Archives for October 2019

RELIEF PITCHER

October 31, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

RELIEF PITCHER

“Remember there’s no such thing as taking a pitcher out,

there’s only bring another pitcher in.”

Alvin Dark–Former player and major league manager

Image result for picture of a manager taking a pitcher out of a game

Well another world series is over. Congratulations to the Nationals. If you watched any of the games you saw the process of where a manager makes a decision to take a pitcher out of the game and replace him.

You know that process is a facet of effective management in most all aspects of life. Often what matters not so much is not what “has” happened but what is “gonna” now happen. The manager is not taking the one guy out of the game so much as retribution for what has happened but he is trying to plan for what now will happen. Same should also be with life in handling a mistake, or an unfortunate matter. Retribution most often will not correct what has happened previously. The purpose of decision making is to increase ones chances in making the right decision, making the next decision succeed.

Image result for picture of a baseball manager sitting in dugout thinking

So there is not such thing as “taking a pitcher out of a game.” So there is no such thing as making a bad decision change, not happen, go away. It has happened, now one needs to increases the positive possibilities about what now can happen.

That’s a bit of heavy thinking for me over early morning coffee.

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November 1, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

CHANCES–NOT GOOD

October 31, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

CHANCES–NOT GOOD

Early this morning as I pulled into my coffee place from my car cd player came a Buck Owens song. Listening to the words of the song reminded me of something from our recent time in Charleston, SC.

Recently my wife and I were in Charleston, SC. I went there for some days of golf with old friends from my years on staff with the United States Golf Association. My wife was meeting a girl friend from our days in New Jersey and they were having a “girl friend week-end.” Charleston is a very pretty and unique place. Often referred to as the “Seat of Southern class and culture.”

Image result for picture of charleston sc

Lyrics to the Owens song were going something like this:

Well a poor boy’s chances for a rich girl’s glances

are sometimes very few.”

While In Charleston in the lobby of an old hotel were a lot of pictures of historical things that had happened in Charleston. One picture caught my eye. It was dated 1959, my junior year of high school, and read: “Society At a Formal :”Debut” Presentation. The picture was of a number of very pretty young ladies. They were standing on a staircase of what appeared to be a very stately mansion.

Image result for pictures of presentation of debutantes

Hearing Owens lyrics this morning took me back to picture I had seen while in Charleston.

The boy may get some glances at the rich girl, maybe even return glances, a date or a relationship for a while but the mother’s of those Debutantes will have more than a little say regarding the outcome of any of those glances or relationships. Those chances aren’t good.

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October 31, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

THE PROM

October 30, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

THE PROM

“Who you taking or going with to the Prom?”

Remember that once often asked questions. Do you remember who you did take or go with? I bet that word prom, for some people congers up “memories.” Notice I did not say special memories, which I hope it was but I bet a remembrance.

This morning I heard the sad story in song about a fella who got all dressed up for the prom: “Once you told me long ago to the prom with me you’d go, but now you’ve changed your mind it seems. Someone else will hold my dreams.”

Prom–Short for Promenade –“The formal introduction parading of guest at a party.” Well that is one definition you will find for the word.

Proms were first started in the Northeast in the mid to late 1800s’. The purpose was to promote social etiquette and manners in each years class. It soon became a Ivy League tradition and referenced in 1879 issue of the Harvard Crimson.

By the 1930s’ it was as American as apple pie and baseball. Most every especially high school and still many colleges had such. In the 1950s’ the venue was often moved from a school to a country club or fine hotel.

In 1975 the daughter (Susan) of President Gerald Ford hosted her school’s prom of all places, the White House.

Image result for picture of susan fords prom at the white house

There does appear to be a bit of a difference in the two pictures doesn’t there?

Then we stood by the lilac bush in your yard

Your pink prom gown late in may

Your mom took our picture, I took your hand

And you took my breath away

“Maple Street Memories”–The Statler Brothers

Right now can you say to yourself the name of the person you went with to your prom. Any thoughts? Hope it is a good memory.

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October 30, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

THE PRICE OF REGRET

October 29, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

THE PRICE OF REGRET

Who among us does not have some?

Everyone knows the price of regret

Things in life we never forget

Haunted by what we’ve done wrong

Yearning for the pain to be gone

Some wave a Bible and some just go insane

Lay down your judgement or lay down your shame

We’re all God’s children and we all breathe the same air

You’re black and I’m white/ You’re blinded by sight

If we let today/ Just pass away

Without kindness and forgiveness, there’s no light

Everyone’s broken, oh everyone’s scarred

All the things we needed wind up in the yard

Brothers and sisters, I mean you no harm

Healing’s

Words written by in my opinion one of the most talented people to ever come to Nashville. Vince Gill. Thank you Vince.

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October 29, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

“THE COWS ARE OUT”

October 28, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just Some Thoughts:

“THE COWS ARE OUT”

In reading the paper this past week I see where the grandson of Sterling Marlin (Stirlin) will be making his racing debut at the track here in Nashville.

Sterling along with his dad, Coo Coo Marlin, were well known race drivers on the NASCAR circuit. Coo Coo never won a NASCAR race but was noted. By the way don’t you love that name. Remember when you were a kid and how you would refer to someone you thought was “not right” by saying, “hey he’s Coo Coo.”

Coo Coo Marlin

Sterling Marlin was very successful. in his NASCAR years. Twice a Daytona 500 hundred winner, 1994 and 1995. There is a great story about Sterling and his dad the week after Sterling won the Daytona 500. Winning the Daytona 500 was and is a big deal in racing. The Marlin family lived not too far from where I live. They shared farms to each other not far from Columbia, Tennessee. The story is told very shortly after Sterling won the 1994 Daytona 500 something happened at his dad’s farm. Coo Coo quickly grabbed his hat and called to his wife, “Call Sterling and tell him I need help.” Seems Coo Coo’s cows had broken thru a fence and were out in the road.

Sterling Marlin

Sterling’s mom called his house. Someone at the house answered and mom said, “Tell Sterling to get out in the road and help his dad, the cows are out.” The other person on the phone unthinking said, “Hey Sterling just won the Daytona 500.” To which the mother said, “Sterling may have won the race on Sunday, but its Monday and the cows are out, get out there.”

You know sometimes in life one needs to remember what happened yesterday or last week is not relevant to what is happening today. One may have done well Sunday, but today is Monday

“And the cows are out.”

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October 28, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

ITS A GAME

October 27, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

This coming week starts another basketball season. I saw my first game in 1949, Pimento Peppers edition. I was seven years old and ever since I have loved the game. I love the game for more than “just winning and losing.” Sadly for me and a lot of other folks one of my all time favorite coaches has retired, Rick Byrd at Belmont. But those that love the game love the game for more than just it being a game. So this week I hope to walk into a gym, buy a ticket, stop at the concession stand, get a bag of popcorn, a diet Dr.Pepper and head to the top row. I don’t care who is playing, after all its a game. But it still is “just a game.”

(Rick Byrd, Larry Adamson, Brad Stevens)

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Just some thoughts:

IT’S A GAME

“It may be the most serious kind of game there is,

but if you don’t use it as a game you’re missing an

important point.”

James Dickey, Deliverance

Image result for picture of a high school kid shooting a free throw

We are in the mist of another World Series. Then come early 2020 we will be in the mist of a Super Bowl. Come March in the mist of another “March Madness.” And then something else regarding a “game.” To all you “talking heads” sometimes I want to say, “get a real job, get in the real world.”

Folks they still are games. While yes they bear a certain amount of relevance in our society and world today. But what is taking place say everyday in your local doctor’s office, hospital, clinic, child’s school and I could list many more items is far more important than how fast a guy can throw a ball, hit a ball, shoot a ball or run with a ball. I’ve yet to see a game that was a matter of life and death. I’ve seen my share where you would have thought such. And yes I’ve even got myself caught up in such.

Perspective —“An attitude toward or way of regarding something, a point of view.

I’ve yet to see the out come of any game keep the sun from coming up the next morning.

Image result for picture of anderson high school gym the wigwam and the crowd

(The Wigwam–Once high school gym Anderson High School, Anderson, IN)

I once ask a young 16-17 year old kid (the night before he had stepped before about 5000 folks and hit two free throws with less than 4 seconds left on a game clock to win his school a basketball game by a point) “What would you have done if you had missed those two free throws?”

“Coach the sun had set that night and it probably

would have come up in the morning.”

I loved that attitude. I wonder if he didn’t have more maturity than most of us there that night. Folks it is a great game, but its still a game.

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October 27, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

THE IMPORTANCE OF NOVEMBER 1ST

October 27, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Well another November 1st is upon us. I never think or look at that date that I don’t think of the night of November 1st 1960. It was my senior year in high school. All this now seems so trivial but not then. I have often said in the late 1950s’ the best thing that could happen to a Indiana high school basketball player on a Friday night was three things:

1.Your team beat the neighboring school’s team

2.Your dad let you have the car after the game

3.And that one certain very special girl went out with you after that game

If these things happened the stars in the heavens were in their place and all was good—until the next Friday night.

If you scroll down you will find something I wrote in 2014.

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LARRYGRAMS – Blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF NOVEMBER 1ST

Just some thoughts:

Another season is almost upon us….Something I wrote on Nov. 1st of last year…

Tonight is a very significant date in history, November 1st. Yes, it is in my history and the history of thousands of guys who grew up attending small high schools in the state of Indiana in the 1950s’.

If you grew up then and attended one of the many small high schools in the state, you may remember this date. At that time there were a little over 700 high schools in the state and the majority of those schools were small, rural schools that did not have a football program. November 1st was the date the Indiana High School Athletic Association, ISHAA, would allow the basketball season to begin. I can still remember it like it was yesterday.

There is a line from an old Statler Brothers song that goes: “If I could just be a part of your memory the rest of your life.” Many happenings from that time, certainly including basketball, would be a part of those memories for me. November 1st, 1959 at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night was the normal tip-off time for most school’s varsity games. On this November 1st it was the Blackhawk Chieftains vs. the Pimento Peppers. Now, stop laughing! The Chieftains are dressed in their traveling red and black uniforms, and they were led by veterans, Bobby Morse and Oscar Huntwork. (Oscar’s dad was my barber. He cut hair in the back of his small grocery store that the family operated.) The Peppers dressed in their home white with blue and orange trim; my old number was 40! I bet 99 per cent of the guys who played back then can remember their basketball uniform number. Mine, 40 on the home uniform, and 20 on the road.

It has been said, probably only by me, that in the late 1950s’ the best thing that could happen to a young Indiana high school boy who played basketball was three things. One, on a Friday night you’ve beaten the local school from a few miles down the road; two, your dad let you have the car for an after game date, and three, that one certain girl, would go out with you. If all that happened on the same night, the stars were truly aligned perfectly. Well, on that night the stars were aligned perfectly for me; the Peppers won on a last second shot in overtime! Yours truly scored 17 points, and yes I also fouled out. It was the start of my last year in high school, my last basketball season. I would like to say it was the beginning of a very winning season, but it was not. All four years of my being a Pepper, victory did not come often. By the way, for those of us who lived during that time, basketball wasn’t our only memory from those Friday nights, but a very significant one.

Image result for picture of Pimento high school

(How bad the old school looks today)

Last year on one of my basketball junkets back to Indiana, I attended an Indiana State University basketball game and ran into Oscar Huntwork. Neither he nor I looked nearly as intimidating as we once did, or thought we did, on that particular November night back in 1960.
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November 1, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Forward to a Friend.

W. S. HOLLAND

Oct 29, 2015 06:03 pm | Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

W. S. had a nickname. It was “fluke.” He became known to many as Fluke Holland. Sometime back I had the good fortune to sit and visit with him. He was most gracious in conversation.

Can you imagine a nickname like that? Story has it that the term fluke came from the game of billiards. In billiards when a player hit a shot that was considered far beyond their ability, but just lucky; the term is “that was a fluke.” A dictionary will tell us that a fluke is when something good happens unexpectedly with more luck and less skill; occurrences solely based on luck.

In the early 1950s’ W. S. was a good friend of Carl Perkins’s brother. Perkins would later become the legendary Sun recording artist. One night Holland was with Perkins and his band after they had played a gig at some small setting near their hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. Perkins told Holland, “Hey next week we have a recording session booked at Sun Records in Memphis with Sam Phillip. Perkins went on to tell Holland, “We don’t have a car big enough to carry all of us down there, but you do so you are driving us; and also, we need a drummer for that session.” Now Holland had a Cadillac big enough, but he was not a musician. He had never played drums in his whole life, let alone own a set. He had a neighbor who had an old set of drums that he gave to Holland, so the next day he began to teach himself to play.

About a week later finds Perkins and his band in the Sun recording studio having arrived there by Holland’s car. Holland was sitting at the drums when the session began. The less than one month drummer would go on to find himself playing drums for the next sixty years. He played on the famous Perkins recording of “Blue Suede Shoes,” and he was Johnny Cash’s drummer for nearly forty years. In the words of Holland, “Much of my whole life has been a fluke.”

In the lives of most all of us I would imagine there have been a number of times things have happened in which we could not fully explain. Where we have had good luck beyond our skills or when something good happens, and it was least expected. Personally I know that has been the case in my life. Many times I experienced luck beyond my skills.

Hum… I have a friend that often references such occurrences as “God things.” You know maybe some things that man thinks happened just by chance… well maybe; just maybe it might be otherwise.

Maybe everything isn’t just a “fluke.” You think?
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March 15, 2012
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

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NO HORSE

October 26, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

NO HORSE

One time United States Louisiana Senator Huey P. Long was advised before speaking to a large group by a local politician, “Now be aware of where and who you are speaking to today.” Long got before the crowd and said the following:

Image result for picture for sign for the state of louisiana

“When I was a boy, I would get up at six o’clock in the morning on Sunday, and I would hitch our old horse up to the buggy and I would take my Catholic grandparents to mass. I would bring then home, and at ten o’clock I would hitch the old horse up again and I would take my Baptist grandparents to church.”

That evening on the way back to the capitol the one who had given Long the advice said to Huey, “Why Huey, you’ve been holding out on us, I didn’t know you had any Catholic grandparents.” To which Long replied: “Don’t be a dam fool, we didn’t even have a horse.”

Every time and generation has had and will have those who in order to curry favor and support of others will say just about anything to get their attention and support. And those people they also, they

“Never had a horse.”

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October 26, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

THERE IS

October 25, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

THERE IS

“Believe it or not there’s life after high school.”

Daryl Hall & John Oates–“Adult Education”

Image result for picture of hall and oates

Also said in a country way by the Statler Brothers, “The Class of ’57”

“The class of “57 had its dreams

we all thought the world would change to fit our needs.”

At one time the Hall and Oates quote seemed so far away. Then once upon a time we came to realize that the world was not going to change to fit our needs.

I could be wrong but I think it was here at a Hall & Oats concert that I took our son Jay and sitting there the guy next to me was smokin’ some funny stuff. He tapped me on the arm and said “Hey pass it on down.” I told him to send it back in the direction it came from cause it was not “goin’ on down the line.”

Image result for picture of person smoking weed

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October 26, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

October 24, 2019 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

“My childhood memories slowly swirled past

like the wind through the trees.”

Pretenders, “My City Was Gone”

Image result for picture of the group the pretenders

Mike Morrow continued Indiana’s cycle of life. He got married. Had two girls. Taught them how to shoot baskets. (Courtesy Mike Morrow)

Add: My teenager years

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October 25, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

Archives for October 2019

LARRYGRAMS – Blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF NOVEMBER 1ST

W. S. HOLLAND

Oct 29, 2015 06:03 pm | Larry Adamson

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Where is your favorite place to play golf?