the early 20’s are an adventurous time or they can be. travel to europe or south america or nepal. Work there. Learn about Buddhism or how to plant crops or both. There’s also working on a fish boat in alaska? I thought about that, but then learned that there was no doctor on board so it freaked me out, but still, I think they only work for three months, three long, 12 hour day summer months. store up enough money to last the entire winter or more than a winter, more like nine months to do whatever one wanted….. drink late, sleep late, eat some mushrooms. wander around town. pick a baseball team and play the entire 1972 strat-o-matic baseball season, learn how to cook some new dishes. join a gym and play basketball. quit drinking. go to bed early. wake up early. read a lot. join a cult. quit the cult.
there was also another work as little as possible technique that a guy told me. he would cut grass in June-July-August and then committ a misdemeanour, like robbing a 7/11 and get eight or nine months in prison, to be with friends …free rent, free food, and I guess a chance to write a manifesto and read a bunch of Philip Dick books.
I’ve never been on a fishing boat or in prison, but I do have a copy of Bill Lee’s Wrong Stuff. I have it in the paperback version. It’s small. Fits into my front pant work pocket. I carry it with me. Take a bathroom break and read a few pages. I do it with a few other baseball books like George Plimpton’s One For the Record, a book about Aaron’s breaking of Ruth’s record. I wish i had more small, paperback baseball books to fit in my work pants. Anyway, in the Lee book, he was writing about Tony Conigliaro on page 46. Tony hit a home run against Seattle and “wrenched a back muscle doing it” and had to be removed from the game. there was a pinch runner. Got me wondering. Who gets credited with the run scored? Tony C? The pinch runner? Both?
brewers baseball and things 
December 11, 2021 at 10:20 am
I dated a girl once for a short time who worked in a fish cannery for a summer. It was odd because she was a petite, indie rocker type who had no business being in a place like that with the rest of the meth heads, drunks and scumbags. I never got to know her well, but I guess she was the adventurous type who thought starting a band was boring.
A pinch runner on a home run is one thing I’ve never seen. I’m guessing that the runner gets credit for the run since the batter is being pulled. The magic of the internet tells me it happened with Benjie Molina a few years back and the pinch runner was credited with the run. Yes, baseball is weird.
December 11, 2021 at 10:43 am
Hey Gary, thanks for solving the run scoring conundrum! Molina has me thinking how incredible it is that there were three Molina brothers and all of them were catchers! I looked them up and it says they are the only three brothers to all have won a World Series.
I would think working in a cannery is tough, physical labor with long hours making it kind of a miracle that a drunk could do that job. I could see a meth head doing it, being pumped up all the time.
About a band. Always amazes me for a small group to spend that much time together, creating and getting a long. Then again, the Brian Jonestown Massacre had a reputation for beating the shit out of each other on stage, during shows.