Is Jose Abreu the Next Babe Ruth?

The White Sox completely overhauled their team during the last offseason and got rid of a bunch of dead weight while bringing a lot of new talent. The club has done a full about-face now and could even win their division before it's over. Center stage of all this is Cuban defector Jose Abreu.

Abreu is a rookie, but he's no kid at 27. He spent several years playing in the Cuban Serie Nacional league where he regularly hit near .400 and was known for his ability to hit home runs and get RBIs. He hit .453/.597/.986 with 79 runs, 93 RBI and 33 home runs in only 66 games in 2010-2011.

Abreu currently has 29 home runs and is on a pace to surpass both Babe Ruth and Roger Maris' single season records, and he may even do it in less at-bats than either of them. And in his rookie season no less. Ruth had 25 dingers going into July 1927. He had 30 by July 12th. However, the Yankees opening day wasn't until April 12th back then. Had they started April 1st the way we do now, Ruth would have had between 27 or 28 by July 1st. Abreu had 26 homers on July 1st. The White Sox played 10 more games in April than the 27 Yankees did, but Abreu spent 15 days on the DL at the end of May, and the Sox played a game on every one of those days, so by July 1st Abreu played in 5 games less than Ruth did and only had one less home run. Abreu is not only on the same pace as Ruth in 1927—he's ahead of him! Of course Ruth had one hell of a September back in '27, but Abreu has shown over his years in Cuba that he's just as capable. And did I mention that he's also great in the field?

To surpass Ruth and Maris' single season home run records as a rookie seems unimaginable, but I have a feeling this will just be a drop in the bucket compared to what Jose Abreu will do before his career is through. He's quick, strong, smart, friendly, and downright likeable. His teammates call him "Yogi" because of his imposing stature and amiable demeanor. Jose Abreu is the new face of baseball.

The Guns of Will Sonnett

This is the first episode of the series. The same YouTuber has all of them (I think) here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYT1s8V13YnF3la9TN0AXGg/search?query=Will+Sonnett

I'm not a big fan of westerns anymore like when I was a kid, but there are a couple that were so good that I still enjoy watching them, and The Guns of Will Sonnett was among the top two or three ever made. (No brag--just fact.)

Interestingly, this was the only western series that Aaron Spelling ever made. He had The Mod Squad on the air at the same time. Spelling actually produced and wrote for several good shows in the 60s and early 70s including The Smothers Brothers original show. The Rookies was probably the last really good show he made before he started putting out crap like Dynasty and Charlie's Angels. It was all downhill from there.

Now, if only somebody would upload all the episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel and Hec Ramsey!

Fish Oil & Baby Aspirin for Arthritis Relief

I have osteoarthritis in the padding (or facet joints if you want to get fancy with the terminology) of my lowest two vertebrae—the same place a lot of people my age get it. None of the over the counter pain medications have done any good for me at all. For the past year and a half I’ve had to sit down at work about every twenty minutes. I only need to sit for a minute or two and then I’m good for another twenty minutes. Sound familiar?

 

About a month ago I got the results back of a routine blood test. Everything was great on it with the exception that my triglycerides were a little high. (Yeah, I don’t eat very healthy foods most of the time.) My doctor said that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start taking fish oil because it will bring down those triglyceride levels in bad boys like me.

 

After a month of taking 1200mg of fish oil in a soft release gel every morning, I don’t know how my triglycerides are doing, but my arthritis is suddenly hardly bothering me at all! The doctor said nothing about the possibility of this happening, but I couldn’t think of anything else about my lifestyle that had changed. I figured I’d Google “fish oil” and “arthritis” to see if anybody else had noticed these effects and found that many indeed have noticed the same thing. Some of the articles said that fish oil it works best when taken with a small dose of baby aspirin. The two somehow work together to create a super-anti-inflammatory. I had already been taking a baby aspirin every day for my heart anyway, so there was my answer.

 

I can’t tell you which brands are best because I’m new at this and have only taken one, but the one I’m taking is Nature’s Bounty in a 1200mg (1.2 grams) gel cap. I get it from Walgreens. Most of the information I’ve read says to take between 3 to 4 grams per day for arthritis. Until today I had only been taking one dose in the morning and noticed that my back would start feeling a bit tired and achy in the afternoon. Today I took an extra one at lunch, and my back felt great all day. I’m going to start taking three gel caps every day starting tomorrow.

 

I’ll leave a couple of links below where you can read more about fish oil and what it does for you. You may have noticed this Dr. Oz guy on TV talking fish oil up all the time. He considers it something of a marvel or wonder drug, and I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s good for all kinds of things including diseases of the mind like dementia. Give it a try. Don’t forget the baby aspirin in the morning too though!

 

Doctor Oz on Fish Oil--Omega 3

 

webmd.com on Fish Oil

"Newhart" - Best TV Series Finale of All-Time

Kind Couple Make Bench Out of Grieving Woman's Stillborn Baby's Crib

Nice article on Yahoo today about a woman who had bought a crib for her unborn baby. The baby, however, was stillborn. A man who makes benches was at this woman's garage sale along with his wife. They spotted the crib in the garage and asked if it was for sale, and after the mother told them about the stillbirth, they went home and made a bench from the crib and gave it to the woman as a gift. How's that for nice people!?

Yahoo Article

Making Flower and Water Gardens With Brass Instrument Bells

I stumbled upon this photo of an old broken saxophone hanging on a wall today, and I thought, Wouldn't that look great with some flowers sticking out of the horn?

Turns out I'm not the only one to have thought of it. Look at some of these neat creations people have come up with using old, broken musical instruments in gardens:

Yes, that's a piano below.

The saxophone waterfall below sells for $5,000! You could easily make one yourself for about $200.

This got me thinking about old phonograph bell horns. A lot of them were made to look like a flower and some had flowers painted on them as well:

I think some of the skinnier horns like those used on the early Edison cylinder phonographs almost look like a vase anyway. Doesn't this look like it's just begging to have a bouquet of flowers placed in there?

The Edison phonographs can be expensive though even if they aren't working. What you can sometimes find that's similar but cheaper is an old music box that's made to resemble a phonograph like this one:

Lastly, I got to thinking about the old RCA Victor phonographs that always had the picture of the dog looking at the phonograph horn as though he was wondering how sound was coming out of it. Wouldn't it be cool to have a phonograph machine like this with flowers coming out of the horn and a stuffed dog up close like he was sniffing the flowers?

File under "Random Thoughts"....

The Legend of 1900

This is a neat movie about a man who was born on a cruise ship in 1900, and he lived his entire life on that ship, never once having stepped onto dry ground. He became a piano prodigy as a young boy who just sat down at the piano one day and knew instinctively how to play. He soon became the focus of the ship's jazz band. He could play things no one had ever thought of and could write incredibly complex harmonies on the spot. People from all over the world took cruises just to hear him play. He was thought to be the best musician in the world. But he wanted no part of going on dry land and making a fortune. He refused to tour or make recordings. He did make a recording once but took the master disc after he heard it and smashed it saying he changed his mind because, "I don't want my music going anywhere without me." I thought that was very unique in storytelling. Most artists want the world to experience their artwork and want to be remembered after they're dead through their art. But if people wanted to hear this guy, they'd have to book passage and see him onboard the ship. And once he would be dead and gone his music would be completely forgotten because there were no recordings or sheet music of it. In fact, he often made up entire tunes on the spot, and they would never be played again. Only the audience that was there on that particular night would ever hear it. He probably spontaneously composed thousands of tunes throughout his life, many of them only heard one time. So his music truly never did go anywhere without him. I thought it was a very unusual kind of story. It's not very often I see such a unique approach. I don't think there are very many unique approaches left.