Archive for November 7, 2021

By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – I was on the road last week and so missed posting here. We travelled to Fredericksburg, Texas, the Hill Country, which has been a bucket list trip for my husband for several years. It’s only about a seven-hour drive from where we live, so we took the opportunity last week to go.

It was a wonderful trip, but we are exhausted! We had three days to cram in as much as we possibly could; Monday and Friday were driving days. We had to be back home Saturday for other obligations.

Tuesday was a highlight for me: we went to Luckenbach, Texas (if you know, you know.). My husband calls Luckenbach “the Grand Old Opry of Outlaw Country Music,” and I guess it is. The song made it famous, but the musicians made history and if you’ve never read about Hondo Crouch, do yourself a favor and “meet” this man.  If only we all move through this life with the grace, love, and humor of Hondo, we would all be so much better off.

Hondo’s daughter, Becky, has written one book about her father and now has another called Luckenbach, The Center of the Universe, which I bought on my trip there and it’s one of those laugh out loud books that you want to read aloud to someone. Hysterical.

Anyway, the trip to Luckenbach was a sort of pilgrimage for me and was a highlight.

The other super cool thing we did was visit the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. I have read a lot of books and memoirs of the Pacific War and so I was excited about this outing; however, that being said, I can not express how exhausted I was at the end of our visit! I’m one of those people who wants to see it all, read it all, touch all the interactive stuff, watch all the videos, at a museum. You just can’t do it, here. I really needed two days to see this museum the way it should be done. We started in the Nimitz Gallery and learned so much about Chester Nimitz – what a fascinating man! Then we moved on into the timeline of the War, then the various exhibits for each stage. We got to 1943 and had to stop for lunch.

After lunch, my brain was like a sponge that had soaked up all it could hold. Nothing was sinking in. We finished, and man, the finish was fabulous! There is a video display of a submerged airplane while a video takes you through the treaties of surrender and the celebrations. You never forget the price of war.

The exhibits in this museum are awesome and it is so well done. There are exhibits outside as well and most impressive is the Japanese Garden of Peace which was a gift from the people of Japan. It is beautiful and impressive.  There is a specially trained gardener to maintain the space.

We did several other things like tour the Texas Ranger Heritage Center in Fredericksburg (not to be confused with the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco), which was cool, and we visited Fort Martin Scott, an Army frontier post.

The landscape in the Hill Country is beautiful and has proven itself perfect for vineyards and so now there are at least forty wineries in the immediate area. Not being a wine-girl myself, we stuck to the German restaurants and breweries, but groups of people go there just to get on trollies and visit the wineries.

It was a fun trip and now I’m trying to get back into my routines, pack up the Halloween decorations, and think about the holiday season ahead.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and at Medium; she is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

Here is the 2nd of three posts from Fr. Leonard Mary’s visit to Fitchburg, Medford and Boston during his trip to Massachusetts Oct 26-30.

You can see the full playlist of videos here.

Rosary at St. Bernard’s

fyi those people on the side and in the back are getting confession

The Mass part 1

the Sermon from the mass part 2 of 5 from the mass part 1 of two of the sermon

Fr. Leonard celebrates Mass and completes his sermon 3 of 5 of the mass 2 of 2 of his sermon. I made it a point to keep the sermon separate for those who wished to watch it or listen to it independent of the Mass.

Fr. Leonard mass at St. Bernard part 4 of 5

fyi for those not familiar with daily Catholic mass It’s normally a bit shorter. This one is longer because with a visiting priest the sermon is naturally longer plus the number of people attending and receiving communion is much larger than for most daily masses which at St. Bernard’s usually runs about 20 min or 25 tops.

part 5 of 5

Following the mass was the healing service here is part 1

and here is the final part, as before the larger crowd meant for a longer service.

This week Fr. Leonard put up his video of his visit. It was an 8 minute video that had stuff from all his events including three in Medford that I could not attend.

My final post next weekend will include the events from his final day in Massachusetts including mass, the Cenacle for priest onboard ship in Boston Harbor and interviews with Fr. and his assistant Gus on the bus as we took them to the airport to go home.

Heaven’s Gate logo courtesy of Wikipedia

By John Ruberry

The one great comet of my lifetime was the Hale-Bopp Comet of 1997. But its spectacular night time display was overshadowed by the mass suicide of the 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult. Because they believed that here was a spaceship traveling behind the comet they took some barbiturates, drank some vodka, and put hoods over their heads so they could reunite with one of the founders of the cult, who they believed was a passenger on that craft.

They had faith, or something akin to it, in their beliefs. 

On a lesser and of course non-deadly scale is the cult-like beliefs Democrats, and their media allies, have in themselves and their policies. 

There are exceptions here and there, James Carville being a notable Dem who has decried the liberals’ wokeness, but after the victory of Republican Glenn Youngkin over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race and the GOP near-miss in New Jersey, leftists are doubling down on failure, despite clear evidence that their policies are unpopular. 

Just like cult members. 

Let’s start with Critical Race Theory. I was one of many conservatives who switched the channel over to MSNBC to see how the left was responding to last week’s election coverage. Commentator after commentator said, like the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, that CRT was not being taught in Virginia schools or anywhere else for that matter. I laughed particularly hard when former Obama HUD secretary Julian Castro said so on a program that Brian Williams, no stranger to fiction, hosted. Castro is a lawyer and while probably in a lie-but-avoid-perjury mode he fixed his mind on a mental crumb–that no one anywhere in pre-college classrooms is teaching the arcane original Critical Race Theory texts from the 1970s–the Dead Sea Scrolls of leftist bigotry. What is being taught in some schools is that American society is inherently white, meaning racist, and that white people, even children, are oppressors. 

For instance, shortly before Election Day a mother said she was told by her six-year-old daughter in a Loudon County, Virginia classroom that she was “born evil” because she is white. Not surprisingly CRT is hated by most parents–and not just white parents.

I don’t want to dig too far into semantics but the meanings of words and phrases evolve. Critical Race Theory now means dividing people into those oppressor and oppressed camps and that our society is rigged and incurably racist. Well there is one antidote–leftist indoctrination in schools, or so liberals believe.

Yes there are white supremacists. There are far fewer of them than when I was a child and those remaining should be shunned.

Oh, MSNBC talking heads I have a message for you: CRT is not a “racist dog whistle.”

Now let’s move on to infrastructure. Many left-wing experts, that is, people who know a lot of things about stuff that isn’t true, made the ludicrous claim that if Joe Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure bill had been signed into law before Election Day McAuliffe would have won. I’ll try to be brief on this whopper of a fallacy but for starters, infrastructure was not a major issue in the Virginia governor’s race. Also, as Barack Obama learned, enacting infrastructure legislation doesn’t make thousands of building projects “shovel ready.” Part of Build Back Better was signed into law on Saturday–I’m not breathing the smell of hot asphalt today. But it will be many months before BBB construction projects commence and even longer before they are completed. Okay, the food and beverage improvements on Amtrak, part of the infrastructure bill, could be available soon. 

Do you remember Obama’s not-so-shovel-ready stimulus bill from 2009? Only about $100 billion of the $800 billion bill actually was spent on infrastructure.

On the other hand, inflation is a problem in America for the first time in decades. There is a growing belief among voters that government is getting too big too fast. And the Democrats have been the party of Big Government since the presidency of Joe Biden’s idol, Franklin D. Roosevelt. As for the current president, he was elected because he passed himself off as a moderate, or perhaps as an old school liberal–but certainly not as Bernie Sanders.

There is a deeper problem for Democrats, particularly among hard-left members such as the members of The Squad. As I mentioned earlier Dems have a cultist faith in their policies. I encounter left-wingers regularly here in the inner-suburbs of Chicago. On those rare instances I engage in a political conversation with them, I am usually told, “Well, you just aren’t properly educated on the issues. You listen to too much talk radio and watch too much Fox News–you are indoctrinated.” But unlike them, I am regularly confronted by the other side. For instance, I sat for hours in a hospital waiting room last month. First I endured former Bill Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America and then the leftists on The View, although I was in for a minor treat as Joyce Behar was not on the couch that day. And overall mainstream entertainment media is drenched with covert and overt liberal bias. Take a look at late night comedy shows, excluding of course Fox News’ Gutfeld! And as I mentioned earlier, I dabble with watching MSNBC–and CNN.

So yes, I am educated and I am exposed to multiple political views.

In the post-mortems among Democrats, again with a few exceptions, there was no call from them to moderate their policies and to address what went wrong on Election Day last week. It’s still full steam ahead.

I’ve mentioned this quote many times before but too many people still haven’t seen it “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant,” Ronald Reagan said, “but that they know so much that isn’t so.”

You can’t reason with most leftists. 

And there was no spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp Comet. 

Oh, no one is always right. Yep, not even conservatives.

The last words I’ll leave to Dr. Martin Luther King.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Here is the current state of the table top baseball leagues I run.

Since our last update more teams have been taken in online leagues.

League one All Futility League has finished it’s latest season. Here were the final results

Teams AL Division AWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1970 Milwaukee Brewers9270.568—–NoN/A
1970 Chicago White Sox8874.5434No—-
2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays7785.47515YesE
2003 Detroit Tigers59103.36433NoE
Teams AL Division BWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1970 Kansas City Royals9765.599_____Yesn/a
2012 Minnesota Twins9468.5803No+6
2008 Seattle Mariners8280.50615Yese
1973 Texas Rangers7191.43826Yese
Teams AL Division CWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2009 Cleveland Indians8280.506—–Non/a
1967 Kansas City A’s7884.4814Noe
1957 Washington Senators7389.4519Noe
2019 Baltimore Orioles6681.4496Noe

AL Leaders: Hitting:

Avg Mauer Min .347, OBP, Mauer Min .457, Slug Huff TB .600 Runs Harper .Mil 143, Hits: Harper Mil 224, 2B Ibanez Sea, 50, 3B Crowe Cle 15, SB Revere Min 83, BB Mauer Min 119 HR Sievers Wash 46, RBI Harper Mil 139

Pitching: Wins Hernandez Sea, Johnson KCR 21, ERA Hyde Wash 2.88, IP Hernandez Sea 250 1/3, K’s Hernandez Sea 223, Avg against Sosa TB .202 WHIP Krause KCA 1.05 HR/9 Hyde Wash 0.30 Saves Yan TB Perkins Min 29,

AL Playoff results:

  • Wild Card game 2012 Min over 1970 White Sox
  • Div Series 2009 Indians over 1970 Brewers 4 games to 3
  • Div Series 1970 Royals over 2012 Twins 4 games to 2
  • League Championship series 1970 Royals over 2009 Indians 4 games to 1
Teams NL Division AWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1998 Montreal Expos9963.611—–YesN/A
2009 Washington Nationals9369.5746Yes+ 3
2001 Pittsburgh Pirates 8577.52514YesE
1998 Florida Marlins7191.43828YesE
Teams NL Division BWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2000 Philadelphia Phillies8379.512—–YesN/A
2012 Houston Astros7389.45110YesE
2017 San Francisco Giants7389.45110NoE
2015 Atlanta Braves6993.42614NoE
Teams NL Division CWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1982 Cincinnati Reds9171.562_____Non/a
1993 New York Mets9072.5561 No—–
1974 Chicago Cubs8082.49411NoE
1993 San Diego Padres7191.43820NoE

NL Leaders Hitting:

AVG Gwynn SD .372, OBP Giles Pit .449 Slug Giles Pit .618, Runs Giles Pitt 142, Hits Gwynn SD 244 2B Gwynn SD 73, 3B Coleman Mets, Guerrero Mon 19, SB Morgan Wash 62, BB Walsh Wash 141, HR Murray Mets 41, RBI Ramirez Pit , Dunn Wash 136

Pitching Wins Hermanson Mon 29, ERA Hermanson Mon 1.82, IP Soto Cin 285 1/3, K’s Soto Cin 347, Avg against Soto Cin .196 WHIP Hermanson Mon 1.00 HR/9 Berenyi Cin, Anderson Pit 0.33, Saves Urbina Mon 35.

NL Playoff results

  • Wild card 2009 Nationals over 1993 Mets
  • Division Series 1982 Reds over 2000 Phillies 4 games to 2
  • Division Series 2009 Nationals over 1998 Expos 4 games to 3
  • League Championship series 2009 Nats over 1982 Reds 4 games to 1

World Series

2009 Nationals over 1970 Royals 4 games to 3


The SD Jones memorial .500 teams league is a league (all teams were no better than 2 games over .500 or no worse than 2 games under) Initial season . Games are scheduled for Tuesdays. AM Only 2 series are left to play in the entire league

Teams AL EastWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1993 Boston9963.611—–Non/a
1957 Baltimore8379.51216Yes+3
1973 New York (A)8082.49419Yes
1967 Washington7785.47522YesE
Teams AL CentralWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2010 Detroit9861.616—–Non/a
1975 Cleveland6990.43429NoE
1973 Minnesota6891.42830NoE
1998 Chicago (A)6198.38437NoE
Teams AL WestWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2010 Oakland9165.599—-Yesn/a
2017 Kansas City8082.49411No_______
2018 Los Angeles (A)8082.49411Yes_______
2005 Toronto5862.48313Yes1

AL Leaders Batting

Avg Carew Min .356, OBP Trout LAA .432, SLUG Trout LAA .616, Runs Trout LAA 138, Hits Carew Min 235, 2B Cabrera Det 55, 3B Durham ChW, 20, SB Carew Min 65 BB Trout LAA 119 HR Trout LAA, Howard Wash Cabrera Det 45, RBI Cabrera Det 148

Pitching

Wins Verlander Det 24, ERA Clemens Bos 2.31, IP Blyleven Minn 313, K’s Blyleven Min 297 , Avg against Cahill Oak .204, WHIP Darwin Bos 0.97, HR/9 Bibby Cle 0.30, Saves Knowles Wash Lyle NYY 33

Teams NL EastWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2018 Washington9765.599________Non/a
1967 Pittsburgh9171.5626No+8
1957 Philadelphia7884.48119YesE
1975 New York (N)6795.41430YesE

Division winner skips wild card

Teams NL CentralWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1996 Cincinnati8379.512_____No—–
2000 Colorado8379.512—–Yes____
1975 St. Louis8181.5002YesE
1973 Houston6795.41430YesE
Teams NL WestWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1975 San Francisco9864.605—–Yesn/a
2012 Arizona8280.50616YesE
2007 Los Angeles (N)7191.43827YesE
1982 San Diego6795.41431YesE

NL Leaders Batting

AVG Clemente Pit .362, OBP Mitchell Cin .439, Slug Helton Col .614 Runs Larkin Cin 134, Hits Clemente Pit 234, 2B Cirillo Col 67, 3B Clemente Pit 23, SB Pierre LAD 82 BB Ashburn Phil 122, HR Helton Col 37, RBI Helton Col 141

Pitching Wins Scherzer Wash 23 ERA Scherzer Wash 2.38, IP Scherzer Wash 302, K’s Scherzer Wash 367, Avg Against Scherzer Wash .208, WHIP Scherzer Wash 0.95, HR/9 Reed StL 0.28 , Saves Face Pitt 37


3rd League All time any time Great Teams League (3rd season) Games scheduled Friday evenings. Two teams have been picked up since the last posting (oddly not the Orioles)

Teams AL EastWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1970 Baltimore7947.627—–Yesn/a
1961 Yankees7056.5569No+ 1/2
1993 Toronto7158.5509 1/2No—–
1999 Boston5673.43424 1/2No15
Teams AL CentralWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2010 Texas7254.552—–Yesn/a
1954 Cleveland6165.48411No8 1/2
2006 Detroit6066.47612Yes9 1/2
1974 Oakland5079.38823 1/2Yes21
Teams AL OtherWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2009 New York (A)7158.550____Non/a
1977 Kansas City6264.4927 1/2No7 1/2
1924 Washington5673.43415No15
1967 Minnesota5277.40319Yes19

AL Leaders Batting

Avg Hamilton Tex .359 , OBP Mantle 61NYY .447, Slug Hamilton Tex .658, Runs Jeter NYY09 111, Hits Jeter NYY09 194, 2B Olerud Tor 41, Triples Taylor Wash 21, SB Henderson Tor 71, BB Killebrew Min 102, HR Maris NYY61 42, RBI Blanchard NYY61 Hamilton Tex 113

Pitching Wins Sabathia NYY 19, ERA Martinez Bos 2.20, IP Johnson Wash 244 1/3, K’s Martinez Bos 331, Avg against Martinez Bos .198 WHIP Martinez Bos 0.88 HR/9 Martinez Bos C.J Wilson Tex Garcia Cle .045 Saves Ward Tor 33

Teams NL EastWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1975 Cincinnati7254.571—–NoN/A
1998 Atlanta6264.49210No_____
2019 Washington Nats6264.49210Yes_____
1955 Brooklyn6066.47612Yes 2
Teams NL CentralWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
1985 St. Louis7056.556_____Non/a
1957 Milwaukee6066.47610No2
2003 Cubs5967.46811Yes3
1971 Pittsburgh5868.46812Yes4
Teams NL OtherWLPCTGBAvailableWCGB
2016 Chicago (N)8838.698—-Non/a
2001 Arizona6165.48427Yes1
1977 Philadelphia5769.45231Yes5
2007 Colorado5274.41336Yes10

NL Leaders Batting

Avg McGee StL .365, OBP Morgan Cin .457, Slug Kendrick Wash .611, Runs Morgan Cin 114, Hits McGee Stl 186, 2B Rizzo Cubs16 40, 3B McGee StL 19, SB Morgan Cin 71, BB Morgan Cin 106, HR Ga;arraga Atl, Aaron Mil 37, RBI Foster 117

Pitching Wins Maddux Atl 18, ERA Tudor StL 1.75, IP Maddux Atl 231, K’s Johnson Arizona 295, Avg against Tudor StL .181, WHIP Tudor StL 0.82 HR/9 Buhl Mil 0.34, Saves Chapman Cubs16 32

If you are interested in taking over the management of any of the online leagues teams contact me in comments.

As a bonus here are the standings of our face to face draft league which first began playing in 1987 in Fitchburg Massachusetts. We have two divisions with 4 teams each playing a 60 game season every other Saturday at Zeda’s Pizza in Fitchburg MA. The individual leagues are named for deceased members of the league. Five teams make the playoffs, the best record gets home field throughout and 2nd best record of the division leaders gets a home series against the best non-division winner while the final two teams play a one game playin for the right to face the best division winner in the playoffs.

New players are always welcome

Lynn DivisionWLPCTGBWCGB
Tampa Bay Rays (x)4119.683—-n/a
San Francisco Giants(w)3525.5836Bye
St. Louis Cardinals(w)3228.5337Home
Colorado Rockies2436.400172
w clinched at least wildcard game x clinched playoff spot
Dan DivisionWLPCTGBWCGB
New York Yankees (XY)3921.650—-n/a
Washington Nationals2833.45911 1/2_____
Seattle Mariners2734.44212 1/2E
San Diego Padres1743.28322E

Playoff results

  • Wild card playin StL over Washington
  • Playoffs round 1 NYY over SF 4 games to 2
  • Tampa over Stl 4 games to 3

World Series Tampa over NYY 4 games to 3

The 1969 Draft league is a continual draft league in its first season (1969) All teams drafted full rosters (max 35) while being allowed to keep one player from the teams picked. In subsequent season (next year 1970) teams will retain rights to new rookies plus 4-12 currently held players based on their finish. There are no wildcards and 1969 rules are in play.

AL

EastWLPCTGB
Baltimore Orioles128.600—–
Cleveland Indians1111.5002
Washington Senators1010.5002
NY Highlanders (Yankees)913.4094
WestWLPCTGB
Minnesota Maul of America (Twins)139.591—–
Oakland A’s 139.591—–
Chicago White Sox913.4094
Seattle Pilots913.4094

AL Leaders

Avg Billy Williams balt .444, OBP Harmon Killebrew Cle .516, Slug Frank Howard Wash .768, Runs Jimmy Wynn Cle 19 , Hits Billy Williams Balt 36, 2B Dick Green Oak, Johnny Callison Wash 8, 3B Billy Williams Balt , Ron Fairly NYY, Johnny Callison Wash 4, BB Mike Fiore Sea 26, HR Frank Howard Wash 10 , RBI Harmon Killebrew Cle 27

Pitching Wins Andy Messersmith Balt 4, ERA Mel Stottlemyre Cle 1.83 , IP Larry Dieker NYY 41, K’s Sam McDowell Cle 49, Avg Against Jerry Koosman Oak .152, WHIP Jerry Koosman Oak 0.82, HR/9 , Wally Bunker Oak, Mike McCormick Sea 0.00 , Saves Tug McGraw Twins, Moe Drabowski Wash 6

NL

EastWLPCTGB
New York Metropolitans (Mets)178.680—–
Pittsburgh Pirates1210.5453 1/2
Montreal Nos Amours (Expos)812.4006 1/2
Atlanta Braves713.3507 1/2
WestWLPCTGB
Los Angeles Dodgers148.636—–
Cincinnati Cin City (Reds)139.5911
St. Louis Cardinals 1411.5601 1/2
San Francisco Seals (Giants)418.18210

Leaders NL

Avg Bobby Tolan Mets .376, OBP Rusty Staub Mon .485, Slug Reggie Smith LAD .761, Runs Reggie Smith LAD 21, Hits Bobby Tolan Mets 41, 2B Curt Flood StL 9, 3B Sal Bando Mets, Jerry Grote Pit, Tim McCarver mets, Bobby Murcer SF, Reggie Smith LAD, Doug Rader Pitt, Rich Reese Stl, Maury Wills Stl 2, BB Willie McCovery LAD 21 SB Cesar Tovar mets 7, HR Dick Allen Reds 8, RBI Bobby Tolan Mets Hank Aaron Atl 21

Pitching Wins Tom Seaver Mets 5, ERA Nelson Briles StL 1.50, IP Bob Gibson Mets 50 1/3, K’s Bob Gibson StL 46, Avg against Jim Palmer SF .170, WHIP Jim Palmer 0.84, HP/9 Dave McNalley SF 0.00 Saves Ron Taylor Mets 7

We Expect to expand by at least 2 teams next season