Hubbard has an ongoing love affair with the game of baseball. It all started with a centerfielder known as the Grey Eagle. Tris Speaker started his professional baseball career at the age of 18 fresh off the dusty diamond in Hubbard as he signed with Cleburne in he Texas League. In 1920 he took the Boston Red Sox (Correction from Tris's nephew: the Cleveland Indians) to the World Championship as a player and manager at the young age of 32.
Tris, playing with Boston and Cleveland, had a lifetime batting average of .345 over a 22 year career and is generally recognized as the best fielding centerfielder of all time. Many of his playing years resulted in his batting average finishing second only to Ty Cobb. Tris beat Cobb one year. He was the first person elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and was the seventh person voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
After baseball, Tris was one of the few friends of a very difficult Ty Cobb. They thoroughly enjoyed suckering oil men in Dallas and Ft. Worth into big money golf games. Tris also served in retirement as a part owner and executive of the Cleveland Indians baseball team and lived on his ranch in Hubbard until his death.
When Hubbard folks talk baseball they generally argue about their favorites. One of those frequently mentioned is a pitcher who played many years in the Black Leagues before going to the Majors. His name was Satchel Paige, and he was known as much for his wisdom as for his phenomenal record and longevity. His famous quotes included the following:
Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
Pick a spot and throw it there because the home plate don't move.
Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.
Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.
Nothin helps the body like a few no hitters.
Win some,
Lose some,
Some get rained out,
But you got to dress for all of em.
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.
Sound advice even if you don't play baseball,
Jim
P. S. As this blog went to press we received the tragic news of the Great University of Texas baseball team losing the final game of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The University of Texas was plagued by injuries, poor health care, global warming, illegal immigration across the Louisana border, high winds, umpires with cajun accents, bad hops as wild as a drunken coonass in the French Quarter on a Saturday night, and a rawdy pack of fans expelling CO2 after serious episodes of really bad cajun cooking.
Final score: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 4, lsu 11.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Cafe Reacts to A Fraternity Brothers Trip to Costco
One of my college fraternity brothers sent me this letter which I shared with my Hubbard City Cafe coffee team:
A TRIP TO Costco
Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Biscuit, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think - I had an elephant? So since I'm retired and have
little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was
starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't,
because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50
pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out
of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that
it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply
eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally
complete so it works well and I was going to try it again.. (I have to
mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with
my story.) Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because
the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff
an Irish Setter's ass and a car hit us both.
Costco won't let me shop there anymore.
Sincerely Yours,
RRR
The folks at the cafe had the following questions and comments:
1. Just what do people do in one of those fraternities?
2. Were you in the same one as George Bush?
3. Which do you think is the best: Costco or Wall Mart?
4. The way these young people drive today with those cell phones in their ears, you got to be real careful stepping off curbs.
5. Boy, that Purina company has done really well, haven't they.
Think about eating healthy,
Jim
A TRIP TO Costco
Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Biscuit, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think - I had an elephant? So since I'm retired and have
little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was
starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't,
because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50
pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out
of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that
it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply
eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally
complete so it works well and I was going to try it again.. (I have to
mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with
my story.) Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because
the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff
an Irish Setter's ass and a car hit us both.
Costco won't let me shop there anymore.
Sincerely Yours,
RRR
The folks at the cafe had the following questions and comments:
1. Just what do people do in one of those fraternities?
2. Were you in the same one as George Bush?
3. Which do you think is the best: Costco or Wall Mart?
4. The way these young people drive today with those cell phones in their ears, you got to be real careful stepping off curbs.
5. Boy, that Purina company has done really well, haven't they.
Think about eating healthy,
Jim
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I'm OK, You're OK, America Sucks
Sound familiar? This appears to be our new leader's battle cry around the world. And then he votes PRESENT and moves to the next TV screen. That is what came out of the Hubbard City Cafe talks this past week. It is reported to have gone something like this.
There appears to be a pattern when trouble breaks out anyplace in the world between bad guys and good guys. The pattern is that we can not get involved, nor even criticize the bad guys, because we are so flawed ourselves. And secondly, if we take sides, we will only help the bad guys. Now isn't that convenient for the leader of a party that never saw a world conflict where they would not run and hide (Iraq, Viet Nam, South America, Cuba, North Korea, and watch out Afghanistan, Iran, Mexico, and Israel).
Maybe Obama is one of these new "I've got your back guys". Butch Jackson, local fact finder and philosopher, was holding court from table 3 at the Cafe about this back stuff. He said that he thought folks said that because you couldn't see back there on whether they were helping or not. He also sorta wants his real friends to help "up front" as well. He says he has more things exposed up there than in the back anyway.
They got me thinking about it,
Jim
There appears to be a pattern when trouble breaks out anyplace in the world between bad guys and good guys. The pattern is that we can not get involved, nor even criticize the bad guys, because we are so flawed ourselves. And secondly, if we take sides, we will only help the bad guys. Now isn't that convenient for the leader of a party that never saw a world conflict where they would not run and hide (Iraq, Viet Nam, South America, Cuba, North Korea, and watch out Afghanistan, Iran, Mexico, and Israel).
Maybe Obama is one of these new "I've got your back guys". Butch Jackson, local fact finder and philosopher, was holding court from table 3 at the Cafe about this back stuff. He said that he thought folks said that because you couldn't see back there on whether they were helping or not. He also sorta wants his real friends to help "up front" as well. He says he has more things exposed up there than in the back anyway.
They got me thinking about it,
Jim
Thursday, June 18, 2009
At Last: The Czar and Keynesian Theory Connection Exposed
The ongoing discussion about Scott Riddle's cattle expelling gas and causing Global Warming in downtown Hubbard continues. This weekend (that would be Saturday only) Scott fired back by sending a note to the Drug Store Liberals copying the City Cafe Conservatives. Note that the Dairy Queen Moderates were left out again because, if you remember, nobody likes them.
The note said, "These are cows. That's why they smell like cows. They smell like money to me. Get over it. Don't like it? I-20 and I-30 go east and west I-45 and I-35 goes north and south. Pick one and get the hell out of here. You guys act like a bunch of Communists."
The Communist word really sets them off at the Cafe. Seems like that is always at least a "three cup" topic. Billy Roy Meechum says, "it seems like Socialist don't mind these Czars as long as they work for the Socialist." Not having the exact figure, he thinks our new leader (Billy Roy's not sure what name the President is using these days) has appointed more than a dozen czars already, and "he ain't even warmed up yet."
Local banker and infrequent coffee drinker, Doyle Lee Wholeman, seems to always attend when the group needs some economic input. Doyle Lee knows economics, "In his early career John Maynard Keynes taught that a country could spend its way out of depression into prosperity, and that is the legacy he left."
He was just warming up, "But near the end of his life he repudiated his own prior views after witnessing the failure of state socialism in the USSR saying, “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
Doyle Lee thinks one man's inflation is another man's deflation and that Hubbard will get the short end of that stick.
As is usual, there weren't many questions when Doyle finished speaking. In fact, what usually follows is Lewis Glenn Teagle saying, "how about them Horns?".
Think about it,
Jim
The note said, "These are cows. That's why they smell like cows. They smell like money to me. Get over it. Don't like it? I-20 and I-30 go east and west I-45 and I-35 goes north and south. Pick one and get the hell out of here. You guys act like a bunch of Communists."
The Communist word really sets them off at the Cafe. Seems like that is always at least a "three cup" topic. Billy Roy Meechum says, "it seems like Socialist don't mind these Czars as long as they work for the Socialist." Not having the exact figure, he thinks our new leader (Billy Roy's not sure what name the President is using these days) has appointed more than a dozen czars already, and "he ain't even warmed up yet."
Local banker and infrequent coffee drinker, Doyle Lee Wholeman, seems to always attend when the group needs some economic input. Doyle Lee knows economics, "In his early career John Maynard Keynes taught that a country could spend its way out of depression into prosperity, and that is the legacy he left."
He was just warming up, "But near the end of his life he repudiated his own prior views after witnessing the failure of state socialism in the USSR saying, “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
Doyle Lee thinks one man's inflation is another man's deflation and that Hubbard will get the short end of that stick.
As is usual, there weren't many questions when Doyle finished speaking. In fact, what usually follows is Lewis Glenn Teagle saying, "how about them Horns?".
Think about it,
Jim
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Making Bets on Obama vs.Osama
What with running the auto companies, banks, and the Iranian election folks at the café are wondering whether Obama will capture Osama bin Laden real quick like he said he would back before the election. Hubbard folks have long memories and don’t like Osama at all (that’s with an S). Candidate Obama's pledge to hunt him down was music to their ears and probably got him 20-30 votes in Hubbard last November.
Now with all the talk about health care being a "ticking time bomb", it is just hard not to get confused. When it comes to health care there is one group in town represented by Morris Lee DuBerry whose slant is a little different, “Life should NOT be a trip to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty body, but rather to skid in sideways – a cool one in one hand – a smoke in the other - body pretty much used up, worn out and yelling 'YAA HOO, What a Ride'’.
Looks like Morris Lee might get sideways with President Obama on any kind of mandatory preventive health plan.
Back to Osama, most of the folks would like to see Obama spend a little more time on national defense things. Hubbard folks believe in making your fences horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong. They sure don’t believe in vacationing the Gitmo guys in Bermuda nor spending over $10 million per head to send them to some darn Pacific Island called Palau. On top of that you have our friends down south floating those funny cigarettes across the Rio Grande (actually the folks are about 50% mixed on this one between Willie's followers and George Strait's fans).
Heck, the Hubbard folks are so negative about Obama’s search for Osama that the local barber and bookie, Spooks Bounds, is giving 3 to 1 odds that O. J. finds Nicole’s killer before Obama lives up to his campaign promise to nab bin Laden.
Think about it,
Jim
Now with all the talk about health care being a "ticking time bomb", it is just hard not to get confused. When it comes to health care there is one group in town represented by Morris Lee DuBerry whose slant is a little different, “Life should NOT be a trip to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty body, but rather to skid in sideways – a cool one in one hand – a smoke in the other - body pretty much used up, worn out and yelling 'YAA HOO, What a Ride'’.
Looks like Morris Lee might get sideways with President Obama on any kind of mandatory preventive health plan.
Back to Osama, most of the folks would like to see Obama spend a little more time on national defense things. Hubbard folks believe in making your fences horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong. They sure don’t believe in vacationing the Gitmo guys in Bermuda nor spending over $10 million per head to send them to some darn Pacific Island called Palau. On top of that you have our friends down south floating those funny cigarettes across the Rio Grande (actually the folks are about 50% mixed on this one between Willie's followers and George Strait's fans).
Heck, the Hubbard folks are so negative about Obama’s search for Osama that the local barber and bookie, Spooks Bounds, is giving 3 to 1 odds that O. J. finds Nicole’s killer before Obama lives up to his campaign promise to nab bin Laden.
Think about it,
Jim
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Short but Important Warning Picked Up at the Cafe
If you get an email titled "nude photos of Sarah Palin," don't open it. It could contain a virus.
If you get an email titled "nude photos of Nancy Pelosi," don't open it. It could contain nude photos of Nancy Pelosi.
You can't be too careful with these computers.
Jim
If you get an email titled "nude photos of Nancy Pelosi," don't open it. It could contain nude photos of Nancy Pelosi.
You can't be too careful with these computers.
Jim
Monday, June 8, 2009
Raising More Than Hay in Hubbard
Scottie Andersen told me this weekend that "he was a lucky man". "He spent $60 per bale to grow his hay and sold it for $35 a bale." When I asked him why that was lucky? He said "because I didn't have many bales!"
This brought a comment from Billy Roy Meechum that maybe Scottie needed a government "bale out". Not only did the group not appreciate BR's humor, this launched them into an assessment of the recent assistance provided the locals seeking stimulation.
While every bank in Central Texas refused TARP money, the only help they have received in the auto industry appears to be the unfair, and probably unlawful, closing of local GM and Chrysler dealerships costing jobs in the surrounding area.
Aunt Martha suggested that the Cafe folks were being too critical and maybe they should give "hope and change a chance". She thinks maybe the Cap and Trade (Waxman-Markey bill) will stop Scott Riddle, local cattle barron, from globally warming downtown Hubbard.
This comment caused Butch Jackson, local fact finder, to quote the Heritage Foundation Economic report on Cap and Trades impact on farming: "Worst of all is what happens to farmers’ net income. Waxman-Markey significantly shrinks farmers’ net income. Farm income is expected to drop $8 billion in 2012, $25 billion in 2024, and over $50 billion in 2035. These are decreases of 28%, 60% and 94% from the baseline, respectively."
Of course, this caused Billy Roy Meechum to repeat his earlier comments that Congress needs to Cap their mouths and Trade their offices for real jobs back home.
This pretty much ended all the advice that Scottie got on his hay problem. Looks like he really is lucky compared to the prospects of future farmers of America.
Think about it,
Jim
This brought a comment from Billy Roy Meechum that maybe Scottie needed a government "bale out". Not only did the group not appreciate BR's humor, this launched them into an assessment of the recent assistance provided the locals seeking stimulation.
While every bank in Central Texas refused TARP money, the only help they have received in the auto industry appears to be the unfair, and probably unlawful, closing of local GM and Chrysler dealerships costing jobs in the surrounding area.
Aunt Martha suggested that the Cafe folks were being too critical and maybe they should give "hope and change a chance". She thinks maybe the Cap and Trade (Waxman-Markey bill) will stop Scott Riddle, local cattle barron, from globally warming downtown Hubbard.
This comment caused Butch Jackson, local fact finder, to quote the Heritage Foundation Economic report on Cap and Trades impact on farming: "Worst of all is what happens to farmers’ net income. Waxman-Markey significantly shrinks farmers’ net income. Farm income is expected to drop $8 billion in 2012, $25 billion in 2024, and over $50 billion in 2035. These are decreases of 28%, 60% and 94% from the baseline, respectively."
Of course, this caused Billy Roy Meechum to repeat his earlier comments that Congress needs to Cap their mouths and Trade their offices for real jobs back home.
This pretty much ended all the advice that Scottie got on his hay problem. Looks like he really is lucky compared to the prospects of future farmers of America.
Think about it,
Jim
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