Weekly News & Views by: Jim Belenis
Photographs by: Patsy Inouye
75 years ago, today was D+1. Many historians consider June 6, 1944 to be the most defining day of the last century. Thousands of young men of the invading Allied forces never actually made it across the Normandy beaches, yet their sacrifice affected the lives of countless millions.
Secretary Mark Pratt and Tom Read wannabe Meaghan Likes made sure nobody entered without paying. President Rose Cholewinski started the meeting with her usual bang of the bell. David Morse did his usual great job on the piano as the club sang Smile and Old Beautiful. There were not any visiting Rotarians and just a few guests. I had to move from the gossipy back table because I couldn’t hear a dang thing.
Rose then thanked some folks for helping her during the year. Bill Kopper received a nice applause after Rose thanked him for being the speaker chair. That is a tough job. Patsy Inouye and Ken Firestein were recognized by Rose for taking pictures throughout the year. Rose also thanked Lori Raineri for all the new member events she put together too.
Dick Winters thanked the scholarship committee foe helping select this year’s recipients. Marc Thompson asked for volunteers to help with grad night on June 13th while Mitch Mysliwiec went table to table with the signup sheets. Raineri wanted to remind people to pick a name to meet a member for coffee, boba tea, or beer. Manny Carbahahl said signups for “wild” Rose’s demotion will start next week. That will be on June 29th. We will not have a meeting on July 5th.
Foundation chair Larry Greene had John McNamara and Firestein come up front to receive their pins for reaching a new giving level. 
In honor of our baseball speaker he was sporting a St. Louis Cardinal t-shirt was our sergeant Dennis Lindsay. He the proceeded to pick on Jacques Franco asking him who the two ex-Giants are that are in the Cardinal Hall of Fame. It was no surprise that Franco couldn’t name Jack Clark and Orlando Cepadea. Questions regarding Yogi Berra, Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, and Ozzie Smith went unanswered by Bruce Wolk, Mack Walker, and Greg Arz. The only person to get one right was Gary Johns. 
Duncan Hay, David Murphy, Dave Heard, Firestein, Arz, Rose, and Firestein had happy bucks.
Our speaker was retired MLB player Randy Choate. He was drafted out of Florida St. by them damn Yankees who he spent four big league seasons with. His local connection is being married to Leigh Whitmire whose father is former DHS football coach Dave Whitmire. His 15-year career as a relief pitcher also included playing for the Diamond Backs, Devil Rays, Marlins, Dodgers, and Cardinals.
He pitched in two world series game with the D-backs and 4 with the Cardinals. His world series ERA was a very respectable 2.08. He talked about those experiences. You can read more about Randy at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Choate
Next weeks speaker will be Jerome Suran who will talk about his WWII experiences.