Texas Tidbits; The Ryan Express

Nolan Ryan beats the hell out of Robin Ventura

Any Texan that is a sports fan knows to whom the nickname "The Ryan Express" refers. Folks, we are talking about one of the most amazing athletes of our time. The records he set during his baseball career are beyond reach for probably another 50 years, if not unbreakable. From a skinny kid born in Refugio, Texas to the most dominating pitcher in the history of baseball, Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. is in a class of one. Here's a short list of the records Nolan Ryan set during his 27 year Major League career:

• Most strikeouts, lifetime: 5714
  
• Longest service: 27 years
  
• Most no-hitters, career: 7
  
• Most strikeouts, season: 383 (AL, 1973)
  
• Most seasons, 200+ strikeouts: 15
  
• Most seasons, 300+ strikeouts: 6
  
• Most consecutive strikouts, game: 8
  
• Most low-hit (0/1 hit) games, career: 16
  
• Most low-hit (0/1 hit) games, season: 3 (1973)
  
• Most walks, career: 2795
  
• Most seasons leading majors, walks: 8
  
• Most strikouts per 9 innings, season: 11.48
  
• Most strikouts per 9 innings, career: 9.57 (as of 1990)
  
• Fewest hits allowed per 9 innings, season: 5.26 (1972)
  
• Fewest hits allowed per 9 innings, career: 6.41 (as of 1990)
  
• Oldest to pitch a no-hitter: 44 (5/1/91)
  
• Fastest pitch (as listed in the Guiness Book Of World Records): 101.9 MPH

I was lucky enough to have seen Nolan Ryan pitch on several occasions, for both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. When Ryan took the mound, some opposing players who feared his 100mph fast ball, suddenly contracted various ailments like "a tight hamstring" or "food poisining", that would keep them out of the lineup that day. Ryan was fearleass and was to be feared. To watch a Major League Baseball player's knees buckle and his face contort when The Express forsook his bullet-like fast ball to throw a curve ball that literally broke about 18 inches, was a thing beauty.

Nolan Ryan was a fierce competitor. That competitive nature plus a 100mph fastball induced fear into many opposing hitters, often prompting temper tantrums that would challenge any two year old. On one occasion, Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox was yet another strike out victim of Ryan's, when all of the sudden, for some inexplicable reason, Ventura charged the mound to confront The Express. Ventura was about 25 or so and Nolan was in his mid-forties, if I recall correctly.  Bad. Move. Robin. The Old Man kicked his ass. Instant baseball classic and the stuff of which legends are made. Not that Nolan Ryan needed any help in the legend department.

Before you move on, take another look at the records that Nolan Ryan holds. The numbers are simply astounding. Ryan retired long ago, and is now President/Owner of the Texas Rangers, but left behind the kind of legacy that only extraordinary athletes can. And believe you me, Nolan Ryan was an athlete that comes along once in a lifetime, maybe two lifetimes. Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. Baseball Hall of Famer, Texan, Legend.

Confederate Heroes Day, Part 2 - Southern Heritage as Seen Through the Eyes of a Black Woman

Earlier this morning I put up a post telling us about Confederate Heroes Day, which is celebrated in Texas each year on January 19. I laid out some facts that some people (read: Liberals and non-Southerners) might take issue with. However, they can not disprove them! I had my turn, now let's hear from some folks who are light years ahead of me when it comes to knowledge of the Civil War and its attendant issues.

The Confederate States of America

I found a lady that wrote a piece for a website called Southern Heritage 411.com . Elizabeth Wright is a black woman who is proud of her Confederate Heritage and a few years ago, put her thoughts to paper.                                          
Beating Up on the Confederacy
"Do Only The Feelings of Blacks Count?", October 16, 2007
by Elizabeth Wright

'On April 9, 1998, Virginia's Governor James Gilmore proclaimed April as Confederate History Month. This action immediately drew angry protests from the blacks who, each year, organize to prevent just such a proclamation. King Salim Khalfani, of the NAACP's Virginia State Conference, claimed that his organization was "not pleased that April once again will commemorate Confederate History and Heritage Month."

His statement put in a nutshell the goal of the civil rights establishment. That goal is to eradicate all symbols of the Confederate past once celebrated by most Southern white Americans.

In his declaration, Governor Gilmore denounced slavery as a practice that "deprived African-Americans of their God-given inalienable rights."

That's a great start to addressing an issue that Ms.Wright from a point of view that is completely opposite of the view held by the overwhelming majority of black people. Just espousing the beliefs she does, so diametrically opposed to the views of so many of her fellow blacks, could put her in some rather uncomfortable circumstances. You'll see what I am talking about when you read the rest of this incredible article. The entire thing can be found here.

Texas Tidbits: Confederate Heroes Day

Confederate Battle Flag

January 19 is a State Holiday in Texas. It is Confederate Heroes Day. I know this post will piss off a bunch of Yankees and Liberals, but they don't like Texans or Southerners much anyway. Don't get your panties all in a wad, I am not talking about ALL Yankees and Liberals, but a significant number of them, perhaps even a majority. I say this as a Native Texan who is married to a woman from Maine. She is so much like many Southern women that the only way I can tell that she isn't from the South is her accent. So, lighten up, Francis, I am not here to condemn Yankees or Liberals whole cloth, although it would be fun to do so, I am here to talk about heroes. These heroes just happen to be Southern. I'll certainly include my opinion throughout this post, but the bulk of what you read will have been written by a black man and a black woman. If anybody should have a beef with the South, it is these folks whose ancestors were slaves in the Antebellum South. Before I excerpt from the two folks I mentioned, I want to throw out a few thoughts on slavery. What is not in dispute is the fact that the enslavement of any human being is an abomination to God. That's all that needs to be said in that regard. The Civil War was not a war all about slavery! One of its major causes of the war was the ever-growing and more-powerful-by-the-day Federal Government intruding into peoples' lives and usurping their freedoms as laid out by the US Constitution. Does that sound familiar? It should. It's happening as we speak. But, I digress. The city in the United States that imported more slaves than any other was Charleston, South Carolina. Care to venture a guess which city imported the second most slaves in the country at the time? Atlanta? Nope. Somewhere in North Carolina? Guess again. No, nowhere in Virginia either. The city in the US that imported the second most slaves into this country was....New York City! Oh, wait. NYC is a Northern city, so that little fact doesn't count. My bad. Maybe you can tell me who was selling these poor people into slavery. You can't? I can.  Their own damn people in Africa! Oh, wait again. The slave sellers were black guys, so that doesn't count either. I am so sorry to insert actual facts into this debate. I hope you Yankees and Liberals will forgive me my transgressions.Did you know that it was the SOUTH that wanted to count slaves as wage earners and tax them accordingly, just like white people? I didn't think so. One more quick question. Who said, "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the black race." Abe Lincoln? Not this time. It's a direct quote from that evil raaaaacist bastard Son of the South General Robert E. Lee.

What I have written so far is something for you to chew on until I get to the next part of our report on Confederate Heroes Day in Texas. I'll have the thoughts of the two black folks I mentioned early on concerning the Confederate Heroes Day observation in a little while. Chew on what I just wrote for a little bit and I'm sure that I can make many non-Southerners and an equal number of Liberals foam at the mouth with what I'll post later this morning. Grab your popcorn, this is gonna be fun to watch.

TexNetMaine - The New Home Base

                             TexNetMaine

                                                           An Emerging Internet Empire

 I have put up the first post on a new blog and YOU are among the first ones invited to check it out! It's kind of a Blog Headquarters for all my blogs. A place where I can do some things that are a little "out of place" on the other three - Three States Plus One, Dumbass News and Because Toby Said So. Instead of reviewing the thing here, click this link and see what all the fuss is about.

Coop Comes to Visit - A Good Time Is Being Had By All

I am really busy today helping Heather babysit our new cousin, Cooper who will be three months old tomorrow. Coop is no problem to take care of. He's a sweet baby with a good disposition....and a crib. I'm just sayin'. The hard part of today is keeping up with Bailey the Almost Four Year Old. Heather is concentrating on the baby, while I hobble around "chasing" after Bailey. She's being a little toot and I feel like slappin' a knot on her head so tall she'll have to tiptoe to scratch it, but she can outrun me and later on down the road, she'll have considerable input into deciding what nursing home I'll end up in, so I can't be too mean to her. Dammit. :)

Uncle Tobe and Coop...some day.

Back to Cooper...Coop and I are already good buddies, so I am really looking forward to the day when he can do "big kid" stuff. When that time comes, I have a feeling that we'll be on the water a lot, looking for the "Big One That Got Away From the Ordinary Fisherman". You know that Fish. Fear. Me. After I pass on my fishing knowledge to Coop, he'll be known as Fish. Fear. Me. Too. I'll have him t-shirt made up that has that written on it. I know I am probably sounding like I'm Coop's Daddy, but I just love the boy and want to teach him lots of things about fishing and camping and gardening. Besides, Coop has a fine young man for Dad, so being Uncle Toby (even though he's technically my cousin) is just fine with me. He'll be like a third son to me for sure, but he'll also be kind of a Rent-A- Kid. I get him for the day, have all the fun we can possibly have, wind him up like a cheap clock from Family Dollar Store, then send him back home to Mommy and Daddy. See? The shit works out right.  :)

In spite of all the joy that Coop brings into our lives when he gets to visit us, there is some backlash. Every time the boy leaves to go home to his parents, Heather tells me how much she'd like to have another baby, hoping it would be a son. Look, I love kids and kids love me; it's always been that way. I guess they can see the "Big Kid" in me. I am blessed that way. I hope it buys me a few Bonus Points with the Lord. Hear that up there, Lord? But, I digress. So, when Coop leaves to go home later today, I'll hear "Let's have another baby" like it's being played on a loop. Then I remind Heather of my considerable age advantage over her. She's only a few years older than my Number 1 Son. Enough said.

I guess, I'd better get back to Cooper, I've got a mess of redneck ways to teach the boy before I'm too old to do it. In the meantime, if anything Update Worthy crops up, I'll chime in and let you know all about it.

I gotta go now. I have to have a conversation with the Lord about those Bonus Points.

Texas Tidbits: Star Trek - Is Mr. Spock Really a Texan?

The Rod

The answer to the question in the title of this post is a definite "kind of". Let me splain. Mr. Spock is a product of the fertile mind of one Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, creator of the phenomenon known as Star Trek. "OK, so what's the connection to Texas?", you ask. Gene Roddenberry was born in El Paso on August 19, 1921. There's your "Texas Connection".

Star Trek is the everlasting legacy of Gene Roddenberry, no doubt, but the man had quite an interesting life before creating Captain James T. Kirk, his crew and the USS  Enterprise. Gene was raised in Los Angeles, where his Dad was a cop. Gene attended several colleges, earned an Associate of Arts degree  from Los Angeles City College and later studied pre law and aeronautical engineering. It was also during this time that he became a licensed pilot. During World War II, Roddenberry piloted the B-17 Flying Fortress on 89 missions earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. After the war, Gene was a pilot for Pan Am and later an LA Policeman. It was 1953 when Roddenberry left the LA Police Department to become a full time screenwriter. That decision had an impact on television and hundreds of millions of people who would later become "Trekkies". I'll have more on that in a minute.

A few years after becoming a screenwriter, Roddenberry became the Head Writer for a great old TV Western called Have Gun, Will Travel". He would later produce a TV show called The Lieutenant, which is said to be the inspiration of the G.I. Joe Action Figure. From the website Famous Texans.com, we get this: As a fan of science-fiction, Roddenberry saw similarities between space explorers and American pioneers.  He envisioned a science-fiction series for television that, like the westerns he wrote, would have continuing characters. At the time he conceived it in 1963, this would have been a first for TV. Based on the popular show, "Wagon Train," Roddenberry called it a "wagon train to the stars," or a "star trek." With the airing of the first episode of Star Trek in 1966, Roddenberry not only created a history-making TV show, but an entire industry built around it. I think it's safe to say that there have been hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Star Trek merchandise and memorabilia since its inception. Star Trek conventions are held by the hundreds every year all over the world, Star Trek movies have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and the original TV show has inspired (insert number here) spin off TV series. The Star Trek brand is a monster that keeps feeding on its own and producing new monsters like rabbits make babies. And I mean "monster" in a good way. The continued success of all things Star Trek is truly mind boggling, especially considering it's been almost fifty years since the original TV series made its debut. Not a bad run, huh?

(Doing my best "Scotty" impersonation) Dammit, Jim, I gave her all she's got! And I have given her all she's got in this post. I have only one thing to say. "Beam me up, Scotty".

(Special thanks to famoustexans.com)

Texas Tidbits: Two Words: Dandy Don

Jeff and Hazel's Baby Boy

On December 5, 2010, a one-of-a-kind man died in New Mexico. He was one of the most famous and well-liked sports figures in Texas History. He wasn't a bad quarterback either. I wanted to pay tribute to this man as the NFL is in the Stretch Run to the Super Bowl. This man loved the Big Stage and the Super Bowl is the biggest of them all. Sadly, Don Meredith never played in a Super Bowl, and in my opinion, one of the best QB's in NFL history to have missed out on the honor.

Joseph Don Meredith was born April 5, 1938 in Mount Vernon, Texas to Jeff and Hazel Meredith. He often called himself  "Jeff and Hazel's baby boy". Dandy Don was a star quarterback at Mount Vernon High School and was heavily recruited by colleges from all over Texas, including Texas A&M whose coach at the time was the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant. Meredith turned down the Aggies to play college ball at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. At SMU, Dandy Don was a two-time All American, led the Southwest Conference in passing completion percentage for three straight years and his Number 17 jersey was retired in 2008.

After completing his college eligibility, Meredith went on to the NFL and played for the Dallas Cowboys. It was with the Cowboys that Dandy Don became a star. I remember when he and Bullet Bob Hayes were the most-feared pass-catch duo in the National Football League, "The Bomb" being their signature play. I have never been a Cowboys fan, but I have always had great respect for Don Meredith. Here was a guy that even the stoic Tom Landry called Meredith the toughest player he ever coached. Need I remind you that over a 29 year career as Head Coach of the Cowboys, Landry coached players like Randy White, Bob Lilly, Walt Garrison and Harvey Martin? But Dandy Don was the Toughest Cowboy. Meredith was a 3-time Pro Bowler back when it meant something, NFL Player of the Year in 1966 and always had the Cowboys in position to play for the NFL Championship. Dallas never won the title under Meredith because of one small factor - the Green Bay Packers. Those Packers teams are ranked amongst the greatest in the history of the NFL. Nobody was going  beat them at that time, yet  Dandy Don had the Cowboys on the brink of the Championship against the Packers year after year. Meredith quarterbacked the Cowboys in one of the greatest games ever played in the NFL - The 1967 Ice Bowl against Green Bay. that was one helluva football game. Ask any old guy about it, he'll tell you.

Don Meredith retired suddenly from the NFL after the 1968 season a man without a title, but a man with the respect of his coach, teammates, opponents and fans. "Number 17 on your program, but Number 1 in you hearts", as he was prone to say, went on to stardom as the comic foil to Howard Cosell's asshole announcer guy persona on Monday Night Football. When the outcome of the game had been all but determined, Meredith did his best Willie Nelson impression with this little diddy. The Danderoo, as he was called by Cosell, was one of the best sports announcers ever as far as I am concerned. His knowledge of the game, his wit and his comedic timing were second to none. For some eamples hit up this YouTube Page. It's good stuff as only Dandy Don could do it.

I've already made this post way longer than I had intended and I could go on for a while yet, but I think you understand the kind of man and athlete that Joseph Don Meredith was. Rest in Peace, Danderoo. "Turn out the lights, the party's over, they say that all good things must end........"