On the Other Hand

...you can really feel good about the Josh Hamilton story.

Here's a guy who seemed destined for stardom, but threw it all away for drugs and a "fast" life-style.

Eventually he got it all together again, and found Christ, and now is a potential triple-crown winner for the Texas Rangers.

This story has been covered extensively as well, but something that came out recently is that he has helped Jeff Allison.

Allison was another highly touted prospect pitcher, who went down similar paths that Josh Hamilton took as far as drugs, alcohol, etc.

Now, apparently thanks to Hamilton, Jeff Allison is back and playing baseball, and doing well.

The Hamilton story in particular reminds me of our sermon yesterday, about the "prodigal son".

Embarrassment

From time to time I feel sorry for the sports world, and sports journalist/media in particular.

When I was watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN, and saw the whole "breaking news: Shaq slams Kobe in free-style rap" come across the bottom line, I groaned.

Since it's summer, this story got about 100% more publicity than it deserved. Since I watch sports, and listen to sports talk radio, read sports magazines and online sites, and sometime dream about sports (like the time I'm a kid and met Tony Gwynn....why him? I don't know), but since I am immersed in sports, I was treated to a little more analysis than needed on this story.

The same could go for Barbaro, Clemens/Mindy McCready, and most other "non-stories" that are somehow contrived to be stories, because it's a slow news day.

There are other real-world problems, in the real-geographic world that could use more attention than the big "fu-machu goof" who raps about Kobe.

Jimmy Cub

I've always had a soft spot for certain teams that were "lovable losers". I guess it kind of reminds me of the Philly teams who haven't won a championship since 1983 (someone did a study and there's a 3% probability that all 4 major teams wouldn't win 1 championship in 25 years).

I was pulling for the Red Sox to win their first, and get over the "hump" against the rival Yanks, and I was routing for the White Sox to end their World Series drought, and they did.

Don't get me wrong, I'll always be a Phillies fan, unless they move to Ottawa and become the Moosejaw Mounties, but until then, I'll always be a Phillies fan first, but there's a soft spot for those "Cubbies".



Even though at first I found the radio team of Santo & Hughes to be obnoxious (Santo's an over-the-top cheerleader and Hughes often calls games in a pulse-less monotone) I grew to at least appreciate them for their own unique style.

Throw in the White Sox - Cubs rivalry and it's easy to have a soft spot for those Chicago baseball teams.

Now go ahead and add Jim Edmonds. I respected him from his days with the Angels, when he played an awesome defense in centerfield, and had a sweet-left handed swing. Then he went to the Cardinals (Cubs rival) and here's where it's easy for me. To the hard-core Cubs fan, any Cardinal is revolting (ala Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys), but to the casual fan, who cares? If he helps them get to the NL Championship game, where they lose to the Phillies, who cares? He's a nice left-handed bat off the bench, and a quality guy to spot-start or cover injuries.

So, welcome aboard Jimmy Cub...there's plenty of room on the band-wagon.

Unbelieveable!

Recently I was reamed out by a crazy local artist. Apparently she thought we should be carrying more of her CD, and basically called for 3 straight weeks wondering why we didn't have more (apparently the answers given weren't to her satisfaction).



Finally, she dialed me.

I tried to take the high road, but she was a badger. I'd like to say I was reamed out by a psycho harpist (because for some reason to me it makes a better story)...but I believe she was either a pianist or a flautist. I'd like to think a flautist would be too delicate to do something like that, but a pianist...we'll that's another story (cue memory of the 'pez' episode with Elaine and George's pianist girlfriend).

I'll have to take a look at her CD sales, she might have just crossed a line she might regret.

But for now, I'll lick my wounds and make a decision on how much we are going to be willing to put up with.

Weekend Topper

To top off the weekend, we had Inventory at our Berean stores.

I was coordinating the 4 "former Provident" stores, so I had quite a few conversations with the other 3 managers.

Fortuantely we have RGIS Inventory Specialists come and "count inventory". Basically they scan each product (or at least they should). In some areas of the store, when there is multiple copies of the same quantity, they scan once, and enter the quantity.

If you are a task-oriented person, you could probably handle scanning inventory. If your mind wanders, and you lack focus, you're better off doing something else. I think I could do it for a day, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it everyday. I like variety in what I do, not in whether I'm counting books or loafs of bread, boxes of shoes, etc.

It took New Holland 4 hours, and Lancaster 8, but I still was home in a reasonable hour.

Now to finish all the reports tomorrow at work....

Uggghhhhh

Ugghhh. This past Sunday my guitar was incredibly out of tune.

How? Why? I'm not sure, since I had tuned it before 8:00 practice.

During practice, the climate was a little sticky, but by the time church started, there was a decent breeze going, and it didn't feel too bad in church, so I cannot blame the humidity.

It could have been my battery. Had I thought of it, I could have replaced it, and maybe that would have taken care of it.

It was almost as if some little kid turned all the shinny knob thingees. Who knows, they might have?

So, I was kind of in a bind, what do I do? We only have piano and guitar that morning since our bass player wasn't on.

I almost had a Tonya Harding-type moment. Do you remember the '94 Olympics, the one where she apparently broke a lace, and went crying to the judges?

Maybe I should have went "crying" to our pastor, and he could have talked for a few minutes.

I really had 2 options: keep playing, and hope it wasn't as bad as it sounded (it was) or stop, go do a quick tune, and leave everyone else to finish the song.

Crazy as it sounds, I did the latter, which sparked 3 family members (including my wife) leaving the auditorium to see if they could help/or what was wrong. I appreciate their concern/willingness to help, but it kind of created an extra layer of concern for the rest of my team.

Since I don't have an in-guitar tuner, I did my best to improvise, which wasn't very good, and so it was a lost morning for guitar players/lovers.

You know how singers can sometimes lip-sync their songs if they're not 100%....maybe I need to start recording some guitar tracks......

Bring your Tired and Weary

Wow. What a weekend.

Saturday we played in a slow-pitch softball tournament.

Because of a wedding Friday night, we had all 4 "pool play" games on Saturday. We ended up finishing 2nd, to advance to the double-elimination tournament.

There we ran off a string of 3 straight wins to get us in the championship game. Unfortunately we ran out of steam, and lost twice to finish second in the tournament.

After 50+ innings of baseball (in 9 games), in the hot sun, it was time to crash at home.

Here's a picture of our dusty, dirty bunch. It's not very easy to see, but I got a Barry Melrose mullet type thing going.

It was a lot of fun, but a long, tiring day.

Who Knew?

Apparently Cedric Benson (formerly of the Chicago Bears) has been ordered to have an alcohol lock installed on his car. Who knew that was even an option? Why isn't this mandatory for all first-time DUI/DWI offenders?

On a side-note, if I could convince Kristy, our (FUTURE but not imminent) third child would be named Cedric Jayson. Actually I could care less about Cedric, it's the Jayson with a y that has me intrigued. Of course then we'd be cliche, having named Cole Jaxon with the x. I guess having a last name at the end of the alphabet has me receptive to those x-y-z's.

For a girl it could be Zena for a middle name.....(I think Kristy just rolled her eyes).

HOT HOT HOT

A Few Good Laughs

While it had nowhere near the following that Seinfeld had, and has been despised by a few medical professional friends, the show "Scrubs" continues to have a soft spot in my heart.



As a sitcom, you always have to filter out some stuff, but as a whole, it has tickled my funny bone like very few shows have.

Thanks to syndication, it's on multiple time slots in the evening (I estimate that if I had the time, and desire, I could watch it for 2 hours every night).

While I missed the series finale, I hope to catch it someday in syndication.