Rant #2,713: Bits and Pieces

 

I welcome myself back to this post.

I did what I had to do on Friday, and I don’t have to think about it anymore.

Good for me, and good for the Ranting and Raving Blog.

Now I can move on to things I want to talk about, and what better way to do this than to begin the week with a “Bits and Pieces” entry?

Using the “Bits and Pieces” motif, I can talk a little bit about a few things I want to talk about, without spending too much time on them.

So without further ado, here we go—

 

The Field of Dreams Game: I just had to chime in on this game, one that had a Hollywood stamp all over it … but for once, that was a good thing.

 

The game, played last Thursday as part of a three-game set between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees--was based on the movie of the same name, where the role played by Kevin Costner came to terms with himself through his innate love of baseball.

 

And he did it all within the cornstalks of Iowa, and the likes of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, one of the finest players of his time who was involved in a gambling scandal during the 1919 World Series and was banned from the game, along with several others, forever up to and including the present time.

 

More about that in a minute … but the way Major League Baseball held this game, and how the game played out, was incredible.

 

Postponed from the last year, the game played out this year in a prefabricated baseball stadium in the middle of cornstalks right across from the actual stadium that was built for the 1988 movie, which exists today as a tourist attraction.

 

Costner came out of the cornstalks in the pregame ceremony, and a short time later, the players followed him, and it was a wonder seeing guys like Aaron Judge—all six feet, seven inches of him—come out of those cornstalks.

 

And then the game was played, the balls—which I am sure were juiced for the occasion—flying out of the field in huge measure, and the White Sox won an entertaining contest on a walk-off homer, beating the Yankees 9-8.

 

Everyone was happy, and even this Yankees fan wasn’t upset as he normally is when the Yankees lose.

 

It was just such a perfect ending for a perfect game in a perfect setting.

 

Some further observations …

 

MLB says that the game was such a success that they will play another one next year, and in my mind, you have to have the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs, the two Midwestern teams and two of the most popular teams on the planet.

 

Yes, there will be a “Field of Dreams” game next year, but MLB proved that prefabricated stadiums are a viable way to play games where no games have ever been played before … so how about future games in places that have never seen an MLB game before?

 

Can you imagine the Yankees playing the White Sox in Hawaii? How about Alaska? How about in the Carolinas, or the Dakotas?

 

The possibilities are endless, and MLB should look into it.

 

And isn’t it kind of funny that the Yankees ended up winning the last two games fo the three-game series once the games reverted back to Chicago? No one will ever remember that, but they will never forget the one game played in Iowa forever.

 

Finally, how about doing something with the legacy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, a central figure in the entire “Field of Dreams” milieu?

 

He was banned from baseball for life for his participation in the betting and gambling scandal which rocked the 1919 World Series, but he was later exonerated, found to have “participated” because he was illiterate and didn’t know what he was signing.

 

If I remember correctly from the book and movie “Eight Men Out,” even the players who knew darn well what they were doing were exonerated to a point, although they were all barred from the game for life.

 

If MLB is going to go the extra mile in showcasing itself in the “Field of Dreams” game, then go the real extra mile and clear Jackson of any wrongdoing, and put him in the Hall of Fame posthaste.

 

It is the right thing to do.

 

The Cuomo Case Comes Clean: Well, it sort of does, and sort of doesn’t.

 

We now know that Andrew Cuomo’s sister and youngest daughter were the two people who swayed the governor of New York State’s mind about resigning, as it came out in Newsday yesterday that they spoke to him about the clearest path for him to bow out after his supposed sex scandal—which I do believe few believe but even fewer can say anything about their real feelings on the matter—hit the fan.

 

What is even more bizarre—but maybe not so bizarre in hindsight—is that he will not be impeached, with supposed New York State law stating that if an elected official of this level steps down on his own, there is no law or room or reason for an impeachment trail to take place.

 

This leaves open the possibility that Cuomo will once again run for state office, and he could even run again for the governorship either this time around or in the future, probably as an independent.

 

And you know what? Since I don’t believe that most people believe anything about this supposed sex scandal—just through canvassing friends and family on my own—I do believe, and I think he even believes, that if he ran again, he would win.

 

Yes, he was THAT popular in New York State, and this discounts all the other horrid things he did as governor, including literally sending people to their deaths in the nursing home scandal, something that few seem to care about right now.

 

So you definitely have not seen the last of Cuomo yet, and I personally would not be surprised if he lays low for the next governor’s election next year, and then makes a run for it four years later … or even if he lays low enough for the next several months and runs again this time around.

 

Was a deal made with his fellow legislators or not to stop the impeachment proceedings from happening?

 

We might never know.

 

My Pool Is Dead: My pool has breathed its last breath.

 

As I told you sometime back, my backyard pool was on its last legs, and we were w2ondeing out next course of action with it.

 

Well, we used it one more time, and that might be the end of it for this pool, one that we have had in our backyard for at least 20 years or so.

 

The motor no longer works, so nothing that we put in the pool to cleanse it and bring it into shape can circulate.

 

And the pool is slightly fall apart anyway, with one bracket hanging on for dear life.

 

We don’t have any leaks, so perhaps it can hang on another year, but it has to go through another winter, and I don’t know if it can last that.

 

And we definitely need a new motor, that’s for sure.

 

We will speak with our pool man when it gets closed up to see what he says, but I do believe our pool is a thing of the past, at least for this summer and maybe forever … until we get a new one, and I vow that if that is necessary, we will get one.

 

“Build it and they will come” … yes, I am hearing that message too, but somehow, I don’t think it is coming from the same place.

 

Speak to you gain tomorrow.