Happy Birthday–February 6

Frank LaPorte (1880)
Babe Ruth (1895)
Jake Levy (1900)
Glenn Wright (1901)
Dale Long (1926)
Smoky Burgess (1927)
Augie Garrido (1939)
Richie Zisk (1949)
Larry Young (1954)
Bob Wickman (1969)
Chad Allen (1975)

Pitcher Jake Levy had a minor league career that started in 1921 and lasted until 1945.  He played under a variety of names, making it difficult to determine his true record, but he won at least two hundred games.  He was also a good hitter, and early in his career played in the field when he was not pitching.

Augie Garrido was the baseball coach at the University of Texas from 1997-2016.  He has the most coaching wins of anyone in Division I.

Larry Young was a major league umpire from 1983-2007.

You may have heard of that "Babe Ruth" fellow.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 6

Happy Birthday–February 4

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Bill Rariden (1888)
Max Flack (1890)
Roger Peckinpaugh (1891)
Joan Payson (1903)
Matt Carlisle (1910)
Jack Murphy (1923)
Don Hoak (1928)
Al Worthington (1929)
Hank Aaron (1934)
Norm Miller (1946)
Mike Heath (1955)
Roberto Alomar (1968)
Adam Everett (1977)
Eric O'Flaherty (1985)
Mark Hamburger (1987)
Caleb Hamilton (1995)

Joan Payson was the original owner of the New York Mets.

Jack Murphy was a longtime sportswriter in San Diego who helped bring the Padres to the city.  The baseball stadium was named in his honor for many years until the naming rights were sold.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 4

First Monday Book Day: Inheritance

Spent most of January reading N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - This was a re-read, but it was still really good. I still remembered so many of these characters even after 8 years between readings. Jemisin does a really great job in this series of writing gods that are almost human, but not quite.

The Broken Kingdoms - I was pretty pleased that this didn't just pick up where the first book left off.  Another cool expansion of the idea of gods and humans interacting, but not quite as amazing as book 1.

The Kingdom of Gods - I don't know what I think of this at this point.  In the moment of reading it, I felt like so much of the plot depended on new rules that the reader had no way of anticipating, but the farther I get from it, the more I appreciate it as a conclusion of the trilogy.  Not a book to read on its own, I guess, but one that fits the overall arc of the three books.

The Awakened Kingdom - (novella) - a fun little conclusion, but nowhere near the weight of the first three books.  It was fine.

Jemisin is really good in the longer novel-length stories.  I read her short story collection, How Long Till Black Future Month?, and the best stories read like short treatments of longer novels (and in multiple cases - they are exactly that - the plot of Broken Earth is there in one story, the plot of the Dreamblood books in another, and she keeps coming back to the ideas in the Great Cities series across multiple stories. I haven't yet regretted picking up a Jemisin novel, and this month did nothing to change that.


All the books I read in January:

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So, which N.K. Jemisin series are you going to start in February?

Alternate question: What are you reading?

Happy Birthday–February 3

Lou Criger (1872)
Slim Sallee (1885)
Larry MacPhail (1890)
Joe Stripp (1903)
Buck Ross (1915)
Dick Tracewski (1935)
Joe Coleman (1947)
Bake McBride (1949)
Fred Lynn (1952)
Ronald Williamson (1953)
Fred Toliver (1961)
Joe Klink (1962)
Scott Klingenbeck (1971)
Skip Schumaker (1980)
B. J. Garbe (1981)
Lucas Duda (1986)
Rougned Odor (1994)

Larry MacPhail was the general manager of Cincinnati (1933-36) and Brooklyn (1938-42) and was president and part-owner of the Yankees (1946-47).  His son Lee MacPhail was president of the American League and his grandson Andy MacPhail was the general manager of the Twins (1985-94) and the president of the Cubs (2000-02), the Orioles (2007-2015), and the Phillies (2015-present).

Ronald Williamson was a catcher in the Oakland organization from 1971-1973.  In 1988, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.  He was cleared in 1999 through DNA testing and became the subject of John Grisham’s first non-fiction book, “The Innocent Man.”  Williamson passed away from cirrhosis in 2004.

Outfielder B. J. Garbe was chosen by the Twins with the fifth pick of the 1999 draft.  He was with the Twins through 2004, ended his career in 2006, and never got higher than AA.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 3

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.