Smiley: Baseball’s not always about speed | Smiley Anders

I’ve been enjoying tales of kids playing T-ball, and will have more in future columns. But Earl Newman, of Baton Rouge, tells us that slightly older youngsters can also be the source of entertaining baseball stories:

“When son Ryan was 11, I coached him on a team in the American Legion-sponsored baseball league at Drillers Diamonds.

“We ventured out to play in tournaments around the area. Once, in St. Amant, we lost the championship game to a team from Madisonville, the Dodgers.

“Later on I found they had come in second in a national tournament. We lost to them by one run, and after the game the opposing coach came up to me and said, ‘Wow, your pitcher (my son Ryan) had us baffled all day with his change-up.’

“I laughed and said, ‘He doesn’t have a change-up — that was his fastball!’”

Clever catcher

J.B. Castagnos, of Donaldsonville, offers a youth baseball story that sounds like a joke. But since he’s a valued contributor, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt:

“My youngest son Todd started with T-ball, then coaches’ pitch, then players’ pitch.

“The first pitch of the first game had a player named Houston pitching and Todd catching.

“When the pitch hit the batter in the leg, Todd stood up and said, ‘Houston, we have a problem.'”

No star for you!

After she read the Advocate story by Ian McNulty about Emeril and son E.J. Lagasse and their new high-end version of Emeril’s Restaurant, Marsha R., of Baton Rouge, sent me this indignant note:

“Did you know Michelin has never come to New Orleans? And they’ve been to ORLANDO? That’s disrespectful.”

She was responding to a mention in the story about Michelin not including New Orleans in U.S. cities with restaurants that have been visited by its inspectors.

The French tire company has been rating restaurants and handing out the coveted stars since 1900, in what was originally a guide for motorists.

From what I could determine (there’s a lot of misinformation about who has Michelin stars), Florida was added to the list of U.S. states this year. Other places with Michelin-starred restaurants are New York; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and California (primarily San Francisco and Los Angeles).

So I suppose we’ll just have to struggle along, dining on some of the finest dishes anywhere at some of the best (although un-starred) restaurants in the world.

The Moulton Theater

Our series on the first days of television received this tale from Joanne Moulton:

“My father, Harry Moulton, was building a TV from a kit in the late 1940s.

“As my mother, sister and I were leaving for a church spaghetti dinner, he had his first tiny dot of light on the tube.

“When we returned, he had a full picture, and had done it in a record 19 hours.

“With an item and his picture in the weekly paper, folks in our li’l town figured that rather than go 10 miles to the city (Baltimore) to see TV in a department store window, they would drop in on their new best friends, the Moultons!”

Special People Dept.

Nell Golden, of Baton Rouge, celebrates her 92nd birthday Thursday, Dec. 1. She is an LSU retiree, married 70 years to husband Calvin. (They have had two Tiger season football tickets for all those years.)

Family ailment

“Speaking of inept school forgers,” says T.W., “‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ fans may remember Juan Epstein, a character always trying to get out of assignments and tests.

“One note, asking to excuse him from a test because the bursitis in his elbow was acting up, was signed ‘Epstein’s Mother.’

“When Mr. Kotter called him out, he admitted to signing it, but only because his mother’s elbow bursitis was worse than his!”