The Joshua Yoder Blog

 Today's blog post is sad as one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history has tragically passed away. His name was Lee Roy Jordan and he was 84. Obviously, Jordan was a head of my time growing up watching the great game of football. But thanks to many of the older generation and history books as well as NFL films, I got to learn about him and what he had accomplished as a player. If there is one word that can best describe Jordan, it would be champion. Everywhere Jordan played, he was a winner. He was a part of the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide squad that were not only SEC champions, but also National champions under legendary Head Coach Bear Bryant. In fact, coach Bryant had given him high praise throughout his time there at Alabama. Even going as far as saying that he was one of the finest players that he had ever coached and coming from someone like Bear Bryant, goes a long way in football. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. Lee Roy was then drafted by t...

 Today, if you would like to go out and enjoy some movies, then come on down to Mifflintown, Pa and celebrate the 75th anniversary to the Midway Drive-in. The event will begin at 3:30 p.m. and will go on till 2:30 a.m. Adults will have to pay 15 dollars while ages three to eleven will have tickets for 10 dollars and ages two and under get in for free. There will be several different activities including pony rides from 4 to 6 p.m., face painting, 1950 costume contest, a hula competition, there will be a DYI photo booth, a vintage car parade and live music starting from 4 to 7 by Jake & Friendz Trio. To finish off the evening, three movies will be showcased. One of those movies will be Dog Man. The next movie is the classic Grease and then finally, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I think that this is really cool idea. It is not too often it seems that many of us go out and enjoy watching movies like we have in years past, especially when we would go out with friends and family w...

 We are nearing the begin of a whole new season of College football and you know what that means, it means the return of Notre Dame Football. The Fighting Irish will look to build on their success from a season ago where they were able to make it all the way to the National Championship game only to fall to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Notre Dame is heading into year four of the Marcus Freeman era as the Head Coach of the Fighting Irish. The Irish will head into the season ranked sixth in the nation according to the AP Rankings which, if I am being perfectly honest, I am not quite sure how I feel about that.  Reason being is that there are plenty of new happening in South Bend in terms people joining. For starters, the Irish will be without Al Golden who has moved onto the NFL as the DC for the Bengals and was replaced by Chris Ash. Not only is there a new defense, a lot of experience from last year are now gone as well including such great players like Rylie Mills, Jack Kiser, Be...

 As I continue to push for some more positive thoughts in my mind, I thought about writing about my big brother Cody. Especially since today is his Birthday 🎉. It truly is amazing how time flies in this life, it only seems like yesterday we were just chilling out at home and playing some video games, whether it be Genesis, NES, PS1, Dreamcast, etc. But now he is now 39 years old, married to his college sweetheart, has a sweet little pup named Macy, a chip off the old block little son named Luke and soon to become a father for a second time. Not to mention he is an award winning video editor in a variety of different platforms whether it be for sports or awesome stuff on YouTube. My big bro has accomplished a lot in his life and I am extremely proud of him. If only he wasn't over five hours away, but then again, he probably prefers it that way lol 😁. To be fair though, I basically told him to go and live out his dream. I still remember that crazy night when he pulled me to the sid...

 God only knows how much I missed this show. I mean seriously, me and my twin brother Chad LOVED this show. Whenever Summer came around here in Pennsylvania, we pretended like we were the group of kids the show was about.  Rocket Power was created by Arlene Klasky and Gabor Crespo and made its debut in 1999 on Nickelodeon and lasted for four seasons ending in 2004. The story of Rocket Power follows four young kids from a Southern California beach community named Otto, Reggie, Twister and Squid who have an interest in extreme sports such as skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and street hockey along with getting into a wide variety of situations and overcoming trials and challenges of growing up. I loved this show so much! It was special to me because, being stuck at home all of the time as a kid made me wish I could live like those kids you saw on the show. Going outside all of the time, being by the beach, warm weather and honestly I really enjoy roller hockey. This show mad...

 With Summer coming to a close, I wanted to look back on somethings. While I was looking back on the Summer, I realized that thirty years ago was the debut of what people called the X Games. Although it was founded in 1994, the inaugural season happened in 1995 and has since became a global phenomenon. Being a kid of the 1990s and proud of it lol, the X Games really helped bring the "extreme sports" into the mainstream and introduced many of us to such great talent like Tony Hawk, Mat Hoffman, Dave Mirra (RIP), Shaun White, Travis Pastrana and many more. What I also thought was cool about the X Games was it not only featured, skateboarding, BMX, freestyle motorcross, skiing and snowboarding. But this special event also had music and culture elements like live music performances, athlete autograph sessions as well as interactive, family-friendly exhibitions. As a young kid watching these events, really inspired me. I mean, seeing what these guys were doing was incredible. You ...

 Well folks! After weeks of competition,the finals of the Little League Baseball World Series have been set as Chinese Taipei representing the Asia-Pacific Region will meet Summerlin South LL who represents the Mountain Region on Sunday to crown the 2025 Little League World Series Champions. It is no secret how much I love the game of baseball and every single Summer I look forward to the College World Series at the beginning and now the Little League World Series which I always used as the signal of the end of Summer. It is crazy to think that this special event is approaching 80 years old as it began in 1947. It originally was just for teams in the US but has become a global event. Which is one of the reasons as to why I enjoy watching the Little League World Series. Seeing the kids play the great game of baseball from multiple different countries is such a beautiful thing that should never be taken for granted. Baseball in my humble opinion is a way that brings us all closer tog...

 Some of you maybe a little surprised by this, but I really enjoyed watching dirt bike racing when I was little and to some degree still do to this day. And the main reason as to why I love watching it was because of this man, Jeremy McGrath. Making his debut in January of 1989, who knew that McGrath was going to put the sport of dirt bike racing on the map like he did. Being a kid of the 1990s, one of the things that I really enjoyed was the Extreme sports that was happening at the time. Many of the events like skateboarding, snowboarding, dirt bike racing, rollerblading, scootering, BMX. Heck! The 90s basically helped create what we now know as the X-Games which come to think about it, I should do a blog post about that lol. But that is another time. One of the people who was leading the charge for a lot of the extreme sports was in my humble opinion, Jeremy McGrath. What he was doing for the sport really was incredible looking back on it. His resume speaks for itself, I mean the...

 Nearly twenty years ago, one of my personal favorite gaming franchises came out and it has been an inspiration to me ever since and it was called Mass Effect.  Mass Effect is a military science fiction media franchise that was created by developer Casey Hudson who was also one of the people who created Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. Both games that I really enjoyed playing as well. The franchise is depicted a distant future where humans and aliens have colonized the galaxy using technology left behind by an advanced precursor civilizations. Mass Effect was originally developed by BioWare and was originally published by Microsoft Game Studios for the first two games before being taken over by Electronic Arts. The plot follows Commander Shepard who leads his team in an attempt to save the Milky Way galaxy from a race of ancient machines known as the Reapers. The game usually incorporates third-person shooting along with role-playing elements which is one...

 I just recently finished a recording for my podcast with my old high school baseball coach Ray Hoppel, which was a ton of fun and don't worry, the episode will be uploaded soon. But after doing the recording, it made me realize something and that was Summer vacation is basically over and people are now returning to another year school for kids in different grade levels. As always, when it comes to this time of the year, many of us are thinking where on Earth did Summer go? Or that it went by way too fast. Pretty so many of us are going to start hating that it is too cold outside and that we can not wait till it gets warmer again 😂 Now with my history when it comes school, it isn't always at the best, but again after talking with Coach Hoppel. It was another reminder that there have been some amazing moments despite my struggles. And that is basically what I wanted to do with this blog post. I want to talk right to all of the students who are heading back to class whether it b...

 WOW! I mean, when I first started this blog, I didn't think much of it, to be this was going to be a place where I could just write whatever. I had no idea that it would even last as long as it did and I am so grateful to all of you, whether you are some one I know who reads this or someone from around the world, thank you so much for your continued support. For post 350, I thought I share a special story to you guys, a story that I use to remind myself, that God is there for us. I guess you can call it a sign if you will. A few years ago, I went to a Wednesday night Mass over at the Roman Catholic Church in Lewistown called Sacred Heart. It is a very lovely and beautiful church and I have been around them for sometime now and at the time I really became good friends with one of the pastors there named Fr. Peter Rettig. Sadly, Fr. Rettig is no longer than at Sacred Heart due to him being transferred, but trying to stay positive, this was one of my favorite moments that happened du...

 One of my favorite comic book characters of all time. The dark warrior from Image Comics himself, Spawn. Spawn was created by Todd McFarlane who had just left Marvel Comics to form Image Comics and was released in May in 1992. The story of Spawn follows Al Simmons, a government assassin who had been killed by his employer Jason Wynn who grew tired of Simmons and his increasing sense of morality. Simmons was then sent to Hell where he met Maleboliga one of the demon lords and made a deal where he gets to see his wife Wanda again.  Unfortunately for Simmons, he reawakens as a Hellspawn five years later, realizing that his wife had moved on with his friend Terry Fitzgerald as well as many of his memories missing. With little choice, Spawn adopts his new identity in an effort to atone for his past sins and use his newfound powers for good. Early on in his time as Spawn, Simmons did battle with street thugs and gangs becoming a dark, sadistic anti-hero. But then soon come up again...

 Myself and my twin brother Chad had recently watched an old episode of WWE's Most Wanted Treasures where the crew were trying to find special items that involved the Eighth Wonder of the World himself, Andre The Giant. The episode itself was a fun watch, but it made me a bit emotional and honestly, it was really cool to see the looks on the faces of the people who knew and loved Andre. Speaking of being emotional, I remember watching the 2018 documentary of Andre the Giant that aired on HBO. Just seeing what Andre had went through his entire life was really sad to see. For those that may or may not know, Andre was born with a disease called gigantism which is caused by excess human growth hormone. Andre the Giant put the world of professional wrestling on put notice in the late sixties, but by the time he got to the WWWF (Now WWE) in the early 70s and became a Global Superstar! I dare say his presence in the company was a major driving force for the WWE to become what it is today....

 Ah yes, yesterday was one of my favorite moments of the summer season. And that is the annual Summerfest event held by HWF which is the local wrestling federation run by my long time friend Matt Silks. Although this is the fifth annual Summerfest under the HWF banner, this event has been since I first met Matt back in high school and has held a special place in hearts of many of us pro wrestling fans here in Central PA. It is crazy to think how far something like this has come, I mean I was a freshmen in high school when I first met Matt and the gang. Of course, back then it was just a bunch a kids and a simple trampoline. Now look at it, it has become such a big event around town. Which honestly makes me smile because something like this in a small town like Lewistown. It is something to help people come out together and enjoy some good old wrestling. It also brings a tear to my eye because I remember the talks I have had with not just Matt, but several other people about doing s...

 A very underrated band in my humble opinion and it was certainly one who I would listen to a lot with my father and I still listen to them to this very day. The Blue Oyster Cult is pushing 60 years old and has been a major influence on heavy metal music. Blue Oyster Cult's longest and most successful lineup in their careers were Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser who is lead guitar and vocals, Eric Bloom as lead vocals, guitar, Allen Lanier on keyboards, guitar, Joe Bouchard on bass and Albert Bouchard on drums. Their manager Sandy Pearlman (RIP) and rock critic Richard Meltzer have also help contribute to the writing of the band's lyrics. The band was known for their fusion of hard rock and psychedelia sound mixed in with some occult, fantastical and tongue-in-cheek style of lyrics really helped in establishing the band. The band itself is pretty much like a science fiction novel which being a science fiction fan myself, I really enjoy that aspect of the band. Also I must ...

 It is crazy to think that this incredible band has been rocking out for over 40 years now and they are just as good as they were when they first started. Which is rich coming from me considering that I wasn't even born when they first started 😂 but nonetheless, Stryper is an amazing band. For those who may not know, the name of Stryper came from the bible. In the book of Isaiah 53:5, the backronym of their name is "Salvation, Through, Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness. Their first EP, The Yellow and Black Attack came out in 1984 and hit the ground running becoming the first Christian Metal Band to be accepted into the mainstream. As of 2024, Stryper has released 16 albums from the Yellow and Black Attack all the way to their most recent album, When We Were Kings. As mentioned before, these guys were head banging for Jesus long before I was even born. The first time that I had ever heard of Stryper was because of a professional wrestler named Chris J...