Random Questions and Ramblings

* When I was in junior high and high school, I generally didn’t mind reading the assigned books (assuming that I liked the books), but I definitely didn’t enjoy writing book reports. Now, I read about a book or two a month, and I want to share how much I enjoyed them. While I’m not going to write a book report today, I just want to share that I highly recommend these books that I’ve read over the last few months.

"Playing Through the Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town" by S.L. Price

"The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports" by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg

"Evvie Drake Starts Over" by Linda Holmes

Say nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

"American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic" by John Temple

Very different books on a variety of subjects but all worth reading.

* On Monday night, Rontez Miles Sr. of the New York Jets (and Woodland Hills High School) and Eric Kush of the Cleveland Browns exchanged jerseys after the game. Both players graduated from California University of Pennsylvania. While I assume that the players will likely put the jerseys in frames, what if they wanted to wear them? Let's say that I play in a celebrity basketball game. (It could happen!) After the game, I’m looking to exchange jerseys with someone closer to my height like Kevin Hart or Muggsy Bogues, not Shaquille O'Neal.

* Pedro Tulo's kindergarten class has had a “Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?” theme at school based on the Bill Martin/Eric Carle book. The idea is to wear a different colored shirt each day based on the color such as Yellow Day and my favorite, Green Day. (I'm not sure how an American Idiot T-shirt would have gone over.) Earlier this week was Black Day where the kids were supposed to wear a black T-shirt. That day was also Constitution Day where the whole school is supposed to wear red, white, and blue. Therefore, there was a dilemma on what to wear: black or red, white, and blue. I felt ridiculous doing this, but I emailed the teacher about this dilemma. She (rightly) replied that we should choose whatever we want. My wife ended up just having him wear a faded Pirates T-shirt where the black looks more gray. I think we failed this assignment. Oh, and to get in the patriotic spirit, The Moose (now in 3rd grade) wore a Messi Barcelona jersey with red and blue and just a little white for the sponsors. Nothing makes you think constitution like a Messi jersey!

* Mr. T is famous for his mohawk hair (and his catchphrase). Would he be permitted to grow out his hair or shave his head or would his agent stop him?

* One of the key metrics used in baseball is exit velocity. It got me wondering if baseball executives also monitor the exit velocity when players bunt the ball. Is the slower exit velocity while bunting considered better? Is there one player (likely a pitcher) highly regarded for his extraordinarily low exit velocity while bunting?

* I recently found about a dozen papers written during my first two years in college in classes like Introduction to Theatre, Media and Politics, Chinese Politics, and an introductory Freshman seminar course related to Sociology. Although I generally keep way too much stuff, I recycled all of these papers. They won't even make a Found In My Basement post!

* The Pirates currently have pitchers Parker Markel and James Marvel on the roster. Has anyone with names so close but not identical ever been on the same team?