We had been back in our village, in France, for a few days when one of us accomplished something a bit tricky:

Noticing the absence of something we had grown used to hearing.

To wit: The bells ringing in the city center on the hour and half-hour.

They were not ringing. At all. And had not been … for days. Though nobody else seemed to notice.

Or maybe they were tired of hearing the bells.

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We made a fuss over the statue of David Beckham unveiled a couple of days ago at the former StubHub Park stadium. The first at a Major League Soccer stadium.

It should have been Landon Donovan; he put in more years, scored far more goals won more championships. For Beckham, the Los Angeles gig always seemed like part of the marketing arm of David Beckham Enterprises, Inc. Landon was all Galaxy all the time.

But there you go.

Here is the video of the event, courtesy of the LA Galaxy and videographer Paul-Michael Ochoa.

The statue shows Beckham about to do what he did best — strike a soccer ball at rest and send it/bend it pretty much wherever he wanted it to go.

And Beckham made some remarks about the honor, noted in the video, above.

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The LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon will unveil what is thought to be the first statue of a former player to be displayed at a Major League Soccer stadium.

The club said it will be No. 1 in “a series of statues” that will stand just outside the stadium in the new Legends Plaza at what is now called Dignity Health Sports Park. (Formerly, StubHub Center.)

This is a high honor. A tribute to the men who played for the club and helped it win those five MLS Cups, most in MLS history.

It is the Galaxy’s take on Star Plaza at Staples Center, which features no fewer than nine statues, including the two originals — of Magic Johnson of the Lakers and Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings.

All well and good; an outdoor space with bigger-than-life statues can be a sort of tourist attraction — and also freeze in bronze a moment that represents what that player brought to the game.

All well and good, aside from this:

The Galaxy are beginning their statue collection with a bronzed David Beckham instead of the man who clearly was the club’s best player over a career, and his country’s greatest player, Landon Donovan.

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The Los Angeles Angels play at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Doesn’t mean they really want to.

Also doesn’t mean they will be moving somewhere else anytime soon.

Why are we talking about this? Because the mayor of Long Beach says the seaside city is in talks with the Angels about the club relocating to a seaside parcel about 25 miles west of the Angels’ current home, where they have played since 1965.

The Long Beach Post, an online-only “newspaper”, was the first to move — Monday night — on  a formal statement from the city’s mayor, Robert Garcia, who said: “We are in the early stages of our due diligence and are exploring a variety of options for this property,” referring to a 13-acre parking lot next to the Long Beach Arena. “We have approached the Angels to express our interest and discuss the possibilities of this opportunity.”

The Angels feel as if Anaheim should not give all its governmental love and attention to Disneyland, which is the Dumbo-in-the-room when it comes to city business priorities.

Angels owner Arte Moreno signaled his less-than-pleased feelings towards Anaheim when, late last year, he opted out of a lease that would have tied the Angels to the Orange County city through the 2029 season. Instead, a one-year lease extension through 2020 means the Angels could, in theory, play the 2021 season somewhere else.

Like, perhaps, Long Beach, self-styled International City?

Realistically? No. Not at all. Something that will never happen. But might be fun to muse about.

Let’s run down a list of reasons why Long Beach and the Angels … Just Doesn’t Work.

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Landon Donovan is back! Again!

If it seems as if he retired quite some time ago, well, he did, in the first instance — from the LA Galaxy in 2014.

A year and change later, he returned to the Galaxy active roster during an end-of-season run, and he played just enough to suggest he was easily past his prime.

OK. Now done.

Or not.

In January of 2018 he signed with Club Leon of LigaMX, on a salary of $185,000 a month, according to espn.com.

That ill-considered move came to an early end, which was good, because Landon had trouble getting on the pitch, never mind returning as an elite scorer — which characterized the first 15 years of his career. (Top scorer in Major League Soccer history; co-top scorer in U.S. National Team history.)

He failed to score a goal in six appearances; he and Leon, which plays in a league pretty clearly better than MLS, agreed to end the deal early.

And that was that? Now he can move on with the next bit of his life?

Well, no. Still.

Last month, he signed with the San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League. Yes, the indoor game, which some have suggested looks like human pinball.

But if it makes Landon happy … and it apparently does, and if it makes teams happy, and they continue to pay him … and fans turn out to see him …

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The world has changed in 50 years. Of course it has. But in ways that we, sometimes, don’t immediately recognize and never anticipated.

A few months ago, we were driving past the elementary school near the house where I grew up, and I pointed out the spot where we kids were able to scramble onto the roof of the sprawling campus, on weekends, and run around up there for hours.

Which prompted me to consider “all the stuff we did”, back in the late 60s, early 70, “boyish antics” that were mostly ignored by parents and authorities — but could land us in big trouble, in the anxious year 2019.

Like playing “war” with realistic-looking toy guns and contriving “contact explosives” from chemicals found in the chemistry lab at high school.

And, note: I would recommend against trying any of this, in the second decade of the 21st century.

The rundown:

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I make a habit of having a copy of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract in my home.

Never know when you might have a few minutes for reading about “baseball in the 1890s” and I can consume James’s treatment of it, at length (the book runs 998 pages) — or in short bites.

So it was the other day. A nibble. I let the book fall open about halfway through and it landed on James’s rankings of the 100 best first basemen in the history of the game.

The book was published in 2001, and at the time James had Will Clark at No. 14 among all first basemen and his close contemporary Rafael Palmeiro at No. 19.

And while explaining why Palmeiro was behind Clark, in his rankings, James focused on the Gold Glove, and how Palmeiro tended to win said gloves (buffering his reputation) even though he did not always deserve them — such as in 1999, when he was the gold-glover at 1B despite playing only 28 games there.

The voting structure for the award was flawed, James wrote on page 439, because the winner was the player who gained the most votes in a one-round election, and in 1999 Rafael Palmeiro led all American League first baseman — with only 15 percent of the vote. Congrats, Raffy.

James then, to further illuminate how the Palmeiro glove was a function of the voting system, and not widespread stupidity among managers and coaches, suggested that if the U.S. voting system took on the Gold Glove rules for picking the award, it would would fairly quickly produce a situation allowing someone  named, say, Donald, to become president of the United States.

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St. Louis, you can have them back.

What’s that? You don’t want them? You don’t traffic in stolen franchises anymore?

Good call.

That was Super Bowl 53 we watched yesterday, and Rams fans (such as they are) can’t un-see it.

I’m old enough to have watched every Super Bowl ever played, and your Los Angeles Rams just secured a piece of onerous Big Game history:

Fewest points scored: 3.

In a tie with the Miami Dolphins, who lost 24-3 to the Dallas Cowboys in 1972, which may have been before the forward pass was invented.

The Rams fell 13-3 to the New England Patriots in a game that prompted one of my brothers to say: “I feel pain.”

Fair enough.

I feel vindicated, unfortunately, after several warnings that this Rams team, despite the 13-3 record, was ready to be had.

Or, in the case of a championship matchup with New England, ready to be humiliated.

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That was my feeling, moments after the New England Patriots completed their 37-31 overtime victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in the American Football Conference championship game 14 days ago.

“This is a worst-case scenario.”

“This” being the Los Angeles Rams playing the Patriots for the Super Bowl trophy.

And why, pray tell?

Because the most painful outcome involving the four teams that got to the Super semis … is also now the most likely.

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For those of you who have little or no recollection of this game, which was played in January of 1980, there is something you need to know:

Despite the final score, this was one of the two best Super Bowls of the first 15 played. (Pittsburgh 21, Dallas 17, in 1976, was the other.)

It remained one of three best Super Bowls, in my opinion, of the first 25 played.

Here’s why:

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