The problem with Vladdy

What the heck is the matter with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.?  He's definitely not himself.  Is it physical?  Is it psychological?  Probably a combination of both.  It's certainly not age.  He's only 27 years old.  However, he has experienced back problems this season, and has been plagued by tight, tired hamstrings recently.  After resting for two games, he hit his seventh home run of the season on Saturday, August 8th in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

Guerrero has obviously been hurt and fatigued this season.  Why wasn't he placed on the Injured List earlier in the season earlier this year.  He might have returned to the lineup refreshed and rested, able to contribute more , especially in terms of power hitting.

Vladdy is supposed to be a superstar, the face of the franchise, but he hasn't been playing like one.  He's still an excellent defensive first baseman.  He still hits singles and doubles, but his batting average has gone down, and his power hitting is just a shadow of what it once was.  Where is the player who in 2021 led Major League Baseball in home runs (48, tied with Salvador Perez), runs scored (123), batting 311/401/601. Where is the player who on July 10, 2023 won the MLB Home Run Derby in Seattle and hit a final round record of 25 home runs?            

Players have slumps.  That's not unusual.  But slumps eventually come to an end.  Everybody thought Vladdy would snap out of his.  It should have happened by now, but it hasn't.  It's August 11th and he only has seven home runs to date.  Not only that, but he hasn't even hit a home run in the dome yet this year.  

Vladdy is under more pressure than other Blue Jays because he signed a 14-year, $500 million extension with the Jays, one of the largest in MLB history.  He is expected to produce, but sometimes his mind and his body just can't do it.

- Joanne

Summer reading in August

Although the back-to-school commercials have started, summer is not yet over.  There is still plenty of time to relax with some summer reading.  Why not curl up on your patio or backyard with a good book,  or if you prefer, read it in ebook form.  Check out my author's page by clicking on the link below.

Joanne Madden – Author

Are you looking for some mysteries, thrills and suspense?  Then read my latest novel, The Roving Reporter: Spanning the Globe in the 1990s, and follow the adventures of Sandra McKay, the intrepid reporter from Prince Edward Island.  In the first “Reporter” novel, The Missing Reporter, which takes place in 1989, Sandra is kidnapped while working as a crime reporter for the CBC.  

The Roving Reporter is the second installment of my “Reporter Trilogy” featuring the spunky Maritime journalist.  The Riving Reporter covers the years 1990 to 1997, when Sandra becomes a foreign correspondent at the London bureau of the Canadian Press.  She covers major stories in Britain, France, Italy, South Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Egypt, Mexico and South Africa, while being pursued by the mob  She is accompanied by Colin Purcell, a crusty English photographer.

I am currently working on The Return of the Reporter, the third and final novel of the series.  In The Return of the Reporter, Sandra returns to Canada and works as an investigative journalist at the Toronto Star.  The novel will focus on the time period leading up to the Millennium and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  It should be noted that all of the “Reporter” novels stand on their own.  However, it is advisable to read the complete series in sequence so that you will have a better understanding of the characters and circumstances.

- Joanne

Robby Benson: From teen idol to Dr. Mauer on "Severance"

Robby Benson is a man of many talents. He is an actor, writer, director, composer, lyricist, professor of film and a novelist.  Robby was born Robin David Segal on January 21, 1956 to a Jewish family in Dallas, Texas.  He is the son of Freda Ann (née Benson), a singer, actor and business promotions manager, and Jerry Segal, a writer.  When Robby was five, his family moved to New York City, where he grew up.  He appeared in television commercials and stage productions before establishing himself as a film star.

At the age of ten, Robby adopted his mother's maiden name as his stage name.  He attended the Lincoln Square Academy in Manhattan, where he graduated as class valedictorian.  By the time he was 12, Robby was co-starring with Ed Begley Jr. on Broadway in a play called. Zelda.  He left the production to star in the film Jeremy.  He also began writing scripts, and by the time he was 18, he'd sold his fourth script to Warner Brothers.

Robby became popular in the 1970s as a teen idol.  Young audiences identified with his coming of age films.  In the romantic drama Jeremy (1973), he co-starred with Glynnis O'Connor as two high school students who have a month-long romance.  In Ode to Billie Joe (1976), based on Bobbie Gentry's hit song, he played the title role of Billie Jo McAllister, with Glynnis O'Connor once again played his love interest.  In One on One (1977), Robby portrayed basketball star Henry Steele in the sports drama he co-wrote with his father, Jerry Segal.

Robby then melted hearts as Nick Peterson in the 1978 romantic drama Ice Castles, the story of the rise and fall of a young figure skater played by Lynn-Holly Johnson.  Robby, who had never skated before, learned how to skate for the film.   "The best thing is interacting with people," he said.  "If you stop and look into their eyes, nothing gets out of hand.  That happened on Ice Castles."

In 1981, Robby co-starred as Danny Saunders in The Chosen, a film based on the best-selling  novel of the same name by Chaim Potok.  

Robby provided the voice of the beast in 1991's Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast.  He also directed television shows, beginning with the first season of  Ellen in 1996, starring Ellen DeGeneres.

In 2007, Robby's novel Who Stole the Funny?  A novel of Hollywood, appeared on the Los Angeles

Times bestseller list.  It's a satire about Hollywood sitcoms.

Robby surfaced recently in the recurring role as creepy Dr. Mauer on Apple TV's Severance.  He told People that working on the series was a dream.  He praised Ben Stiller as the best director he'd ever worked with.  "From the costume designers to the makeup artists . . . Ben Stiller knows what he wants and he shoots it until he gets it, and it's fantastic."

Robby Benson, now 70 years old, leads a private life, focusing on his family and health advocacy.  However, he continues to work as an actor and a voice-over artist.  He also gives instruction on film at universities.

On July 11, 1982, Robby married singer, actress and voice artist Karla DeVito, in Karla's hometown of Mokena Illinois.  The couple celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2023.  In the course of Karla's music career, she has sung many genres, from heavy metal to musical theatre to pop.  She and Robby have two children, a daughter, Lyric Benson (born August 4, 1983) and a son, Zephyr Benson (born March 23, 1992).  Robby and Karla met in 1981 when they were both performing in Pirates of Penzance on Broadway.  Robby was playing Frederic and Karla had replaced Linda Ronstadt in the role of Mabel.  "I fell in love with her immediately and begged her to marry me for a year," Robby told People magazine in 2025.  "I took a year of begging, and it's just the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

Robby and Karl

END NOTES

* Robby Benson was diagnosed with a heart murmur during his teenage years, the result of an aortic valve defect.  He has undergone four heart surgeries, since age 28, including a bovine valve transplant, to correct congenital aortic valve defects.  Robby credits Karla for keeping him alive.  As a result of his surgeries, he became an activist and fundraiser for cardiac research.  He published a memoir in 2012, detailing his medial issues and his open heart surgeries.  It's titled I'm not dead . . . yet!

* Robby had an early role as Bruce Carson in the daytime soap Search for Tomorrow (1971-1972).  

* In 1975, Robby screen-tested for the role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but Mark Hamill was chosen for the part.

SOURCES: People magazine, "How '70s teen idol Robby Benson Ended Up Playing the Creepy Dr. Mauer on Severance"  (Exclusive), by Gillian Telling, March 26, 2025; AmoMama (amomama.com), "Robby Benson & Wife of 40 Years Are 'Simply Beautiful' in Their 60s after They Healed His Ailing Heart," by Junie Sihlangu, January 26, 2023; Wikipedia.; IMDb

- Joanne

The Consequences of a Baseball Lockout

A major league baseball lockout next season seems inevitable., especially after the L.A. Dodger' acquisition of Cy Young pitcher Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers.  The Dodgers have won two consecutive World Series championships and seem poised to win a third.  

It appears grossly unfair that only some teams have the money and the resources to make such a deal.  Without a cap system, there is a terrible imbalance.  At the same time, however, I am very concerned about the damage a lockout will do to the game.  Are the owners and the players considering how a lockout will hurt the fans?  

The fans are not appreciated enough.  I am on their side completely.  The cost of attending a baseball game continues to increase.  Many are forced to stay home and watch the games on television.  Now, the greedy MLB is streaming games on Apple TV, so they won't be able to view those games on the tube.

The fans are being used as pawns, manipulated into spending more and more of their hard-earned money.  For many people, baseball is a welcome diversion from all their problems and their financial woes.  The owners and players possess obscene amounts of money.  Their greed knows no bounds.  There may be a valid reason for a lockout, but the fans will be the ones who pay the price.  I'm talking about the ordinary Joes who just love the game.  Where is the justice in that?

Players, agents and owners consider baseball to be a business.  But why does it have to be only a business?  The powers that be should not forget about the devoted fans, the kind of fans who sit in the bleachers and keep box scores.  We all know the story of how greed killed the golden goose.

- Joanne

Language Corner: Fun with pangrams

What is a pangram?  It's a sentence that contains every letter of the English alphabet at least once.  The most well-known pangram is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."  It consists of nine words and a total of 35 letters, which is slightly longer than other pangrams.  However, due to its simplicity  and clarity, it is often used for typing practice and to test fonts and computer keyboard layouts.  The origin of this expression can be traced back to February 9, 1885 in The Boston Journal where it appeared as "A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." in an article recommending it as a practice sentence for writing students.  In June of 1885, a similar version appeared in The Mainland Mercury newspaper. The earliest known use of the phrase beginning with "The" can be traced to 1888 in the book Illustrative Shorthand by Linda Bronson and in newspapers such as The Queenslander.

The word "pangram" is derived from the Greek root words "pan," meaning "all," and "gram," which is defined as "something written or recorded."  A perfect pangram is a sentence that contains each letter of the English alphabet only once.  Therefore, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." is not a perfect pangram.  It is, however the most popular pangram.  There are, of course, others.  Here are some examples:

"Quick zephyrs blow, vexing daft Jim."

"Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD bags few lynx," is a perfect pangram, using only the 26 letters of the English alphabet.  Perfect pangrams are extremely rare.

"Six big devils from Japan quickly forgot how to waltz."

"Farmer Jack realized that big yellow quilts were expensive."

"Amazingly, few discotheques provide jukeboxes."

- Joanne