good talk

Since I graduated from high school in 1965 this country has been involved in frivolous warfare half the time, there's very seldom a good reason to be at war and it should be a very rare occurrence. Why are you so self-destructive? Las Vegas has a discount moviehouse that I often go to and it does tremedous business. It's the closest to me and lots of others and it only costs 1.50 at any time to see a movie on one of its six screens. I like to go out and do things instead of sitting around hunched over in my domicile and many others also feel this way, you could take your family of 5 there for 7.50. It only costs maybe 20% to show a movie that's been out for 3 or 3 months and they make their money on concessions, even with a regular moviehouse they make half their money on concessions. "Tropicana Cinemas" at Trop and Pecos has become the place to be seen. I was at Petco a few years ago and in the restroom when they announced that somebody had died, I turned to the kid next to me and said who died? Rod Beck (1968 to 2007) was a major league pitcher from 1991 to 2004 and for a few years in the early and mid 90's was considered to be the best relief pitcher in baseball as a closer for the San Francisco Giants, I saw him pitch then. An old school mindset, Rod Beck was always popular with his teammates and enjoyed talking the game for hours while indulging in his appetite for beer, food and cigarettes. Always with a big gut other pitchers copied his mannerism of glaring at the batter with his right arm dangling. Rod pitched also for the Cubs, Red Sox and was out for the 2002 season due to Tommy John surgery. When the Padres' Trevor Hoffman was injured in 2003 the Padres were desperate for a closer and signed Rod Beck even though as Jake Peavy put it "He was running on the fumes." It's with good reason that the Padres had fond memories of Rod Beck as he went out and got them 20 saves in 20 chances that year pitching only with the confidence that he could get the batter out. Beset by increasing drug use the Padres let Rod Beck go in August, 2004. With his physical skills leaving him and baseball no longer in his life Rod Beck was found on June 23, 2007 dead in his house in Phoenix from a cocaine overdose, he was "38." As a former teammate put it "He couldn't shake the demons," with a career of 286 saves Rod Beck will eventually be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame.