PERU – J.A. Happ thought he hit the big time playing for the Peru All-Stars in the District 20 Senior League Tournament at Washington Park in Peru.
Little did he know it was only the beginning.
From Washington Park, he went on to excel at St. Bede Academy, was named to the All-Big Ten Team as a freshman for Northwestern University and pitched 15 seasons in the Major Leagues, winning 133 game while wearing the uniform of eight different teams.
On Sunday, he returned full circle to the mound at Washington Park to have the senior league field renamed in his honor as the “J.A. Happ Field.”
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A banner was displayed that will become a permanent feature of the field proclaiming it as “J.A” Happ Field with the added inscriptions:
MLB Debut, June 30, 2007 with Phillies
2008 World Series Champion with Phillies
2017 World Baseball Classic Gold Medalist
2018 All-Star Game
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The logos of the eight big league teams he played for also were displayed with flags of each ringing the outfield fence along with one for St. Bede Academy and Northwestern.
Even his three kids, J.J., Bella and Sloan, thought it was a big deal.
“They were really cute this morning [saying], ‘I’m excited for you. People are calling it ‘J Day.’ Which was really sweet. They were trying to make me feel good and they succeeded,” the father of three said.
A big crowd filled the Washington Park bleachers to welcome home their hometown hero. A long line later gathered for autographs of Happ as he gladly signed photographs featuring him in some of the many teams he pitched for.
“I’m incredibly grateful for this. This is truly an honor,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to play in ball parks all across America, big ones, small ones. And some of my best memories are from right here. My dad played on this field. My uncles played on this field. My friends played on this field, and their kids are playing on this field.
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“And that really makes it special to me. I take joy in the idea of the current and future generations of kids are going to grow up and create these memories and cherish them like I do.”
Happ, 40, said it was on the Washington Park diamond in Senior League where he matured from being a “cry baby” when things didn’t go so well in the Little League and learned what he had to do to keep making the climb to the next level.
“It was the next level and learning to play with more intensity and focus. It meant so much to us,” he said. “That was our World Series, winning the All-Star games. We felt like the reputation, Peru had good baseball and we had to uphold that and took a lot of pride in that.”
He said they had great games against everybody, but Mendota proved to be the biggest adversary in the senior league circuit at that time.
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He said the kid playing in the All-Star games at Washington Park would have never dreamed about playing in MLB All-Star Game one day. That came in 2018 when he earned the save in the American League’s 8-6 win in 2018 in Washington, D.C.
“That was the highlight of my Major League career in that game,” he said. “Randomly getting in in extra innings to close it. First save in my career. That was a lot of fun. Would have never thought it.”
He had a 133-100 record with a 4.13 ERA with 1,661 strikeouts over 15 years in his Big League career which stretched from his debut with the Phillies in 2008 to his last pitch for the Cardinals in 2021, with six other teams in between. His career year came in 2016, going 20-4 for the Blue Jays.
Happ, who was the 2001 BCR Male Athlete of the Year, said he always felt the love and support from back home.
“That’s another thing about my career I feel so fortunate about. I just got so great support from the community,” he said. “Every time I see my parents or talk to them on the phone [they say], ‘These people said hi or stopped by to send their well wishes.’ That just goes a long way. I feel that pride and it means a lot.”
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As they were with him growing up, Happ’s parents, Jim and Sue Happ of Peru, were by his side Sunday. It was a special day for them as well.
“It’s nice to recognize him. Like he said, we played here when we were kids. This LaSalle-Peru area had a lot of talent,” Jim Happ said. “It will be a nice little legacy for him. I’m really happy for him.
St. Bede coach Bill Booker, who organized a Bruins alumni game, including the oldest Bruin, Jim Perona, from the 1988 state champions, said it was a great for his current players to take notice of Happ’s career and his humbling beginnings at Washington Park.
“He alluded to it playing on these three fields, and he did it just like a lot of these kids do. And so no matter whatever tells somebody [anything’s possible],” Booker said. “He even said he was a kind of a late bloomer. Got to live your dreams.”
After retiring from the game in 2021, Happ and his family have put down their roots in Brentwood, Tenn. enjoying dad’s retirement and taking vacations to the beach they were never able to do during his playing days.
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Happ, who threw out the first pitch for the alumni game, but did not play, said he has been in contact with a former team for future opportunities, “just kind of keeping that window open.”
“Right now, pouring a lot into the kids and trying to enjoy that with their ages,” he said. “Got settled in Tennessee, so we’re kind getting that home base there. Just joined a country club. I’m going to start golfing. Now, I’m getting into that.”
The Washington Post editorial board published a scathing editorial this week offering President Joe Biden a mock speech for how he could drop out of the presidential race on July 4th.
The editorial titled, “What if Biden spoke these words?,” was published on Wednesday evening and begins traditionally enough for a president marking the 4th of July.
“The framers were shaped by hardship — they carried out a revolution at the edge of a wild frontier. They knew there are seasons to a life — and seasons of service. They knew, too, that relying on a single individual, a king, might create the illusion of strength but would be at its core fragile,” the mock speech read a few minutes in and adds:
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Over the past few days, I have been reflecting on all this. My season of service is nearing its close. This was a hard truth to face. But it is the natural course of things — as evident as the progression from spring to summer, from fall to winter. This is why I have decided to withdraw from the campaign for president of the United States.
The remarkable op-ed goes on to offer a scenario for how to best to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
“The Democratic National Committee, senior Democratic leaders and I have agreed on an orderly process to select our next nominee, which will include debates between now and our convention in August. My vice president, Kamala Harris, has graciously and courageously agreed to participate. Though Democratic primary voters cannot be included at this late date, their delegates will make the final choice,” the board wrote, specifically including VP Harris as an option.
The speech ends with a swipe at Donald Trump and a call for the country to turn the page on this dark chapter in its history. The board says that Biden won the presidency in the first place as Americans were “exhausted by Mr. Trump’s chaos” and concludes:
Americans, I invite you to search your soul as I have. Are we so unsure of ourselves that we will empower a would-be king, one who has been given expansive powers by an activist Supreme Court? Or will we look back on Washington’s example, in the spring of American life, and recognize that our independence is built on service, sacrifice, a willingness to assume the best in one another and the belief there will be better seasons to come?
A boil water advisory was issued Wednesday for Washington, DC, and Arlington County in Virginia due to an increase in algae blooms in the Potomac River, as the nation’s capital prepares for its annual Fourth of July celebrations.
Advisories include Washington, Arlington County, the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and Reagan National Airport.
The warning comes as the nation’s capital prepares for an influx of visitors for the holiday, including the annual fireworks display on the National Mall.
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“This is a precautionary notice to all customers to boil water that may be ingested due to water of unknown quality. Customer should not drink the water without boiling it first,” the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority said in a statement.
DC Water advised people to use cooled, boiled water or bottled water for drinking, giving water to pets, preparing infant formula, brushing teeth, making ice and washing and preparing food.
Home filtering devices should not be used in place of boiled or bottled water, the water authority warned.
DC Water is also asking people to discard drinks and ice made after 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The Army Corps of Engineers said the advisory was prompted by elevated cloudiness in the water supply caused by increases in algae blooms in the Potomac River.
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“Upon observing the increase in algae and resulting turbidity today, Washington Aqueduct staff implemented additional mechanical and chemical treatment solutions to help meet system water supply demands and (Environmental Protection Agency) standards,” the Army Corps said in a statement.
Turbidity is a measure of cloudiness in water the EPA says can be used to assess water quality and filtration effectiveness to indicate whether disease-causing organisms could be present.
Turbidity can indicate the presence of organisms including bacteria, viruses and parasites that can cause nausea, cramps, diarrhea and headaches. Infants, young children, older adults and people with compromised immune systems may be at greater risk, DC Water said.
The water authority has no information that water is definitely contaminated, but the precautionary advisory will remain in place until follow-up testing can determine the water is safe to consume, it said.
Arlington County said its advisory will be in place until further notice.
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Atlanta was under a state of emergency last month, after disruptions to its water service left a large swath of the city under boil-water advisories. Some summer school programs and hospital operations in the area were paused as a result. Atlanta officials cited aging pipes and crumbling infrastructure when addressing the issue.
Welcome to “Asking Eric,” a new daily advice column by R. Eric Thomas, which replaces Amy Dickinson’s “Ask Amy.” You can read her last column here.
Dear Eric: I’m a self-published fiction author. I’m really struggling with jealousy and despair. Every time I see a published book or step into a bookstore, I feel this wave of sadness. I’m trying to get my books out there, get whatever reviews I can, and promote myself on social media but it feels impossible.
A friend just told me she won’t try out a new author unless they have thousands of good reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. My last book got about 20 good reviews after weeks of hustling. How do I keep going? How can I redirect my thoughts when the jealousy/despair hits?
Author: I worry you’re tracking your achievements using someone else’s yardstick. You’ve published a book. At some point in the past, that was the goal. So, you have already achieved one metric of success. Of course, we all harbor dreams of acclaim, but those dreams are so rarely right-sized. Do you want to be a famous author or do you want to be an author who is reaching readers who appreciate you?
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This is a career field where jealousy waits around every corner, but other people’s success doesn’t take anything away from us. You’re not in competition with other authors, you’re in competition with your own expectations. Ask yourself: If you got thousands of reviews, would that feel like enough? You are already enough so let’s reframe your goals to help you feel that more often.
Your friend is entitled to her own selection process but thousands of reviews is an unrealistic number. To get that, any author, even the Emily Henrys and John Grishams, needs the support of dozens, if not hundreds of people employed by the big publishing houses. Meanwhile, you worked your tail off and got those 20 reviews on your own. That’s huge!
If there’s an author whose career you want to emulate, reach out to them to find out the nuts and bolts of how they got to where they are, but make sure that comparison will help you. As writer Freddie DeBoer recently pointed out in an issue of his Substack newsletter titled “Publishing is Designed to Make Most Authors Feel Like Losers Even While the Industry Makes Money,” “writing is also an intensely personal endeavor, and so rejection by the various apparatchiks who decide who’s in and who’s out can feel especially cruel.” Have a good think about whose approval you want (hopefully your own) and what you’re trying to achieve. Remind yourself that the authors you see may have different goals than you and probably also feel that old jealousy.
Lastly, I can’t say enough about building relationships with independent booksellers and librarians. Get to know the ones in your area. Even if you’re exclusively publishing e-books, these pros can help you understand the decision-making that leads readers to books, and eventually to those online review sites.
Dear Eric: I am in my mid-60s. Sometimes when I meet people I haven’t seen for a long time, say from college, I hear “you haven’t changed a bit.” Back then I had shoulder length hair. Today, I’m bald and what hair I have left is cut very short. How do I respond to such nonsense while maintaining a good attitude toward them?
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— Hair Yesterday, Gone Today
Hair: I understand your sentiment as a fellow member of the shaved head club (it’s cheaper! It’s cooler! But oh the sunburns!). Still, you should take the compliment in the spirit it’s given. Of course you’ve changed physically, but maybe your energy is the same. Or maybe they just think it’s flattering. If the mood suits say, “Oh, I’ve changed — I got even better.”
Dear Eric: My partner (husband) and I have been together for 18 years. My sister-in-law created a “family tree” and gave copies to all family members as a gift. On closer inspection, my “husband” was left off the family tree indicating that I am single. My sister-in-law and her family do not believe in gay marriage. What should I do about this slight?
Marriage: It’s a good thing your relationship’s existence isn’t dependent upon what your sister-in-law doesn’t believe in. Long-term relationships aren’t Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, they’re mostly taking out the garbage and texting each other things to pick up from the grocery store. (They’re also emotional support, caretaking, and commitment, and all that good stuff.) I’m sure you’ve already had this banging-your-head-against-the-wall conversation with your in-law, but you should voice your displeasure about the tree as a way of setting an expectation about the respect you want. Once you’ve said your piece, throw the “gift” in the trash and order your own correct tree and give it to your family.
(Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.)