Coffee News and Family Views

At lunch today, I decided to read the Coffee News aloud.  It’s a really dumb local publication (srsly, their slogan is “‘News to be enjoyed over coffee’” [double quotes there beause they actually put quotation marks around that on the paper]).  Anyway, it’s basically a trivial newspaper, complete with jokes, horoscopes, and a Where’s Waldo-esque man search.  Anyway, in the Did You Know section, I read the following:

Home run: Joe Niekro only had one homerun in his 22-year career with the Houston Astros.  The 1976 homer was the result of a pitch from his own brother, Phil Niekro, who played for the Atlanta Braves.

My reaction is that Phil “threw” the pitch, so his brother wouldn’t end his career homerun-less.  Mills’ reaction was that Joe hated his brother so much, that to hit his only homerun required reaching into the depths of all his accumulated familial rage and hatred, because only familial wrath inspires overcoming and courage.  Frank thinks it was luck.  Interesting…