Author / admin

by admin

Prolific Authors – 19 Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 1xx books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the lone author I’ve read 19 times, starting in 2018.

Karin Slaughter

In March of 2018, I was flying to Las Vegas for the IBM Think conference and I clicked open Pretty Girls, a standalone work by Karin Slaughter, which had been on the Kindle for a while. Little did I know that I would average close to three books per year for the next seven years.

After That Night – Karin Slaughter

The following year, I jumped into her Will Trent series, accidentally starting with the eighth entry The Kept Woman.  I worked my way through that series, becoming current in 2023.  That summer, I went back to her older Grant County series, having some familiarity with characters who had crossed over.  Earlier this year, I knocked off Pieces of Her, which was adapted by Netflix for a show in 2022 and has a sequel waiting for me.  On top of all that, she has a new series which started in August.  I imagine she may take the top spot next time I run through this list.

 

by admin

Nationals All Time Leaders – Through 2025

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With the hot stove in full swing, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals began life in 1969 as the Montreal Expos.  When the Expos missed out on their best opportunity to win a World Series due to the work stoppage of 1994, followed by years of alleged mismanagement, fan support dropped away, and the team moved to Washington in 2005.  I’ve seen 151 players suit up for the franchise in the 18 times I’ve seen them play, five as the Expos and thirteen times now as the Nationals, most recently in 2021.

Home Runs

Name Total
Danny Espinosa 2
Terrmel Sledge 2
Trea Turner 1
Adam LaRoche 1
Tony Batista 1
Michael A. Taylor 1
Vladimir Guerrero 1
Juan Soto 1

Hits

Name Total
Maicer Izturis 6
Ryan Zimmerman 6
Trea Turner 6
Juan Soto 6

Runs

Name Total
Trea Turner 5
Juan Soto 4
Maicer Izturis 3
Ian Desmond 3
Juan Rivera 3
Nyjer Morgan 3
Brad Wilkerson 3

RBI

Name Total
Terrmel Sledge 5
Michael A. Taylor 4
Danny Espinosa 3
Brian Schneider 3
Tony Batista 3
Trea Turner 3

Doubles

Name Total
Juan Rivera 2
20 tied with 1

Triples Continue reading →

by admin

Book 58 (of 52) – The Postmortal

The Postmortal – Drew Magary

When a cure for aging is discovered, humanity has to deal with the repercussions of elongated life spans and the strain that causes on natural resources.  One man finds that, despite near-immortality, he still suffers incalculable loss after loss.  When the end finally comes, is he finally ready to say goodbye?

The Postmortal, the debut novel from Defector blogger Drew Magary, tackles the question of what purpose does life serve if it never ends.  What does marriage look like when “til death do us part” is a much longer commitment?  Where does God fit in if man is able to control his own lifespan?  These are intriguing questions and, while the execution isn’t 100% spot on, it is good enough to convey an interesting tale.

by admin

Fitbit XI – Week 43

A down week as the first signs of winter arrived.  Four steps kept me from reaching 3600 steps on Sunday as the first signs of snow for the season showed up.  A nightly dusting made for a white Monday and left me 27 steps shy of 3600.  Tuesday ended up being the high point of the week, despite needing another 7 steps to reach 4200.  Things dropped back down again on Wednesday, falling 4 steps shy of 4000.  Thursday wrapped up with 3800 steps.  Another 35 steps on Friday would have given me 3900.  A lazy Saturday wrapped up the week with 3600 steps.

Total steps: 26,671

Daily average: 3810.1

by admin

All Season Pitching Leaders – Through 2025

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles DodgersLast week, we took our first look at the offensive leaders per season since 2019.  Today, we do the same with the pitchers for all of the games I’ve attended from 1984 through the 2025 season.  As with the hitters, there is little change from our first look after the 2011 season, but the time was right for another perusal of the stats.  We start with that most maligned pitching stat:

Wins

Year Name Total
2008 Mark Buehrle 8
2003 Matt Clement 6
2006 Freddy Garcia 6
2003 Mark Prior 6
2004 Greg Maddux 6
2005 Mark Buehrle 6
2008 Gavin Floyd 6

Losses

Year Name Total
2003 Kerry Wood 6
2008 Javier Vazquez 6
2003 Matt Clement 5
2004 Greg Maddux 5
2011 Gavin Floyd 5
2005 Greg Maddux 5
2017 Jose Quintana 5
2019 Ivan Nova 5

ERA (> 8 IP)

Year Name Total
1987 Floyd Bannister 0.00
2000 Livan Hernandez 0.00
1997 Wilson Alvarez 0.00
2001 Jeff Fassero 0.00
Continue reading →
by admin

2026 Hall Of Fame Ballot – The Holdovers

Monday, the BBWAA released their ballot for the Hall of Fame class of 2026.  The results of the vote are due to be revealed on January 20th, with induction taking place July 26th.  CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, and Billy Wagner were elected in last year’s voting, leaving fifteen holdovers along with another twelve newcomers.

Today, let’s take a look at the fifteen returning candidates.

Bobby Abreu
Years on ballot: 6
2025 Percentage: 19.5

A slight increase for Abreu, who has a long way to go and not a lot of time to do it.

Carlos Beltran
Years on ballot: 3
2025 Percentage: 70.3

A big bump in his third go-around for Beltran means the “punishment” for his role in the Astros cheating scandal might just be about to come to an end.

Mark Buehrle
Years on ballot: 5
2025 Percentage: 11.4

Buehrle keeps bouncing up and down but lives to fight another day in his uphill climb to make it to Cooperstown.

Felix Hernandez
Years on ballot: 1
2025 Percentage: 20.6

A decent debut for Hernandez, who dominated but didn’t put up the traditional numbers and flamed out rather young.

Torii Hunter
Years on ballot: 5
2025 Percentage: 5.1

A big decrease left Hunter barely remaining on the ballot for another year.

Andruw Jones
Years on ballot: 8
2025 Percentage: 66.2

Jones keeps trending in the right direction but only has two elections left to make up the remaining 9%.

Dustin Pedroia
Years on ballot: 1
2025 Percentage: 11.9

A nice debut for Pedroia, but he has a long way to go if he’s going to make it to Cooperstown.

Andy Pettitte
Years on ballot: 7
2025 Percentage: 27.9

Continue reading →

by admin

And I Would Walk 500 More

With Purdue’s victory Sunday night over Akron, Matt Painter notched the 500th victory of his coaching career.  He had 25 wins with Southern Illinois before returning to Purdue and replacing Gene Keady in 2005, where he has racked up 475 victories.  Keady ended his career with 550 career victories, 512 of which came at Purdue.

Painter becomes the 16th active head coach to amass 500 wins, reaching the milestone in the seventh-fewest games.  He will look to build on that total later this week as Purdue competes in the Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas.

by admin

Prolific Authors – 17 Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 1xx books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with our penultimate entry and the lone author I’ve read 17 times, who was at the top of this list two years ago.

Nancy Holder

My former most prolific author first came to my attention in 1998, when I read Halloween Rain, her first entry, along with Christopher Golden, in the series of books based on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Twelve of her 17 entries, all of which are tie-ins to either Buffy and/or Angel, were read between 1998 and 2002.  After a nine-year layoff, she returned to my attention in 2011 with Carnival of Souls.

The Book Of Fours – Nancy Holder

Another five years went by, before she returned again with two books in 2016, one in 2018, and then, finally, one in 2021.  Seeing as I have depleted my backlog of Buffy novels, she’s likely to stay put for the foreseeable future, unless someone re-releases these cheaply on the Kindle.

by admin

Orioles All Time Leaders – Through 2025

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With the hot stove in full swing, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles began life in 1901 as the Milwaukee Brewers, one of the charter members of the American League.  They moved to St. Louis the following year, becoming the Browns, before finally arriving in Baltimore in 1954.  I’ve seen 243 players wearing an Orioles uniform in the 41 of their games that I’ve attended live at six different ballparks, including the original Comiskey Park and their current home of Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Home Runs

Name Total
Manny Machado 4
Brian Roberts 3
7 tied with 2

Hits

Name Total
Brian Roberts 31
Nick Markakis 17
Melvin Mora 14
Adam Jones 14

Runs

Name Total
Brian Roberts 17
Nick Markakis 8
Melvin Mora 8
Luke Scott 8
Adam Jones 8

RBI

Name Total
Brian Roberts 12
Manny Machado 9
Nick Markakis 8
Luke Scott 8

Doubles

Name Total
Brian Roberts 6
Adam Jones 5
Melvin Mora 4

Triples Continue reading →

by admin

Book 57 (of 52) – Lost Witness

Lost Witness – Rebecca Forster

Returning to Hermosa Beach after three years, Billy Zuni shows up on Josie’s doorstop with an exceptional story: a murder has occurred on a ship unloading at the Port of Los Angeles and there’s an injured girl who needs to be rescued.  When the Port Authority and the LAPD don’t take the story seriously, Billy looks for other ways to get back to that ship and rescue his friend.

In 2013, I came across a free eBook in the Kindle store, the first entry in Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates series.  At some point, I got a good deal on the full series and have been slowly working through them since 2021.  Lost Witness, the eighth entry in the series, is the final one in my collection.  At some point, exciting local law cases gave way to over-the-top national and international incidents that just so happened to involve our local heroes.  This was probably my least favorite outing, with Josie and Archer pushed mostly to the side in favor of Billy and his new boat friends.  There is one more novel in the series, released after my bulk collection was released, but I don’t know that I’ll bother at this point, unless I can find it at the library.