Hello all. It sounds like a day late and a dollar short but I did try to post on Saturday the 6th, just before post time of the Derby. Unfortunately, there was a server problem and I failed to save the post.
THE DERBY
My picks for the Derby were only a Triple Box wager of horses 2-Steppenwolfer, 5-Point determined, 8-Barbaro, and 10-A.P. Warrior. If you were to ask my friends Kevin Koehler and Brian Van Alstyne, they would tell you that I picked Barbaro earlier in the week. The early odds on this horse had been 12-1. I never like favorites in this race, so I look for a horse that would pay something. Well, as it turned out, Barbaro went off at 7-1 (I believe) and ended up being one of the favorites. Pretty high odds for a favorite, wouldn't you agree? If I had played an Exacta, it would have been Barbaro and Steppenwolfer. So, it's a good thing I didn't actually bet, cause I would have lost the Exacta, cause Steppenwolfer finished 3rd, and I wouldn't have had the Triple, because a huge longshot finished 2nd. But I did love Barbaro and had I bet him to win.....
LIVING LUCKY
I have determined from a lifetime of study and observation that there are those people in our society who actually live lucky. What does that mean? That's someone who always seems to hit their bets when they need to, realize a profit whenever they make an investment, or just happen to be in the right place at the right time consistently. For those of us who live a normal life and need to either make our own luck by persevering, in order to take the luck factor out of the equation, watching someone who LIVES LUCKY can be very frustrating. When the person is someone we're friends with, we are generally happy for their success, hoping to occasionally ride their coattails to win for ourselves, and hoping NOT to jinx them by giving them bad luck because we are what's known as the MUSH. If the person who is living lucky is someone that you don't like, then you spend endless hours trying to root them down and hoping with every fiber of your being that they lose miserably. Unfortunately, this is kind of making what's called a maloic (spelling is probably wrong---the word is pronounced "muh-loyk"), thus bringing more bad luck on to yourself. It's a viscious cycle. Anyway...
The reason I bring this up, is that one of my closest friends, Kevin Koehler, who I work with at Amtrak, and is the godfather of my oldest son Connor, is one of these people who lives lucky. Though I know he studies the sports page on a daily basis, I don't know if he's any more talented a handicapper for horseracing, or prognosticator in other sporting fields, than any other guy who does the same stuff. I remarked to my wife, Patty, that the payout for the Triple at the end of the Derby was $11,400. We both said "Wow," and then she followed it offhandedly with, "Watch, Kevin probably hit it." Sunday afternoon, like clockwork, I get a phone call from my pal Kev, who proceeds to tell me that yes, in fact, he had played a series of $1 Triple wagers, one of which was a 8-13-2 combination and hit for half of the payout, so around $5500. He also had $20 to Win on Barbaro, which paid, like, $14.60, so he won another $140. Kevin was able to hear Patty's screams of "I KNEW IT! IF ANYBODY HIT IT, IT WAS GONNA BE HIM! I KNEW IT!" I know, you're saying. "Right." Buth this is about as true as it gets. For those of you who know me, you probably know Kevin, so go ask him. Is it better to be lucky than skilled? In some things, yes, absolutely. Not in poker. Skill usually wins out. But what's best is to be skilled AND lucky. That would be my friend Kevin. This is the minute tip of the iceberg for this guy. Actually it's the cherry on the sundae of life for this guy. We're left feeling VERY happy for him, but would like to know if everyone could experience the "Lucky Life" once in a blue moon. You know...a month or two of outrageous luck, before going back to our lives of mediocrity. Oh well, we can dream can't we?
BARRY BONDS PURSUES BABE RUTH
Love him or hate him, and judging by what I hear most people say, you hate him, we all know Barry Bonds is a Hall-Of-Famer. If he hit all those homers over the last 6-10 years because he was on steroids, then I think his records, and those of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have to be given the asterisk treatment. It may be time to acknowledge that, just like the "Dead Ball" Era and the "Juiced Ball" Era, that we need to make room for a "Steroid" Era for the sake baseball record integrity.
I would like to say one thing about Bonds. I have never been a fan. He started out with the Pirates in a time when Pittsburgh was the main rival in the NL East to my beloved NY Mets. However, I could never deny the fact that he was an awesome talent. He won a few MVP awards before steroids came into the picture. He was going to the Hall anyway. The thing about steroids that no one ever seemed to mention was, yes, it gives you alot more strength, but you STILL have to be able to put the bat on the ball. I mean, all the juice in the world isn't going to let you hit 60 HR's if you're striking out 200 times and hitting grounders. You gotta hit. Is it a racial issue that makes everyone want to see Bonds fail? Alot of people are saying that. But I believe it's just because Bonds is an unlikeable fellow, who has always been arrogant, surly and aloof. No one wants to see a pain-in-the-ass break the most hallowed record in sports. And although Henry Aaron received death-threats and alot of racial hate mail when he was chasing the Babe, I think most people were thrilled to be watching this pursuit and were really rooting for the guy because he seemed to be a regular fellow and good teammate.
The real shame of this chase, in my opinion, is that the guy who should be approaching the record, who never took steroids, was the BEST player in the 90's, and was well-liked will never be mentioned in the same breath because he went through a series of injuries that decimated his career numbers. His name is Ken Griffey Jr. And if you were watching any baseball in the 90's, you know that Griffey was head and shoulders above the rest of baseball. He was an awesome talent, and if you see him now, when he's healthy, you can see the brilliance that once was, because when he's healthy, he's still got it. Earlier this year he passed Mickey Mantle on the All-Time home run list. Unfortunately, with in a week of that accomplishment, he go hurt again, reminding us of what could have been if not for.... Griffey wasn't a juice-head, is well liked, talks to people, and was the closest thing to Willie Mays since the Say Hey Kid left the game. He'll get into the Hall-Of-Fame with no problem. But it would have been nice to see him getting cheered on, like we cheered on McGwire and Sosa, as he pursued immortality. My hat will always be off to Ken Griffey Jr. However, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Rafael Palmiero can all go pound salt, in my opinion.
THE SAUCE SITE, BABY!!
Well everyone, it's finally a reality. www.thesaucesite.com is up and running. If you are a lover of hot sauces, barbecue sauces, pasta sauces, dessert sauces, or any other kind of cooking sauce, I invite you to visit my new website. On it you will find links to recipes, sites for retailers of all sorts of different kinds of sauce, and articles about sauces.
UNFORTUNATELY, I am having trouble getting my new LOGO to load properly onto the site, so forgive me if it's not the most visually stimulating site to look at, YET. But please DO visit the site and bookmark it so you can go back whenever you need to check something out in the land of sauce. Whether you're looking for a new kind of pasta sauce to make for dinner, or you'd like to find a barbecue sauce that's not sold in the grocery store because you're bored with what's out there, or you're having friends over and want to thrill them with a new sauce for wings, you can find it all at www.thesaucesite.com As time goes on I will contribute some thoughts on sauce to the site, so please sign up for future newsletters.
And hey, please email friends on your address list and give them the link to the site. It's very easy to navigate and I'm sure there's something there for most everyone. I'll thank you in advance for the traffic. If you have a website and would like to link up, that option is available also.
Well, that's all for today, May 8, 2006. I hope to post more often, like daily, this week. Make sure to check it out. I'll leave you with this thought. Sometimes we all look for a mantra that we can chant when times are tough, to get us through the difficult periods. I find that by chanting "Len Is Right", usually does the trick. If you, too, would just try chanting "Len Is Right", "Len Is Right" during these rough times, these hard spots in your journey through life, I'm sure you will feel the healing powers that so many happy and successful people have already felt.
Until the next time, I am,
Len Tollerton
Be At Peace, my friends.
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