The Times Dispatch Blogs

As the baseball season approaches the All-Star break, last year’s World Series champs, the St. Louis Cardinals, are struggling to stay within shouting distance of the National League Central Division-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Longtime Cardinals fans should not be surprised. Following great seasons with disappointing seasons is a part of the team’s recent history.

After winning the World Series in 1982, the Cards finished 11 games behind Philadelphia in 1983. After coming within one out of the championship before losing to the Kansas City Royals in 1985, St. Louis stumbled through 1986, finishing 28-1/2 games behind the New York Mets in the NL East. After losing another seven-game series to the Minnesota Twins in 1987, the Cardinals finished 25 games behind the Mets in 1988.

Going back even farther: A World Series appearance in ’28 — 20 games out in ’29. A championship in ’64 — 18 games out in ’65.

To be fair, the Cardinals have made back-to-back World Series appearances on at least two occasions. After losing the World Series to the Philadelphia A’s in 1930, the Redbirds came back the following year and defeated the A’s in a seven-game Series rematch. St. Louis beat the Boston Red Sox in the 1967 World Series and returned to the Series a year later, only to lose to the Detroit Tigers in seven games.
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People tend to be kind when someone messes something up (as long as they are remorseful), and the phrase “Everyone makes mistakes” is a common tool to comfort those who are being hard on themselves for an error.

In the newspaper business, unfortunately, when we make a mistake it gets reproduced thousands of times and distributed to the masses. We, of course, strive to make our newspaper as accurate as possible and go through a tedious process to make sure that everything that runs in The TD is checked as carefully as possible.

Even so, there are times mistakes get past us — sometimes small ones and sometimes big ones. This week, in a miscommunication, we believed there to be only two sons in the Bailey family and therefore thought that Eugene Jr. and Leslie must be the same boy. When we ran the story on the tragic loss of Eugene, we used a photo from a Hoxie annual of Leslie and only later discovered that Eugene and Leslie were actually two different people.

We, obviously, were mortified at our error; however, with the paper already printed, there was very little we could do. Wednesday morning as the paper was being distributed, a couple of us took a paper and went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Bailey to explain to them how we had made this mistake and to offer our apologies and condolences.

When we arrived, we were greeted kindly, and they quickly told us that they understood how the error had been made. They were gracious in making us feel better about a mistake, when they didn’t have to be.

We tend to beat ourselves up even over the little mistakes, but when we make a mistake that could be hurtful to a member of our community, we really take it hard. I am grateful to the Bailey family for their understanding and continue to offer my condolences for their loss.
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Our family just returned from my husband’s family reunion. It’s always the weekend following Father’s Day, but the location changes on a yearly basis.

We gather each year to renew our family ties and meet the newest additions. It is also a time to remember those who are no longer with us.

Our reunions include not only Heyls, but also the blended families of remarried siblings. We all have a great time, and we have become one big family.

If I have had doubts about the need for these once-a-year gatherings, they were laid to rest when Matt, the child of my husband’s brother’s second wife said, “Aunt Viv, let’s not wait so long to get-together again.”

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I grew up, the only girl of three children. I have an older and younger brother. I don’t want to say I never did “girlie” things, because I did. I had my share of Barbie dolls, a white canopy bed with a pink bedspread and canopy and lots of makeup and fingernail polish. However, most of my time was spent playing baseball, football, basketball, climbing trees, fishing, etc. I wanted to do what my brothers were doing.

Now, I’m married and have two boys. I’m the only female in my home. Even the dog is male. I have, however, been blessed with five nieces.

When they come over they head right to the makeup and fingernail polish and want to give Aunt Angie a makeover. You can bet that I have every color of fingernail polish and every bit of makeup I have in my house on by the time they leave. A lot of the time, I will also be sporting a new hairstyle of random ponytails and hair clips

I love my nieces very much, and I wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything.

BUT, at the end of the day – I would rather be fishing or playing catch than painting fingernails or fixing hair. God certainly knew what he was doing when he gave me boys!
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