Chaotic Dynamics

 

With a title like “Chaotic Dynamics,” readers might think I’m trying to act like I’m intelligent. But wait, don’t turn the page yet because the phrase refers to the style of a baseball player, a knuckleball pitcher to be exact, Phil Niekro. He recently died at the age of 81 and over 24 seasons he earned 318 wins and placed 16th place on the list of all-time winningest pitchers.

     I always thought it was high entertainment to watch him, or any other knuckleballer, throw those crazy pitches toward the plate where no one knew what path it would take, including the pitcher. Someone called it “chaotic dynamics” when on those days the ball flew dancing in the air to fool the batter (and the catcher, too).  A great catcher and Hall of Famer, Bob Uecker acknowledged he did a lot of chasing. “Catching Niekro’s knuckleball was great. I got to meet a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate.” He also said, “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

     Other players have commented on his pitch. Pete Rose said, “Trying to hit that thing is a miserable way to make a living.” Ernie Banks states, “It comes flying in there dipping and hopping like crazy, and you just can’t hit it.” Yankee all-star Bobby Murcer said “Trying to hit Phil Niekro is like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks.”

     A couple of other pitchers recently left us. Hall of Famer Bob Gibson had a reputation for intimidating the batters and was known to throw brushback pitches. Hank Aaron said, “He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him.” Whatever others thought of him, he won 251 games, tallied 3117 strike outs, and was the MVP in two world series.

     Whitey Ford played for the Yankees for all of his 16 years in uniform and won so many awards we won’t list them. Highly competitive, he admitted to “doctoring” the ball occasionally during his later years of pitching. He knew how to throw a spitball and admitted once, “I didn't cheat in 1963 when I won twenty-four games. Well, maybe a little.”

     Other notables died recently including the country music great Charlie Pride. He had the fortitude to continue singing his songs in spite of racial attitudes. When he first started performing, promoters did not circulate pictures of him in order to hide the fact of his skin color. He counted 21 number one hit songs in his career plus a whole bunch of other charted songs. We saw him perform once on stage and came away impressed with his talent, humility, and pride of personal appearance. I kept noticing that sharp crease on his slacks that never disappeared through the years.

     Does anyone remember the name Forrest Fenn and that chest full of gold coins and jewels valued at a million dollars he hid in the mountains and then dared people to find? He lived just long enough to see that someone did find it, but only after four people died from accidents they incurred in the chase. I met him once in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at a convention and thought he was just another face in that crowd, but he sure got the attention of all the treasure hunters.

     Obviously, we can’t list all the notables who have passed in recent memory, but here’s a few more. William Kittredge was a Montana writer and university professor who helped promote to completion one of my favorite movies, “A River Runs Through It.” Until his death he stood mostly alone as a surviving member of great Montana writers. Barry Lopez wrote many works of environmental literature and spent a lot of time studying man’s relationship to animals in the natural world.

     The spy-thriller writer John le Carre died and left a library shelf filled with heady books. As good authors do, he’d take the raw material of life and convert it to well-expressed literature. In his early life, he served as a spy for the British government and therefore knew something about the topic. He walked the walk before talking the talk.

    These little newspaper articles I’ve been writing have been on hold for a few weeks, but other jobs needed attention. I have enough material to publish another book titled “Faint Echoes,” and the draft needed preparation to submit to the printer. It will be available soon. And my Western Writers of America editor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, still sends material for review. One book waits for attention, “Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens: The Endless War Over the West’s Public Lands.” Remember the government standoff with rancher Clive Bundy who refused to recognize the federal’s government’s ownership of millions of acres of public land? His case is discussed.

     People who enjoy Western books might enjoy “Valdez Is Coming,” by Elmore Leonard. The man named Valdez, a mild-mannered small town constable had been hired for the main purpose of clearing drunks off the street on Saturday night. Considered a pawn by the strongarm rancher who ran community affairs, he tricked Valdez into shooting an innocent man. After realizing what happened, Valdez sought financial help for the dead man’s wife but was met with ridicule, then badly beaten.

     Nobody knew Valdez had once ridden with General Crook and now felt compelled to don his old persona and go after the rancher. “Tell him Valdez is coming” became his slogan, and Valdez set about stripping away the rancher’s defenses until they finally met face to face. The rancher’s orders to his henchmen to kill Valdez fell on deaf ears since everyone had come to respect Valdez. The rancher now stood alone, but did not have the nerve to further threaten Valdez. In some respects, we can apply the phrase “chaotic dynamics” to the story.