Mike Matheny | dual personalities

July 17, 2018

“Sing, so the back row hears you…”

by chuckofish

This is a good song to listen to in the car on the drive to work–I mean who doesn’t like to sing along with all those “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” lines? But it’s especially beneficial when you are bummed out because Mike Matheny got fired.

Matheny leaves the Cardinals after becoming the only manager to lead his team to four playoff appearances in his first four seasons; and he has never had a losing season, even this one in which the team was 47-46 before Sunday’s game. He blames no one but himself for the team’s uninspiring 2018 season. He says he’s anxious “to see where my life is being guided and see what doors are open and what (God) is going to do.”

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Indeed, Big Mike appears to have taken it all in stride and shown himself once again to be the classy, Christian gentleman he is. The haters can sit on a tack.

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I should also point out that today is the OM’s birthday. Bon anniversaire, Pappy!

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For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

3 Comments

May 10, 2017

Fun facts to know and tell

by chuckofish

Did you know that both Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin were born today?

Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian-born American music composer for theatre and films. He was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, either composing, arranging, or conducting, when he was fifteen. Steiner was referred to as “the father of film music” and played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films. He composed over 300 film scores and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards, winning three: The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942) and Since You Went Away (1944). Besides his Oscar-winning scores, you might remember King Kong (1933), Casablanca (1942), The Searchers (1956), a lot of those classic Errol Flynn movies, and Gone With the Wind (1939).

Tiomkin (May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born American film composer and conductor. Musically trained in Russia, he was best known for his western scores, including Duel in the Sun (1946), Red River (1948), High Noon (1952), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Alamo (1960). He received twenty-two Academy Award nominations and won four Oscars, three for Best Original Score for High Noon, The High and the Mighty, and The Old Man and the Sea, and one for Best Original Song for “The Ballad of High Noon” from High Noon.

Well, I thinks that’s interesting–two of the all-time most famous movie composers sharing a birthday!

And, oh, what’s that you say? The Cardinals are in first place?! No kidding, you nay-sayers!

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Don’t let the turkeys (and the haters) get you down, Big Mike!

#THAT’SAWINNER! Go, Cards!

2 Comments

November 4, 2016

“You ever been in a chickie-run?”*

by chuckofish

The Star of the Month for November on TCM is Natalie Wood. Every Friday this month they will be showing her movies, including a few favorites of mine.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with James Dean

Love With the Proper Stranger (1963) with Steve McQueen

The Searchers (1956) with Jeffrey Hunter

Natalie’s career was a little uneven, but she was in some great movies, both as a child (Miracle on 39th Street) and as a teenager and an adult. It was a sad day indeed when she drowned at age 43 in 1981.

I am happy to toast her tonight and watch a movie with one of her dreamy co-stars.

And this news made me very happy:

For those of us who have trouble sleeping at night, here are some no-brainer suggestions from the National Sleep Foundation:

Practice yoga, meditation or deep breathing before bed, to help you feel more relaxed.
Avoid TV or computers before bed, These devices can stimulate your brain and make it more difficult to fall asleep.
Enjoy a soothing mug of chamomile tea.
Take a shower or bath.
Perform leg exercises, such as squats, to promote blood flow to the legs.
Count sheep or breathe deeply. Or imagine yourself already asleep.
Earlier in the day, make time to exercise.
If there’s something you’re worried about it, think through it during the day.

I particularly like that last one. I mean seriously. Thanks.

Have a good weekend! Don’t forget to turn your clocks back on Saturday night!

*Buzz Gunderson in Rebel Without a Cause

3 Comments

August 26, 2016

I’m talkin’ baseball

by chuckofish

So the Cardinals are doing quite well–despite all the nay-sayers. I am not surprised. The Cardinals always pump up their mojo during the end of the season. We are hitting away and without one big star hitter in particular leading the way.

I am not worried about that wild card spot.

And, please, all you Matheny-haters, take a chill pill!

(Okay, we lost last night, but we scored 6 runs and gave them a run for their money.)

Go, Cards!

*Photo via Parade Magazine

3 Comments

April 13, 2016

Let me just say this about that

by chuckofish

So we all know that the Cardinals got off to a slow start. They lost their first three games to the Pirates. Immediately the nay-sayers were all, Oh no! And it’s going to be a terrible season! Mike Matheny doesn’t know what he’s doing, yada yada yada.

The Skipper calmly replied that we’re not hitting. We’ll figure it out and fix it.

St. Louis Post Dispatch photo

In the next four games the Cardinals scored 41 runs. Forty-one! Runs! In one game they hit three pinch-hit homeruns–a MLB-record.

The nay-sayers say, So are the Cardinals good? Or are the Braves and Brewers just bad?

Please. The Cardinals will be just fine.

The nay-sayers can sit on a tack.

And here’s a little pep talk for Wednesday:

“Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. When your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old. And then, indeed as the ballad says, you just fade away.”

–Douglas MacArthur

4 Comments

March 8, 2016

“O Piece of Bunting, flying high and higher That next October it shall flutter here: This is the end of every fan’s desire.”*

by chuckofish

(photo Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

Spring is just around the corner. I know this because we see a lot of these guys–the GM, owner and manager of the STL Cardinals–on the local news these days.

Which is okay with me. I much prefer Redbirds to political commentary. And I should mention that our baseball team owners are like gods compared to our former football team owner. I mean really.

Ah, Fans, let not the Quarry but the Chase

Be that to which most fondly we aspire!

For us not Stake, but Game; not Goal, but Race—

THIS is the end of every fan’s desire.

*Franklin Pierce Adams, A Ballad of Baseball Burdens

4 Comments

June 1, 2015

A cup of blessing

by chuckofish

It was a rainy, overcast weekend–which is kind of nice sometimes. It gives one permission to slow down and read a book instead of trying to get a million things done. You know what I mean?

However, I did manage to do a few things anyway. I saw this weird bug on my garage.

Have you ever seen anything like him? He was big like a cicada, but didn’t look like our typical flyover cicadas. Zut alors!

I found this while going through a bunch of old books in my basement.

According to the sentiment written inside the cover, my mother gave it to me February 14, 1968. She was always trying to encourage me in my endeavors francaise, but it really was a lost cause.

Apres le petit dejeuner, il avait repete sa chanson pour bien la savoir par couer, et maintenant il se la chantait tres gentilment, sans se tromper. Cela donnait a peu pres ceci:

Tra-la-la, tra-la-lere!

Zim-boum-boum, ran-tan-plan!

Brrm-brrm-brrm, la-di-dere!

Pout-pout-pout, zim-pan-pan!

(Sorry, no accent marks!)

I’m afraid Winnie the Pooh loses something in translation!

I watched To Have and Have Not (1943) in honor of Howard Hawks’ birthday on Saturday. It was as good as a Hemingway novel adapted for the screen by William Faulkner can be. And by that I mean excellent. Which Hawks classic did you watch?

I also watched a really terrible movie: Rhinestone (1984) starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. I had never seen it, and despite Dolly doing her best, it was pretty awful. Stallone was painfully bad.

It is amazing that Bob Clark, who had directed A Christmas Story the year before, ever worked again.

Sunday night I DVR’d Grantchester and watched The Cowboys (1972) which is the story of a cattle owner (John Wayne) who is forced to go on a cattle drive with only a bunch of underage cowboys to help.

The young boys in this movie are excellent. Indeed, the movie is excellent and well directed by Mark Rydell. And although the Duke (spoiler alert) dies at the hands of some lesser men in the movie, it ends well.

The highlight of my weekend was when my old friend Dick, who was in town from Atlanta for our special event at work this week, dropped by my office on Friday and brought me this:

A Mike Matheny autographed baseball! He asked Mike to sign it when he was in Jupiter for spring training. Wasn’t that thoughtful? It certainly made my day!

Have a good Monday!

*Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting–a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.”

7 Comments

March 26, 2015

“A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result.” *

by chuckofish

While I was going through boxes and piles of photos etc. a few weeks ago, I found an adorable picture of 10-year old daughter #1 making palm crosses with the Altar Guild at our old church for the Palm Sunday service. I put it somewhere safe to use in a blogpost later.

Of course, when I looked for it, I could not find it. I ~~literally~~ tore the house apart. Still no picture. I looked again. Sigh. I even looked in the books I have been reading. Not there. I looked in the scanner for pete’s sake.

This is the story of my life. Good intentions of being organized. I fool a lot of people, but it is all a joke.

I know that picture is out there. It will no doubt turn up on Monday, after Palm Sunday is past. It will be in an obvious place. If an inanimate object could laugh, this picture would be laughing at me.

On a brighter note: lacrosse season has officially started!

The OM and I went to the boys’ first home game yesterday afternoon after work. I suppose there aren’t a lot of coach’s parents going to games, but I say, why the heck not? It is a pleasure to sit outside and watch the game–even if it was a bit chilly. And they were winning when we left at halftime!

And on another bright note: my spy in Jupiter took some photos for me of this guy–

Photo by WWII Guy

Needless to say, this made my day!

It’s the little things in life, right? Have a good day!

*Thomas Edison

5 Comments

February 26, 2015

“I exist as I am, that is enough”*

by chuckofish

Well, thank you, fastcoexist.com for letting me know that I live in one of the worst states for “well-being”.

Yes, there we are in gray in flyover country. Well, I say phooey.

Don’t you get tired of being told the results of surveys and studies? I say, live your life and forget about surveys.

I think I will give them up for Lent.

Meanwhile, our well-being in flyover country is greatly enhanced by the fact that these guys are back in training.

C’mon, Mike, turn around!

“I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself.”

(Walt Whitman)

9 Comments

October 3, 2014

“I descend into the arena”*

by chuckofish

The corn maze at Eckert’s in Millstadt, IL

Tonight the postseason commences for the hometown Cardinals, so like everyone else around here, we will be watching the game against the L.A. Dodgers. I hope it will not prove to be too stressful an end to a very busy week!

But whatever, at least we will get a big dose of this big guy:

I have nothing against Don Mattingly,

the manager of the Dodgers, who actually shares a birthday with me. I mean, c’mon, he has been a guest on a classic episode of The Simpsons (Season 3, Homer at the Bat) and that is awesome.