Signings, or, Why Baseball Teams Are Who They Are

St. Louis Cardinals, 2006 World Series Champions, 10 World Series Titles, 17 National League Pennants, 22 appearances in baseball's postseason
Chicago Cubs, Loveable Losers, They of the Friendly Confines, 2 World Series Titles, 10 National League Pennants, 14 appearances in baseball's postseason, no World Series Title since 1908, no National League Pennant since 1945.
The Cardinals have added these players since winning the World Series: Gary Bennett, 1 year; Jim Edmonds, 2 years, $19 million; Randy Keisler; Adam Kennedy, 3 years, $10 million; Scott Spiezio, 2 year deal, $4.5 million; Kip Wells, 1 year, $4 million; Eli Marrero, Minor League contract.
The Cubs have added these players since the Cardinals won the World Series: Henry Blanco, 2 year deal with team option; Mark DeRosa, 3 year deal, $13 million; Wade Miller, 1 year, $1.5 million; Aramis Ramirez, 5 year deal with mutual option, $73 million; Alfonso Soriano, 8 year contract, $136 million; Kerry Wood, 1 year deal, $1.75 million.
Cards: Bennett is a journeyman who responded well to St. Louis last year. Edmonds is in decline, but agreed to rework a deal that makes him far more attractive than under the earlier deal. Adam Kennedy is an old Cards hand, having gone to the Angels in the Edmonds deal. He is not sensational, but he is steady, and will be reunited with his double play partner from the 2002 World Champions, David Eckstein. Speizio proved to be a very valuable bench player, filling in just about everywhere last season, and showing some good pop at the plate. Kip Wells is a season past surgery, and seems a very reasonable bet to return to what he was in 2002-2003 (38 RSAA for a pitiable Pirates team). Eli Marrero is returning to the Cards as a much more versatile player than the backup catcher he was when he left St. Louis previously. On the whole, reasonable money for reliable players and a couple of reasonable risks. Nice job, so far.
Cubs: Soriano is already past 30, but was given the longest, largest contract in club history. His speed makes him special; do his legs hold up to age 40? If so, he'll be the first. Ramirez doesn't play hard every day. He doesn't play hard a lot of days. He sulked under Dusty Baker; how will he respond to Lou Piniella? But, in Hendry Land, that gets you the second richest deal in team history. Mark DeRosa had a career year at the optimal moment. He has never done anything to suggest that last year's performance was anything but a fluke, and he will prove that this season. DeRo is not as good as Adam Kennedy, but the Cubs are paying him a million dollars a year more than the Cards are paying Kennedy. Wade Miller isn't a bad bet for a million and a half; he just hasn't pitched in forever. Which brings us to Kerry Wood. Stop it! Just stop it now!
To date, the 2006 Hot Stove season clearly demonstrates why the Cardinals are the Cardinals, and the Cubs are the Cubs. But, hey, they still have Wrigley Field, and this year, Mt. Piniella, just waiting to explode.

Hell Froze Over

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has shown evidence of a conscience! No, regretably, they haven't spayed or neutered Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity. I didn't say that they had joined the human race. They've just sprouted a little leaf of a small amount of decency. O.J. Simpson has been denied his forum for...what? His memoir of that night? The only means open to him to make some real money? I don't even know what to call it.
Mr. Simpson was to give an interview, in anticipation of the publication of a book, that would tell how he murdered his ex-wife and a neighborhood waiter. If he had done it. I've already heard this story. It was called the trial of the century. Which proved only two things: if your prosecutors went to the Three Stooges' Law School, and if you have enough money, then in the good old U.S. of A. you can get away with absolutely anything.
Perhaps that pricipal has changed just a bit. Someone at Fox apparently decided that all of Rupert's billions couldn't buy them an excuse for putting an unconvicted, but nonetheless guilty, murderer on television to, again, torture the families of his victims.
Good taste from the Brit Hume and Greta Van Susteren crowd? Witness, friends, my proof for the existence of God!

Still Trying to Wind Down on Sunday Night/Monday Morning

Why is it that Ted Koppel can examine Iran and its place in the world in reasonable ways, but no one in our government seems to be able to do so? (Do yourselves a favor-watch Koppel on Discovery; this program is Iran: The Most Dangerous Nation)
The only thing better than baptizing one person in morning worship is baptizing two, which we did this morning. And the best part is, in our church that's a fairly frequent occurence!
So it seems that the Cubs are about to win the Soriano sweepstakes. After the last three years (Red Sox in '04, White Sox in '05 and Cardinals in '06) about the last remaining mountain-top experience for a baseball fan is seeing the Cubs win the World Series. Alfonso is a good step in that direction. But the Cubs are still the Cubs, and there are reasons why they are approaching a full century since winning a World Series. Three years at $13 million for Mark DeRosa? Mark's a good guy-he came up with the Braves-but one good year (and that in the Ballpark at Arlington!) makes anybody a $4.3 million a year player? And signing Kerry Wood again, at any price, even for one year? Memo to the Tribune Company: the fantasy is over; Wood and Prior aren't going to win you anything but Workman's Compensation claims. I can see a Derrek Lee-Aramis Ramirez-Soriano order going nuts with 81 games in Wrigley, but somebody's still got to get the other side out. After Zambrano, who ya got?
While my interest in football is minimal-a severe handicap for a southern guy-I do think that there is a baseball parallel: just as baseball is better when the Yankees are good, so do I think that the NFL is more interesting when the Chicago Bears are good. And this year, they are very good. The Colts' loss today leaves them even with the Bears for the best record in the league. The Colts are all offense, and the worst run defense in the NFL. The Bears, however, are passable on offense and tremendous on defense. That formula has won an awful lot of the Super Bowls that I have seen.
If I know little of pro football, I know less of college. Heck, my school didn't even have football with I was there. That said, if the NCAA wants a great game for their pretend championship, I can't see them doing better than a repeat of the Ohio State-Michigan game. And by the way, if Ohio State is number 1, shouldn't they beat the number 2 team by just a little bit when the game is played at #1's home field? I don't get the polls; I prefer a game where you have earn the championship on the field every year. You know, "There's no voting in Baseball!" But if you play number 1 tight at their place, your ranking shouldn't take a beating. I am no Michigan fan. I thought Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler were both awful people with all their tough guy posturing and football-as-war talk. What nonsense! But Michigan deserves a rematch, especially if the football muckety-mucks want a competitive game for their joke of a title.
Is there anything better than satellite radio? I have both brands, courtesy of the family's Christmas generosity over the last few years. XM has the baseball package. Sirius has basketball, and, yes, Howard. XM could make their service indispensible if only they understood baseball. They do pick up every game. But only the home broadcast. They clearly don't understand or care that in the free agent era, the baseball fan's connection to their team is through the announcers. I feel like Jack Buck was another beloved uncle; Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren, life-long friends; Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano, daily companions. Cardinal baseball is as much about Mike Shannon's peculiarities as it is about who's batting or on the mound. Having to listen to the loathsome Jerry Coleman when the Cards are out west, or the wretched John Sterling when the Sox visit The Stadium should be chargeable offenses under the Constitution's cruel and inhuman punishment clause. Even more than Papi and Manny, Albert and Chris, Chipper and Smoltz, the guys behind the microphones make the game, every day, for six months a year. Give us our guys! Play both broadcasts of each game! Or, actually, all three with the Spanish announcers.
Which leads, finally, to one more question: just what the hell is wrong with posting signs in English and Spanish? Are we so jingoistic that we won't lift a finger to help those new to our country make their way? The obvious stupidity of this attitude is that we ALL came from somewhere else. By the last anthropological studies I saw, even the Native Americans are actually Native Asians. I am grateful that when the first Pierces or Pearses or whatever it was originally were busy having their names misunderstood and misspelled like everybody else upon entering this country, there was opportunity for them to figure out life in this new place. How big an ass must one be to deny that opportunity to others whose only sin is getting here a little later? As shared before, recipients of grace must be very, very careful when considering whether to extend grace to others!

Managers of the Year

The Baseball Writers of America today named Jim Leyland and Joe Girardi the American and National League Managers of the Year. Well done! They are both deserving. Leyland returned just as the pathetic wreckage of one of the great franchises in the history of the game was set up to reclaim their position. The Detroit Tigers had spent way too many years as a laughingstock. Now, it's a "they who laugh last" situation. Their post-postseason addition of Gary Sheffield means that they should now have the opportunity to finish the job that ended one step short of completion last year. And getting Shef without having to give up any of their Major League pitching just underlines why Dave Dombrowski should be American League Executive of the Year. And Detroiters should feel tremendously encouraged that Shef's coming in confirms that Mike Ilitch has no intention of playing Wayne Huizenga in a 2007 version of the 1998 Marlins, with Dombrowski and Leyland having to relive that nightmare.
Joe Girardi won the National League vote. And he's out of a job. What's wrong with this picture? Jeffrey Loria. Loria spent a summer afternoon at the park playing Mark Cuban with the umpires. Girardi, to his eternal credit, told Loria to shut up. He was making life harder for Joe G's players. And from there, the relationship between manager and owner soured. And, predictably, the GM, Larry Beinfest, adopted a CYA position alongside the owner. So the brilliant-on the order of those cartoon idiots in the Guinness ads-billionaire Loria, who presided over the destruction of the Montreal Expos and was rewarded with the Marlins franchise, exercised his deep pockets prerogative and axed his manager.
This action was perfectly understandable. After all, Girardi had been handed a great team. The Marlins would have a record six players who received votes in the 2006 Rookie of the Year balloting. But back in the spring, they were just a bunch of children. And they played like it. The Marlins started 11-31. Twenty games under .500 in only 42 games played. Horrible! And they ended the season winning only 5 of their final 18 games. Wretched!
The rest of the story, however, is that in between the bad beginning and ending the Marlins became the only team in Major League history to reach .500 after having been 20 games under. Their season record: 78-84. Take out the start, and they went 67-53. Take out the bad finish, and it's 62-40. And before anybody starts telling me that if you take out the three losing streaks that the Cardinals had then their record improves, too, please remember a couple of things. Girardi had 22 rookies on his roster at one time or another last season. He had to teach them to play. And the finish came after Loria had made it clear that Joe wouldn't be back for 2007. Tell the kids that the guy who taught them to be Major Leaguers isn't going to be with them for their sophomore campaigns, and expect them to play as well as before? I just don't see that as a legitimate possibility.
Girardi will be fine. He'll spend this season back in the YES broadcast booth. And when the right job comes open, he'll continue his managerial career. And if he's fortunate enough to get his next job with a good owner, the rest of MLB better watch out!
The Marlins? Well, they hired Fredi Gonzalez to manage next year, and off of Fredi's tenure as the Braves' third base coach, I can't wish him ill. But he's working for Jeffrey Loria. I don't think Fredi's problems will come from my bad wishes on his organization.

You're Invited

The mail brought an interesting moment this afternoon, which is more than can be said most days. One of my previous stops is marking an anniversary that they apparently take to be significant, and must be asking everyone who was ever associated with them to go back for the occasion. In my final spring with them, they concluded that my presence was no longer required. I was hurt at the time, in spite of the fact that I already wanted to leave. There's something of that spurned lover stuff to the way we do things in our church. It was perfectly alright for me to want out, but when they said it first, I was wounded.
The particular issue on their part was the pushing of an individual who had been seated on the pertinent committee in spite of the fact that he never showed up at church unless he just couldn't find anything else to do. He pushed because he seemed to feel that I should have moved in with his terminally ill mother to be there every moment, and I hadn't done so. One of the joys of our existence is that our working lives are routinely in the hands of people who have no personnel experience whatsoever. They haven't dealt with hiring and firing, setting salaries, knowing what kinds of performance are appropriate or inappropriate and so on. A long-retired colleague says that the church is the last place left where average people can shake their fists, raise their voices, and get results. Well, long story short, my pal got results.
I hadn't thought about him or the congregation in question for several years prior to the arrival of the invitation. I got past the injury and resultant anger (hey, I am a guy!) a long time ago. But I have no interest in going back. When we clergy folk leave a place, we are supposed to be gone. I believe in that. We are to respect our successor(s) and leave them to attend to those now appointed to their care. Most of my stops have left me with fond memories. Two, not so much. But I have never gone back to any of them but one, and that, once. Everything was different. They had moved on, and so had I. It wasn't a comfortable day.
People often try to empathize with our weekend work schedules. And, sure, I'd like to stay out on Beale Street all Saturday night every now and then. But sometimes that Sunday schedule sure comes in handy. And this is one of those times.
Sorry, but I just can't get away on a Sunday morning. Thank goodness!

Moving in a Better Direction

I am, every day of my life, more thankful than I can put into words for the accident of birth that put me in the United States of America. As with all grace, I did nothing to earn this blessing, and neither did you. A simple change of a last name, a religion, and a DNA cell here or there, and I am in China or Iraq or Darfur or...you get the idea. No, it is nothing but a stunning blessing to have been born into this country. That said, I am not proud of my country every day. We are often greedy. We are frequently arrogant. We regularly expect people in other countries to behave as though they have had all of the advantages of life that we have had, and seek to punish them when they don't.
Today is different. I am proud of my country. Nationally, we have declared that we are fed up with arrogant leadership that plows ahead with bad policies no matter what anyone thinks. We have told our President who can't recall ever making a mistake that he has made several, and bad ones, too. And to his minimal credit, he took a short step toward doing better today by allowing Mr. Rumsfeld to go back to bullying business people rather than killing our men and women in uniform. Bush's The Donald maintained his posture, even in humiliation, lecturing us all that the only reason that he was going was that Iraq is a war that is "little understood." Yeah, if only we were as smart as the Neo-Cons, we'd want Rummy to keep this crap up until George II leaves at noon on January 20, 2009.
Other great human beings dismissed yesterday: Rick Santorum, Mr. "Gays are worse than people who practice bestiality" was excused by the apparently sobering up Pennsylvanians, who also turned out Curt "What do you mean I can't force companies that want my ear to throw contracts to my daughter? Weldon; the loathsome Ken Blackwell, architect of the theft of the 2004 Presidential Election, was thrashed by Ohioans fed up with the corruption of the Republican party; many others, from Bush lapdogs to just plain criminals were given permanent vacations.
I only have one regret: Harold Ford, Jr. lost in my state. Bob Corker is a joke; my thoughts on him are in a previous post. But Harold's defeat carried with it some measure of encouragement. In this southern, Republican state, against an opponent who was way too comfortable using race as an issue, a black man lost by fewer than 50,000 votes. Harold polled almost 900,000 votes. Even if we must still be ashamed that the better candidate was defeated by his skin color, we are making progress. Just think, if only 50k bigots had stayed home, Tennessee would have elected the first African-American Senator from the south since Senators have been elected by the popular vote. We almost did something great! I am a United Methodist Democrat. That means, by definition, that I am an optimist. I fully expect that in two years, we will have an opportunity to take the step we didn't quite make this year. Harold is far too fine a political leader to end his career at age 36. He will be back, and we should elect him when he runs next.
There are many difficult days still ahead. But we will now have the checks and balances system constructed by our Constitutional founders in place to prevent this President from racing, solo, into all of the quicksand that Mr. Bush has found in his 6 years in office. We will have the opportunity to look into all of the questionable dealings leading up to war, in conducting the war, and in botching this time since that is so obviously breaking down into civil war in Iraq. Questions will now be asked, and answers will be required. It's about time!
There will also be a great deal less of this "God prefers us" and "God wants us to do this" garbage from the American extremists. Those who have claimed mandates to "do the will of God" in our country have been put in their place. Because anyone who has ever had a serious encounter with the Bible knows that God loves all of this human creation. We are all God's children, those who know it and try to live accordingly, and those who don't get it yet. And the single group with whom Jesus Christ is constantly, invariably harsh is that group that continually presented themselves as knowing God, but demonstrating none of the grace, mercy and love that God embodies. My right-wing sisters and brothers, pharaseeism is not of Christ. Give it up! We are still all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God! You didn't get yourself saved, and you don't get extra credit for getting there earlier in the day. Stop acting like you did.
Instead of screaming "Murderer" at young women who are so desperate in their circumstances that they have decided that abortion is the only way out, use your energy and resources to provide prenatal care and make the adoption process less costly. Instead of blaming gays for threatening the sanctity of marriage, use your commitment to Christ to establish mentoring programs for young couples who desperately need to be educated that the marriage contract isn't a "let's just try this for a while, and if it doesn't work out, so what?" type of thing. Instead of trying to kill all the terrorists, why not advocate for programs to provide food, education and opportunity for the children of the poorest and most repressive nations of the world. Osama bin Laden is the exception; most terrorists aren't rich and powerful. They are, for the most part, disaffected, isolated people who feel no connection to other human beings, and see no opportunity for their lives. How might any of us react if we had been born in the Gaza Strip, Ethiopia or North Korea? It is too easy to impose our expectations on people who have never known a good day, heard one encouraging word, or been told that they matter to anyone for any reason. Why not try to live out that old "Love one another" thing before we lower ourselves to that "kill them all and let God sort them out" mentality. Because we can't kill in God's name any more than the bin Ladens of the world can. Because God's word is life. And that's not debatable.

Almost Done

The election is upon us. We should be free of political advertising by bed time tomorrow. Hallelujah! But first...
I am a native Tennessean. Born here, lived all my life here except for the four years as a kid, and three as an adult, that bishops exiled us to Kentucky. The majority of my life has been spent in Memphis, or the Memphis metropolitan area. I know all about the Fords. I don't think much of many of them. But I have had the privilege of being in the presence of Harold Ford, Jr. on multiple occasions, and I think a great deal of him. I have seen him in a worship service honor the 90th birthday of Dr. Cecil Humphreys, one of the pillars of Memphis State University/University of Memphis. I watched him express to an elderly man the genuine appreciation of the community for work done largely before Harold was born. And he knew his material in acknowledging Dr. Humphreys' accomplishments. No notes, no script. I have seen the Congressman in my daughters' schools, not for photo ops, but to talk to the kids and tell them that they could do great things if they stayed in school and studied hard. How do I know several of those occasions weren't photo ops? Only one aide accompanied Harold, to move him along to keep his schedule. You see, he liked talking to the children so much that he would have stayed all day on his own. I have seen him in the dining rooms of retirement homes run by our church-related ministry to the aging, responding to every question seriously and graciously. I have seen his work to respond to VA problems, Medicare issues and Social Security concerns. I have friends who have called on him when they needed someone to put in a word with the Small Business Administration, and gotten the help they needed.
Corker's advertising has been shameful. Harold Ford, Jr. is not John Ford. Nor is he his father. He is his own man who has served the Ninth District honorably and well. Desperate to find some way to label Harold liberal, they ran an ad that told how he had outdone Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton...in junkets. Did Corker bother to mention that the vast majority of Congressional junkets are privately funded? No, he just wanted to link Harold's name to the northeastern senators. Harold is no liberal. His values are far more conservative than mine. Worst of all, Corker has told the voters of Tennessee that Harold is after white women. After all, he attended a function at the Playboy Mansion. How proud the citizens of Chattanooga must be: the best thing that their former mayor has to recommend him is that his mom, his wife and his daughters think well of him, and his opponent is a black man that, Corker says, chases white women.
Harold Ford, Jr. is a young, single man. I would think that an interest in women would make him a thoroughly acceptable candidate to the buffoons who continue to fight this absurd battle over the rights of non-traditional couples to marry. Friends, be very careful in your condemnations. As the pathetic plight of Rev. Haggard reminds us AGAIN, that judging others thing will come around to bite you every time. I would think that a bachelor might be a refreshing change from all of those hypocrites who condemned Bill Clinton's (absolutely condemnable) behavior, all the while carrying on their own affairs not of state. I will personally guarantee that Harold will not cheat on his wife!
Bob Corker has even criticized Harold Ford, Jr. for being articulate and intelligent. This aspect of the campaign smacks of the 1940s when Rep. Claude Pepper (later Senator Pepper) was attacked by his opponent in rural areas of Florida. The charge: "Claude Pepper is a heterosexual!" There is no more space in our state for an educated man with some polish about him to be attacked for kowing something. Must we always expect to be near the bottom in our educational performance? Mr. Corker would, from the images in his advertising, say yes! "Being glad that Mississippi is still in the union to keep us off the bottom" is no more an education policy than Bush's "YEE-HAW" is a foreign policy.
The truth of the matter is that there is no reason whatsoever to vote for Mr. Corker. He is, pure and simple, more of the same crap from the same party that has sought to destroy our nation for the last six years. Bush does not deserve, and we cannot afford, one more day of a compliant Congress.
Surely in 2006 we Tennesseans have grown enough to be able to evaluate these two men on their merits. I cannot comprehend that we will defeat the better candidate, and encourage the performance of the President, because that better candidate's shell is just a shade too dark. God help us!

Channeling the Old Larry King USA Today Column

(To be read in a gruff, slightly incoherent voice, with suspenders on)
Pillows are soft.
Peyton Manning is good.
I like cheese.
Elections are fun.
Hey Broadway Joe, I'd like to kiss Suzy Kolber, too.
No, maybe I'll just make her the ninth Mrs. King!
I can't understand this Borat when he speaks.
Tomorrow night's Pre-Election show: Fabio, Howie Mandel and Jessica Simpson on the Republicans' prospects for retaining control of the Congress.
Elizabeth Taylor is a hottie!
I like yogurt.
Tuesday's Election Night Program: Senator John McCain, Ken Mehlman and Bay Buchanon on
the nations's best roller coasters.
Babies are small.
I want bigger glasses.
Maybe there have been some allegations, but that Michael Jackson is some entertainer!
Wednesday's Election Wrap Up Show: The President of the United States on Brims vs. Lays:
Which Pork Rinds Are Best?
I've never seen e coli on my spinach.
Liza Minnelli? What a singer!
Dick Cheney is grumpy.
There sure is a lot of poker on television.
Salsa is tasty!
Until next time...