Bob Gibson

 

I had just finished listening to the Cardinals lose to the Padres to eliminate them from the playoffs when I got an alert on my phone.  Bob Gibson had passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 84.   The greatest pitcher in Cardinal history was gone.

When I started rooting for the Cardinals in 1974, Bob Gibson was approaching the end of his career. He had very up and down season I remember with a few really good games and some really bad ones.  I remember him pitching well in September as the Cardinals were battling the Pittsburgh Pirates for the NL East crown.  He managed to get his record to 11-12.  Alas, he lost the next to last game of the season 3-2 when he gave up a two out homerun to Mike Jorgensen of the Expos.  I remember listening to the game on the radio. The Pirates won their next two games to win the division.  He began 1975 in the starting rotation but was moved to the bullpen because he didn’t pitch well.  He did OK there but he realized he needed to retire after a game against the Cubs.  He came in relief and gave up a grand slam to a guy named Pete LaCock.  Pete’s claim to fame was he’s the son of Peter Marshall – the longtime host of the gameshow Hollywood Squares.  He didn’t pitch another game after that.

My first real memory of him was in 1974.  My mom took all of us to see a couple of Cardinal games.  The first game we saw, Bob Gibson was pitching.  He was going for his 3000^th career strikeout something only one pitcher (Walter Johnson) had done up to that time.   I remember him getting that by striking out a guy named Cesar Geronimo of the Cincinnati Reds.  Bob left the game with the lead but unfortunately the bullpen coughed up the lead.  The Cardinals ultimately lost in extra innings. 

I’ve read a lot and seen a lot of film clips of Bob Gibson.  He pitched for seventeen years for the Cardinals.  He won two Cy Young Awards.  He was a clutch pitcher in the World Series winning seven games in three Series (two of which the Cardinals won).  He struck out 17 Tigers in the first game of the 1968 World Series.  He set the modern record for the lowest ERA in a season in 1968 – 1.12.    He was a first ballot Hall of Famer. 

My best memory of him though was actually getting to meet him.  A few years ago the Cardinals had an event where you could meet Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver before they did a meal and then an interview with them.  Donna and I went.  I actually got to shake his hand.   I told him I was there at the game where he got his 3000^th strikeout.  He asked me “Do you remember who that was?”.   I told him “Cesar Geronimo”.  He smiled and said “You have a good memory”.   I stood by him for an hour listening to him tell stories of his career.  Donna said I looked like a happy child.   We got our picture with them as well.  I hated to leave and go the meal.  He did a great interview afterwards as well. 

Bob Gibson was a very well-spoken articulate man.  He did some broadcasting and was the pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves for a few years.    He was a wonderful athlete and even played for the Harlem Globetrotters until the Cardinals increased his salary to make him stop.  He roomed with the most famous of Globetrotters, Meadowlark Lemon.  He was a regular at Cardinal events and a great ambassador for the Cardinals. 

Jonathan asked me the day after why it made me so sad for Lou Brock and Bob Gibson to die.  Part of it is it’s another part of your childhood being gone.  Another part is you really start to realize your mortality when things like that happen.  I told him he’ll understand when his favorite sports figures of his youth (Derek Jeter and Eli Manning) age and finally pass away.  I’ve seen two of mine die in the past month.  I was honored and happy to have seen them play and watch their lives afterwards.

Lou-u-u-u!!!!

As church was ending Sunday night, Jonathan let me know that he had gotten an alert that Lou Brock had died at the age of 81. He had been in bad health, but this was still a shocker to me.

The first year I really got into baseball was 1974 when I was 12. I rooted for the St Louis Cardinals of course. Lou Brock was the left fielder for that team. He began to steal bases that season at an astounding rate. The record for stolen bases in a season was 104 by Maury Wills. Lou Brock was stealing bases at a rate that would beat that record. The Cardinals were in a tight division race all year with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Lou Brock’s great year helped keep them in the race. I remember listening on the radio when Lou Brock broke the record. He would ultimately steal 118 bases. The Cardinals ultimately lost the division in a large part to the Cubs blowing a game to Pittsburgh (on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the 9th that allowed the Pirates to tie and ultimately win the division clinching game). Lou Brock finished second in the MVP race to Steve Garvey of the Dodgers. I felt the only reason that happened was Garvey’s team won the pennant that year (and were easily beaten by the A’s in the World Series that year). 

Lou Brock was my first favorite baseball player. His base stealing that year captivated me. We even tried to incorporate stolen bases that year in our pick up baseball games. We didn’t have catchers so we had to make our own rules as to what a stolen base was. The pitcher had to throw over to a base you were leading off from in order for you to try and steal a base. If you took an extra base on a hit (say going first to third on a single) that counted. I remember Joe Ford and I both stole 59 bases that year. We didn’t keep up with stolen bases again in any future year.

I read with interest of the infamous trade (Brock for Broglio) that brought Lou Brock to the Cardinals in 1964 and spurred them to a pennant and finally a World Series win over the Yankees. Lou Brock was at his best in the World Series. He hit .391 in three Series (a record for anyone playing over 20 games). His 14 stolen bases in the World Series is a record. I remember him breaking TY Cobb’s career stolen base record (with 893) in 1977. I was working at the Paducah Drive In in 1979 when I heard Lou Brock (on the radio) literally knock Dennis Lamp of the Cubs out of the game by lining his 3000th hit off of the pitcher’s hand. Brock won the National League Comeback Player of the Year that year as well rebounding from hitting .221 the year before to hit .304. He retired after that year.

Lou Brock revolutionized base stealing. He bought a movie camera and would take films of pitchers to pick up particular movements that made on the mound to give him a better idea of their pickoff moves and when they were going to pitch so he could get a better jump. He revolutionized the pop-up slide. Using that slide, he could immediately be in a position to advance should a throw be bad. He led the National League in steals every year but one from 1966 to 1974. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1985. Base stealing has fallen off severely in the last decade or so. The MLB leader in steals last year stole only 46. 

Lou Brock was a successful man outside of baseball as well. He was also a very articulate man. Donna and I went to see him and Red Schoendienst a few years ago at Busch Stadium. He told many wonderful stories of his days in baseball with the Cardinals. I still have my autographed baseball that has both his and Red’s signatures on it. He came back to Busch Stadium often and was always greeted with an enthusiastic “Lou-u-u-u-u!” from the crowd.

It made me sad to hear someone who was a big part of my life pass away. It also makes my realize my own mortality when my favorite players of my youth pass away. Thanks for the memories Lou…

The Lincoln Memorial

I really enjoy history and visiting historical sites. I decided for my birthday this year that I wanted to visit the Lincoln Memorial. I didn’t go to Washington DC. In fact, I didn’t even go out of the state. How is that even possible you say? Let me explain.

I had heard only recently of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Park. It’s south of Hodgenville and has a memorial building for Abraham Lincoln. I had planned to go there on my next trip to Lexington. We got tickets to see Kentucky play for my birthday (like we have for the past decade) so we decided we could make a slight detour and visit on the way. I’d also found out about a restaurant that had some of the best hamburgers in Kentucky that was located in Hodgenville. That sounded like the perfect combination to me so we planned to go.

We headed out on my birthday on our trip. Instead of jumping on I-65 in Elizabethtown, we just kept going and headed for Hodgenville. We found Laha’s Red Castle (located on the roundabout in Hodgenville) with no problem. The restaurant is very small only having counter service with only seven stools. We decided to just get our food and took it to the National Park to eat. They cooked the hamburgers right in front of us. They also made the fries and onion rings we ordered fresh. We got our food and headed to the car. In the middle of the roundabout was a statue of Abraham Lincoln I had to see. It looks very similar to the one in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This statue was made in 1909 which is the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday. After we saw that, we headed for the park.

We got there and parked and ate. The food was excellent. There was not a big crowd at the park at all. There was a visitor center and the memorial itself. It was a very impressive structure built of granite and marble. It has fifty-six steps leading to it which represents the age Lincoln was when he was assassinated (I had forgotten he was that young, I’d always thought of him as being older). It is located on a knoll that is thought to be the location of the cabin Lincoln was born in. Inside the memorial is a replica of Lincoln’s birth cabin (which you cannot go inside of though). The memorial has sixteen windows and sixteen rosettes in the ceiling since Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. At the bottom of the knoll, is Sinking Spring. You can take a set of steps down to the actual spring supposedly used by the Lincolns. There is also a nature trail you can walk. Finally, there is a fifteen minute informational video available at the visitor center along with a few displays and items for sale.

After we finished our visit there, we drove several miles to the Knob Creek cabin where Lincoln lived until he was seven and moved to Indiana. There was a small cabin replica there (that you also could not enter) and the Lincoln Tavern that serviced that area in the 1930s. Both areas are free to see.

If you interested in history and especially Abraham Lincoln and you are travelling through the Elizabethtown area, I would recommend you check the park out.

Review - Frosted Chocolate Cupcake Pop Tarts

I really enjoy a sweet snack. One snack I didn’t usually eat was Pop Tarts. Kellogg’s came out with Pop Tarts in 1964 but I don’t remember us ever buying them when I was a kid. I had a fellow system admin when I worked at USEC who ate them just about every day (Skip Hancock), but I was never really tempted to try them. At some point in the last few years, I got turned onto Cookies and Cream Pop Tarts. These are fantastic. The only issue is a package of two has 380 calories. A few years ago around Valentines Day, Kellogg’s released Red Velvet Pop Tarts. These were equally fantastic. Alas, I have not seen them since. I look every year around Valentines Day and ask my friends to do the same. Despite this, Kellogg’s refuses to reissue them :-).

A couple of weeks ago, my sister Jody posted a picture of Frosted Chocolate Cupcake Pop Tarts on my Facebook page. I love Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes. I was devasted in 2012 when Hostess went bankrupt and stopped making them. Fortunately, another company started making them in 2013. Of course, I had to find some of these and try them out. I looked at several stores I frequent with no luck. Finally, I found a box at Wal-Mart. I bought some and eagerly prepared to try them.

Donna and I toasted a couple that night to try them out. They have the neat squiggly line on them just like a Hostess Cupcake.

Unfortunately, that is where the comparison ended. It tasted nothing like a Hostess Cupcake (or any frosted chocolate cream filled cupcake I’d ever had). The cream especially didn’t taste anything like the white cupcake filling I was used to. We decided a couple of nights later to try one untoasted. It didn’t help. In retrospect (after eating a couple more), they aren’t that bad. Have you every really looked forward to something and when it finally happened, it wasn’t nearly as good as you hoped it would be? That’s what had happened to me. So, I’ll stick to my Cookies and Creams Pop Tarts.

Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band

If you follow this blog, you know that my favorite group is the Beatles. I’ve been a fan since the early 80s thanks to Keith (Corky) Johnson loaning me all his Beatles albums during my first semester at the University of Kentucky. I’ve seen Paul McCartney three times in concert, most recently a couple of months ago. You probably know the only other living Beatle is Ringo Starr who is actually older than Paul (he is 79 as of this post). For some reason, it has never occurred to me to try and see Ringo in concert. I happened to get some sort of alert from Ticketmaster that he was playing in Champaign Illinois. Why would I even consider going there you might ask? I actually am somewhat familiar with Champaign. We go through it on our trips to see Josh and Shelby. If you go one mile east of the I-57/I-74 interchange, there is fabulous exit with a lot of good restaurants (Culvers, Longhorn and Einstein Bros). The Drury Inn at this exit is really good. And if you are willing to go a mile or so off the exit, there is a Krispy Kreme and a Portillos. Anyway, by the time I got in and tried to buy a ticket, the good seats were all gone. I checked around a bit and found he would playing with his All-Starr Band in Nashville. There were some good single seats left, so I went for it.

As I began to research, I found out that for years (since 1989), Ringo Starr has assembled several iterations of what is called “The All-Starr Band”. He gets other famous rock stars (usually four) and they play together. He’s had guys like Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren, and Billy Squier. The current band is his Fourteenth iteration. The band is comprised of Steve Lukather of Toto, Colin Hay of Men at Work, Gregg Rolie of Santana, and Hannish Stuart of the Average White Band. I checked a few set lists and about half the songs are by Ringo. They either Beatles songs or his solo songs. At different points in the show, he’ll go back and play drums and the others will do about three songs each. This all sounded very intriguing. I got my hotel room in Goodlettsville (the rooms were much cheaper there) and got a Parkwhiz a block away from the Venue.
The day of the concert came and I headed for Goodlettsville (with a brief detour). I ate dinner and headed for downtown Nashville. The traffic was fine until I got to Downtown Nashville. Turns out that in addition to the All-Starr Band playing at Ryman Auditorium, John Legend was playing at Bridgestone Arena. So, downtown Nashville was a madhouse. Fortunately, I left early and was in no rush. The police were directing traffic so that did help. I finally made it to my parking garage and still got into the Ryman in plenty of time.

This was my first trip to the Ryman. It was the original home of the Grand Old Opry (before they moved it to the Opryland Megaplex). It took me a little bit of time to find the entrance (around back) but I finally made it in. It’s a beautiful facility. It used to be a church building and still has stained glass windows. You even sit in pews (with your seat number on the back to tell you where to sit). There is a main floor and a balcony. The facility seats only about 2300 people. The bathrooms were even nice. A friendly usher pointed me to my seat. I was about twelve rows from the stage. I settled in to wait for the concert to start.

Unlike his counterpart Mr. McCartney, Ringo and his band started right on time. They started with the Carl Perkins/Beatles classic Matchbox. Ringo sang his solo hit “It Don’t Come Easy”. He then did the song “What Goes On” by the Beatles. This is the only Beatles song that he shared writing credit with John Lennon and Paul McCartney with (the credit shows as Lennon/McCartney/Starkey). Then, each of the members of the All-Starr band did a song they were famous for. I especially enjoyed Rosanna by Steve Lukather and “Down Under” by Colin Hay. They brought back memories of my teen-age and college years. This process was repeated throughout the concert. Ringo actually left the stage during one set of the others playing. Steve Lukather did Africa and “Hold the Line” and Colin Hay did “Who Can It Be Now” and Overkill. Ringo did several Beatles songs (Don’t Pass Me By and Yellow Submarine) plus solo hits (You’re Sixteen and Photograph). He closed with the Buck Owens song (and a personal Beatles favorite of mine) “Act Naturally”. Finally, they closed with “A Little Help From My Friends” (with a riff of “Give Peace a Chance” mixed in). Interestingly enough, when the band came out from to take their bow, Ringo left the stage and didn’t do that with them. Also, this ended up being first concert I’ve been to (that I can remember anyway) that no encore was done. The show lasted about two hours.

I did run into one issue when leaving. I had parked in a multi tiered parking garage. I should have learned my lesson from attending Cardinal ballgames but I didn’t (at least I’d forgotten). It took about thirty minutes to wind out of the parking garage. At least, we dodged the crowd leaving the John Legend show. It actually took less time to get from Nashville to Goodlettsville then to exit the garage. But that was a very minor annoyance. I really enjoyed the concert, especially in the venue of the Ryman. If you have the opportunity to see the All-Starr band, I’d recommend you go especially if you are Beatles fan or a fan of one the groups represented.

Jefferson Davis State Park

If you know anything about me, I love history. I love to visit historic sites and the more obscure the better. Donna doesn’t enjoy this in the least. So, I will often travel to a site on my own which works out fine for both of us.

On a trip to Nashville I made recently, I was able to get on the road sooner than I expected. I had been telling myself for years that I wanted to visit the Jefferson Davis State Park in Fairview Kentucky. It’s about thirty minutes off of I-24 East. You get off at Exit 65 (the Cadiz exit) and go about thirty minutes until you get to the tiny town of Fairview. I’d been there with Donna and the boys years ago when we were vacationing at the Pennyrile State Park. I wanted to go up in the monument that is there and see the view but upon arriving, I found out the elevator was broken. I decided I’d make another visit and check it out.

Instead of having to follow a map, I was able to get there easily via Google Maps. You travel US-68 for most of the way. It is pretty countryside. It is an odd sight when you get a few miles from the State park and see this huge obelisk seemingly sticking up in the middle of the country. I got to the State Park and got out to walk the grounds. It is a pretty and well-manicured park with several concrete paths to stroll, picnic shelters, and even a playground. The main attraction though is the monument itself. It’s 351 feet tall and the fifth tallest monument in the United States. It is the tallest unreinforced concrete structure in the word, there is no steel reinforcement at all. It was built starting in the early 1900s and finished in the 1920s. It’s about 2/3 the size of the Washington Monument (both of these being obelisks).

After walking around outside for a bit, I decided to head to the visitor center. I went in to pay my money for the museum and to go on the monument elevator. To my amazement (and disappointment), the elevator was “down for maintenance”. I decided to take in the museum (It cost me 5.50, I found out later I had been given the Senior Discount (even though I wasn’t old enough to have gotten it). I will tell you there isn’t a lot to it. There are a few items that belonged to Davis and his wife. There were several displays that outlined events in his life. He was born there in Fairview but soon moved to Mississippi. He went to West Point and served in the Black Hawk War. He first married Zachary Taylor’s daughter. She died of malaria soon afterwards so a few years later, he married again. He fought in the Mexican American War and served as Franklin Pierce’s Secretary of War. He was also a member of House of Representatives and the Senate before being chosen at president of the Confederacy. Davis and Abraham Lincoln were actually born within a hundred miles of each other and moved in their youth to other states. After seeing the museum and briefly perusing the gift shop, I got in my car and headed for Nashville. I followed directions by taking KY 115 South and getting back on I-24 East at exit 89.

Is it worth the trip? If you’ve got an hour or so to spare and you are headed to Tennessee on I-24 East and you love history, I’d do it. I did find out I could have checked their website and seen the monument elevator was down for maintenance. I would certainly do that and perhaps even call ahead before I would go there

The Nashville Zoo

Earlier this month, we decided to take a mini-vacation trip to Nashville. We had not had a chance to see our nieces and nephews in quite some time so we wanted to take Lucy to see them. We planned to see them, spend the night, and then go to the Nashville Zoo the next day. I was able to get two rooms at the Townplace Suites in Goodlettsville with points so we were ready to go.

We got to my sister Melissa’s home and Charlotte and Catherine had gotten out their tea set. Lucy had a lot of fun playing that with them. Then, they played with their pretend grocery store and other toys they had. Needless to say, she had a lot of fun. Jonathan and I got in a game of Chutes and Ladders and a couple of games of Uno with Brody and Amelia. I ducked out to grab a couple of pizzas from Domino's using their 5.95 deal. Then, the girls enjoyed some Cookies and Cream ice cream for dessert. We had hated to leave because Lucy (and we) had such a wonderful time.

We got to our hotel and checked in. They had a nice indoor pool and Lucy really enjoyed playing in that. For dinner, I got us food from Krystal. I thought Lucy might enjoy the food that was more her size. She really enjoyed the “little bitty hot dog” I brought her. We ended up having a lot of fun having her ride around on a ottoman with wheels that we pushed around our room. We all went to bed early so we’d be rested for our trip to the Zoo the next day. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to get there when the zoo opened. Surprisingly, we had little trouble with traffic given the time of the morning it was, and we got there several minutes before it opened (9:00am).

I had been to the Nashville Zoo several times before. Our family went to the Zoo when it originally opened. It was then located of the West Side of Nashville (in Cheatham County). From where we live, you didn’t even have to go to the actual city of Nashville to go to it. I remember it being several miles off of I-24. The zoo was then moved in the late nineties to the Southeastern part of Nashville. I had gone again when Jonathan’s Academic Team took a trip there. So, it’d been something like fifteen years since I’d been so I was interested to see how it was now.
First, it costs seven dollars to park. They do have ample parking there. Then, the cost is eighteen dollars for adults and thirteen dollars for ages 2-12. It’s a dollar less on Monday through Thursday and a dollar more on Saturday. They did offer a special deal on Fridays during the summer where if you are Kroger Plus member, you buy one adult ticket and get another for free. We were able to take advantage of that. There are also several things in the zoo that require an additional cost to do (train, carousel, several interactive exhibits). These tickets are two dollars apiece. However, when you buy ten, you get four tickets free. You can also bring food and drink in (with certain restrictions). So, keep all that in mind if you go to in order to save some money.

Our first stop was at the “Critter Encounter” exhibit. This is a shaded gated area with several different animals (goats and pigs) running around. Lucy loved this. She got to pet several and they even had brushes available to brush the goats. She really liked that too. We finally had to almost drag her away from that to see the other animals. It was a hot day, but fortunately much of the zoo is shaded. We kept her away from the huge play area they have because we knew she’d get really hot doing that. They have a large array of animals there. Lucy especially liked the pink flamingos, monkeys, and the tigers. They have an area just opened where you can walk around and see kangaroos. You can even get close enough to pet them. At the end, we went to ride the train. It is not the type of zoo train I was used to. It reminds me of the one at the Kentucky Oaks Mall. There are several small cars you can get into. The four of us were barely able to fit in one. Keep in mind the train does not go around the whole park. It goes in a path near to the Zoo’s safari area. It takes one ticket to ride per person. However, if the rider requires an adult to be with them (like in Lucy’s case), one ticket covers both rider and adult. We then went to the Carousel. We rode that three times with Lucy wanting to ride a different animal each time. The same rules applies to tickets to ride that. FYI, there are also machines near anything requiring a ticket that allows purchase of tickets as well. By this time, Lucy was pretty tired. However, there was a large spray station on our way out that blew a cool mist of water on you. Lucy loved that so much that we did that several times. After that, we left.

My thoughts on the zoo? It’s a good sized zoo. We were there three hours and still didn’t see it all. I am a bit spoiled by the zoo in Madison (where our son Josh lives) that is free and that is free to park at it. Look on the zoo’s web site to find discount days and also go during the week when it’s the cheapest (and least crowded). There aren’t a lot of hotels close to it but I would guess most people that go there either live in Nashville or are close enough to make it a day trip. Lucy certainly enjoyed it and that was what was the best thing about it for me.