Summarizing on a Saturday

I recognize the past week has been less than impressive in terms of original content. Here’s an attempt at righting that wrong:
1. As I see it, the selection of Joe Biden as Barack Obama’s running mate makes a lot of sense…in the short term. Biden personifies age and diplomacy more than Obama does, and his [...]

Summer Plans

My friend, Ed, asked for a post on what summer holds. Here it is.
1. I’m one of seven Westminster teachers taking 28 high school students on Summer Seminar to South Dakota for two weeks in June. Over the course of a 12-day trip to and through the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, students will explore [...]

Coach’s Couch

After an opening six-game homestand, the St. Louis Cardinals are 5-1, winning two of three from the Colorado Rockies and sweeping the Washington Nationals by way of (surprise) great starting pitching and an offensive line-up that’s finding the gaps in the outfield.
In my mind, the biggest liabilities the Redbirds have are its middle relief (to [...]

Play Ball!

The Cardinals officially open their season at home today against the Colorado Rockies. I’m interested to see how much all the off-season changes (and there have been many) pay off, particularly the much-mentioned bringing up of “homegrown” players from within the system. We still have no pitching (a starting rotation of five righthanders?), but it’s [...]

Mizzou-Rah

My college roommate at Mizzou and TwentySomeone co-author, Doug Serven, blogged his thoughts concerning the big Missouri/Oklahoma game this weekend. Doug is an R.U.F. campus pastor at OU, so he feels some loyalty tension, but as his feelings about Missouri football are mine (and as his blog doesn’t have permalinks – come on, Serven!), I’m [...]

Lemonade Concessions: Baseball’s Underbelly

I took my five-year-old to the Cardinals game tonight. We had two free tickets (courtesy of the St. Louis public library system), right behind home plate in the upper deck – nice.
We took the train from Brentwood to downtown, found our way up to section 451, and decided to get a lemonade as our one [...]

Saturday Smatterings

Some links for an overcast, rainy Saturday:

Disappointing stuff with Rick Ankiel and HGH. Thankfully, Bernie Miklasz (as always) calls it like it is.
Reggie Kidd’s post on bickering in the PCA is overwritten but powerful.
Beware of microwave popcorn several times a day. Several times a day?
Just in case anyone was wondering if you can make a [...]

Hot Time in the Cool Town Last Night

It’s the first beautiful weather weekend in at least a month. Apparently, St. Louis had the third hottest August on record this summer, and we’ve been here for a majority of it. All this made made last night’s Cardinals game with my three youngest that much more enjoyablem, as it was an absolutely perfect evening [...]

Stick a Fork in Us

We’re done.

On Barry Bonds and Baseball History

It’s been a while since I’ve talked a little baseball, so with the All-Star Break upon us and the season being half over, I thought now might be a good time. My Cardinals have been playing better, but I was hoping they’d have made it back to .500 by now. According to the PECOTA version [...]

London Logo

The new logo for the London 2012 Olympics has just been released, complete with hubbub over the fact that it is “hideous,” too youthful in appearance, and a waste of Olympic money (as if this were the only such example).
Having designed logos before (and not having seen the other designs that were considered), my guess [...]

On Josh Hancock

At the risk of perhaps stepping on a few St. Louis toes, I wanted to contribute a few thoughts to the ongoing discussion surrounding the death of Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock last weekend. I would have done this earlier, but time did not allow. I also wanted to wait for the police report before throwing [...]

The Postmodern Wave

Going to a baseball game with seminarians is an interesting experience. While they appreciate the nuances and gentle rhythms of the sport, the real fun is the discussion between pitches. Personal, cultural, and theological conversation is what seminarians live for, and watching baseball live is especially good for this kind of interaction.
Take, for instance, my [...]

Take Me Out to the Build-A-Bear

We, along with 50 other friends and acquaintances who benefitted from Megan’s Ticketmaster-like talents (minus the service charge) are due to go to our first Cards game of the year tonight. Unfortunately, I’m concerned rain may spoil our fun: there’s a 40% chance of precipitation forecasted for both today and tonight, and while that’s less [...]

Opening Day 2007

Baseball opens today, April 1st (no foolin’). Cardinals host the Mets tonight at Busch. Glory. In honor of the occasion, here are two favorite quotes about the greatest game ever invented:
Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) in Field of Dreams:
“Ray, people will come, Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. [...]

Put Me in, Coach, I’m Ready to Play

In case you mistook it from Friday night’s television broadcast of the Cards beating the Mets, the picture above is from a trip to the farm back in July (the corn in the background probably gave it away – not much of that at Shea Stadium).
I used to pitch in high school (going 6-3 my [...]

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know, I know…too many baseball posts of late. But it’s hard not to get excited, especially since we live in a city that will play host to some of the games later in the month (hopefully way later in the month). Granted, if I were a betting man (which I’m not), I probably wouldn’t [...]

Holding Our Collective Breath for the Redbirds

My oldest and I went to our last Cards game of the season on Thursday night, during which something (barely) resembling baseball was played by the home team. I’m not kidding: it was the worst major league game I’ve ever watched in person, as the Brewers beat the Birds, 9-4.
On Friday night, my sister, Jamie, [...]

Yep, We Were There

Megan and I got invited to our first Cubs/Cards game on Sunday night (thanks, Ted and Jill). In case you missed it, the Cards pulled a win out in the bottom of the ninth inning with Gary Bennett’s walk-off grand slam (his second in a week). The place went nuts. And so did we.

I Hate To Say “I Told You So…”

…so I won’t. Instead, I’ll let the guy at Viva El Birdos do it for me, as I’ve been saying this about the Redbirds all summer long (talk to Megan to verify – she’s tired of hearing it by now).