The Road Patrol

 When we visited an agriculture museum in Georgia a few years back, I came upon this piece of machinery called a "Road Patrol" which was simply a road grader. In the spring washboard roads developed on the township roads and the best way to smooth them out was to do it yourself. Greene Township in Ransom County had one and sometimes Dad would search it out from somebody's trees where it had been parked. I would drive the tractor pulling it and he stood on the rear platform operating the depth controls of the blade. Memories.

It Must Be Repeated

 

This was a post I'd placed on Facebook 9 years ago. It must be repeated, again and again.

RANDOM THOUGHTS - February 6, 2026

“It ain’t over until we say it’s over” a quote by an Epstein survivor after efforts to quiet the matter … A note in the Sheldon Enterprise, 1885: Our side tracks are full of freight cars, some of which contain large stocks of goods for Sheldon’s enterprising merchants … When did the word “weaponize” become a word? … 25 years ago the hottest movie was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, followed closely by The Fellowship of the Ring … Babe Ruth was born on this day in 1895 … I pick the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl by a touchdown … I’m ready to hear meadowlarks in the sandhills again … Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts … There was a time I did a lot of carving … 

My Take on Football

 Teams in this year’s Super Bowl have been selected, the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. NDSU speaks with pride over two of its recent players who have found a place on the Seahawks roster. It promises to be a good game along with all the hoopla that accompanies it, such as the half time entertainment and the advertising. Bad Bunny will entertain. I’d not heard of him before. As for commercials, my all-time favorite was the “Cat Herders” in 2000.

Some features of football are taken for granted, like the fact that each team consists of an offense and a defense. But that hasn’t always been so. In the early days of football, strict substitution rules meant team members played both offense and defense for the entire game. If taken out of the game a player could not return. Not until 1950 did free substitution become legal to open the way to specialty squads. Some other historical facts are fun to look at. The forward pass became legal in 1906; a field goal dropped from 4 points to 3 in 1909; a touchdown increased from 5 points to 5 in 1913; and in 1950, the 2 point option after a touchdown became approved.

Like baseball, we can dig up statistics and regulation minutiae all day long if we want. It’s the people, though, that interests me the most. Football players can be very entertaining. For instance, take one named John Riggins who joined the Washington Redskins as a free agent and achieved legendary status when named MVP of Super Bowl XVII.

Riggins apparently overindulged occasionally, like the time during a Washington Press Club dinner in 1985. Seated at the same table as Sandra Day O’Connor, the first lady Supreme Court Justice, he fell asleep during George H. W. Bush’s speech. Ending up falling from his chair he rolled under the table. Upon waking, he blurted out in his drunken haze, “Loosen up, Sandy, baby. You’re too tight.” They escorted him from the room. A few years later Justice O’Connor demonstrated that she held nothing against Riggins by presenting him with a dozen roses.

In 1969, a brash young quarterback named Joe Namath predicted his underdog team, the New York Jets, would beat the Baltimore Colts. Be darned if they didn’t, by a score of 16-7, marking one of the big upsets in sports history. The win was the first in the Super Bowl for the AFL, which merged with the NFL for the 1970 season. Namath suffered alcoholism, struggled after his football career, embarrassed himself, and sought treatment.

The Manning family produced some impressive football athletes. The father of the clan, Archie, came out of Ole Miss where he was an All-American quarterback and jointed the New Orleans Saints in 1971. His success earned him an invitation for two years to the pro bowl along with numerous other awards. We’re just getting started with the Mannings.

Archie and his wife had three sons, and two of them went on to football fame. Cooper, the oldest, had a physical disability called spinal stenosis for which doctors advised him not to play for fear of paralysis. Peyton played 18 seasons and led two different teams, Colts and Broncos, to Super Bowl wins. The other brother, Eli, led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories.

Big things are expected from a third generation Manning, Arch, son of Cooper, who plays quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He had two fine examples to follow with his uncles’ careers. Only time will tell if he matches up. 

Kurt Warner started his career as an undrafted free agent and became the only undrafted player named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP and the only undrafted quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. Now that is quite a story, and it might not be finished since he has two sons that play.

A pair of running backs caught my attention in their heyday. Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka played on the Miami Dolphins undefeated 17 win team in 1972. A sportswriter for the Miami Herald learned of their wild, fun-loving ways together and nicknamed them “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The name stuck. Add in one more name of Mercury Morris that rounded off that superb Dolphin backfield.

Statistically and by consensus, Tom Brady tops the list of best quarterback ever where he leads in key categories of passing yards, touchdowns, and wins, plus holding records for Super Bowl wins and MVPs. His statistics might stand for a long time. At present he is trying to make a broadcaster out of himself. He’s stumbled a bit, but given his competitiveness, he will likely overcome any deficits.

Brady’s coach, Bill Belichick, the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach, is not a first-ballot Football Hall of Famer. In voting earlier this month, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility. Of course, some have called for the identity of the no voters. We can guess why.

We will conclude this article by mentioning  the story of what is called the biggest comeback game in history. On December 17, 2022, The New York Times posted this headline: Minnesota Vikings Beat Colts for Biggest Comeback in NFL history. The Vikings were down by 33 points, but scored five touchdowns in the second half to force overtime. One of the players reported that coach Kevin O’Connell told the team at halftime, “All we need is five touchdowns.” Somehow they found them and went on to win 39-36 in overtime.

Harris Ford

 We walked down the slope to the river where the crossing is located. For the historically oriented person, it brings contemplation and ghosts of wagon trains passing from Fort Abercrombie through Pigeon Point, then on to Fort Ransom.

Let's Talk Baseball

We can still find pleasant topics to fill our thoughts in the winter doldrums brought on in part by the constant barrage of disconcerting news. Read any books lately? Seen any movies? Attended a basketball game? Played in the snow? These activities can occupy us, but we can also talk about baseball, even here in the heart of football playoff season. The one topic that I’ve written about that has brought some feedback are those times baseball has been the topic. 

Shohei Ohtani has a fabulous career going while still a young player. At least the Dodgers think so since they are paying him $700 million over a 10 year period. Really. Are players worth that much? Juan Soto’s 15 year contract will yield him $765 million, although 15 years is a long time to play. Stars like these two usually make a bundle from advertisements and endorsements, too.  The starting pay for players isn’t too bad since the MLB’s minimum starting salary is $760,000.

Baseball likes personality stories. When Randy Johnson, sometimes called “The Big Unit,” played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, his team and the San Diego Padres became involved in a bench-clearing scuffle for some reason. Johnson stands 6’10” tall and could be seen head above the rest. In the excitement his Diamondback hat fell to the ground. Finally he reached down to retrieve it, but without looking picked up a Padre’s cap and put it on. There he stood towering over the rest and looking rather silly. It must not have felt quite right. After a few seconds he took it off, looked at it,  and found the right one. The announcers in the booth had a good laugh over it, as did I.  

Johnson earned the reputation of a menacing pitcher and never shirked from throwing brushbacks very close to batters. Over 22 years while playing for six different teams, he won 5 Cy Young Awards, a World Series in 2001, a World Series MVP, a Pitching Triple Crown in 2002, 10 All-Star selections, and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. And he will probably always be remembered for hitting with a 100 mph fastball a pigeon that exploded in a cloud of feathers. On first viewing, I thought it was a fake video.  

Remember Frank “Sweet Music” Viola?  It was a real treat watching him in the 1987 World Series where he was named the MVP. That night we let the kids stay up late enough to watch the whole game. The Cy Young winner pitched 15 years, seven of them with the Minnesota Twins. 

Best known for his change-up pitch, he also had a good fastball and curve all of which he put to good use in winning 176 games.

Nolan Ryan stands at the top of my list of outstanding pitchers. A bit of sarcasm from one commentator says quite a lot about ability and longevity: Nolan Ryan’s arm was so damaged by the first 5000 innings of his career that he was only able to strike out 16 Blue Jays when he no-hit them at age 44. Huh? Pitchers are usually taken out of the game after 90 some pitches, right? Check this stat out. Ryan threw 235 pitches in a 13-inning game in 1974, struck out 19 batters,  earned no-decision, even though his Angels won in the 15th inning.

Nicknamed “The Nolan Express,” he holds 51 MLB records, one being his 5,714 career strikeouts. Our above mentioned friend Randy Johnson came in second with 4,875. Sandy Koufax was an excellent player who pitched 4 no-hitters, but Nolan Ryan pitched 7 no-hitters. The list of records gets parsed and analyzed to much more than we’ll list here, but baseball’s Hall of Fame adds the following narrative.

By 1979, Ryan was baseball’s strikeout king and the game’s most intimidating pitcher. Ryan’s fastball – officially clocked at 100.9 miles per hour by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1974 – at times traveled so fast that it was tough for batters to see it, let alone predict where it was going. “I’ve never been afraid at the plate but Mr. Ryan makes me uncomfortable,” Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson once said. “He’s the only pitcher who’s ever made me consider wearing a helmet with an ear flap.”

The 26 year old Robin Ventura took issue with a pitch coming too close for his comfort and charged the mound where the 46 year old Ryan stood. Videos look to me as if Ryan got the best of the younger player.

Sandy Koufax who some called “The Left Arm of God” must be mentioned. He retired after only 12  seasons in the National League for the reason of severe arthritis and pain in his pitching elbow. This youngest inductee in the Hall of Fame counted 2396 strikeouts in his tally.

It’s a fun trip going through the statistics and reminiscing over a few of these great baseball pitchers. Of course, pitching isn’t the only facet of a team, and sometime it will be fun to consider the greats playing in other positions . But there’s still a few pitchers of interest to include today.

The 1920s of a hundred years ago produced some names that are still recognizable today. Take Grover Cleveland Alexander, for example. In three seasons he won at least 21 games. He retired in 1929 after winning his career total 373 games. Walter “The Big Train” Johnson won 416 games, and “Lefty” Grove won an even 300.

I used to enjoy listening to the humorous “Dizzy” Dean holding forth on his radio broadcasts, but his fastball and curve while a pitcher earned him respect. An unfortunate line drive struck him in the toe and one thing led to another that ended his active career. Bob Feller’s debut in 1936 drew attention when he struck out 15 batters in his first game. Four years in the service robbed him of a chunk of career statistics, but he was one of the great ones. But for now, let’s get back to football.

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS - Jan 23, 2026

 The future is very important to me; that’s where I must spend the rest of my life …   It’s -20 degrees this morning  …  Who will win the Super Bowl?  …  I had never known about Bad Bunny  …  Read any good books lately? Democracy depends on reading …  If you tell the truth, you won’t have to remember anything  …  Deadliest earthquake of all time hits China today in 1556 and kills 830,000  …  The first Frisbees introduced today in 1957  …  This bitter cold reminds me of North Dakota  …  In 1885 the first bridge over the Mississippi River opens today at Minneapolis, Minnesota  …  A football rule change today in 1950 allowed free substitution and made the way for the present offense and defense squads  …  On February 8, the Super Bowl will be held in Santa Clara, CA with Charlie Puth singing the National Anthem  …  The farm pictured here is where I spent the first 3 years of my life  …