The Long Season

Every team is born with a clean slate. Fans flock to the ballpark with zest for their team. The weather warms. If teams lose, people don’t get discouraged because there is time left. If teams win, fans go crazy.

 

The weather gets hotter. Balls fly out amid the humidity. Fans still churn with hope. Teams hustle for contention. Yet teams take form. Winners win, and losers lose.

 

Summer begins. The season continues. Basketball ends. Teams prepare for the second half of the season.  Fans cheer their winners, jeer their losers. But time still remains for movement.

 

It is the time of all-stars. The time when Aaron, Mays, and Robinson play Williams, Mantle, and Berra. In the meantime, teams prepare for the stretch. Teams prepare to rebuild for the next season. Some teams prepare through trades before the deadline approaches. Some teams unload.

 

The dog days of summer arrive. Straggling teams grind through the fervor. Contenders turn up the heat for the next two months.  The schedule turns as it was made. Fans anticipate glory.

 

Pennant races are in full swing. Every game matters. Competition is fiercer than ever for the postseason. Feeling of the Fall Classic looms. The end is near for teams waiting for winter.

 

The final teams and players have made it. The other teams don’t matter. The final test is for the World Series. The test for the best team of the season arrives. Baseball is at its most intense. Legends are made. One team makes its mark in history as a champion. The trophy is awarded. Memories are shared to last forever.

 

The Fall Classic ends, the marathon is over. The year is almost over. Winter is around the corner, sometimes there. Indoors till next spring, when the warm world arrives again, and gentleman play each other in the gentleman’s game. Life changes over the season, and then the years, but each day, each year, it begins again.

Astros Need To Avoid ‘Red Scare

The Cincinnati Reds have been bottom-feeders of the National League Central Division for years. The Reds haven’t been to the playoffs since 1995, and haven’t had a .500 record since 2000.

 

But the Reds are looking to improve this year. They have a balance of proven veterans and young players who have the potential to emerge. The projected lineup may struggle to make contact with .297 the highest batting average by first baseman Joey Votto. But the Reds should have power since four starters hit at least 20 home runs last season. The lineup should also provide speed on the base paths. Second baseman Brandon Phillips stole 23 bases, and centerfielder Willy Taveras had 68 stolen bases last season for the Colorado Rockies.

 

Phillips and Taveras also use that speed in the field. Phillips has great footwork at second base and makes a quick turn on the double play. Taveras has the speed to get to any ball in center if he gets the right jump, as he’s shown in Coors Field and Minute Maid Park. Along with Phillips and Taveras, Edwin Encarnacion provides range and a strong arm at third base. Alex Gonzalez is a superb shortstop, who had a 57-game errorless streak in 2006 with the Boston Red Sox.

 

The bullpen includes setup man David Weathers, and closer Francisco Cordero, who have been around and know how to handle tight situations. Weathers, 39, went 4-6 last season with a steady 3.25 earned run average in 72 games pitched. Weathers has been durable, pitching in 70 games in six of the last eight years. Cordero, has a 3.29 career earned run average, has been a solid closer throughout his career. He has totaled 30 saves four of the last five years, many with the Texas Rangers in their hitter-friendly park.

 

The Reds’ potential comes from the starting rotation, a key element to season-long success. The two guns are Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto, who are young and throw 95 mph. Volquez, 26, developed a biting slider and blossomed into one of the best pitchers last season. Last year Volquez went 17-6 with a 3.21 earned run average, 206 strikeouts, and 93 walks in 196 innings pitched. Cueto is 23 and despite having a 4.81 earned run average last season only had a 2.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. If he can cut down his home run total, 29, by developing a reliable breaking pitch, he could emerge as the ace.

 

The two veterans are Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang. Arroyo doesn’t have overwhelming stuff but he eats up innings, going at least 200 in four consecutive years. Harang suffered a strained forearm last season that led to a 6-17 record with a 4.79 earned run average. Harang was the Reds’ best pitcher from 2005-2007, going 43-30 with a 3.77 earned run average while averaging over 210 innings pitched. Micah Owings is adequate as the fifth starter. Owings was acquired in the deal that sent Adam Dunn to Arizona. Owings, who despite having a 5.93 earned run average, had an opponent’s batting average of .256. Owings has the toughness you like out of a fifth starter.

 

In addition, the Reds have a solid manager in Dusty Baker. Baker has been to the World Series with Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants in 2002, and went 66-96 in 2006 with the Chicago Cubs. But Baker has a patient, even-keel attitude that goes perfect with a young team that might struggle with the highs and lows of the season.

 

The Reds may not win right away, but their goal is to be competitive, something which they have struggled with over the years. Playing hard and being competitive are qualities are the best ways to start winning. If the Reds begin to improve like they are capable, a team like the Houston Astros could be in trouble.

 

The Astros dominated the Reds with a 12-3 record last season, yet they flattened out against the rest of the division. Against the Pittsburgh Pirates they went 8-6, and against the Chicago Cubs, they finished 9-8. Against the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals, they went 7-8. If the Astros struggle against the rest of the division again, and don’t do as well against the Reds, they could find themselves looking up in the division.

Oswalt Key To Astros’ Success

Ever since he came into the league eight years ago in 2001 when he went 14–3 with a 2.73 ERA, Roy Oswalt has been the Astros’ most consistent player, and has always been at the forefront of the team’s greatest success.

 

He’s been a consistent winner every year, posting double digit win totals each year, and twice winning 20 games back-to-back in 2004 and 2005, a rare feat accomplished in this era. He’s won as a result of great pitches, great control, and intelligence, equating to a 3.13 career ERA, fourth among active starters, which has enabled him to win so many games. He’s also been remarkably durable, finishing under 30 starts only twice, in ’01, his rookie year, and 2003 when he had a prolonged groin injury that sidelined him frequently throughout the season.

 

Now Oswalt, turning 33 in August, is entering his ninth year has the Astros’ ace. With his constant high level of success, his clutch performances down the stretch in the pennant races and playoffs, Roy-O has never given a reason to doubt his credibility, and his stamina. But pitchers are harder to predict than anybody, and there’s always a few questions coming in, this year in particular. This was the first year Oswalt has pitched in the World Baseball Classic. There is no way to tell how this will affect his stamina, particularly down the stretch, when he has already pitched more innings than he is used to.

 

At 32, and with his generally small body frame, he may be just before the point where he might start to lose a little. It might be the bite on his curveball, or the edge on his fastball. Any slight change in those pitches could change his approach drastically. Pitchers with particularly small frames like Oswalt, who is 6’ 0” and 185 pounds, and who throw hard, and extend their arms, typically struggle to maintain the stamina and strength that they are used too, and sometimes it’s difficult for them to adjust, if they ever adjust. If and when it happens to Oswalt, the adjustments he makes will determine how much longer he can go. But if there is one thing that Oswalt has been able to do over his career is adjust. And with his work ethic, and his competitiveness, there is no reason to question his ability until it happens.

 

However, it is important for the Astros to keep it in their mind, if they expect to have success in the future. Oswalt is far and away the ace of the staff. He gives them the best chance to win every time he takes the field, and he eats innings, the two most important attributes of a pitcher. But after Oswalt, the depth and the talent aren’t comforting, and if he should succumb to injury, there is no way to replace him. There isn’t a budding pitching prospect on the horizon, and there isn’t a reliable starter in the projected rotation.

 

Wandy Rodriguez, slated to be the number two starter, is probably their next best option. He is a solid pitcher with a good overhand curveball, but he doesn’t go deep into games, and sometimes he doesn’t have the mindset to get out of jams when he gets into trouble, and that typically leads to inconsistency.

 

Brandon Backe, currently third in the rotation, continues to live off his magnificent performances in the postseason, but that time ago keeps getting longer, and he’s never done anything over the long season. He has either been injured, or ineffective, last year going 9–14 with a 6.05 ERA, which resulted from wildness, and giving up homeruns, a whopping 36 last year.

 

Mike Hampton is in the fourth slot. While he’s had a solid career, and has a unique repertoire for a lefty, is coming off two injury-plagued seasons. There is no reason to have inflated expectations for someone who hasn’t pitched in the majors over that long a period. Any brief success would be more than satisfying if he can remain on the mound.

 

Brian Moehler in the fifth spot was probably the biggest surprise last year, going 11–8 with a 4.56 ERA in 26 starts, which is certainly adequate for a fourth a fifth starter and easily one of his better years, but nothing more. And while he doesn’t throw hard, Moehler, at 37, and in his 13^th year, struggles to go five innings, and it probably wouldn’t be good to force him to go more. Expecting anything better than what he did last year would be a stretch.

 

Maybe somebody comes out of nowhere, but that kind of naïve mindset, generally sets up for failure, and not the best way to address the issue of really not having anybody to be confident in. The only one to be confident in is Oswalt, the role of ace, who takes the pressure off the entire team. There is pressure off the rest of the rotation from having to perform as well as Oswalt everyday. The bullpen can relax because Oswalt usually goes seven innings and keeps the relievers’ workload down. And the hitters can relax because they know that sometimes they only have put up one or two runs and Oswalt can take care of the rest. But any type of injury or waiver in his performance, than the Astros border on a below-average team that likely won’t make the playoffs.

 

But one thing Oswalt has always proven, as with most great players, is that he finds a way to win even when he’s not at his best, and that is what’s made him great for this long and probably will continue to make him great.

Unemployed Need Help – Gov. Perry Doesn’t Want To Give It

Following the passing of the federal stimulus plan for increasing unemployment benefits, last week several governors of states in the South, including Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas, have considered not accepting the proposition.

 

With people losing their jobs at a rapid rate, the funds to provide unemployment benefits continue to be needed. And the funds for such benefits continue to fall and make it difficult to provide the benefits. In addition, the eligibility to rules to qualify for benefits are complex and leave some people, particularly people who need help the most like part-time workers, or people who are just starting out; people don’t have the qualities such as work history or sufficient earnings. But the stimulus plan, according to Kathleen Pender in Net Worth of the San Francisco Chronicle, would help provide benefits if the states make a few changes to accommodate more people.

 

Perry, who is considering not accepting the plan to get cash and change policies, appears to be worried about what it would cost in the long run. According to Allison Castle, a Perry spokeswoman, Perry has to take into account what Texans would be paying to support the plan.

 

“He represents all Texans,” Castle said. “Employed and unemployed.”

 

To Steven Craig, a professor in the fields of public economics and public policy at the University of Houston, the idea depends on where you stand.

 

“You can say,” Craig said.  “It’s good or bad because you either agree or disagree that people need the benefits. You can say it’s good or bad because you don’t like it. It’s either or.”

 

Vigil Culminates With Mixed Emotions

A vigil was held 7 p.m. Wednesday in honor of a man who was shot two Saturdays ago on February 7 at the frequently traveled bus stop at the corner of Cullen and Holman in front of Hofheinz Pavilion.

On a dark, dim, ordinary evening, a small group gathered to celebrate, mourn, whatever the feeling, the life of Joe Tall, the man who was killed on that fateful morning. In the grass behind the black bus stop, candles were lit, hymns were hummed, and prayers were prayed. The traffic was heavy both ways on Cullen, but it seemed fairly dark, and perhaps lonely throughout the block. A silver light shown bright in the distance overlooking the Visitor’s parking lot of the Athletic Center, while in the massive student parking lot adjacent to Hofheinz Pavilion, a gold light pierced its spot as it slowly faded across the lot.

“Tonight you’re listening to the sights and sounds of what every homeless person is accustomed to experiencing.” Pastor Bradley Fuerst said, as he glanced around in the dark. “Together, it reminds us how connected we are.”

In the cumbersome, rugged wild grass at the street corner, the night was sufficient and somber enough for remembering a soul who lost his life one Saturday morning.

“We are gathered here together to pray, meditate, to lift up one soul named Joe David Tall.” Fuerst said. “We pray for those who knew Joe David Tall, and those who were affected by his life.”

Put into perspective, among the honoring of Joe Tall, was that everyone and everyone’s life matters. That one thing that includes us all is that we all perish from this earth at one point or another.

“We pray for those who have suffered, who have lost.” Fuerst said. “We pray for those in the community, those on campus, in the cafeteria, those who keep this campus safe and clean, and those in the surrounding community.”

The idea of a community is that people work together to help each to make a better society, and that it does indeed include everyone and all the nuances of life.

“We pray for those who use this bus stop, and those who work in the bus system, and that they may be safe.” Fuerst said. “We pray for those who are homeless, who are hungry, who suffer from mental illness, who are neglected by society. We pray that change may happen to the system.”

And even those who may disrupt the community are not forgotten.

“We pray for those who resort to violence.” Fuerst said. “We pray that they may reconcile, and that justice may perish on this earth.”

Yet, amidst the dark, among the pleasant silence, there were constant mechanical sounds that produced instant flashes, as if they were lightning bolts in a thunderstorm, except not so natural. The clicking, the flashing of the cameras, the small dense red lights of digital recorders, seemed to disrupt the moments of dark silence. Yet I suppose that even the media deserved a prayer at the time.

Being at the memorial of remembering Joe Tall, the media have a role to objectively decide what matters the most, determine the news, and tell stories. They have an attitude that sometimes some things matter more than others. In obtaining some of those things, they will do anything at any cost to make anything newsworthy, perhaps the top priority of all news media. And perhaps furthermore Fuerst is aware that sometimes the news media project a superior attitude that getting the news is more important than the things in the news, like Joe Tall for instance, which is probably not what he had in mind in the end.

After the memorial, after surrounding Joe Tall’s brother, Randy Tall Craven with funky equipment, infrared recorders, and questions, the heap herded over to Pastor Fuerst just before he crossed Holman to the long, dark path on the other side, and surrounded him like vultures on a ripe corpse. When they asked him how he felt the vigil transpired, he simply said…

“I’m disappointed that a journalism class would use this as an assignment. It feels used to me.”

And unfortunately, that probably defeated his purpose.

 

Gun Advocation Is Understandable

An early, sunny, Saturday morning. Guy rides on bus, guy gets off bus, guy sees homeless man asleep on bench, not doing anything but sleeping, guy shoots homeless man in an instant, guy moves on with his life among people with zero knowledge of what he just did. The guy felt the need to get rid of the homeless man by killing him, and he did so rather easily. In just one instant he killed a man. So does it really matter what happened prior to the climax, or what subsequent steps will be taken hereonafter to reconcile the situation and make sure it doesnt happen again? The guy achieved what he wanted. He committed the ultimate betrayal of taking one’s life. He took a man’s control away from him and there’s nothing he can do now, nor can anything be done to give it back. It was done just like that.

So far there doesn’t seem to be reason behind it; it doesn’t feel logical. With no logic yet, if ever, why didn’t he shoot anybody on the bus? Why this man who was only sleeping, and probably comfortable doing it? It’s frightening because it could have been anyone on the bus. I mean if he feels compelled to take the life of a man who rarely bothers anybody, especially while he is sleeping, what would st0p him from killing someone who does bother him? Yet there’s other parts of the circumstance that doesn’t add up. Who knows if it occurred to him that he was at a bus stop of a university’s main thoroughfare where predestrian and vehicular traffic commonly take place, where crowds usually get off or on, and where there frequently are police that survey the area. His intention was to take this man’s life regardless of the consequences, and that’s perhaps the most unsettling aspect. That’s why it’s easy to understand those who attend here daily and who face that disrupting possibility of a similar incident happening to them. You can’t blame those who fear and counter with irrationality. Any act of killing seems irrational. Why would someone take the life of anyone? The act of killing ensures that you’ll never be around again. No punishment or rehabilitation can bring you back, that’s the danger.

And the irony is that it occurred immediately on a hot spot in the campus in front of Hofheinz Pavilion, where people walk all the time to enjoy a basketball game. The university is supposed to a safe-haven. Hopefully a place to avoid such atrocities. It’s something that shouldn’t happen, in a university. It goes against everything a university stands for. It pits the rational against the irrational. A university is the place to avoid the life where stuff like that happens, to reduce the chance of it happening. That kind of violence is disrupting so close to the safety net. It disturbs the stability. It contemplates what you know, what you want to know.

If you can’t control the violence, the unnecessary here, what else is there to do. The fear of getting killed is a reasonable defense for having a gun. If they can’t prevent this explosive, volatile act of violence, what else can you do to protect your own safety? Instill your own protection with the best possible protection: a gun. If you’re lucky, the only way to beat a gun is with a gun. Every man for himself. You can’t counter anything if you’re dead. No law, no statement, no vengeance can save the fear losing your life that suddenly, that easily.

Education Dilemma In Favor Of Those In Control

With the economy deterred, and no sign of an upward turn, prompt, calculating, action is swift and imminent, punishing, uncompromising. There are those you naturally distrust, and those you wouldn’t think of distrusting, whether it’d be through blind obedience, or hopefully common sense. The dilemma leaves those with no leverage in the distance. Left unassisted and unaccounted for. Standing alone because they have no money and no help.
However, getting an education gives you the best chance at success, the best chance at being able to do what you want to do. Education provides the best opportunity to turn your life around. Education helps you get to where you want to go; helps you perfect your craft, gives you an opportunity. Any deviation from the course, however, and the goal gets harder, no matter the reason. Not everyone is going to cure a disease, or become a celebrity. So people have to better themselves by getting an education as most ordinary people do.

Unfortunately some won’t ever get that opportunity because they can’t afford the uncompromising cost that leaves many a waste out of the realm of opportunity. As if they don’t belong because they can’t pay their way in. Yet even those, like the access-promoting National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, on the side of the individual who can’t afford the cost yield critical information that can prove to be detrimental to hundreds of individuals who can’t pay, and to an increasingly uneducated, floundering populous in need of quick wit and specialization. The unscrupulous inopportunity of higher education which is currently being provided, and will continually increase, can be attributed to ineptitude in boards, agencies, policies, such as the National Association of State Universities and Land Grants, that seem to exclude or excuse themselves of responsibility for any evident superiority they so frequently exude. Providing self-fulfilling remarks that underneath put away their best interests of appearance and profit for one of the most sacred, aptly implied rights of the individual to be able to educate.

Though virtually every state has made the opportunity for higher education more difficult, and in a time when those need help the most, states have made education a high price. Sometimes so high that it takes a majority of the average family’s income as measured by affordability. Affordability is the measure of how much of the average family income is used to pay for tuition. The nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education is one that examines the affordability. Accordingly, low-income families in the bottom 5th tend to pay 55% of their income compared to 39% in 1999-2000, and compared to that of 9% of families in the top 5th. In addition those who can’t even afford that much then suffer because they can’t give their children a better education, and thus, are automatically impaired for the future. Add them up and consider that the recession will exclude more, as the tuition has seemed to spike unnecessarily high, than you contribute to the national problem of a weak work force working for a weak economy that will depend on the future for help and stability.

However, in addition to out-of-control tuition, other problems like poor completion rates create a dilemma that punishes, perhaps unfairly, the lowest income families on the bottom rung who really need help the most. Those who raise the tuition can use the completion rate unfairly against those who can’t afford tuition, whether or not the application is substantial. Completion rates in college are taking longer, and furthermore getting lower. Spiking tuition can weed out those who supposedly drag down reputation and statistic rates.

A compelling argument used by those in the universities, public and private, but temporarily public, can be accommodating by not being accommodating. Do you further higher education by conjuring 1000 students toward distant learning? Do you sacrifice quality to accommodate those you can’t predict and that need help? High tuition goes to the resources helping those who have made it, and you can’t penalize them because of what someone else can’t do. Better to penalize the best, than to penalize the rest. Another answer countering tuition is to blame the system itself, which seems to ineptly prepare kids for supposed complexity that universities boast. It’s the inability of tests with no complexity or real-time situation that leaves kids short. The universities themselves aren’t the problem because they actually prepare for the real world. The low completion rates can reasonably be attributed to kids not preparing, and frankly not developing enough for college.

Yet universities are apart of and create the real world themselves. And yet, they make it more surreal for those left on the outside. If you raise the tuition, you can prevent those unprepared from entering, and ruining the perception of the college with poor performance. Therefore if youths don’t take time to prepare themselves for such a complex task, than they are less likely to be helped, no matter what the circumstance. Unfortunately people like to rationalize the complex and if it makes sense, stick by simple reasons. They can use the high tuition as the reason for not taking those that don’t belong. If you use the reason of performance, than it can feel justified. Then resumes appear objective and compelling. Those responsible for high tuition can blame the kids for not being qualified, those respected and known as authorities. People find it easy to believe beloved, renowned experts who likely resent compromise. Those in control of their content can spin in ways in favor of themselves in a way where they are free from accountability. They frame content that puts the burden on other people in a believable way. They can blame the bad completion rate on bad preparation, because who knows better than they do on how to educate people, they are the experts and people easily believe. People don’t usually question such trusted, beloved authorities of education, perhaps the most vital indicator of future success in one’s life, as the nation’s future success.

Tristan

Inauguration

BO: Bring People Together

 

In the big scheme of things, it’s clear that Barack Obama sees himself without looking as another piece to an enormous puzzle, yet he has the confidence and awareness to realize what’s at stake with his position of this puzzle that he’s trying to figure out, a puzzle that he furthermore realizes concerns not only the country but the world as he included in his inaugural speech. He sees and remembers. He deals in specifics, knowing how those specifics matter, and how they add up, and allow him to see the entirety. Still he doesn’t lose sight of the entirety, that the entirety is the result that determines the outcome of those specifics. His connections of all areas of life, give meaning to those who didn’t matter before. His inclusiveness, his equalization, signifies the major change of ideals in the country, and reflects it’s long storied history. He blends in with the rest, yet still stands out among those who came before him. He has the arrogance of Teddy Roosevelt, the assurance of Franklin Roosevelt, the body language of Abraham Lincoln, the freshness of JFK, the mind of George Washington, adding up to another historical moment in the country’s industry.

“He’s well-spoken,” said Love Patel. “I think he’s ready.”

Patel, 19, accounting major at the University of Houston, whose parents arrived here in the early ‘80s, experiencing the harsh, unforgiving Reaganomics decade, his father a chemical engineer, and his mother a school teacher, although having been raised in Houston his whole life, and has visited India a few times, hasn’t really experienced discrimination, but still admits the significance all the same.

“It’s revolutionary,” said Patel. “I mean it’s amazing how he did it, and how he’s doing it now.”

And knowing how honest and realistic he is, and considering how he admits that he’s amazed, I can only imagine how significant it is to people all over the world.

Especially with Reverend Sharon Watkins, first female speaker at the National Prayer Service, preaching help thy neighbor, help the poor, and anointing Barack Obama as the leader, almost as if he was Jesus Christ himself, I’ve never seen or experienced such emotion in my life.

 

 

 

Tristan Tippet