The NLCS is set - Giants survive to face Phillies

The Braves self mutilation continued to aid the Giants efforts. First came 2B Brooks Conrad's debacle in Game 3 and last night SS Alex Gonzalez kept trying to hand the game to the Giants.

The Giants would oblige by trying to muff the game right back into the Braves hands. A veritable comedy of errors finally turned tragic for the Braves, who send Bobby Cox off into the sunset with a real stinker. He deserved better, but his great career stands on its own.

Derek Lowe pitched valiantly in defeat. Bumgarner nearly matched him on the other side. Burrell provided a portent of doom, doing his best J.T. Snow imitation getting thrown out at home.

Our #2 hitter can't bunt a guy over when we're trying to tack on an insurance run. Heck, he couldn't get him over at all. Then Renteria -- a major league SS -- can't make a Little League play, but gets bailed out by Gonzalez not running it out to 1B. AMAZING!!! Bad baseball, yet compelling drama and suspense.

For some reason, the baseball gods chose to punish Gonzalez more than Renteria. Tough choice there, BB gods. Could have gone either way.

Every game in this series was decided by one run, the Giants were fortunate to win three of them. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday at Philadelphia and features a marquee matchup of aces - Tim Lincecum vs. Roy Halladay.

These Giants, I can't call it "Bochy-ball", because there really is no positive characteristic to how this team plays.

Maybe "Botchy-ball" because of the way they seem to win in spite of the, at times surprisingly glaring ineptitude and botched opportunities?

They are slow, they don't run, don't hit and run, don't advance runners, kill rallies with DP's yet somehow score just enough runs to win. Keep it up, eight more times, the fundamentals be danged. The Tom Emasky people will not be asking for Giants highlight reels for their video series on baseball fundamentals.

Hopefully when the Phillies read the reports from their advance scouts, they either become grossly overconfident or pull multiple oblique muscles from excessive and prolonged laughter.

The Giants are fortunate not to have been stretched to five games. They get to start with Lincecum on the mound and have about the same amount of rest as the Phillies. So we're starting off even in those two areas. Otherwise, on paper, the Phillies are clear favorites. Fortunately, the games are not played on paper, they are played on fields. And on the field, the Giants and Phillies have split six games this season. So we have a chance.

For the Giants, regardless of how things turn out against the Phillies, this NLCS series win makes for a very successful season. I would have hoped for them to be in the NLCS in the spring, but not reasonably expected it. Even though I predicted a Rays - Giants World Series.

So the team has exceeded expectations and set up the next couple of years to be solidly in contention and poised to advance into the playoffs. That's all you can ask for.

Cody Ross -- the guy the Giants claimed so that the Padres couldn't -- provides the offense. That's the difference maker right there, Giants fans.

BTW, if there are any ROY ballots still out there undecided how to vote, I think Mr. Posey made the decision a little bit easier, if the Joe Morgan contrarian indicator wasn't enough for you.

GO GIANTS!! And Go Rays!!!

Boom or Bust offense goes boom, then bust - dooms Giants

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/sfo

“WE DIDN'T BURY THEM EARLY. WE KIND OF WENT IN CRUISE CONTROL AFTER THE HOMER.”

- 1B Aubrey Huff on the Giants' 5-4, 11-inning loss in Game 2 of the Division Series. Pat Burrell's homer provided a three-run lead in the first, and Matt Cain

This kind of summarized the game and the latter part of the season for the Giants. A big bop by Burrell stakes Cain to a three run lead and only one run after that for support. So we have two manufactured runs in twenty innings and one of them is of dubious quality given that it has been tainted by replay and even if it wasn't, was produced via a SB by Buster Posey. The other run produced via an RBI from P Matt Cain. Not good.

Even when they try to play small ball it blows up. Renteria leads off an inning with a nice bunt, is advanced by another bunt by Torres, but the inning ends in a DP grounder by Posey. DP's have killed the offense all year, the Giants lead the NL by a wide margin.

I didn't like bringing in Wilson when they did, given that it was somewhat off the script. Not second guessing, just had a feeling when managers go off the plan like that, it seems like a desperation move when the Giants were in command. Why not let Rodriguez bail out Romo and hand the ball to Wilson to start the ninth rather than come in and clean up the mess. Even Mariano Rivera seems to close better when he can start an inning rather than come in with guys on.

Had the same feeling right before Ankiel hit his jack, thinking out loud 'if he leaves one up Ankiel will jack one into orbit'. Next pitch gone. I saw him hit one just like it in the Florida HS state championships against Dunedin HS. I think that ball is still in low earth orbit.

Portent of doom. I should have kept my mouth (and mind) shut, I guess.

Wilson, to his credit, took the fall.

The Giants then called on Wilson, who has never had a six-out save in his career, according to STATS LLC.

“Sometimes the save can be in the eighth inning,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was fresh and we’re trying to stop it then. At that point we’re going with our closer to try to get out of the eighth. I have no concern with Willie going two innings.”

Wilson did lead the majors this season with 10 saves of longer than an inning but he couldn’t come through in his first career postseason appearance. He wouldn’t blame coming in so early for his mishap, calling that a “crutch.”

The momentum swings to Atlanta and so does the venue. Giants just have to suck it up and take one of two there. And more boom, less bust.

END THE FED, NOW!!

THE FED'S DUAL MANDATE:

12 U.S.C. § 225a.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

HAVE THEY BEEN GOOD AT EFFECTIVELY PROMOTING MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT? NO.

HOW ABOUT STABLE PRICES? NO AGAIN.

Could you stay in your job if you were as incompetent as these guys are? I don't think so.

These guys need to be replaced. Fired. And if they don't like it, take them off in handcuffs or chains. And bring back prisoner torture until they are tried and convicted for their thievery and economic mischief.

Because QE1 was such a rousing success, this week the Fed has let on that they are now considering a round of QE2. The hair of the dog that bit you to cure a hangover. Works every time. Fixes the hangover, does nothing for the underlying alcoholism.

Their twisted economic theory that says we should rob wealth from the poor, the elderly on fixed income, the savers to protect the bankers, Wall Street and the rich via the hidden stealth tax increase that is inflation. They are openly destroying the dollar to prop up asset prices.

But not the assets that the middle class owns, like their homes.

This is like a reversal of the Robin Hood economic theory of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Bernanke believes the poor and the middle class should pay to protect the financial system. Just like his scum-bag acolytes like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet.

The guys should all hang together. Literally.

Here is what the Fed has done to the value of the dollar in their 97 years at the helm. A 97% depreciation rate. At that rate, the dollar will not only be WORTH LESS (two words) in three more years, it may become WORTHLESS (one word).

The threat of QE2 was met with mixed reviews.

The best review I heard was that the Fed can print money, but they cannot figure out how to print jobs. In theory, if they were able to, they would have done so by now.

"When the Fed buys long-term government debt from the private market, it shifts interest rate risk from bondholders to taxpayers," Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota warned last week.

Philly Fed President, Charles Plosser agrees: "Asset purchases in our current economic environment can do little if anything to speed up the return to full employment," Plosser said in a speech last week. "Because I see little gain at this point, and some costs, I would prefer not to engage in further asset purchases at this time."

"We are following policies that unless changed will eventually lead to lots of inflation down the road," said Warren Buffett at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit Tuesday. "We have started down a path you don’t want to go down."

Chicago Fed’s Charlie Evans disagrees (and he’s a voting member next year!) and said yesterday that he favors "much more [monetary] accommodation than we’ve put in place." MUCH MORE than $2Tn - take that Japan and your puny $500Bn pledge!

All the things we own, going down in value. Effectively being destroyed by these thugs.

All the things we pay for, food, fuel are going to go up in price. Commodities, the inputs for most of the things the middle class consumer needs, have skyrocketed on just the mention of another round of this failed Quantitative Easing policy.

Oil is heading back towards the $90-$100 a barrel level. Say hello to $5 / gallon gasoline.

Agricultural commodity prices have skyrocketed.

Don't worry we don't count oil and food costs in calculating CPI.

Our government is morally bankrupt as well as financially bankrupt.

The congress can no longer dip into the peoples wallet for Stimulus2 because:

a) we have elections and
b) the government is broke.

But the Federal Reserve is not elected, yet they have the future of the American economy in their hands.

Never mind what happened the last time Bernanke did this. He cranked up commodities through the same crap with the dollar and triggered the worst of the slowdown economically in terms of its impact on ordinary people, because energy and commodity prices ramped.

We keep making the same mistakes by repeating the same failed policies. Rinse, lather, repeat. The definition of insanity.

Piling more debt upon an already unsustainable amount of debt no longer works. The whole law of diminishing returns. Households know this, you can't get out of debt by paying your bills with a credit card.

Consumers are deleveraging, they are tired of being in debt. They are starting to understand those old-school phrases like "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" and "the borrower is a slave to the lender". Good for them.

They have daily experience with the inherent evils of "usury interest" whenever they open their credit card statements and are just now beginning to see why the system of "fractional reserve banking" is no longer magic. You can't create money out of thin air endlessly. The system collapses upon itself like a house of cards. Like a Ponzi scheme. They all unravel eventually once you run out of suckers and fools. And I think finally, American are tired of being played for fools.

Kevin Duffy of Bearing Asset Management described the process very well back in a 2007 article titled, 'IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD' :

Yes, indeed it is.

Fractional reserve madness

The lure of easy money begins with the government printing press. First, the central banker buys an asset typically a government debt instrument writes a check on itself and deposits it into the banking system. Since the bank never "redeems" the check, this is equivalent to creating money out of thin air. The banker, happy to receive fresh "reserves", loans out all but a sliver. This new money ends up back with the banks, is counted again as reserves, mostly lent out, and so on and so on.

Through this process of fractional reserve banking, credit is expanded at a multiple of the initial central bank deposit. Through such a system, the creation of money and credit (the promise to pay money) looks like an upside-down pyramid - essentially a pyramid scheme on top of a counterfeiting operation.

As James Grant has counseled, the inflation process gives a finite pool of capital the illusion of an endless sea of liquidity, in effect "turning all the traffic lights green."

Such a scheme is a concoction of government privilege (or mercantilism), not laissez faire. The so-called "capitalists" are no longer efficient allocators of capital to its most productive uses, but beneficiaries of and cheerleaders for a monetary fraud in which capital is debased, taken for granted, abused. As long as they remain chummy with their friendly liquidity provider of last resort, they can act recklessly without fear of igniting an economic forest fire or if they do, without fear of having to bear the costs. And as long as the value of their collateral is constantly inflated, they never feel the need to worry about default.

Liberated from the gold standard straightjacket, the system has few restraints. For starters, the counterfeiter has an incentive not to draw attention to his racket. But the effectiveness of his ongoing propaganda campaign has weakened this deterrent. The real inflationary action, however, is in credit expansion. For example, in the last 6 years, the Federal Reserve has grown its balance sheet less than $300 billion while the nation's money supply has expanded by $4.3 trillion, or 14 times as much. In other words, the central banker can bait the hook, but lenders and borrowers still have to take the bait.

This new money is never evenly distributed, but instead gets funneled into whatever narrow area happens to capture the public's fascination. As prices and valuations soar, greater doses of credit are required to keep the game going. Either more marginal borrowers are drawn in at ever more precarious levels or greater leverage must be applied to existing borrowers. This is what ultimately doomed the housing bubble. In the end, nearly anyone who could fog a mirror was getting an invitation to join the party.

The trouble with pyramid schemes is that they're not designed to go in reverse. Eventually, the number of willing dupes is exhausted. The same people who panicked late to get into the game are just as likely to panic when the music stops. The longer the music plays, the more leveraged and unstable the inverted credit pyramid becomes. As the late economist Hyman Minsky observed, "stability is unstable."

I love these two analogies of the fallacy of QE2 from Richard Koo, the Chief Economist of Nomura Research Institute:

In describing the negligence of such monetary policy Richard Koo uses the analogy of a doctor who simply tells his patient to take more of the same medicine he originally prescribed:

“At the risk of belabouring the obvious, imagine a patient in the hospital who takes a drug prescribed by her doctor, but does not react as the doctor expected and, more importantly, does not get better. When she reports back to the doctor, he tells her to double the dosage. But this does not help either. So he orders her to take four times, eight times, and finally a hundred times the original dosage. All to no avail. Under these circumstances, any normal human being would come to the conclusion that the doctor’s original diagnosis was wrong, and that the patient suffered from a different disease. But today’s macroeconomics assumes that private sector firms are maximizing profits at all times, meaning that given a low enough interest rate, they should be willing to borrow money to invest.. In reality, however, borrowers – not lenders, as argued by academic economists – were the primary bottleneck in Japan’s Great Recession.”

Dr. Bernanke has misdiagnosed this illness one too many times. At what point does someone tell him to put the scalpel down and step away from the table before he does even greater harm?

Koo describes the failure of QE1 as a tool to promote economic recovery in the following. Mr. Koo is keenly aware of the the experience of a Quantatative Easing strategy as it has been applied in Japan for the last decade or more. It has been roundly noted as a dismal failure.

Koo goes a step further in describing the failure of QE to promote private sector recovery.

“The central bank’s implementation of QE at a time of zero interest rates was similar to a shopkeeper who, unable to sell more than 100 apples a day at $100 each, tries stocking the shelves with 1,000 apples, and when that has no effect, adds another 1,000. As long as the price remains the same, there is no reason consumer behavior should change–sales will remain stuck at about 100 even if the shopkeeper puts 3,000 apples on display. This is essentially the story of QE, which not only failed to bring about economic recovery, but also failed to stop asset prices from falling well into 2003.”

This mea culpa came from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph (UK):

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100007777/shut-down-the-fed-part-ii/

I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing.

My pathetic assumption was that Ben Bernanke would deploy further QE only to stave off DEFLATION, not to create INFLATION. If the Federal Open Market Committee cannot see the difference, God help America.

We now learn from last week’s minutes that the Fed is willing “to provide additional accommodation if needed to … return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate.”

Ben Bernanke has not only refused to abandon his idee fixe of an “inflation target”, a key cause of the global central banking catastrophe of the last twenty years (because it can and did allow asset booms to run amok, and let credit levels reach dangerous extremes).
Worse still, he seems determined to print trillions of emergency stimulus without commensurate emergency justification to test his Princeton theories, which by the way are as old as the hills. Keynes ridiculed the “tyranny of the general price level” in the early 1930s, and quite rightly so. Bernanke is reviving a doctrine that was already shown to be bunk eighty years ago.

and this

So all those hillsmen in Idaho, with their Colt 45s and boxes of krugerrands, who sent furious emails to the Telegraph accusing me of defending a hyperinflating establishment cabal were right all along. The Fed is indeed out of control.

The sophisticates at banking conferences in London, Frankfurt, and New York who aplogized for this primitive monetary creationsim – as I did – are the ones who lost the plot.
My apologies. Mercy, for I have sinned against sound money, and therefore against sound politics.

Fed is trying to conjure away the hangover from the last binge (which Greenspan/Bernanke caused, let us not forget), as if to vindicate its prior claim that you can always clean up painlessly after asset bubbles.

Are the Chinese right? Are the Americans and the British now so decadent that they will refuse to take their punishment, opting to default on their debts by stealth?

It does seem as if the Euro is being rewarded for taking their governments and Central Bank taking the path of fiscal austerity and sound monetary policy. At least for now. I don't see how intentionally torching your currency can be the answer to what ails the American economy. And it is not worth the costs it will impose on the poor and those who saved and invested prudently. Profligate spenders and gamblers are being protected and rewarded.

So we have these Fed idiots disguised as experts, protecting their own special interest under the guise of protecting the middle class. I call BS on that one. They don't give a rats fat ass about the middle class. None of them.

And as the Obama administration continues to hemorrhage economic advisers, I can only advise the President to consider taking the term "heads are going to roll" more literally Romer, Orzag, Emmanuel (not an eco advisor) and Lawrence Summers have all beat a hasty retreat.

To be followed soon by the incompetent, criminal Secretary of Treasury Geithner. Hopefully, no later than the soon after the elections. He doesn't have the confidence of this country's business community, the international community, heck he doesn't get respect around Chinese school children. That should have told you all you needed to know about old Turbo Timmy. And he calls the Chinese currency manipulators when the Federal Reserve is doing it's own brand of manipulation.

This from the blog The Economic Collapse:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/federal-reserve-officials-americans-are-saving-too-much-money-so-we-need-to-purposely-generate-more-inflation-to-get-them-spending-again

Does increasing inflation as a way to stimulate the economy sound like a good idea to any of you?

These are supposed to be some of the brightest economic minds that our nation has produced.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the folks running the Federal Reserve do not have a clue about sound economic policy.

Anyone who lived through the "stagflation" days of the 1970s should know that inflation does not spur economic growth.

But now some of the most prominent Fed officials are publicly proposing that we should purposely generate more inflation so that "real interest rates" (interest rates with inflation factored in) will go down.

For example, during a recent interview the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles Evans, made the following statement....

"It seems to me if we could somehow get lower real interest rates so that the amount of excess savings that is taking place relative to investment needs is lowered, that would be one channel for stimulating the economy."

If you truly grasp what Evans is proposing here, your jaw should be dropping.

He is basically coming right out and saying, "Hey, let's go out and crank up the inflation rate so that American consumers will start recklessly spending their money again."

So are Americans really saving too much money?

Of course not.

Just take a look at the chart below.

Americans are actually still saving far, far less than they used to. As you can see from the chart, in the 1960s and 1970s Americans would usually save somewhere between 8 to 12 percent of their incomes.

Today, we are still well below that level. But we have made some progress from the reckless days of five to ten years ago when Americans were living far, far, far beyond their means and basically saving next to nothing....

So now some top Fed officials want to undo all that. They apparently want Americans to grab their credit cards and to run out to the stores and spend wildly like they did a few years ago.

But spending recklessly is not going to repair our economy. In order to have a healthy, balanced economy you need to have a healthy personal saving rate. Encouraging Americans to spend every last nickel they have may boost economic figures in the short-term, but it will make our long-term problems even worse.

These guys need to get it together rather quickly before there's Revolution in this country.

Hopefully, it's a peaceful one.

Upon further review Giants catch a break

If Posey is called out here, maybe we're still playing the way these two offenses score runs.

On the other hand, Lincecum dominated and Lowe pitched solidly as well.

You hate to see one call influence the outcome of the game in this manner, but it's becoming all too frequent an occurrence.

We were watching the Twins - Yankees, and no sooner did the ump blow that call on the inside FB to Berkman, I said to my wife that he would end the AB with a hit. And sure enough, he did.

You can't give a major league hitter four strikes per AB. Imagine the outcome if before the AB you had said to both Berkman and Pavano, "Hey guys, this AB it's going to be four strikes your out at the old ballgame". What do you think would happen to Berkman's expected batting average.

I would guess an upwards adjustment of at least 100 points. So a .300 hitter becomes a .400+ hitter. Not good.

To say nothing of the damaging psychological effects that immediately hit the pitcher. He's deflated, he just struck the other guy out, in his mind. On the other side, the batter has new life. He's uplifted. How many times have we seen a batter get new life and then cash in?

Bottom line is, for the next pitch or two, the pitcher is demonstrably disadvantaged and the hitter is hugely advantaged. And the next pitch or sequence has a huge impact on how the rest of the game plays out.

It's easy to say to the perceived aggrieved party, "Hey, just suck it up and keep competing" when the guys has done his job -- done everything right -- and is not rewarded for the effort. Somebody did their job right and is hurt by somebody that did not. Too often.

In the playoffs, of course all these factors are magnified to a huge degree. There is less margin for error and less time to overcome these gaffes. A one-game swing in a five game series is huge. And someone is advancing and someone is going home as a result.

There has to be a better way and I'm not sure replay is the entire answer. The ump seemingly had a bad angle on the Posey call. That's correctable, but it shouldn't be happening at this level, with this much at stake.

The Rays have been victimized by the phantom / real hit batsmen versus hit the bat call. In some cases, replay may have come to the rescue, but in some it will not.

The umpires are under the microscope again and are becoming a part of the story way too often.

They simply have to start doing a better job. Baseball fans deserve better.

A tale of two QB's and a thin line between love and hate

Probably one of the most compelling and rich stories on display in the world of sports was the return of Donovan McNabb to Philadelphia to face Michael Vick. There are so many interesting subplots and stories buried underneath the surface.

I was glad to see McNabb get a mostly classy, but mixed reception from the Philadelphia fans.

From the Globe and Mail:

CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE
McNabb gets warm Philly welcome

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/mcnabb-gets-warm-philly-welcome/article1740330/

Philly can be rough on its sports figures, but its fans also are knowledgeable enough to recall the good times. McNabb brought them plenty of those for 11 seasons, and they responded with an outpouring of kindness not often associated with this city.

Some in Philly remain unconvinced. I guess if McNabb's only sin to Philly fan is that he did not WIN a Super Bowl, then so be it. Enough of them did acknowledge what Donovan gave to them in striving.

The prospect of venom being spewed at McNabb for never actually winning a Super Bowl certainly existed Sunday. There was plenty of nastiness in the parking lots, but no hatefest inside the stadium.

Outside the Linc, the biggest pocket of protest was the “boo parade” organized by WIP radio personality Angelo Cataldi — the same man who put together the 1999 outing to the draft in New York when McNabb was selected instead of Ricky Williams. About 35 people, including two men on stilts, a juggler and one dressed as a clown, walked to the Spectrum next door while voicing their displeasure with the quarterback they dubbed “Dontovan” and 'McChoke.”

“The lazy, national media harped on the (draft day booing) for 11 years and ignored everything else,” Cataldi said. “They wanted a circus today, so we're giving them a circus.”

This is a guy who I have observed perform through the prism of a Giants fan, which means I was automatically conditioned to dislike him solely because he wore the Eagles uniform. But the way McNabb has carried himself - with great excellence, class, and dignity even during turbulent, controversial times - I have slowly, somewhat grudgingly at times been forced to admit that "This guy is a really good, really underrated QB" and wonder what it was about him that I disliked in the first place.

The McNabb scenario reminded me of how I used to feel about Buster Posey. When he was at Florida State, I initially was conditioned against liking him simply because he wore the Seminoles colors. Silly reason really. As I watched FSU games, at times I'll admit, I rooted for Posey to fail, just once maybe. A Seminole can't be that good, can he? But as he continued to excel behind the plate, at bat, as a closer - always coming through in the clutch - I realized again that this is a guy I would love to have on my team anytime. Why do I hate him? Because he wears colors I don't like? Probably not a great reason, right?

I mean I could justify it and say these guys "won me over" but it's kind of silly to have disrespect for them solely because they play for the opponent, even if that opponent is a fierce rival. We need opponents to play the game.

It all dovetailed into my feeling about the other QB on the field yesterday, Michael Vick.

I was watching ESPN's The Sports Reporters and listened as Mitch Albom almost sneered how he "didn't have to like" the Michael Vick story. Well, no Mitch - you big baby - you don't have to like it. But if you are the intellectual giant you present yourself to be - you should at least understand it.

Mitch wrote this about Michael Vick earlier in the season when the Vick story past through his fine city of Detroit.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100920/COL01/9200375/Rookie-Jahvid-Best-runs-wild-but-Lions-can-t-totally-recover

That's because Vick may be unlikable, an ex-con, a loose cannon -- but he still can play football.

As much as I respect Mitch Albom as a gifted writer, I have to call his understanding and compassion as a human being towards a fellow human being into question here. IMO, he's missing a very important point.

We tend look for a Michael Vick to "redeem" himself as solely a football player and think that is the be all and end all measurement of whether or not he has "returned", or "redeemed" himself. But his "redemption" will ultimately be measured in terms of how he fulfills this promise he made in 2007. Remember this?

From abcnews.com
Vick on Dogfighting Plea: 'I Will Redeem Myself'

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3527287&page=1

"I totally ask for forgiveness and understanding as I move forward to bettering Michael Vick the person, not the football player," Vick, wearing a a dark suit, said in a somber tone.

The football star today described dogfighting as a "terrible thing," adding that his experience has helped him find religion. "Through this situation I found Jesus and I'm going to ask himself for forgiveness and turn myself over to God."

I shouldn't have to remind a Mitch Albom of this. Especially not a Mitch Albom who recently wrote this.

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH by Mitch Albom

http://mitchalbom.com/books/node/5515

"It is... the most important thing I’ve ever written,” opens Albom’s (Tuesdays with Morrie) latest nonfiction book. It isn’t difficult to understand why. Using his characteristically succinct style, Albom’s prose offers readers an elegantly simple perspective on faith, tolerance, service and love while maintaining the complex reality of his characters’ true life stories.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Mitch and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers and histories are different, Albom begins to realize a striking unity between the two worlds - and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

Albom’s expertise in piecing together a web of snapshot stories, however, reveals levels of meaning that could not be adequately told in any other way. He avoids repetitious overemphasis—the bane of much inspirational literature—and allows meaning, whether his own or the reader’s, to emerge with a quiet, confident grace. Albom’s latest is a masterpiece of hope and a moving testament of interfaith understanding.

Could these two pieces written by Albom be in more conflict? Can they be more diametrically opposed in tone? Can his understanding of the concepts related to faith be any more shallow?

If you remember the promise Michael made in 2007 - and you note his progress as a person since then - and you wrote and understood what you claim to have in Have a Little Faith than I'm sorry Mitch, I don't understand why you DO NOT like the Michael Vick story. Perhaps, I'm missing something?

Sorry Mitch, my understanding of redemption and the basis for salvation, must be somewhat different than yours. But I Thank God for that.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you or I think about Michael Vick, or what Michael Vick does or does not do on the football field, as long as he keeps his promise. And that promise is not to you or me.

Remember that and remember who you are and who you are not when you judge others. Shame on you Mitch Albom, it seems as if you should know better.

define redemption:
(theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
repayment of the principal amount of a debt or security at or before maturity (as when a corporation repurchases its own stock)
the act of purchasing back something previously sold

Giants win!! What a relief!!!

Jonathan Sanchez fulfilled his promise yesterday, not the verbal guarantee so much as the promise to be a top of the rotation, shut down starter. The bullpen continues its dominant run on a team where the total is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Truly the definition of team. The guys like Casilla, Romo, Ramirez, Lopez, Mota and Ray have allowed Brian Wilson to shine in the closer role. The bullpen as a unit may be the team's MVP, IMO. Everybody fills their role and nobody really has to overextend. The bullpen allows Bochy the flexibility and the confidence to not have to overuse the dominant starters.

Right now, this is a team that is clicking on almost all cylinders. Sabean gets kudos for piecing the roster together economically instead of making one big move. Bochy gets kudos for his patience and steady hand throughout the course of the season. Contract extensions for everybody.

In some ways, the path has been unconventional and at times frustrating. Failures and mistakes in some areas have led to successful moves. But for now the Giants are back in the playoffs and all is right with the world.

This is the Giants first trip back to the playoffs since 2003. That's a long time. This in some ways separates whatever frustrations and ghosts are leftover from the Bonds era and the memory of a Pudge Rodriguez holding onto the ball despite the efforts of a piano-hauling J.T. Snow.

I remember my wife chastising me severely for using some inappropriate language combinations after that game and she asked me why I felt I needed to act that way. It's probably not a good excuse, but I said that the opportunity to get to the World Series is precious and not to be squandered. You never know when you might get another opportunity.

Seven years is a long time to wait. I'm not sure how many more seven year periods I have left to invest in a franchise that already has squandered every other seven year period I have given them as a fan. It is a franchise that has not WON a World Series in my lifetime, although we've been to a couple of them. As Red Sox, White Sox, Cubs fans and Tom Petty well understand - The Waiting is the Hardest Part.

Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
Don't it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I've never known nothing quite like this
Don't it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one coulda ever told me 'bout this
I said yeah yeah

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

I liked the following quotes after the game.

from Yahoo Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-giantsclinch

The Padres lost for only the second time in nine games at AT&T Park this season. They went 12-6 against the Giants overall, winning the first eight meetings.

“We beat them 12 of 18 and that means they played seven games better against the rest of the league,” Gonzalez said. “They beat other teams and we didn’t.”

The important thing to note here is that after going 0-8 vs. the Padres in the first half, this means the Giants went 6-4 in the second half. The Giants, primarily Sabean, made the necessary adjustments and the Padres did not. Case closed.

“Versus the past, when we lived and died with one superstar player, there aren’t any superstars on this team. There might be a couple rising stars,” Sabean said. “Our organization is built on pitching. It’s old-school baseball. We’ve been marching toward this for a while, including holding onto (Jonathan) Sanchez.”

This is a good sign, hopefully it continues. I like old-school baseball.

“IT'S HARD TO DESCRIBE IT IN WORDS. I MEAN, IT'S A GREAT FEELING. BUT THERE ARE GUYS IN HERE THAT I WANTED IT MORE FOR THEM THAN FOR MYSELF.” - Buster Posey, on the Giants' road to the NL West championship

And this too is a solid quote, from a guy who I believe is going to be the cornerstone of this franchise for the next decade. The sense of selflessness and concern for his teammates speaks volumes about the type of leader this kid is going to be.

I like the Giants chances. For now, I see a Giants - Phillies NLCS and hopefully a Rays - Yankees ALCS. Those would be two very exciting, appealing match-ups. If we can have the season end with my predicted Giants - Rays World Series, that would be awesome.

But we shouldn't look too far ahead. The Braves are tough, their rotation of Lowe - Hudson - Hanson is for the most part playoff tested and the Giants rotation, except for Zito who likely will not start, is not. Both teams offenses are virtual mirror images in that they struggle at times to score, sometimes almost painfully. But one of them has to break out and score enough runs or we can't advance the season.

GO GIANTS !!!

The season may come down to a "Battle of the Bulletin Board Big-Mouths"

For the Padres, Mat Latos

"Baseball works in funny ways," Latos was quoted on cbssports.com. "The only way I could honestly put it is, we could be like the Giants and go and change our whole lineup, put guys with 'San Francisco Giants' across their jerseys. We didn't.

"We added two guys (Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick). We've been the same team all year. We haven't just gone and grabbed guys from other teams."

For the Giants, Jonathan Sanchez

"We are going to make the playoffs" - Jonathan Sanchez, August 8 2010.

"San Diego has been winning series all year. …But we're going to play San Diego now and we're going to beat them three times. If we get to first place, we're not going to look back."

After today, one of them will be seen as somewhat of a motivational hero for having backed up the talk and the other a bit of a goat, but in the end it's been a team effort on both sides. Not really sure that any of the the talk has been a factor and as they say, if it was a motivation to either team then there is something else wrong with the team that it needed to be.

It's put up or shut up time. I'm not sure which one of these guys I want to root against more. I suppose since Sanchez has San Francisco Giants across his jersey, I am obliged to root for the Giants.

Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. Let your game do the talking. GO GIANTS!!

It's going to be a long off-season if they come this far, in this fashion and don't push it across the finish line, that's all I can say.

Giants lose first game - Now the heat is on them?

GOOD JOB, KID. WE GOT THIS THING - OOPS!!

Strange as it may seem, it appears that yes, the pressure is now as much or more on the Giants to win one more game than it is on the Padres to win three more games. The momentum turns to the Padres side now that they have won the first games of the series. For the Pads, maybe for the first time in a month and a half, the feeling has to be that finally they can play loose.

When I coached, we used to say "you don't have to win three games, you have to win one game - three times". And that's the approach the Pads should have from here on out. Keep the games simple, one game, one inning, one at bat, one pitch at a time - win the battle.

The Giants on the other hand, can feel the pressure of getting the hardest out of the game - the last out. The hardest game to win in a divisional, championship or World Series is the ALWAYS last game.

Not to go all Chris Berman on you, but in the immortal words of Cat Stevens - later covered by Rod Stewart -

I still want you by my side
just to help me dry the tears that I've cried
cause I'm sure gonna give you a try
and if you want, I'll try to love again
but baby, I'll try to love again, but I know

The first cut is the deepest, baby I know
The first cut is the deepest

the Giants are finding out that if indeed The First Cut is the Deepest then truly the last game is the hardest. We'll be back. Because Giants fans know all too well, that yes...

The first cut is the deepest, Baby I know —
The first cut is the deepest
'Cause when it comes to being lucky, she's cursed
When it comes to lovin' me, she's worst
But when it comes to being loved, she's first
That's how I know
The first cut is the deepest.

WHAT!!!! COME ON MAN!!





The Giants know all this stuff only too well after the Dusty Baker - Russ Ortiz debacle. The teams fortunes and its fans outlook can go from fantastic to fatalistic on a dime now.

from Yahoo Sports, Steve Henson:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=sh-giantspadres100110

San Francisco fans have never celebrated a World Series title since the Giants moved west from New York in 1958. They aren’t as fatalistic as Chicago Cubs fans, but they can turn from adoration to disgust with startling rapidity. It will take a tenacious effort to keep their interest throughout the game Saturday, and tenacity isn’t the first word that leaps to mind when Giants starter Barry Zito’s(notes) name is mentioned.

Even the home town paper noticed the sense of premature celebration in the air prior to the game.

from San Francisco Chronicle, Henry Schulman

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/02/SPLN1FNDRB.DTL

Something did not feel right around China Basin before Friday night's game. Too many folks outside the clubhouse were discussing a clinching victory as if it were fait accompli, too many "whens," not enough "ifs" and way too little respect for a desperate Padres team with 88 wins.

As fans were filing in, a promotion for a Comcast news show ran on the big stadium video board. The announcer said loudly enough to be heard on Potrero Hill, "Will this be the night the Giants pop the Champagne corks?"

A well pitched game will cure everything and make Giants fans wonder what all the fuss was about. Tonight would be a good time for Zito (9-13) to go all zen-master over Stauffer (5-5) who has been a world-beater of late. Zito, meanwhile has won only one of his last ten starts. EEEKKK!! Is that the sound of rivets popping? is the bridge collapsing?

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

Maybe the NAACP should look into this

This is the sort of circular firing squad that the leftists bring on themselves as a result of the (over) playing the race card. This is from a CNN anchor, one of the bastions of leftist thought, that never spares an opportunity to accuse those from the other side of the ideological spectrum of being "hate-filled racists".

Listen to this hate-filed, bigoted, diatribe this guy goes into when talking about those who, for the most part, are part of the "big tent" that is the Democratic Party. His friends, his comrades, his buds. Then extrapolate out to see where some of the venom comes into play when they talk about people that they don't agree with. With friends like this guy, who would need enemies?

These guys always mistake xenophobia for real racism when they are pointing the finger at others. Their own bigotry gets a pass as being "satire" or comedy. These guys always excuse their own brand of racism and excoriate any hint or trace of it in others. "Do as I say, not as I do", I guess

I love when the host defended/excused himself in this manner, but he did say that the job of a comedian is to "lower others to raise themselves". Sounds like the prevalent mind-set of the loony left. One big joke. It explains Al Franken, David Letterman and all the other yuksters who want to make serious issues into a joke and "lower others (that disagree with them) to raise themselves. Typical.

This Sanchez guy is just a little ball of hate. He didn't spare anybody. He should have spent less time sucked up snot and more time thinking about what he was saying. I have a feeling his career just hit a speed-bump.

CNN'S RICK SANCHEZ - HATE SPEECH FROM THE LEFT


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/rick-sanchez-jon-stewart-is-a-bigot-news-networks-are-run-by-jews/

CNN’s Rick Sanchez is sick and tired of being treated as a second-rate newsman. So yesterday, he went off on those who he feels have relegated him to the “second tier” of broadcasters — Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and his own network, CNN — and turned a 15 minute interview into an over 20 minute poor-me discussion on race.

Appearing on Pete Dominick’s satellite radio show, Sanchez railed against “elite, Northeast establishment liberals“ who ”deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.” He then lumped the Comedy Central hosts into that group, and especially went after Stewart:

I think ESPN's J.A. Andande had it nailed pretty good in a recent article discussing the LeBron fiasco and how race may or may not have played into it. When he uses the term "tribalism", that is virtually synonymous with "xenophobia" or a preference to be in the company of "people like ourselves". It's human nature and rooted in a survival instinct.

from ESPN.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingcamp10/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=LeBronRace-101001

That brings us to an essential component we must understand when it comes to any discussion of race and the NBA. It's OK for people to root for people who bear the most resemblance to themselves. I had no qualms with white Boston Celtics fans who bypassed racks of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce jerseys to buy a Brian Scalabrine jersey. If they could identify more with him -- to the extent almost anyone can identify with a 6-foot-9 man with OrangeSicle-colored hair -- that's fine. It's no different than black people who previously didn't care about the difference between a serve and a volley rushing to the TV to cheer for Venus and Serena Williams. We all do it to some degree, be it with athletes or even "Price Is Right" contestants. We tend to support those representing our racial group.

It's not racism. I prefer the term that movie producer (and soon to be Golden State Warriors owner) Peter Guber used repeatedly in his conversation with Charles Barkley in Barkley's 2005 book "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?": tribalism.

Tribalism is about familiarity within the known entity. It's not about hatred of others, it's about comfort within your own, with a natural reluctance to expend the energy and time to break across the barriers and understand another group.

Most of what we're quick to label racism isn't really racism. Racism is premeditated, an organized class distinction based on believed superiority and inferiority of different races. That "ism" suffix makes racism a system, just like capitalism or socialism. Racism is used to justify exclusion and persecution based on skin color, things that rarely come into play in today's NBA.

He nails it again when talking about the Lebron James and Dan Gilbert (Cavs owner) battle of the barbs when LeBron left the Cavs at the alter. But he could have easily have been talking about Albert Haynesworth's misguided comments about being treated like a slave or a prostitute by the Redskins who seemingly are just trying to get a minimal amount of return from a huge amount of money invested in this bust.

It began with Jesse Jackson's claim that Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert's late-night rant about LeBron's departure reflected a "slave master mentality" and that "He sees LeBron as a runaway slave." It was an overly exaggerated reaction to the reaction. If Gilbert really saw LeBron as a slave, he would have tracked him down with bloodhounds and lynched him. That's what slave masters did to escaped slaves. That's why I'll never equate professional or collegiate athletics to slavery.

Haynesworth comparing his so-called struggle to slavery. C'mon man!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5617037

None of these type of incidents do any good at reaching the goal of promoting better understanding and bringing people closer together. It causes an inertia to set in and makes it easier for people to avoid the problem rather than confront it.

They cause real racists to become better at hiding their tendencies and cause people to "see" racism behind everyone because they believe that "everyone" is hiding their "true" tendencies. It drives racism underground and makes it harder to solve the problem.

These false, misguided or misapplied accusations of racism when human nature is really at play drives a wedge between good people.

The racist label has become almost as devalued as the dollar lately because many times it describes situations that have little or nothing to do with race.

People are different, we need to learn how to acknowledge, tolerate and at times celebrate the differences. This drumbeat of suspicion, accusation and demonization does not do anybody a lick of good and is often as evil as racism itself. That's the paradox that these purveyors of hate need to start understanding by taking a good, long, hard look in the mirror.

For the most part:

People who rail against "illegal immigration" are not racist against immigrants - or they would have to hate all immigrants including legal, productive immigrants which most Americans, by nature derive from. They are against the "illegality" issue.

People who oppose the mosque because its insensitive are not racists or bigots or Islamaphobes just because the disagree. They just don't think its a good idea. They see it as inappropriate. "Not there, not now" doesn't mean they hate any Muslim or mosque built anywhere.

People who rail against LeBron or Michael Vick -- or whomever the controversy du jour is -- don't hate black athletes or blacks in general. They are mostly upset about stupid behavior.

People who rail against President Obama are not inherently racist or the Tea Party movement would have coalesced somewhere around the time it was apparent that he was going to defeat john McCain. And that was pretty early in the process, THERE WAS TIME. But he got elected and by being judged on the basis of his work as President, he is in a sense the personification of MLK's dream of being judged by the content of his character.

I guess in this case, the phrase that "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" would apply. It's time to put these false accusations of racism away for a bit and see if we can't bring people together, instead of driving people apart.

In Aesop's fables, when the boy falsely cried wolf too many times, he was ignored when the wolf actually appeared. That is the route we are clearly travelling.

The moral is stated at the end of the fable as:

Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.

Giants Magic Number is down to 1

Give the Cubs a big assist, maybe a playoff share. They played hard in their series against the Padres, on the road, when they had every excuse to have the golf clubs primed and ready for the off-season.

Buster Posey showing some leadership.

from Yahoo Sports:

“IF WE GIVE THIS STAFF A LITTLE RUN SUPPORT, WE'RE GOING TO BE TOUGH.”
- Rookie C Buster Posey, speaking of the Giants' consistent pitching and inconsistent hitting.

BTW - WTF is up with Mat Latos saying that the Giants are some collection of hired guns, while the Padres are some collection of "We are Family", Padres-lifers?

If I recall, the Giants added Guillen and Fontenot as a response to the Padres acquisition of Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick. Toss in FA pick up Pat Burrell and it's basically a wash. Padres add two starters, Giants add two starters. Look in the mirror, Mat. After you stop choking.

Isn't this really criticism that should aimed at your own organization? If you feel like they didn't do enough to help your team hold the lead down the stretch (a point I would agree with you on) then don't go to the press and bash the Giants, go down the hall to Padres management and make your feelings known to them. There should be a brief, end of season interview coming up shortly where you can do that. Maybe toss something off the GM's desk to drive the point home.

Because your way, you just sound like a spoiled, whiny baby. My way, you become a sort of everyman-hero type who really cares. It's a win-win. The anger, memorabilia tossing, tell-the-boss-where-to-go part appeals to the male fans. Builds up your macho-man chops. The caring part will appeal to the lady Pads fans. So it's all good. But just to review, Mat, your way really sucked. OK, now go home.

Now, back to the Gigantes.

If things play out as expected, it will be Phillies, Giants, Reds, Braves in the playoffs. I like them to win and advance to the LCS in that order.

When you can throw Roy Halliday, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels at teams, you qualify as the odds-on favorite, IMO. A Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez combination is not bad either. And I'm assuming that Sanchez has earned the third spot over Zito (nod to veteran) and Bumgarner.

While I think the Braves and Reds can make equally good "if the pitching gets hot" arguments, I don't think they have the horses to compete. The Giants and Phillies to meet in the NL League Championship Seres sounds good right now.

But first, the magic number needs to be reduced by One. GO GIANTS!!