Baseball's glorious season end, Part I

Gus: It's a throwaway, Billy. It means nothing.
Billy: Not to the Red Sox.

--"For the Love of the Game"

This is the first of a series of blogs about the wonderful end to this years MLB season, and the subsequent postseason.  You have been duly warned :)

Baseball had a whirlwind end to the 2011 season... as exciting and finger-nail destroying as I've seen in years.  I could go into all the details of what happened that final day, but if you love baseball, you know what happened.  The disastrous collapse of the Red Sox and the Braves.  The incredible comeback of the need-a-defibrillator Cardinals.  That crazy, had-to-stay-up-to-wee-hours to see it all wrap up finish.  But that's not what I want to talk about.

The quote above is from the Kevin Costner movie "For the Love of the Game".  Costner plays Billy, a pitcher at the tail end of his career.  At the beginning of the movie he is warming up and the pitching coach tells him he shouldn't be pitching with his nagging injury, since the game means nothing.  Costner looks at him with that clear-eyed steely gaze he does so well, and says "Not to the Red Sox."  The message is clear... he owes his best against this team, because the Red Sox are battling them for something important.  He will bring his "A" game because it honors the game and the teams who do have something to play for, something to gain.

That was a movie.  Over the last week of the 2011 baseball season, we saw it in real life.

In the last few days, all the division winners were locked up.  The only thing in play for them was who ended up with better records for home-field advantage.  The wild card races were where it was at, and none of them were playing each other.  All of these exciting games as baseball steamed to the marathon finish line were played against opponents that no reason to play hard...  other than to honor the game.  Because it meant something to the Cardinals for the Phillies to play Atlanta hard;  it meant something to Tampa Bay for the Orioles to bring it in their final series.

And all of these teams stepped up.  Philadelphia could have eased up in preparation for the playoffs, but they played hard... played strong defense, and hustled on on offense.  The Orioles, one of baseball's worst teams in 2011, played Boston like they themselves had a chance to nick a wild-card spot.

And it made a difference.  A big difference.  And for us lucky fans who were watching, we got to see a honest-to-goodness, real-life "For the Love of the Game"

Suburban Braveheart

One of my sons is a soccer goalkeeper, and we have retained the services of a private GK coach.  His practice sessions are held in the coach's suburban neighborhood, at a little community park.  This past week, my son and his coach were working hard out on the grass, while I sat in the car under a huge shade tree, windows down, reading a magazine.

Suddenly, on the other side of the park, a horde of kids comes running over the crest, bellowing at the top of their lungs.  I'm talking at least 25-30 young boys and girls.  They are all wearing bandanas tied around their foreheads, and ragged strips of cloth hanging from their clothes.  At first glance it reminds one of a vignette from "Lord of the Flies"... or even "Braveheart".  I half expect a pint-size William Wallace to appear at the top of the grassy knoll, raise a Nerf sword above his head and scream "Freeeeeedooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!"

And, lest you think my overactive imagination is the only force at work here.... rest assured that I'm not the only one.  This scene was so surreal and displaced that everyone in the park stopped what they were doing and just stared.  The GK coach, Matthew, the kids and the YUMs (Young Urbanite Moms) in the playground area.  Everyone one looked and stared and wondered.  So this is not just me :)

Finally, the tail end of the Mongol onslaught included some adults, who negotiated grassy space with the coach and setup the flag football game that was to celebrate some young man's birthday.  Pictures were taken by the fountain pool, and the game of fútbol Americano con banderas commenced.... and all was explained.

Bandanas on the forehead, marking two teams-- red and blue.  The strips of cloth, upon closer inspection, were flag football attachments.  The Scottish Clan fervor provided by birthday sugar ingestion.

But, deep down....  I like my version better.

 

A truly haunting book for this October...

October is a fun month for some many people, those who love a good fright or all things Halloween.  For whatever reason, it has never been my thing... I don't particularly enjoy horror movies (I find most preternaturally silly), I don't frighten easily,  and the haunted house thing never got my ticker ticking.  This year, however, I've read something that has haunted me, indeed shaken me to my very core.  And everyone needs to read it as well.  If you have kids, you need to read it.  Having seen what it contains, you need to decide exactly when your kids should be allowed to read it, and then make them read it.  And then you need to discuss it with them.

If you don't have kids, but are part of the human race... you need to read it.  Does that pretty much cover it?  Are we clear on this point now?

The book is "Th1rteen R3asons Why", by Jay Asher.  You will find it in the Young Adult section.  Oh, and BTW, the New York Times Bestseller List.  I came upon this book because of a review I read in one of my magazines.  And so I added it to my library 'reading list', and picked it up one day while my boys were running around getting Hardy Boys books....

Fair warning:  this book is very disturbing.  Unsettling, I-have-to-put-this-aside-because-I'm-having-a-down-day-myself disturbing.  And yet its power and engagement comes from just how disturbing and unfortunately realistic it is.

Mr. Asher tackles one of the most prevalent blights on our modern society in this novel-- teen suicide.  Set in a fictional town, a young man receives a series of cassette tapes in an anonymous package.  The tapes turn out to from a fellow high-school student who committed suicide a few weeks before, and the tapes serve as the novel's plot engine and an audio diary of a troubled young girl and the myriad events and people in her life who play a part in this drama de la muerte.

The author does a masterful job of creating a realistic scenario of this tragic teenage life.  This story could be set in any town, at any public high school.  And if you think these things don't happen in your local school... I can only say "OPEN YOUR EYES!".  Yes, these things are happening.  And too many of us make the same errors you will read about in these pages..... we close our eyes.  We avert our eyes.   We don't get involved.  We blow things off.  We stand by and let evil happen.  And evil flourishes when we do....

Read this book.  Have your kids read this book.  Discuss it with your kids.  Find a way to get them to talk to you.  Find a way to keep them sharing with you all the deepest things in their hearts.  BE the kind of parents they can feel comfortable confiding in, a safe haven they can run to when Life gets like it does.

Teach them that "Everything... affects everything" (p.202).  Every action we do, everything thing we say, every inappropriate joke, every evil act no matter how hidden, every good act omitted, every time we avert our eyes.... we affect everything and everyone.  No one lives in a vacuum.  When you throw the rock in the pond, you make a lot of ripples... far more and further-reaching than you can even  fathom.

Teach them to take care when dealing with other human beings, no matter who they are.   We are all God's children and should be cherished and treated with care.  Teach to them recognize when others are not doing this, and to stand up and protest.  Teach them to look past the shallow, to squelch the gossip, and to befriend the friendless.

Teach them, in other words, to practice the 2nd of the Greatest Commandments, and then pray fervently that they will have the fortitude to do so in the face of the type of world Jay Asher so brilliantly captures through the eyes of Hannah and Clay.

Want to be haunted this October?  Get a copy of this book and read it cover to cover.  Weep for the depravity of man and for a broken world that will not change until the next age, when a new Kingdom is established.  And then do whatever you can to hold back the tide in your little town, your high school, and the lives around you... lives that you and yours.... affect.

"Everything... affects everything"

Random thoughts from the State Fair

The family and I went to the State Fair yesterday... and once again my observation skills and off-kilter mind gathered these random inane thoughts to scattershoot..

• One of my pet peeves (and I know it shouldn't be) is people who really struggle to work electronic devices in public areas.  For example, I get kind of frustrated at grocery stores when people use the self-checkout, and don't really know how to... I want to tell them:  "They have lanes over there... with these people who will check out your groceries.  That's the ticket for you, trust me" :)  So, we're at the Dart train station, and it is taking *forever* to get our day passes from the vending machine because people can't figure out the instructions.  They kept trying to put their cash in first.  What part of "1.  Select your fare /  2.  Insert your payment" is unclear?


• So, when I finally get up to the machine, I'm getting our tickets, and I here someone behind me say "I'm going to watch this guy... he seems to know how to work this thing"  LOL


• Allison spent most of the train ride turned around in the seat because the backwards-orientation of the train was giving her motion sickness.  Benefit?  I got to see her pretty face the whole way :)


• There's a passage in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "Farmer Boy", where the dad gives Almanzo a 50-cent piece, but only after explaining how much farming work is represented by that coin; as a result, Almanzo begins to value money better and spends it wisely.  Had a similar incident with Matthew yesterday...  when I told him that the drinks we bought to go with our sack lunch cost $20 in coupons... I thought I was going to have scrape his jaw off the floor.  It was a great teaching moment, and he understood for the first time why we control the spending at the State Fair so rigorously.


• Matthew loves cooking, and wanted to sit through one of the "chef sessions", so he and I watched Chef Chris Vogelsing from III Forks make Chateaubriand.  Towards the end of these sessions, they bring out little sample plates of the food, one for everyone who is sitting in the roped area.  They also have these mirrors and video screens that show the cooking area from a "top-down" view.  I got tickled at something I noticed:  here we have a chef from one of the top restaurants in Dallas, making a classic French dish... and they are bringing the samples out on a Dickeys BBQ tray.  Only at the State Fair of Texas!


• The Killdares were magnificent, as usual.  Heard two new songs today.  One instrumental and one vocal.  Very nice.


• Took Matthew to the climbing wall in the Jeep section of the auto show.  He asked for the harder path.  It took him less time to climb than it took to fill out the waiver and stand in line.


• Matthew loves Dodge cars... and when he sat in the gray Dodge challenger, I told him one of The Killdares has one just like that.  He thought that was pretty cool....


• Funny thing about my boys:  one likes Ford, one likes Chevy, and the other likes Dodge.  We've got the American car scene pretty well covered.


• During the Marine Drum and Bugle Corp performance, we got to see one member receive a promotion to Master Sergeant... that was quite a thrill.  His wife was also honored with flowers from the CO, since they were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary this month....


• After Ryan finished his deep fried chocolate strawberry, I was really wondering if they just decided to roll him in the confectioner's sugar, rather than the actual dessert....


• The twilight State Fair parade:  the same exact floats and participants every year... and I wouldn't have it any other way.


• At the "Birds of the World" show... an absolutely delicious and hilarious moment.. Groucho the talking parrot was singing for us, and one of the songs he sang was the French children's song "Alouette".  Why is this funny?  Because the song is about plucking the feathers out of a little bird.  I'm laughing my fool head off and people are giving me some funny looks :D


• Speaking of the bird show... this was the first time we arrived early enough to it to get a good spot... 2nd row, right in the middle.  Had a great time watching Allison freak out when the birds flew right over her head or dragged their feet almost into her hair :)


• The things we do as Dads:  as we were waiting for the train so we could leave, Logan announced that he had lost his little pumpkin that he painted.  So he and I went back and convinced them to let us back in long enough to look at the last place we were at, when the boys bought Dippin' Dots.  Pumpkin was nowhere to be seen.   Interviewed a man eating a chicken leg on the bench, and he had seen the pumpkin, but said it was gone when he came back from purchasing the poultry.  Tracked it down to a State Fair worker who had been cleaning, and she had swept it up;  we recovered it from her dustpan, wiped it off, and finally got to leave with a much happier little boy.


• I managed to lose my sunglasses during the day.  For some reason, that is a quirk of mine... I lose/break/scratch so many sunglasses that it is not even funny....

This year, thanks to the generosity of some friends, we will be going to the fair twice.... I look forward to doing it all over again, enjoying the sights and sounds of this grand brotherhood we call the human race at a great festival gathering....