Inaugural Baseball Game, California State University Bakersfield

California State University Bakersfield opened in September 1970 as the 19th member of the 23-campus California State University system.

CSUB Athletics has been a source of continuing pride for the university and community. CSUB's 17 sports programs have won 30 national championships. In 1998 CSUB won the Sears Cup as the best NCAA Division II program in the nation. In June, 2006, it was announced that the university was moving its athletics program to NCAA Division I. This will be the schools inaugural season for baseball.

The first pitch was Friday the 20th of February.

I attended and took a few pictures for posterity.

Presidents Day---George Washington's Birthday

U.S. Presidents Day, officially known as Washington's Birthday, is a federal holiday and is celebrated on the third Monday of February.

Presidents Day was originally designated in honor of George Washington's birthday and is still legally called "Washington's Birthday." The first president of the United States was born on February 22, 1732.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. As the war was drawing to a close, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate.

The Day the Music Died

On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, United States killed three American rock and roll musicians: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean in his 1971 song "American Pie".

Recorded and released on the American Pie album in 1971, the single was a number-one U.S. hit for four weeks in 1972.

The song is an abstract story of his life that starts with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959, and ends in 1970; in the song he called the plane crash "the day the music died."

The song's lyrics are the subject of much curiosity. Although McLean dedicated the American Pie album to Buddy Holly, none of the singers in the airplane crash are identified by name in the song itself.

I Will Be Off Work a Few Days

Slipped on some oil and in the process of breaking my fall I dislocated a finger on my right hand.

I was very impressed with the care I got at Central Valley Occupational Medical Group. This is the work comp facility that my employer uses. One hour and ten minutes is all it took from the minute I walked in until the minute I walked out.

Dr. Kamal Eldrageely was the physician that reset my dislocated finger. I opted not to have shots into the finger to numb it before being reset. I told the Doc he could have one shot, not to screw it up!

I'll have Hot & Cold pack for two days then will start Occupational therapy on Monday.

Brief History of the Super Bowl

In 1961 the AFL and NFL agreed to merge together to create one "Super League" called the NFL. In this agreement between the AFL and the NFL they arranged to begin playing a championship game between two conferences the AFC and NFC after the 1966 season.

Originally the Championship game was named the AFL - NFL Championship, but it was soon nicknamed the Super Bowl. According to one story, one NFL team owner, Lamar Hunt, architect of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, thought the formal title was... well, too formal. Lamar came up with the new name while watching his daughter play with a super ball and was given the inspiration for the name "Super Bowl" for the championship game between the upstart American Football League and the old-guard National Football League. The truth is probably more mundane and the name was most likely created by a sportswriter who invented the tag. As is apt to happen the name "Super Bowl" was immediately picked up by the rest of the NFL community and then finally by the NFL.

Since the AFL and NFL merger, the Super Bowl has been the NFL Championship Game, played between the NFC and AFC champions, who first have to make the playoffs then emerge as the conference champions from those playoff games.

The Superbowl is the climax of the season, but unfortunately the Super Bowl has all too often been anti-climactic. Surprisingly the average margin of victory has been about 14 points. The 14 point Superbowl victory margin is well above the average for a regular - season NFL game. Historically the conference championship games have been more interesting to watch as the games are far more competitive.