Bob Rodkin: March 2024

Saturday, March 30, 2024

A dark roasted pit stop on a relaxing sunny Saturday 😎

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Toronto Maple Leafs Bobby Baun vs Mitch Marner

Bobby Baun
On April 23, 1964, having fractured his ankle earlier in the game, he returned in overtime and scored the game-winning goal to even the best-of-seven series at 3-3. The Leafs won the next game 4–0 to secure their third consecutive Stanley Cup championship.

Mitch Marner
On March 14, 2024, having sprained his ankle left the game. And he missed the next 6 games and counting.

Baun earned $50,000 per season in 1964 (value of $500,500 in 2024), an era of no salary cap. Marner gets $8M per season.

Maybe this isn’t a fair comparison. Maybe it doesn’t really compare apples to apples so to speak. But I think it does illustrate one difference in professional hockey from today to 60 years ago. Personally, I feel players in that era were tougher, certainly less pampered, than many of today’s players.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

March has been a big reading month for me

I don't remember any month that I've read so much, not even back in my high school days. Although, if you knew me in high school that wouldn't come as much of a surprise. This month I completed:
1) The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett. 900 pages.
2) The Pillars of the Earth, also by Ken. Over 1,000 pages and, if you've read it, you know it was about 200 pages more than needed.
3) Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena. 352 pages.
4) Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson. 268 pages.

I've also been wading through Shanghai Grand by Taras Grescoe, and My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee. Both I intend to finish but I'm in no hurry.

While I generally like historical fiction, going forward I'm going to try to stick to novels in the 300 to 500 page range. More than that and I find I start to lose interest. Although that didn't happen with Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning.

Happy reading.