Disneys 11, Stars 3
contributed by NeilT
Yesterday Kris and I drove from Houston to Vernon for my 40th high school reunion. We didn’t leave Houston until noon, and didn’t get to Vernon until after 7:00. We hit the cold front right after we stopped in West for Kolaches, and by the time we got to Wichita Falls the temperature had dropped to the low 60s.
We stayed long enough at homecoming to see the homecoming queen crowned, and left in the 3rd quarter with Vernon beating Burkburnett 21-0. Burkburnett had the bigger band, and still had a drill team. If you read Empire of the Summer Moon, and if you haven’t you should, Burk Burnett was the West Texas rancher who took Teddy Roosevelt to meet Quanah Parker, the son of Cynthia Ann Parker. Quanah, the town, is still 30 miles further west. Cynthia Ann Parker was recaptured from the Comanches in 1860 by Texas Rangers on the Pease River between here and Crowell, though neither Vernon nor Quanah nor Crowell were here yet, because as a rule the Comanches were almost as effective a group of savages as the Texas Rangers—not the baseball team.
Anyway we left the homecoming game to go to the class party at my classmate Terry’s house just as the Astros game was starting. Terry is a pharmacist, and you’ll recall that his dad had City Pharmacy, and then the Gibson’s Pharmacy, and Terry has done a great re-do on a house on Tolar street, right across from where the Johnston’s lived. I plugged my phone into the car and Altuve was already on base with a single, and took second on what must have been the shortest wild pitch ever described on radio. Fowler singled, and Carter was intentionally walked. I made Kris sit in the car and listen until Castro K’d and then we went into the party. I checked the score a bit later and it was 3-zip on a Marisnick single and a Grossman single in the 2nd.
It turned out to be a fun party. I think Vernon is different than when I left. I suspect there’s not as much middle class, and a lot of the jobs are lower paid. There doesn’t seem the expectation that you grow up and go to UT or A&M or Tech, probably because college is really expensive. You’d think that 40 years would have brought progress, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened. The kids at the football game seemed rougher, and poorer, and less educated, but who knows, maybe we did too. Maybe that’s everywhere.
But I really liked talking to my classmates 40 years on. We talked about who wasn’t there and why, and wished there were name tags, and I liked people, which wasn’t necessarily the case 40 years ago. The Peirzynski kid was still a bit scary, but I’ve learned that’s a family trait.
I gather Oberholtzer pitched three-up-three-down through the third, but I checked the score at midnight when we got back to our room and the game had ended 11-3. The Disney’s scored 2 in the 4th, with one on a Villar missed catch error, and 7 in the 5th, all after a one-out Marisnick fielding error. Oberholtzer was replace by Jorge DeLeon—who the hell is Jorge DeLeon?—after the first 3 runs in the 5th. Defuno replaced DeLeon for the final out in the inning. It was not a quality start for Oberholtzer. The Disneys scored 2 in the bottom of the 6th on a Kendrick double that drove in Captain Nemo and Grimhilde.
This was the bottom of the 7th:
Defensive Substitution: Alex Presley replaces center fielder Dexter Fowler, batting 3rd, playing center field.
Defensive Substitution: Max Stassi replaces catcher Jason Castro, batting 5th, playing catcher.
Defensive Substitution: Gregorio Petit replaces third baseman Matt Dominguez, batting 7th, playing third base.
Defensive Substitution: Marc Krauss replaces first baseman Jon Singleton, batting 8th, playing first base.
Pitching Change: Michael Foltynewicz replaces Samuel Deduno.
I suspect that at this point the front office suspected a blow-out, and had decided that the zen thing to do was go with it. This is what happened at the top of the 8th:
Tony Campana remains in the game as the center fielder.
Defensive Substitution: John McDonald replaces center fielder Mike Trout, batting 2nd, playing shortstop.
Defensive Substitution: John Buck replaces third baseman David Freese, batting 5th, playing catcher.
Gordon Beckham remains in the game as the third baseman.
Defensive switch from left field to right field for Collin Cowgill.
Pitching Change: Juno Diaz replaces Vinnie Pestano
I knew Juno Diaz was Dominican, but I didn’t know he played for the A’s.
The Battle of the Pease River wasn’t much of a battle. It was a small camp of Comanche, about 20, mostly women and children, and their was the obligatory massacre, this time by the Texans. Cynthia Ann Parker did not repatriate well, and died in the 1870s of the flu. It’s a story that kids from my time and place grew up with, and there was Quanah Parker’s lumberyard here in Vernon owned by one of Quanah Parker’s grandchildren named Quanah Parker. That’s not surprising apparently, because the elder Parker had about 20 wives, even after the last of the Comanche finally moved to the reservation and even when Roosevelt visited.
I had fun at my high school reunion. Never having been to one, there was stuff I learned from my 40th high school reunion that I didn’t know. 40 years on, I mostly remember things and people fondly, and I don’t remember the errors so much except as anecdotes. Stuff was important to others that I’d mostly forgotten, and people who I’d forgotten and otherwise are good people. One guy has 15 grandchildren. One girl would do nothing different except that she wouldn’t be a high school cheerleader. A girl who’s a massage therapist nailed the spot on my shoulder. One guy spent half the evening showing Kris pictures of fish on his iphone, and finally convinced her that I should go to Belize for fishing. Today I’m going to hang out with Monte and try to play jazz guitar to his trumpet, and Easley to play Beatles songs. I’m pretty sure that I won’t remember any of this 40 years from now, but I’m pretty sure I won’t remember this game 40 days from now, and that’s just how things work.
