Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Sarah found a story about a man who says, “I punched Saddam in the mouth.”

Best Of… is up for the week. One post from a Homespun Blogger you might find interesting is a review of Microsoft’s entry into the blogosphere.

Our “little” group of Homespun Bloggers has grown to over 200. We each carry a blogroll (below left, here) in our links section which is continually updated with the freshest posts at the top.

All of that is simply prelude. I use that list to check the new folks out, and to return to the old reliables that I don’t keep in my ready list at the top. And I really enjoy finding someone new to the crowd, or simply new to me. HerWryness is one of those.

Her tagline is

Blogging With Intent To Uplift, HerWryness Has Written

David always has interesting pieces of information on his religion, and much of it is of historical significance to Christians. This is a wonderful post on unleavened bread and Passover.

Pattie had a blogging friend from the Great Northwest visit her to see what Texas was all about. As one of the characters in Streets of Laredo noted, everything in Texas is sharp.

Should have checked for stickers first, cause my knee became a human pincushion. Spent a few minutes sopping up the blood and transfering the stickers from my knee to my fingers to my thumbs and back to my knee, all the while trying to keep my camera from banging into the ground and balancing on one foot. They don’t call ’em “stickers” for nothin’, hun.

Nice tale.

Busy, busy, busy. A new granddaughter, visitors, three web sites, golf, work, and now baseball.

Last night was the first home game for our Astros AA affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks baseball team. I joined 8,254 others at Whataburger Field last night to see the home team lose to Midland. I’m an old baseball coach–for 30 years now–and it was difficult for me to sit and watch without feeling like I needed to do something.

I’m always perplexed that people talk about baseball being a boring game with little activity. I guess it is unless you really understand what’s happening. My three boys all played catcher, and ran the games they were in from behind the plate. When Slice went to college, he shared catching duties with another young man. All their contests were double-headers, and the two of them swapped places for games, one at third and one catching. He was always a bit bored at third base because it wasn’t the hub of all on-field activity like catcher.

It is the same with coaching. Your mind is always active running through scenarios. I found myself doing that last night. I must get that perspective out of my mind so I can really just enjoy the game. I have no decisions to make. I am just a fan.

We have an excellent manager, Dave Clark. In my mind, the toughest job in professional sports is that of a minor league manager. He has to balance player development with trying to win. Winning is secondary, but is a requirement to develop the right mental attitude in players trying to move up. And it is important to keep the fans coming through the gates.

Dave probably keeps a jar of Tums on his desk.

A manager must deal with a constantly-changing lineup. The players he starts the season with are not the ones who will finish the year. Some will go on to AAA or even the major league team. Others will move down where they can get more playing time. The closer the manager develops is no longer there three games later. That starting lefty gets pulled up. The outfielder who hits .476 in the first half of the season becomes the lead-off hitter at Round Rock and is replaced with the worst hitter from that team.

I have season tickets, so I’ll probably OD before the summer is over.

Dave, pass the Tums.

With Pop, whom she loves best of all.