Sunday, October 31, 2004
Read Jeff's blog tonight, and I agree with him: I'm sick of hearing about how stupid one candidate is, and how great another candidate is; and although there is no way in hell I am voting for GW Bush, I like Jeff's explanation of why he is.
I never get sick, however, of debating and discussing issues in reasonable fashion with smart people. With this in mind, and also to see if Jeff reads my blog, I challenge him to defend his following statement:
"Furthermore, as Supreme Court Justices retire or die, we need to bring to the Court those who will interpret the Constitution strictly, and, reviewing Roe v. Wade, strike it down as an utter anomaly in Constitutional history."
I'd like to see some support, Jeff. I'll try to respond as best I can, after your reply.
I think these sorts of debates could be invigorating, if done regularly with a rotating cast of characters. They could make these blogs a little more than just entertaining e-diaries--which aren't bad, just more shallow than perhaps they could be. I've been writing about baseball for 6 months, for goodness' sake. Time to crank the old brain up again, hopefully.
I never get sick, however, of debating and discussing issues in reasonable fashion with smart people. With this in mind, and also to see if Jeff reads my blog, I challenge him to defend his following statement:
"Furthermore, as Supreme Court Justices retire or die, we need to bring to the Court those who will interpret the Constitution strictly, and, reviewing Roe v. Wade, strike it down as an utter anomaly in Constitutional history."
I'd like to see some support, Jeff. I'll try to respond as best I can, after your reply.
I think these sorts of debates could be invigorating, if done regularly with a rotating cast of characters. They could make these blogs a little more than just entertaining e-diaries--which aren't bad, just more shallow than perhaps they could be. I've been writing about baseball for 6 months, for goodness' sake. Time to crank the old brain up again, hopefully.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Short of the victory that finally sends the Cubs to the World Series, I witnessed the most important baseball game of my life yesterday when the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0, sweeping the series and ending 86 years of disappointment for their fans.
This game was important to me because it provided vital proof of something I’ve dared to believe for some time now, which is: there are no such things as curses. Curses are, as Peter Gammons said, "medieval mumbo-jumbo," but, for Cubs and Red Sox fans, there was no proof of this before last night.
Despite being a baseball fan in general, and a Cubs fan specifically, I consider myself a rational person, and I needed someone to finally show me that curses were made-up, stupid excuses for weird occurrences like 86-year championship droughts. To my (near-) complete satisfaction and delight, the last two weeks have provided exactly the proof I needed.
How do you explain the Curse of the Bambino now? What did the Red Sox do to finally end their long affair with suffering? Nothing was special about this season for Boston, with the notable exception that they finally had ownership that cared about winning. Having recently taken over from the old-money Yawkey family, they installed a bright young GM and told him to spend liberally but responsibly to create a winning team. After nearly nine decades of frustration, this magic formula yielded that most desired of results in a single season. Amazing.
If there is a Curse that afflicts professional sports teams, it is the curse of bad ownership. As a Chicagoan, I live in a city blighted by arguably the worst sports ownership of all time. Incompetency is omnipresent, with the Tribune Co, McCaskeys, Wirtzes, and Reinsdorf providing nearly unmatched legacies of failure and apathy. When will we reverse our curse? When our teams are finally controlled by people who care about victories.
We can, of course, leave it to a Yankee fan to miss this point entirely. Say what you will about George Steinbrenner, but the fact will remain that the man is almost maniacally focused on winning championships, and so is the ideal sports owner. Yankee fans like Larry Mahnken, spoiled by an embarassment of championships, are free to make the following statements without even a whiff of irony:
[The Red Sox’ victory is certainly] a vindication for the front office of Theo Epstein, which has been criticized for doing it differently, but now they've done something that nobody had been able to do since World War One. Of course, Boston's hardly had the best management, but that's beside the point.
Actually Larry, that’s the entire point: organizations win more when they care about winning. The Red Sox have shown us the way, have thrown this truth into sharp relief, for all to see. I can only hope that my team follows suit. I’ve got the rest of my life to wait.
This game was important to me because it provided vital proof of something I’ve dared to believe for some time now, which is: there are no such things as curses. Curses are, as Peter Gammons said, "medieval mumbo-jumbo," but, for Cubs and Red Sox fans, there was no proof of this before last night.
Despite being a baseball fan in general, and a Cubs fan specifically, I consider myself a rational person, and I needed someone to finally show me that curses were made-up, stupid excuses for weird occurrences like 86-year championship droughts. To my (near-) complete satisfaction and delight, the last two weeks have provided exactly the proof I needed.
How do you explain the Curse of the Bambino now? What did the Red Sox do to finally end their long affair with suffering? Nothing was special about this season for Boston, with the notable exception that they finally had ownership that cared about winning. Having recently taken over from the old-money Yawkey family, they installed a bright young GM and told him to spend liberally but responsibly to create a winning team. After nearly nine decades of frustration, this magic formula yielded that most desired of results in a single season. Amazing.
If there is a Curse that afflicts professional sports teams, it is the curse of bad ownership. As a Chicagoan, I live in a city blighted by arguably the worst sports ownership of all time. Incompetency is omnipresent, with the Tribune Co, McCaskeys, Wirtzes, and Reinsdorf providing nearly unmatched legacies of failure and apathy. When will we reverse our curse? When our teams are finally controlled by people who care about victories.
We can, of course, leave it to a Yankee fan to miss this point entirely. Say what you will about George Steinbrenner, but the fact will remain that the man is almost maniacally focused on winning championships, and so is the ideal sports owner. Yankee fans like Larry Mahnken, spoiled by an embarassment of championships, are free to make the following statements without even a whiff of irony:
[The Red Sox’ victory is certainly] a vindication for the front office of Theo Epstein, which has been criticized for doing it differently, but now they've done something that nobody had been able to do since World War One. Of course, Boston's hardly had the best management, but that's beside the point.
Actually Larry, that’s the entire point: organizations win more when they care about winning. The Red Sox have shown us the way, have thrown this truth into sharp relief, for all to see. I can only hope that my team follows suit. I’ve got the rest of my life to wait.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Good news: my fiancee and I have set a wedding date. We're to be wed October 8, 2005, at St. John's Lutheran Church. The reception will follow over in Naperville, at White Eagle Golf Club. It is appropriate that the two towns figuring most prominently in my upbringing (grew up in L-bard, have worked most of my life in Naperville) will co-host the most important day of my life. Should be bitchin'. Be there or be square!
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Wow it's basically been like 6 straight months of baseball posts. Unbelievable!
I did break the mold with my presidential debate post the other day, however, and I think if you go back to the first 3-4 posts I made on this sight, you'll find that they are all about politics and are all among the best writing I've done in this forum. With nary 3 weeks to go before the big Presidential election, I am going to try to cover some more substantive ground in my future posts. But not necessarily right now.
Right now, I am relaxing on Sunday afternoon, getting my ass kicked in fantasy football, and wondering why my left eye hurts so much. I'll be 25 in less than 2 months, and I've been feeling my years more than usual lately. Undoubtedly, this played a factor when I asked my girlfriend to marry me 2 weeks and 1 day ago. She said yes, and I've been feeling great ever since.
I'm very much looking forward to moving out of my parents' house. Laura and I have been buying furniture lately, and we have generously been offered some more as engagement presents from her parents. Last month we acquired a brand-new La-Z-Boy couch for just $250, and as an engagement present she got me a leather recliner from Carson's furniture. The chair has not yet been delivered, but I have been dreaming about it since we went to pick it out last week. I can picture the chair in the living room of our first abode as a family, and this brings me great joy.
In other news, Jeff car has a blog up. Way to go, Jeff! You're one of the most entertaining writers among people I know. Keep it up. That's all for now.
I did break the mold with my presidential debate post the other day, however, and I think if you go back to the first 3-4 posts I made on this sight, you'll find that they are all about politics and are all among the best writing I've done in this forum. With nary 3 weeks to go before the big Presidential election, I am going to try to cover some more substantive ground in my future posts. But not necessarily right now.
Right now, I am relaxing on Sunday afternoon, getting my ass kicked in fantasy football, and wondering why my left eye hurts so much. I'll be 25 in less than 2 months, and I've been feeling my years more than usual lately. Undoubtedly, this played a factor when I asked my girlfriend to marry me 2 weeks and 1 day ago. She said yes, and I've been feeling great ever since.
I'm very much looking forward to moving out of my parents' house. Laura and I have been buying furniture lately, and we have generously been offered some more as engagement presents from her parents. Last month we acquired a brand-new La-Z-Boy couch for just $250, and as an engagement present she got me a leather recliner from Carson's furniture. The chair has not yet been delivered, but I have been dreaming about it since we went to pick it out last week. I can picture the chair in the living room of our first abode as a family, and this brings me great joy.
In other news, Jeff car has a blog up. Way to go, Jeff! You're one of the most entertaining writers among people I know. Keep it up. That's all for now.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
I am in the process of creating and posting my wish list of players the Cubs should do themselves a favor by acquiring this offseason. But the short version is that, if they do nothing else, the Northsiders should do everything they can to acquire Carlos Beltran, who has raised his asking price again tonight with a first-inning home run against the Cardinals. Why do I say this? It's pretty straightforward:
First and foremost, his success at Wrigley field has me positively giddy about the prospect of #15 patrolling left field for the Cubs next year. In 7 games there this past season, Beltran hit .520, slugged 1.400, got on base 65% of the time, and posted a ridiculous OPS of 2.057. To give you an idea, an OPS of 1.000 is exceptional, a feat reached by only a few players each year. It's impossible to maintain Beltran's Wrigley level of production for an entire year, but it certainly bodes well for a full season's work at the Friendly Confines. I'd love to see that happen.
Secondly, the man is exactly the type of player the Cubs lineup needs. He plays a great outfield (left would be a cinch for him, as is center), he bats lefthanded nearly as well as he bats righthanded, hits lefties better than he hits righties, steals lots of bases at an 89% clip for his career, and--most importantly--seems immune to streaks. With the exception of Aramis Ramirez, this year's Cubs team was a frustratingly streaky bunch, and it would be nice to have a steady .285 guy in there at all times. And plus he's 28--he's going to be good for awhile. There are other free agents out there, but none who would be as instantly juvenating as Carlos Beltran. Be nice to see our boys pony up for the right guy, for once. I'm not holding my breath.
First and foremost, his success at Wrigley field has me positively giddy about the prospect of #15 patrolling left field for the Cubs next year. In 7 games there this past season, Beltran hit .520, slugged 1.400, got on base 65% of the time, and posted a ridiculous OPS of 2.057. To give you an idea, an OPS of 1.000 is exceptional, a feat reached by only a few players each year. It's impossible to maintain Beltran's Wrigley level of production for an entire year, but it certainly bodes well for a full season's work at the Friendly Confines. I'd love to see that happen.
Secondly, the man is exactly the type of player the Cubs lineup needs. He plays a great outfield (left would be a cinch for him, as is center), he bats lefthanded nearly as well as he bats righthanded, hits lefties better than he hits righties, steals lots of bases at an 89% clip for his career, and--most importantly--seems immune to streaks. With the exception of Aramis Ramirez, this year's Cubs team was a frustratingly streaky bunch, and it would be nice to have a steady .285 guy in there at all times. And plus he's 28--he's going to be good for awhile. There are other free agents out there, but none who would be as instantly juvenating as Carlos Beltran. Be nice to see our boys pony up for the right guy, for once. I'm not holding my breath.
Saturday, October 02, 2004
I wish I could begin my bit about the "presidential debate" (of earlier this week) with a statement like "now for something more serious," but that would be a joke.
Watching Charlie Rose after work on Thursday, I could not help but think guest Jon Stewart (of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show") was absolutely dead-on when he described the debates as "a sort of dance...that both participants willfully participate in." After 5 minutes of the debate, I'm not sure how you could think otherwise. Calling it a debate is completely inaccurate--the participants are not arguing points, they are simply repeating slogans, sound bites, and statistics ad nauseam.
And I think the whole point is to bore people to death! Perhaps there are some that can fool themselves into thinking the whole thing is meaningful, but I'm not among them. Candidates are interested only in furthering the current climate of bloviation and obfuscation. If that last sentence made no sense, that's exactly the point. Traditional-party candidates don't make any sense, anymore. That's why you need to educate yourself about politics--otherwise, these loons are running the asylum.
Watching Charlie Rose after work on Thursday, I could not help but think guest Jon Stewart (of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show") was absolutely dead-on when he described the debates as "a sort of dance...that both participants willfully participate in." After 5 minutes of the debate, I'm not sure how you could think otherwise. Calling it a debate is completely inaccurate--the participants are not arguing points, they are simply repeating slogans, sound bites, and statistics ad nauseam.
And I think the whole point is to bore people to death! Perhaps there are some that can fool themselves into thinking the whole thing is meaningful, but I'm not among them. Candidates are interested only in furthering the current climate of bloviation and obfuscation. If that last sentence made no sense, that's exactly the point. Traditional-party candidates don't make any sense, anymore. That's why you need to educate yourself about politics--otherwise, these loons are running the asylum.
