Happy Birthday–May 27

Frank Snyder (1894)
Pinky Higgins (1909)
Terry Moore (1912)
George O’Donnell (1929)
Jerry Kindall (1935)
Fred Bruckbauer (1938)
Jim Holt (1944)
Gary Nolan (1948)
Terry Collins (1949)
Mark Connor (1949)
Mark Clear (1956)
Ed Nunez (1963)
John Jaha (1966)
Jeff Bagwell (1968)
Frank Thomas (1968)
Todd Hundley (1969)
Jose Berrios (1994)

Terry Collins was the manager of Houston from 1994-96, of Anaheim from 1997-99, and of the Mets from 2011 to the present.

Mark Connor pitched in the Twins’ minor league system from 1971-1972 before he suffered a career-ending arm injury.  He has been a pitching coach for the Yankees, Arizona, Toronto, Texas, and Baltimore.  He also was the head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 27

FMD 5/26/17 — The Music of Our Youth

Note:  If you've done this topic before, well, sorry.  But it was the best one I could come up with.

If you've followed Jeff A week, you've noticed that the songs are all oldies, mostly from the '70s.  The reason for that, of course, is that the '70s are the time I was growing up.  All of my high school and a good share of my college years came in the '70s.

I think for most of us, the music of our youth holds a special place in our hearts.  It's not so much that the music of our youth is better than any other kind of music (although in my case, it clearly is).  It's that this is the music that was playing during the years when we were becoming the people we were going to become.  Hearing that music takes us back to that time, and usually back to happy memories.  It even does that for those of us for whom the high school years do not have that many happy memories.  Maybe it's because the music was a kind of refuge, a place where we could go to forget the way things were and think about how things might be better for us someday.

I don't just listen to these oldies.  I listen to some contemporary pop music and some contemporary country music.  I listen to some contemporary Christian music, too.  But my go-to music is still the music of the '70s.  It's where I go when I want some music to put me in a good mood, or music I can sing along to.  The music of my youth.

So, what's your go-to music?  What's the music that puts you in a good mood?  What's the music of your youth?  Put it here.  Or, put in a random ten list.  Or, do whatever you want.  I'm not the boss of you.

Happy Birthday–May 26

Jim Frey (1931)
Joe Altobelli (1932)
Jim McKean (1945)
Darrell Evans (1947)
Kevin Kennedy (1954)
Rob Murphy (1960)
Jason Bere (1971)
Chris Latham (1973)
Travis Lee (1975)
Ben Zobrist (1981)
Kevin Mulvey (1985)

Among other things, Jim Frey was manager of Kansas City from 1980-81, manager of the Cubs from 1984-86, and general manager of the Cubs from 1988-91.

Jim McKean was an American League umpire from 1974-2001.  He also played in the CFL for five years.

Kevin Kennedy managed Texas from 1993-94 and Boston from 1995-96.  He has also been a broadcaster for FOX.

Travis Lee was drafted by Minnesota with the second pick of the 1996 draft.  However, the Twins failed to make a formal contract offer within the time designated under the Basic Agreement, and Lee was declared a free agent.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 26