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There are actually probably a couple hundred old cards, mostly from the '60s and '70s, packed away in totes up in my parents' attic. Dad never displays them, never really even takes them out, and would never consider selling them. I keep telling him he should get them out and build some sort of display for the rarer ones, at the very least, but he seems to be in no particular hurry to do so. Joe Torre has always been one of my absolute favorite people in baseball.

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Right-handed pitcher Brett Bruening, a 2007 Flower Mound graduate, said he has orally committed to play college baseball with LSU.
"I always wanted to go there ever since I was a freshman at high school," Bruening said. "I like the SEC and they are always on top of the conference."
Bruening helped Grayson County College win the 2008 JUCO World Series. He also was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 30th round in the last baseball draft.
Bruening said he went to Grayson County College so he could be eligible for the draft as soon as possible. But after the Cards selected him, Bruening decided to look for a D-I college.
"I'm willing to go school for a year, pitch in the SEC and hopefully that will increase my stock," he said.

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SCOTT PODSEDNIK:
- Hit walk-off home run of Brad Lidge in Game 2 of 2005 World Series... walk-off home run was the 14th in World Series history.
- In 2005, stole 51 bases ranking second in Chicago White Sox history.
- In 2005, led the American League with 39 infield base hits and 16 bunt base hits.
- In 2005, marked a World Series record eight at-bats in Game 3 against the Houston Astros.
- Drafted in the third round of the 1994 MLB Amateur Draft by the Teas Rangers.
- Made major league debut on July 6, 2001, at the age of 25.
- A .286 career postseason hitter, with 14 hits, three triples, two home runs and six RBI.

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This presentation is based on a lecture I gave in Copenhagen last spring in connection with a conference on citizenship and public discourse. The aftermath of the Danish cartoon controversy in 2006 made the topic of religious tolerance and its limits especially relevant in that context. I distinguish between negative and positive tolerance, discussing them with reference to some Canadian examples. Positive tolerance has been defined as requiring more than the forbearance needed for negative tolerance. It is said to require respect and the valuing of diversity. Interesting questions arise here. What is involved in the respect that positive tolerance is said to require? How, if at all, can we respect something we believe to be irrational, superstitious, or harmful? What is the relation between criticism and respect? What happens to respect if people employ intimidation and violence in attempts to protect their beliefs from criticism? I argue that for both positive and negative tolerance there must be limits.

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Nick Dixon is the President of Nedco Sports Products, Inc. Nedco Sports owns and operates several popular online baseball training product stores including CoachesBest.com, Hit2win.com, Pitch2win.com, and BaseballDealz.com. Dixon is recognized as an authority on baseball training and baseball training products. Dixon is also the creator of several popular brands of training aids including the Hit2win Trainer, BatAction Machine, Hurricane Training Machine, ZipnHit Trainer, and the StrikeBack Trainer. Dixon is the head baseball coach at Boaz High, in Boaz, Alabama.

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Guys 1 and 2 were trying to persuade Guy 3 of the intellectual virtues of baseball. I'm not sure how thinking and not paying attention go together, but there's something between these statements that has to do with the poetry of baseball as what happens not only during plays, but also between plays. Here, for example, is a favorite baseball poem, from Paul Blackburn's "17.IV.

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Plan a trip to Arizona. The stars of the future play in the Major League Baseball sanctioned Arizona Fall League, which runs from shortly after the big league season ends until November. Each MLB club sends its top prospects to Arizona where they play at the spring training facilities. The stadiums are close together around Phoenix, and ticket prices are a fraction of a big league ducat.

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Awesome atmosphere, and the game could not have been better.  Being so close to the dugout, we felt really close to the players, as we could see their reactions after each at-bat.  And the bats were hot, with three of our sluggers each hitting 3-run homers.  On the other side of the ball, we watched double-play after double-play, seemingly looking right over the first basemans shoulder, as the visitors got shut down inning after inning.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  Our entire section won free pizza.  Sib1 also got some jumbotron time, completely by chance.
As I said, I dont go to many games, and I have never sat so close.  Being a Wednesday, it wasnt crowded, and when the game seemed well in hand early, several (probably corporate or season) ticket holders left early.  After all, they had probably attended lots of games, would attend more, and likely had to work the next day.  So, we moved from ~row 10 to ~row 6, leaned back, put our feet up, and cheered the Hometeam to a 14-2 win.
Besides creating memories, I realized a few things.  First, Id rather sit in row 10 once a year, than row 110 four or five times a year.  Second, if I had these experiences all the time, I would undervalue them and probably leave early. 
Probably most important, I was completely in the moment.  Moment after moment for hours on end.  I was not checking my cell phone, or worrying about work, or calculating when we would get home with a 3-hour drive waiting for us in the parking lot.  I was there.
Id love to hear others stories of having been truly present.

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Gloomy Gus heading into this. I continue to wonder how so many Americans were instantly triggered to a frothing rage by this womans debut on the national stage. But after some subpar television interviews, I braced for a rough debate, expecting the experienced blowhard to beat the inexperienced nice girl.
Instead, Palin provided much crisper answers, much more professional. She didnt seem over-briefed; in fact she was able to rattle off a level of policy detail that worked for the conversational style of her answers. Did she play it safe? Sure. We were all shouting responses at the television. I belted out a loud Watch the YouTube debate! when Biden insisted Obama never agreed to meet with Ahmadinejad. But her answers ranged from the great to the okay, with a few wincers thrown in once in a great while.
Did she pass the could-she-lead-in-a-time-of-crisis test? Let me put it this way. I could picture the woman on stage tonight leading in a crisis. I couldnt picture the woman interviewed by Gibson and Couric doing that.

Shes a natural saleswoman. She certainly saved her prospects for national office in 2012, if she so chooses. She certainly, my guess is, reenergized the GOP base and independents, centrists, and undecided, if theyre honest with themselves, will conclude that they witnessed an impressive woman tonight. Many Democrats will continue to loathe her.

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As our historical ratings chart shows, the trend is definitely not baseballs friend, but significant year to year fluctuations occur based on matchups, cities and number of games played.
In 2007, TBS carried 13 divisional series games and TNT carried 4, I averaged their results together.
2006-7 data is Live+SD, prior years are Live viewing.
You can find World Series data here.

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WET weather disrupted the second round of the Suva Baseball and Softball competition at Nasinu yesterday.
Only one game was played as the heavy downpour made the ground slippery.
Baseball official Inoke Niubalavu said they had to stop the other fixture.
"We managed to finish only one game between Lami and the combined Suva team," Niubalavu said.
Suva won the game 14-4.
The second match between Tamavua Rockies and the Nasinu Mariners was called off.
"This is our second round of competition but again the weather is not on our side." Niubalavu said they now looked forward to the next round next week.

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I remember well a private incident one early evening in September of 1955, when I had turned 12. I had been sitting in the living room, and walked over to the bedroom where I had piled a stack of handwritten “news stories” which might be the logical equivalent of today’s blog entries. I heaved them. I don’t know why I felt the urge to do that. Maybe the “demands” of seventh grade. In those days, junior high school started then (not in sixth as with middle school today). I felt that it was time to “give up childish things” perhaps.

What I printed up on those sheets was a “season” of fantasy baseball. I, and a couple of friends, had invented a fantasy league by playing fungo in back yards (arranging the position of home plate in the yard to more or less simulate major league parks in the 50s) We also simulated baseball with a pencil (as a bat) and a ping pong ball on the open floor of the recreation room. We had other fantasy sports, like tennis, by throwing the ping pong ball against a wall and batting it in a way a bit like racquetball.

That was a change in interest from third grade, when I was confronted (by a particularly hostile teacher, I thought) as to how “different” I was. (Curiously, that's when I started piano lessons.) I was always the last picked on the team. Yet, I caught on to what baseball “means” and got interested in “meta-baseball.” I don’t think mlb.com minds. I think at the time that the Orioles and Cardinals were winning respective pennants, and about 100 games had been played by each time (many of them by drawing numbers out of a hat). In fantasy, the Washington Senators did about as well as they did in real life (in 1955 they finished 53-101). I wish I still had the hardcopy sheets today, as they would at least make for a good blog photo. I came to understand the psychological meaning of “home field advantage” in life in general.

Seventh grade started out reasonably well. We had science (which of course I liked) the first “semester” and industrial arts (the nice word for “shop”) the second, which I hated. Another split course was business, music and art. English and social studies were combined as “general education” (to get us to adjust to different classes) and that was the first I heard about “Brown v. Board of Education”.

But seventh grade was my first exposure to gym as it is usually taught, and I found the whole experience humiliating, inducing shame. The taunts (“chicken!”) started. I would be challenged to hit back, and a couple of times fought back with my fingernails, literally, inflicting wounds. Surprisingly, teachers looked the other way. I became modest about my own body, afraid to wear a slort-sleeved shirt until June. (In shop class you roll up your sleeves.) I was in a school operetta (“The Sunbonnet Girl”) but was sensitive about makeup being put on my body. I may chuckle now as I contemplate what actors go through for every movie or soap opera that I enjoy (or for any movie that could be contemplated from my books.)

It got better in eighth grade, but in ninth grade (we didn’t start algebra or foreign languages until ninth grade, still part of junior high school, then) I had some similar problems. In June 1958, I participated in spreading speculative rumors about and made an inappropriate remark in gym class to another student with a particular disability, more apparent than mine, perhaps. I heard about it, but got called in by the school nurse, not the principal! (I remember how the confrontation started: “I want this stopped!.... I was called the “bully.”) I could attribute this to the “teen brain” (I was 14 then) but the incident still rings in my mind.

High school was much better, particularly my senior year, which I have already written about a lot on the blogs. I came to perceive how I could live my life as a “different” person. The grown occurred in steps, and led to incidents (like William and Mary and later NIH and military service) that would shape my life later.

Still, certain principles come into play, and lead to some existential confrontations (even Giuliani mentions them in debates), at least within “the spirit”, whatever one’s religious background (my is Baptist). I learned, particularly in junior high school, that for boys life is to be viewed as a competitive struggle for station in life. It’s your duty as a man to prove you can not only provide for a wife and children but also protect them. If that’s true, some people will be better at this than others. What happens to the people in “the second division” (by analogy to baseball then)? The implication seemed to be that they have a lower “moral station in life.” This is all just following through to logical consequences, "going to the root" as I used to argue with my father as a teen, in a world suddenly trying to attribute more rights and responsibilities to every individual. That was the world of the 50s: a meritocracy based on perceived position in life, that was vulnerable and could be taken away by the outside world, especially Communism. These were the days of waning McCarthyism and segregation, and a defensive attitude toward social privilege. We had just fought the Korean War, and had just won WWII a decade before (supposedly to defeat an ideology based on “master race” notions). I wondered even then if we weren’t contradicting ourselves. And teachers were just starting to talk about the possibility of integration, but it seemed far off then.

Boys like me were in a precarious position. In my case, same-sex attraction (even if biologically immutable) grew out of "upward affiliation" that logically admits that society's "competitive values" imposed on young men really should be viewed as having moral significance. That point came out in my NIH stay in 1962 after my college expulsion in 1961. A good understanding of the pressures that I perceived can be gleaned from the infamous book (probably still available in larger public libraries) by Peter Wyden, “Growing Up Straight”, published by Stein and Day as late as 1968, with its pre-occupation of making everyone conform to being “sexually normal” and with its ruminations over the “pre-homosexual child” (or “sissy boy” or potential “parasite” on others – that is how I was sometimes made to feel, in a world that still drafted young men to fight others’ battles) and its pandering to physical stereotypes. It (or at least, the social norms that led to the book) left someone like me with the impression that the world might have no place for me. Fortunately, I seemed to pull out of that in high school, with some intellectual ability as to how to construct a “different life.” But I would need the freedom to do so, and that itself would become controversial to others, dependent on socialization and reinforcement of (and elimination of cultural distractions from) their marital commitments to even keep them.. Today, things are much better generally, but it still depends very much on the community one lives in.

Society had taught me the importance of personal competition, but it had presented a certain paradox. Someone like me could, if I expressed myself too visibly, make others who were more “marginal” less comfortable with themselves and potentially less able to function in marriages as parents themselves. As my William and Mary incident showed, a “different” person, however artistically creative and expressive, could become a real distraction to others. Once someone like me reached young adulthood, it seemed, society had a reason to back away from this hyper-competitiveness, and try to make everyone comfortable as a potential marital partner and parent, while still having to fit in “as a family” in a social hierarchy defined by others. Of course, much of the activism of the 60s and 70s fought this “unfair” hierarchy, and in general gay rights, civil rights for African Americans, and redistributing wealth resulting from economic unfairness (partly as a heritage from past slavery and segregation) came together, not because of ideology but more just because of social confluence. Later, hyper-individualism would level the playing field across families by making the world more like a "meritocracy" where everyone answered for his or her own accomplishments and "moral hazard" (and associated hidden consumption) while weakening bonds of interdependence that used to make families stable and protect individuals within the extended family unit. Still, some relatively closed cultures (such as the “world” subsumed by the LDS church) have been able to work relatively well by trying to accommodate and socialize everyone into the “family” by de-emphasizing personal competitiveness with religious teaching and cooperative activities. Such subcultures create some genuine social stability and sustainability, at a cost to personal individual freedom and self-expression.

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Ooh noooo! Poor Mr. Baseball! If it’s any consolation. a similar gutting took place here; my youngest cat, Moxie, loved his Octopussy to death — or at least, flatness. (Said octopus consists of a stuffing-filled puff of yellow-dyed bunny fur, from which dangle eight hot pink velveteen legs. Just try to find another one online, I dare ya.) When he was about 8 months old, Moxie rescued Octopussy toy-basket oblivion, using it — and the old over-the-shoulder-toss technique — to demonstrate his hunting prowess. Then he’d run from room to room with it in his mouth, going “Waa waa? Waa waah?” I’ve always been impressed by how well he enunciates with his mouth full. It’s lost its stuffing, and half of its fur, and yet Octopussy endures.
By the way, I have it on good authority Mister Met is passed out in somebody’s living room.

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With Jorge Cantus 4th inning home run in last nights game, the Florida Marlins accomplished something that no other team in major league history has ever done.  All 4 Marlins infielders now have 25+ home runs in the 2008 season.  Think about all of the great infield combinations in baseballs long history.  The Marlins have done something that the Yankees, Reds, Phillies, and Cubs great infields of the past never did.
Congratulations go out to Mike Jacobs, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, and Jorge Cantu!!!.

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