July 27th Birthdays

Today is my 31st birthday. A few years ago I took a look back at some of the important events that took place on July 27th. This year I thought I’d take a look at some famous people who share my birthday, in order from youngest to oldest.

Alex Rodriguez

Born: 1975
MLB baseball player (shortstop, third base). He has played for the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees


Maya Rudolph

Born: 1972
She is an actress who was a regular on "Saturday Night Live" from 1999-2007 and has also appeared in several movies.


Jerry Van Dyke

Born: 1931
He is an actor who is most famous for his roll as an assistant coach on the television show "Coach" and is also the brother of Dick Van Dyke


Joseph Bert Tinker

Born: 1880
Death: 1948-07-27
"Hall of Fame" MLB baseball player (shortstop). He played for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds (player-manager). During his career, he won 4 pennants and led NL in fielding for shortstops 5 times. He later managed the Cubs and worked for Chicago of the Federal League.

Nobody of any real historical significance on this list, so I’ll have to see what I can do about that.

Television

I would defiantly say I am a bit of a TV junkie. I have all ten seasons of “Friends” on DVD, six seasons of “Scrubs” and couple of seasons of “The Office”.
This last year though I expanded my horizons and added a couple of new shows to my favorites. It’s no coincidence that they both air on Thursday nights on NBC the same as “The Office”. I suppose I started watching them just to fill the time until it came on but while doing so these shows have really grown on me.

First is “Community”. It’s about a group of seven students from all different walks of life who join a Spanish study group at Greendale Community College. They become a very diverse group of friends and the show centers around their experiences at college.




Big Name Star:

Chevy Chase stars as Pierce, a man whose life experience has brought him infinite wisdom, or so he thinks.

“30 Rock” is about Liz Lemon the self destructing head writer for comedy sketch show, “TGS With Tracy Jordan”, who is forced to work with a group of needy actors/celebrities, a group of needy and socially awkward writers and her boss a prim and proper CEO. While trying to lead this group Liz also has various comical struggles with her personnel life which seem to become less personnel and more public at work.
This show came recommended by my friends Marc and Hali and they were definitely right about it.

Big Name Stars:
Alec Baldwin plays network executive Jack Donaghy


Tracy Morgan plays wild and unpredictable movie star Tracy Jordan


Tina Fey is executive producer, head writer and plays the self destructing head writer Liz Lemon

If you’re looking for some thing new to watch these two shows come highly recommended.

Day At The Beach

So it wasn’t really a whole day, nor was it an actual beach. Ariane, Lucy and I went and spent a couple of hours at Lagoon-A-Beach, Lagoon’s water park, last week. They have a kids area with some small water slides and a lazy river to float along.

At first Lucy seemed a little skittish of the water. After a few rides down some water slides and some time to splash around in the water she became quite accustomed to it and really had a good time.

St. Louis Cardinals

Many of you are probably aware that I am a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. From the flag flying outside my house during baseball season, the rug just inside my house, the sheets on my bed, the clothes I buy for me and my family, the collection of memorabilia in my family room and the family picture where everyone is wearing cardinals shirts, I am a big supporter of the Cardinals baseball franchise.




What many of you may not know is how I became I St. Louis fan. It all started when I was 5 years old. My first little league team was the St. Louis Cardinals, which my helped coach. This was the first time I ever cared or aligned my self with any sort of team in any sport.

That next summer my family took a trip back to the Midwest to see my grandparents who were serving a mission in Nauvoo IL. Along the way we stopped in St. Louis to see some of the sights. My Dad took my brother Tyler and I to a game in St. Louis, it was my first major league game. We watched the Cardinals drop a game to the pirates 3-2 at old Busch Stadium. I was still really excited to watch the Cardinals play, my Dad bought me a pennant which I still have today (in the picture of my collection it's on the top left), I wore my Cardinals shirt from little league and Dad had to buy Tyler a Cardinals shirt because he was worried that nobody would know he was cheering for the Cardinals.

On my way out to South Carolina for my mission we had a lay over in the St. Louis airport just after Mark McGuire brooke the home run record.


The Cardinals have had a very rich and excellent history. The Cardinals were founded in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings; they joined the National League in 1892 and have been known as the Cardinals since 1900. The Cardinals have won a National League record 10 World Series championships, second only to the New York yankees.

St. Louis has had many famous players on their team.

There was the Gas House Gang of 1934 a group of underdogs that won the World Series.
Stan Musial (Stan the Man) 1941- 1963. Three time MVP

Lou Brock, 1964-1979. Second all-time in stolen bases with 938
Currently they have Albert Pujols, also a three time MVP

But my favorite player growing up was the Cardinals short stop Ozzie Smith. He’s a hall of fame member who won 13 gold glove awards and appeared in 15 all-star games. He was even on an episode of the Simpsons.

The Cardinals have won two World Series Championships during my lifetime. The first was in 1982, when I was 3 and didn’t care about baseball. Finally in 2006 they won the whole thing and I was ecstatic. Much like these players were.

I certainly am lucky that my first little league team was the Cardinals. I could only imagine how miserable my life would be if I had begun my baseball days with the Kansas City Royals.

Manute Bol

This last week the NBA lost a legend. No not Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. Manute Bol a 7’7” center from Sudan died Saturday from a kidney disease. He was 47 years old
Manute entered the NBA in 1985. He played for Washington, Golden State, Philadelphia and Miami during his 10 year career.
As a kid I always thought that Manute was really a site to behold when I saw him play on TV. At least half a foot taller then the next tallest guy on the floor and probably weighed about as much as the shortest guy on the floor.

I will miss you Manute. The NBA was not the same with out you, though they did have Shawn Bradley for a while who fit the same mold as Manute only he was white. Perhaps some day he can be honored with a spot in the basket ball hall fame, though that seems unlikely since he wasn’t really that great of a player. His numbers weren't that great and really the only thing he was famous for was being the second tallest player in the NBA.

Manute the world seems empty with out you.
October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010
Please chech out the link, it's funny
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6ba60c4136/manute-bol-cruises?rel=player

Kansas City, 2010

Last week I took Ariane out to Kansas to meet my brother Tyler and his family. My parents also came with us.
We had a really good time and it was fun to spend some time with Tylers family. We had some famous Kansas City BBQ a couple of nights and it was great.

Ariane and I visited several museums during our trip. Like the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. No photos were allowed inside.
Out side they had a memorial to Charlie Parker a famous saxophonist from Kansas City.

Also located near by was the Negro League Baseball Museum.
This museum didn't allow any photos inside either but I did manage to get picture of Ariane in a Kansas City Monarchs hat.


There were museums where we could take pictures, like the National World War I museum in Kansas City.

I also got Ariane to try on another hat.

We went with my patents to the Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence MO this museum also allowed pictures to be taken.


We also visited the church sites in Independence, like the temple sit.


Tyler, Brooke and the boys joined all of us for a trip to Liberty MO to see the jail.


Ariane and I had a great time getting know Tyler's family. This was this first time I had met Braden, or as Britain calls him Mr. Braffey. He is a fun little guy.


Britain had his third birthday while we were out there. He had big party with presents, dinosaur cake and a pinata.





Ariane and I took in a couple of Kansas City Royals game while we there. We went with my parents to watch them play Angels, the roylas fell behind early but were able to mount a come back, unfortunatly they fell one run short.

A couple of nights later we went with Tyler and Brooke to watch the Royals take on the Detroit Tigers. The Royals ended up falling to the tigers 4-2.

In keeping with the museum theme of this trip the Royals have their own museum.

Full of all kinds of awards won by Royals players. The 1985 world series trophy

Cy Young Awards

Gold glove awards

A tribute to George Brett, considered the best player in Royals history

And George Bretts bat from the famous "Pine Tar" bat.

For those who don't know what this is check out this link it should explain it. Don't worry, they ended up giving him the home run and played the rest of the game a few days later and the Royals won. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFzGbM_g4Y