Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction

I'm late in posting this, but congratulations to the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class in Canton, Ohio two weeks ago today, on August 2nd.  While I've lost interest in the National Football League, due to its business practices and monopoly, I still have the utmost respect for these players who are among the best to ever play the game.  The 2025 class includes Defensive Back Eric Allen, Defensive End Jared Allen, Tight End Antonio Gates and Wide Receiver Sterling Sharpe.

By clicking the links for each player, it will take you to their induction speech.

Jared Allen

Sterling Sharpe

Eric Allen

Antonio Gates

We've Lost Our Mom

I am going to try and keep this factual but the fact is I am grieving.  We lost our Mom on July 19th and it has been a tough two and a half weeks.  I touched on her fall in my last post in July.

She was in excruciating pain the last two weeks of her life and the medical community did very little to alleviate that pain. I will always hold the hospital where we took her in high contempt.  The nurses were compassionate at times, but the doctors did little for her and unless I demanded to speak to them would not make any effort to give us an update on her daily condition.

Mom was with her family as she celebrated her 98th birthday on July 18th in the hospital.  She was in a lot of pain but did not want people worrying about her.  She was happy to be surrounded by her extended family from her kids to her great grandkids.  She died the next day of an apparent heart attack.  I don't believe her body could take it any more and her heart wore out from the pain and the medications she was on for other illnesses.

We buried her yesterday with our Dad at the National Cemetery here.  The funeral was tough to take and so was the graveside service. Still, I know her soul is with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Heaven.  As a Christian we will see each other again on Judgement Day.  I know that my Redeemer Lives!

Congratulations to the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025

Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has honored the best of the best once again.  At this year's ceremonies and induction the Hall welcomed its 2025 class of Dick Allen, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner into baseball immortality.  Sabathia, Suzuki and Wagner were voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Allen and Parker were voted in by the Classic Baseball Era Committee.

I count myself extremely fortunate to have seen Allen, Parker, Suzuki and Wagner play in person. Allen played for my beloved St. Louis Cardinals at Busch II in 1970. I saw Parker play several times over the years when the Pirates would come to St. Louis.  I was able to see Suzuki play at Busch III due to interleague play when the Mariners would visit the Cardinals.  Billy Wagner was on the hated Houston Astros when the Cardinals and 'Stros had a heated rivalry.  We didn't like him much as Cardinal fans, but deep down I secretly admired him and thought he would have made a great Red Bird.  I never saw Sabathia play in person but I did on TV and he was everything he was cracked up to be.

Voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year in the broadcaster's and writer's wings were Tom Hamilton and Thomas Boswell respectively.  Hamilton is a favorite of mine, whom I first listened to on XM radio starting many years ago and now listen to on the audio channel of MLB.TV.  Mr. Hamilton is the most under rated play-by-play guy in the Majors. He is old school and reminiscent of Vin Scully.  They are similar in that Hamilton does it all.  He handles the play-by-play, the commentary and all of the stats.  Hamilton is everything I would want if I were able to hire the PBP guy for a baseball club.

Boswell won the Baseball Writers' Association of America Award given for Meritorious contributions to baseball writing.  He was a writer and columnist for the Washington Post and spent 37 years in D.C. from 1984 to 2021. He's also written seven books on baseball and is still interviewed frequently by other journalists.

This year rather than write more about each inductee I have located their induction speeches and listed the links below.

Dick "Richie" Allen  Speech by Mr. Allen's widow Willa Allen

Dave Parker  Speech by Dave Parker, II, son of Dave Parker

CC Sabathia

Ichiro Suzuki

Billy Wagner

Tom Boswell   

    (the link for Boswell and Hamilton is the same as they were inducted on 7/26/25)

Tom Hamilton

Congratulations to all seven of these gentlemen!

Ramblings from an Angry Old Man in the Middle of the United States of America

-The more I deal with the United States healthcare industry the more frustrated I am.  A family member recently took a fall and is dealing with three compressed discs in her back.  Because of her age there is nothing the medical community can do for her surgically to repair the discs.  The doctor who visits her in the hospital has done absolutely nothing to address the underlying condition of pain in her back since we declined surgery for her. As a result she is in excruciating pain whenever someone moves her or tries to help her with other medical issues.  I won't name this particular hospital but I wouldn't take my dog to it.  I've also learned hospital administrators apparently could care less about their patients.  The bottom line at this supposed not for profit suburban hospital is the almighty dollar.

-Baseball has reached it's unofficial midway point of the 2025 season.  The game continues to die a slow death due to mis-management and poor promotion of the game itself.  Despite implementing a pitch clock two years ago the games are returning to longer play times.  This due to in part to players learning to manipulate the rules and more commercials in each game.  MLB continues to overhype home runs at the expense of the rest of the facets of the game.  If there are no dingers chances are you won't be seeing highlights of that game.

-I still haven't decided whether to keep posting or not. Not many people are reading this blog and most of its hits are coming from bots.  Still, I like to write and may continue just for the joy it brings me. Where I live it's been very hot for the last three weeks and we're less than a month into summer.  So, stay cool and thanks for reading.

Halfway Through the Year

Here we are at the end of June and the second quarter of 2025.  I don't have much to write about this month and am considering bringing this blog to a conclusion.  I've read Google is going to change this platform so it may no longer be an option.

For now I will try to post monthly until I either get bored with it or Google says enough is enough.  As always, thanks for reading. Have a great July!