Father's Day: Key lessons learned and taught

With my Dad.

This month will mark the second Fathers’ Day since the sad day that we lost my Dad. The day comes around every year, there is no getting around it.

Our children never fail to call and wish me Happy Fathers’ Day and I enjoy that tremendously. We joke around and laugh at old family humor. Those calls and the greetings cards they send never fail to make for a happy day. Amy and I have two very fine kids. Amy did a sensational job of raising them.

Amy.

I don’t claim credit for the tremendous adults our children have become because I know I could have been a better father. What’s worse, I know I could have been a better son to my own Dad. So, pushing all of that forward for consideration, what are the key points to Fatherhood that I learned from my own Dad and that I hopefully passed along to our hatchlings?

I offer below a modest list of lessons, a combination of things preached by the two of us:

1.    I am going to correct you when you are wrong and sometimes the correctional activity will be less than fun, but I will ALWAYS have your back to the world outside of the family. Always.

2.    Honor your Mother. Celebrate the sacrifices she has made for you and enjoy the warmth of her unconditional love.

3.    No matter how old I get, if you need help, call me.

Me with Regan.

4.    Our kids did not grow up in airconditioned houses. I don’t care whether they think the A/C should cool off the entire world or not because I’m not paying for it.

5.    John Wayne was the best actor of all time, Bear Bryant was the greatest football coach, A.J. Foyt was the best racer ever, Richard Petty was the best stock car driver, John Elway was the best quarterback and Magic Johnson was the best basketball player. You will memorize these points.

6.    You have both Union and Confederate DNA. Understand what was wrong with the Confederate cause, but never turn your back on your heritage or your family.

7.    When installing a car stereo, be sure you properly attach the ground wire. If you fail to do so, you could spend hours trying to determine why the stereo doesn’t play.

8.    You are entitled to grind your state and federal governments for every deduction legally available on your tax return. Be accurate but be complete because it’s your money and money does not grow on trees.

9.    Read the Wall Street Journal.

10.    Roll Tide, baby, Roll Tide. But root for USC and San Diego State, too. 

With Sean.

  11.    When you get down to the basics, the United States Army Air Corps was not much different from today’s United States Air Force. Look straight up into the sky and thank Goodness that we rule the air.

Thanks for reading!

Fast Women: The Indy 500

          The Indianapolis 500 is racing’s most important event. 

          Formula 1 racing has a bigger footprint, worldwide, than does IndyCar and that’s nice for the F1 crowd, but no single racing event is bigger than Indy. You avoid absolutes as often as possible when writing for public consumption, but it is safe to say that very few sporting facilities have been around as long as the midwestern jewel and none have the rich history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 500 captures the attention of the world’s sporting public every year and drivers the planet over want to race on the famed American oval.

          Some of those drivers are women.

Women have been racing in the 500 since 1977 when Janet Guthrie became the first of her gender to make the 33-car field. Including Guthrie, nine women have started the great race. Guthrie started three, Lyn St. James was the 1992 Rookie of the Year at Indy and had seven career starts in the 500, Sarah Fisher started her first 500 in 2000 and was in the field nine times during her driving career. Later Fisher fielded a competitive team as an owner at Indy. Danica Patrick had her first of eight 500 starts in 2005 and Milka Duno raced three times at Indy, starting with the 2007 race. Simona de Silvestro raced as a 500 rookie in 2010 and had five Indy starts. Ana Beatriz was also a rookie in the 2010 race and had four total starts. Pippa Mann, who is racing in her seventh 500 this weekend, had her first 500 start in 2011. Katherine Legg has had two starts, beginning in 2012.

         Your Loyal Blogger has been fortunate enough to interview Guthrie, St. James, Fisher and Duno. Without exception, all are great interviews. St. James took YLB around the street course at the Long Beach Grand Prix in a press ride-along event one time. The car was a standard-issue street car from a local Ford dealership and friends, she hustled that car around. At one point, St. James said, “Oops,” which nearly caused heart failure on the part of her passenger. When we slowed to return to the pits St. James explained that she said “Oops,” because she had missed the racing line by a few inches in that corner. A few decades later, during a casual conversation, YLB told St. James that she’d nearly caused a heart attack by saying, “Oops,” and related the story. She grinned.

          It says here that a woman will win the 500 someday. It’s hard to tell whether a woman will be elected President of the United States before we have a female kissing the bricks, but both are going to happen. In 1977, when Guthrie made the field for the first time, this writer expected that a woman would have won the 500 by now.

          Eight years earlier, YLB expected the Colts to beat the Jets in Super Bowl III, so take this prediction stuff with a grain of salt.

          The key point here is that automobile racing is one of the sports where men and women can compete equally and we should celebrate the emergence of more and more women into the highest levels of the racing world. Read it here and understand this: Having an increasing presence of women in racing is good for the sport. Women racers give racing a more modern, inclusive profile. If you care for the sport, you support women as racers.

          Think I’m wrong? Take a look at drag racing, where women have been winning championships for a long time. The National Hot Rod Association enjoys great popularity these days and some of the most popular drivers are women. Check it out sometime. Anyone who can handle an 11,000-horsepower monster at 340 mph can also do any darn thing else that she wants to do. You want to get in the way? No, I didn’t think so.

          At Indianapolis, Patrick has the best finish among women, third. Recently retired from racing, Patrick also finished fourth and sixth at Indy. Patrick also had the best starting position, fourth, in 2005 and has led the most laps among women, 29.

Fisher has the most starts, nine. In 2010, the field for the 500 included four women racers and that’s the most ever. The women on the starting grid that day were Patrick, Fisher, Beatriz and de Silvestro.

This year, only Mann will carry the women’s flag and we wish her well.

Thanks for reading.

A final note: The recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Guthrie's first attempts to qualify at Indy, Qualified, was excellent and is highly recommended here.

Why attend the CWI?

          History is an old thing and it keeps getting older. It has been around since the beginning. It looks into the future beyond the point where light can reach, but it will always be there. Sometimes, when you have a chance to hold it in your hands, history is fragile. It can turn to dust as quickly as an old piece of paper and so you have to be careful with it.

          But when you can walk on it, history becomes a robust living thing that speaks to you. Listen intently and you can hear it tell you that, yes, they stood where you stand now and saw what you see, making decisions that shaped the world you live in now.

          Right now.

          My wife and I have visited the Gettysburg National Military Park annually since 2009 and I have attended the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College since 2011. Our annual calendar is planned around Gettysburg and the CWI. The CWI is an annual convention, gathering together students of the War with the leading scholars and authors on the subject. Whatever the hot topic is among Civil War researchers, we hear about it during those five days. I simply will not miss it.

          I am blessed with the World’s Best Wife, Amy, who enjoys visiting the town of Gettysburg. There are some nice places to eat and we both enjoy the charm of small-town America; the warm and friendly people who seem happy to meet us.

          You make friends at the CWI and if you become a regular you look forward to visiting with other regulars each year. I’ve sat next to Bob Evans since I started attending the CWI. We’re both former sportswriters and we have a great deal to talk about. My life-long pal, Buck Weber, has caught the CWI bug and now he attends as often as he is able. Buck lives further away from Gettysburg than Amy and I and so he has a harder time getting there. Buck, Bob and I all take notes on the lectures and I frequently catch myself dropping my pen and looking at the other guys.

          “I didn’t know that,” I’ll whisper to the other guys. “Did you?”

          “No.”

          “Geez, now I have to go see it.”

          It’s like that at the CWI. The learning curve never really flattens out. The fact is that the curve shouldn’t flatten out. This year’s presenters include Gary Gallagher, Carol Reardon, Wayne Motts, Ed Ayers and Earl Hess. How can you help learning with that group teaching you? The authors and historians, aka the presenters, are very approachable. The CWI matriculation includes dine-in events, which are small groups of attendees eating dinner with some of the historians each year and I have been lucky enough to be included several times. It is an amazing experience, discussing a specific historic point with a well-known historian and a small group of students like yourself.

          The CWI experience also includes battlefield tours. My tours have included the battlefields at Antietam and Manassas, the defenses around Washington DC and other sites. There are always tours of Gettysburg as well.

          If my favorite part of the CWI is the lectures, the most expensive thing I do is peruse the books on sale. I shudder to think how many hundreds of dollars I have spent on books at the CWI through the years. One year, when we lived further away than we do now, I had to mail most of the book purchases home. No big deal, but I had to decide what books were coming on the plane with me and which ones were going home to wait. What a tough decision!

          You can check the CWI out at https://www.gettysburg.edu/civil-war-institute/index.dot. Got any questions? The phone number is there to be seen and used, as is the email address. Check out the CWI yourself. It is an experience you’ll enjoy and you’ll probably want to do it again.

          Thanks for reading. Hope to see you at the CWI!

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.