The Generational Joy of Baseball

October 28, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

This will be my first Texas Rangers World Series without my Dad. As I wrote the other day, I got so much of the joy/heartbreak of baseball from my Father. If I am honest, I put my baseball addiction away for months at a time. Sometimes it just gets to be too much. I only […]

Sixty-Two Years. Two Times. One Game. One Strike.

October 25, 2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

Sixty-two years.Two Times.One Game.One Strike. Whatever you think of our passion for our Texas Rangers, I have more baseball math for you this morning. You may still think we (me) are (am) too cocky, brash, and abrasive in our joy over the Texas Rangers’ trip the World Series.Fine. I’ll stand in the box and take […]

Vandergriff’s 50-Year Vision Comes True.

October 24, 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

This morning, at the conclusion of a truly entertaining ALCS between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, I am thinking of the visionary leadership of Tom Vandergriff. Vandergriff was a visionary not only because of his work to get the Texas Rangers to DFW, but because of his even greater vision for the entire […]

Baseball Remembers The Cheaters

October 22, 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

When I was a kid, my grandfather Mays gave me his copy of the “Encyclopedia of Baseball.” At the time, it was a one volume set that kept all the records of every team, every player, from the very beginning of the sport. More than perhaps any other sport, baseball is obsessed with its past, […]

Dad’s March Madness Brackets

March 19, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Since we’re in the midst of March Madness, I thought I’d post these. These are treasures we found while cleaning out Mom and Dad’s house. They’re Dad’s hand-crafted brackets from the mid 1960s that he used to keep track of the tourney. Some NCAA. Some NIT. Some hand written. Some typed. The last one is […]

Pete Rose Was My First Hero

June 23, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

I can’t speak to Pete Rose fairly. I suppose I will ask that anyone who feels like they can refrain from doing so here. I know what you’ll say. I don’t need to hear it. You see, Rose was my first and all-time greatest sports hero. To say I worshiped the guy doesn’t come close. […]

“Hey Rookie…you were good”

September 24, 2014.Reading time 7 minutes.

Now and then, baseball stories like “The Natural” actually happen for real. But when they do, they don’t look like Robert Redford. They look like Guilder Rodriguez. Guilder Rodriguez is the feel-good baseball story of the year. Maybe the feel-good story of the year, period. As a Rangers’ fan, it made me proud of the […]

The Dallas Cowboys Are Losers

September 5, 2013.Reading time 7 minutes.

Update 12.30.13: Written in September…still true today….EF “Sitting back trying to recapture, a little of the glory of, well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of…glory days” — Bruce Springsteen The Dallas Cowboys are losers. I don’t mean that pejoratively. I mean it statistically. Many of us grew up […]

Past the Bitterness, The Bitterness Passes

October 29, 2011.Reading time 18 minutes.

Before you read any further, you should probably remind yourselves that the title of all my sports-related-blogs is “HSO’s from a Bitter P-1.”(See #1 Below…) I got that nickname from the folks on the “Bob and Dan” radio program, at the conclusion of the 2006 NBA Finals, when the Mavs lost to the Heat. I […]

Buck and McCarver "Blow the Call"

October 24, 2011.Reading time 9 minutes.

It’s World Series time. What better time to bring out my inner “Bitter P1?” (One of the many voices in my head…) Today’s topic: How Joe Buck and Tim McCarver blew their “call” of Ron Kulpa’s blown call. The original blown call involved Umpire Ron Kulpa blowing a call in Saturday night’s game. He missed […]