The Slav's Baseball Blog - BASEBALL 24-7-365
The Slav's Blog about anything relating to the great game of baseball
- and other less important issues from outside the diamond.
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The increased attention the MSM provides will motivate the state athletic associations and medical bodies to focus attention on this issue. Then we will start to see more action. At some point, ALL 50 states and ALL the governing youth sports organizations need to be on board. I am sure we will see programs to help educate coaches filter into clinics and association meetings so that this flows down to the grass roots level.
The NFL and the NCAA have led the way as the Ben Roethlisberger and Tim Tebow concussions focused attention on when and in what manner football players should return to play.
It seems as if the states led by WA, NJ, CA, PA ME and others will lead the high school and youth organizations in the future.
At least a half-dozen states are considering measures that would toughen restrictions on young athletes returning to play after head injuries, inspired by individual cases and the attention the issue has received in the NFL.
Washington state led the way last year, passing what is considered the nation's strongest return-to-play statute. Athletes under 18 who show concussion symptoms can't take the field again without a licensed health care provider's written approval. Several other states, including California and Pennsylvania, have similar bills pending.
Estimates for the number of sports- and recreation-related concussions in the United States each year go as high as 3.8 million, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
Although there were some initial concerns about how the law would be enforced -- and whether schools in rural areas would have access to enough medical services to ease the burden of complying -- Colbrese says the rule has opened some eyes around the state.
He says schools have claimed their athletes are suffering more concussions than last year, but the reality is that they aren't. "You didn't know about them last year," he said.
"We were on this topic way before Congress decided to launch hearings," she said. "I think that the media attention on all this, and certainly (other states) taking action, I think helps us to sort of say, 'What can we do to protect kids?"
Because younger athletes' brains are still developing, they often need longer to recover from a concussion, and the risk of a catastrophic injury is greater if they return to the field too quickly.
"We've ignored it for so long and now the baby boomer generation of athletes are coming to middle age and older adulthood and we're seeing the effects that the bodily abuse has had on them over the years," said Missouri Rep. Don Calloway, who filed legislation in his state. "You wonder what we could have done as a society or as leagues or just as citizens to perhaps have prevented some of that stuff."
Even these new laws can't prevent every tragedy. Colbrese said a high school football player in Washington died after a concussion this past fall -- he had been medically cleared to play.
The new proposals working their way through statehouses also would place greater responsibility on coaches and medical personnel to make the final determination on whether an athlete plays -- and they're supposed to err on the side of caution.
"Once it's a law, it becomes, I think, the next level," said Briggs, the Pennsylvania legislator. "You'll want coaches and parents and athletic trainers to take this seriously. There might be a lot of pressure on a kid to brush it off and ignore the symptoms."
Still not sure why he grades out so well with super models. The combine can't answer every ??
Based on data from the Scouting Combine, in virtually every athletic metric tracked, you can see an almost perfect symmetry across the board among offensive and defensive positions.
Wide Receiver (WO) with Defensive backs (DC) - WR's a bit taller.
Fullbacks (FB) with Linebbackers (OLB/ILB)
Running Backs (RB) with Safties (FS/SS)
Tight Ends (TE) with Defensive Ends (DE)
and although the data is not available (N/A) for Defensive Lineman (DL), my guess would be that they would be very close to the Offensive Lineman (OC/OG/OT) they compete with as well.
Similarly, there is no data for kickers and punters (K/P) but I would guess that they would be pretty close to Quarterbacks. OK, maybe not drunken kickers. And let's face it, why are we even concerned about athletic abilities in any of these three positions?
Sit mens sana in corpore sano (Latin for - a healthy mind in a healthy body).
The ancient Greeks believed that a healthy body was vital as the vessel of the mind. The results of this recent study provides further ratification of this old-school philosophy and illustrates again the importance to ones overall development.
The quote "The results of the study...also show the importance of getting healthier between the ages of 15 and 18 while the brain is still changing." particularly stands out.
Higher correlation between cardiovascular health and higher intelligence scores, which then translates into better educational opportunities, which lead to a higher quality of life sounds good enough for me.
In the first study to demonstrate a clear positive association between adolescent fitness and adult cognitive performance, Nancy Pedersen of the University of Southern California and colleagues in Sweden find that better cardiovascular health among teenage boys correlates to higher scores on a range of intelligence tests – and more education and income later in life.
"During early adolescence and adulthood, the central nervous system displays considerable plasticity," said Pedersen, research professor of psychology at the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. "Yet, the effect of exercise on cognition remains poorly understood."
Pedersen, lead author Maria Åberg of the University of Gothenburg and the research team looked at data for all 1.2 million Swedish men born between 1950 and 1976 who enlisted for mandatory military service at the age of 18.
In every measure of cognitive functioning they analyzed – from verbal ability to logical performance to geometric perception to mechanical skills – average test scores increased according to aerobic fitness.
However, scores on intelligence tests did not increase along with muscle strength, the researchers found.
"Positive associations with intelligence scores were restricted to cardiovascular fitness, not muscular strength," Pedersen explained, "supporting the notion that aerobic exercise improved cognition through the circulatory system influencing brain plasticity."
The results of the study – in the current issue of PNAS Early Edition – also show the importance of getting healthier between the ages of 15 and 18 while the brain is still changing.
Boys who improved their cardiovascular health between ages 15 to 18 exhibited significantly greater intelligence scores than those who became less healthy over the same time period. Over a longer term, boys who were most fit at the age of 18 were more likely to go to college than their less fit counterparts.
"Direct causality cannot be established. However, the fact that we demonstrated associations between cognition and cardiovascular fitness but not muscle strength . . . and the longitudinal prediction by cardiovascular fitness on subsequent academic achievement, speak in favor of a cardiovascular effect on brain function," Pedersen said.
In their sample, the researchers looked at 260,000 full-sibling pairs, 3,000 sets of twins, and more than 1,400 sets of identical twins. Having relatives enabled the research team to evaluate whether the results might reflect shared family environments or genetic influences.
Even among identical twin pairs, the link between cardiovascular health and intelligence remained strong, according to the study. Thus, the results are not a reflection of genetic influences on cardiovascular health and intelligence. Rather, the twin results give further support to the likelihood that there is indeed a causal relationship, Pedersen explained.
"The results provide scientific support for educational policies to maintain or increase physical education in school curricula," Pedersen said. "Physical exercise should be an important instrument for public health initiatives to optimize cognitive performance, as well as disease prevention at the society level."
In case you are scoring at home, we now have two Obama State of the Union addresses and two times the President has been openly called a liar during the speech. Last year by a Congressman regarding whether or not illegal immigrants would be included in health care and this year by Supreme Court Justice Alito, who reportedly mouthed the words "that's not true" and shook his head at this comment by the Prez.
Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'm urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.
Really??? After the last election was bought and paid for (in your favor) by George Soros, we are all of a sudden concerned about foreign entities bankrolling elections? Sounds like closing the barn door after you've scooped up an election.
UPDATE: from Politifact.com
We found Obama was exaggerating the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance when he said it would "open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign companies – to spend without limit in our elections." We rated that Barely True.
A lot of flowery rhetoric in the speech and little or no results to show for it. The good news is that least this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to resist the urge to hurl her panties at the President.
And I was glad to not hear much if any about stimulus or jobs saved or created. Just about how much worse it would be if Obama weren't around to provide comedic relief. If we really needed a Comedian in Chief, my guess is Arsenio Hall might have been available. WTF!! We already have Stuart Smalley in the Sentate, which is proof positive that some of us just don't give a flying Wallenda anymore.
Somebody is clearly lying in DC. I just hope the ass-clowns don't bring down this country before we find out who. Interesting that right after the SCOTUS remark the Prez seemed to indicate that earmarks are now OK, as long as Congressman post them on their websites. WTF!!!
I thought part of the CHANGE was anti-earmark, pro campaign reform. Maybe he meant state of perpetual change. Hard to keep up with ALL these finger-pointing, no-results, no-change LIARS.
I heard someone (maybe Rick Santelli) recently propose that some Congressmen should have to testify for their roles in the economic process and possibly face jail terms for their malfeasance. Might be worth a try. Kudos to Rick, whose Tea Party rant I believe was the genesis of the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts. Maybe the times they are a' changing, just not soon enough.
Anyway, back to the issue that got the Supremes inserted into the speech.
Let's review, we pass a bill that is struck down by the Court as unconstitutional, so the solution is to send the same rascals back to the drawing board and try to figure out another way t circumvent the Constitution of the United States. SOUNDS REASONABLE.
At the heart of the issue is the courts recent ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that has ruled certain provisions of the incumbent-shielding McCain-Feingold (so-called) campaign reform law UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Apparently, the court sees this as more of a First Amendment free speech issue than a campaign reform issue and I agree.
These advocacy groups represent citizens--they are by definition an association of citizens--and in many ways they represent our interests better that our elected representatives.
Any day that the Supreme Court takes time to protect and expand the First Amendment free speech rights of Americans is a good day in AMerica.
Remember the judges / umpires analogy? The same play is viewed differently depending on what side of the field you are standing on.
from Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy regarding the ruling:
"If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."
------ from Newt Gingrich regarding the Supreme Court ruling:
Citizens United v. FEC is one more piece of evidence that the model of bureaucratic campaign finance reform – of government restricting the freedom of Americans to criticize politicians rather than maximizing our freedom to question our leadership – was wrong.
The Founders understood the importance of the unfettered right of citizens to complain about their government. They recognized the danger of politicians controlling or censoring the debate about themselves. That's why they wrote in the First Amendment to the Constitution that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech."
These words and this right have been stunningly perverted by laws like McCain-Feingold, which was explicitly a case of Congress making a law abridging our freedom of speech – of incumbent politicians attempting to censor the people's discussion of whether they should remain in office.
---------
It is interesting that while all this is swirling around Washington that the NFL, the Super Bowl and Tim Tebow will become a part of the issue.
Tim wants to tell both his and his mother's story.
Tebow will appear in Super Bowl commercial for Christian group
Tim Tebow will appear in a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl
The ad is likely to be an anti-abortion message chronicling Tebow's birth
And some want to prevent him from having the right to tell it.
from foxnews.com
College football phenom Tim Tebow is about to become one of the biggest stars of Super Bowl XLIV — and he's not even playing in the game.
Tebow, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the University of Florida, and his mother Pam will appear in a pro-life commercial that tells the story of his risky birth 22 years ago -- an ad that critics suggest could lead to anti-abortion violence, even though none of them have seen it.
The 30-second spot, paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's turbulent pregnancy in 1987:
It's a happy story with an inspirational ending, but pro-choice critics say Focus on the Family should not be allowed to air the commercial because it advocates on behalf of a divisive issue and threatens to "throw women under the bus."
"This organization is extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda," said Jehmu Greene, director of the Women's Media Center, which is coordinating a campaign to force CBS to pull the ad before it airs on Feb. 7.
"Abortion is very controversial, and the anti-abortion vitriol has resulted in escalated violence against reproductive health providers and their patients," Greene said. "We've seen that clearly with the murder of Dr. George Tiller," the late-term abortion provider who was gunned down in his Kansas church in May 2009.
Next month may mark the first time NOW has had to tackle a Heisman winner. The group typically tracks Super Bowl ads for signs of sexism, not for religious or political content.
I could see if the ad was in some way advocating violence against pro-choice forces, then maybe advocate to suppress it. But isn't it a bit of a stretch to imply that simply telling this story would lead to any violence?
Bad enough that abortion itself, especially how it is currently practiced, is not construed as a horrific act of violence, but I digress.
I fail to see how recounting this remarkable story of love, faith and courage would lead to violence. I guess I must be missing the linkage.
I come down on the side of free speech every time. Unless someone yells fire in a crowded theater. I just don't see that here.
I almost fell out of my chair. I told you the similarities between what's going on in baseball and the financial / economic mess had some eerie parallels. You can't make this stuff up.
Rep. Issa's comments regarding Geithner
"He has asserted complete ignorance of the Fed's efforts to cover up the bailout details," said Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "Many Americans, including members of this Committee, have a hard time believing that Secretary Geithner entered an absolute cone of silence on the day that his nomination was announced."
Actually, I think I'm inclined to believe Geithner on this one. That would at least explain how things got so messed up. The Cone of Silence never worked on "Get Smart" either.
I just hope these guys are not reading my blog. That would not go down very well. They might learn something, though. Uh oh, I might have said some bad things about them in the past. Excuse me, I better get down to some serious re-writing of history.
This might not be a good time to bring it up, but....
It's pretty much understood, as well as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that players from the present era will be dogged by the envy and jealousy of players from bygone eras. I call it "The Grumpy Old Men syndrome". It's like that in life as well. Parents and grandparents always question how young people are doing things and reminding them of how much better things were in their era. And the wheel in the sky keeps on turning, doesn't it?
In baseball, the phenomena has been taken to higher levels IMO ever since Marvin Miler and Curt Flood broke down the walls of the Reserve Clause and escalated salaries to levels never before dreamed of by players. Every prior-era player has been dogged by feelings of jealousy and envy ever since.
Then the memorabilia craze monetized autographs to insane levels. The value of having the coveted initials H.O.F. to put after your signature--on stuff that would have been garage sale material in prior eras--widened the divide even further.
Money and power corrupt. That may never change.
Combine all that with the growth of media into a huge monolith, more interested in protecting its position and place in the food chain than doing anything to elevate the game, and you have the toxic PR stew that we see continuously playing out in baseball today.
The media had the narrative WRONG in the past when they bashed the union and players about how Marvin Miller and Curt Flood challenging the Reserve Clause and bleated incessantly about how it would "Destroy the Game". WRONG!!! And what do we leave for posterity? Marvin Miller and Curt Flood are not in the Hall of Fame, and Bowie Kuhn--who is to Commissioning (is that even a word?) what Gilbert Arenas is to the Wizards basketball team, a non-entity--is in the Hall of Fame.
HOW ABOUT THAT!!!
The media, en masse, were late to the steroid story. And WRONG!!! At virtually every stage of the story as it developed, CONSISTENTLY WRONG!! Especially the beat writers who were closest to the situation. Imbedded daily in the team's locker rooms!!
And they will be late, missing or wrong to cover the next big controversy. Can you say steroid use in the Dominican Republic?
So the track record of the media has been this--they were WRONG in the past, for the most part WRONG today, and they will be WRONG in the future. I say that because they will act in the future as they have always acted in the past. They do not have a track record that can be relied upon. Zero credibility on the issue.
And when you understand that the media is the mouthpiece of the owners, you can understand why perhaps the narrative is framed as it is.
Why does this cycle continue? Who knows? Self preservation is my guess. Protection of turf. Some CYA. Finger-pointing. The Blame Game. All of it really, which also includes the shifting of blame and the rewriting of history by some. We see the same thing on a larger level being played out as a result of the economic/financial mess we are in as a country. A lot of eerie parallels.
So, as we see time and time again,--from A-Rod to the McGwire admission tour and coming soon to a theater (of the absurd) near you, the Rocket's red glare and the Bonds "face the media/face the music" fiascoes--the same tired band of media vigilantes who want to drag these guys through the streets of the village electronically--as Italy did to Mussolini--to be figuratively pilloried, spat upon and kicked. They turn loose an angry lych mob to extract its pound of flesh.
That's bad enough and getting more and more tiresome each time it occurs. One of the more absurd things we get from these news cycle events is the comments of "The Grumpy Old Men of Baseball".
Whether it's Goose Gossage or Ferguson Jenkins (embarrasing) hard-line comments or the newest thoughts from Carlton Fisk and Jack Clark, along with healthy doses of WRATH, we find many of its companions in the team picture of the Seven Deadly Sins, ENVY, PRIDE, GREED AND GLUTTONY. Not so much LUST and SLOTH, and trust me I was looking for lust, just didn't find it. But folks, it dawns on me as I hear these comments, that we certainly have at minimum 4-5 of the seven deadly sins in there. That's not good. Not something you want to hang your hat on.
So maybe, for the good of the game and all, it's time to give it a rest.
For all these grumpy old men and all the Johnny-come-lately moralists with their holier than thou attitudes, my main question is this:
If you replace the word "cheaters" with the word "sinners" in any of the debate about sins against the "hallowed Hall of Fame" or "sanctified records", then who in your mind is worthy enough to gain entry?
Answer: Only one, And to my knowledge He never played in The Game. And as I understand it, His take on this might be something along the lines of,
"All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment" - Isaiah 64:6
"for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God" - Romans 3:23
Maybe guys like McGwire should have been more in tune to what "the Man Upstairs" expected and not simply taken advantage of the "gift of hitting" that he was given. And perhaps some of the baseball moralists should be getting their morality and Truth from something other than the back of a bubble gum card.
In the future the narrative may be changed to include some real truths, not what we perceive as truth. The maybe we can make some progress. I kind of doubt we will, there is too much money, power and glory to be had in the making and breaking of false idols.
Perhaps I'll change my mind when I see the fans and current players (like Holliday and Pujols) join the vigilante crowd. The Cardinals owners are still supporting McGwire or he wouldn't be on staff. That's telling.
But by and large, the fans continue to give McGwire an ovation. That's telling. They know and accept that he has done wrong, they are just forgiving. That is where the dichotomy exists between fans and the media on this issue. Fans also seem to understand that we can't have a culture where "it's OK if my guy is doing it, but woe to guys on the other team".
That's not right and it is part of the reason we are where we are in the first place. "The Cone of Silence" and all. Yes, I invoked the "Cone of Silence". It didn't work in the "Get Smart" episodes and it hasn't worked too well in this fiasco.
This is at the heart of how baseball got so far off the tracks. This Cone of Silence. I just think the media should step up and accept some blame as well. They took to the road of denial even as late as to protect "the product" from contamination by Jose Canseco when his first book was published.
My synopsis of the failing of the media can best be summed up by the mournful wailing of Bruce Springsteen at the end of his epic song "Jungleland" when he sings:
Outside the streets on fire in a real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here don't write nothing at all,
They just stand back and let it all be
WOW!!! A "Get Smart" and a Springsteen reference in one post. Now that's AWESOME.
----- TIME NOW FOR A CONVERSATION WITH CARLTON FISK (AND THE SLAV aka CS)
CARLTON FISK INTERVIEW WITH THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE'S Fred Mitchell with my comments (CS) added.
"I didn't just find this out, I worked hard in the gym to look like I did and feel like I felt. (Catching) took a toll on me, too. A lot of people knew. Nobody wanted to really address the issue.
"But when you have some of these obscene numbers being put up by people who shouldn't even be there. … I mean, you know what's going on. … The people it should have been most obvious to are the people who covered it up by not addressing it."
CS - That is so right!!, Here we agree. Too many, who stood idly by and could have done something early, but didn't. They didn't because they were ALL profiteering as a result of it. To leave this out of the equation and scapegoat others is a bit repugnant. And now the silent majority are struggling with their own feeling of GUILT. "Why didn't I come forward?" GREED would be my guess. GLUTTONY perhaps. Times were good, everyone was getting fat and happy. Don't worry Carlton, you're absolved. What's that quote about 'all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to remain silent'. We saw similar feelings of guilt rise in Germany after the Holocaust.
The jails are filled with guys who acquiesced, remained silent, profited from or were complicit in crimes that were committed and did little or nothing to stop them when they could have. They call them accomplices.
"You don't blame people for not ratting them out; you blame the people who abused the pharmaceutical world," Fisk said. "It's not like you are taking a couple of aspirin and you don't know what's going on. (Non-prescription steroid use has been) a federal offense for a long time, regardless of whether baseball was recognizing it and putting rules into place. The people who did it … they were breaking the law to start with. It doesn't have to be a baseball law. They knew what they were doing and the reason they were doing it. Now they are sorry because they are getting called out."
CS - So exonerate your own and other players "complicity by silence" by using the pejorative term "ratting them out" instead of "doing the right thing". All the while you ALL were cashing the checks. Exonerate MLB for "doing nothing" instead of "doing the right thing" ALL the while they were giddy that the turnstiles were humming and the cash registers were ringing. GREAT!!!
That probably will not play well in Peoria. Or with anyone having an IQ above room temperature.
"(McGwire) says, 'Well, it doesn't help eye-and-hand coordination.' Well, of course it does. It allows you more acuity physically and mentally and optically. You are going to be stronger and you are going to be better," said Fisk, who starred for the Red Sox and White Sox.
CS - Jury is still out on this one in the scientific community. Bigger, stronger, faster does not always equate to better in baseball. If it were that easy, guys would have been in the weight room a lot sooner, with or without PED's. And they would still be there today.
We only see the guys who PED's allegedly helped. The tip of the iceberg. There is not much attention paid to those who tried PED's and and failed miserably. I don't know why I just thought of seeing Lenny Dykstra in the 1986 World Series on ESPN Classic last night, but I just did. Was his career aided or set back? Hard to say because you cannot prove (or disprove) the counter-factual. Everyone is relying on their gut instincts in this regard, which implies a high level of emotion thrown into the mix, which is gasoline on the fire of reasoned thinking.
"Some of these numbers that are out there are really warped. Should they be considered? You saw how McGwire was viewed in the Hall of Fame voting. If you take the length of time that (steroid abusers) use that stuff and subtract 15 or 20 home runs a year for those guys, where are their numbers then?"
CS - This is what it is really all about for these guys, glorify me but nobody else. What these guys have done does not diminish what happened in the past, if anything it enhances it. Again, most fans with IQ's above room temperature can consider all the facts and all the numbers and make their conclusions accordingly. Let it go, dude. The numbers are not the be all and end all to the discussions. Probably never have been or Phil Rizzuto would not be in the Hall of Fame.
"That's a crock," Fisk said. "There's a reason they call it performance-enhancing drugs. That's what it does — performance enhancement. You can be good, but it's going to make you better. You can be average, but it is going to make you good. If you are below average, it is going to make you average. Some guys who went that route got their five-year, $35 million contracts and now are off into the sunset somewhere. Because once they can't use (steroids) anymore, they can't play anymore.
"And steroids, during that time, probably did as much to escalate players' salaries as did free agency, as did arbitration, and all of that stuff. It did more than just put home runs up on the board or money in the guys' pocket."
CS - A rising tide lifts all boats, my man. Which means you benefited as well. If average salaries went up, and they clearly did, and you were a players during that period, which you were, then you benefited as well. You and your ilk had your chance to come clean and nip this thing in the bud as well and you did not. I do not have to think long and hard to come up with a reason for the collective silence. The checks cleared, right?
Be the first one to suggest that players give back a portion of their salaries that were paid to them and that owners give back some of the profits to be paid into a fund to reimburse fans who purchased tickets during the era. That would be an interesting meeting to attend. Trying to figure out the respective payouts. As a fan, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a refund.
"Try having your knees operated on and catching for 30 years," Fisk said. "Do you think you feel good when you go out there? (McGwire) had to stand around and play first base. So excuuuuuse me.
CS - Come on, give me a bucket, Carlton
"The reason he (Clemens) got let go from the Red Sox was because he was starting to break down," Fisk said. "His last couple of years in Boston just weren't very productive, a la 'The Rocket.' Then all of a sudden he goes to Toronto and he wants to show somebody something. Then he gets two consecutive Cy Young Awards (in '97 and '98). Come on, give me a bucket.
"It's obvious to players. You notice that stuff. You know how hard it is to play the game. You know how hard it is to be productive at any age, but especially at an older age. You see guys who are as productive later on as they were early (in their careers). It offends guys that stayed clean. But (the abusers) set their great, great, great grandchildren up for the rest of their lives.
CS - If it was so obvious to players at that time, and you were so aggrieved by the OBVIOUS behavior, then you should have been more confrontational at the time. Speak to your union rep if you didn't want to confront guys individually.
Given how you confronted Deion Sanders in the batters box one time about his "behavior"--I believe he was drawing a $ sign in the box or some other such nonsense that went against the unwritten baseball "code"--one would think that you would be bold enough to be confrontational about this issue of such greater importance.
No shit about Clemens, Sherlock. I was down with that when all the clown-asses were holding up Bonds as the only criminal in baseball. You can look that one up, as Casey Stengel would say. It's about time everyone took the blinders off.
Don't worry, we know ex-Red Sox players were all clean. The Mitchell Report told us so.
"Guys are bigger, guys are stronger, granted. Strength and conditioning and all of the knowledge that goes into being a bigger, better and stronger athlete is at everybody's disposal right now. Guys are bigger and stronger. Better? I don't know about that. But there is more stuff available to guys today.
CS- "Better? I don't know about that?" Do I detect a bit of envy/jealousy in your voice Carlton? Better is clearly in the eye of the beholder and it seems as if the fans voted with their dollars and their fannies and said "Yes, better". Baseball was catapulted to a position where it was beginning to reclaim it's rightful position from football as America's past time. And everybody was on board. EVERYBODY in that era benefited in some fashion. Users, yes. Higher numbers, higher salaries. Non-users, yes. You forget about the economic theory of a rising tide lifting all boats. EVERYBODY'S salary went up on average. The owners clearly did not discriminate between users and non-users when doling out salary. And I don't see ANYONE giving the money back. And I don't see many, if any, fans asking for their money back. Of lesser crimes have class-action lawsuits been made. Especially when fraudulent behavior is involved.
"I think back to when baseball was scuffling to recapture the passion of the American fan after the '94 season. I think baseball and everybody involved in the decision-making at every level just turned their head and said: 'This is good for baseball, look at the prosperity of the game. It's growing and growing and growing.'
"And now it's (in bad shape) because it wasn't addressed back when the rest of us knew. How did that guy (using steroids) outgrow his uniform?"
CS - You are correct sir. So we should weep for all of these Johnny-Come-Lately moralists who had the opportunity to, as you say "rat these guys out" and DID NOT? And now you are struggling with your own guilt feelings of "why didn't I stand up and say something?" and instead of owning up to why you DIDN'T stand up you guys want to lash out, scapegoat and point fingers.
Great way to move forward.
Come on, give me a bucket Carlton.
---------- A CONVERSATION WITH JACK CLARK AND ANDY VAN SLYKE (AND THE SLAV aka CS)
Jack Clark's time in the spotlight fell mostly in the years before the so-called steroids era.
That didn't stop the former Cardinals and Giants All-Star slugger from revealing an extreme distaste for players who might have availed themselves of a performance-enhancing drug during their time in the big leagues.
-----
CS - Hey Jack, loved you when you were with the Giants. Sorry you came along before salaries really exploded to the level they have today. But it seems like when you played guys from the 60's and 70' thought you guys were overpaid jackasses too.
"All those guys are cheaters -- A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez]. Fake, phony. Rafael
Palmeiro. Fake, a phony," Clark told the newspaper. "[Roger] Clemens, [Barry] Bonds. [Sammy] Sosa. Fakes. Phonies. They don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
CS - I wonder if the people you left holding the bag when you declared bankruptcy would feel the same about you, but I digress.
"Steroid abusers and suspected users "are all lucky they didn't end up in jail. It's all comical to a certain point. It's a three-ring circus. It really is. From [commissioner] Bud Selig to Tony [La Russa] to A-Rod to Manny Ramirez to Palmeiro ... What a joke."
CS - Now, now Jack. You know that law enforcement rarely if ever falls hard on users, only dealers. Agreed on what a joke it is and how it extends to the highest levels in baseball. Still waiting for my apology from there. I won't hold my breath waiting because they must be afraid that they may have to give money back to fans due to perpetuating a fraud.
"[McGwire's] own manager never knew that [Jose] Canseco and McGwire and anybody else ever had taken steroids? Trust me, from [a former player], I have a lot of insight into who did what and when but I'm not even going to talk about it. It really doesn't matter."
CS - Now, now Jack. You know player silence (your own included) was part of the problem. Agree with you again on how it also infected managers, strength coaches, trainers, GM's and owners. All the way up the line. Seems like just like at Abu Gharib however, the folks on the lowest level of the food chain take the blame. The higher ups give speeches on the issue and make more money and power and fame, the lower level grunts go to jail.
"This thing stretches a long way back and it's really ugly and just really shocking."
CS - Somebody should have spoken up.
"These guys are playing the game for their own benefits and it's really disgusting. ... They go up there and shed a tear and they think all is forgotten. Well, it's not forgotten and it never will be."
"He should not be in baseball. He should be banned from baseball more than ever.
CS - Because we are such a forgiving country and junk, right Jack? Are you sure some of this anger doesn't revolve around the fact that McGwire is the current Cardinals hitting coach and you are the ex-. Sucks to be the ex- anything I suppose, but I know ex's aren't supposed to like current's. I just have to ask the wives. Thanks for your time, Jack.
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from the same espn.com story, Andy Val Slyke's comments on McGwire
"There's a lot of finger-pointing by Mark McGwire," Van Slyke continued. "He blames it on not being tested and he blames it on the era. Why would you blame baseball for taking steroids?
CS - There's also a measure of accountability, something that has been lacking from "baseball" meaning the MLB and ownership.
"That's like me saying the reason I was drunk-driving was because I knew that on this particular highway, they didn't have anything for me to blow into."
CS - Just like a ballplayer to mess up an analogy. Actually it's interesting that you bring up the DUI analogy because there are analogies to the DUI problem in this country and how it was handled and how it changed. But it doesn't fit the narrative the media wants to portray. They have , for the most part, summarily dismissed the "cultural argument" because it forces them to accept "some" accountability. They would rather accept none.
Back to the DUI analogy. At one time drinking and driving was considered somewhat socially acceptable. Like smoking at your desk at the office, that has gone the way of the dinosaur. If it were not for the persistence of vocal "outsider" group like MADD (Mothers against drunk Driving) its doubtful if those in power would have addressed the problem.
What I liken it more to is when a STOP sign is taken down at an intersection, people will unknowingly violate the law. As we see, even when there is STOP signs posted, and this is the key--LITTLE OR NO ENFORCEMENT--people will violate the law. Look at the enactment of seat-belt laws for a parallel.
Pointing to a Fay Vincent memo in 1991 that had no enforcement or penalties attached is rather meaningless, with all due respect to the former Commissioner. I'm not saying it's right. It is however, a matter of human behavior and as long as the rosters are filled by humans.....well you know where I'm going with this conclusion.
Anyway, I am happy as always to have been of service. Thanks for your time, Andy.
The Florida Marlins recently agreed to increase its spending on salaries to comply with MLB's revenue sharing agreement. So we've established that baseball needs a salary floor, but no clear consensus on a salary cap or ceiling. Common sense would tell us that nobody would build a house with a floor and no ceiling, so why does baseball think that it could pull it off? Seriously, a salary floor and a salary cap would provide a definitive range so teams could best manage their costs as they try to stay competitive.
But does this help the competitive landscape? Not entirely. Teams could still surf the lower end of the range of costs, pocket the revenue sharing funds and still not compete. So, as usual, the fans would lose, at least in most cities.
These guys need a little more incentive to play to win the game. (as Herman Edwards told us is the entire purpose, HELLO!!!) Too many baseball teams do not even try to win on the field, content to win more love among the green-eye shade crowd than their fans. THAT'S NOT RIGHT.
Most cities and their fans have already been taken to the cleaners with a gun to their head by caving in to owners "requests" for new stadiums across the country. It's high time the fans were paid back in some fashion.
What would be the glue that would keep both the owners and their bean counters happy as well as provide the fans with a more exciting and balanced competitive landscape? In my opinion, adoption of NFL-style scheduling, whereby you play a certain amount of games against teams that finished in the same position in the standings as your team did.
I'm OK with the notion of teams playing most of their games against divisional opponents. I am also OK with keeping inter-league play in some form, especially the true rivalries that exist. The contrived inter-league rivalries do not concern me and the fans would not miss them much. In fact, if you play a certain percentage of games with the same-prior-years finisher as your team, your team will eventually see all the teams in the other league. The rate at which players change teams does not allow a system that would guarantee fans the chance to see all the superstars of the "other" league. So why do we concede part of the scheduling to achieving this goal?
Under this type of system, you would likely see a bump in attendance for the previously considered "contraction candidates" like Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, et. al.
We hear continuously that the one thing that helps attendance the most is winning. So let's help teams win and become more competitive.
If the rich teams don't want to share as much revenue, that's fine.
If the poor teams don't want to spend as much as the rich, that's fine.
If the rich tams want to cut back on salary to increase profits and risk falling in the standings, that's fine too.
If the salary structure continues to impede competitive balance, why not look at another way to improve it?
What's the definition of insanity? Continuing to do things the same way and expecting different results.
I can't listen to these small sample examples from one sport or another about competitive balance being better in baseball and see that in the NFL almost every teams fan base feels like it has a shot to win. I understand that their 16 game, small sample of a season allows for a lot of that variation, but unless baseball wants to bust down to a much smaller than 162 game season, that bet is off.
In MLB, over 50% of the teams have virtually no shot at winning each year and the fans know it. That cannot continue much longer, especially in this current economic environment.
It's interesting that I read an article by The Peoples Commissioner, Peter Gammons on MLB.com that gave a State of the Union type analysis of the current environment.
Attendance down only 6.9% (they lucked out and it may be down more)
Revenues were flat (more revenue streams)
Revenues projected to break $8 billion in 2010 (by comparison revenues were $1.3B in 1995, the pre-steroid era)
All fine and good Peter.
But then he went into some sort of logic-gymnastics that strained credibility. He says "it is unfair to label he Yankees championship as a World Series purchased" after buying Sabathia, Texeira and Burnett. WHAT!!! C'mon Peter, you know better. And then a couple of lines later he follows with a "the Yankees had six of the 10 highest-paid players" chaser line.
And then wonder why there is a disconnect between how fans view the landscape and how ownership and leadership views it?
The most telling quote in Gammons article was from A's owner Billy Beane, "The way the system is right now, there really is no difference between a $75 million and a $40 million payroll. I think a lot of small-market clubs look at that and ask 'Why pay $75 million when $40 million will buy me as many wins?"
INDEED. THIS IS THE PROBLEM. And this is why in many cities, baseball is in a moribund state of no hope, fans merely twirling the turnstiles as a nod to nostalgia. Waiting for the talk about contracting their teams to heat up again in a time where if anything, we should be talking about expansion again. At least if you rely on USA population growth alone since last expansion. And if you consider the ever growing numbers of international countries that are providing fertile grounds for player development, we are way past due for another round of expansion. And you would need expansion, not contraction to implement my master plan. And yet, the "meeting of the minds" as Gammons calls it, discussed "the situation" in the previously considered contraction candidate cities. I would call it a "meeting of the mindless" because no business can grow by contracting markets.
I know money can't buy me love and it can't buy me wins. I live in Chicago and see what the Cubs do with a wheelbarrow full of cash and no brains every year. And I see what the Marlins do on a Salvation Army type budget and an eye for talent.
But still, there has to be a better way of doing business. In the way I suggest, the revenues grow in those cities where there has been little or no real growth in years, maybe decades.
(Price) Fixing the Draft does not do that.
A World Wide Draft does not do that.
Capping the dollars applied towards the Draft and International signings does not do that.
Only getting their heads together on a salary floor and a cap does that. You can't talk about one without the other in baseball anymore. It's a sign of "baseball mindlessness" or senility. And you can't just do that, you have to add the missing ingredient, the NFL-style schedule.
Other than that, I would support expansion, but not to the AAA cities they hope to extort a major league franchise fee from. If Chicago can support two teams, Boston can as well. If New York supported three teams in the past, they can do it again. Return a franchise to Brooklyn or start one up in the swamps of Jersey. That will return at least some semblance of competitive balance to a sport that truly has only had the facade of balance for the last quarter century.
Let's review:
Salary Cap (OK)
Salary Floor (Yes, yes)
Revenue Sharing (Yes, by all means)
Expansion, not contraction (I though you'd never ask)
NFL-style, place in the standings scheduling (Oh, yessssss.)
And if that doesn't work or we can't come to agreement on all these components of the plan:
Expand into the LARGE markets until they are on a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD with the SMALL-TO MEDIUM markets.
If Obama can bring Balkinization to America's largest banks, I don't see why we cannot Balkinize America's (or ESPN's) largest teams markets--the Yankees and the Red Sox.
Now that was easy, wasn't it? No more problem with disparity between LARGE vs. SMALL markets.
Get it? Got it? GOOD!!! My work here is done. I'm happy to have been of service.
Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny. ~ Tryon Edwards
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I am going to show this e-mail I received from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes virtually in its entirety because it make so much sense. If this is a violation of fair use, I'm sure my fellow Chicago area native Jere Johnson, who wrote it, will let me know and I will cease and desist. Nice job, Jere.
I often wonder what the media vigilantes think the effect on the young people when they hear the drumbeat for McGwire to step forward and apologize "because we are such a forgiving country" and then when he does, the collective chorus from the ink-stained wretches is "sorry, Mark. Not good enough". After all, it's all about protecting the young people, right?
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Where do we go from here?
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
READY:
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
-Romans 3:23
SET:
Leach, Levitt, Mangino…Arenas, McGuire, Woods...These are just a few of the last names that have been in the sports pages recently for unbecoming conduct. Coaches who have reportedly lost their control both verbally and physically, and players who have reportedly lost their judgment, integrity and character. All of these men have fallen short of the standards set by their schools and teams and short of the vows by which they agreed they would live and coach.
These sports issues all fall under what I call the “323 Syndrome,” or, better stated, Romans 3:23: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” That includes not only those mentioned above, but you and me, too. Before we throw verbal attacks and insults at these guys and their situations, we need to stop and take a good, hard look in the mirror.
Yes, all of these men, if the reports are accurate, did wrongful things. They hurt their sports, teams, careers and families. But where do they go from here? As onlookers, we can continue to berate and belittle these men, believing they will never change, but that doesn’t change the fact that God’s grace extends to them as well as it extends to you and me. In light of the fact that we are all sinners who have fallen short of God’s standard, I would hope that we would view these men and ourselves through the eyes of the Lord and see His love for us all. Then, instead of judging and condemning, we can pray for them—for their repentance, their restoration and their return to what God has gifted them each uniquely to do.
So, in the world of sports, where do we go from here? One suggestion: to our knees. Let’s pray to our God who continues to hate sin but love us sinners and who longs to restore, rebuild and re-equip our hearts every day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jere Johnson is a FCA staff member from Chicago area and the author of the devotion book series One Day Better available at fcagear.com. If you would like to contact Jere, please e-mail him at jerejohnson@fca.org.
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File this one under "sometimes the narrative does not jive with the facts"
from Carpe Diem blog:
Interesting Fact of the Day
"Since 1933, Republicans had a more positive record on civil rights in Congress than the Democrats. In the twenty-six major civil rights votes since 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 percent of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 percent of the votes."
I thought the comparison of judges and umpires that was made during the height of the Sotamayor confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court was on the money. Most commentators and political pundits seemed to break down along party lines or political philosophy.
But as far as the criticisms both face, the temperament required to do the job properly and the differences in philosophy as to how the job is to be carried out, the comparisons works for me.
Never mind the second guessing from the peanut galleries that have never done the job before.
President Obama's articulated criteria for his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is: "We need somebody who's got the heart to recognize -- the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."
The Pittsburgh Steelers have won six Super Bowl titles, seven AFC championships and hosted 10 conference games. No other AFC or NFC team can match this record. By contrast, the Arizona Cardinals' last championship victory was in 1947 when they were based in Chicago. In anyone's book, this is a gross disparity. Should the referees have the empathy to understand what it's like to be a perennial loser and what would you think of a referee whose decisions were guided by his empathy? Suppose a referee, in the name of compensatory justice, stringently applied pass interference or roughing the passer violations against the Steelers and less stringently against the Cardinals. Or, would you support a referee who refused to make offensive pass interference calls because he thought it was a silly rule? You'd probably remind him that the league makes the rules, not referees.
I'm betting that most people would agree that football justice requires that referees apply the rules blindly and independent of the records or any other characteristic of the two teams. Moreover, I believe that most people would agree that referees should evenly apply the rules of the games even if they personally disagreed with some of the rules.
The relationship between Supreme Court justices and the U.S. Constitution should be identical to that of referees and football rules. The status of a person appearing before the court should have absolutely nothing to do with the rendering of decisions. That's why Lady Justice, often appearing on court buildings, is shown wearing a blindfold. It is to indicate that justice should be meted out impartially, regardless of identity, power or weakness.
~Walter Williams
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Sen. John Cornyn’s office released remarks the Texas Republican made this afternoon during his (usually) weekly press conference phone call. Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s announcement last week that he plans to retire from the court this summer and expressed his hope that President Obama will nominate to the court a replacement for Souter “who will apply the Constitution and laws as written by Congress, in a way that is consistent with what Congress intends. … We don’t need judges to be another policy-making branch of the government.”
Cornyn then echoed remarks made four years ago by Chief Justice John Roberts during his confirmation hearings: “We need judges who will call balls and strikes like an umpire,” Cornyn said, “and not somebody who makes up the rules of the game as they go along.”
It is interesting that when we examine issues relating to talent and how it is developed and where it comes from, some very fascinating pieces of information emerge.
Recent studies have shown that factors like birth month and whether a child is born in a relatively warm weather state has a higher correlation to success in sports generally and baseball in particular than ever imagined.
When I was coaching little league baseball, we called it "having a good birthday". It played as much of a role in the selection of players as baseball ability. Although maybe not as much as having a "GLM", but I digress. Now famous authors like Malcolm Gladwell and well respected university professors have put a name on it - The Relative Age Effect.
The theory is that children born only slightly after the cut-off date in age divided leagues by virtue of being older (and presumably bigger, stronger, more mature) than their peers accrue selection and developmental advantages. This effect is found within the educational system as well since when a child enters the system revolves around their birth date. The implication for future success in life is an issue here, just as it is for those involved in youth sports. It may in fact be a more important factor in the educational system (but this is a baseball blog and I am trying to stay on task).
These effects begin early in the sports career and the resulting head start obtained carries over into senior and elite competition. The effects are long lasting and appear to be more pronounced for males than females.
For further discussion of the Relative Age Effect in particular and other that lead to successful development (whether in sports, music, business, etc.) I would recommend:
Expert Performance in Sports by Starkes & Ericcson
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Talent is Overrated (What really separates world-class performers from everybody else) by Geoff Colvin
and
The Talent Code (Greatness isn't born it's grown. Here's how) by Daniel Coyle
All are exceptional books.
OBTW (which means "Oh, by the way" thereby defeating the purpose of using an acronym) the term GLM means "Good Looking Mom". Most little league coaches know this term and use it in talent identification and player selection at the most junior levels in little league.
As the use and application of this metric was explained to me by a more experienced coach when I first began my foray into coaching baseball - "Charlie, if you're going to lose, you may as well enjoy the view".
WISE WORDS INDEED.
----- Summary from Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Outliers: The Story of Success.
According to Gladwell the potential bounty of athletic prowess isn't so much in the genes as it is in a child's birth date.
Consider Canadian junior hockey, in which the cutoff date for age eligibility is Jan. 1.
"A boy who turns ten on January 2, then could be playing alongside someone who doesn't turn ten until the end of the year," Gladwell writes, exploring why a disproportionate number of elite hockey players have been born in January and February. "In preadolescence, a 12-month gap in age represents an enormous difference in physical maturity." The older athletes gain all the benefits of age bias: They're viewed as better because they are bigger, placed on teams with superior coaching and chosen to play in all-star games that enhance their development.
Gladwell finds similar results in U.S. baseball, in which cutoff dates for most youth leagues have been July 31, meaning, as he writes, "more major league players are born in August than in any other month."
---- The table below lays out the full month-to-month data. As of the 2005 season, 503 Americans born in August had made it to the major leagues compared with 313 American born in July. . . .
The pattern is unmistakable. From August through the following July, there is a steady decline in the likelihood that a child born in the United States will become a major leaguer. Meanwhile, among players born outside the 50 states, there are some hints of a pattern but nothing significant enough to reach any conclusions. An analysis of the birth dates of players in baseball’s minor leagues between 1984 and 2000 finds similar patterns, with American-born players far more likely to have been born in August than July. The birth-month pattern among Latin American minor leaguers is very different—if anything, they’re more likely to be born toward the end of the year, in October, November, and December.
The magical date of Aug. 1 gives a strong hint as to the explanation for this phenomenon. For more than 55 years, July 31 has been the age-cutoff date used by virtually all nonschool-affiliated baseball leagues in the United States. Youth baseball organizations including Little League, Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth, PONY, Dixie Youth, Hap Dumont, Dizzy Dean, American Legion, and more have long used that date to determine which players are eligible for which levels of play. (There is no such commonly used cutoff date in Latin America.) The result: In almost every American youth league, the oldest players are the ones born in August, and the youngest are those with July birthdays. For example, someone born on July 31, 1990, would almost certainly have been the youngest player on his youth team in 2001, his first year playing in the 11-and-12-year-olds league, and of average age in 2002, his second year in the same league. Someone born on Aug. 1, 1989, by contrast, would have been of average age in 2001, his first year playing in the 11-and-12-year-olds division, and would almost certainly be the oldest player in the league in 2002.
Twelve full months of development makes a huge difference for an 11- or 12-year-old. The player who is 12 months older will, on average, be bigger, stronger, and more coordinated than his younger counterpart, not to mention more experienced. And those bigger, better players are the ones given opportunities for further advancement. Other players, who are just as skilled for their age, are less likely to be given those same opportunities simply because of when they were born. . . .
This phenomenon will not come as news to social scientists, who have observed the same patterns in a number of different sports. The first major study of what has become known as the “relative age effect” . . . determined that NHL players of the early 1980s were more than four times as likely to be born in the first three months of the calendar year as the last three months. In 2005, a larger study on the relative age effect in European youth soccer . . . . found a large relative age effect in almost every European country, though it seems to shrink in adult leagues and is less significant in women’s soccer. . . .
Interestingly enough, the relative age effect doesn’t appear in the two other major American sports leagues. . . .
---------- "Born to play ball: the relative age effect and major league baseball" by AH Thompson, RH Barnsley,
The website below provides a brief summary of the work and a couple of illustrative graphs showing the effect. The entire report is available via .pdf below.
The upper graph (SHOWN BELOW) shows the influence of the relative age effect among Major League Baseball players. However, the magnitude of the effect is much lower than that found among other sports like soccer and hockey (see the soccer results for a graph depicted on the same scale).
In an attempt to understand this, we studied Little League players where the effect was presumed to be rooted. Our analysis of team rosters did not reflect the presence of an effect of any significance. It was only when we compared those selected for post-season play with those who were not selected, did an effect emerge. But as the lower figure shows, the differing trends for these two groups showed neither the magnitude nor the clarity found in other sports . This weak effect among professional baseball players was thus hypothesized to be a natural consequence of its weak development during the formative years of Little League. This, in turn, might be explained by the size of the age-range used by Little League teams - often 4 to 5 years - much larger than that found in other team sports. Thus, all budding baseball players are at a disadvantage when they begin, and all will have an advantage in later years. This may neutralize some of the mechanisms that might be "in play" in other sports.
Sources:
1. Thompson AH, Barnsley RH, Stebelsky G (1991). Born to play ball: The relative age effect and Major League Baseball. Sociology of Sport Journal, 8, 146-151 (for a copy click here)
2. Thompson AH, Barnsley RH, Stebelsky G (1992). Baseball performance and the relative age effect: Does Little League neutralize birth date selection bias? Nine, 1(1), 19-30.
During the lull in baseball that is the winter months, I generally struggle to find baseball or sports stories of great interest. Sometime late last year, I received a monthly prayer calendar from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes that listed a daily prayer topic for athletes and coaches to reflect on. I decided I would take each topic as a theme and try to build a sports or baseball story around it.
It began mainly as mainly a writing exercise but I have to say that, in doing the research for each topic, it became a very revealing, educational look into what coaches, athletes and parents need to do to improve the landscape surrounding youth sports in this country.
At times, it wasn't easy to craft a sports story around what are generally considered to be spiritual topics, but I am glad I did it and I hope it ends up being as educational and inspirational to everyone who reads it as it turned out to be for me.
This is such a great story. I know my wife will love it dearly (and wish she posted it to her blog first) and I love her dearly, so here goes. It is so easy for young people to get caught up in the self-absorbed, self-centered lifestyle of big time professional athletics and pursue self gratification and glory. It renews your faith to see young people that have a proper sense of what is truly important in life and have the courage to pursue it.
He appears to be a solid prospect for the A's and had a super year in Hi-A ball for them last year. That partially explains why the A's organization is feeling a bit of angst today thinking about why a guy would give up all that a life in baseball has to offer.
AWESOME story, and I am trying to cut down on my use of the word awesome, but I do think it may apply here.
Rob Fai isn’t surprised that Oakland A’s prospect Grant Desme is ending his baseball career to enter the priesthood.
The timing? To him, that’s the shocking thing.
Desme is leaving the game at a time when his fortunes seemed to be rising fast. He batted .288 with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs in 131 games last year. Then he starred in the Arizona Fall League, where some of the game’s top prospects compete. He likely would have started this season at Class AA.
“Here’s a kid that’s on the brink,” Fai said over the phone from Vancouver, B.C., where he works as the assistant general manager for the Oakland affiliate there. “This would probably be an easier decision for someone who was maybe going through the motions in the minors.
“But if you know Grant, the spiritual side of his life has always been a priority. I don’t know if there was a tipping factor that made him wake up and say, ‘Today’s the day.’”
“I’m doing well in baseball,” Desme told reporters on Friday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. ... I love the game, but I’m going to aspire to higher things.”
Desme may never play in the major leagues, but he certainly knows what it feels like to get The Call.
information from thebaseballcube.com
Full Name: Gregory Grant Desme
Born: Apr 4,1986 in Bakersfield, California
Height: 6-2 Weight: 205 Bats: Right Throws: Right
High School: Stockdale (Bakersfield, California) "Mustangs"
College: San Diego State University, Cal Poly
Drafted: Selected by Oakland Athletics in 2nd Round (74th overall) of 2007 amateur entry draft (June-Reg) (Signing Bonus: $432,000)
Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city...
Ichiro's quote in a New York Times article, back in September:
"Chicks who dig the long ball aren't the ones who appeal to me. I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I'd rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Every now and then, just to show that I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out."
WOW, who knew? I wish I knew back when I played that chicks dig the infield hit and maybe the occasional drag bunt for a hit. I would have been a SCORING MACHINE!!!
The following series of articles from the Newark Star-Ledger reveals some shocking details regarding the dangers that concussions and head trauma presents to young athletes. The risks are far different than those that are presented to professional athletes.
It is apparent that parents, coaches and players in many sports are taking injuries too lightly. The lack of knowledge of the dangers of bringing players back to play TOO EARLY cannot be allowed to continue. The "rush back to play" phenomena is clearly DANGEROUS to the athletes long-term health.
It is important to change this mind-set because there are currently around 400,000 concussions occurring nationwide during school sports each year in sports and activities ranging from football to cheer leading.
As the second article in the series highlights, cheer leading accounts for 65% of all catastrophic sports injuries to female athletes during the last 25 years. In youth sports, the trend seems to be that injuries in cheer leading may be starting to out pace player injuries.
New Jersey High School Sports Extra
Kids and Concussions: Our 3-part series on the effects of head injuries in young athletes
By Star-Ledger Staff
January 06, 2010, 11:14AM
By Matthew Stanmyre and Jackie Friedman/The Star-Ledger
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The parents dilemma:
- Parents and players face pressure to rush back to play too early so they do not lose playing time or "fall behind" other players.
The coach's dilemma:
- Coaches face pressures to bring key players back too early as a result of the shot-term pressure to win overriding the concern for the players long-term health consequences. Some coaches simply do not have the knowledge of the severity of the injury and states (see NY example below) are taking action to see that coaches are better educated.
The players dilemma:
- Players face peer pressure as a result of other teammates playing through pain or other types of injuries. The "warrior mentality" that is prevalent in professional sports leaks down to the lower level athlete. They want to emulate the attitude they see on promoted T.V. and in sports lore.
Players are also influenced indirectly by the pressures that their parents and coaches are feeling. This "triple play" of emotions creates a vortex that in many cases pulls players back into play too early and causes them to hide or mask symptoms that would cause them to be pulled from playing in games or practices.
Make no mistake; a concussion is no routine injury. It is not the same as an ankle sprain or a sore knee. And it is not just a bump on the head.
A concussion is actually a MILD TO SEVERE BRAIN INJURY.
It includes damage to the BRAIN which = BRAIN DAMAGE.
Some health experts believe we should change the terminology to describe these injuries to emphasize the elevated severity of the injury. We often hear parent say they are relieved to hear their child has "only" suffered a concussion. Well, what's worse?
Reasons why "rush to play" is a dangerous practice:
- Athletes that return too early after a concussion at increased risk of another head injury. The so-called "second impact syndrome". Athletes are twice as likely to have another head injury within a year if they have already had one, according to Dr. Carol DeMatteo who is the associate clinical professor at the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University.
- Athletes should see and be cleared to play by a doctor before returning to play. Especially if symptoms like headache, fatigue, memory problems, change in sleep pattern or mood changes persist after the injury. If an athlete exhibits signs or symptoms of a concussion during the game, they should be pulled and not allowed to return during that same game.
- These symptoms can affect school performance as well as sports performance.
- Having multiple head injuries increases the odds of doing PERMANENT damage to the brain.
It is becoming clearer that concussions are cumulative and the trauma and damage increases the severity of successive injuries.
The "second impact syndrome":
According to the Star-Ledger article, studies show that the most severe concussions occur when the athlete returns to play while still experiencing symptoms from an earlier concussion.
The second impact syndrome has led to approximately 30 to 40 deaths in the last decade.
Hopefully, all the media attention of the severity of concussions in the NFL this season as well as some of the research on the damage ex-NFL players have suffered will change the climate.
Fortunately, some schools are following the model that some NFL teams and doctors use to clear players by employing pre-injury baseline testing of cognitive abilities. Then, when the players are injured, medical personnel are better able to re-test the player in order to determine proper recovery. However, the testing equipment is expensive.
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This organization has some free downloads that include sideline cards for coaches with good information regarding concussion symptoms.
NEW YORK STATE ATHLETIC ADMINIISTRATORS ASSOCIATION AND NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION CONCUSSION MANAGEMENT IN INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS
MISSION SATEMENT
The New York State Athletic Administrators Association and the New York State Public High School Athletic Association have partnered to educate interscholastic athletic personnel, secondary school athletes, parents of the athletes, school nurses and school physicians in current sport concussion management policies and procedures. Recognizing the concussed athlete, applying the guidelines for appropriate response, understanding the dangers of inappropriate actions and following correct protocols for return to school and athletic participation will be outcomes of the educational process. As a result, the number of New York State scholastic athletes suffering from “post concussion syndrome” or “secondary impact syndrome” will significantly decrease.
The Giants put what may be the finishing touches on the roster this week by re-signing catcher Bengie Molina to a 1 year deal. Apparently, Molina could not get the long-term deal he wanted from the Mets among others. Molina will provide an expensive $4.5 million dollar insurance policy against Buster Posey and/or Eli Whiteside not being able to withstand the rigors of major league catching.
In other moves, relief pitcher Merken Valdez was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for cash.
Some of that cash may be needed to satisfy the Tim Lincecum arbitration case. The Giants reportedly went in at around $8 million and the Lincecum camp went in at $13 million and a case of Doritos.
Hopefully, there is enough money to add Eric Byrnes. Reports still have the Giants interested in OF Xavier Nady but his price tag us likely to be out of the Giants league. The speculation seems to be that if Lincecum's arbitration case comes in at the higher number, the Giants are done signing major league caliber guys. If the lower comes in, perhaps a bench guy or long relief pitcher may be added.
This is not a bad requiem. If you read the entire UPI story (or listen to the audio) documenting what America was going through in 1968, our concerns and differences today would seem somewhat trivial by comparison. How far we have come, how far we still have to go.
"If any of you around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell him not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want him to say, tell him not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn't important. Tell him not to mention that I have 300 or 400 other awards, that's not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school.
"I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody.
"I want you to say that day that I've tried to be right on the walk with them. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe all to a naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
Well off from my hysterical and hyperbolic $75M estimate.
It helped that the Yankees and Red Sox seemed disinterested or otherwise content with their pitching.
Six years, $30 million is still not bad at $5M per.
By contrast, Dice-K got $52M over 6 years for ~8.7 per year.
Stephen Strasburg's deal was for $15M over 4 years or ~$3.8M per year.
Almost, but not quite in between the two deals which I suppose in hindsight makes some sense.
Dice-K was an estabhlised, veteran with a solid track record.
Strasburg is somewhat less of a proven commodity, however, the draft limited his negotiating options.
