Hot Stove #37 – Free Agents/The Best Team Money Can Buy/Sidd Finch Revisited

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~ Lonnie Shalton

Spring Training 2017: Rita and I were in Phoenix recently and caught a Royals game in Scottsdale against Colorado. The Rockies share their spring training facilities with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The stadium is on Native American land developed by the Pima and Maricopa tribes who also operate a casino and resort nearby. The stadium is very nice and for the last two years has been voted the top Cactus League ballpark by readers of website Spring Training Online. The Royals/Rangers ballpark in Surprise made the final four in the bracketed vote, barely missing the final round.

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Hot Stove #36 – Chuck Berry and Lonnie’s Jukebox

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~ Lonnie Shalton

Rita and I were in Phoenix last week to visit friends of long standing, Larry and Diana Brewer. Di has been my friend since before high school and Larry was my Sigma Nu fraternity brother at college. I introduced them and most of the time they thank me. Di and I also had lunch with fellow 1959 Van Horn grad Jan Clemens, another Arizona transplant from KC. Long ago, I danced at teen-town with Di and Jan. To Chuck Berry. When those songs were originally released. This past weekend, Chuck Berry died at the age of 90. So I just have to take a break from baseball posting and talk about Chuck. I’ll be back soon to talk about the Royals free agents and TV money in baseball.

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Hot Stove #35 – A Book Report and the Oscars

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~ Lonnie Shalton

As you ponder who will start at second base for the Royals, I have a book to recommend plus some thoughts on the Oscars.

 

Wait Till Next Year: A personal memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of my favorite storytellers. She is best known as a presidential historian with books on Lyndon Johnson, the Kennedys, the Roosevelts and Abraham Lincoln (Team of Rivals). I have had the good fortune to see her twice in person – at a Rainy Day Books event and at a law firm retreat. As a raconteur, she is mesmerizing. Rita was recently browsing through our stacks of books and found a gem that we had not read, that rare Goodwin book not about a president. It is about growing up as a baseball fan. I don’t how we missed reading this earlier – it was published in 1997. Our assessment: Great Book!

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Hot Stove #34 – Spring Training – History and Hope

~ Lonnie Shalton

This would be your lazy Hot Stove report. Not much new. Last year, I did a couple of pieces on the history of spring training – the Cactus League and the Grapefruit League. For those who might want to revisit or for newer Hot Stove readers, see Hot Stoves 10 and 11. There is one update to note under The Kansas City Royals and Cuba. Kendrys Morales was lost to free agency, but the Royals picked up Jorge Soler who defected from Cuba in 2011. Soler signed a 9-year $30,000,000 contract with the Cubs in 2012 and was traded to the Royals in December for Wade Davis.

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Hot Stove #33 – Spring Training, Marilyn Monroe and the Montreal Expos

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~ Lonnie Shalton

A few days after I posted the last Hot Stove, my job status changed. At 75, I was ready to retire. But I have not left the building. I still get to show up as “of counsel” the rest of this year to complete my 50th year of law practice.  The firm held a nice reception for me and two fellow retirees, and we were asked to each write a 100-word memoir of our career. This was mine:

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Hot Stove #32 – A Black Guy, a Rabbi and a Puerto Rican Walk Into a Bar…

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~ Lonnie Shalton

I am never sure what will be in my next Hot Stove post. I start piecing together things I pick up from the papers, books, Twitter, etc., and also have a reserve of items I am pondering. For this post, three items came together to create my imaginary bar scene. The last Hot Stove (“Martin, Jackie and Roberto”) was posted in anticipation of the Martin Luther King holiday, and on the actual holiday, President Obama feted the Chicago Cubs. A casual conversation over coffee led me to the rabbi. And the patron saint of baseball in Puerto Rico gets an encore.

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Hot Stove #31 – Martin Jackie and Roberto (Martin Luther King Jr. Day – 2017)

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

Since 2002, I have circulated an annual message to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year, I am combining the message with a baseball story and sending it out to my Hot Stove subscribers plus friends who have received prior MLK posts. The holiday is two weeks away, but I need to send this out early because Rita and I leave Friday for a 10-day cruise out of LA. Rita will be traveling a little lighter – her appendix was removed last week. We will sail down the Baja and into the Sea of Cortez with the hope of seeing some whales and enjoying pleasant weather. [Note to those not on the Hot Stove list: If you are a baseball fan, especially of the nerd variety, and want some nostalgia and trivia on an irregular basis, you are welcome to sign up]

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Hot Stove #30 – Who’s on First?

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~ Lonnie Shalton

Just after Thanksgiving last year, Hot Stove #1 was posted. Rita and I were getting ready to leave for Mexico with our friends Larry and Diana Brewer – same story this year, leaving Wednesday, but with Cabo as the destination rather than Puerto Vallarta. The lead story in that inaugural post covered the selection of an all-time outfield with my grandson Ian (now 11). At Thanksgiving dinner this year, we selected our first baseman (story below). One negative change since that first post: I can no longer refer to the Royals as the reigning World Champions.

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Hot Stove #29 – Leonard Cohen – Rita’s Story

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 2 Comments

I hope you don’t mind, but I am interrupting my baseball posts to share a story about singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen who passed away earlier this month. For a good brief piece on Leonard’s career, click on the arrow at the top of this NPR report, (3:25).

Many of you on the Hot Stove mailing list were also part of Rita’s village in 2012-2013, and so you will be familiar with part of this story.

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