Tag Archives: sport
Harvest Ball
On odd Sundays, the Adroushans would drive up to Fresno, attend church services with Grandma and Grandpa Adroushan, and then spend the afternoon at Garegin’s boyhood home. They visited Siran’s mother and father much less often, as the Mehranian grands had moved to Glendale shortly after Siran had earned her degree. Whereas the kids just [...]
Sam and the Dragon
It surpasses all wonders that a day goes by wherein the whole world is not consumed in flame. —Pliny, Natural History The dry breath of the Mojave blew tumbleweeds, ravens, voices, and parcels of waste across the plain. A yellow mongrel inspected scents from shrub to shrub, aimless as the dust devils that whirled and [...]
Turkey Mike’s Big Game
Our son Michael got his name from Carolyn’s great-grandfather Michael Patrick Donlin. No, this wasn’t the “Turkey” Mike Donlin who starred for the New York Giants. Our Mike Donlin lived in Ireland during the Great Famine. He spent his youth scaling sea cliffs, stealing eggs from sea gulls to fight off starvation. We don’t have [...]
Gateway
When I was a young Redbirds fan, bouncing from coast to coast, I learned that I could pick up KMOX, Jack Buck, and Mike Shannon just about anywhere at night, though never in California. When once I was a child in the west I was looking east, and when a child in the east I [...]
No. 8 is No on 8
Steve Young remains a class act, and his wife Barbara rocks! Prop 8 R.I.P.! Steve Young’s Home Displays ‘No On 8′ Signs.
Thank you, Jackie Robinson
When I hear the name Jackie Robinson, I am sometimes reminded of Ty Cobb, as was Branch Rickey: “This is the most competitive man I’ve known since Ty Cobb.” — Branch Rickey (to Red Barber) There’s a difference, of course. No black man could have got away with Cobb’s behavior (nor could most other white [...]
Ty Cobb: All-American
Baseball “historian” Daniel Okrent righteously denounced American icon and baseball great Ty Cobb in Ken Burns’ Baseball miniseries: “Cobb is the great black mark on the history of baseball … he was a man of vile temperament and vile habit … I think that Ty Cobb in his totality is an embarrassment to baseball.” —Third [...]
Curt Flood: American Hero
He could have contented himself with stardom, but he had to go out and try to break the last great American monopoly, Major League Baseball. “I am pleased that God made my skin black — but I wish He had made it thicker.” —Curt Flood As a kid I was, for some mysterious reason, a [...]
King of the World
The Bahá’í Faith drove many of the big decisions in our family, and I’m certain that much of Mom and Dad’s time was dedicated to the Faith, yet I can’t remember much, if anything, about the Bahá’í Faith from our time in Walterboro. Maybe I was too young to be involved in all that. I [...]