By: J. Daniel Pearson
For Positively Osceola
It’s been more than 24 hours and I am still trying to digest the end of the Penn State-Illinois game. While some of the guys that were sitting around the 19th hole Saturday kept gushing how exciting it was, I was thinking more about how incompetent both teams were on offense, especially after they moved the ball to the three-yard line after the second overtime period. The two teams combined for just one conversion on 14 attempts and many of those came with quarterbacks missing wide open receivers. To tell the truth, I found it more “sad” than “compelling”…
Saw a gas sign that read 3.89 and got to thinking that was basically “summa cum laude” gas. I liked it a lot better when we had “academic probation” gas at 1.49….
Question for Dodgers fan….What was your manager Dave Roberts thinking when he decided to pitch to Eddie Rosario in the fourth inning of game 6 vs. the Braves? Yes, Freddie Freeman is an all-star and a great player, but you also had first base open and a left hander ready in the pen to pitch to Freeman and yet you decide to pitch to a guy who was hitting a blistering .706 (12 of 17) in the series? How did that work out for you?…
The 17th Annual Soldier City Classic between St. Cloud and Harmony highlights the high school football schedule this weekend in Osceola County and although the Longhorns will be heavily favored, local fans may want to get out to the game just to watch one of the best running backs in the region. Harmony’s Tyler Emans ran for 191 yards and five touchdowns last week against East River last week and has 1327 rushing yards and 27 total touchdowns –both school records –in his first eight games this season. This kid is fun to watch…
For the last three weeks NFL pundits have continued to insist that the Kansas City Chiefs were the most talented team in the AFC, the three previous losses were nothing more than a fluke, and they would eventually figure things out. Err…I am beginning to think opposing defenses have started to figure Mahomes out, the Chiefs defense is not very good, and just perhaps, the Chiefs are nothing more than an average team this year. Not to say they can’t get hot and make a run, I just don’t think they are instilling a lot of fear and dread in their opponents right now…
Playing golf the other day with a couple of guys and we come up to a Par 3, 175 yards all carry over water. My buddy steps up and plops one in the middle of the pond and just starts laughing. He does it a second and third time and just keeps giggling. He goes back to the cart, comes back and hits ball numbers 4,5, and 6 in the water, laughing hysterically after every shot. I finally look at him and say “What’s so funny, you just hit a half a dozen new Pro V1s in the lake?” He looks at me and says…”I’m taking them out of your bag”….
Lot of neat things in sports this past weekend, but none better than Tom Brady acknowledging a young fan in the stands that was holding a sign “Tom Brady helped me beat brain cancer.” Brady handed him a hat and shook his hand…
During the ALCS I heard the announcer use the old phrase “Can of Corn” to describe an outfielder catching a routine fly ball and got to thinking about the origin of the phrase. Where did it come from? I’ve been a baseball fan for well over 50 years and have heard the phrase since I was a kid so I did a little research and found two of the most likely origins. One possible explanation was baseball announcers back in the 20s and 30s often described the outfield as a “cornfield”, possibly in tribute to the many baseball fields in small towns being located next to farmlands. Another explanation was in the 1930s, corn was the most popular canned vegetable in grocery stores and shop keepers would stack them high up on shelves to keep from having to go back to the store room to restock. When customers wanted a can, the grocers would knock one off the top of the shelf with a stick and deftly catch them in their hand or apron. When an outfielder needed little effort to catch a flyball, it apparently reminded a radio announcer of a grocer catching a can of corn off the top shelf and the phrase was born and is still used today…
Definition of a Florida Subdivision: A place where they cut down every tree in sight and then name the streets after them…
Y’all Have a Great Week.
By: J. Daniel Pearson
For Positively Osceola
J. Daniel Pearson, a long-time resident of Osceola County, has joined Positively Osceola as a freelance contributor. His JD’s Monday Morning Musings column are a regular feature and he will be covering events for us throughout the year. Dan is a former Public Relations Specialist for Florida State University, Boardwalk and Baseball, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Orlando Predators, and other professional sports teams and has been a freelance reporter to many newspapers in the state.
