Month: July 2023

Chiefs rebound to win final 2 from the Cubs

The Chiefs managed to get back to .500 baseball by winning back to back games on some of the prettiest baseball days: weather was made to order for baseball!

Saturday saw a good crowd and a 7-2 Chiefs victory. The Chiefs dominated and lead 7-0 up until 2 outs in the top of the 9’th, when the second relief pitcher gave up 3 doubles in a row (and 2 runs). Ultimately, he got the next batter and that’s what counted.

Sunday: this was a thriller. The Chiefs brought a 4-2 lead into the top of the 8’th, then the Cubs 6′ 4″, 225 lb (mostly first base, but right field today) smacked a line drive home run in left field.

Then in the 9’th, the Chiefs gave up 3 hits in row but limited the Cubs to 1 run. But then the Chiefs squandered a runner at 3’rd in the 9’th and then we had extras.

In the 10’th, the Chiefs stopped a run from scoring; the star left fielder threw out an attempt to score on a single. No runs for the Cubs.

Now the Chiefs turn: fly ball moved “ghost runner” to 3’rd. Cubs wisely intentionally walk the Chiefs strongest hitter. Then came a pop fly. 2 outs. Unintentional walk to load the bases, and a single to win the game. 5-4 Chiefs!

Inching out of it

Workout posts for Saturday and Sunday. Note: the hot spell finally broke at temperatures for the walks were similar: 83 F, with 53-56 percent humidity.

Saturday: usual PT, deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 190, 10 x 225 low, 10 x 256 4 inch. All very modest effort. Then my 4 mile walk was the “two lengths of Moss” course; I was 56 minutes at home (5 minutes faster than Friday) and 57:05 for just a bit more (to be sure I got 4)

Sunday: mixed PT with pull ups and push ups (10 sets of 10 on the 1 minute), disappointing 4.10 lower Bradley walk in 1:00:27 (13:59 for the final mile); I was just plain slow at almost every checkpoint (e. g. 30:55 at the turn in lower Bradley park; I like to be 28-29 there). But it was a very modest, pain free effort.

After I finished: bench press (3 sets of 7 x 134 Swiss), shrugs (2 sets), curls (2 sets), high incline: 10 x 75, 10 x 85, 5 x 96. That was enough.

Depleted Chiefs lose another 3 in a row

After a promising start..well, all but a couple of the starters have earned promotion to the AA Springfield Cardinals. And then…it has not been pretty.

Basically, with the exception of 2 players, we are the low A Palm Beach team trying to compete in high A.

For a change I made Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night.

Wednesday was a 9-3 beat down that was never competitive. But there was a good crowd and I met a “new to me” person.

Thursday: 4-1 loss. I’ll put it this way: the Chiefs didn’t get their first hit until the 7’th inning.

Tonight: met up with someone else I like. And this time: a 5-1 loss (one solo home run shot)

The Chiefs gave up a run before getting their first out. At the end of the top of 1 it was 2-0 and..the Cubs got two more runs along the way.

Things have been going wrong left and right. At least three times, the Chiefs got caught in a double play when the runner on first ran on a pop fly in the infield. I suppose there must have been a steal or hit and run on ..at least, I sure hope so.

But, that is sort of what it is like for a minor league baseball fan. You WANT the players to play well and earn promotions, and many, many Chiefs did. But the players that replace them are, by definition, less experienced (and honestly, in this case, probably less talented as the Chiefs lost some who I sincerely believe with make the St. Louis Cardinals)

And so..there have been errors that show up in the box score, and misjudgements that don’t. Example: with 2 outs and no one on, an outfielder badly misjudged a fly ball…bam…runner on second (and a “hit” in the box score). Next batter gets a legitimate double and now there is another run.

The upside is the catcher played well (got a home run, made some good throws on attempted steals) and the starting pitcher …AFTER a rough start, looked sharp after the start.

HOT (for us)

I waited too long to walk; 93 F with 53 percent humidity. We topped out at 98 F. Right now, at 9:30, 89 F with 65 percent humidity.

So, after PT, I walked (11 am, too late). I did the from the house to Moss, two “Western to MacArthur” out and backs (1.53 miles for each out and back) and then back.

Time was 1:01, or about 15:15 mpm with the final mile being 14:45. I did not care; I really focused on not getting overheated. Very mild glute ache; this was slower than I like.

On the way back?

Sinus infection continues to improve. I had a hearing test and was examined by the ENT clinic. Just minor, age related stuff to live with..not much else.

It is now “hot” here (by our standards); 91/50 percent when I did my walk, and it was just a bit faster than the previous 3 days. (28:09 for 2.05 miles; 14:51 at the turn around and 13:18 on the way back)

This came after PT plus some strength stuff:

pull ups: 10 single pulls, 10 single chins, 10 pulls, 2 sets of 5 chins (some of the pull ups were UNSAT).

Push ups: 10 sets of 10 on the 1 minute; way more challenging than it should have been.

High incline press: 2 sets of 10 x 86 lb (going as deep as each rep would allow; started to touch the chest by rep 7 of the first set).

Weight: 192.5 right after lunch; I am not that far away from my goal.

Almost

Well, not QUITE well let, but a lot better. No cough medicine last night and very little coughing today.

Added some light weights to my regimen: PT mixed with pull ups (5 single pull ups, 4 sets of 5 alternating sets of chins and pulls) I needed rest and got it with PT exercises.

Then 2 sets of bench presses (7 x 134 Swiss), 2 sets of high incline presses (full motion) 7 x 84

This was really just weight assisted dynamic stretching.

Then my 2.05 mile Moss course in 29:36 (15:24/14:12) 14:26 pace; it wasn’t much.

Later I felt up to watching the Chiefs vs Cubs. The first 2 innings ended at 3-3; the Cubs got more hits but a 2 run HR helped the Chiefs. Then it settled down until the top of the 6’th, when the Chiefs reliever was absolutely shelled..4 runs and we were down 7-3.

And that is how it stayed until the bottom of the 8’th when the Chiefs got runners on 1’st and 3’rd with 1 out. Routine pop fly to the infield and, for some reason, the runner on first took off (he thought “two outs?”) and hence an easy double play.

Nevertheless we got to the 9’th and saw fireworks. The Chiefs got a couple of hits and had runners on first and 3’rd with 2 outs.

Ground ball BUT the catcher interfered …and so now the bases were loaded…and a hard chopping grounder got past the 3’rd baseman and now it was 7-5!!!! Single made it 7-6!!!! But a ground out ended the game that the Chiefs had no business being back in. The Cubs got 14 hits and a couple of key miscues gave the Chiefs a chance.

Progress

Lavage appears to help the sinus infection. I slept a LOT today; managed stretching and a slow 2 mile walk (30:30 for my 2.05 mile Moss course) and that was enough for today.

I have to be VERY conservative on my comeback.

BTW, yesterday’s COVID test was negative.

Sick again

I tried to come back too soon. Too much, too soon.
So, today was stretching and a commuter walk (to Walgreens and back) to get some drugs..2 miles total.

Note: the nasal rinse I bought helped reduce the coughing a great deal; more effective than the cough drops. I did the “lavage” with a store bought solution.

And last night, Vicks 44 helped; took it early then at 3 am…slept until 9 am (late for me)

Coughing is MUCH better today but I am going to be very, very conservative in my comeback.

Trying to win trust

Suppose you are discussing an issue of the day with a friend, and they send you…a Newsmax or Fox News link to support their position.

How seriously do you take their source?

Even if you trust the source not to lie, do you trust the source to give an accurate, fair view? (omit crucial details)

Now reverse that.

Or…even if the article is reasonably complete and accurate… consider this:

“the New York Times headline “Nebraska Teen Who Used Pills to End Pregnancy Gets 90 Days in Jail””

Yes, she did use pills to end pregnancy (in the 3’rd trimester) and she was prosecuted BEFORE the new 12 week restriction…BUT….as the article itself eventually states:

“Prosecutors did not charge Celeste Burgess under Nebraska’s abortion law. She pleaded guilty in May to removing or concealing human skeletal remains, a felony. Prosecutors agreed to drop two misdemeanor charges against her: concealing a death and false reporting.”

And that is the issue. It is difficult to trust the media to even make a good faith attempt to get it right; after all, outrage is what drives clicks.

And..that is one reason I am in favor of academic departments (at a university) keeping their mission statements about their subjects.

I want students to trust what we are teaching. Yes, I teach math, and I want students to understand that my mission is to teach them math, AS IT IS.

I feel as is academia often shoots itself in the foot with the creeping of “social justice” stuff into the disciplines. YES, we should have codes of conduct and THAT is the place for social justice stuff. One can talk about affirmative action, but the current debate is mostly about the elite universities.

Social media

I think this is a great take on the social media wars, especially with the new site “Threads” and “Twitter.” Threads disappoints me; at first I was excited about it. But, well, as the article states, there has to be at least a little bit of tension to be interesting.

Now, I have changed; even on Twitter I just scroll past posts/tweets that I find silly. Most are of the “we, as a society, MUST do X and I am NOT ASKING…”, sort of the Angela Davis “I will change what I cannot accept”, as if they have the power to change things.

It seems to me that some think: “I REALLY want this, and I’ve made the moral and logical case for it” and that is enough. It isn’t even close.

And so..Twitter allows for me to silently laugh at such nonsense.

And to think of some of the stuff I’ve read: the country appears to be turning against affirmative action (and DEI programs) and yet some think that there will be “reparations”, at least on a natinal scale.
Reproductive freedom is under attack in many states, and yet some think they can DEMAND that the ERA amendment be added to the constitution (38 states have signed on at one time or another, but some have rescinded the support and the time given in the bill has expired; a new bill needs 2/3 majority in each chamber and 38 states….good luck with that).


Mistake

My walk went ok, in terms of pain and fatigue. Ok; maybe it was a bit of an effort. I was 3 minutes faster than last time (tough I did the course in reverse)

But, as sometimes happens, it was too much, too soon, in terms of my sinus infection. I am coughing again (lots of clear, loose drainage) and I’ll probably take something before bed. Lungs are fine; all from my sinus and my throat is tickling something awful.

That was dumb.

I am still blessed though:

What I am showing: goat water color (Dustin), needlepoint Chicago Bear C (Carmen), 3 goats (Lynn, Cassie, Olivia (daughter),), team signed baseball (Alex-BU baseball team), goat bell (wife), shirt (Mat…soccer club in Croatia), hat (Italian Navy: T) , goat mask (Althea)