Things I Know: Writing for your heroes is an extra boost to keep doing it

Grab a plate and settle in for some sports, entertainment, and whatever floats into my brain discussion.

When I was a kid, nothing was more critical than sprinting down the street to Kingshighway Boulevard to grab the latest St. Louis Post-Dispatch for some Bernie Miklasz commentary. Picture young Tom Cruise on a mission, and you have the picture. If a young sports fan had a person they loved to read, he was it. Steve Savard was that guy on the news: Someone who looked like they could “Reacher” through a wall and put his glasses back on to inform us of what was happening in the world of St. Louis sports.

As of this week, both men are now subscribers to the Buffet. It still doesn’t seem real, but the coolness factor won’t dissipate for some time. Reading this will surely make them feel old, but that’s a privilege, right? Making it past your 40s means you have reached a part of the life mountain that many didn’t have the chance to experience. Reaching this far for them implies that writers like me continue to be inspired by their work, character, and the ability to persevere in doing what they love, regardless of the circumstances.

That’s one thing on my mind. Here are a few other things to note as the week starts to pick up. Once Monday is killed off, Tuesday looks easy by comparison and then the following two days are like speed humps before Friday’s arrival. Let’s share some opinions and thoughts.

~Rest in peace, George Foreman. The first memory that came to mind as I rode up Hampton Avenue with my dad on Friday evening, when the news broke, was the Michael Moore knockout. An older man, climbing into the ring against a young champion with unfavorable odds, ends up knocking the challenger out. Moore had no idea that a shot to the jaw was coming, and that’s what makes the sport of boxing incredible. That’s what made sports incredible: The idea of “you never know” crawling into every contest. You won’t find a more dramatic connection for that tremendous unknown than boxing.

~The Blues have won seven in a row, pushing their point total to 77 and securing the second wildcard spot while threatening to overtake Minnesota for the top wildcard spot. Last night’s victim was the Montreal Canadiens, whom the Blues beat 4-1 with four different goal scorers. That’s the key to any Stanley Cup Playoff roster: Having a good chunk of your roster be a scoring threat. They’re the hottest team in the NHL, hotter than Alexander Ovechkin’s stick, all under the great Jim Montgomery. When there aren’t major roster upgrades, the head coach gets a fair amount of the credit. He’s been incredible, just like his team.

Hey Cardinals, this is how you reset a roster. Pay attention, Mr. Chaim Bloom.

~Speaking of those Cardinals, I just heard an order come over the radio here at Crescent Plumbing Supply for the team. Without seeing it, I can assure you it’s not enough. They need new pipes, drainage, toilets, and everything else related to plumbing supplies inside five minutes. What they have accomplished before the first pitch of the 2025 season, tomorrow afternoon, is putting together a younger lineup and roster. According to Bernie Miklasz, who has a new home for all his content over at Sports Hub STL, the average age on their roster is right around 26 years old. Nolan Arenado may still be a Cardinal, but the team is moving in the right direction.

The key is to determine what these younger players can accomplish in the Major Leagues with a more significant amount of time, and how that affects their future moves. Matthew Liberatore, Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Luken Baker, Victor Scott II, Michael Siani, and others have the summer to see where their worth lies with the team moving forward. Over the next couple of years, older players like Arenado and Miles Mikolas will be replaced with younger, cheaper talent. With Thomas Saggese and J.J. Wetherholt flying through the system along with Quinn Matthews, they don’t exactly have two summers to figure it out either. Start swinging and slinging, gents.

~Local shoutout to the lovely folks at Rockwell Beer Garden. Located in Francis Park, they give parents a chance to decompress with a beer and some food while their kids or dogs unleash some of their pent-up energy. Don’t be like me, the guy who took his pit bull up there alone on a Saturday afternoon with enough families packed into the small section of the park to make Walmart jealous. The food isn’t second-rate either, especially the chicken nachos.

This isn’t like some restaurants in town that confuse the idea of nachos with mere chips and cheese; Rockwell gives you a pizza tray-size portion of nachos that can fill one person or knock the hunger off a couple. The queso cheese talks to your stomach like a colon whisperer, while the full-seeded jalapenos test your heat tolerance. The chicken is thankfully shredded and plentiful, while the colorful aspects come from the watermelon radishes. It’s the plate you pick up from the counter and collect at least three looks from nearby tables on the way back. Their pretzels, thin crust pizza, and assorted snacks are good. The cocktail and beer list is fine, too. Go for the nachos, though. Trust me.

A few more notes and thoughts as I wrap this up, along with my lunch hour:

~Ovechkin is a freak. I don’t think he’s human. In 79 games last year, a slower and older-looking Great 8 put up 31 goals. In 55 games this season, he has 36 goals. He returned quickly from a lower-body broken bone injury without missing a beat, helping the Washington Capitals to a 103-point season tally so far. He only needs six goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record. Ovechkin will retire as the greatest goal scorer of all time. What he is doing is unprecedented, even when including Albert Pujols’s wondrous 2022 season. Pujols went cold for a significant portion of that season; Ovie hasn’t been cold this year at all. It took a broken bone to slow him down.

~Chris Hemsworth and Marvel are expected to announce a new role/partnership this afternoon. Whatever it is, the MCU is drawing on its veteran roster to reignite its flagging movie enterprise. While I liked Captain America: Brave New World, the rest of the world and most critics found it to be tepid or less than worthy of a ticket. Hemsworth may be coming back for a fourth and final Thor solo adventure (Love and Thunder didn’t age well and wasted Christian Bale), or it could be something new. I want more Extraction adventures instead of the best Hemsworth being clogged up in Marvel projects for the next 5-10 years. Money talks louder than anything, though.

~For those of you driving out there, remember that merging into a lane doesn’t mean creeping up alongside the car. The intent is to exceed the speed of the car next to you or fall back behind into the lane behind it. The eternal battle out there for motorists is conquering the little things. One day, it’ll be better out there. The primary source of my anxiety raged onward until that fateful afternoon.

That’s all for now. Have a nice day and be kind to one another.