Category Archives: Baseball

July 5, 2009 · 22:51

Manny, A-Rod and Barry: How the Media and Government Selectively Target Ballplayers or Don’t

I love baseball as a game. The Deity herself speaks to me through baseball. While baseball to use the words of George Will is “Heaven’s gift to mortals” it is played, managed and judged by fallen humanity…thanks so much Adam and Eve, you should have gone to the concession stand in the Garden of Eden and got a hot dog and beer and left that that tree that you were told not to touch alone. As the New Baseball Edition of the Bible says: “And God spoke to Adam and Eve saying “Thou mayest eat and drink freely from any concession stand, vendor or restaurant in the park, but thou shalt not eat from the Tree of the Knowlege of Good and Evil, lest you die or otherwise blow the game.” It is my opinion that baseball’s problems can be traced to the failure of the first couple to get this one little thing right.

As a result of the fall we can be assured that while baseball is the chosen sport of the Deity who “in the Big Inning created the heavens and the earth” it will not be perfect in this world. This is readily apparent in the past 7 or 8 years or so of the baseball steroid scandal. There is much blame to go around in this whole sordid affair from the commissioner’s office, to owners, the MLB Players union President Donald Fehr and the players themselves who blocked efforts to initiate tough and fair drug testing managed by them and the league.

Because of the league and players inability to police themselves they opened themselves to machinations of congressional committees led often by congressmen who have to assert their dominance in every aspect of American life. I actually found the inquisitional hearings led by Representative Henry Waxman to be a disgusting overreach of government power directed by people who couldn’t get picked to play on a little league team. The unbridled jealousy of career politicians who haven’t worked a real job in years toward the highly successful athletes was displayed as they dragged player after player before their committee. Congressmen asked them leading questions about the use of substances that were not always illegal setting them up for eventual prosecution of lying to Congress because like in the case of Bonds they gave ambiguous answers to the questions. Now I am not saying that the players were without blame, many set themselves up for this by blatantly looking guilty if they were not guilty of anything. The league and player’s union policies and response did nothing to help the matter and now we sit with what seems to be a never ending circus which harms the game.

My beef with many of those involved is that they do not respect the game. This goes for players, owners, union officials, media, politicians and investigators. This disrespect for the game has reached epic proportions as the hubris of all concerned reached incredible heights. While I could go on and on about this I am going for now focus on the inequitable treatment of the accused players by the media and government which I believe is glaringly apparent in the treatment given to Barry Bonds as opposed to players such as Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez.

Baseball purists are perhaps the most religious of fans. We don’t like it when people mess with the game. The game itself is sacred, thus when players, owners, union people, media or the government do things that we perceive to hurt the game we get just a tad bit upset. Football, Basketball and Hockey players, owners and officials can just about get away with murder and not only remain in the game but become or remain stars who eventually reach their respective Hall of Fame. Baseball on the other hand will take the person who has committed an infraction and like the ancient Israelites cast heavy stones upon their reputation and memory to the seventh generation. Baseball can be a very unforgiving game. The diamond is “holy ground” and the game is to be respected by players, owners, media, government and fans alike. This has not been the case in regard to steroids and other performance enhancing substances including their use by players, toleration by owners and “fishing expedition” investigations by Federal agents and Congress.

This being said in the past six years there has been an inequitable treatment of players accused or proven to have taken banned or illegal performance enhancing drugs or supplements. When Congress, the media and a then relatively unknown IRS investigator named Jeff Novitzky. One of the best commentators on the way that the Bonds investigation and prosecution has been handled, Jonathon Littman notes that the “Clear” that Bonds was accused of using was not illegal at the time that he allegedly used it, but also was not classified as a steroid. Littman notes that

“Experts say prosecutors might have intentionally asked Bonds what they knew to be ambiguous questions – never defining steroids or making a distinction between drugs that were illegal or merely banned by many major sports.”

“This case has been presented as Barry Bonds lying about steroids,” said Christopher Cannon, a San Francisco defense attorney with extensive experience in federal perjury cases. “The government’s theory is that he was taking the Clear. If the government knows the Clear wasn’t a steroid – then when Barry said he wasn’t taking a steroid, he was telling the truth.”

Likewise the manner in which Novitzky has led the government investigation leads on to wonder what the motivation is for the prosecution. There was very little money involved in the BALCO case, those accused or convicted have received very minor penalties, but the investigation which has spanned years has cost the government 55 million dollars. As Littman writes:

“The paucity of illegal profits and drugs raises the question whether prosecutors realized that the only potential for criminalizing the behavior of athletes who took banned substances was to set perjury traps or bait athletes into lying to the grand jury or to a federal agent.

“It sounds like a misuse of the grand jury,” said John Bartko, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco who has tried perjury cases. “They go and try to trip the guy into lying.””

Now Bonds may not be the most sympathetic character, but he does deserve to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Instead the prosecutors and some in the media have gone out of their way to destroy any chance of Bonds either playing again ever reaching the Hall of Fame. He is called a cheater in an era when it is likely that that a large number of players were doing the same thing, without penalty. It seems to me that Bonds has been singled out while others are left alone.

This is nowhere nearly apparent than with the recent admission by Alex Rodriguez that he took steroids, after having previously denied it and the positive test and 50 game suspension of Manny Ramirez for the use of a banned substance, a suspension that Ramirez just completed. A-Rod seems to have weathered his admission and I see no one coming after him while Ramirez’s return punctuated every other game during the day. Neither man received the abuse heaped upon Bonds and they have admitted or actually tested positive for the use of steroids or banned substances.

Having had to administer drug tests as a Army Company Commander I know that the burden of proof is on the prosecutor. The manner of testing and the chain of custody must be impeccable, otherwise allegations are just that and you cannot, unless you want to look like a fool and attempt to prosecute under Article 15 proceedings or Courts-Martial without unimpeachable evidence that a person took a substance known to be illegal at the time it was used, not something that was made illegal after the fact. The Bonds prosecution looks to me like a gross misuse of the Grand-Jury system and government power to make an example of Barry Bonds. If Bonds had been a mediocre player or not hold the records for the all time home runs and single season home runs he would not be a target.

Having said all of this the entire steroid era, especially the actions of the baseball owners, commissioner and players union sullied the game and opened the door to political opportunists like Waxman and investigators who use questionable and likely unethical and maybe even illegal means in order to trip up as suspect, as Novitzky appears to me to have done. Baseball must police itself and both players and owners must subscribe to a fair and clearly defined drug policy that leaves no room for misinterpretation. Maybe they should look to military rules of evidence for such a program which apply to all players equally with both random tests throughout the season which would ensure that every player was tested as well as periodic sweeps of the entire league.

In the case of Bonds and those whose real or alleged crimes now date back six or more years it is time to stop the madness. It is a waste of taxpayer money to continue this sham puritanical inquisition against Bonds while so many others are given a pass. Bonds name and reputation have been destroyed and he has never been convicted of a crime by prosecutors who continually have their evidence thrown out and indictments overturned by judges.

If you want to read more by Littman and his reporting of this go to: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=li-novitzkythomas031909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

As far as A-Rod and Manny, they are not going to the All-Star game this year as baseball fans are tired of this kind of behavior. If owners and players will not police themselves those of us who love and respect the game will ensure that they are accorded no honors.

Peace, Steve+

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Filed under Baseball, Loose thoughts and musings, philosophy, Religion

Tagged as alex rodriguez, all star game, article 15, balco, barry bonds, baseball hall of fame, beg sellig, congressional baseball steriods hearings, courts-martial, donald fehr, drug tests, evidence chain of custody, henry waxman, jeff novitzky, jonathan littman, major league baseball owners, major league baseball players association, manny ramirez, steroids, the clear

July 1, 2009 · 17:18

Comebacks in Baseball and Life: 27 Outs- the Baltimore Orioles teach us a Lesson in Life

salazar home run Oscar Salazar being greeted by Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters and Luke Scott

“You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.” Earl Weaver

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge

Last night something truly remarkable happened and it wasn’t something the latest in a political scandal, natural disaster, or war, coup d’état or international crisis. Likewise no additional entertainment icons died and we have been Michael Jacksoned to death. His death while tragic is now becoming an annoyance as the media and everyone with an opinion about him, his family, his lifestyle, antics or the cause of death chimes in on those subjects. The 24 hour non-stop news coverage is threatening to take on eschatological dimensions. Even so, all of those things happen all the time. They are not for all of the fanfare that remarkable or special be they wars, famine, death of icons, pestilence or scandals. Since they happen all the time they are not that remarkable.

No something much more remarkable happened last night which I am patently sure that the Deity Herself had something to do with. Something that causes us to remember that nothing is ever certain and that almost anything is possible. The Baltimore Orioles set the record for a comeback in a major league baseball game where a last place team came from behind to beat a first place team as well as their team record for biggest comeback set against the Red Sox in 1956.

The Red Sox have been great so far this year. They are in the most competitive division in baseball. The Yankees, Rays and Blue Jays are good teams and the Orioles, though bringing up the rear are showing promise as they continue to build a franchise based on a great farm system producing quality players. They now are tied for the 3^rd best team batting average in the majors at .274 with the Blue Jays and the 9^th best slugging percentage. What has hurt the Orioles has been pitching which is the third worst in the majors and this is slowly getting better as young pitchers developed in the minors are beginning to show up and do good things on the Orioles staff. The Orioles are not expected to be in the race this year, but the overall plan is to be contenders in a season or two.

However what matters now and makes this significant as it is an example of how something that happens on a baseball field can help us in life. The game was delayed by rain delay of 79 minutes in the 5^th inning. At the end of 7 ½ innings the Orioles were down 10-1. It was a game that seemed to be over. After all’ the Orioles had lost their last 8 games, going back to 2008 against the Red Sox and faced several outstanding Boston Relief Pitchers. Likewise, it was not certain that to Sox would not score any more runs. The Orioles pitching staff has not been consistent and the Red Sox have beaten up on the Orioles pitching staff. Things did not look good for the home team. Then something happened. Aubry Huff singled to right to open this inning. Huff was followed by rookie Nolan Reimold, who I have seen play many times this year at Harbor Park, who singled advancing Huff. The Luke Scott doubled scoring Huff. With 2 on and no outs Oscar Salazar, a hard working journeyman who was hitting .378 at Norfolk pinch hit for Melvin Mora. Salazar took Red Sox reliever Justin Masterson to deep left for a three run home run. Felix Pie (Pee-ay) who had relieved an injured Adam Jones drove in Robert Andino for a 5^th run.

The game was now 10-6 as Boston came to the plate in the top of the 8^th. The Red Sox appeared to be getting something going. With runners at 2^nd and 1^st with two out Jacoby Ellsbury hit a single to center. Red Sox catcher George Kottaras trying to score from second was thrown out at the plate by Felix Pie for the third out.

In the bottom of the 8^th the first four Orioles hitters; Reimold, Scott, Salazar and Wieters hit and Reimold scored against Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima who left the game. Okajima was replaced by Takashi Saito who gave up two more hits to Ty Wiggington and Brian Roberts scoring Scott and Salazar. To quell this Orioles uprising the Sox sent in the ever dependable Oriole killer Jonathan Papelbon who was 20-0 in save attempts against to O’s. Papelbon looked like he was in control when he struck out Felix Pie for the second out bringing up Orioles Right Fielder Nick Markakis who had never had a hit against Papelbon. Markakis hit a double off the left field wall to score pinch runner Jeremy Guthrie and Roberts to put the Orioles up 11-10. In two innings the Orioles had scored 10 runs on 10 hits. Going to the top of the 9^th the Orioles brought in closer George Sherrill who shut down the top of the Sox order to get the save.

It was an amazing game. A last place team that had no recent success against the first place team managed the biggest comeback of such a match up in Major League Baseball history and it was stunning. Red Sox Shortstop Dustin Pedrioa said “It was a weird game, a terrible loss for us. That’s upsetting. Things just kind of spiraled on us.” While Manager Terry Francona said “We just had no answer. We went through everybody. Nothing we did worked.” In the home clubhouse an emotional Orioles Manager Dave Tremblay said “That was probably the best game I’ve been involved in, right there. That was absolutely tremendous. When you talk about playing all 27 outs, that’s tonight.” While Oscar Salazar said something that I think made the difference in the game, mental readiness to step in and play when it looked like the game’s ending was already written in stone. Salazar who came up as a pinch hitter said “You sit on the bench 5 hours with the rain delay, but when they told me to hit, I was ready.” As Salazar stepped to the plate and got ready to hit you could see the look of calm, confident determination that only years of hard work in the obscurity of the minor leagues can bring to a person. A blogger in Boston had a banner headline: PAPELBLOWN and Sox Blow the Biggest Lead in the History of Earth.

Now of course the Red Sox being an excellent baseball team got their revenge at Camden Yards today, scoring 4 runs in the top of the 9th to tie the Orioles and go on and win in 11 by ascore of 6-5. This being said they are the Boston Red Sox and as much as I have hope for the Orioles, the Red Sox are at this place in the space time continuum the far better team.

So here are the life lessons that I drew from this game. First, no matter how bad things are you still have to keep playing. I know this from really crappy times in seminary where it looked like I would never ever finish seminary and that all I had sacrificed to get through would be in vain. There are 27 outs in a game and if you don’t give up, you always have a chance to win. Life is not like football or basketball where people can run out the clock on you once they get a comfortable lead. The other team still has to face you and if like Oscar Salazar and the other young Orioles you can step up and keep your head in the game you have a chance.

I have mentioned before how a number of people wrote me off in seminary making comments like “It’s obvious that you weren’t called to ministry otherwise God would be blessing you,” and “have you thought that maybe you were wrong to get out of the Army to go to seminary” or one that hurt the most, “you’re dumber than dirt for getting out of the Army to waste your time in seminary.” I heard such comments from people in church, at work, people that I called for prayer and even some family members. The toll on Judy was severe and though she was suffering she refused to even let me entertain giving up. If I had quit I would not be here today, I had to gut it out with the odds stacked against me and at times when I even thought that God might have turned his back on me.

Likewise if you are riding high you can’t become complacent. I do not believe that this happened to the Red Sox, but complacency kills. Jonathan Papelbon noted “Give the other team credit. They put pressure on our bullpen tonight and we pretty much imploded. I can’t think of any other word that describes it better.” The Red Sox infield also did something rather unique. With two outs in the bottom of the 6th Dustin Pedrioa charged off the field followed by the rest of the infield thinking that there were three outs. Only problem there were only two outs. The Boston Globe put it this way:

“And it’s hard not to attach some significance to that play in the bottom of the sixth, when the Red Sox infield trotted to the dugout with two out. “I looked up and I saw Tek standing there all by himself,” said Francona. “The first thing I think is that I must be nuts. I’ve never seen that. Pedie came in and said, ‘I led the charge. I (screwed) up.’ ” Said Pedroia: “I think it was my fault. I got ahead of myself and everyone followed me.”

That is my lesson learned. Watching the Orioles make this comeback against the Red Sox inspired me again to work harder and also reminded me from where I came and the struggles that we endured. If you had asked me in the spring of winter and spring of 1989-1990 if I thought I would make it through seminary I would have said, I may not but I will do everything that I can to make it through. Even 6 years later after finishing both seminary and CPE residency as Major in the Army Reserve Chaplain Corps I still had to work hard to overcome professional adversity. I got my second chance in 1999 when the Navy signed me as a free agent to play on the big team. My hat goes off to the young Orioles who fought back last night to win, especially Oscar Salazar who never gave up in 13 years in the minors. They may not be in the playoffs this year, but they are doing the things that will make them contenders. Any time a time does something like this against a team as fine as the Red Sox you know that they have the potential for greatness. The same goes for anyone who has the determination to come back from adversity when defeat looks certain.

As Bert Blyleven said “The problem with being Comeback Player of the Year is it means you have to go somewhere before you can come back.” Those places are not enjoyable places, but sometimes fighting our way out of them teaches us the value of persistence and perseverance. These are far more valuable than having everything our way, and knowing nothing but success without knowing failure. Without them we will never have the wherewithal to come back when things go bad.

Peace, Steve+

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Tagged as adam jones, american league east, army reserve chaplain corps, aubry huff, baltimore Orioles, bert blyleven, blown saves, boston red sox, calvin coolidge, dave trembley, dustin pedrioa, earl weaver, eschatology, felix pie, george sherrill, hideki okijima, jacoby ellsbury, jeremy guthrie, jonathan papelbon, justin masterson, luke scott, matt wieters, michael jackson, mlb comebacks, navy chaplain corps, nick markakis, nolan Reimold, oscar salazar, takashi saito, terry francona, ty wiggington, war famine death

June 30, 2009 · 21:17

The Gifts of PTSD: Insomnia is a Terrible Thing to Waste and the Hidden Value of Hyper-vigilance

On Board a 53 out near Syria

I’ve been asked by a number of people at work just how I manage to find the time to write the way that I do. The answer, which I have said to all of them is simple…insomnia, which it turns out is not necessarily a curse, but for me in some ways is a gift. I find that insomnia really is a terrible thing to waste. Until I went to Iraq I went to bed at a decent hour every night and seldom did I have problems sleeping. At the same time my life while busy pursuing work, military and professional education as well as academic degrees was full but not completely fulfilling. I had always wanted to write on a variety of subjects to include military history, theology, ethics and baseball. In fact someday I hope to get published. However back then I was always too distracted to write what I wanted to write. I could t stay on task for anything other than things that would seemingly directly affect my military career, even my marriage.

Convoy On Route Michigan

Iraq changed that more than I thought it could. I got back, fell apart about 90 days after returning home and despite pushing myself harder at work, ministry and academically I was not making it. Nightmares, dreams, chronic pain and anxiety, stress reactions even in church about crippled me. About the only place I felt some peace was at the ball park. Somehow the sight of that great field and the infield diamond settles me. Sleep deprivation became a very real and persistent part of my life. I guess it was the fact in Iraq that we did most of our travel at night by helicopter, usually CH-46, CH-47 or CH-53’s and had very irregular schedules. Likewise when we came back to base there was another little issue. The pad for the Army Medivac Choppers, or “Dustoff” was about 200 yards from my quarters so all night long I was subjected to the constant noise from these aircraft. If I hear a UH-60 Blackhawk or SH-60 Seahawk at night I still get a startle reaction. Outgoing artillery fire and occasional fire, explosions and sirens in the adjacent town of Habbinyah were staples of life. When bored I would stand outside and watch illumination rounds going off the highway just outside our entry control point or wander over near the Shock Surgery Trauma Platoon facility where “Dustoff” was waiting on the pad. I’m sure that working a number of mass casualty events and seeing our wounded Marines and Soldiers being treated as well as Iraqi civilians including kids had to affect me. These Americans and Iraqis were out driving the same roads that we would drive on a regular basis and the sight of their shattered bodies went through my mind every time we went on a mission.

As I got deeper into my tour I found that no matter how tired that I was I had great difficulty getting to sleep. I’m sure this was due to our operational tempo, odd hours, demanding travel, sleeping conditions which varied at every location and occasionally getting shot at. The most cool of those were when our Army CH-47D talking off from Ramadi , took fire from the ground and proceeded to pop flares, take evasive action while the tail gunner opened fire with his M240 series machine gun. Since I was sitting two seats from the tail gunner and saw, heard and smelled the gun as it fired I’m pretty sure that it happened. However, when I called the Army squadron to see what happened they denied that the event happened. I hear that was not an uncommon occurrence. So anyway by the mid-point of my tour I was no longer sleeping so I would sit up and play games on my computer, such as chess and Ma-jong. It is amazing how good you can get at stuff like that through sheer repetition. It was playing these games that I would wear myself our enough to sleep since I usually did an hour or two of PT during the day or late evening when not on the road. It is comforting when you are running near the perimeter on a cool Saturday morning and hear explosions and exchanges of automatic weapons fire going off about 2 km to your right.

So now despite my cool concoction of meds I still have difficulty getting to sleep. In order to sleep I have to wear myself out and when I am done I take my meds and crash. If I take them before I am exhausted I see little effect and I am not about to start mixing them with the good beer that I enjoy so much. I do not drink crappy beer thank you. Maybe it will be time to go back to the doctor when my provider’s relief arrives in August or September. I probably need to talk to my buddy Elmer the shrink again soon. Elmer is great but my schedule has not lined up well to see him the past couple of weeks between leave, call schedule and the emergency root canal. I probably have to go back in on that sooner than my appointment as I still am having some pain and wonder if there is an infection there.

Since I don’t believe in wasting time I have decided to be productive when I can’t sleep. I started writing as I finished my class requirements for my latest Masters Degree. I still need to do the comprehensive exams but will wait until September so as not to mess with any home games the Tides have left. I began writing as a means of both helping me and disciplining myself to write regularly. I have several book ideas but have never been able to get any off the ground because I could not stay focused. This website helps me do that and has got me thinking creatively again. So my answer to how I can find the time to write is simple, if I have 20 or so extra hours in the week late at night that are going to be there no matter what I do, then I shouldn’t waste them. So my point is that insomnia is a terrible thing to waste. It could be worse. I know of other vets who can’t sleep either due to war experiences and some have fallen off the deep end with self destructive behaviors at least I am not doing online gambling, porn or other distractions that have helped continue to ravage some of my brothers and sisters who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. I have found in a strange way that the chronic insomnia has been a gift which has enabled me to gain insights on life and experience that I had never been able to put down before. It has forced me to take advantage of time that I would otherwise waste web or channel surfing until I fell asleep. It is interesting to see what comes out of your computer when you are trying to write while falling asleep.

Here is an example that I found and saved a few weeks ago: “Manages not only check their the firduk about what they fell than…”

I have no earthly idea what it means or what a “firduk” is or what “manages would “not only check their the firduk” means and I don’t want to find out. God only knows what it means but it reminds me where a half-asleep Jerry Seinfeld wrote down something that he saw on TV that he thought was funny. He spent the show trying to see what he wrote and then finally saw what he actually heard. He discovered that it was not nearly as funny as he thought.

Another gift I have been given with my PTSD is that of hyper-vigilance. I am much more alert and observant than I ever was. This is on the road, in crowds or even as I do my job in the hospital. I have begun to notice the little odd things that are clues to other possibly more significant issues. This probably has saved my life on the road on several occasions since I returned as I have a much great “feel” for what is going on around me than I have ever had while driving. There have been at least three times where I “felt” the danger of another vehicle and took evasive action to avoid a collision before I heard or saw it. Of course the colorful euphemisms which poured out of me on these occasions were quite memorable, I think the best being “You Oedipal Mother F—-r!” when some asshole almost plowed over me in a grocery store parking lot not far from home.

So, despite the inherent problems that PTSD, insomnia and the other maladies I have incurred have caused me, the Deity Herself has also given them to me as a gift. For which I am strangely grateful. Even a few months back I saw them as a curse, but now they have become a source of blessing. Like Commander Spock might say to Captain Kirk after observing a human idiosyncrasy “fascinating Captain, fascinating.”

It’s a Gift…Enjoy

I’m back on duty tomorrow for another overnight. This will be a long week, 3 duty nights out of 5 work days. Thankfully I will not have duty again for two weeks after Friday.

Peace, Steve+

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Filed under Baseball, Loose thoughts and musings, philosophy, PTSD, star trek

Tagged as afghanistan, ch-46, ch-47, commander spock, dustoff, habbinyah, hummv, hyper-vigilance, insomina, iraq, mass casualty events, medivac, mh-53, PTSD, ramadi, route michigan, seinfeld, sh-60 seahawk, shock surgery trauma platoon, star trek, uh-60 blackhawk, vietnam, writing

June 29, 2009 · 22:32

Interns and Residents Graduate while New Ones Arrive; Save #500 for Mariano Rivera and I Know Why the North Koreans are So Belligerent…They Don’t Have Baseball!

Well. I got back to work today and I’m glad to be back. The trip to DC was really nice. Having duty the first day back well, what can I say? Tonight has been very busy but not too sporty yet, although I am wondering as the night has a weird feel, which a resident that I have worked with a lot feels too. Hopefully we are just paranoid. I wrote this at my dinner break and thankfully I picked relatively uncomplicated things to write about tonight, I had it done by the time the cardiac response pager went off following some meetings and early rounds and patient visits. It’s about 2300 and I am just now sitting down to finish this prologue.

Today we graduated our Intern Class. I have gotten to know a good number of these young physicians during the past year during their ICU rotation as well as when I have been on call throughout the house. It was a privilege to be at the graduation at the invitation of the class leadership as I had been with them on their Dining Out back in April. To have one more time with them before they go on to residency, the Fleet Marine Force or Sea Billets as General Medical Officers or Surgeons, as well as those selected to become Flight Surgeons or Diving Medical Officers assigned to Special Operations, Diving or EOD units was really nice. Having spent a lot of time with many on the ICU I see the toll that the internship places on them and their families. These young physicians have done well and will serve our Sailors and Marines, as well as Soldiers and Airmen and their families well. Some will remain to complete residencies of various types and lengths, while those who do not initially get a residency will likely be on the front line of caring for our servicemen and women in harm’s way or on medical and humanitarian missions. Some will end up with the Marines in Iraq or Afghanistan and others serve as the “Doctor” for a ship or Marine battalion often far from any immediate back up or specialty care. I wish all of them the best. We have also had residents leave us for new horizons. Some will be going on to advanced fellowships while others will serve as staff physicians or surgeons throughout the world. It has been great working with many of them in their final residency year.

While these young physicians are leaving us, we have some who will remain on as residents here or fellowships. It will be good to continue to work with and get to know them over the coming years. Now the fun part, we have a butt load of brand new Interns who are reporting to us as well as some Residents from other institutions or coming back from their tours in the Fleet. I remember my time at civilian teaching hospitals where I served as a chaplain or did my residency. Pastoral Care Residencies typically start in September or October which takes them out of the cycle that most residents or interns have in the medical community. I hope that we will eventually have our program lined up so our new residents report the same time the physician internships and residencies begin and for our residents to have more interaction with them. I think the latter will happen sooner than the first mentioned with things that we are in the process of instituting. I really believe that the cross pollination of physician and pastoral care residencies will benefit both specialties as they meet at the intersections of healing, life and death, faith and spirituality. Tonight when I have been greeting every new physician I see and introducing myself to them. They come from quite a few interesting places and I hope to get to know them all pretty well.

Last night was a great event. Yankees ace reliever and “closer deluxe” Mariano Rivera notched his 500^th save. He became the second pitcher to achieve this number as he shut down the New York Mets at Citi Park. To some this may not seem too much of an accomplishment. After all, the relief pitcher as a specialty and development of pitchers to serve in different relief roles is a relatively new part of baseball, really only going back to the 1970s. Of course there were relieves before, but they had a limited role as starters often would pitch complete games. Satchel Paige was an exception when he came to the Majors from the Negro Leagues spending most of his time in a relief role, and there are a few others but the reliever was in many cases a former starter who didn’t have the juice to pitch complete games later in their careers. Rivera is a special breed even as a reliever. He is a closer. This means that when he comes in he is either trying to save the victory or stave off defeat. He has to come in at a moment’s notice in any park, weather or situation often to deal with the heart of an opponent’s batting order. He has the 500 saves and a career 2.29 ERA. In the World Series he has 9 saves and a 1.16 ERA. It gets better. In the League Championship Series that he has pitched in he has 10 saves and a 0.97 ERA and in Division Series he has 15 saves and a 0.38 ERA. Since the playoffs tend to have the better and more competitive teams in them so these are amazing statistics. In the playoff he has 8 wins and only one loss. At age 39 he shows no sign of letting up.

What makes a guy like Mariano so special is first that he is nearly unhittable and his very presence on the mound gives confidence to the Yankees and sends a message to their opponents. He will if he has any say in the matter save or win that game even if he comes in early with the bases loaded and no outs in the 8^th inning. Rivera is like a really hot ER or ICU team that has to save a life when the situation is at the worst or if not that bad where it could get sporty. I have always admired relievers who do the job well having had to go into a number of jobs where my predecessor both as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the Army or Navy Chaplain was fired. That is no fun when you have to go pick up the pieces. Relievers make their living doing this and Rivera has to be the best reliever who has ever lived. To top it off he is regarded as a nice guy, a leader and one of baseball’s good guys. And last but not least Mariano was not a “bonus baby.” He came up as an undrafted free agent. Some Trevor Hoffman fans may argue this point but the high intensity playoff game record speaks for itself. Nobody does it better. Someday Jonathan Papelbon may do so for the Red Sox, but he has many years to go before he hits 500 saves. He has the advantage of starting his Major League career as a closer and already has as of the end of 2008 114 saves and a 1.84 ERA. He is the real deal and hopefully will remain healthy.

Finally a closing thought for the night. I have wondered for some time just why the North Koreans can be so bellicose and ill tempered. They are threatening to incinerate us and upset that we have moved missile interceptors to Hawaii, like hello, Hawaii is 4000 miles away from North Korea. Needless to say the whole bunch of nations in the neighborhood is not real happy with the Dictator named Kim. The Japanese are upping their readiness, the South Koreans sending folks to the border and talking of pre-emption and even the Chicoms and Russians are not real happy. Some sources are even saying the Nutty North Koreans may launch and ICBM in our general direction around the 4^th of July. That would not be cool.

So like I said, I was wondering about what makes the North Koreans so ill tempered. It finally came to me last week at Harbor Park when watching the Tides play the Pawtucket Red Sox. There were scouts from the Korean Professional Baseball league in the stands as well as Japanese scouts and American scouts. Then it hit me. Baseball is big in South Korea and they are getting pretty darned good in international competition. They are so good in fact that they have won the Olympic Gold Medal and finished second in the World Baseball Classic. In contrast the North Koreans don’t have baseball. If they had baseball they would be able to work off all that unhealthy stress and hatred, the Yin and Yang would come back into balance. What if Kim Jung Il had played little league and high school ball? Who knows he might be a manager in the Korean Leagues taking out all that anger on the umpires when they make a bad call or executing his closers when they fail. The South Koreans have been blessed by the Deity Herself with Baseball and I do believe that this has to be the difference. Even Communist Cuba is nowhere near as nutty as North Korea and this too I attribute to Baseball and Fidel having played ball himself. Maybe we should instead of negotiators send Baseball players, scouts and instructors to North Korea? It just might work. Look what McDonald’s and Coke did to the former Soviet Union….

Peace, Steve+

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June 27, 2009 · 23:26

Weekend in Washington-Reconnecting with Friends Family, Each Other and an Evening at the West Wing

1091 At the Brady Press Room in the West Wing

Our anniversary weekend continues, tonight we have our behind the scenes tour of the White House. Last night we had a wonderful reunion with my former Commanding Officer Colonel Mike Paulovich and his wife Janet. Colonel Paulovich and I served together at Marine Security Force Battalion, when it was still called a battalion. The unit was actually regimental size with subordinate units located in the United State, the Middle East, Guantanamo Bay Cuba and Europe with FAST (Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team) Platoons deployed in hot spots world-wide. The Colonel was a great officer and should have been a Flag Officer. He retired as the senior Marine Corps Officer and Professor of Ethics at the Naval Academy. We have remained close over the years and have always had a special connection, to include that of our wives. During our time together at Security Force Battalion we went through some incredibly difficult personal and professional times. The battalion lost I think about 11 Marines while we were there due to all sorts of causes so we shared a lot of community grief as we saw our battalion through difficult times.

I never will forget the night that Colonel Paulovich called me on my cell phone saying he needed me. I was at the ballpark and I knew things were bad for him to be calling me there, he too is a baseball fan and has great respect for the game. When I got to the battalion I found that he had been involved in giving CPR to a Marine who had just checked into the unit that late that afternoon from an overseas command and had hanged himself within 30 minutes of checking in and getting his room. That night I was with him and the other Marines who tried to save that young man’s life until about 0300 the next morning. I was there when the Colonel’s father died and he was there when I found that my father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. We shared many other difficult times together as well as good times. We frequently travelled overseas together and I have never had a Commanding Officer any time or any where seek my advice on caring for people, support the ministry of his chaplain and ensure that I got to his Marines no matter where in the world they were. Even more importantly he allowed me to be his Priest. Some of the places that we travelled together included Bahrain, Japan and Spain and a particularly memorable trip to England and Scotland where our Marines were doing exercises with the British Royal Marines. We saw each other through good times and bad and it was such a pleasure to fellowship with both him and Janet over dinner and beer at the D.C. Chophouse. I am so honored to have him as a friend and Judy to be a friend of his wife.

1094 Outside the West Wing

This morning was a relaxing morning except for two things. First, my tooth started acting up again and started hurting pretty bad. I doubled up on one of my non-narcotic pain meds and slammed down some 800 mg. Motrin which made the pain bearable through most of the day. It is starting up again right now so I will be hitting some more Motrin and Ultram this evening. Then I read the details of our invitation to the White House and realized that we had not brought appropriate attire for Judy. I looked up women’s clothing nearby and saw a Dress Barn. We started walking, unfortunately not being very familiar with the layout of the city I made a right turn rather than left coming out of the hotel. After dragging Judy around having followed the advice of several residents and a store keeper we were nowhere near where we needed to be. I realized then that some people are clueless as to the layout of the city that they live in. These people really had no clue; I’m surprised that they could find their way to their own toilet much less survive in the city. Heck if I lived here I would know this place by heart within months because I have one of those phonographic memories you know. It was kind of like they were saying “go four blocks and if you pass Freddy the pan handler turn left and the street will be two blocks down” except that Freddy the pan-handler wasn’t on the corner and the street was the opposite direction from where the clueless person said that it was. Finally I knew that I was only torturing Judy by dragging her around. I hailed a cab and said I need to go to Dress Barn on Connecticut Avenue Northwest. The guy was great. He knew where it was; he was friendly and dropped us off at the door. An hour and $248 later we walked out of the store with a nice outfit and butt-load of other clothes. Since I had not really gotten her much for the anniversary it was nice to do that for her, after all she tolerates all of my annoying habits and understands how to make sure that I don’t do anything to screw up my career. The ladies that helped us, Frieda and Mary were great. If all people in retail were as friendly and helpful as these women there would be a lot more coming off the shelves even in the bad economy.

I guess one of the really cool things about this weekend is that we have not tried to fit too much into it. It used to be that we would plan and schedule so much that although we were “together” there was no time for any kind of intimacy. We would end up stressed out, tired and resentful of each other. For once we decided just to be with each other and that has been way cool. If there is any advice I can offer to couples be they young or old is to get to know each other again by not focusing on things which entertain and take up time but don’t bring you together. Judy and I are wired differently, we have different interests, but we give each other the freedom to pursue those interests and encourage each other to fulfill our dreams. At the same time we finally figured out that we have to take time with each other. It took a quarter century to figure this out but we have finally been able to and the results have been amazing.

This evening we had our private staff guided tour of the West Wing of the White House. My friend Mark, the Chief of Staff to the National Security Council had to be out doing a Navy Reserve Drill so his assistant Cindy took us around. It was really cool seeing the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room and a number of other historic places including the James Brady Press Room. We were not able to see the Rose Garden on this trip as the President and his family was relaxing out there, but we did see the Presidential First Puppy “Bo” playing on the back lawn. Hopefully we will get to meet the President on a future trip. Since we have reason to come up here anyway it would be cool to get to meet him. Everyone was great to us at the White House and we enjoyed our visit tremendously.

Tonight we went out with Judy’s cousin Becki to a Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant and will meet her again in the morning for breakfast before heading back home. We stopped by her house which she bought when she moved her for her job with US Department of Fish and Game. The house was a “fixer-upper” and Becki has been doing this with houses for a good amount of time. She has already transformed much of the place which frankly looked like hell when she purchased it. It was good to see her and Tucker her friendly little black cat. It’s weird having a cat come when you call it, hell our first dog Frieda wouldn’t do that unless she thought it was in HER best interests.

Note: As I was getting ready to post I decided to load my SD card from my camera into my computer to retrieve my photos from the West Wing. It looks like I have somehow got the damned thing jammed in and I can’t figure out either how to get the pictures off of it or how to get it back out. Since I want to save the card and not damage my computer I will try to figure this out when I am not tired and have some idea of what I might do to solve the problem. So now the cool pictures inside the Press Room and at the entry reserved for official visitors will have to wait. Be assured that they are cool and I will post them when I can. Gotta love technology sometimes….

So tomorrow we see Becki again for breakfast and head home.

Peace, Steve+

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June 26, 2009 · 16:54

Where were You When…? The Death of an Icon and Its Impact in Our Lives

Note: This post is one where I invite readers to share any memories they have of Michael Jackson’s death or other events that involved the deaths of cultural icons as well as significant events that either affected you or made a deep impact on your life or that of people that you know. I will approve all comments except those identified as spam by WordPress.

The death of Michael Jackson yesterday was one of those events in life that when they occur leave a lasting impression on people. Even people who were not fans of Michael will remember because Michael Jackson was a cultural icon. When icons die, or tragedies occur they tend to leave a lasting mark. You can be talking to anyone and if they were alive when one of these events happened and quite a few or most people will be able to tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time of the event.

I am 49 years old, though patently I don’t really look my age, nor do I act it. Being that I am nearly half a century old it means that I have seen a fair amount of life. Since I am passionate about life and a keen observer of life, society and culture being a historian as well as member of the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park parish I remember a lot. I’m told by some that I have one of those phonographic memories. You know the kind where you get a thought in your head and it keeps going and going round and round at 33 1/3 RPMs. I will remember this because we had just arrived at the Capital Hilton and were preparing to go out for dinner with Judy’s cousin Becki at Murphy’s of DC to celebrate our anniversary. I had just checked the news when I heard that Michael had been found down and was in cardiac arrest. Since I have seen a lot of these cases roll into ERs that I have worked in I knew that Jackson had very little chance of coming out of this alive. Most news sites were reported that he was getting CPR and had been taken to UCLA Medical Center. Then I checked the website of Matt Drudge, the Drudge Report following a look at CNN. I opened the page and Drudge’s trademark old fashioned police siren light was flashing and below it in red was “WEBSITE: JACKSON DEAD!” and had a link to the celebrity gossip site TMZ. TMZ actually reported the death over an hour prior to most of the networks. It also turned out that TMZ’s report was pretty accurate. Later other sites began to announce the news pretty much confirming TMZ’s initial report. I saw the report on CNN as we walked to get a cab to the restaurant with Becki. It was kind of surreal as Michael Jackson, despite his eccentric actions and nearly continuous controversy surrounding his life, was a larger than life figure.

So events like this get etched on people’s memories like images of the Virgin Mary on grilled cheese sandwiches or pizzas. These have been reported by the faithful and offered for sale on E-bay so they must be authentic right? They are something that you reallymust remember. Talking with Judy and Becki at dinner we began to recount where we were at different moments events over the past 30 years or so. For me the events are often linked to other seemingly inconsequential events going on in my own life. As I have said before we have lived a life much like the characters in the show Seinfeld so some of these things may not be as funny to you as they are for me.

Some of the things that I remember which stand out include the following events. If you remember where you were at these events please feel free to comment or add your own in the comments section. This is one of those rare times when almost everyone has a memory that surfaces because a current event triggers the memory of that particular event.

For me I’m going to first each back to is the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King on April 4^th 1968. That was strange because we lived in the little town of Oak Harbor Washington where my dad was stationed. The town was small and isolated by being on an island. We saw the news reports that night this time I believe we were watching NBC’s Huntley and Brinkley give the news. This was way before Cable news and so it took a while to get the story out. As a little kid I was astounded that anyone could kill a minister and I knew that Dr. King was a leader in trying get blacks the same rights that whites enjoyed. The next day our teacher at Oak Harbor Elementary School, Mrs. Jackson talked about it with us. This was follow just two months later by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy following his California Primary election victory. I remember the news reports the next day and how upset that my parents were about his death.

The next event was Apollo 11 Moon landing, the “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind” moment on July 20^th 1969 where Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module on the “Sea of Tranquility.” I was a kid and on summer vacation still living in Oak Harbor. We were at home watching Walter Cronkite report the event live when it happened. That was an amazing event.

The next really big thing for me was the Marshall University Football team plane crash in Huntington West Virginia where at 7:35 Pm EST a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed into a hillside just short of the runway killing the team as well as numerous boosters, alumni and Huntington notables. This was kind of person for us. I had seen that team practice at the old Fairfield Stadium across the street from my grandparent’s house the previous spring before we returned to California to rejoin my dad after he had found us decent housing. We were watching the evening news in Long Beach California when the local announcer interrupted the story he was working on and announced the crash. My mom knew a number of people on the aircraft and was devastated.

I’m going to jump forward a bit, to the fall of Saigon on April 30^th 1975. This was a bitter day for me. My dad had fought in Vietnam and I knew kids who had lost their fathers in the war. I had experienced a Sunday School teach telling me that my dad was a “baby killer” for being in Vietnam in 1972 and I felt that we had let the South Vietnamese down and that it was the fault of those in the media, on the street and in Congress that had ensured that our men died in vain. I think that was the point that I decided that I was going to enter the military. I still cannot look at Jane Fonda and some of her fellow travelers without feeling a sense of anger.

Jumping again a few years I remember the fall of the Shah of Iran and the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran by so called “students” on November 4^th 1979. The takeover which lasted 444 days began in my sophomore year of college. The humiliation of the country and the poor response of President Jimmy Carter confirmed that I would enter the military after college. I won’t forget the nightly updates on ABC hosted by Ted Koppel which became the long running show Nightline. I would stay up every night to get the updates. When the hostages were released this was cause for celebration, but the damage was done. Of course we saw the pro and anti-Ayatollah protesters on our university, Northride a big business school responded to a pro-Ayatollah by driving the protestors off campus. So much for riled up MBA students and Science geeks huh?

When Elvis died on August 16^th 1977 I was a getting ready to enter my senior year of high school. In fact only a week before I had won a copy of a blue vinyl copy of his last album Moody Blue in a local pop radio station give away. I was on a church high school trip when the news came over the radio. The man driving the car a real estate agent who was a deacon in the church started to cry, I mean like really cry almost like Middle Eastern mourning kind of crying. As someone who is less expressive of such emotions being a Romulan at heart I was mildly taken aback, after all it wasn’t like they had dated or anything. I had seldom seen men cry before and this was some pretty emotional stuff. My mom had the same kind of reaction I discovered on my way home. I guess it was the generation thing. He was the icon of his generation and changed both the style and the performance of music. It was Elvis that I immediately thought of when I first saw the news of Michael Jackson’s death. I guess the fact that both were known as the “king”, that both died young and unexpectedly and that Michael was briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley makes their connection a bit stronger than otherwise expected. I wonder if there will be stories that Michael is really dead or if it was staged to get him some privacy. I’m sure that conspiracy theorists will be looking into this as both a death and a disappearance. On a side note I visited Graceland in 1983 on my way to Fort Knox Kentucky and sat in the “pink Jeep.” Judy had a Tonka pink Jeep when she was a kid.

The attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 20^th 1981 stands out. I was a junior at cal State Northridge and was taking my lunch on the lawn outside of the office where I worked as a peer counselor. I was getting ready to go to class as I watched to really good looking girls go walking by me talking. I didn’t notice anything unusual until the past me and continuing to watch I noticed that each had their hand down the back side of the pants of the other one. I had never seen this before. Of course having grown up in California I knew homosexual men and I had heard of lesbians but this was the first time that I ever noticed women of that persuasion like doing some affection or foreplay in public. Since then of course I have had many friendships with both male homosexuals and lesbians but this was one of those moments that sticks out in my mind. Anyway, as I walked back into the office to grab my books for class the office TV was on announcing the attempted assassination and what I will never forget is watching retired General Alexander Haig as Secretary of State have a news conference where he stated “I’m in control.” Of course he wasn’t the next in line and though he thought that he was he was not in control, even of himself that that point. I don’t think that then Vice President George H.W. Bush was very impressed nor were the actuals in the line of succession. So the shooting of President Reagan is intermixed with my first view of lesbian touching and seeing a General go out of control to be in control. As Mr. Spock might say to Captain Kirk, “Captain I find this fascinating.”

In January 1985 I was a young company commander in Wiesbaden Germany. The Space Shuttle Challenger with 7 Astronauts aboard blew up shortly after launch. It was already the close of the business day in Germany when this happened. I had the First Sergeant release the soldiers a bit early and set the duty, the Charge of Quarters, the Assistant and the Duty Driver. I was staying late as always to take care of maintenance management and personnel reports when Specialist Lisa Dailey rushed into my office. Lisa was the Charge of Quarters or CQ that day. She knocked on my door and said “Sir the space shuttle just blew up.” She had been watching it live on the new AFN broadcast of live stateside TV news broadcasts. If I recall this was the time slot of the Today Show, and yes it was when there was only one AFN broadcast channel. I looked up from my mountain of reports and said to her, “Specialist Dailey, space shuttles don’t blow up.” And she said, no sir it just did, I was watching it and it is on TV right now.” So I got up from my desk and walked at a brisk pace down the hall with my spun up specialist and looked on in horror as I saw a replay of the launch. I was stunned as like I had told Lisa “space shuttles don’t blow up.” However this one did and it was sobering. I should have believed Lisa, she was a great soldier and the last time that I heard from her is doing well working as an RN in Southern California. I had an eerie reprise of this when the Space Shuttle Columbia blew up on re-entry. At the time I was waiting for the arrival of General Peter Pace who was to be our guest speaker at the Battle of Hue City Memorial Weekend in Jacksonville FL. He was delayed a couple of hours by an emergency meeting of the Joint Chiefs.

Fast forward a few years to the bombing by Libyan agents of Pam Am flight 103, the Clipper Maid of the Seas over Lockerbie Scotland, on December 21^st 1988. I had left active duty for seminary a couple of months previously and was engaged in a nearly futile job search in oil and real estate busted Texas. I had completed the share of my morning futility mailing our more resumes, making more calls and picking up more job applications. As always I would take a football out and punt it as far as I could to relieve the stress. I had already found out that breaking things that you actually need when being accosted by bill collectors is not good a good way to deal with stress. In today’s current economy I suggest anyone is such straits pick up a football and punt the crap out of it rather than taking anything out on home appliances, electronics or loved ones. Eventually things will work out as sucky as they may seem now; the Deity Herself has assured me of this. Anyway, back to the plane crash. This really was weird for us because barely two years prior we had flown the same aircraft back from Germany when we were reassigned to the states. We remembered this because then they showed the photo of the nose and cockpit area we saw the name of the aircraft. I looked at Judy and said, does the name of that airplane look familiar? If I recall correctly she said something like “Oh my God” and I said: “Remember back in Frankfurt when I saw the name of the aircraft prior to boarding?” and how “l liked the way Pan Am gave pretty names to its aircraft.” It was funny because we both vividly recalled waiting for our flight and what we said about the aircraft. That was totally weird and surreal almost like an X-Files thing as I thought back to details inside of the aircraft and the trip home from Germany.

We were in Fort Worth for the first bombing of the World Trade Center and the destruction of the Branch Davidian Compound outside Waco. Both times I was at work and watched the events unfold on the televisions of our ministry’s television production department. The Branch Davidian stand-off and attempted seizure of by Federal Agents used M-751 Combat Engineer Vehicles from my National Guard unit. The vehicles were not manned by Guardsmen but Federal agents. Later that summer I saw a couple of the vehicles which still had white paint scratches on them from the Branch Davidian building. In 1995 I was home getting ready to go to work in Huntington West Virginia when the Murrow Federal Building was destroyed by Timothy McVeigh.

There are quite a few others that I could mention but will finish with the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers on September 11^th 2001. I had finished a couple of counseling cases and put out some other brush fires as the Chaplain for Headquarters Battalion 2^nd Marine Division. Leaving my office for a belated PT session at the French Creek gym I was closing out my internet explorer. On the Yahoo home page there was a small news line that said “Aircraft crashes into World Trade Center.” I shrugged and figured that some idiot private pilot had flown his aircraft into is by mistake and when out to my car. I got in my 2001 Honda CR-V and some guy on the radio was blathering about it being an airliner and then I heard a chilling line that I will never forget. “Oh my God another aircraft has hit the second building.” I went over to the gym and stood staring in disbelief at one of the TVs with a bunch of Marines and Sailors. I shook my head, ran back to the office and changed over to my cammies and when to the Battalion Headquarters where we were informed of what the command knew and then set to work taking anti-terror precautions as no one knew what might happen next. Camp LeJeune became a fortress. There were checkpoints at key locations throughout the base. Patrols were set up and we remained in lock-down for almost 4 days. That is a day that I can never forget, over 3000 Americans and others killed by Islamic extremist terrorists out to ignite a world war.

So those are some of mine. What about yours? Feel free to add your posts here and get a discussion of these and other notable events including the death of Michael Jackson going. It will be interesting to see and I will approve all posts to this article, excepting of course spam posts.

Peace, Steve+

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June 24, 2009 · 23:40

The Eve of 26 Years of Marriage

Judy Wedding Judy on our Wedding Day

“Baseball and marriage have much in common. Both are a team effort. You can’t play baseball by yourself. You need others and have to get along with them. Marriage needs a partner. If marriage reaches a point where getting along is not possible, the marriage is over.” Peter Griffiths in the Daily Herald 1982

Today is our wedding anniversary eve, in fact our 26^th anniversary. It was cool that we got to spend it together; this has not always been the case. Tonight the Deity Herself smiled upon us as on a beautiful night we watched our Norfolk Tides defeat the Pawtucket Red Socks 4-2. Tomorrow we start a 4 day road trip to Washington DC to celebrate our anniversary which will be topped off by a behind the scenes tour of the White House on Saturday Night arranged by a friend who I baptized on the way to Iraq, who is now on the National Security Council. His staff has bent over backward to make this happen and we are blessed. We will also see my old Commanding Officer from Marine Security Force Battalion, or now as it is called the Security force Regiment and his wife who are coming down from Annapolis to meet us Friday night.

So 26 years, as Jerry Garcia would say it has been a long strange trip. We met almost five years before we were married at San Joaquin Delta College. We got to know each other by hanging out between classes with mutual friends. In fact the things we did were almost like Seinfeld before Seinfeld came on. It was a relationship initially based on nothing, except that I had a Dorothy Hamill fetish and Judy had short brown hair. We started dating about 7 months after we met. We were co-conspirators at the Delta College German club where our German candy and bake sales were legendary, racking up huge profits for the club which enabled us to fund our own field trips to San Francisco and Monterrey. Our political prowess was also unmatched, as a small club we had few votes in student government which at the time was dominated by a rather large and active ethnic club. This club was a bit pushy the way it handled itself, so we cobbled together a coalition of the language, science and other kind of “nerdy” clubs, funded our candidate with our sales receipts, even passing our free candy on his campaign materials. He had an ethnic name and we used it to our advantage, we convinced a lot of people that our friend Tory was one of the other ethnic club’s candidates. We used his first name “Salvatore” in our advertising. This caused a split in the voting allowing our stealth candidate from an Asian club to become student body President. I guess had we had the wherewithal to pursue politics as a couple we might have been quite good, as both of us have pretty good instincts and I happen to be rather analytical and calculating at times. As it were this was the high point of our political career but our relationship was solidified as we shared in taking German club from a poor club of nerds to a campus economic and political powerhouse of nerds.

Me and Judy Dorm Us in 1980 at Cal State Northridge

We grew together over the years of our courtship playing off of our mutual twisted sense of humor and our faith. I followed Judy down to Cal State Northridge and a week after I was commissioned we got married at our home Church, East Side Presbyterian Church in Stockton. The eve of the wedding my ROTC friends took me out and tried to get me drunk, but I survived. The wedding itself was on a shoestring as Judy’s dad was out of work and her mom not working and playing well with others. Everything came together and our wedding looked like it cost a lot more than it did. We spent the next two weeks together before I went on active duty and Judy finished her last semester of college. We finally settled in Eckelhausen Germany, a tiny little town in the Saarland in April 1984 and lived in Germany for most of the first three years of our marriage.

Now as to anniversaries that we have spent together and apart; this is what makes 26 pretty special.

Wedding 1 Wedding Day 25 June 1983 East Side Presbyterian Church

In 1984 I was in Landstuhl Army Medical Center dehydrated from a 2 week bout of gastroenteritis where I was so sick I was vomiting my anti-nausea medicine. I had lost almost 20 pounds and my company commander wouldn’t believe that I was sick until I threw up on his desk. It was his fault, I told him I was going to throw up and he told me that I had to stay. Oh well, that got me a ride in a Mercedes-Benz Ambulance to Landstuhl. In 1985 and 1986 I was in the field with my company. We were together in 1987 and 1988 in San Antonio, but from 1989-1997 we did not spend a single anniversary together due to military duties. We spent 1998 together but missed 1999 and 2000 after I came in the Navy. We got 2001 one together, but just barely as I returned from deployment a week before it. We missed 2002 as I was deployed to the Middle East and finally got 2003 together when we renewed our vows in Jacksonville Florida. 2004-2007 we celebrated on the road doing trips to minor league baseball games out of our area in either Pennsylvania or North Carolina. Last year we were together but I was not doing well having hit bottom with my PTSD about 100 or so days after returning from Iraq. So with this history in mind you can understand why this is special. We are 10 for 26 counting tomorrow. If we were a baseball team our record would be somewhere between the Indians and Nationals on a winning percentage at .386. However, if we were a hitter we would have a 386 batting average and that is not too shabby.

We have survived poverty and war, separation and tremendously difficult circumstances and we are still hanging on, and doing pretty good as a couple. We were never able to have children but we have had three really fun dogs, the latest of which, Molly, is looking over my shoulder as I write this now. We are different in the way that we are wired differently and have some different interests. We are both introverts with often strong opinions. But we love each other. I only came close to having her divorce me once, though murder may have played into her mind a time or two.

So here we are…26 years with a 10 and 16, .386 record. Even so Judy is the love of my life and we are together.

Take care and blessings,

Peace, Steve+

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Filed under Baseball, Loose thoughts and musings, philosophy, PTSD

Tagged as Army, california state university northridge, deployment, east side presbyterian church, gastroenteritis, german club, germany, landstuhl army medical center, marine security forces, minor league baseball, national security council, PTSD, san antonio, san joaquin delta college, washington dc, wedding anniversaries, weddings, white house

June 21, 2009 · 23:43

Duty, Death, Dads, Day Games and Details

I seem to be getting ever more creative in my tiredness. Today has been and still continues to be pretty busy. I swapped duty with another Chaplain and have spent the day here at the Medical Center. It has been busy and at times sporty. It has also been a day where I have had my own struggles. This is the first Father’s Day that I have not been able to talk to my dad whose condition continues to slowly worsen from end stage Alzheimer’s disease at a nursing facility. I have been going strong most of the day with a lull during the afternoon which I was able to take advantage of for some self care. Tonight between rounds as well as patient and staff care I have not stopped. It is getting close to midnight, I know we have another coming to the ICU, so I decided to sit down, and write.

I took the duty and no sooner had the chaplain that I relieved left my office the pager went off. It was a call to go to our Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit or NICU. There was a 6 day old baby dying. I had met mom and grandmother the day after the child was delivered. She was a beautiful child but had genetic abnormalities that most expected that she would die from shortly after birth. She was a tough little kid, but finally gave up the ghost today. I was there and mom asked if I would baptize her, which I did and then commended her to the Lord as she passed away in her mother’s arms. While there I was told about another very sick baby who might not live long.

Sunday duty also entails doing the Protestant worship service if you are not a Roman Catholic Chaplain. Chaplains do the service from their faith tradition. Since my church is more on the catholic side of Anglican I use the rite out of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as we have these on hand at our chaplain and the rite is our provisional liturgy. I have come to like it over the years. Our congregation is primarily military retirees and sailors or civilian workers who are on Sunday duty as well as patients who come down. The service is broadcasted on the closed circuit television system to patient rooms. Today we had a decent crowd and it was a good service, expect for the time my pager went off in the middle of my homily and I had to dig it out from underneath my Alb, Stole and Chasuble. My organist took it to the duty RP (Religious Programs Specialist) who contacted the caller while I finished the homily and the Eucharist.

The caller happened to be our Labor and Delivery Unit who needed me to come up and pray with a young mother to be and her parents as she got ready for a C-section. This went well and I found out later as I rounded this evening that everything went very smooth and that mother and baby are doing fine. After checking around the hospital I was able to go over to Harbor Park as it is within the 30 minute response time required of our chaplain duty on weekends. Weekdays we spend the night, weekends staying in house is optional if you live under 30 minutes away. I live on the cusp of this and on the wrong side of a bridge tunnel so I remain in house during the weekend.

Since I ave my season ticket I went to the ballpark in my cargo shorts and replica Tides orange jersey and black cap which sport’s the Tides away logo. The Tides as I noted yesterday have been in the “June Swoon.” Thankfully their closest competitor, the Durham Bulls have been doing even worse. Today against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Lehigh Valley had taken the first two games of the series. Today though was different, the Tides got a lead and held it. The players seemed both more relaxed and focused than they have been lately. Troy Patton, Chris Ray, Bob McCrory and Jim Miller combined for the victory, Patton getting the win and Miller getting the save. Jeff Fiorentino hit his 5th home run as well as a ground rule double and a single scoring all four Tides runs. Most of the game I spend talking life and baseball with Elliott the usher.

As soon as the game was over I raced back to the hospital changed back into uniform and began rounds. These were long and extended as there were still a number of staff who needed to discuss the events that have shaken us here the past couple of weeks as well as a number of calls to either take care of staff members or patients. Most of these have not been simple “will you pray for me” kind of stuff but major life and death, emotional or spiritual crisis involving staff, family and patients. Thus I am pretty tired but please that I can be around. We’ll see how the rest of the night goes. I do hope to catch a bit of sleep.

This was also Father’s Day. As I said it is the first that I have not been able to talk with my dad since 2002 when deployed to the Persian Gulf and off Pakistan. I have mentioned my Dad’s Alzheimer’s disease before and he does continue to worsen, but keep hanging in there. Dealing with the family of a retired Navy Chief in the ICU brought back memories of dad tonight.

And now to details. I was told that the Navy Times scandal sheet had published an article on Admiral Baker not getting his second star, something that I wrote about in the last section of last night’s post. The article gives details from the Inspector General report. The link to the article is here:

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/06/navy_chaplain_061909w/

This is a sad time for the Navy Chaplain Corps and for Admiral Baker and his family. His long and distinguished career has been tainted by what was discovered in the report. Please pray for him and the Chaplain Corps as we navigate these difficult times.

Peace, Steve+

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Filed under alzheimer's disease, Baseball, healthcare, Loose thoughts and musings, Military, philosophy

Tagged as 1979 Book of common prayer, admiral alan blues baker, alzheimer's disease, baptism, bob mccrory, chaplain corps, chris ray, elliott the usher, father's day, harbor park, jeff fiorentino, jim miller, navy chief, navy times, nicu, norfolk tides, portsmouth naval medical center, religious program specialist, roman catholic church, troy patton

June 20, 2009 · 16:11

Kira Gets Married, the June Swoon and the Rise and Fall of Stars

kira 1 Kira Arriving escorted by her Proud Dad Tony

After having to deal with what has seemed like and unending series a series of memorial services, funerals and family medical crisis’ I finally something to celebrate. Judy and I are going to the wedding of Kira. Kira goes to the same church as Judy whose mother sings in the same choir. Kira is a choir child and occasionally will sing with them. We first met Kira when she had just graduated from high school. Even then she was a joy. She was and is one of the sweetest girls we have ever known. Of course Judy knew Kira and her family at church. I was on the road frequently and only occasionally attended the church. I got to know her better over at Gordon Biersch where she worked when Judy and I first started going there. The first time I actually met her Judy told me “THIS IS KIRA AND YOU WILL OVERTIP HER.” I did so but never regetted it, Kira always earned it. If things were not too busy and even if they were busy Kira would pull up a chair by us and just talk. Sometimes it was life, sometimes church, school or relationships but the conversation between us and Kira was something that we looked forward to every time we went to Biersch. Now we know all of the bartenders and quite a few of the servers at the restaurant, and we love them all and we pretty much overtip them as well. Kira however was something special. As she completes college I know that she will do great things. Her soon to be husband is a lucky man and is advised to take good care of Kira.

Kira is also a beautiful girl. She comes from Irish and Italian stock, but you would think that she came direct from directly from Erin. Her personal and physical beauty must have attracted guys like flies. She seems to have stepped out of an Andrew Greely Bishop Blackie mystery as the sweet and beautiful heroine who helps Blackie solve the mystery. If we had a daughter, we would want her to be Kira.

Kira will be married in the yard of her parent’s home. Her and our Priest, Fr Jim will perform the ceremony. The location is because some people attending are decidedly anti-Catholic and will not enter a Catholic church. This means of course that I will be in my clericals tonight and maybe even wear a big pectoral cross or crucifix. I seldom wear these even though my church says priests should wear silver pectoral crosses. I personally find them a bit pretentious, but in this case to help draw fire from Fr Jim and make the anti-Catholics uncomfortable I will wear this and ingratiate myself to them. Now, this will be a sacrifice for me as it will be hot and humid tonight. Today happens to be the hottest day that we have had this year the temperature will be in the mid to high 90s with a heat index of over 100 degrees. I will likely be sweating like a Boiler Technician on a World War Two cruiser in the South Pacific, probably off of Guadalcanal. I hate humidity. However tonight the cause is worthy of suffering for Jesus and I’m sure that the Deity Herself will approve. When Judy and I were married we had temps in the high 90s but we were married in California with NO HUMIDITY thank you God. There is the possibility that we could get storms so I am praying hard that at least for the duration of the ceremony that the heavens do not open as this is an open ceremony. Now I do this kind of thing a lot with the Tides with varying degrees of success. I do pray that the Deity Herself will smile upon Kira’s wedding.

kira 2 Kira and Nate

A practical implication for Kira and her very soon to be husband is that the Roman Catholic Church will not recognize tonight’s ceremony because it is not being done in a church building. The Commonwealth of Virginia will recognize this, but the church will not. So tomorrow they will have the rite done in the small chapel in the church proper. It is kind of a two step way of doing this and thankfully for the bride she has a wonderful priest who will work with her. The inside the building requirement is because of an understanding that since marriage is a Sacrament of the Church that the wedding is to be performed in a religious setting among the faithful. Complicating the situation was that Kira’s family’s home is in the boundary of another far more conservative parish that would have had to okay it, no chance of that. I do understand this requiement under Canon Law and try to follow it myself though I am not Roman; however as a Navy Chaplain sometimes I make exception to this. However I also have theological questions about the necessity of getting married in the church building. If the church is present where the Bishop is and by extension where the Priest is; and the Sacrament is performed in accordance with the Marriage Rite and proper intent of it being a Sacrament conducted by a validly ordained Priest, how can it not be valid? It seems to me that the same Holy Trinity which sanctifies the Rite conducted by the Priest is capable of doing this outside as well as inside of the church building. I’m sure that the early Catholic Church could not do this, neither the Celtic Catholic missionaries who converted much of Western Europe. They simply did not have the facilities. Likewise, the underground churches in China or Islamic nations. The Bishop or Priest was present with the faithful and that ensured the validity of the sacraments, not the location. I’m sure to get a barrage of theological criticism from the Ultra Montanes Canon Law Nazis but what do I care?

kira 3 Presentation of the Newly Married Couple

A SHAMELESSS PLUG AND FREE ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE ABBY NORMAL ABBESS: Judy contributed her part for the wedding doing a beautiful Celtic design for the bulletin covers. I saw her working on these and the detail that she puts into her work and the beauty of the finished product is simply amazing. If you need digital artwork done for almost anything, or for that matter religious statues restored or custom clergy vestments she is incredible. Some of my posts about our Wiener Dogs display her work. These are drawings and not photos if you have any questions. Contact her through the like to the Abby Normal Abbess on the blog role link on right column of this page.

Speaking of the Norfolk Tides, they are emulating the old San Francisco Giants and are experiencing a “June Swoon.” This has not been a good month for the home team. The Orioles gutted our fearsome batting order bringing Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters and Oscar Salazar to the big team where they are all doing well. Our hitting has died, thankfully the pitching staff is still holding together. Even more importantly our closest competitor the Durham Bulls are doing even worse this month and we remain a game up in the International League South. I must redouble my prayers for the team and perhaps ask Tides General Manager Dave Rosenfeld if I can bless the bats. After all it was Yogi Berra who once said: “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?” Since Master Yogi has made this pronouncement I am sure that something has happened to the bats and that an exorcism might be due.

Finally some stars are rising and falling this week in the Navy. First the rising star: Captain Frank Morneau, my first Commodore at EOD Group Two was selected for the rank of Rear Admiral Lower Half. This is the same rank as a Army, Marine Corps or Air Force Brigadier General. There are not many EOD Officers who have risen to this rank. Captain Morneau is the second. He was great to work for and is a dynamic and energetic officer. I remember him most as being a baseball fan, actually a Yankees fan that carried a game used bat to staff meetings. Since I only carry a baseball in my digital camouflage uniform and get some looks as I toss up and down as I walk our corridors I can imagine the looks that Rear Admiral Select Morneau will get at the Pentagon or Congressional hearings on EOD issues.

The falling star is Rear Admiral Alan Blues Baker, the Deputy Navy Chief of Chaplains and Chaplain of the Marine Corps. Admiral Baker is a graduate of the Naval Academy and former Surface Warfare Officer. He was investigated by the Navy Inspector General (why we don’t have an Inspector Admiral I will never know) for an allegation of retribution and violation of the Military Whistle Blower Protection Act in regard to the FY 2008 Chaplain Captain selection board. I do not know Admiral Baker but as a career officer and chaplain in both the Army and Navy see his forced retirement and failure to become our Chief of Chaplains as yet another stain on our Corps. I wish this had never happened and will keep him and his family in my prayers even as I pray for the future leadership of the Chaplain Corps. Admiral Bob Burt who was scheduled to retire will remain in office for another year and Rear-Admiral Select Mark Tidd will assume the office as the Deputy and Chaplain of the Marine Corps as scheduled.

This issue grieves me. I remember when my Brigade Executive Officer and later acting commander Colonel Jim Wigger tell me that the Chaplain Corps in the Army was far more political and had no Ruths, being so ruthless in comparison with the Army Medical Department. The Army Medical Department was a pretty ruthless organization, so when Colonel Wigger told me that I was somewhat skeptical. He told me that I was jumping from the “frying pan into the fire” and he was right. The thing about chaplains regardless of denominational affiliation, theological background or rank is that we are expected to be above the board and exemplify integrity. If we even give the impression that we are somehow unethical or lacking in integrity then what we say means nothing because people will either not believe us or discount what we say. It creates a problem for those who are doing good things because some people will lump us all in with the wrong doer. When a chaplain falls it can create a crisis of faith in the community. It is the same as when a civilian minister falls from grace. The Catholic pedophile priests, pastors of Evangelical Mega-Churches or large ministries who are accused of financial or sexual misconduct created the same problem for civilian ministers as well as military chaplains. Admiral Baker’s fall comes on the heels of a young Chaplain named Dillman who was convicted of a number of sexual assault and improper conduct charges a couple of weeks ago. This young man once named as a Military Chaplain Association of America “Chaplain of the Year is going to Leavenworth for 10 years. A couple of years ago we had a priest who was convicted of a number of sexual assault charges by having sex with other men and not telling them that he was HIV positive. This chaplain was a “poster boy” for the Chaplain Corps and the Roman Catholic Church Military Archdiocese. Another Chaplain named Klingenschmitt was convicted of disobeying lawful orders after having engaged in a prolonged period of protest against the Navy. Klingenschmitt, who I have written about on this website before made an absolute ass out of himself by protesting the Navy in front of the White House, making spurious allegations against multiple commanding officers and lying through his teeth about “not being allowed to pray in Jesus Name.” When I was at Camp LeJeune I had to relieve two Chaplains who were kicked out of the Navy for sexual misconduct, one Protestant and one Catholic. When I was at Headquarters Battalion 2^nd Marine Division I was given charge over several chaplains who had not acquitted themselves well in order to try to help them become successful. I also saw Army Chaplains conduct themselves in less than exemplary fashion.

Of course chaplains and ministers are human and we all are flawed, as the Apostle Paul wrote “All have fouled up and fallen short of the Glory of God.” This being said chaplains and ministers while being human and free to make mistakes need to be sure that those mistakes are not those which compromise our integrity. When I was a young Army Chaplain we were told that SAM, Sex, Alcohol and Money were the three biggest issues that put chaplains out of the service in jail. Let’s add retribution to that list. It is a sad day for the Chaplain Corps. Please pray for us as individuals as well as a Corps as we walk through this valley and keep Admiral Baker in your prayers.

Peace, Steve+

Post Script: The wedding went off well, the promise of the Deity Herself to hold back the rain materizlized as she had promised. Howver it was hot and humid and though I look good in them was regretting wearing my clericals. The June Swoon con tinues for the Tides and the Bulls but the Gwinnett Braves are sneaking up and are within two games of the Tides and one of the Bulls. We have been getting some runs but need to have things come together and fast. Harbor Park is withing my resposne time to the medical center so if there is nothing critical going on tomorrow afternoon I will head over and watch the game. So for selfish reason if nothing else I pray for the good health of all tomorrow.

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Tagged as 2008 chaplain corps captain selection board, 2nd marine divsion, abby normal abbess, academy of health sciences, admiral alan blues baker, anti-catholic, army medical department, baltimore Orioles, canon law, captain frank morneau, catholic pedophile priests, celtic missionaries to europe, chaplain Dillman, chaplain of the marine corps, chief of chaplains, congressional hearings, dave rosenfeld, eod group two, funerals, gordon biersch, gordon klingenschmitt, heat and humidity, holy trinity, integrity, international league, jesus, jesus' name, marriage rite, matt wieters, memorial services, military chaplain assoication of America, military whistle blower protection act, naval academy, nolan Reimold, norfolk tides, oscar salazar, pastors who fall from grace, pentagon, rain, roman catholic church, sacrament of marriage, san fransisco giants, surface warfare officer, thunder storms, ultra montanes, underground catholic churches, weather, weddings, wiener dogs, yogi berra

June 17, 2009 · 23:16

A Weird Day, a Great Team and Some Fractured History

Today was one of those weird days for me, very busy, pretty good work and good intellectual stimulation n an ethics committee meeting. I’m also still pretty tired from the past few weeks, not feeling bad but I know that I need to pace myself while we are short staffed in our department this summer. It is a good thing that I have the boss that I have as he is making sure that I am okay on a pretty regular basis. He knows that I will push myself hard until I hit the wall, which I did about a week and a half ago. The thing is it is not just me that is feeling the strain. All of us on our staff have been pushed hard caring for folks during the recent deaths of two military staff members, regular work on our wards, administrative tasks as well as the extra load imposed by being short staffed. But this is what we do as chaplains. The good thing is that we are doing our best not just to look after our flock, but to look after each other. We have a great team which I am proud to be a part.

Thus today my mind was a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives. In fact it was awash in so much that I should have written them down. The mind is like a sieve sometimes. Since it is late I am going to stick with a few observations from this day in history which seems to still have significance today June 17th.

On this day in 1579 Sir Francis Drake sailed his ship the Golden Hind into San Francisco Bay. Immediately he was picketed by anti-imperialist and environmentalist protesters who had come down from Haight Ashbury in their Birkenstocks. Ignoring them Drake’s crew hit on women and some men in Golden Gate Park, had lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf and took in a Giants game. At least that’s what they wanted to do, but they were 400 years or so too early. Instead they sat around wondering why it was so cold in the middle of summer as they repaired their ships, had the chaplain celebrate Eucharist and then claimed everything in sight for England calling it New Albion. The Spanish realtors in the area took umbrage to this and never recognized the claim.

On this day in 1775 was fought the battle of Bunker Hill or more appropriately Breed’s Hill. The American soldiers defending the hill gave a good account of themselves against the British who were trying to drive them off of the hill. An American commander on the front line uttered the cry which did not become in military history “Don’t fire until you can smell the Redcoat bastards.” The insensitivity of the comment regarding the Colonial’s British Cousins body odor, which wafted over the battlefield, offended some of in the snior commanders who had a hard time smelling the gunpowder over their own body odor. When the Pentagon heard about it the offending officer was sent to Ft Polk Louisiana and the utterance was officially changed to “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” After the clash the surviving unwounded opponents gathered at Sam Adams pub where they consumed vast amounts of his original Boston Lager beer as they played darts and argued the merits of English versus American Football. Some went to the Yankees Red Sox game at Fenway later in the evening.

On this day in 1815 Commodore Stephen Decatur commanding a Task force from the 6th Feet conquered the Algerian frigate Mashouda in an action that finally helped bring an end to the Barbary Wars and drove the Barbary Pirates from the Mediterranean. Within 48 hours of defeating the Mashouda he was in Algiers harbor exacting peace on the Dey of Algiers. This ended the period of where Barabry Pirates excercised domain over the Mediterranean. Getting with British sailors on liberty in town with which they had recently been at war, the Americans and Brits spent the evenings at Murphy’s Irish pub drinking Guinness and Kilkenney with Irish and other expats while watching Arsenal play Bayern München on pay per view.

On this day in 1856 Republican Party opened its 1st national convention in Philadelphia. Immediately Randall Terry demanded equal time to speakers demanding the end of slavery while Ron Paul was ignored. Others lobbied for the Flat Tax until they discovered that there was not yet an income tax. Up and coming Illinois legislator Abraham Lincoln gave the keynote address recommending a bigger Federal role in solving disputes between states while Newt Gingrich presented a “Contract with the Union” to deal with the various tensions. Fox News covered the event

On this day in 1916 US troops under General John Pershing marched into Mexico to bring Pancho Villa and others into custody. The expedition was not successful as many troops were inflicted with Montazuma’s revenge while KBR failed to get the porta-poties in place in a timely manner. The Easern European sub-contractor walked out and KBR replaced them with men from the Indian Subcontinent area who had each paid $4000 to an agent for the job and recived $300 a month working 16 hour days 6 days a week. However the campaign did give US troops experience operating in harsh climates which would serve them well when stationed in Texas over the next century. General Phil Sheridan had once said of Texas that “If I owned Hell and Texas I would live in Hell and rent out Texas.”

On this day in 1938 after conducting military operations against the Chinese for over 5 years the Japanese declared war on China. Chinese leaders Chaing Kai Shek and Mao Tse Tung issued a joint statement agreeing to work together and declaring “It’s about damned time they admitted that they are at war with us.”

On this day in 1940 the French after having their asses handed to them by the Germans yet again asked for surrender terms. General Charles DeGaulle immediately departed for England to continue the war against both the Germans and his fellow Frenchmen. Upon his arrival DeGaulle immediately complained about the bad food, plain women and miserable weather. He was embraced by Winston Churchill who got him drunk, left him passed out in a brothel and blamed the Vichy government for it. Churchill wrote afterward, “that man is a pain in the ass.” DeGaulle always doubted Churchill’s version of events every time he looked at the tatoo of a German tank on his ass.

On this day in 1944 Iceland declared independence from Denmark. No one noticed until 1953.

Most importantly on this day in 1960 Ted Williams hit his 500^th home run. and today the Nationals beat the Yankees and the Orioles beat the Mets.

Peace, Steve+

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Tagged as abraham lincoln, arsenal football, baltimore Orioles, Baseball, battle of bunker hill, battle of france 1940, bayern Munchen, cahing kai shek, chaplain corps, charles degualle, dey of algiers, don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes, fisherman's warf, general john pershing, general phil sheridan, golden gate park, golden hind, guinness stout, haight ashbury, iceland independence, japanese declaration of war with china, kilkenney beer, mao tse tung, mexico, new albion, new york mets, new york yankees, pancho villa, randall terry, republican party, ron paul, samuel adams, san fransisco bay, san fransisco giants, second barabry war, sir francis drake, stephen decatur, ted williams, texas, washington nationals, winston churchill

Category Archives: Baseball

Manny, A-Rod and Barry: How the Media and Government Selectively Target Ballplayers or Don’t

Comebacks in Baseball and Life: 27 Outs- the Baltimore Orioles teach us a Lesson in Life

The Gifts of PTSD: Insomnia is a Terrible Thing to Waste and the Hidden Value of Hyper-vigilance

Interns and Residents Graduate while New Ones Arrive; Save #500 for Mariano Rivera and I Know Why the North Koreans are So Belligerent…They Don’t Have Baseball!

Weekend in Washington-Reconnecting with Friends Family, Each Other and an Evening at the West Wing

Where were You When…? The Death of an Icon and Its Impact in Our Lives

The Eve of 26 Years of Marriage

Duty, Death, Dads, Day Games and Details

Kira Gets Married, the June Swoon and the Rise and Fall of Stars

A Weird Day, a Great Team and Some Fractured History

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