Is time travel possible?

The Paris News featured Elbert Desmond on its senior citizen page last Sunday. Elbert is 76 years old, and the newspaper hailed him as a font of Lamar County history. May I encourage you to be just a little skeptical of his stories? Here's why.

According to Mr. Desmond, his father formed a baseball team when Elbert was 15 years old. They traveled throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, playing semi-pro teams. Elbert accompanied the team as the batboy. The baseball tour lasted from June 18 to Sept. 23, 1947, and Desmond said they traveled about 2,500 miles total. Elbert said after the baseball tour ended, he and his father traveled to Houston where they watched the first two baseball games ever played in the Astrodome.

Now, there are several possibilities here.

1. The reporter didn't get the story right.
2. Mr. Desmond is a liar.
3. Mr. Desmond is just a bit senile and forgetful.
4. Mr. Desmond can travel through time.

The Astrodome didn't open until 1965 -- 18 years after Desmond's baseball tour. Obviously possibility number 1 puts the reporter at fault. Possibility numbers 2 and 3 also put the reporter at fault as she did not check out the facts of Mr. Desmond's story. Possibility number 4 really puts the reporter at fault -- if it's true, she completely missed the real story!

"Memories of Paris from days long past." The Paris News; January 4, 2009; p. 4C.