First things first: the rules of being a Warner by Kurt and Brenda Warner with Jennifer Schuchmann
Kurt Warner is an NFL quarterback who has been to the Super Bowl three times (with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals). The story of his rise from grocery shelf stocker to Arena Football League player and finally to NFL star has been told and re-retold many, many times. He and his wife Brenda have seven children (five together and two from her previous marriage, including one who has brain-damage and blindness due to a childhood accident). Together, they have written a book describing how they balance his NFL career with their family life, all while giving back to the community and being good Christians.
Below: Kurt Warner gets ready to throw the football.
I finished reading this book a few days ago, and I have been thinking since then about what I wanted to say about it. Unfortunately, I have not been able to put my thoughts into words. Everything I try to write seems insincere and inadequate. If anyone else has read this book, please contact me. Maybe you can help.
Below: Kurt and Brenda Warner working on a Habitat-for-Humanity project.
I just finished reading Tom Braden's autobiographical book about parenting, Eight is Enough. Tom Braden was a newspaper columnist and publisher and also had a large family, including eight children. The book is about Braden's experiences being a father. The book served as the basis for the popular television show of the same name that was on the air in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Above: Tom Braden and his real-life family
Below: The Bradford family from the television show
While the book is very similar to the television show, there are some important differences:
In the television show, the family's last name is changed from Braden to Bradford.
In the book, the family lives in Virginia, Maryland, and southern California. In the television program, they live in Sacramento, California.
In the television show, the mother (Joan) dies and is replaced by a step-mother (Abby). This was due to the unfortunate death of the actress playing the mother during the first season of the show and did not happen in the book.
In the television show, Tom Bradford is pretty much a regular guy working as a columnist for a Sacramento newspaper. In the book, we find out that Tom Braden and his wife Joan were friends with such noted people as Robert Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Jack Valenti, Yitzhak Rabin, William O. Douglas, Edward Bennett Williams, and Henry Kissinger.
In the book, Braden is critical of the Nixon administration and tentatively accepts many of the counter-cultural changes that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The television show generally steered clear of such potentially controversial topics.
Above: Robert Kennedy
Below: Yitzhak Rabin
Below: Henry Kissinger talking on the telephone
One thing that is not mentioned in the book is the fact that Tom Braden was at one point a CIA operative and participated in anti-communist efforts as a journalist during the Cold War (including once publishing an article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Why I'm Glad the CIA is Immoral").
Below: The opening of Eight is Enough from Season Two. Notice that they have started using the signature theme song yet.
Last Tuesday, July 21, 2009, my daughter and I went to watch the Tacoma Rainierslose 11-7 to the Sacramento River Cats. The Rainiers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Here are some important facts you may need to know about Rainiers third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo (pictured above):
Matt Tuiasosopo has good speed and is an excellent bunter. In his first at-bat, he bunted down the third base line and reached first base without a throw.
Matt Tuiasosopo comes from a very athletic family. His father, ManuTuiasosopo, played for the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers of the NFL. One of his brothers, Marques Tuiasosopo, played quarterback for the University of Washington Huskies and later briefly with the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders of the NFL. Another brother, ZachTuiasosopo, also played for the UW Huskies.
Below, Marques Tuiasosopo
According to one of the gentlemen sitting behind us (see photo below - I am not sure which gentleman it was, however), his granddaughter played fast pitch softball with Matt Tuiasosopo's sister, and the entire family, including the more famous brothers, would come to watch her games.
Matt Tuiasosopo was called out for interference in the first inning when he slid too hard into second base trying to break up a double play. The slide was more of a roll than a slide and was similar to the kind of block an overmatched running back might make on a blitzing linebacker.
Matt Tuiasosopo had a double at some point during the game.
At another point, one of the Rivers Cats batters hit a pop up down the left field line. Matt Tuiasosopo turned and ran after the ball, and it looked like he was going to make a nice over-the-shoulder catch, but then he missed it. The batter ended up with a double, I believe.
Above, Matt Tuiasosopo at third base
Matt Tuiasosopo struck out twice during the game. (See video below - watch how Matt Tuiasosopo refuses to leave home plate for a long time after being called out.)
Matt Tuiasosopo grounded into a double play to end the game. This was one of four double plays the River Cats turned that night.
"Hockey ought to be sternly forbidden, as it is not only annoying but dangerous." Halifax Morning Sun, quoted in Michael McKinley's Hockey - A People's History
