The Wingnuts Open Their Season

Tuesday night it rained hard most of the night, and the rain continued off and on throughout Wednesday, causing the postponement Wednesday night of the scheduled home opener for the Wichita Wingnuts. However, yesterday dawned bright and clear, and the game last night was played in ideal conditions, temperature about 70 degrees and the sky filled with beautiful puffy clouds.

There was the usual opening day fanfare, which was mostly forgettable, but the best thing was the great turnout. Lawrence-Dumont Stadium was filled to near-capacity, confirming my hunch that an independent league team would do better here than the various minor league teams have over the years. Wichita fans have just never been able to embrace the minor league teams, as the players come and go and no connections are developed between the players and the city.

The game started on the right foot for the local team, as the first Wingnuts batter walked, was sacrificed to 2nd, and then scored on a ground-ball single up the middle. For the record, final score was Wingnuts over Sioux City 7-4, before a crowd of 5,874.

Ten Interesting Things about Vermont

From a book in the "America the Beautiful" series.

1. Although only 43rd in size, Vermont has no less than six geographical regions.

2. Its border with New Hampshire is formed by a river named after yet another state, Connecticut.

3. Its longest river is not even called a river, it is Otter Creek.

4. Its proportion of rural residents is the highest of any state., Fully 2/3 of Vermonters live in the country or in towns of less than 2,500. This to me is an amazing statistic.

5. Its politics has undergone a remarkable evolution. From the forming of the Republican Party in 1854 until 1958, every major elected official was a Republican. Starting in 1958, this began to change and the Democrats have been competitive ever since. In 1990 Bernard Sanders won election to the House as the first Socialist House member in 60 years. Vemont also has the largest % of women in its legislature--33%.

6. Settlement in Vermont did not begin until around 1750. At that time the governors of both New Hampshire and New York began making grants of land in what is now Vermont, often involving the same land. Ethan Allen organized his Green Mountain Boys to defend the claims of New Hampshire grantees against those of New York grantees, organizing his group in a meeting at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington in 1770. The controversy was finally resolved in 1790 when Vermont paid New York $30,000 for the disputed land.

7. Not being one of the original 13 colonies, Vermont adopted its own Declaration of Independence and constitution in 1777. This constitution made Vermont the first political body in the U.S. to ban slavery, and the first to grant the right to vote to men who were not property owners. Vermont remained an independent country until joining the U.S. in 1791 as the 14th state.

8. As of 1993, air conditioning in cars is prohibited in Vermont.

9. Environmental reforms have led to a restoration of the state's forests. Originally 90% of the state was forested, then this was mostly wiped out, but it is now restored to about 80%.

10. Vermont is the country's leading producer of maple syrup.

Wichita Enacts a Smoking Ban

The City Council this week, in a 4-3 vote, approved an ordinance which would ban smoking in all businesses which allow minors inside. This was a compromise reached after the original proposal to ban smoking in all businesses could not achieve enough votes for passage.

Kudos to the Council members. particularly Mayor Carl Brewer, who advocated for the complete ban. We all know this is coming, it is just a matter of when the Council can muster up the courage to do it.

And boos and hisses to the Council members who opposed this. Council member Paul Gray, in one of the stupidest comments ever made by a public official, said "If we're really that concerned about it, we should just ban it outright", referring to banning smoking around children in cars and homes. If such a ban were to be proposed, Mr. Gray and people of his ilk would be the first to raise a stink about intruding on private property rights, as he did in voting no on the very limited ban which was actually enacted.

The story in The Wichta Eagle quoted blogger Bob Weeks as saying that "No one has the right to be on somebody else's property on their own terms". This seemd to be saying that smokers have the right to smoke in public places, but non-smokers have no right to be free from harmful smoke in public places, which would be an idiotic proposition. However, after checking out his blog, I realize that what he was articulating was the libertarian position that property owners have the right to ban smoking or not on their own premises, and the public will vote with their dollars on which businesses to patronize. The Eagle quote simply failed to capture the essence of the position Mr. Weeks was arguing for.

A Failure of Imagination

To the Eagle:

I am embarrassed that my city government has chosen to become a deadbeat debtor. I see no reasonable rationale for the city's refusal to pay for the cost of housing its prisoners, and Mr. Rebenstorf does not provide any in the recent Eagle article.

If the city does not want to bear the cost of housing its prisoners, perhaps it can come up with more creative solutions for dealing with its misdemeanor offenders than locking them up.

Kosuke Fukudome

This guy, signed by the Cubs in the offseason, was not the "mega-star" in Japan that some previous Japanese imports were, like Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, or Dice-K. However, he is being given credit for almost single-handedly lifting the Cubs into first place so far this year. As is always the case with the Japanese stars, his fundamentals are flawless, and the aspect of his game most often pointed to is his patience at the plate. He has seen more pitches per at bat than any other player so far this year, and this has rubbed off on the entire Cubs team. What used to be a free-swinging club has overnight turned into a team which is at or near the top in the important categories of walks and on-base percentage.

What stands out for me is that all this is done solely by example. The guy doesn't even speak the language, so obviously he cannot be the "rah-rah" type of guy usually pointed to as a team leader. To me this illustrates the importance for all of us of just going about our business in the right way, regadless of fanfare or ostentatiousness. People will notice and in the end those who do take care to work hard and do things the right way will be rewarded. Despite plenty of examples to the contrary, it is not always the loud-mouth who wins out in the end.

Bobby Jindal

Heard this guy speaking before the National Press Club today, and he was very impressive. As a Republican governor of Louisiana, he would seem to be an excellent choice to run with John McCain this year. We will see if McCain has enough sense to choose him as his running mate.

Today's Best Trivia Questions

The most interesting questions from today's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and "Jeopardy" shows:

1. Ken Burns' 2007 documentary "The War" dealt with which war?

2. The phrase "red-letter day" has its origins in what?

3. Of the nine 2006 Nobel Laureates, 8 were people and the 9th was what?

4. Tzatziki is a Greek dish made of yogurt and which vegetable?

5. Circled 7 times by the Israelites in the book of Joshua, what is the world's oldest walled city?


Answers: 1. WW2, 2. religious holidays, 3. a bank, 4. cucumbers, 5. Jericho