QUARANTINE BLOG # 284

January 8, 2021

Yesterday while I was posting QB 283, checking the formatting and inserting pictures, my mind wandered, and where it ended up caused me a great deal of mirth.  I was in Volgograd, Russia, looking at the statue of Родина-мать зовёт! – “The Motherland Calls,” and the next thing I knew I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 115 Federal Street, just outside of PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If you are standing at the front of the stadium, beside the statue of Honus Wagner, Mazeroski Way is on your right.  Walk down Mazeroski Way towards the Allegheny River and stop at a small park behind the traffic circle, just before the river.

That little park is dedicated to the only baseball player to ever hit a walk off home run in the 7th game of a World Series, Bill Mazeroski.  The picture below shows Maz swinging and the ball on its way out of Forbes Field – look to the right of the Longines clock, above “Official Watch.”  Bucs win!  Bucs win!  Bucs win!

On September 5, 2010, the Pirates dedicated and unveiled the Bill Mazeroski statue outside the right field gate at PNC Park during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Pirates 1960 World Championship season.  It is an iconic look of the Pirates second baseman taken from a photograph of him circling the bases after the ball cleared the wall behind left fielder for the Yankees, Yogi Berra.

And now you know where my mind went.  

But back to 1 Mazeroski Way.  When the Pirates were raising money to create the statue, they offered fans the chance to make a donation, with recognition for the gift.  We missed out on the chance to buy one of the bricks which makes up the walkway outside of PNC Park, but I jumped at the chance to buy a leaf for this project (The leaf was chosen because of the vine-covered wall at old Forbes Field).

I am touching our leaf (and wearing Steelers attire because we were in the ‘Burgh for a Steelers game).

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, “You know the rest of the story.”

And for those doubters, one especially who was 9 years old at the time of the 1960 World Series, there was no time warp.  Bucs win!  Bucs win!  Bucs win!

👉  Wednesday you watched the shameful and disgraceful behavior of disgruntled voters outside – and inside – the United States Capitol Buildings.  I was embarrassed by the call from soon-to-be former President Donald Trump for supporters to protest a legitimate election.  Protest, yes.  Riot, no.  This behavior is not America.  It is the action of nation states we have in the past called “banana republics.” 

“It’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said in a statement.

“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win,” Vice President Mike Pence said.  “Violence never wins.  Freedom wins.  And this is still the people’s house.”  He added: “Let’s get back to work.”

Courageously yesterday morning, Vice President Mike Pence took the gavel as president of the Senate and read the votes.  

The Wall Street Journal headlined, “Trump agrees to orderly transfer of power to Biden after day of turmoil at the Capitol.”

👉  And my mind went wandering again.  Look again at the photograph above of the protestors outside the Capitol.  The waving of the American flag at the left side of the picture reminded me of one of the most famous photographs from World War II – the Marines raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

Many have said, “I disagree with what you are saying, but I will support to the death your right to say it.”  Sacred blood has been shed to guarantee that right.  The First Amendment to the Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Wednesday was anything but “peaceably.”  We can do better.  Those actions are not the way!

👉  Today’s close is a 3 minute 40 second devotion on 1 Chronicles 7:14 – “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  The presentation is by “Bible Munch,” from SAYSF Bible Church (Seek And Ye Shall Find) in Lexington Park, Maryland.

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