My wife and I recently spent 12 days in France, and it was fascinating to note the differences between the two countries. I felt the food in France was overrated as was the Louve. Don’t get me wrong, both were fine, but based on reputation I was expecting more. As for museums, the Musee D’Orsay was much better than the Louve and far less crowded.
As for the surprises, I felt the French are better drivers than their American counterparts. This is hard for me to admit since I love to drive. In France,
you don’t see people sitting at a stop light texting. I also noticed that slower drivers do not plug up the passing lane, which is close to epidemic in the US. Plus, the French are much more generous in allowing other cars to merge into heavy traffic. Horn honking is rare and I never witnessed a single event of road rage. Impressive.
Watching cars, delivery trucks, motorcycles, motorized scooters, bicycles and pedestrians seamlessly navigate Parisian intersections was a sight to behold. We didn’t see one accident the entire time in France. In comparison, we landed in Minneapolis, got on the interstate and withing three miles came upon a semi overturned in the median. Welcome home podner.
The other thing I was looking for was signs of baseball in France. Granted, France has never been known as an international baseball power. In fact, the country isn’t even a bit player. They do seem to be making improvements, with former major league player and manager Bruce Bochy (who was born in Landes De Bussac) now managing the French National team.
There have been a handful of former major leaguers from France, the most successful being Charlie Lea, who had some good years with the Montreal Expos. Former KU and Royal shortstop Steve Jeltz was born in Paris. And no, current Royal killer Ty France has no connections to the country.
Touring the country I didn’t see a single baseball field. I didn’t see any children or adults playing catch. That was a bit surprising. A little research shows that there are only 87 baseball fields in the entire country. France is similar in size to the state of Texas. Texas has thousands of baseball diamonds spread across the state. Even a small population state like Kansas sports well over a thousand ball diamonds. My small hometown of 1,000 souls has two. We used to have three.
I did see several soccer pitches, including the spectacular Stade De France. I’ve always had a thing for stadiums, and this one did not disappoint. Soccer, or as Europeans call it, football, is immensely popular in France and they’re good at it as witnessed by their fourth-place finish in this summer’s World Cup. There were many, including me, who thought they might win the whole thing.
I did see a few tennis courts, a couple of track ovals and even what appeared to be an American Football field, but which might have been a rugby pitch. I looked in school yards and city parks (which were spectacular by the way) but no baseball fields. None. Nada. Zilch. Non.
My next social experiment was to start counting the baseball caps I saw on people. Granted, some of these people, probably most, are wearing the caps as a fashion statement and not necessarily as a shoutout to their favorite team. The cap most seen in France, and it hurts me to even type it, was the damn Yankees. And it was the Yankees by a very wide margin. The second most seen cap was for the Dodgers, but even at that I saw probably 20 Yankee hats for every Dodger cap. I saw so many damn Yankee hats that I had to suppress my urge to blurt out “Yankees suck” every time I saw one.
I did see a Phillies cap, and one Padre Cap plus another that had an M on it, which I couldn’t decide was for Miami, Milwaukee or Minnesota. Milwaukee should always stick with the MB which looks like a glove. That cap is a classic. Same for the Twins, they should always go with the TC cap. Looking at caps on the internet, it was Minnesota’s ugly M hat, which is a crime against humanity. And that was it. So, the Yankees either have a lot of fans across the world, or the NY hat is some kind of perverted fashion statement.
People in France don’t seem to be as obsessed with sports as their American cousins. I did read RoyalsReview every day and even though we were 7 hours ahead I appreciated the game recaps, so good work guys. Much appreciated.
I wore a Chiefs shirt one day which went unnoticed. I was a little disappointed to not even get a single snide comment about the refs helping them out.
I wore an Avalanche shirt another day and there were several people who shouted out support for the Avs. An older Frenchman stopped me and asked what the AV stood for. American hockey team I said. He nodded and went about his way.
France is a beautiful country with incredibly generous and friendly people. The country is starting to produce some world class basketball players, but their baseball production is lagging the rest of the world. Sounds like the kind of place the Royals would put some scouts, looking for an “inefficiency”. Note to JJ. Don’t. Keep concentrating on where the ballplayers are: Venezuela. Mexico. Latin America. The good old US of A. Japan. Even Korea is an up and coming baseball nation.
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The Royals are finishing up their 58th season and this summer marks the 50th anniversary of their first division championship and playoff appearance. The majority of that 1976 team was put together by their brilliant General Manager Cedric Tallis who was finally elected to the Royals Hall of Fame last year. That honor was long overdue and a tip of the cap to John Sherman and the Royals for righting a wrong.
When we evaluate Tallis’ record, much has been written about his trading prowess and his excellent 1968 expansion draft. Prior to those two events, Tallis had started to sign an assortment of free agents and players from the 1968 draft to fill the Royals minor league teams and hopefully uncover a major league player or two. One of those players was Paul Splittorff, who was selected in the 25th round of the 1968 draft out of tiny Morningside College in Iowa and became the Royals first draft choice to make the majors.
Who was the first player ever signed by the Royals? That would be pitcher Jerry Lyscio, who was signed by Tallis on April 25, 1968. Lyscio, a Brainard, Minnesota native, had originally been signed by his home state Twins in 1964.
After being released by the Twins, Tallis scooped him up and sent him to Dubuque, the Royals Class A team. Lyscio won his first three starts for the Packers, which earned him the Midwest League player of the month award for May 1968.
For the season, Lyscio appeared in 28 games with 26 starts, threw 195 innings and put up a 10-10 record with a respectable 3.42 ERA for a team that finished at 54 and 61.
That earned Lyscio a promotion to AA Elmira for the 1969 season. Unfortunately, Lyscio suffered a shoulder injury and never appeared in a game for Elmira. The injury also spelled and end to his baseball career.
That was as close as Jerry Lyscio made it to the show. Baseball is a tough game of survival and arm injuries, especially in those days, were the death knell for a pitcher.
Despite that, Lyscio will always remain a footnote to history, the first player to ever sign a contract with the Kansas City Royals.
