A Full Nine Innings–7/21/21
1st Inning—It looks like Vladimir Tarasenko’s days are numbered as a St. Louis Blue. Tarasenko was always my son’s favorite player and I remember when he began his career with the Blues in 2012, he already looked like the most skilled player on the ice. There were times when Tarasenko was so much better than his teammates. Players wouldn’t be expecting him to pass them the puck because they didn’t think he could make said pass from his position on the ice. But he was a magician with a hockey stick. It took a while for the rest of the team to figure out how great he was. Tarasenko is the second longest-tenured player on the Blues Roster behind only Jaden Schwartz. Sadly, he has been slowed in the last two years by multiple shoulder injuries. It would’ve been nice to see him finish his career with the Blues, but maybe a change of scenery will be best for all parties.
2nd Inning—The Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played last on Tuesday, July 13 in Denver, Colorado. Of course, Major Leagues Baseball moved the game from Atlanta in one of the worst decisions a Professional Sports League could make. The decision to move cost many minorities business-owners that own businesses in Atlanta thousands of dollars in Revenues. And then, on top of everything else, the clueless leaders of MLB decided to honor Hank Aaron, the legendary Atlanta Brave, at a baseball game played in Colorado– a state where Aaron never played a single game during his entire 23-year career. The TV Ratings for the All-Star Game were the 2nd worst of all-time, just behind the 2019 game. Therefore, the last two All-Starts Games have had the lowest viewership ever. Poetic justice.
3rd Inning—The playing of the aforementioned All-Star Game means the Second Half of the season has arrived in Major League Baseball. The Cardinals are 9 games out of 1st place in the NLC Central with about 70 games left to play. They need to make up a game in the standings every 7-8 games to make the Playoffs. Two bright spots lately for the Cardinals has been the play of Harrison Bader and the pitching of Kwan Hyun Kim. Bader is hitting .320 with 2 home runs, 9 RBI, and 6 Runs Scored in the 14 games since he came off the Disabled List. He also drastically improves the defense of this team. Kim is 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his last 5 starts. He has emerged as the best starter in the rotation. The future bodes well for the Starting Pitching in 2022 if the Cardinals can get Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, and Jack Flaherty back healthy to join Kim in the rotation. I still think they need a new Manager, General Manager and President of Baseball Operations though.
4th Inning—The 4th and Final Golf Major of 2021 is in the books with Californian Collin Morikawa’s victory in the British Open over Jordan Spieth. Morikawa became just the 8th golfer in history to win two majors before the age of 25. He won the 2020 PGA Championship in his first appearance at that event and won the British in his first attempt there as well making him the 1st men’s golfer in history to win his debut at two separate major tournaments. The Major Champions this year hail from Japan (the Masters), the United States (PGA Championship), Spain (the US Open) and the United States (British Open). I have a feeling that the Olympic Golf Tournament will be another exciting event to watch. Morikawa will represent the United States at the Olympics along with Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, and Xander Schauffele. That’s a pretty good team.
5th Inning—The Immigration issue in this country is now nothing more than a political ploy designed to add to the voting rolls of whichever party is in power. The goal is for that party to gain so many votes that the United States becomes a one-party system of government and whatever agenda said party has can be implemented and enforced without any challenge. We’ve known this for a long time but it has really come to the forefront in the last two weeks. Illegal immigrants are crossing the southern border in numbers never before seen and are being shipped to the interior of the United States in the cover of night to be hidden away until they get amnesty. Based on data, it is expected that the majority of those crossing the southern border would vote Democrat if they ever get citizenship so the current administration is doing nothing to stop the flow. Meanwhile you have the chaos happening in Cuba. The same administration that is allowing thousands to come over daily (and illegally) from Mexico has said, in no uncertain terms, that any immigration form Cuba will not be welcomed and they will do everything in their power to stop any Cuban immigrants trying to get into the US. The reason for this strict stance? Because the Cuban immigrants would probably vote Republican when they became citizens. The prior administration had the exact opposite viewpoint. They wanted to stop any and all crossings on the southern border because they didn’t want more potential voters for the opposing party in the country. And if the Cuba crisis had happened on their watch, they would do everything they could to get as many Cubans into the US as possible. Immigration is all about Political Power.
6th Inning—And here we go again. Los Angeles County officials have re-established the mask mandate in in public indoor settings. In the last 6 months, LA County has had to admit nearly 13,000 people to hospitals with Covid. Of the 13,000 patients, only 171 were vaccinated. In that 6-month period, LA has had a little over 12,000 Covid deaths. Only 19 of the deaths were vaccinated people. The average monthly hospitalizations are about 2,167 so there is a real fear that hospitals will be overrun. County officials blame the spike on un-vaccinated people not wearing masks in public even though they are still required to do so. Of course, in a free society you can’t ask someone if they have been vaccinated. Personally, I don’t think people should be forced to get a vaccination. It should be each person’s choice and many have good reasons why they don’t want to get one. Its’ a complicated issue that is difficult to resolve. All I know is that I don’t want to be wearing a mask anymore. I’ve had enough of that for one lifetime.
7th Inning—The list this week is 10 best Managers in St. Louis Cardinals History (Just one man’s list): 1. Tony LaRussa, 2. Whitey Herzog, 3. Johnny Keane, 4. Billy Southworth, 5. Eddie Dyer, 6. Frankie Frisch, 7. Red Schoendienst, 8. Gabby Street, 9. Rogers Hornsby 10. Mike Matheny.
8th Inning—Could there be a worse Public Official than St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner? She tried to get Mark and Patricia McCloskey thrown in jail for lawfully defending their home against a throng of people that were illegally trespassing on private property. Then this week she fails to have one of her prosecutors show up to court for a Murder Trial causing the judge to drop murder charges and release the accused murderer into the public. Gardner is a total embarrassment and seems to be incompetent as a leader. And she has failed miserably in her job to protect Public Safety. And we wonder why crime is so rampant in St. Louis.
9th Inning—Inspirational Quote of the Week: “God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.” Chester Nimitz
