Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Jackie Robinson Day

Posted on April 15, 2007 | Comments Off on Jackie Robinson Day
I never knew much about Robinson until Mr. Boy did a class project on him. They start out teaching civil rights in first grade in Austin. I was surprised to learn he was a star in college football and track as well as baseball. I have yet to figure out which army OCS he attended, or where. But since he was assigned to Fort Hood, and it was a cavalry base, I assume Robinson was commissioned in armor–as I was in 1968. He was courts-martialed at Hood for refusing an order to move to the back of an army bus, but acquitted and eventually given an honorable discharge. This was a time, 1942, when the only thing most black enlistees did in OCS was to clean the floors and latrines for the white candidates. That was something–servants!– we could not have imagined at infantry OCS in 1968.

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The Two Towers

Posted on April 14, 2007 | Comments Off on The Two Towers

Watched this second installment of the Lord of the Rings movie on DVD tonight with Mom and Mr. B., who had never seen it before. It got very confusing in the middle, until I realized it had been substantially changed from the book. Didn’t seem to bother the boy as much as it annoyed me. Faramir wouldn’t let Frodo go, as he did in the book, but took him to Gondor, instead. At one point Sam asks "What are we doing here, Mr. Frodo?" It was part of a rhetorical speech written for the movie Sam, but it was funny in light of their detour. Perhaps it had to be done to make even a three hour movie, but it’s an example of why I think of movies as far more confining than books. They compress your imagination, rather than releasing it as a good book does.

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Muckdogs roll on

Posted on April 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Muckdogs roll on

Muckdogs beat the Express 18 to 14 on a chilly day with a cold wind. Mr. B. had two hits and a good defensive out at third base. But tomorrow’s the big one, playing the No. 1 Rockhounds.

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Muckdogs roll

Posted on April 13, 2007 | Comments Off on Muckdogs roll

Mr. Boy got three hits and two runs in this afternoon’s 25-13 victory over the Rivercats. The Muckdogs are 5-1 for the season now, but have two more games this weekend–one tomorrow and one on Sunday. Mr. B.’s three hits were a double and two singles, and he drove in runs each time. But if the other team had been good at fielding, he’d likely have been out on the singles. The Rivercats just turned out to be worse hitters than the Muckdogs. Neither shined on the field. They have progressed a little. I no longer see them run for cover when a pop fly is falling their way. Now they tend to stick their gloves out, while cringing off to one side. Only rarely, of course, the ball falls in the glove. But these are 7 and 8 year olds.

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Dodging thunderstorms

Posted on April 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Dodging thunderstorms

The Muckdogs already were looking at a vicious weekend schedule of three games, two of them makeup games from rain days. Now meteorologist Troy Kimmel emails that it looks like they’ll be dodging more thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon at the opening game of the trio, caused by the conjunction of a rogue Pacific low and a cold front. At least it won’t rain out the Sunday game, which Mr. B. tells me is all important, being as it’s against the Rockhounds. If the Muckdogs beat them, he says, the Muckdogs will be No. 1.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Weather/Climate

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Tiger Cubs go to market

Posted on April 9, 2007 | Comments Off on Tiger Cubs go to market

Central Market, one of Austin’s specialty groceries, hosted Mr. Boy and nine other Tiger Cubs this afternoon. The boys got to see that Peruvian purple potatoes really are purple inside, how orange peppers are hotter than red ones, why green peppers are really fruit, not vegetables ( because they have seeds) and how really smelly cheese nevertheless tastes good. They also got to see a lobster up close and learn that they are from the same family as cockroaches (yuk). They managed to get through it all without knocking anything off the shelves or breaking anything. Most shoppers smiled at them in their blue and orange uniforms. But you could tell the ones who never had a child. They looked fairly panicked coming around a corner and running into the lot of them.

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Lugnuts crushed

Posted on April 3, 2007 | Comments Off on Lugnuts crushed

The Muckdogs continued their roll today, beating the Lugnuts 25 to 3. Mr. B. had four good hits that drove in runs. Muckdogs are 4-1 for the season. Much better than his Little League team last year, which lost most of its games.

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