Thoughts for the Day, May 5, 2025: Some weekends are better than others

Some weekends are better than others

Leah and I left for Brighton early Friday morning. We had a busy weekend planned. On Friday we saw the play “Footloose” at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. My granddaughter “Lex” is crew chief for “props” as part of the behind-the-scenes stage work. This is the fourth play I have attended at Pioneer, and I am amazed at the talent of the high school students and the overall quality of the production.

Saturday morning, we attended my youngest granddaughter Kaylen’s first communion at St. Pat’s in Brighton. The church was packed with young kids and proud parents and grandparents. We had lunch at Katy’s with food from Pita Way, which was perfect for the occasion. After relaxing for part of the afternoon, Leah and I with Katy, Brad and Kaylen, had dinner at Outback, which was Kaylen’s choice. This was followed by Kaylen coming to our motel for an evening swim.

Sunday was Leah’s birthday and Katy made reservations for brunch at Bourbons on Main Street in Brighton. Katy and her family showed up with balloons, gifts and cake as we celebrated Leah’s birthday with a perfect brunch. I highly recommend Bourbons if you have not been there before.

After brunch, Leah and I headed back to Petoskey feeling wonderful and proud of our family. Leah and I celebrated her birthday tonight with dinner at Bay Harbor. Leah didn’t mind at all that it was a day late.

As I said, some weekends are better than others. This weekend was outstanding for Leah and me.

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Nic Lentz’s Perfect Game

On Wednesday the Royals and Rays got to experience what it would be like to have a robot for an umpire, because umpire Nic Lentz was basically a robot for a night.

That's right — he called a perfect game. He called 129 out of 129 pitches correctly

For just the third time since Umpire Scorecards began tracking balls and strikes in 2015, there was a perfectly called game. The other two perfect games were called by Pat Hoberg in the 2022 World Series and Mark Ripperger on April 10 (also a Royals game).

Nic, 35, is from Hartland Michigan. He made his major league debut in 2016 at the age of 26. In 2020 at the age of 30, he was named a full-time MLB umpire and was one of the youngest umpires in MLB history.

I first met Nic at Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp when he was in high school as part of the MHSAA Legacy program. He completed professional umpire school as an 18-year-old and then became part of the SEMUC staff. During those early years he was shy and quiet, but he knew what he was doing, and he was not afraid to answer questions and provide feedback to us old-timers. It has been fun watching Nic develop into the umpire he is today. Look for him in the post season for many years to come.

Nic gets my Orchid of the Day

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Riley Green’s perfect inning

On Friday, Riley Greene of the Detroit Tigers had a perfect ninth inning, as he became the first MLB player to hit two home runs in the ninth inning of an MLB game as the Tigers scored eight runs in the inning, which included four homeruns by the Tigers. In addition to Greene’s two homers, Colt Keith and Javy Baez also homered.

Greene was only the third Tiger to ever have two homeruns in an inning. The others were Al Kaline and Magglio Ordonez.

Riley Green gets a Second Orchid of the Day. See my Video of the Day

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He wants to be king, dictator and now Pope.

Just when I think he cannot do anything more offensively, he does something else.

Over the weekend, Trump would not say that he is required to honor the constitution, even though it is part of his oath of office. Normally, that would fill a whole blog for me.

His posting of a picture of himself as Pope last week was despicable. He says it was a joke. Even if it was a joke, it shows the immaturity and lack of empathy of Trump as a human being.

At a time, when Catholics worldwide are mourning the loss of their Pope and are just beginning the process of selecting a new Pope, Trump must bring attention to himself. The president is a hopeless narcissist. He cannot stand it if someone else gets more attention than he does.

We must believe him when he says he wants to be dictator. We must believe him when he says he wants to run for a third term. We must believe him when he says he wants to be Pope. Donald Trump wants to be the most powerful person in the world, and he will do anything and everything to make it happen.

One thing I know is that he does not want to be President of the U.S. The president takes an oath of office as follows:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Trump has shown since January 6, 2021, he has no intention of honoring the oath of office he took on January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2025. He reaffirmed it this weekend.

Please call your members of Congress today. The U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re from and the operator will connect you to your representatives and senators. I tested this out today. It is very simple. They will ask for the congress member you want to contact. They will then switch you to that office.

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Quote of the Day: Can he ump every game for every team from now on? Twitter follower after Nic Lentz’s perfect game.

Orchid of the Day: Nic Lentz for umpiring a perfect game calling correctly all 129 pitches.

Second Orchid of the Day: Riley Greene for being the first MLB player in history to hit two homeruns in the ninth inning of an MLB game.

Onion of the Day: No Onion when I give two Orchids.

Lyrics of the Day: Say you don't know me or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night

If you think you know the answer, feel free to send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to Lyrics of the Day for April 30, 2025: We Built this City by Starship

Question of the Day: How much more can Trump embarrass the Republicans in Congress before they stand up and say enough is enough?

Video of the Day: NO PLAYER in MLB history had ever hit 2 homers in the 9th inning of a game ... until Riley Greene 😳