Petty's Ponderings

A great read.

2009-06-02T11:47:00.001-07:00

I highly recommend reading this and taking it to heart.

The Highlighter [Job 5 - Psalm 55]

2009-05-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

I've read through Psalm 55 since I've last updated on this. Here are a few things that jumped off the page and slapped me in the face...

Job 8:14-15
What he trusts in is fragile;
what he relies on is a spider's web.
He leans on his web, but it gives way
he clings to it, but it does not hold.

We must rely on God. Anything else...and we'll fall.

Job 17:9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

Job 28:28 The fear of the Lord - that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.

Psalm 5:8
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies-
make straight your way before me.

Psalm 14:5b for God is present in the company of the righteous.

Psalm 25:3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,

Psalm 28:8 The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Psalm 49:20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

This is the last verse of a great chapter, one that I've been in and out of a lot the past few months. This is a great chapter about how worthless the worldly possessions we seek really are. It's been very helpful to Jenny and I as we are still seeking employment for her. We know God will take care of us, we just need to stop trusting in our "stuff."

It's a Tech World we live in...

2009-05-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, let me just say that I AM NOT against texting, I do text as many of you with my number can testify to. So please don't think otherwise, hopefully this post just gets us thinking about the pros and cons of texting/technology.

I recently commented on my mom's blog post regarding the impact technology has on our writing and relationships.

Below is a video taken from the today show about teens who gave up technology for 10 days, it's worth a watch. Note: Video expires in a few days and will be unwatchable.

Hat tip to Chris (no, not me) for the video.

What do you guys think? Does technology affect us negatively without us realizing it? What differences would you see in the world around you if everybody completed this 10 day challenge? I'd love to discuss...

The Highlighter [Nehemiah 1 - Job 4]

2009-04-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

I hope these passages will bless you as much as they have blessed me...

Nehemiah 8:10b This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

The joy of the LORD is our strength. One might ask "How can the joy of the LORD be our strength?" Look, we are blessed. It is often times really easy to focus only on the negative (I'm probably speaking to myself here more than anybody else). I have a house, I have wonderful friends, I have a loving family, and God is great for showering me with such wonderful blessings! I know that when my time on earth here is done, I'm going to be with my heavenly father. That gives me an "uber" amount of joy! This joy helps get me through the rough patches of life. This joy is my strength!

Esther 4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?

Still, one of the most powerful sermons I've heard came from this verse and it was titled "for such a time as this."

Job 1:22, 2:10b In all this, Job did not sin

Whenever you see a repeated phrase in a section of the Bible - it's important. Even though Job suffered through many tough situations, he didn't sin. Whenever you see a repeated phrase in a section of the Bible - it's important. Even if we are going through a period of bad luck, we should always do what we know is right. Whenever you see a repeated phrase in a section of the Bible - it's important. Let's take this lesson from Job and do the right thing NO MATTER WHAT! Whenever you see a repeated phrase in a section of the Bible - it's important.

The Highlighter [2 Kings 24 - Ezra 10]

2009-04-16T09:01:00.001-07:00

I missed the past two weeks doing this. I wish I had a great excuse, I just flat out forgot. Thankfully, I was able to catch up and get back on pace to where I should be.

I'll limit what I log since so many chapters are covered...

1 Chronicles 11:9 And David became more and more powerful, because the LORD Almighty was with him.

When we have the LORD on our side, we can do great things!

1 Chronicles 28:9 If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

2 Chronicles 2:5b because our God is greater than all other gods.

Just a friendly reminder :-)

2 Chronicles 7:17 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

1. Humble themselves
2. Pray
3. Seek God
4. Repent from their ways

Doing those 4 things will change your life! I promise. We we do this we will realize how great God is and how much we need him. Once we come to that realization, HE will take care of the rest.

2 Chronicles 20:17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.

Ezra 3:3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and the evening sacrifices.

I love that they did this "despite their fear." Imagine what we, as Christians, could accomplish if we didn't let our fear hold us back. How many times are we worried about "the peoples around us" and what they might say or think about us? Let's worship God always, and not let our fear stop us from glorifying HIM.

Victory!

2009-04-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the 2009 UNC Tar Heels!

I must admit, in all my years of watching basketball, I don't recall a team that was as fun to watch as this team, regardless of what uniform the team wore. These guys could beat you outside and/or beat you inside. You really didn't want to get out of your chair when watching this team, you never know when they could score 10 pts in 45 seconds. They've done it before. More than once.

Three of the five starters were legitimate 20 point threats. Danny Green was not to be ignored either, as a 15 point threat. Thompson started, but he and Davis teamed up to man the 4 spot exceptionally.

But, contrary to what the world has been told, this wasn't just an offense only type team. I realize this team won't go down in history as the best defensive team in the world, but they could play defense better than the media gave them credit for (did you watch them in the tourney?). Plus, call me a homer, and I'm probably going to get ridiculed for saying this, but I really think if Marcus Ginyard, the Heels' best defensive player, played this year we'd be talking about an undefeated season **GASP** But we'll never know so I guess we'll just leave it at that.

It was a fantastic run for Psycho T's senior class, as they went deeper into the tourney each year. This year, it was tournament dominance at it's finest. Every win was by 12 or more points. Of the 240 minutes played in the tournament, the Heels had the lower score for only 9 total minutes, 6-7 of those minutes belong to LSU.

Many excuses were handed out towards this team. Hansbrough's "regression" from last year, Lawson's toe, a handful of injuries in December-January, and don't get me wrong, some of those were huge issues, but in the end, this team was special. This team stood out. This team was the last standing.

I'm looking forward to the defense of the title. Ginyard will be back, taking a medical redshirt this past year. I have high expectations for Zeller and Davis. Zeller, the big 7 footer, probably won't be as dominate as Hansbrough, but plays a similar style as Psycho T does. He's good on the boards and has great touch around the rim. Davis, at times, I felt like should be starting over Deon Thompson. But who am I to second guess coach Roy? I can't wait to see Davis when he is getting more minutes next year. Joining them in the post next season will be 5 star recruit John Henson, the 6-10/200 pounder that averages 24 points a game in High school. 6-10, 200 pounds! I don't know what it is, but those long, skinny players are always exciting to watch.

Dexter Strickland is a 5 star guard we have coming in. He's labeled as a good scorer who can play the 2 guard. His noted strength is his ability to drive to the rack under heavy amounts of traffic. It's always nice to have someone on the court who isn't afraid of traffic. Pulling up and hitting a jumper is often an effective way of scoring, but you have to make sure that that doesn't translate into laziness, which would be a huge problem on the offensive side of the ball.

Leslie McDonald isn't rated as high as Strickland, but he is a multi-positional guard who can play the 2, or the point. Roy will possibly redshirt McDonald, but that is just a guess.

These guards will have to share time with Ginyard (assuming Ginyard isn't playing the 3. He'll probably play wherever he needs to be to matchup with the opponents best offensive player) and also have to split time with Larry Drew II and Justin Watts. Drew II is a good distributing point guard. I predict he'll be an All-American at some point down the road. I rally don't know what to think about Justin Watts (besides that he is heavier than John Henson, while being 5 inches shorter). There were a few games when Watts got 10 minutes of playing time, in one game he scored 9 points in 11 minutes. But, even though he only gets garbage minutes, he has a lot of turnovers. On the season he has 9 turnovers, 5 assists and that is unacceptable. Most likely, I'd say, many of these newly recruited freshmen guards will start out ahead of him on the depth chart. Watts might be looking at having a career full of garbage minutes. We'll see what happens though.

Last, but definitely not least, come the twins. David and Travis Wear, both listed at 6-9/225. They come from the other side of the country, California...turning down a scholarship from most PAC-10 schools to play for the Heels. Travis is kind of like a Robert Horry/Jawad Williams player - he's good inside but you have to cover him outside too, he's got a good perimeter shot. David is the same type of player, but his range isn't quite as deep as his brother's. Good, but not as good. David is probably the better defender though. We'll probably see these guys playing the 3, maybe shifting to the 4 occasionally.

But the one I'm most excited about won't come this year, but next year. We have coming in Reggie Bullock, one of the best high school guards and best high school shooters in the class of 2010. Two years from now, this squad is gonna look exceptional.

Congrats to a great season!

Everyday is a holiday...

2009-04-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

I know it's not Christmas season. But it IS Easter time in a week or so. Thought this video might inspire you as much as it did me.

God Bless

The Highlighter [2 Kings 5 - 2 Kings 23]

2009-03-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

I missed 2 days this week. So forgive me for being a bit behind. But here is what God has blessed me with this week:

2 Kings 5:15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel..."

Here, really it is the order of events that particularly jumps out at me. I've always thought it was cool that in order to be healed he had to humble himself. In typical fashion, I'm getting of the subject of this verse a little bit, but I've always been fascinated how much spiritual growth occurs simply by humbling ourselves. When we acknowledge how big God is then we see a huge need for him in our lives.

2 Kings 17:7-8 All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduces.

I can't remember who originated this statement, but there is a quote out there that says "You can either live for God or die for yourself." The LORD judged the people of Israel because they copied the surrounding nations and worshiped other gods and welcomed pagan customs. God has never given us a reason not to trust him, yet we often turn out back on him. So here, we see exactly why Israel was exiled, because of their sin.

2 Kings 17:15 ...They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless...

I love this description of what happens when we follow other Gods in our life. We become worthless. The other idols that we chase are worthless, and we become worthless too. This one verse can preach many sermons.

2 Kings 17:18 ...removed them from his presence...

Wow, powerful.

2 Kings 17:37 You must always be careful to keep the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands he wrote for you.

Just a friendly reminder that we could all use everyday :-)

2 Kings 17:41 Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols.

One of the most powerful lessons I have taught to this day combined this verse with "no one can serve to masters". While this verse may seem kind of weird at first, we do it all the time. We claim to follow God with all of our heart yet we also have our secret sins and addictions. We must give the LORD 100% of our life.

2 Kings 19:19 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.

I love Hezekiah, he's one of my favorite Old Testament characters. His prayer is also a great and powerful prayer. A good one to mark! I won't go into the many reasons why, but trust me that if you read it you will be blessed.

God Bless!

What's happening?

2009-03-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

Time to spill the beans on what has been happening the past 2 weeks.

I wish there was some great, aesthetic way of saying this. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a word doctor. Jenny's school is letting her go. It has nothing to do with job performance. But due to tough economic times in the school, they decided to let her, and 7 other teachers go (the 8 teachers with least experience).

It's been almost exactly a year ago (March 15, 2008) when we moved into our beloved home. She and I both had a respectable income and we were as happy as can be.

Needless to say, a little has changed. We feel pretty confident that Jenny can get another teaching job. We've talked to a few people "high up the ladder" who claim that there won't be much movement, but there still should be some. She's already had an interview with another school. If this works out then we'll be looking at several thousand dollars less in salary.

I'm not asking for a pity party. We'll be fine. We'll be cutting back on some of our expenses, but don't worry. Neither of us have ever been big spenders and we don't plan on changing that. Just give us the necessities and we'll be happy. We've done some tweaking on our family budget and (if Jenny gets this lesser paying job) it looks like we can keep the house.

I haven't been in the ministry "business" very long, but one thing I've noticed is how people's theology will change based on life experiences. The biggest and best example I can think of is the case with divorce/remarriage. I'll hear very humble, Godly people have a pretty firm stance on what they believe regarding divorce and remarriage. But then it happens to them (or someone close to them) and their stance completely changes.

I now read political blogs a little differently. I read various blog posts about the economy and the analysis of our leaders' attempts to fix it. I would casually read statements like "80% of the foreclosures in the past year are a result of buying a house one cannot afford, not the economy". I used to have a big soapbox about the spending habits of America. How it has become a cultural norm to spend more in a year than a family makes.

I would usually end that soapbox with this video.

My stance hasn't changed on that. Even though our income will be significantly less, we plan on strictly following our family budget and saving close to 7-10% of our income, not counting retirement.

No, my stance hasn't changed, just how I read political blogs. The economy is affecting those who make good financing choices too.

I'll end by reciting a statement from a week and a half ago: I worry about what I can control. Not what I can't.

We can't control what happened to Jenny. But we can control how we respond to it.

Anybody know of any teacher openings in the Lowndes County area?

Spring Training

2009-03-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

I don't do this much. Not near as much as I should. But instead of babbling about my opinions I figured I might just share my adventurous trip to Florida to catch some MLB Spring Training. This is pretty much an annual trip for me, but this is my first time doing it with someone else and also my first time making it a multiple day trip.

This past Monday I met John in Florida for 4 games. He had seen some the previous few days, but I joined him Monday-Wednesday. Two of the four games were Braves vs. Mets. We also squeezed in the Cardinals vs. Tigers on Monday and the Pirates vs. Yankees on Tuesday.

The weather was nearly perfect. The sun wasn't blasting on us, but spent the majority of the week behind the clouds. A slight breeze was the perfect touch.

I got Terry Pendleton's autograph.

Of course, I accomplished many things that I hoped I would. I saw Tommy Hanson pitch. And I saw Freeman and Heyward hit.

On Hanson:

Obviously I'm not a major league scout. But I saw pretty much what I expected to see. Hanson (along with Heyward) is an enourmous dude. He's listed at 6'6" but after seeing him in person with many other players on the field, I think they might need to remeasure. This heighth has its pros and cons. One of the main cons: Hanson has to work much harder to get the ball down (since he is so tall).

Throughout his outing the Mets were spanking Tommy Hanson pitches to the warning track. He, true to form, was up in the zone and the Mets were teeing off, especially in the first few innings. While only one of them was a homer, it certainly raises an eyebrow that batters frequently were hitting it very hard and very far (albeit many were outs.) I shared with John my concern about what might happen if Hanson were to start in Colorado, Houston, Philly, Texas, or any other HR friendly park.

I'm kind of ignoring the fact that Beltran and Delgado weren't in the lineup. That would only add to my worries.

Of course, I have just as many positive things to say about what I saw in Hanson. That Curveball....WOW!!!! It reminds me of that big, whooping Barry Zito curveball that we would see 5 years ago, only from the other side.

I have a picture of Hanson pitching...but haven't uploaded it yet. Just pretend it's here.

Now, onto Heyward. Heyward only got 3 at-bats (I think) in the 2 Braves games I saw. All 3 of those at-bats have something in common - he crushed the ball. He didn't always reach safely but everything he hit was hard and loud. If I were an infielder I would fear a Jason Heyward groundball. If I were a thirdbaseman (or first) then my knees would shake knowing that Heyward can get that ball to my teeth in less than half a second.

I'd certainly like to watch those kind of outs more than the patented "Frenchy popup" or the even more frustrating "swing-and-miss-at-a-helmet-high-fastball" Even if Heyward wasn't in the equation, Frenchy should still have to earn his at-bats. But if Heyward gets to Mississippi and puts up huge numbers while Frenchy hits a weak .230 with the big club then we'll have some drama.

Once again, I have a picture of Heyward batting, but its on my other camera. Pretend it is here...

This is just off the top of my head, so if I'm inaccurate then forgive me, but I really think the leader in hits amongst the games I saw was Schafer. I don't see us carrying all 3 of Anderson/Blanco/Schafer. All 3 have their ups and downs, it'll be interesting to see what Cox/Wren decide. I have my opinion, but I suppose another post would be more appropriate for that.

You guessed it...my picture of Schafer will go here.

Anyways, I had a glorious time at Spring Training this week. Special thanks to John Wright for coming with me.

The Highlighter [1 Kings 4 - 2 Kings 4]

2009-03-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

Here's what blessed me in my reading this week...I'm not going to give a lot of commentary this week, but there is little doubt that these verses stuck out to me for a number of reasons.

1 Kings 8:51 for they are your people and your inheritance,

1 Kings 8:61 But our hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.

I pray that God helps me be fully committed. Not partially or halfway, but fully. It's easy to commit to God part of our hearts...but giving him all of it requires sacrifices that we are often unwilling to make.

1 Kings 9:4 As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.

1 Kings 10:9 Because of the LORD's eternal love for Israel...

1 Kings 18:36b-37 O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

I've always loved Elijah's prayer for many reasons.

God Bless!

The Highlighter [2 Samuel 3 - 1 Kings 3]

2009-03-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

This week I read 2 Samuel 3 - 1 Kings 3]

2 Samuel 13:2, 15 Amnon became frustrated to the point of illness...Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her, Amnon said to her, "Get up and get out!"

I know I touched on this a bit last week, but again we notice that when we get what we want...we often aren't happy with it. In Amnon's case, he got what he wanted (Tamar) and it resulted in hatred. We must know and understand what brings us true joy.

2 Samuel 14:14b But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person my not remain estranged from him.

We could spend a long time talking about this verse. It's very though provoking.

2 Samuel 21:1 ...David sought the face of the LORD...

I love that phrase!

2 Samuel 22:2-4
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer,
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior -
from violent men you save me.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.

This is David's song that he sang to the LORD after being delivered from the hands of enemies. This is a good verse to flip to if you are ever in a time of struggle or conflict.

1 Kings 2:2 So be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go,

This is David's "passing the torch" speech to his son, Solomon. What great advice this would be to pass around!

God Bless!

Shocking

2009-03-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna put The Highlighter on hold for now...(possibly tomorrow??). I've got something else on my mind I'd rather talk about right now.

Today was one of the most shocking, scary, horrible days I've had in in quite some time (possibly ever).
I don't want to get into too many details, due to privacy, but when the time comes all will be revealed. We are currently in the process of telling our immediate family.

I believe firmly that we should only worry about the things we can control. I'm gonna be repeating that over and over again throughout the next few weeks. I've got that phrase posted by my computer in the office to help me.

I realize this is one of those posts that will leave my audience hanging, and for that I apologize. I've probably presented you with more questions than answers, again, I'm sorry.

When the time is right, all will be revealed.

Please Pray!

The Highlighter [1 Samuel 6 - 2 Samuel 2]

2009-03-05T16:03:00.001-08:00

This past week I read 1 Samuel 6 through 2 Samuel 2. Here is what particularly stuck out to me...

1 Samuel 12:21 - Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.

When it comes to idolatry, I believe it's worth mentioning that idolatry never really accomplishes what we want it to. Let me explain. Contrary to what I hear quite often, idolatry doesn't just occur in the OT. It still occurs in 2009. Although instead of worshiping golden statues and fountains, we are worshiping our status, fame, money, [insert your favorite material object].
But it never accomplishes what we want it to. We want these things to make us happy. We convince ourselves "If I put this new mega-booming-super-sonic stereo in my car, then I'll be happy." So we save up. We work that extra hour, bag that extra bag of groceries, flip that extra burger, till finally we have the money we need. We purchase this stereo. Then we live happily ever after. Until...

We see that other stereo. One that is even more mega, more booming, more supersonic than the one we recently purchased. All of a sudden, we aren't so happy.

See what I mean? It doesn't accomplish what Satan wants us to think it accomplishes. Solomon says it better than I can ever say it...whoever loves money never has money enough...(Eccl 5:10)

This particular verse in 2 Samuel ends with the phrase because they are useless. Useless. That's powerful.

Obviously, and I think this goes without mentioning (but I suppose I'll mention it anyways) we know we aren't going to be thrown into the eternal fire for purchasing a stereo. But no matter where we are in our walk with Jesus, we ALL need reminders that only Jesus brings us eternal hope and joy.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

It's hard for me to talk about this verse without mentioning the lyrics of one of my favorite Contemporary Christian songs growing up. So I'll just point you to the lyrics and avoid being repetitive. (By the way, it's truly an awesome song!)

1 Samuel 23:2 he inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?"

I love that phrase inquired of the LORD. It occurs frequently throughout both 1 and 2 Samuel, but I'll just mention it here.

1 Samuel 30:6 But David found strength in the LORD his God.

Amen. What is our true source of strength?

-------------------
I love the David story. I've always thought that the David story, if done properly, would make an incredible movie.

Grace and Peace!

The Highlighter [Joshua 9 - 1 Samuel 5]

2009-02-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm combining 2 weeks worth of reading here, so I'm gonna try hard to keep this from getting really long. Let's see how it goes...

Joshua 9:14 The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord.

I've always liked this verse. We need to get on our knees and "inquire of the Lord" before (and after) any major decision.

Joshua 14:9 So on that day Moses swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.

Here, I guess I just really like that word "wholeheartedly." It also occurs later, in verse 14. We must follow God, wholeheartedly. With all of our hearts. Not just twice on Sundays, and once on Wednesdays. Let's give God ALL of our heart. Not just the leftovers, but all of it. Wholeheartedly. All the time, with all of our hearts.

Joshua 23:8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.

Joshua 24:15b But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

One of the best statements or quotes you could ever put on a wall in your home.

Joshua 24:23 "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.".

I like that phrase, "yield your hearts."

Judges 10:15-16 But the Israelites said to the Lord, "We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now." Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.

What is easy to notice in the book of Judges is that the Israelites always seemed to forget God when everything was going well. That alone is a lesson by itself, yet the story is not over. Even though he was constantly rejected by his people, God never failed to rescue them. We also constantly reject him when we follow the ways of the world. Yet God rescues us.

Judges 13:25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Again, just another phrase I like...the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him.

1 Samuel 2:2
There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

God Bless, CP

The Highlighter combo

2009-02-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

This week's highlighter series will be combined with next week's. I will do this for two reasons...

1...Winterfest

2...I'm kind of behind on my reading anyways. Luckily, I have a 8 hour bus ride tomorrow and Sunday to take care of that.

See you next week!

The Highlighter [Deuteronomy 5 - Joshua 8]

2009-02-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm a day late on this. I was slammed yesterday as I was finalizing some "2 weeks before Winterfest" details.

Nonetheless, here's just a few of the many passages that blessed me this week:

Deuteronomy 5:33 Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your dayus in the land that you will possess.

Deuteronomy 6:14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

How many times must we be reminded of this? The Israelites needed this reminder before crossing into the promised land. And thousands of years later, I need this reminder before I get out of bed each day. No, I don't have a problem with bowing down to statues or fountains. But even today there is a strong temptation to follow the ways of man. To make money the most important thing in our life. To seek power, to seek fame, to try and make a name for ourselves. Our cars, stereos, computers can all quickly become Gods to us. Let's not follow the God's of men, but the God in heaven.

Deuteronomy 8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

The father/son analogy is one of my favorite illustrations to use in describing God's love. God doesn't give us certain commands to pick on us or to be mean. He wants us to be safe and protected. Protected by his love. Through his love we become holy.

Deuteronomy 14:2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

I just really like that phrase treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.

Why be afraid? The LORD goes with us and fights for us against our enemies? To quote one of my favorite preacher and blogger, "For a Christian, fear is not an option."

Deuteronomy 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

My thoughts on this verse will kind of overlap that of the next verse so...

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Throughout the end of Deuteronomy and the first couple of chapters of Joshua, God continuously promises to be with his people. I believe that is a promise that he continues to keep throughout our days on this earth. Knowing that God is with us brings peace, comfort, and security. He is our ultimate provider, our Abba, Father. God is with us! Let's rejoice because of that.

God Bless!

NOTE: Yes, I'm aware that I left out the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4ff. While it is a blessing to read, I chose not to include it in this list. Usually when I type these up every week, I just select some of the many passages that have blessed me. But if you'd still like to talk about the Shema, that's great too!

Thought provoking quote...

2009-02-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

I just heard a quote that blessed me and thought it might bless you as well. This quote is from Leonard Sweet.

"Our problem is we have rapidly become Jeopardy churches in a Who Wants to be a Millionaire World."

He expands...

"Jeopardy is about getting the right answers. Who Wants to be a Millionaire is about drawing you into the experience of the contestant."

Although you certainly want to get the answer right on Millionaire as well. Still, he might be onto something.

Baseball Mumblings

2009-02-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

As the Spring Training inches closer and closer, I can't help but get one question out of my mind:

When will baseball be baseball again?

As most of you know, I'm a huge baseball fan. It is my favorite of the "major" sports. However, since 2003 (many will say it was before that) the word "steroid" (or any synonymous word) has been tossed around turning MLB into a Soap Opera.

And I'm ready to move on. I want to move on.

But it isn't that simple. Things have to be dealt with. What about the players that admitted steroid use and have since come clean and stopped? What about the players that juiced (according to evidence, at least) but won't admit it? What about the "average" players that juiced but nobody cares about?

Today, Deadspin accurately pointed out that everyone is the bad guy. The players, the union, the league, even the fans!

And, of course, there is the fact that an anonymous testing turned out to be not-so-anonymous. I'm glad Arod 'fessed up and told the truth, but somebody really owes ARod and apology.

So, perhaps the wrong question is being asked. Perhaps instead of asking "When can we move on?" we should be asking "Can we move on?"

I'd like to think we can, although I certainly don't have the answers as to how. I guess that's why those that have the answers are getting paid.

I'm glad we have guys like Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite, and now, Alex Rodriguez, who admit they have made a mistake and are willing to move on.

But then there is the other side, a side that knows/thinks (choose which ever you believe) that the art of escaping is with words.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That speaks volumes considering that just one word can keep you out of jail. What word keeps you out of jail, you ask? The word, "knowingly".

We know Bonds said something that wasn't the truth while under oath. But was in an "accident?" Throughout all this Bonds drama, the question isn't if he took steroids. The question is if he knowingly took steroids. All this fuss is over that one word.

And of course I haven't even talked about this Clemens/McNamee situation.

Obviously we are learning a lesson throughout all this. One of the major reasons why the steroids era is dragging out so much is because of all the lies.

Which then leads me to a question that I'll end on. I'd also like to hear some of your thoughts on this.

Pete Rose is guilty of 2 major no-nos: Obviously there is the first one, he gambled. But then there is his second major no-no, he lied about it for over a decade.

So...we have something similar happening here with Clemens and Bonds. I'd like your thoughts on this...

Which bugs you more...Players using steroids or players lying about their steroid use? This question, of course, assumes that these players are guilty...which I suppose is another discussion.

I'll start. It bugs me more when they lie about it.

The Highlighter [Numbers 7-Deuteronomy 4]

2009-02-05T07:04:00.000-08:00

This week I read Numbers 7 through Deuteronomy 4. Here is what God put on my heart:

Numbers 7:9 But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were to carry on their shoulders the holy things, for which they were responsible.

Numbers 9:23 At the LORD's command they encamped, and at the LORD's command they set out. They obeyed the LORD's order, in accordance with his command through Moses.

I hate to seem like a broken record. I know I've touched on this idea the past couple of weeks. But I really don't think obedience is to be taken lightly. If there is one thing we've learned about God thus far, it's that he means what he says. "Good news" or "bad news" he is serious.

Numbers 11:10-12 Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?

To me, this is one of those comparative lessons. I didn't type out verse 1, but verse 1 says Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. Ouch! The people complain and God sends a fire!

Yet, compare that to what happened to Moses a few paragraphs later. He was troubled...but God didn't send one of his flaming special deliveries to Moses. What's the difference? He took his burdens to the LORD. He "asked the LORD" as the text reads.

That comparison teaches me a lot. I hope it blesses you the same way it blesses me.

Numbers 14:18 The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Numbers 15:30-31 But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.

It is important to note that those who sinned defiantly and deliberately received a harsher punishment. They were to be cut off. There is a temptation to justify our sin by saying "It will be ok, I can do this. God will forgive me". Well, we can see what happened to the Israelites when they intentionally sinned.

Paul addresses that particular justification in Romans 6:1-2 as well. Whichever verse you use, I think the point is that we aren't to take sin so lightly.

Numbers 20:12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

What jumps out at me here is that phrase "you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy". He didn't say "you disobeyed me", even though Moses clearly disobeyed. He didn't say "you lost your temper" even though that is what happened. Instead, the LORD used the phrase "you did not trust me".

My Hebrew knowledge is limited (one semester's worth). Someone smarter than me is going to have to handle that part.

Anyways, I find that phrasing interesting. I have a few thoughts about it, but I'd love to hear yours as well.

Numbers 33:52 drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

I love how there is to be a high priority in getting rid of the idols before they move into the promised land.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

There is a passage similar to this in Jeremiah that is a bit more well known. The context in this one is a bit different though. However, they both have one thing in common: look for him, seek him with all our heart.

I don't think we can emphasize enough what that phrase "all your heart" really means. All of our heart! What would it be like if we looked for God with half of our heart? Can we seek God with half our our heart while the other half follows the ways of the world? (Revelation 3 refers to that as "lukewarm")

God Bless!

The PAPA Prayer

2009-02-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

I don't do a lot of book reviews. And at that, I wouldn't call them "book reviews" as you'll hear a dictionary or a college professor call them.

Even though I've labeled this post as a "Book Review", I'd call this something like a "book recommendation" or perhaps even "Here's a few brief thoughts this book gave me."

Whatever you want to call it, there is a book I just completed that I'm very anxious to share with you. It is Larry Crabb's, The PAPA Prayer

I was given this book for free. I'm so thankful for the individual who gave me this book. I probably would not have purchased it at a store. I would have passed by it thinking, "No thanks. I've already read Yancey's and Foster's book on prayer. How could this one be any different or better?"

This book views prayer from more of a relational side than Yancey and Foster...although Yancey and Foster do touch on it.

I'll be honest...I don't say things like this much. But if you struggle with your prayer life then you need to read this book. It's awesome.

I don't want to give away any of his content...he communicates it better than I ever could. I'd probably lessen the power that his truths reveal.

Please read this book! You'll see your relationship with God soar to new levels. I've recently seen this book at a used bookstore in Lake Park for $3.00. This can be the best $3.00 you've ever spent. If the money is still an issue even after the discounted price, I'll let you borrow mine.

This is an incredible book. I'll end with one of my favorite phrases from this book.

"When we mature enough to want from God what He's ready to give us, incredible things happen-sometimes around us, always in us. He may use His power to change our circumstances to our liking. He will use His power to change our hearts to His liking."

The Highlighter [Leviticus 6-Numbers 6]

2009-01-29T07:31:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Thursday and we all know what that means. Today I get to share what I've been reading from God's word as well as the thoughts it has planted in my head.

Leviticus 6:8-13 it [the fire] must not go out

Interestingly, Leviticus and Numbers features a lot of sections where a word or phrase is repeated. I think words and phrases like that are repeated for a reason.

Here is one of those sections. The fire on the altar had to keep burning. To me, this is a representation of the eternal God and his presence in our lives.

Leviticus 8 as the LORD commanded Moses

This is almost an exact duplicate of something I shared last week. Again, we learn how important it is to follow God's commands to every last detail. We can't just pick and choose what commands (or what part of the commands) we want to obey. God wants all of us, not just part of us!

Leviticus 10:1-2 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, but fire in them and added the incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Speaking of following God's commands to the exact detail, we have a case in point right here. Nadab and Abihu offered an unauthorized sacrifice. I think this is the point where we see (if we haven't already) exactly how important the sacrificial system is. It certainly isn't to be taken lightly. We mustn't be lackadaisical in our obedience to God.

Leviticus 10:10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean.

What I find neat here is that the opposite of holy is common. We are to distinguish between the two. Remember, holy is often translated set apart. We are to be set apart, different. We aren't to be like the world (common). We need to stand up for what we believe in and be set apart.

Leviticus 11:44-45 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

I think anything I said or commented about this verse would just take away from it's beauty.

Leviticus 20:7 Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

The last phrase is a phrase that needs to be starred, underlined, highlighted, italicized, etc. I think it is important to note that the LORD makes us holy. We often think that holiness comes simply by "being good". Well, as we can see, it is a bit deeper than that. Although, there is certainly an aspect of obedience, we must submit ourselves to God. HE makes us holy.

Numbers 6:24-26 The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

This is the priestly blessing. But I find this is a good verse to go to whenever thinks are "down". When struggles are surrounding us, repeat those words. If you need to, put them at a place where you will see them frequently. It's a great "pick me up" verse.

God Bless!

The Highlighter [Exodus 21-Leviticus 5]

2009-01-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

This week I read Exodus 21-Leviticus 5. Here's what stuck out to me.

Exodus 22:31 You are to be my holy people.
Ultimately, this is what God wants. I feel like many of the commands God has for us can be summarized into this one verse, be my Holy people.

He wants us to be his. He wants us to be Holy. Christlike, set apart. As we walk this earth, we are to be different.

One of the most challenging things I've ever heard comes from one of my favorite authors. Think about this question: Why has it become so hard to pick a Christian out of a crowd?

I love that quote for a number of reasons. I take that back. I'm not really sure that I love it. I love how challenging it is to my life and to others, but I don't like the truth that is embedded in that question.

As God's holy people, we need to stand out. Be in the world, not of it, as the New Testament says. But that's not until October-Novemberish :-)

Exodus 23:33b because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.

That was certainly the case for the nation of Israel. However it is also the case for you and me. It is important to keep in mind that idolatry isn't limited to worshiping golden statues. Idolatry can also be worshiping our money or addictions. We must rid ourselves of anything that keeps us from the one, true God, our father.

Exodus 29:45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.

Exodus 33:14 My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
This verse comes right after one of the most challenging chapters of the whole Bible for me. I've always found Exodus 32 hard to read, mostly because I'm glad I'm not Moses. If I'm Moses coming down from Sinai and I see what the Aaron and the rest of the Israelites are up to (The Golden Calf) I'd probably scream and say "OK, God, just zap them dead now." Turns out, three thousand of them did die (32:28)

God took care of them and what did they do? They turned away from Him. Thankfully, God (and Moses) have (had) more patience than I do. In the chapter after that (33) we see the above phrase. It is such a comforting phrase to me. God's Presence was with them as they set out. God's Presence is with us on our journey as well.

Exodus 39-40 as the LORD commanded Moses/him
Phrases that are often repeated usually stick out to me. As I read the last 2 chapters of Exodus I underlined every time the above phrase appeared. Assuming I didn't miss one, I counted 18 times this phrase appears.

From that...we see how important it is that we follow every single command/detail/footnote that God gives us. With God, detail is important. We can't say to any of His commands "Oh, that's not important." Rather, we must follow them EXACTLY. Cross every "t" and dot every "i". Let's follow His commands with the same determination and attention to detail that Moses did.

Leviticus 5:5 When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned
I find it interesting that this verse jumped out at me. Confession was a part of the sin offering process. Obviously, because of Christ's death on the cross we no longer have to sacrifice an animal. However, confession is still an important aspect of our journey to repentance. The animal sacrificing stopped, but the confessions continue.

That's what stuck out to me this week! God Bless!

Misc. Braves Rambling

2009-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged about the Braves. But that doesn't mean I don't have many thoughts about what has been going on in Bravesnation.

A majority of the Braves sites the past month have been talking about John Smolts, the new pitchers, and/or Frank Wren's GM abilities.

But I think one of my favorite Braves links of the past several weeks is this.

I think I've made it known how feel about Terence Moore's work, but in case you missed it I'm not the biggest fan of his writing. Half of his articles feature "Cy Maddux, Cy Glavine, and Cy Smoltz" and is it really necessary to have a hyperlink everytime the word "Braves" appears? Those are just nit picky things...I could go all day on his often misled theories. Anyways, back to the article.

I'll be honest (and obvious). I miss Mazzone. McDowell has done an average job (not great, not horrible), but Mazzone is a mastermful pitching instructor. And I've always wondered deep inside if he regrets leaving the Atlanta organization.

Now we know the truth. Yes he does.

I won't repeat everything the article says, but in a nutshell Mazzone left stability and security for money and friendship.

He had a good thing going with the Braves. Mazzone's methods were often criticized but you can't argue with the results. He had pitchers throwing twice between starts, instead of usual one side session. Mazzone was also effective at keeping his pitchers healthy. He encouraged them not to throw hard during those side sessions, but to work on breaking and offspeed stuff. When his pitchers were in a jam, instead of telling his pitchers to "put a little more in this one" Mazzone would tell them to take some off. Throwing too hard too often is what tears tendons, rotator cuffs, and whatever else is inside those multi-million dollar arms.

Mazzone had a legacy. And he left it all for an opportunity to coach with his best friend, and oh yeah, a lot of zeros.

In a sport with teams that go through managers and coaches like McDonald's goes through hot cakes, why risk job security?

I realize I'm many years late by blogging about Mazzone leaving. I suppose it's just hard to know exactly how to feel about Moore's column. Am I to be happy that Mazzone regrets leaving the Braves? The Atlanta Braves shirt I'm wearing wants to say "yes." My heart wants to say "no".

Other News and Notes:
Many World Baseball Classic teams will feature Braves players (assuming they make the final roster. As I look through the teams and the players, I expect most of them will) The situations the players are in will vary, however.

Jorge Campillo will probably make the Mexico team if he sticks with the team. However, as TC notes, it might be wise for Campillo to stay with the team in Spring Training, rather than play in the WBC. Right now Campillo is penciled in the 5th starter spot of the Braves roster. It's his to lose. If guys like Tommy Hanson, Jo Jo Reyes, Todd Redmond, or Charlie Morton have a great showing in the Grapefruit League while Campillo struggles in the WBC, we might have some drama. Of course, if Campillo dominates in the WBC then nothing happens and he is a hero. It's ultimately Campillo's decision, but either way he needs a strong showing. Would it be easier for him to keep is rotation spot by throwing against minor leaguers in the Grapefruit League or by throwing against a stacked Dominican team in the WBC? I know which one I'd do.

The reporters are very wishy-washy on if the Braves will (more importantly, SHOULD) sign Andruw Jones. I've read some articles that say the Braves are talking about it. And I've read some articles that say there is no interest. What are we to think? Who knows what will happen. Personally, I'm rolling my eyes if it is anything more than a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. The last thing we need is yet another bad outfielder we feel obligated to give at-bats to (I'm looking at YOU, Frenchy!)

Speaking of Frenchy, the reports are that he has been doing a lot of work this offseason. Where have I heard this before? Last offseason? The one before that? His season's are gradually getting worse...and I fear it is because pitchers are realizing his weaknesses more and more. Not just that he swings at everything including fastballs that are forehead high, but that he must decide quicker if he should swing or not.

I'm getting tired of hearing phrases like "The Natural" or "Face of the Franchise" or anything of the like. He wouldn't be starting in RF on any other team. My patience is wearing thin with Frenchy.

And in case you are wondering, no, my future Braves posts won't be this long.

The Highlighter [Genesis 37-Exodus 20]

2009-01-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Since you last heard from me I have read Genesis 37 through Exodus 20. Here's what stuck out to me:

Genesis 39:21 - But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

Throughout the last 15 or so chapters in Genesis, you see the phrase "The Lord was with him [or her]" quite frequently. That especially stuck out to me in the life of Joseph. Here, God is particularly protecting Joseph for doing the right thing. I think this is a fantastic lesson for all of us. Doing the right thing doesn't mean we will never have anything bad happen to us. However, God will watch over us when we do the right thing.

Genesis 46:3-4 - "I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes."

God is speaking this to Israel [Jacob] in a vision. I mentioned last week that God's promises are particularly sticking out to me this time through. I can't really say why, but I'm sure the Holy Spirit has something to do with it.

Genesis 50:20 - You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Exodus 4: 24 - At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.

When I hear the story of Moses talked about or preached about, this is often left out. You are reading that correctly, God was about to kill Moses. This verse shows how important circumcision was (context tells us the reason God was about to kill Moses was because his son had not been circumcised). Before Moses could go any further in his mission to free God's people, he had to fulfill the conditions of God's covenant.

Exodus 14:14 - The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

I preached on this verse last year, it was one of my favorite sermons that I've done thus far. Even having already preached on it though, it still sticks out to me. The LORD fights for us, we just need to be still! Being still is one of those "easier said than done" tasks in a world of constant movement. But how comforting it is to know that God will fight for us. That phrase is full of hope.

God bless!

Freedom Writers

2009-01-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

The Last netflix movie I watched, Freedom Writers, was one of the best movies I've seen in quite awhile. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

I won't ruin the movie if you haven't seen it. But I thought I might at least explain why I like it. You're not going to see the best acting you've ever seen, and it also took awhile to set this story up...but it was that story that has attracted me to this movie.

As a teacher, my wife liked it also. It's a movie that gets to the core of teaching - teaching is about the kids. These kids were integrated into one school and gang violence was not a stranger to any of these kids. Learning to diagram sentences seemed meaningless to kids that left school dodging bullets.

While I don't support everything the movie teaches (mainly...they portray Erin Gruwell as if she did the right thing by spending hardly anytime with her husband to pursue her career) the movie is overall very solid and thought provoking. This is a good movie if you like dramas about integration and status quo flaws (Glory Road, Coach Carter, Take the Lead).

I'm not good at this...[The Highlighter Intro]

2009-01-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is an understatement. I could have told you that without even looking to see that my last post was in early November.

So Happy Thanksgiving to you, Merry Christmas to you, Happy New year to you, and any other major events I might have missed.

When things get busy for me, this blog is usually one of, if not, THE first thing I cut out. It's not that I don't like to write...rather...it's probably that I spend so much of my time writing (bulletin articles, lessons, sermons, announcements) that coming over here and doing it gets a little tedious sometimes.

That probably also explains why most of the writing you see here is sports writing, which is not the way I originally planned this to be.

But here's the way I see it...I either want to do this well, or not do it at all. I'm going to try to attempt to revitalize my blogging a bit. I've got a couple of ideas stirring in my head about things to write about but the one I'm most excited about is this:

In the year 2009, I plan to read the Bible all the way through, like I did the previous 2 years (I'm not counting the times I read through the Bible in college, as that was "mandatory"). I don't tell you this because I think I'm better than others, I don't believe that's true. In fact that is very far from the truth.

Rather...I've come to realize how much of a blessing it is to spend time in God's word everyday. I've grown so much the past few years and I know that spending time in his word will help me grow towards him.

So why am I telling you this? Well, what I want to do is, probably on a weekly basis, log some of my thoughts on this blog as I read through the Bible. It might share a few passages or verses that stuck out with me...I might type out an entire sermon that came to me while reading. Some posts might be 3 verses and thats it...other posts might have one verse with 3 paragraphs of thoughts behind it. I'm just gonna do whatever the spirit leads me.

Below will be my first entry of the year doing this:

So far this year I've read Genesis 1-36. Here's what stuck out to me:

Genesis 1:2b and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Gen 12:2 I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I don't really know why...but for some reason the spirit has led me to really focus on the promises that God has made thus far in the Bible story. So I highlighted the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob specifically, although it's more of a reaffirmation of the same promise.

Genesis 13:18, 18:1, 23:17 The great trees of Mamre
This I've noticed for the first time...and I feel kind of ashamed of that. This would make a great sermon sometime...the Trees of Mamre.

The great trees in Mamre refers to a location that featured a number of significant events in the life of Abraham. It was at this location where:

Abraham built an altar after he parted ways with Lot. The Lord promised him this land. (13:18)
Abraham bargained with the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah (18:1)
Abraham and his wife were told they would have a son (18:9-10)
Sarah (and eventually Abraham) were buried here (23:17)

Also - I highlighted this verse: Genesis 29:20b - but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her

That's what stuck out to me thus far in my reading. I look forward to sharing my findings with you.

Cowboys got beat by da Giants

2008-11-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Not that it's any surprise.

This will have to do for this week's analysis of the game, as I'm trying to cram 6 days worth of work into 4 days, in hopes of getting out of town Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday I'm teaching ladies Bible class and also hosting a Bible Study, Wednesday is class and Berean Club devotional in small auditorium. Thursday will probably be spent packing and winding a few things up.

This week is going to fly by.

Week [Weak] 7 Analysis: 4-3

2008-10-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wow. That was just embarassing. On both sides of the ball, all kinds of mistakes were made. I've been saying for weeks that the Cowboys are not playing like a Super Bowl team. Now, they aren't even playing like a playoff team.

Roy Williams (safety) and Anthony Henry kept pointing at each other everytime a pass was completed at one of the guys they were covering. If you can't take responsibility for your mistakes, get off of the field.

I realize that we were without our starting QB, but our problems go far beyond that. There's no control. There's no discipline. The only pro bowlers I see on this team are Witten and Ware. There were lazy tackles, mental mistakes and unnecessary penalties.

Offense:
Brad Johnson, uh, yeah. The Rams played him, pretty much giving Brad Johnson anything deep. They knew he wouldn't (and couldn't) throw it deep. He didn't. His longest past was a 36 yarder, but credit some of that to YAC yardage.

It wouldn't have mattered even if Johnson could throw deep. He was missing his targets all day. He threw them short, he threw them wide, he threw them to the Rams. He had a good opening drive, but that was about it. It was downhill from there. Total, Johnson was 17 for 34 with 234 yards with 1 TD and 3 INTs. He fumbled it once and had another near fumble. We have a backup quarterback that we simply cannot rely on and I wouldn't be surprised to see Romo return early, possibly even next week. Even with these weapons, Brad Johnson wasn't getting it done.

Witten was the reception "champ" for the Cowboys this game, catching 6 passes for 44 yards. Bennett had the most yardage, 2 catches for 67. He also had the lone reception TD.

Marion Barber is the clear offensive mvp "by default". He had 18 rushes for 100 yards and a rushing TD. It wasn't really a spectacular performance, but really is the only performance that was average-above average. Unfortunately MB3 also fumbled yet again. If MB3 doesn't get control of the football, he should fear losing his starting job. It's kinda weird to be saying this about the offensive mvp for yesterday's game.

Roy Williams (who IS #11, I received inaccuarate information apparently) didn't have a catch, but also didn't play every down either. This will probably be taken way out of proportion by the media this week. He's probably still learning the play calling system.

Defense:

Demarcus Ware.

There, that's it. I'm done on defense. DeMarcus Ware was the only player we had playing defense. Sure, James and Ellis also had a sack (Ware had 3). However, keep in mind that the Rams are sporting one of the weakest offensive lines in the NFL. Jenkins, the rookie CB starting in place of Pacman, looked absolutely lost. I know exactly where I'd throw it if I was an opposing QB. Jenkins will probably get more reps in practice this week.

Run defense wasn't very good either. All you have to do is not run in Ware's direction and you're probably going to get a good gain. Ellis has clearly lost a step. Stephen Jackson ran all over us.

All in all, we were playing as if this game didn't matter, similar to how we lost against the Redskins late last year. You could clearly see only a half effort look on most of the players. There is something else on their minds. Was it that the Rams weren't good and the Cowboys thought they could get an "easy win"? Was it that they are so used to relying on Romo to make a play for them? Was it that they were thinking about Pacman? I don't have the answer, but the football game did not have the Players attention.

The good news: Last year, if you would have picked the NY Giants to win it all after week 7, you would have been laughed at. They rebounded well. These next two weeks will be "do or die" for the Cowboys. They've been humbled. One of two things will happen after a humbling, either you realize you've got work to do and you work hard or you point fingers and go down playing the blame game, possibly even missing the playoffs.

This is a roster full of pro bowlers. The majority of the problems I see are simply an issue of laziness. Bad tackling (using arms instead of body) and penalties (our many false starts and illegal motions) were the majority of our problems against the Rams. If we simply use our brains a bit more, we'd see huge improvements.

Since the start of the season, the Cowboys have gradually gotten worse and worse. However, the good news is that I don't think that will happen next week. Our performance was at an all-time low this season. There's nowhere to go but up **knocks on wood**.

It doesn't get any easier, Bucs next week, then the Giants. It will only get harder.

Cowboys News

2008-10-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very eventful day for America's team. I realize that since I'm a day behind on this post, everybody and their grandparents know, but:

Adam Jones has been suspended

and

Roy Williams was acquired at the trade deadline

First Pacman:

Yes, it's a big blow. A secondary that is already missing Terence Newman and [the other] Roy Williams certainly needs someone to step up. My guess was that it would be Pacman...which HE DID step up, but not in the direction I had in mind.

Personally, as much of a Cowboys fan as I am, I'm kind of glad that this happened. Jerry Jones needed to be humbled. I don't like his strategy of collecting thugs. I figured something like this needed to happen for Jerry to start looking at character. We'll see what happens.

As far as punishment, I tend to want to be harsher on punisments than most people, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I don't really consider myself hard-nosed, but I believe discipline should not be taken lightly, regardless of what your job or position is.

I'm probably going to be shunned for saying this, yes, I'm a Dallas fan, but I'd be fine if Jones was suspended the rest of the season. Does that seem harsh? Possibly, but how many more "second chances" are you going to give Pacman? Has the guy truly repented of his ways? Apparently not. Didn't he write a letter to the Titans organization saying how sorry he was? What happened to that Pacman? If Goodell wants to clean up the image of the NFL and make a statement, this is his chance. What kind of statement will he be making if he lets Pacman back in after a month?

The Pacman gamble did not pay off, we lost a draft pick on this guy. If I was Jerry, I'd just accept the loss and move on.

The secondary continues to be a problem, even after being addressed in the draft. Until Newman returns, Anthony Henry and Mike Jenkins will man the perimeter. Jenkins, the first round draft pick in April has a good balance of speed, smarts, and agility but is only 5'10'' and will have to prove he is tough enough to play every down. If I was an offensive coordinator, I would point most of my running plays in his direction. I'd also spend about 1/3 of my passing plays testing Jenkins, mixing up the routes and receivers and see if Jenkins can respond. But I'd also throw to my #1 receiver often, because Henry is no #1 corner. This is going to be an interesting defense to watch. Jenkins is going to have to step up.

This really limits our flexibility because we can no longer use our single safety, 3 cornerback package that we often use against a 2 tight end set, or a 3rd and short. Honestly, the best thing I see happening that would help this defense is to step up the pass rush. If guys like Tank Johnson, Marcus Spears, and Greg Ellis were to get to the QB more, it would take a lot of pressure off of this undermanned, unproven secondary that we'll see until Roy and Newman return.

Now, onto Roy Williams (uh..the NEW one. Man this is gonna get confusing):

No doubt he was expensive. He costs a 1st, 3rd and 6th pick in the 2009 draft, and a seventh in 2010. But at the same time, we were able to extend his contract and he is going to be a Cowboy for the next 5 years.

One of those picks that we traded away, was no doubt going to be used to get a WR. It was though that we would get one in the mid-late rounds of the previous draft, but that never happened. Instead, we continued to address the secondary (with good reason). And the odds are that we would not have drafted a WR that was as good or proven as Roy Williams 11 (is that the best way to differentiate between the two?). But yes, he was indeed expensive. Lions fans everywhere are thanking the Cowboys for so many extra picks to rebuild. Too bad the Lions canned Millen or I'd say the Cowboys traded one WR for 4 WRs. But since Millen is no longer employed by the Lions I'm going to assume they'll draft a different position occasionally. I suppose I should actually talk about the Roy Williams trade and discontinue making fun of the Lions.
------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: I just learned that Roy Williams will be wearing #83 as a Cowboy. So apparently the Roy Williams 11 thing won't work. Of course, giving him jersey #83 only makes perfect sense because Roy Williams the safety wears jersey #38. Sheesh. You'd think they'd at least try and make this easy for me.
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The biggest impact that the trade had was this - "The Player" will not be double teamed as much. That alone helps this team out greater than having one extra body. Roy Williams will move to the 2 slot slipping Crayton to the slot, where he is much better suited. I've always though Crayton was a bit overrated and I like him much better as a #3 receiver. He doesn't match up well against a lot of cornerbacks, I've never seen Crayton dominate a corner the way I see many top receivers dominate. Crayton's numbers have very visibly dropped since moving to #2 and I think a move back to the slot will help him.

All in all, I think this trade was necessary, although expensive. It is clear that we are going to have to rely more on our offense this year, due to an injured and underperforming defense. This trade will also make Brad Johnson's time behind center a bit more bearable, since he has so many weapons to help him while we wait on Romo's pinkie to heal. (There are talks about Romo taking the advice of Favre and playing though it, I hope that is just speculation. Romo is being paid a lot of money for a lot of years, I wouldn't risk permanently messing with his throwing hand over 4 games.)

In one day our team strategy completely changed and we're going to have to take the "just try and stop our offense" approach. Roy Williams was expensive, but necessary. Sometimes when you need it bad enough, the price is justifiable.

HELP NEEDED! I'm trying to look at the overall picture of the Pacman trade. If I remember correctly (which it's quite possible that I don't) when we acquired Pacman from the Titans there were other stipulations such as (a) if he gets significant playing time the Cowboys give another pick to the Titans and (b) if he gets suspended and/or doesn't get reinstated the Titans give a pick back to the Cowboys. Can somebody help me/update me on how the Pacman suspension impacts that trade?

Week 6 Analysis: 4-2

2008-10-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks you might have heard phrases from this blog such as "The NFC East is just that tough" (in reference to the Redskins loss) or "one of those classic fell asleep and woke up scenarios" (in reference to the Bengals 'close call').

But let's make no mistake about it. Those cheesy cliche' phrases that justify a poor performance are no longer valid. This team is clearly performing below it's capabilities.

Plus, we lost Romo for about a month. While at first the thought of the Cowboys without Romo scared me, I read (and loved) this view of the team without Romo.
After all, last February - March the UNC Tar Heels mens basketball team improved all around without Ty Lawson in their lineup. Sometimes teams need a reality check. It worked well for the Tar Heels, we'll see about these Cowboys.

Offense:
Well, Romo didn't throw an INT...but he fumbled 3 times. The passing game was unlike any Dallas air attack we've seen. Romo couldn't get anything done downfield to Witten or the player, so close to half of the team's receptions were on those desperation swing routes to the running back, often a QB's last choice. Marion Barber led the team in receptions and yards with 11 for 128 including a 70 yard catch-and-run TD in the 4th quarter. Crayton had 3 for 84 with a TD, Witten had 4 for 55, the player had 4 for 36, and was thrown to WAAAAY more than 4 times (I don't have the numbers, but it seems like close to 60% of the incompletions were thrown towards the player).

All in all, Romo had 321 yards, 3 TDs, and *gasp* no INTs. We still need to get those fumbles under control. Romo can usually be counted on to have a multi TD game, but he still gets a little too turnover happy. The Cowboys WILL NOT be the team to beat in the NFC (NFL?) until Romo can decrease his turnovers, of any type.

As far as rushing, Marion Barber had 17 for 45 yards. Felix Jones had 3 for 22 yards. You can't say we didn't try with the run. We had plenty of opportunities, our O-line just didn't execute.

In fact, the Arizone D-Line dominated the cowboys offense, rattling Romo all night long. This is the most pressure that Romo has seen this year. The O line, especially Flozell Adams, got pushed around like older brothers dominating their little sisters.

Defense:
Quite frankly, someone is going to have to step up on defense besides Demarcus Ware. Newman is out, Romo is now out...so players on both sides of the ball can no longer rely on one of their teammates to do the work. This is a TEAM game.

Ken Hamlin had an INT, so it's nice that a defensive player not named Ware or Ratliff can make plays. Demarcus Ware led the team with 6 tackles. Adam Jones was next with 5.

Not a whole lot else to say, it was a typical Cowboys defense where they are getting beat at their own game. They stop the run pretty well but opponents pass all over them.

The Key:

I haven't mentioned this, but really the difference in the game was special teams. We let them return a kickoff for a TD to begin the game, and they blocked a kick and returned it for a TD in overtime. Our special teams allowed 2 scores, which was more than the difference in the game.

I realize I end nearly all of these with the same phrase, but it becomes truer and truer each week: We've got work to do.

The Cowboys are easy targets...

2008-10-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of negative talk about the Cowboys this week.

Right now we are easy targets. We let a winless Bengals team get back in the game after jumping off to a 17-0 lead. That's all it is, we are just easy targets.

Here's my question...

Dallas beat Cinci by 9 points.
The Giants beat Cinci by 3 points in overtime.

Why didn't we hear this about the Giants?

Week 5 Analysis: 4-1

2008-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Even before I begin with the stat breakdown, what we all really care about, is that Ocho Cinco didn't score a touchdown and didn't kiss the star.

Now that we got that out of the way:

Offense:
Romo threw yet another pick. Do you think maybe he'll go a game without throwing an INT? He did throw 3 TD passes though.

It was kind of a reverse problem of last week. Last week everyone (myself included)was screaming that our running game was non existant, only giving The Barbarian 8 attempts and Felix Jones not receiving a single touch. This week, we ran and ran and ran while Romo only threw the ball 23 times (14 completions)

The reception leader was Jason Witten, who had 8 for 79 yards and a TD. "The player" only had 2 catches for 67, one of them a TD catch. He was doubled up all night but probably lays awake at night wanting to know why we don't throw it at him while he's in double coverage (or, as is the case last week, wonders why we didn't throw it at him when we threw it at him 20 times).

Even though it limits the damage he can do on the field, I still don't mind him being double-teamed. Why? Well, if you take away those 3 players ("the player" plus the 2 players defending him" then we have an advantage by playing 10 on 9 football. Make sense?

Now to the running game. Marion Barber had 23 touches for 84 yards. Felix Jones had 9 touches for 96 yards and 2 TDs.

Throughout much of the past few seasons, Cowboy fans (or even non-Cowboy fans) were claiming that although Julius Jones was starting, Marion Barber was the better back. I wonder when the same thing is going to be said about Felix Jones. I haven't heard too many people mention it yet, but it's coming. Look at the numbers. Felix Jones is averaging 9 yards/carry (27 attempts - 244 yards). In those 27 touches he hasn't fumbled the ball. Marion has fumbled 3 times in his 93 attempts while "only" averaging 4.2 yards/carry.

OK, obviously Felix won't keep up 9 yards/carry if he's getting 25 chances each game and there is nothing wrong with a back who averages 4.2 yards/carry. It's just something interesting to keep an eye on. I wonder when the mumbling will start.

Defense

Make no mistake about it, we won't be a Super Bowl team if our defense continues to play at this level. We are week at coverage from our Strong Safety. We are weak at the pass rush (at least 5 of our front seven players are.) Ware and Ratliff each had a sack in this game. Besides Ratliff, none of the other linemen can be counted on to get to the quarterback.

On the season our linebackers are outsacking our lineman...not that that is absolutely horrible, but our linebackers don't get quite as many chances. Greg Ellis, formerly a DE but now a LB has 2, Zach Thomas has 1, Demarcus Ware has 5. However across the line, we know Ratliff can sack, Chris Canty has one but we dont' have any from Tank Johnson or Marcus Spears.

As far as the rest of our defense goes on the game, Adam Jones led the team with 5 tackles. Greg Ellis had an interception. No Newman.

Other comments:

Well, it's hard to say exactly if you call this a close call or not. True, we almost let a 17 point lead get away from us, but we did win by 2 scores. I'll chalk this up to one of those cases where you come back from halftime and fall asleep because (you think) it's in the bag. I'm hesitant to say that "we got away with this one" although that's what a lot are saying. Some also are saying that this was a "less than impressive win". So exactly how do you beat a team that's 0-5 and still impress people? Maybe I took that a big too far, we shouldn't have let them come back like that.

As each week passes we are showing more and more signs of weakness. We continue to slip in the power rankings. We have the Cardinals next week, let's see if we can straighten a few things out.

Back to "The Player"

2008-10-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but I will now return to the old ways of referring to Terrell Owens as "the player", coined from the nickname originated by Bill Parcells.

This decision is based on remarks made from the player after the loss to the Redskins. He has "apologized" (or really...he just made an excuse) in a way that doesn't convince me he is truly regretful for what he said.

Here are a few quotes from the player...

"It's not going to be the last time you hear me say I need the ball..."

"Everybody recognized that I wasn't really getting the ball in the first half. ... I'm pretty sure everybody watching the game recognized it, people in the stands recognized it. I think my team recognized it."

And this next one is my favorite...

"I am not going to be able to catch every ball thrown my way. Every pass was not a valid catchable pass."

OK, sorry, but now this is a bit ridiculous. He had the ball go right through his hands on a pass that could have won the game! Now he's saying that he can't catch every ball thrown his way. Duh!

Look, the player, The Redskins were double covering you all night long. You should take it as a compliment that you are being double covered. That means the other team thinks you are a threat. You had seven catches for 71 yards as it is. If you are wanting Romo to throw it to you while you are being doubled up, then you aren't much of a team player (well, that was a given).

I referred to you by name longer than I thought I would, so enjoy the return of your nickname.

Week 4 Analysis: 3-1

2008-09-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

In every game The Dallas Cowboys have played this year, they have had more turnovers than their opponents have had. Not a very comforting thought even though they've been getting away with it (up until yesterday at least).

Even though their turnovers were down yesterday (only 1) the Redskins didn't turn the ball over a single time.

Offense:
I've mentioned in the past that Defenses playing against the Dallas Offense usually have to pick 2 of the following 3 options, and can't do all 3:

1 - Pay attention to T.O.
2 - Don't give Witten anything in the middle of the field.
3 - Rush Romo

The Redskins had a very unique strategy and chose to go with options 1 and 2. They didn't focus on the pass rush that much. Turns out, it worked. Romo wasn't sacked but often times had to settle with trying to squeeze something into the tight coverage. The Washington safeties did a good job of keeping the play in front of them.

Credit does need to be given to the Redskins secondary. I haven't seen a team do this good of a job taming T.O. Period. He pretty much wasn't a factor until the second half (after all of our short passes forced them to change their coverage.

T.O. ended with 7 catches for 71 yards and a TD. Again, most of that was in the second half. Witten had 7 catches for 90 yards and a TD. Patrick Crayton had his best game since Week 1 against Cleveland, catching 7 passes for 87 yards. Miles Austin had the other TD.

All in all, Romo passed for 300 yards, 3 TDs and an INT. He completed 28 of his 47 pass attempts.

It might be worth mentioning that T.O. dropped a pass late that possibly would have given Dallas a win. For being such a star receiver (and having the ego to go with it) he sure does drop a lot of passes

Now, let's talk about our run game. I might be biased when I say this, but I believe that Jason Garrett is one of the 3 best offensive coordinators in the game. But I really question his use (or lack therof) of Marion Barber and the run game. It's understandable late in the game, when we needed a lot of yards fast due to the Redskins 7 minute clock eating drive.

But for Marion Barber to only get 8 chances in the entire game is inexcusable. It almost makes too much sense, "Hey, the Redskin corners and safeties are really tight on Witten and T.O, let's run the ball to get them out of their rhythm." But no. 8 attempts. Felix had no attempts. Marion had 8. Garrett was calling plays like we were down 3 touchdowns. No wonder the Redskins knew exactly how to play defense against us, they only had to worry about the pass.

Washington knew exactly what to do. Still, we scored 24 points, and 24 points is enough to win many ballgames. Romo's INT/game is getting frustrating as it was the difference in this game.

Defense:
Terence Newman is getting paid a lot of money to be a bigtime defender in the Dallas secondary. I'm about ready for him to step it up and start doing that. I counted 4 times where Newman was nowhere near where he needed to be. Santana Moss owned him. 4 times Moss shook him and caught a bomb with Newman 10 yards away from Moss. When Newman was drafted Dallas was looking for a big time corner with speed (The Deon Sanders of this decade). Like Sanders, Dallas was wanting someone quarterbacks would fear throwing at.

Jason Campbell was not afraid to throw at Newman. I wouldn't be either. He needs to step up his game, especially at that salary.

But I don't think that was near as costly as our run defense. The Redskins offensive line owned the Dallas front 7. How many times have you seen a running back run directly at Ware and Canty? Not many, normally that side is the no run zone. Not yesterday. Clinton Portis ran the ball 21 times for 121 yards. Although I don't have the numbers, I would guess that most of those attempts were to the left, right towards Ware and Canty, and eventually past them. The Washington fatties completely pushed us backwards all night long.

Coincidentally, Ware and Canty had the only sacks of the game.

Closing Comments:
I've probably made it sound like we were completely dominated. While some of the stats lean heavily in Washington's favor, the game was never out of reach. Dallas made some mistakes and didn't execute. One dropped pass could have won the game. We came about as close as you can come to recovering our own onside kick. He had it but lost it.

It was close. We have some things to work on, particularly on defense. I guess this loss is best summed up by saying, "Well...That's life in the NFC East for ya"

It's difficult to say how much this loss will end up hurting us. True, the Redskins beat us, but last year we beat the Giants twice in the regular season, but it was the playoff game between the two that seemed to matter more. But a regular season lost must be noted. After all, last year the only NFC East team not in the playoffs (The Eagles) went 8-8.

To coin what Parcells would always say, "you are what your record is" and we are 3-1.
That's a .750 win percentage and I'd take that for any of my teams in any sport at any level.

But there is always room for improvement, which we must to do be a Super Bowl threat.

Youth Ministry: The Armchair Profession

2008-09-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with the term "armchair quarterback". On Saturdays and Sundays we sit in our chairs with popcorn in our laps and drinks by our side criticizing every move the quarterback of our team makes.

"No! What did you throw to the tight end for? Your slot was open 15 yards down field?"

"Way to go, that intentional grounding was just what we needed to make sure the other team has good field position."

or one that I am familiar with this season...

"Crompton!!!! You're supposed to throw the ball at the ORANGE jerseys!!!!"

Let's face it, we are really good at criticizing others: quarterbacks, coaches, politicians, actors, war generals, parents, the list goes on for miles.

But when it gets down to it, we can criticize the quarterbacks all we want, but they are the ones out on the field. If I was a quarterback hearing criticism towards me from a fan, my number one response would most likely be, "Well, would you like to try scanning the field, analyzing the coverage, and hitting the receiver of choice all while a 325 LB. beast is charging towards you (something we don't have when we are screaming at our so called incompetent quarterbacks).

There's something to be said about one who is in the trenches struggling, verses one who is not doing a thing while criticizing.

Take my job for example (for the record, I'm not asking for a pity party. I just have a need to express what is on my heart). Everybody seems to think they can do it. My response: So come help!

One of the most popular questions I am asked is, "What do you do all day?" Thus, every time I'm seen on facebook (facebook tells you if you are currently logged in, a teen messages me and says "So this is what you do all day!" I often have people insinuating that I don't do much at all. About 4 hours before VBS began, I was told "I'm glad it's VBS week. It must be tough for you though, Chris. This is one of the 4 weeks in the year you have to work."

Understand, both of the above examples were said to me in joking manners, and weren't meant to be hurtful. I'm close friends with the people that joked that I only work 4 weeks a year and the teen I talked to on facebook is a very active and loyal part of our youth group (by the way...should I have asked what she was doing on facebook while at school?). I know both of those examples were said to me in playful, harmless manners, but I think (fear?) that that stereotype for youth ministers is all too common.

But let's go to a not so joking comment. How about another question that is quite common for me to hear: "So, like, what are your office hours?"

This is a very unique question to answer. I'm not really required to serve a set amount of time in my office. I do spend a lot of time in it, preparing lessons, making phone calls, organizing events, etc. But I also spend a lot of time making visits (sometimes as late as 10:00 at night) and running errands (if I need to get something for an illustration in class). Nonetheless, I need to answer this question as briefly as possible.

My usual response is, "While I'm not required to spend a set amount of time in my office, on average I'm there from about 9:00 - 3:30, maybe 4."

And now we're off.

"NINE O'CLOCK TO THREE THIRTY! Can I apply? Is there an opening? Man that must be nice!"

Of course, I didn't mention that sometimes I'm in the office for a lot longer, slammed with extra duties. I didn't mention the visits. I didn't mention the misc confrontations I need to make if I need to "straighten a kid out". I didn't mention that I'm on call if a teen is rushed to the emergency room at 4:00 a.m. (yes, that has happened).

I could mention it, but no. I don't want to ruin their rant of envy (if that's even what it is). So I continue to listen.

"Wow, how cool it would be to have a job where you are only in the office for 5 hours and then you get to go play video games with teenagers. Man your job must be so easy."

OK, now I think we need to stop here. Do I play video games with teens? Yes. Am I only in the office for 5 hours. On some days, yes. But let's look at a fact and compare it to a common misconception.

Fact - The average youth minister tenure at a church is 18 months.

OK, so if being a Youth Minister is so easy, then why does the average youth minister only last 18 months? Is it because he is bored? Guess again. Is it because he needs to make more money? OK, well that might be part of it. But maybe, just maybe it isn't that easy. Maybe it goes a lot deeper than what most people see on the surface.

I'm trying hard. I've made a ton of mistakes since I've been here. I imagine that plenty more will follow. But to all of those armchair youth ministers who let me know when they disagree with my discipline strategy, or whatever other mistake, come join me in the trenches! It's harder than it looks.

It's almost ironic. People whisper among each other, "I could be a better minister than this person". But aren't we all ministers? You are a minister. I am a minister. Ministry is not about me. I'm not doing this so that people will look at me and say, "Wow, that person is cool." I want others to see Jesus, not me. Take me out of the picture, I won't mind. It's what John the Baptist did. He came and simply pointed men towards Christ.

Ministry is messy. It can be an absolute island sometimes. I'd love to expand on details on the political problems that occur when ministering to close to 40 different teenagers and parents, but this isn't the place, nor is it really important. Just believe me. It's tough.

Week 3 Analysis: 3-0

2008-09-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying Sunday part of the 2008 football season. As for the Saturday part, I'm practically ready for the season to end.

The Cowboys are playing well, meanwhile the University of Tennessee is playing like a bunch of "volunteers" (Hey Coach! Can I try football? Let me play! let me play!)

That's another post, though. Let's get to Dallas' game against the Pack attack at Lambeau.

Offense:

Back in his home state, Tony Romo began the game with a bit of a struggle, throwing a pick. Although I have no numbers to back this statement up, I feel like Tony Romo might be amongst the best in the league at recovering from a mistake. He did it last week after fumbling in the end zone against the Eagles. He did it yesterday after throwing a pick, he begins the next drive ready to prove that that wasn't his best.

Romo ends up throwing for 260 yards, going 17 for 30. With 1 TD and 1 INT. Not really outstanding numbers, but Romo seemed to be able to connect when it mattered most (3rd down conversions).

The reception king of the game, as usual, is Jason Witten with 7 catches. Miles Austin had only 2 receptions but went a total of 112 yards. The Packers had T.O. doubled all night, sticking Woodson on him from the first snap to the last. It's a choice defenses have to make. You have to pick 2 of the 3: Double T.O., Double Witten, or have a good pass rush. Yesterday the Pack attack sacrificed rushing the QB. Green Bay dropped their safeties back and Dallas took what the Packers' secondary gave them. It wasn't until late in the game when we started going over the top(a la Miles Austin), but that was when the Packers began changing their schemes a little bit because of the damage MB3 had done.

Speaking of Marion the Barbarian, he rushed 28 times for 146 yards and a TD. Also, Marion lost the first fumble of his career. Felix Jones wasn't bad on the ground either, going 6 for 76 yards and a TD, giving him a TD in each of his first 3 games.

Another first of this game, was Romo's very first intentional grounding penalty, twice! Romo had never been flagged for that in his career, until yesterday. Other than that, penalties weren't horrible. This was the first game I can remember in a long time when our opponent had more penalty yardage than we did (68 to our 54).

Defense:

This was a very good defensive game for us. The entire game, the Pack attack had two devestating passing plays (one to Jennings, one to Driver). One was a mental mistake from Adam Jones (I still don't know if I'm allowed to call him Pacman?) and another was a missed tackle from A. Henry. Other than that our defense wasn't giving much of anything. The longest run we gave up was 9 yards. Grant was held to 54 yards on 13 attempts. Jennings did catch 8 passes for 115 yards, but other than the already mentioned 26 yarder, it was just a few year and a few there.

We got to the quarterback 5 times. That makes it a total of 9 times between yesterday's gamed and last week's game, meaning we got to the quarterback 9 times against the NFC's two best offenses besides our own. The pass rush was what Wade was known for when he was with San Diego and it's nice to see that his system is working with the big D as well.

Solid execution on both sides of the ball yesterday. We'll need the same next week when we are back home against the Redskins. Life in the NFC East is crazy, with over half of your games being rivalry games.

Week 3 game ball - Marion Barber

Week 2 Analysis: 2-0

2008-09-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Before I begin with my analysis of last nights game, I would like to say, WOW! When I turn on a football game and watch two of the top teams play each other, that is the type of game I'm wanting. If you missed this game, you truly missed a beauty. It had it all, lead changes galore, costly turnovers, and yes, even stupidity, a la DeSean Jackson

Offense:

On our first first drive, it appeared as if the unique Eagles' blitzing scheme was going to make it a long night for Romo and the O-line after. After facing a 3rd and long, Romo converted. Then on the very next sequence, third an long again. This time, it was a 72 yard bomb to T.O. (I'll be saying his name this year because it's been awhile since T.O. has been an idiot. I reserve the right to switch back to Parcell's "the player" at any time I wish, although T.O will determine that by his actions and mouth).

After another Eagle field goal, Felix Jones took the Kick off return 98 yards into the end zone.

The second quarter was when a lot of the drama happened. Romo fumbled in the end zone (was it three times on the same play?)for an Eagled TD. This was a costly turnover that gave the Eagles the lead.

But on the next drive, Romo drove down the field for yet another T.O. TD pass.

After that drive, was one of those unforgettable moments of laughter when the Eagles hooked up with a long pass with DeSean Jackson, but Jackson decided to start his end zone celebration one yard too early, but more on that when we discuss the defensive side of the ball.

Both teams then kicked a field goal which brought us to halftime.

In the second half, Dallas realized that they have a running back, so they figured they might as well give it to him a few times. Marion the Barbarian responded. In the second half he had a 1 yd rushing TD and a 17 yd TD reception. Add in a couple more Folk Field goals and Dallas limiting Philly to one TD in the second half, and Dallas rode the Marion the Barbarian to a victory as he wound down the clock in the 4th.

Witten led the team in receptions and yardage, with 7 for 110 yards. T.O. had 3 for 89, two of those three were TDs.

MB3 rushed 18 times for 63 and had 1 TD. Nearly all of his damage was done in the second half, particularly the 4th quarter.

[Lack of] Defense:
Well, the other team scored 37 points. So...how do you think our D was? Exactly.

It might be worth mentioning that T. Newman only played in the nickel package. Hopefully he'll be back to 100% next week. Still, it's difficult to say how much he would have helped.

In the first half, there really isn't much to write about. Neither team had much of a defense whatsoever (the exception, of course, was the Asante Samuel INT). It's almost like both teams were just running through their plays like they do in practice without a defense.

The defense on the DeSean Jackson play was interesting. Pacman (am I not supposed to call him that anymore?) Jones was burnt by Jackson, but as we already know, Jackson decided to throw the ball behind him at the 1 yard line. I'm not really sure if I should be upset with Pacman for not jumping on that ball. When you think about it at first, you think, "Well yeah, of course he should have jumped on it. Then it would be Dallas ball and Jackson would have looked like a moron." But at the same time, if you think about it long enough, the refs blew the whistle and signaled a touchdown, would jumping on the ball do any good? I know a lot of fans are upset that he didn't jump on it, but I think I'm going to give Pacman the benefit of the doubt. Not because I'm a Cowboy fan or because I think Pacman is a great guy (ha!), but because rarely do you see somebody like Jackson do such a stupid thing. That was absolutely ridiculous and he's lucky that they ended up with a TD on the next play.

In the second half, our defense improved greatly.

Burnett and Watkins ended the game as the team leaders in tackling, with 6 each. Ellis had 2 sacks, Ware and Ratliff each had one.

Other comments:
Penalties, ouch! 10 penalties for 108 yards. Penalties was this team's achilles heel last week in the Cleveland game and penalties was this team's achilles all throughout last year. Although this team has been more successful under Wade (thus far) than it was under Parcells, Parcells was much better about keeping the penalties under control. I know that everybody expects Dallas to go deep into the playoffs, but it's going to be tough to win in the playoffs if we are giving the other team a free 100 yards.

Everyone talked about the unique blitzing scheme that Philly uses to confuse the offensive line. True, Philly does a lot of fake blitzing and are usually quite successful at getting to the QB. But the O-line gave a very encouraging performance. Romo wasn't sacked the entire game.

The ESPN camera crew loves looking at Jerry Jones.

That's it! Next week we have a tough one against Green Bay.

Cowboys coming soon...

2008-09-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, on Mondays of football season I do a recap of the Cowboys game. Unfortunately, that will not be happening this week. I'm preaching this Sunday so I have a lot more writing to do this week than I normally do.

I'll very briefly comment on the game: It was good to start out the season with a multiple TD victory over a borderline playoff team, but we still have a lot to improve on if we are to be a threat deep into the postseason.

I know that's not a lot, but it'll have to do for this week.

Way out in the outfield....

2008-08-27T06:29:00.001-07:00

Continuing our theme on the future of the Braves, I'd like to focus our attention now on the outfield.

We are on the verge of Kotsay being traded to the Red Sox, which would mean that our best outfielder is Gregor Blanco (I'm not counting Infante as an outfielder even though he plays outfield quite often. See my previous post for my thoughts on Infante), who began the season as the team's 4th outfielder.

We have the worst outfield in the major leagues, it's not even close. It's very possible that Jeff Francoeur single handedly cost us the season. Although I've never been a fan of blaming a team's demise on one person, Frenchy comes close.

Enough about this year's outfield. Let's look ahead to the future.
In the FA market, we have the likes of Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell among a few other interesting names. The Braves do have enough money to go after an outfielder, but as I've already posted, we also have a more expensive need for pitching.

In the minors we have:

Jordan Schafer (Drafted one round after Yunel Escobar) who is sporting a 1.111 OPS in August.

Brandon Jones (Nondrafted Free agent) has a .981 OPS in August.

Josh Anderson (Drafted by the Houston Astros) has a .978 OPS in August which includes an on-base % of .419. His average for the month of August is .376. Anderson has also stolen 42 bases in the minors this year.

The above minor leaguers have all been on fire the month of August and they are pretty much all competing for a spot on the 2009 roster. Obviously the above stats won't carry over to the major leagues. All of these prospects will have their growing pains.

The big problem we have, as we all know, is Jeff Francoeur. Even though he's amongst the worst outfielders (arguably - THE worst) in the majors, I wouldn't be surprised if Bobby thinks he's amongst the best. The Braves certainly treat him that way at least.

As much as I and everybody else wishes he wouldn't be our starting RF next year, the reality is that he will be back in Rightfield in 2009 whether we like it or not. This is unfortunate, but realistic. In the beginning of July, when Frenchy was sent down, Wren made it clear that he works for Frenchy, not vice versa.

Here's what we are looking at - Frenchy in right field, probably a newly acquired free agent in leftfield, whomever that might be. Centerfield is up for grabs. It's highly possible that they'll go with Blanco in CF for 2009, but it'd be nice to get some pop on occasion.

We have so many questions -
1. What about Diaz? He hasn't been mentioned much here, but will there be a spot for him next year?

2. Blanco and Anderson are kind of the same player - which one (if any) do we keep?

3. Will Brandon Jones and Jordan Schafer need another year of seasoning in the minors?

4. Will I actually watch a game after the September call-ups?

2B or not 2B, is Kelly the question?

2008-08-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Continuing our theme on the future of the Braves, I would like to turn our attention towards one position, specifically, one player. Second baseman Kelly Johnson.

Let's look at his career splits for a moment. Kelly Johnson has some of the more interesting splits you'll ever see players have. Despite the way Cox uses him, he has a significantly higher average against left handed pitchers, although his BABIP suggests luck has helped him with that. However, his slugging % is down against the lefties. Curiously enough, his OPS+ is practically even in both platoon roles.

Another interesting split - in games the Braves win Kelly hits, reaches, and slugs .311/.403/.533. However, in losses Kelly is only sporting a line of .214/.294/.316. I think this split speaks volumes.

He's pretty even home vs. road. And he's a touch better in the first half.

Kelly is at an advantage because he is a second baseman...depending on which stat you use as your base, you'll find him ranking amongst the middle of the pack when comparing him to all other second baseman around the majors.

That's pretty much what Kelly is. He's a mediocre hitter with an mediocre glove.

The flip side is that we also have 2 other hitters, Martin Prado and Omar Infante, who are swinging well enough to justify getting more at bats. So...what do we do.

Well, here's what I'd do - trade both Prado and Infante. It's pretty simple. Right now the return we'd get for them is as high as it (most likely) will ever be. Infante has never hit this well in his career. Prado, while he was a .300 hitter in the minor leagues (career), has never slugged as well as he has been in 2008. Prado is not going to be much with a career slugging % under .400 and he's not a basestealing threat. But it's a good time to trade him while he's slugging this well.

BABIP says they've been lucky this year. We've sold low all too often, it'd be nice to sell high for a change. Besides, the last time (that I can think of) that we sold high during a trade was the Edgar Renteria trade, and look how that worked out! I bet we could get a very decent return for one or both of them.

I know the drawback in doing this. Our bench would take a hit. That's probably going to be the #1 problem people have with my suggestion. However, after the results we've had this month, I really don't think we should be concerned about bench depth. We've got to get some decent starters before we start complaining about our bench. As soon as we fill out a roster full of proven mlb starters, then we'll talk about our bench. But right now, two-thirds of our regulars would be bench players on most clubs, if they are even on the roster at all.

So, I'd trade Prado and Infante. But what about Kelly? Kelly is a tough call because when he's on, the Braves win quite frequently (as the above split indicates) but when he's off, he's Francoeuresque. If you're able to figure out a pattern in his slumps and streaks, you are a pretty good detective. Best we can do is put him in when he's swinging well and let him swing himself out of the lineup. But can he catch fire again while riding the pine for a month?

What would you do?

Offseason spending spree

2008-08-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

I and all of the other Braves fans are saying "see you next year" in mid August for the first time since I was pushing my toy trucks around the basement after I got home from First grade (I think). Still there will be a lot to watch for between now and spring training. If you search through the Braves blogs you'll see writers looking forward to seeing which prospects perform well in the September call-ups, how our DLed relievers are doing, which players have Dr. James Andrews on their speed dial.

OK, so nobody cares about that. Let's not kid ourselves and just get out there in the open what we are all thinking about. The Braves have close to half of their payroll to spend on new arms and bats this winter.

Let's look at some of the key players looking for new contracts:
**Disclaimer: It's only mid-August, and a lot can happen to change the status of some of these players. Some guys not listed have a player, club, or mutual option for '09. The following list is a "as of right now" kind of scenario...

Key Bats (Outfield):
Manny Ramirez
Adam Dunn
Pat Burrell

Two of these guys (Burrell and Dunn) are similar in a lot of ways. They are very inconsistent. They'll have 1 great week, 1 terrible week, and 1 mediocre week.

Manny might be out of our price range. Manny is currently at 20mil/year and the way he is swinging the bat right now in LA doesn't suggest a discount due to his age. Besides, it's been since John Rocker since we've had a personality like his in Atl. I don't think Manny would fit very well in Atlanta and I don't think Manny would like playing in Atlanta anyways.

Key Arms:
A.J. Burnett (might opt out)
Ryan Dempster
Ben Sheets
C.C. Sabathia

Well, what would you do? Guys like Burnett and Sheets have had injury problems. The obvious choice is Sabathia, but he has to make you a little nervous with all of those innings he has logged at his age.

Realistically, I don't see Sabathia happening. I could be wrong, but it is important to note that the Yankees will also be shopping for a starter, and you know they are going to go for the best available - C.C. I don't think it matters that the Braves have half their payroll to spend, the Yankees will outbid anybody when they are desperate enough.

Sheets has to make you nervous also, it's been 4 years since he's thrown 200 innings. I know arm injuries aren't contagious, but being surrounded by Braves pitchers with new ligaments probably won't help him. Still, this is the best chance I see the Braves having of improving their staff via free agency, as the pitching market is pretty thick this year. And I think Braves fans are getting impatient of waiting on Jo-Jo Reyes to prove himself and as injury prone as Hampton is, at least Sheets won't make me laugh like Mike Hampton does. Anyways, I say all this to say, you're not going to improve your club if you don't take chances. Here's what I'd do...

Sign Adam Dunn - 5 yr/85 mil (17 mil/year)
He made 13 mil in 2008. I figure Dunn will probably join the 17-18 per year club of outfielders joining A. Soriano, V. Wells, A. Jones and others soon to join. It seems kind of steep, especially when comparing him to Soriano. He has always struggled with batting average but who cares. We need his on base percentage almost as badly as we need his 40 homers. I'd say anything cheaper than 17 mil/year is a steal if acquiring him as a free agent. If a lot of teams are interested, look for his price to rise.

Sign Ben Sheets 4 years/60mil (15mil/year) with opportunities to make up to $3 million/year more through innings pitched, cy young votings, etc.
Sheets is a bit tougher to predict his price tag. My prediction is most likely way off. Names on his "most similar to" list include A.J. Burnett, John Lackey, and Brad Penny also makes an appearance in the age listing. It's unrealistic to expect him to make every start, but when he's on the hill he's producing results. He made 11 million this year and it's been one of his better years in health and performance combined. I think what makes it especially tough to predict his payroll is that (to my knowledge) an injury prone pitcher of Sheets' quality hasn't received a new contract lately. Santana and Zito didn't have an injury history when they were signed (although some say claim they predicted Zito's velocity to drop). Right now, Peavy is at 17 million/year, so that has to be a standard somewhere to start at. Even with his injury history, he's still going to be expensive, as the price of pitching is always rising. It would be a mistake to not have any performance/durability incentives in Sheets' contract.

Sign Ryan Dempster: 3 years/36 million (12 million/year)
I realize that Ryan Dempster's 2008 campaign is most likely a fluke. He's never put up numbers this good before. He's been a reliever the past several years, so that probably does make this a pretty special case. But I really doubt we'll be able to afford two top of the rotation starters and an outfield powerbat. If we get a leftfield (or maybe rightfield, but doubt it) bat, then we'll probably only be able to purchase 1 ace and possibly a second, but most likely a third starter, bringing us to Dempster.

True, he's not incredible. However, his ERA+ has been 96 or higher each of the past 5 seasons, 112 or higher in 3 of those 5 seasons. After what Braves fans have experienced this year, I think we'd be pretty satisfied for anybody who throws about 180 league average innings. I guess it all just hinges on if the Cubs resign him or not. With a rotation Already consisting of Zambrano, Harden, Lilly, and Marquis you figure the competition will be tough for Dempster, who until this year was a reliever since 2004.

Some of you readers may disagree, but I'm gonna guess that 12 mil/year is a fair market value for Dempster. It may seem a little on the low side if he's a starter, and if you solely look at 2008, it is low. But remember his career ERA is 4.60. Much more money than that and he's getting elite pitcher money, and Dempster is not among the Elite.

Well, that's 44 million per year on those guys. It has been calculated that about 50 million will be available for spending, but a lot of that depends on if Glavine retires after seeing his MRI. I'm a bit skeptical if it's really that much, but if that number is accurate, we can use the remaining 6 million to plug up holes in the bench or bullpen.

I'd go to war with that Rotation...
Sheets
Dempster
Jurrjens
Campillo
Reyes/Morton/Whoever????

As far as the lineup...
Escobar
Kotchman
Chipper
Dunn
McCann
Johnson
Frenchy
Whatever minor leaguer plays CF for us next year
Pitcher

The ineup might could use a bit of tweaking still, but we can see clearly that the addition of Dunn is quite an improvement alone.

OK, so let me have it. Tell me how wrong I am. Do you disagree with my signings? Are my contracts too low or too high paying? I admit, I'm not an agent nor am I a GM. What do you think?

Netflix Friends

2008-08-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of trying to take advantage of the Netflix friends application. It's a great way to share movie tastes and opinions with each other.

I sent out several invitation, but if I missed you, either give me your email address or just send me an invitation.

Watch the Braves tomorrow and look for the Central Youth group in left center field.

Not huddy too...

2008-07-31T06:18:00.000-07:00

Huddy reportedly needs TJ surgury, but has decided to toughen it out.

Why? If he has the surgery now, he can still pitch the last bit of 2009. Seems to me like if he waits, he just delays the inevitable.

We don't need Huddy in 2008 anymore, the season is a bust. Please, Huddy, go under the knife.

Perhaps Brian McCann will be back by Saturday, making him the best hitter in the lineup by far (instead of Johnson or Infante). It'd be nice to see him back in the lineup when the Central Youth Group heads to the Ted this Saturday. But DO NOT RUSH HIM BACK!

While I'm on the subject...if any more of our Young starters throw more than 90 pitches in a start, I think I'm gonna bang my head against a wall. Jurrjens throwing that many pitches last night was inexcusable, especially in a season/situation such as this.

I guess it's a good thing that we aren't very good at losing.

The Braves throw in the towel...

2008-07-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Braves officially threw in the towell yesterday. As most of you have probably heard by now, the Braves traded Mark Teixeira for Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek. My thoughts on the trade are a few paragraphs down. But as far as throwing in the towel goes, can't really say it broke my heart. I had personally given up a month ago, hoping the Braves would go on a losing streak so Wren wouldn't think we had a chance this season.

Pop Quiz, who is the best hitter in the current Braves lineup?

If you are a OPS+ guy it's - a tie between Omar Infante and Kelly Johnson (Martin Prado doesn't have enough at bats.

If you are a runs created guy it's - Kelly Johnson

If you are a WPA guy it's - Omar Infante??

So, yeah, if that was the case for my team, I'd give in too. Infante is (supposed to be?) a backup/super utility player and Kelly Johnson is a #6 type hitter in most lineups, maybe higher when he's riding one of his streaks.

All we can do now is look ahead to next year, which as I pointed out, I have been doing for close to a month now anyways.

This brings me to the trade. All-in-all, I give it a B-

I guess a lot of it depends on how high on Kotchman you are. Some are high, some aren't. For a firstbaseman, his career .274/.337/.426 isn't awesome. His declining walk-rate can be a little worrisome, but unlike fellow free swinging teammate Jeff Francoeur, Kotchman doesn't really strike out that often so I don't have as much of a problem with it.

Kotchman's numbers may not be outstanding, but he's cheap and is better than any internal option.

Stephen Marek, he's a pretty unimpressive throw-in to the deal. But I think Wren was smart to want to get a pitching arm of some type out of the deal. We'll see what he pans out to be. He's more valuable to us as a starter obviously, but the Braves do have a thing for minor league relievers.

We need to make some outfield adjustments and possibly add another arm or two, because as we have learned this season, you can't have too many. It's almost humorous how we began the season with "too many" starting pitching options and now we're bandaged up so badly that Mike Hampton is actually pitching.

My only eyebrow raising issue with the trade is this, why so soon? Braves fans last year remember Teixeira's price kept rising and rising the closer we got to the deadline. Why not wait until teams get more desperate and up the ante? I think we might could have gotten more had we waited.

If you would have told me that the Braves traded for a young, inconsistent veteran and a mid-level prospect, I probably would have assumed it was for Will Ohman.

It's going to be a busy offseason.

CP

Titletown

2008-07-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

I took some photos at the titletown extravaganza. But, truthfully, they aren't very good. Only about half of them are even somewhat decent. There were just too many heads popping in and out of my camera view.

So, instead of posting my pictures...I'll just link you to better pictures.

Titletown!

2008-07-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

We won! ESPN's summer promotion, Titletown, concluded today at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium at 2 pm eastern (it aired about 15 minutes ago on the 6:00 Sportscenter). I'm glad they didn't do it live, that was crazy.

With only 48 hours notice, the word quickly spread that ESPN's Wendy Nix was coming back to Valdosta (of course this lead to the assumptions...would they come all the way back for second place?). We were all there. Valdosta High, Lowndes High, Georgia Christian, Valwood, Valdosta State, Open Bible. It was awesome. During football season we are as segregated as can be, Valdosta hates Lowndes and vice versa. But there was none of that today. We assembled in that stadium, supporting our different school colors, but we are united this time. We are Titletown.

It was extremely hot, but no one seemed to care, at least they didn't show it. My experience at the stadium ultimately defines "organized chaos". It was chaos organized by ESPN. ESPN told us to scream when the camera came by our faces (I was on the 40 yard line). Then they told us to be quiet so Wendy could interview Jesse, then ESPN told us to go crazy again. Then ESPN told us to watch at 6 pm. Then ESPN told us the trophy will be displayed on the field for us to take pictures. Then, after I reached the field finally and headed towards the long crowd around the trophy, they told us the trophy had to go in 5 minutes....? Wow, thanks a lot.

We took some pictures but have not yet downloaded them. I'll share as soon as I get the chance (which, quite honestly, will probably be Wednesday, I'm slammed tomorrow).

Oh, and for those of you traveling to (or just passing by) Valdosta on I-75, you'll see a new sign. What does the new sign say?

Welcome to Valdosta.

Titletown, USA.

The Author Speaks (a.ka. - the mystery game)...

2008-07-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

I've been busy defending myself on the web. It was an honest mistake. Here's the story.

As many of you know...Valdosta is in the running for Titletown, USA at ESPN. On the voting page they just happen to choose my essay as the featured essay (truthfully though, it's only about 1/3 of it, as they cut off all of the good meat, leaving only my introduction).

I felt kind of honored (I guess) that my essay was the one chosen. But there is a slight problem with this...there is an error in my introduction. The two teams never actually played each other (I'll get onto why I said they did in a little bit). Although I didn't know this at the time (I mean, c'mon, I wasn't even alive in 1971) but the High School National Championship game is just voted upon, never actually played.

OK, so what made me think that they did play? Did I just make that up? Well, no. You see, before typing an essay like that I want to make sure I have all my facts straight so I don't make a fool of myself (uh...too late for that???). I stumbled across a webpage that featured a downloadable boxscore (scroll down on the page) for Valdosta High School Wildcats vs. T.C. Williams High School in 1971.

Long story short, I leave town for a week, come back, check the voting, and I'm getting all kinds of interesting replies (mostly individuals from Virginia upset that their team lost a game that wasn't really played, but you can throw in a few upset Valdostans because I "made a fool of the Valdosta Titletown page").

Turns out...I should have read the website more carefully. If I would have read the other matchups more closely, I would have noticed some of the 2004 Team X verses 1995 Team Z box scores.

Anyways, I'm kind of embarassed to say the least. But I guess I want you to know that I wasn't tipsy, or as one comment read, "a red-neck football fan in the south with just 4 teeth".

I was actually using a source (though - not a very good one). That's what I get for being in a hurry I guess.

Sorry to the Valdosta fans for "ruining the Titletown page" and sorry to my friends in Virginia (but they probably won't call me a friend) for claiming that your team lost a game it really didn't.

I hope I have explained that the mistake I made was an honest one. I did not look at the other matchups with boxscores until it was too late.

I have sent an email to ESPN asking them to select another essay as featured article and kindly take mine down, but being that there are two days left in the voting, it's probably too late.

It's a weird sequence of events - Friends ask me to write essay, I write essay, friends get upset at my essay. Oh well.

I do want to thank those of you who have kindly understood and accepted my apology. As I have noted, I didn't pull anything out of the air, I mistakingly thought I had a reliable source.

To the few of you in Virginia who haven't accepted my apology and insist on continuously insulting me in the comments section, on your own blogs, or wherever else...all I can say is...well...the ball is in your court. I've apologized, so what you do with that apology is up to you.

Sorry peeps!

I'm probably the last one you want to hear this from, but Vote for Valdosta - Titletown. Rumor is we are doing well.

Valdosta - Titletown, USA

2008-07-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

I was at camp all this week, but that didn't stop me for looking for some of you on the TV cast which can be found all over the web.

Titletown USA

2008-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Reminders like this have been going around Lowndes County like crazy today, so if this is the 27,000th time you've been reminded about this, my apologies.

But don't forget - ESPN will be at Bazemore-Hyder stadium at 5:00, tailgates start as early as 3:30 from what I hear.

They'll be here filming the Valdosta segment of Titletown, USA, since Valdosta is one of the top 25 finalists.

Bad deal

2008-07-07T10:07:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile, and I don't really have time for an extremely informative post, I'm a little bit behind after my recent trip to see the last 3 Braves games.

Well, I hate to end on a sour note, and I especially hate to have a negative reaction on Mark Teixeira since he was the hero of last night's marathon. But have you seen what the Brewers gave up for Sabathia? Compare that with what the Mets gave up for Santana, and yes, well, we gave up way to much for 1.5 years of Tex.

Putting the Braves in perspective...

2008-06-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Sorry, for those of you who missed me. If you didn't miss me, then why are you reading?

The Problem

I heard someon mention at our softball game yesterday that they now no longer care if the Braves win, as long as Chipper gets 2 hits. That's a pretty good intro...

Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Pythagorean Records. Why? Well, the Braves' Pythagorean Record tells us we are one of the better teams in the league.

Um, sorry, but we aren't. I don't need a math formula to tell me otherwise.

Sure, it's nice to know where our record "should" be. But it all boils down to the fact that we aren't there.

We have a super utility and a backup infielder splitting time in LF. We have the league's worst right fielder. We only have 1, arguably 2-3 if you count the LOOGYs, reliever who can be labeled "reliable." We have only one starter who can go past the 6th consistently. We only have 2 starters that can go past the 5th consistently.

Sorry Mr. James, but the above is not a formula for success. Common sense beats the calculator here.

Is it that bad?

Probably not, but we'll see in September. I hear a lot of moaning and groaning about 1 run losses. There is some validity in those groans (we do need a better bullpen, for example) I like how Bobby worded it in an interview yesterday when he said "we're in every game". By that he means, we don't get blown out, yesterday's game excluded which is bound to happen every now and then. I do think it is a positive sign that we really don't get destroyed that much in our games this season.

The injuries are going to happen. In the 90s it seemed like we never lost a key player for an extended period of time (Justice, Galaragga, and Smoltz are the only ones I can think of in about 10 seconds of thinking.). Since we were a bit injury lucky in the 90s it seems to be catching up with us in the current decade. Is it random chance? Possibly. However Smoltz of this decade is 10 years older than Smoltz of last decade. Plus, Leo Mazzone has a better (I'd argue - The best) philosophy of pitcher maintenance which he documents in his book (oh and by the way, he's available to return to coaching). Still, injuries are going to happen.

Where do we go from here?

We probably need to think about restocking on prospects more than we have been. I'm not saying we should forfeit the season, but there are going to be a lot of changes in the next 2 offseasons with a lot of money to spend. Plus, IMHO, we haven't fully recovered from the prospect drainage in the Tex trade.

We paid too much for him. I'm sorry to those who disagree, there are plenty who do. If you don't believe that we paid to much, compare that trade to the Johan Santana trade, or the Bedard trade. The Dan Haren trade?

Yeah, we gave up too much. Oh, and don't look now but Salty has been sporting a nice OPS+.

So where do we go from here?
I do think there are a few things that could be done to get a few more wins out of this squad.

The first issue I see is the Lineup. If you ask 10 different Braves fans what the lineup should be, you'll probably get 10 different answers, regardless if the fan is a Bill James junky or not. It's tough to build a lineup on stats when stats are changing after every game. Still, the Braves have a problem in this area. Our two best hitters (Chipper and McCann) rarely hit in the same inning. Frenchy is continually occupying the middle of the order (anybody else noticed he hit 3rd yesterday with Chipper out?) while being a GIDP machine. What a rally killer. Even with Tex heating up we seem to be stranding runners on base like crazy.

I used Baseball Musing's Lineup Simulator, plugged in the stats (I used Hudson's hitting stats for the pitcher spot and I used Infante for the LF spot), and it came up with this lineup:

Chipper
Tex
Infante
B-Mac
Yunel
Frenchy
KJ
Pitcher
Blanco

The simulator is several years old. There might be a better one out there now. But that's the lineup it came up with and its pushes out 5.649 runs/game. You may or may not agree with this. On first glance it looks as if Chipper won't get very many RBIs with the Pitcher and Blanco hitting in front of him. But hey, I can't argue with Chipper getting more at-bats.

The other thing that could use a bit of tweaking is bullpen management. It's tough to say what the future holds for Soriano. Sometimes he feels pain, sometimes he doesn't. I think when Mike Gonzalez comes back many of our problems will be solved. But I question the use of Manny Acosta. He should either be bumped to low leverage situations or demoted to the minors. I'd suspect a move will be made even after Mike Gonzalez returns. There is way too much unreliability out there. Bennett and the 2 LOOGYs are the only ones that don't drive me crazy right now.

Soo...

The longer we stay at .500 the tougher the road is for us in August and September. Right now we've played 65 games. Not exactly the halfway point but close enough. If the Phillies play .500 ball for the rest of the season they'll end up with 87 wins (I had the Phillies at 90 wins at the beginning of the season).

For the Braves to end the season with 87 wins they'll have to play win .567 of the time. Can we play .567 while they play .500?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Who goes down?

2008-05-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

According to AJC, MLB.com, and a host of other news sites, the Atlanta Braves are to prepare for the return of Soriano, Smoltz, and Gonzalez.

This creates a logjam. We have 3 to send down. The way the bullpen has been throwing lately, it isn't going to be an easy decision. Let's speculate.

1. Jorge Campillo came up for Soriano.

2. Jo Jo Reyes came up for Smoltz (technically, it was Chuck James, but through a series of events it Reyes ended up being the replacement).

3. Gonzo wasn't on the 25 man roster at the start of the season.

It's interesting, because Jo Jo Reyes won't go back down when Smoltz returns. You don't send down a starter when a reliever returns (of course, when a Starter goes down and returns as a reliever, everything gets out of whack. With Smoltz and Soriano in the pen, we'll have a Closer being paid Starter money, and a setup being paid closer money. Perfect).

All we can do is speculate. Here are some things to consider:

1. We know one of our LOOGYs will go. There's no way we'll have Ring, Ohman, and Gonzo. It's a shame, because I like Ohman and Ring. Even if they aren't that bad at getting righties out, Bobby is too old school to go with three southpaws in the pen.

2. Even though Campillo was originally up to replace Soriano, I doubt Bobby sends him down. He's done a decent job. He was magnificent in his spot start, although I'm not a fan of putting him on the pedastal that many commentors on the blogs have been doing. (It was one start - 78 pitches, people). Let's determine his value after 3-4 of those. I'm not trying to downplay what he did though. It'd be foolish to ask for anything more than that from a spot starter in a situation like that. He threw 78 pitches and about 70 of them were beauties!

3. There's always the possibility that Bobby will take someone who is out of options (Chris Resop, for example) and do one of those not really hurt DL stints to keep him from having to go to waivers. He did this with Pena just over a week ago. The thing is though, if Resop were DFA'd I would be shocked if another team claimed him. I mean, if you spell his name backwards it's "Poser" which is what he is when he's throwing those 97 mph fastballs right at the barrel of the battter's bats. They don't stay on the barrell long though. Quite often the ball then goes to the outfield, if we're lucky.

4. Some have suggested that we send down one of our many backup infielders. It's not a bad suggestion, but I don't think it will happen. We won't go with 13 pitchers. We did this last year for a stretch and the lack of bench drove me crazy (and Bobby Cox, I'm sure). Just seems like a bad idea. Plus, I like our bench this year. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this year we have a better group of reserves than we've had in quite awhile (ignoring the fact that none of them play SS adequately). I'm not necessarily a fan of have so many bench players that have the same role (backup infielders that don't play SS that have the same (in general) hitting style. Anyways...

OK, so I'm gonna take my shot at it. 3 pitchers are coming up. Three are going down. Who would I send down? Well, I'll answer the question...but just know it won't happen:

Stockman
Acosta
Resop

That's who I'd send down. I know, I know, I didn't cut any of the Loogy's. Again, this isn't what will happen. Bobby is too old school to go with three lefties in the pen. I like Ohman and Ring as the Loogy's and I'd use Mike Gonzalez to get the Lefties AND the Righties out. What, relievers can do that?

So that's who I'd send down. As for who will actually go down? My guess is:

Stockman
Ring
Acosta

Note: Buddy Carlyle made the decision pretty tough as well. Remember, he is also on the DL. If he was healthy, Bobby would probably cut Carlyle before Acosta. If it was me, As soon as he got healthy I'd just send him back down. Just thought I'd mention that he makes it kind of tough because you can't replace Carlyle's spot if he's DLed.

That's my thoughts. What about you? Who would you send down?

Ryan Perrilloux might be on campus...

2008-05-05T08:36:00.001-07:00

I have a bad taste in my mouth regarding Ryan Perrilloux. I watched him lead LSU past the Vols in the 4th quarter of the 2007 SEC Championship game, only to watch Ainge choke in response.

Now there is a possibility of watching him beat my alma mater, Harding University this fall.

Perilloux was recently kicked off of LSU's team after failing a drug test. Says he is considering Valdosta State.

If he finishes his semester at LSU, he will keep his eligibility for next season. Coincidently, Valdosta State plays Harding University at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium this October.

There is a possibility that, for the second time in a 1 year span, I will watch Ryan Perrilloux dismantle the defense of a team I favor.

I'll be sitting in the visitors section, probably one of 10 people.

Story Here.

Stadium Rankings

2008-05-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

This is kind of fun. SI.com has an interesting chart ranking the baseball parks using a number of different factors (affordability, food, parking, etc).

The Braves Stadium is #19 overall. We rank #11 in hospitality. Oh, and we didn't come in dead last in food rankings...so apparently some people actually like that Aramark stuff, or whatever it is.

The good news (I guess) is that there is only 1 NL East team (Phillies) ahead of us in the rankings.

It's pretty interesting. Click on the link above and play around with it.

Looking at the splits...

2008-05-01T06:42:00.001-07:00

Say what you want about the Braves. They have been quite frustrating to watch. After another one-run loss last night, things aren't looking too good.

Side note: Are the one run losses really that bad? Think about it...we've lost 15 games, 9 of them have been by one run. I'm not a stat junkie, but is it that horrible to discover that we when we lose, we only lose by a little bit? That might not be the most intelligent way to view it, but it sure seems like this one run stuff has been blown way out of proportion. Sure, it'd be great to have had a bullpen that could hold onto some leads, or an offense that wouldn't strand so many runners, but we seem to be hanging in there and not getting blown away. Isn't that hopeful? Again, perhaps 1 run games mean more than I think they do, but a loss is still a loss.

End Side Note.

I want to reveal some splits to unmask these Braves and see if we can discover what is going on. I'm going to post some of these splits, and I'm not going to comment on them. Just look at them. Some of them are fascinating.

Batting Splits:

Home: .308/.373/.471
Away: .252/.314/.410

High Leverage Situations: .231/.292/.313
Medium Leverage Situations: .257/.329/.415
Low Leverage Situations: .322/.379/.524

NL OPS Rankings:
23rd in OPS with Runners in Scoring Position
27th in OPS in "Close and Late Situations"
Yet...3rd in OPS overall

We probably need someone in the clubhouse who is experienced in performing the Heimlich maneuver because we have a lot of chokers (oops, I said I wouldn't comment, my bad).

Obama hoops with the big boys...

2008-04-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

Obama hoops with the Tar Heels!

I learned a few things about our Mr. Obama. First, he's left handed, well, either he's left handed or he has horrible shooting form.

I checked the photos and unfortunately I didn't see Obama throwing any elbows. However there is a photo of Obama driving the lane like a Mack Truck!

Story and PhotosHere.

Letter to DirecTV

2008-04-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

Dear DirecTV,

I now get the Braves games on Peachtree TV. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Love,
Chris

Got a few things on my mind...

2008-04-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

What I'm thinking:

-I'd review the Dallas Cowboys draft, but Raf did a better job than I could ever do, plus I'd end up just repeating what he says anyways...so for a review of the Dallas Cowboys end of the draft check out what Raf says here or here.

-Two more injuries for the Braves, Yunel Escobar and Chipper Jones, although these injuries most likely aren't that serious. There's also a lot of whisper that something is wrong with Hudson and that John Smoltz may have to miss a start here and there. This could go down in history as one of the most injury plagued teams I've ever followed. I'm actually not at all discouraged that the Braves continue to tread at the .500 mark considering the circumstances. It could be A LOT worse!

-I've got tons of thoughts on ministry right now, but If I were to post it'd be way too long for anyone to read (including myself). I'll shorten it up and then see if it's "postable" then.

We have our answer...

2008-04-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts ago, I asked who you thought would be on the Madden 2009 cover

Well, Favre was on Letterman, and he announced the answer: himself!

Madden 2009

Well, we know the curse won't happen this year...unless you think the curse forced his retirement.

Adam Howard update

2008-04-24T08:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Adam Howard pitched against his hometown Chattanooga Lookouts at Bellsouth park.

He went 4.1 innings, 4 H, 2 ER, 6 K, 4 BB in the no decision.

Cubs 10,000th win

2008-04-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

I always hate stuff like this. Nothing against the Cubs...but it's just one of those pointless milestones. Essentially, it's a celebration of the Cubs being an old, old, franchise instead of a good, good, franchise.

So they won 10,000 games. In 8-10 years they will reach 10,000 losses. Do they celebrate then?

But before that happens, something really weird will happen.

It's difficult to say exactly when it will happen, probably 5 years from now or so...but sometime around then the Atlanta Braves will win their 10,000th game and lose their 10,000th game. And there is a good chance that that will happen in the same year.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/

Draft stuff...

2008-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not the best drafter, evidenced by my fantasy baseball team (but we could chalk that up to lack of preparation). I know you probably aren't interested, but I might have a post or two on fantasy baseball. Let's just say I am a champion when it comes to drafting players who will perform below expectations (Justin Verlander, Ryan Howard, Ted Lilly, Adam Dunn have all started out killing me).

However, I think the draft of all drafts (NFL Draft) Saturday should be interesting, and I have a few things that are of interest to me that I will particularly be looking for.

Pretty much, the draft has already started. We know what the Dolphins are doing. So that gives the Rams, Falcons, etc an even longer time to decide what they are going to do and review trade offers.

A couple interesting tidbits..

1. There are going to be a whole lot of trades...

There weren't a ton of trades last year, but I think this year will more than make up for it. I predict trades will be flying on Saturday, more so than most drafts. For a couple of reasons. Many of the teams at picks 11-20 are needing those players expected to go 5-10. The many OTs, DTs, and DEs I predict are going to go quick...one of them is already gone and it's not even Saturday yet.

With McNair's retirement, I can see the Ravens trading up to try and get Matt Ryan if the Ravens feel threatened that ATL will get him. Realistically, the Ravens probably shouldn't trade this pick and the Falcons should probably avoid Matt Ryan in my most humble opinion (but again, refer to the first sentence of this post).

2. I'm worried that the Cowboys are going to trade up, when I'd rather them trade down. During the draft, the Cowboys will most likely focus on CB, WR, and RB, not necessarily in that order. They are sitting pretty at pick 22 with a possibility of Felix Jones, Limas Sweed, or one of those late 1st round corners...Talib, Jenkins, Rodgers-Cromartie. If McFadden slips, his price will be pretty high but I can see Jerry Jones, Mr. Razorback, licking his chops at McFadden. McFadden will be a good back but he will probably be too expensive to trade for on draft day. Besides, I'm fine with Felix Jones, if for any reason than our running back tandem will still be "Barber and Jones"...Felix Jones could be #21 so those who purchased Julius Jones jerseys can hang on to them :)

With the 28 pick, it's difficult to say what to do. If we drafted a corner at 22, then Jones could fall to 28 because the Steelers, Titans, Seahawks, Jaguars, and Chargers seem to have more important needs than RB. So we could get Jones at 28...but Jonathon Stewart from Oregon might also be available if Jones gets selected before 28 (and if Dallas doesn't get him at 22). I'd prefer a trade down though.

3. Enough Rambling about Dallas, which I could do for awhile. I personally feel that whoever lands Matt Ryan is making a mistake. I'm not a scout by any means, but the Alex Smiths, David Carrs, Ryan Leafs, make me too skeptical to believe that every top QB of his draft will be a "franchise QB". The verdict is still out on Jamarcus Russell. But Matt Ryan doesn't seem to be the QB you'd want to invest so much in. Again, I may end up eating my words here, but that's just my humble opinion.

4. The draft is always when they start running the commercials for the new Madden game. Any guesses on who is on the cover? Rumors include Adrian Peterson, Tony Romo, Randy Moss, Eli Manning.

4-0, Here comes Central

2008-04-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's kind of funny. When I was first introduced to softball at Central, I was casually interested. I wasn't really into it a whole lot, just kind of thought it was a good way to get off the couch and get the potato chips out of my hand.

But now, after a rookie season that ended early due to injury, I find myself into it more than I ever thought I would.

We are 4 games into the season, Central is 4-0. Yesterday we beat St. John's Catholic 21-0.

After the first 4 games, I'm 5 for 9 with 1 walk, 1 sac fly, 5 RBI, and 1 Run scored. I'm still new to slow pitch softball, it's difficult to say if that is a good batting line or not. A few things concern me though. Our team has scored a lot of runs. I've only scored 1. I suppose that's not my fault. I'm not getting thrown out on the bases, they're just leaving me stranded.

It's tough to say if the 5 RBI is a good total or not. 2 of those RBIs tied a game in the bottom of the last inning...setting up the next batter for a walk off single.

We can debate all we want on if that is a good batters line or not, but I think we can safely say that I'm not hurting this team.

I'm having fun this season. I'll probably post a few more updates on Central's quest to regain the championship.

Oh Dear Gracious me...

2008-04-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I've posted my thoughts towards Jerry Jones' aggresiveness in acquiring snotty football players.

Tank Johnson
"The Player"
Possibly Pacman Jones as well.

But now it gets worse...

From dallascowboys.com:

So make your own interpretation of Jones' answer Wednesday when asked by local reporters if he would consider making a draft-day trade for a veteran receiver such as Roy Williams, Chad Johnson or Anquan Boldin.

"Yes," Jones said before a long pause, followed by a smile and a wink.

Wow. So not only do we have the thugs listed above but Jones' could also be interested in Chad Johnson, who is unhappy and wanting out of Cincinnati.

Wow. "The Player" and Chad Johnson. Wow. That tandem could put up amazing numbers...but I really don't like the odds that they both could get along. In fact, "odds" is probably a bad word. They won't get along. Period. Chad Johnson is a good receiver. But please, Jerry, use your head. Those two, plus Tank, maybe even Pacman (hopefully not). We don't need anymore snotty attitudes. Please Jerry, don't do it.

I'm rooting against it (and the Pacman trade/situation). Dallas has two first round picks. My fear that Dallas will make horrible mistakes with those picks continues to grow.

Why I'm not worried...

2008-04-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

I feel like there has been a lot of panic in the Braves Community. It's true, the Braves season thus far has had many disappointments, but I feel like panic time has not arrived. There are plenty of reasons why we shouldn't panic yet:

We're playig horrible. We are 13 games into the season. There is plenty of Baseball to come still.

We're fourth in the Division But we're only 3 games back. And the Marlins aren't going to continue to win games at the pace they are unless their pitching gets better (The Braves aren't helping).

The Braves have a bad bullpen, yes. But so do 10 other NL teams. But the difference with the Braves is that they don't HAVE to make a trade to improve their pen. It will get better in June when Gonzalez comes back. It will get better when Moylan and Soriano come back, assuming that "elbow tendinitis" isn't anything more serious. The Braves could make a trade to improve their pen (and I think they should), but it will improve even without a trade.

Kelly Johnson and Mark Teixeira are rally killers. Obviously there is truth to this one. I'm not the biggest fan of hitting these two in the 1 and 4 spot of our lineup while they stink it up, but I'm rarely a fan of Bobby's batting order anyways. I'm more worried about Teixeira than I am KJ. KJ has always been streaky and has had stretches like this before. Teixeira however has the burden of having higher expectations set on him (for good reason). Plus, I think most would agree that we began this season relying more on Teixeira at the plate than KJ. It's too early to say that Teixeira:2008::Andruw:2007. It is important to note that over Teixeira's career, April has always been his worst month. Although this could be one of the worst Aprils he has had, he historically has put up his worse numbers in April. Is he a slow starter? The splits say he is. But if it's mid-late May and Teix still hasn't shaken out of it, he'll have Braves fans screaming. Not to mention Scot Boras.

Look at all those injuries! Yes, the Braves have a long list of important names on their injury list (Soriano, Hampton, Glavine, Gonzalez, and now Moylan). But...look at the Mets list...Alou, Castro, Pedro Martinez, O. Hernandez, Matt Wise. They've got some key role players out as well, and many of those look to miss more time than a lot of the Braves injured players.

I see plenty of reasons not to panic. While the Braves haven't started the season firing on all cylinders, I don't think we should say the engine has totally broken down.

To my chattanooga friends:

2008-04-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

If you are not in the Chattanooga area, you have my permission to ignore this post. But if you are in the choo-choo city....

Adam Howard, a fellow OHS 2002 graduate is a starting pitcher for the AA Mobile BayBears (And might I add...with a 0.82 ERA/WHIP of 1.18 he isn't embarassing himself). I've blogged about Adam before, but I'm particularly excited. His AA Mobile BayBears will be playing the Chattanooga Lookouts at Bellsouth park April 19-23. Adam Howard will most likely start one of those games, but the probables have not yet been posted. I'm guessing he'll start the last game of the series on the 23rd, but it's difficult to say.

If I was in the Chattanooga area still, I'd show my support and go to that game, but unfortunately I'm way south. So, Chattanooga friends, if you are remotely interested in Baseball/Ooltewah High School, please show your support to Adam and watch him pitch. Keep an eye out on which game he starts, I'll do the same.

This Adam Howard commercial was brought to you by Three Musketeers:

I wouldn't have done it...

2008-04-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Billy Buckner threw out the first pitch at Fenway.

Bill Buckner is a more forgiving person than I am. He did something I would not have done.

One of the reasons I hate the Red Sox franchise is their fans. Red Sox fans tend to be fickle, ignorant, and obnoxious. In my eyes, it was not Billy Buckners fault that the Red Sox lost the 86 series. Yet most Red Sox fans will tell you it was his fault.

For almost 20 years Beantown has been swearing is name. They've placed undeserving blame on Buckner. If it was me, I'd avoid Boston for the rest of my life, regardless if I felt I was to blame or not. I admire Buckner for going back to Fenway to throw out the first pitch. I couldn't have done it. Again, if AN ENTIRE CITY blames me for something that was a team effort, I'd head for the west coast.

And of course...when Buckner returned to Fenway to throw out the first pitch, the fans cheered? I'm confused. Sheesh, make up your mind, Red Sox Nation.

Why Boston's 1986 World Series lost was not Buckner's fault:

1. Buckner's error was in Game 6. It might be a little bit more justifiable if this happened game 7...but it was game 6. Boston had another chance in Game 7 (and Boston did have the lead for part of game 7).

2. The play-by-play for the bottom of the tenth inning reads like this: Flyball out, Flyball out, Single, Single, RBI single, Wild pitch (runner scores), E3 (runner scores). If someone can explain to me how Buckner gets more blame for the E3 than the pitchers for giving up 3 singles and a wild pitch, then I'd be impressed. There isn't a Boston Red Sox fan who wouldn't know the name of the firstbaseman who made that error but I wonder how many of them could tell you the names of the pitchers who couldn't close out the tenth (C. Schiraldi gave up the 3 singles, B. Stanley relieved him and threw the wild pitch).

3. Something similar happened in the 5th inning but it was a Red Sox player that wasn't Bill Buckner who fumbled a ball. While the Mets were batting in the 5th, Dwight Evans misplayed a ball hit to him (with a runner already on first) that allowed a runner to get to third base with no outs. The next batter GIDP and that runner on third scored (though it wasn't an RBI and it was an unearned run). After that there was a groundout. The runner would not have scored if Evans hadn't misplayed the ball in RF. Without his error, there wouldn't even be a need for a 10th inning, thus there would be no Buckner error. Why not blame him?

4. I know this probably isn't as deep as any of the above points but I find myself repeating it often...IT'S A TEAM SPORT. DON'T BLAME ONE PLAYER FOR A LOSS WHEN AN ENTIRE TEAM IS INVOLVED!!!! Could we not say the Red Sox offense should have scored more runs in the top of the 10th allowing more of a cushion for Buckner's error?

5. Dave Stapleton, a late inning defensive replacement for the Red Sox, was sitting on the bench while butter hands Buckner was out on the field. Blame the manager for not bringing in the sure handed fielder (who replaced Buckner even in other 1986 World Series games).

As we can see, I've always felt blaming Buckner was harsh. I've listed some top reasons above, but more can be added.

You gotta admire Buckner for coming out and throwing out the first pitch. If I was in Buckner's shoes, and Red Sox treated me that way...I'd be more likely to throw out a pitch for the Mets.

Perhaps Pedro Martinez would be my catcher.

The bittersweet end...

2008-04-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

That's really what last Saturday's game was. It was bittersweet. I hate seeing the Heels go down, but then again, that's as far as I had UNC going in my bracket.

I'm having trouble deciding if Saturday's game was a good game. The first 10 minutes consisted of UNC being dominated in a way I've never seen before. We've played some tough opponents before. We've played some good Duke teams, we've battled it out against some great programs, but I've never seen UNC dominated like that before. We kept running and running but no matter how fast we ran, Kansas was always waiting on us. We were utterly manhandled. It was ugly.

But as much as that was bad...I'm hesitant to call Saturday's game a bad game. We started on a comeback for the ages. We were once down by 28. We pulled within 5. During that stretch it was an opposite story. Kansas was shut down offensively. They looked like Middle School girls playing defense. We pulled within 5 and I was beginning to think UNC had this game won, even though we weren't winning at that point.

After UNC made it a 5 point game, Coach self called a timeout. I'm not sure what was said during that timeout, but whatever he said, it worked! Kansas then ended the game on a pretty impressive run of their own.

I was a little disappointed because I felt like we never got to see both teams playing their "A" game at the same time, which is what every fan wants to see at the final four.

It's been really tough thinking of last saturday's game as the final four. It was a final four game, but it had championship game atmosphere.

All in all, it probably hurt UNC that so many of their games during this tournament were "home" games. It helped them get to the final four, but it probably hurt them in the final four, they were so used to having the crowd behind them.

Again, it would have been nice to see UNC win, but this is exactly how far I had them going in my bracket. Actually, not to pat myself on the back or anything, but this Championship game is exactly what I predicted. Memphis was my eventual champion.

We'll see what happens. Tonights game should be fun.

At Least we aren't the Bengals

2008-04-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

I'm annoyed.

Jerry Jones' ego is annoying me.

Terrell Owens
Tank Johnson

and now Pacman Jones

Why does Jerry Jones think he can take all of these thugs and turn them into football players? Is there any decency left in Dallas?

Either Jerry Jones thinks that all of these guys have "learned their lesson" or he thinks he can "turn them around". Why does it seem like the Dallas Cowboys franchise has become a detention hall for badly behaved football players?

Man, no wonder Bill Parcells got out while he had the chance. We know what his views are towards players like this. Even if I was a top notch head football coach, I wouldn't want to coach those attitudes and egos.

So, this got me thinking. I should develop an all-thug, football teams. Below is my attempt, but I need some help from you guys:

QB - Michael Vick
RB - Maurice Clarrett
RB - Ricky Williams
WR - Terrell Owens
WR - Chris Henry
OL - Eric Steinbeck
OL - ?????
OL - ?????

DB - Pacman Jones
DB - Jonathan Joseph
LB - Ray Lewis
LB - A.J. Nicholson
LB - ?????
DL - Tank Johnson
DL - Albert Haynesworth

I need help coming up with two offensive linemen and one more linebacker. It get's difficult because there are plenty of candidates, but I don't want to give someone a spot on the all-thug team for a DUI charge or something. Not that DUI isn't bad, but many of these names are in far deeper than DUI.

Any Ideas on who could go in the blank spots?

While I was compiling this team, I kept thinking...wow...at least we aren't the Bengals

Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is...

Please, Jerry, Please! Don't get Pacman, we have enough troublemakers as it is. No more gangstas, please!

Better late than never...my MLB predictions

2008-04-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

2008 MLB Predictions

I realize it’s a bit late. It’s the “cultural norm” to do this before the season starts. But I really don’t think the first couple games have had any impact on my picks.

NL East
Phillies – Howard and Rollins should scare anybody. Their pitching isn’t great, but it’s probably good enough.
Braves (WC) – Made some good trades this offseason. But they probably should have gotten better pitching instead of more mediocre pitching.
Mets – Way too many question marks. You know Reyes, Wright, and Beltran (when healthy) will produce. But can they stay healthy beyond that? Can they get enough pitching behind Santana?
Marlins – Full of good, young prospects, but there’s just too much firepower on top of this division.
Nationals – The who? Oh yeah, the Nats. I guess I need to include them in my predictions too. Kind of forgot about them. It’s easy to forget about these guys.

NL Central
Cubs – I know it’s early in the season but I’m already sick of hearing the “this is year #100 of the curse”…”the C on our caps stands for “Century”…and any other similar lines from Cubs nation. It’s going to be a long season for that reason but it’s hard to argue that the Cubs aren’t the frontrunner in the NL Central.
Cardinals – Right now they’re arguably the Cubs’ biggest threat in the division. But if Pujols’ injury keeps nagging him and he is forced to miss significant time then these guys are in BIG trouble.
Astros – Many “experts” have written these guys off. I, however, see no reason why they can’t compete this year. They’ve got a good solid Ace atop their rotation in Oswalt and they’ve got a decent supporting cast behind Berkman in the lineup.
Brewers – Don’t be fooled by what these guys did last year. Many of their players “over-performed.” Expect quite a step back in 2008
Reds – Again, several question marks on this team regarding health. But even if they’re all healthy I wouldn’t set your expectations too high.
Pirates – I feel sorry for guys like Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny who could win 15-20 games for teams with a more potent offense. The only thing worth watching in Pittsburgh this year will be what teams land those pitchers at the trade deadline.

NL West
Diamondbacks – Webb and Haren. That’s a scary combo. If they can score runs then they’ll bring home the NL West crown. Then again, they didn’t score runs last year and they still brought it home.
Dodgers – Penny and Lowe aren’t as scary as Webb and Haren. But I don’t think they should be ignored. The Dodgers have the better offense though. Health is their only issue.
Padres – Guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Khalil Greene, and Kevin Kouzmanoff aren’t super star studs, but they’re really solid contributors. Also, I guarantee it makes the Diamondbacks and Dodgers nervous to look in their rear view mirror and see Jake Peavy toeing the rubber every 5 days. I’d argue that this is the most underrated team in 2008 but there are some other good candidates.
Rockies – They’re the NL West version of the Brewers. Don’t expect a repeat performance. Too many players performed above their heads…at the perfect time.
Giants – Like him or not (I don’t) you have to admit that Barry Bonds meant everything to this team. If you don’t believe me, watch them this year…if you can tolerate it.

NL MVP – Mark Teixeira, 1B Braves
NL Cy Young – Johan Santana, Mets
NL ROY – Johnny Cueto, SP Reds

AL East
Red Sox – Their pitching injuries aren’t helping, but I don’t think that will be too much of a setback as the Red Sox defend their crown.
Yankees – If Joe Girardi thought he was treated unfairly when he was with the Marlins, he’s in for a surprise with the fickle New York fans. If the Yanks get off to a slow start then you know 2 things will happen: 1) There will be uncountable “we want Torre back” chants and 2) Torre won’t want to come back. All this while the teams performance problems won’t even be Girardi’s fault. Still, the Yanks could bring a good fight for the division and wild card.
Blue Jays – OK, get ready to laugh at me, but I honestly think that if these guys can stay healthy then they could compete with the Sox and Yanks. The problem is they can’t stay healthy, and probably won’t this season.
Orioles – I bet the Orioles hate being in this division. Playing such a large chunk of your schedule against the Jays, Yanks, and Sox will make it tough for anybody to win. Then again, if Orioles wanted to win, wouldn’t they have hung onto Leo Mazzone?
Devil Rays – Baseball in Florida is embarrassing.

AL Central
Tigers – One of the scariest lineups in baseball. One of the scariest rotations in baseball. That’s a good formula for winning.
Indians (WC) – These guys are very well balanced with the pitching led by Sabathia and the offense led by Sizemore. This is a winning team but the Tigers have too much firepower.
White Sox – They had a bad season last year but I really felt as if (for whatever reason) people set their expectations too high for the ChiSox last year. Seriously, look it up. I was amazed last year at where some people were predicting them. Perhaps 2005 was still on their minds, but this really isn’t the same team. Anyways, on to this year. They have a decent lineup, but the pitching just isn’t there. I’d lower my expectations.
Twins – OK, so they were under .500 with Johan Santana so that means without Santana that they’ll be….well…you know.
Kansas City – I must admit, Tony Pena Jr. had a better season last year than I suspected he would, .267 sure didn’t seem like the type of numbers he would put up while receiving regular playing time. What did he hit with the Braves, like .220? Oh, and now that Alex Gordon has a full season under his belt, look for him to improve. Good grief, who am I kidding? Do you know how hard it is to find something positive to say about this team?

AL West
Mariners – Acquiring Berdard was good move. That move combined with Escobar’s shoulder injury puts these guys in front by default.
Angels – Escobar’s injury probably cost them the division.
Rangers – These guys are a pitcher or two away from being a threat. The problem is not many pitchers want to claim that park as home.
Athletics – This isn’t a horrible team considering the fact that it’s a rebuilding year. Hey, weren’t they just in a rebuilding year a few years ago? Oh yeah, THAT’S why they call it moneyball?

AL MVP – Miguel Cabrera, 3B Tigers
AL Cy Young – CC Sabathia, Indians
AL ROY – Evan Longoria, 3B Devil Rays

Post season

NLDS
Braves over Cubs (5 games)
Diamondbacks over Phillies (5 games)

NLCS
Diamondbacks over Braves (6 games)

ALDS
Red Sox over Indians (4 games)
Tigers over Mariners (3 games)

ALCS
Tigers over Red Sox (7 games)

World Series
Tigers over Diamondbacks (4 games)

World Series MVP – Magglio Ordonez

Oh, and I thought I’d have some fun and throw in some other misc. predictions for 2008:
1. Ozzie Guillen (White Sox Manager) fired.
2. Willie Randolph (Mets Manager) fired.
3. Adam Wainwright (Cardinals) throws a no-hitter.
4. The NL snaps the AL’s streak of consecutive All-Star game victories.
5. Ryan Howard’s (1B, Phillies) and Justin Verlander’s (SP, Tigers) strikeout totals will be the same.
6. The Yankees will miss Joe Torre (wow, that was a bold prediction)
7. The Padres will win 15 straight games at one point during the season, but still not make the playoffs.
8. Miguel Cabrera will be 7 homers short of the triple crown.
9. 6 of the 9 AL Starters in the All Star game will consist of Yankees, Red Socks, and Tigers
10. Bonds and Clemens both are found guilty of perjury, receive prison time and their Hall of Fame hopes disappear :)

Defending Myself:

-Probably your first thought is “DIAMONDBACKS?!?! They were a fluke last year, playing way above they Pythagorean record! They can’t go even further this year!” Yes, I’m aware of their Pythagorean record, but I think the NL Pennant is a higher possibility than you might think at first. You know their pitching will be amongst the best in the NL, it’s just a matter of scoring runs for them. If they can hold off the Dodgers, who will be hot on their heels all year, then I expect the Diamondbacks to dominate the first two series of the postseason similar to how Johnson and Schilling did it in 2001. You know that a 1-2 punch like that will give them a huge advantage, especially in a 3 out of 5 series. We’ve seen it time and time again, good pitching will trump any good lineup. I think it’s justifiable.

-I was also shocked at the AL Cy Young candidates. Now that Johan is in the NL, the AL Cy Young will (most likely) be a three man race with Sabathia, Beckett, and Verlander. Meanwhile, there are all kinds of good candidates in the NL. I’m gonna go with my gut and predict a Sabathia repeat. I feel like Beckett’s time has passed with all those innings he has logged and I feel like Verlander’s time is soon to come.

Tell me what your thoughts are. Agreements? Disagreements?

It's Worth It...

2008-04-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Where has DVR been all my life? I feel like a grandpa who was recently introduced to a word processor.

This thing is great. So like, I see a great catch made in the outfield. I pause the live TV. Go back, watch the catch in slow motion. Go back again, watch the catch frame-by-frame. Then, between pitches, I catch up with the live feed.

Oh, and not to mention, the TV schedule can now be watched on my own time, recording several things at one time.

I am pleased with my DirecTV decision. It's worth it people.

The gospel according to John Mayer...

2008-03-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with you John Mayer's latest blog post. He doesn't pop a scripture reference, but I believe you'll detect some biblical truth in what he's saying. It's about our teenagers. Perhaps even other generations as well. It's something we all do. Let's just be ourselves. Ignore the occasional curse words he uses and really get to the heart of what he is saying. Well worth a read.

http://www.johnmayer.com/blog

The decision has been made

2008-03-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I've been sweating over a decision the past several days.

I have made my decision -- DirecTV.

First off, I'd like to note how extremely difficult the decision was. Both companies had great options and I'm sure that if I chose Dish Network I'd be happy.

What the decision came down to:

Well, Dish Network's prices were a little better. However, I would like to argue that they aren't as good as they might appear. With Dish Network, you have to pay for more extra stuff. With Dish Network you have to pay an extra $5 per month to get local channels. With Dish Network you also have to pay $5/month for your DVR lease. (well, that is you have to pay for those two extra tidbits unless you get one of the higher end, jumbo packages). But with DirecTV you don't have to pay for local channels, they're included. The prices are better with Dish Network, but they're not that much better if that stuff is important to you (which it was for me).

DirecTV gives you more "awesomeness" for only a little bit more money, which really sealed the deal for me...

-The DirecTV customer service people were a lot more willing to help me with the questions I had. The folks over at Dish Network really didn't know how to help me unless I was ordering a package or scheduling and installation. I've always been willing to pay a little more for nice, friendly customer service.

-I'm getting more channels (and HD channels). Also, my channels have content. I don't have to worry about a large chunk of my channels being devoted solely to playing music. Not that I hate music, but I do have an ipod.

-Oh, and I don't know if this stuff is important to you, but DirecTV offers great sports packages and movie packages that Dish Network doesn't. You no longer have to worry about not seeing the beloved cowboys because you are getting a "regional game". Again, I guess that's just another one of those "awesomeness" things. Dish Network doesn't offer any services like that as of yet. But if you're not a sports person, you don't have to go for that.

The equivelant package that I got would be $7.00 per month less at Dish Network AFTER the first year (for the first year DirecTV is about 10 bucks/month cheaper). The way I see it, I'll still be out ahead (12 months of saving $120 dollars and 12 months of "losing (I use this word, but remember the 'awesomeness factor'" $84). I realize this isn't the most intelligent way to view it, but it makes it a lot easier to justify signing the contract. What I plan on doing is at the end of my contract, I'll re-evaluate which of the 2 companies is ahead, and then make the switch accordingly, if needed.

Again, Dish Network, you were a worthy 2nd place finisher. I see no reason why Dish Network subscribers would be disappointed. They're both great. Perhaps at the end of my contract, Dish will have caught up with and/or passed DirecTV. But as of right now, I'm giving the edge to DirecTV.

They're installing Tuesday morning, just in time for The office to get going again, the first week of baseball and the end of March...er...April madness.

Which Translation?

2008-03-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

I find this incredibly interesting. Here is a little tool that helps determine what Version/Translation is right for you.

I would also like to note (and I know the nerd inside of me is coming out) that some of the Ratings different Versions/Translation received are way off. For example, in the "Form" category (Being a Greek/Hebrew student this was the category which was most important to me, I selected critical for this one) was way off. They gave a 10 to King James Version and NKJV, which is actually quite inaccurate. The King James Version, believe it or not, is quite far off from the original greek (which is kind of ironic considering that to many this is the true, "authorized" version we should be using). The version which is [arguably]closest to the Greek is the NASB (or ASB), and it only received a 9 (ASB received a 10). The version which comes in a close second, NRSV (or RSV) to representing the Greek also received a 9 (RSV got a 10 as well). I guess the word "New" means it isn't accurately translated :-)
(Note: Some scholars reverse the two, putting (N)RSV first and (N)ASB second. While I respectfully disagree, the point still remains solid either way.)

Again, I know I'm a nerd, but I just thought I'd let you know that it is a little off. But it's not bad, I don't really see anything that is incredibly, horribly inaccurate that it throws everything off.

Besides, if form isn't really your thing, none of it really matters anyways. If form doesn't matter, that's perfectly fine. As long as you have a Bible that you are comfortable with and one that you frequently open, then that's all I can ask.

For what it's worth, mine was New English Bible.

Again, I just thought it was pretty neat and it was an incredibly awesome idea.

A Huge h/t goes out to Chris and those over at Think Christian for this one.

Baseball Mania...

2008-03-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

Happy opening day, everyone. It is opening day, right? I guess it just doesn't feel like it.

I do plan on posting my predictions this baseball season, but the bad news is that that will probably come after the REAL opening day, this Sunday. I'll get it up as soon as possible though.

I really want to talk about the Braves, more than opening day and more than predictions. There are a few items that I find rather interesting...

To most Braves fans, the biggest story this year will either be Tom Glavine returning or Mike Hampton returning (different kind of returning). However, I want to talk about the absence of Chuck James. It appears as if he won't be a part of the opening day roster. From the best I can tell, all indications are that the 5th spot in the rotation will be given to Jair Jurrjens. Last year Chucky was the #3 starter, this year he will be in Richmond? It's tough for me to swallow. There isn't a huge difference between Chuckies stats and Glavine's stats from a year ago. Did our rotation really improve that much? My answer is no. We got deeper, but not really better. Poor ole Chucky, he has earned his keep, imho. What's worse is that there isn't even talk of putting him in the Bullpen in the long relief/spot start role. Jeff Bennett appears to be the front runner in that position. Jeff Bennett? Before Chuck James? This is getting a little out of hand. I know Jeff Bennett pitched well in his couple of appearances at the end of last season and this spring, but there is a reason he is a minor league journeyman, right?. If it's me, Jurrjens is in AAA, James is #5. I could care less if it's 3 lefties in a row, I'm putting the best 5 pitchers in the rotation regardless of which hand releases the ball. Besides, we have a history of bringing pitchers up too early anyways, this seems like a good year to break that habit since we're so deep anyways. If you're in the "jurrjens is the next great thing and needs to be on the roster getting ML experience" group, then that's fine. I'll be happy if Jurrjens got the long relief role. Hey, I might even settle for Jurrjens having the 5 spot and James being in the long relief role (Note: I would absolutely love it if Jurrjens proved me wrong and had a great year!).

I guess it's just hard for me to see how Chuck james is the odd man out.

What do you guys think, have I been drinking Chuck James kool-aid or does he really need to be shown more love?

How I'm doing...

2008-03-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

After the first weekend of the tourney, here's how I'm doing in my bracket so far...

East:
I've got three of the four teams correct that will participate in the Sweet Sixteen. I had Oklahoma upsetting Louisville, but it didn't happen. I am not really a fan of predicting the 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds of a region in the sweet 16 on my bracket, but that is how they ended up in the east.

UNC has been dominant in both games, but the Wash St. game should be entertaining. I'm especially looking forward to some of those matchups, the guard duos (Lawson/Ellington vs. Low/Rochestie) and it'll be interesting to see how/who Roy Williams decides to defend Kyle Weaver. Wash St. is hidden in the middle of some very tough Pac-10 teams, they can play. If you underestimate them, they'll beat you, no matter who you are. I wouldn't recommend missing this game.

Midwest:
Wow, what can you say about the midwest? I have 2 of 4 teams correct in the midwest. I figured/hoped that USC could make it to the elite 8, but Beasly and Kansas St. decided to shatter my expectations. I did get Villanova correct, but I don't really view that as very prophetic.

Kansas has to really like what happened below them, with a bunch of mediocre teams doing their dirty work for them. They still have Wisconsin to be worried about but I think Kansas can handle them (or anyone). Wow, the midwest was fun the past coupla days!

South:
Again, I have 2 of 4 correct in the south. As I've already said, it's no fun to predict the 1, 2, 3, 4 seeds in the sweet 16 (or in this case, it'd be 1, 2, 3, 5, which is only a wii bit better). You can laugh at me for predicting Miami to beat Texas, but I don't care.

Anything can happen in the south, with those 4 squaring off against each other.

West:
As is commonly the case, I have 2 of 4. But the big story here is losing a final four team, UCONN. This is the first time I've lost a final four team in the first round, but I suppose I still won't do so badly if UCLA takes UCONN's place, provided Xavier cooperates. But Xavier better not go ahead and celebrate a victory of WV. Duke can tell you that West Virginia will stick a very tough man-to-man defense on you. At one point Duke missed 15 consecutive 3 pointers. As I said in my last post, if you rely on the 3-ball for your only means of scoring, you can win some games. But I really don't like the odds that a team can rely on the 3 ball for 6 straight games. Is it possible? yeah. But just look at the challenges it brings.

Scheyer didn't make any. Nelson didn't make one. King didn't make one either. Singler didn't even attempt one (which I'd argue is better for Duke, not that he is bad at it, but he needs to attack the glass, and he can't do that from behind the arc). Paulus (3 of 9) can't do it all himself. So what happens to an outside shooting focused team when they shoot 22.7% from behind the arc. Well, they're gonna need to pull down a lot of rebounds and play some gooooood defense.

A good friend of mine here in Valdosta who attended Duke told me that the reason Duke lost was not because they struggled from outside but because Demarcus Nelson went 2-11. He has a point, but I always hate saying that the reason a team lost was because of 1 person.

Well, I guess that's a really wordy way of saying that if you rely on 3 pointers...good luck.

This weekend will be another fun weekend. There are some good matchups, and there will be more upsets. I'll keep my bracket for the time being, let's see if I will get to keep it or throw it away in a week...

Beetle Bailey Metal Lunchbox

2008-03-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

Oh, man, if you guys only knew how tempting this is...

Bracket...

2008-03-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Sorry, apparently some of the feed readers format this horribly. Do the best you can, I don't know why it did this.

Some of you are about to laugh...

Sweet 16: Elite 8: Final 4:
UNC
Wash St. UNC

Oklahoma
TN TN UNC

Kansas
Villanova Kansas

USC
Gtown USC Kansas

Memphis
Pitt Memphis

Stanford
Miami Stanford Memphis

UCLA
Conn Conn

Xavier
Duke Xavier Conn

Champ Game: Kansas vs. Memphis

Champion: Memphis

A few thoughts
It's always boring to fill out a bracket with 3 one seeds reaching the final 4. I do have other bracket combinations. In fact I can't exactly remember, but I probably submitted so many different brackets to ESPN where I probably have all the 1 seeds covered and maybe a coupla 2 and 3 seeds.

Anyways, to those of you who think I'm cheap for picking three 1 seeds...uh...sorry, I guess.

Now to defend some of my selections:

-First, the champions. When preacher Bryan saw I picked Memphis, he said...FREE THROWS, CHRIS! FREE THROWS! THEY CAN'T MAKE FREE THROWS. "To this I replied, It only stopped em once so far." He really didn't say much, just shook his head. Yes, I know Memphis struggles from the charity stripe, but every team has it's achilles heal. Just like every team has its strengths. I have noticed that Memphis is the least popular of the 1 seeds to get to the final four. I can't really give an explanation other than that Pitt is a popular bandwagon 4 seed. They're good, don't get me wrong. Still, I like my parents' alma mater in the south region. If this makes you laugh, refer to the first sentence of this post.

-As far as my other final four member, Connecticut...again, some of you laugh at that. If that makes you laugh, please refer to the first sentence of this post. I've felt all season that Conn been underrated. The Big East is tough this year, over half of those teams have had a 20 win season this year. I'm looking for A.J. Price to lead the Huskies similar to how Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse a few years back. But Price's Huskies will give him a better supporting cast than Melo had. All of those guys can ball. I think the Huskies will have a better chance in a UCLA/Conn matchup than most people will. Is UCLA the better team? Yeah, but this is basketball, they gotta play the games for a reason. Anything can happen.

-No, that is not a misprint, I really did mean to put Villanova in the sweet sixteen and USC in the Elite eight. If you laugh at that, then please refer to the first sentence of this post. I think there's a chance.

-Probably the biggest disagreement you will have is something that you may not have noticed. It's not about what is above, but about what is missing from above. That is the absence of Texas from the sweet sixteen. Again, refer to the first sentence. Perhaps the stars can align and Miami can pull a fast one on Texas.

Well, although I filled out 8-9 different brackets, this is the one I'm going to claim. I'll hang it in my office. What do you guys think? How many weekends do you think this bracket will survive before needing a trip to the trash can? All the way? Just the first weekend?

agreements, disagreements, comments?

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT DECISION....INPUT IS NEEDED

2008-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

OK guys...I have an important, life altering decision to make and I need to know your input. I've researched pretty heavily online but I now extend the decision I've been wrestling with to all of you...

Direct TV or Dish Network???

got stuff done

2008-03-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

So the past two days have been big for me (not to mention the past week).

I have my bracket submitted to facebook, espn, and a few other places now (I tweaked it up a wii bit yesterday). We'll see how it goes. I have some pretty unusual upsets predicted...but I think I can defend them (that is, I can defend them until they don't happen). I noticed a few trends, some expected, some unexpected.

For example, I have the PAC-10 doing well. Which is odd cuz I'm not really a homer, I'm way on the other side of the country in SEC/ACC territory. The PAC-10 could be legit, they have some great teams.

If I were to breakdown every single team this post would be too long and I'd probably get tired of typing. I do wish to look at some of the more "popular picks" and break those down a bit.

I'll start with the 1 Seeds:

UNC: These guys are real good (duh). On any given night they have the potential to unload 100+ points on anybody (duh). However, my concern is defense. Scoring 100 points doesn't matter if the opponent scores 110. At times during the season the Heels looked like defensive masterminds. At other times, it looked like high school teams could score on these guys. If the Heels go all the way it will be because of good defense, not offense.

Memphis: Has anybody looked very closely at Memphis' resume? They only have one loss all season, and it was to the then #2 team in the country. It's hard to have a better resume than that. I don't want to hear any of that "but it's the conference USA" mumbo jumbo. I'm sold on these guys.

Kansas: If this team was playing your favorite team, and you said you weren't scared, you'd be lying. They have an extremely balanced attack, not relying on one superstar (but they could rely on any of their starters, and survive, if needed). These guys can do it all. They can shoot the 3 ball, they can pound it inside, they can defend. They have depth on the bench. If they put it all together, then lookout.

UCLA: These guys (obviously) are good but I think the team's achilles heel (rebounding) might haunt them. Kevin Love is the only one that they can count on to consistently pull down the boards. If he were to get in foul trouble then they'd best hope that all of their shots fall and their opponents don't.

Duke: You can never count these guys out, if for any reason than that they're Duke. But I'm always hesitant to pick any team to go all the way that lives and dies by the 3-ball. They don't have an inside presence to dish it to if the threes fail to drop.

I've got more, but it will come later, perhaps when I unleash my bracket. I also wanna talk about my other "online selection game" -- my fantasy baseball draft, which was held last night.

I didn't do awesome, But I don't think I did horrible either. I'll take it, considering the fact that the only prep work I did started 20 minutes before the draft. I made some mistakes during the draft, but I also felt like I got some good steals in the mid rounds.

It's my first time doing a head-to-head league. I'm at a little disadvantage because I'm so used the standard 5x5 stuff. Head to head may call for a completely different strategy, I just don't know.

I took a lot of risks. I'm relying on Josh Beckett to get and stay healthy and Dontrelle Willis to bounce back to his old ways. I also gambled that Andruw Jones will get his avg up and that Aaron Rowand can keep his numbers despite moving to San Fran.

If a lot of those don't happen, I'm doomed.

A Bill James commercial...

2008-03-18T06:49:00.001-07:00

Just thought i'd interrupt your regularly blog reading programming for a brief announcement.

This is the best $3 per month you'll ever spend.

I am a new member and am absolutely loving it! Even if you're just a casual fan you'll find some of the information in there deep and informative. And if you don't like it, you can cancel it after a month and it would have only cost you a mere $3.

Wow...

2008-03-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

OK, a lot has been going on.

I'm without internet until next week...getting it plugged in in our new home. It will be difficult and it couldn't happen at a worse time! I actually won't have the internet during the start of the NCAA tourney and for my MLB fantasy draft.

I'll come here, to the office to take care of what I can, but it will be a little frustrating having to drive to my office to do a draft, etc.

Because I moved this past week and have many boxes to unpack, and a fantasy draft, and softball practices (season starts second week of April), I really didn't get a chance to break down the brackets as much as I like to. I have my bracket completed, but may tweak it up a little bit today and tomorrow.

It'll be a crazy week for me...it's only fitting because it will be a crazy week for college basketball as well.

Thunder Chickens

2008-03-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Realized that it's been awhile so I thought I'd update everybody on what's been going on lately...

**We'll be moving into our newly built home this weekend. We close later this week and Saturday will be spent moving boxes and furniture about 6 miles from where we currently live. If any one wants to help, come join us! We have a good crew already expected to show up, with several pickup trucks as well. With enough help, perhaps we won't spend all day doing this.

**The church softball season is about to get going. We gotta few practices coming up soon and the season starts the week after Spring break. Hopefully I can actually finish the season this time and not suffer a season ending knee injury. We're also a little blood lusted as we had an early exit in the postseason tourney last year. If you don't remember, we were forced to forfeit to a team we had whipped up on during the season because we didn't have enough players show up. It's kind of ironic, we were one player short and I was sitting in the bleachers with my crutches and busted knee. Needless to say, we're looking to bring the championship back to Central Ave.

**I joined a fantasy baseball league featuring a bunch of Harding Students. I received the invitation and figured, "why not? It's an 8 player league, and I only know 2 other people in the league, but I figured it'd be a step up from the league I was in last one to stop paying attention --in June--. All in all, I don't really care too much about fantasy baseball, just gives me something else to root for if the Braves are struggling. I named my team the THUNDER CHICKENS. It's an inside joke here in Valdosta, which of course nobody in my league will get...sigh.

**Speaking of Braves, I unfortunately had to sell my spring training tickets. I had tickets for this Saturday, but as you read above, we'll be kind of occupied. I had great seats, next door to the Braves dugout - Paid 25 bucks for them (including shipping). Spring training was great last year, Hopefully I'll be able to make it next year.

Fifty-Nifty

2008-03-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

In 2m 36s

Click here to Play

Since I grew up singing the song, I probably had an edge. The difficult part for me (and probably what added about 20-30 seconds to my time) was having to spell them correctly enough to count.

Give it a try!

h/t Mark

5758 Shasta Pines Way - Week 14

2008-02-26T20:06:00.001-08:00

It's to the point now where it is difficult to decide when to post these. I'm always wanting to wait for them to complete what they are doing tomorrow, to include those changes.

Like today, for example. I was tempted to delay this because they are putting the carpet in tomorrow.

Nonetheless, take a look at what they have done this past week.

Be Kind Rewind...

2008-02-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Jenny and I went to the movies for the first time in what seemed like ages. I went to many over the Christmas holidays and I saw one here, one there, but to the best of our knowledge, Blades of Glory was the last movie we saw together in the theatre/theater (whichever it is) with nobody else [We saw The Simpsons movie with a group, so we didn't count that].

Anywho/how/way, considering the fact that we were one of 8 people in the theatre/theater we were pleasantly surprised at our movie of choice, Be Kind Rewind.
It wasn't rated that high by the critics (although yahoo movies rated it a B), but I feel sorry for anybody who basis their movie watching based solely on what the critics say.

I want to avoid as much as possible turning this into a review. But I guess my goal here is to encourage everybody to see that movie. It's clean, creative, the plot is good, acting is good, it's really a solid movie. I'm not a fan of paying so much to see a movie on the big screen but Jenny and I both felt we got our moneys worth.

Really, I guess I just find it odd that there weren't many in the theater with us. It's not like it has been out forever.

But then again, if we all had the same taste then the world would run out of chickens to eat.

Click here to watch the Be Kind Rewind trailer.

5758 Shasta Pines Way - Week 13

2008-02-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for awhile. Winterfest and bank meetings have thrown me off. Sorry.

They've put the sinks in and a few other misc. necessities. Tile has been put it but the carpet will be the last thing they do.

Time is drawing near!

Point Guards are eating utensils...

2008-02-11T06:12:00.000-08:00

The short answer...pretty valuable, duh! OK. Blog post over. Back to your regular reading schedule.

Not really.

This is something I've seen a lot of this basketball season on many levels.

One of the kids in the youth group here at Central, and a point guard for Georgia Christian school has a torn ACL and MCL received during one of the games. Since then, needless to say, the team has suffered.

The UNC Tar Heels have now played almost 3 complete games without point guard Ty Lawson. Last nights win vs. Clemson was a steal...trailing nearly the entire game and really only making it to overtime due to a Clemson scoring drought (although I'm sure some of that credit goes to UNC defense). Making matters worse was backup PG Bobby Frasor's season ending knee injury over a month ago.

In the NBA, the poor Chicago Bulls have been without Kirk Henrich (oh, and Ben Gordon and Luol Deng). I don't think I even need to say how difficult (should I use the word entertaining?) it can be to watch a team run it's offense without it's starting starting backcourt plus a forward.

So a question comes up...why is it so hard to replace a point guard? If a star scorer goes down, a team will always find someone else to take the ball to the rack. If you lose a post player that averages 12 rebounds a game then there will be 12 rebounds available for other players (be it on your team or an opponent) to pull down.

But why is a solid point guard so irreplacable? I wish I could say any old bozo can dribble the ball down the court. But I think we know better.

UNC's game against Clemson last night was a nightmare to watch. Without a good point guard, Clemson's full court press was way too much for us. Their pressure caused all kinds of bad passes and novice turnovers that I believe could have been prevented with a solid point player.

I imagine other teams are going to jump on that bandwagon and aggressively attack/pressure Thomas and Ginyard the way Clemson did.

I realize that I still haven't answered the question, Why are point guards so hard to replace? I'm afraid I have no answer. Obviously you can draw comparisons to other sports. From time to time all hear point guards described as quarterbacks. I can' remember which one it was, but I once heard a college football announcer talk about quarterbacks saying "You don't have to have an awesome quarterback to win it all, but you do need to have a good one to win it all."

Point Guards don't necessarily have to be the star of the show. In fact, I personally believe the best point guard aren't the star of the show. The more unselfish, the better. In that way, I imagine point guards are like silver ware, you don't really know how important they are unless you don't have one.

This past Friday Jenny and I enjoyed our weekly Fri. night date. This time we ate at Red Lobster. When eating...have you ever realized how important your silverware is? I mean, if I didn't have silverware I would not have been able to eat my meal at Red Lobster. I would have asked the waiter/tress to bring me some so that I can partake of the fish.

Again, we tend to not think about how important silverware is until we don't have it. Point guards are the spoons and fork of the offense. They don't digest the food, but they help get it there.

It'll be interesting to see how these teams manage without their starting silverware. Injuries will always be a part of the game. You don't want to eat with a flat spoon or a broken fork...but until you get something figured out it's like eating rice with chopsticks.

A non Braves pitcher to root for...

2008-02-09T07:38:00.001-08:00

Well...pitchers and catchers have reported to camp already and I can already feel baseball fever in my blood. Once again, I'll be going down to catch some spring training action in March.

Really, for a Braves fan, this will be one of the more boring Spring trainings we've had in awhile. We pretty much know what the roster will look like on opening done. The only thing spring training will determine this year is who gets the 5 spot in the rotation (but nearly every team can say the same thing. The battle for the end of the rotation is probably one of the most overrated baseball topic. Every team does it, fans and bloggers analyze it to death, yet the 5 spot will hardly have an impact on how well the season goes, with the exception of some major breakthrough performance. But enough of that soap box).

I'd also expect the runner up in that battle to also have a bullpen slot. The only other thing to watch is this spring is the battle for backup catcher. Whoever the choice is, once again, probably won't have a huge impact on the season.

So Braves fans will be watching the 5th starter battle (everyteam has those) and the backup catcher battle (boring).

Something (or someone) else I will have my eye on this spring (or...summer) is a name that isn't the most popular name among minor league pitchers, but is someone I've been rooting for since my sophomore year of college.

In 2002, fellow Ooltewah High School 2002 graduate Adam Howard was drafted by the Pirates in the 34th round. Adam turned down the offer to pitch college ball. Two years later, in 2004, the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him in the 44th round and Adam became a minor league pitcher.

Fast forward three years to last season, 2007. Last season Adam climbed the ladder from Low-A all the way to Triple-A Tucson.

This season I will be rooting hard for Adam. To the best I can figure out, he isn't one of the Diamondbacks non-roster invites. But being at AAA Tucson, he doesn't have far to go (literally!) With injuries to pitchers these days and with a good, solid showing at AAA I'd love to see a fellow classmate on a majorleague mound, pitching for the same team as Webb, Haren, and Randy Johnson.

I faced Adam twice in little league. He struck me out both times but I did manage to make contact once, fouling it to the backstop. After facing him that day, I knew there was something special about Adam's arm. Even at such a young age he was clearly a better/faster/more accurate thrower than anyone around.

Oh, and he quarterbacked our High School football team.

We're rooting for you Adam!

Yo yo Johan

2008-01-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

So as we all know by now, Johan Santana is a Met.

The Mets more than replaced their loss of Tom Glavine. This, IMO, seperates the Mets from the other two NL East contenders.

But what is even more frustrating to me is that the Braves gave up more for Teixeira than the Mets gave up for Santana, although they must work out a pretty heavy contract now. The Mets still have their best hitting prospect, F-Mart. They still have their best pitching prospect, Mike Pelfrey. They didn't even give up a star currently on their roster like Reyes or Wright or Beltran.

There is a motto that says, "If you want to trade for talent, you've got to give up talent." The Mets received way more talent than they gave up. It's ashamed that the penny pinching Braves don't have the cash to give him an extension, we could have easily matched that offer.

There's a chance that Johan is due for some arm troubles pretty soon. You figure something is up if you look at those 1st half/2nd half splits from last year.

I'll say this though. I know this was a great trade for the Mets, but I can't help but wait in anticipation for those Smoltz vs. Santana matchups. Those will be some exciting times...and if you need me during one of those games, I'll be in front of my TV.

Or perhaps at the Ted?

5758 Shasta Pines Way - Week 11

2008-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting these because progress has been a bit slow lately. They are at the slowest part of any house construction...the trim. Builder said that always takes awhile to trim the whole house, and put up the crown molding. But once it gets up the paint usually goes on quick...as shown below.

We're set to close the last week of February. Not much more to do, just flooring and misc items (light switches, ceiling fans, etc).

Free refinancing of the almost financed house...am I allowed to use the prefix RE?

2008-01-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

I know the post title sounds awkward. Believe me, it is pretty weird to experience, as it is something I'm doing this week.

As most of you know, Jenny and I are building a house (or at least, we hired other people to do it). Some of you may also know about how the housing economy has been doing lately. Answer: Not good. The feds just slashed rates again.

Jenny and I are refinancing a house that hasn't been completed yet. Weird huh? Question: Am I allowed to call it REfinancing if I haven't even made a payment yet?

Jenny I were contracted to be at 5.18%. But I have been on the phone a lot with my banker, who also attends Central with us and helped ease the loan process for us. Since we hadn't made a payment yet, we can refinance for no charge (or something like that. I forget the details but the point is it's free). We are now going to be locked in at what is estimated to be about 4.55% (for 15 years, it's higher if we go 30, which we most likely won't).

The real estate market is in panic mode...and when money people panic, something good usually happens for the buyer...so I'm taking advantage.

drat

2008-01-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

well, Selig gets an extension through 2012. While no doubt he has done much for baseball since the strike, I'm still not very pleased with his term overall.

Zimbalist's book, In the best interest of baseball, handles very fairly the major events of Selig's term and analyzes them. Selig has helped baseball recover from the strike, but as Zimbalist argues, these fixes are good for the short term but bad for the long term.

You should pick up a copy of the book, it's well worth the read.

Meanwhile...we have a longer countdown till the Selig era ends.

You got told!

2008-01-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love Tent Pegs. It is one of my favorite blogs on the subject of church, spirituality, and the Bible. Patrick Meade is a fantastic speaker amongst the Church of Christ whom I have heard a couple of times and I highly recommend you add his blog to your feeds.

He is currently doing a Q & A series. Questions you'd ask God...what will you ask God when you get to heaven?

In a question raised by one of his readers regarding Romans 14 and 15 and "disputable matters"...Patrick brings up an example from a past experience of his...

Questioner: you are right. Romans 14 and 15 apply in all situations. An "opening prayer" or a "closing prayer" are ideas not found in scripture. Let me give you an example of how warped this "worship service" idea makes everything else. We did a three year study at Rochester on the role of women. I was proud of our elders as they brought in experts in language, scripture, history, linguistics, etc. and read many books along with memorizing tons of scripture. The short version is that we believe women are allowed to do much, much more than our tradition has usually allowed them to do so we presented that to our congregation.

Predictably, many rejoiced and almost as many were upset. Some left us but others stayed and gently remind us to move slowly so that we don’t leave them and others behind. One lady was anything but gentle. She called me and reamed me out over the phone. Her language was… uh… spicy and she didn’t take a breath for the first five minutes or so. I held the phone away from my ear and waited my turn. Her treatise was that we had gone liberal and were Bible-trashers for letting women speak "in the church."

I asked… "Then why are you calling me? Aren’t YOU in the church? If you believe women are to keep silent in the church, why are you calling me and correcting me; in fact, usurping my authority?" She replied — very loudly — "I’m not in the church right now!"

Ooooooo. That, my friend, is a tragic misunderstanding of what it means to be in the church!

OK, I don't want to end up quoting his whole post (but more is to come) but Patrick is handling Romans 14-15 very well. I've studied this section a lot myself. It has some tough phrases to wrestle with, even excluding the part dealt with above.

I can relate. I once saw somebody wearing a shirt that said "Don't go to church" along the front.

"What!?" I couldn't believe it. Why would somebody (especially someone like this, a good Christian person) wear a shirt like that? As I was getting steamed i watched the person continue walking. I then noticed the back of the shirt finished the phrase with "be the church".

Oh, yeah...uh...I knew that. Don't GO to church, BE the church.

Over the past 50 years or so we have caused a lot of harm by using the phrases such as "Are we going to church" or "let's go to church" or "hey, mom, when is church".

In the Bible, church is not an event. It is the bride of Christ. Why would Christ marry an event? I fear that because language such as "going to church" has been used so much that it has completely altered our understanding of what church really is, thus causing difficulties of interpretation in passages such as Rom 14-15.

For the Christian, there is no difference between public and private ethics, attitudes, or conduct. We are to be Christian 24/7. Let me make the other side angry here and state, once again, that I do not think "everything we do is worship." Nope. When I mow the lawn, I am not worshiping. You might very well be but I hate outdoor chores. I am more likely to be quoting Emily Dickinson or Edgar Allen Poe than I am singing "Blue Skies and Rainbows" as I slog around the backyard with my portable grass mauling, global warming machine.

But when I mow the lawn, I had better belong to Jesus and be available for him. And when I worship with my brothers and sisters I am there to worship God and help them. I am not allowed to let anything come from my mouth towards them unless it builds them up. I cannot speak to them of disputable matters much less enter into debate with them. Raise hands or not. Clap or not. Sway or not. I couldn’t care less. What I care about is that we are together as we worship our Lord. THAT is beautiful.

Patrick's blog is a blessing to me. Thank you, Patrick. and no, i didn't quote his ENTIRE post...

Postseason Analysis: Giants verses who?

2008-01-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. Coincidentally, it'll be my last for quite awhile since we lost.

I watched a good chunk of the game...but I couldn't figure out who it was the the Giants were playing. It certainly wasn't the Dallas Cowboys that I know. It was sloppy. Let's look at both sides of the ball.

Offense:
For the next several months you're going to hear all about Romo's little Mexican getaway, and how it took the focus away from football and factored into the loss.

I, however, think that the majority of the blame is to be passed to three other factors, to be discussed in a bit. Romo wasn't that bad...it was all of those wretched dropped passes (factor #1). I can think of three specific instances (and I know there are probably more than that) when a pass went right through the hands of the receiver which would have been a Dallas first down, had it been caught. Two were the fault of the player, the other is Patrick Crayton. Crayton's was the worse, (dare I say that had Crayton caught that pass then Dallas would be victorious?). Witten was the receptions king this game, catching 7 passes for 81 yards. Romo's only TD pass went to the player.

For those of you who argue that MB3 is the better back, you had your chance to see the first part of that experiment. He compiled 129 yards, but only 28 in the second half. Perhaps we should have stuck with our two back attack, as clearly MB3 was worn out and/or didn't have the same fire in his feet. JuJo had only 3 attempts for 8 yards.

Defense:
We had 3 sacks. That's about the only good thing I see. On the first drive, we couldn't stop the run if it was a donut rolling down the field. One of Toomer's TDs was just the result of Dallas defenders trying to tackle with their arms (factor #2).

Poor tackling. Put your bodies into it for crying out loud!

Yup. The defenders were where they were supposed to be, but Toomer was breaking through their arms like 5th graders playing red rover.

We struggled with pass defense, which has been our kryptonite all season.

That third factor was the penalties. 84 yards of penalties. If that 15 yard facemask was avoided at the end of the 2nd quarter then the Cowboys go into the half with the lead, instead of a tie game.

Credit must be given to the Giants, before I close. You'll hear all offseason about how the Cowboys lost, but the Giants won just as much as the Cowboys lost...if that makes sense.

After the post season (who knows, perhaps even before that time) I'll do a post on what the cowboys should do this offseason. I think we're in good shape, we'll be losing some people but there aren't any losses that will be incredibly harmful.

Provided we take the right steps, we can be an even greater threat to the NFC.

gut instincts?

2008-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

should I go with my gut instincts?

I know that it isn't probable for ALL home teams to win their playoff game this week, but I really don't see any of the visitors leaving town with a victory.

Thats my gut instinct, even though I know it most likely won't happen. Should I go with it? I think I will

5758 Shasta Pines Way

2008-01-08T05:17:00.001-08:00

It's great to be back in V-Town.

Ceiling is put in and walls are ready for paint.

I've got a lot on my mind about ministry, Clemens, the BCS Nat'l champ game, and other misc things. Maybe I'll dedicate a post to some of those items.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody...

Merry Christmas to you. I hope it's a blessed one.

If you didn't know, I'm in TN for the next week+. My posting will be extremely light. No new houspics, cowboys reviews, or any of the like.

Feliz Navidad.

You've got to be kidding me...

2007-12-19T06:56:00.000-08:00

"I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life," Clemens said in a statement released by his agent, Randy Hendricks. "Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take."

"I am disappointed that my 25 years in public life have apparently not earned me the benefit of the doubt, but I understand that Senator Mitchell's report has raised many serious questions. I plan to publicly answer all of those questions at the appropriate time in the appropriate way. I only ask that in the meantime people not rush to judgment."

Those were statements by Roger Clemens released through his agent yesterday. What is my reaction? [Insert title of the post]. You deny using any PED but then delay addressing the evidence in the Mitchel Report (MR) that says otherwise? Then, you whine that your public life hasn't earned you the benefit of the doubt? C'mon.

Mark McGwire was a fan favorite in St. Louis...did he get the benefit of the doubt? Did Pete Rose get the benefit of the doubt when he was being questioned about betting on games?

Roger, you aren't going to get the benefit of the doubt. I'm sorry. You can continue to whine about it if you'd like, but that will only make you look more stupid. You especially aren't going to get it if you keep handling this in such moronic fashion. Do something for crying out loud. You are handling this either like a chicken or like a baby. Why don't we just compromise between the two and say you are handling this like a baby chicken, there, that's better. Roger, you are a baby chicken.

Question for Mr. Clemens, exactly when is the "appropriate time" and what is the "appropriate way"?

I have a few suggestions that might help Clemens figure out the appropriate time and way...

Appropriate time and way #1:
You could go the Pete Rose (notice I didn't say Jose Conseco) route, and write your own confession in an autobiography, which in turn forces people to pay $25 bucks to read your confession. That way you might gather up enough chump change to pay for your attorneys, because if you are paid something around $282,900 per inning in 2007 (or whatever it is), you'd better believe your attorneys aren't going to go easy on your murse.

Appropriate time and way #2:
Start you own blog and say whatever you want to. People may read it, they may not, but who cares, right? This will at least give you a chance to say what you really want to say, instead of hiding behind carefully thought out words from your agent.

Appropriate time and way #3:
OK, I'll have to admit, if you were to simultaneously testify against yourself AND Bonds, that might be pretty cool. I don't know if you the two of you had injecting parties during the All-Star break or what not, but if you have anything against Bonds and you squeeze in your own personal confession while squeeling on Bonds, that would be the talk of the town for quite awhile.

Appropriate time and way #4:
Whine about how George and Hank Steinbrenner were beating you into submission with whips made out of diamonds. You figured injecting yourself with something a bit more potent than orange juice might help them stop...or ease the pain.

Appropriate time and way #4:
Blame it on the Mets

Appropriate time and way #5:
Blame it on the Red Sox

Appropriate time and way #6:
Explain to everyone that Mitchell and McNamee just miscommunicated. Tell the media that Mitchell conducted his interview via cell phone and McNamee began the interview sarcastically. But then tell the media that a dropped call can ruin a conversation. Then show us the commercial starring yourself. That has potential.

Appropriate time and way #7:
Say that you were just a little confused at the time.

Appropriate time and way #8:
If you are allowed to make your appearance, why not just confess to those listening at HUMBLE high school (ironicly named).

Appropriate time and way #9:
Make a movie about yourself. I'm mentally debating who the best actor would be to play a Roger Clemens role, but it's kind of tough. There are so many different routes to take, we could have a Roger Clemens played by The Rock...or we could go a totally different route and get somebody like Zac Efron. For some reason Keanu Reeves keeps coming to mind but that could be unrelated.

Appropriate time and way #10:
I'm open to suggestions. Comment or Email me if you have one.