Craig Tyson Adams

Son, meet baseball . My old friend.  I was thinking back to the favorite sports conversation we had a few days ago, and I thought that spelling out my love for baseball would help you understand more than just telling it. When I was 8 years old, my grandfather called me into the house where he was watching a game. He sat me down and said, ‘I want you to watch this next hitter. His name is Willie Mays. He’s the greatest player I ever saw. I want you to tell your children that you saw him play.’ That was the beginning of my romance with baseball.  Baseball is unlike other sports for my generation because baseball is truly generational. My father took me to my first baseball game, just like his father took him.  I had the pleasure of attending a game with them both, which gave us a commonality, something of a reference that led to bonding unlike anything else. It was a shared experience that we could relate to.  I played baseball with my friends. The game would take place in an abandoned

A hospital orderly with a wheelchair arrives with the nurse. “Okay Sarah, we’re ready.”  Mike asked the nurse, “Is it okay if I go in with her?”  The hospital orderly gives the nurse a quick look.  “Getting stitches is a minor procedure that may take a little longer than you think. You mentioned something about food a little while ago and you could go now if you like."  “I will be fine. Have something to eat and I will text you when its over.” Sarah said. Mike leans over and gives Sarah a peck on the forehead.  “Okay. Please text me. I’ll see you when you get back.”  They took Sarah out of the room. Mike walks to the exit and heads out of the hospital.  As he walks through the waiting room, his eye catches a young girl.  She’s around 9 to 10 years old. Her face is white, and she has dark bags under her eyes.   “She looks haunted,” Mike said to himself.  Mike exits the hospital. He looks across the street and sees the 24-hour diner that the nurse recommended. Mike jaywalks and dash

There are a lot of  protesting  protesters these days. It seems that protesting has become the thing to do again. Protesting is more popular today than it has been since the late 1960’s and early 70’s.  On college campuses, the streets outside government buildings and in town halls, large cities and small communities have experienced Americans of all walks of life protesting and demonstrating against issues real, and, at times, imagined. “We’re protesting because we don’t like what is going on!” said one protester who was protesting at a protest. “There are so many injustices that there are almost too many to count!” exclaimed another protester at one other protest. “The only way that someone can get their voice heard is through demonstration, picketing and protesting!” yet another protester proclaimed at yet another protest. There is another side to all the protesting. “We’re here to exercise our right to protest all the protesters who are protesting!” expressed an anti-protester.  “D

So far in the NFL Playoffs the kickers have been displaying pivotal domination.  They’re usually forgotten and disrespected. But, this year, they’ve been the ones left in the lonely high pressure spotlight.  If you look at their stats and how many points they score, you’d think they must be 6’9” and weigh 255 lbs and run like a sprinter.  In reality they might be 5’11” and weigh around 180.  Kickers never catch or even fall on a football. They only touch a football to put in on a tee. A kicker gets to wear a uniform so that a referee doesn’t think a fan ran out onto the field.  A kicker never has to hit the weight room if he doesn't want to. He doesn’t even have to wear pads. A kicker is the only guy on the team that hopes someone runs into him. That way he gets another chance to score if he misses.  You know how some guys watch their diets and wear out exercise bicycles? Kickers could eat pizza and drink beer all day as long as he splits the uprights. Nobody cares how fast he can

This NFL Wild Card weekend was great if you’re a football fan. I mean the NFL, and not the international game where they don’t wear pads and where the players don’t automatically collapse in a heap when someone exhales on them. Even in these days of COVID, it takes a few days before exhaling on someone results in them collapsing.  There were five games this weekend and that was enough. There is one tonight on Monday, and that is the game I’m looking forward to the most because the team that I root for, the Los Angeles Rams, are playing the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals are the oldest franchise in the National Football League, having been the first team to join in 1922. They were in Chicago then, and because they don’t win very often, they were kicked from city to city until they ended up in the desert.  That said, the NFL games played this weekend ranged from entertaining to almost unwatchable.  First up was the Las Vegas Raiders against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals hadn’t w

NFL receiver divas treat Sunday like an unruly child in church. NFL receiver divas are ultra competitive and feel that all passes should go to them. When I’m playing Madden football , I always feel I need to throw to the number one wide receiver at least five times per game.That’s what they demand. As a quarterback, you’ve got to feed the number one receiver even if you have to force the pass into tight windows.  Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford fell for it recently. Last Sunday against the Ravens, Stafford threw a deep pass to Odell Beckham Jr. when he had two other receivers open underneath. By the time the bomb got to Beckham, there were three defenders on OBJ. A check-down pass would’ve gotten an easy first down. Instead, the Ravens got the ball and ultimately scored.  This is the thing with wide receivers. They are supremely confident in their abilities. It's an isolated position. They excel by getting the offensive coordinator to tell the quarterback to throw them the bal

There is a video  of the Beatles circulating that is extraordinary. I haven’t seen anything like it before.  It’s a clip of Paul McCartney from Peter Jackson’s reconstruction of the ill-fated Beatles Get Back project now streaming on Disney+.  In it, McCartney shows up in the morning, along with bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they complain that John Lennon is late again. “We’ll have to get rid of him." McCartney jabs. It’s a harbinger of things to come as the Beatles broke up later that year. Then something extraordinary happens. It's The Beatles after all. McCartney sits down and starts to noodle around on his bass guitar. Randomly strumming and scatting a melody, and, in mere seconds, a tune starts to take shape.  A caption on the screen says, ‘Feeling pressure of their approaching deadline, Paul searches for new song ideas.’ After a few seconds the now familiar strains of the Beatles song Get Back starts to emerge.  He’s being open to motivation . It’s what ha