Bag of Randomness

This was a very nostalgic week for folks our age who loved sports. One of those weeks that we become grateful for the gift of where and when we were born. You guys have done a phenomenal job talking about the Netflix series on Jerry and the ’90s Cowboys. But something else happened this week that allowed us to relive our youth.

For the first time in 22 years, Rich Eisen hosted SportsCenter. And because they also went back to the old graphics package, music, and intro, it was a refreshing trip down memory lane. Seriously, how lucky were we to live in this area and at a youthful age to experience the Greek tragedy of the Dallas Cowboys? Think about how fortunate we were to have Madden and Summerall cover almost all our games. And then be able to watch the highlights on SportsCenter when it was at its best, as well as NFL Primetime with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson. On top of that, we got to experience the rise of the NBA with Magic and Larry and then soak in the greatness of Jordan and the Dream Team – when pro basketball was played at its best, when defense was played, and men drove the lane. Gentlemen, it was a hell of a time to be alive, and I hope we’re all grateful for when and where we were born. And I’m sure I’m leaving a lot out, like everything between O.J. on the run and the dominance of Michael Phelps and the Miracle on Ice.

If you haven’t seen any of Eisen and SportsCenter, here’s the intro that will give you all the feels and an article with a Twitter thread of the highlights of the show, which includes a nice tribute to Stuart Scott.

What started it all for me was listening Eisen reflect on his experience of what it was like hosting SportsCenter again.

People miss the good ‘ol days so much, they want more.

Rich Eisen Will Host More ‘SportsCenters’ After Standout Return – Eisen’s nostalgia-oriented Monday “SportsCenter” drew rave reviews. The NFL Network anchor will be back on ESPN for more editions.

NFL Network’s Rich Eisen will return to his old stomping grounds in Bristol, Conn., to shoot another special edition of SportsCenter for ESPN this fall.

The former SportsCenter anchor, who drew rave reviews for his first appearance on the show in 22 years Monday night, will headline “periodic special editions” of ESPN’s flagship show moving forward, according to an ESPN spokesperson.

ESPN says Eisen’s Monday edition averaged 708,000 viewers. That’s 67% higher than the average 11 p.m. ET SportsCenter—and slightly higher than the last SportsCenter Eisen anchored on the network in 2003, which drew 670,000 viewers.

The good ‘ol days for some is a matter of perspective.

White House Says Slavery Is Being Taught Wrong, Should Not Be So Negative

And to think, two weeks ago I received my new liscense in the mail with the “old” design.

Taylor Swift’s new album comes on cassette. Who is buying those?

In 2023, 436,400 cassettes were sold in the United States, according to the most recent data available from Luminate, an entertainment data firm. Although that’s a far cry from the 440 million cassettes sold in the 1980s, it’s a sharp increase from the 80,720 cassettes sold in 2015 and a notable revival for a format that had been all but written off.

Cassettes might not be experiencing the resurgence of vinyls or even CDs, but they are making a bit of a comeback, spurred by fans wanting an intimate experience with music and nostalgia, said Charlie Kaplan, owner of online store Tapehead City.

Yeah, I’m all about the 90’s today. This Instacart commercial made me smile.

Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick threatens to expel those who won’t stand for Christian prayer

As the Texas Senate convened its second special session Aug. 15 — primarily to gerrymander five more Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened to remove anyone who doesn’t stand for the invocation.

Sen. Angela Paxton — estranged wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — delivered a Christian invocation “in the name of Jesus, who has saved us, who keeps us safe, and who is coming again.” The Paxtons are members of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, although she recently filed for divorce, “on biblical grounds.”

After her prayer, Patrick admonished members of the public gallery who had remained seated: “For those of you who didn’t stand, next time you come to the gallery, you stand for the invocation. It’s respecting the Senate. If you don’t stand for the invocation, I’ll have you removed. We asked you to stand. I’ve never seen a gallery ever have any members in my 17 years of people who refused to stand for the invocation. It will not be tolerated.”

Needs coconuts

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— Newfie912 (@newfie912.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM

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Bag of Randomness

Anytime I use witch hazel, I start to think about and audibly sing Earth Angel, specifically from Back to the Future. And as you can guess, I substitute “witch hazel” for “earth angel.”

While grocery shopping on Friday morning, I saw a flyer about Lewisville ISD’s job fair. However, it was going to be over in 50 minutes. So, after putting the groceries away, I put on some respectable clothes, printed a few resumes, and headed that way. It didn’t amount to anything, especially since I’m not a certified teacher. There were some supporting roles I could have taken, but I couldn’t fulfill my obligations on those salaries.

Starship Bagel, not even a half-mile away from my house, has been invited back to New York City Bagefest to defend their Schmear of the Year and Best Bagel titles. And to think, when I first found them in 2021, when I moved to this older neighborhood, I thought there was no way they were going to make it because of the location. It looked like something Saul Goodman would set up shop. So, I used to go there several times a week, thinking I was helping keep them afloat. Of course, having one of the most adorable women I’ve ever encountered didn’t hurt.  Despite never introducing myself, I appreciated how the owner used to call me by name. But I bet business has really picked up since June 6, when it was featured on Food Network’s ‘Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives’ with Guy Fieri (video below). It was also nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Baking, the first bagel shop to be nominated in that category. I wonder if the Back to the Future toys they had displayed in the rear of the restaurant are still there.

They also had a good write-up in D Magazine last year: How Lewisville Became the Bagel Capital of America – One man’s obsessive quest to restore a bread to its Jewish roots is transforming North Texas food culture—and beating New York’s bagels on their home turf.

 

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I like how Norway’s powerlifting team created a barbell logo that resembles their country’s flag.

 

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Bag of Randomness

My mother would have turned 77 today. She died at the age of 58. It’s so strange and awkward to accept that I’ll be that age in eight years and two weeks. If you’re a fan of the Bag, it would be nice if you honored my mom by setting aside a few minutes to read today, since it was something she loved to do. I’ll do that and will eat some Vietnamese food today.

Prediction: The most popular costume this Halloween will be that of a showgirl.

Business Tip: Buy stock in any supplier of showgirl outfits and costume material.

A farm in Delaware mulches more than four tons of U.S. cash into compost every day. In previous eras, worn-out bills were pierced or burned.

I thought I knew all about every significant historical event of my hometown. Until this week, I never knew that the White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals used to go to Mineral Wells, Texas, for spring training. Granted, this was in the 1910s and early 1920s; however, that predates the Baker Hotel, which was built in 1929. In this photo, you’ll notice there is no Baker Hotel, but the Crazy Water Hotel is in the top right. And for any of you who own a Time Was in Mineral Wells book, the definitive book of history of our small town, I couldn’t find any reference of baseball spring training, which is “crazy.”

 

Standing Left to right: Dickie Kerr, Bill Conroy, Bill Stewart, Mellie Wolfgang. Sitting: Roy Hansen, Johnny Mostil, and Lefty Sullivan

And in case you were wondering, yes, the 1919 Black Sox were in Mineral Wells for spring training of that year.

Wow, Shoeless Joe Jackson, who we all know from Kevin Costner’s classic movie Field of Dreams, was in my tiny hometown of Mineral Wells.

 

The old spring-training ballpark where Shoeless Joe and his Sox played is now a business strip on the southeast corner of SE 14th Avenue and East Hubbard/US 180. Well, as we all know, SE 14th Avenue in Mineral Wells does not (or no longer) extend to East Hubbard/US 180. So, in the map below, the purple-outlined area is approximately where the White Sox, Cardinals, and Reds practiced.

If you can spot the blue star, that’s the house I grew up in.

What’s there now? What I’ve always known as Jack Powell Ford.

Was Mineral Wells connected to the Black Sox scandal? Yes. Sleepy Bill Burns was the manager of the Resorters, a semipro team in Mineral Wells, in 1919 when the White Sox came to town. He touched base with an old teammate on the Sox, and at the end of the season, approached Burns for funding the fixed series. He was played by Christopher Lloyd in Eight Men Out. Mineral Wells even made the New York Times.

In 1919, he agreed to manage a semipro team in Mineral Wells, Texas, which brought him in proximity with the White Sox, who held their spring training camp in that town. One of his old teammates, Chick Gandil, was still on the roster. Near the end of the season, as the White Sox were preparing to clinch the American League pennant, Gandil and pitcher Eddie Cicotte approached Burns about fixing the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for $100,000.

I did a little more digging and found some other interesting baseball tidbits. Ty Cobb played ball in Mineral Wells, as well as Edd Roush, 1919 World Series Champion and 2x NL batting champion.

Per GumShowBaseball.com

The White Sox used Mineral Wells, TX as their Spring training home base in 1911, but ventured out to even smaller towns playing local teams; These photos were likely taken in one of those towns, as the ballpark at Mineral Wells had fencing around the entire perimeter, as shown in this March 7, 1911 newspaper image.

Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk, Soldier, Buck Weaver, Jim Scott, Byrd Lyn, Pants Lowland

Mineral Wells Tex., March 10.-[Special.]-Privates Clarence Rowland, Edward Collins, James Scott, Ray Schalk. and Albert Russell were promoted to the rank of corporal this morning by Sergt. Walter Smiley. U. S. A., in command of the White Sox company. B. N. G. (Baseball National Guard).

The promotions were made just before the end of the daily drill, which was devoted largely to marching evolutions. After putting the athletes through their paces in company formation. Sergt Smiley divided them into five squads and assigned one of the corporals to each squad.

Vikings Under Fire Over Male Cheerleaders

But did you know, the modern style of men’s cheerleading, as a planned and organized activity, originated at the University of Minnesota. On November 2, 1898, a student named Johnny Campbell is credited with leading the first organized cheer at a football game, marking a significant step in the evolution of cheerleading from spontaneous crowd chants to a more structured activity. That day is now considered the “birthday of cheerleading.”

And, since you know my love of presidential trivia, it’s time for me to wow you with a Bag of Nothing Presidential Fun Fact. Four U.S. Presidents were once cheerleaders. Can you name all four? I could only find photos of two of them in uniform.

The other two were FDR and Ike.

The ease with which this black gentleman picked up and moved the rowdy passenger is hilarious. Fellow passengers referred to him as “The Linebacker in 17C” – Now that’s a movie waiting to be made! And get this, the man is humble. When news crews asked for an interview, he agreed as long as they didn’t show his face. So all you’ll see of him are shots from the shoulders down.

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Bag of Randomness

I did a deep dive into genealogy research at the end of last week. I just unearthed another family secret. I knew my father had married and divorced a woman in Mineral Wells named Odella, which I always thought was because his mother’s name was Della. However, I wasn’t aware he was first married at the age of 26 to a divorced 26-year-old Kentucky woman named Gertrude. It was after his first stint in the service after WWII in 1949, and he worked as a dry cleaner, something else I had no idea about. I have no clue if they divorced, if she died, or really anything else. But I’ve been earnestly playing detective.

The first family secret I was informed about was revealed to me a few years after my father’s death. Mom, for some reason, felt she needed to let me know that my brother is my half-brother and had a different biological father. That floored me, and at the time, I was trying to decipher if my mother was going crazy or if it was a possible language barrier problem. It turns out everyone, even my adopted younger sister, knew but me. I’ll be honest, at the time, it was hard to process, and I was a bit upset that I didn’t know about this sooner in life. Truth was, I idolized my brother, so to me, it didn’t change a thing. It actually made the love story between my parents even better. To put it bluntly, I assumed my father knocked up my mother and did the honorable thing back then and married her. And now the true story of a retired GI falling in love with a young Vietnamese woman with a bastard child made me appreciate my father even more. He even adopted my brother and loved him as if he were his own. Funny thing, I always felt he favored my brother more than me. One evening when I was visiting my brother, I told him what Mom told me, but I first made sure to preface it by stating that it doesn’t change a thing. Little did I know, it ended up changing everything. I never understood why, but from that point my brother stopped communicating with my mother. I can only assume he felt Mom dishonored Dad by letting me know.

I stumbled upon Netflix’s psychological crime series Mindhunter, which follows FBI agents in the late 1970s and early 1980s as they develop groundbreaking criminal profiling techniques by conducting in-depth interviews with imprisoned serial killers. While the show is fictionalized, it features chilling portrayals of real-life criminals like Edmund Kemper and Charles Manson, with actors delivering great but unsettling performances based on actual prison interviews. The series explores how these conversations with incarcerated killers helped FBI agents understand the psychology behind serial murder and develop methods still used in criminal investigations today. I give it two big thumbs up. Sadly, only two seasons were made, resulting in a total of 19 shows. It ended in 2019, but this summer, there have been rumors of its return as three television movies.

I really like the man who played Fritz Von Erich in The Iron Claw, and he plays a salty veteran CIA guy. The other leading cast member may best be known for playing flamboyant King George III in Hamilton.

College football will kick off on Saturday, August 30th. And, in a big way, with my two favorite teams to root for are playing against each other. The University of Texas will be playing at The Ohio State University. You’d think such a game would happen at night, but kickoff is set for 11 AM Central. Since that happens to be my 50th birthday, I thought I’d try to put something together because no one would be throwing me a party or arranging anything. So, at trivia night last Tuesday, I told two of my closest friends that since my two favorite teams are opening the college football season on my 50th birthday, I invited them to come over and watch the game with me, telling them it would be like a small 50th birthday party for myself. One friend seemed apprehensive at first until I let him know it was an 11 AM kickoff. The other flatly said he wasn’t interested in the game and was looking forward to watching the LSU game that evening against Clemson.

Immediately, I remembered why I have always been hesitant all my life about taking risks and putting myself out there. It hurts to get your hopes up for something you’d think would be an easy ask, only to get them flushed down the toilet.I felt foolish for thinking that a friend of over 30 years would sacrifice a Saturday afternoon with three weeks notice to be there for a friend trying to celebrate his 50th birthday. I even prefaced the invite by saying my kids aren’t scheduled to be with me that day, and I’m sure their mother would be making plans so they couldn’t see me that day, as she has in the past for similar occasions. One reason I was putting this together was to try not to feel so bad about turning 50 and soften the blow of how, at 40 years old after climbing my first mountain and dancing with my wife literally on top of Texas, I couldn’t envision over the next ten years she would literally leave me and take the kids, I’d suffer through five spinal surguries and suffer from physical and mental health challenges, no longer be a homeowner, have a church stab me in the back, and be unemployed for months. I’ll be honest. I cried a bit during the drive home that night after trivia as I tried to figure out how everything went so wrong and wrestled with whether I deserved all of this. The pain of being let down or failure is greater than any feeling of potential joy, and that’s why I tend not to put myself out there or take chances.

Mystery deepens as California man’s plane keeps getting stolen, taken for a joy ride, repaired and returned: ‘There’s no real leads’

Is Perrier as pure as it claims? The bottled water scandal gripping France

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