Lenny Blythstra Returns

One of the many irretrievably personal items lost in the flood of 2008 in BFE was my Lenny Blythstra Cabbage Patch dolls given to me in the '80's. I was a big Mets fan and Cabbage Patch dolls were huge. They made one like the above dressed in a Mets uni. It came with a birth certificate and you had the option of naming your little guy (or girl). I liked a player named Lenny Dykstra who had had the nickname "Nails" because of his all-out hustle. As we later found out some of that was due to steroids, but that's another story. I named mine Lenny Blythstra.

Upon my return to St. Pete last week I received from my daughter a new Lenny sans Mets flag, but priceless nonetheless. Thanks Kenze.

Replacing my ball glove with Rusty Staub's personal autograph that I got in St. Louis might be a little tougher.

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Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless. Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001. It was one of those things that can generate crime: two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job. Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things. Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold. But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find. His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead. He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds. He will be paralyzed for life. None of this is pleasant. Reading the f...

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Summer Swim

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Existing In BFE

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