I'm Officially Old

The title says it all. You're reading the blog of a brand new member of AARP. Let the discounts begin! I signed up for a 5-year contract which included an insulated trunk organizer where I can place refrigerated or frozen grocery items. My contract runs slightly longer than the one T.J. Watt just signed with the Steelers, and I had to pay $60 instead of receiving $108 million. Otherwise, it's almost exactly the same.

In the last two months, I had two people ask if I plan on retiring soon. The first was my dentist of nearly 25 years though I think this was a set-up for me to ask her the same question. Her youngest child recently graduated from college, and she said that she will probably retire in 2027. While I appreciate the notice, I don't want to look for a new dentist. We have an excellent relationship, and I don't want a new dentist criticizing me for not flossing.

Last month, I saw a former board member of my organization for the first time in nearly 15 years. He also asked about possible retirement. In both conversations, I mentioned that my youngest is about to start 3rd grade, so retiring is still many, many years away. 

Finally, I'm terrible about getting new shoes. I wear my shoes out well beyond their life expectancy. My primary tennis shoes (basically the shoes I wear when not wearing "dress" shoes) have seen better days. I went to two stores, and shared several pictures with my wife to get her opinion. One shoe was completely black, and she replied that old men wear those shoes. 

While I didn't buy them, I think I'm starting to meet that profile and demographic!

2025 Pittsburgh Pirates Draft Recap

I wasn't planning on writing my annual-ish Pittsburgh Pirates draft recap this year. There are a few other things I want to write about, and I just don't have much time to write right now. And then the draft started. And I started seeing names of players and had ideas of fun things to write about them. So welcome back to another draft recap. If you're new to these posts, please don't expect a detailed analysis of each pick with player comparisons and future predictions. While there might be a few interesting items below, this post is mostly silly things that amuse me. Oh, I'm not going to write about every draft pick either. Enjoy.

17th round: Carter Gwost - OF, Little Falls HS (MN)

Although I've never met him, I think Carter is a friendly Gwost.

14th round: Connor Hamilton - P, Montgomery Bell Academy (TN)

He's not going to throw away his shot.

Competitive Balance-B round: Murf Gray - 3B, Fresno State University

I had to read this several times to make sure that the Pirates didn't draft Smurf Gray. At 6'4" and 230, no one is going to call him Smurf.

4th round: Gustavo Melendez - SS, Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced

Melendez was one of only seven players born in Puerto Rico to be drafted. I don't know how many players from Puerto Rico are usually drafted, but this number seems low for a place with so much baseball history. And also...

7th round: Brent Iredale - 3B, University of Arkansas

Since Brent was born in Australia, I was ready for lots of Crocodile Dundee jokes. Instead, I wanted to learn how someone from Australia winds up playing college baseball in Arkansas, so I contacted my friend Phil who just happens to be the play-by-play announcer for Razorbacks baseball.

Brent played at a junior college in New Mexico the previous two years. Our team likes to get players from JUCO and he was one of the top JUCO recruits from 2024. He's athletic and strong. Runs well. Good strong and accurate arm. 

He just chose baseball as a kid even though his family was more into rugby or soccer. It's tough to get noticed in Australia, especially considering the competition they're playing. So he went to New Mexico JC because he needed to play in the states to get noticed properly.

My reply: I guess that makes sense. LIke if I was a really good Aussie Rules football player in Pittsburgh, I would need to go to Australia to get noticed (or something like that).

Phil wisely ignored my comparison and wrote this:

He's also one of just a few people ever to play in the Little League World Series and College World Series. 

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

9th round: Jared Jones - 1B, LSU

Love this pick, and it's not about his heroics in the College World Series. It's about the fact that the Pirates currently have a player on the roster with the same name. If there is another Paul Skenes or Oneil Cruz eligible for next year's draft, I hope the Pirates select him!

19th round: Brandon Cain - P, University of Oklahoma 

If he makes the majors, the Pirates need to acquire pitcher Mick Abel who is currently on the Phillies. Nothing like a little Bible humor for you.

12th round: Cameron Keshock - P, Samford University

Would you be Keshocked if this is the last player included in the post? Well, it is.

As always, you can read all of my Pittsburgh draft recaps from over the years here.

Texas Tragedy

During my teenage years, I spent five summers as a camper and counselor at an overnight camp in West Virginia. Camps are an amazing place where you gain independence and get to have constant fun with friends with few responsibilities (well, except as a counselor). Decades later, I'm still friends with people from camp. My boys are heading to an overnight camp for their 4th, 3rd, and 1st summers respectively. After his first year, The Moose cried on the way home because he was going to miss it. As I'm writing this, Pedro Tulo is at a Scouts camp.

Maybe it’s because of my love of camps, but I'm finding the tragic floods in and around Kerr County, Texas just devastating. Over 100 people were killed including at least two dozen campers and counselors at Camp Mystic and over 150 people are missing as a result of floods. It’s truly awful and sad.

President Trump and his administration are certainly not to blame for the floods. Anyone claiming this is being ridiculous. Before last weekend, it's unlikely that Trump had ever been to Kerr County or even heard of it. Still, looking into whether cuts made to the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and FEMA had any impact on the alert system before the flooding and during the recovery is definitely warranted. So is looking into the state and local emergency systems and policies and procedures. 

This is what Texas governor Greg Abbott said after a reporter asked who was to blame for this tragedy. 

“That’s the word choice of losers.” “Every football team makes mistakes,” he continued, referring to Texas’s popular sport. “The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say, ‘Don’t worry about it, ma’am, we’ve got this.’” (Abbott's quotes available here).

Staying with the football metaphor, this is a really stupid statement. Every football team, particularly at the college and professional levels and likely at most Texas high schools, does extensive film study and evaluates how to improve. If a team wins 17-14, they don't say to themselves, we're good. We don't need to have any more practices. We don't need to evaluate how we gave up 14 points or why we didn't score more. Just show up a few minutes before next week's game to warm up. We've got this. Ma'am.

Now maybe "blame" wasn't the right word in the question, but you absolutely conduct an investigation so that this type of tragedy doesn't happen again.

Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt - AFP via Getty Images

Hersheypark

Pedro Tulo's 5th and 6th grade chorus took a trip to Hersheypark this spring. They drove about 3 hours from Northern Virginia, performed a few songs at a church near the park, and then got to explore the amusement park before driving home. Hersheypark is a cashless facility, and we certainly weren't giving an 11 year old a credit card. Instead we bought him a $25 prepaid Visa card which had a $5.95 fee. What a scam! Anyway, Pedro Tulo had a great time, said that he rode a few roller coasters, and wanted to go back this summer.

The fact that I finally have a kid who is old/tall enough to ride roller coasters and interested in riding them made me very excited. So the two of us went to Hershey a few weeks ago. While we had a great time, and I'm really happy that we spent time together, Pedro Tulo is still a little hesitant to ride many coasters. We ended up riding three. Cocoa Cruiser is a roller coaster by definition only with the biggest hill being 14 feet high. Trailblazer went faster but with no big drops. We also went on the indoor coaster called Laff Trakk which was pretty good. Still, my hope of spending a significant part of the day riding on "real" roller coasters didn't quite happen.

The next morning, we went to Chocolate World to buy some treats for home. During our time at the park and at the store, products like Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's Chocolate Bars, Kit Kat, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are featured prominently and even in mascot form. This isn't surprising since these are the top selling products. However, I couldn't find my favorite Hershey's product, the Symphony milk chocolate bar, anywhere in the store. I asked one employee who said that he wasn't aware of the product. I was about to riot. Fortunately, another employee directed me to the right place. Symphony bars were hidden on a shelf with no signage whatsoever. This is a travesty. 

While I understand that Hershey's has dozens of products (I learned that they make the terrific Dot's pretzels), more needs to be done to promote Symphony bars. It doesn't have the history or the symbolism of other Hershey's products, but it's their best chocolate treat.