Day 152

 Monday August 10, 2020

Saturday was National Baseball card day.  When I was young I collected baseball cards.  Mostly from the seventies as those were my elementary school years.  I remember having all the 1973 World Series cards between the NY Mets and the Oakland A's.  The A's were a powerhouse winning three world series in a row from 1972-1974.  The Mets were my favorite team and I wanted to be a catcher like Jerry Grote.  Here is his 1973 baseball card. 

I definitely owned this card. I even caught a few games when I was playing baseball in the Long Island summers of my youth.  Here is an article about that collectible year of 1973 baseball cards.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/vintage-set-of-the-week-1973-topps-baseball/

Now for some national news and of course it revolves around the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus aka COVID-19.

The United States continues to lead countries in case growth, doubling its cases in the past two months. The nation has exceeded five million cases and over 160,000 deaths.  And with that we get news that 250,000 motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to show up in South Dakota for the annual Sturgis rally.  This will be one of the largest public gatherings since the pandemic became official on March 12th.  Only in America?!  That is one reason why we have more cases than any other country.  Yes, we are the most populous, but also the least effective at slowing the spread.

With that being said, the European nations have led the way to a dusty death (leading in COVID-19 deaths per capita). Health officials in some areas did not include nursing homes in the pandemic plans and many were left unattended.   Failing to protect their elderly has led to a gross number of deaths in Europe. 

In other news; a recent explosion, due to many tons of ammonium nitrate (a fertilizer) stored in a port in Beirut, left five thousand injured and killed 145 people. That led to protests and riots against a government accused of corruption and neglect.  The protesters stormed the governing  ministries and several legislators have resigned. You can read more about it here: https://arab.news/6m7sm

Several years ago, after a magical 2007 season I officially became a fan of the Colorado baseball team. The Colorado Rockies are currently in first place and Maren and I are enjoying listening to the games.  And even though it is unlikely we will attend a game this year we are thankful for baseball and hearing our boys do well has given us great joy.  Go Rockies!