Christmas North of Nashville

If you get a chance, watch Christmas North of Nashville on the Great American Family network.  It has the typical plot of the big-city woman who comes home for Christmas -- but in this case, the hometown is Owensboro, Kentucky -- I mean, Madisonville.

18 Teams Left

Four more regional champions last night, and now the 4th and the 10th regions are the only ones left to be decided:

SECOND REGION CHAMPIONSHIP (at Madisonville-N. Hopkins H.S.):

Madisonville-N. Hopkins 34 - 52 Henderson Co.

FIFTH REGION CHAMPIONSHIP (at Marion Co. H.S.):

Adair Co. 62 - 48 N. Hardin

EIGHTH REGION CHAMPIONSHIP (at Henry Co. H.S.):

(15) N. Oldham 50 - 53 (11) S. Oldham (OT)

NINTH REGION CHAMPIONSHIP (at N. Kentucky):

(9) Cooper 53 - 38 (13) Erlanger Lloyd

128 Teams Left

Here are the quarterfinals for the First Region Boys' Basketball Tournament, which will take place at Murray State University.  MaxPrep rankings shown for teams in the top 20.  That's a tough draw for St. Mary, although at least they don't have to play on Ash Wednesday:

Wednesday, March 5:

Paducah Tilghman (16-11) v. Fulton Co. (9-13)

Graves Co. (19-9) v. (4) Marshall Co. (27-2)

Thursday, March 6:

Carlisle Co. (14-16) v. Mayfield (20-9)

(6) Calloway Co. (28-3) v. Paducah St. Mary (23-8)

Meanwhile, here are the quarterfinals for the Second Region Tournament, taking place at Madisonville-N. Hopkins H.S.:

Wednesday, March 5:

Madisonville-N. Hopkins (15-12) v. Livingston Cent. (9-20)

Christian Co. (8-22) v. Union Co. (15-10)

Thursday, March 6:

Henderson Co. (22-6) v. Hopkinsville (15-15)

Lyon Co. (24-7) v. Dawson Springs (17-15)

MaxPreps has Henderson Co. ranked number 26, which is the highest ranking for any team in the Second Region.  (Lyon Co. is ranked number 61.)

42 Teams Left

Sixteen games on tap tomorrow, including some really big ones:

Second Region Semi-Final (at Hopkinsville):

Madisonville-N. Hopkins v. (7) Lyon Co.

Fourth Region Semi-Final (at W. Kentucky U.):

Cumberland Co. v. (10) Bowling Green

Seventh Region Final (at Valley):

Lou. Seneca (17-15) v. (5) Lou. Trinity (25-7)

Eighth Region Semi-Final (at Henry Co.):

Simon Kenton v. (8) N. Oldham

Tenth Region Semi-Final (at Mason Co.):

(12) George Rogers Clark v. Campbell Co.

Thirteenth Region Final (at The Corbin Arena):

Corbin (23-8) v. (9) Harlan Co. (30-4)

Fourteenth Region Final (at Powell Co.):

Breathitt Co. (20-11) v. Perry Co. Cent. (21-13)

Fifteenth Region Final (at Appalachian Wireless Arena):

Martin Co. (23-9) v. Magoffin Co. (20-13)

Sixteenth Region Semi-Final (at Morehead St. U.):

(17) Boyd Co. v. Rowan Co.

Girls' Sweet Sixteen, Saturday

Gameday, baby! Hopefully for our McCracken County High School Lady Mustangs: Gamesday!

— KHSAA RPI No. 4 Louisville Sacred Heart vs. No. 9 Winchester George Rogers Clark at 10 a.m. Central

— No. 3 McCracken County vs. No. 14 Henderson County at 12:30 p.m.

— State championship at 6 p.m. 

As you can see, it's going to be hard to maintain focus at West Area Workshops ...

Comments flow ...

Kentucky Minute: Second Region Boys' Basketball Championship

 

Comments flow ...

My Favorite 10 Songs of the Last Seven Days

Mayfield High School's marching band is running around western Kentucky playing a chipper show called "Sunny," and let that sink in for a moment.

1. Rocketman, Madisonville-North Hopkins Marching Maroons at Hopkinsville festival Oct. 15
2. Sunny, Mayfield High School marching band at Hopkinsville festival Oct. 15
3. I Saw the Light, Patti York live at the 1975 Jerry Lewis MDA telethon
4. Damn It All, Staves
5. Fisherman’s Blues, Waterboys live in Dublin 2015
6. Weekend Groove, Jesse “JTJazz” Thomas featuring Althea René
7. Hello Sunday Hello Road, Gil Scott-Heron
8. Every Ghetto Every City, Lauryn Hill
9. When the Going Gets Tough, Billy Ocean
10. Kennedy & Monroe, Hot Pink Hangover

NBA23 Update

I intend to watch a lot more NBA this season, and there are two things I want to say about the league to get the 2022-23 ball rolling.

Number 1, the Washington Wizards have two players on their current roster with whom I share a birthday, and that's got to be a good sign. 

In 1995, I was living in Falls Church, Virginia, and around the time of Aug. 2 that year, someone attempted to break in to my apartment while we were all asleep upstairs. It was terrifying. Also at the time, my girlfriend and I were starting to split. And I had a pretty good little journaling discipline where I made myself write something I learned on that given day (in addition to listing everyone with whom I had an interaction, writing some memory and writing about where and how I would be spending that day if I could do so in however I wanted). Here's what I wrote for the "learned" prompt one of the days near Aug. 2:

continuing with page 701 of the dictionary in my cubicle:

•  eucharist - means communion.  it comes from a greek word meaning gratitude.

•  communion - an act of sharing of ideas, opinions or feelings; a religious fellowship; a group of christians with a common religious faith who observe the same rituals, a denomination; the christian sacrament in which consecrated bread and wine are partaken of in celebration of christ's last supper; the elements of the sacrament; the part of a mass or other religious ritual in which communion is received.

also, i learned - again, according to the pamphlet the u.s. government gave its soldiers - that in vietnam public displays of affection between men and women are widely frowned upon.  it is not uncommon, however, to see two male friends walking hand-in-hand.  also, indirect hinting is the best way to handle a request rather than being straightforward.  and, the common outstanding feature of vietnamese homes is an altar which holds a tablet bearing the names of all of that family's ancestors - at least as far back as the great-grandfather.  apparently, these altars can be as large as one-sixth of the floor space of an entire house.

Then here's what I journaled on my birthday in 1999:

A nice birthday. Spent it with my mom, my oldest brother, my sister-in-law, one of my nephews, one of my nieces. Broken-down car. No home. No girlfriend. Felt strange. Still focused on the haven'ts. My life is richer than for which I give it credit.

The car broke down somewhere in Tennessee or Alabama. I hustled and got myself a Greyhound seat that evening to Evansville and arrived in time for an impromptu birthday party with the fam. En route, the Greyhound made an extended stop on U.S. 41 on the north end of Madisonville for smokers on the bus to smoke in the parking lot of a hotel that no longer stands. It's a tenth of a mile from where my daughter is attending high school at this very moment. 

So, in summary, Number 1 that I want to say about NBA23 is, one just never knows. Season starts Oct. 18. Wizards tip next night, at Indiana.

Number 2, I really hope the Wizards sign DeMarcus Cousins.

My Favorite 10 Songs of the Last Seven Days

Congratulations to the Madisonville-North Hopkins High School Marching Maroons on achieving a Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA) distinguished rating for their finals performance Saturday night at the Murray State University Festival of Champions in Roy Stewart Stadium.

1. Rocket Man, Marching Maroons at Murray State University Festival of Champions on Oct. 1, 2022
2. "Heard It All Before," Sunshine Anderson
3. "Bobby Tanqueray," Lake Street Dive
4. "Every Ghetto Every City," Lauryn Hill
5. "Sleeping in a Car," Staves
6. "My Wife Thinks You’re Dead," Junior Brown
7. "But For Love," Mills Brothers
8. "Hell Yeah," Lake Street Dive at Rockwood on Nov. 12, 2015
9. "Made You Run," Jackie and the Treehorns
10. "Five Minutes," Gretchen Peters

My 10 Favorite Songs of the Last Seven Days

The hits just keep coming from the Jerry Lewis's 1975 MDA telethon. I attend church now in Madisonville with a woman who did youth ministry at a church in Las Vegas, where she worked with the New Zoo Revue people.

1. Rocketman movements 1 and 2, Marching Maroons
2. "Fly the Flag of Freedom," New Zoo Revue on 1975 Jerry Lewis MDA telethon
3. "Hounds of Love," Kate Bush
4. "The Laws Have Changed," New Pornographers on The Late Show with David Letterman 2003
5. "Hello Sunday! Hello Road!" Gil Scott-Heron live on With Ossie and Ruby 1975
6. "One-of-a-Kind Love Affair," Spinners live in Zaire
7. "Expert in a Dying Field," Beths
8. "The Nitty Gritty," Shirley Ellis with Bobby Banas live on The Judy Garland Show 1964
9. "That’s What You Get for Loving Me," Waylon Jennings
10. "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten," Lucinda Williams

Kentucky High-School Marching Band 2022, Band Camp

 Thank you, God, for the more.

U.S. 41

I adore U.S. 60, U.S. 1 and a zillion other roads, but--#hottake--U.S. 41 is my favorite. 

This map of U.S. 41 is from 1929. So much personal history layered on this road for me. Written in my cells, I imagine.

My dad was 4 when the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (or whatever it was called then) published this map. He was living in Madisonville, on U.S. 41, then with his parents and older sister.

My mom was 1 when the map was published. She and her family lived in Evansville, Indiana, and they frequently were down and up U.S. 41 on Sunday afternoons because her dad's parents lived in Earlington.

In 1941, Dad and his family were living in Henderson, on U.S. 41, when, on their walk downtown to church, they got the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. (They canceled worship that morning, and everybody just walked back to their homes, he remembered.)

In 1947, my mom's parents sold their grocery in Evansville, Indiana, and took Mom and her best friend on a giant road trip that started down U.S. 41 and eventually went to Atlanta, New Orleans, Mexico City, the Painted Desert, etc. They spent so much money that my grandfather, who had delivered milk to the grocery before he bought it, went back to delivering milk to the grocery after he sold it.

Hopkinsville, on U.S. 41, is what brought you guys as little boys to Kentucky.

The first place I lived after college was in Henderson. I hated it. It wasn't Henderson's fault. It's a great town that extended warm hospitality to me in every way, but my being there was too engineered in the confines of my head, with little input from my heart. Under a tree on the downtown square (on concrete sidewalks my dad's construction company poured 40 years before), I decided to blow up my first career and move out of town.

My car broke down in Tennessee the night of one of my birthdays in my late 20s, and I ended up riding a Greyhound bus up U.S. 41 to Evansville to visit my mom, who had moved back there after Dad died. The bus took an extended break at a ratty former Holiday Inn at Madisonville, and I stood on the parking lot with everyone who had gotten off to smoke. I remember I kept hearing John Facenda narrating the stark (but not awful) scene in my head: "A good, hard look."

I ended up getting married in Madisonville (to a younger woman who was still living with her parents about two miles from that bus stop when I was there on my birthday), and our honeymoon started with a trip down U.S. 41 until its intersection with U.S. 68/Ky. 80 (another fantastic road that I adore) at Hopkinsville.

In 2011, I had probably the favorite pizza of my whole life at Crofton, on U.S. 41. 

I play basketball at the church on Thursday nights with several people who work for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and a few of them now attend the Sunday-school class I lead. (#TWISS: Acts 2!) I sure appreciate their work. Gosh, I love to drive, and I love to look at maps of roads I might drive or have driven. 

1975: News Quiz

I scored only "fair" last week, so I'm looking for a big comeback in this week's quiz.

22 Jul 1975, Tue The Messenger (Madisonville, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

Also, my ranking of the standard milkshake flavors typically goes, No. 1, vanilla; No. 2, strawberry, and No. 3, chocolate.

22 Jul 1975, Tue The Messenger (Madisonville, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

Kentucky High-School Marching Band 2021, Finals

The 2021 Kentucky Music Educators Association high-school state champions were Owensboro Catholic in Class A, Fort Mitchell Beechwood in Class 2A, Murray in Class 3A, Anderson County in Class 4A and Lexington Lafayette in Class 5A. The finals took place a couple of Saturdays ago at Kroger Field in Lexington, and it really was quite a thrilling affair.

 

As a first-year band dad, I was pretty much a newcomer to this whole culture. I mean, I was on the periphery of it when we were kids, and I feel confident I've read more Funky Winkerbean than a large majority of Americans have in the last 50 years, and I married into a marching-band family, and I've now lived in a town for 13 years where it quickly became clear that marching band is more of the town's identity than, say, football or basketball. But being ushered through the season by my own kid, selling the hamburgers, starting to understand what "phasing" is, answering the questions at church the next morning about how they did at some out-of-town competition on a Saturday, helplessly riding the ups and downs in the stands with my own wife sharing a pride that we, of course, uniquely in this whole world share ... wow, it's a whole-new experience, baby.

And I've still got a lot to learn. Lot about how the judging works. Lot about the history (the Wikipedia page and KYBAND.com are great). Fortunately, it appears as though I'm going to have some time to learn that stuff. I pray so. My daughter got invited, along with a lot of other eighth-graders, to join the varsity marching-band, and, after some long consideration of the tremendous commitment, she decided to give it a go because she said she felt she needed something new in her life and an additional pocket of friends. Thank God she loved it. Thank God she's healthy. Thank God my wife and I are. Please, God ... more of all of this, please.

The Madisonville-North Hopkins Marching Maroons made it as far as the Class 4A semifinals, which were contested at Bourbon County High in Paris the morning of Oct. 30. They were one of 12 bands in the state that advanced to that cold and rainy competition, and, with my whole heart and brain, I know theirs was absolutely the best performance.

 

The Marching Maroons finished 11th. 

I then sat through the entire colder and rainier Class 4A finals at Kroger Field that same night, and I believe the judges were absolutely correct in their rankings of the six bands that performed there and then. 

Isn't it sweet that we are made that way?

Going to State

Just a reminder that the State Boys' Basketball Tournament tips off today in Rupp Arena at 10 A.M. Central.  You can watch the games online by subscribing to the NFHS Network, or you can listen online for free by going to the KHSAA's web page.

Kentucky High-school Basketball, Lots of Teams Left

We're still in district action all this week, both in the boys' and girls' tournaments--so lots of fun yet to come (please, God). I'm rooting for Madisonville-North Hopkins and McCracken County in everything.

MLB20 Update

Here's my current projection for pairings in the best-of-three Wild Card Series in the 2020 Major League Baseball playoffs:

-- Houston Astros (1) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (8)
-- Oakland A's (4) vs. Cleveland Baseball Team (5)
-- Minnesota Twins (3) vs. Boston Red Sox (6)
-- New York Yankees (2) vs. Texas Rangers (7)
-- Los Angeles Dodgers (1) vs. Atlanta Braves (8)
-- Chicago Cubs (4) vs. San Diego Padres (5)
-- New York Mets (3) vs. Miami Marlins (6)
-- St. Louis Cardinals (2) vs. Cincinnati Reds (7)

I'm basing this on current standings, with last season's regular-season performance breaking ties. My initial two thoughts about the pairings are, one, that Cardinals-Reds series would be huge around here, and, two, if I were a Dodgers fan, I would be a little wary of the Braves after they charged out of nowhere to take the National League's eighth berth.

The A's are 1-0, and I stayed awake until right before they actually won it. I have an anonymous source who emailed the following (italicized) observations as the glorious, 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels played out. He might choose to GOaHEAd and reveal himself, but I am not going to divulge.

Subject: I'm watching the A's and the Angels
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:51:16 PM CDT
I would guess that approximately 80 percent of the A's games I've watched over the last 10 years involved the Angels.

This was the first of Oakland's 60 regular-season games, probably 45 of which will be against the Angels.

Baseball Reference is amazing. So, as previously noted, is the internet. I'm sitting here in my living room in Madisonville, Kentucky, watching the MLB74 All-Star Game on YouTube while also browsing  Mike Trout's career splits against different opponents (and checking out some gorgeous custom-made, 1970s-style football cards).

Richard Justice is ga-ga for Mike Trout, and Richard Justice is great.

Mike Trout has finished 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd and 1st in AL MVP voting in his first five full seasons. No one ever ever ever has done that.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) November 17, 2016

Mike Trout is on pace for 51 homers, 132 runs and 14.3 WAR.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) June 4, 2018

Mike Trout's 64.2 career WAR is currently ahead of Ty Cobb (63.4) for tops all time by a position player through age-27 season.--@Angels

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) April 1, 2019

I believe Richard Justice, but I do not have my own authentic sense of the greatness of Mike Trout's career. Because the only games I watch on TV are A's games or playoff games, and because the A's play the Angels two out of every three games and the Angels do not participate in the playoffs, my sense of Mike Trout is based only on his thousands of games against the A's, and Mike Trout has been better against the rest of the league than he has against the A's.

For example, Mike Trout's on-base percentage ((hits plus bases on balls plus + times hit by pitch) divided by (AB plus BB plus HBP plus sacrifice flies)) is .396 in 613 career plate appearances against the A's. That's really good. Carl Yastrzemski led the entire American League with an OBP of .395 in MLB65. However, Mike Trout has led the American League in OBP for each of the last four seasons with nothing lower than last year's .438. His career OBP is .500 against teams with less than a .500 record and .406 against above-.500 teams. He's played eight career games against the Milwaukee Brewers, and his OBP against them is .594!

(Oh, my gosh, Barry Bonds's OBPs were .515 in MLB01, .582 in MLB02, .529 in MLB03 and .609 in MLB04. No one has had an OBP above .500 since, and no one had one in the 1900s had one other than Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby—and none of those guys got close to .609. Cheating is the worst.)

So, back to Mike Trout, Mike Trout to me is a very good player but not nearly as great as Richard Justice knows him to be. (And, again, I do know that Richard Justice, who watches all of the baseball games, is correct.)

Mike Trout has played most of his games against the A's, Mariners and Rangers, who have always been in his division. The A's have intentionally walked Trout a lot less than those other two teams have, but they did so last night.

Subject: The A's no longer have a flagship radio station
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:53:43 PM CDT
They've gone to a streaming model, although there are still 11 stations in Northern California (mostly in rural areas) that still carry the games.  I can still get the radio broadcasts online, so I'm fine.
On my scoreboard at home, I've decided to go with all logos from the 1970's as much as possible.  I also have the Angels listed on the scoreboard as "Cal."

I had to look up what the Angels are calling themselves now. I seriously thought they were currently going by "Anaheim."

Subject: The A's have designated their field
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:57:54 PM CDT
As "Rickey Henderson Field."
I would have gone with "Reggie Jackson Field."

One thing they said on ESPN last night that surprised me is that Marcus Semien has more opening-day starts at shortstop than any other A ever. That is great! I absolutely would've guessed Bert Campaneris, who was my favorite of the '70s A's. But I'm very happy for Marcus Semien, who was born Sept. 17, 1990, in San Francisco, just a few weeks before the A's were swept by the Reds in the World Series. I watched those games with a bunch of Reds fans in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and those guys still remind me of it two or three times a season.

Subject: The A's have crowd noise on their radio broadcast
Date: July 25, 2020 at 12:06:50 AM CDT
It's quite good -- they have organ music, and a PA announcer, and you can hear the crowd reacting to the events in the game.  If you were only listening to the radio, you would think it was a normal game.

I particularly enjoyed the pictures of people in the seats. Tony La Russa and Sal Bando were among those. It's so great to have baseball back.

Subject: 3-3 after 9

Date: July 25, 2020 at 12:33:04 AM CDT

The A's and Angels become the first teams in Major League history to start the 10th inning with a runner on second base.

This is when I turned it off to go to sleep. I was really tired, and, besides, my wife wanted to show me a video of Lin-Manuel Miranda playing one of those arcade games where the claw drops down and grasps at a stuffed animal or whatever. He's really good at it!

Subject: A's walk off the Angels with a GRAND SLAM

Date: July 25, 2020 at 1:02:58 AM CDT

A's win 7-3 in 10, move to 1-0 on the year.

#GREENCOLLAR!

The Freakin' Weekend (1974)

Current World Football League standings as of Thursday, July 11, 1974:

Eastern Division
Florida Blazers 1-0
Philadelphia Bell 1-0
New York Stars 0-0
Jacksonville Sharks 0-0

Central Division
Birmingham Americans 1-0
Chicago Fire 1-0
Memphis Southmen 1-0
Detroit Wheels 0-1

Western Division
Houston Texans 0-1
Portland Storm 0-1
Southern California Sun 0-1
The Hawaiians 0-1

The league kicked off last night with 10 games, and tonight we have the first nationally televised contest, the New York Stars at the Jacksonville Sharks, syndicated by TVS (check your local listings).

I actually hate the WFL. It's going to have a big hand in killing the Dolphins. But by this point in the summer, 1974 me is willing to watch whatever football you're willing to give me. We'll see how much interest I have left in the WFL in a couple of weeks.

MLB74 is going on ...

The big sports news of late, though, has been Wimbledon. Lovers Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert won the men's and women's singles titles, and they are on the covers of both the current SPORT and Sports Illustrated magazines. SI has the couple posing with their trophies. Monthly SPORT, of course, had to go to press before the tournament was played, so its cover shot of Connors and Evert leaping the net together is especially impressive. Newsweek also had tennis on a cover earlier this month, but it guessed wrong and went with Sweden's Björn Borg.

I like playing tennis. 2020 me, in fact, played just this past Thursday, July 9 (and won my best-of-three-sets match at the Madisonville Community College Garnett "Penny" Pennington courts, 6-2 and 6-3). I just have never much been able to get into it as a spectator sport, however. I didn't even read the SI coverage and was actually more interested in some of the ads.

I might have to add some of those books to my Christmas list.

Oh, Kentucky

Don't know yet.

Daily, weekly and monthly records are falling at Owensboro's 65-year-old Wonder Whip.

At the Nicholasville Road Walmart, to mask or not to mask?

Ten new infections and six additional probable positives June 19-23 in Hopkins County, after nine new cases confirmed May 12-June 18. But state officials say that's not really the metric to be watching, Al Cross reports at Kentucky Health News.

"I want to thank Governor Beshear and Senator McConnell for bringing a positive resolution to this longstanding issue. The $8,043,076 that our hospital will receive could not come at a better time and will make a significant difference in our ability to deal with the ongoing pandemic and its financial impact." I pity the writer of this complicated, delicate press release from the governor's office; I can't imagine it went through fewer than 20 drafts. Chase is that Pikeville Medical Center and 53 other rural hospitals are getting some dough back, perhaps as early as next week.

This press release, on the other hand, does not appear to have been particularly challenging to write or manage through review cycles; it's merely freaking terrifying: "The Department of Justice announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging Ethan Melzer, 22, of Louisville, Kentucky, for allegedly planning an attack on his U.S. Army unit by sending sensitive details about the unit – including information about its location, movements, and security – to members of an extremist organization named Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), an occult-based neo-Nazi and white supremacist group. Melzer is charged with conspiring and attempting to murder U.S. nationals, conspiring and attempting to murder military service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiring to murder and maim in a foreign country."

Oh, Kentucky