What’s happening, Oklahoma? It is Tuesday, July 29, and Gen X is mourning another of its childhood heroes this morning.

Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer and Chicago Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg died at 65, the team announced Monday night.

The cause was metastatic prostate cancer.

It might be surprising to those of us old enough to remember the Cubs being on TV every day that there are people who don’t realize that the Cubs and the Atlanta Braves were both staples on cable television throughout the 70s and 80s.

They were on TV every day decades before every sporting event was televised.

I remember the Cubs of Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark Grace and Andre Dawson and am old enough to remember watching Ivan DeJesus and Dennis Lamp before them play for the Northsiders.

(Yes, I know DeJesus and Lamp aren’t exactly Cubs legends, but they were very vivid first memories for me watching the late 1970s Cubs on WGN.)

Of course, I remember Harry Caray and Steve Stone.

But did you know that before Ryno was a Cubs icon, he spent most of the 1981 season in Oklahoma City?

Once upon a time, Oklahoma City’s Triple-A baseball club was an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, who drafted Sandberg in 1978. Sandberg worked his way up the farm system, and only spent the better part of one season with the 89ers.

Here’s a look at Sandberg’s stats with the locals before he was called up to Veterans Stadium to play with the defending world champion Phillies on Sept. 2.

• Games: 133

• Plate Appearances: 579

• At-Bats: 519

• Runs: 78

• Hits: 152

• Doubles: 17

• Triples: 5

• Home Runs: 9

• RBIs: 62

• Stolen Bases: 32

• Caught Stealing: 10

• Walks: 48

• Strikeouts: 94

• Batting Average: .293

• On-Base Percentage: .352

• Slugging Percentage: .397

• OPS: .749

• Total Bases: 206

• Hit by Pitch: 5

• Sacrifice Hits: 5

• Sacrifice Flies: 1

Philadelphia traded Sandberg in January ‘82, and Ryno’s career took off. Heck, the Cubs’ fortunes turned around, too.

A quick addendum, but I had forgotten that the Phillies got Ivan DeJesus in that trade.

By every account I’ve heard or seen, Ryne Sandberg was the rare sports legend who was perhaps even better in person than in the field of play.

If you know a Cubs fan, go a little easy on ‘em today.

RIP, Ryno.

You can message me anytime at [email protected].

Weather Update ☀️

Could it be the hottest day of the year so far?

🌡️ Tuesday's high in OKC 98°
🌡️ Tuesday’s high in Tulsa 97°

OMES refers investigation into reports of nude images on Ryan Walters' TV to Oklahoma County Sheriff

By Beth Wallis, StateImpact Oklahoma
Click here to read the story.
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In the aftermath of allegations of nude women on State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office television, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services has referred the investigation to the county sheriff.

Oklahoma Public Media Exchange confirmed with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office that OMES referred the investigation Monday. The office will investigate if any criminal activity occurred.

Friday, two board members told NonDoc and The Oklahoman that during the executive session of Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting, they witnessed images of nude women on a TV in Walters’ office.

Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton said in a statement an investigation inquiry was being led by OMES.

Paxton said the accounts by the board members “paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency.”

“More transparency is essential before strong conclusions can be drawn,” Paxton said.

According to the reports, board member Becky Carson demanded the television be shut off. Walters struggled to turn it off and did not address it or apologize once it was off.

Board member Ryan Deatherage told NonDoc Walters should be held accountable, noting if he were treated like any other teacher, “we would probably pull his [teaching] certificate and put him on his own list.”

The Tulsa World reported a third board member, Chris VanDenhende, had his back to the TV, but confirmed Walters turned it off when asked and “seemed shaken.”

Walters has called the allegations “politically motivated attacks,” and denies any knowledge of what was on the TV or that anything was streamed from one of his devices.

Asked if Walters was saying the board members made false allegations, his press team did not respond.

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership of Oklahoma’s public radio stations which relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.

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Failed seizure of a vulnerable vet at Oklahoma’s largest hospital hints at crisis to come for aging population

By JC Hallman, Oklahoma Watch
Click here to read the story.
Donate to Oklahoma Watch.

In 2016, Ken Donley, then 73, set out for the Claremore Walmart to pick up some oil for his lawn tractor. Sometime later, Donley’s family — wife and two daughters — found him wandering confused in the Walmart parking lot not far from his truck, which he believed had been stolen.

He’d been gone for four hours.

Donley was a classic middle-American man. He met his future wife when they were 14 years old, and served four years in the Air Force as a communications specialist during the Vietnam War. He worked 30 years in the telecom industry, lost sight in one eye to an ocular stroke in 1981 and had a triple bypass in 2001, his daughter, Donna Donley, said.

Ken Donley retired a couple years later; that’s when he started to change.

“He wasn’t Dad,” Donna Donley, 54, said. “He used to joke around, but you just couldn’t joke with him anymore.”

The family brushed it aside for a long time, convinced themselves it was stress or that he was having hypoglycemic episodes because he was also diabetic. Even Ken Donley’s doctor — no spring chicken himself — missed the signs of Alzheimer’s, which was officially diagnosed in 2017.

Before then, the scene at Walmart was the final straw of a series of episodes that have become common for families across the country: misplaced belongings, confused directions on familiar roads. In the parking lot, Ken Donley was reduced to tears of frustration, and that made no sense at all.

“He was a guy who kicked butt and took names,” Donna Donley said.

The following year, the family took action, assigning durable power of attorney to Ken Donley’s wife, Ollie, and his two daughters.

“The powers granted by this document are broad and sweeping,” the document reads, specifying that Donley’s family could make health and medical care decisions for him, choose health providers and where he lived, and share his medical records as they saw fit.

Several years later, when Ken Donley needed to go to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital, Donna Donley believed the durable power of attorney would protect him from whatever the hospital might try to do.

She was wrong.

Click here to finish the story.

The Oklahoma Rundown 📰

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• 15-year-old boy dies after shooting at church event in east Tulsa (Tulsa World)

• Shooting in Stillwater kills 2, injures 1 (The O’Colly)

• Owasso city leaders announce investigation into racist post from police (2 News Oklahoma)

• Oklahoma attorney arrested for attempted kidnapping at daycare (KFOR)

• Oklahoma’s governor promises to reignite the “American Dream” while leading national group (Oklahoma Voice)

• Why Latinos in Oklahoma suffer some of the worst diabetes outcomes, despite low prevalence rates (KOSU)

• Lucas bill would grant tribes full control of food distribution program (Gaylord News)

• 'Focus: Black Oklahoma': Ban the Box, Tulsa's youth curfew, AmeriCorps budget cuts (KOSU)

• Arena labor agreement survives narrow OKC Council vote (Oklahoma City Free Press)

• Legal roundup: Epic case lingers, OTA sued to stop Will Rogers Turnpike tolls, Okmulgee jailer case stalled (NonDoc)

• Osage Nation opens addiction treatment to non-Natives (Osage News)

• Police release identity of woman stabbed to death by boyfriend after taking mushrooms at OKC home (KOCO)

• Police accuse man of failing to care for 75-year-old bedridden mother before her death (KOCO)

• Five facing felony charges for allegedly exploiting 87-year-old Yukon woman out of $113K (KFOR)

• Warrant issued in assault of elderly woman in Ponca City (Kay News Cow)

• Cotton County authorities arrest woman accused of trying to kidnap child (KSWO)

• Former city councilman bound over for sex crimes trial (The Lawton Constitution)

• 2 women killed on Muskogee Turnpike (Muskogee Phoenix)

• Victim identified in deadly Lake Texoma lightning strike (KXII)

• One dead in Marshall County house fire (KTEN)

• Stillwater man, 67, accused of meth possession, says he “gives it to females in exchange for sex” (1600Kush.com)

• 'The most selfless act of kindness': Woman donates kidney to coworker’s son (2 News Oklahoma)

• 'She was just a genuine person:' Family members honor Owasso woman killed in murder-suicide (News On 6)

• Law is clear that troopers must patrol state highways, OKC lawmaker says (Tulsa World)

• Bartlesville Public Schools superintendent announces retirement (Fox 23)

• Destination retailer Scheels looking to expand to OKC: Here's where (The Oklahoman)

• A 100-year-old church in Durant is transforming into a jiu-jitsu and kickboxing gym (KXII)

• OU football’s John Mateer, Jaydn Ott added to Maxwell Award Preseason Watch List (Norman Transcript)

• Jury finds for county in Lakey lawsuit; sheriff not responsible for death (Ardmoreite)

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