Month: November 2022

Someone in California just won the Powerball lotto drawing worth an estimated $2 billion

Sure, the winner is not going to get to keep all that money, but I’m guessing that there might be a $500 million payday if the lucky S.O.B. takes the money up front instead of installments over twenty years. The I.R.S. and the State of California will vacuum up the rest of the loot, compensation for all their contributions to the achievement.

The newly-minted half-billionaire will now have to contend with every grifter, greedy attorney, slimy financial advisor, previous spouse, newly-discovered biological offspring, Ponzi-scammer, aggressive charity, and Russian cybercriminal out there. The winner can expect Donald Trump to ask for a hunk of money to fight the Stolen Election of 2020 and pay for the thousand attorneys that he currently has working to keep him out of prison.

Everyone on earth will have their hands out with get-rich-quick schemes and sob stories: it will be a circus.

I’m sure Mr. Powerball has already gone into hiding and will make every effort possible to hide his identity. I suggest moving off-grid to Siberia where there is no cell phone service, no Internet, no Phfishers and, most importantly, no lawyers. Or the guy could buy his own island someplace surrounded by shark-infested waters. Still, someone is going to drop a dime on lucky/unlucky dude and spoil his delusions of peace and quiet. It’s gonna happen, mark my words.

Hopefully, our California hero is not married. If he is, half of that dough belongs to his wife. If the union was not rock solid before the lotto drawing, Mr. Powerball can kiss $250 million bye-bye. Think of all the losers and shysters who will be trying to get into his wife’s pants and purse! Whew.

If I had been the big winner, I wouldn’t have that particular problem, as I’ve been married to a great gal for almost fifty years. Consequently, I already consider myself a winner and a good guy… although I could be an even nicer guy with a wallet bulging with $,1000 bills. Wouldn’t it be cool to enjoy a $20 lunch and then tip the waitress a grand?

To be honest, it would be hard deciding how to spend that half a billion dollars. Of course, some of that money would have to go toward new homes for our four grown boys and their families and possibly set up trusts for them and their progeny. I’d feel good about that, leaving a legacy of sorts for loved ones. Let’s say I put $100 million toward this task. Still, that leaves about $400 million unaccounted for. Where should this filthy lucre go?

It would be a tough task deciding how to cut the pie in a responsible manner.

I imagine that I would want to give a healthy portion of the proceeds to some responsible charities. The Red Cross comes to mind, as do animal rescue organizations. I would like to help struggling military veterans and battered wives, too. Maybe I put $100 million in this “charity” pot.

Now I’m down to $300 million. What to do?

I recently saw a news report that some Russian oligarch’s yacht was “on sale” for $300 million. I wonder if he would take $200 million… because I’d have to save some money for the crew, booze and diesel fuel.

I could also send a $50 million check to televangelist Peter Popoff, as God has told him that he needs a new Gulfstream G650. Whose gonna argue with God?

Speaking of crooks, I could own a couple of Senators for maybe $50 million each, like the Senators and Congressmen who are on the Koch brothers’ payroll making sure that Global Warming is a dirty word in Washington D.C.

On the other hand, my “posse” in Mesquite, Nevada deserves some love. Perhaps I can fund some dental work to give them more street cred?

Seriously, the remaining big hunk of dough should go to some purpose that benefits humanity.

Here’s an idea: Offer up the $300 million (and hopefully shame other super-rich humanitarians into throwing some of their wealth into the pot) for a gun buy-back program in America. We have the right to bear arms, and I agree with that, but there are too many of them easily accessible to nut-jobs, gang members, mentally-unstable teens, and children in their own homes where irresponsible adults have not secured their weapons. Too many guns equal too much gun violence being done to wives, relatives, and innocent school children. I think any step which reduces the number of guns in our country is a step in the right direction.

Alternatively, I could spend the $300 million helping disaster victims reclaim their lives. Ex-President Jimmy Carter and actor Brad Pitt have devoted time and money to this important task. There are also places in our country where the working poor are drinking contaminated water and living in filth while their children are going hungry. Certainly, the Greatest Nation on Earth can do better than this. Maybe I could help?

How about offering to pay the college tuition of worthy but poor high school grads? That would be a gift that keeps on giving, for sure. I saw a program on TV awhile back where a Black entrepreneur did this very thing; in fact, he promised every graduating senior in a predominately Black high school to pay for their college and the results were heart-warming. I’d like to do some of that, for sure.

Maybe I put up $99 million for each of the three causes (Gun Buy-Back, Community Disaster Relief, and College Tuition).

And, of course, the remaining $3 million I would save for purchasing more Powerball tickets.

Then I could sleep well at night.

There are a lot of jaw-dropping things in this world, most of which I have not seen.

I have big-game fished in Alaska, in the Gulf of California, at Catalina Island, and at the Alijos Rocks off the Mexican Coast, seeing Great White Sharks the size of miniature submarines cruise by our boat a few feet from the deck. I’ve seen glaciers and geysers up close and personal, hiked the Grand Canyon, and zip-lined through a forest (with my grandson) near Puerto Vallarta. Good times, all of them.

I have been lucky to have visited a lot of countries, cities and places that have really impressed me. In some cases, the beauty simply takes one’s breath away, and in others the historical nature of the place causes somber reflection.

Below are twenty places that I’ve really enjoyed, sometimes more than once

Teotihuacan (near Mexico City)

This Mayan city dates to the 1^st century A.D. This huge city, which was abandoned in the 8^th century, is laid out along a wide, paved Avenue of the Dead, and features many massive stone ceremonial structures, including the Pyramid of the Sun. I climbed to the top with great effort (the stone steps are twice the height of normal steps) and enjoyed a magnificent view. No one knows who built Teotihuacan, not even the Aztecs who founded Mexico City, a few dozen miles away. Visiting this place is like a poor man’s trip to Egypt… unforgettable. Mexico City is also a fabulous place, particularly the Natural History Museum, one of the finest in the world, the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco.

The Vatican

The opulence of the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church is breathtaking: gold, marble, priceless art and sculpture everywhere. The fabulous Sistine Chapel is here. It is possible (for a small fee) to enjoy the view of St. Peter’s Square from atop the basilica, which I did. What a spectacular sight! If I were a Roman Catholic, I would be embarrassed at how much money has been spent on this overblown Papal palace. It’s immense and gorgeous and ostentatious, all in one. What would humble Jesus say about it?

Gettysburg (Pennsylvania)

Out in the middle of nowhere, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought. In three days, the North and South suffered about 51,000 casualties. Nowadays, the battlefield is a National Park and cemetery: a very solemn place. A “Cyclorama” audiovisual presentation puts the battle and the key areas of contention into perspective.

Santorini (Greece)

This is an island in the Aegean Sea, a remnant of a larger land mass that was devastated by a volcanic eruption in the 16^th century B.C. Some believe that this eruption, and the tidal wave it generated, was the basis of the “Flood” fable in the Old Testament. There are several small islands here which surround, on three sides, an underwater caldera (crater). Whitewashed, cubiform houses cling to the cliffs which rise several hundred feet above the crystal blue ocean. It is one of the most awesome photo spots in the World.

Mount Whitney (California)

Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous United States at 14,500 feet. The hike to the top of the mountain from Whitney Portal (8,300 ft) is ten miles and rigorous, because of the altitude. I’ve made the climb several times and was always dumbfounded by the majestic views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I’ve also been caught in rain, lightning, and hailstorms while doing this trek and am lucky that I didn’t get hurt.

The British Museum (London)

For several hundred years, the British Empire was the greatest the world has ever seen, controlling 24 percent of the land surface on Earth and 412 million people. During its heyday, the British military and governmental agents saw fit to loot conquered territories of priceless historical objects. A vast assortment of such booty is on display in the British Museum. Priceless art from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece astounds the visitor at every turn.

The Rockefeller Grove (Northern California)  

This is a relatively small grove in the Humboldt Redwoods National Park which features huge, old growth redwood trees. The loop trail that meanders through this grove is only about six-tenths of a mile long, but the scenery is other-worldly and the quiet of the place makes it seems sacred in some way. Huge trees that have fallen are almost 400 feet long and thirty feet thick. Visitors walk through the woods in reverent awe.

The Alhambra (Granada, Spain)

This is a palace and fortress complex located on a hill overlooking the city of Granada. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. This Moorish structure was built in the 13^th century by the Emirate and was occupied until the Christian Reconquista in 1492. The whole estate is stunning, particularly the Generalife, which is the adjoining summer palace. The Alhambra is a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site.

Manhattan

I’m sure the New Yorkers who live here take the whole monstrosity of Manhattan in stride but, to the outsider, mass of structures and human beings that occupy this island is simply mind-boggling. It amazes me that the ground can support the weight of all the steel, glass, and concrete. Walking down a main avenue in the city is comparable to hiking in the Grand Canyon, as the buildings go into the heavens and direct sunlight is hard to find. A Circle Cruise boat tour around Manhattan is a good way to appreciate the many moving parts of this city. I wouldn’t want to live here, but it is a fascinating place to visit.

Dachau (Munich, Germany)

This is a former Nazi concentration camp which has been remarkedly well-preserved and is located in a residential area of Munich that could be West Covina, California. It is very unnerving to see this place of sadness and death in a parklike setting adjacent to school bus sites and tract homes. The former concentration camp has been kept in its original condition, with the barbed wire fencing, watch towers, prisoner barracks, and crematorium. There is a very fine museum also, letting visitors know what horrible things happened here. It’s a credit to the German people that they have retained this site to remind younger generations what evil lurks in the minds of men. It is part of their penance, I think.

Washington D.C.

I lived here for two years back in the early 70’s (while in the Air Force). The weather was crappy but there was so much to do and see. Back then, before 9-11, one could walk to the top of the Washington Monument and tours of the White House and Capitol were more laid back. The city has a nice subway system which allows one to see a lot of things without burning through a pair of shoes. The Smithsonian Museums are great as is the National Gallery of Art. However, the best “attraction” on the National Mall is the Vietnam Wall. It is incredible how moving this memorial is; it is not uncommon to see people weeping here. Arlington National Cemetery is sobering, too, particularly the Perpetual Flame at Kennedy’s gravesite and the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Other sights include Embassy Row, the National Cathedral, the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, cherry blossoms (in season) and Great Falls. If you like history, this place is for you.

Pompeii (near Naples, Italy)

This Roman resort town was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Buried under ash for about 1,500 years, the town has been excavated and partially restored to the point that a visitor can get a real feeling of what life was like in a classic Roman town. There are ruts in the stone paved streets from the chariots, there are partially restored villas, there is a whorehouse, an outdoor arena, and there are remnants of shops and public buildings.  Frescoed art adorns many walls. And, there are many plaster casts of Pompeiian residents who were burned alive by the falling ash. I have visited this place twice and was in awe both times. Rome has more famous landmarks, fountains, shops and ruins but, for my money, Pompeii is the place where one gets the feel of everyday life back in the Roman Empire.

The Amalfi Coast

Not far from Pompeii, beginning in Sorrento and continuing down the coast to Positano, is the spectacular Amalfi Coast region of Italy. The only access to this magical region is the 25-mile-long Amalfi Drive, which is a very thin ribbon of road perched on a sheer cliff hundreds of feet above the turquoise Mediterranean Sea. Homes and businesses cling to this precarious landscape and the locals work together to help funnel tour buses past buildings and around hairpin turns on the one-way road. The communities that have eked out an existence in this spectacular setting are brightly colored and the beaches are dotted with hundreds of umbrellas.

Yosemite National Park

It is almost impossible to describe the natural beauty of this magnificent place. Towering monoliths like El Capitan and Half Dome, numerous spectacular waterfalls, a dense pine forest, and the shimmering Merced River make this place a postcard moment that is forever etched on the memory of visitors. I camped here as a kid and was chased by bears. I used to live near this place (at Castle AFB) and enjoyed hiking Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. I also learned how to ski at Badger Pass. This park is prettiest in the Winter, in my opinion.

Toledo (Spain)

About an hour outside Madrid, there is a well-preserved, medieval hilltop town named Toledo. The entire city is contained within massive stone walls, the streets are narrow and cobbled, and the meticulously-maintained buildings and shops look their 1,500-year age. One of the central features of this town is the spectacular Gothic cathedral, which took hundreds of years and vast amounts of money to build. There are many curbside restaurants and tapas bars which are lovely to visit. The walled town is even more intriguing at night, when everyone seems to be out and about, having fun, and enjoying the magical experience of this place. We’ve been all over Spain, it is our favorite country to visit, and Toledo is our favorite city. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Boston

This beautiful city reeks of history. It is a very walkable urban setting, with famous landmarks every block or so. I like the juxtaposition of 500-year-old houses and glass-and-steel skyscrapers next to each other. The Little Italy restaurant neighborhood is gorgeous at night and the food at these Mom and Pop cafes is outstanding. Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, is the oldest stadium in the United States and it was built a section at a time over a hundred years. Nearby Harvard University is the oldest college in America, founded in 1636, only sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed at nearby Plymouth, Massachusetts. The American Revolution started here, for God’s sake. The Cheers bar is here, too.

Hawaii

Charlie and I have been to the Hawaiian Islands a number of times and it is, honestly, a magical place. Scenes of immense beauty are around every corner, from beach scenes, to waterfalls, to volcanoes, spectacular golf courses, and lush vegetation everywhere. One of my favorite adventures was riding a bike from the 10,000 feet high Haleakala Volcano downhill to the sea: there was snow on the ground at the top and it was 80 degrees when we got down to the coast. My Dad and I once took a helicopter ride over Kauai, one of the most beautiful places on earth, seeing a bird’s eye view of the Na Pali coast, Waimea Canyon, and such. Charlie and I once spent a week in Maui, lodging at the Randy Travis compound in Lahaina and playing golf virtually every day at a variety of beautiful courses. Hawaii is a wonderful place to visit but is pretty expensive, too. To be honest, Mexico has all the beauty of Hawaii at half the cost.

Venice

This is my favorite place in the world and I’ve been fortunate to have stayed here a number of times. The beauty of the city is staggering, as is the improbability of its existence… it is built on 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea, connected by small bridges over a web of canals that go in every direction. There are no cars here; everything moves via water or human labor. The city is lush with famous architecture, art museums, fancy churches, expensive retail outlets, innumerable restaurants, plazas, and gelato joints. Most visitors spend their time at or near the Piazza San Marco where they get to see St. Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, hundreds of parked gondolas, and thousands of pigeons. I have found that the beauty of Venice is to be found the further one walks AWAY from the Piazza San Marco back into the neighborhoods where the locals live. There is literally a photo op around every corner, from tiny outdoor cafes to gondoliers shining up their boats to local women hanging out their wash to dry. Gondola rides can be romantic but are horribly expensive. A better way to see the city is to spend almost nothing riding the vaporetto (the Venetian waterbus) along one or more of its 19 scheduled lines. This city is best viewed from the water, where the age, grandeur and implausibility of the city is revealed in a majestic way.

New Orleans

This is my favorite city in the United States. There is a lot of history here, the food is tasty, the music is great, the architecture is singular, the aquarium is fantastic, and the people are warm and friendly. Most people think of Bourbon Street and drunk, semi-clad imbeciles partying hard and acting like fools. Once you’ve walked down that street at night and experienced the mayhem, you’re done with it. The real beauty of this unusual city can be found in the Garden District mansions, fine restaurants in the French Quarter, cool museums and voodoo shops, and the street art for sale around Saint Louis Cathedral. My favorite restaurants are Jacques Imo’s in the Garden District and Mulate’s in the Warehouse District. Fun things to do in this region of the country are plantation tours and air boat rides in the bayous. We’ve never been to Mardi Gras but we participated in a large, ad hoc parade in the Garden District one year with hundreds of well-lubricated college students, bands and makeshift “floats”. It’s a fun-loving town; “stick in the muds” need not visit this place. New Orleans also has a cruise boat port which we used one year (with son Jeff and wife Carol) as a jumping off point for a seven-day trip to Belize. Very nice. I can hardly wait for our next visit to The Big Easy.

Zion National Park

This is my favorite national park. Luckily for me, it is located only about 90 minutes from my house in Mesquite, Nevada. The natural beauty is breathtaking and so many cool experiences are packed into a relatively small park. Two of the best hiking experiences in the United States are located here: The Narrows, a 16-mile slot canyon of incomparable beauty; and, Angel’s Landing, a thrill-ride of a hike with a spectacular payoff at the top. I am glad that I had the opportunity to visit this place when it was less crowded; lately, there are restrictions on entry and permits required to hike Angel’s Landing. Zion is a boutique Yosemite Valley with towering red and white sandstone cliffs. Native Americans must have loved it here.

As is usually the case, the “out Party” (the political party which doesn’t control the White House) is expected to do well in Tuesday’s mid-term elections.

In the past 70 years, the President’s party has lost an average of 26 House seats, with a high of 63 seats in 2010 and a low of 5 seats in 1952. The phenomenon is consistent no matter which political party controls the White House because any problems besetting Americans (like war, the economy, crime, taxes, etc.) are deemed the responsibility of the Executive Branch.

It is likely that both the House of Representatives and the Senate will become Republican-majority as a result of this coming week’s mid-terms. However, the ability of the G.O.P. to control the national agenda will be offset by President Biden’s constitutional veto power. In order to pass any “Republican” legislation, both Houses of Congress would have to override a Presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote… which hardly ever happens.

Thus, Americans can once again look forward to two more years of do-nothing-ness in Washington D.C.

What we can expect is an onslaught of political theater, where Congressmen and Senators will do their best shock shtick to impress voters back in the home district. The next two years are the run-up to the Presidential election of 2024, so there will be a circus atmosphere with every aspiring politician trying to get his mug into the spotlight… just in case there is an opening for Vice President.

Narcissist Donald Trump is really enjoying this time in his life, with about 40 percent of the Republican Party faithful in his hip pocket and various fund raising grifts working well. He is a kingmaker, which is good for his ego, and enjoys aspiring and incumbent Congressmen and Senators lining up to kiss his ring.

It is unknown yet whether the ex-President will make another run in 2024. He is hinting that he will, and this week he took aim at his most likely Republican opponent, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.

The problem that Trump and the Republicans face is his electability: he has lost the past two popular votes for President and was impeached twice. Plus, the guy faces multiple criminal cases relating to fraudulent business practices in New York, , election tampering in Georgia, and possible incitement of the January 6, 2020 Capitol Riot.

People who are not all that political will come out to vote against him, as was witnessed in 2020, when Joe Biden beat him by seven million votes.

President Biden turns 80 years old in two weeks and is showing his age. It is hard to believe that the Democrats would run him again. Donald Trump is 76, thirty-two years older and more polarizing than the conservative Ron DeSantis.

It is hard to believe that the Republican Party would run a 76-year-old, unpopular ex-President when they could nominate a fairly-popular Governor and almost surely win the 2024 Presidential election with him. However, Trumpian politics being what they are, with all the craziness exploding right and left, who knows what will happen?

In the meanwhile, we can anticipate some shameless theatrics in D.C., once the new Congressmen and Senators are seated and the TV cameras are turned on.

Two more years of wheel-spinning in the Nation’s capital.

Yesterday, Charlie and I went up to St. George, Utah to meet our new internal medicine physician Dr. Bennett.

He was a nice guy and seemed pretty thorough. He seemed to be impressed by all of the medical issues that Charlie has had/still has. Before we left the facility, we’d both given urine and blood samples and Charlie got a bone scan to assess the state of her osteoporosis (brittle bones).

Today, Charlie got a call from Dr. Bennett’s office with the news that her osteoporosis is bad and that she will need to be infused with some kind of medicine for two hours once per year. Dr. Bennett also put Charlie on Vitamin C, D, and calcium supplements. These three pills are in addition to the couple of dozen pills that she takes each day for a myriad of health issues.

I marvel at the toughness of my wife as she deals with numerous maladies every day and hardly complains. She has a mutant gene that causes her to produce blood clots each day and is fitted with an inferior vena cava “basket” which catches those clots before they can get into her lungs and cause a pulmonary embolus (which is often fatal). Her body also regularly produces lipomas, and she has scores of them all over her extremities. Charlie has screws in one of her knees that hold her patella in place. She has a pacemaker to keep her from having any more heart attacks (she’s had several). She’s also a tad shorter than she used to be, probably thanks to the compression fracture of one of her lumbar vertebrae a few years ago.

Charlie has also experienced a double mastectomy and is currently recovering from a broken foot. In addition, she suffers from macular degeneration in her eyes and incontinence from problems in her nether regions.

I am surprised that any doctor would agree to manage her health issues, so kudos to Dr. Bennett and the whole staff at Revere Health. We are lucky to live where we do and have such great medical care available to us.

I have lived a charmed life, medically speaking. I’ve had a couple of surgeries to repair worn out knees, shoulder, and hips, and I have osteoarthritis like most old people. I take one prescription pill a day (Crestor for cholesterol) and various vitamins and supplements in the hopes that they will keep my joints working adequately. So far, so good: I still hike off-trail in the local mountains.

Both Charlie and I are 15 to 20 pounds overweight. This is probably due to decreased activity as we have aged. The added weight seems to have stabilized (been the same for the past six months; if it doesn’t get worse, we can live with it.

Charlie is 77 and I will turn 75 in a few weeks. We’ve been together for almost fifty years and have lived active and rewarding lives. We’ve been blessed.

I don’t know how much longer we have together but we are going to try to enjoy this journey as long as we can. Hopefully, Dr. Bennett and his peers will keep us out of trouble.

It’s that time of the year when the best two major league baseball teams battle it out for the World Championship.

Big whoop.

I don’t really care anymore who is in the World Series, who the teams’ best players are, and who’s winning at this point. And, I don’t think that I’m alone with this attitude. Supposedly, about 12 million viewers watched Game 1 on Fox, which is a paltry amount considering there are 120 million households in the United States.

When I was a kid, and was an avid baseball fan, at least half of the TV sets in America were tuned to the World Series each year no matter which teams were playing. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the attractions were the grandeur of the Fall Classic, the history, and the exploits of the players yearning for immortality. Player salaries in those days were such that many good ballplayers had to work in non-baseball jobs in the off season to help make ends meet. The players seemed like regular guys who just happened to have some special skills.

Nowadays, the money that players make, particularly the very good ones, borders on the obscene. The Major League average is above $4 million and there are 14 players who make over $30 million per season. Most of the MLB news that one hears on TV nowadays pertains to player contracts, potential trades, and off-field scandals by young men with high testosterone and big wallets.

Like many people, I am tired of hearing about some super-rich MLB player who throws around $100 bills at a strip joint and has twelve children by six women, none of which he bothered to marry. I can’t relate, nor do I want to.

Competitiveness in MLB has become a joke. The disparity of annual payrolls between teams is outlandish (L.A. Dodgers = $265 million versus Baltimore Orioles = $44 million). One team’s pitcher (Max Scherzer of the New York Mets makes the same amount in 2022 as the total of all players on the Orioles. This vast discrepancy in team player quality manifests itself in team victories: the same high payroll teams do well each year and the lowest paying teams are barely competitive. This year’s World Series competitors (the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros) have the 4^th and 8^th highest payrolls among MLB’s 30 teams.

Back in the day, virtually all MLB players were Caucasian. That changed in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier”. By 1990, one in five players was African American. Currently, almost 30 percent of players are Hispanic or Latino compared to about 7 percent who are Black. There are a few Asian players now, including Shohei Ohtani, who was the American League Most Valuable Player last year. Paradoxically, MLB is getting less “white” and “black” at the same time.

I think the ethnic makeup of MLB turns off some fans, particularly those who are prejudiced against Latinos.

There are so many MLB games! Thirty teams play 162 games in the regular season (that’s almost 5,000 games in eight months) and then a bunch of “playoff” games to get two teams to the World Series. Most of those regular season games are statistically irrelevant, as more than half of the games involve teams which will not make the playoffs. Why do teams like the Orioles and the Oakland A’s even suit up? They are on pace to lose 100 games each year before the first pitch is thrown in the Spring.

And then we have the cheating.

Players and teams do what they must to stay competitive. Teams used to hand out scads of amphetamines to players to keep them alert after long plane flights, back-to-back games, and nighttime games. Thus, most players back in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s was “juiced” with greenies, even the most famous players who are now in the Hall of Fame. MLB had no problem with this. In the late 1980’s, presumably, players started experimenting with “performance enhancing drugs” (PEDs) to increase muscle mass. This was not a violation of MLB rules at the time.

In August, 1994, the greed of the club owners and the players reached critical mass, resulting in a player strike and stadium lockout that terminated the 1994=95 MLB season. Baseball fans were furious over this; many vowed to never attend or watch another MLB game.

When the strike was over and play resumed in 1995-96, players started hitting a lot of home runs. It seemed that most position players had, seemingly overnight, become sluggers like Babe Ruth. “Banjo hitters” (weak hitters with no power) began hitting baseballs out of stadiums. Brady Anderson of the Orioles, who had never hit more than 21 homers in a season, belted 50 in 1996. He was a leadoff hitter, to boot, whose job was to get on base, not hit balls over the fence. After his surprising season in 1996, he never hit more than 24 homes again in his career.

Lots of players like Anderson became, miraculously, Clark Kent… when MLB really needed help to bring fans back into stadiums. PEDs were running rampant, MLB was the beneficiary, and the Commissioner’s Office was mute, because fans were returning to the stadiums to watch the Home Run Derby.  Business was good. However, long-standing records began to fall and baseball purists became outraged. It took MLB about five years to come up with a PED testing program and another 3 years to establish penalties for “cheaters”. Testing for banned amphetamines began in 2004. By that time, virtually all home run records had been shattered and baseball fans were furious.

The blame fell mostly on the players expected of cheating, although the club owners and MLB leadership were definitely criminal co-conspirators. Some great players, who benefitted from PEDs before the prohibitions and testing were established, were made scapegoats despite the fact that they violated no MLB rules when they were “juiced”. Fans of those players became highly annoyed over the two-faced attitude of MLB and some became ex-baseball fans.

The Houston Astros, who won the World Series in 2017, were found to have used technology to steal opposing teams’ signs (from catcher to pitcher), enabling their hitters to know what pitch was being thrown. This is, and always has been, illegal in MLB. After investigation, it was determined that the Astros had been doing this for a couple of years, benefitting both their players and the team.

After the public outrage about this blatant cheating had subsided, MLB punished a few Astros’ coaches, but didn’t punish the players who were involved in the cheating, and the Astros got to keep their 2017 World Series title.

It’s no wonder than so many baseball fans have been turned off by MLB and are not attending or watching games like they used to.

I was an AVID baseball fan until the 1994 strike; nowadays, I don’t pay any attention to the sport. Based upon the dismal World Series TV ratings, I’m not alone.