My apologies for the extremely belated Dave Smith death story news I wrote about earlier today. Did I also mention that Chron.com may be soon running a streamer on the shooting that supposedly took place at Ford’s Theater in Washington last April.
Here’s my derailment tale. The following link and story appeared in this morning’s edition of the Houston Chronicle’s Chron.com site:
https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Former-Astros-reliever-Dave-Smith-dies-at-53-1789418.php
I’ve since deleted the short coupling story I wrote with that way-out-of-date news in anticipation of writing the piece you see here.
Maybe it’s what I get for attempting to write nearly 3,000 columns over nine years while also serving as my only on site personal editor and publisher too. Good friends Tom Hunter and Darrell Pittman have saved me from my own flawed self on numerous occasions. In many ways, I’m surprised I haven’t found this wall sooner, even with all the help in the world. I even had to have Chron.com’s gremlin help to get here today. – Why was Chron.com running the story of Dave Smith’s sudden death some nine years after the fact? It’s hard for me to believe that I couldn’t even remember that Dave Smith was long since dead when I first got the shocking news again this morning. Had I done so, I might have checked the by line. – It told me what I needed to know. It read:
“By Jose de Jesus Ortiz Published 6:30 am, Thursday, December 18, 2008″
Wow! Ortiz works in St. Louis now. Hasn’t worked in Houston for years. And December 18, 2008 was quite a long time ago. One thing that held up true was the fact that Dave Smith did die at age 53. He was born on January 21, 1955, and he died just about a month short of his 54th birthday.
Oh well. It just goes to reenforce an old apparent truism: “You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet to be true.” My apologies again for this reinforcing contribution.
I’ll keep trying to get better. It’s the only gear I own for anything I put myself into doing. Fortunately, I don’t write from ego. If I did, I couldn’t find something to write about anytime I found my keyboard. I may spend some of today feeling like either Bill Buckner – or just maybe – the guy that sent the inaccurate incoming missile warning to the people of Hawaii, but that sort of stuff fades quickly in me. We all make our impact by the things we do, or fail to do, but none of us are the center of the universe, even if the nightly news makes it seem like the world is not running out of people who think they are.
TGIF!
********************
Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
February 9, 2018 at 4:40 pm |
So you are Human huh Bill. I wish all of us could get just one dollar for each mistake we make in life we would be much richer by now. Now for me it was news, I have been away from my home for so many years now I didn’t know he died so young. It wasn’t old news for me but real news.
February 9, 2018 at 5:22 pm |
Thanks for the memory. Haven’t thought of Smitty in a long time. Like Cammy, he was extremely popular, unfailingly generous, but unable to control his own world like he controlled the strike zone.
February 9, 2018 at 9:55 pm |
Bill,
No problem.
We have all been there and will continue to make the same mistakes many times over. It’s just part of life.
February 11, 2018 at 8:24 am |
Heck, if it weren’t for my mistakes, I’d never know who’s a real friend, or even who’s real family! (Yes, you can’t choose your family, but sometimes you can’t let them in your head, either.)