A few weeks ago, I thought I was going to go all cuckoo for the College All-Star football game in Chicago, but then it just made me strangely depressed. I mean, the Dolphins won, and it's great to know the NFL73 Dolphins have just won a Super Bowl, and they're getting ready to win another Super Bowl. But I don't know ... thinking about rookies like Ray Guy of the Raiders, John Hannah of the Patriots, Bert Jones of the Colts and even Leon Gray of the Dolphins, who is actually going to end up being an All-Pro for the Patriots and then the Oilers but not the Dolphins ... and remembering how those guys and their teams are going to be such studs during my real Wide Awake in America childhood while the Dolphins are navigating the choppy seasons between the perfect years and until the Marino years ... well, to heck with it, I ended up turning off that post and moving on.
Then last week I got all fired up for some made-for-TV satisfaction and all of the Fort Sumter points I wanted to make about Channel 3 and Channel 12 and Maude and Rush Limbaugh and Roe v. Wade and on and on and on. But I wore even myself out just thinking about it and lost interest and kind of got depressed in another way by the whole deal, and, so, I just quit that one, too.
Well, that kind of lack of followthrough and sustained attention is refreshingly OK at the HP, and I really love this glorious clubhouse for that fact. And so here I am again, without apology, firing another round in the air, and we'll see what happens
But I'm not even going to pretend that this bad boy isn't going to depress me into submission: “Don’t miss this topical story about a successful aerospace engineer whose life undergoes a complete reversal when he’s fired from the job he has held for 20 years. George Kennedy and Vera Miles are very good as the couple who face unexpected struggles and challenges when their affluent world crumbles. An above-average made-for-TV feature."
In other news, 1973 me really did need to chillax. The A's are five and a half up in the American League West as of Aug. 29, 1973. Jim Hunter just made his third start after his injury break. He pitched a one-hitter against Boston last night, and the A's won, 6-1. After the game, "Catfish" was all mad that the scorer gave Carl Yastrzemski a hit on a ball that ricocheted off Gene Tenace’s glove after the first baseman apparently made a valiant try to chase it down. Glenn Schwarz of the San Francisco Examiner quoted Hunter as getting into a loud disagreement with the official scorer, Joe Sargis.
“If Geno doesn’t touch the ball Greenie (second baseman Dick Green) has it and I’m there to cover first base,” said Hunter to Stargis, Catfish’s voice increasing in volume with each word. “It was an error.”
“I called it a hit because Geno tried to get to the ball and couldn’t,” replied Sargis. “I can’t give him an error for hustling.”
Schwarz quoted Tenace, Green and A’s manager Dick Williams as all agreeing with the scorer’s decision.
Geno waited until Hunter was well within hearing range. “They,” said Tenace, “out to give the error to Catfish for throwing that ball.”
I am really, really excited about the A’s winning the World Series again.
