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March 18, 2010 · 20:39

Baseball is Back….Thank God!

Norfolk’s Harbor Park

“Night baseball isn’t an aberration. What’s an aberration is a team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908. They tend to think of themselves as a little Williamsburg, a cute little replica of a major league franchise. Give me the Oakland A’s, thank you very much. People who do it right.” George Will on the Chicago Cubs

Baseball is back and I am very happy as spring returns and winter fades away as I can again watch baseball again live or tape delay. Sure it is pre-season and the teams are still sorting out rosters but Spring Training is something that I look forward to every year. I was actually hoping to get to Florida this year to take in a bit of the Orioles camp in Sarasota but thanks to a nasty Kidney stone I was pretty much knocked out of it. Work will be too busy and Holy Week is coming so I will have to wait until opening day at the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish.

Joey Gathright bunts for a hit against Atlanta’s Gwinnett Braves in 2009

There is something about Spring Training as you watch the teams, study the roster reports and look at potential line ups pitching rotations and relief pitching staffs. It is also the time that we begin to see how the personnel changes, signings, departures and prospects look up close. It is a time when teams and players get to know each other again. I follow the Giants, Orioles and A’s very closely as well as looking most of the other teams as I look trough team sites, ESPN, Yahoo Baseball and sports blogs.

The statement of George Will the political columnist and avid Cubs fan speaks a lot of truth. The Cubs for years have either been penny pinchers or spent money like a drunken sailor with little to show for it. Since Jesus will come when they win the World’s Series next I think it likely that they will continue to be just what Will said they are “a cute little replica of a major league franchise. Some teams spend their money be it large amounts or small wisely and know how to win. Others spend money with no return throwing good money after bad on horrible deals every season and reaming losers.

What really interests me in baseball is not just the Major League teams but their Minor League affiliates. Of course I have a close up view of the Orioles AAA International League affiliate the Norfolk Tides from my pew in Section 102, Row B Seat 1 and 2 a Harbor Park. One of the things that I follow closely are the prospects as well as former Major League players as they move between the Majors and Minors as well as how they figure in trades.

A lot of people simply follow the big name players on contending teams and I admit that there is nothing wrong with that. However, my view is that you have to take a look at a team’s farm system in relationship to the Major League team that it supports and feeds. The depth and talent found in a teams’ Minor League system is vitally important to a team’s success or failure. Let me follow this with a few examples.

Mariano Rivera- Raised in the Yankee System

Let’s begin with the New York Yankees. They are often portrayed as a team filled with “hired gun” type free agents who the pay an ungodly amount of money to obtain. Yes the Yankees are committed to winning and they will pay top dollar to get the best in baseball. Teams that want to win make the commitment to doing it. Those that are content to be in the middle of the pack or lower don’t. It is that simple. Like him or not George Steinbrenner knew what he was doing. However this is only part of their formula for success. They also have also chosen to invest a lot in an excellent farm system. Many of their top players came out of that system including Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada. Their current middle relief staff, which had for many years been a weakness, is now stocked with solid pitchers who came out of the Yankee system. The depth of their system also allows them to use it to sweeten up trade deals with other teams. If you want to win consistently you have to have the depth in the Minor League system in case you need it.

David Wright: One of the Few Bright Spots for the Mets

So now we go to the other end of the spectrum. The New York Mets also spent a huge amount of money on big name free agents. However, because the Mets invest almost nothing in their Minor League system it has been consistently the worst in baseball for years. Likewise the mid to end of season implosions show just how bad the Mets system is. For example the Mets treated their farms teams so badly since the arrival of Omar Minaya that their flagship affiliate, the Norfolk Tides ended their relationship with the Mets at the end of the 2006 season to become part of the Baltimore Orioles system. The Mets system has few prospects and at the upper levels is stocked with older Minor Leaguers and worn out Major leaguers looking for one last year in the sun. The Mets initially had to move the team to New Orleans for two years and then were able to market themselves to Buffalo when Cleveland moved their AAA affiliate to Columbus Ohio. The team was the worst in the International League last year and Buffalo fans that for years enjoyed high caliber ball players and young prospects became angry. Little good is being said about the Mets in Buffalo even now and since the Mets have depleted what they can spend, and few Minor League prospects they have little bargaining power to reach out and deal for the top tier free agents.

Brian McCann, one of the 18 “Baby Braves” who took the Braves to the 2005 NLCS

We move to another team that does things right with regard to this is the Atlanta Braves. The Braves have been consistently good for many years winning 14 Division titles and a World Series. In that amazing run where they won more than 90 and sometimes over 100 games a season almost every year they often dominated to National League. The team is stocked with home grown talent. I have seen the Braves minor league teams at the AAA and AA level and am well acquainted with their system. They too are usually really good, very good. That minor league system has produced great players including Chipper Jones. Do not forget 2005 when the Braves beset by injuries called up a large number of Minor league players from Richmond and Mississippi including All Star catcher Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Ande Marte, Kelly Johnson and 14 other rookies and the “Baby Braves” as they were known helped take the Braves to the playoffs. The system had to recover from that and it has now because the Braves invest in it and those players are beginning to make an impact in the Majors.

Billy Beane the GM of the Oakland Athletics

Another team that knows how to use a farm system is the Oakland Athletics. The A’s after being very competitive using very little money for years fell on hard times last year, but one of the keys to their success was their reliance on top prospects in their Minor League System. Over the years that system has produced some great players and more than likely will do so again. The A’s system is built on the principle of Saber metrics which looks at numbers crunched by statistics geeks and has for the most part served them well. The A’s General Manager Billy Beane has revolutionized the game for small market teams that want quality on a limited budget. Many former A’s cut loose when they would become too expensive now star on other Major League teams. The system is discussed in the book Moneyball.

The new “Baby Birds” Matt Wieters and Nolan Reimold along with Luke Scott great Oscar Salazar after a Home Run

A few years back the Orioles realizing that they could not compete dollar for dollar against ht Red Sox and Yankees began at the single A level to build a premier farm system. Each year the best have moved up into the system to AA and AAA levels. Last year the Norfolk Tides started out on fire and when the Orioles ran into major injury problems they called up a lot of minor league players including Matt Wieters, Nolan Reimold, Brad Bergeson and Chris Tillman. The Orioles have built their system in stages and that building process went through the 2009 season. Many of those called up were not quite ready for the majors but many are looked upon as future All Stars, especially their deep well of pitching talent that most teams could only dream about having.

Phillies Slugger Ryan Howard who I have seen play as a Reading Philly and Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons before he went to the Majors

When I look at teams I always look at their minor league system and their prospects because that system and those prospects are the future of the team. Teams that are consistently bad typically have bad minor league systems. I have been watching minor league ball in person regularly for almost ten years. As such I have seen many of today’s biggest stars including players like Ryan Howard, Felix Hernandez, Jason Verlander, Heath Bell, Grady Sizmore, Victor Martinez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jhonny Peralta, Brian McCann, David Wright, Evan Longoria, Jonathan Papelbon, many of the current Baltimore Orioles as well as countless others.

The relationship of the Major League team to its farm system is of paramount importance. If a team does not invest in their minor league affiliates and make good draft choices and trades they will seldom do well even if they have a decent team at the beginning of the season. Without quality prospects in the minor league system they will not have personnel readily available for call up on short notice in case of injury, not will they have depth to trade for quality players if the need them.

This is one of the things that make the game of baseball so different than other sports with the possible exception of NHL Hockey and its farm system. The relationship and the development of players at the minor league level have a direct impact on the Major League club. This is part of why I am so passionate about this game.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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December 4, 2009 · 01:01

Yes Friends, God Really Does Speak to Me Through Baseball

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.” George Will

Padresteve, Jeff and Angels 3rd Base Coach Rocky Bridges in 1970

Well we are deep into football season, while hockey, basketball that World Cup qualifiers move along. Don’t get me wrong. I know these sports well but for me they are not the same as baseball. I have played all of them in school, the biggest mistake that I made as a kid was forsaking organized baseball first for hockey and then for football. I gave up playing my first love for short term flings with other sports.

The Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish

I was down walking the concourse at Harbor Park the other day to relax following about 32 hours spanning two nights at the hospital. I like going to the ballpark even when it is the off season because it is one of the few places where I can be fully relaxed and at peace. Tuesday was beautiful, the temperature was in the mid 50s with sunshine and a light breeze, the field was a brilliant great and the ever present grounds crew was at work. In the front office I talked with a number of the office staff about players who would and would not be coming back for the 2010 season as well as highlights of the past season. The Tides have a wonderful front office staff. To walk the concourse from behind home plate, out to the right field corner and then back across to the left field picnic area and then to go down to my seat in Section 102, Row B seats 1 and 2 at the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish is a highlight of the week when I have the chance to do it. I feel closeness to God at the ballpark that after Iraq is hard for me to find in many other places. For me there is a mystery and magic about a ballpark that just isn’t there for the other sports, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

For me the other sports can grab my momentary attention but because of their nature cause them to be merely ordinary and occasionally interesting. Baseball is another matter, it is more than a game, it is a metaphor for life, a spiritual experience and a game that mirrors life and faith in many ways. For me this goes back to childhood.

As a kid my dad made me learn the fundamentals of the game and whether we were attending a game in person, watching one on television or playing catch, pepper or practicing infield or pitching in the back yard or in a park, dad was all about the game. Of course he was the same way with football, hockey and basketball, but the sport that he seemed most passionate about was baseball. As a kid he was a Cincinnati Reds fan. His mother, my grandmother who hailed from the hollers of West Virginia was a die hard Dodgers fan. That I still wonder about to this day, but she was the same woman who as a widow in the late 1930s went to work, raised her two boys and bought her own house. Unlike most of the state she was also a Republican, long before West Virginia ever voted for a Republican either President or statewide office. True to form Granny was a Dodgers fan in a land of Reds, Indians and Pirates fans, fierce and independent. However, as a Giants fan I mourn how she had been taken in by the power of the dark side. Despite having fallen under the spell of the Dark Lords Granny was a real baseball fan. Any time you went to Granny’s house and there was a game on, the television was tuned in to it. We were immersed in baseball thanks to my dad and his mother.

Dad always made sure that we got to see baseball wherever we lived. In 1967 he took us to see the Seattle Pilots during their first and only season in that fair city before they went to Milwaukee and became the Brewers. In the elementary schools of those days many our teachers would put the playoff and World’s Series games on the TV as many of those games were played during daylight hours. I remember watching Bob Gibson pitch when the Cardinals played against the Red Sox in the 1967 series. It was awesome to see that man pitch. I remember the Amazing Mets upsetting the Orioles in 1969 and the Orioles take down the Reds in 1970. I will never forget the 1970 All Star Game where Pete Rose ran over Ray Fosse at home plate for the winning run and the great dynasty teams of the 1970s, especially the Reds and the Athletics who dominated much of that decade and the resurgence of the Yankees in the summer that the Bronx burned.

Me with Angel’s Manager Lefty Phillips 1970

When we were stationed in Long Beach California dad had us at Anaheim stadium all the time. I imagine that we attended at least 20 games there in 1970 and another 25-30 in 1971 as well as a couple at Dodger stadium that year. We met a lot of the Angel players at community events and before the games. I entered the “My Favorite Angel” contest and my entry was picked as a runner up. This netted me two seats behind the plate and having Dick Enberg announced my name on the radio. I wrote about Jim Spencer a Gold Glove First Baseball who later played for the Yankees. I still have a hat from that team with numerous autographs on the inside of the bill including Sandy Alomar, Jim Spencer, Jim Fregosi, Chico Ruiz, and Billy Cowan. It was a magical time for a 10 year old boy.

When we moved to Stockton California dad took us to see the A’s dynasty teams including a number of playoff games. But he also took us across San Francisco Bay to watch the Giants. I got to see Ed Halicki of the Giants no-hit the Mets a Candlestick on August 24th 1975. I got to see some of the greats of the era play in those stadiums, Catfish, Reggie, McCovey, Garvey, Vida Blue, Harmon Killebrew and so many others. I also became acquainted with Minor League Baseball at this time through the Stockton Ports. At the time the Ports were the Class A California League farm team for the Orioles. I remember a few years back talking to Paul Blair the Orioles great Paul Blair who played for the Ports in the early 1960s about Billy Hebert Field and how the sun would go down in the outfield blinding hitters and spectators in its glare. Today I have a renewed interest in the Orioles because of their affiliation with the Norfolk Tides.

As I have grown older my appreciation for the game only deepens despite strikes and steroids and other problems that plague the game at the major league level. I am in awe of the game and the diamond on which it is played. I have played catch on the field of dreams, seen a game in the Yankee Stadium Right Field bleachers, seen a no-hitter, playoff games and met players. I’ve watched the game in Japan, seen historic moments when deployed to combat zones in and have thrown out the first pitch in a couple of minor league games. I am enchanted with the game. The foul lines theoretical go on to infinity, only broken by the placement of the outfield wall. Likewise unlike all other sports there is no time limit, meaning that baseball can be an eschatological game going on into eternity. The Hall of Fame is like the Calendar of Saints in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches. There are rituals, the exchange of batting orders and explanation of the ground rules, the ceremonial first pitch, players not stepping on the foul line when entering and leaving the field of play, no talking about it when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter and the home run trot. The care of a field by an expert ground crew is a thing to behold, especially when they still use the wooden box frames to lay down the chalk on the baselines and the batters box.

My kitchen and much of my dining room are as close to a baseball shrine as Judy will let me make them.

Since I returned from Iraq the baseball diamond is one of my few places of solace. For the first time last year I bought season tickets to my local minor league team the Norfolk Tides. Section 102, row B seats 1 and 2 from which I will, the Deity Herself willing take in the 2010 season at the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish. The home opener is April the 8^th against the Durham Bulls, barely 4 months away. From there I will sit back and imagine the words of James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams:

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again.”

In a sense this says it all to me in an age of war, economic crisis and division. In a sense it is a prayer. Peace and blessings, Steve+

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Tagged as anaheim stadium, baltimore Orioles, Baseball, California Angels, candlestick park, dick enberg, ed halicki, los angeles dodgers, milwaukee brewers, new york mets, new york yankees, no hitters, norfolk tides, oakland athletics, rocky bridges, san fransisco giants, seattle pilots, stockton ports, yankee stadium

October 15, 2009 · 23:26

My Life and Baseball: How Padre Steve Makes Some Sense of the World

The Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish

“This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child.” Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham in Field of Dreams

“I love baseball. You know it doesn’t have to mean anything, it’s just beautiful to watch.” – Woody Allen in Selig (1983)

I went to Harbor Park last week just to talk with staff and sit in the concourse. Tomorrow after work, though the weather is not predicted to be very good I plan on doing the same. There is something about baseball people and my seats down in section 102, row B, seat 2 and 3 that help me even when there is not game going on. I walked around the diamond, the weather was gorgeous and it was so peaceful, even as the head groundskeeper aerated the field in preparation for the winter. I feel close to God when I am around a ballpark, even without the game being played there is something almost mystical about it. To me there is nowhere more peaceful than a ballpark. Tonight as I sit watching game one of the National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and the Phillies my mind goes back to how much baseball has been part of my life, and how in a very real way that God speaks to me through this special game.

Granger Stadium Kinston NC

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.” George Will

Baseball is part of my life and I think this goes back to my childhood when my dad introduced me to it in our back yard in Oak Harbor Washington. Even before I played an organized game dad played catch with me, showed me how to grip a ball and told me about the great ballplayers. He made me learn the fundamentals of the game and weather we were attending a game in person, watching one on television or playing catch, pepper or practicing infield or pitching dad was all about the game. Of course he was the same way with football, hockey and basketball, but the sport that he seemed most passionate about was baseball. As a kid he was a Cincinnati Reds fan. His mother, my grandmother who hailed from the hollers of Putnam County West Virginia was a diehard Dodgers fan, though I am sure that God forgives her for that. She was an independent woman of conviction and determination that has to in some way influenced her love for the game, even as a little boy if there was a game on television she would have it on. I still wonder about to this day how she became a Dodger’s fan but it probably had something to do with her independent streak. Granny as she chose to be called was a woman who as a widow in the late 1930s went to work, raised her two boys and bought her own house. Unlike most of the people in West Virginia she was also a Republican, a rare breed especially in that era. As independent in her choice of baseball teams as she was in her politics Granny was a Dodgers fan in a land of Reds, Indians and Pirates fans, so even with Granny we were immersed in baseball.

California Angels Manager Lefty Phillips and Young Padre Steve 1970

Dad always made sure that we got to see baseball wherever we lived. In 1967 he took us to see the Seattle Pilots which the next year went to Milwaukee and became the Brewers. The pilots were an expansion team in a town with a long history of minor league ball. They played at an old park named Sick Stadium, which if you ask me is a really bad marketing plan. The game that we went to was the “Bat Day” giveaway. Then they game regulation size Louisville Slugger bats. Mine had the name of the Pilots First Baseman Mike Hegan on the barrel. That was my first trip to a Major League stadium and I still can remember it as if it was yesterday. Somewhere in my junk I have a button with the Pilots logo on it. I’ll have to find it again sometime. The next year I played my first organized baseball with the Oak Harbor Little League “Cheyenne’s.” My coach was a kind of gruff old guy who stuck me out in right field. I don’t know why but our team uniforms did not match, half of us had white and the other half gray. Unfortunately due to military moves I didn’t get to play organized ball again until 1972.

MY Favorite Angel Jim Spencer as a Yankee

In the elementary schools of those days our teachers who put the playoff and World’s Series games as many were played during daylight hours. I remember watching Bob Gibson pitch when the Cardinals played against the Red Sox in the 1967 series. It was awesome to see that man pitch. I remember the Amazin’ Mets upsetting the Orioles in 1969 and seeing the Orioles take down the Reds in 1970. I never will forget the 1970 All Star Game where Pete Rose ran over Ray Fosse at home plate for the winning run. I watched in awe as the great dynasty teams of the 1970s, the Reds and the Athletics who dominated much of that decade and the resurgence of the Yankees in the summer that the Bronx burned. Back then every Saturday there was the NBC Game of the Week hosted by Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek and Joe Garragiola.

Ed Halicki No Hitter

When we were stationed in Long Beach California from 1970-1971 my dad had us at Anaheim stadium all the time. I imagine that we attended at least 30 games there and a couple at Dodger stadium that first year and a good number more before we moved to Stockton California in the middle of the 1971 season. That was disappointing, it took forever to get adjusted to Stockton and I think that part of it was not seeing the Angels every week at the Big “A.” At those games I met a lot of the players and coaches and even some opposing players. The Von’s grocery store chain and the Angels radio network had a “My Favorite Angel” contest. My entry about Angels First Baseman Jim Spencer was a runner up, netting me two seats behind the plate and having Dick Enberg announce my name on the radio. Spencer was a Gold Glove First Baseman who later played for the Yankees on their 1978 World Series team. My first hat from a Major League team was the old blue hat with a red bill, the letters CA on the front and a halo stitched on top. I still have a hat from the 1971 team with the lower case “a” with a halo hanging off of it. It has numerous autographs on the inside of the bill including Sandy Alomar, Jim Spencer, and Jim Fregosi, Chico Ruiz and Billy Cowan and sits in a display case on my kitchen wall.

My Dad and Me May 2009

While we didn’t live as close to a major league team baseball did not go away, though we were not at the ballpark as much it got more interesting as I got to see playoff games and a no-hitter. We saw the A’s dynasty teams including games one and two of the 1972 American League Championship Series between the A’s and the Tigers. Across the Bay a few years later I got to see Ed Halicki of the Giants no-hit the Mets a Candlestick on August 24th 1975. In those days I got to see some of the greats of the era play, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Steve Garvey, Vida Blue, Harmon Killebrew, Rollie Fingers, and so many others at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Candlestick Park.

While in Stockton I became acquainted with Minor League Baseball through the Stockton Ports, who then were the Class “A” California League farm team for the Orioles. I remember a few years back talking to Paul Blair the Orioles great Paul Blair who played for the Ports in the early 1960s about Billy Hebert Field and how the sun would go down in the outfield blinding hitters and spectators in its glare. I would ride my bike over in the evening to try to get foul balls that came over the grand stand when I didn’t have the money to get a ticket.

My Championship Season

When I was a kid I had a large baseball card collection which I kept in a square cardboard box. I must have had hundreds of cards including cards that if I had them now would be worth a small fortune, unfortunately when I went away to college I left them in the garage and during a purge of junk they were tossed out. This year I started collecting cards again, mostly signed cards that I obtained at the Church of Baseball at Harbor Park. In a sense they kind of serve a purpose like Holy Cards due in the Catholic Church for me. They are a touch point with the game and the players who signed them.

As I have grown older my appreciation for the game, despite strikes and steroids still grows. I am in awe of the diamond. I have played catch on the field of dreams, seen a game in the Yankee Stadium Right Field bleachers seen games in other venues and thrown out the first pitch in a couple of minor league games. I am enchanted with the game. The foul lines theoretical go on to infinity, only broken by the placement of the outfield wall. Likewise unlike all other sports there is no time limit, meaning that baseball can be an eschatological game going on into eternity. The Hall of Fame is like the Calendar of Saints in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches. There are rituals, the exchange of batting orders and explanation of the ground rules, the ceremonial first pitch, players not stepping on the foul line when entering and leaving the field of play, no talking about it when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter and the home run trot. The care of a field by an expert ground crew is a thing to behold, especially when they still use the wooden box frames to lay down the chalk on the baselines and the batter’s box.

We have travelled to many minor league parks often in tiny out of the way locations and even to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville Iowa where once again Judy indulged me and let me play catch. Likewise my long suffering wife has allowed our kitchen and much of my dining room are as close to a baseball shrine as Judy will let me make them; thankfully she is most tolerant and indulges this passion of mine.

Elliott the Usher

Since I returned from Iraq the baseball diamond is one of my few places of solace. For the first time I bought a season ticket to my local minor league team the Norfolk Tides. Section 102, row B seat 2 and 3 and was able to watch the game from the same place game after game. It became a place of refuge during some of my bad PTSD times, and I got to know and love the people around me; Elliot the Usher, Chip the Usher, Ray and Bill the Vietnam Veteran Beer guys behind home plate, Kenny “Crabmeat” the Pretzel Guy and Barry the Scorekeeper.

Moon Over Harbor Park

My dad is slowly dying of Alzheimer’s Disease and a shell of his former self but the last time I visited him we had a few minutes where he was with it we talked baseball and I gave him a new Giants t-shirt and hat. I plan on going back next month sometime to spend some time with him. Maybe we’ll get a few minutes of lucidity and a bit of time together again, I wish he was able to get up and play catch, but that will have to wait for eternity on the lushest baseball field imaginable.

The season there is over, but God is not done speaking to me through baseball as I close my eyes and recollect the words of Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones) in Field of Dreams: “The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again.”

Jeff Fiorentino hits a 3 run shot at Harbor Park

In a sense this says it all to me in an age of war, economic crisis and bitter partisan political division. In a sense it is a prayer, a prayer for a return to something that can be good again.

Peace and blessings,

Padre Steve+

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October 6, 2009 · 22:50

How Padre Steve’s Teams did in 2009 and What a Game…Twins Win in 12

1972 Oak Park AL Rams The 1972 Oak Park Little League Rams, American League Champs, Padre Steve’s One and Only Trip to the Post Season

Well, I gave my divisional playoff picks last night and as I start this post the Twinkies and Pussy Cats are going to the 12^th inning tied at 5. As I said last night I hope the game goes as long as the Braves-Astros NLDS game that went 18 innings back in 2004. While I’m waiting and watching to see who wins I need a bit of a review to see how my teams in the major and minor teams do this year?

Well…let me change the order of things here, the Twins just won the game actually fulfilling my prediction. It was one of the best baseball games that I have watched in a long time. Jim Leyland and Ron Gardenier both did a great job of managing and both teams played really hard. There were some amazing plays and the Twins pitchers came up big when they needed to in difficult situations often aided by outstanding defense including a play at the plate with the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 12^th. It ended with one out in the bottom of the 12^th when Alexei Casilla singled to right off Tigers closer Fernando Rodney to drive in Carlos Gomez. As I predicted the Twins had the advantage of the 10^th man in the Metro Dome. To win the AL Central they won 17 of their last 21 games and overcame a 7 game Tigers lead. Even more amazing they came back from 3 three game deficit with only four games left in the season to force the playoff against the Tigers. When they did that I knew that they would win tonight. There are some things in baseball that you can feel and no matter how many times the Tigers took the lead I knew that it wouldn’t last. On a side note, Twins reliever Bobby Keppel got the win. Keppel pitched here in Norfolk when the Mets were the Tides major league affiliate. It was good to see one of the Tides come through in the clutch to deliver the win. What a game, I hope every playoff series is this exciting.

As anyone who knows me can tell you I love the game of baseball. So unlike most people who live and die with one team I can honestly say that I have a number of favorite teams, often for different reasons but always because I like something about them. This doesn’t mean that they are all winners as is evidenced by some of the records this season, or maybe the past few seasons. Likewise it means I get conflicted sometimes when two of my favorites play one another.

Of course my favorite team is the San Francisco Giants. They came out west the year before I was born across the Bay in Oakland. I cannot forget all the greats who have played there and how close they have come to winning the World Series but not doing so. Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichel, Bobby Bonds, Gaylord Perry and the list can just keep going. I saw my one no-hitter back in 1975 at Candlestick when Ed Halicki no-hit the Mets. I won’t forget watching the 1989 World Series when the Bay Area was rocked by a major earthquake or when I saw Barry Bonds hit 756 when sitting in a Army Dining Facility eating breakfast at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

I also have liked the A’s, well I was born in Oakland and even though my dad hated Charlie Finely and never was a fan of the American League I enjoyed the freewheeling A’s of the 1970s, the teams fielded by Tony LaRussa and Billy Ball. We saw a couple of games in the A’s and Tigers Championship series. It is really amazing to think that back then you could get field level tickets for a decent price on game day. There is some tension here because I have a soft spot for the Anaheim Angels who happened to be the California Angels when my dad took us to a huge number of games at the “Big A” before Disney redid everything. I really came to love the feel of a ballpark in the confines of the “Big A.” I still have a Angels hat signed by a number of the players from that era including Jim Fregosi, Sandy Alomar, Jim Spencer and Chico Ruiz. I have pictures of my brother and I with Angles Manager Left Phillips and 3^rd Base Coach Rocky Bridges. Back in those days’ players and managers still had interesting nicknames like Lefty, Rocky, Catfish and Mudcat.

I also liked the Orioles because when we moved to Stockton California they were affiliated with the Stockton Ports of the California League. I had an Orioles cap that I got there for many years afterward. I visited Orioles Park back in 2004 and fell in love with the place. When the Orioles affiliated with the Tides in 2007 I renewed that affection for the O’s even though they have not been very good the past few years. This year was great to see a number of Tides go up to the majors and do well.

In 2003 I came to follow the Atlanta Braves after seeing their AA and AAA affiliates on a regular basis beginning when I saw the AA affiliate when they played Jacksonville in the Southern League and the Richmond, now the Gwinnett Braves play Norfolk in the International League. In 2004 when they had the year of the “baby Braves” I had seen all play in the minors that same season.

So how did my teams do?

San Francisco finished 3^rd in the NL West despite having an 88-74 .546 record. The Braves had a very similar situation finishing at 86-76 .531 behind the Marlins and Phillies. Both teams were in contention for the NL Wild Card until the last week of the season. They had the 6^th and 7^th best records in the National League.

My American League Teams did not do well with the exception of the Angels. The Orioles had a bad season topped by a dismal September. They were able to pull off a 4 game win streak to end the season and keep from losing 100 games. They finished 64-98 .395 and 39 games out of first place. They have some positives to build on as they had a very young and fluid roster. I expect them to be significantly better next year. The A’s also had a bad year, not as bad as the O’s but bad. They finish last in the AL West at 75-87 for a .463 winning percentage 22 games behind the Angels. The Angels though won the AL West with a 97-65 .599 winning percentage. They had the second best record in the American League.

That is why there is always next year. Besides I still have the game and this post season could be a great one if tonight was any indication. I’m sorry but the battles on the gridiron cannot compare to the drama that happens on the diamond. That is why I belong to the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish and this is my view from 102.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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October 5, 2009 · 23:00

Padre Steve’s MLB Divisional Playoff Picks

steve on top of the rock Looking Forward to the Playoffs

Well sports fans it is October and with the exception of the 163d game in the AL Central between the Twinkies and the Pussy Cats we are ready for the playoffs to begin. Tomorrow’s one game playoff in the soon to be history Hubert H Humphrey Metrosexual Dome should be a pretty good game that hopefully will go longer than the 2005 NL Divisional series game between the Braves and Astros that lasted 18 inning. If it goes that long the winner will be the Yankees. Wait, that’s when they play whoever wins between the Twins and the Tigers. My guess on this is that the Twins take them down hard in the inhospitable confines of the Metro Dome and go on to the playoffs where they will lose to the Yankees in 4.

With that in mind let’s take a look at the divisional series. First the National League:

Cardinals vs. Dodgers: Cardinals in 4

The Evil LA Dodger’s (95-67) have the best record in the National League backed into the playoffs after starting like they owned the world. Manny has been cold as a Boston night and the starting pitching has been suspect. I like St Joe Torre but I don’t think that the Evil Dodgers have the Schlitz this year. They will be playing the St Louis Cardinals (91-71) skippered by St Anthony La Russa who have some awesome hitting with Matt Halliday and Albert Pujols. The Cards are stacked with great pitching and I think that they will take the Dodgers in 4. Now to be fair under St Thomas of Lasorda the Dodgers pulled off some pretty amazing playoff wins, however I don’t think this is the year for that. If it happens I owe my nephew Joe the Dodgers fan dinner next time I’m in San Diego.

Phillies v. Rockies: Phillies in 5

The Rockies (92-70) had an amazing season, going from worst to almost first in the National League West and taking the Wild Card berth. Everything has been working for them and Manager Jim Tracy is attempting to become St James of Denver. They could potentially win this series but I am going to go with the Phillies (93-69) because I like their offense. When the series moves to Coors Light Field I think that Ryan Howard’s wrecking crew’s bats light up the cool Rocky Mountain High nights when they get out there. The Phillies pitching has not been as good in the past few weeks and closer Brad Lidge is seeking redemption after a miserable season which followed last year’s phenomenal performance. As for the Rockies I think that Cinderella departs from the ball early.

The American League looks like a whole lot of the same with the exception of the Central. What I would do to see the Orioles and the A’s back in the series like in the 1970s and 1980s. The teams in the American League playoffs, at least the ones currently in and not the Central Division Champs regardless of who that is, are outstanding teams all with a decent shot of advancing to the ALCS. First I’ll look out to Anaheim.

Angels vs. Red Sox: Angels in 5

Most experts are picking the Red Sox to once again knock the Angels out in the first round. The “Wild Card” Red Sox (95-67) have owned the Angels every year in recent memory that they have matched up in the ALDS. However that being said this year’s team is not the Red Sox we have known the past few years. They still have a lot of good players but they are showing signs of age and just don’t seem to have the same ability they did in past years despite their great record. They were eaten up by the Yankees in their last two series with them and took a while to secure the Wild Card. The Angels (97-65) played in a weaker division but still have done very well. Unfortunately with the exception of 2002 they have regularly choked in the playoffs. This year there seems to be something different about the Halo’s and I think it is related to the commitment of the team and dedication of the season to rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart who was killed by a drunk driver after pitching his first Major League start. I think it will be a tight series but the Angles end the Red Sox dominance of this series. I go Angels in 5.

Yankees vs. Central Division Champs: Yankees in 4 (Twins) or 3 (Tigers)

The Yankees (103-59) are my odds on pick to win it all. This team is deep at every level and playing with an attitude after missing the playoffs for the first time since 1995. They will face either the Twins or the Tigers either of which will be 87-76 when they win Tuesday night. The Twins are the hotter of the two teams and their playoff run has been outstanding but helped by the ineptitude of the Tigers. However I do not think that either does well against the Yankees who seem to be healthy and hitting on all cylinders. Yankee haters may not like it but the Yankees are a solid team and a middle relief corps that is home grown and not bought. I think the Twins might steal one game but expect that the Tigers should they win Tuesday will go down faster than Apollo Creed in Rocky 4.

So we’ll see how I do as compared to guys who make a living at this.

Odds and Ends

A couple of notes on the personal side my job focus is shifting more to our Pastoral Care Residency program and out of the ICU. I will be functioning in some manner like an attending pnhysician for our residents on all of their wards. Likewise I will be working more on training for the entire department and more work with the ethics committee and the Special Psychiatric Response Intervention Team (SPRINT). I will be moving my office back to the main pastoral care department offices this week. I still have the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

I started the preparations for my comprehensive exams for my Military History Masters at American Military University. It is an eight week course which is finished off with the actual exam. I want to finish with the highest marks on the exam “Passed with Distinction” to cap my perfect record in my classes.

I had the undead tooth show its ugly face again. Well not the tooth itself, it is dead but it still haunts me. I was notified on Friday that I was on what we call a “Dink” list for Dental. This is not good, the Naval Dental Corps is like the Gestapo in tracking down Sailors and Marines who miss appointments or regular screenings. When you get “dink’d” you are skylined, an open target with you name hanging out for the command to see. You don’t want to be a “dink.” Those who have been reading this website since the summer know all about The Undead Tooth of Terror. See my post Killing off the Undead Tooth of Terror https://padresteve.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/killing-off-the-undead-tooth/

As a result of the Undead Tooth of Terror I spent much of the summer in the Dental Department or with the Oral Surgeons who I get to see again tomorrow. I was told that I needed to take care of the problem with personnel. After several perplexed looks by disbelieving personnel specialists I was directed to a back office and the young corpsman there looked me up and was able to tell me that I was “dink’d” but couldn’t say why. So I went to Dental after another meeting where a young corpsman and I think that they are all young assisted me. He told me that the computer said that I was delinquent on a root canal. Well, not only had I had the root canal, but when it failed I lost the tooth as well. Informing the polite young man that said tooth was no longer in my head he looked for an explanation. When I mentioned that I was being evaluated for an implant he told me that he would be right back. He came back quickly with my record which had never been returned to records and was sitting on the Oral Surgeon’s desk. He removed the “dink” from my records and the world is right again.

Tomorrow I have a couple of ideas as I have been working on an article about the first US Navy Aircraft Carriers, one on the Congregation of the Church of Baseball at Harbor Park and some reflections on the 2009 baseball season.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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August 23, 2009 · 22:15

Scouts Out: My Neighbors in Section 100

Scouts Guns up: Scouts and Players with Radar Guns at Harbor Park

“If you don’t find high-caliber marble … you can’t create classic statues” John Schuerholz

One of the interesting views from my pew in the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park section 102, Row B seat 2 is that of the scouts. I often talk with my friend Elliott the Usher about the nuances of the game including the realm of the scouts, that often unsung group of men who find the raw talent that helps build the team.

Scouts are an interesting breed. They work for a Major League club, but dwell in obscurity, as any true scout would do. The seek talent, both raw and developed that will in their analysis help their club. The scouts travel throughout the minors, colleges, high schools and independent leagues to see what talent might be available. Sometimes they are former pro-ball players such as Bob Kison who works for the Orioles and Bill Singer who works for the Nationals, both of whom I have met this year at Harbor Park. In addition to the team scouting organizations the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau provides teams centralized scouting organizations which all have access to. Currently the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau employs 34 full time and 13 part times scouts in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.

I encounter a good number of scouts at Harbor Park. They as well as player’s wives, families or friends and VIPs sit in section 100 to my left. In addition to the scouts the Tides and the opposing teams frequently have at least one of their own players charting the game from that section. I have had a number of interesting conversations about the game with scouts from the Orioles, Nationals, Pirates, Cubs, Mets, White Sox, Yankees and Braves as well as a scout from the Japanese Major League team the Yokohama Bays Stars. There have been scouts from a good number of teams, including the Korean Baseball League that I have not chatted with prior to games. One is very careful not to bother them during the game itself as they are looking closely at what is going on. This is their bread and butter and they need to be respected while they work.

scouts 2 Mets and Rays Scouts

Of course the job of the scout is directly impacted by both the current and projected needs of their teams, including the minor league system as well as how the teams are doing at the moment. Thus from day to day scouts may be scouting individual players, or looking more in general for players that might of help to their team and its associated minor league system. Once in a while I get to look at the sheets that scouts use in evaluating talent. Since pitching is always a needed commodity they are seldom without their radar gun to measure the speed of pitches as well as charting pitch type, placement and what happened to the pitch. It is a very detailed job collecting data on players as well as making first hand observations that could be as important as the numbers in determining whether a play is right for the organization.

The key to the success of any Major League organization is how well its scouting system identifies prospects for the big team. Teams that are forward thinking spend the time and money to scout players either through the traditional methods or through the Sabremetrics system popularized in the book Moneyball about the Oakland Athletics methods under Billy Beane. Some teams use a combination of both traditional methods and the more data oriented Sabremetrics. Some teams which are accused of simple “buying” their major league team through free agency like the Yankees actually have a very talented scouting department and minor league system. The Yankees have built their own middle relief corps from their own system this year. The bullpen with the exception of closer Mariano Rivera has been a weak spot over the past 8 years for the Yankees and they have remedied this on their own. Likewise the Red Sox, Rays and Orioles maintain excellent scouting and minor league systems. The Orioles are the newcomers in this building their team from scratch over the past few years. In the West both the Angels and the A’s have strong minor league systems as do the Cardinals and Dodgers.

japanese scout Yokohama Bay Stars Scout

Unfortunately many organizations outside baseball, especially churches do not scout or develop talent. Sometimes it is a organizational approach or prejudice that either seeks outsiders versus home grown talent, mega-churches are particularly bad about this often looking at outsiders to fill the their staffs. On the other hand older main line denominations often are suspicious of outsiders even those with good track records. Some Churches such as the Roman Catholic Church intentionally limit those who can serve as clergy to the ranks of unmarried celibate men, with a few exceptions made for married clergy from other churches. Those men are taken through a process that often discounts any prior ministry they have as of little value and very few make it through the process of being ordained. On the other side of the spectrum are churches which have no rhyme or reason as to how they choose develop or assign clergy with often very arbitrary means to choose pastors. Clergy development from identifying young men and women who believe that they have a call to serve; the nurture and care of these men and women, their education, formation and eventual ordination and assignment are particularly important if the Church is to fulfill its mandate of bearing witness of Christ in the world and caring for the people of God.

One can make application in many other fields. In the military we typically recruit for most specialties but we look harder for specialties that require a more selective process such as Special Operations personnel. In the medical field the military employs a very rigorous process of evaluating prospective physicians through medical school, internship and residency. In specialties which a lot of personnel are required and in which there is a good amount of turnover and attrition many personnel are recruited but at certain career points a good number are weeded out.

Good scouting needs to be part of recruiting. Talent must not simply be recruited based on test scores, but the whole person. Organizations that seek excellence will use people to scout for and evaluate talent within their own organization or outside of it. The goal of course is not to find one person that can play now, but to develop many people to deepen the organization and make it more resilient when it experiences personnel losses or has to make organizational moves. Without good scouting much recruiting effort will be spent and often wasted on people who do not fit what the organization needs at the present or in the future.

Peace, Steve+

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August 10, 2009 · 23:55

Trust in God and Keep a Strong Bullpen

“A fellow has to have faith in God above and Rollie Fingers in the bullpen.” Alvin Dark

Tides Reliever Alberto Castillo against Charlotte

Organizations often face time when due to either talent, injuries or staffing shortages that they must make adjustments in mid-stride in order to continue to function. Nowhere is this more apparent than on a baseball team, especially in relationship to the pitching staff. The bullpen must be good in order for a team to weather the ups and downs of a season as well as the ups and downs of the starting rotation. When the starters are doing well and being supported by good hitting a good bullpen is what ensures the win. When a starter slips up and has a bad outing a good bullpen steps up and gets the game back under control to give their offense a chance to win. Conversely if a starting rotation is not doing well, either due to injuries, lack of talent or lack of experience the bullpen has to take up the slack. In such cases even a good bullpen staffed with experienced relievers can get worn down by being forced to pitch too many innings too many times. This became apparent to me last night as I watched the Yankees beat the Red Sox. The Red Sox starter, in fact the last three starters had pitched well, unfortunately due to a number of times during the past few weeks the starters had been beaten up force the relief staff to do a lot more work than they are programmed to do. Thus when the game got into the deep innings, particularly on when the teams went over 14 scoreless innings, the Red Sox bullpen was ground down. In the end they ended up losing games to the Yankees despite good performances from the starters but lousy hitting, Yankees pitching blanking the Red Sox for 31 innings before the Red Sox Victor Martinez managed a two run home run in top of the 8^th in Sunday night’s game. It was then that the Red Sox bullpen fell apart with Daniel Bard and Hideki Okijima combining to give up 4 runs on 5 hits including 2 home runs, all with two outs and no one on base.

To have an effective bullpen you have to have a staff that knows their roles and are comfortable coming on in relief. By way of analogy my military career has been marked where I have had to go into a situation in relief of someone who had been fired, transferred early or was hurt, I experienced this as a Company Commander and a good number of times as a chaplain. All of these came with little or no notice, much the way a relief pitcher is called upon to do. If you have worked in some institutional setting such as the military, this is a common occurrence. The key to such situations, just like baseball, is that the person coming in relief needs to know what their role is. Is this a short relief outing, to get a specific task done, like a pitcher might be put in to face one batter and no one else? Or is it to recover a situation and stay in the game for an extended period of time, or even to come on in the final inning to close out the game? No matter what it is the reliever must know his role, just as someone being brought in a institutional setting to take over in a difficult situation needs to know what he or she is expected to accomplish and how much time they are expected to be in. Thus the onus is on the organization, in particular the leadership to know what the abilities of their “relievers” are and be forthright in telling them what they need to accomplish.

In building an organization you need people on your staff that are suited to change gears in the middle of something and go into a relief situation. It is true in baseball as well as life. As a season ticket holder for the Norfolk Tides Baseball Club, the AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles I watch a lot of baseball from my seat in section 102, row B seat 2. The Tides started out the year with a great starting pitching rotation most of who have been called to the majors as well as relief staff. The still have decent pitching but it is not up to the level that it was at the beginning of the season. Whereas earlier in the season up until the All-Star break the starters we getting good starts and relievers were able to come in later in the game in roles that they were ready to fulfill. Now with our losses and the addition of pitchers called up from AA or A ball we are struggling in this department. With starters not getting quality starts or not going deep into the game the relief staff has been worn down. Pitchers who were solid earlier in the year are not as dependable, and this comes often from having to come in too early, too often in situations where the games are already out of hand. Yet even so tonight I saw relievers Kam Mikolio and Alberto Castillo regain control of the game in the 8^th and 9^th inning, but too late to do any good because the damage had been done earlier against Andy Mitchell the statrer and Jim Miller who came on in middle relief.

In the majors a staff needs a couple of guys who can come in to do long or middle relief, a couple of set up pitchers and a good closer. Ever since the Oakland A’s used Rollie Fingers in this role the relief pitchers have become an vital part of any pitching staff and good managers know when the right time to pull a pitcher and put in the right reliever is. Good managers also know to let the relief know what is expected. In places that I have done well in relief I knew what my mission was, how long it was going to be and set myself to accomplish that mission. When the relief appearance was ill defined and I did not have much experience I would do well for a while and then get in trouble because I had to use the baseball term gone beyond my pitch count or overmatched.

Sometimes even excellent relievers get beat up. Everyone has a bad day and even guys like Mariano Rivera, Francisco Rodriguez and Jonathan Papelbon occasionally get roughed up. However, most of the time these pitchers have enjoyed success because they were part of a pitching staff that was strong in both starters and relievers. A good reliever on a bad team often gets worn down. Likewise when organizations suffer significant losses the people left, experienced and inexperienced, strong and weak are put into situation after situation where they have to do more on less rest.

Russ Ortiz

Tonight I met pitcher Russ Ortiz who has played a good number of years in the majors. He was recently picked up by the New York Yankees after being released by the Astros. He was assigned to the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees and is making a start tomorrow night. This evening he was charting the game for the Yankees in section 100. Now Russ was with the Giants in 2002 when they went to the World Series against the Angels. With one out in the bottom of the 7^th leading 5-0 Ortiz gave up two hits and was replaced by Manager Dusty Baker with set-up man Felix Rodriguez. Rodriguez gave up a 3 run home run to Scott Spiezio. The Angles picked up three more off Rodriguez and closer Rob Nen to go ahead and win the game. I told Ortiz that I still curse the day that Baker pulled him and told him how much I thought that he deserved the win. Ortiz is a gentleman and nice guy. Standing back with Elliott the Usher I meet a decent number of players and Ortiz is a class act. I asked Russ if he would do me a favor and sign a baseball card for me, he said gladly. So Marty the Card Dealer sold me a card with Ortiz in his Giants uniform and in the top of the 9^th Russ signed it for me on the concourse. It goes into my kitchen baseball shrine where so many of my other signed cards, balls and memorabilia are on display.

Without going into a sermon it is important to remember that many businesses and organizations are going through difficult times with many trying to do more with less. In the military we are seeing our numbers go up a bit but with mission increases that stress our system. These are like teams where there are gaps in the starting rotation and where guys and gals have to come in to relieve folks more often that should be the case.

Yes we do trust God, and patently the Deity Herself tells me that such is necessary especially for a miscreant Priest like me. At the same time we need to have a strong bullpen in order to weather difficult situations. May we all have our Rivera’s, Papelbon’s, and guys like Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersly on our team with some good set up guys as well as some long and middle relievers.

Peace, Steve+

On a side note I was charged with an error by Barry the Scorekeeper when I lost track of my beer and kicked it over when it was still 2/3 full. Since to waste good beer is a sin, I’m sure that Martin Luther believed this to be the case, I had to buy another and trust that the Deity would forgive me.

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August 1, 2009 · 13:32

Blowouts…The Days (or years) you want to forget…But Need to Learn From

not a happy camper How I feel after a blowout

It’s no fun to get blown out in any game or life. Losing sucks no matter how you try to cushion it by saying, “well we almost won” or “gee if only we had…” or “they got lucky, we should have won.” Blowouts on the other hand leave you little to console yourself with. You lose and you lose badly. In baseball this usually means that the other team has shredded your pitching staff and that your defense stinks as fielders make fielding and throwing errors, your pitcher throws wild pitches with men on 3^rd and your offense dries up like a West Texas lawn in July. This happened to the Tides Thursday afternoon as they were ripped by Indianapolis 11-3 and it wasn’t that close. Starter Andy Mitchell who entered the game at 9-2 gave up 8 runs in 4 innings work. The Tides hitters didn’t come through after a series of comebacks the previous three games. This happens in the Major Leagues as well. Back on July 22^nd the Athletics beat the Twins 16-1; the 18^th the Braves beat the Mets 11-0 and back on the 6^th the Phillies beat the Reds 22-1. Being on the receiving end of such a whacking is painful. The key is what you do with it. As teams, organizations and individuals everyone will get beaten up once in a while and it takes character and strength to get back out the next day and give it your best when the temptation is to give in to go through the motions and just hope to make it through.

Blowouts in life can come in many ways, health, finances, work situations and relationships. Sometimes they are our own doing and the results of our choices. The times I have had the most problems have often been self inflicted because I couldn’t keep my trap shut when I should have either shut up or found a safe place to vent. In my years in the military and watching baseball I have seen a lot of this. Likewise there are people who live on the edge and consistently do things that are known to be illegal or unethical within their organization or sport and eventually get caught. Unfortunately these are not usually the untalented and unmotivated people whose contribution to their team or work environment is to suck up band width and perfectly good oxygen that others could be using to better effect. The sad thing is that those who push the envelope are often the most talented who have natural ability as well as well as an almost pathological need to be the best. One only has to take a look at Pete Rose who though his “sins” were not on the playing field, was things that no Manager should ever do. His attitude about getting caught was an arrogant display of idiocy which disrespected the game that he contributed so much to and soiled his name and reputation. I hope that he will find redemption in baseball, but the onus is on him to make things right. Likewise with the myriad of players from the steroid era whose names and reputations are ruined by playing this kind of game. I am fortunate in that my outbursts did not cost me my career. There are some I am sure that think little of me because of some of the things I have blown up about over the years and if I could do them over I would do them differently. But I can’t go back and change them now; they are a part of the tangled tapestry of my life just above the Mendoza Line.

Tuesday night I had the overnight duty and because we were short staffed due to injuries and people being out the duty pager went off incessantly throughout the day. It was like a day at Parkland without every call being a code, death or trauma. By noon I felt like a pitcher who was having every batter get a hit, every time I turned around I was rushing off somewhere else. It is funny when you have a feeling about how a day is going to go. By noon I knew that this day would be long and painful, just like a game where the opposition scores early and often. By early evening I was tired, but the hits kept coming and by now almost all were cases out of my comfort zone.

I am by nature a Critical Care, Trauma and Emergency Medicine type of Chaplain. I am just wired that way. I will never be a shrink. I have people all the time ask me or even suggest to me that I get a degree in Counseling or even a Doctorate in Psychology. Now I do think that I would be a good diagnostician, but I couldn’t handle what my friends who are shrinks have to deal with on a daily basis, give me carnage and traumatic tragedy any day of the week, but not persistent pitter-patter of psychological problems.

Now by shrinks I mean Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Clinical Social Workers and Psychiatric Nurses. I use the term “Shrink” loosely but with great respect and I do not hesitate to consult with them or refer people to them. I don’t know how they live in that world. The maelstrom of mentally mangled humanity that my friends deal with on a daily basis would have me in a rubber room. Thus when I see patients on medical floors I always read their chart and history because if I am going to go in and visit a patient I prefer to know that they are Borderline, Bi-Polar, Schizophrenic, Paranoid, Clinically Depressed, delusional, suicidal or spermicidal before they suck me into their hellish helix of hopelessness. Knowing these things allows me to stay in my lane, offer appropriate support and actually care for them within my limitations because I do actually have a lot of compassion for the mentally ill or those suffering from even temporary emotional problems. Heck I have PTSD and some amount of anxiety so Elmer the shrink has his work cut out. How can I not feel some amount of compassion for those who have even worse situations? Now there are those who may have some of these conditions who are also maniacally manipulative or pathologically putrid who are not only mentally ill but somewhat or even majorly malevolent. These folks get to me, I have little compassion for people who even if they have issues are simply rotten people who get off on inflicting pain, emotional, spiritual or physical on those around them, to include their shrinks.

Tuesday night my blowout continued as person after person presented not only needing to see a shrink but wanting to deal with God and all they got was me. I was beginning to have some words with the Deity Herself about this but was quickly reminded that she loved them too. Thus my approach was pastoral, supportive and compassionate working within my limitations to ensure that they got the care that they needed without mucking it up for the ER staff or the shrinks. So of course I was dealing with delusional Paranoid Schizophrenics and Borderline cases all night long. By the time I trudged up to the on call room a little after 0400 I was exhausted. My ICU pals were getting a good laugh at my expense and at least I could see the humor in it all. The alarm rang far too early and when I made my duty turnover I felt like a starting pitcher who had been run over inning after inning for the entire start. I hadn’t had a night quite like that since my residency at Parkland. After the turnover I met with my Department Head for a few minutes and he simply said “Steven, go home.” Even my normal “I can’t leave I have work to do” way of doing life had to agree. I knew that I was a spent round.

Coming back after getting run over can be difficult and my next day at work I was rested and had a busy but not terribly stressful day and I was back in my element. No runs, no hits and no errors and no Paranoid Schizophrenics left on base.

How teams come back is interesting. After the drubbing that the Tides took on Thursday they jumped out to an early 4-0 lead against Indianapolis. Starter Troy Patton gave up two runs and in the 6^th Dennis Safrate came on in relief. Sarfate is down on a rehab assignment for the Orioles and got hit hard by the Indians. The Indians sent 12 men to the plate and scored 9 runs in the 6^th off of Sarfate and Russ Wolfe. Down 5 runs and looking at another beating the Tides found it within themselves to score 5 runs to tie the game in the bottom of the 7^th. Robby Hammock led off the bottom of the 8^th with a double, moved to third on a Carlos Rojas sacrifice bunt and was driven in by a Joey Gathright single for the go ahead and ultimately the winning run. Josh Perrualt got the win pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless relief retiring 7 of the 8 batters that he faced. Jeff Fiorentino had 2 hits an RBI and score 2 runs, Joey Gathright had three hits and the game winning RBI and Victor Diz had 2 doubles and 3 RBIs to help the Tides to victory.

Coming back takes work, no matter what you do. My life, especially the time in seminary until the time I entered the Navy was like a player or team who had a decade of tough seasons. When I came in the Navy I was able to turn things around. For the most part I avoid the things that got me in trouble in those years and I have become a lot more skilled at getting through the bumps that I still face. Fighting back after my post Iraq PTSD collapse has been difficult but things are getting better and my life is coming back into balance. Things that were impossible for me to deal with even a few months ago are starting to become manageable. I am coming back and I think that is the key. Blowouts are no fun and personally I don’t like them, but I am starting to find the takeaways that I need in order to come back. Isn’t that the point?

Anyway, tonight the Tides start a 4 game series against the Syracuse Sky Chiefs the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals who have a 55-49 record and are in 2^nd place in the International League North. The Tides are now 3 and ½ games out of 1^st in the South Division and a game behind Gwinnett for the Wild Card.

Peace, Steve+

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

Tagged as atlanta braves, bi-polar, blow outs, borderline personality disorder, carlos rojas, cincinnati reds, clincally depressed, dennis sarfate, elmer the shrink, harbor park, indianapolis indians, jeff fiorentino, joey gathright, josh perrault, mendoza line, mental illness, minnesota twins, new york mets, norfolk tides, oakland athletics, paranoid, parkland memorial hospital, Pete Rose, philadelphia phillies, psychiatry, psychology, PTSD, robby hammock, russ wolfe, schizophrenic, spermicidal, steriod era, suicidal, victor diaz

July 6, 2009 · 21:47

Discerning the Second Coming: The Cubs are the Key

This is a modified re-post of something that I did when I first started posting to this site. At the time I had very few readers and this post was buried so far back that it was pretty much forgotten, except by me. Since the Deity Herself speaks to me through baseball it follows that my eschatology, or theology of the end times has a baseball connection.Since the Cubs are currently in third pace in the NL Central with a record of 41 wins and 39 losses a week before the All Star break having just beat the Braves 4-2 I feel that is appropriate to re-address the topic.

The Creed says of Jesus that “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” The Creed however does not say how or when. Since many guys with a lot less theological training than me are making mega-bucks writing books about the Second Coming of Christ simply by watching CNN, Fox News and a host of websites and newspapers. I watch these guys vainly trying to match headlines to Bible verses to show why they are right, or at least how to make changes in order to publish another book, I figured why not do this from Baseball.

While Hal Lindsey, Grant Jeffery, John Hagee, Jack Van Impe and groups like the Prophecy Club make definitive statements based on “years of study” of the Scriptures, history and current events only to have to revise those predictions when people and nations refuse to do not as they predict; I prefer not to live my life waiting for Fox News to tell me that Jesus is on the horizon. I remember back in the 1970s when I read Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth and had the shit scared out of me. What was way cool over the years was to see the revisions to the book as the world situation changed. Likewise the new books published by others during the Gulf War and every stinking conflict in the Middle East which basically repackaged the same tripe with slight modifications due to world situation, political change or technological advances. Even worse are the Left Buttocks series by Tim LaHaye whose books and movies sold more copies than People Magazine’s coverage of the death of Michael Jackson

My hair brained theory says that it all comes down to baseball, just as everything else in life. My belief is that when the Chicago Cubs win the World’s Series that we’d better start looking to the East, and pronto.

I’m actually somewhat serious. I have no emotional investment in the Cubs, I’m a San Francisco Giants fan who has a fondness for the Oakland A’s. I enjoyed the hell out of the 1989 NLCS when the Giants won the NL pennant against against the Cubs. I love the Giants, Willie Mays was and always will be the best baseball player who ever lived to me and though far away, and I can name player after player for the team over the years that I admire and I am really pissed at the way Barry Bonds has been singled out while guys like A-Rod and Manny get their wrists slapped and continue to play. Since I am such a partisan Giants fan with no emotional or spiritual attachment to the Cubs, I think that I can honestly say that I am impartial observer of this prophetic event. At least as far as the Cubs are concerned. I hold no personal animus against the long suffering Cubs, they are not the Evil Dodgers nor related to the anti-Christ, unless you are a Cardinals or Brewers fan.

Last year I was actually somewhat concerned that the Cubs were going to see Jesus back into town. The Cubs were a favorite to reach the World Series and maybe win it. They appeared to have the best team in baseball and it was 100 years exactly since the last series that they won. I was worried because as much as I believe that Jesus will come again, I have to confess that I’d prefer he wait until some following generation to do it. The Cubs finished the regular season with a 97-64 record, the best in the National League. The Evil Dodgers swept them in the NLDS ensuring that the Cubs would not make the series and calming my fears that Jesus might come before I could see the Giants win a World Series.

One has to look at history and see all the disappointment that Cubs fans have suffered over the years. Think of the times that the experts said it was the Cubs time. In 1984 they blew a 2 game to none lead in the NLDS and lost to the Padres. In 1989 the Giants took them in 5 games. In 1998 swept by the Braves, Remember the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins? Up in the top of the 8th in game six and then everything fell apart shortly after the errant Cubs fan reached out and caught a foul ball that was almost in the glove of the Cub defender? Swept by the Diamondbacks in 2007 and again swept by the Evil Dodgers in 2008. There has to be something to this. It is too eerily similar to guys like Hal Lindsey and others who keep reading the headlines and predicting Jesus’ return, and when he doesn’t they have to look at the headlines again, wait for another crisis and write another book. Those who follow the Cubs are like followers of the Christian prophecy movement are always disappointed when their playoff prophets are proved wrong again and again.

Thus, all this considered I must be right, there is a correlation between the Cubs and and eschatology. I could be full of crap, but I think I have something here, the Deity Herself I think assures me of this considering her love of Baseball. In the W.P. Kinsella novel The Iowa Baseball Confederacy a young man ventures to the end of a rail spur and ends up transported back in time to 1908 to a place in Iowa where the Cubs were playing an exhibition against a team of local all stars. The game took on mythic proportions, and not to spoil the book, which I highly recommend, it tells of cataclysmic and cosmological significance of the 1908 Cubs.

I guess that to paraphrase Colonel Nathan R Jessup in A Few Good Men “The Cubs playoff defeats while tragic, probably saved lives.” I’ll end here, but to those who expect the Cubs to win the World’s Series you’d better be careful what you ask for…when you are rejoicing that the Cubs finally have won, Jesus may come and spoil your parade.

Filed under: Baseball, Religion | Tagged: Baseball, Religion

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Tagged as a few good men, alex rodriguez, anti-christ, barry bonds, chicago cubs, colonel nathan r jessup, dodgers, eschatology, florida marlins, grant jeffery, hal lindsey, jack van impe, john hagee, left behind movies, left behind novels, manny ramirez, michael jackson, milwaukee brewers, nlcs, nlds, oakland athletics, people magazine, san fransisco giants, st louis cardinals, the iowa baseball confederacy, the late great planet earth, the prophecy club, tim lahaye, w p kinsella, world series

May 12, 2009 · 15:56

Connecting…Baseball and Having My Dad Back for a Few Minutes

San_Francisco_Giants_logo

I visited my dad this morning at his nursing home and it was a good visit. The Deity Herself must have intervened, and I am glad about that. Alzheimer’s is really a terrible disease. It robs people of their mind long before they physically pass away. Dad looks terrible and after yesterday I did not expect much, but I wanted to connect somehow.

On the way I picked him up a San Francisco Giants hat and shirt. Dad has been a Giants fan since coming to the west coast back in the late 1950s. When we moved up to Mudville in 1971 he would occasionally take us over to Candlestick Park to see them play. Admittedly this was a pretty decent trip so we didn’t go as often as I’m sure that he would have liked. The first baseball game that dad took me to was in the summer of 1969 Seattle Pilots at Sick Stadium. I don’t remember what day it was, only that it was either a Saturday or Sunday day game which happened to be “Bat Day.” In those days teams gave real bats to the kids. I got one with the signature of Pilot’s First Baseman Mike Hegan. I had the bat for years. I think I finally broke it playing a pick-up game in the 1970s. Dumb me; the damned thing would probably be worth a fortune now. When we moved to Long Beach in 1970 we went to a lot of California Angels games. This was in the time before they went through the crisis of what to call themselves. You know, The California Angels, The Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and finally now the Anaheim Angels. Those were great times. Dad was awesome in getting us to the game, helping us shag foul balls and teaching constantly at the game. If we were not at the game we had it on the radio. I still enjoy listening to baseball on the radio. I mostly now listen to the Norfolk Tides when they are on the road.

Me and Lefty Phillips

When we moved to Mudville, dad like I said would take us to Giants games. The most memorable of these was on August 24^th 1975 when in the second game of a double header against the New York Mets, Ed Halicki threw a no-hitter. That was cool; dad took me to see a game where a no hitter happened. It was magic. We would also attend Oakland A’s games. This was back in the days of Charlie Finley’s ownership and the dynasty team that included Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Joe Rudi, Bert “Campy” Campanaris, “Mudcat” Grant and Paul Linnblad. We saw a couple of the playoff games against the Detroit Tigers at the Oakland Coliseum in 1972. The A’s won both, Rollie Fingers picking up a win in relief and Blue Moon Odom shutting tehm down in the second. In Mudville we would go see the Stockton Ports of the California League who at the time were part of the Baltimore Orioles farm system.

halicki no hitter

While we went to a lot of games it didn’t stop there. Dad from as early as I could remember would take me out to the back yard, vacant lot or school baseball field to teach me to pitch, throw and field. When I saw the movie For the Love of the Game starring Kevin Costner there are old clips, home movie clips of Costner and his parents with his dad playing ball with him. Those clips sent me back to my childhood when dad did that with me.

oakland a's 1972

Today I had my dad back for about five to seven minutes. They were a good five to seven minutes. The visit yesterday was not so good. He was not very with it and very anxious. Today he was calmer and I gave him the Giants hat. When he saw it his eyes lit up. Then I gave him the shirt, and he smiled. I then told him the Giants had taken two of three games over the weekend from the Dodgers and he said simply “Good.” Dad is not a Dodgers fan unless they are playing in the World Series, then he is not a fan, but simply a National League partisan. I told him about my season ticket with the Norfolk Tides and he said, “I wish I could go with you.” I then thanked him for all that he taught me about the game and how he taught me to love it. He said “at least I taught you something.” I then told him that he had taught me a lot more about life than he might remember. He smiled. I told him how he used to take me to the back yard and play catch, teach me to pitch, and to field a ball cleaning as we played pepper. I said “I still remember you telling me to keep my butt down and keep in front of ground balls.” He said “you have to do that.” I told him any time that I was in the infield that I could hear his voice telling me to “keep your butt down.” I did mention that he didn’t teach me how to hit and he said something that surprised me. He said: “Son, to be a hitter takes a natural gift, a lot of people can’t hit.” I then said, “Well I’m one of them” and he smiled.

He asked me about the Navy and we talked for a minute or two about it. Then he then started to get anxious and ask me to take him to the recreation room. They were getting ready for an organ concert. I wheeled him beside an older lady and he said. “That’s my son…He’s a Navy man too.”

I promised that I would see him again tomorrow. I don’t know how he will be doing then but at least for a few minutes today I had him back.

Peace, Steve+

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

Tagged as 1972 A's, alzheimer's disease, baltimore Orioles, bert campanaris, blue moon odom, California Angels, candlestick park, catfish hunter, charlie finley, ed halicki, for the love of the game, giants, joe rudi, kevin costner, mike hegan, mudcat grant, mudville, navy, no hitters, norfolk tides, oakland athletics, oakland coliseum, paul linblad, reggie jackson, rollie fingers, sal bando, seattle pilots, sick stadium, stockton ports

Tag Archives: oakland athletics

Baseball is Back….Thank God!

Yes Friends, God Really Does Speak to Me Through Baseball

My Life and Baseball: How Padre Steve Makes Some Sense of the World

How Padre Steve’s Teams did in 2009 and What a Game…Twins Win in 12

Padre Steve’s MLB Divisional Playoff Picks

Scouts Out: My Neighbors in Section 100

Trust in God and Keep a Strong Bullpen

Blowouts…The Days (or years) you want to forget…But Need to Learn From

Discerning the Second Coming: The Cubs are the Key

Connecting…Baseball and Having My Dad Back for a Few Minutes

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