Stuck

A brief story to detail my girl’s creativity.  One of the many words Sophie has developed a proficiency for is “stuck”.  Case in point:  A few weeks ago Garrett babysat Sophie solo for the first time.  He tells me this tale afterward:

They were playing with some building blocks in Sophie’s room, and Garrett builds a fortress with them (as any male should).  Sophie sticks her foot through it.  When she can’t pull it out, she looks at him with pleading eyes as says, of course, “Stuck!”  She apparently spends the rest of her day sticking her foot in various objects (like shoe boxes) and proclaiming her foot to be stuck.  My girl already has the damsel-in-distress down.  Watch out world.

So, to bring us to the present, Maren and I are slowly beginning the potty training process.  Every hour or so, we ask her if she needs to go potty, and she always does.  She loves that potty.  She will never turn down a chance to sit on the potty.  In fact, she gets all giggly when we ask.  (It’s also a good way to divert a crisis when she’s about to start crying because she didn’t get a cookie.)  Now, I don’t mean to be misleading.  We go to the potty fairly regularly, but very seldom have success.  So yesterday, we are having another go with the potty and encouraging her to pee-pee, reminding her to sit ON the potty.  After maybe 10 seconds of trying to pee, she looks at us and says “Stuck” and points to her lower anatomy.

I love my girl.

Right-Handed Hitters

I’m inspired by a quote from a sports reporter last week.  In the aftermath of the Manny Ramirez trade to the Dodgers, the writer was stunned that the Red Sox would trade “the greatest right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio.”  Instantly, I knew that couldn’t be true.  So, I’ve done a little informal research and compiled a list of what I consider to be the greatest right-handed hitters whose careers began after 1951 (the year DiMaggio retired).

1. Alex Rodriguez

2. Hank Aaron

3. Albert Pujols

4. Manny Ramirez

5. Frank Robinson

6. Vladimir Guerrero

7. Ernie Banks

8. Mike Schmidt

9. Roberto Clemente

10. Jeff Bagwell*

11. Mark McGwire*

12. Mike Piazza

13. Kirby Puckett

14. Cal Ripken

Honorable Mention:

Willie Mays’ rookie season was 1951.

*I turn a blind eye to steroids when it comes to childhood idols, so keep those comments to yourself.

Obviously, there are a few things one could conclude from my list.  First, I rank Manny a lot higher than I thought I would have.  Second, either I have a preference for the 60’s and 90’s/00’s players, or there was a dearth of good right-handed hitters in the 70’s and 80’s.  I am leaning toward the latter, so that I may appear more objective in my clearly subjective list.  So faithful baseball readers (I assume you are the only ones left reading by this point), are there any players overlooked/snubbed?  Disagree with my rankings?