There are two newspapers on my steps every morning. I read online, but there’s a special magic about reading a newspaper in its native form, so I do that too. One form complements the other.
Without my printed New York Times I wouldn’t have read two profiles, one an obituary, the other about a sports star ascending. I stumbled upon both while reading something unrelated.
You’d have to be a lot older than me to remember how Dr. joyce Brothers got on TV. She was there all my life, appearing as a psychologist, personality or playing herself tongue-in-cheek as an actor.
I did know her backstory. She was on the original $64,000 Question, the show at the center of the 50s quiz show scandal. Dr. Brothers was legit, though she learned her topic, “Boxing,” specifically to look ‘fish out of water’ to the producers.
Dr. Brothers quickly saw that the show prized incongruous matches of contestant and subject: the straight-backed Marine officer who was an expert on gastronomy; the cobbler who knew all about opera. What she decided, would be more improbable than a petite psychologist who was a pundit of pugilism? – NY Times obituary
The other profile was written about Felix Hernandez, King Felix of the Seattle Mariners.
Helaine and I watched Hernandez pitch while at Safeco Feld while in Seattle last summer.
I knew he was good, but not this good. He’d be a prominent national figure, if he played for a better team.
More important than his skill as a player is how he lives his life. He is a professional athlete who values happiness.
Why stay? Why Seattle? Why, when Roy Halladay went to Philadelphia and C. C. Sabathia joined the Yankees, when stars in all sports jump to more established contenders, did Hernandez not follow the same pattern?
The answer, in part, was pancakes.
For Hernandez, the choice came down to comfort. Comfort in his neighborhood, east of Seattle in the Bellevue suburbs, where his two children play in the local parks. Comfort in the direction being taken by the Mariners’ organization, its minor league teams laden with young talent. And comfort food at his favorite local eatery, Chace’s Pancake Corral, an unassuming joint that suits its most superstar of clients.
The two profiles were not Earth shattering. You will be a better person for reading them.
I’m a big newspaper fan.
Helaine and I have been together a long time. More on that next week. Like most couples… God, I hope most couples… we have little inside things only the two of us understand. Here’s an example.