The Billings Free Press

Does it make more sense if you repeat some foolish mantra ad infinitum?

The hitters on both sides have been fairly quiet and the starters and the bullpens have been dominant. Small things are important. After the superb pitching on both sides for 8 innings, the game last night depended on a bloop single to start the top of the 9th, followed by a more solid single with a throw from the outfield a little off line and the first baseman, Pujols, a little uncertain whether he should cut the ball off, thus allowing Andrus to take a chance on going to 2nd. Followed by two sacrifice flies and Andrus again made a slightly lucky decision to go to third. Final score 2-1 Rangers.

This is a travel day before three games deep in the heart of Texas. I still haven’t decided who to cheer for in the 7th game. The Saint Louis Cardinals was my favorite team as I was growing up in rural southern Wisconsin. The Cubs were  closer but Musial, Schoendienst, Slaughter, Marion et al somehow grabbed my affections early.

The Rangers, on the other hand, the orphaned offspring of the Washington Senators have only been to the World Series once in their history since 1971. That was last year when the San Francisco Giants embarrassed them in 5 games. So they might be thought to be the underdogs. But then the Cards were at least 10 games behind in the wild card standings as of sometime in late August. So maybe they need all the support they can get. I like La Russa more than Washington, but Nolan Ryan counts for more in my book that whoever heads the Cardinals. I say to both Crepe Diem.

Watching the playoffs has been entertaining. The Rangers look very strong in hitting and pitching and fielding. The Cardinals look fairly strong in the hitting department but who knows what will happen if they face some stiff pitching.

Usually the good pitchers beat the good hitters. I don’t think a couple days rest are going to do    the Cardinals any good because I think they have been running on fumes for the whole month of   September and part of October. That and the Braves convenient nose-dive into oblivion for 2011.  Whatever happened to all that good pitching that the Phillies were supposed to have?

There was a nice article in the Gazette this past Sunday, 9 October, about RiverStone Health taking over the provision of medical care for the jail population here in Yellowstone County. Apparently the county has been hiring nurses to look after the inmates of the Detention Center and Dr George Sheckleton provides full-time medical supervision, although RiverStone already provides some dental work and Billings Clinic has the franchise for mental health services.

The one-year contract with RiverStone Health will cost $1.25 million, about twice what the total bill is now. Dr Sheckleton has spoken out against the cost of the care, but Commissioner Kennedy says “We’re offering basic care.” Which suggests to some that perhaps we were not offering basic care in the past.

This system will have some similarities to the reforms that our Washington overlords have crafted for the rest of us, so it will be instructive to see how the costs will be contained while the quality improves. No doubt the rich—that would be all of us commoners here in Billings—will be asked to contribute their fair share.