4th of July and my parents…

[st.bede]

My girlfriend and I drove up into the mountains, to spend 4th of July with my parents.

Eventually the conversation turned to baseball. I have almost no interest in sports. As they talk about the Dodgers, (everyone else being a huge fan), my dad ask my mom, “who was that dodger that you loved to go and see”?

As I mentioned before, I am not a huge baseball fan, but I grew up in the sacred land of Dodgers. I say, at a decent level of volume, “was it Andy Sofax”? No one even hears me. My girlfriend is now reading off list of past Dodgers from her phone.

I repeat myself at a louder volume, “Andy Sofax”. Again same response. I try one more time at a pretty loud level. Again my words fail to break through the mass spots hallucination, that apparently I am not sharing, because an accounting of the different Dodgers teams by year is of more importance then my contribution.

Eventually as the conversation dies down, and is headed to the I can not remember phase, I once again throw out, “Andy Sofax”.

My father “yes, that is it Sandy Cofax”.

The are a number of things I realize from this experience. First, my parents will always treat me as if I was a kid, even while treating my girlfriend as a peer. Second, the Andy Sofax mistake confirms my deep respect for spots institutions.

[jazzshrink]

That's "Koufax". One of the greatest pitchers of all time. Don't worry about it. This kind of confusion is perfectly normal with advancing age. Just ask pop singer, Mary Banilow, or legendary rock'n'roller, Buck Cherry.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Hah! Similar conversations for me, just slide over:

American Independence Day => Canada Day
Parents => in-laws
Baseball => money

Money as in my wealthy father-in-law obsesses over saving pennies:
1. His latest economy, which caused him to chortle with glee, is to make tea by filling a cup with exactly how much water you need, then transferring it to the electric kettle. No wasted electricity to heat water you might not use for a few minutes! I pointed out the savings were on the order of a hundredth of a cent but he insisted that hundredths of a cent would add up.
2. Buying cheap, not very good, produce at Walmart. My wife is into buying organic and local, so this always generates the same response from her. We literally have the same conversation every day we're with them.

Ah, that felt good to get off muh chest!

[Litterick]

For a long time, I thought the Louisville Slugger was the nickname of a player.

[jazzshrink]

For a long time, I thought the Louisville Slugger was the nickname of a player.

And you thought right. Meet Pete Browning, star of the Louisville Eclipse, nicknamed "The Louisville Slugger". Legend has it that in 1884, Browning was in a hitting slump when he met a 17-year-old German woodworker named "Bud" Hillerich. Hillerich was a baseball enthusiast who had made bats for himself. Browning asked Hillerich to make him a bat, and the day after receiving it, he scored 3 hits. Hillerichs' baseball bat business began to grow from there and in 1894, the name "Louisville Slugger" became their registered trademark.



Please don't get me started on that Chinese baseball phenomenon, "Pitching Woo."

[lammie200]

My dad thought Bruce Stringbean was an odd name for a popular act.

[AllanAllen]

Stringbean was one of my nicknames in high school.

[Litterick]

And you thought right.

Thank you. An interesting story.

[Doctor Jeff]

Very funny!

My dad loved sports. Unfortunately, he passed away in ‘92, so I have no one in the family to talk baseball with anymore. (Mom didn’t care a whit about sports.)

I wish my ex-FIL had been interested in sports. He was proudly “asportual”. Except for Jayhawk basketball, of which he had a passing knowledge.

OTOH libertarian writers other than Ayn Rand—of that he had quite a knowledge.

[John A.]

Speaking of the 4th, why do we pledge allegiance for Richard Stans? Why can't he do it himself? And who the heck is he anyway?