Under the Fedora: The Man

Stan Musial died Saturday. 

Youngsters might not recognize the name although their spell checkers will.  Musial never dated movie stars, he wasn’t known for fights with the press, brawls in bars, or bad behavior of any time.  He was married for 72 years to the same woman who died last May and was never known to mistreat anyone expect opposing pitchers whose offering he deposited all over the field or over the fence from 1940 till 1962.

Musial won 3 MVP and was runner up 4 times.  Think of that a second, for one third of his career it was the consensus that he was the best or second best at what he did in the league.

That’s simply incredible.

There have been many tributes to Stan Musial over the last few days, but I think the greatest tribute to him was paid last year by Albert Pujois.

When he was signed by the Angels they put up promotional signs referring to him as El Hombre.  Given his numbers in 11 years he averaged 40 HR & 121 RBI a season while hitting .328. certainly number that would justify being called “El Hombre”, “The Man” but he would have none of it.

"I still have the same respect for him as I had, not just for what he's done in baseball but for what he did for his country. That's something you have to appreciate."

That really says it all doesn’t it?  BTW the Angels took down the billboards.

Best description of Stan Musial I ever read came from Bill James when declaring him the best left fielder of all time over Ted Williams :

Someone not thinking of death these days is Andrew Cuomo.  His latest abortion proposals bid to secure the Democrat left for 2016 are so extreme it produced this exchange between Elizabeth (The Anchoress) and her husband:

“he wants to be president. He is pandering to Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List because there is gold in them thar purses.”

My husband was appalled to ponder it: “a lot more than 30 pieces of silver,” he said, and it’s not going to get him to heaven.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not seeking heaven, just now,” I shrugged. “He’s seeking the White House, and power.”

Nobody is promised tomorrow, Andrew Cuomo might consider that, if he actually believed.  But I don’t’ think he does.

 I have given no pixels at all to Steubenville OH Rape case that has the left and the occupods in an uproar.  Lee Stranahan has and can tell you Everything you know about the case is wrong:

Among the widely reported and false claims:

• Steubenville is so corrupt that no justice is possible.
• There has been a massive cover-up in the case.
• The victim was drugged, put in a car trunk to bring her to a series of parties, urinated on, and left for dead in a field.
• That there a number of witnesses to the assaults who have not come forward.
• The school’s football coaches were involved in the night’s activities.
• That football players were given easy or preferential treatment in this case.
• No media was covering the case except for one blogger until Anonymous got involved.
• That no justice would happen in this case were it not for the intervention of Anonymous.
• The infamous video of Michael Nodianos joking has nothing to do with the legal case.

To reiterate, those claims are rumors that are unsupported by evidence and yet if you click on any link to a story about the case, you’ll find any number of in whichever story you read.

The Atlanta Falcons Tony Gonzalez moved one step closer to being  the Ernie Banks of Football.  A well-loved Hall of Fame player who never made it to the big game.  It’s quite possible Goonzalez is the best Tight End to ever play the game but he has some interesting opinions concerning marriage, (via Wikipedia)

Gonzalez had a commitment ceremony in July 2007 with his girlfriend, October, and considers himself married.

Considers himself married?  Really?  Well why not?  If we can redefine marriage one way why shouldn’t we redefine it any way anybody wants it to be?  After all it’s not like marriage is anything important.

People are laughing at this story about a guy at Verizon who outsourced his own job for a 1/5 of the price and pocketed the difference that he was being paid.

Two thoughts:  If Verizon was satisfied with the work and the price they were paying for it, what do they have to complain about?

Chip Jones at Conservative Report Online has a hell of a question concerning Benghazi:

You see, the Kalashnikov rifle chambers a 7.62 mm round. The US M-4 rifle chambers a 5.56 mm round. What is widely reported and accepted is that at least two of the TDY Green Berets who were assigned by the CIA as ARSO’s (assistant regional safety officers) were badly wounded and were treated for multiple gunshot wounds after they rescued over 20 civilian CIA workers from the compound.

The single question that needs to be asked is: “Were the rounds taken out of the wounded ARSO’s 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm?” And when the answer comes back “5.56 mm”, it opens the door to the proof that the cover up was meant to hide the fact that the Obama administration had been caught once again arming offshore groups that did not have the interests of our country at heart. It would open the door to proof that Benghazi was “Fast and Furious on Steroids.”

Covered a GOP forum on Monday with two of the candidates for Mass. GOP Chair

 Kirsten Hughes

 and Rick Green.

If you are a bit sleepy this from NiceDeb will wake you up:

Dr. Jim Garrow, a renowned author and humanitarian, made the shocking claim on his Facebook page, yesterday.

I have just been informed by a former senior military leader that Obama is using a new “litmus test” in determining who will stay and who must go in his military leaders. Get ready to explode folks. “The new litmus test of leadership in the military is if they will fire on US citizens or not.” Those who will not are being removed.

Garrow noted in the comments that  “the man who told me this is one of America’s foremost military heroes,” prompting this relpy from one of his followers, “if this man is truly a military hero, he had better not be keeping this a secret. Military hero’s (sic) do what’s right, not what’s comfortable for themselves.”

Garrow responded, “have folks forgotten that the word is now out. I believe that the gentleman has done what he should and allowed all of us to sound the alarm.

If this is the slightest bit true it will be very interesting to see the reaction in the ranks.

Jack Mitchel’s book Fireside Chat is becoming more and more relevant

———————————

A bit of a cultural thing, when I wanted that Bill James quote from the start of this piece I didn’t search the net.  I remembered reading it and ran upstairs grabbed the book I saw it in, leafed through it until I found it.  I tend to do that an awful lot when writing.  In this internet age/kindle age it must seem a quaint and amusing thing to do.  I’m sure some of the younger set must laugh at it.  Let them.  I’ll take the printed word over the pixel every time.  With the printed word I can say with 100% certainty that what it says on the page today will be the same thing it says on it tomorrow.

You know you are old when you find yourself using the words “the younger set” in a sentence.

Finally there is huge news concerning DaTechGuy on DaRadio.  Last week was my final week on WCRN AM 830.  Starting Saturday at 1 PM my radio show will be Syndicated by Cameo Productions.  The first stations carrying me will be in Massachusetts from the Money Matters Radio Network, a fourth online station will be added Feb 2^nd and from there, who knows?