An Interesting, Imperfect Week

By Bob Gaydos

Yankees Pitcher Domingo German pitched a perfect game.

Yankees Pitcher Domingo German pitched a perfect game.

   When one’s primary focus is offering commentary on the most significant news of the day and it’s a day (or week) in which Donald Trump has not been indicted, arrested, convicted or imprisoned, well, one has to look around at the rest of the world and choose what’s important. Kind of stream of consciousness reporting.

      For example, (1) in a week in which the leader of a ruthless mercenary military group in Russia apparently decided to call off a coup attempt aimed at Vladimir Putin in midstream and (2) reports say some Russian generals may have known about the plan and Putin may be about to purge them, how significant was it that the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court (3) blew up affirmative action and (4) Joe Biden’s college loan forgiveness plan, (5) said (despite a Colorado state law barring discrimination) that a wedding website designer could refuse to design a website because the would-be clients are gay, all the while (6) holding fast to the argument that the top court in the U.S. should not be bound to conflict of interest rules like every other court in the land, apparently suggesting that Supreme Court justices should (7) be able to take lavish vacations paid for by clients who have cases before the court, (8) that the fact that a justice’s spouse actively encouraged a coup attempt aimed at the U.S. government didn’t matter and (9) that another’s spouse got millions in business from another frequent visitor to the court did not matter either because, well, apparently because the High Nine are morally perfect individuals, which is not necessarily the case with (9) Domingo German, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, who pitched a perfect game against the Oakland A’s and, despite the fact it was only the 24th perfect game in Major League Baseball ever, was criticized by some because he had been (10) suspended by MLB a couple of years ago for spousal abuse, even though one must presume (or at least hope)  he had made significant enough changes in his life by now to merit reinstatement, while others suggested the accomplishment wasn’t much because (11) Oakland is one of the worst teams in baseball at the moment, an argument which ignores the fact that these are all major league players, the best ball players in the country, making a guaranteed minimum salary of $720,000 a year, and, all the while, much of the country (including New York State, where I live) witnessed all of this (12) through a choking haze of smoke courtesy of thousands of wildfires still burning in Canada, undoubtedly aggravated by (13) global warming, which almost no one is talking much about lately, certainly not (14) Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, who we learned sat down voluntarily for a chat with Special Counsel Jack Smith in connection with (15) investigations into the Jan. 6 insurrection and efforts by Trump to steal the 2020 election, leading to speculation that Giuliani, disbarred and disgraced, might be (16) looking for a plea deal to avoid a long prison term in exchange for information leading to (17) the indictment, arrest, conviction and imprisonment of the aforesaid Donald Trump.

     I knew I’d get there.

                 ***

PS: The Yankees have had four perfect games thrown by their pitchers, more than any other team. I watched on TV as Don Larsen threw his against the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series and 43 years later listened on radio as David Cone achieved perfection. People tend to forget that, not only the pitcher, but the whole team has to be perfect to accomplish this. Have a nice week.

rjgaydos@gmail.com

Bob Gaydos is writer-in-residence at zestoforange.com.

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2 Responses to “An Interesting, Imperfect Week”

  1. ernie miller Says:

    Wonderful synopsis and flow of information!!

  2. BobGaydos Says:

    Hi Bob,

    I have to respond to this week’s baseball story with this paragraph from Wikipedia:
    Many big name players wore the Aberdeen Pheasants uniform at some time in their careers. Pitcher Don Larsen, famous for pitching a perfect game in the 1956 World Series as a New York Yankee, played for the Pheasants in 1947 and 1948. Bob Turley was a 1949 Pheasant prior to winning the Cy Young Award in 1958 as a New York Yankee. Tito Francona played on the 1953 Pheasants prior to playing on 8 different major league teams. He even married an Aberdeen girl, Roberta Jackson, at home plate prior to a home game. Earl Weaver managed the club for the 1959 season. Jim Palmer pitched for the Pheasants during the 1964 season. Earl Weaver and Jim Palmer are the only former Pheasants to be named to the baseball hall of fame. Dave Leonhard pitched for the 1963 and 1964 Pheasants and pitched for the Baltimore Orioles from 1967–1972. Mark Belanger was also on the 1964 Pheasants and was eventually named the American League all-star shortstop in 1976 as an Oriole. Lou Piniella played for the 1964 team prior to moving to the majors that same season. Cal Ripken, Sr. was a manager of the Pheasants for the 1963–1966 season.

    I grew up in Aberdeen, SD and was at nearly every home Pheasant game until I went off to Minneapolis for Nurses’ Training in 1958.

    More wikipedia: Not to be forgotten is “Philbert” the cartoon pheasant drawn by Gordon Haug, the advertising artist for Aberdeen’s Olwin-Angell department store. Philbert appeared on the front page of the Aberdeen American News the morning after each game with an appropriate comment about the game’s outcome.

    My mom’s best friend’s son, Bobby Neuman, was the bat boy, and another friend invited the team and my family, by extension, to their cabin at Mina Lake every summer. Somewhere I have a bat and ball signed by team members–including Tito Francona who married my sister’s classmate and friend, Roberta Jackson. When Terry Francona (who was born in Aberdeen) was managing the Red Sox and stood with his hat in hand to honor breast cancer patients, his mom was on his mind.

    Baseball will always be my favorite sport! Thanks for writing about it!

    Linda (Newnam-Carhart) Mangelsdorf
    Newburgh

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