Then... and Now Episode 3

The speaker starts by mentioning two political figures who have asked if people are better off now than they were four years ago. The speaker then talks about the last day of school before the pandemic hit and praises their principal for organizing activities for the graduating class of 2020. The speaker then goes on to mention famous birthdays and events for each day from March 13th to March 19th. They also discuss the upcoming primary elections in Ohio and encourage listeners to vote. They invite listeners to participate in an NCAA tournament bracket game and provide the group name and password. Finally, they answer a listener's question about the top three players who should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Good afternoon, evening, morning, whenever it may be where you are. This is John Shomo with Episode 3 of Then and Now, our weekly podcast. Okay, we will start off with our events and birthdays. I do want to start off with a current event of sorts, though. There have been a couple of political figures in the last week ask, are you better off now than you were four years ago? And that leads into this week's events. One of them was Representative Elise Stefanik of New York. The other was Senator Katie Britt, the much maligned recently, and Senator from Alabama. Heck, yeah, I'm better off now than I was four years ago. Four years ago this week, we were unsure when we would see people again. March 13th, and that's where I want to start in our rundown of events and birthdays. March 13th, four years ago, was a Friday. It was the final day that we were in school at Talmadge High School, and I'm sure many, many, many other places around the country. The last day before the pandemic shut us down, the uncertainty was unbelievable. We really didn't know what to do. We were wiping down groceries. We were trying to manufacture masks out of cloth and so forth. We didn't know when we'd be back. We never really got back into the building to teach until the end of August, and that was on a much-adjusted schedule. So March 13th was the last day that we were with folks before the pandemic hit. I do want to give a shout-out to our principal at the time, Mike Householder, my friend, who did so much for the seniors in our class of 2020. They had a parade through town. They got pizzas. He set up so many activities for them because he knew they weren't going to have a traditional graduation, and I hope the class of 2020 really knows how much House really worked for them and on their behalf. So a shout-out to House there. Okay, that's March 13th. Let's move along with our rundown of events and birthdays. March 14th has three famous birthdays. Albert Einstein, born on that date in 1879. The Warriors great, born in Akron, Ohio, the future Hall of Famer, Stephen Curry, will be 36 on that date. And Simone Biles will be 27 years old. Simone Biles, the great gymnast who's back at it and hoping to win more medals in Paris this summer. Good luck to her. March 15th is known as the Ides of March. That dates back to Julius Caesar being assassinated in front of the Senate by his supposed friends in Rome on that date in 44 B.C. Maybe the greatest American film ever made. That's debatable, but I certainly would put it right up at the top. The Godfather premiered in theaters on March 15th, 1972. It's one of those movies, and there are a few, that if I see it as I'm flipping through the television channels, I've got to stop and watch some of it. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, very controversial figure in history, born on March 15th, 1767. He lived until 1845. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have been 91 years old on March 15th. She passed away in September of 2020. March 16th has a couple of birthdays. The fourth president of the United States, founding father, father of the Constitution, James Madison, born in Virginia on March 16th, 1751. And Ossie Newsom, the Hall of Fame tight end, the Browns great, who turned into an equally great general manager. Unfortunately, it was for the Baltimore Ravens after the Browns moved there. Ossie Newsom, what a career. He will be 68 years old on March 16th. March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. That's the day on which St. Patrick died in 461. It's his death day, as they call it. And they'll be turning the river green in Chicago. Happy partying to everybody over there. Bobby Jones, the greatest sportsman in the first half of the 20th century, as voted by the sportswriters. Bobby Jones, the legendary golf figure, born on March 17th, 1902. He lived until 1971. Created, among other things, the Masters Golf Tournament. Won the Grand Slam of golf in 1930, and no one's won it since. So that's how rare that was. March 18th sees a couple of birthdays. The 22nd and 24th President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, won two non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland, born not in Cleveland, in Buffalo, New York, on March 18th, 1837. He lived until 1908. And Queen Latifah will be 54 on March 18th. We'll finish with March 19th. On March 19th, 2003, the United States began the war in Iraq, the United States and our British allies, by an awesome, if you will, terrible awesome bombardment of key sites in Iraq. I remember that day very vividly. I believe I was sitting in on Mrs. Whitman's class, subbing for her while she went and did some great skit in the gym that I didn't get to see, and I kind of regret that. Earl Warren, born on March 19th, 1891, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 for the Brown v. Board of Education decision, for many key decisions during the 1960s, and the Chairman of the Warren Commission, the official government body put together by President Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Earl Warren, born March 19th, 1891. He lived until 1974. Also celebrating a birthday on March 19th will be the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid. He will be 66 years old on that date. And that does it for our birthdays and anniversaries. This time around we'll get the next group next week. On to other topics, a couple of other topics. First of all, the business side of things. Next Tuesday, March 19th, is primary election day in the state of Ohio. We have a few offices that are contested. Hopefully you're registered to vote and you get out and vote, exercise your right. For those of you who are maybe seniors in high school, and I know there are at least a handful of you listening, if you're not registered to vote now, get yourself registered to vote before November's election. You can go online at the Summit County Board of Education website and start the process. Please do. Your voice needs to be heard. Okay. Statewide offices up for vote this primary season. There is a contest for the U.S. Senate nomination for the Republican Party. Sherrod Brown will be the Democratic nominee. He's unopposed. Among the Republicans there's Matt Dolan, Frank LaRose, and Bernie Marino. One of those three will get the nod next Tuesday and will oppose Sherrod Brown in November. In the U.S. House race in our district, for instance, there is an unopposed incumbent, Amelia Sykes, on the Democratic side. There are three Republicans vying for that seat for the chance to run against Representative Sykes in November. No contests in the primary in the state Senate district that we live in, in the state House district. The Democrats have three candidates vying for that nomination. The Republicans will run Talmadge native Adam Bozick. The last one I want to mention here in the rundown of the Ohio primary is the Ohio Supreme Court. There are three of the seven seats up for election this year. The only primary contest is for one of the three seats on the Democratic side. All the other ones look like they're unopposed, and the contest will be held in the fall. So that's a rundown. Get out and vote. It's too late to vote early. That's an oxymoron, maybe, but it's too late. Well, you can still early vote until the end of this week, I believe. And then next Tuesday, the 19th, will be election day around the state of Ohio. Okay. On to the fun and games department of life, sports. And I was going to kind of riff on who I thought would make it and not make it into the NCAA tournament, but I figured why do that? I really don't know a lot of the teams. You know, I don't know them all. I watch some basketball, but I'm not, you know, John Rothstein or somebody like that. So I went to the ESPN.com site and set up a bracket game just for listeners of Then and Now. Let's try and have some fun with that. Go to ESPN.com, get into their tournament bracket contest, and look for the group name Then and Now Hoops. That's Then and Now Hoops. You can search for it if you go there. I'll try and push out an invite when I post the episode, but you can search for it also on the ESPN.com site. The password, you'll need a password to play in our contest. The password is lowercase then and now. No capitals, no spaces in between the words. Then and now run on like that. That's the password. The group name is Then and Now Hoops. So get in there, make your choices. The selection Sunday is this Sunday, CBS, 6 p.m., right after the Big Ten Championship game. And we'll know who's in the tournament at that point, and we can all make our best guesses and probably rise and fall with a lot of games next week. But let's have some fun with that. Get in there, Then and Now Hoops, password Then and Now. That's for the men's bracket. I've talked much more about women's college basketball than I have men's college basketball on the podcast so far. We're not going to run a contest for the women's brackets. There's certainly a lot of interest in that this year. The LSU South Carolina game Sunday had an unfortunate incident in it. Those are two really good teams. Iowa, obviously, with Caitlin Clark. But we're not going to run it. If you want to play brackets for the women's brackets, have at it. I'm not going to set anything up for that one. We'll set our contest up for the men's bracket and see how that goes. So get in there and make your choices. Hopefully we'll have a lot of fun with that. Okay, time for three good questions. We might extend that to four here, I think, today. We'll take them one at a time. From my kid sister, Lynn Downey. Hi, Lynn, how are you doing? She asks, Who are the top three players who aren't in the Baseball Hall of Fame but should be? That was a very thought-provoking question for me. I came up with three names. I'm sure they're not necessarily names that anybody listening would come up with. But here are mine. The first one is Billy Wagner. Billy Wagner, the great left-handed relief pitcher from the Houston Astros in the early 2000s, dominant. Now that they have several relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame, I certainly think he belongs. I missed by a handful of votes last year. I think this coming year will be his tenth and final year on the regular ballot. I would love to see him get in. I think he certainly deserves a place in Cooperstown. So that would be one. A second one would be Bill Madlock. Played in the 1970s and 80s. Was an all-star third baseman, first with the Chicago Cubs and then with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Later played for a couple other teams, the Giants. He played for the Giants. I think he finished with the Yankees briefly. Bill Madlock won four National League batting championships, two while he was with Chicago and two while he was in Pittsburgh. He was a key player on a world championship team. He hit over 400 in the 1979 World Series where the Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. Right smack dab in the middle of the lineup hitting behind Willie Stargel. He was as important as anybody, except maybe Willie, in that World Series victory in 1979. I think that, along with four batting championships, in my book that's good enough. I would vote for Bill Madlock. He's not on the regular ballot anymore, but I would have hoped he would have been in the Hall of Fame by now. The other one, maybe similarly, Richie Allen, also known as Dick Allen in the 1970s. Richie Allen came up with the Phillies, was tremendous with them, kind of soured on the city of Philadelphia, got traded a couple of times, wound up on the south side of Chicago with the White Sox where he won the American League Most Viable Player Award. Dick Allen was a kind of controversial guy in his day, didn't really go along with the norms of the time, but was a terrific player, and I'd like to see him enshrined in Cooperstown as well. So there's my three, Billy Wagner, Bill Madlock, and Richie. Don't call me Richie, call me Dick Allen. Thanks, Lynn. Thanks for the question. That was a good one. Secondly, from my friend Martin Fleming down in North Carolina, this is a political-flash-government question. Should the Electoral College be changed? Heck yeah. I think it should be abolished. That will take a lot. The Electoral College was formed in the original Constitution, and you have to remember what the country was like back in the 1780s. Most of the people, a vast majority of the people living in the 13 states were illiterate, couldn't read or write. Most had never traveled more than 40 miles away from their home in their entire life. So while they were trusted to make choices for local mayor or county governments or things like that, the founders did not think that the public would be trusted to pick the President of the United States. So they set up the Electoral College, which was meant to be a bunch of wise men meeting together in the 13 state capitals to vote on who should be President and Vice President of the United States. Obviously we're light years away from that kind of a situation today, but we still have this ancient, undemocratic, in my opinion, system of choosing the President. Why? We vote for everybody else, one person, one vote, from dog catcher to United States Senator, but for the presidency we have this silly 18th century relic that we use to choose the leader of the free world. I just think it's outrageous that we still use the Electoral College. We should get rid of it yesterday. It would take a lot. It would take a constitutional amendment, and I don't see that on the horizon, unfortunately. So we're going to have to live with the Electoral College for a little bit longer, I do believe. Thanks, Martin. That's a great question. Martin also asked, by the way, as an aside, my favorite Big Ten school obviously is Ohio State, the Buckeyes. He asked who was my second favorite Big Ten school, hoping I think that I would say his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers. Not exactly. My second favorite Big Ten school is who was ever playing Michigan that week. That would be my second favorite Big Ten team. Okay. The third question this week is from my good friend, the Hall of Famer Don Duffy, and this is very, very difficult. When will Cleveland's major sports teams win another championship? Well, we have three of them. Let's take them one at a time. First of all, the Browns. The Browns, a playoff team in 2023, seem to be making a lot of good moves here in the offseason. And they are positioned fairly well to be a contender. They're in a tough division. Just the last couple of days, Baltimore's gotten better with the addition of Derrick Henry. Pittsburgh's gotten better with a couple of additions. Patrick Queen from the Ravens and Russell Wilson, that quarterback, he's not great, but he's better than what they had. I think the Browns, Steelers, and Ravens are all getting better, and Cincinnati is maybe falling behind a little bit here in the race in the AFC North. The Browns have a tough road. They're certainly a team that could contend for a title. If the Browns ever win the NFL championship, those of you that remember the Cavaliers parade from 2016, that'll look like a small tea party in comparison. If the Browns would ever win the NFL title, I don't think anybody would show up to work the entire next week anywhere in northeast Ohio. I think it would just be just wild, like nothing we've ever seen before. That's how much the Browns mean to northeast Ohio and to most of the state, I believe. Okay, Cavaliers, they're a very good team this year. They're going through some injury troubles right now, and they've sunk a little bit in the standings. You know, could they make some noise in the playoffs? Sure they could. Are they a world championship team? I don't believe so. I certainly don't think they'll beat the Boston Celtics in a playoff series. I know they beat them last week, but that was kind of a fluke, says me, the Celtics fan. But I don't see the Cavaliers as an NBA title contender. They're a very good team, and they've played well most of the season, but that's a tough one. I think the Eastern Conference is pretty rough there. The Guardians, I'd love to see the Guardians win. I think, you know, it's a shame they didn't pull it off in 2016. Here's my problem there. I have a couple of problems. One, they're a 76-win team last year, pretty anemic at the plate, some decent pitching, but they lost the best thing they had going for them, and that was Terry Francona. Terry Francona retiring. He was worth five to ten games himself. Best manager in baseball, hands down, in my humble opinion. So the departure of Terry Francona, and he's super, and he's a great guy. I just don't think Stephen Vogt, rookie manager, he may turn out to be a terrific manager. I hope so. But those shoes are too big to fill considering the team won 76 and lost 86 last year. I don't see them hitting enough to be contenders. Even in a very weak division, they're in a division where it's not impossible that 84 or 85 wins could win you the division. So I guess if the breaks go their way, they could make some noise there. Going all the way, I just, you know, I don't see it. I wish I did, but I don't. So of the three, Coach, I think the Browns may have the best shot right now, and, boy, it's really strange to say that, but I think they do. Okay. Those are our three good questions for week three. Thank you for submitting them. You can go to the e-mail address, threegoodquestions at gmail.com, and submit your questions for next week's episode. I think that'll do it for episode number three. Thanks a lot for joining us. Tell a friend, tell a couple of friends about the podcast. Spread the word. I'm very thankful for those of you who are becoming loyal listeners here. It's a blast for me to do, and hopefully it's, you know, 20 minutes or so of entertainment for you in your day. So thanks again. Hopefully you'll join us next week for episode number four of Then and Now. Have a good week, everybody. Thanks.