The Touchdown Club

The Touchdown
Originally uploaded by Rick Rock Radio

Central Montcalm travels to Saginaw Swan Valley tonight for a second–round playoff game. Last Friday, the Hornets knocked off the top–seeded Essexville Garber Dukes on their home field. Maybe they can do it again tonight.

The weather should be better, if not colder. What's worse as a fan: the rain and wind or the cold?

League opponents Big Rapids and Morley, two of the teams that beat the Hornets during the regular season (the team was 2–3 at one point) are also in second–round contests. It's even possible that the Hornets could end up playing the Big Rapids Cardinals next week. We'll see what happens.

It's Friday. It's football time. Go Hornets.

CM Dukes it Out in Essexville Hampton

Central Montcalm went on the road all the way to Essexville to play the Garber Dukes. When they arrived, the hosts said, "We're hear to 'put up our Dukes.'" And the Hornets responded by taking it to the Dukes.

The Dukes, favored to win in their home, played the Hornets tough, but the tougher team prevailed. Battling lousy weather, lots of wind and rain for the first half of the game, Central Montcalm battled hard and won with barely a minute left in the game. Great win by the Hornets, who will travel to Saginaw Swan Valley next week for a second–round game.


The official's signal says it all: Central Montcalm has taken the lead with barely one minute left in the game. It could be the play of the year. Great job, Hornets!


The battered and dirty helmet of one of the Hornets.


Ready to go.



Nice attempt, just a little short.


Come on, guys, let's get this one.


Shaking hands. Essexville thought they had this one.


After the game. Emotion.


Brothers. Hornet past. Hornet now. Always a Hornet.


Fans.


Even the assistant principal and principal got into the action. Great win by the Hornets.

All Hallow's Eve (Halloween, or whatever you call it)

Halloween ... never one of my favorite "holidays."



My sister Amy made a much cuter Snoopy than I did ...

As a kid, I was Snoopy, Smokey the Bear, Darth Vader ... Everyone liked going house to house and getting candy. Keep in mind, this was the late '70s and the "fear of God" was put in every kid on TV and at school: be careful who you accept candy from and — MAKE SURE THERE'S NO RAZOR BLADES IN YOUR CANDY. Don't forget: never eat fruit anyone gives you. Did I mention this was Oakland County?

I remember one person's house being quite scary and the person providing the "treats" doing something freakish. I turned and ran. I might have run home and had my parents come and get me; I'm not sure. I remember the person bringing down a Hershey's bar the next day, but Halloween was never fun for me.

Class parties: dip (I mean "bob") your head into the water after Suzie dipped hers — just to get an apple. I think NOT. Back then refusing to "bob for apples" might have been considered weird; now, you can't do it or you'll spread the super–flu.

It just seemed like a waste of time to walk around and get candy — most of which was lousy, anyway. Plus, you couldn't eat the popcorn balls (like I would have, anyway; I didn't know who made them) or bananas (yea, I'd get one from the kitchen; hello!), and especially not the apples.

It seemed easier to run to K–Mart (or even Kresge's) and buy candy, but everyone else seemed to enjoy this activity. And, back then, I hadn't learned how to say "no." In fact, I don't think five year–olds can actually say "No" to something like Halloween. That would be like saying "No" to Christmas or Easter.

Never a big fan of Halloween, I never would have said "No" to Thanksgiving. Lots of turkey, homemade noodles, cranberries ... I still look forward to a big feast and ignoring the Lions all afternoon. Back then, I never quite understood while all the older guys (dads, uncles, Grandpa) would sleep in the afternoon ... (Duh!)

Happy Hauntings!

Will they really be playing baseball on my birthday in 2009?

Watching game one of the World Series convinces me that the baseball season is way too long.


Tug McGraw's teammates included Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, and Steve Carlton. The '80 Phillies were my introduction to baseball characters. Tug McGraw was an original, no doubt about it. He starred in the '80 World Series. At the time, I didn't know he had starred with the Mets a few years earlier. The 1980 World Series ended on October 21 when Tugger struck out Willie Wilson.

I think the baseball season should end about September 15, allowing the post season to be wrapped up by October 15, or so (at the latest). The season could start the Monday of the second week of April and finish by the Sunday of the week that includes September 15.

Without adding asterisks to every statistic in the game, you would have to keep 162 games on the baseball schedule. How could you do that? You could have each team play double headers on Saturdays in July and August — that would allow you about eight Saturdays to play 16 games. You would probably need teams to play two other scheduled double headers through the season.

"No way!" you say because "the owners want to make the money from playing all 162 games separately." Then, just charge for the day/night double header as the teams do on make–up double headers currently. I used to look forward to a Saturday double header at Tiger Stadium back in the '80s.

I'm not sure what other avenue to take but the fans look miserable, the players look cold, and the weather looks TERRIBLE. Baseball is meant to be played in the summer, with temperatures hovering around 75°.

(The last World Series game I attended, Oct. 22, 2006, the temperature in Detroit, Mich., was 34°.)

Sunday Driving (and then some)

It's late October, the weather is chilly and rainy, and the leaves are changing colors and quickly falling to the ground. It's the time of year that we rake leaves and prepare for winter's snowy arrival.


This car is absolutely fabulous. It's located on Old US–131, south of Big Rapids.

We did some winterizing work around our house the last couple of week–ends. My parents came to town and Dad and I tore out the old garage door and installed a new one. Then, we had to do some adjustments within the garage to make the door work well. One thing led to another ... and we build some new shelves, moved some items, and started along the decluttering avenue I've been looking forward to.

Lori and I have done some driving lately and stopped to take some pictures. Below, you'll find some of the places we've visited. We've driven around Vestaburg and Alma to Big Rapids and around. We've spent some time in Detroit and around Stanton. There's so much to see and do in our great state. But, so much of the State faces the bleak economic outlook: houses empty and businesses abandoned.


The cows don't like to leave their barn, even after the barn collapses around them.

Lake Marl in Vestaburg, Michigan.


Another view of Lake Marl in Vestaburg, Mich.


This is a river along Old US–131 north of Howard City.


Another view of the same river north of Howard City.


This tree is in our front yard. It's quickly losing its leaves.


It's like a giant Tonka ... and they keep playing with it every day. Looks like they're going to build a giant football field.


All around the mid–Michigan area, houses and businesses are closing. The economy is tough, and we see it (live it) every day. A drive through various locales shows you several businesses that are closed.


This business, located between Morley and Howard City, on Old US–131, is screaming for attention. I've driven by it many times, and finally stopped to snap a pic of it today.

Granholm a surgeon, not very delicate, and leaving scars everywhere

"Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back to ... Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown." — The Boss, 1984

The $218 per student cut they were bandying about in Lansing sounded like a lot of money.

For Central Montcalm, that would have been in the neighborhood of $415,000. That would have been tough. Then, the State Budget settled on $165, and that was doable for CM. We could withstand that type of cut and still offer competitive programming for our nearly 1,900 students.

Well, that $218 doesn't sound so bad now. That original $400,000 (or so) cut has jumped $150,000 in a swift strike of the pen. Governor Jennifer Granholm enacted an additional cut of $127 on Thursday. She sliced one more time into an already open wound. And she turned to someone else on the other side of the room and said, "You stitch 'em up."

To be fair, the other day I mentioned to someone, "We know they're going to cut again in January, they should just do it right now." (At least we would know, I thought to myself).

The argument is to raise taxes. My argument is to raise taxes on whom? Twenty percent (let me write that out numerically 20%) of the adults in the State are not working. There are no new jobs (where are all of them you promised, Governor?) and the jobs that have left THEY'RE NOT COMING BACK, BOYS! Taxes are not the answer. Maybe a restructuring of the tax system (i.e. how the K–12s are funded) would be in order. Since Proposal A was enacted in 1994, no fewer than 72 tweaks have been "performed" on the structure. Maybe it's time for a radical overhaul.

Or something. Kids should not be this much a part of the political process. You raise taxes or I'll cut expenses. Yes, it makes sense ... but not at THIS expense.

Books, Books, Books (Find time to read)

You already know that I love to read. Books are awesome.


The Art of Manliness website has an article/post about Teddy Roosevelt and his ability to speed read and finish several books a day (let alone a week).

The other night, we were at Meijer in Mt. Pleasant and two books caught my eye. I didn't know they both arrived in bookstores (yea, Meijer's a bookstore) that day.

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell looks quite interesting (For those keeping score at home, that's two straight posts mentioning Gladwell). His book Outliers provided some refreshing commentary on success.

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics. Subtitled "Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance," Levitt and Dubner pick up where they left on off the original "deeper" examination of "things."

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Kosterman sounds like another fun book from him. The slogan from the book says, "It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny."

Coming up soon are books by John Grisham, Seth Godin, and others. It's time to get my wishlist around, but I never seem to wait long enough.