Rams, Patriots Super Keys

SPEEDYLEEWAY’s Super Bowl Prediction

          It has not been easy for me to produce a logic-based look at this year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. I am far too emotionally involved for this to be easy. I feel sorry for the folks who have to work with me on Monday if the Rams lose this game. Most of you have seen me after a Rams playoff loss. I’m not much fun, I know.

          Having written the above rubbish, I now present my best guess about this game.

1.     In order for the Rams to win, they must get a big push from the middle of their defensive line on every pass play. The Rams must crowd Tom Brady’s front foot, his left foot, before he can release the ball. Even if they do not sack Brady, the Rams can make Brady seem human if he is not able to step forward firmly as he delivers the ball. The year the Patriots took a perfect record into the Super Bowl and lost to the Giants, the Giants did this and won the game. Key: Crowd Brady’s passing motion.

2.     The Patriots have an outstanding defensive backfield and are brilliantly coached. They will present Rams QB Jared Goff with confusing pre-snap looks and in-play changes in passing situations. Heck, they’ll do this on every play. The Patriots are exceptionally good at this kind of thing and Goff will be lucky to avoid turnovers. The Rams must protect Goff from the Patriot pass rush. Sometime during the game, the Rams will probably need to hit at least one big pass play. The Rams must hit on one or more and Goff must avoid turnovers. Key: Protect Goff and beat the Patriots defensive backfield.

3.     In order for the Rams passing game to succeed, they must run the football. In the previous two playoff games, the Rams have done so. But this week, the opposition is not the over-rated Cowboys nor the Saints. This week the opponent is far more capable along the front seven and the Rams offensive line will have to make it possible for backs Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson to squirt loose for first downs. In a close game, which might cause yours truly to suffer multiple heart attacks, the need will come for the winning team to grind out clock-draining first downs. The team that can do that will probably win the game. The Rams defensive front seven will have to stop the run and the Rams offensive line will have to help produce the run. Key: Who runs the football best?

4.     Convert red zone opportunities to touchdowns. Key: Score touchdowns.

5.     If the Rams have an obvious edge, it is in place kicking. Greg Zuerlein is an outstanding kicker. If the game comes down to Zuerlein kicking a field goal from 55 yards or closer for the Rams, you like their chances.

6.     Rob Gronkowski. You can talk until you are blue in the face about Tom Brady, but I think the best clutch player the Patriots have is Gronkowski. A big game for the Gronk and this thing is over. The Rams will have to minimize his contributions. That’s easy to say and almost impossible to do, especially since the Patriots have several other very productive receivers as well. One way to accomplish this goal goes back to Key number one: Don’t give Brady space to step into his throws. Key: Don’t let Brady throw to Gronkowski.

7.     Sooner or later, either the Rams or Patriots will convert a first-down opportunity in a clutch situation. The Rams have converted a few times with passes by their punter, Johnny Hekker. Look for the Patriots to have these plays covered. Key: Resist the urge to gamble, at least early in the game.

8.     Both teams have exceptionally good defensive lines. The team that extends offensive possessions, even drives that do not result in scores, will be the team with the most vigorous defensive line in crunch time. Key: Give the defensive line enough rest. See Key 3.

9.     Tom Brady. Key: Do not give him the ball with even a second remaining in the game.

10. Neither team can count on every screwy play going their way, but luck frequently plays a major role in Super Bowls. A lucky bounce of the oblong spheroid, an extended review of a TV replay when the defense is tired, a goofy review decision that somehow makes little sense or even a penalty on a missed kick that allows a second try can make a huge difference. Key: Get lucky.

I hate to say it and I hope I am wrong, but I expect the Patriots to win this game. The organization has a tremendous amount of experience in the spotlight and the Rams do not. The Rams have a really good team and they have an excellent chance but I think the Patriots will probably win.

We have seen this movie before. It debuted February 3, 2002 in the New Orleans Super Dome when Brady and the Patriots beat Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show of Turf 20-17. There might be a few more points this time, say 35-31, Patriots.

The last time these teams met for the title, I was in Daytona Beach, Florida for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Got to the track several hours before the start of the race, stayed up through the entire event, got my writing done and rushed back to the hotel for the start of the game. Watched the entire game and ended up staying awake for about 36 straight hours.

Only to lose. Man, did that ever suck. I have no plans to forgive Tom Brady for winning that game, but I might consider it if the Rams win on Sunday.

The 2019 SPEEDYLEE Awards

          It is time for our annual SPEEDYLEE Awards for the year 2018.

          We have been forced to change the name of our award after discovering an auto racing sanctioning body issues something called Speedy Awards. We used it first but never registered a copyright or trademark. The sanctioning body has a lot more money than does Your Loyal Blogger and money typically decides legal matters, thus the decision here to change the name of our award.

          Here are the SPEEDYLEE Awards for 2018:

          THE SOCIAL OCCASION OF THE YEAR AWARD: The Wedding. The major event of the glam season, attended by everyone who matters in the world, was the wedding of Erik Matey and Regan Elder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last spring.

          RECORD ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Pink Floyd’s 1979 masterpiece The Wall. It’s all anyone is talking about these days. The federal government stopped work so the Executive and Legislative branches could discuss The Wall. Songs include Another Brick in the Wall, The Thin Ice, Bring the Boys Back Home, Run Like Hell and, of course, Waiting For The Worms.

          THE GOLDEN BOOT AWARD: To Ella McDonald, the place kicker for the Imperial (California) High School Tigers football squad. In her first year as a football player, McDonald connected on 29 of 35 Point After Touchdown kicks and scored on her only field goal attempt, a 20-yarder. The Tigers advanced to the San Diego Section CIF playoffs and finished their season with a record of 7-5. A senior, McDonald was one of the really neat stories in all of football this season.

          THE HEROES FORGED IN FIRE AWARD: To the men and women who fought the wild fires that swept the nation in 2018. These wonderful, giving firefighters risked their lives while saving others. That’s what heroes do and we are beholden to them as a nation.

          THE HARD WORK PAYS OFF AWARD: To the Cleveland Browns for their 2018 season. After recording a combined record of 1-31 the previous two seasons, the Browns were improved as the season started, then started slipping back to poor performance and replaced their head coach during the season. The Browns still completed the schedule with a record of 7-8-1 and had a playoff berth within reach with two weeks to go in the season.

          THE HANG ‘EM UP AND LET ‘EM DRY AWARD: To educator Buck Weber who retired in 2018 after more than 40 years of service as a teacher, coach and administrator in both public and charter schools around Southern California.

          THE BOWLER OF THE YEAR AWARD: To Imperial, California’s Peggy Dale for winning the Imperial Valley (chapter of) United States Bowling Congress-sanctioned Queens Women’s Tournament in El Centro, Calif. last spring.

          THE LARRY FINE HORRIBLE HAIR AWARD: To the President of the United States.

          BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD: For the second consecutive year, this award goes to That Bloody Hill: Hilliard’s Legion at Chickamauga.

          Runner up: The 1958 Baltimore Colts: Profiles of the NFL’s First Sudden Death Champions.

          TAPS AWARD: To Maryalice Clark, who passed away this winter.

A conversation with a learned man

          I met an older gentleman during a recent visit to Pennsylvania. He looked familiar, tall and bearded. A top hat sat on the bench next to him and I imagined the hat probably accentuated his height and bearing when he wore it.

          I sat down at his invitation to take a load off and we chatted some. He’d been a lawyer in his younger years, he said, and then somehow, “Got involved with the government.” I’d held public office once and, with that in common, our conversation turned to politics.

          "I was a Republican," he said.

          "So was I. Different party now."

          "Yeah, for me, too. When I got voted into office,” the old boy told me, “they called me a radical. Said I’d destroy the Union.”

          I told him about getting appointed to complete an unexpired term and about a letter to the editor appearing in the newspaper calling me the least qualified candidate. My new friend slapped his knee and said he’d been called the same thing.

          “Thing is,” he told me, “politics is an ugly business. You might get elected with a clear mandate from the voters, but you’ll have a devil of a time accomplishing much because of all the politicians. In my day, we had very few public servants and too many politicians in government.”

          Well, I said, that hadn’t changed much since he was in office. He laughed and said somethings never change.

          It turned out this guy knew something about the Civil War and we chatted at great length about that terrible conflict. The battle of Gettysburg, we agreed, did not decide the outcome of the war but it did accomplish a number of things for the Union cause. The three days of fighting bled the Confederate army some and the fighting marked the last time the Confederates mounted a large-scale invasion of the northern states.

          “That was the problem with the generals,” my pal said. “They talked about grand plans and sweeping strategies. They wanted to capture cities and control space. What they needed to do was attack the Confederate army. When Lee’s army finally surrendered at Appomattox, it wasn’t because of all the cities and space controlled by the Federal armies. Lee had to quit because his army had been shot to pieces and would only suffer more if the fighting was prolonged. We might have gotten that done here in Pennsylvania if Meade had been more aggressive.”

          “But Lee wanted Meade to attack,” I blustered. “Lee wanted to fight a defensive battle. Meade would have walked into a trap if he’d tried to follow Lee.”

          “Others have said that,” my bench mate said with a nod. “But Lee was not forced to surrender until twenty-one months later.”

          “The other Confederate armies eventually followed,” I said.

          “Yes they did, but then we botched the peace.”

          I noted out loud that we have a tendency to screw things up after wars end. World War One did not turn out to be the war that ended wars, I said, it only served to start the second world war. We still don’t have peace between the Koreas and I expressed doubt we’d accomplish anything like lasting peace in the middle east.

          My friend nodded and was quiet for a time. Then he asked about my time in government, whether I’d been elected to keep the seat I’d held.

          “I didn’t stand for election,” I said. “I didn’t enjoy the company I was keeping.”

          My new friend slapped his knee again. “Well,” he said at last, “I learned one thing.”

          “What’s that?”

          “The secret to leadership is that some of the people will hate you, no matter what you do. Some will always be on your side. They key to being successful in public office is to concentrate on the bunch in between.”

          “That’s what Leo Durocher used to say,” I said with a smile.

          “I don’t know Leo.”

          “He used to be a baseball manager,” I explained.

          “I remember baseball. I guess it is pretty popular nowadays.”

          I nodded and sat a while longer before shaking hands with the older man. I stood up to leave. I had to pick up my wife, I told him, we planned to have dinner and see a movie.

          “If you’re going to the theater, take a bodyguard with you,” he recommended.

          I nodded and headed off.

Trip of a lifetime: The 2018 CWI at Gettysburg

          This year’s visit to the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College was an exciting week in every possible way. It seems as if you read that same comment here annually, but this year’s CWI and the accompanying visits to the battlefield were richly rewarding.

On the shelves at CWI.

          Among the books on sale at the CWI this year was That Bloody Hill: Hilliard’s Legion at Chickamauga. That’s my book and it sold a few copies during the run of the Institute. I signed some autographs and got some unsolicited praise for the book. It was a wonderful moment to visit the supply of copies on the shelf (I did that several times a day) and it was really exciting to count one short every once in a while. I am indebted to everyone at the @CWI and to the @GettysburgCollege bookstore.

          Amy and I made this year’s trip to Gettysburg with our great friend Bucky Weber, the recently retired educator. Amy was forced to spend much of the trip with her leg on top of ice packs. She has an issue which has yet to resolve itself and, while I have been unable to fix the thing with my power drill or wrenches, Bucky and I were at least able to squire her around to her favorite eateries and ice cream shops. Even my daughter, Regan, recently married and happy as heck, made an appearance. Our stay was shortly after Father’s Day.

          The company was pretty darn good, you’d have to agree: My beautiful wife, a friend of long standing, my daughter (in the company of her dog) and 350 fellow Civil War enthusiasts. Oh, did I mention my book? It was there, too.

          When we weren’t busy at the CWI, Bucky and I roamed the Gettysburg battlefield. We spent a great deal of time in locations commonly associated with the first day of the battle, trying for a better understand of how things developed. One of the CWI tours led us to another first-day location and Buck and I returned to that spot a few days later to better photograph and understand the flow of the fighting and how the location fit in.

The top of the McPherson barn can be seen from at Iron Brigade

monument neat Willoughby Run.

          It is common for me to go home with a better understanding of some aspect of the battle. All the traipsing around and eyeing the vistas should lead to learning and this time it was a better appreciation for what has come to be called the Union fishhook defensive formation. Buck and I looked for Culp’s Hill from several perspectives and even climbed to the top of the Eisenhower Tower (which I had previously promised myself to never do again). By concentrating on Culp’s Hill, the fishhook became more evident to my eyes. Previously I knew about the fishhook, could have drawn it on a map and understood it. By concentrating on looking for Culp’s Hill from all around the battlefield, I came away with a better appreciation. I saw it more clearly, so to speak.

          Buck and I completed a walk we’d started two years earlier, down a pathway in the area where Barksdale’s Confederate attack sputtered to an end on the second day of fighting. We pretty much knew where the pathway might lead, but we had to be sure. Buck did not make it to Gettysburg last year and I did not want to complete the walk without him, so we did it this time.

          No trip to Gettysburg is complete without a visit to The Angle, the spot where Confederate General Armistead fell at the end of the third day. Your loyal blogger always spends sunset there because the photographic opportunities are usually very good. This time it was a little different. Buck and I looked for slightly different viewpoints because the sky was full of low clouds that blocked the setting sun from our view. Finally found something and had some fun. The results are here.

          Little Round Top attracts visitors of every sort almost 24 hours a day. It has a number of very nice photograph locations and the history is a huge draw. The fighting on LRT was no more important or desperate than the struggle on Culp’s Hill, but a very well-written and researched fictional account, The Killer Angels, popularized 

The monument to the 16th Michigan offers a view of The Devil's Den.

Joshua L. Chamberlain and his 20^th Maine regiment for their brave and determined stand at LRT. Little Round Top has the added benefit that you can see much of the battlefield from its crest and you can get a good understanding of the ebb and flow of the fighting from its vantage points.

People come to see that little hill 24 hours a day. It is important to be very careful when walking there at night, but the people come anyway.

Hope you get a chance to see the place yourself someday. Until then please enjoy this selection from this year’s wanderings.

Thanks for reading.

Fathers Day without Dad

  

          I’ve been trying to avoid this, but the march of time eventually brought me face-to-face with the fact that this year will the first Fathers Day since we lost my Dad last year. Many of my friends have already been through this and I know that it is simply my turn. That does not make this easier.

Dad in uniform

          My sister had some programs printed for Dad’s funeral. On the back of the program was a brief bio I wrote and the headline was probably the best thing about the bio. I wrote that Dad was, “A damn good man from Alabam and a helluvan engineer.” Dad was all of that.

          My sister and I know all of Dad's stories and he had a lot of them. Suffice is to say that, in addition to being a great story teller, Dad was a kind, loving and supportive father. Dad loved his family and he especially loved his grandchildren. I learned a lot from him, obviously, but the lesson I learned from him that was the most important was also one I learned from my mother: Family first.

          Let me sum my Dad up with one story. I suffered a leg injury many years ago. I was going to drive myself about a hundred miles to see my surgeon in order to get the stitches removed but Dad wouldn’t hear of it. He flew out from the Midwest specifically to drive me to that appointment. Then, to make the trip tax deductible, he went to some kind of a meeting with someone who distributed books to schools in our area. Dad was a teacher by then and he was on a text book committee at his school. His meeting with the guy at the book distribution center made his trip to drive me to my appointment deductible. A few decades later I started working for myself and every damn trip I’ve taken since has included a meeting with someone who could make the trip deductible. I learned from the best.

Dad loved cookies. Never seemed to gain weight, either.

          My Dad was smart, probably the most intelligent man I ever met, and he was very widely read. Dad was an engineer by training but he knew something about everything. He could converse with anyone about anything. He and I shared an interest in sports – I made a living out of that interest – but the non-family topic we talked about the most was military history. Dad lived through the Great Depression and served in the United States Army during WWII, so he lived through many of the topics I read about. We talked about the war’s European Theater many times. Dad was not a great fan of the British general Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.

You know what? Neither am I.

Dad loved airplanes like I love sports. He was in the industry for many years and knew volumes about aircraft. All types of aircraft. Military, civilian, it didn’t matter. If it flew, Dad knew. I have watched the television show Air Disasters many times and several episodes have covered incidents Dad talked about. Too bad the show debuted when it did instead of earlier. The producers could have saved all of the time spent researching the crashes and just called Dad. If it flew and wrecked, Dad was on top of it.

Dad with most of his siblings.

We talked about politics a lot and we usually agreed. Some of Dad’s siblings were liberals and Dad was always happy to explain the error of their ways. Very happy to explain it.

I wish I’d been able to put a copy of my book in Dad’s hands before his health failed him. He was no longer reading near the end, but I’d like to have been able to give him a copy. There is family in that book and history. The words are mine, many of the photographs are mine and the book is about history. Dad would have liked that and I would have enjoyed hearing Dad tell someone, “My son wrote this book.”

I am going to miss calling my Dad on Fathers Day. Gonna miss calling him a lot. He was a great father and grandfather.

And he was a helluvan engineer.

Thanks for reading.

Review: Hood's Texas Brigade

          Just finished reading Susannah J. Ural’s Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit, an in-depth look at an impressive fighting group. This was an excellent read.

          Ural’s book takes the reader through a journey that visits the families and society that spawned and then supported Hood’s Brigade before, during and after the American Civil War. Using a variety of sources that generated a 29-page bibliography (21 pages of primary sources alone) at the back of the text, this book puts the reader face to face with the soldiers themselves.

          Ural tells the reader about the brigade’s loyalty to the Confederate cause and how that loyalty was really only tested when it was separated from the Army of Northern Virginia during the fall of 1863, fighting elsewhere for a few months. Despite the tremendous losses suffered on the battlefield (as well as the ones suffered to disease) and the difficulties experienced by loved ones back in Texas and Arkansas during the war, the Texas Brigade remained among the most successful Confederate Army fighting groups through the length of the war.

          Hood’s Texas Brigade is a different book from others of its type. Who were these men? Why did they remain loyal to a losing cause? Did their families at home support the war for as long a time as the soldiers did? Where was their greatest victory and what were their feelings after losing the war?

Professor Susannah J. Ural

          Ural argues that the Brigade continued to believe in the Confederacy’s chances for independence even after suffering through the loss at Gettysburg and the bloody victory at Chickamauga. How could that be true? Ural shows the evidence and tells the reader what it means.

          The answers make this book compelling because so much of what caused the Civil War in the first place and then made it last so long is evident in the story of the Texas Brigade. These men wanted to preserve the institution of slavery and when they didn’t, Ural’s work shows us what the Reconstruction period looked like in Texas. If the Brigade was an uncommonly capable military unit, it was still made up of normal, standard issue men of the time and this book illuminates their experiences.

          Your Loyal Blogger has now read three of Ural’s books (previously: Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It and The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army 1861-1865). Ural is a professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi and is the codirector of the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. She is a tenacious researcher and an outstanding speaker. She is a regular presenter at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, where she is scheduled to speak again this summer.

          Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit is an excellent read about the Civil War and is highly recommended here.

          Thanks for reading.

Captain N.T. Barnes

Research can be addictive. The more you learn, the more you want to know. Such was the case for Your Loyal Blogger during the research that resulted in my recently-published book, That Bloody Hill: Hilliard’s Legion at Chickamauga.

          Answers to questions generated more questions. The decision to generate a roster of the Legion’s members, for example, helped answer questions about who these soldiers were. It also stalled the completion of the book by several years. Different sources had different spellings of soldiers’ names. Did the different spellings represent the same soldier or two different men? It was hard to know and each name deserved the same amount of consideration.

          It was that need to know that led Mrs. Leeway and I to Johnson’s Island, a small clump of dirt about 150 yards off the coast of Sandusky, Ohio. The island was the home to a Civil War prison camp for Confederates and there is a small cemetery there for prisoners who did not survive the war. Unable to find a list of the interred online, we made the 90-minute trip from our home last fall to find the island and walk the rows of gravestones, hoping to find a member of the Legion.

          That is how we found Captain N.T. Barnes of the 10^th Confederate Cavalry. His marker sits along one of the last rows we checked. He was a member of Hilliard’s Legion when the Legion was founded in 1862 in Alabama. Barnes was a member of the Legion’s Fifth Battalion, which was a cavalry battalion. Soon after the Legion was created, the Fifth Battalion was split off from its original organization and merged with a Georgia regiment to become the 10^th Confederate Cavalry.

          Barnes enlisted as a Lieutenant and was promoted to Captain May 16, 1862. His luck turned on July 30, 1863 when he was captured near Big Hill, Kentucky. He was eventually transferred through two holding camps before he arrived at Johnson’s Island on August 4, 1863. Health is an uncertain thing in prison camps and Johnson’s Island sits in the cold waters of Lake Erie. Barnes died January 10, 1864.

          Born in Georgia, Barnes moved to Alabama before the coming of the war. He married Francis Lee Dent January 24, 1856 in Chambers, Alabama and they farmed. The Barnes farmed on about 60 acres of land whose cash value was listed at $300. They had farm machinery valued at $35. They owned three horses, six milch cows, 35 sheep and seven swine. The total value of the livestock came to $650. The farm produced wheat, rye, Indian corn and cotton.

          Cards on the table, Your Loyal Blogger has been unable to track down the census forms for 1860 that detail slave ownership. Barnes may or may not have been a slave holder.

          The Barnes appear to have had six children. The notes are a little complicated by the fact that two sets of daughters may have had the same first names.

          Finding Barnes’ marker on Johnson Island in north-central Ohio was a neat experience. It was a testimony to the idea that you can’t find something if you decide not to look for it. We had already found the graves of many Legion soldiers, several in the cemetery for another Ohio POW camp, this one in Columbus. A Legion soldier rests at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, several are buried at the site of a former home for aging former Confederates in Alabama. Others dot small and large cemeteries across the country.

          The key point here is that Civil War history can be found just about anywhere and I hope we keep looking as a society. We aren’t done learning yet, so keep your eyes open. You never know who might be around the next corner.

          Thanks for reading.