Revisiting "On Baseball" from 2001

In 2001 I was living in Germany teaching at the University of Bamberg. My friend Mark was doing the same at the University of Stuttgart. In the summer of that year, Mark contacted me about writing a sports article for his colleague Wolfgang, who need two more contributions to complete a collection he was working on. The person who was supposed to have written that section backed out, and Wolfgang was desperate. Sure, I thought, why not. And it was a lot of fun.
Reading it today, I am mostly impressed with the work I completed in a little more than a week and without too much research. Nonetheless, it comes across as more of fan's take on the game he loves, and less as an academically rigorous article published by an important German press (which it was). And I loved me some counting stats, though I did mention Rob Neyer and Billy Bean [sic]. My favorite line has always been: "For every Adonis such as Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire, there is a Tony Gwynn or David Wells who, if you look closely enough, might still have gravy from lunch on his collar."
What do you think?
Note: if this is not large enough for you to read, please click here. (Thanks, Brad!)

Rush to Talk About the Braves' Demise

The other night on the twitter, I started using Rush album and song names to talk about the Braves. None of my followers got it, but it did lead me to getting a new follower, which made me happy.

Read in reverse chronological order

And the new follower

Dear Diary: My Braves Mentions During the Glorious 1993 Season

Last summer I commemorated baseball's last great pennant race with my recollection of the Braves amazing run to catch the Giants in the 1993 season. It was glorious. When the season started I was finishing up my senior year of college at Wofford and spent that summer always on the verge of a pre-life crisis that I kept in check by working for my Dad during the day, drinking through the night with college buddies, the aforementioned wonderful girlfriend from the article linked above and Braves baseball.

The last few days I have been reading through old journals I kept during college. I mostly wrote down what I did, but didn't really write about what I did. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun driving down a bumpy, not always paved memory lane.

I have been a Braves fan since the 1970s, and they often made an appearance in my journals. This was especially true during the improbable 1993 season. Below are the transcribed mentions of those wonderful six months that I will offer without commentary for the most part. I suspect there are some mistakes here and there as I wrote my thoughts down from memory. But it was fun to go through the boxscores at Baseball-Reference and relive the moments. I look forward to hearing your comments on what you remember. Also, I apparently LOVED pitcher wins.

April 6, 1993: "After language lab, I went home to get my mail and also watched some Braves. They won 1-0. Maddux 8 1/3 innings shutout ball. Stanton shut them down for his first save. You've heard of the four tops? How about the five aces? ...UNC won because of a bonehead Webber move. But it was a good game. Now it's time for baseball. Jawohl. Braves are 1-0 and there are 164 game left."

April 8, 1993: "I finished listening to the Braves, who won in extra innings and then watched "The Wonder Years."

April 8, 1993: "We watched "Indiana Jones" and the Braves. The Braves won in the 9th."

July 15, 1993: "The Braves are also back from the break. The NL lost Tuesday night, 9-3 by the way. Every Brave in the game screwed up. Justice an E. Blauser an E, Blauser and Grissom SO with men on. Avery got two quick outs and then people started getting hits. Smoltz followed and promptly threw 2 wild pitches."

July 25, 1993: "Tuesday night I watched the Braves game. It was Fred McGriff's first game after the Sunday trade. The Braves got down 5-0 but came back to win it. McGriff hit a dinger, as did Blauser. We got drunk."
(I am not sure why I didn't mention the pressbox fire because I vividly remember it.)

                        "The next day ...the Braves won 14-2. McGriff hit two and Cabrera hit a grand slam among some others. 5 Total."

                         "We then watched the Braves. They lost in the 9th after leading 7-4. Damn."

                         "The Braves won 6-2 on 6 runs in the 9th inning including a blast by Justice."

                          "We ate and were on the road listening to the Braves again. They won 11-6. We hit 4 dingers, Gant, Pendleton, McGriff and Sanders. It was great even though Stanton still sucks. That's okay, we are starting to hit and everybody's averages are going up. Cool, but they are still 9 games back."

July 26, 1993: "Well, the Braves continued their rampage and won 13-1 yesterday on 21 hits. Cool. I was pleased."

July 28, 1993: "They won big again and Deion hit an inside-the-park homer. The game ended and we all got drunk."

                         "I stayed home and watched the Braves. McGriff hit 2 homeruns, one of which was an inside the parker. He also hit a triple off the wall and a had a ball caught right before the wall. So with about 10 more feet he would have had 4 dingers. Crazy. Anyway, the Braves scored 4 in the 9th and put the game out of reach"

August 2, 1993: "The Braves won yesterday and finished 9-2 on the road trip but should've gone 10-1. It was good, but they are still 7.5 games back. It'll be tough, but they have the tools."

(I took a two-week trip across the country to visit friends in St. Louis, Des Moines, Ft. Collins, Denver, El Paso and Dallas, but thanks to the magic of TBS was able to watch many games!) 

August 16, 1993: "The Braves won for the 7th time in a row. Cool. Still 7.5 back."

August 18, 1993: "The Giants won, but so did the Braves. That's nine in a row and they are 6.5 back."

August 23, 1993: "I'm not sure what we will be doing tonight, but I'm sure beer and the Braves will be involved."

August 27, 1993: "Well, the Braves won Monday night. Avery went the distance and raised up when he had to."

                              "Then we headed back and watched Glavine struggle but through double plays pitch out of jams and get his 15th win. McMichael got the save. That's 2 in a row and makes it 5.5 games behind the Giants."

                              "Then we came back for the Braves. They were already up 3-0 after I put oil in my car. Gant grounded into a DP and a run scored. Then McGriff and Justice hit back-to-back dingers. Well they did it again in the 5th. Berryhill and TP also homered and the Braves won 9-1. Maddux got his 15th. Jawohl!! The Braves are 4.5 back. Sweep! Sweep!"

(Back in Spartanburg.)

September 1, 1993: "Then I watched the Braves rout the Giants 8-2. Maddux is now 16-9. Cool. Righetti threw at Justice's face, put him on his butt but 2 pitches later Justice sent one deep. He made contact, glanced at Righetti and then jogged around the bases. It was great. Tonight Smoltz goes."

                                  "I'm supposed to watch the Braves tonight ...at a bar. Should be fun. I hope they win. They are 3.5 games back with 30 games left. They are 82-50 and must go 18-12 to win 100 but still might not win the division. It'll be interesting."

September 3, 1993: "The Braves ended up losing when Wohlers gave up a HR to some minor league scrub. Oh well, that's the way it goes."
(The minor leaguer was John Patterson, who in four years in the majors accumulated a -0.4 fWAR.)

                                 "We came back and watched the Braves come from behind on a shaky start by Avery and win 5-3. It was great. They also beat the Padres tonight and are still 3.5 games back. Glavine got his 17th."

September 8, 1993: "We watched ...the Braves win. The Giants lost. 2.5 back!"

September 10, 1993: "I went home and watched the Braves win 9-2 (it was actually 8-2) against the Dodgers. Tommy G got his 18th win."

                                   "I watched the Braves win 1-0 on a 10th inning homer. Mercker, Wohlers and McMichael pitched a 1-hitter over 10. Cool."

September 15, 1993: "I left and watched the Cubs beat the Giants as they also did last night. The Braves are now up 2.5. Jawohl!"

September 16, 1993: " After class I went home and watched the Braves get down 6-2 going into the 9th. Someboy got on and Klesko crushed a ball to right field. 6-4. 2 more got on and Gant one handed a ball off Rob Dibble that hit off the left field wall before bouncing over for a homer. First pitch. 'You Gant stop us now.' The Braves are up 3.5 and have won 93. Not bah, huh? The Giants have lost 8 straight. The Cubs swept them at home, as did the Cards."

September 17, 1993: "By the way, the Braves won in 13 last night. (It was in 12). Another 1-run game. They have now won 94 games and have only lost 53. That puts them 4 games up. Magic #13. Jawohl!"

September 21, 1993: "I left, showered, went to Converse, picked up Amy, went to the clinic and we headed to Atlanta for the Braves. We drank a few on the way and parked in a shady area. The Braves won 11-2, but didn't hit any homers. Glavine won his 20th and the Braves their 95th. They are now 2.5 games up but start a road trip in Montreal today and then move on to Philadelphia. Scheisse. We got home a little after 2. I dropped her off and then went to bed."

September 23, 1993: "After typing class, I drove home and watched the Braves rout the Expos 18-5. It was great."

September 28, 1993: "The Braves have won 100, the Giants 99. Es wird Crunch Time."

September 30, 1993: "I watched the Braves last night at Longhorn's because Union Station was closed. Harnisch shut them down and the Giants won, so now they are both 100-57 with five to go. But last night Glavine won his 21st and the Rockies beat the Giants, so they are now up 1. Jawohl!"

October 4, 1993: "The next morning ...I went to pick up Chris. That was about 11, and we headed to Atlanta to see the Bravos. Maddux was on the hill and pitched well in winning his 20th. So now I have seen Glavine and Maddux win their 20th. The seats were great, right behind Ted Turner's box about 15 rows back. Twas cool except for the dorks around us. McGriff got his 100th RBI and the Braves won 10-1. I've seen 2 games and 21 runs by the Braves but no dingers. Komisch. After the game, we watched the Giants win, so both teams were 103-58 going into the last game. Amazing."

                            "I was able to watch the 8th and 9th innings after I finished [playing tennis]. The Braves won 5-3, Glavine got his 22nd and Justice hit his 40th HR. The only thing left was to see how the Giants would do. They got creamed 12-1 by Piazza and Co. Jawohl!"

October 7, 1993: "The Braves came on at 8:15 and ended up losing 4-3 in 10. F!"

Ocotber 12, 1993: "I watched the Braves lose 2-1 (2-2). It sucked."

                               "We watched the Braves lose 4-3 even after they tied 3-3 in the ninth. F! (2-3)."

October 16, 1993: "I came home and watched the Braves lose and not go to the series. They got robbed by the umps and had some bad breaks."

You can talk Braves, Baking and Beer with Harris on Twitter @ohkiv. 

Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalt's-both in Germany and the USA

FanGraphs writer and BeerGraphs founder Eno Sarris broached a subject in his latest post Upsetting My Forefathers that is near and dear to my heart: German beer and its importance to him, and by extension, me. Whereas Eno was born in Germany and moved to the US as a child, I first went to Germany as a high school exchange student in 1988 and subsequently have spent twelve years of my adult life living in the home of beer.

Before moving to Germany when I was 17, I did not drink at all. This quickly changed among my new found German friends and host brother Klaus. As a result, I am a German beer drinker. My tastes were formed in Germany, and I regard the country and its brewing tradition with reverence. My Untappd profile reads "A German Bier palate in an IPA world," which refers to me moving back to the US seven years ago and having to get used to the new and exciting beer landscape I encountered upon returning home to South Carolina.

Today, however, I rarely drink German beer for different reasons:

1) The German beer that is sold in the US invariably comes from the largest German breweries who have brewed neutral tasting beers for a national and international clientele. These are the breweries that sponsor the UEFA Champions League or the German National Soccer team. And as Eno and BeerGraphs contributor Alex Fossi  recently covered, some of the breweries that were recently caught in a price-fixing scheme. Beck's, Warsteiner, Radeberger, Krombacher, Veltins and Bitburger come to mind. They are fine tasting, solid beers but really nothing special. That is, they aren't "craft."

2) When I can get some of my favorite German beers such as Bamberg's Mahr's "U" or nearby Buttenheim's St. Georgen Bräu Kellerbier, I have discovered that they just don't travel well. They aren't necessarily completely "off", but one is left with an extra malty beer that has been out of its comfort zone, both geographically and temporally, for some time.

3) There are very few reasons to look beyond the borders of this country, and increasingly one's own state or region, to find beers that are world class.

I live in upstate South Carolina. My hometown, Spartanburg, SC, has an outstanding brewery in RJ Rockers, new breweries have recently opened up in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston, Charlotte is booming with craft beer, and the beer mecca Asheville is only 90 minutes away from my front door. This is not to mention the tasty offerings right down I-85 at Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens and SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta.

Returning then to Eno, who writes "my passport says I'm German, but my beer fridge says I'm American ...I'd rather try new stuff." Exactly! It's exciting times hierzulande, and there is no reason to look beyond the borders of this vast country to satisfy your desire for great tasting beer. Yes, I have more than warmed up to the IPAs despite my "German Bier palate," (Cigar City's Jai Alai and Lagunitas Sucks are my current two favorites), but I am even seeing outstanding pilsners in the US. I am always in search of domestic craft pilsners, and my favorites are Prima Pils from Victory Brewing, Torch Pilsner from Foothills Brewing, Captain Jack Pilsner from Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, Bohemian Pilsner from Brevard Brewing Company and Cascade Pilsner from Full Sail Brewing.
The nine years I spent living in Bamberg, the German town and county with the highest brewery density, population that consumes the most beer per capita (280 liters/year) and frankly the best beer in Germany, saw me become an avid beer trekker. While I can't get on my bike here and hit several breweries on a day spent cycling through the countryside, it is still nonetheless becoming increasingly possible to visit new breweries, craft beer stores with growler stations and find like-minded craft beer lovers in areas, especially here in the South, that were once dominated by big beer. 

Eno shouldn't feel guilty about disappointing his German family (and I don't really think he does), and I don't have to worry about creating a little Germany in my home in order to enjoy good beer. The best beer in the world is being brewed right here in the US of A, so let's enjoy it without hangups. Prost!

The 1993 Braves: McGriff, the Fire and the Last Great Pennant Race

The Braves winning the 1995 World Series was glorious and is easily the greatest moment in Atlanta Braves history. I was out of the country at the time, living in Pforzheim, Germany during an exchange, and in a time before internet streaming I saw none of it. My good friend Arne did call me after Marquis Grissom sealed it with his catch in center. I was asleep thanks to the time difference, but most enjoyed the few seconds as he screamed into my ear: "Ostwald, die Braves haben gewonnen!!!"
Several days later I also received a letter from my then girlfriend describing her experience while watching game 6. She even gave me a play-by-play of sorts in the letter and on the back of the envelope, which I am posting here.

I must admit I have a certain amount of nostalgia for that mode of communication and the effort Amy put into bringing the game closer to me. Nonetheless, I wasn't there, so it is hard for me to view it as one of the defining moments of my Braves fandom. Almost twenty years later, I can now watch the entire game on youtube thanks to MLBClassics. This truly is amazing, and I encourage you to watch it, either for the first time or again because it is so sweet! 

Even though I wasn't in the country for 1995, and I also missed the worst to first run in 1991 due to another exchange in Germany, I was around for every pitch in 1993 as the Braves made one of the greatest runs ever to pass the Giants on the last day of the season. It didn't end well as the Braves lost to the Phillies in the playoffs in six games, but baseball for me has always been about the long haul. I watch most every day, and when I joke with friends about every game counting, even game 65 in the middle of June, I actually mean it. 

Twenty years ago today on July 31, 1993, the Braves were 7.5 games out of first and according to coolstandings.com had a 10.1% chance of making the playoffs (POFF). Looking at the graph below, it was a position the Braves stayed in for much of 1993 until all of a sudden they jumped up to above 90% in September. In comparison, as of today (July 31, 2013), the Braves have a 10 game lead over the Nationals, who have a 7.1% POFF. The difference is that the Braves on July 31, 1993 were 20 games above .500, whereas the Nationals are 3 games under .500 going into today's action (and are currently losing 10-1 in the 7th inning in Detroit). The 1993 Braves and Giants were amazingly good teams and there divisional pennant race down the stretch was epic. 

Coolstandings for 1993 Braves

In the summer of 1993, I had just graduated from Wofford College, was living in the guest house behind my parents' house (not my Mother's basement), worked for my Dad cleaning cages and washing dogs at his animal hospital, was still living the college life being that I was living in the same town where I went to college and watched a bunch of Braves, often with Amy, the super nice girlfriend mentioned above. 

The Braves were a good team, but it didn't look like they would have a chance of catching the surging Giants that season. But on July 19, the Braves made a trade deadline deal that brought Fred McGriff to town. Here is the NY Times write-up of the trade. I was excited about the trade and thought to myself at the time that the Braves would have to win every series for the rest of the season to have a chance. Looking at the 1993 Braves schedule at baseball-reference.com, they came close in winning 19/22 series from July 19 to the end of the season on October 3. 

McGriff's arrival on July 20 coincided with a huge fire in the Fulton County Stadium broadcast booths and press box that broke out during batting practice. The game against the Cardinals took place that evening, and McGriff homered in his debut. This youtube clip narrated by Bob Costas details the homer and the fire: 

One game that encompasses the drama of the 1993 stretch run took place on September 15 against the Reds. The Braves were down 6-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning and scored 5 runs including a Ron Gant walkoff home run to win the game. The follwing video clip made by somebody filming their television set is glorious for many reasons: Chipper Jones makes his second ever plate appearance, Ryan Klesko hits a home run and gives a bat flip for the ages, Rob Dibble throws one pitch to Gant before the game ends and current Nationals manager Davey Johnson was the Reds manager at the time. Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video here but it is worth clicking on this link to watch the 14-minute replaying of the ninth inning. 

The Braves won the division on the last day of the season by finishing with a three-game win streak. Having played before the Giants, fans and players alike stayed behind in Fulton County stadium to cheer on the Los Angeles Dodgers as they defeated the Giants 12-1 on that final day. The Braves finished with a 104-58 record, one game better than the Giants who would have no postseason in the last season before the advent of the Wild Card game. It was also the last season the Braves would play in the NL West. Realignment moved the team into the NL East, and no longer would Braves fans have to stay up near as many nights during the summer to watch West Coast baseball. The following video clips "Re-live the moments" of 1993, the season that boasts the last great pennant race, and is arguably my favorite season as a Braves fan. 

No-Knead Bread

This recipe has brought me and many others a lot of happiness. While living in Germany for approximately 12 years of my adult life, bread became a big part of my daily existence. I often told people that it was the bread, not the beer, that was irreplaceable in the US. Then I discovered this recipe, and it comes as close to anything in mimicking good, hardy, thick-crusted German bread. The secret is time and the Dutch oven within a very hot conventional oven. Here's the recipe, with my tweaks, I got from the NY Times.

 

No-Knead Bread

---

November 8, 2006

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

·        15 oz. all-purpose or bread flour, or 10 oz. AP/5 oz. Whole Wheat (I use King Arthur brand for both)

·        ¼ teaspoon instant yeast (Rapid Rise)

·        1.5-2 teaspoons salt 

·        Cornmeal for dusting

1.     In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1.5 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 

2.     Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. I find corn meal to work the best. Then gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.

 3.     Place a sheet of parchment over a bowl and spray with non-stick spray. Place dough ball into bowl, loosely cover with plastic and rise 1-2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4.     At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats.   

5.     When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Lift dough parchment paper and place into pot; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. 

 

Gangy

My 91 year-old Grandfather passed away on Friday, and this is the eulogy I wrote wrote for him and gave at the service. I managed to slip in a nice depression-era baseball anecdote into it. 

Gangy 

It’s an honor for me to be up here today talking about my Grandfather, I have always been so proud to have the same name as he does. All my email addresses start with some form of Oswald, OHK4 or OHK IV because that is who I am. However, OH King, Jr. is known by us in the family as “Gangy,” because that he is who he is to us, simply “Gangy” a one word name that means so much.

I have been thinking over the last couple of days what I want to talk about, and even though this is sad occasion I have often found myself smiling at the memories I have of Gangy, and I know all of you hear today have similar memories of him. I know Gangy had positive influences on us all, I saw it through the years on me, on my siblings Kelly, Elizabeth and Hamilton, and on my cousins Dee, Tom and Phil. I wish Greg and Charles could be here today, too, but I know they are all together now with Gangy aggriavating them like he always enjoyed doing. Telling them “don’t break my floor” when they fell down or just saying “Bamalam” like he always did to get our attention in a playful way. Charles would have been up here today speaking to you all, and I will attempt to do his memory proud.

On Friday, I took the cross country route from Upstate South Carolina to South West Ga that I have taken hundreds and hundreds of times to get to “home”- from Athens to Madison to Monticello and Forsyth, Roberta, Butler, Buena Vista and then on to Preston, Weston and Cuthbert before getting on 27 and heading to Blakely, where I was born. It is a part of the world, Early and Randolph counties, Blakely and Cuthbert, that has defined my life. It’s a place, it’s red clay dirt, it’s the farm, the soy beans, the cattle and the peanuts and at the center of it all was Gangy. He was what held this family together, not with force, but with his mere presence that inspired so much love and respect. So many of my friends in South Carolina and in Germany know my Grandfather by what we called him – Gangy. And they also know “Mama King” even if they never met them. Their influence on me and many of us here was so strong that to know me you knew them as well. The most concrete example of this is Peanut Brittle, or as Gangy called it, simply “candy.” They couldn’t get enough, and I would tell them the secret is in the stretching on the marble slab. They then would ask “why aren’t yall millionaires with this stuff?” Well, we never became millionaires, but we can all be happy to know that there are many, many people who turn their noses up at store-bought peanut brittle because of Gangy’s “candy.”

There are so many memories of the times I spent with Gangy, and at the center of so many of them is the farm. You might have seen the picture slide show last night, and to see him driving the truck in his khaki shirt and pants with one of his many hats on is a memory I am sure we can all call up immediately. And he loved to give tours of the farm, slowly driving around the bumpy roads from one corner to the other telling you what you were looking at then but also who might have been there and what they were doing 50, 60 and 70 years ago. I spent last summer in Cuthbert and had the privilege of spending every Monday with Gangy and Mama King. We ate lunch together, we watched TV together, especially the Braves, and I made sure they took their medicine. Mama King is a good medicine taker, but Gangy was a little ornery at times. He enjoyed having me there, but when I would insist on him taking his pills, he would give me a sly look and say, “you sound like you’ve been talking to them women folk (meaning Aunt Gail and Aunt Joan), they have gotten to you.”

But mostly, we talked. He loved to talk about the farm and one of the best stories he told me was about baseball, how he would listen to games, the NY Yankees then, at Davenport filling station where he would get repair work done on his truck or car while I am sure he was drinking a co-cola. And he told me about the baseball games they played out of the farm. As he was talking I was busy typing away on my phone to make sure I could record as much as possible while he talked. Gangy was the pitcher for both teams and this was how he described it:

“Most of the ball playing was Saturday evening and most of the ball players were older than I was. Yeah those boys out there would be called rough players because they played kinda rough. We had a pretty good slope down from the catcher’s mitt to third base, second base too. Wasn't like fields now. Pitcher to catcher was uphill and you had a pretty good base running area … They wanted me throwing for both teams. I didn't throw at anybody. I was clean in that matter. Other people would throw at people no matter what. I wasn't all that big, but I knew what a day's work was.”

I asked him how he pitched and he said: “I guess I memorized the way they batted because I tried to throw it where they couldn't hit it. I reckon I did okay, they didn't do a whole lot of walking and they didn't do a whole lot of hitting." I can just picture him out there in field where they played with him being a crafty left-handed pitcher who was smarter than the bigger and rougher boys he played with. It’s a great image and I often think about it when I am watching the Braves today.

We all know Gangy was a farmer for his entire life, and he was good at it and it shaped his identity. But as Daddy and I were talking about recently, he was a misplaced educator. As the oldest son, he was called back from the University of Georgia to run the farm when WWII broke out, and I know he never looked back with any regrets. But he remained a teacher his entire life. He enjoyed every moment with his Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren and Great, Great Grandchildren, which luckily are all mentioned on the program because I don’t think I could have kept all the numbers straight in my head. He taught us all by example, he taught us that you pronounce the “g” in “fishing” and that “fixing” was what you do to a bike, not what you are getting ready to do. Ultimately, he taught us how to live, and he did so with patience and love. I am a German teacher, and teaching kids in the classroom is very rewarding to me. I know it was for Gangy, too, which is why he spent his retirement years as a substitute teacher at Early County High School. He would tell stories about his interactions with the kids there with his glint in his eye and you could tell how much he enjoyed it.

We are gathered here today to celebrate a life. O.H. King Jr. was a great man, an outstanding farmer, an amazing husband, father, and Grandfather, all of which can be summed up by the one word we called him. He was Gangy, and I am going to miss him. 

Baseball and Baking

I bake a lot, and enjoy meticulously following a recipe in order to create something that people think is voodoo or magic or alchemy.

I watch a lot of baseball and most enjoy it while thinking about such sabermetric concepts as wOBA, wRC+, OPS, DRS and K/BB%. I loathe bunts, IBBs, batting average and RsBI and don't believe in intangibles or  grittiness.

Put it all  together and you have Saberbaking. I am just not sure exactly what that means right now.