Childhood Heroes

Just as my first three children were reaching their Tweens, they took an interest in baseball, especially the local team, the Sam Francisco Giants.

It was the mid-80s and the team had not fared very well for years. Then Will Clark, a talented and fiercely competitive first baseman with a hot bat and a high-pitched voice showed up. In his very first at bat, Clark hit a home run off the great Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

As a divorced father, I was looking for every way possible to keep connecting with the kids and Will Clark's heroics turned out to be one of our mutual passion. His smooth left-handed swing was a thing of beauty, and I rediscovered my childhood love of the game.

I managed to get tickets to home games at the old Candlestick Park and took them out there as often as possible.

When my son turned nine or ten, I got Clark to sign his rookie card during a photo shoot for my magazine, and  I framed it in a plexiglass card holder as a surprise birthday present.

In one game we attended, after his teammate Robby Thompson was hit in the head by a pitch, an enraged Clark hit a massive home run to the opposite field to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. A waiter gave my son a baseball that night.

The Giants intend to "retire" Clark's number -- 22 -- this season. He didn't make it to Cooperstown but he definitely has a permanent place in our family's Hall of Fame.

Thank you, Will Clark!

***

Well, it's election season so many of the news summaries I select will be political for the next two-plus months. But there's plenty of Covid news and where possible I'll mix in other stuff as well:

* Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by a nine-point margin nationally, 51-42 percent according to a CNN Poll of Polls on the general election matchup released Monday. (CNN)

* The Democratic National Committee’s presidential nominating convention kicked off Monday, with headliners Michelle Obama ("If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me they can"), and Sen. Bernie Sanders ("We have a come a very long way). The host city was set to be Milwaukee, but Joe Biden plans to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination later this week from his home in Delaware due to the coronavirus. [HuffPost]

* Miles Taylor, a former senior Trump administration official, endorsed Joe Biden'spresidential campaign on Monday, becoming one of the highest-ranking former Trump administration officials to do so. Taylor, who served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, also accused President Donald Trump of repeatedly using his office for political purposes, including directing officials to cut wildfire relief funding to California because voters there overwhelmingly opposed him in 2016. (CNN)

* WHO reports record global Covid-19 increase over 24 hours (WHO)

* "The pandemic is a wake-up call for me to jot down keepsake ‘letters’ for my kids" --- A parent asks: What should I tell them about the lives we’ve all lived? What do they need to know about our family? My journals will preserve our memories. (Washington Post)

* Judge Blocks Trump Officials’ Attempt to End Transgender Health Protections )New York Times)

* Death Valley soars to 130 degrees, potentially Earth’s highest temperature since at least 1931 (Washington Post)

* More Americans Go Hungry Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Census Shows -- Causes include higher food prices, school closings; expiration of federal jobless benefits deepens distress (Wall Street Journal)

* Violent clashes erupt between far-right groups and racial justice protesters in Portland and other cities-- Police did not intervene despite reports of violence and gunshots in downtown (Washington Post)

* ‘A national crisis’: Millions of disconnected students are being left behind -- As the pandemic forces many schools to switch to remote learning, more than 17 million U.S. schoolchildren do not have high-speed Internet at home and are locked out of virtual classes. (Washington Post)

* A Michigan college is requiring students to download a phone application that tracks their location and private health data at all times in an attempt to protect them from the coronavirus.Albion College, located in Albion, Mich., is one of the first schools in the country to tackle contact tracing. The school is working to create a "COVID-bubble" on campus, and asking students stay within the school's 4.5-mile perimeter for the entire semester; if a student leaves campus, the app will notify the administration, and the student could be temporarily suspended. (Washington Free Beacon)

* A mural paying tribute to country singer and Tennessee native Dolly Parton and her stance supporting the Black Lives Matter movement has emerged outside "The 5 Spot" on Forrest Avenue in East Nashville. (CNN)

***

Closing with a couple lines from a love song:

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

   -- Norah Jones

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