1972 Replay Update: June 1

I’ve reached June 1 in my 1972 APBA baseball replay and, as the case with any replay done of a season during which I was alive, I think about where I was at that time.

As I’ve said in the beginning of this replay, 1972 was a transitional year for me and baseball helped keep at least one constant in my world then. I was a sixth grader in Bemidji, Minn., and attended a laboratory elementary school on the campus of the local college. I had gone there all six years of my education and I had made friends.

My dad taught at Bemidji State University and I’d walk home from school, cutting through the campus and meeting him at his office. We’d then go home together, making the two-block stroll up 14^th Street to Bixby Avenue.

On June 1, 1972, I was almost finished with sixth grade. In Minnesota, at least back then, we’d go to school through the first week or so of June before ending for summer break. We’d return after Labor Day in September.

Obviously, I don’t remember the exact day back then, but I’m sure I was filled with some anticipation of summer, but also with a little fear of going to junior high in an entirely different realm than what I was used to.

And that’s where baseball came in to help. On that day in 1972, my Minnesota Twins were only a game and a half out of first place behind Oakland in the real season. Detroit was half a game in front of Baltimore to lead the American League East and the New York Mets and Los Angeles led their divisions in the National League. (Remember, the 1972 real season began late because of a player’s strike).

In APBA, there are no strikes and I am playing the original schedule. There are no rainouts in my replay world as well, so every team plays a full 162 games.

That said, here’s how the season has gone so far.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

WEST                         W        L          GB

Oakland                     30       17        --

Minnesota                 26        21        4

Kansas City               23        25        7.5

Chicago                      21        26        9

California                  22        27        9

Texas                          12        38       19.5

 

EAST                          W        L          GB

New York                  30       19        --

Detroit                       28       17        --

Baltimore                  27        21        2.5

Cleveland                  25        20       3

Boston                       23        23        5.5

Milwaukee                16        29        12

 

Leaders:

Home runs: Mayberry, KC, 12; Darwin, Minn., 11; Grich, Bal., 11.

Wins: G.Perry, 10-1, Cle.; 9-2, Hunter, Oak.; Lolich, Det. 9-3

Saves: Lyle, NYY, 7; Allen, Cal., 6; Sanders, Mil., 6

Strikeouts: Ryan, Cal., 106; Lolich, Det. 97; Bradley, Chi., 89

 

The season started out pretty bland. Most of the teams were playing around .500 ball and no one, other than the Yankees, seemed to stand out in the American League.

The Yankees have been a surprise in the East. It’s mostly because of their pitching. Mel Stottlemyre has six shutouts. Other Yankees’ pitchers have a combined four shutouts. A third of New York’s wins, 10 of 30, involved games in which opponents never crossed the plate. The big bats aren’t really part of the team. Bobby Murcer leads the Yankees with nine home runs. Catcher Thurman Munson is second on the team with only four.

Cleveland has also been a surprise. Gaylord Perry has been amazing, winning 10 of his 11 decisions. The Indian bats aren’t all that great, either. Greg Nettles leads the Tribe with six home runs. All other Indians have combined to hit 23 home runs.

In the West, Minnesota opened quickly and just as in the real 1972 season, they took an early lead. But a 13-2 run by Oakland at the end of May gave the As the division lead. Reggie Jackson has been a disappointment so far, and I guess APBA replayers see that often. Stars that should stand out sometimes don’t produce. Jackson has only six home runs for the season. Two came in the ninth inning of a game against Minnesota in which Oakland won, 21-1. In the real 1972 season, Jackson had 10 home runs by June 1.

Texas is just plain bad. They were 3-3 on April 6. Then, they fell apart, suffering losing streaks of seven, 11, six and seven games. In between the streaks, they only won five games. A 5-31 record won’t get you out of last place.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST              W        L          GB

Pittsburgh     34        15        --

Chicago          28       20       5.5

Phil’phia        27        23        7.5

St. Louis        26        22        7.5

New York      22        26        11.5

Montreal       20       28       13.5

 

WEST             W        L          GB

Houston        29        23        --

Los Angeles  25        25        3

Cincinnati     24        25        3.5

Atlanta           23        27        5

San Diego      21        32        8.5

San Fran        20       33        9.5

 

Leaders:

Home runs; Stargell, Pitt., 16; Aaron, Atl., 14; Kingman, SF, 12.

Wins: Wise, Stl., 8-1; Carlton, Phl., 8-3; Jenkins, Chi., 8-4

Saves: McGraw, NYM, 9; Giusti, Pitt., 8; Marshall, Mtl. 7

Strikeouts: Carlton, Phl., 125; Seaver, NYM, 82; Wilson, Hou., 77

Pittsburgh is definitely the team to beat in the National League so far. With Blass, Moose, Briles, Ellis and Kison as their starters, I don’t see any long losing streak ahead for the Pirates. And relievers Dave Giusti and Ramon Hernandez (both A (Y) pitchers) have combined for 12 saves.

Cincinnati, on the other hand, is the NL’s disappointing team. Catcher Johnny Bench has 10 home runs, but the rest of the team seems weak at bat. From May 3 to May 21, the Reds won only three out of 19 games.

San Francisco is an odd team to play. Their batters bomb the long ball with Bobby Bonds, Dave Kingman, Ken Henderson, Willie McCovey and Dave Rader. But their pitchers bomb on the mound. Sam McDowell is 2-8 and Juan Marichal is 3-7.

The Cubs bolted into second place by winning 13 in a row. Five were shutout games, including a 20-0 whitewashing of Montreal. They followed that game with another shutout of the Expos and then a 1-0 win over St. Louis.

June 1972 starts now and as I roll games for this month, I’ll be thinking of my time back then, playing whiffle ball with my best friend in his back yard on Callahan Street, of riding bikes to Diamond Point Park and of staying out late, enjoying the cool of the Minnesota evenings while the Twins were playing on television.

I Am a Dinosaur

I was turned down for a job recently because I didn’t have enough technical skills.

The job was a marketing and public relations director for a local business and it sounded interesting. I applied with the hopes of getting it, being able to be paid to write things and to earn a better weekly check than I am getting now.

But, alas, when the employers found out I didn’t know how to do Power Point and I wasn’t all that fond of Facebook and other social media, I didn’t make the final cut. I should have seen it coming because the employer found out I was a reporter, she asked me more about my thoughts on the West Memphis 3 murder mystery than what I could do for the business.

At first I was depressed about it. The increase in pay would have been nice. We have saved three stray cats in the neighborhood and the vet and food bills are always high. A change of job scenery would have been nice, too.

I am a dinosaur. I’m old and trapped in the ways of yore. A friend of mine is an editor at an Arkansas paper and he talks about his pagination process of putting the paper to bed each day. When I was starting in newspaper so many years ago, I typed on a real typewriter, like those reporters you see wearing fedoras and clacking out stories in smoke-filled newsrooms. Pagination? I used to print copy out on typing paper, cut it, run the strips through a waxer and stick it on dummy sheets that replicated the final page.

Later, when I became a bureau reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette all I had to learn how to push a couple of keys on the laptop to send my stories to the Little Rock office. Still, I had issues and our computer tech people told me I was considered job security for them since I was pretty illiterate in the world of computing.

So, I was saddened. Looking back, I don’t know why I applied. Obviously, technology is part of a public relations job. You have to get the word out about the business as quickly as you can, but I don’t know the difference between a jpeg and a farm pig and I have to get my wife to help me post pictures on Facebook on the infrequent times I do.

I could probably get a job as the town crier, hawking out news from street while wearing a three-cornered hat and knickers, but there aren’t many jobs like that around anymore.

Yes, I am extinct. Technology has passed me by. I’m sitting on the information highway, trying to bum a ride with the young speedsters.

I turned to my APBA 1972 baseball season replay game to drown out my sorrows. One of my favorite players as a kid, Willie Stargell, was leading the majors in home runs in my replay. The Minnesota Twins, the team I learned baseball when I lived in Minnesota in 1972, was doing pretty well and most of the teams had developed playing personalities. I could easily get lost in a few games and forget my worthlessness.

And I realized then, that APBA does cater to dinosaurs like me. There’s the computerized version, but I prefer rolling dice and using the game cards the company prints.

I never got into the video game things; I was awful at them. Before my first wife passed away, my stepson played Mortal Kombat with me and took glee in beating the stuffing out of me every time because I couldn’t tell which buttons to push. I also showed my ineptness when a friend tried to get me to play some Nintendo space game. I’d usually get fried by a laser before the first round of aliens settled in for the battle.

Nope, it’s the basics for me. Give me a red and white dice, two teams of carded players and away I go.

I sought comfort in a game that’s created for people like me who were depressed because I’m not technologically savvy.

The depression passed. I mean, there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. But the game has helped. It’s one thing that I can enjoy and excel at without worrying about computer stuff and Power Points and all that.

So, for all you dice and cards APBA players, who, like me, aren’t zipping down the info highway, embrace your dinosaur.

Just don’t expect a hug back if your dinosaur’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Their tiny arms wouldn’t be able to reach around you, you know.

Cubs Win ... and Win... and Win

 

During the first month’s games of my 1972 APBA baseball replay, it seemed like the teams were replicating the bell curve of statistics. There were a few teams on the winning end – Pittsburgh and the New York Yankees were winning far more frequently than the other teams. And there were the outliers on the other end – Milwaukee and Texas were on a race to see which team would lose 100 games first.

And the rest of the teams all hovered around each other. Most were within two to four games of playing .500.

I wasn’t all that enthused at first. I mean, 1972 was the first real baseball season I became totally aware. I was 11, living in northern Minnesota and watching and reading as much as I could about the Twins then. I learned how to compile ERA and batting averages and I could see that, despite a good start, the Twins were probably destined for a near .500 season themselves.

So, when I began rolling 1972, I was hoping for a stroll down nostalgia lane with teams like Oakland and Detroit and Cincinnati really taking off. Instead, I got mediocrity.

Until May 1972 rolled around.

And the Cubs.

Chicago has won 12 games in a row from May 18 to May 30 in the replay. They’ve moved from fifth place, only a tad ahead of Montreal, to second place. They’re still seven games behind Pittsburgh, but the streak is on-going. The Cubs play two more at home against St. Louis and then start a nine-game road swing against San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles, before heading home  to face the same teams nine more times.

Then, on June 23, 1972, the Cubs host Pittsburgh in a three-game set and then play them again at the end of the month in the Pirates’ stadium.

The Cubs have been amazing during this streak. They’ve outscored their opponents 89-14 and pitchers tossed five shutouts during the run, including a 20-0 shellacking of Montreal. The pitchers have hurled an incredible 0.92 earned run average in the 12 games.

The team has batted .320, with Glenn Beckert leading them with a .381 average. Billy Williams has five home runs and 13 RBIs during the streak and is batting .320.

Even Ron Santos, the slowest of the slow, is hitting .341. Prior to this streak, it seemed Santos, who is given the “S” for slow (should have been “GS” for glacier slow) would get on base and then be constantly caught at second or third when the next batter got a hit. If he ever hit a triple in a game, the ivy on Wrigley’s wall would have grown six inches before he slid into the base. Once when Santos hit a double, the grounds crew had to run a folding chair out there for him to sit and catch his breath. Chicago officials are talking with the commissioner to see if they can get Santos a moped or Segway to putter to bases with.

Yeah, Santos is slow.

But in these 12 games, he’s not been caught on base at all.

Long streaks are not that common for me in APBA replays. I’ve had a few teams win 10 in a row and the Minnesota Twins lost more than 20 in a 1977 replay. But I’m pretty sure this 12-game winning stretch has to be the longest I can recall. And it’s not over. Yet.

Burt Hooton is scheduled to start the next games for the Cubs against Cardinal’s pitcher Johnny Cumberland. Cumberland is carded as a “D,” the worst rating given for pitchers based upon their performance. Hooton is a “B” with a “Y” rating for strikeouts, which gives him a chance to record more strikeouts than other pitchers based upon his real-life performance in the 1972 season.

It’ll be a while before I can get to that game. Because of work and life, my replay has slowed down a bit. Maybe this upcoming game-- and the Houston-Cincinnati clash ahead—can speed my rate of play a bit.

This is one of the neat things about the APBA game. It may seem plodding to some to do a complete replay, rolling all the games for every team, but there is always something that’s happening, something to marvel over and something to look ahead to.

 

Anniversaries

I assume it’s a safe guess that most of the APBA players have been playing the sports replay for a while now. We probably began rolling the dice and holding the cards at an early age and the game stayed with us as we grew over the years.

And I suspect many of us began the APBA voyage after receiving the game as a Christmas gift from our parents.

I had two APBA anniversaries last week, including one on Christmas Day in 1977 that got me started. (Actually, there’s a third anniversary—I began this blog on Jan. 1, 2012. Hard to believe I’ve been doing this for 11 years now.)

My parents bought me the football game that year. I probably began backwards; most people first play the basic baseball game as a kid and graduate to the football and other game offerings of APBA. I was indoctrinated into the world of the large red dice and small white dice, the player cards with dice roll results printed on them and the counting of each play as a measure of time keeping with the football version.

That night on Christmas, I played my first game with Washington and the New York Giants. I’m sure I didn’t do it right that time. The rules were difficult and detailed. This wasn’t the Pop Tarts card baseball or the electric football games I used to play. I remember the Giants won the game, something like 41-34, and Larry Brown ran back a kickoff for 100 yards for the Redskins.

A year later, I received the APBA basketball game – a game that received much criticism because of its complex and plodding style of play. I played a streamlined version that consisted mostly of shooting, rebounding and figuring out assists with a detailed dice system. I loved the game and it’s what made me a dedicated APBA fan for life.

Just the other day I also observed another APBA anniversary. I began playing the baseball game on Dec. 28, 1998. I was seduced by the steroid-aided home run race that season by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and returned to being a fan after the 1994 season-ending strike drove me away. I got the game to replicate that season’s fun.

I’ve been rolling some baseball season now for 24 years and I’ve been with APBA for 45 years.

I am sure there are scores of other APBA players who can boast much longer anniversaries of 50 and even 60 years.

And that’s the point of this game that I mention frequently. What other game has stayed with us for so long? It’s the draw of the APBA game and I think it’s what keeps us coming back to the company to get more seasons. We can live our past by rolling seasons we remember as we continue growing older. I’m doing 1972 now and I recall the season when I turned 12 years old that summer and left the security of my northern Minnesota grade school for a larger junior high. The consistency of baseball helped me get through that transitional time.

The APBA game has been with us as we grew up. We may have put it aside when we went to college or got a job. It may have waited when we got married or had kids and it stuck with us during other life changes. I began my replay of the 1991 baseball season in August 2015. A month later, I drove to Chicago and met the woman who would become my wife. It took four years to complete that replay; usually, because I have no life, it takes about a year and a half to roll a full season replay.

But now, life has settled into a routine again and I roll games nearly every day.

Twenty-four years of rolling doesn’t seem that long. But in the years I’ve been playing the baseball game, I was hired as a bureau reporter for a statewide newspaper, covered a school shooting here that got national coverage, lost my mother and wife, got laid off at the newspaper job, dealt with my own health issues and got remarried. It’s been a lot of life in that quarter of a century and APBA has been there.

Another anniversary has passed. What’s ahead for the next year of APBA games? I see myself finishing the 1972 replay late this year and beginning another season. Maybe I’ll drag out the APBA basketball game. I could finish a game in time for the next anniversary.

The Big Dead Machine

I’m only about 25 percent through my APBA replay of the 1972 baseball season. Although there are many games left to play, if the first quarter is any indication of how the season will turn out, it’s going to be the weirdest one I’ve done yet.

Only Pittsburgh is leading the division that the team won in the real season 50 years ago. The Pirates, fueled by Willie Stargell’s lead-leading 12 home runs and pitchers Doc Ellis’ 5-0 record and Steve Blass’ 6-1 record, are the best team in my replay. At 26-11, they lead the National League East by 3.5 games.

In the American League East, New York and Cleveland are tied for first place. Actual division winner Detroit is in third, trailing by 3.5 games.

Minnesota surprisingly leads the American League West by two games over Oakland and four games over Kansas City.

The National League West is the strangest by far. Cincinnati, the winner of the real pennant of 1972 and National League World Series representative are awful. At 17-22, they are mired in fourth place, tied with lowly Atlanta. Houston is in first place with a 22-19 mark.

The Reds began well, appearing to be the mirror image of the real team which shared the best record in baseball with Pittsburgh in the real season. They opened winning 10 of their first 13 games.

But then the Big Red Machine threw a rod and came to a grinding halt. They’ve lost 15 of their last 17 games and were outscored 78 runs to 42. Most of the loses came to weaker teams, too. In a series that seemed to at first foreshadow a possible National League playoff, Pittsburgh beat the Reds two out of three games. Ok, the Bucs are the best team and losing two to them is understandable. But then the bottom dropped out.

Cincy lost two to the Cubs and were swept in a four-game set with St. Louis. San Francisco, which is in last place in the West, won three of four against the Reds and San Diego, which is battling the Giants for the cellar dweller crown, has won two against the Reds. The two play a double-header next in San Diego and then the Reds host Atlanta and the Padres in Cincinnati before heading to Houston for a four-game series.

So, why is Cincinnati playing so badly? APBA produces its game cards based on the real results of each player’s season. If Pete Rose bloops a lot of singles during a season, chances are he’ll get a “7” or two on his card, which is a guaranteed base hit regardless of the pitcher (in most situations). Johnny Bench led the league with 40 home runs in 1972, so his card reflects that with several “1s,” which are indicative of a home run.

But here’s where the game gets interesting and what makes APBA not just a simple dice-rolling game that only reflects statistics. Everyone who’s played this game has seen the oddities. Someone gets “hot” and defies the statistical logic of his card. For example, I benched Frank Robinson of the Los Angeles Dodgers for a few games after he was pretty unproductive. I brought him back and he hit three home runs in a game against Philadelphia. He hit homers in the next three games, giving him six in a four-game run.

I’ve used Deron Johnson in as a pinch hitter for the Phillies in two consecutive games and he hit a home run in each.

The Reds now are the inverse of that. During the 17-game stretch, Pete Rose, who led the Reds with a .307 batting average in the real 1972 season, hit .220. Johnny Bench went 12 for 54 at bats for a .222 average.  Cincinnati batted .251 as a team during the real season. In these last 17 games, the Reds hit .209. Their opponents hit .278.

Again, it’s very early in the season. Maybe the dice will turn around for the Reds. That upcoming four-game stand with the Astros could be an indicator of how things will go. The Reds could get back into the race or bury themselves even deeper.

APBA Thanksgiving, Take 44

I’ve spent a lot of Thanksgiving days in different places over the years, but there’s always been a tradition that made the holiday seem, as unsettling as it was, somewhat normal by the day’s end.

After my first wife passed away in 2006, I had no family at all. It led to my various places on the holidays; with no family, there was no real home base to anchor me on special days. Since her passing, I spent a couple of Thanksgivings at the Memphis airport shuttling friends back and forth to their destinations.

Once, I ate a festive meal at the West Memphis, Ark., Burger King. I don’t think the pilgrims’ mythical first feast consisted of pulling cheese off a paper wrapper that once enshrouded a flame-broiled slab of door mat, but it was the thought that counted, I guess.

One year I cooked a turkey for my cat and I, and for another holiday I made a traditional fare of melted Kraft cheese dip with the tomatoes and peppers spiked with hamburger. After digesting that it was a Stanksgiving, if you get my drift.

And because I worked at a daily newspaper until 2017, I often worked on the holiday so other reporters could be home with their families. I’d cover some community dinner at a tornado-stricken town and then head back to the news bureau to write the story and eat a frozen burrito or chicken salad sandwich from whatever convenience store was open.

Six years ago, Holly, my wife now, moved down here and we had our first Thanksgiving dinner together. Last year, she traveled to see her aunt in Chicago on the holiday and I ended up at a VFW legion post with a co-worker for lunch.

This year, she’s home and we’re cooking a small turkey for dinner tonight.

Despite all the variations I’ve gone through for the holidays, there is always a constant. It’s the APBA game we play. It’s been that way now for 44 Thanksgiving holidays.

I began playing the sports replay game in 1977 when my parents got me the football game for Christmas. The following year, when my high school was out for the holiday, I spent Thanksgiving evening rolling games. The game added to the joy of being out of school. Back then, I had a gooseneck lamp attached to my bed and it would illuminate the game I rolled atop the bed. It was simple, but it was perfect. What better way to spend a holiday evening than to play with our favorite game.

After high school, I’d return home from college and roll games during the holiday break. Later, when I first began my career in newspapers, I’d make it home to see my parents again during the Thanksgiving holiday and get in a few games.

Last year, after eating at the VFW post, I drove home and dove into my 1965 baseball replay. This year, I’ve got Texas heading to Kansas City and the St. Louis hosting Pittsburgh in the 1972 baseball replay I’m working on now.

I think a lot of the APBA players do the same thing during the holiday. Maybe after a hectic day full of relatives, rolling a game or two is a way to relax. Maybe playing the games is way to forget about the loneliness of not having a family. You always read about how holiday depression fills hospital emergency rooms. Perhaps the game alleviates that depression for some.

Maybe it’s a way to return to the magic of the holidays we all felt as kids; the APBA game serves as the link to those days. We all change as we get older, but the game remains the same and we can even replay seasons when we were kids and the magic meant more then. I’m doing 1972 now. I turned 12 that year when the seasonal magic had yet to be tarnished by life.

Whether you’re in a huge house with lots of family celebrating the season or watching friends fly off to their own families from the Memphis airport, whether you’re eating a Whopper or a chicken salad sandwich that had an expiration date from the previous presidential administration, be thankful for our APBA game. To me, the game is more a holiday fare than the food and family camaraderie.

And, as we in the game community say each year, “APBA Thanksgiving, everyone.”

Bad Cell Service? Call Julie

I’ve had pretty bad cell phone service at my home for the past year or so and, because we have no cable or internet hookup either, it impairs our ability to get online as well.

That’s one of the reasons why I’ve not written many blogs for a while. It’s frustrating trying to acquire a “hotspot” on my phone for internet service only to discover it’s only a “tepidspot” or “lukewarmspot.” So, instead, when I’m rambunctious, I load up the laptop and head to a nearby hotel, park in the lot and try to pirate their free wi-fi.

I’ve also gone to a hospital across the highway from the hotel, the downtown library and at the county courthouse where I work to get online at times. But in the summer, it’s pretty hot to sit in a car while filing the blogs and in the winter, it’s chilly. There’s also that lurker image of a guy sitting in a parking lot. The laptop is in my lap at those times, hence the name “laptop” and it’s below the window line. People who pass by only see me fiddling with something in my lap. I won’t go further with that picture.

We used to have decent wi-fi with our phones. Not to name companies, but we changed services to something akin to “Bust Mobile.” It used to be Virgin Mobile, but I guess that company felt they screwed so many over with the billings, they no longer qualified for that name and merged with the other company.

We live near an airport and my stepson, who is far smarter than I, thinks that maybe the airport blocks the phones' 5G signal so it won’t interfere with airplane operations. I’m not sure. All I know is that when a plane flies overhead, the television signal washes out and we miss the final question on “Jeopardy!”

In addition to not being able to file things online, not having phone service is creating a large problem with tracking the arrival times of the Amtrak train my wife takes to visit her aunt. There is an automated service you can call and “Julie,” a recorded voice that supposedly can understand words, tells me when trains will arrive at the station where I pick Holly up. It’s important to know those times.

Amtrak is generally late and it earns my title of “Damntrak” because of that habit. I tend to get to the station at least 45 minutes early just in case of any issues that could delay me such as wrecks, a flat tire, trains blocking crossings and other mayhem.

The train shows up around 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. at the Walnut Ridge, Ark., station. Based on the denizens I’ve met there while waiting for the train to arrive in the past, I sure don’t want Holly to have to wait for me to get there.

Once, I was waiting in the depot reading a book about the 1972-74 Oakland As. A guy came in and asked me what I was reading. I told him and he said I was too young to remember that. Despite me saying I was old enough to recall the team, he stared blankly ahead and said God just told him I had many years left and I wasn’t as old as I thought.

There’s always someone there with a financial crisis in need of money or cigarettes. Since I have neither, lately I just sit in the car and wait for the train.

And this is where Julie is so important.

This is a recent conversation I had with the poor phone connection:

JULIE: … if you want to know a train status, say “Train Status.”

ME: Train Status.

JULIE: I think you said “you want to buy a ticket.”

ME: (Louder) Train Status!

JULIE: Okay. Do you know the number of your train?

ME: Twenty-two.

JULIE: I think you said “forty-four.”

ME: How did you get a “four” sound from “two?”

JULIE: I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I’ll transfer you to a representative.”

And then there’s the usual, “We are experiencing high call volume at this time, please hold for the next representative.”

Meanwhile, the train continues lumbering down the track toward its destination.

There are times when it gets personal.

JULIE: What station is the train arriving?

ME: Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. (By now yelling and over-pronouncing each word.)

JULIE: I think you said “Modesto, California.”

ME: Your mother thinks you’re ugly and your pets don’t like you.

JULIE: You’re fat and you don’t have any money.

I’ve not been late yet to pick up my wife. Once, on a night when Daylight Savings occurred, Amtrak failed to adjust for the time and kept saying the train would arrive at 1:33 a.m. Then, at about midnight, Julie made the time change and said the train would roll into Walnut Ridge at 12:30 a.m. I made it there with about 5 minutes to spare that time.

So, we continue struggling with the phone service. I don’t write as many blogs as I had and I worry about being late at the station. Holly is making another trip to see her aunt soon and I’ll be yelling at Julie again.

I guess I could go to the hotel on the night of my wife's return, sit in the parking lot for a while and file blogs and call Julie.