to seventh place in 1962 under new manager Billy Hitchcock. The club rose to fourth in 1963, but it was a distant fourth, and Hitchcock was fired. Bauer replaced him with only a one-year contract. In 1966 they were underdogs in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale to quiet the Baltimore bats — or so the smart money said. Before Game One Jim Russo, the Orioles’ advance scout, gave the team a discouraging description of the Dodger pitching staff. “If these guys are that good,” Bauer snarled, “we got no chance. Meeting over.” He knew his team didn’t need a pep talk. In the first inning, the two Robinsons rocked Drysdale with back-to-back home runs. So much for invincible. Drabowsky relieved McNally, pitching 6 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up one hit, and striking out 11 in a 5-2 victory. For the rest of the Series the Baltimore bullpen sat at ease while the young starters took charge. The Dodgers didn’t score another run. Palmer, Bunker, and McNally reeled off consecutive shutouts to give the Orioles a sweep and a trophy. “Great pitching and great defense did it,” Bauer said in the raucous clubhouse, as his players sprayed shaving cream instead of champagne. “Personally, I never dreamed of a four-game blitz. I figured six or seven and we’d win — but never four games. I didn’t think we’d get this kind of pitching — but then I don’t think anybody else did.” He won his second Manager of the Year award.

I have to admit that with the inclusion of the 1963 mod in the Total Classics stable of historical seasons I was met with a feeling of sadness and before I go any further I should clear up what I mean. I have read countless books on baseball history and biographies about famous players and at an early age I knew that the 1963 season did not end well for the Yankees. It was the very first time in their history that they were swept in World Series play and if you take a look at this page on Retrosheet that details the four games in that season’s fall classic. The Dodgers won and they hardly got their uniforms dirty. Ignoring this I downloaded Total Classics 1963 with the full expectation of being suitably impressed with the effort of Dennis and Jim and once again they delivered like they always do. That shouldn’t be news to anyone here because when these two guys put out a mod you can be sure that it is looked over and tested to their high standards before we have a chance to download it. Now that it has been uploaded to the website I will go through the steps to install the mod so you can get into it in a matter of minutes. For those of you who can do this part blindfolded and in the dark please go ahead and skip this paragraph. First you will need a clean copy of Mvp 2005 installed on your system. A clean copy is a right out of the box installation with no mods installed. Extract the explodeme.exe file that is included in the 1963 mod into the directory where you have your clean copy waiting and let Jim’s install do its job. Depending on the speed and age of your system that did not take long and now you have the mod installed and ready to be played. Before I did the write-up for this game I played a few games with different teams each time and I do not like to use World Series teams in exhibition play. That’s because mostly everyone knows the Yankee roster during this time period. Mantle, Maris, Ford, etc, etc but it is harder to name a lot of players from the ‘63 Athletics or ‘63 Angels for instance. Check those teams out and you’ll be surprised at how many familiar names there are that you know. One thing about these Classics mods that I can not point out enough is how much you will learn about baseball’s history while playing these enjoyable seasons. It doesn’t matter what mod you have be it the 1934 mod, the 1951 mod, etc. You will always discover a player that you’ve never heard of and what I do is write the guy’s name down and then look him up later. For instance Jerry Lynch of the Pirates, whom I screen captured tripling off of Bob Gibson. I’ve never heard of him but when I read about him I found out that he was one of the best pinch-hitters in baseball and that was for all time. Who knew? And I have to thank Jim and Dennis for this. It’s easy to know about the famous players but the not so familiar ones get lost in history. Now that you are into the game and before you pick your teams the music from the ‘63 season is piped through your speakers. You’ll notice that four of the songs on the playlist have to do with the beach or surfing. That’s because in 1963 it was the start of the beach party movies, which were highly forgettable films featuring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Also groups like The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean were very popular with the vocal surf music style. Jim picked a good selection of songs for this mod. The uniforms were created by Dennis James and it is my belief that he has not made a bad uniform yet. Check out the Reds home jerseys for a real treat. The loading screens are very well done with the picture of a player and his baseball card from 1963. This is an exciting mod to play from the team select screen until the end of your game. As I said previously I played some games before doing this write up and the game I chose to showcase was the St.Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates in Forbes Field. It was a close game until the Cardinals decided that the game should be a blowout. I highly encourage you to download Dennis and Jim’s latest work of art because that is exactly what it is. Thank you very much Jim and Dennis! Screenshots Welcome to Total Classics 1963! The 1963 Total Classics overlay is shown here and as usual it is a simple, easy on the eye display that does not distract from the action on the field. Between innings overlay. The game is tied now but the Cardinals soon had something to say about it. Bill White of the Cardinals. White had a very good career from 1956 to 1969. He was an eight-time All-Star and won seven gold gloves. He announced Yankee games from 1971 to 1988 and was one of the best announcers they had at the time along with Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messser. He also was elected president of the National League in 1989.

Yeah, like a toothache. 😀 You responded to a four-year-old thread that has already served its purpose. If you read closer in the third post in this thread you would have come across this sentence. There is already a Windows 10 thread. That should have told you that there is a thread already created that covers Windows 10, Mvp baseball and the problems mixing those two things together. What you need to do from here on out -and this I tell to every new user here and not only you- is whatever question you have you should search the forums because I promise you that anything that people have had trouble with over the years with this game has already been covered.

You're exactly right. I was amazed when I read the story about that play.

Bucky Dent His was an improbable glory. On October 2, 1978, baseball’s fates codified heroism for a hitter with four home runs in the season. He wore Yankee pinstripes, looked like a GQ model, and, quietly, on and off the field, projected likability balancing the controversy surrounding the Yankees of the late 1970s. Bucky Dent remains known to Boston Red Sox fans as Bucky F****** Dent. Dent’s name — without the emphatic vulgarity — sounds like it’s out of a Frank Merriwell novel. The moniker comes from New England’s void of hope carved when Dent went yard on a 1-1 Mike Torrez fastball in a one-game playoff to seal the 1978 American League East championship. “Bucky effing Dent! Maybe the only time in Bucky’s career that he heard ‘It’s a long fly ball deep deep to left!’ He never hit a ball deep to left!” declared Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk at the time. “I tell you what. It was a great sound, too,” Dent responded. The home run capped an epic Red Sox collapse from a 14½ game lead in the American League East in July, forcing a one-game playoff against the Yankees — a team that, to all Red Sox fans, stole Babe Ruth after the 1919 season and, in turn, cast a curse lasting until 2004, when the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals in the American League playoffs that followed, went to the World Series for the third consecutive year — their last voyage to the Fall Classic in the 1970s — and captured their second consecutive championship against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dent continued his post-season heroics — in the World Series, he batted .417, notched seven RBI in six games, and won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Dent’s home run punctuated a magical game and post-season, though it overshadows a career of achievement. The Chicago White Sox selected Dent in the 1970 draft, placing him with the Gulf Coast League White Sox (Rookie) and then the Appleton Foxes in the Midwest League (Class A). Both teams put up solid performances: 64-60 for the Foxes, 36-24 for the White Sox. Neither flashy nor cocky, Dent proved to be a reliable batsman during his Chicago years. In 1974, he played in 154 games, batted .274, and lashed 136 hits. In 1975, he played in 157 games, batted .264, and improved his number of hits to 159. In his final year in Chicago, he played 158 games, but his batting average dropped to .246, with only 138 hits. He accomplished these numbers for a mediocre team: the 1973 Sox were 77-85. In 1974, they were 80-80. In 1975, the Sox fell to 75-86, and collapsed in 1976 to 64-97. Chicago tried to peddle Dent to Oakland, but owner Charlie Finley turned down the deal. As the March 11th deadline approached for players to have a contract, a strategy emerged for Dent to play with Chicago for 1977 and then pursue opportunities as a free agent after the season. His present contract offered a renewal at $40,000; he turned down a $100,000 per season offer. Right before the 1977 season, the White Sox traded Dent to the Yankees in exchange for outfielder Oscar Gamble and two minor league pitchers, plus cash “estimated between $250,000 and $400,000.” Dent’s deal: three-year contract at $125,000 per year. Dent’s first season in New York nearly paralleled his last in Chicago: 158 games and a .247 batting average. Willie Randolph, Dent’s double play partner at second base, came to the Yankees the year prior. Dent’s value went beyond fielding and batting. He contributed stability to a team embroiled in controversy, stemming from conflict between Jackson — who had three World Series rings with the Oakland A’s and came to the Yankees after spending one season in Baltimore — and manager Martin, a former player with several World Series rings himself from the 1950s Yankees and, to that point, a journeyman manager with the Twins, the Tigers, and the Rangers. A three-time All-Star, Dent remained the Yankees' shortstop until 1982, when he was traded to the Texas Rangers in August for outfielder Lee Mazzilli. Dent returned to the Yankees briefly in 1984 (but never played a game) before finishing his career that season with the Kansas City Royals. He spent his entire 12-year playing career in the American League, with a .247 batting average, 40 home runs and 423 RBI.

Derek Jeter Jeter played his first game in the big leagues on May 29, 1995, after a series of injuries rushed his anticipated debut. He bounced between Triple-A and the majors for the rest of the year, then earned the job as the Yankees starting shortstop in 1996. Sixth months later, Jeter was the unanimous American League Rookie of the Year after hitting .314. His steadying performance at the plate and in the field helped the Yankees win the World Series title for the first time in 18 years. Over the next 11 seasons, the Yankees never missed the postseason – winning World Series titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Jeter made the first of 14 All-Star Games in 1998, won the first of five Gold Glove Awards in 2004 and was annually among the league leaders in hits and runs scored. His most famous moment, however, might have come during the 2001 ALDS against the Athletics. Down 2-games-to-none in the best-of-5 series and clinging to a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning, Jeter intercepted an off-target throw near the first base line from right fielder Shane Spencer on a double by Terence Long. The play appeared to all as if it would plate Jeremy Giambi, who was running from first base. Jeter’s catch and flip to catcher Jorge Posada nipped Giambi at the plate, and the Yankees went on to win the game 1-0 and the series 3-2. The durable Jeter appeared in at least 150 games every year save one from 2001-10, was named captain of the Yankees in 2003 and claimed his fifth World Series ring in 2009, hitting .334 and finishing third in the AL Most Valuable Player voting at the age of 35. He never played a position other than shortstop in his 2,674 games in the field, reached the 200-hit plateau in eight seasons and was named the 2000 World Series Most Valuable Player. Over a record 158 Postseason games – the equivalent of one full extra season – Jeter hit .308 with 111 runs scored, 200 hits, 32 doubles, 20 homers, 61 RBI and 66 walks. He finished his career with 3,465 hits, 1,923 runs scored and 4,921 total bases.

That's one hell of a comeback. Great post.

Is that so? And you don't think that Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz are not afraid of that rotten...well forget how I feel about him. Those guys sure as hell had plenty to say against him before he got the nominee to run for office but right after that all was forgiven. If major butt kissing was a course in college these two would be professors teaching the class. What the hell are you talking about? That comment is right out of the Trump playbook although it doesn't surprise me. Your opinions are yours and I sure as heck won't persecute you for having them but the Democrats are now Communists? In what way? And no, I never saw the Manchurian Candidate.

Fantastic as usual Homer. I've always been a fan of your superior work.

I am sorry to find out that people in that fine country of yours have to be forced to listen to the same crap that we seem to get in this country non-stop every day. Who is this ungrateful SOB? And nothing will ever convince me that these people who point out racism here, there and everywhere only do it for the attention it gets them because if you don't agree with them then you become today's racist of the day. I don't consider myself an extreme leftist. I consider myself a Democrat who has over the years and especially since Trump someone who has lost a lot of respect for Republicans because they are afraid of him. I also want nothing to do with "cancel culture" or anything remotely a part of it. This Seuss thing is just one example of cancel culture and I personally would be embarrassed to be associated with it. I don't know what kind of Democrat that makes me but there it is. What I really would like to see is cancel culture being cancelled and letting people come to their own opinions instead of being pressured into going along with the next new thing to pile on. Right now, Suess. This week or next week? Who knows.

Updated to 3-14 ...It was Fun while it lasted Dept: It sure was nice to see baseball start up again a few weeks back and I’ll admit I got caught up in it when I allowed my subscription to MLB TV to extend for another year. I’ll end up regretting that as soon as the Yankees go on their first seven game losing streak or when Judge or Stanton go down, which for them should be any day now. But the spring season would not begin without the typical Yankee bragging that I have come to expect out of them in recent years. They may have not won a championship since 2009 but with the way they talk and carry on you’d have sworn they’ve won at least five or six since then. Even before the first stretching exercises took place manager Aaron Boone said that this year’s squad is going to be a team “of championship caliber.” And there you have it. Boone just made every non-Yankee fan very happy with that statement because by saying that he just gave them the kiss of death. ...So I was wrong when I thought it would have been Judge or Stanton to get hurt first down in Tampa but I wasn’t expecting it to be Zack Britton although anyone wearing that uniform can and will get injured on a moment’s notice. Britton was having some elbow issues and he got it checked out and naturally they found something wrong with it. He has to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone chip in his left elbow and the surgery will either be performed this week or next week. The Yankees said that they will be without Britton for the “foreseeable future” which is another way of saying four or five months without having to actually say it. ...The good thing about James Paxton returning to the Mariners is if he gets hurt again no outside of Seattle will know about it. ...Finally Lou Gehrig is going to be recognized throughout baseball eighty years after his death on June 2nd of this year. That will be the first time that baseball will be holding a day for the Yankees Iron Horse and it will include an annual tribute in which uniformed personnel will wear a jersey patch celebrating Gehrig. He deserves this recognition as much as Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente do and as we get closer to June 2nd anyone out there who wishes to portray that jersey patch will get a chance to purchase a special jersey, hoodie, t-shirt or hat from Major League Baseball. Rob Manfred doesn’t miss a trick. Only baseball would know how to take advantage of a deadly disease and make a buck off of it. ...As long as the WAR statistic has been around baseball I have to admit I don’t understand what it is. What is considered a good WAR? Or a bad one? How do you go about figuring it out for yourself and what’s more why would you want to? ...Face masks have really become a big business except of course with Republicans who still refuse to wear them. I’ve seen ones that have a person’s favorite sports teams on them or a saying of some sort or advertising for something or someone. These masks have really become creative since we have had to wear them wherever we go for the past year and some have really become expensive. I’ve seen them sold for as much as twenty dollars apiece on some websites and while my initial knee-jerk reaction was to jump on Amazon to see if they had a decently priced mask that had either the Raiders or Yankees logo on it I resisted because there are more important things for me to spend my money on. We’re not going to be asked to wear these masks indefinitely and as soon as it’s safe enough that we don’t have to have them on I am not going to be walking around with an Oakland mask on to let everyone know that I’m a Raider fan because I have t-shirts that have been doing that for years. The KN-95 mask that I walk around with may not be the most stylish in the bunch but it does the job. That’s all I want. ...One of the many things my late mother taught me was not to speak ill of the dead and this is why I am not going to do that even to someone like Rush Limbaugh who died on the 17th of February. While he may be gone his millions of listeners will safeguard that his memory will live on for a long time through their behavior towards anyone that is different from them. So the next time you are in a bar and you hear a loudmouth going on about Mexicans ruining the country or wanting to go beat up an Asian because “he started the virus” or any other views like that, then the memory of Rush Limbaugh remains alive and well. Limbaugh’s opinions and hate-filled views helped create the Republican party we know today. His supporters would argue that he loved radio, loved our country and the American people. Maybe he did, provided you agreed with him first and were white. So, I will not dance on Limbaugh’s grave or rejoice in his passing but I will not shed a tear either. ...Ever since I was a kid I would read any sports book I could get my hands on and it’s a habit I have continued on to this day. With my Amazon device it makes it easy for me to read as much as I want without finding room for the books. I usually gravitate towards baseball books but every so often I buy something else. So when I bought the The Rebel League, a book about the history of the old World Hockey Association I was not able to put it down. I haven’t thought of the WHA for years and I’m pretty sure that most sports fans today had never heard of it, which in all intents and purposes is understandable. This league was only around for eight years in the 1970’s and for young hockey fans like myself who grew up then we followed both the National Hockey League and the WHA even though this league did not get press coverage compared to the NHL. Undeterred by that I was still a fan of this league. Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe extended their careers in the WHA and it’s also notable to say that this league introduced stars such as Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson to the North American audience and gave Wayne Gretzky his start in professional hockey with the old Indianapolis Racers. This league along with the old American Basketball Association went out of business in that decade but they both are still represented today in the leagues that ended up absorbing some of their teams and many of their players. For instance, where would the NBA have been without Julius Erving? He played for the ABA’s Virginia Squires and New York Nets. There was a lot more to that league than the red, white and blue basketball. I didn’t pay attention to the World Football League a lot because they were not even around for two years and I don’t recall seeing one of their games on TV. What I remember most about them is how they killed the Miami Dolphins when they signed away Jim Kiick, Larry Csonka and Paul Warfield. Even though Miami had a winning record after they left the team they were never the same. Oakland lost Daryle Lamonica but he was near the end of his career and never returned to the NFL after the league folded and even worse almost lost Ken Stabler but the league was out of business before he could even play a down. Because of that it was the only new league I wasn’t a fan of. ...If you are someone whose sole objective is to find a problem somewhere and will not stop until you come up with something brand new to label racist or insensitive then you’ll love what they are doing to six of the children’s books from Dr. Seuss. Yeah, him. The guy famous for The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and who is now the target of finger pointers everywhere that get offended at least three times before they get dressed in the morning. Ironically it was not the politicians who decided that our eyes were too delicate for these books. It was directly from the company that publishes his books today. Seuss, who wrote his first book in 1937 and died in 1991, is now being looked at as a racist in the present day because his books have under gone intense examinations over and over again until something made those people sit back, clap their hands and exclaim when they found the part in the book that they could hold on to just to try and prove to people that they weren’t wasting their time. Six of them did not pass muster and like Lord Voldemort can not be mentioned out loud again in school libraries from here on out. What’s next, the Hardy Boys? I read those books more than I read Dr. Seuss when I was younger. If they look hard enough they’ll find something there. Who knows, maybe Joe or Frank Hardy -or both!- were closet racists. ...Let me throw this out here and then I’ll move to something else in this week’s latest. Every day I hear about a brand new celebrity or sports figure or a small or big business or a school or God knows what who is accused of being a racist. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they’re not. I’d like to hear one news outlet after they cover a story about some poor schmuck being a racist come out and say they were wrong. Or how about getting through one day without having to hear that word? None of us are going to be around in one hundred years and sometimes during moments like these with the Seuss books I wonder what people in 2121 are going to think of some of us who actually believe this is so important? Now I know that most people are not even affected by this but if you have small children or grandchildren it might. It’s hard enough raising kids without having a corporation telling you something is bad for them because they think so. ...There are some people you can not take anywhere and Rudy Giuliani happens to be one of them. During a charity golf event where he was paired up with Michelle Wie he told a crude story about looking up her skirt when she was lining up for her putts. He told some of his cronies after the tournament that the real reason why there was so much media following them on the course was not because he happened to be there but because they wanted to get shots of Wie's panties as she was bending over to putt. This is probably why he had his tongue out on every hole as he was watching her and his bad dye job on his hair began to get away from him again. Imagine, if Giuliani acted like this just to get a look at a pair of women’s underwear he’d have a stroke if he ever was teamed up with someone like Paige Spiranac. 😉 ...Even after all these years I still miss Bill Hader on Saturday Night Live. ...Contrary to what everyone was led to believe former major leaguer Alex Rodriguez and actress Jennifer Lopez are not going their separate ways but according to a statement that they both put out they are “working through some things.” When you read about that taking place during these celebrity break-ups it means at the last minute the woman realizes she made a mistake somewhere and is desperately back tracking to fix what she did while silently hoping that it works. Now if it were the man that caused the relationship to end there would be no working through anything because the woman would be too buy talking to People magazine or being interviewed on Entertainment Tonight to give the man five minutes to talk to her. Either way I hope it works out for them so they are both satisfied but as far as me giving it another thought, I won’t. ...Say it three times fast, Dept: I am a Youtube junkie and about a week ago in one of the videos that came up on my page showed a small town in the country of Wales in the United Kingdom named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and it immediately grabbed my interest because I thought it was some kind of click bait. But after deciding why not I watched it and believe it or not it’s an actual place and what was really impressive was there are some people who have no trouble saying it. Amazing. It would take you a half an hour just to write the name of the town if you were writing a letter. And then I thought of our uniform makers in here. How would someone like BallFour make a uniform with fifty-six letters on it? It would probably make him give up modding.😃 .,.While I did not meet the age requirement for the Covid-19 vaccine shot I did meet one of the health criteria that the state of New York had set so last Monday morning I left my house wondering what was in store for me and what kind of pain I’d have go through to get the shot. You see, I heard various things about it and I really didn’t know what to think when I got there but I have to tell you that from the time I checked in until the time I got the shot it went by smooth and easy. Fifteen minutes is how long I had to wait after I got the shot and I had a little soreness in my arm the next day but it was completely gone by Wednesday. Whomever was complaining about this shot must not have got their parking validated or something because when someone like me can go through it with no worries you’ll be able to do it too. ...And finally as a reminder please move your alarm clock, wall clock and any other clocks that need to be manually taken care of ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. this morning, provided you are still up at that time. Your computer, phone and iPad should move ahead automatically.