A Little Bewildered

Man oh man, I have mixed emotions today...as we watched countless sporting events yesterday...fun matches that were highly entertaining...all the while, huge crowds present...mostly all were maskless...and for sure, throwing caution to the wind...have we just given up?...or, are we all inoculated?...or?...seriously, the most surprising of all, was the distance thing used at the UO game...nobody else did that...

We are on the wait and see mode...where this takes us physically...with that, I say, we shall wait...but for now...I will give you my take on the games that I saw...and I watched a bundle of them...from my living room...albeit, it started rocky...as when I turned on the tele, everything was real dark...tried so many things to adjust...frustrating...shamelessly, switched to the bedroom to watch from there...and VOILA, something went off in me head...unplug the set and wait a minute and replug...duh...happens to computers...and yes, to this TV...so duh...

FresnO St at UO...fuggit about the 20 1/2 point fav...it took to the latter part of the 4th Q to get the Duck win....the Bulldogs were as good as the Ducks...their O was more versatile...and we had two of our better D guys go out early....it is a win...

OSU at Purdue...the line was that there was to be a lot of points scored....hmmm...2 evenly matched teams, where the home team prevailed...the Beavs have some quality players...not enough of them...but, they will win their share of games this season...

Clemson at Georgia...10-3...as the Dawgs won...two really good defenses, with NFL caliber blokes all over the field...found myself rooting against the Tigers...

LSU at UCLA...Chip is back...he's got his type of players now...they are fast...and are a real force in the Pac 12 to be...played at the Rose Bowl, and man, it looked packed...yes, the Bruins won...so far, all these home teams won...hmmm.

Some interesting scores of teams that I did not watch...Montana over Washington (!)...SDSU over New Mexico  (all the Aztecs scores in the 2nd half)...KSU over Stanford...Nevada beat Cal...BYU over Arizona....Utah St over WSU...not a good day for the Pac 12...

In the PGA, Patty Ice and JR, are joined by JT in the race for the crown of the Fed Ex...bad news for the Ryder Cup team, as Brooks hurt his left wrist and withdrew...enough of the monikers...Cantley, Rahm, and Thomas...

LPGA...Solheim Cup...the Euros are better than the team we have....our stars are too old to make the team, I guess...will not be close...

The mighty Padres had a big one over the Astros...3 monster homers by Manny, Wil, and Jr...decent pitching...in a 10-2 win...kind of what I thought this Friar squad would look like more often...

On the other hand...

Here's my concern...in a few weeks, there very well could be a rash of people sick with Covid...at the colleges...and around them...due to these monster crowds at the games...I do want to be wrong...fingers crossed...

And this...one of the things I do...read the old hometown periodical from Salem, Oregon...the Statesman Journal online...no longer produced in the capital city, but in Portland...shame...and the obits...I am at the age, that more and more of my school mates, and friends have been passing on...

I read about this one...Michael Jay Carter, 74...my age...wondered if it was the one I knew...played beisbol with...asked around and those in the know, say it was him...thus far, no info in the obituary...but, I do have a story about him I will share...mostly, it's about me...I may have told you this before...the preface...

It was the last game of the season...I was in CF, Michael was in LF...to be fair, I did not know that I needed glasses...and thought that seeing the baseball was one of the hardest things in the world to do...when a ball was hit, I would panic...the 2b and SS would point it out to moi, and then I could find it...imagine...well, the stud from the other team was up...John Rich...funny, I would recall that...somebody yelled it out to me....be aware, be very aware...and then BOOM!...I heard the crack of the bat...our players turned my direction and started to point...I had no idea where the ball was...Michael, not the fleetest of all players, came a running towards me...this is no lie, I probably moved two spaces...and suddenly he dove at my feet and caught the ball!...I helped him up, like a good teammate would do...jogged into the dugout, trying to hide behind him...as the fellow teammates glad handed him...game saver...unfortunately for moi, Coach Boatman, called me over...'you know Pete, I think that was your ball'...yes sir...

RIP  Michael Jay...

Of course the story does not end there...this is all about me...Coach continued a bit later on...as he gave me a ride to my home..."you know Pete, you are a good basketball player, a great player...but baseball?...not really your game"...it was the last time I ever played baseball...

A year later I got tested and got...glasses...