Pops 'n' Buzzes

Quick Hit Baseball Predictions

2007-04-01T08:05:00.000-04:00

No time to do an exhaustive analysis of the divisions this year, so here's my predicted orders of finish:

AL East: Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, D-Rays, Orioles
AL Central: Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Twins, Royals
AL West: Rangers, Angels, Athletics, Mariners
AL Wild Card: Yankees
ALDS: Yankees over Rangers, Red Sox over Tigers
ALCS: Red Sox over Yankees

NL East: Phillies, Mets, Braves, Marlins, Nationals
NL Central: Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Astros, Reds, Pirates
NL West: Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies
NL Wild Card: Mets
NLDS: Mets over Giants, Phillies over Cubs
NLCS: Phillies over Mets

WORLD SERIES: Phillies over Red Sox

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Jeremy Bonderman
AL Rookie: Daisuke Matsuzaka

NL MVP: Derrek Lee
NL Cy Young: Barry Zito
NL Rookie: Felix Pie

Posting Funk

2006-06-17T14:20:00.000-04:00

Al Baker (one of my preferred reads) commented yesterday on his blog about being "blog dry". I have been that way for months. I get ideas in my head to post about, then forget them when I do have time to post. I have been doing a LOT of wrestling with matters spiritual lately and hope to get time to create a cohesive blog post over at Sojourn. I also want to get mediarants active again.

In the meantime, I will tell you it was a very busy spring, we've had a lot of great family time together and look forward to lots more this summer and, oh yeah, the project I'm leading at work SUCKS.

's about it. Later.

2006 MLB Season Preview

2006-04-05T08:25:00.000-04:00

OK, so I did off-season reviews for everyone but the NL West. You can read them here, here, here, here and here.

I really wanted to do a super-detailed post like last year's , but there just isn't time, so here's the quick'n'dirty predictions.

AL East: I think the Blue Jays are, on paper, better than the Red Sox this year. The Sox offense can be controlled if Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz don't have runners on base to knock in. I think the Jays can do damage from anywhere in their order. However, they're playing for the wild card. I think the Yankees have a pretty special team this year. I expect Randy Johnson to be much improved in his second year in NY and Johnny Damon is going to have a huge impact at the top of the order. 150 runs scored by Damon this year is not inconceivable. I also expect the Devil Rays to finish ahead of Baltimore and Miguel Tejada to be elsewhere by the trade deadline.

Predicted order of finish: Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Devil Rays, Orioles.

AL Central: The Indians are the darling pick this year, but there's a lot risk here. C.C. Sabathia has already gone on the DL, Bob Wickman is an injury risk and there is the potential of sophomore slumps for Jhonny Peralta and others. The White Sox were the better team last year and the changes they made (Javier Vazquez for Orlando Hernandez, Jim Thome for Frank Thomas) are all improvements. If Brian Anderson can handle centre field, the Sox should run away with the division. Minnesota and Detroit will have a battle for third. Detroit could backslide this year in terms of wins, but that's just because other teams improved so dramatically. Kansas City should just stimk on general principle.

Predicted order of finish: White Sox, Indians, Twins, Tigers, Royals.

AL West: This should be a fun division. I think the Angels are weaker this year and will be passed by the A's, who have much better pitching. Texas took some big strides forward, pitching-wise, this offseason but took a major hit losing Adam Eaton until the All-Star Break. Seattle is coming on strong, and may pass Texas this year, but it'll be next year they contend for the division title.

Predicted order of finish: A's, Angels, Mariners, Rangers.

NL East: A lot of predictions I have read this year favour either the Braves or Phillies this year. I think the Braves are thin on offense and Philly's starting pitching is thin. I am leaning in the direction of the Mets, but this is a division loaded with ifs. If Chipper Jones stays healthy, if Andruw Jones' numbers are closer to 2005 levels than 2004, if John Thomson comes back strong and if Chris Reitsma or Joey Devine can become a reliable closer, the Braves can win this. If Philly's starting pitching is better than advertised, if Tom Gordon can hold up as closer, if Ryan Howard doesn't have a sophomore slump and if the Phils can land a solid #1 starter in exchange for Bob Abreu, the Phils can win. If Billy Wagner, Pedro Martinez and Steve Trachsel stay healthy, if David Wright and Jose Reyes continue trending up and if the clubhouse holds together, the Mets win. The Nats and Marlins go into the season knowing they have no hope of making the playoffs, so it will be interesting to see how things play out in those two cities. I still see good things happening in Florida and Washigton dismantling at the deadline.

Predicted order of finish: Mets, Phillies, Braves, Nats, Marlins.

NL Central: St. Louis still wins, but the Cubs and Brewers will close the gap. I really like Milwaukee this year, with better-than-average starting pitching (especially once Ben Sheets is healthy), a plus closer and a great offense made up of up-and-coming youngsters and experienced veterans. The Cubs have a good setup for the top of the order, but need Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Houston will struggle this year, with or without Clemens (but I like their chances better with him) and Pittsburgh is a year away yet. Cincy could compete, if they could find some pitching.

Predicted order of finish: Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Astros, Pirates, Reds.

NL West: 82 wins will not win the division this year. Assuming San Francisco stays healthy and the Bonds Circus doesn't swallow the team whole, they have a shot. Chris Young should be really good following Jake Peavy in San Diego this year and, as they learn how to play at Petco, the Padres should enjoy one of the more significant home field advantages in the majors. Arizona will muddle along this year, as will Colorado. The wild card is the Dodgers. They made some great moves in the offseason, particularly signing Rafael Furcal away from Atlanta. The Dodgers are a talented team, but they always get burned by intangibles and/or injuries. Says here it happens again this year.

Predicted order of finish: Padres, Giants, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Rockies.

So the division winners are: Yankees, White Sox, A's in the AL. Mets, Cardinals, Padres in the NL. AL Wild Card will be Toronto. NL Wild Card will be Philly.

Division Series:

White Sox over Blue Jays
Yankees over A'
Cardinals over Phillies
Mets over Padres

LCS:

Yankees over White Sox
Cardinals over Mets

World Series:

Yankees over Cardinals

It's coming.............

2006-03-29T07:17:00.000-05:00

The 2006 Baseball Season Preview is being written. Check back soon!

My two cents on the Olympics

2006-02-24T07:16:00.000-05:00

The Olympics wrap up this weekend. I have watched less than 6 hours of coverage. I doubt I'll see much more. However, me being me, I want to add my two cents on a couple of things.

First, when the Canadian Olympic team was announced, a number of my coworkers and I grumped long and loud about the number of "oldsters" playing on the team. I felt that guys like Sidney Crosby, Jason Spezza and Eric Staal had more than earned their way onto the main squad. I couldn't understand why guys like Todd Bertuzzi, Shane Doan and other older players got the nods. I also was somewhat upset that Paul Kariya, a guy who ALWAYS has stepped up his game on the world stage, was left off. However, my brother and brother-in-law both made sound arguments to me supporting the selections, so I figured I'd wait and see.

Looks like I was right. But I blame Pat Quinn, who has outlived his usefulness as a coach (for now). This was a horribly unmotivated team that underperformed across the board and, after a hot start against creampuffs, packed up and went home once they faced some real competition. Sound like the Leafs? Everybody praised Quinn after the 2002 Olympic Gold but let's be real here. I could've coached that group to the gold. Putting the same guys out 4 years later (and 4 years older and slower) will not win a medal. Quinn cannot teach or motivate young guys (nor does he know how to incorporate them into the lineup), because he prefers to deal with a group of seasoned, ultra-talented vets who know how to go out and win, because they've done it over and over again. I hope that, in 2010, Gretzky puts a young team out there, supported by key veterans (a list that will include the young guns of this season) and a coach that has fire, skill and the ability to relate to and motivate a diverse group of players.

Oh, and the over-under on Quinn's ouster from T.O. is about 1 month.

Secondly, and more important, I fear that the lousy men's hockey result will lead to a "we sucked in Turin" backlash. Nothing is further than the truth. I am proud of this team and their (so far) 19 medals. Cindy Klassen has been awesome, the women's hockey team proved themselves yet again, there have been some surprises (cross-country skier Chandra Crawford) and, on the whole, Canadians should be VERY satisfied with the results.

Go Canada!!!!!!!!!

If you have no other plans for SuperBowl

2006-02-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

Come join us:

Tickets are $15 and available Sunday morning and at the door. Food menu includes:

Roast pig
Hot Roast Beef sandwiches
Sausage on a Bun
Lasagna
Salads

A licensed cardiologist will be on site. Dietitians are not invited.

Great prizes including official NFL jerseys, t-shirts, caps and footballs, all sorts of hardware and a great grand prize that will be revealed at game time.

E-mail philpottmen@gmail.com for more information.

If you cannot attend, your prayers for this event are coveted.

Super Bowl Prediction

2006-02-03T09:53:00.000-05:00

So, I did pretty good through the playoffs, going 7-3 picking winners. Now comes a game that is really tough to pick, so I'm going to break it down:

Offense: These two teams will both want to establish the running game, moreso Seattle than Pittsburgh. Assuming the teams stay to form, Ben Roethlisberger will be taking to the air in an effort to spread the defense and open up the ground game for Jerome Bettis and Willie Parker. Meanwhile, Seattle will turn Shaun Alexander loose and dare Pittsburgh's defense to stop him. Odds are they will, to a degree. I like Pitsburgh's receivers a lot more than Seattle's and Jerome Bettis will be seriously motivated, as he plays his final game of his illustrious career in his hometown. Advantage: Pittsburgh.

Defense: Blitzburgh will be in full effect. The Steelers will put 7 and 8 defenders in the box to try and stop Alexander and mix schemes and blitz angles in an effort to confuse Hasselbeck. The Seahawks defense will also be loading up to put pressure on Big Ben and the runners, but the Seahawks can do so confident that their corners are OK in man-on-man situations. The Steelers have to make sure they get to Hasselbeck, because if he get s time to throw, the Steeler secondary can be had. Especially if Troy Polamalu is part of the blitz package. Advantage: Pittsburgh up front, Seattle in the secondary.

Special Teams: Should be pretty even, since neither team has a real breakaway kind of returner and they are not overly aggressive trying to block punts. Antwaan Randle-El can break big punt returns (2 TD's this year), but I don't see him getting many chances, since Seattle will likely key on him and try to kick away from him. Field position will be huge in this game and the team that does the best job of pinning the opposition deep will win. For that, it's the punters and gunners, and I like Pittsburgh's Chris Gardocki more than Seattle's Tom Rouen. Add in the fact that the game's indoors, and I like the Steelers. Advantage: Pittsburgh.

Coaching/Intangibles: Mike Holmgren has a shot at history, becoming the first coach to win Super Bowls with two teams. He has Seattle really clicking and knows how to keep 'em performing. Bill Cowher has toned down the emotion in the last few years, but don't mistake that for a lack of intensity. He and his staff have come up with schemes to rein in Peyton Manning and Jake Plummer this playoff season and they made the right adjustments against Cincinnati to enable them to come back and win. Plus there's the Bettis factor and a few boneheaded comments made by Seahawks players during the media days that you can bet will be on the locker room boards. Advantage: Pittsburgh.

Add it all up and I see a long day coming for Seattle. Pittsburgh 26-19.

Off Season Transaction Analysis - NL Central

2006-01-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

St. Louis has owned this division for the past two years, but everyone else is starting to catch up. Let's review:

Chicago: I have been hard on the Cubbies in earlier posts, but I will give them props for some recent deals. Signing Jacque Jones away from Minnesota and trading for Juan Pierre are two significant steps in the right direction. They gave up on Corey Patterson, too, which I think was a good move for both sides. The power is all in the infield (Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, specifically), but Pierre and Jones should hit 1-2 and be effective. This is a team that will play a lot of small ball this year, manufacturing runs rather than waiting for the big bop. Pitching is always a question mark, since the health of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior is never guaranteed. Having said that, a starting five of Wood, Pior, Greg Maddux, Carlos Zambrano and Glendon Rusch isn't too shabby. Direction: Slightly Up.

Cincinnati: Boy, I wish I knew what to make of this team. They have a scary good group of outfielders (Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey, Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Pena). Looks like one of them (probably Dunn) will likely be converted to a first baseman to replace the departed Sean Casey, swapped to Pittsburgh for Dave Williams. The Reds then dealt for Tony Womack, probably as insurance in case super-sub Ryan Freel gets hurt. Felipe Lopez had a breakout season last year, and this year could be Edwin Encarnacion's turn. Add in the great catcher combo of Jason LaRue and Javier Valentin, and you have as good an offense as anyone else in the division. But, boy, is that pitching still bad. Direction: Neutral.

Houston: If you've heard of the play "Waiting fo Godot", meet the cast of "Waiting for Clemens". Everything in Houston depends on Roger Clemens' decision whether or not to pitch this season. The only significant move the Astros made this offseason was signing Preston Wilson. That move further proves that the Astros want to get rid of Jeff Bagwell and his wrecked shoulders, as Wilson's signing forces Lance Berkman to first base, assuming the Astros feel Jason Lane is ready to assume the center field job full-time (which he is). Direction: Neutral, pointing Down.

Milwaukee: Here's the team that could make the jump from division also-ran to player. Of course, we've heard it all before. Did OK in completing two trades with the Blue Jays, getting David Bush, Gabe Gross, Zach Jackson and Corey Koskie for Lyle Overbay and Brian Wolfe. Overbay was out of a job with the ascension of Prince Fielder, and the Brewers have a lot of good, young talent (Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy and Brady Clark) combined with some great veterans (Carlos Lee, Geoff Jenkins and Koskie). The pitching staff is better than you think, as Doug Davis would have won more than 11 games last year with better run support. Tomo Ohka and Dave Bush are both good pitchers and, if Ben Sheets is healthy, this team looks good. In short, they didn't make a lot of moves this offseason, but they really didn't need to. And the moves they had to make, they did. Direction: Up.

Pittsburgh: I really want to see Pittsburgh do well. Sadly, it won't be this year. Instead of sticking with growing a team up from the minors, they go out and sign Joe Randa and Jeromy Burnitz to free-agent contracts, trade for Sean Casey, re-signed all of their arbitration-eligible guys and unloaded Mark Redman, Tike Redman, Mike Restovich and Dave Williams. Doesn't make much sense. Also, they let Jose Mesa walk (not necessarily a bad thing), but Mike Gonzalez looks ready for prime time. This club got older this offseason and that's not good. Direction: Neutral, pointing Down.

St. Louis: The defending division champs underwent an extreme makeover of sorts after last year's ugly playoff exit against the Astros. They cut ties with OF's Reggie Sanders and Larry Walker and dealt for Juan Encarnacion and Larry Bigbie, added 2B Junior Spivey and Aaron Miles (who should have a fun slugfest for the job in Spring Training) and signed Braden Looper to set up, and as insurance, for Jason Isringhausen. They also cut loose Matt Morris and are giving Sidney Ponson a second chance after his Baltimore banishment. On paper, not good, but this is St. Louis, land of the greatest clubhouse and fans in the NL, not to mention Tony LaRussa, so you gotta think good things. Direction: Neutral, pointing Down.

Coming soon....the NL West!

NFL Conference Championship Predictions

2006-01-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I got the NFC 100% right. Sadly, I got the AFC 100% wrong. Let's see how we do this week:

Pittsburgh at Denver: Turns out I had things backwards for the Steelers-Colts game last week, as the Steelers were seriously motivated and took an 11-point lead to the locker room at halftime. Oh, well. Despite the big lead, Bill Cowher yet again went ultra conservative in the 4th quarter and nearly paid for it. I have come to the conclusion that he will never learn. When the Steelers are aggressive on defense and mixing up the offense, they are nearly unbeatable (as we saw through much of last week's game). They need to do it for 60 minutes. I think if the Steeler blitz starts getting to Jake Plummer, he'll revert to Arizona-vintage Plummer and start throwing ducks and interceptions. Both teams will be putting 6, 7 and 8 guys in the box to stop the run and this game will come down to two things, the QB and the O-Lines. In both cases, I like Pittsburgh more. Pittsburgh 27-20

Carolina at Seattle: Everybody is talking about Steve Smith, and well they should be. What he did to the great Chicago defense last week was amazing. Problem this week is that Carolina deosn't have DeShaun Foster to offset him. I think Seattle will double and triple team Smith and dare Carolina to beat them with Nick Goings, their third-string RB. Seattle is expected to have Shaun Alexander ready to go, and their balanced attack will give them more options than Carolina has. I think we'll see a high scoring game with Seattle getting the last points. Seattle 30-27

Super Bowl in two weeks.

NFL Conference Semi-Final Predictions

2006-01-12T09:04:00.000-05:00

3 of 4 last weekend. I only missed Cincy, but who knows what the result would have been had Carson Palmer not blown out his knee. Let's look to this weekend:

Washington at Seattle: Mark Brunell's line from last Saturday's game at Tampa: 7-15, 41 yds., 0 TD, 1 INT QB Rating: 25.7. Clinton Portis' line from the same game: 16 carries, 53 yards, 1 TD. Those are UGLY numbers. The defense carried the day, and the Skins' season was likely saved by Edell Shepherd's horrible drop in the dying seconds. The D will need to do the job again, but this time they are facing an experienced quarterback and a runner (Shawn Alexander) who has a nose for the endzone. Some people I've listened to/read this week say that Washington will give the Hawks fits this week. I don't think so. 23-10 Seattle.

New England at Denver: If the New England team that showed up for the first half of the Jacksonville game is what goes on the field in Denver, Mike Shanahan will dance a jig. If the second half version shows up, it's going to be a very long day. The Pats were way off their rhythm in the first half of the Jags game and still went to the locker room leading 7-3. Against Denver, they'd be facing at least a 10-point deficit. New England needs their A-game all game against Denver, who have definitely got something to prove this week. It's going to be very close, and will probably go to OT, but I think the Pats will prevail.New England 24-21.

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis: How is it possible the Steelers went to the locker room losing 17-14 to a team with JON KITNA at QB? Sure, they won 31-17, but CNN-SI's Dr. Z, in his column, notes an interesting fact that the Steelers offense (particularly the running game) gets better as the game goes on. That implies to me that, if you get a big lead early, the Steelers have a hard time playing catch-up. It's also worth noting that the Steeler's second TD was off a trick play immediately following a shanked punt. They won't get those opportunities against Indy, who will be rested and healthy and, most importantly, seriously motivated. I think Indy goes to the locker room up by at least two TD's and then just outlasts the Steelers in the second half. Colts 31-17

Carolina at Chicago: During the post game show after Carolina's man-handling of the Giants, Chris Berman cracked that the over-under for this game should be 9.5. I might take the under. This is going to be a slow, plodding, smashmouth defensive battle with little-to-no offense. Carolina's chances may well hang on the health of DeShaun Foster, who is listed as probable for Saunday afternoon. That Bear defense is something to behold and they will be swarming all over Jake Delhomme and the rest of the Panther offense all day. This is a game where the winning team will be the one that doesn't waste opportunities to put points on the board, wins the field position battle and keeps the ball longest. I think, based on a gut instinct, that Carolina will find a way to do just that. Carolina 13-10

A lot of sportscasters/writers are making a big thing about the fact that all of this week's matchups happened during the season. Granted, it don't happen often, but so what? The regular season is NOTHING like the playoffs. There might be some lessons learned, but that's all. Should be a great weekend of football.

Back next week with the Conference Finals.

NFL Predictions

2006-01-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

I know, I know.....NL Central and West off-season transaction reviews are coming. But the playoffs are here in the NFL and I just felt I HAD to do a little preview. Since getting involved in a couple of pick 'em pools over the past couple of years (and doing better than CNN-SI's Peter King), I have really started to closely follow the NFL and this year's playoffs are very intriguing. So let's look at the games of wild-card weekend:

Washington at Tampa Bay: The game widely considered to be, potentially, the best of the weekend is first up (4:30 today). Last time these two teams met, Chris Simms announced his presence to the NFL world by leading the Bucs on a last-minute TD drive to stun the Redskins 36-35. This week's game will not be like that. First, I think Jon Gruden will try to keep Simms from going to the air too much to keep his playoff jitters from being a factor. That means lots of Rookie of the Year Cadillac Williams and his running mates Mike Pittman and Mike Alstott. That equals long drives that eat clock. Washington will also be forced to try long, slow drives too, but for a different reason. Clinton Portis looked pretty worn out at the end of last week's must-win against Philly. If he's worn down, Joe Gibbs will need to limit his carries. If so, that means more Ledell Betts and, maybe, the return of Rock Cartwright. Mark Brunell's knee is still iffy, so he'll have to limit his time in the pocket against the ferocious Tampa rush, meaning short passess and a lot of underneath routes. Hello, Chris Cooley, get ready for the game of your life. Both teams' defenses will likely put 7 or 8 defenders in the box to plug up the run and dare the other team to win through the air. I see a low scoring game, a couple of key mistakes by rookies Simms and Williams and a heroic effort from vet Clinton Portis. 17-14 Washington.

Jacksonville at New England: Man, could Jacksonville have gotten a worse draw? The two-time defending champs (on a major roll), at New England, AT NIGHT. It's going to be freakin' freezing out there, probably snowy too. Anybody who thinks the warm-weather Jags have a chance in this, raise your hand...

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Thought so. New England wins going away. New England 24-10.

Carolina at N.Y. Giants: Here's the interesting game of the week. By all rights, Carolina should have won the NFC South this year and be the prohibitive favourite to represent the NFC at the Super Bowl. A vicious, swarming defense and a good passing offense bolstered by a great running game should have been enough. Instead, the Panthers will have to be the first team ever to win three road games in the playoffs to achieve their pre-season destiny. That actually my be good, since the last two home games the Panthers had were both losses. Losses that put them on the road as an 11-5 wild card rather than at home as 13-3 division champs. The Panthers will throw absolutely everything at Tiki Barber this weekend and make the Giants win through the air, where Eli Manning has been wildly inconsistent. Add to that the fact that one of Manning's favorite targets, tight end Jeremy Shockey, is hurting, and it's a long road for the home team. Carolina 20-14

Pittsburgh at Cinicinnati: At 4:30 Sunday afternoon, this game kicks off. Everyone else loves Washington - T-Bay, this is my pick for game of the week. Pittsburgh won the first meeting in Week 7, 27-13, while the Bengals won the Week 13 rematch, 38-31. The question here is which set of skill players (Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis, Willie Parker and Hines Ward or Cinicinnati's Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Rudi Johnson) will be able to execute their game plan better? Pittsburgh's defense took some sort of a holiday through the middle part of the season, before returning for weeks 14-16, allowing a total of 12 points to the Bears, Browns and Vikings. However, giving up 21 to the weak Lions last week should give pause. Pittsburgh's secondary can be had, as Palmer proved in Week 13. The atmosphere In Cincy this weekend should be bordering on riotous, and I think the kids are going to use a fast-attack game to keep the Steelers on their heels and force them to play catch-up. The Steelers need to be able to execute their run-oriented, ball-control offense that eats up the clock. If the Bengal defense can hold the runners and the offense ring up early points, Big Ben will have to step up and the Steelers almost never win shootouts. Says here they won't this weekend, either. Bengals 31-27

Back next week with the Conference Semi-Finals.

Off-Season Transaction Analysis - NL East

2005-12-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

Before we begin, I want to comment on a couple of things that have happened in the AL over the last week or two. First, the Jays went out and got a BIG bat in Troy Glaus. However, I wonder whether the price was a bit steep. Orlando Hudson has steadily improved each of the last three years and Miguel Batista is a better pitcher than last year's numbers indicate. Also, the signing of Glaus increases the corner infielder glut as he joins Lyle Overbay, Eric Hinske, Shea Hillenbrand and Corey Koskie. With the DH, that leaves two of the above ffive out of the lineup every day. Sure, it's an impressive bench, but I can't see any of those five being really happy in any sort of reserve-type role. Hinske and Koskie seem to be the odd men out and hopefully Ricciardi can get something decent in return. Having said all that, a batting order of Aaron Hill, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, Glaus, Overbay, Hillenbrand, Reed Johnson, Russ Adams and Greg Zaun is certainly something to get excited about.

Second...don't look now, but Texas is assembling some pretty impressive starting pitching. With the announcement of the signing of Kevin Millwood to a 5-year deal, the Rangers now have a top 3 of Millwood, Vicente Padilla and Adam Eaton. That's pretty darn good. If Juan Dominguez and Joaquin Benoit turn up good in the 4 and 5, the Rangers will be there come September.

On to the NL East.

It was the most competitive division in 2005, with all 5 teams finishing over .500 and in the playoff hunt until the last two weeks of the season. It's a division where the moves made in the offseason will be critical to the success/failure of 2006. Let's review:

Atlanta: This has been a brutal offseason for the division champs. Not only have they lost Rafael Furcal and Kyle Farnsworth to free agency, but ace pitching coach Leo Mazzone will be working with Baltimore's staff this year. Looks like 2006 will be a kind of rebuilding year for the Braves, as they have committed to Brian McCann behind the plate by dealing Johnny Estrada to Arizona for two relievers. The hole left by Furcal's departure is only partly filled with the arrival of Edgar Renteria. However, Renteria cost them Andy Marte, leaving them at the mercy of Chipper Jones' aging body. The Braves sent Dan Kolb back to Milwaukee and received Wes Obermuller in return. He will probably get a shot, along with Jorge Sosa and Horacio Ramirez at joining Tim Hudson, John Smoltz and John Thomson, in the rotation in the spring. However, the Braves are now without a true closer (although Chris Reitsma will get first shot) and the pitching staff will have to learn to deal with a new coach. Direction: Should be neutral, but in this division, gotta say Down.

Florida: Think Atlanta had a rough go? That's nothing compared to the disaster we're likely to see this year in Florida. This year's fire sale has seen the exodus of the team's starting 1st, 2nd and 3rd basemen, their starting catcher, their starting centerfielder, a key bench guy, two of their top three starters and their top two relievers. In place of Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, Mike Lowell, Paul LoDuca, Juan Pierre, Jeff Conine, A.J. Burnett, Josh Beckett, Guillermo Mota and Todd Jones Florida fans will be treated to Mike Jacobs, Josh Wilson, Hanley Ramirez (Miguel Cabrera moves to third base), Jeremy Hermida, Eric Reed, Chris Aguila and Josh Willingham on offense and Jose Vargas, Brian Moehler and Sergio Mitre behind Dontrelle Willis and Travis Bowyer at closer set up by Joe Borowski. Not quite as imposing, no? Direction: Down, Down, Down.

New York: From the outhouse to the penthouse. The Mets have had a brilliant offseason, building a team that, on paper, should be the best of the NL East. The Mets started with the acquisition of Xavier Nady from the Padres in exchange for Mike Cameron. Nady will be more comfortable in a corner outfield spot and will allow Carlos Beltran to patrol centre field, where he is happiest. They then proceeded to fleece the Marlins for Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca in separate deals. Both are significant upgrades and the Mets can now cut ties with Mike Piazza. The Mets went on to solve their closer problem by signing free agent Billy Wagner away from division rival Philadelphia. Factor in the acquisitions of Tike Redman, Jose Valentin, Julio Franco and Endy Chavez and the Mets have built a bench with a mix of power, speed and experience. They've also added some relatively cheap pitching (Chad Bradford, Darren Oliver, Matt Perisho) and, combined with the talent already in place, this team is primed for a Series run this year. Direction: Up, Up, Up.

Philadelphia: I think I understand what this team is doing, but I'm not sure. They are loaded with young talent (Ryan Howard, Brett Myers, Jason Michaels, etc.) and some very expensive veterans. So, they cut bait, letting Jim Thome go to the White Sox and Billy Wagner walk to the Mets. The Phils are still paying a huge chunk of Thome's salary, but they can afford it. The lineup is still sound, as is the rotation. The bullpen's an issue, as it's iffy whether or not Tom Gordon can cut it and the next best option is Ryan Madson, who flamed out last year. Direction: Neutral.

Washington: The Nationals have made a couple of significant deals this offsesason, the biggest of which was landing Alfonso Soriano from Texas. Sure, they gave up two top outfielders (Terrmel Sledge and Brad Wilkerson) to get him, but he should have a huge presence in the lineup. The hope is that Soriano will accept a spot in the outfield, but he still wants to play second, which could cause havoc with team leader Jose Vidro. Brian Lawrence was a good acquisition as well and should fit nicely into the middle of the Nats' rotation behind Livan Hernandez and John Patterson. Ramon Ortiz could also turn out to be a decent, back-of-the-rotation acquisition. The Nats are going to be competitive this year. Direction: Up.

Coming soon....the NL Central!

Off-Season Transaction Analysis - AL West

2005-12-23T14:45:00.000-05:00

Let's see what's happening in the AL West, shall we?

Los Angeles: The Steve Finley era ends as he is shipped to San Francisco for Edgardo Alfonzo. The question is whether Alfonzo is insurance in case Dallas MacPherson can't go or have the Angels soured on McPherson? Otherwise, not much is happening out L.A. way, as they have yet to find a bat to protect Vladimir Guerrero (who was horribly exposed in the playoffs). Direction - Neutral.

Oakland: Signing Esteban Loaiza to such an outlandish deal (3 years, 14+ million) was so un-Billy Beane-like that one has to wonder what else is in the offing. There are constant rumours of a deal involving Barry Zito, but all we've seen is a deal for Milton Bradley, which I think Beane did as a favour to the Dodgers. Direction - Neutral.

Seattle: I covered Kenji Johjima earlier. The M's have been somewhat busy, signing Jarrod Washburn to a 4-year deal, Carl Everett to a 1-year deal and re-upping for another year with ageless wonder Jamie Moyer. They must be hoping that Adrian Beltre will pay off this year. Direction - Neutral in either the AL East or Central, but this much activity qualifies as Up in the West.

Texas: Very nearly gave away Hank Blalock to Florida in an effort to land Josh Beckett, but they've done well otherwise. Picked up Vicente Padilla for spare parts, dealt Alfonso Soriano to Washington for two plus outfielders (Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge) and a pitcher. Sledge was then packaged, along with Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young, to the Padres for Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka and a prospect. Let Kenny Rogers walk, but that's OK. Eaton and Padilla solidify the rotation and Otsuka will be huge setting Francisco Cordero. Direction - Up.

Well, that's the AL. See you after Christmas to do the NL. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

Off-Season Transaction Analysis - AL Central

2005-12-22T08:28:00.000-05:00

Before we begin, a large BOO-YAH to my Yankees, signing my favourite leadoff guy Johnny Damon to a 4-year deal. The idea of a lineup that reads Damon, Jeter, A-Rod, Sheffield, Giambi, Matsui, Posada, Williams and Cano makes my heart sing. Of course, it would be nice if the Yanks could land a good defensive first baseman and move Giambi to DH, but that's a small issue. Now shore up the bench, Mr. Cashman.

Let's see what's happening in the AL Central, shall we?

Chicago: I have already made mention of the Jim Thome signing, Frank Thomas' release and the re-signing of Paul Konerko. Yes, Thome cost Aaron Rowand, leaving a hole in centre field, but that can be fixed. Removing Thomas from the mix was key. In December, the White Sox suckered the D-Backs into taking Orlando Hernandez and spare parts for Javier Vazquez, who I still consider to be a plus starter. Plus, the White Sox re-upped another player integral to their World Series run, signing AJ Pierzynski to a 3-year deal. Factor in the acquisition of utility guy Rob Mackowiak from Pittsburgh and ridding themselves of Carl Everett and it looks like a good offseason for the champs. Direction - Up.

Cleveland: Danny Graves, Steve Karsay and Lou Merloni have all signed minor league deals with an invite to spring training. All three could have real value to an Indians team that needs to shore up the supporting roles on the bench and in the bullpen. Paul Byrd also helps out the rotation. They really need to get moving and re-sign Kevin Millwood. Direction - Neutral, up if they sign Millwood.

Detroit: Adding Kenny Rogers to the rotation and Todd Jones to the bullpen are both sound moves. However, that's about all the Tigers have done. In this division, that's not nearly enough. Plus, Ivan Rodriguez is rumoured to be unhappy. Not good. Direction - Down.

Kansas City: The lowest payroll in baseball will lead to another season of Mike Sweeney and good luck. KC is doing the best they can, signing Scott Elarton, Mark Grudzielanek, Doug Mientkiewicz and Paul Bako and trading for Mark Redman. Mientkiewicz and Grudzielanek are solid defensively, but their signings just seem so much like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what strands stick. Last place again. Direction - Down.

Minnesota: Decent offseason so far. The acquisition of Luis Castillo is a big help defensively and, if Castillo rediscovers his legs, at the top of the order too. If Tony Batista can plug in 25-30 HR and 80-100 RBI at third base and Rondell White can kick in 15-20 HR, the Twins will quickly forget Jacque Jones, who left to sign with the Cubs. Torii Hunter has to stay. Direction - Up.

Looks like I posted a day early

2005-12-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

So here's me, Mr. Expert, thinking we're all done with the big flurries of baseball business. Turns out I needed to wait one more day. The complete list of activities can be found here and here.

To recap the impact of all this activity, starting with the AL East:

Boston: A significant trading cycle ends with the departure of Edgar Renteria, swapped to Atlanta for Andy Marte. Marte moves right in at third, and Bill Mueller will move on. Still much to do, including finding a home for Manny Ramirez and deciding what to do with Johnny Damon. Safe bet, though, that any deal involving Ramirez has a ML-ready shortstop coming back. Direction - Up.

New York: Signed Kyle Farnsworth to set up for Mariano Rivera after Tom Gordon walked. This is a good move, as Farnsworth is much younger with a rocket arm that should be enough of a change-in-pace from Rivera that Rivera might get a little of the old mystique back. Still need to find a centre fielder and I am stunned that they offered arbitration to Bernie Williams. Thought they might have tried harder with Juan Pierre. Cut ties with Tony Womack, which should end any of this Robinson Cano for Torii Hunter talk. Direction - Neutral.

Baltimore: Heading in reverse, despite the signing of Ramon Hernandez. They could not get A.J. Burnett and lost B.J. Ryan, in both cases to division rival Toronto. Now Miguel Tejada wants out. Could a Ramirez for Tejada deal be in the offing with Boston? Direction - Down.

Toronto: Everybody says they're so improved, but it still seems to only be on paper. The Jays paid a lot for Lyle Overbay, but the Burnett signing made Dave Bush expendable and there wasn't a place in the Jays outfield for Gabe Gross. I guess the Eric Hinske era is officially over, unless they intend to package Hillenbrand with an outfielder for another big bat. Hearing whispers, too, that they're in the running to land Garciaparra. Direction - I want to say neutral, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and go with up.

Tampa Bay: The Sean Burroughs for Dewon Brazelton deal looks intriguing. Burroughs and Aubrey Huff will share 3B/DH duties, which spells trouble in the Rays outfield, as there just won't be enough at-bats to satisfy Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Jonny Gomes and Delmon Young who, according to reports, is definitely ready to go. I really like the idea of the Yanks shipping a veteran starter (say, Mike Mussina) to the Rays for an outfielder. Direction - Neutral.

I'll do the rest of the AL and all the NL over the next few days.

Baseball's Silly Season continued

2005-12-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks the end of the annual winter meetings, but there's certainly some stuff to cover. Let's recap shall we? Picking up where we left off.....

The Blue Jays went ahead and broke the bank on A.J. Burnett, signing him to a 5-year, $55 million deal. This on the heels of giving The Nose That Ate The Skydome (GM J.P. Ricciardi) a 3-year extension. Hmmm, $102 million on a pitcher yet to post a winning season and a closer with one good year under his belt. J.P. better be right or things will get ugly in T.O.

San Diego did the right thing and re-upped Brian Giles to the tune of 3 years and $30 million. Ditto the White Sox, who re-signed Paul Konerko to a 5-year, $50 million deal, ensuring that Frank Thomas will never darken their door again. The Padres really couldn't let the heart of their order walk and $10 million a season for a hitter of Giles' caliber is a steal. Sure the homer totals aren't as glossy as they were in Pittsburgh, but playing 81 games in Petco Death Valley will do that.

The Mets are a whole new team in 2006, fleecing the Marlins for both Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca. Factor in their free agent signing of closer Billy Wagner, now the highest per year salary closer at $10.75 million (his 4-year, $43 million deal is just shy of Ryan's), and the Mets are grabbing all the headlines in New York this offseason and, more importantly, are looking like the team to beat in the NL.

The Mets' division rivals, however, are not looking so good. Atlanta suffered two significant blows, as new closer Kyle Farnsworth bolted to the Yankees (3 years, $17 million) to set up Mariano Rivera and provide Rivera insurance in case something happens. The Braves also lost slick shortstop Rafael Furcal to L.A. (3 years, $39 million). The Phillies have replaced Billy Wagner with 38-year old Tom Gordon, inexplicably signing him to a 3-year, $18 million deal. That signing, 3 years for an old reliever with a history of elbow problems, is a real head-scratcher. Washington hasn't done much of anything, so they fall behind just because.

Then there's the Florida Marlins. The Marlins have dealt away, or let walk, two of their top three starters, their starting catcher, first baseman, second baseman and third baseman and their starting center fielder (Juan Pierre) may be next. They also traded away their closer. Not much left at all.

My last post listed winners and losers. The White Sox move from undecided to winners with the Konerko signing, the Indians move to undecided as I think signing Paul Byrd to a 2-year, $14.25 million deal is highly risky and they need to get to it and re-sign Kevin Millwood, and the Mets are now BIG winners.

Baseball's silly season

2005-11-26T09:05:00.000-05:00

I hadn't intended to rant today about salary lunacy in baseball, but rather how this year's free agency/trading activity is rapidly changing the baseball landscape. However, four reported signings/offers make me want to lead with a rant.

Found this on CNN/SI this morning.

Boy, if this is true, the small-market Blue Jays just blew up the bullpen salary structure but good. $47 million for BJ Ryan? On top of an apparent $50 million offer to AJ Burnett. Maybe they have a thing for initials.

Any Jays fans that beef to me about my Yankees and buying championships, I will forever point to these two offers and laugh myself sick.

I shudder to think about what Billy Wagner is telling his agent in light of the Ryan report. Wagner was looking at a 3 year/$30 million deal with the Mets, which at $10 million per year still puts him second behind Mariano Rivera in highest per year salary (Rivera's making $10.5 million/year). However, I'm sure he'll now go back and want the contract upped to $50 million over 4 years, since he apparently wants the biggest contract ever given to a reliever.

Mind you, bullpen salaries are getting out of hand whether the Ryan deal is true or not. The Cubs went out and blew $12 million on Bobby Howry and $11 million on Scott Eyre (who the Jays considered useless a few years ago). Each contract is for three years and Eyre's is guaranteed. That's $8 million a year for two guys whose primary responsibility is to hold leads for Ryan Dempster. Tom Gordon, setup man par excellence for Rivera the last two years, has gotta be thinking $5 million or maybe even $6 million a year when he signs his free agent deal sometime this offseason. A price tag that is patently ridiculous.

OK. Rant over.

The free agent season thus far is more notable for the trades that have been made as opposed to the free agent signings. Many big names remain on the market. A full list of trades/signings can be found here. Let's see who the big winners/losers are thus far:

Winners:

Boston: The Josh Beckett deal is a winner. Yes, they had to part with Hanley Ramirez and Harvey Garcia (and Anibal Sanchez and Jesus Delgado have some potential as Major League pitchers in a few years), meaning that Edgar Renteria is their best option for the foreseeable future, but Beckett fits in nicely as the #2 behind Curt Schilling. Assuming the Sox keep Matt Clement and/or David Wells and Bronson Arroyo continues to mature, this is a pretty potent rotation. Plus, Beckett gets to apprentice at the side of one of the best in Schilling. As well, the Sox got the Marlins to add in Guillermo Mota, who should be excellent Keith Foulke insurance and, along with Mike Timlin, create a pretty tough back end of the bullpen. They still have issues on offense, specifically clearing up the Manny Ramirez issue, deciding whether or not to sign Johnny Damon to the huge contract he wants, and sorting out the infield (keep Mike Lowell (part of the Beckett deal) or Bill Mueller at third (although Mueller could slide over to second, taking Tony Graffanino out of the mix) or deal an infielder along with Ramirez for a stud outfielder).

Mets: The Carlos Delgado deal is an instant upgrade for the offense and provides the Mets with a few options if a Manny Ramirez deal is in the offing. Apparently, the Red Sox are demanding Carlos Beltran (who was horrible in New York this season) in any deal for Ramirez, but the Mets were left with very few power options if the deal was made and Ramirez flamed out. Delgado is a proven middle-of-the-order hitter and should, with his laid-back personality, do just fine in NY. Giving up Yusmeiro Petit is costly and the loss of Mike Jacobs means (at this point) another season of Mike Piazza behind the plate, but the Mets should be OK. I really think, though, they should walk away from Billy Wagner, who proved himself to be a bit of a headcase in Philly.

Losers:

Marlins: Well, I think we can safely say that the Marlins won't be competing for a few years. With the announcement that they will likely relocate in 2008, the Marlins have basically told their Florida fanbase to stay home, letting A.J. Burnett walk, making a token (1 year/$1 million) offer to Jeff Conine (Mr. Marlin), giving away Josh Beckett, Guillermo Mota and Mike Lowell to the Red Sox (and they could have had Hank Blalock from Texas in a deal that wouldn't have cost them Mota). Then they topped it off by dealing away Carlos Delgado for limited immediate help in Mike Jacobs. Yes, the youngsters they got in these deals should be ready for prime time by 2008, but they sure screwed the Florida fanbase. I expect to see Juan Pierre and maybe Luis Castillo gone by New Years. Could be a 100-loss season this year and the end of Jack McKeon's managing career.

Cubs: I'm sorry, but $34 million in contracts to Bobby Howry (3 yrs/$12 million), Scott Eyre (3 yrs/$11 million), Glendon Rusch (2 yrs/$6 million) and Neifi Perez (2 yrs/$5 million) is suppposed to scare other teams how? They will let Nomar Garciaparra walk (and don't think Steinbrenner isn't entertaining the idea of putting Nomar in centre field in NY) and they have yet to make one impact signing. Methinks they are not looking World Series in 2006, especially if the offseason stories about Kerry Wood are true. Maybe they'll make a run at Brian Giles, who would be great hitting behind Derrek Lee.

Undecided:

Yankees: The Yankees did the right thing, re-signing Hideki Matsui (4 years, $52 million), but their offseason will be graded on one thing: How they replace Bernie Williams. If they overpay for Torii Hunter, not so good. If they are able to fleece the Marlins and steal Juan Pierre, all good.

White Sox: The champs are taking a huge risk dealing for Jim Thome. Mind you, they suckered the Phillies into throwing in $22 million to pay him, so it's a bargain basement insurance policy in the event they can't re-sign Paul Konerko. Losing Aaron Rowand hurts, but Scott Podsednik has the wheels to play centre. The deal also seems to (finally) signal the end of Frank Thomas' run in Chi-town, which has got to be considered a good thing.

Mariners: Seattle put a lot of money (3 years, $16.5 million) on the table for another Japanese league star, catcher Kenji Johjima. If Johjima is the catching equivalent of Ichiro, hoo-rah. However, I see lots of problems acquainting him with the pitching staff (not the least of which is the language issue) and, if he can't take control of the game defensively, the deal's a liability.

I'll do another of these after the GM winter meetings.

Health Updates

2005-11-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

First, the good news.....the MRI revealed no problems, so no tumours. Next step is a 2nd hearing test on Wednesday and then, I hope, a program to treat what looks like Meniere's Disease. If any readers out there have Meniere's or know someone who has it, invite them e-mail me (bjbenallick@hotmail.com) and share their experiences.

More good news.....today marks 17 days without dizziness attacks of any degree, which is the longest run yet.

Not so good news.....Christine has bronchial pneumonia and is on antibiotics. We thought Aidan might have the same thing, but his cough is apparently viral and should pass without drug assistance. Aaron's the only healthy one in the house.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. Please don't stop.

Mixed Bag

2005-10-22T09:53:00.000-04:00

Where do I start?

Well, how about the World Series? Starts tonight. I believe it will come down to pitching and I take Clemens, Pettitte, Oswalt and Lidge over Garcia, Buerhle, Garland, Contreras and Jenks. Astros in 6.

Christine worked her first night shift in about two years last night. Just try keeping two kids quiet on a rainy Saturday morning while she sleeps. Not easy.

Got some big ideas brewing for Philpott's annual Super Bowl party. More details to come....

Recap of the 2005 MLB Season

2005-10-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to deliver this earlier. See the post below if you want to know why it's late.

I reviewed my pre-season predictions (see them here) against the final season standings (see them here) and feel pretty good about the results. Flip the Yanks and Red Sox and I got the AL East exactly right. Same is true is the Marlins and Mets are flipped in the NL East. I missed the Indians in the AL Central and (other than calling the Cards winners) whiffed badly on the NL Central. I expected more from Texas and less from Oakland in the AL West and didn't give the D-Backs near enough credit in the NL West. On the plus side, though, I called 7 of the 8 playoff teams, tagging the Cubs as the NL Wild Card instead of Houston.

VERY surprised by the playoffs this year, as the ChiSox are showing some real moxie and just what a great pithing staff they have. Three consecutive complete games by one staff is almost unheard of in the regular season, much less the postseason. I think LA wins tonight, but it's all over Tuesday back in ChiTown. And what a run by Houston, who seem to have learned from last year and are taking advantage of some horrible injury luck the Cardinals are experiencing. Houston and the White Sox in the World Series? I could get with that.

I'll get to the Yankees in a minute. First, my season awards:

AL MVP: Consensus seems to be A-Rod this year, and it's hard to disagree. David Ortiz is getting some love, but the knock on him is that he doesn't play defense, and I agree. Rodriguez played an outstanding third base as well as hit the lights out. Nobody's worth $25 million, but A-Rod sure played like he deserves to be the highest paid player in the game. Two dark horses to watch out for: Manny Ramirez (although he's such a hotdog I can't see him getting it) and Paul Konerko, whose .283-40-100 season is pretty good.

AL Cy Young: Mark Buerhle and Jon Garland had both made strong cases for themselves right up until the All-Star break. Their second halves may have taken them out of the running. However, there's not much else to choose from. Johan Santana had a great second half, but his first half was, by his standards, awful. Nobody in New York or Boston distinguished themselves, and I don't think closers should win the award, so I think the best choice just might be Bartolo Colon and his 21-8 record. Don't be surprised, though, if either Mariano Rivera or Frankie Rodriguez' name gets announced.

AL Rookie of the Year: Hmm, which second baseman will it be? Tadahito Iguchi of the White Sox and Robinson Cano of the Yankees both came out of nowhere to post almost mirror-image seasons (Iguchi: .278-15-71, 15 SB in 20 attempts and a .780 OPS. Cano: .297-14-62, only 1 SB and a .778 OPS). Nick Swisher did hit 21 jacks, but a .236 BA is way too ugly to forgive. I son't have a compelling reason to pick him, but I'm going with Iguchi.

NL MVP: Derrek Lee: Great numbers, but your team sucked and you aren't as beloved as Andre Dawson (last player to win an MVP for a sub-.500 team). Albert Pujols, yet another awesome season, but I think St. Louis would still win the Central without you. So, step up, Andruw Jones, as you and your glorious .263-51-128 carry-the-team-to-the-playoffs-on-your-shoulders season gets you props.

AL Cy Young: With a month to go, I was giving the Cy Young to Chris Carpenter, despite the otherworldly performance of Roger Clemens. Then Carpenter decided (for whatever reason) to take September off and Clemens carried Houston to the NL wild card in the face of a furious Philadephia run to the finish. Yep, Clemens again and the Cy Young just might be the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae served in the World Series trophy.

AL Rookie of the Year: Jeff Francouer made such a strong case in July and August before wilting in September. Up to July, the award was Clint Barmes' to lose. But neither of them were around for the full season, like Colorado's Garrett Atkins (.287-13-89 with a .773 OPS) and Houston's Willy Taveras (.291-3-29, 34 SB in 45 attempts and a .666 OPS). However, Taveras gets the nod for stepping in as the leadoff spark the Astros desperately needed to make the playoffs.

Finallly, if anyone other than Eric Wedge or Ozzie Guillen wins AL Manager of the year, it's a travesty. Same thing if anyone other than Bobby Cox wins the NL.

Now, the Yankees.

Yes, they won the AL East. Only because Boston is as big a mess as they are. Yes, they made the playoffs, but look what happened when they got there. The mystique is, I'm afraid, gone. They have a great hitting lineup, but it's OLD. And the pitching is in complete disarray. Let's look at the situation. First, they HAVE to re-up with Matsui, because the need to upgrade from Bernie Williams in centre field is a higher priority and they won't find two outfielders in the free agent market (certainly not one of Matsui's caliber). I don't think Bubba Crosby is a long-term answer in centre and Jason Giambi is more fitting as the DH than as the everyday first baseman. The bench is ridiculously thin, too. The starting rotation should heal over the offseason. I expect a MUCH better Randy Johnson next year, now that he knows what to expect in New York. Combined with Chien-Ming Wang, Aaron Small and Carl Pavano, the Yankees could try to deal Mike Mussina to another team for some young talent. The Devil Rays have a wealth of outfield talent (Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Delmon Young, the returning Rocco Baldelli) and they may be willing to part with an outfielder if they can a) get a pitcher of Mussina's caliber in return and b) the Yanks agree to eat part of the contract. They should be able to find some reasonable-priced pitching help for the bullpen in the free agent market and maybe even a serviceable first baseman. BUT....

The Yankees MUST start restocking the farm. Replacements will be needed in the next three to five years for many current mainstays (Jeter, Posada, Sheffield and Rivera for starters) and the Yankees have little to offer in trades. Besides which, it's inevitable that the Yankees will always be trade-deadline buyers (Steinbrenner wouldn't have it any other way). So, the scouts had better get cracking. 2006 and 2007 will be the last, best chance for a Yankees Series victory until possibly 2012. After 2007, things will get even thinner.

That's enough for tonight.

Please pray for me

2005-10-07T10:47:00.000-04:00

I have not been to work in the last week. I started to have vertigo/nausea attacks last week and they intensified to a point on Tuesday where I could not lift my head without suffering extreme vertigo after a ridiculous vomiting attack. Things were so bad, Christine had to call an ambulance to the house so I could be taken to emergency. I'm now going to see a Ear-nose-throat specialist on Tuesday (which is EXTREMELY fast) to check whether or not I have an inner-ear disorder. I have not attempted to travel anywhere since the Tuesday attack and will do some short trips this weekend.

Your prayers for me and my family are appreciated. I will update as events warrant.

Update: Things have been pretty good since Tuesday. I had a minor spell Wednesday night, but was able to sleep it off. I have a hearing test scheduled for this Tuesday and my prayer is to go the whole week without a spell.

Update 2: I had another minor spell Monday at work. The hearing test went badly, as my left ear is perfect, but the right's a mess. I'm being scheduled for a head MRI in the next few weeks. I'm sure they'll find nothing.

Post Season Predictions

2005-10-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

Well, the Indians coughed up a big hairball on the weekend and, as a result, are now planning their winter holidays. So, we get Yankees/Angels and Red Sox/White Sox in the ALDS and Astros/Braves and Padres/Cards in the NLDS. Let's break 'em down:

Yankees/Angels: By all rights, L.A. should win this series. The Yankees have major pitching issues, as Carl Pavano is on the shelf and Jaret Wright is pretty much useless. That means the Yanks will be using a rotation of Mussina, Chacon, Johnson and either Small or Wang in the DS with Mussina pitching either Game 4 or 5, depending on whether the Yanks are ahead or behind. The Angels set their rotation with Bartolo Colon going in Game 1, followed by John Lackey and Jarrod Washburn. If the Angels are up 2-1, I expect Ervin Santana will get the Game 4 nod, otherwise it'll be Colon. The Yankees are marginally better on offense and the bullpens are even. The Angels also know that they went through the Yankees to win the World Series a few years ago and they will likely believe they can do it again. One key is the fact that Francisco Rodriguez has never closed games in the playoffs before, so if he falters, the Angels are in trouble.

Yankee keys to success: A-Rod, Sheffield and Matsui must be hot. Johnson and Mussina must be healthy and able to get to the 8th inning (Gordon/Rivera time) and the bullpen needs to have their A-Game to bridge the gap from the starters to the 8th in the event the starters falter.

Angels keys to success: Chone Figgins must set the table for Vlad and the other big hitters, Steve Finley needs to produce, the bullpen must hold up and K-Rod needs to show he can handle playoff pressure.

The line: I just cannot see a way for the Yankees to come out ahead here, but I can't go against them either. So, I'll say Randy Johnson earns his money and pitches two wins and Chacon gets the third win, supported by Chien Ming Wang. Yankees in 5.

Red Sox/White Sox - This should be good. The Red Sox are the best-hitting team in the AL and the White Sox must win with pitching. Boston plans to start the series with the mercurial Matt Clement, which tells me they plan to use four pitchers (Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling and David Wells along with Clement) because there's no way they use Clement on short rest. I would be surprised if Ozzie Guillen uses three pitchers, since he's got a pretty good starting 4 in Mark Buerhle, Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras and Jon Garland. A bigger question is the two bullpens, both of which are in tatters, and Chicago's offense, which simply cannot keep pace with Boston.

Red Sox keys to success: Johnny Damon's shoulder cannot keep him from producing and setting the table for Ramirez, Ortiz et al, Mike Timlin must be able to close when the pressure's on and Curt Schilling must be CURT SCHILLING.

White Sox keys to success: Consistent hitting up-and-down the order. Garland and Buerhle must get back to mid-season form and Bobby Jenks has to be able to close the door under the glare of the playoffs.

The line: Chichago's pitching has been going slowly south all through the second half. If this is the July White Sox, this is a close series. However, it isn't and these Red Sox now know how to win in the postseason. Red Sox in 4.

On to the NL.........

Braves/Astros: This should be a no-brainer, but the Astros can be scary in a short series. With Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt as the top three starters and Brad Lidge waiting in the 8th or 9th, the Astros can be on the good side of a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 games. Andruw Jones had an amazing season (51 jacks) but he has a history of vanishing in the playoffs. That puts the load on Chipper Jones, Macrus Giles, Rafael Furcal and a cast of kids. Plus, JORGE SOSA pitching the crucial game 3? Pretty brassy of Bobby Cox to make that call.

Braves keys to success: Hudson and Smoltz must win to take the pressure off Sosa. Kyle Farnsworth must step up when the money's on the line and Andruw Jones has got to be there.

Astros keys to success: Pettitte, Clemens, Oswalt and Lidge. If they don't bring it, the series is over.

The line: More often than not, good pitching beats good hitting in the postseason. Great pirching swamps good hitting 99% of the time. The Astros have great pitching. Astros in 4.

Cardinals/Padres: Ah, the great mismatch. After barely making it to .500, the Padres get fed to the best team in baseball in the DS. Just think, if Houston loses yesterday, this spot would belong to Philly while the Padres would get a much more favourable matchup with Atlanta. But it ain't that way. Having said that, this is not as cut and dry as you might think. Two of the Cards' top pitchers, Chris Carpenter and Matt Morris, have looked very ordinary in September and the Padres' top two, Jake Peavy and Adam Eaton, have served notice they're ready to go with great September outings. The big difference here is the Padres' lack of consistent offense, which will limit their chances.

Cardinals keys to success: Carpenter and Morris must bounce back. The big bats must adjust to Petco.

Padres keys to success: Eaton and Peavy need to be huge. The bullpen must bridge the gap to Hoffman. The offense has got to hit.

The line: Are you kidding? This sucker's over by the weekend. Cards in 3.

My LCS predictions: Yankees-Red Sox in an AL rematch and Astros-Cardinals in an NL rematch.

Post-Season awards to come.

Great weekend to be a baseball fan

2005-09-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

Give the MLB schedulers a big pat on the back this year. With all but three playoff races now all but decided (I am leaving out the NL Wild Card, since I expect the schizophrenic Phillies to fold like a cheap tent this weekend, letting Houston escape), we get two three-game winner take all series to decide the final three spots in the AL (the Angels are already in as AL West champs).

The Yankees and Red Sox will square off at Fenway. Going into tonight, the Yanks have a 1-game lead over the Sox as they finish up their respective penultimate series (Yanks against Baltimore, Sox against Toronto). The pitching matchups are all very compelling, as Chien-Ming Wang goes against David Wells Friday, Randy Johnson faces white-hot Tim Wakefield Saturday and Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling lock up Sunday. If both teams win tonight, a playoff is possible. If the Yanks open a 2-game lead, they will need only 1 win in the series to wrap it up. If they are tied after tonight, it's a best-of three.

The White Sox (who should have NEVER been in this spot) will face the Indians in Cleveland. Each will wrap a series tonight (Sox face Detroit, Indians have T-Bay (who have already won the first two games of the series)) and, assuming the Indians win, they will play for the division title. If the Indians lose tonight and the Sox win, it's all over. Pitching matchups are: Mark Buerhle v. Kevin Millwood, Jon Garland v. Jake Westbrook and Brandon McCarthy v. Scott Elarton. The lead is 3 as of this morning and the White Sox are definitely in the driver's seat, and an 11-5 record head-to-head against the Indians certainly looks favourable, but you better believe the Sox will be looking to wrap things up tonight. A Sox win tonight means they clinch at least a share of first place and, even if the Sox lose tonight and the Indians win (cutting the lead to 2 games), the Indians are still faced with the daunting task of sweeping the Sox to catch/pass them.

However, Cleveland is also playing for the wild card. With a 92-66 record, the Indians are tied with Boston. There are many ways things can play out here, so lets look at the math:

Update: Well, as expected, everyone won last night. I also was, apparently, on something when I did my math yesterday, as there a few inconsistencies in the original post, so I'm replacing that mess with this section. Let's do it again:

As of today, the Yankees (94-65) lead the AL East by one game over Boston (93-66). Cleveland is also 93-66, tied for the wild card with Boston. Chicago is now in, as is LA. The Yankees need two wins over Boston this weekend to clinch the AL East.

Playoff scenarios for Boston:

If Boston wins once, they can only make the wild card. For that to happen, Cleveland must lose to Chicago twice or be swept. A Sox sweep puts Cleveland out. One Cleveland win forces a one-game playoff on Monday between the Sox and the Indians.
If Boston sweeps the Yankees, they win the East outright.
If Boston wins twice (tying the Yanks), it gets muddy. If Cleveland is swept by Chicago, or loses two of three, there will be no AL East playoff. Since the Yankees win the season series with Boston 10-9, the Yankees would win the AL East and the Sox are the wild card. If Cleveland wins two games against Chicago and Boston two against NY, Boston and Cleveland meet in a one-game playoff for the wild card Monday while the Yankees (again based on head-to-head) are the AL East champs. If Cleveland sweeps Chicago, Boston is out.

Playoff scenarios for NY are a bit simpler.

Win once and they are guaranteed a tie for the AL East. If Cleveland sweeps the Sox, then the Indians (at 96-66) win the wild card and Boston and NY (each at 95-67) have a one-game playoff for the AL East title. Otherwise, the Yanks win the East and Boston drops into the third scenario outlined above.
Win twice or more, they win the AL East.
If the Yankees are swept, it depends on Cleveland. If Cleveland wins once, the Yankees and Cleveland play off on Monday for the wild card. If Cleveland wins twice or more, the Yankees are out.

And finally, for Cleveland:

Sweep the White Sox, win the wild card.
Win twice, they win the wild card if Boston loses twice or the Red Sox sweep the Yankees. If the Red Sox win twice, the Indians and Red Sox play off for the wild card.
Win once, they win the wild card ONLY if the Yankees sweep the Sox. If the Red Sox win once, the Indians and Red Sox play off. If the Red Sox sweep, the Indians and Yankees play off.

NL is really easy. If the Astros take two of three from the Cubs or the Phils drop two of three to Washington (or the 'Stros win once and the Phils lose once) the Astros take the NL Wild Card.

Any way you slice it, though, it should be a very exciting weekend of baseball and, hopefully, these games can be found on TV this weekend. Playoff predictions and season-end award predictions coming Monday.

Quelle semaine!!!!!

2005-09-19T21:56:00.000-04:00

At least, I think that's "What a Weekend" in French.

Great first birthday party for Aaron on Saturday. Lots of fun. The whole family was over along with a few friends. Christine outdid herself, making an AMAZING birthday cake for Aaron. Here's some pics:

Pretty impressive, no? The grass on the sides, waterfall and the base icing are all made from scratch. The trees are pretzel twists with green icing and the black stuff is cookie crumbs. Took Christine the better part of 12 hours, what with baking the cakes and putting it all together. More proof why I like her best.

Topped off the weekend by celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary Sunday. Celebrated by taking the kids minigolfing and then to McDonald's. Probably my favourite anniversary yet.

Later.

Big Day Today

2005-09-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

My big boy, Aidan, rode the bus to school BY HIMSELF today. His first day of JK. Gotta say it wasn't easy letting him go, but it was comforting to know that wherever he goes, he goes with God.

I'm just not creative.......

2005-09-12T06:52:00.000-04:00

Al snuck his 35th birthday in by changing his profile and challenging readers to find what was different. I can't copycat him and I'm just not that creative at 6:45, so here it is.

I'm 38 today. Happy birthday to me.

Whassup?

2005-09-07T07:54:00.000-04:00

First things first, click on any of the links below to contribute to Hurricane Katrina relief:

- American Red Cross
- Feed The Children

Donations are also accepted at all Canadian bank branches

These links will remain up near the top for the next little while along the left side of the page.

You will also find, on a far more trivial level, a link to my newest addiction (like I need one more). Check out SuDoku. For the numbers-obsessed in the audience, you will become addicted.

More news.....

The family is all healthy again. Thanks for your prayers.

Media Rants is getting a lot of hits since I posted my fall TV schedule. In checking out why, I find (via SiteMeter) that, when searchers on MSN type in 2005 Fall TV premieres, my site is in the Top 10, so lots of visits. Guess I had better keep up on the content. Not quite like it was when Austin was "Insta-lanched", but cool nonetheless.

Speaking of The Transplanted Texan, I joined Austin and four other friends for a game of Risk last night. I haven't played in years and had a lot of fun. Took 3 and a half hours, though, and we didn't even finish. Good times nonetheless.

Jason took his first crack at preaching at church on Sunday and did very well. Lots of strong Biblical content serving as the foundation for a great, back-to-basics message that, I think, most everyone could (and should) take something out of.

More later.

Two things.....

2005-09-01T08:17:00.000-04:00

First, yet another reason why I hate the Toronto Sun. Today's Toronto newspapers are all focused on the damage wrought by Katrina in the Southern U.S. and how people are banding together to help out. What's on the front page of the Sun? Bitching about high gas prices. Selfish bastards.

Second, I am a small voice in the wilderness here, but I want to issue a challenge to G.W. Bush. When the tsunami tragedy happened in Asia, the Red Cross and many other humanitarian agencies were very aggressive in setting up charities and providing assistance to those in need in these second- and third-world countries devastated by the tsunami. I don't think they should be as aggressive in response to Katrina and the reason is simple. This tragedy happened in the richest nation in the world and if George Bush is the God-fearing man he says he is, he will lead the charge in ensuring that the richest country in the world FINDS ALL THE MONEY AND RESOURCES IT NEEDS to ensure that every person who lost their home gets a new one built, that a quality of life is provided during the rebuilding and that everyone is protected from the underworld element that sees this as a time to loot, pillage, steal and otherwise hurt the innocents who saw their lives ripped out from under them by this hurricane. I think there should be enough money in the U.S. coffers to cover this and to show the world how a government FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE should relly work.

Oh, and one more thing, please check the Prayer Request below for another update. It appears that our family is not yet done with the barf bug.

MediaRants is Open For Business

2005-08-30T09:58:00.000-04:00

Please come visit. Also, if you're interested in keeping up with life in a roto league, check out The CRBL Blog.

Prayer Request

2005-08-28T21:58:00.000-04:00

Actually, two of them. First, my youngest boy, Aaron, is at the hospital with Mom right now. We've endured two days of barfing and general lethargy (surprisingly, no fever) and broken sleep. The wonderful docs at our clinic decided to have him checked and even called ahead to Mac to let the on-call pediatrician know we 're on the way. Please pray for Aaron and Christine. Updates as events warrant.

Update: Christine and Aaron came home at about 4 AM Monday morning. Aaron had an intestinal blockage which was cleared up. He's on limited liquid feeds (e.g. formula, PediaLyte, water) and is quickly getting back to his old self. Thanks for the prayers.

Update2: Christine and Aidan are now both sick with a variation on Aaron's illness. Please pray for them and for our poor house, as I am now the primary housekeeper/caregiver.

Second, please pray for Jason and Joanne Silver's beautiful little girl, Grace, who was in the hospital Friday with dehydration. Updates can be found at Jason's Blog.

Changing directions

2005-08-22T08:07:00.000-04:00

So, I'm thinking about another re-work here. I want to get my media-related stuff over to a separate corner. A blog reserved for media commentary, reviews, recaps, etc. Then I'll use P 'n' B for more personal stuff (what's happening on the homefront, stuff I find interesting, etc.). Lastly, there'll be Sojourn for my spiritual walk.

But, says the reader, you hardly update now. When will you find time to update a third blog (actually a fourth, since I am now maintaining a blog for my roto baseball league)?

Guess we'll have to see, no?

Holidays

2005-08-01T09:10:00.000-04:00

So, I was off for pretty much the whole month of July. We went to my brother's cottage in Dorset (about an hour's drive north of Bracebridge) for three days at the beginning of July, followed that up with a week at a cottage in Port Elgin and finished with a week around the house (swimming, shopping, housework). I am happy to say that I only went in to the office six days out of the entire month. How about I share my story with all of you?

The fun all started the last week of June. My brother, Mike (author of Prairie Ponderings) and his family all arrived from Saskatchewan for a two week visit. Had a great family BBQ at my sister's the day after they arrived and then my family spent the day with my brother and his family at Centre Island. Aidan got to go on his first log ride and roller coaster. We then all re-connected at my brother's cottage, which was amazing. Their cottage is right on Lake Kawagama, one of a number of lakes of that part of Ontario. Here's a picture of their lake:

We did a lot of cool stuff, including some boating, swimming, fishing, hiking and just hanging out. Dorset has an observation tower from which you can see forever on a clear day. I made it up to the first tower (about 500 feet up) but didn't go to the top (about 1,000 ft.). My nephew and nieces did, however and, loving kids they are, they made sure to tell Uncle Brian how they went higher than he did. Here's a picture I took of the town from the observation post:

We finished up their visit with a steak dinner at my Mom's and then returned home, exhausted from a great, whirlwind, two weeks of family time.

More later on our trip to Port Elgin.

MLB Mid-Season Report

2005-07-02T23:30:00.000-04:00

So, I did a pre-season analysis, which can be read here. Let's do a little mid-season review to see how we're doing:

AL East:

Could the Yankees underachieve any more? 40-39 with a week to go to the All-Star Break. If it wasn't for A-Rod and his consistent heroics, the Yanks could easily be 30-49 and battling T-Bay for the basement. As it is, they are in third, a mere 6 games behind the Red Sox, who show signs of hotting up, but then go flat. Even more shocking is the continued presence of Baltimore and Toronto. Both teams are getting just enough pitching to augment spectacular offenses. It's safe to bet that Boston and New York will be big buyers at the trade deadline and, if Baltimore's in the hunt, they may go shopping too.

Predicted: Boston, NY, Toronto, Baltimore, T-Bay.
Mid-Season: Right on at the top and bottom. Middle's out of order. 2 out of 5.

AL Central:

I called Chicago to win the division. I never imagined they'd be the best in the majors at the halfway mark. Jon Garland 12-3? Wild. The Sox are 53-25 after today and this is in spite of a bullpen that was in flux until Dustin Hermanson stepped in as closer and an offense that had only one legit power threat in Paul Konerko. Frank Thomas is back and playing well, but PT is at the expense of Carl Everett, a model citizen thus far and one of the Sox' best hitters. One of them will leave during the second half, and I think it will be Everett, since nobody wants a cranky, oft-injured DH. Detroit and Cleveland have had very nice first halves and will make a good run to the end. It's not impossible to see Minnesota in 4th in October.

Predicted: Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, Cleveland, KC
Mid-Season: Flip Cleveland and Detroit and I'm bang-on. 3 out of 5.

AL West:

Texas has hung in this far. Will they survive July and August? Kenny Rogers may have been the man through the first three months, but he may have earned himself a ticket out with his performance over the last week. The offense MUST stay hot for Texas to have a chance, as the Angels are one good winning streak away from running away and hiding with the division. Good for Oakland, hanging in one game under .500. Barry Zito has been excellent since a rocky April, and Joe Blanton, Dan Haren and Huston Street are for real. The popgun offense is a cause for concern, but you can do worse than try to build around hitters like Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher. Finally, Chan-Ho Park 9-2? Who'da thunk it?

Predicted: LAA, Texas, Oakland, Seattle
Mid-Season: On the money. 4-for-4. AL Total: 9-for-14. 64% is pretty good, sez I.

NL East:

Best division in baseball. Gotta love the Nationals, up 5 1/2 after 80 games. Amazing what a little stability does for a ball team. Livan Hernandez has been a revelation, going 12-2 and even throwing a 150-pitch outing last month. The Braves are racked with injuries and bullpen uncertainty, but Andruw Jones has put the offense on his back, tering it up over the last month. Florida's scuffling, but if Juan Pierre, Luis Castillo and Mike Lowell get into a groove, watch out, because they have been almost lights-out on the mound thus far. The Phillies lost Jim Thome this week, so you may have to count them out, but don't do that with the Mets, who have been hot of late.

Predicted: Atlanta , Philly, Florida, NYM, Washington
Mid-Season: Not even close: Washington, Atlanta, Florida, Philly, NYM. 1-for-5.

NL Central:

Once again turning into a laugher, although St. Louis is struggling just as the Cubs are getting back Wood and Prior. St. Loo is riding the miracle arms of Chris Carpenter and Matt Morris for as long as they can. Carpenter was almost unhittable in June and may wind up starting the All-Star Game. The Cubs are 9 1/2 back, but a hot streak can solve much of that problem. Derrek Lee has been a revelation this year, chasing a Triple Crown and, as of yesterday, leading Albert Pujols in the All-Star voting. Houston is scuffling and miss Jeff Bagwell's presence in the middle of the order, but you cannot count out Clemens, Oswalt and Pettitte, all of whom are pitching brilliantly. Watch out for a Clemens to the Yankees deal, which may yet happen. Also, Milwaukee is setting up for a run next year. Watch and see if it happens just as I predicted.

Predicted: St. Loo, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Milwaukee
Mid-Season: Pretty good. Just move Milwaukee up to third and Houston, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati down a step. Still only 2-for-6, though.

NL West: Jake Peavy, the Cy Young committee called and want to know how many years in a row you plan to win the award. Seriously, the guy's awesome. Because of him and Adam Eaton, the Padres are revving up to run away and hide. It looks deceiving in the standings, since Arizona and L.A. are 4 and 5 games back, respectively. But think about, it's Ari-freaking-zona, who I'm sure are doing it with smoke and mirrors, and Team Dysfunction, who are struggling with injuries and reports of an (unsurprisingly) fractious clubhouse. We now also know how important Barry Bonds is to San Fran and, more importantly, that Pedro Feliz is not yet ready to be the man in SF.

Predicted: San Diego, San Fran, L.A., Colorado, Arizona
Mid-Season: No sale after San Diego, as Arizona has overachieved and San Fran has done the opposite. Got L.A. in the right spot, though. 2-for-5. NL total is an atrocious 5-for-16, just over 30%. Total's 14-for-30, just under 50%.

So, if the playoffs started today, here's how they'd look:

AL:

Boston (East Winner) at Chicago (Central Winner)
Minnesota (wild card) at LA (West Winner)

Minnesota leads the wild card by 1 over Baltimore, 1 1/2 over Cleveland, 2 1/2 over Texas and 4 1/2 over NY and Toronto.

NL:

Atlanta (wild card) at St. Louis (Central Winner)
San Diego (West Winner) at Washington (East Winner)

Atlanta leads the wild card by 1 1/2 over Florida, 3 over Chicago and Philly, 3 1/2 over the Mets and 4 1/2 over the D-Backs.

Based on the season thus far, I go L.A. over Boston in the AL and St. Louis over San Diego in the NL and St.Louis wins it all.

My thoughts on Live 8

2005-06-28T12:32:00.000-04:00

I am totally struggling with the whole idea of Live 8. I think that there is a place for musicians to use their position and clout to help make things happen, like raising money through giving their talents for a good cause, which many did through Live Aid. However, I question their ability to effect change in the political arena, which seems to be the general idea here. I also think that, unless there is a sea change in the governing policies of many African nations, which can only be effected through the leadership of first-world countries finding ways to work with African leadership to get aid to those who need it most. There is also a place for people in missions to serve those in the greatest need. I would much rather see the performers on the bill spend a month in Africa using funds they've earned from their talents as well as their connections to effect real change in the needy countries.

John Derringer of Q107 echoes some of those sentiments (and says a whole lot more)here.

I hope that those attending the concert July 2 have a good time. I doubt that many of them will do anything more than they are doing today to promote helping the people of Africa, whose need will be just as dire July 3.

HOT

2005-06-27T13:47:00.000-04:00

My goodness, it was hot this weekend. Despite that, Christine and I still spent most of yesterday doing yardwork. Word to the wise, digging up grass is NOT fun work. No complaining though. I spend all winter bellyaching about how much I miss summer. Be a little hypocritical to grump about summer, no?

Anyhoo, if you get a chance today, send up a prayer for travel mercies for my brother, Mike as he and his family are flying to Hamilton for a two-week visit. Gonna be a busy couple of weeks for the whole family, culminating in a three-day reunion up at my brother Mark's cottage outside Huntsville next week.

So, they had the big parade yesterday in T.O. Kudos to Stephen Harper for sticking to his values and ignoring the whole thing, speaking instead to church groups in Toronto about his opposition to C-38. Not that it's going to help him, since you can't win an election without one of Quebec or Ontario. Quebec is solidly Bloc and socially liberal Ontario would rather have the Liberals and their blatant criminal activities in power. Sometimes I want to move to the Prairies.

Lots of fun stuff around the blogosphere lately. I have found my way to two really good spiritual blogs. One, belongs to a fellow named Tim Bailey and another to Erin Wilson. No theological arguments, just discussion on how God is working in their lives. Very encouraging to me. Pay them a visit.

So, that's about it. Think I'm going to be busy the next couple of weeks, so blogging may be minimal. I am going to copy something from Dave Hamilton and Al Baker and put in a section listing what I'm watching, listening to and reading. Just cause I can. Also, I'm about to start designing web pages, as I'm going to put one together for Aidan's preschool. Jason, I may have a few questions for you.

Have a good one.

HELP! I'm addicted to personality tests!

2005-06-21T14:50:00.000-04:00

Why do I keep taking these things? HatTip (again) to Pernell:

free enneagram test

DREAM THEATER

2005-06-18T12:53:00.000-04:00

I love, love, love, love it when I find a new band.

My brother, Mark, an outstanding guitarist, and I have very similar musical tastes. We have always both been fans of harder progressive rock. We are both fans of Rush, Joe Satriani and Van Halen. So when he said to me "You gotta check out Dream Theater" I figured that was a pretty sound endorsement.

Was it ever.

I found the DVD for Dream Theater Live at Budokan at a used store. This sucker is a 3-HOUR concert from Tokyo (the same place Cheap Trick's legendary Live album was made). I have really only listened to half the concert, but I'm a fan. These guys love to go off on extended instrumental runs and that always gets my attention. On first listen, I immediately thought of the band as a cross between Metallica (edgy sound and lyrics), Emerson Lake and Palmer (pure technical musical talent) and Joe Satriani (sonics). One song, "In This Life", has quite possibly the best instrumental break I've ever heard, running nearly 10 minutes and combining about 5 different mini-songs (featuring different combinations of lead instruments, time changes, style changes) that never gets overdone. The band's "Instrumedley" also rocks bells. I have yet to listen to the last 90 minutes (I need that time in headphone isolation), but the first 90 alone makes this a MUST-recommend.

Give it a listen sometime.

I'm culturally creative

2005-06-15T22:12:00.000-04:00

....and borderline postmodern. Of course, I didn't understand about 20% of the questions I was asked so, for all I know, I'm really a materialist. Good quiz, though, with some challenging questions.

(HatTip to Jason Silver):

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

69%

Postmodernist

56%

Romanticist

50%

Idealist

50%

Fundamentalist

44%

Existentialist

31%

Modernist

31%

Materialist

19%

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

Just an AWESOME morning!

2005-06-15T14:35:00.000-04:00

Today was Aidan's end-of-preschool picnic. All the kids and their families met up at Dundas Driving Park for a morning of games and food. It was great to see all the 3- and 4-year olds in their "Pied Piper Co-Op" t-shirts running around and playing games. The teachers set up bubble-blowing stations, an obstacle course, a beanbag toss and other fun stuff. We all enjoyed slab pizza, ice cream and juice and many of the parents arrayed themselves around DDP's creative playground to watch about 30+ preschoolers all manage to find some space to run, play and interact with one another.

Two things stood out.

First was a brief moment when Aidan, Aaron and I all sat together and shared Aidan's ice cream. Just a peaceful moment to reflect on how blessed I am to have such a great family.

Second was when they gave out certificates to all the kids either moving from toddler to preschool or from pre-school to JK. When they called Aidan's name and he went up to receive his certificate, it hit me that this was my oldeest son's first real graduation ceremony. It brought tears to my eyes.

Most importantly, this morning was yet another reminder of just how deeply I love my family.

Let's play a game

2005-06-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

I've been seeing this little tag thing going on at some blogs and, while I don't know how to do it, I thought I might see if I can grow one organically. Here's your hypothetical:

You are asked to move into one room in a house for one year. You can take with you the following:

** Five favourite foods (they would be replenished when they ran out and they're kicking in the staples (meat, bread, dairy and veggies)
** Five favourite articles of clothing
** Five movies
** Five CD's
** Five books

What would they be?

Here's mine:

Foods: Mini-Wheats cereal (if they don't provide milk, they're still good). Peanut butter (hope they provide WHITE bread!! Don't get enough of that). New York steak (assuming I get a BBQ to cook 'em on). Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs. Cherry Pop-tarts.

Clothes: The t-shirt I got from my kids with their handprints on it. My Lou Gehrig NY Yankees shirt. My McMaster MBA program t-shirt. My favourite pair of Nevada jeans and one pair of fleece track pants (LOVE the fleece).

Movies: Oh, my. Field of Dreams (happens to be on as I'm posting), Star Wars (the REAL original, not the Lucas-ized Episode 4), The Two Towers, The Jesus Movie and Bull Durham.

CD's: Bruce Springsteeen:Live in NYC, Michael W. Smith: Worship, Rich Mullins: A Liturgy, A Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band, Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live and Genesis: Three Sides Live. Supertramp Live in Paris makes the list if I get six.

Books: The Bible (NIV edition), Max Lucado: The Applause of Heaven and Six Hours One Friday, Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October, and John Grisham: A Time To Kill (or The Pelican Brief or The Firm, whichever one I grab).

There you go. What would you pick?

Recap of season finales

2005-05-31T22:02:00.000-04:00

So, I watched six and a half season finales this year. Here's a quick recap:

American Idol: Really disappointed that Carrie won, but Bo will be OK. Finale was pretty good as they had a lot of fun and even gave some of the worst auditions a chance to be involved in the finale. Having said that, they COULD have wrapped it up in an hour. Really good season overall with some big-time talent (Constantine, Vonzell and Bo should all wind up with records) and some great Ford commercials. Finale 5/10, season 8/10.

Everybody Loves Raymond: Done totally right, as they treat the finale as just another episode as Ray goes in for a tonsillectomy and everyone has a scare as Ray is bit slow coming out of the anasthesia. The most brilliant comedy ensemble cast of the past 10 years bows out with one last great episode as part of an awesome run to the finish ("The Power of No" made my top 5 of all time). I'll miss this show, but will definitely pick up the DVDs (First 3 seasons are already out). Finale 8/10, season 9/10.

CSI New York: Good finale, as the story is a tricky one involving a counterfeiting ring that gets exposed when the bad guys try to meet at Mac's favourite coffee shop. Also set up some important relational issues for season 2, as it looks like Mac may get a girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller made an appearance in the finale) and a good bit of time will be spent further developing the Mac/Danny storyline. Good first season for the show and it got much better once they got out of the dark, depressing motif about halfway through the season. Finale 7/10, season 7/10.

CSI Miami: Great finale, as three major storylines (Horatio's brother, the Callie/John relationship and Horatio's on-again/off-again flirtation with Yelina) all come to a conclusion. Callie is set up for a major storyline to start next, as she appears to have left CSI following Hagen's downward spiral (takes evidence from a crime scene, holds a cocked pistol to Callie's head, finally kills himself in front of her). Also, Delko and Wolf should have a good, competitive line for next season too, assuming Wolf survives his apparent leaking of secret evidence to a reporter via what could only be pillow talk. Finally, the wrap-up of the storyline around Horatio's brother was brilliant. Excellent third season for a show that started on the downer of killing off my personal favourite CSI, Tim Speedle. Finale 9/10, season 10/10.

CSI Vegas: The finale was the BEST...EPISODE...EVER. Een without the hand of Tarantino on it, this one would have rocked bells. Actually, the only problem with it was the one scene that smacked of Tarantino's hand. Those who saw it know what I'm talking about. Tense, tense episode, as Nick is buried alive in a plexiglass coffin. The CSI's are give a link to a website where they can click on a link to turn on a light in the coffin so they can see Nick. Only problem is that every time they turn on the light, Nick's air supply gets shut off and it wears down the battery to which both are attached. Just one of numerous twists and turns that keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. Great episode for William Petersen's Gil Grissom character as well, as all of his character traits (lip reading, entomology, etc.) are brought into play and the viewer is reminded that Grissom, NOT Willows, is the heart of the show. Season, on the whole, was uneven, with some episodes exploring REALLY disturbing themes (trans-genderism, infantilism) mixed with some interesting inside looks at some of the characters and a few good-to-great episodes (Greg will do just fine in the field). The decision to split up the team led to one excellent episode (where they were broken up) and a whole lot of uncertain ones, as you never knew who would be featured wekk to week. Finale 9.5/10 (dock a half-point for the whacked out autopsy scene), season 7/10.

House: This is the half. I fell asleep for the last half-hour, but my wife filled me in later. As it was, the episode the week before should have been the finale. Good show that will make a great lead-in to 24 next season. Mondays, starting in January, will be the best TV night of the week (House-24-CSI Miami). Finale 6/10, season 8/10.

....and finally........

24: Many have raved about this season and the finale, which I have heard referred to as "gripping", "tense", "exciting". I found it, to put it mildly, disappointing. The missile situation was handled the only way it could be handled, but it seemed a quick end for something with so much dramatic tension riding on it. I also was annoyed by the ending, as Jack now becomes persona non grata and I don't see how the writers fix it to bring him back. I also now hope that Tony, Michelle and Palmer ride off gracefully into the sunset. I am sure many theories will be espoused between now and January about how they set up season 5, but I'll trust the writers to do right by their loyal viewership. As far as the season goes, I think a lot of love was directed the show's way due to the fact it ran uninterrupted for 22 weeks. But I actuall found some episodes BORING, I haven't been able to say that about any of the prior seasons. Now, having said that, a bad week of 24 is better than a good week of just about any other show on TV. So, we'll split the difference and call it an OK season. Finale 6/10, season 7/10.

There ya go.

WOW!

2005-04-28T07:21:00.000-04:00

Did NOT expect what happened last night on American Idol, as Constantine gets the boot and Scott not only survived, but actually didn't even wind up in the bottom 3. Paula was completely stunned by the result and Simon gave up props to Scott for surviving, but I think even he was stunned. There's no doubt that Constantine's performance was atrocious on Tuesday night, but he was far from the worst. Doesn't matter, though, as I think Constantine will go on to big-time success in the pop music world, likely outselling whoever winds up winning the thing. Same logic applies to Bo, as well, since I think he's just naturally talented and will use this experience as a way to simply get his name, face and talent out into the open. The others will definitely need help from AI to get records sold.

Finally watched this week's episode of 24 yesterday and I think it was the best episode of the year. Chloe looked SO badass holding a rifle at the end of the episode and I really have liked the evolution of her character this year. This was really her ep to shine and Mary-Lynn Rajskub really ran with it. Also, the whole handling of the weak President Logan is brilliant, as the writers did a smooth job of giving Palmer a reason to get involved. Having said that, I have some MAJOR issues with this season, including:

If memory serves, Palmer and Keeler were opposing each other in Season 3, implying they were from opposite parties. So this means Novick switched parties and then got the blessing of Logan to bring in a former President from the opposing party?

Erin's whole purpose was to create an opportunity to bring back Michelle. Why not just leave Michelle in charge of CTU LA? The romantic tension can still be there when Jack goes to Tony for help and brings him back to CTU (and that's another issue of convenience). Instead, Alberta Watson gets 8 hours of face time and gets saddled with the suicidal, schizophrenic daughter subplot that winds up leading to the character being written out. They could have just started the season with wrapping up last season (Jack going to bat for Tony in his treason case, Michelle moving up the ladder and leaving Palmer for later) without introducing new characters that I, and other loyal watchers, knew were merely placeholders until they executed the plot devices to bring the real main characters into the story.

What happened to SecDef Heller and Behrooz? Behrooz was swapped for Jack a few weeks ago and we haven't heard from him since. Heller left for a meeting a while back and hasn't been heard from since. We also have no resolution of issues with Heller's son. Once again, the writers have left a bundle of unresolved plot points which they should clean up in the final 5 weeks.

I know some folks are stating that this is the best season of 24 yet, but I think that stems from the fact that there are no breaks in the schedule and Fox is running the show weekly. I think Season 3 was the best end-to-end and Season 2 wins the award for most dramatic intensity.

On the baseball front, BAD day to be a pitcher or a Red Sox fan, as Curt Schilling and David Wells both go on the DL. Don't know how the Sox will fill in the holes in the rotation. Also, closers Armando Benitez (San Fran) and Jason Isringhausen (St. Louis) both went on the DL. I'm expecting a few messages in the ol' inbox at the CRBL League website.

Finally, got a new laptop at work. IBM ThinkPad T42 with a Pentium M processor running XP Pro. Boots up in seconds (unlike the old T20 with Windows NT, which needed nearly 10 minutes). Only problem....I can't access my stinkin' e-mail. Don't know what you got 'til it's gone.

Off to the dentist today. Looking real forward to it.

Later

Been a while

2005-04-27T11:51:00.000-04:00

So, there's lots to report........

His Hands Outstretched

If you have a couple of free hours on May 7, a number of Hamilton inner-city churches are banding together to do some cleanup work in the downtown core. It will be happening during the morning, and information is available from Philpott's website.

This week's TV commentary:

American Idol:

Really sad to see Anwar go last week. This week was a big surprise as only Bo and Vonzell seemed to really deliver. Anthony did a not-bad job on a Celine Dion tune, but Constantine singing Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was TERRIBLE. Carrie was only OK, but Scott pretty much assured himself a ticket out. A flat, lifeless rendition of "Dance With My Daddy" (or something like that) was made worse by the fact he was last to sing, which makes his performance more memorably bad. Bottom 3 tonight are Constantine, Scott and Anthony, with Scott leaving.

This has been, hands-down, the best AI season of the four. Unfortunately, I think the wrong person will win, as it really does look like a Constantine-Carrie final. Carrie is pretty much bulletproof, as evidenced by her butchering "Love Is A Battlefield" a couple of weeks ago and not even winding up in the bottom 3. Same for Constantine, although he definitely needs a wake-up call after last night. The real final should be Vonzell-Bo, who have consistently shown the ability to sing well regardless of the song. Vonzell was a true performer last night, as she overcame some minor pitchiness early in her song to build it up well and bring the audience to their feet when she hit the bridge. I think she should win. I think this is how it goes: Scott leaves tonight, Anthony next week, then Bo followed by Vonzell and Consantine loses the final. Carrie wins and Simon is proved to be eerily psychic, since he predicted her win 6 weeks ago.

House:

Christine and I started watching this show three weeks ago and we're hooked. Hugh Laurie is awesome as the mean-spirited Dr. House, the cases are very challenging (that gets Christine's attention), and the supporting cast is great fun. Plus, the show focuses on one case and the relationship between cranky House, his bosses (who can't stand him as a person, but have tremendous respect fo his ability) and House's young doctors. A great hour of TV and you betcha I'm looking for it when it hits on DVD.

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition:

Christine and I came across this about 2 months ago. We now make sure to catch it every Sunday night. I cannot think of a more positive, uplifting show on TV today. Ty Pennington (formerly a carpenter on Trading Spaces) leads a team that demolishes the old, decrepit houses of folks who, despite unbelievable challenges, continue to give of themselves, and builds them spectacular new homes in just 7 days. We have yet to watch an episode that doesn't bring tears to our eyes. This show makes me want to hook up with Habitat for Humanity and help out.

The Wire

If you like cop drama and adult drama like "The Sopranos", I suggest you get your hands on this HBO show. Created by David Simon, one of the brains behind "Homicide, Life on the Street", this is a raw look at how cops fight crime in Baltimore. Season 1 dealt with a single case, bringing down Avon Barksdale and his drug empire. Season 2 carries on with the fallout of season 1 as well as a new case on the docks. Dominic West is great as the damaged, raw, brilliant detective Jimmy McNulty and the supporting cast is very, very good and littered with familiar faces from "Homicide". It is available on TMN, but I recommend getting your hands on the DVD. The Hamilton Public Library has the first two seasons available to borrow, assuming you, like me, can't afford to spend $110 for each season. Be warned, it is not for the faint of heart.

My baseball season (GO SHOOTERS) starts in three weeks and I am seriously amped. Sadly, I cannot make practice because of prior commitments, but I'll be ready to go when the first pitch is thrown May 16.

Also, if anyone reading is available this Sunday morning to help with a move, leave me a note in the comments and I'll get in touch with you.

Later.

American Idol

2005-04-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

So, Christine and I called it right this week. Buh-bye, Nadia. A victim of HORRIBLE song choice. When Randy-freakin'-Jackson doesn't recognize the song, you can pretty much call it done.

So I did pretty good on my top 8, getting 5 right (Anwar, Anthony and Constantine for the guys, Nadia and Vonzell for the girls). I had no idea when I put the top 8 together that Bo and Carrie were that good, cause they were easy top 8's.

I am getting more and more impressed with Vonzell and Constantine. It is a very real possibility that those two will be the finalists, since they are the ones showing constant improvement week-to-week. Constantine's "Bohemian Rhapsody" this week was, as Simon stated, ASTONISHING. I was a bit surprised to see Bo in the bottom 3 and even more shocked to see Scott there, since he brought the awesome with the Hall and Oates tune "She's Gone". Carrie should have definitely been there after wrecking "Love is a Battlefield". At this level, mixing up the words should be unforgiveable.

So, I'll roll the dice and predict a final four of Constantine, Vonzell, Anwar and Carrie. It will all depend largely on the themes week-to-week. I only have Carrie coming through due to the fact that, if this week's performance won't run her, then only the loss of her voice will do it. But she won't win.

To sum up............

2005-04-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

After reviewing my projected finishes, I realized it didn't quite add up, so here's my won-lost results revised to balance.

AL East
Boston 102 60
New York 98 64
Toronto 75 87
Baltimore 73 89
Tampa Bay 73 89

AL Central
Chicago 89 73
Minnesota 85 77
Detroit 81 81
Cleveland 77 85
Kansas City 52 110

AL West
Los Angeles 97 65
Texas 85 77
Oakland 78 84
Seattle 74 88

ALDS - New York def. Los Angeles, Boston def. Chicago
ALCS - New York def. Boston

NL East
Atlanta 91 71
Philadelphia 85 77
Florida 84 78
New York 83 79
Washington 70 92

NL Central
St. Louis 103 59
Chicago 90 72
Houston 88 74
Pittsburgh 76 86
Cincinnati 75 87
Milwaukee 67 95

NL West
San Diego 90 72
San Francisco 82 80
Los Angeles 81 81
Colorado 67 95
Arizona 59 103

NLDS: St. Louis def. San Diego, Chicago def. Atlanta
NLCS: St. Louis def. Chicago

WORLD SERIES: New York def. St. Louis

To all whom I told I wasn't picking NY to win.............oops, my bad.

GO YANKEES GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005 Baseball Season Preview

2005-04-04T07:46:00.000-04:00

Finally, here's the rest. It's long, so get comfy. Also, the win-loss may not add up and I'll fix it in the summary post to follow:

Pre-Season Preview – National League Central

Once again, this is going to be a close race, with three teams very evenly matched and one that could be there with them. Let’s get to it:

Chicago Cubs – How these guys didn’t make the playoffs last year is one of the greatest mysteries to me. Yes, the Cardinals were unbelievable down the stretch, but a team as talented as the 2004 Cubs should have never let the Astros up off the deck. Even without Mark Prior for the first half of the season, this team was loaded offensively and had enough pitching to go places. Yet, they didn’t and I’m not sold on the 2005 version. Already, the injury bug has bitten Prior (elbow inflammation) and Kerry Wood (bursitis) and neither will be ready for Opening Day. Matt Clement is gone to Boston and his likely replacement in the rotation, Ryan Dempster, is two years removed from Tommy John and has admitted that his velocity isn’t where he wants it to be. Joe Borowski is gone for 4-6 weeks and that makes LaTroy Hawkins the closer. Hawkins bombed in the job not once, but twice last year, causing Oakland to deal for Octavio Dotel and sending Cubs manager Dusty Baker to look for the Maalox. Finally, I think Baker’s the worst manager for this team just based on the way he has historically mishandled pitchers and, if there’s ever been a team who cannot afford to mishandle pitchers, it’s this one. Offensively, the Cubs will miss Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou, but that pain should be eased by a full season of Nomar Garciaparra (if he stays healthy) and Jeromy Burnitz (if last year’s numbers aren’t Colorado-inflated). I also think that this is the year that Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Corey Patterson establish themselves as All-Stars. A lot of health concerns and what-ifs here, but there’s plenty with everyone else in this division, so what’s to say they won’t be there at the end? Let’s say that the Cubs get the genie in the bottle the Red Sox captured last year and keep everyone healthy and happy and win 95. 95-67.

Cincinnati Reds – Speaking of injury-prone teams, here you go. One of the greatest collection of outfielders in recent memory has hardly ever played together because one (or more) of Ken Griffey, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns has been on the DL. Things are looking up this spring, though, as Griffey has shown no ill effects of the hamstring tear that ended last season and Austin Kearns is tearing up spring training. Assuming these two stay healthy and Adam Dunn and Sean Casey continue their awesome run started last year, this team could rack up the runs. Good thing, because their pitching is hideous. Paul Wilson’s miracle run last year ended in September with shoulder problems, but he says he’s better. The Reds dealt for Angels’ headcase Ramon Ortiz, who may or may not find the strike zone on a given day and signed veteran free agent Eric Milton who, with the run support he’s likely to receive this year, should win 15-18 games. The back of the rotation is still not yet set, as Luke Hudson, Aaron Harang and Brandon Claussen battle it out. Danny Graves is the closer and if the Reds get the pre-All Star break version all year, they’ll be happy as pigs in mud. Still, too many thin spots (weak infield and rotation, injury-prone, poor bullpen) to like them this year and if they deal Wily Mo Pena, they’re fools. 79-83.

Houston Astros – Here is the poster child for the big deadline deal, as Carlos Beltran rode into town, put the team on his back and they rode past Chicago into the playoffs. Now Beltran is gone to the Mets, Lance Berkman is out until midseason and they look much like they did at the start of last season, old and fading. Spring efforts to get Craig Biggio back to second base have not gone well and it looks like Chris Burke will get the nod. A full season of Adam Everett and a full season of the second half version of Morgan Ensberg will do wonders for the club. Jason Lane is thrust into a must-produce role, as much of the pop in the lineup will need to come from him, as Jeff Bagwell and his deteriorating shoulders have pushed him into a support role. Pitching will once again be led by Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and a, hopefully, healthy Andy Pettitte. Brad Lidge established himself as possibly the best closer in the NL (and no, I haven’t forgotten buddy with the goggles in L.A.) and is as close to automatic as there is. This means that the Astros can probably play a lot of 7 and 8 inning games this year, which will help with this aging crew. Gerry Hunsicker may have to pull the trigger on another big deal this year to make the playoffs. 88-74.

Milwaukee Brewers – And from the penthouse to the outhouse we go. When a team is seriously looking at Russ Branyan as a starter, you have to wonder. Now, there is a lot to like in Milwaukee, as the team made two smart off-season swaps, landing Carlos Lee from the White Sox in exchange for Scott Posednik and riding Dan Kolb’s hot closer run right to the pay window, walking away with Atlanta’s highly-regarded pitching prospect Jose Capellan. Too soon to tell whether Capellan will start or close, but he should be effective in either role. Lee provides a monster bat in the middle, where he should enjoy protection from either Lyle Overbay or Geoff Jenkins (another health risk). Milwaukee’s farm system should start paying off this year, as J.J. Hardy is marked in as the starting shortstop and Rickie Weeks will take over second base once Junior Spivey makes his annual trip to the DL. Leadoff is an issue without Podsednik, but one of Brady Clark or Dave Krynzel should emerge. Pitching-wise, the bullpen is a horror show, but Ben Sheets looks set to assume the lead in the rotation and should be in the Cy Young running this year. Doug Davis had a few good runs last year and should be more consistent in 2005, giving Milwaukee a good 1-2 in the rotation. If Ben Hendrickson and Victor Santos can hold up in the 3-4 and Capellan can take the fifth spot, the Brewers have a not-bad rotation. However, they’re at least one, maybe two years away. 75-87.

Pittsburgh Pirates – Here they come. They won’t make the playoffs this year, but the Pirates are going to be there in the next couple of years. The amazing Oliver Perez (an early favourite for 2005 NL Cy Young) leads a rotation that could be impressive, especially if Kip Wells holds up for a full year. There isn’t a real strong candidate for the fifth spot in the rotation, but manager Lloyd McClendon can take the chance this year on auditioning a few young arms in that spot. Jose Mesa had a great year in 2004 and is counted on to continue this year. Offensively, this team is coming into its own, led by 2004 NL Rookie of the Year Jason Bay and the unrelated Wilsons (first baseman Craig and shortstop Jack). Matt Lawton and Benito Santiago provide veteran leadership and Tike Wilson should have a mild breakout this year atop the batting order. If the Pirates get serious in the offseason about adding some veteran talent, this team could challenge in 2006. 82-80.

St. Louis Cardinals – Ah, the 2004 darlings who folded like a cheap tent in the World Series. You betcha they’ll be back this year, but nothing’s cast in stone, as injuries could easily derail this team. Outfielders Larry Walker and Jim Edmonds have lengthy injury histories and All-Everything first baseman Albert Pujols is still battling a cranky foot (plantar fasciitis is no fun, trust me). As well, the top three starters (Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder and Matt Morris) and closer Jason Isringhausen aren’t exactly poster children for athletic health. But, assuming the injury bug is kept to a minimum, this team is a 100-game winner. The Cards smartly cut their losses as Woody Williams walked away by trading with the A’s to land Mulder. Mulder had an off year in 2004 and cost the Cards dearly, as I think Danny Haren will be a champ within two years and Kiko Calero is an excellent reliever, but if he returns to 2003 form, he will be a tremendous contributor in St. Loo. Tony LaRussa is a proven winner and a smart manager of pitchers and the Cards seldom play themselves out of a game (excluding the Series). This is the team to beat in the NL, make no mistake about it, and only injuries can change that. 103-59.

National League West

Arizona Diamondbacks – Hard to believe these guys won the 2001 Series. What a difference 2 years make. Using the Florida Marlins’ playbook for rapid dismantling of a World champion, the D-Backs will be hard-pressed to avoid 100 losses this year. To replace Randy Johnson (dealt this year to the Yankees) and Curt Schilling (dealt last year to the Red Sox), the D-Backs have Javier Vazquez, who may or may not have lost his edge after a dreadful season in the Yankee media glare, and Russ Ortiz, who did win 20 games two years ago, but has horrid control and pitches himself into jams in almost every inning. Thankfully, he has a rubber arm, so he’ll do the one thing Arizona needs him to do (eat innings). The bullpen’s a mess and their offensive hope rests on the surgically-repaired shoulders of Troy Glaus and Luis Gonzalez. Shawn Green, like Vazquez, must get his head screwed on right in order to resume what had been, before last year, an impressive career. A return to right field should help. Still, not much to see here, move on. 59-103.

Colorado Rockies – This year’s team should take the field to the Who’s “Who Are You?”, because nobody knows these guys. After more than a decade of pricey free agents and a Frankenstein monster of a team that played beer-league games at home and like a bunch of fantasy-camp businessmen on the road, the Rockies have gotten young and hungry. These guys are going to struggle mightily this year, but they’ll be there soon (probably 2007). Preston Wilson and a slimmed-down Todd Helton will be asked to carry the bulk of the power this year, but youngsters Matt Holliday, Clint Barmes, Aaron Miles and J.D. Closser will start carrying their share of the load this year. Pitching-wise, Jason Jennings and Joe Kennedy are pretty good, Shawn Chacon is on his way out and Chin-Hui Tsao should be able to hold on to the toughest closing job in the major leagues. The guy to watch, though, is Jeff Francis, who will take his first steps to stardom in 2005. Not this year, not next year, but by 2007 the Rockies will be back. 67-95.

Los Angeles Dodgers – And away we go to schizo land. What is with this bunch? They have a GM (Paul DePodesta) who seems to treat the team like a Roto team, dealing away the heart of the team (Paul LoDuca) and an ace setup man (Guillermo Mota) for a pitcher (Brad Penny) who, almost immediately, goes down with nerve problems. He then ships Shawn Green to Arizona for Dioner Navarro and spare parts after bailing out of a three-team deal with the D-Backs and Yankees that would have seen him deal the same players for better return. Points, though, for unloading the erratic Kaz Ishii to the Mets for Jason Phillips, who fixes the hole left by LoDuca’s exit and buys Navarro time to season at Triple-A. The Dodgers are loaded with what-ifs: What if CF Milton Bradley has another mid-season meltdown, what if free agent signee J.D. Drew cannot adjust to spacious Chavez Ravine, what if the Dr. Jekyll versions of Derek Lowe and/or Jeff Weaver appear this year, what if Brad Penny’s injury is serious enough to cost him significant time this year and, finally, what if Eric Gagne’s knee isn’t 100%? A lot that can go wrong and, given the Dodgers’ historically fractious chemistry, could turn 2005 into a disaster that could cost DePodesta and manager Jim Tracy their jobs. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say 81-81.

San Diego Padres – The one team that can keep pace with the Giants in this division and, now that Barry Bonds is all but done for 2005, might actually win the thing. The Padres have a bona-fide ace in Jake Peavy, who anchors a very good rotation. The Padres only have to be good for 7 innings, too, since they have Akinori Otsuka and Trevor Hoffman waiting in the bullpen to knock out opponents. They’ve also got offense to burn too, with middle-of-the-order power from Brian Giles, Ryan Klesko and Phil Nevin supplementing on-base and speed performance from Mark Loretta and Dave Roberts, who was the sparkplug for the Red Sox in the 2004 playoffs. Supersub Xavier Nady is a star in waiting and, if Sean Burroughs finds a power stroke, the Padres have a great combination of youth/veterans, speed/power, pitching/hitting. Nevin and Klesko are somewhat fragile, but they have options if one or even both go down hurt. I like this team to win a tight horserace with the Giants. 90-72.

San Francisco Giants – Can they do it without Barry? Hard to say. It’s impossible to replace Bonds’ numbers, but Pedro Feliz will give it the ol’ college try. The bigger question, though, is can they win with their rotation? Jason Schmidt is awesome, but it looks a lot like Schmidt and 4 days of good luck until they come around to him again. Jerome Williams and Noah Lowry will be very good, just not this year and Brett Tomko and Kirk Rueter don’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of opponents. Signing Armando Benitez gives the Giants a bona-fide bullpen stopper, but will they get the ball to him often enough? Offensively, they’ll be fine. Moises Alou and Marquis Grissom seem to get better with age and, as said before, Feliz is a star. The biggest knock is their age and the fact that there ain’t much there there if any of the starters go down, since many of the backups are never-will-be’s and their best option at multiple positions (Feliz) is not an option while he’s subbing for Bonds. I think the Giants had a ghost of a chance with Bonds and less than that without him. 82-80.

American League East

Baltimore Orioles – The AL East is touted as really being two divisions, and who can argue? The Orioles, along with Toronto and Tampa Bay, really do have their own private division as they all dream of passing Boston and New York, but are in reality miles behind them. With the Orioles, they have very little pitching and tons of hitting. Miguel Tejada put up MVP-like numbers last year and Melvin Mora is one of the best third basemen in the majors and the addition of Sammy Sosa can only help the offense. Rafael Palmeiro showed signs of slowing down last year, but that could just be a one-year aberration. Brian Roberts, Larry Bigbie, Jay Gibbons and Luis Matos MUST produce this year or it could be time to give others a chance. This is going to be a tough year for Birds fans, as Baltimore is going to hit lots and get hit lots. Usually, in those cases, the hittees wind up on the wrong side of the ledger. 73-89.

Boston Red Sox – Being a Yankees fan, it’s hard to swallow the events of the 2004 ALCS. Give the Red Sox props though, as they refused to pack up after being thoroughly whomped in the first three games and looking a bit like whipped puppies. Question is, can they do it again? Make no mistake, losing Pedro Martinez to free agency was big and not having Curt Schilling for the start of the season makes it hurt that much more. David Wells gets the nod for Opening Day and, while he’s very, very good, he ain’t no Schilling. Matt Clement and Bronson Arroyo should have good years and the top 4 in the rotation should be very effective. Combine that with closer Keith Foulke and a tough and varied bullpen attack, and you gotta like what you see. Offensively, the Sox are stacked with the addition of Edgar Renteria and (hopefully) a full season of Trot Nixon. There’s no reason why the Sox can’t go deep into the postseason again, but they won’t get an easy World Series win again. Still, count on them to be there. 105-57.

New York Yankees – Aaaaand here’s the other really good team. The Giambi mess now (somewhat) behind them, the Yanks can focus on chasing Boston and getting playoff revenge. But there’s some worry in Yankeeville. Yes, they got their man for the front of their rotation, working Randy Johnson free from Arizona. They also made some smart free-agent signings, specifically Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, but they must get a return to form from Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown if they’re going to make a run at Boston. More importantly, Joe Torre must find a way to keep his starters on both sides of the ball healthy, cause there just ain’t much in the cabinet (Ruben Sierra, Damien Rolls, Doug Glanville to name a few of the “top-drawer” reserves) if anyone goes down for an extended period of time. Two or three key injuries to the Yanks could be truly devastating this year. Having said that, if they stay healthy, see you in October. I say they stay relatively healthy. 98-74.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays – I sense something really special starting to happen in T.Bay. Already in possession of a major star outfielder in Carl Crawford and a serious middle-of-the-order hitter in Aubrey Huff, the Rays are on the verge of welcoming some heavy-duty young talent to their roster. Pitcher Scott Kazmir will be an impact player this year and B.J. Upton should assume the everyday shortstop role by the all-star break. If Jorge Cantu can step into the second base spot and Rocco Baldelli can come all the way back from his knee injury, Lou Piniella will have the young nucleus of a very, very good team. Add a few veterans and the Rays might be the team to break through in the AL East to challenge the Yankees and Red Sox in a few years. Not this year, though, as the pitching remains paper-thin and there’s still some significant holes in the offense. Still, they’ll be in the running for third. 75-87.

Toronto Blue Jays – Ted Rogers may have stepped in at exactly the right time, as the Blue Jays are starting to build themselves back to mid-market respectability. J.P. Ricciardi has made his share of odd moves, but he has proven to be right more often than not. Some question the wisdom of letting Carlos Delgado walk, but he wasn’t going to give the Jays a discount and he is not worth $17 million. That money can be used to shore up the rotation, because there’s lots of offense (Vernon Wells, Alexis Rios, Eric Hinske). Shea Hillenbrand and Corey Koskie should also contribute and, if Gabe Gross is as real as spring training suggests, he’s going to be a force. Pitching’s still thin behind Halladay and Lilly, and moving Miguel Batista to the closer spot was kind of an odd decision, but the Jays are moving in the right direction. Ricciardi failed to land key pitching free agents this year, but the money will be there and a winning spirit will help. Next year and the year after will be better, but this year will be up and down. 75-87.

American League Central

Chicago White Sox – There is a lot to like in Chicago, but there’s some worry, too. With the Carlos Lee – Scott Podsednik deal, the Sox are moving more in the direction of a small-ball team. Power is limited to Paul Konerko, who has been Jekyll-Hyde over the last three years, and the fragile Jermaine Dye, who finally had a healthy season in 2004. Frank Thomas will kick in some offense during the second half, but it’s not likely to make a difference if they can’t make the transition from plodding power to hit-and-run. If the offense can’t go, it won’t matter how good the pitching is. Freddy Garcia is good for 17-20 wins and Mark Buerhle should pull 15. If Orlando Hernandez stays healthy and Jose Contreras and Jon Garland find their groove, this could be a very special rotation. Shingo Takatsu looks good as the closer and Dustin Hermanson and Damaso Marte provide solid bulloen support. If the transition to run and gun is smooth, Thomas delivers upon his return and the pitching is as good as it looks on paper, the White Sox will challenge for the division. It says here they challenge. 89-73.

Cleveland Indians – It appears that the Juan Gonzalez experiment is a dog. C.C. Sabathia is starting the season on the DL. It’s not a good start. But there is a lot to like here. Some really special hitters (Casey Blake, Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner) and lots of talent in the wings (particularly Grady Sizemore) combine with some good young pitching (Sabathia, Jake Westbrook and Cliff Lee) to make this a team that could make some noise. The Kevin Millwood deal is a smart one that could pay big dividends if Millwood stays healthy and the Indians need a return to form by Millwood, Bob Wickman and Aaron Boone and a good showing from rookie shortstop Jhonny Peralta to have an impact on the division this year. It’s too much to expect one year too soon. Get ready for the Indians in 2006. 77-85.

Detroit Tigers – This is the year that Detroit starts to make their move. The young pitching rotation is maturing and benefits enormously from Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate while a smart free agent pickup in Troy Percival bolsters the bullpen and gives Alan Trammell an option if Ugueth Urbina crashes and burns. The Magglio Ordonez signing is risky, but has HUGE upside if he comes all the way back from his knee problems. The release of Alex Sacnhez causes a mild headache atop the order, but it isn’t a big problem, because the Tigers are better off without him. Craig Monroe will settle into the centre field slot vacated by Sanchez. The Tigers have a good mix of veteran talent, youth and leadership and should move into the upper tier of a competitive and winnable Central Division this year. 88-74.

Kansas City Royals – This team is a mess. 70% of the starting lineup would be in backup/reserve roles almost anywhere else in the majors (the exceptions are Mike Sweeney, when healthy, and David DeJesus). The percentage decreases if the Royals get the 2003 version of Angel Berroa instead of the 2004 vintage, which spent time in the minors. Zack Greinke is a solid No. 1 starter, but the rotation’s a jumble behind him. Say hello to the year’s big losers. 52-110.

Minnesota Twins – Here’s a team that keeps on performing miracles and wonders. Johan Santana is a true ace and Joe Nathan is aces as a closer. Brad Radke had a renaissance last year and the Twins are hoping for the same result from Joe Mays, who returns from injury. Offensively, the Twins look for bounce-back years from Jacque Jones and Joe Mauer and take the chance that Jason Bartlett is MLB-ready. The Twins should win the division on the strength of their pitching, but if Santana should get hurt, trouble looms. Minnesota won last year in large part because the White Sox imploded. If the Sox hold it together, this is going to be a good race. I think the Twins’ run ends this year. 85-77.

American League West.

Gonna be a four team race again this year.

Los Angeles Angels – Once again loaded for bear, the Angels are on a mission to win the West. This is the year they likely do it. Competition will be stiff, but the Angels have plenty of muscle to handle it. The team will hit a ton, and Steve Finley and Orlando Cabrera are significant offensive upgrades over Tim Salmon and David Eckstein. The Angel outfield of Finley, Garrett Anderson and all-everything Vladimir Guerrero is one of, if not the, best in the majors. If the Angels get undone by anything, it will be their pitching. Bartolo Colon historically struggles early and Kelvim Escobar is on the DL. John Lackey and Jarrod Washburn must bounce back from an average year in ’04. But, if they get to late in the game, the ominous presence of Francisco Rodriguez waits. I think the Angels will need to make some sort of a deal at the deadline for a starter, but it will just be to get them over the hump. 97-65.

Oakland A’s – Once again trying to make lemonade from lemons, the A’s are going to try to compete and rebuild at the same time. Barry Zito is now the leader of the pack with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder gone, and it’s going to be really iffy after him, as Rich Harden, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton and Dan Meyer are not proven. The offense is also questionable as Erubiel Durazo and Eric Chavez are the main power sources with the hope that Nick Swisher will step up. Durazo and Chavez are both injury risks and need to stay healthy, now more than ever, and Jason Kendall will be a welcome addition to the roster as well as a help to the young rotation. I am less than convinced that the A’s will be in the running this year, but they always seem to hit big when least expected. Not this year. 82-80.

Seattle Mariners – Big rebound coming this year after a lost 2004. The signings of Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre should bolster an offense and help Ichiro Suzuki’s 200-plus hits translate into al least 130 runs. Bret Boone should also benefit from the added muscle, as he should see better pitches. Jeremy Reed must be MLB-ready and Jamie Moyer must lead the rotation this year. Gil Meche, Joel Piniero and Ryan Franklin must all come back from injury, as must Eddie Guardado. They need a lot of help, but it’s possible the M’s will see the playoffs if the offense pops and the pitching holds up. That won’t happen, but it’s going to be much sunnier in rainy Washington State. 74-88.

Texas Rangers – If the Rangers’ pitching is any better, then they find themselves in the running. They can hit a ton, but they can’t pitch a lick. Ryan Drese, Juan Dominguez and Chris Young will be good, just not yet. It’ll be a frustrating year in Texas, with lots of 8-7 shootouts with Texas on the wrong side of the result. If they get the ball to Francisco Cordero, Texas wins. If not, tough nights in Arlington. 85-77.

A new place to visit

2005-03-28T22:58:00.000-05:00

I have decided that I want to move my spiritual posts to a new blog. From now on, Pops 'n' Buzzes will be dedicated to the non-spitiual. I have opened Land of My Sojourn and I will be posting all kinds of stuff there as I diarize my spiritual walk. Please come visit and join me in my travels.

Baseball Season Preview - Part 1

2005-03-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

So, I said I would take a run at a season preview and I'm gonna do it. Let's start with the NL East:

Atlanta Braves: Yet again the class of the NL East, but they're going to face stiffer competition this year. The Braves have always been recognized as a well-managed organization, acquiring top-drawer talent through smart trades while avoiding spending Yankee- or Met-sized dollars on free agents. This season is no exception, as the Braves made a smart deal shipping Jose Capellan and a couple of other minor leaguers to Milwaukee to land Dan Kolb while Charles Thomas and others were packaged to Oakland to deliver Tim Hudson. The Kolb deal allowed John Smoltz to return to his happy place, the starting rotation and, along with Hudson, create a pretty fair starting rotation. Hudson and Smoltz lead the way and Mike Hampton, John Thomson and Horacio Ramirez fill out the back nicely. The Braves should have little trouble getting the ball to Kolb, but I sense a lot of low-scoring games. The Braves offense is iffy, especially with senior citizen Brian Jordan and perpetual headcase Raul Mondesi starting in the corners between Andruw Jones. If one or the other fails to perform, rookies Ryan Langerhans and Jeff Francouer are next in line. Both have raw talent, but no real MLB experience, which could cause problems in the pressure cooker of the stretch drive. GM John Schuerholz may need to make a deal for a proven outfielder. Marcus Giles and Chipper Jones provide solid performance on both sides of the field and Rafael Furcal should rebound from an underwhelming 2004. Adam LaRoche MUST perform this year and Johnny Estrada's solid behind the plate. Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone are in the business of winning, and this year should be no exception. 94-68.

Florida Marlins: A number of folks seem to think the free-agent signing of Carlos Delgado will move this team over the top, but I see Al Leiter as just as important, as he brings veteran stability to a rotation seemingly knocked wobbly by their World Series win in 2003. Recurring injuries to starter Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett's return from Tommy John surgery seemed to combine to keep Florida just off-balance enough. The deadline deal with L.A. last year will pay full dividends this year, as the staff will benefit from a full year of Paul LoDuca behind the dish and Guillermo Mota has all the tools to be an awesome closer. There is a lot to like about this offense, which still sports two serious jackrabbits atop the order in Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo, and big pop in the middle from Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera (a major star in the making) and Delgado. They won the 2003 Series as a wild card and I like them to be in the hunt this year. 92-70.

New York Mets: Well, they made the splash of the offseason, shelling out a bundle to land Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. Victor Zambrano is still hurt and may well be a villain at Shea if Scott Kazmir (who the Mets traded for Zambrano) lights it up in T-Bay, as is Steve Trachsel. That leaves the rotation in disarray after Martinez, Kris Benson and Tom Glavine, although the acquisition last week of Kaz Ishii from LA for catcher Jason Phillips (talk about overpaying) gives the Mets a much-needed innings eater. Braden Looper is a good-not-yet-great closer and the bullpen is iffy. The Mets' signing of Beltran created a shmozz in the outfield as Mike Cameron balked at moving to right field, but he's hurt and the Mets are trying to move him before he comes off the DL. That move almost seems more motivated by a desire to see Victor Diaz join Beltran and Cliff Floyd in the outfield. The infield is better defensively with Doug Mientkiewicz at first and Mike Piazza behind the plate, but the big boost should come from Kaz Matsui (now with a season under his belt) and future stud David Wright. Lots to like here, but still some holes. I think the Mets are going to be active this offseason gearing up for a serious run at the top in 2006. 83-79.

Philadelphia Phillies: MLB's most schizophrenic team. This lot should have done much better last year. Instead, they were a dog's breakfast during the second half and manager Larry Bowa (deservedly) took the fall. Now the laid-back Charlie Manuel is in charge and he inherits a collection of challenges. First is sorting out the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation. After Jon Lieber (who's going to have a MONSTER year), Randy Wolf and Cory Lidle, it all gets muddy. Vicente Padilla has nearly played himself out of the rotation and Brett Myers hangs on only because nobody better is stepping up. Lots to like offensively, as Kenny Lofton will provide, along with Jimmy Rollins, a lot of go and you can't go much better than a 3-4-5 of Bob Abreu, Jim Thome and Pat Burrell (assuming Burrell has head on straight). If the bullpen holds together, Billy Wagner waits (and he's healthy, too). I think time's running out for this organization and they're either going to do well or push too hard from desperation and Ed Wade will break them up at the trading deadline. I choose the latter. 88-74.

Washington Nationals: I think it's somewhat cool that I have this division picked to finish in alphabetical order, which tells you where I think the ex-Expos will land. Things are still not settled in the land of lies and deceit, and there are just too many holes and what-ifs in the Nationals' lineup. Livan Hernandez is a good, reliable starter who would be a good #4 almost anywhere else. In Washington, he's the ace. Zach Day has, for all intents and purposes, been banished from the rotation, Esteban Loaiza crashed back to earth in 2004 after a miraculous 2003 and Tony Armas and Tomo Ohka both battled through major injuries last year. The offense is a little thin, as they have only three significant power threats in Brad Wilkerson, Jose Guillen and Nick Johnson. This of course assumes that Johnson stays physically healthy and Guillen doesn't go postal. Chad Cordero is a goody in the closer role and he'll get more than his share of save opportunities, since the Nats will win a lot of 2-1, 3-1, 3-2 games. Sadly, I see a lot of abuse in the Nats' future but better days are likely ahead. 70-92.

Tomorrow (or whenever): NL Central.

Things that make me happy

2005-03-23T18:46:00.000-05:00

......MAN. I'm glad I didn't have to go to Toronto today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Idol (updated)

2005-03-23T07:15:00.000-05:00

Haven't gotten around to this week's 24 yet, but we did watch American Idol last night, and here's some observations:

GREAT show last night, as almost everyone turned it up a notch and cranked out great performances. I was really impressed with Carrie's take on the Heart song "Alone" and Vonzell was awesome, too.

Nadia wins best hairstyle ever. That mohawk will never be matched.

Constantine sings "I Think I Love You" by the Partridge Family. Yeah. I have a sneaking suspicion his buds weren't talking to him after that one.

Who keeps feeding Mikalah downers? Somebody get this girl some Jolt Cola, STAT!

As much as I hate to say it, I think I'm losing a Final 8 tonight, because I think Mikalah's dodged the bullet as long as she can and goes buh-bye.

Update:

Someone bungled the phone numbers and they had to scrap the voting for this week, so we got a rehash of Tuesday's show tonight. Voting results are up tomorrow. I still think it's Mikalah leaving.

March Madness

2005-03-21T08:14:00.000-05:00

I do not follow basketball at any level. I like to play, but I can't get into it as a spectator. This all changes at this time of year, as my favourite time on the US college calendar, March Madness, goes into high gear.

For the two people out there unfamiliar with the format, 64 teams are entered into the tournament. These are the winners of various conferences and a handful of "at-large" bids. The 64 are broken into 4 regions and seeded 1-16. On the opening 4-day weekend, 48 teams go home in a series of single-elimination games. So, on Thursday and Friday, there were 16 games per day and another 8 per day on Saturday and Sunday. The surviving 16 meet this Saturday and the winners play this Sunday to create the Final Four. These teams meet April 2 and the winners play Monday, April 4 to determine a champion. It's frantic, anything-goes pace guarantees upsets and rewards consistency. It's also awesome TV, as students from the competing schools make the trip to the games and help create a super hot crowd.

Having watched bits and pieces of about 10 games this weekend, I am now officially rooting for Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Any team that plays that hard deserves a little glory. My game of the tournament is split between NC State-Connecticut (a great finish and an underdog upset of the defending champs by State) and Wake Forest-W. Virginia (another upset of a no.2 seed as W. Virginia won in a thrilling double OT). I have yet to see Duke (my favourite team) play, but of the four #1 seeds, they have been least convincing in their wins thus far. North Carolina is whomping so far, having won by 28 and 23 points so far, but they should get a stern test in the Sweet 16 against Villanova. Washington looks OK and, if they get by Louisville, should roll to the Final Four. Illinois looks good, too, but they have Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the 16 and I smell an upset.

My final 8:

Chicago Bracket - Wisconsin-Milwaukee v. Arizona
Albuquerque Bracket - Washington v. Texas Tech
Syracuse - UNC v. NC State (That'll be a ring-a-ding-dong dandy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Austin - Michigan State vs. Kentucky

Back with a final four next Monday. Also coming soon..........my 2005 Baseball Picks. Don't miss 'em.

Also, for those with a taste for controversy, I'm not done yet with spiritual v. political, same-sex marriage and Brian McLaren/emergent.

It won't be dull.

I'm not done yet

2005-03-15T07:28:00.000-05:00

I've been doing a lot of reading on our responsibility as Christians (or, more broadly, as people of faith) and how we should interact with the political forum. I am trying (in my spare time) to put together another post on the issue, eliminating the same-sex marriage focus and making it a broader question, which I think is the real grounding of the issue at hand.

More later, I promise.

Cool brain game

2005-03-13T18:50:00.000-05:00

There's a very cool little test I encourage you to take. In a nutshell, it presents 40 simple sentences and asks you to choose a suitable word/set of words to complete the sentence. Here are my scores:

English Genius
You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 94% Expert!

Have fun. Also, do take the time to share your scores (even anonymously).

More on same-sex marriage

2005-03-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

I went back and re-read my original post before writing this one, just to make sure I'm in relatively the same spot. I think I am.

I have thought a lot about this. Before I start, allow me to clarify this. If the government were to call a referendum tomorrow on the same-sex marriage issue, I would be at the voting booth first thing in the morning and I would vote against it. My reasons are moral, and here it is:

I believe the definition of marriage to be "one man and one woman, united under God, until death do you part". Therefore, marriage is, to me, a creation of God, blessed by Him, designed to last for the duration of the couple's life spans. Adam and Eve were instructed to go forth and fill the earth. God designed us physically so that a man and a woman are both required components for successful child birth. He also gave us the joy of sexual union so we would find the process enjoyable. He did not say anywhere in the Bible that pre-marital sex, cohabitation without marriage, adultery or homosexuality are acceptable and divorce could happen only under certain specific conditions. God also did not provide men carte blanche to beat their wives and God did not say that parents could simply refuse to honor their responsibilities. I also do not accept the idea that homosexuality is anything BUT a choice, since I do not believe that God has a sense of cruelty about him that he would wire men to desire men or women to desire women.

Based on this, I oppose same-sex marriage.

But.

But those are MY beliefs. Ask my neighbor or a co-worker, you just might get a different answer. That is why the marriage definition will be changed. The government has come down saying that they are redefining civil unions. That's cool, as far as it goes. It's important to remember that, in our society, a government is not for the Christians, by the Christians. It is not for the homosexuals, by the homosexuals. It is not for Hamilton, by Hamilton (although things would be better if it was;-) ).

It is FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE. Anyone with the ear of an MP or MPP can, if they make a successful case, get that politician to put forth a member's bill seeking a new law or changes to existing ones. Once it gets into debate and a vote, it is up to our elected officials to step up. We can express our pleasure and/or displeasure with them in a number of ways, most importantly by voting. If my MP votes for same-sex (and I already know Beth Phinney will), she has zero chance of getting my vote in the next election. The Conservatives could run someone who runs on a platform "How I hate the New York Yankees" on Hamilton Mountain and I'll vote for them. But it is not up to my MP to consider my moral position to be any stronger or more important than those who have sent letters in support of the issue.

If we really want to preserve true marriage, here's what those who claim to follow God need to do:

Seek a bill to separate marriage from civil unions. You wanna live common-law, marry in front of the justice o'the peace, marry within your sexual classification, knock yourself out. But you are NOT married, you are civilly joined. Marriage is for those who seek God's true meaning of the word.

Followers of God MUST go to work on healing their marriages. This can only be done by putting God first. A great deal of disillusionment about marriage and the ensuing erosion of the institution stems from the fact that those who claim to hold it most dear perform equally badly (or worse) at it than those who don't base their marriages on God.

God gave us an awesome gift when he created marriage. There is no earthly relationship that requires more energy, but the payback is phenomenal. We, however, surrender to the temptations of the world and allow our marriages to suffer, wither and die. The Meeting House has a great bit on marriage and I quote:

For instance, my wife and I might have a "tradition" that every Tuesday night we snuggle on the couch to eat popcorn and watch a movie. It can be a weekly routine that we enjoy and that contributes in its own little way to the intimacy of our marriage. But if we were to let other more important relational issues slide, rarely speaking to one another or prioritizing each other's desires and feelings, but still made a point of watching a movie and eating popcorn every Tuesday, whether we like it or not, it would soon become evident that this Tuesday night ritual is not helping us maintain a close marriage. In fact, it might actually be working against us, allowing us to "pretend" that everything between us is good without actually having to relate to each other in any meaningful way.

I think many Christians are, sadly, pretending. We need to be examples of how to have Godly marriages. We need to model those qualities so necessary in a successful marriage (patience, forgiveness, tolerance and love). If we live the example and reclaim the marriage banner as God had intended it to be, perhaps it would no longer be under the attack that we feel it is. There is no doubt that fundamental Christian beliefs are slowly being marginalized in the public eye and, as sad as that is, I think we have let ourselves in for it in so many ways.

If we want to see marriage restored, we (God's children) must lead the way so that future generations will learn from what went before. Only then can true repair happen.

It's late, I'm tired and I think I lost the thread toward the end. Comments are, as always, welcome.

Blessings.

A betrayal beyond deep, a forgiveness beyond great

2005-03-06T07:36:00.000-05:00

I want to share a passage from the book “The Story We Find Ourselves In” by Brian McLaren:

“…..For several seconds, Neo continued looking down into the water, breathing slowly, brow furrowed, lips pursed. Then he continued, first looking at each of us, then staring down at the fraying bandage on his forearm as he talked. There were just two sounds: his deep, slow voice and the water lapping against the boat: ‘When I was married, my wife – my ex-wife – had an affair, more than one actually. It was…..it was beyond words……devastating. I was a pastor, a good husband, I think. I’ll never forget….

‘Unless you’ve experienced it, you never know how physical betrayal feels……You trust someone, you think you know them, and then you find out, you find out you’ve been fooled, used, taken for granted, taken advantage of. You feel cheap, and violated.’

Now Kerry interrupted…..’Yes, I know, Neo. Your whole world goes empty, your stomach burns and your legs feel numb, your neck feels cold and your lungs feel like you’re breathing some poisonous gas and your brain is like one big fire alarm buzzing so loud you can hear it in your body. It’s exactly as you said: betrayal is something you feel in your whole body.’

Neo took a deep breath and resumed his story. ‘Anyway, we got counselling, and we talked, and she said she was sorry. She said all the right things. And I loved her, and I made solemn vows to her. I really believed in marriage vows and I still do. So I forgave her. And that was one of, no, that was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

‘I don’t know how to make that into a theory, but ever since that day, when I think of the Cross, I think it’s all about God’s agony being visible – you know, the pain of forgiving, the pain of absorbing the betrayal and forgoing any revenge, of risking that your heart will be hurt again, for the sake of love, at the very worst moment, when the beloved has been least worthy of forgiveness, but stands most in need of it. It’s not just words; it has to be embodied, and nails and thorns and sweat and tears and blood strike me as the only true language of betrayal and forgiveness.’”

*****Commentary withdrawn for revisions. I will re-post.***************

For all the worrywarts out there

2005-03-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

Next time a study tells you something is bad for you, go read this. Thanks to Jason for posting a great reality check.

Lots of stuff

2005-03-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

First, the answers to the NYPD Blue quiz:

1) Det. Martinez was played by Nicholas Turturro, Lt. Fancy was played by James McDaniel, Det. Licalsi was played by Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy), Det. Russell was played by Kim Delaney and, finally, Deputy DA Laura Michaels-Kelly was played by Sherry Stringfield, who left after Season 1 to join the cast of ER.

2) The cast member is Brad Whitford (aka Joshua Lyman). Whitford had gotten wind of the fact that Licalsi's dad was a corrupt cop who took his own life and that his daughter was also corrupt. A somewhat less-than-savory video was used as a blackmail tool to get him to back off.

3) The cast member is David Schwimmer (Ross). He played a character who lived in Laura Michaels' building and was known by the nickname 4B (given to him by David Caruso's John Kelly character). 4B was mugged in the building laundry room and decided, against Kelly's advice, to turn vigilante and start packing a gun. When the mugger came back, 4B pulled his gun, lost it in a struggle and was killed.

4) The two PAA's were Donna Abandando (Gail O'Grady) and John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup)

5) Debra Messing played Donna's younger sister who showed up just long enough to destroy Donna's budding relationship with Detective Medavoy (Gordon Clapp).

6) Melina Kanakaredes played reporter Bonita Alden for 5 episodes in season 2. An old friend of Det. Simone's (Jimmy Smits), the two become more than friends until a story breaks that gets a witness killed. Simone blames Alden for leaking the story and ends the relationship.

7) Oldest-to-newest: James McDaniel as Arthur Fancy (1993-2001), Esai Morales as Tony Rodriguez (2001-2004), John F. O'Donoghue as Sgt. Gibson (2004), Currie Graham as Lt. Thomas Bale (2004-2005) and, as of yesterday, Dennis Franz as Sgt. Andy Sipowicz (2005).

8) Oldest-to-newest again: David Caruso as Det. John Kelly (1993-1994), Jimmy Smits as Det. Bobby Simone (1994-1998), Rick (Not Ricky) Schroeder as Det. Danny Sorenson (1998-2001) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (of Saved by the Bell) as Det. John Clark (2001-2005).

9) I accept a little bit of error on this one. Benzali made numerous appearances as Defense Attorney James Sinclair on NYPD Blue, first defending mobster Alphonse Giardella and later defending Det. Janice Licalsi. Benzali was so good in the role, he received the lead playing basically the same character on "Murder One". However, the character name on Murder One was Teddy Hoffman. So, my bad. BTW, Murder One is historic for another reason, as it was one of the first primetime non-soaps to carry its major storyline across 24 episodes.

10) Wives: Katie Sipowicz, Sylvia Costas-Sipowicz and Connie McDowell. Kids: Andrew Jr. (by Katie. Died in season 6 in the line of duty.), Theo (by Sylvia), Andy also had a child with Connie, whose name I don't recall. Connie also adopted her nephew, and Andy became the girl's father when he married Connie.

So there you go. Feel smarter?

As far as the Oscars go, I was right on 10 of 18 picks. I blew it on Director and both actress categories as well as some of the smaller awards, but, considering that the only nominated films I have seen this year are The Incredibles, Shark Tale and Shrek 2 (betcha didn't know I have kids), 60% ain't half bad. Shockingly (to me), I got both screenplays right, which I NEVER get.

Idol eliminations tonight. Christine and I agree that Celena and Janay should be the girls going home, but it's WAY too close to call with the guys. Guess we'll find out tonight. I'm also watching 24 tonight so I can hear with my own ears how many times they say "override". Guaranteed I'll work the word into my next conversation with Amy as many times as I can.

Later.

My all-time favorite cop show

2005-02-26T18:55:00.000-05:00

In 1994, I spent the summer working for Revenue Canada in Ottawa. While there, I lived in a 4-bedroom apartment on the U of Ottawa campus. It was there I first discovered NYPD Blue.

I had read a lot about this show prior to seeing it. In 1993, it was hugely controversial, peppering its dialogue with what, at the time, were considered high-intensity curse words seldom, if ever, heard on TV. There was also talk of nudity and very mature storylines. If the show had tried to get by on shock value alone, it might have lasted a season, but there was more to it.

Oh, so much more.

During the past 12 seasons, the show (written by a variety of people, but primarily Steven Bochco, the creator of the great Hill Street Blues) has remained challenging, with tough cases as the main storyline, but fantastic characters as its foundation. Dennis Franz is the staple of the show as Andy Sipowicz, a character who it was impossible to like at the start, but you couldn't help but root for him as the series evolved. So many great moments, just in the first 6 seasons (solving the Bucci child abduction, his stormy courtship of Sylvia, transitioning from partnering with John Kelly to Bobby Simone, the never-ending race-based battles with Lt. Fancy) made him one of the best-defined characters on TV.

Then you have all the other great characters: David Caruso as John Kelly (possibly my favorite TV character of all time), Gordon Clapp as Greg Medavoy (the only other character to make it through the entire run of the show) and so many others. I have picked up the first two seasons of the show on DVD and will pick up the rest as they come out.

In honor of the show, here's a trivia quiz. I even have a prize for the first person to get all the questions right:

1) Name the actors who played the following roles:

Det. James Martinez
Lt. Arthur Fancy
Det. Janice Licalsi
Det. Diane Russell
ADA Laura Michaels-Kelly

2) Which cast member of The West Wing had a brief recurring role as a reporter in Season 1 of NYPD Blue and how did the 15th Precinct make him back off a story?

3) Which cast member of Friends had a brief recurring role on NYPD Blue and what happened to the character?

4) Who were the two PAA's employed by the 15th Precinct during the show.

5) Debra Messing of Will and Grace got her start in what short-term role on NYPD Blue?

6) Melina Kanakaredes of CSI:NY got her start in what short-term role on NYPD Blue?

7) List (in order) the characters and actors who worked as the Lieutenant on NYPD Blue.

8) List (in order) Andy's partners (character name and actor) on NYPD Blue

9) Daniel Benzali had a brief role as Teddy Hoffman on NYPD Blue. What show did that character spin off to?

and finally....

10) List ALL of Andy's wives (character and actor) and all of Andy's kids (character and actor). Hint, there are THREE of each.

Good luck. Contest closes Monday at midnight.

Gonna go all over the map here

2005-02-25T05:28:00.000-05:00

For starters, if you get a chance, send up a quick prayer for me at 10:45 this morning, as I join the ranks of the sterilized.

Second prayer request is for a friend of mine. Last year, her father passed away after a series of illnesses. Shortly after that, she reacted badly to medication she was taking for migraines and lost more than 50 pounds, as she could not keep anything down. Finally, after getting that back under control and reaching a point where she felt ready to return to work, her mother suffered a major stroke the day she was supposed to return. She's now taking the summer off and I really believe that she just needs to feel God's peace during a very challenging life season.

Next up, Al posted a very thought-provoking piece on how the modern/post-modern church is evolving. You can read it here.

Next, the only awards show I ever watch is on this Sunday. The Oscars has always had a special place in my heart (especially given my love of movies). I am a big music buff, too, but the Grammys never get my attention. For some reason, the Oscars do. I always read up on the events (I haven't seen all the Best Picture nominees ahead of the presentation in at least 10 years), so I like to think I have a good handle on handicapping the race. Anyhoo, here's a fast 'n' furious analysis and set of predictions for Sunday:

Best Picture: If you believe the critics, it should be Sideways. However, Million Dollar Baby is building up strong momentum. Ray and Finding Neverland seem to be distant contenders, more likely to compete in the lower categories while The Aviator looks to be the victim of some backlash and bad buzz.

Best Actor: Nearly everyone is choosing Jamie Foxx for his role as Ray Charles while at the same time lamenting the fact that Paul Giamatti was not even nominated for Sideways. The consensus seems to be that Don Cheadle, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio are afterthoughts in this category and only Clint Eastwood can knock Foxx off the top of the mountain.

Best Actress: Starting to sound like a Million Dollar Baby sweep, as Hilary Swank is apparently leading the pack. Annette Bening is very much in the running, as is Imelda Staunton. Catalina Sandino Moreno is the "just glad to be nominated" candidate and Kate Winslet is the dark horse.

Best Director: Truly a two-horse race between two candidates deserving not only for the movies for which they are nominated, but also for their body of work. Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood are the long favorites, although Alexander Payne could sneak in for his work on Sideways. Taylor Hackford and Mike Leigh have no chance.

So there's the major categories. Here's my picks (a complete list of nominees can be found here):

Animated Film: The Incredibles
Sound Editing: Spider Man 2
Sound: Ray
Makeup: Passion of the Christ
Original Song: "Believe" (Polar Express)
Score: Finding Neverland
Costume: Lemony Snicket
Art Direction: Aviator
Editing: Million Dollar Baby
Cinematography: Aviator
Adapted Screenplay: Sideways
Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Director: Martin Scorsese (Aviator)
Supporting Actress: Virginia Madsen (Sideways)
Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby)
Actress: Annette Bening (Being Julia)
Actor: Jamie Foxx (Ray)
Picture: Million Dollar Baby

There you go.

See you in a few days (when the pain's gone away.)

Quick thought on AI and 24

2005-02-24T08:12:00.000-05:00

Watched both last night and have the following to say:

Lost a final 8 candidate last night (Melinda), but I don't feel too bad because I just put her in there to balance. The other three girls I have selected are miles above the competiton, but Mikalah better smarten up and I now think that Carrie is a top 8 lock.

Absolutely HORRIBLE way to send Judd packing. I think Seacrest is having a little too much fun eliminating contenders. If I'm Judd, I just walk off the stage.

Christine and I were discussing why the eliminated contenders are made to sing one more time. Christine thinks it's unfair, I think it's teaching these kids how to deal with rejection and failure and to keep focused on the goal. Any thoughts out there?

Another placeholder of sorts for 24 this week, as Tony returns to CTU, Erin is feeling pushed aside and we get rid of two key bad guys, as the mole and Daddy Dearest get wiped out. Curious to see how Audrey's hubby and the bald bearded guy fit into things over the next two weeks.

More later.

More TV That I like

2005-02-16T07:51:00.000-05:00

Hello, my name is Brian. I am an American Idol addict.

Christine and I started watching AI in they Clay/Ruben year (we both were rooting for Clay). Didn't follow it too much last year, although the guy who did the "Like A Virgin" audition is still burned into my brain (unfortunately).

There's something about AI that I like, an honesty to it. It's such a simple premise: sing for a contract, but it's really PERFORM for a contract. The best performer should be the one who wins. There's a few I already like this year and many of the ones I thought were exceptional are still around in the top 24, a complete list of which can be reviewed here. I have a feeling that the American Idol this year will be a male, as the guys who are good are very, very good.

So, here's a bold prediction for the final 8: Anwar, Constantine, Anthony and David for the guys. Nadia, Melinda, Mikalah and Vonzell for the girls. When we hit the final 8, we'll see how I did and I'll do up a final 4 prediction. Maybe I'll have a future handicapping reality shows (HA!)

Hmm, other stuff......

CSI:Miami has really stepped it up the last two weeks. The opening last week, with a girl being killed by a huge python was pretty nifty. They also dipped into identity theft, which was cool. However, a pair of contrived endings sorta wrecked it. I'll forgive them, though, as the show has really gotten back on stride during sweeps. However, I ask again....WHAT is going on with Vegas? Catherine's getting really rhymes-with-witchy, Ecklie's getting way too much screen time and I don't even know who works where anymore. Plus last week's storyline with the adult baby stuff was two steps beyond way too weird. Makes last year's episode about people dressing in critter costumes seem well-adjusted. Jury's still out on CSI:NY, but it's winning me over slowly. The Tanglewood ep two weeks ago was great and last week's was pretty good too (although I won't be buying second-hand anytime soon).

I finally broke down and got hold of season one of The Sopranos last week. I can't afford the $100/season price tag, but the Library carries it. It is probably up in the top 5 in terms of rawness (lots of language and pretty graphic violence), but MAN, is it addictive storytelling. I'm a sucker for cop/mob drama and The Sopranos is one of the best. If you don't like strong material, stay away. But, if you can see beyond the rawness to the story and characters, it's a pretty good story.

OK, enough TV. How about some REAL comedy:

I am probably going to take a long time to go back to watching the NHL when it comes back. The last two weeks have just been a total grandstand show that has probably wrecked any casual fan's desire to come back and may have even done some severe, if not irreparable, damage to their hardcore fanbase. After 6 months of nothing, everybody suddenly is willing to negotiate at the last minute. Then, the day after Bettman's cancellation announcement, here come Lemieux and Gretzky on their white horses to try and save the day. Where were they in September? I am disgusted with both sides in this tale (as I said to my sister and brother-in-law earlier today, Bettman and Goodenow could screw up a 2-car funeral) and I hope that the NHL dies (in its current incarnation) dies a slow, painful, public death. Then it can be resurrected as a 15- to 20-team league playing about a 60-game season and an 8-team playoff. I could live with that.

Finally, I was almost applauding last week over Wal-Mart's decision to close a store in Quebec. If ever a place needed to be unionized, it's Wal-Mart. I think that their decision to close a store in Quebec that wanted to unionize speaks volumes for how much they really care about their employees and customers. Wal-Mart has made its mark by undercutting everyone on price. However, they have done so much damage to the retail world in establishing their dominance. It's getting late and I need to sleep, so I won't be going into a long rant here, but I will someday. Suffice it to say this: I would put money on the possibility that Wal-Mart will be unionized by 2010 (both in the US and Canada) and they will be forced to compete on equal footing with both Target and Zellers.

OK. Gotta go. Need sleep.

Bye.

....and here's where it ends

2005-02-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

I really didn't want things to get adversarial, but now I understand why discussions around one's spirituality are often avoided at parties. Fact of the matter is, what we believe and our relationship with a higher diety (whether God, Buddha, Krishna, Allah, take your pick) is a deeply personal choice that goes a long way in defining who we are.

So I'm done. Suffice to say the following: I will try to make a visit to the Freeway cafe when it's done and I hope that Dave and I will meet face-to-face and we can encourage one another.

Al's right, too. Philpott is really wrestling with a number of issues, the biggest being how can we be relevant to the modern issues while not alienating "traditionalists" (I now actively hate that label). Our contemporary (early) service is a tremendous time of worship and I have really seen our church grow relationally since our study of The Purpose Driven Life. I have, in these discussions, really given short shrift to the hard work and effort Philpott's leadership and congregation have put into seeking God's plan for our church and trying to transform it so that we can continue to boldly proclaim God's message in the future.

But, and again, it's a big but, I have my beliefs and I think that the Bible makes things very cut and dried. We needed the sacrifice of Christ for today and for eternity. There's nothing more to it than that. I will worship first and foremost at the feet of Christ and look forward to the day where I am with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in glory. I believe that the Gospel must be boldly proclaimed in an unvarnished fashion with no fear. We must never adapt the Gospel to our lives, but rather change our lives to honor the Gospel.

Salvation first, all else second. THAT'S what I believe.

Blessings to all.

Emergent (continued)

2005-02-13T07:06:00.000-05:00

There has been some outstanding discussion on the blog about the Emergent (not to mention a coffee invite from Pernell that I hope to manage to work out soon). I have read, re-read and re-read again the comments from folks and I want to add my two cents to them:

First, Dallas.

"The 'emerging' church in many ways arose in reaction to what many see as the institutionalization of church. As a result the hermenutic (interpretation) of relationality is used to read scripture, to understand people, culture, God's activity in the hearts of people. What does that mean?"

Honestly, I'm not sure what the second sentence means. I totally agree with the first sentence. I think a lot of churches "over-structure" and it's easy to get lost in the "acts" of church and lose the meaning of church. I first began to go to Philpott (my home church) after attending a midnight Christmas Eve service with a buddy of mine at Ryerson United. We both went up and took communion that night. Afterwards, I was up most of the night wrestling with my decision to simply follow the crowd. I needed to understand more about communion and its significance. I also found within me a need to know more about God and his son, Jesus. This stemmed from the way I had seen my parents and my brother and sister transformed by Christ when they left the United Church and attended a more bible-based church like Philpott. Also, as far as "relationality" goes, I have met few people who can even approach, never mind surapss, my Dad's spiritual gifts in the area of relationships and meeting people on their own terms. Dad was always happy to meet those God put in his path, but he NEVER lost sight of the true purpose of why God put them in his path, which was to present the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to them, in accordance with the Great Commission ("Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20)).

"....people will not be drawn to a church because it is on the corner of the street they live on but because they meet with people who are intentional about sharing a similar faith journey."

Couldn't agree more. My family began our spiritual journey at Delta United Church because it was close to home and we knew a few folks who attended there. Because my parents have strong servant hearts, they got involved almost immediately and quickly became key players. However, their hearts were eventually broken there and God directed them to a place where they couold experience deeper spiritual and emotional relationships not only with other people, but more importantly with God Himself. It was the opportunity to grow and learn with others who were experiencing the same challenges in life that I was that eventually brought me to Philpott after giving up on church after I moved out. When my family attended Philpott, we were part of a true church family. We looked after one another, witnessed to those who had not yet heard the Gospel message, shared our life experiences, argued, hugged, cried and laughed together. We have been through some very difficult periods personally and congregationally in the last 20 years since my family began attending Philpott, but we have all grown a great deal spiritually.

People should go to their neighborhood church first just to get exposed. It helps on a number of levels (knowing people from the 'hood, community involvement with your own community, etc.). However, as one's faith deepens, there is always a desire to learn more and, sometimes, there is a questioning of a church's spiritual methodology and/or leadership. That is God calling us to look elsewhere and, if we are sensitive to His leading, we will wind up somewhere with people who are of similar spiritual condition who we can grow with and of a deeper spiritual condition that we can learn from. A relationship with God is a continually learning and growing experience directed by God, as He leads us to people we can share with, learn from and teach to, allowing God's love and teaching to grow organically.

Here's where we diverge, Dallas. Your comments speak only to relationships (and Steve is on the same track). All relationships must grow and change over time. If they didn't, they would get pretty stale pretty fast. As those relationships grow and change, the bonds of trust get stronger and expectations for the relationship are much greater. Deep-seated differences will eventually come out and will impact the relationship. Personal theology is one of the greatest difference-makers there is. Say, for example, 5 people meet. 3 are musicians with no interest in sports and 2 are big into sports with a passing interest in music. Eventually, the musicians will grow closer through their common love of music and the sports folks will also grow closer through their sports interests. If nothing other than the fact that the place they met is in their neighborhood is holding them all together, they will eventually scatter.

Likewise, if 10 people meet and they all want to learn more about God, they will build a relationship. As they begin to study the Word, pray, and talk about God, certain spiritual differences will be brought to light. Eventually, 5 people in the group want to go deeper with their relationship with God, while the other 5 prefer to stay on the level they are at. The relationship between the 10 must change, as their ideas and interests diverge becaus they are no longer "sharing a similar faith journey". Like finds like. It always does.

I think the Emergent, like my church, like Jacob's church, is full of people striving to have a relationship with God. One of the great things about God and His son, Jesus, is that they turn nobody away. However, the other great thing about them is the THEY NEVER CHANGE. Read the Gospel of John. I believe that a strong church is one who:

Welcomes everyone
Encourages relationships with God first and others second
Stands on a bedrock, unshakeable set of beliefs (theology)

The last point stands in the way of "relationship". If you meet someone, you can very easily become an acquaintance. However, it can be extremely difficult to become a close friend when your personal foundations differ. It eventually sets a boundary on the friendship. The closest relationships are most often with the people most like you (similar beliefs, similar interests, similar lifestyles) and that, I think, is the limiting factor on the Emergent, as it, like almost every other church I know of, becomes composed of a few friendships and a lot of acquaintances based on shared theology.

More later.

XXXIX

2005-02-06T08:13:00.000-05:00

Big day in the sporting world today.

For those reading with no plans for the evening, please consider yourself invited to Philpott's 9th annual Superbowl party. We have the game on a huge screen, great food made on-site by chef Anthony Merino (featured item tonight: pulled pork sandwiches), awesome prizes (including NFL jerseys, EA Sports computer games, Canadian Tire gift cards and a spectacular grand prize) and a halftime show free of wardrobe malfunctions. Tickets are $10 at the door and the doors open at 6PM.

As far as a prediction, it's almost impossible not to like New England. They are almost clinical in their approach and they know exactly when a team is vulnerable to quick hits. They also excel in the one area necessary to win: ball control. Simply put, this team is not prone to making mistakes, especially when they have the lead. The only way I see Philly winning this game is if they score on their first two possessions, keep their emotions in check and keep their defensive schemes well disguised. If they allow New England to keep it simple and keep moving the chains (keeping the Philly offense on the bench), it will be a very long day for Philly and the viewing public.

I think Andy Reid will have the Eagles ready, but I also think they'll make the early mistake that leads to Patriot points and we'll wind up with a lower-scoring version of the Pittsburgh - New England game. Call it 24-17 Patriots.

Stuff that bugs me (sorta)

2005-01-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

I'm in a bit of an off mood lately. I've been spending an inordinate amount of time wrestling with the "Emergent" church, as presented in Resonate and numerous blogs, including Pernell Goodyear's. I have to say that, while there are a lot of good things about the Emergent church that I like (I think, for example, that there is no better way to spread teaching organically than simply pasting a link in an e-mail and sharing with 10 or 20 or more of your non-believing friends), I get a little concerned (and sometimes even annoyed) at their seeming wishy-washiness.

The overlying theme of the emergent church seems to be "come as you are". This is certainly in line with Christ's approach to ministry, as he would simply stand somewhere (a boat, a hilltop, a street corner) and preach God's Word. Anyone could stop and listen to him and not feel like they were out of place. More importantly, those who loved Christ and lived his message were just as welcoming. That's a wonderful feeling, especially for social misfits who don't quite fit with the "cool" people. This seems to fit the approach of the emergent, and not only do I applaud them for that, I think a vast majority of traditional churches could learn a valuable lesson about the God they claim to follow by watching the emergent work.

This comes with two very large "but"s:

But #1:

As was discussed extensively (in since-removed comments related to this post and this post) a few months ago at my good friend Al Baker's blog, emergent churches are susceptible to occasional bouts of humanness. People are ignored (intentionally or unintentionally), cliques form, and some people fall through the cracks. It is an inevitable byproduct of growth. The bigger an organism becomes, the harder it is to keep it tightly tied together. Hurt feelings happen, people come and go and I think it is almost impossible to avoid. This is a limitation of humanity that the emergent is just as guilty of as anyone else.

But #2 (and this is my bigger issue):

I fully agree that Christ welcomed anyone to listen, but there came a point where people had to buy into Christ's message or go the other way. A great example of this is Mark 10:17-23. This is the story of the rich man who, when told that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven he must give away all he owns, is unable to make the sacrifice and walks away from the Saviour. A relationship with Christ eventually must lead to a certain set of beliefs that transform the person. Whether it is conviction over the use of foul language, gossiping, an illicit relationship, alcohol and/or drug abuse, or whatever demons have control over an individual, Christ introduces us to the Father and imbues us with the Holy Spirit. This gives us power to be transformed and to become an instrument through which we can be used by God to serve and glorify Him. We could not do that before meeting Christ.

Distilled to a sentence, I do not believe that "come as you are" can continue to work as your walk with Christ deepens. Theology is nothing more than a set of beliefs, but they provide a structure upon which we can live. The Bible lays out the roadmap to living and Jesus Christ promoted a strict theology that can be presented in 5 simple verses:

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
"God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)
"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that...we too may live a new life" (Romans 6:4)
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16)
"Therefore, there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1, caps mine).

Sin must be cast off, life must be changed, existing beliefs must be closely examined and held up to the stern light of prayer and accountable fellowship. Activities within a "church" or associated with Christ's name must serve the purpose of always putting the Saviour first. Christ may have let bystanders come and hear him, but return visits ultimately placed people in the uncomfortable position of making a choice: Live as you do today and die or let me transform you today, tomorrow and for eternity.

People may be wrong in their theology (an example is the one "Jacob" posted in the comments to this post on Pernell's blog), and it is important that we are sensitive to Christ's leading us in how to correct people. Christ himself had to issue rebukes in a variety of ways throughout the Gospels, and we need to be sensitive to our responsiblity as a child of Christ to issue rebukes as well. Those rebukes may have the effect of shutting the door on a relationship, but the person shutting the door may not be one God intends to bring home anyways.

The simple fact of the matteris this: Jesus Christ offers every single person an opportunity to experience the single greatest experience this earth can offer. An opportunity to see your life transformed into one of service and giving. An opportunity to eventually spend forever in the courts of Heaven with some of the greatest men and women to ever walk the earth. We shouldn't short-circuit that opportunity in order to make sure everyone feels welcome because, when the rubber meets the road, there are some who will no longer feel welcome.

And there's absolutely NOTHING you can do about it.

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"
Neil Peart, Rush, "Freewill".

Blessings.

How Hollywood should be run (according to FORTUNE)

2005-01-19T17:11:00.000-05:00

Fortune Magazine has written an interesting article on how G- and PG-rated films are generating the lion's share of income for studios, despite being the smallest percentage of films created in 2003. Here's the highlights:

940 films were released in North America in 2003 (an average of nearly 19 per week)
29 films (less than 3%) were G or PG, 646 (nearly 70%) were rated R
Of the top 20 highest-grossing films, only 4 (Matrix Revolutions (#9), Matrix Reloaded (#4), T3 (#8) and Bad Boys II (#11)) were rated R (about 2/3 of 1%).

Fortune posits that, since G-rated films have a higher return on investment(ROI), Hollywood is misunderstanding their audience and should be creating more G- and PG-rated films, since more people will buy tickets and/or DVD's. I think they're way wrong. The success or failure of a film depends on three things: buildup of demand, repeat viewings and run longevity.

Allow me to explain. By way of information sourcing, I am using 2003 Domestic and 2003 Worldwide grosses as presented by Box Office Mojo.

In the modern movie world, there is almost nothing more important than the opening weekend box office grosses. The success or failure of a movie is almost universally predicated on the three-to-five day period following its release. This tells the studio a number of things - did the hype pay off, is the star/studio/product still bankable and is this sequel-worthy? The answers to these questions can change after release, but it doesn't happen often. Let's look at the top 10 opening weekends (domestically) of 2003:

1. Matrix Reloaded - ($91 million - 32% of final gross)

2. X2 (X-Men United) - ($85 million - 40% of final gross)

3. Return of the King - ($73 million - 19% of final gross)

4. Finding Nemo - ($70 million - 21% of final gross)

5. Bruce Almighty- ($68 million - 28% of final gross)

6. Hulk - ($62 million - 47% of final gross)

7. 2 Fast 2 Furious- ($50 million - 39% of final gross)

8. Matrix Revolutions - ($48 million - 35% of final gross)

9. Scary Movie 3 - ($48 million - 44% of final gross)

10. Pirates of the Caribbean- ($46 million - 15% of final gross)

Each of the above movies had some form of hype attached to it, whether it was a built-in audience (1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 are all sequels), a reliable brand (#4 is a Pixar film, #6 is a cartoon character), a name actor (#5 starred Jim Carrey), or awesome promotion (#10 is a Disney thrill ride and had an awesome promo commercial). These films were bound to open huge and, as a result, got all the attention and all the headlines. However, each of these films also came with enormous price tags, meaning they needed something else to deliver good ROI.

There are hundreds of movie reviewers out there and I think there are 3 people on the planet who base their decision to go to a movie on the opinions of said reviewers. People will go to a movie if one of the following is true: They like the actor, they like the series, they like the genre or a friend tells them it's good. Good word of mouth leads to two things: more people going and repeat business. The percentage of gross listed next to the top 10 movies is very telling on this score. Three films in the top 10 (ROTK, Nemo and Pirates) earned less than 25% of their total grosses on the opening weekend. A more recent example of this is The Polar Express, which needed a few weeks to find an audience, but has remained steadily in the top 5 week-to-week for a few months. ROTK and Nemo benefited from great advance hype, strong word of mouth and hordes of loyal Tolkeinites and Pixaronians coming back again and again. Pirates made its way almost entirely on strong word of mouth (another example of this is Titanic). It doesn't matter what a movie is rated, if it sucks, it sucks, and the moviegoing public will make sure that it fails miserably.

This is one case where the family-friendly argument holds water, as a family buying 4 tickets to Finding Nemo is spending more than 2 twentysomethings going to Matrix Reloaded. Where non-family films catch up is ancillary business, as twenty- and thirtysomethings with disposable income and spare time will not only attend the movie in a theater (often more than once, if the film is really good), but will buy the special-edition DVD, a t-shirt, register on the website, and jump into various other money-sucking promotions. The family of 4 identified earlier may bypass spending $50 to take everyone to the theater and wait 6 months to buy the DVD for $25 at the neighborhood Wal-Mart.

So, I think I've proven my argument that buildup of demand, repeat viewings and run longevity are the three pillars of movie success. Fortune's argument goes on to state that Hollywood is mismanaging their studios. I think they're wrong and here's why:

Fortune states that 4 R-rated movies are in the top 20. This is correct, but it's important to note that only 3 films (Nemo, Elf and Cheaper by the Dozen) in the top 20 are G- or PG-rated. 13 films (including Mojo's #1, ROTK) are rated PG-13 and I wouldn't take my kids to see any of them. Moreover, 37 of Mojo's top 100 are R-rated, while only 24 are G- or PG-rated films. Granted, if there were more G- and PG-rated films, the ratio would probably change by sheer volume. I also question Fortune's source number, since 940 seems awfully high. Mojo lists the top 507 highest-grossing domestic films, so I suspect that includes a number of straight-to-video and arthouse films, many of which are fringe-extreme in their content and receive R ratings. That skews the statistics a bit.

It is also important to note the Worldwide grosses. No studio could reasonably expect North American take to move many of today's overpriced films to profitability, so the global market must be considered. Take 2003 champ Return of the King, which cost $144 million to make and market, but only earned 34% of its $1.1 billion dollar gross in North America. Using Mojo's 2003 Worldwide grosses as the basis, the top 20 consists of 2 G-rated films (Nemo and Brother Bear), 1 PG film (Elf), 7 R films (both Matrixes, Last Samurai, T3, Bad Boys II, Love Actually and American Wedding) and 10 PG-13 films. Elements of films that lead to sterner ratings in the states play better in other parts of the world.

Finally, let's look at some actual ROI figures for 2003. Calculation is very simple: Gross/costs (costs are production + marketing):

ROTK Domestic 262% Worldwide 777% (This means that ROTK earned almost 8X what it cost to make the movie)
Nemo Domestic 261% Worldwide 665%
Pirates Domestic 169% Worldwide 363%
Reloaded Domestic 141% Worldwide 369%
Bruce Almighty Domestic 209% Worldwide 417%
X2 Domestic 143% Worldwide 271%
Elf Domestic 298% Worldwide 379%
T3 Domestic 63% Worldwide 180% (Arnie plays better overseas)
Revolutions Domestic 75% Worldwide 230% (So does Keanu)

So, Fortune, I think Hollywood's got it right and you need to do a bit more research.

Wednesday Morning Ranting

2005-01-19T06:43:00.000-05:00

I have to tell you all, I really love blogging. I also find it a bit upsetting that I cannot seem to find time to do it. I have all this stuff running through my head all throughout the day on a wide variety of topics. I'd love to get it written down. So, here's what I am going to try to do (call it a New Year's Resolution):

On Wednesdays every week I am going to put together a post of quick-hit thoughts on all the unimportant stuff that manages to captivate me day-to-day. Then, on Fridays, I'm going to focus my attention on a longer post speaking to something more relevant. We'll see how this goes.

Off we go, then. Yes?

This is why I am not a sportswriter

1 for 4 on the playoff games last weekend (and if it wasn't for the atrocious kicking performance by the Jets' Doug Brien, it would have been a goose egg). Philly and Atlanta both looked great dismantling the last two playoff pretenders (Minnesota and St. Louis, respectively, who I both picked as upset specials) and I am curious to see what kind of defensive scheme Philly employs to stop Warrick Dunn and Michael Vick, who combined for over 300(!) yards rushing against St. Louis. I think Philly may wind up playing only 10 guys on D, since the 11th will have to spend his day spying on Vick and keeping him confined to the pocket. Mind you, Vick has been known to occasionally cough up a hairball in games, so maybe he'll make Philly's life easier and try to do too much in the biggest pro game he's ever appeared in. Regardless of what Vick does or doesn't do, however, I think this is the year for Philly to get over the hump and make it to the Super Bowl after three years of crashing and burning in the NFC Championship Game. Call it 20-14 Philly.

I was so stoked for the Colts-Patriots game, thinking I was going to see a classic. I love the Colts' high-octane precision offense and was looking forward to watching it go against a depleted Patriots secondary. Little did I know that the Colts would employ a weather-based, short-field strategy requiring their receivers to basically run through the Patriots' awesome collection of linebackers. End result, Patriots win, Indy looked awful, and a potentially great game was flushed because the Colts were scared of the snow. So now we get Brady vs. Roethlisberger for what I expect to be a berth against Philly in XXXIX. Big Ben looked pretty weak against the Jets and the Steelers were lucky to escape to play this week. If it's just playoff jitters, maybe Roethlisberger gets over them. However, I'd bet the house that the Pats put 5 or 6 in the box on defense and dare Roethlisberger to beat them with his arm. This will be a big test for the Pats' weak secondary, so I expect at least one linebacker to drop back and help. I think the Steelers will fall short this year, as the Pats go on to defend their title in Jacksonville. Patriots 17-13.

The best show on TV

It's great having 24 back on the air. The writers seem to have changed tack a little bit this year, focusing the first few hours on developing characters essential to the total plot, which leads me to think that there won't be that period of transition between hours 12 and 16 that has dragged down the past seasons. I am also pleased at the decision to toss the entire supporting cast from previous years and add a new cast around Jack. I really like William Devane as SecDef Heller and, especially, Shoreh Aghdashloo as Dina Araz. Dina may be the most evil Mom to ever appear on TV. This week's episode was pretty much a placeholder, as Jack's pursuit of Khalil ended when Khalil decided to drive head-on into a cement truck, martyring himself. We also had the dismissal of Chloe, which allows for an all-new team to start causing intrigue at CTU, the arrival of Erin's schizophrenic daughter at CTU, which will cause problems somewhere along the line, and further development of Marianne, who is going to raise some kind of ruckus at CTU before too much longer.

By the way, a note about Chloe (played by Mary-Lynn Rajskub). In Season 3, I thought she was the most annoying character on TV. Now that I'm re-watching season 3 on DVD, I find that she is probably the best-defined character. Occasionally mouthy and always blunt, she is smart and focused and (next to Michelle Dessler-Almeida) probably the best-defined female character in Season 3. If her dismissal on Monday is final, she is a character that will be missed, but I don't see how they could have done much more with her, other than having her continue to be an irritating PITA to those around her.

OK, enough of that.

CSI

Is it me, or is CSI losing its luster? I cannot, no matter how hard I try, get into CSI:NY. Miami is really inconsistent (although Monday's episode was top-drawer) and I have just lost interest in Vegas this season. Maybe I'll get into it more when the seasons come out on DVD and I can watch the episodes back-to-back.

Wow, is there a LOT to cover here

2005-01-12T11:12:00.000-05:00

The good just keeps on coming as far as global outreach for those affected by the tsunami tragedy. Yesterday, Hamilton's CH TV ran a telethon of sorts and viewers donted close to $1 million. Well done.

I was deeply saddened by the tragedy. I really put this into perspective when I thought of the number of dead being larger than the population of Burlington. Imagine waking up to find out that Burlington had been wiped out. Pretty jarring.

The other thing impressed on me is the heights of good that people can reach and the depths of indifference and outright evil that people can sink to, as evidenced in news reports since this happened.

Other things less relevant but much more fun to talk about:

Fearless picks for this weekend's NFL Divisional Semis:

AFC: Colts and Steelers
NFC: Rams and Vikings (upsets GALORE!)

MLB is having an awesome offseason of player movement, as a lot of big names are switching teams and changing the whole landscape of the game. I like what my Yanks have done, bolstering the pitching staff with the Big Unit, Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright. I'm also impressed with the Mets, who added Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. The whole Shawn Green to Arizona drama was pretty interesting, and the Cubs' ongoing issues with Sammy Sosa continue to captivate. Gotta feel bad for the Astros and the Cardinals, though, who have taken some pretty significant hits this offseason.

Lots more to cover, but I'm workin' here. Gotta go.

Christmas Day has come and gone

2004-12-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

I learned a great lesson yesterday. Tell you what it is in a minute.

What a day yesterday! Aidan slept in until 8:30AM (I doubt there will be many more of those in the future) and then had a blast opening his presents. Christine really understands that Aidan's favourite thing is unwrapping, so she got all kinds of neat things at dollar stores and discount shops (notebooks, crayons, readers, sticker packs). Aidan just sat there unwrapping, getting all moony over a notebook with a snowman on it and over every other gift. So cool.

We followed this with 90 minutes of panic getting ready to go to Christine's parents for lunch. Had a nice visit, ate a great meal of ham, mashed taters, veggies and cabbage rolls. Topped it off with angel food cake covered in homemade whipping cream and strawberry sauce. Played three games of Euchre in between lunch and coffee and Christine's brother, Gerhard, and I whupped Christine and her dad 3 straight.

Left there at 3, drove home. Dropped off box of received gifts, loaded up box of gifts to go to my Mom's, where we were going to have dinner with my family. Another faboo meal (turkey, dressing, veggies, mashed taters, rolls, trifle and apple pie for dessert). As always, there were a ridiculous amount of presents. Had a great visit with the family, talked on the phone to my Aunt Nancy and my brother, Mike, and really enjoyed myself.

Got home just after 9, bathed both kids, cleaned up the dishes left from Christmas Eve and built a Lego set for Aidan (we misread the box, said ages 5 and up. I needed an hour to build it.). Aidan finally cashed in at 10:30 PM (that's without a nap, folks) and I at last got Aaron to sleep at 1 AM.

Here's the lesson.

I don't get a million presents anymore (although Christine went out and got my degree all framed for me. It looks AMAZING! And I did order myself a SWEET Home Theatre System), but spending the day seeing the excitement on Aidan's face (he hardly ever stopped smiling) and being with my wonderful wife, my awesome collection of nieces and nephews (who brighten my day everytime I see them) and the people I cherish most in this world was infinitely better than any material gift I could ever hope for.

Next to my salvation, the greatest gift God has given me is the people I love. Spending yesterday with them was a constant reminder to me that this season is a marvelous gift from God and it is a gift that can be enjoyed EVERYDAY.

Funny how I needed 37 years to learn that lesson.

Whoops, Aaron's awake. Gotta go.

Blessings.

The classics NEVER grow old

2004-12-24T07:38:00.000-05:00

"These are the facts concerning the birth of Jesus Christ: His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, being a man of stern principle, decided to break the engagement but to do it quietly, as he did not want to publicly disgrace her.

"As he lay awake, he fell into a dream and saw an angel standing beside him. 'Joseph, son of David' the angel said 'do not hesitate to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a Son and he shall be named Jesus, meaning Saviour, for he will save the people from their sins. This will fulfill God's messaage through the prophets:

Listen! The Virgin shall conceive a child! She shall give birth to a son and he shall be called Emmanuel, meaning 'God is with us'!

"When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel commanded and brought Mary hoime to be his wife, but she remained a virgin until her son was born, and Joseph named him Jesus"

(Matthew 2:18-25)

"That night some shepherds were in the fields outside of Bethlehem, tending their flocks. Suddenly an angel appeared among them and the landscape shone bright with the glory of the Lord and they were very afraid. But the angel said:

'Do not be afraid! I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone! The Saviour - yes, Messiah, the Lord - has been born tonight in Bethlehem! How will you recognize him? You will find a baby wrapped in blankets, lying in a manger.'

"Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others - the armies of Heaven - praising God and singing:

>'Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace and goodwill to all men!'

"When the angels had left, the shepherds said to each other 'Come on! Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about!

"They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. The shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the had told them about Jesus. All who heard the shepherds' story exclaimed astonishment, but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often."

(Luke 2: 8 - 19)

"For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

(John 3:16)

From my family to yours, a very Merry and Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. NEVER forget what this season is all about.

Brian, Christine, Aidan and Aaron.

The NHL situation

2004-12-18T10:54:00.000-05:00

Y'know when millionaires argue with billionaires over who gets what, it makes me ill. Especially when the solution is so easy.

The NHLPA made an admirable effort at reconciliation with their 24% salary rollback but, when you think about it, any salary rollback is a hugely limited solution, since player agents will ensure that the players get their 24% back with interest next contract negotiation. Also, the hard salary cap doesn't solve anything either, since agents, players and owners will make sure there are loopholes in the cap so large even Tie Domi could stickhandle through them.

So what to do?

The problem, I think, lies in the astronomical raises players receive every contract. How many times have we seen players double their annual salary when they sign a new contract or an extension? If the league focused on controlling raises, they could gain cost certainty. Here's my proposal:

** Start with a salary clawback as follows:

Annual Salary Clawback
Up to $500,000/yr. None
$500,000 - $999,999 5%
$1 million - $2 million 15%
$2 million - $4 million 25%
> $4 million 35%

That gets money off the table and provides immediate relief to small-market teams.

** Next, change the minimum salary to $300,000.

** Introduce increase ceilings as follows:

Years in league Max. Raise/year
0 - 4 20%
5 - 9 30%
10+ No raise limit

** Leave arbitration alone, except to stipulate that the maximum arbitration award is 20% above the previous year's salary.

** Place a ceiling on signing bonuses in the first 10 years of no more than 3X the total salary in the first five years and 2X salary in the next 5 years.

** After the first 10 years, it's a totally open market.

This creates a max salary structure as follows (for players entering the league in 2005/2006):
Yr. 0 = $300,000
Yr. 1 = $360,000
Yr. 2 = $432,000
Yr. 3 = $518,400
Yr. 4 = $655,200
============Raises up to 30%===================
Yr. 5 = $852,000
Yr. 6 = $1,107,000
Yr. 7 = $1,450,000
Yr. 8 = $1,863,000
Yr. 9 = $2,431,000

Signing bonuses push this up, but it should still be very workable. More importantly, it should allow teams to keep their young players rather than watch them spend their prime years with another team. This will also allow players to build deeper community ties and, hopefully in the end, bring more fans out to the games.

Also, since the tenth year a player is in the league removes the earning constraint, he is able to get one last huge contract before retiring (assuming the player enters the league at age 19 or 20). Therefore, the owners are forced to exercise fiscal restraint early and will only provide "home run" contracts to those who have earned them through longevity and experience.

I dunno if this would work, but I don't see a lot of holes in it. I encourage anyone interested in hockey and its economics to comment. Maybe we can come up with a real, working solution that we could try to give to someone who can do something tangible with it.

Later.

Where the heck have I been?

2004-12-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Wow, long time.

Been a very busy boy with new baby, work responsibilities and of course, Christmas. Things have been pretty good, though, all things considered.

Everybody is doing really well. Many of you had the opportunity to meet Aaron at church last weekend and we're all so excited that the quarantine is finally over and our whole family can resume life as we know it. Aaron loves the mall just as much as his big brother does, as the noise and bustle is very soothing to him and he sleeps really well as we make our way around. Christine is happy to be able to resume a more normal (HA!) schedule, but she's still trying to shake a persistent cold. On the plus side, she finally had the opportunity to get back into some ministry work today, as she helped prepare the Christmas hampers for shut-ins and seniors down at Philpott.

On the DVD side of the equation, I added the extended dance remix of Return Of The King and Michael Mann's Collateral to the stockpile. Looking forward to watching them over the holidays (I'm off work from the 24th until January 4th).

To all the DVD fans out there

2004-12-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

If you want to get an early review of the Return Of The King box set or some info on the upcoming release(s) of Star Trek Enterprise or enter a contest to win the Matrix 10-disc box set, click here.

Quick update

2004-12-02T07:54:00.000-05:00

Hi, all:

Just to let you know, everyone is doing a lot better in the Benallick household. Now if we could just get some sleep, bliss would be fully restored.

A little family update

2004-11-21T08:58:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I posted.

We've had a rough couple of weeks in the Benallick household. Started on Halloween night, as Aidan threw up in bed. This evolved into a chest cold with recurring fevers and he was diagnosed two weeks ago with bronchial pneumonia. He's getting better, but I suspect we may have to keep a supply of puffers around to help him clear out his lungs.

Then, Christine noticed a few oddities with Aaron (namely, acting like he's "backed up" and crying after eating or when she touched his tummy) and called the pediatrician. The pediatrician said "To the hospital with you" and Aaron was diagnosed with proctocolitis, which is basically an infant allergy to protein. To combat this, we have to switch to a new formula and Christine has to cut ALL dairy out of her diet until she finishes nursing. On the plus side, Aaron loves the new formula.

So, it's been a week. Add in a disagreement with a close relative that has me a bit stressed, a very challenging week at work and the fact that I had to cancel a get-together with my brother at the last minute (who I haven't seen one-on-one in forever) and it's been a tough stretch.

At times like this, I remember a few things. First, God promises in the Bible to never give us more than we can handle. I do not recall the verse where that promise is made, but I have found myself clinging to it more and more in the past few years. I also remind myself how fortunate I am to have so many blessings to worry about. In the book of Job, God allows Job (a loyal follower) to have all of his earthly blessings stripped away (cattle killed, house destroyed, family dies) and he is left horribly disfigured by disease. Despite all of this, Job never turns away from God. While I have challenges to face in this life, I know that my Saviour remains beside me and carries me during the times I cannot carry myself.

Thank you God, for your Son and your never-ending love for us.

More later.

This 'n' That

2004-11-08T09:17:00.001-05:00

This'll probably take all day to do, so I may as well get started.

10:27 AM.

Had a GREAT time yesterday as Aidan and I went with my sister Leigh and her three kids to go see The Wiggles at the SkyDome. The kids had lots of fun and The Wiggles put on an excellent show. Here's a shot of the stage:

.

This was during one of Aidan's favorite songs, "Eagle Rock". The Wiggles are in the bird suits and Captain Feathersword is flying through the air. Here's one of the whole group during "Fruit Salad":

First break. Aaron's up. Back later.

1:07 PM

There you go.

So we're readjusting to life on Aaron time. In short, Aaron likes to sleep all day, party all night. In order to try to give Christine a bit of a break, I'm sleeping downstairs with Aaron, who is sleeping in his bassinet/playpen combo. I take the midnight feed and then Christine gets up to do 3 and 6 AM. We'll see how things go when I'm working again. Hopefully Aaron will be back on a normal schedule. Just to add to things, Aidan's been sick all week. The trip to T.O. was pretty taxing on him and he came home with a major fever and aches. He's better today, but we gotta watch it.

So, of course, the world's been spinning while we've been cocooning. Here's a few things I wanted to comment on:

Bush Wins

Kudos to GW for his victory. Prayers to John Edwards that his wife will bounce back from her upcoming battle with breast cancer.

So, 4 more years. Although I wouldn't exactly call it an overwhelming mandate from the electorate, it's still a mandate. If I'm the Dems, however, I do a MUCH better job selecting the next Presidential candidate (coughHillarycough). I mean, here's a situation where the country was totally divided with hardly any middle ground. You were either strongly for or against Bush and his very clearly stated platform. If the Dems had put out anyone who could do a job of strongly

Monday, 9:20 AM

defining any sort of a platform that appealed to voters (or even been appealing on a PERSONALITY level), things might have been different. Having said that, if the Dems had put out anyone other than Wonder Waffler and the Kissing Bandit, the GOP would have probably used different strategy (i.e. made Karl Rove earn his money). One of the things I caught myself thinking at times was how things might have turned out if Edwards was the candidate and Kerry was the veep.

Now I would like to ruminate on the hockey strike, which I Will do in a separate, lengthy post.

Buh-bye

AARON'S HOME

2004-11-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

nuff said.

A quiet Saturday morning

2004-10-30T06:35:00.000-04:00

It's 6:30 AM and I must be lonely (oops, channeled Matchbox Twenty there for a second. Let's try this again.)

Take two.

It's 6:30 AM. Aidan's still asleep, I'm wide awake. Figured I'll do up a quick post and rip a few more CDs. This latest run will put me over 2,000 songs, for those who find such information interesting.

All signs point to Aaron coming home on Thursday. Christine is spending the weekend at the hospital so that they can get into the night feeding routine and I am bottle-feeding him whenever I'm there so he gets used to the idea that Daddy is the bottle supplier. Aaron cracked 6 lbs. on Thursday and looks really good. Next hump is the two months after he comes home, during which he has to be almost quarantined until he starts getting all of his shots. There will definitely be some MAJOR schedule juggling to keep Aidan on a normal routine. Oh, well. It's all VERY much worth it.

One last comment on the baseball season. The Yankees last won the World Series in 2000, their third in a row. Since then, the winners have been Anaheim, Arizona, Florida and Boston. Anyone know what those four winners have in common?

2001 - Anaheim beats the Yankees in the ALDS
2002 - Arizona beats the Yankees (on a cheap hit) in the Series
2003 - Florida beats the Yankees in the Series
2004 - Boston beats the Yankees in the ALCS

So, despite what the Yankee-bashers are saying, the road to the World Series ALWAYS runs through the House That Ruth Built.

In news that should come as a surprise to no one, Carlos Delgado was among the first players to file for free agency yesterday.

So, Halloween is tomorrow. Bust out the candy. Aidan has a very cool dog costume he'll be wearing. He thinks he's Wags the Dog from the Wiggles, so who are we to argue with him. We're taking a little pumpkin costume into the hospital Sunday and dressing Aaron in it, which should be good for a smile. Aidan's hyped about doing the candy collection run tomorrow.

Speaking of The Wiggles, my sister and I are packing Aidan and her three kids in her minivan for a trip to T.O. next Saturday to see those four moptops from Down Under. Well, I survived Bear In The Big Blue House Live, so hopefully I'll come out of this alive. At least we're not sitting in the floor seats, which should help some. But they better have large video walls so the kids can see what's going on. Having said that, I think I just spent $48 a ticket so my kid can watch a big-screen TV.

Treehouse TV here in Canada (Nick Jr. in the U.S.) just released two Max and Ruby DVDs, which I picked up for the kids. Does anyone else out there with Treehouse-aged kids find them addicted to this show? A couple of people I work with say their kids are hooked, like Aidan is. I do not get the deal with this show, but it freezes Aidan whenever it comes on. The DVD comes with a "replay" feature, whereby it counts off 10 seconds after ending and, if nothing is done, it will replay. Great for Aidan, torture for his parents. Thankfully, I can tune out the TV. Christine's still learning that trick.

Quick plug here for The Hunt, Austin's developing entry in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This is young Austin's entry in the annual event and he is providing readers with an opportunity to walk alongside him as he develops his work, which I think is pretty cool.

Springsteen song just came on ("Racing In The Street", a personal favorite). Made me think of picture I saw yesterday of Bruce with the Great Waffler (John Kerry). There's been a summer-long tour with some very big-name acts (Dave Matthews, R.E.M., Springsteen, etc.) who are using the tour to promote Kerry. I find myself often wondering though, whether this is really more an anti-Bush statement as opposed to a pro-Kerry statement. That's a pretty fine line, but a significant one. It's also kinda sad if that's the case, since they are not choosing the alternative based on the strengths of Kerry, but rather their anger/disappointment with Bush. Once again, I find myself concerned with the fact that we are SO willing to grant celebrities such huge platforms to promote their cause celebres and that people actually listen to them. All I think is that I'm disappointed that some of the great musicians of my youth (Springsteen, Mellencamp, etc.) have decided that they feel they need to be about more than the music.

Gotta go. Mister Man is up. Before I go, I want to share the lyrics I'm listening to right now, because they are really hitting home this morning (more so than usual):

Where are the nails that pierced His hands?
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen and He reigns
In the hearts of His children rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood?
Well the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given and it remains
In the hearts of His children who will love
While the nations rage

(While The Nations Rage, Rich Mullins)

Blessings

Been a while.........

2004-10-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

I really haven't had a whole lot of time to post of late, but have been accumulating lots to say.

To start with, Aaron is doing very well. Hopefully today he'll be out of his incubator and into a cradle. He's rapidly closing in on 6 lbs. and is off caffeine, so he's coming along well. Please keep on praying for him and all of us.

Well, the Yankees pulled off one of the greatest collapses of all time and THE greatest post-season collapse ever. Now Boston's on a 7-game winning streak and one win away from their first title in 86 years. Somebody had better find out who put the Sominex in the Cardinals' Gatorade and wake them up. They've looked pretty lethargic in the last two games after a very spirited Game 1 tilt.

Memo to Brian Cashman: Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez are NOT as good as Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte (healthy or hurt). Vazquez had better get himself righted in 2005 or he could wind up being a bust of Whitsonian size.

GREAT Bull Durham moment in Game 6 of the Yankees-Sox series. After Bernie Williams crushed a Bronson Arroyo pitch into the right field seats, Fox replayed Arroyo (a rookie) shaking off veteran catcher Jason Varitek's signs not once, but TWICE. Made me think of the classic scene where Nuke shrugs off Crash twice and the following sequence occurs:

Crash (to hitter): That SOB is shaking me off. Fastball, and when you speak of me, speak nicely.

Crash gives the sign for Nuke's fastball, which the hitter promptly crushes to right. After Crash admonishes the hitter for admiring his shot, he visits Nuke on the mound.

Nuke: Man, he hit that like he knew what I was going to throw to him.

Crash: He did. I told him.

Substitute Varitek for Crash and Arroyo for Nuke and there you go.

Now that the playoffs are (for me) over, it's time to catch up on the mountain of shows I have been taping. I really like the dynamic of CSI:NY, even though I have only seen the first two eps and taped over the 3rd. I have the 4th to watch and will likely watch ep 5 tonight. Gary Sinise is the real deal, almost as believable in his role as Petersen in Vegas and Caruso in Miami. I also appreciate the fact that the tone of NY is as different from its siblings as Miami is from Vegas.

As for Vegas, it appears this year is all about Catherine Willows (played by Marg Helgenberger). Her role has been much larger than Grissom's and I have read that she will be attempting to land the Day Shift supervisor role somewhere along the way this season. The writers have actually been setting this up this season and it makes sense, since the night shift is way overloaded now that Greg is out of the lab. Plus, it appears that Catherine and Warrick might be getting a bit buddy-buddy, which I'm not sold on since I like these shows better when the personal stuff is kept out. Stick to procedure, that's why I watch anyways.

Final TV note. If you haven't yet, check out Medical Investigation on NBC. Excusing the cruddy title and occasional blatant style rips from CSI and ER, this show has gotten consistently better week to week. Neal McDonough is awesome as the lead doctor, I like the supporting cast and, what's best, the causes of the illnesses they are investigating are, more often than not, environmental rather than through human malice. That helps keep things a little more upbeat. I suspect it won't live beyond one season, but it's good to have it around (even if it's a short visit).

Man, I'm so punchy lately. I had a lot of other stuff to cover that I seem to have forgotten. Mental clarity lately is only good between 6AM and 11AM. After that, it steadily and rapidly declines until I'm mental mush by 8PM. Guess I need more sleep and some changes to the 'ol diet. Like any of that'll happen.

Oh well, I guess that's it then. Until we meet again.

LOTS to cover

2004-10-17T09:42:00.000-04:00

Aidan and I are pretty tired, so we're taking a day off. In fact, the little man's still asleep at 9:45. Of course, the fact he was up between 4:30 and 7 AM might have something to do with that.

Before I get into the relatively meaningless stuff, here's an update on Aaron. First the good news: he's eating and growing like a champ. He has taken to nursing really well. His first feed each day is in the 55ml range (almost 2 oz.). Subsequent feeds are in the mid-30s, because he tires faster. To give an idea of how much he's taking in, his regular feeds (non-nursed) are 42ml. He's sitting just under 4lbs. 13 oz. as of 8 PM last night, so 5 lbs. is just around the corner.

The not-so-good: All of the feeding progress looks to have taxed him in other development aspects. Aaron has had a lot of problems with "swings" in his breathing. Swings occur when his oxygen saturation rate dips below 90% or his heart rate falls below 100 beats per minute. 99% of the time he corrects himself. However, after a particularly rough run last night, the nurse decided to put him back on oxygen assistance. There was a noticeable improvement in his breathing and colour this morning. It's important for us to remember that, despite all of the great progress made thus far, Aaron is still only 34 weeks gestational age and didn't get the benefit of steroid injection in-utero that Aidan received. So, please keep on praying. Only God has kept us going so far and only God can continue the work. My confidence that Aaron will do fine is far too fragile when left in the hands of human doctors and nurses. Knowing God is in control and that His will will be done gives me unshakeable confidence and peace.

==================================================
Now, onto the trivial stuff:

From Canoe:

Ontario moves to ban pit bulls. And it's about time, says I. I have read a number of stories in the past about people who have "docile" pit bulls. Then I read even more about these psychotic dogs suddenly turning and attacking whoever is in their way. Personally, I think these are the ugliest creatures and I can honestly say that I am genuinely afraid of them. We don't have any in our neighborhood but, if we did, I would be making sure that my family gave the house a wide berth and, if I ever saw it off its leash, I would be on the phone to Animal Control so fast. It's always a shame when legislation this extreme is needed, but, in order to deal with the growing problem (and believe me, every time a person is attacked by one these things, the hue and cry will grow louder), it's best to simply outlaw the breed, giving Animal Control and the police full power over the situation. Unfortunately, I see a court battle brewing over this. I kind of think this could play out like Gun Control, as people make claims that their dog isn't causing a problem for others and it is in the house to protect the family, which they have a right to do. Could be very interesting.

From CNN-SI:

Yankees embarrass Red Sox. 19-8? In game 3 of the ALCS? A game the Red Sox NEEDED to win? This was interesting for three innings, as evidenced by the box score below:

BOX SCORE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
New York Yankees (3-0) 3 0 3 5 2 0 4 0 2 19 22 1
Boston Red Sox (0-3) 0 4 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 8 15 0

6-6 after 3. Arroyo and Brown both sucked, bring on the bullpens. Torre hands the ball to Javier Vazquez, who he has no intention of using as a starter in this series. Vazquez gets tagged for the 2 runs in the 3rd but the shuts down the Sox until the 7th, when Varitek got him for a 2-run bomb in garbage time. Meanwhile, Terry Francona pulls a world-class brainfart in the 4th and gives the ball to Tim Wakefield for 3 1/3 innings. At that point, the Yankees were already in double digits and things were getting ridiculous. Wakefield was tagged for one run in the 4th, the 2 runs in the 6th and the first 2 runs in the 7th. So, in what was already looking like a lost cause, Francona flushed his likely 4th game starter and left himself with VERY limited options for Game 5, should it happen.

See, Francona does not have Curt Schilling because of a bad ankle and, at best, he might be available for Game 7. Under normal circumstances, Schilling would have started Game 5 on normal rest, Game 4 on short rest. Without him, Francona has to start Derek Lowe (his worst starter this season) today in the do-or-die Game 4. Then, he has to bring Pedro on Monday in Game 5. Pedro's start will be on normal rest (4 days). Thanks to the rainout, Game 6 is on Thursday, meaning either Arroyo again (on 3 days rest) or Wakefield (assuming he doesn't wind up coming out of the pen again). The Yankees have much easier decisions (Hernandez today, Mussina tomorrow on normal rest, Lieber on normal rest in Game 6 and Brown in game 7), plus they now have a 3-0 lead over a demoralized Red Sox team. I like the Yankees' chances of wrapping things up today.

The Houston-St.Louis series is shaping up to be all that and a bag of chips. Good win by the Astros yesterday to close the gap to 2-1. This one should go at least 6 and possibly 7. It's so far much more compelling than the ALCS.

Again, from CANOE:

U.S. citizens doing cross-border shopping for flu shots.

As I stated in my Health Care Post last week, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I would be concerned about. Apparently, there is a shortage of flu vaccine in the U.S. As a result (quoted from the CANOE article):

There have been reports already of Americans turning to Canada in search of flu shots. Worried seniors from northern Maine have called to book times at a flu shot clinic in St. Stephen, N.B., later this month.

Every shot that one of these seniors comes up here and buys is one less that is available for a Canadian taxpayer, who paid to have these shots created. I find it hard to believe that there is actually a clinic in Canada designed to cash in on the flu vaccination. Of course, this being an election, trust John Kerry to make political hay out of this by saying:

(Kerry) soon returned to the attack, calling the shortage of flu vaccine another example of how the Bush administration deals with problems facing the nation.

"This story is a demonstration of this administration, how they deal with everything," Kerry said. "Because of the failure of judgment, failure to act, we have a shortfall of 48 million flu shots."

He claimed the administration received three warnings since 2001 that the vaccine system was vulnerable to shortages, but ignored them. His campaign is rolling out a new ad on the crisis.

Source: CNN

Um, it's called the Centers for Disease Control. I believe they are tasked with ensuring that there is sufficient vaccinations to go around. With all that President is responsible for, there's a little something called delegation. Also, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the CDC is not run by political appointees, so if they screw it up, there's not a whole lot the Prez can do about it.

By the way, if you want a laugh, check out the CNN article documenting yesterday's stops on the campaign trail and check out the picture of Kerry with a shotgun. I'm sure all the Democrats supporting gun control will absolutely love him.

OK, that's enough. Have a good one and I'll provide more updates on Aaron as I get them. Enjoy this fall Sunday.

GO YANKEES GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something for the 24 fans......

2004-10-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

A visit to Fox TV's 24 site reveals the following:

24 will return Sunday, January 9 with a 2-hour premiere and then move to its new timeslot beginning Monday, January 10. Sunday's ep will start at 8 (following the NFC wild card game). Monday eps will start at 9.

Also, according to earlier Fox press releases, there will be no skips in the schedule, meaning 24 will air over 22 consecutive weeks (including the first three hours in week 1).

Can't wait!

Politics, politics, politics

2004-10-14T08:20:00.000-04:00

So, I visited Political Compass, which Jason Silver referred me to. After taking the quiz, I appear to be ever so slightly LEFT of centre. I am a bit more to the right of the Pope. Take it as you will.

During Thanksgiving dinner Monday, my brother-in-law Duane (a much wiser and thoughtful man than I am) and I got into a discussion of U.S. politics, much to the disappointment of my mother and wife. I have been really struggling of late to clarify my thinking around George Bush's platform and relished the opportunity to discuss these things with Duane, who puts a great deal of thought into these issues. You see, I don't normally pay a whole lot of attention to the U.S. elections, but since I finished school and have changed my weekly reading from Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly to Business Week and Fortune, I am much more attuned to things political. I also now think that, based on the issues and how polarizing they have proven to be, this may be the most important Presidential election in many, many years.

After a great deal of thinking, I have come to the conclusion that George W. Bush may be one of the most proactive Presidents in recent history. Despite the fact that this is an election year, Bush has continued to lay the groundwork for his second term of office. The Bush administration is laying out the plans for the Ownership society, the next phase of the war on Terror and their social agenda and, I think I finally understand where he wants to go.

1. Complete the transition of Iraq to a freer-thinking, Democratic society. This may actually be the goal for Iran and North Korea as well. If Iraq can be transitioned to a society supporting free elections, freedom of religion, women's rights, etc. then the U.S. will be able to prove to the international community that they were right about effecting regime change. This will give them some very strong diplomacy cards to use in attempting to bring Iran and North Korea to heel, particularly in regards to their nuclear programs. I also think that an Iraq who is more a part of the larger global community will help the U.S. reduce its dependency on Saudi Arabia for oil. This tends to get me thinking that the U.S., which is concerned about the fact that Saudi Arabia is a primo terrorist breeding ground, will also try to lever the Saudis into reducing their support of terror groups. The Saudi royal family will have significantly less power at the table, since there will be less U.S. dependence on their main export, their vast oil supplies. A second Bush term will allow for the activities in Iraq to be brought to a controlled end, with a properly planned extraction of U.S. troops and a smoother transition to U.N. peacekeepers and non-U.S. contractors.

2. Introduce fully the concept of the Ownership Society. In order to reduce the presence of Government in areas such as health care, education and retirement pensions, Bush wants to introduce tax-sheltered savings and investment programs. The average worker will be able to shunt pre-tax earnings into these accounts and use them for the accounts' specific purposes. For the younger generation (I still include myself in that group), this is a great idea. They will have the opportunity to create their own "stores of wealth" to be used for specific purposes while reducing their reliance on the government to provide certain basic societal needs. This will allow the government to focus their funding on more under-privileged parts of society, for whom the Ownership concept is less feasible. Also, the accounts can be used as collateral for mortgages, allowing more and more people to buy homes.

3. Push forward Bush's social agenda. This is one of the least-talked about aspects of this election but, in my mind, could be the most important long-term. According to an article from Business Week:

The acrimony will only intensify when the next Supreme Court justice retires. Although the issue has received little attention so far in this year's Presidential campaign, the winner could be in a position to fill as many as four seats. That puts some of the most explosive policy issues in contemporary America up for grabs in this year's election. If the conservative wing of the court, led by Justices William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas, gains one vote, it's entirely plausible that affirmative action could be outlawed, states could further limit the availability of abortion, and the new McCain-Feingold campaign-finance restrictions could be overturned. On the other hand, if a new liberal justice joins Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, it would probably become harder to impose the death penalty, and some environmental regulation could be strengthened.

(Apologies for not providing a direct link to the whole article. It's only available in the Subscriber's section of the website.)

This, to my thinking, is a HUGE issue. Especially considering the highly charged social issues (gay marriage, partial-birth abortion, stem-cell research, etc.) that the next Administration will have to deal with. While Bush is seeking a Constitutional amendment on gay marriage, he may also be able to (with the selection of a few new conservative judges), reopen Roe v. Wade and put tighter controls on abortion. He would also be able to seek greater control over the courts, who he feels are drifting much too far into areas of social legislation that Bush feels would be better left to the federal and state governments.

Now, there are a number of things that will impact his plans, including (but not limited to):

Baby boomers who were encouraged to consume, not save, believing that their companies and their government would be there to cover for them in retirement. Medicare/Medicaid and pensions will have to be funded/fixed in the next 4 years so that everything is ready for when the largest share of the boomers hit retirement between 2006-2010. This will NOT be cheap.

Not only introducing a freer Iraq, but one that raises the standard of living for ALL. One of the deepest recruitment pools for terrorists is poor, uneducated young men who swallow the terrorist credo that, with this gun, you can glorify Allah and gain all that the great Satan (U.S./Israel) is keeping you from having. It is crucial that infrastructure development happen that will lead to jobs for all who wish them. And the companies seeking to put a shingle out in Iraq MUST be carefully vetted to ensure they are not simply fronts diverting resources to terror groups. This will likely extend the Iraq timeline and require greater statesmanship from Bush, since he will need assistance from other countries and the U.N. to accomplish this. He has already started this.

Other areas, such as homeland security, offshoring, maintaining economic stability at home and who knows what all else, will also have an impact on the next 4 years. But at least Bush has a plan in place. He seems to have a clear idea of where the U.S. needs to go in the immediate and longer-term future. All I've heard from Kerry is a desire to unwind all of this and increase the presence of government in all areas from trade to medical services to education and beyond. All this while giving the people the "freedom to be who they are born to be and to do what they want".

In summary, this is an important election. It's not a time for voters to opt for "change for change's sake". It may sound like hyperbole, but I think that this election will set U.S. policy for the next decade and the social agenda for possibly longer. I will be riveted to the TV on November 2.

As is the case lately, long rant. If you stayed to the end, thanks.

Sad Day in Hollywood

2004-10-11T11:15:00.001-04:00

Christopher Reeve, star of the Superman films, died Sunday at age 52. He will be remembered by me not for his movies (of which I liked many), but for his courage in continuing to be effective in film and politics despite a crippling spinal cord injury. Here is his obituary.

Health Care

2004-10-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

So I'm on the GO Train home on Friday. After a 5-minute delay leaving Union Station, we are stopped for 15 minutes outside Burlington. During the stop, we are informed by the conductor that a freight train is in front of us and a VIA train is on the other track heading in the opposite direction. As a result, the GO passengers (as usual) had to wait for the VIA train to pass before we could get moving. This is always the case, I've noticed. When GO and VIA have to decide who goes first, VIA always wins. This despite the fact that VIA is less travelled. You see, people pay more for VIA and, as such, receive preferential treatment.

Made me think of health care. I will warn you that there is a strong likelihood that I will update this post over time.

Today's Canadian system, screwed up though it may be, promises "equal access" to basic health care for everyone. Basically, if you need a doctor, as long as you've got a health card, you get a doctor. Specialized services (dentistry, glasses, prescription drugs, etc.) are excluded and must be paid out-of-pocket. Many companies' benefit packages help offset this cost.

There are problems (long waits, over/undercrowding, underpaid doctors and nurses fleeing to the U.S. and elsewhere) but the system does work in emergency situations. It is not that often you hear of a person with a life-threatening illness/injury being denied access to the care they need.

There is a growing faction within the country that feels this system is broken and we should create a second tier of services whereby those who wish to pay for services can do so. This will allow them to avoid long wait times, get better quality services and so on. This is simply free-market logic at work. Some of the offshoot changes will likely include:

Insurance companies will create a new category of service for these folks which will allow them coverage (minus a deductible) for these "preferred" services. These services will, of course, come with higher premiums.

Hospitals will privatize and bill for every pill, apparatus and procedure used. They will also start charging doctors for their office space, which doctors will be able to recoup through being able to charge for services rendered.

Doctors will be able to "opt out" of public service and start charging the moment you book an appointment (like dentists today).

This whole argument is like my GO train story earlier. The vast majority of commuters today use GO because it does the job, despite the occasional delay. GO trains also are not very comfortable, but commuters adapt. GO is also considerably cheaper than VIA. However, because VIA commuters pay extra, they receive a number of perks (rapid express service, snack/beverage carts, preference over other rail traffic). This in spite of the fact that the masses prefer the cheaper GO system. Yes, we're occasionally late arriving and we're not travelling in high style, but we learn to live with it.

If the Pandora's box of national privatized health care is opened, it won't stop with specific services. I suspect that the wealthy, insurance companies and doctors (to name a few interested parties) will want to see private cancer clinics, private children's hospitals, private GP's, pretty much everything. The government may try to keep a lid on things, limiting the services that can be privatized while keeping a second, publicly-available tier for those who cannot afford specialized services. However, I suspect that the challenges to the legislation will hit the courts/ lobbying circles fast and furious.

Once it starts, the bigger problem will be who works in each circle. The private sector will draw many of "the best and brightest" who, right or wrong, will seek to cash in on their exceptional skills. Free Market, caveat emptor. The public sector will be populated with overworked, underpaid, less-capable medical professionals. In short, it will be a 20-20 situation: The most-qualified 20% of physicians will be serving the 20% of the country willing to pay for services, while the remaining 80% of the population will be served by the lower 80% of physicians. That's a kinda "doomsday" scenario, but it could happen.

I think of this from the perspective of my kids. Had I been faced with the prospect of choosing whether or not I would send my preemies to a top-tier facility (which I would pay for) or a second-tier facility (paid for by the government), I would have felt that I had no choice. I would want the best care for my kids and would have paid likely upwards of $20,000 per child to have them cared for at the tier 1 level. Thankfully, I didn't have to make that choice. Just as thankfully, I have been blessed with the financial wherewithal to afford the choice. But many haven't. And if anyone thinks that such critical services as children's health would NEVER go two-tier, they're dreaming.

We may have a GO transit-style system of health care in Canada. There may be waits, overcrowding, stress and the occasional mistake. But they (much more often than not) get it right and everyone, regardless of social status, gets a fair chance at the best treatment this country can offer. As a Christian, I believe that those with less than me should not be considered lesser people for it. It would be nice if I could change Christian to person, but sadly, some folks (Christians included) believe that they should be allowed to move to the front of the line just by waving some cash around.

This is a kind of unstructured rant, but I intend to go back to it and tweak it as I read it and get feedback from others. Thanks for staying with it to the end.

Weird coincidence

2004-10-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

Headlines atop Friday's Globe and Mail and Toronto Star (Austin's personal favorite newspaper (HA!)):

"Back from the Brink"

The Star actually changed the headline for their online version. Check the print versions out, though. They're exactly the same.

Go see for yourself. I don't ever recall two newspapers printing the same headline for the same story.

Update

2004-10-07T07:01:00.000-04:00

We have had an awesome week. Well, other than the fact I've been sick since Monday and haven't been able to visit my little peanut in the hospital since then.

Aaron is doing so well. He's up to 4lbs. 5oz. as of last night and is off all of his tubes and IV's. He continues to be on a heart/O2 monitor, but they take him off it whenever he's out for a cuddle. Best of all, he's NURSING. The nurses let Christine try Aaron on breast on Monday and he took 4 cc's. As of yesterday, he's up to 15 cc's before tiring. Things are looking real good for an end-of-October trip home.

We had a great family visit last Sunday as we brought Aidan to the NICU to see his little brother. He was so cool, wanting to hold Aaron and giving him a kiss on his head. We got some great family pictures, which I'll try to remember to upload this week and put up on the blog for a couple of days.

We have also been blessed with a great network of support. My boss has approved my working from home two days a week until Aaron comes home, we received wonderful cards and gifts from both Christine's and my workplaces. We've also received a number of cards and gifts as well as some choice meals from our families, our Church family and our friends. Even better, the meals usually wind up taking two days to eat. Good friends of ours, Bruce and Lynn Thomas, brought us a terrific dinner of stew and crusty rolls with a great dessert called an Apple Nest (flaky pastry around a centre of sliced apples covered in applesauce, then drizzled with thick caramel and covered in icing sugar. DROOL!).

As was the case with Aidan, we have felt so comforted by God's hand, as He has surrounded us with so many people providing for our physical needs and so many more praying for and encouraging us. I was astonished to think that there are 5 churches praying for our little family (Philpott, West Highland, FRWY, Grace in Oakville, Park/Brant in Burlington) as well as small groups. How can we worry when so many are supporting us and when God is right there with us all the way?

Please keep praying for us. If you want a specific list of prayer needs, here's a few:

** My health and that Christine would not catch the bug I have and Aidan seems to be starting.
** Aaron has a number of things that still have to be monitored, including:
***** Some swelling around one of his kidneys that may require a procedure when he's a few months older. We will have to see a pediatric nephrologist.
***** A small hole in his heart that is very common in preemies and usually heals itself. Another echocardiogram will be taken before discharge to check on this.
***** Some "gaps" in the plates of his skull that were identified on a head ultrasound. These have to knit together properly to ensure proper brain growth. Again, this is apparently common in preemies and should correct itself, but another ultrasound will be needed.
** Strength and energy for Christine and I to make it through each day.
** That Aidan will adjust well to life as a big brother.

There you go. Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers. Please keep it coming.

Brian, Christine, Aidan and Aaron.

Fun sites to visit

2004-10-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

Jason Silver pointed me to a great site called MoronMouth. This site may not be everyone's cup of latte but, since I work for a bank, I see the hilarity in these conversations.

I also encourage folks to visit 40 Days. This is a site created by Jason through which the folks at Philpott are sharing their experiences as we move together through the 40 Days of Purpose. Unfortunately for Christine and I, we are unable to dive deep into this thanks to the blessing of Aaron's early arrival, but the experience thus far seems very positive for the church as a whole.

Later
BB

Playing God

2004-09-30T14:42:00.000-04:00

I am more and more convinced the world is going straight to hell.

To begin with, we have an article which I read in Monday's National Post. This is part 1 of a 6-part series which is titled "Extreme Babymaking". The Monday article focuses on Jennifer Thomson, who paid US $15,000 to have a genetically-engineered baby girl. The process, called "gender selection", involves a process whereby scientists separate x-chromosomes from y-chromosomes in order to maximize the probability of a specific gender being born. Another process, called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), is a wonderfully unethical procedure that uses good ol' In-Vitro to create embryos. They will then determine which embryo has the right genetic makeup of the child the parents want and then implant that embryo. Couples have also used this process to reduce the possibility of giving birth to a child with genetic defects.

Tuesday's article focused on grandparents using embryos/sperm from dead children to create "grandchildren from beyond the grave"

Wednesday's article focuses on the possibility that "fetal tissue would be most likely to come from an aborted, miscarried or stillborn baby, the “mother” of this child would never have been born." THERE's a pleasant thought.

Thursday explores the possibility of conceiving children when both parents are HIV-positive. Doctors believe that impregnating an HIV-positive woman with anonymously donated non-HIV sperm will dramatically reduce the possibility of the child being HIV-positive. At least this one has some redeeming qualities.

Who knows what Friday and Saturday will bring?

When will people, especially scientists, get tired of playing God? I have nothing against science and am always amazed at the progress mankind has made in both saving lives and extending lives. Scientific advances have ensured that my two premature-born children not only survived, but thrived. However, genetic engineering, like cloning, stem-cell research, and the like, are messing with things I cannot imagine God ever wanted us to mess with. The gift of life is God-given ONLY and should remain as such. If you have all boys, all girls, or some combination, God has blessed you with those children for a reason and you should be thankful for them. If, for whatever reason, you cannot have children/grandchildren, God intends for you to do something else that will allow you to have impact/influence. I truly believe that. I know some people who have willfully chosen NOT to have kids and continue to lead fulfilling lives. I also know couples who have tried for years to have kids only to have them when they stopped worrying about it.

Long story short.....let GOD control things. You'll be glad you did.

Update

2004-09-30T07:36:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Aaron celebrated his 1-week birthday. Here's a better picture of our little guy:

We have moved to St. Joe's hospital, which is a Level 2 NICU, as of yesterday. We went about a week earlier than expected. Aaron is back to his birth weight, although the move was a bit traumatic and knocked his temp down and caused him to shed 5 grams. He's breathing totally on his own and self-recovers from any "spells". Basically, that means he remembers to take deep breaths whenever he gets tired from the hard work of breathing. He is only being fed nutrients through his IV and I suspect that will come off once he starts nursing, which could be as early as next week.

Christine is also doing well. Her recovery is progressing from her c-section and she WILL be driving next week (Christine is not a good passenger). We have been blessed with a number of friends and family who have been able to pick her up and drop her off during the past week, and we already have transportation arranged through next week. We've also started arranging home care for Aidan once I go back to work. That is starting to come together, but I am not sure that I will get to work at home for 2 days each week. That is something we are kinda counting on, so please add that to your prayer list.

We have been so pleased with the prayers and encouragement we have received from friends and family and ask that it continue. We will keep the updates coming.

Brian, Christine, Aidan and Aaron

How are we doin?

2004-09-26T01:33:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update. My son is doing very well. He is virtually breathing on his own and they have increased his feeds of Mother's milk twice in the past 24 hours from 3 ml every 3 hours to 9 ml. There is evidence of a heartmurmur, but this is normal in preemies and will be monitored. All antibiotics have been discontinued and we are hearing that Aaron may be transferred to St. Joe's mid-week, which could mean about a week of hospital time will be shaved off our estimate of 4-7 weeks.

Christine is healing but remains in a lot of discomfort. We hope she will come home Sunday.

Your prayers and encouragement are, as always, appreciated.

First photo of Aaron

2004-09-23T16:34:00.000-04:00

Aaron Jacob Benallick

2004-09-23T07:46:00.000-04:00

The word is out, but for those who have not yet heard/read, Christine and I welcomed Aaron Jacob Benallick into the world yesterday at 12:58 PM. He weighed in at a healthy 3 lbs. 14 oz. and he is doing fine. Mom had a c-section, but is doing well. Both are at Mac. Your prayers and encouragement are, as always, appreciated.

Big Day Tomorrow

2004-09-20T07:41:00.000-04:00

So, the original Star Wars trilogy is hitting the stores on DVD tomorrow. All three movies are in the set and each has commentaries by George Lucas, Carrie Fisher and others. A fourth disc contains an assortment of goodies including a 2 1/2 hour documentary, a preview of Episode III and some other odds and ends.

And I have never read more stuff complaining about something than this.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the Star Wars movies. I still remember seeing the original for the first time at the old Centre Mall theatres back in the summer of 1977. The only time I ever cut a class in high school was ditching my Grade 11 accounting class to see the 4:00 showing of Return of The Jedi on opening day in 1983 (I actually got permission from my teacher to miss the class. GEEK!!!). I have the original films on laserdisc, the 20th anniversary edition on VHS and, in less than 48 hours, I'll have the latest version on DVD. Hello, my name is Brian and I am a Star Wars geek.

But not like this.

There is a number of articles written about how the films have been "damaged" by George Lucas and his changes. Apparently, the biggest problem is with the confrontation between Han Solo and the alien bounty hunter Greedo in the cantina on Mos Eisley. In the theatrical release, Solo fires first, effectively establishing him as a cutthroat badass. Later releases are altered to have Greedo fire first and Han firing to defend himself. Seems like a minor point to me. Other things include the addition of Jabba to Star Wars, more consistent images of the Emperor (using the same actor) in Empire Strikes Back and Jedi, and changing the face of Anakin Skywalker at the end of Jedi from Ian McDiarmid (who was the actor in the Vader suit when Luke took off the mask at the end of Jedi) to Hayden Christiansen, who plays Anakin/Vader in Attack of the Clones and the upcoming Revenge of the Sith. Supposedly Lucas will employ a Jedi mind trick in Revenge to explain why we get young Anakin alongside very old Obi-Wan and Yoda.

Lots of stuff. None of which will change my enjoyment of the films. But it's affected a few folks with WAY too much time on their hands. Visit OriginalTrilogy.com. There, you will find a petition with 62,645 signatures asking Lucas to release the films in their original format.

Some folks need something better to do. I think I may fall into that category.

SHOW!

2004-09-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

"Show: A Night In The Life of Matchbox Twenty" DVD Review.

I love live music. Whenever the opportunity presented itself when I was younger, I leaped at the chance to go to a concert. The atmosphere of a concert cannot be matched and, if the band was "on", it transformed their music from sound to EXPERIENCE. Today, I no longer find the atmosphere as appealing (too crowded, too loud, too freakin' EXPENSIVE).

Thank goodness for DVD.

I would have a very hard time justifying paying $100 for two tickets to a Matchbox Twenty show. My wife and I both like the band a lot (me more than her), but tickets, dinner, parking and crowds add up to "Let's do something else". $25 for the concert DVD, now that's something else. And let me say that, while I do have an extensive DVD collection, this is one of the few DVD's I would have gladly paid more for. It's THAT good. Let's start with the concert, shot at the Philips Arena in Hotlanta.

Before viewing this DVD, I suggest getting familiar with MB20's latest album More Than You Think You Are. Of the 20 songs performed, 12 songs are from the new CD (So Sad So Lonely is actually tacked on to the of the last song on the disc, The Difference, which is also the only song not performed live. If your familiarity with Matchbox only covers Mad Season and/or Yourself or Someone Like You, you'll recognize the hits, but not much else.

The show opens with Cold, from the new disc. This is the only song not totally consistent with the album, as the layers of fuzz the album version is buried in is stripped away. The cleaner sound works a whole lot better as the song really drives without the effects and makes a great opener. It's cool to see the first closeup of Rob Thomas, as he just looks so thrilled to be doing the show and the excitement on his face is so obvious.

The band then draws their first major cheer of the night with opening strains of Real World. Following that, 7 of the next 10 songs are from the new album, the exceptions being 3AM, whose opening acoustic guitar lick draws huge crowd response, Mad Season and a stripped-down If You're Gone, which ditches the horn arrangement and is played on a solo guitar by Kyle Cook. Thomas and Cook also do a smart job on the vocals for If You're Gone, displaying tight harmonies and tremendous sensitivity.

The transition from Gone to Bright Lights to Bent is a bit jarring, especially since they slow it right down again after Bent with Unwell and Back 2 Good . I would have inserted Bent after Feel and then ran off Back 2 Good, If You're Gone, Hand Me Down, Unwell and Bright Lights. The set proper closes with Downfall and a slamming You're So Real. The encore starts with So Sad So Lonely (the unnamed track from More Than....) and then the show winds up with two MB20 staples, Long Day and Push.

I expressly left out the early middle of the show because I wanted to spend some time writing about this. In order to fully appreciate the stretch between All I Need and If You're Gone, you really need to sit down and listen to More Than... because you will be better prepared for the awesomeness of this section. As I stated in an earlier post, I foolishly dismissed More Than... and as a result, fast-forwarded this segment of the show the first couple of times I listened to the DVD. Big mistake. This is now, easily, my favorite segment of the show. The band is really into these tunes and two in particular, Soul and Could I Be You, stand out above the rest for the sheer joy and exuberance the band puts forth in performing them. The bass line at the end of Could I Be You is astonishing live and the power the band puts forth in this sequence just blew me away. The concert disc earns my highest recommendation.

Don't stop reading yet. We have Disc 2 to do.

Now Disc 2 is in some ways, forgettable. I have no use for still pictures, as it requires way too much of my attention to be worthwhile (I tend to do other things while watching DVDs), so the photo and lyric galleries are useless. However, I liked the multi-angle presentations of Soul and Bright Lights, which are great fun. For the multi-angles, a camera was trained on each band member for the duration of the song and a sixth camera shot the bulk of the footage used in the concert video. By using the "Angle" button on their remote, the viewer can flip from band member to band member. This gives the viewer an idea of what each band member is doing during a song. It was actually from the multi-angles that I got an appreciation of how much these guys love their music, as drummer Paul Doucette just loses himself in the performance of Soul. This is all good, but there's something a whole lot better.

If the concert is the ice cream, the documentary on disc 2 is the chocolate sauce and cherry on top of the sundae. MB20 includes a 40-minute documentary showing the band on- and off-stage, preparing for sound checks, planning the show and a lot more. The doc was shot over the duration of the tour, winding up with the final show on the 4th of July (where they were playing escapes me). The viewer is introduced to the entire crew, gets a pretty detailed look at life on the road with MB20 and, in general, gets an appreciation for how arduous (and fun) the road can be. There are some very funny bits (Paul and Rob negotiating bus bed assignments with their head of security, Paul damaging his hand (bad for drummers) while worrying over the lighting for the show, Adam Gaynor touring the viewer through the #2 bus, Rob spoofing on the York Peppermint Patty commercials) and a lot of stuff that really drives home the level of camaraderie shared by these guys. This doc is worth the price of admission alone.

One disclaimer I want to make here. The boys are a little foul-mouthed. If you are watching with kids, fast-forward the intro to Unwell, since it is peppered with f-bombs. Also, in the doc, there is a sequence at the start where Rob and Paul are giving the stage manager a hard time and use some, shall we say, less-than-tasteful phrases to describe him. Buyer beware.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I HUGELY recommend this DVD, especially if you are a Matchbox Twenty fan. My quibbles over song order are minor, the disc looks and sounds AWESOME and provides an unbelievably detailed look at a band that is a crossover success and, I think, on the verge of major superstardom.

Concert - 9/10
Sound Quality - 5/5
Picture Quality - 4/5
Extras - 4/5 (Gotta dock a point for the useless galleries. If they had just given me the multi-angles and the doc, it's an easy 5/5.)

Overall - 22/25.

Slightly below what I rated Michael W. Smith, but awesome nonetheless. Available online by clicking here (amazon.ca).

As always, thoughts and feedback are welcome and encouraged.

Later, all.

A little breather

2004-09-17T09:37:00.000-04:00

So, Aidan is at pre-school and Christine is the "Duty Parent" (aka slave for the teachers). This means that I get a little "me" time. Well, except for the fact I have to sweep the floors, fold the laundry, do the dishes and clean the cat boxes (No smart comments, Duane). I should be able to get in another episode of From The Earth To The Moon. For those unfamiliar with this DVD, it chronicles the U.S. space program through the Gemini and Apollo missions. Very cool stuff. It's also fun at parties, as just about every b-list actor appears in it. In the first 6 episodes, I saw Tim Daly, Cary Elwes, Al Franken, Chris Isaak, Kevin Pollak and so many more. I even saw the guy who played the dad on ALF!

Even though this may be a case of tooting my horn, I encourage you to read this post at my brother Mike's blog. The reason is not because it's about me, but because it shows how much one person can influence another without realizing it. It's important to remember that someone is always watching and learning from you, and it is even more true when that someone is one of your siblings or kids.

Another one is from Amy's blog. This is such a great post and I think everyone in our little circle has already made reference to it, so apologies if this is a bit stale. It made me think of my childhood and how I used to pick out the brightest star in the sky and mark it as my Mom. Now I look for a bright cluster and mark it as Mom, Dad, Aunt Jean, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, my Grandma Mayer and my cousin Don. Amy's post made me think of all these people and both how much I miss them and how exciting it will be to see them again in Heaven.

Finally, Christine hit 30 weeks in her pregnancy and we're thrilled to get to this point. According to ultrasound, the baby is closing in fast on 3 pounds and everything is looking good. And, lastly, tomorrow is our 5th anniversary. I can't believe I have been married for 5 years to such a beautiful, caring, compassionate, Godly woman for 5 years. And, what's better, I love her 100 times more now than I did the day I married her.

As usual, I have a lot to talk about and no time to do it. I've done this before, but here's a list of things I want to cover in my opinionated fashion:

A look at what I like and don't like about George Bush's economic platform.
Why Canadian health care is doomed
A review of the following DVD's: Show, Boomtown Season 1 and Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live.
Major League Baseball playoff predictions
Fall TV preview (I'm really looking forward to doing this one).
.....and so much more.

That's it. Until next we meet.

It took 5 days to write this.

2004-09-06T21:59:00.000-04:00

Sunday, September 5.....

Yesterday, I was helping my neighbor put down posts for his deck. We have a guy in our 'hood who's kind of a "jack of all trades". He's built decks and finished basements for 3 or 4 houses and has saved me from a couple of lighting-related problems. He's taking the lead on the project and coordinates everyone who comes to help.

So, here I am yesterday mixing and pouring cement for the first time in my life. I can honestly say I am not used to working so hard. I spent most of the afternoon hauling 30kg bags of cement...........

...Fast-forward to Thursday.....

......when we realized that the three 20-year-old guys in attendance were running the hose, while 36-year-old me and my 40+ neighbor were doing the hauling and mixing. Something wrong here. The situation was quickly resolved and the youngsters took on the heavy work while I shoveled cement into the postholes and my neighbor made sure everything was level. Much better. Still hard work, though, and the plan is to finish this weekend.

So, it took me four days to write that one up. Let's see what else I've accumulated in the last week and a half.

My prayers for Christ's return are becoming louder and louder, especially in light of the tragic events in Russia last week. When terrorists no longer are concerned about the well-being of women and children, I fear there is not much left to deter them. Q107's morning man, John Derringer, suggested that any terrorist who puts children in harm's way should, if identified, have their kids killed in retaliation. Personally, while I don't have a solution to stop terror attacks, I think that solution sends the civilized part of the world down the same slope these psychos are travelling.

On a much more upbeat note, we have passed the 27-week mark in Christine's pregnancy. In fact, Saturday marks week 30. I suspect she won't be working past the end of September, but c'est la vie. Thanks to those of you who are praying for and encouraging us. Please don't stop.

If you are a fan of Matchbox Twenty, you MUST run out NOW and buy Show. This is a 2-disc set. Disc 1 chronicles their show from the "More Than You Think You Are" tour at Atlanta's Phillips Arena. That alone is worth the price of admission, but then you get a faboo 2nd disc with a great documentary of the tour, multi-angle presentations of 2 songs ("Soul", my new favorite song of theirs, and "Bright Lights") and other goodies. "More Than You Think You Are", the latest full-length CD from the 20, gained a whole new appreciation in my ears once I witnessed this show. "Disease" was OK and "Unwell" was a pretty good tune, but the rest of the album was, to me, forgettable. Not anymore. I now have this album fused into my MP3 player and listen to it non-stop. Seriously, I could write ten pages about how good this show is (and one day I might).

Haven't watched a total of 10 minutes of the World Cup of Hockey, couldn't care less. However, I know that Canada's rolling over everybody and the U.S. needed a miracle night from Keith Tkachuk to salvage their tourney. Kudos to Brett Hull, though, for locking up the Village Idiot award before the playoff round started. You gotta wonder about the state of a person's brainpan when, in a year that looks like the NHL is going to do everything it can to shaft the fans, Hully comments that he could care less about the fans (or something to that extent). Must be all those years wearing a Red Wings jersey. That'll turn your brain to mush (right, Mike?).

All you 24 freaks need to know this. The Season 3 DVD (which streets in December and is available for pre-order from Amazon.ca) contains a special goodie. As you may or may not know (or care), all of the cast from season 3 has been turfed (except Kiefer). Some may make short appearances in season 4. However, in an effort to explain this transformation, the producers of 24 are giving loyal fans a bonus. From The Digital Bits:

On the Fox front, we've learned that the studio's 24: The Complete Third Season (due on 12/7) will feature a special "half episode" written by the show's creators and shot with the cast. It's designed to bridge the time span between seasons 3 and 4, and introduce some of the new characters and situations that will appear in season 4.

Excellent.

Well, that's enough. I will try to post more often, but vacation is next week and it will be chock full of day trips and AIDAN'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL, which is next Wednesday. Not sure if I'm ready to start letting my little guy go (sniff).

Also, NBC's Medical Investigations starts tonight, starring ex-Boomtown assistant DA Neal McDonough. Gotta make sure the VCR is set. I love the fall.

Later.

P.S. Anyone who wants to wish me a happy birthday, I accept all best wishes and wisecracks, since I turn 37(!) on Sunday.

Baseball

2004-08-29T11:17:00.000-04:00

I've played slo-pitch since I was 18. I started with a team out of Copps Coliseum (I think it might have been a 3-pitch team) and then, when I started at Dofasco, I was picked up to play on a men's team. That team's pitcher hooked me up with a bunch that he played mixed ball with. Many of us on that mixed team stayed together for about 12 years, switching to men's ball in 1996. The last two years, I played on a men's team that a good friend of mine, Shawn McVittie, played on. We won the league championship both years.

Why am I telling you all of this?

I can now say that, after winning a championship on a team where I had no real "friends" (Shawn suddenly passed away in the winter of 2002), I enjoyed what may have been my best year of baseball in about 10 years. An old, old friend of mine, Mike Johnny, and I talked about me playing on his team this year. When the team's captain, Grant Voisin, asked me to hook up with them, I never gave it a second thought. I have reconnected with a lot of people from my youth on this team (Grant and Rob Divinski, friends of my brother's from the old neighborhood. Pete Stapleford and Ed Reid, with whom I was in Mike's wedding party. Chris Culver and Kevin Rizun, who I competed against in hockey and baseball pools). Plus I get the opportunity to hang out with Matt Collins, Philpott's youth pastor and a heck of an outfielder.

I haven't felt like I "belonged" on a team in a number of years. This year was great from the word go. I didn't hit that well, and the team finished 5th in a 6-team league, but every game was enjoyable and, with only a couple of exceptions, competitive to the end. We even played a 0-0 tie, which is a true rarity in slo-pitch.

Next year, I hope to talk my brother Mark into coming out to play, which would be awesome. Now if only Mike would move home, we could put all the Benallick boys on the field together, which hasn't happened since we last played in a tournament with our extended family. That's something else I hope to do next year, too.

Anyhow, we had a full day of playoff action yesterday, playing 3 games before bowing out. I'm very sore today (left knee, right foot, right elbow) and will probably need medical treatment over the winter, but it was worth every ache and pain to have such an awesome summer of ball. Looking forward to next year, Shooters!!!!!!

Timewasters

2004-08-21T14:41:00.000-04:00

Yeah, like there ain't enough of these around:

First, the only game that makes a challenge of tossing paper balls into a wastebasket while fans blow behind you:

Wastebasket

Next a putting simulation I picked up a few months ago from Jason's blog:

Putting

By the way, the soundtrack to my blogging today? "The Pleasure and the Pain" by Montreal's own The Box (released in 1990). How many of you remember The Box?

Hey all you video game freaks

2004-08-21T14:05:00.000-04:00

Coming soon to a theater near you:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5721197

The Whole Censorship Thing

2004-08-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

Well, The Graduate and I wound up focusing our discussion more on the Texas Rangers than anything else yesterday, and the censorship discussion didn't come up again. However, I received a thoughtful response from Jason that helped me find my way a little better.

I suppose, in the end, I really don't condone censorship. I found myself thinking that, if someone demanded that Blogger yank my privileges for something I said, I would be pretty upset. Everyone is entitled to their point of view and, whether I agree with it or not, if they are able to gain a platform to publicly shout it out, then I guess more power to them.

However......

I find myself more and more saddened by the fact that the only way to get such a broad platform is to say and do things that shock and, quite often, come at the expense of others. I still think (and NOBODY will move me off this) that there is an element of society that listen to the commentary of extremists and take it literally. This leads them to think that mistreating others for their benefit is acceptable behaviour. This is the type of "bullying" parents don't want their children to do on the playground, yet we shrug our shoulders when it is displayed in the public forum. Where do parents think kids pick it up? We have, in the last 20 years, allowed black and white to become gray. The lines are so blurred now it is almost impossible for parents to convey a consistent message throughout their child's upbringing. Heck, the PARENTS often don't consistently draw the lines.

I suppose my earlier post was more my way of mourning society's ever-increasing lack of moral boundaries and willingness to more frequently seek out the easiest targets just to get someone to listen to us or to laugh. It's so much easier just to pick on someone weaker in order to get attention than it is to work at building relationships, helping others and showing love and respect for our fellow man (funny, that last bit seems to be a model for Jesus' ministry).

I know for sure that I'll be paying a lot of attention to my kids' behaviour, as well as my own. I hope anyone who reads this, if they aren't already doing the same, will join in.

God bless

Brian