Mr. Kraft Mailbag Volume I

Here is my first ever Mr. Kraft Mailbag. I will try to post these things once a week because I think it is really fun and offers a unique perspective into my life and thoughts as well as allows me to interact with my readers.  I hope that as I publish these, they will get more and more popular and I will get questions from people I may not have communicated with in a while.

Cody asks, “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

I think this is a good way to kick off the first ever Mr. Kraft Mailbag. This is one of those really cliché, overused questions. The answer really doesn’t matter, but people still like to debate it. My take on it has always been that just because there is no one with ears to receive the sound, the sound waves still exist. There simply is a failure in the sound translation. Yes, I believe a tree falling in the woods makes a sound no matter what.

Jared asks, “How many marshmallows can you stuff in your mouth?” He also requested photographic evidence. Personally, I think that video graphic evidence would be much more entertaining.

I am going to leave this question for a later mail bag because Jared will be coming to visit Claire and I in a couple of weeks so he can buy the mallows and get the joy of videotaping it live. Sorry readers, you are going to have to wait for this answer.

Jared asks, “What are the top 10 most influential moments in sports history?”

This is such an excellent question. I will include my top 10 and I will probably give a detailed response about each one in a blog post later.

1)      Jackie Robinson’s first game as a Brooklyn Dodger – This is unquestionably the most important moment in history.

2)      Team USA taking down the Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics – Do you believe in Miracles!

3)      Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 – An African- American man that went into Hitler’s house and just killed it.

4)      Texas Western wins the 1965 Division I NCAA Championship against Kentucky – Their story is well documented by Glory Road, but this was the first team to start all African Americans.

5)      Lou Gehrig’s Farewell speech. – After 2,130 straight games he had to hang up the cleats because of a disease. So sad, but this was a powerful event.

6)      Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 – The breaking of the curse of the Bambino, and ending an 86 year World Series drought.

7)      Drew Bledsoe gets injured in 2001 – His injury paved the way for the emergence of Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback to ever play, winning 4 Super Bowls and appearing in 6.

8)      Barry Bonds take steroids – Perhaps the most dominating player to ever play, really opened the eyes of the MLB to the effect steroids had on the game. In 2004 his OBP was .609!

9)      Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali – this was one of the first times where an athlete chose to stand up for his beliefs even if it meant a lot of people would hate him for it.

10)   Billie Jean King – an incredible tennis player that paved the way for women’s sports.

Matt asks, “What do you think about Maryville’s public infrastructure?”

First of all, this is hilarious. I don’t even really know where to start because Maryville doesn’t even have much public infrastructure. They have a beautiful man-made lake and a bunch of parks. Mozingo is one of the most beautiful areas that I have been to in my life so I would say that I am pretty big fan of the public infrastructure in Maryville. The one thing that I could do away with is the stupid kissing bridge on campus. The only thing that bridge is useful for is offering guys that aren’t very creative a place to propose or some other less romantic gesture. Come on guys, you can do better than the kissing bridge!

Looking forward to next week: What super power would Mr. Kraft like to have? Who are my Top 5 Siths and Jedi? What is my favorite Bible verse?