Baseball Broken Dreams

It is well known I am not the smartest cookie in the cookie jar, but I do try to know what is in the best interests of my kids.  So a few weeks ago I posted about coaches complaining about their kids and the parents not trusting them.  Woops, I thought baseball was about the kids.  What was I thinking?

Well, lo and behold, karma becomes reality.

For my coaching friend who said his rec team was ready to take the next step and become a select team despite lots of defensive holes, several pitching issues, and undisciplined bats, I assume your 1-2 tournament record, speaks for itself.  Yes, I am going to be the one who told you so, because you wouldn't listen to reason and understand that you can't play family ball at the select level.

The honest answer coach is you were right.  One kid doesn't make a team, but when you push the kid off your team who no hit you, because you are so Hellbent on going select that you won't look at objective numbers, all you get is bent by Hell.  One kid doesn't make a team, but you can pull a key cog off your defense and out of your rotation and kids who can go full games at this age, do not grow on trees.  You have been coaching a lot longer than I have which is why I wonder why you didn't realize even with a switch pitcher who can finish the games he starts, we didn't have enough arms to compete at the rec level, much less a select one.  I suspect this is going to be a long season for you.

No, I will admit this too.  Yes, you will have some successes, but I don't see a tourney win this year and if you are playing rec ball, isn't that what it's about?

I have already heard your excuses from the weekend because I am sure they were the same as last year's.  Let's see: (a) it was too early to play a tourney and the kids weren't ready [despite practicing since December are you really going to pound the kids for getting beaten by a lesser seed in the first round of elimination play?], (b) they didn't do what you told them [maybe because drills need to be changed to maintain focus and attention to detail and develop new skills], (c) the umpires blew too many calls [umpires dont make or break games for teams...teams make or break games for teams], or (d) we were just unlucky [well in baseball you can make your own luck by being prepared and executing.]

For me, I feel bad for the other parents who will have to endure a full season of "almost."  Excuses just don't last the test of time and the dedication factor of some of the people who you have selected is less than you are willing to admit now.

In fact, I find it funny that you are okay, bad mouthing the kids who continue on your team after claiming there was no way they would be on your select team.  I know you got played by other parents who told you whatever they told you about coming over, but I was straight.  I was amazed you would ask a kid to teach how to throw both ways to a kid who doesn't put in the effort to throw correctly from one side.  I am still amazed you ignored the idea to stay rec, fix some issues and win a tournament at the rec level before the team went select, but you ignored that advice.

Now your parents and kids get to pay more for games they are going to be increasingly outgunned by teams that prepare in a more varied way.  Sure, there are other select teams, like yours that will muddle through the middle, but again, consistency counts.

One of these days the kid above is going to add to his no-hitter list and next time it may be against your team (again).  I worry your team is still going to be standing around in the field waiting to hear the excuse then for why you lost to a kid you were so desperate to kick out.  Either way, it makes for a season on broken dreams for kids who deserve better.

Soul Cleaner

Did you see what I saw in the media?  You know...about Pope Francis?

For some reason, as this article mentions, the main stream media seemed to miss the comments His Holiness made about Confession.

I know.  Amazing.  Pope Francis - the media darling who is supposedly a liberal - is encouraging the faithful to be cleansed via Confession.

He reminds us that priests act as representatives of Christ authorizing them, as Christ authorized his twelve, that those sins they forgive, are forgiven. (Matthew 6:14)  He also assured us of the gentleness of Christ's representatives: "Jesus is there...and He receives you with so much love."

It is a powerful message to give up the burden of our sin to the one who died for it.  We should follow His Holiness' call for greater attention to Confession and the subsequent beauty that comes via Reconciliation.  Again, Pope Francis delights.  It's just too bad the media didn't seem to want to hear this message.  Again.

Retreat?

Post Grammys I heard a discussion of Christian friends who were worried about Beyoncé's performance and the homosexual weddings that took place.  The question was posed, would this happen at the Super Bowl or further, when would it happen?

The responses were pretty typical, but ran in fear.  It was the normal discussion about of course the NFL would allow gay marriages at the Super Bowl (at some point), the whole thing is awful.  It was the language of chicken little:

 

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling...the world is filling with darkness and coming to an end."

And?  And, so what?

As Christians, you know the world is coming to an end.  Your life on Earth is short lived, so who cares what the Super Bowl or the Grammys or popular culture does?  You say you are a Christian...you're supposed to be in the minority.

Do you remember Matthew 19:24?  Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle mean anything?  Christianity is not easy and I am not sure it is supposed to be easy unless we are ready to submit ourselves to Christ.

In that chapter, Christ talks to his disciples about following him and giving up everything and that when he is seated on his throne they will be seated on thrones as well.  He speaks about those who abandon "houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more..."  It doesn't sound easy to me?

I bring it up because why do we care what pop culture does?  It isn't enough for someone to judge the situation for themselves and decide they are right.  There is human law which comes from divine law about what is right and wrong.  Isn't that what we believe as Christians?

Don't we understand there is a certain irrationality to a person who claims to be a good person using their own standard?  In essence they are saying, I am God Almighty, I can determine what is and isn't good for myself based on a changing cultural vector point.  If we believe that to be irrational, why do we let it bother us when they chant their beliefs?

Maybe I am wrong, but when things like this happen in modern culture, I am disappointed, but not surprised.  We live in a broken world and as Christians we have the opportunity to add light to that world, but why do we run and hide when the world answers us back it wants the easy way?  How many times does God ask us to repent and we don't?  Why should we expect more of others?

Fear not my Christian brethren.  Life may be short.  We may be in an awful world, but ours is to submit to Christ, not despair when the battle is against us.

I guess this is the same talk I hear again and again.  America is going down hill, the NFL is going down hill, etc. etc.  It may be, but that is okay.

Remember, it was Christ who said, "In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)  We needn't fear anything the NFL does, or the direction towards Evil that America may be turning in.  Christ has outlasted the NFL, America, and will do so with everything else.  Be of good cheer.

If You're Having A Heart Attack...Don't Ask DC Fire For Help

DC Fire and EMS once again, does it again.  Wow!

This time instead of treating a head injured patient as a drunk which they did in the 2006 Rosenbaum case, this time, DC Fire, refuses to even walk across the street to check on a 77 year old city parks employee who collapsed in a parking lot yards away.

Conservatives always complain about unaccountable bureaucrats, but in this case, where are the elected officials?  I am sure they Mayor Vincent Gray will talk about being shocked and Tommy Wells, a mayor wannabe, will hold hearings, but who is actually doing anything about this?

Fox 5's coverage is below, but this is one more case in a long line of questionable DC Fire behavior.  The good news is next week, the JEMS conference EMS Today will be in DC so there should be plenty of providers willing to take care of patients.  Too bad they will be there for continuing education and not on duty.

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

My other question is why does Congress continue to allow DC to self regulate their EMS system when it is so apparent that they can not handle the basic functions of government?  On so many levels this is embarrassing.  For myself, I am glad I will not be staying in the District proper next week as this is the type of worry I would have should something occur.

Bankrupt Before He Got Paid?

How in the world does it come to this?  A few years ago, Vince Young signed a contract coming out of college as the third overall pick in the NFL draft and received guaranteed money of $26 million.  MILLION, not $26,000, million.  He just declared bankruptcy.

How does someone spend that kind of money?

According to one report, in at least once case, he spent $6000 at a TGI Fridays.  Why?  Let me help you out Vince, the food and flair aren't even that good.

Other accounts have him spending $5000 a week at The Cheesecake Factory.  You want to guess what my annual budget is for dining out?  You're not too far from that number, but I have a family of six.

The point of this rant is in a few months we will have another group of guys coming out of college, ready to take on opposing linebackers (or quarterbacks), but who are more interested in showing their manhood, than in their mental toughness.

In a recent radio report I heard, the reason why Josh Brent did not use the NFL's car service to get home was a source of pride.  He wanted to show he could handle his liquor.  Bad news Josh, you are human and like everyone else, the liquor handled you.  Especially when you consider toxicology reports indicate you probably had the equivalent of seventeen drinks that night.

What is sad is not the bankruptcy itself.  Lots of people have financial issues, but perhaps the issue is society's bankrupt nature: where we judge people by what they have instead of what they give.  Maybe, Mr. Young was bankrupt before he ever got paid?  Either way it is a sad end to what should have been a positive story.

Race Cards

Today the nation stops work and is supposed to reflect on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Perhaps in New York and Washington, D.C. and so many other places they could reflect a little bit more.

Recently, a potential juror, Raeana Roberson, was given a "standard" jury questionnaire.  She was offended by questions about her race listing the options as Black, African-American, or Negro."  She wrote back on the form that it was 2014 and it was offensive.

Perhaps more offensive though is the idea we are still recording race at all.

Dr. King noted in one of his more famous speeches that he dreamt that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  Somewhere along the line I think we missed this and my question is how can we ever lose race consciousness when our government day in and day out tries to pigeon hole individuals into categories whether they describe a color (black) or an area of migration (Caucuses).

Let me be clear. Raeana Roberson, the potential juror in New York was right.  The notecard is offensive and obnoxious and obtuse when consideration is given to Dr. King and the civil rights movement for which he gave his life.  It is time the government got out of trying to categorize us and treat Americans as just that.  Americans.

In the words of one of Dr. King’s contemporaries, Franklin Thomas, “One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.”

They were both right and I wonder if we haven’t lost some of which they yearned in the fight for equality.

The Wolves Lurking...

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. – Matthew 7:15 

Okay, so today’s rant is all about the use of scripture by people whose behavior does not follow suit.  These false prophets are particularly dangerous when they use scripture to get close to your children.  No, I’m not headed to the priest abuse scandal which slowly, but surely is getting cleaned up, but I am talking about youth baseball and the coaches that have no problem drinking three beers an inning while lecturing on the need for more prayer on the team.

You can not talk scripture and then again and again engage in the sinful behavior of gossip.  I know for me, if you have something to say, the right answer is you best come to my face and say it.  Otherwise, gossip is just idle and useless talk.  Actually, worse than being useless it is destructive.  It is used to try to proclaim your own position as superior without the benefit of fact.

Few things annoy me more than someone who will talk religion, but not practice it; a coach who will talk about teamwork, but complain his parents don’t trust the coach.  Congratulations coach…parents don’t trust you, unless they are related to you, because you used to talk about things being for the kids, but now all you talk about is people being there for you.  What?!?

Color me disappointed, but youth baseball is about teaching kids the fundamentals of how to play a game, not help you establish yourself as this, that, or the other type of coach.  The only coach you’ve established yourself as being is one who is so Hell bent on taking a team select which isn’t ready, that you are going to take your players and parents though Hell and end up breaking up the team.

You can’t complain that if only the kids do what we tell them, you would be successful.  Your job as a coach is to teach them how to do what you tell them and if you can’t do that, then you aren’t coaching.  You’re just wearing a uniform.  I get that teaching is a two part process…there has to be effort on both the teacher and the student, but if your students don’t make the effort to improve, how is promoting them without learning going to help?  Essentially you are sending them to high school without teaching them to read first.  Unfortunately, example is the best instructor.

When a coach complains about not having parents on board with his plans, but makes plans without the input of parents, he should not be surprised.  This is youth baseball and ultimately this is about making good decisions for our kids.  A coach who will make plans without the understanding of parents and without demonstrating a track history of being able to get it done so far is not likely to have much support.  The coach whose so desperately wants to take his team select, but hasn’t won a basic weekend tournament against rec teams, shouldn’t be supported.  Why would anyone get promoted to the majors without first playing successfully at AA ball?  Why would you make your team select when you have a core of three players who have select abilities and you have to find an excuse to get your other selected players onto a select roster?  Isn’t it better to be a little bit honest with your team and stick with what you can do, rather than what you want to do?  Isn’t it more Biblical to work in the trenches until the fields can be harvested?

An example…When the starting left fielder can’t stop a grounder that comes straight to him, much less a pop fly, there is an argument that you have at least a hole or two.  When your catching tandem does not move laterally to stop balls or get up for balls they don’t block, you might have more holes and empty promises of “progress” aren’t enough.  Some of us have seen this song and dance before.  If you can’t motivate kids to maintain basic discipline in a dugout, how can you expect them to work together on a baseball field?

Finally, if you are going to use scripture to try to make your case about faith and faith in a coach you are mistaken.  Scripture is pretty clear and teaches to put faith in God, not man, for he is surely fallen.  It is more than a little disappointing that you would not put your efforts into improving players rather than blindly hoping.  Unfortunately, when it comes to wolves in sheep's clothing the invariably end up around real wolves when they conduct themselves like this.  The reality is that once you take your team select, with your Biblical references and earnest prayers, the wolves who do not hide in sheep’s clothing will eat up your young players who are not ready for what is about to occur.  Instead of being the shepherd leading your flock, you will be delivering them into the teeth that may take them out of the game.

 

Sometime's They Don't Learn...

Sometime we just don't learn.  Usually we don't learn chasing a dollar or some other victory while compromising the foundation of our organization.

I am speaking right now of course about Penn State and their decision to hire James Franklin to be their next football coach. While they claimed to leave "no stone unturned" and conducted a "thorough" background check, it only takes a few milliseconds to find alarming allegations about his role in possibly covering up a rape while he was at Vanderbilt University.

I hate to be the one to tell you Penn State, but you all just had a sexual assault scandal of epic proportions a very few years ago and now you want to go in this direction?  Are you sure THIS is the direction you want to run in?  To hire a coach who is allegedly involved with the cover up of a rape less than a year ago?

It would seem self evident that this might be a bad choice on the direction to go, but Penn State marches on.  It apparently did not even bother them about comments he made on a local radio show about not hiring assistant coaches until looking their wives over.  This is 2014, right?

In the meantime, a petition was started by a university professor to not consider Franklin.  Obviously, it was ignored.  Perhaps it was ignored because according to one report it had gathered less than three hundred signatures, but does it really need more than one?

I know I have had bosses who remarked regularly about other employees wives and nothing was done about it.  Again and again the organization would protect them because they were a supervisor and would relocate the offended party to another shift or another location rather than fix the problem.  It would seem to be a pattern when a supervisor makes comments about one of his employees wives regularly and then has one of his employees relocated to another location because his urges would seem uncontrollable and the organizational management chooses to do nothing about it.

Similarly, what is the use in HR policies that frown upon interoffice relationships when HR does not follow through when they are complained about?  While these issues do not raise themselves to issues of rape or sexual assault, they do show an unfortunate pattern of groups repeating the same behavior and then surprised when their work environments are not as productive as they could be.  How do we expect employees - be it at our local worksites or in college football - to win championships and do great things for their company when they have these distractions going on?

It reminds me of the old saying: "you only make a mistake once, after that it is a choice."

The Biggest Threat

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As you walk down the street are you afraid?  If you live near a convent, you should be.  Nuns everywhere wearing their habit and holding their rosary are ready to pounce.  That’s right…if you believe the mainstream media, the Little Sisters Of The Poor are about to derail the brilliant piece of legislation which is the Affordable Care Act.

In a recent piece of glaring anti-Catholic fervor, Alex Wagner of MSNBC actually referred to a group of nuns as a threat.  And what atrocity had these poor women committed?  Well , they would not put pen to paper to sign off on a third party providing contraception services to its employees as it is against the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church of which they are affiliated.  (You should not be surprised from MSNBC to see no one on the show defending nuns from the attacks of Howard Dean and Cecile Richards - two who support abortion on demand and have never been willing to discuss any of the protections and safety issues a large majority of Americans want when it comes to abortion.)

When I first started this blog with a single post, I made note of Henry VIII and his Succession Act.  That piece of legislation basically allowed him to pull England from Rome and form what would become the modern day Episcopal Church.  When one of his chief supporters found himself in disagreement with the legislation that would ultimately lead him to divorce and the marriage to Anne Boleyn, he didn’t write a book as former Defense Secretary Gates did, he didn’t run to Fox News to get his side heard, he simply retired back, but this was not good enough for King Henry VIII who required him to sign onto his marriage to the future headless queen.

Similarly, Obama says you can disagree with me, but you still have to provide the services, because contraception which is widely available should be subsidized by those who find it anathema, which brings us to the Roman Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor.

What is it the Little Sisters of the Poor do anyway?  Well, in both Baltimore and Denver they care for the elderly poor in nursing homes for those who can not afford a nursing home replete with its poor care and regular infections.  The Little Sisters prefer that the elderly not be warehoused with uncaring providers, but by persons such as themselves who have abandoned world pleasure to care for the elderly.  This would seem to be a goal of the Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act.  Instead it is the starting point to regular anti-Catholic bigotry which few in the media seem willing to call out.

In a recent, US News piece, Jamie Stiehm goes on a personal attack against Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, for issuing a preliminary injunction on behalf of the Little Sisters of the Poor.  Again and again, her histrionics go on about the six Catholics who sit on the Supreme Court and the poor Jews who must contend with them.  The anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic rage she has should be grounds for termination in almost any other field, but US News stands by its “reporter.”

What is amazing is first, Justice Sotomayor’s move was only to stay the penalties to be issued by the IRS until the legal arguments could be made for and against the issue of whether or not nuns, who are caring for the poor elderly, should be made to provide contraception against their conscience.  Two and equally interesting, Justice Sotomayor is hardly the face of the conservative wing of the court so why would you blast her so publicly unless your argument just that desperate?  Could it be that the dream of big government liberals could come crashing down because of the efforts of a few nuns?  Not efforts to stop the law of course, just efforts of nuns to care for the sick and the old in their way, without interference from a US government who hasn’t been able to provide adequate healthcare to the elderly for decades or adequate care to our returning military veteran’s for generations?

If you argument is that weak, perhaps the Little Sisters of the Poor are a threat and your law is about to topple like the Tower of Babel.

You're Entitled To Your Opinion As Long As It Agrees With Mine

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. – Oscar Wilde

So Phil Robertson…having a successful television show wasn’t enough?  Being followed by millions on the airwaves, currently on A&E, wasn’t enough for you to hold off on talking about God for just a little while?

It reminds me of the line in the movie Braveheart when the Princess offers William Wallace a chest of gold and he responds “…that I should become Judas?”  Amazingly enough, you stuck with God and seem indifferent to the decision by the network ivory tower types to suspend you from the show.  Great job.

Too many people in this day and age sacrifice themselves on the altar of paycheck or fame or whatnot. It is great to see someone who is not doing that right now.

Moreover, I think agree with Matt Walsh’s blog that this is the same as network suicide.  I agree with him that someone did not look at the Chick-Fil-A example a very few months ago.  Could there be a better example of boycott going wrong and responding to a vocal minority?

In any case, I don’t remember if it was Michelle Malkin or Katie Pavlich who tweeted it out, but Glen Beck has a pretty successful thing happening down the street.  Maybe he could pick you up and A&E can see how far its influence goes then.

Stats

Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too. – Branch Rickey

Any guesses as who had the highest batting average this past year? Home runs or RBI? Who topped in wins, ERA, or strikeouts. Well the answers are below, but my question is who cares? Stats celebrate the individual. Okay, granted they can show strength and weakness, but stats fundamentally are fundamentally about did I get enough home runs to deserve a contract extension for more money? Did I improve my trade value so it will be easier or harder for me to go from my current assignment? We all love the home run or the perfect game, but fundamentally do they matter?

All the stat leaders listed below for the categories above don’t matter. Yes, I just said Miguel Cabrera’s .348 batting average doesn’t matter any more than Chris Davis’ 53 bombs or 138 RBI. Clayton Kershaw was ridiculous this year and I tried to catch at many of his games as I could on TV. His ERA of 1.83 showed his dominance of hitters across baseball and Yu Darvish was filthy with 277 strike outs, though he did get to face Houston a ridiculous number of times. Still…doesn’t matter.

Moneyball, but if you don’t win the last game of the year, it doesn’t matter. I have the same message, even for little guys learning the game and playing at a competitive level. It doesn’t matter if YOU record a strike out or not, did your team win?  It doesn’t matter if YOU get a home run, how did the team do?
I just laid out why they do I guess; we celebrate that success, but in none of those cases did the individual stat leader’s team win the ring. I hate to agree with Billy Beane from the movie

The same issue comes up in business and even EMS where I see people willing to cut their “team mates” neck – almost literally – to protect their own paycheck. And they do so at the expense of the team, their character being exposed, and usually whatever rah rah they claim to have for their organization. I remember a teacher way back in the day who remarked she would be out the next several days and she knew that we would comport ourselves with the substitute like we would if she were there. It says a lot to see how a team reacts when the boss isn’t there and something shows up to challenge you.

Do you run to your own stats or do you support the team and keep it going towards the World Series? Play safe and play nice in your sandbox. Your stats might get you noticed by a scout, but your me first attitude gets you noticed by your team mates too and there might come a time when you need us too. You might find one day that the stat that matters is not how many IVs you have accomplished or runs completed, but who is your team and who wants you on their team.

Sacrifice and Dedication

I heard a co-worker complaining recently about their position within healthcare and whether or not someone else was making more money.  I wasn’t sure how to answer the issue since I may be one of the new people making more money, but it and a recent Twitter post did get me thinking about sacrifice.

The original comments didn’t bother me too much as I was offered a position and a salary.  I also majored in Economics at George Mason University once upon a time and one of my professors, the eminent Walter Williams noted people always say they don’t get paid enough.  His answer was “rubbish.”

He would retort that when you went to a store that sold a gallon of milk for five dollars per you may think it was expensive, but if you bought it, you didn’t think it was too expensive.  Once, you think the milk was too expensive at five dollars per gallon, you wouldn’t buy it.  His analogy for work was the same.  Your employer offers you ten dollars per hour to leave your leisure activity whatever it is and trade that time for hours spent under the direction of your employer, i.e. if you weren’t getting paid “enough” you wouldn’t come to work.

Perhaps that is a reason why some people use their sick days for mental health days, but the argument has always made sense to me.  It has also made sense to me that sometimes we want more than we have, but we are not necessarily ready to trade our time or we can’t.

In any case, I recently took a different job in emergency medicine than I had had.  I did so with some risk involved.  I had a good career going and was in a pretty good routine, but it was time for a shake up which brings me to the Twitter post.  Someone posted a note I had written them thanking them for the suggestion I should follow the dream I have had for years and all but abandoned when he and a colleague suggested I not give up quite yet.  I am glad they did so as the encouragement and follow up has led me on an entirely new course.

The path I am on now is a course of action which has me energized and hoping for great things.  I hope it allows me to be the medical provider I want to be, i.e. the guy you call when you are out of options.  Obviously this doesn’t come without some sacrifice, but perhaps I am now ready to take on the accompanying requirements that go with this pursuit.  I guess we will find out soon enough, but I pray that my goal wasn’t just to get the job, but to do this job well.  Again, we will find out.

I have a lot to live up to at this point, both those that put their neck on the line for me – not just the ones who think they put their neck on the line and the people who have guided me over the years to be the provider I am today.  I appreciate my family who has sacrificed time away from daddy so he can pursue this and who has built the blueprint by which I can be successful.

It’s a course of action I have mapped in my head a few dozen times before only to be told no.  A course of action I may have been ready for didactically, a course of action I may have been ready for skills wise, - but perhaps not ready for mentally.  I think of the Rascal Flatts song bless the broken road.  Obviously, that talks about all the broken relationships that leads to the right one, but perhaps their song Forever is more appropriate.

I was off duty when a call came in for the transport of twins who were born at twenty-three weeks.  The care of the mother of these children and the two children themselves is obviously high stress, intense, and high stakes requiring not only the best we have, but everything we should want to do for these people, not patients.  Perhaps a sacrifice I made some time ago keeps in my mind that “though you’re gone, you’re still here, in my heart, in my tears.”  I pray my effort will be better medicine than my tears for the others I hope and pray I don’t lose.

In the meantime for my friends in public safety, stay safe and strong.  Remember, you are some of those that provide hope to those that have none.  It is a sacred trust and not one to be carried lightly.