The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

David Cordell

Ron, 

My house and the burgled house are in Forest Creek Estates. The woman who was murdered lived in The Trails. From those two subdivisions, Deerfield is on the opposite side of Legacy and the opposite side of Coit. There are multiple Whiffletrees, but one of them is directly across Legacy from the site of the murder.

Different topic that you as a good ballplayer might appreciate. Watching For the Love of the Game with Kevin Costner as a famous pitcher and the very beautiful, but recently deceased, Kelly Preston as the love interest. It doubles as a chick flick.

We watched Bull Durham a few nights ago with Costner as the catcher, Tim Robbins as the pitcher, and Susan Sarandon as the love interest. Costner in For the Love of the Game is believable and actually throws like a pitcher, whereas Tim Robbins looked like a tall version of me pitching with my (non-dominant) left hand.

David Cordell

These photos are from two different sites, directly across the creek from each other. The shoes will be taken to a homeless shelter tomorrow evening.

Lowell Tuttle

You guys did see that on 8 13 they are playing a game at the Field of Dreams site, right?  So far, it is still on...though they don't know which teams...

Ron Knight

David

Yep, you are right about your assessment of Tim Robbins' pitching. Charlie Sheen threw a more believable pitch in Major League. In the words of Bob Uecker, " Just a little outside" as the ball sailed over everybody's head into the wall behind the plate!

Have you seen Money Ball? It's the true story of Billy Bean and the Oakland A's (who started out as the Philadelphia A's, then the Kansas City A's before moving to Oakland). It's a must see!

Kurt Fischer

Ron:

I may be the only RHS classmate to have watched the Kansas City Athletics at home.  We lived on the Kansas side of KC.  It had to be in 1957 or so that my father took me to a ballgame.  Not many memories of specifics, but I ate a lot and it was a long night's ride getting home.  We shortly moved to Los Angeles where I learned to love the Dodgers.

Lowell Tuttle

Ron, that was a great film, however, I watched it knowing that it was a very poor portrayal of Art Howe, the A's manager at the time of the story.  So, I am not sure of the storyline.

He's a great guy...golfs sometimes where I go.  I think he's just getting over some illness...during Covid.

Ron Knight

Kurt

We lived in Independence, MO for a brief spell in 1962 just before we moved back to Dallas (Richardson). I went to one game that summer. I can't remember the name of a steakhouse we went one night there, but I'll always remember who was having dinner at the next table over; none other than Roger Maris. I think he had been traded to KC just after his 61 homer season in 1961 with the Yankees. I was too bashful to ask him for his autograph. DUMB move on my part!

Bob Davidson

Ron,

Roger Maris lived in Kansas City during the off season.  He played with the Yankees through 1966, when he ws traded to the Cardinals. 

I was a fairly obsessive Yankee fan as a kid.

David Cordell

Didn't Maris play for the Kansas City Athletics before the Yankees? Maybe he met his wife there and decided to stay.

Ron Knight

Bob and David

Thanks for helping my feeble brain out on Roger Maris. I was thinking that he lived in KC in the off season, but wasn't sure enough to say. Regardless, he was at the table next to us having dinner with his family and I did not want to interupt his evening. And now that you said he was traded to the Cardinals, it fits in my mind. I knew he played for a Missouri team after the Yankees.

And I was a major Yankee fan back in the 50' and 60's, too. Here's an example of the early 60's line up; C - Yogi Berra , 1st - Joe Pepitone, 2nd - Bobby Richardson, SS - Tony Kubeck, 3rd - Cletis Boyer (Ken's brother), RF -Roger Maris, CF - Mickey Mantle, LF - was platooned but I'll put C/LF - Elston Howard there (if Yogi was catching) and on the mound Whitey Ford.

Batting order - now I may be a little off, but here goes;

1st - Joe Pepitone , 2nd - Bobby Richardson, 3rd - Roger Maris, Clean up- Mickey Mantle, 5th Tony Kubeck, 6th - Cletis Boyer, 7th - Yogi Berra, 8th - Elston Howard and 9th- Whitey Ford ( who happened to be a pretty good hitter).

Good memories!!

Ron Knight

And speaking of Yankee greats at dinner...

My  former wife Shari and I went to dinner at Youngblood's Chicken Restaurant one evening at the  northwest corner of Preston and Forest LN back in the early 70's and sitting a couple of tables over from us was Mickey Mantle and his family. Things weren't going so well with them. He and his wife were in a "discussion" that made me steer clear of asking for an autugraph!

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

David Cordell

Hollis,

I guess I have always enjoyed finding out about other people, especially those whose experiences are different (and more interesting) than my own! I always talk to people while standing in lines, and I always ask waiters questions about themselves. It's probably rather intrusive. One of my very good friends, who will remain unnamed, once gave me a semi-dirty look when I was talking to the waiter at a nice restaurant.

I think I may have told this story. Martha and I visited Rome in 2005. When we were standing in line at the Vatican, I chatted up the three young (25ish) Brits who were next to us. After I knew where they worked, their family situations, and their mothers' birthdays, they asked if I was from Canada. "Canada?" I asked incredulously. "No, I'm from the U.S. Why would you ask if I was from Canada?"

"Well," they responded sheepishly, "if you were from Canada and we asked if you were from the U.S., you might be insulted. But if you from the U.S. and we asked if you were from Canada, you wouldn't mind." I had a good laugh from that. 

Ron,

I think of Bill "Moose" Skowron when I think of the Yankees first baseman of that era, at least into our sixth grade year. I believe Hector Lopez logged some time in left field, didn't he? And I think Tom Tresh played some shortstop and left field.

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Steve Keene

Lowell,

Just for clarification for you, the memorial in Plano was not for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

Steve Keene

Ron,

I was a young boy in Amarillo and often attended the Amarillo Gold Sox games with my Great Aunt Biddie Maxwell and the Bivins boys Mark and Tom.  My Aunt was their governess.  She was a rabid baseball fan and we scored every run and strikeout on a big scoring tablet.  Joe Pepitone was our hero.  He played centerfield for the Gold Sox before he was called up to the majors.  He led the team in home runs.

Lance,

You are about a month late with your Ball of Confusion post.  I already posted it and pointed out the similarities with today.  Maybe you got confused?  You know, one of the first things to go is your memory at your age.

David Cordell

This story may have been posted before. It was forwarded to me by a non-posting classmate.

Steve Keene

Lance,

Delloite and Touche.  Whoops.  Accounting for that is old age.  I meant Adroit and Touche'.

Wayne Gary

Steve

Adroit and Touche. Those are some mighty fancy words for a country boy from Carls Corner

Steve Keene

Wayne,

That's Texas Tech retort translation of the A & M comeback Well Done and You Got Me.

Ron Knight

Lance

Thank you for your post about the M&M Boys. The NYT's article was spot on for a very conflicted reluctant hero. In Little League Baseball, I always wanted to wear the #7 on my jersey after The Mick. He was my hero. In fact, because Mickey was a switch hitter, in grade school I taught myself to switch hit. I spent hours in front of a full length mirror perfecting my swing from each side. I am a natural right hander, but with the Falcons of RSI (Richardson Sports Inc.) in junior high I actually came to the plate as a left handed hitter in a real game. My first at bat as a switch hitter I hit a single and scored a run. It was ALL because of Mickey Mantle! I did carry that on to the RHS Eagles.

My first exposure to Mickey's alcohol problem was at that Youngblood's Restaurant back in the early 1970's. He was loud and obnoxious and I felt sorry for Merlyn and their kids.

I am a reader of non-fiction and biographies, and one on my favorites was of Mickey Mantle's biography. For all of our common Yankee fans in our Class of 69, that book is a must read. It is a tale of all the episodes with Billy Martin, Whitey Ford and The Mick and their drinking.

Thanks again Lance!

David Cordell

I don't think Steve will ever be a switch hitter, but I suspect that he would welcome the opportunity to come to bat. 

Lowell Tuttle

I love the comment on you tube by one of the fans following this song...

"We all need to start worrying about what kind of world we are going to leave behind....for Keith Richards..."

David Cordell

I liked seeing drummer Charlie Watts in that video. Looks like a normal guy, dressed in a polo shirt.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

I noticed that Democrats errupted in laughter after Trump said, "It is what it is," referring to the pandemic situation.  Well, Democrats, if it isn't what it is, then what is it?

Do you think that if Hillary had been in office she would have handled the pandemic's arrival any better?  Do you think she would have had all of her supplies already assembled and ready to go by January 15th?  You can speculate that she might have had advanced preparation, but that would only be a guess, and I'm betting that she would not have done any better or much better, even though she would not have been involved in an attempt by Congress of being removed from office.  Then again, who could even know about that?

It is my understanding that it was only around the 15th or 16th of January that the Communists in China even admitted that a pandemic was occurring, that it was a mild flu-like virus, and that even though some Chinese had died from it, it was nothing too drastic, and nothing to provoke mass fear. (A blatant lie!)  Very shortly thereafter, Trump closed air traffic arrivals from China.  When he did that, he was met with loud and persistent anger from Dems.

Shortly after that, he stopped air traffic from Europe, and again, he was roundly "Boo-ed."  How much more could anyone have done, while at the same general time period, Pelosi was continuing to invite San Francisco citizens down to the Chinese market area of San Francisco, for a meet and greet, while she stood before cameras without a mask or a single worry?  Other prominent folks stood before cameras during February without masks as well, since the magnitude of the pandemic did not resonate very much for Americans, until the second week of March.

Trump didn't wear a mask because he was trying to convey an aura of non-panic, with the thought that folks would look to him as a person who was handling the pandemic with reasoned measures as hot spots or virus complications popped up, in our country.

Dems are saying that Trump handled every part of the pandemic problem with idiocy, but I disagree, since this virus was completely new and nothing was known about it.

What do you posters or lurkers say?