There has been a gap in my "post" the last few weeks because life's been crazy. Char and I have been dealing with multiple problems on several fronts (Char more so) and finding the time to sit here has been difficult. I have a couple of things on my mind, so I've decided a grab bag post was in order.
First off, the major reason for the gap have been health issues of family members. My Dad went in the hospital the beginning of the month followed a few days later my Char's son Jason. My Dad came out quickly and everything seemed fine, but Jason was is serious trouble. His Crohn's had flared up badly. It turned out he had a raging infection from a perforated intestine and had turned septic. Needless to say, an emergency operation was performed and he spent 3 weeks in the hospital recovering. He has only now returned to our home to recuperate.
My Dad, on the other hand, seemed fine and went home. Only to return to the hospital this week with what appears to be a serious problem. He has developed problems with his intestines complicated by his 30 year battle with heart problems.
Both of which speak to the title of the blog. Jason has had a difficult time reconciling his past. He wants to deny his illness and, therefore, allowed his condition to deteriorate before seeking help. My Dad has been honest about his condition and communicated it everyone in the family which allows all of us to be fully prepared and well informed when problems arise. Jason wishes to have a better past, my Dad embraced his past and worked with it.
On lighter notes.....
I hope everyone has noticed that alleged President George Bush, after screaming that Barak Obama was a fool and an appeaser for suggesting we talk to Iran, has sent Undersecretary Of State William Burns to Geneva .....to talk to Iran! Good thing Obama brought it up.
California is considering allowing Insurance Companies to offer discounts to drivers who drive less each year. To validate your reduced driving the Insurance Companies only need to install this little GPS unit in your vehicle. The device only records basic information like; how many miles you drove, how rapidly you accelerated, where you went, how long you were there, how fast you drove and how hard the brakes were applied when you stopped. What a deal!!!! For saving less than $100.00 a year you can have Big Brother as a co-pilot. What do you want to bet that after the first year nearly everyone on the program gets kicked to an "assigned risk" category and have their rates skyrocket.....Oh, and they're going to share the information with other insurance companies, so changing companies won't help, you're branded.
The Bush Presidency is slowly spiraling to an end, where is Carl Rove when the Neo-Con's need him? The thing all of you have to understand is....I'm as Republican as anyone (although registered as "decline to state"). The Bush Presidency is an insult to my Republican values. He has brought about Big Government, Big spending and attacked civil liberties. Republicans have ALWAYS been about small government, balanced budgets, and governments that stay out of the way of people and business. And he thought we were all stupid with his "evidence" for attacking Iraq.....Complete Failure.
Hey Barry Bonds! What do you think of personal relationships now? Do you still believe you don't need any ones approval? Do you still think that your superior talent will win the day?
I do not agree with the Government bailout of the Mortgage Industry. Spending 300 Billion Dollars to protect poorly issued home loans is ridiculous! The Mortgage Industry should live with their bad loans. They accepted these borrowers and the borrowers accepted the loans, both parties should be forced to work it out on their own! 40/50 year terms with reduced monthly payments or the borrower sells other assets (extra cars, vacation homes) to make a "second down payment" to refinance the balance. It should not be up to the taxpayers to insulate these people from their mistakes. I own property in two states and I only bought what I could afford or what paid for itself through collecting rents. If anything the Mortgage Companies are the villains here, they accepted "stated income" loans with no verification, they didn't do background checks, they have the loans they were accepting. Broker commissions were all that mattered.
OK, I feel better now.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Part 2. Baseball...
Before I go on, a disclaimer. I’m not, nor have I ever been, a Giants fan. I think the Giants are a poorly run team. I do not like Barry Bonds, I think he is aloof and arrogant. I bleed Dodger Blue and think the Oakland A’s are the best run team in Baseball. Any of you who really know me understand the above to be true.
In Part 1, we established the successive eras of “competitive advantage” in Baseball. This cumulating with Baseballs focus on home runs after the 1994 lockout. In the book ‘Game of Shadows” the authors identify Barry Bonds’ jealousy of the attention McGwire and Sosa received during their home run chase as his reason for PED use. They use this fact as an indictment of his action, when in reality Baseball created a culture in which PED’s were encouraged. For players (including Bonds) to receive accolades, and sign the most lucrative contract, required using PEDs. Just being a 50/50 guy (50 home runs/50 stolen bases) wasn’t enough, you had to be chasing a record.
Pitching wasn’t immune to PEDs. There are many cases of starting pitchers having their best years in their early 40’s, or relief pitchers run off long strings of saves when they had previously been no more than average. Couple this with 150 lb second basemen hitting 40 home runs a year and it becomes obvious what was going on. If you don’t think this is true ask yourself some questions. Since Baseball started testing for PEDs; ‘What happened to Brett Boone?”, “How many saves has Eric Gagne recorded in the last few years?”, “What happened to Juan Gonzales?”, “Why did Sosa take a year off and then fail on returning?”, “What happened to Kevin Brown?”, “What happened to Giambi’s production?’.
What Baseball, Management and the Union, needs to do is admit their complicity in PEDs and move forward rather then single out individuals, like Bonds, for ridicule. It should contract with an independent, outside agency to provide drug testing to remove any question of impropriety. It should then define 1994 through 2005 as the “PED Era” leaving the players from this time to be judged against their contemporaries. The “PED Era” tag should extend to Hall of Fame plaques, thereby removing the need for Baseball Writers to consider PED’s when evaluating candidates.
In Part 1, we established the successive eras of “competitive advantage” in Baseball. This cumulating with Baseballs focus on home runs after the 1994 lockout. In the book ‘Game of Shadows” the authors identify Barry Bonds’ jealousy of the attention McGwire and Sosa received during their home run chase as his reason for PED use. They use this fact as an indictment of his action, when in reality Baseball created a culture in which PED’s were encouraged. For players (including Bonds) to receive accolades, and sign the most lucrative contract, required using PEDs. Just being a 50/50 guy (50 home runs/50 stolen bases) wasn’t enough, you had to be chasing a record.
Pitching wasn’t immune to PEDs. There are many cases of starting pitchers having their best years in their early 40’s, or relief pitchers run off long strings of saves when they had previously been no more than average. Couple this with 150 lb second basemen hitting 40 home runs a year and it becomes obvious what was going on. If you don’t think this is true ask yourself some questions. Since Baseball started testing for PEDs; ‘What happened to Brett Boone?”, “How many saves has Eric Gagne recorded in the last few years?”, “What happened to Juan Gonzales?”, “Why did Sosa take a year off and then fail on returning?”, “What happened to Kevin Brown?”, “What happened to Giambi’s production?’.
What Baseball, Management and the Union, needs to do is admit their complicity in PEDs and move forward rather then single out individuals, like Bonds, for ridicule. It should contract with an independent, outside agency to provide drug testing to remove any question of impropriety. It should then define 1994 through 2005 as the “PED Era” leaving the players from this time to be judged against their contemporaries. The “PED Era” tag should extend to Hall of Fame plaques, thereby removing the need for Baseball Writers to consider PED’s when evaluating candidates.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Part 1. Baseball, Performance enhancing drugs and Bonds
I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about Baseball and performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs (hereafter referred to as "PEDs''…because I’m lazy and don’t want to type it out each time) have to be seen in historical context. PEDs by definition create competitive advantage, but Baseball has always had eras of competitive advantage.
From its inception through approximately the First World War is referred to as “the dead ball era”. This was due to the ball itself being of poor and varied quality. Any ball used in play for a short time became soft and misshapen making it very difficult to hit any distance, hence, “dead ball”. Predictably, pitching dominated this era. In fact the award for the best pitcher in Baseball each year is “The Cy Young Award” named for a pitcher from this time. Pitching had the competitive advantage.
Following this was what is referred to as the “Golden Age of Baseball” lasting until the Second World War. Again we’ll examine this era from the view of pitching. The ball had been improved and standardized, but Baseball was segregated and non-white players were excluded. This meant that the hitters of this era were facing some pitcher who clearly would have been in the Minor Leagues if all pitchers, regardless of color, had been given the opportunity. Yet the offensive records of this time are considered “The Holy Grail”, time honored standards by which all players are measured. But theses stats are inflated by the competitive advantage the hitters enjoyed.
Desegregation came after WWII, along with the open use of amphetamines. These factors contributed to a resurgence of pitching. Pitcher started throwing complete games, no-hitters and recording 20+ victories a year. Some of the most revered names in Baseball history pitched during this time. Names like, Whitey Ford, Bob Fellar, Don Newcomb, Sal Magli, and later Sandy Kofax, Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson. In response to the pitching dominance, Baseball lowered the pitching mound after the 1969 season. But Bob Gibson’s Earned Run Average (ERA) still ranks as the best all time. There is no mention of the competitive advantage of a taller mound in the record books.
The use of amphetamines affected all players (in fact, Baseball did not stop this practice until 2004).Only when one of the “Holy Grail” records was threatened did Baseball react. In 1961 Roger Maris and Mickey Mantel were closing in on Babe Ruth’s 60 home run mark. The commissioner announces that anyone breaking the record would have an asterisk placed on the new record. He reasoned that since players now played 8 more games a year (162 vs. 154) current players had more chances to hit a given number of home runs. To protect this record by focusing on 8 games while ignoring the fact that Ruth never batted against non white pitchers reveals Baseball’s true motives, glorifying its mythology, while ignoring its mistakes, and preserving the competitive advantage Ruth enjoyed.
In the early 1970’s came free agency which caused the game to focus on individual stats rather than team performance. This put the richest, large market teams, in a competitive advantage over time. They could control all the talent. Which made PED’s attractive to any “star” players (higher stats = higher pay). But more insipidly it made the marginal players understand they needed to use PED’s or risk losing their jobs to someone in the minors who did. The Union did not care, the higher the “star” player’s salaries, the higher the average, the higher the average, the higher the minimum. The Union played on Managements greed to drive up player’s earnings. Management did not care since the large market teams, with high TV revenues, drove the MLB profits. So they ignored the competitive advantage of the large market teams and the stats of the PED players.
There were many articles written about the “power surge” in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. The surge was rationalized by pointing out the smaller new ball parks and dilution of pitching talent (funny, they don’t talk about this when the “Golden Age” comes up). They even came up with the theory that the factories producing baseballs in Latin America were winding the balls tighter (remember that one?) In fact Baseball knew the players were using PEDs. Baseball made vague reference to it by saying the “surge” could be due to “better conditioning” by the players. But they loved the power surge and had little reason to do anything about it. It made Baseball interesting and sold tickets. So they ignored the PEDs.
Then, in 1994, came the lockout which destroyed a season and cancelled a World Series.
Baseball had to do something to bring the fans back to the ball parks. It had to be seen as attractive and exciting. So they turned a blind eye to PEDs during negotiations with the players Union and started advertising the “power surge”. You might not remember the TV ads, but I do. Greg Maddox and Tom Glavin discover that “chicks dig the long ball”. They start working out, taking extra batting practice and in time can hit home runs. At the end the two of them are stretching before a game and up comes Heather Lockyer, she says “hi Greg”, he responds “hi Heather” with great anticipation that his hitting has attracted her to him. Then she asks “Have you seen Mark” (referring to Mark McGwire, the most prolific home run hitter of the era) to his complete consternation. The ad overtly states that home runs make Baseball and players desirable.
From its inception through approximately the First World War is referred to as “the dead ball era”. This was due to the ball itself being of poor and varied quality. Any ball used in play for a short time became soft and misshapen making it very difficult to hit any distance, hence, “dead ball”. Predictably, pitching dominated this era. In fact the award for the best pitcher in Baseball each year is “The Cy Young Award” named for a pitcher from this time. Pitching had the competitive advantage.
Following this was what is referred to as the “Golden Age of Baseball” lasting until the Second World War. Again we’ll examine this era from the view of pitching. The ball had been improved and standardized, but Baseball was segregated and non-white players were excluded. This meant that the hitters of this era were facing some pitcher who clearly would have been in the Minor Leagues if all pitchers, regardless of color, had been given the opportunity. Yet the offensive records of this time are considered “The Holy Grail”, time honored standards by which all players are measured. But theses stats are inflated by the competitive advantage the hitters enjoyed.
Desegregation came after WWII, along with the open use of amphetamines. These factors contributed to a resurgence of pitching. Pitcher started throwing complete games, no-hitters and recording 20+ victories a year. Some of the most revered names in Baseball history pitched during this time. Names like, Whitey Ford, Bob Fellar, Don Newcomb, Sal Magli, and later Sandy Kofax, Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson. In response to the pitching dominance, Baseball lowered the pitching mound after the 1969 season. But Bob Gibson’s Earned Run Average (ERA) still ranks as the best all time. There is no mention of the competitive advantage of a taller mound in the record books.
The use of amphetamines affected all players (in fact, Baseball did not stop this practice until 2004).Only when one of the “Holy Grail” records was threatened did Baseball react. In 1961 Roger Maris and Mickey Mantel were closing in on Babe Ruth’s 60 home run mark. The commissioner announces that anyone breaking the record would have an asterisk placed on the new record. He reasoned that since players now played 8 more games a year (162 vs. 154) current players had more chances to hit a given number of home runs. To protect this record by focusing on 8 games while ignoring the fact that Ruth never batted against non white pitchers reveals Baseball’s true motives, glorifying its mythology, while ignoring its mistakes, and preserving the competitive advantage Ruth enjoyed.
In the early 1970’s came free agency which caused the game to focus on individual stats rather than team performance. This put the richest, large market teams, in a competitive advantage over time. They could control all the talent. Which made PED’s attractive to any “star” players (higher stats = higher pay). But more insipidly it made the marginal players understand they needed to use PED’s or risk losing their jobs to someone in the minors who did. The Union did not care, the higher the “star” player’s salaries, the higher the average, the higher the average, the higher the minimum. The Union played on Managements greed to drive up player’s earnings. Management did not care since the large market teams, with high TV revenues, drove the MLB profits. So they ignored the competitive advantage of the large market teams and the stats of the PED players.
There were many articles written about the “power surge” in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. The surge was rationalized by pointing out the smaller new ball parks and dilution of pitching talent (funny, they don’t talk about this when the “Golden Age” comes up). They even came up with the theory that the factories producing baseballs in Latin America were winding the balls tighter (remember that one?) In fact Baseball knew the players were using PEDs. Baseball made vague reference to it by saying the “surge” could be due to “better conditioning” by the players. But they loved the power surge and had little reason to do anything about it. It made Baseball interesting and sold tickets. So they ignored the PEDs.
Then, in 1994, came the lockout which destroyed a season and cancelled a World Series.
Baseball had to do something to bring the fans back to the ball parks. It had to be seen as attractive and exciting. So they turned a blind eye to PEDs during negotiations with the players Union and started advertising the “power surge”. You might not remember the TV ads, but I do. Greg Maddox and Tom Glavin discover that “chicks dig the long ball”. They start working out, taking extra batting practice and in time can hit home runs. At the end the two of them are stretching before a game and up comes Heather Lockyer, she says “hi Greg”, he responds “hi Heather” with great anticipation that his hitting has attracted her to him. Then she asks “Have you seen Mark” (referring to Mark McGwire, the most prolific home run hitter of the era) to his complete consternation. The ad overtly states that home runs make Baseball and players desirable.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hands Free?
Today is July 1st 2008 and in the states of Washington and California the new "hands free" laws have taken effect. Maybe I'm confused but I didn't think hands free was a good way to drive. You see, my idea of hands free is...a Starbucks in my left hand and a cigarette in my right hand...hands free, knees involved!
Actually the thing that bugs me about these laws is, they are complete window dressing. The problem isn't whether I have something in my hand, its that my attention is on something other then what's happening on the other side of the windshield. The act of having my hand near my head have never distracted me from driving. A loud child has, or someone saying something I didn't agree with has (you have to remember, I have 2 ex-wives) or a song I hate has, but not my hand.
The point is, at least in California, this is typical of our "do nothing" states legislature. They pass good sounding, meaningless, laws so they can be perceived as doing their jobs. Did you know in California it is now illegal to hold a cell phone in your hand while driving...but texting is OK!!! That's right, they didn't include it in the law. Our legislature spend 9 month doing nothing of any value while they prepare for their annual 3 month budget deadlock.
Oh, if anybody can explain to me how hands free text, I'd like to know. Just in case I drive through a state that has real laws.
John
Actually the thing that bugs me about these laws is, they are complete window dressing. The problem isn't whether I have something in my hand, its that my attention is on something other then what's happening on the other side of the windshield. The act of having my hand near my head have never distracted me from driving. A loud child has, or someone saying something I didn't agree with has (you have to remember, I have 2 ex-wives) or a song I hate has, but not my hand.
The point is, at least in California, this is typical of our "do nothing" states legislature. They pass good sounding, meaningless, laws so they can be perceived as doing their jobs. Did you know in California it is now illegal to hold a cell phone in your hand while driving...but texting is OK!!! That's right, they didn't include it in the law. Our legislature spend 9 month doing nothing of any value while they prepare for their annual 3 month budget deadlock.
Oh, if anybody can explain to me how hands free text, I'd like to know. Just in case I drive through a state that has real laws.
John
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