Every day, the 4 brothers—Eddie, Ted, Joe & Ben walked together to school. Living on a farm, the 4 Bros not only walked together they worked together in sharing the many chores required on a farm. Let’s catch up with them now as they take off for school…

…Ben, the oldest and biggest since he’d gone through his teenage growth spurt already, seemed like he was in charge so after leaving their farm, he began the discussion, “Man… the Cards are teasing us…. Win a couple, then lose a couple…the pitching is good for 3 or 4 games….then they get bombed & wipe out the pen in 1 game.”

…Ted (who read the most in the family, knew his baseball)  could see where Ben was going soooo, he jumped in to change the topic…even the Yankees don’t win it “all” any more.

Ben came right back,” They used to dominate…in fact, since 1903, the NYY have the World Series 40 times!!! Did you hear that—40x!!

Ben was getting “riled up as he yelled back, “BIG DEAL what they did 100 years ago…you do know that the Yanks have won it only twice since the year 2000!! In fact, Cards have won the World Series twice since 2000 (2006, 2011) & so has Houston (’17 & ’22). But….he hesitated as the pace picked up…the Boston Red Sox have hung up 3 World Series Championships since 2000! They were in 2007, 2013, 2018!

Eddie, the youngest & usually the most jovial, didn’t know any of the World Series stuff…it was “before his time” soooo.. the wanted a new topic! Hey guys…it’s football time…what’s Alabama going to do w/o Coach Saban?

Ted (who REALLY liked football)  picked up his pace so he could get even with the “frontrunners” (mainly Ben)…catching his breath, he blurted out….”hey…man….there’s 2 things here…. Those Bama coaches gotta win .. and win big… real big. Them fans are so spoiled…the 8 coaches prior to Saban had real short leashes…none of them ever reached the 60 game mark as a HC in Tuscaloosa!! That actually slowed the guys down…what a stat..

…Ted, feeling his oats now continued…Since 1892, Alabama holds a 905-329-42 RECORD! WOW.. that’s 72.6% I guess that you DO HAVE TO WIN!!

…Ben, picked up the pace, he thought that HE should be in charge of this 4-some!!! Then it came to him,” Hey….how about the KC center?  Did you guys hear about that?? He’s got a funny name…. Creed …. Creed Humphrey ! He agreed to a 4-year, $72 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid center in NFL history, according to multiple reports. Can you imagine that?

 Eddie… started laughing.. then blurted out… “hey, I better start practicing my snapping! That’d sure beat working in the fields…And…

Joe…who was the quietest one of the group, the slowest walker but read the most said ”Man…we got it good…..nobody is trying to separate our head from our body while we’re in snapping stance !   A couple other chuckled…he was right…

Ted jumped right back in since he was accustom to getting into these verbal matches with his brothers…. “yea…and none of us are playing with a tremendous QB—Patrick Mahomes either

…. Ben knew about this deal, sooo, he spoke up,” Patrick Mahomes is the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes has been the Chiefs’ starting quarterback since 2018 and has led the team to 6 consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and 4 Super Bowl wins 2020), LVII (2023), and LVIII (2024).. In 2018, Mahomes was named the NFL’s MVP in his second season as a professional, and he has led the Chiefs to victory in Super Bowls LIV (2020), LVII (2023), and LVIII (2024)”. Ben smiled to himself….he’d taken charge there… now if he could only get them to walk faster 😊   He didn’t want to be late for school!e HH  He

…Despite Ben’s concerns, the other threesome started slowing down.  School wasn’t their “thing”. Why get there early was his thought? Finally, Ted spoke up just to break the sound of heavy breathing, Hey…how’s this Showwy …whatever  this name is doing?

….Ted jumped in with….”his name is Shohei Ohtani…he just joined the 40-40 club

Eddie interrupted, he’s hit 40 HR with 40 stolen bases…he caught his breath…”he’s the  youngest guy to do it AND…he did it the fastest—just 126 games!! (Eddie was feeling “it” now).. he continued…the other 5 guys were Ronald Acuna Jr (in ’23), Alfonso Soriano (’06), Alex Rodriguez (’98), Barry Bonds (’96) and Jose Canseco in in 1988!”

…The pace quickened as time was winding down…and….who wanted to hear  sports news that they didn’t know?

…After 3 or 4 minutes, Ted couldn’t stand the silence…soooo …he used a question to bring others into the discussion… so what about the SLU Mens soccer team?  Are they going to be good  again?

…Joe answered, “Well…they’re picked Saint Louis as the 2^nd place team in the Atlantic 10 Conference Men’s soccer AND… the SLU Women are picked to win the conference also….again!! But…this was a big one… SLU men knocked off #7 nationally ranked, Indiana last week. Look’s like we’ll be good again in soccer. Joe continued..”but it’s not the same, the Billikens only have 8 guys from the StL metropolitan area

…Ted Jumped in,” they are damned if they have a lot of STL guys and damned if they don’t. If they don’t win it “all”….some will say, “you can’t win championships with just STL guys any more. Meanwhile others will say, StL is still the college kingdom for players—get them and you’ll win. Damned if you do…damned if you don’t”

…Ben (a huge baseball fan)…wanted to get back to talking MLB since he really didn’t like soccer….”who’s the MVP guys going to be his year”? 

…Eddie….now struggling to stay up with the group as the pace quickened & the tardy bell wasn’t the way to start the day…yelled out so he could be heard, “In the AL, it’s a 2 man race—Aaron Judge with his 47ish HR and SS Bobby Witt! He leads the AL in batting @ .346 .. and oh…Judge is #2 in average with a .332 mark!! Man…as I say that… there can’t really be a choice…it’s gotta be Judge. In the NL…Shohei Ohtani with his 40/40 already has it  locked up.

…Joe despite his usual quiet demeanor, jumped in.. “whatta mean…locked up?? He was excited..almost combative… what about your boy, Marcel Ozuna? Ozuna is #1 in average with a whopping .307 mark, he’s tied with Ohtani for RBI lead. #2 in OPS behind Ohtani! Ohtani has 40 stolen bases!! Your boy, Ozuna doesn’t have 1…not even 1 stolen base. Face it man… Ohtani is “in” for NL MVP.

…Ben paused…the blurted out.. “how did the Cards miss so badly on him?”

…this time, Eddie answered him,”Well….he sucked for us…really bad! He batted .241 for the Cards and we paid him $9m in 2018 & $12.25m in 2019.

….Ted jumps in, “ yea..yea… those salaries are huge, super huge for us…but the average salary right now int the MLB is $4.98m .. just call it $5m with minimum of $740,000!! They are entertainers… how much does a top notch entertainer get each night?

…Joe, who was way out of character today as he was unusually talkative , continued, “ Well…entertainers have an average entertainer salary in the United States is $51,601. Entertainer salaries typically range between $24,000 and $108,000 yearly. He was way out of character now…. He was really excited as the carried on, “But look @ CitySC…their entire team salary for last year was $12,015,851, which was the lowest in Major League Soccer (MLS).

…seeing an opening for him to talk, Eddie.. jumps in…sooooooo…why are we surprised that City is 2^nd lowest team in the conference?  Remember, Dad always said, “you get what you pay for”  Somehow….they got by last year with the 2^nd lowest salary base…

Joe…wanting to change the subject…forget about baseball even though they beat Minnesota yesterday….it’s late August.. face it… the Cards are done…. turn to football. The schedule of each team can set up good ..or bad…seasons… how tough is it?… Well, The Browns have the toughest schedule this year and the easiest schedules belong to New Orleans Saints & Atlanta Falcons. And….suddenly he stopped talking as on the near horizon was the school building!

…They reached the bottom of a long climb (which culminated with the school atop the hill)…they are got silent….the steps increased, their eyes were focused on the school. They’d get back to sports around 3:15…they had reached the end.  And… so have you 😊 Thanks for taking your time for the walk & the read! Send me YOUR thoughts on the WALK TO SCHOOL! Thanks !!  Bob