May the Games Begin

I'm ready for the Olympic opening ceremonies tomorrow night.  Can't wait to see Sir Paul, the parade of athletes, the engineered rain and the various barnyard animals that are supposed to be part of it.  Think Christian published a short essay of mine on the Olympics today that you can read by clicking here.

Joe Paterno's Statue

Think Christian asked me to weigh in on the flap surrounding the Joe Paterno statue at Penn State.  I took a different approach than most, going "Old Testament" on the issue.  What do you think?  You can read my post here.

Uncle Cliff

Cliff Anderson, a true giant, died last Wednesday.  I posted a tribute to him here on The 12 today.

Gulfs, the Center and Celebrity Cupcakes

Here's a new blog today, published on The 12, after two recent trips to the edges of Virginia.  You can access it by clicking here.

Memorial Day

I wrote this poem some time ago about a memory from Junior High.  It seems fitting to post it on Memorial Day.  You can read it by clicking here.

The death of the religious right

A new post today on The 12. You can read it by clicking here.

Aargh!

My cousin took 35 Cub Scouts to Comerica Park today, and I felt sorry for them as the Detroit Tigers lost a heartbreaking game 3-2 to the Chicago White Sox on a two-run homer in the 9^th inning. I felt sorry for them until I reflected a bit and realized these Cub Scouts need to learn sooner or later that life kicks every one of us in the teeth and they might as well learn it today courtesy of Tigers’ “closer” Jose Valverde and his 6.17 Earned Run Average.

As tempting as it is to write about Cub Scouts and the meaning of life, or the self-inflicted emotional damage that comes from watching Valverde pitch, I want to write a bit of a technical treatise on relief pitching for intense baseball fans like me.  I may have just lost 98% of my audience, but here goes.

It’s easy to carp about Valverde and the rest of the bullpen, but, believe it or not, a lot of teams are a lot worse off than Detroit in this department.  And today’s game balances yesterday’s game, which we won in even more dramatic fashion off the equally shaky White Sox bullpen. 

What intrigues (and irritates) me about today’s game is that we lost because there was a “no-brainer” strategy move available to Detroit manager Jim Leyland that he didn’t consider.  He could have gone to the bullpen and brought in the left-handed Phil Coke to pitch to Adam Dunn, the player who hit the game-winning home run.  But with Dunn up in a spot where he could (and did) win the game with one swing, the Tigers had no one warming up in the bullpen.  Today’s game, like every single game like it, was Valverde’s to win or lose.  Because he’s been designated our “closer,” he’s out there on an island.

Dunn is a big beast of a guy (his nickname is Donkey), who has amazing power.  He also strikes out a ton – for example, he has struck out at least once in 31 straight games.  The most telling thing about Dunn is that he simply does not hit left-handed pitchers.  He has no home runs against left-handers and eight home runs against right-handers.  He hits about .100 against left-handers.  Against right-handers?  Well, we saw it today, when he hit the ball a whopping 422 feet.

Baseball has changed – in my opinion for the worse.  We now have pitchers assigned to innings.  Phil Coke and Octavio Dotel pitch the seventh inning.  Joaquin Benoit pitches the eighth inning.  Jose Valverde pitches the ninth inning.  Because of this regimentation, Valverde had the eye-popping statistic of going 49 for 49 last year in save situations.  There is no more worthless statistic than saves.  A real save is coming in with the tying or winning runs on base and getting guys out, regardless of the inning.  But closers get saves for keeping a lead in the ninth inning, and they almost always start the inning.  The only trouble they have to deal with is of their own making.

In the old days, managers were much more flexible. If a relief pitcher came in and got people out he stayed in the game, regardless of what inning it was.  Up until about the last decade and a half, if a game like today’s game was being played and Joaquin Benoit pitched as effectively as he did today in the eighth inning, he would have stayed in the game.  That’s why you can still get a save for pitching three innings with the lead and closing the game.  It would be interesting to find out when the last time that actually happened -- probably the 1980’s. 

This isn’t the 1980’s.  Most teams are struggling with their bullpens this year, and I think it’s because of the regimented way managers use them.  Everyone thinks they can find a guy who can come in night after night and get three guys out in a row.  Most teams can’t find pitchers who can do that.   

Here’s how today’s ninth inning could have gone.  Leyland could have easily out-maneuvered the White Sox by bringing in Coke and letting him pitch to Dunn.  There is a 90% chance Dunn would make an out.  Imagine Coke did the job.  There would be two outs with Paul Konerko, the Sox best hitter coming up.  I’d intentionally walk him.  Then have Coke pitch to A.J. Pierzynski, another left-hander and see what happens.  I’d say we’d have a better than 80% chance of winning the game and a 15% chance the inning would have ended tied and the game would have been extended.

But there was a zero percent chance that scenario could possibly happen.  The Tigers pay Valverde $9 million to pitch the ninth.  They pay Benoit $5 million to pitch the eighth.  They pay Coke $1 million to pitch the seventh.  I wish they’d choose relievers based on match ups and who’s hot, instead of salaries.

Merge!

A new post today on The 12, about the division of the Christian Reformed Church and Reformed Church in America.  You can see it by clicking here.

Me and Barack

A new post on The 12 about a dream I had with Barack Obama. You may see it by clicking here.

Solidarity!

As a follow up to my post from Monday, I’m taking the liberty of paraphrasing some thoughts from Richard Rohr for today. What do the events Christians marked last night and today mean? Here’s some mashed-up Rohr, from his recent book Wondrous Encounters:

On the tenth day of the month, the book of Exodus says, each family was to procure a small year-old lamb. They were to keep it for four days – just enough time for the children to bond with it and for all to see its loveliness – and then “slaughter it during the evening twilight”! Then they were to take the blood and sprinkle it on the doorpost of the houses. That night they were to eat in highly ritualized fashion, recalling their departure from Egypt and their protection from God along the way. Thank God the Jews eventually stopped animal sacrifice, but it was meant to be a psychic shock for all as killing always is. You can see, however, that the human psyche is slowly evolving in history to identify the real problem and what it is that actually has to die.

A cultural anthropologist could explain what is happening here. The sacrificial instinct is the deep recognition that something always has to die for something bigger to be born. We started with human sacrifice (Abraham and Isaac), we moved here to animal, and we gradually get closer to what has to be sacrificed – our own beloved ego – as protected and beloved as a little household lamb! We all will find endless disguises and excuses to avoid letting go of what really needs to die for our own spiritual growth. And it is not other humans (like the firstborn sons of Egypt), or animals, or even “meat on Friday” that God wants or needs. It is always our beloved self that has to be let go of.

Good Friday illustrates the human tendency to kill others, in any multitude of ways, instead of letting our own illusions, pretenses, narcissism, and self-defeating behaviors die. We understand Jesus dying “for us” as a substitution “in place of” but rarely “in solidarity with.” But “in place of” is a heavenly transaction. “In solidarity with” opens an avenue for the transformation of our very soul. Whenever you see an image of the crucified Jesus, know that it is the clear and central message unveiled, the transformative image for the soul. Don’t lessen its meaning by making it merely into a mechanical transaction whereby Jesus pays a “price” to God or the devil. Don’t lessen its meaning by just making it into a transaction that changes things in heaven. The crucifixion of Jesus means everything potentially can change on earth.

God has always and forever loved what God created. It was we who could not love and see his omnipresent goodness. But on the cross the veil between the Holy and unholy is “torn from top to bottom.” (Matthew 27:51) An opening is created that we can walk through. We can “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor.” (Hebrews 4:16) The bleeding heart of Jesus (which Catholics call “the Sacred Heart”) dramatizes that the curtain is open. It seems we needed an image just that shocking, dramatic and compelling to get the point, to truly see ourselves, and trust the Great Love.

Brandon Inge: Public Enemy Number One

Three miscellaneous thoughts:

The Detroit Tigers announced today that Brandon Inge will be their starting second baseman against left-handed pitching. Of course, Inge has to come off the disabled list first, being relegated there because of everyone’s least favorite injury, a groin strain. The warm vibrations felt across the state of Michigan this afternoon were coming from the sports talk radio shows, whose hosts were unanimously deriding both Inge and Detroit Manager Jim Leyland. I flipped the dial while driving home and heard one person after another angrily talking about Inge.

“Inge hasn’t shown anything this spring,” one radio host screamed, “to believe he can hit in the regular season is as ridiculous as believing in something you cannot see. I don’t believe in things I cannot see.”

“What about love?” I wondered. I mean if love is real, send me a box of it.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the radio host was struck by what he was saying and took it to a whole different level. “Wait a minute,” he said in a suddenly calm and reserved voice. “There’s faith. You can’t see that. But faith is way different than this. This is Brandon Inge we’re talking about.”

That was my religious moment of the day. Faith is one thing, to be spoken of respectfully. But who plays second base for the Detroit Tigers? That’s something very, very different. I sense it is going to be a great season for the Tigers but a painful one for Brandon Inge.

Also in sports, am I the only one who took special note of the announcement made during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship last night that Reggie Miller had been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame? This caught my interest because his sister Cheryl was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame 17 years ago. I find that amusing. Last night, when the announcement was made, some announcer even said under his breath, “Still, Cheryl was a better player.” I’m trying to think of any other brother-sister combination that played the same sport where the brother reached great heights yet never completely outshone his sister. Any ideas?

Finally, Into the Dark published another classic film recommendation by yours truly today. You can read it by clicking here. What I didn’t have space to say in the short review was the unusual fact that I first became aware of this movie listening to Jerry Stiller talk about it. I think Jerry Stiller is hilarious, but who could imagine Frank Costanza being a sucker for a movie that tugs so hard on your heartstrings?

There Will Be Blood

Holy Week brings with it some musing by me about the "blood of the lamb." I posted this today on The 12. You can access it by clicking here. The comment of a friend is very true - this probably sounds like "foolishness" to many ears. What do you think?

The Rabbi's Question

A new entry on The 12 inspired by a question I heard a rabbi ask recently. Click here for the post.

A Genuine Fake

This topic has come up about a dozen times in different ways the past week. Here's a further reflection I posted this morning on The 12. You can read it by clicking here.

Who Will Take Home the Little Golden Man?

The Oscars are at hand. How many of the films nominated for Best Picture have you seen? If you are old like me, you remember the days when Bill Murray used to pick the Oscars on Saturday Night Live and toss films aside simply because he hadn’t seen them. There was something right about that in that day. But that doesn’t count anymore – at least since The Hurt Locker, a movie almost no one had seen, won the big prize.

I did add Hugo, another of the nominated films, to my viewed list last night, bringing me to five of nine. I don’t think I am ever going to see three of them: The Help, War Horse and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. (If you are a fan of one of those movies, change my mind.) They look too predictable, too maudlin, or too painful for me. I do want to see The Artist. At this point I’m waiting for it to come to the el cheapo theater by my house. Or just for the right invitation.

Hugo was fun and charming but I don’t think it has the gravitas to be the best picture. It’s a movie about the magic of the movies, and life as well, but after taking a deep bite of it one might realize you’d just swallowed something like meringue, which turns out to be a lot of sugar and air. This is an astonishing thing to say about a Martin Scorsese film, but the movie tightrope walked the line of sentimental fluff and just might have slipped over. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining – I had a great time watching it – but as I thought about it later and asked “what did it mean?” I was left thinking that Scorsese’s main point was that old movies should be preserved. There’s something self-aggrandizing about a movie about how valuable movies are. (Of course, nothing is more self-aggrandizing to the movie business than the Oscars themselves, but I still watch.)

The Oscar nominated movie with the most heft to it was The Tree of Life, a movie that I am going to write about next week on The 12. If you loved, say, 2001 or The Thin Red Line, you may love the Tree of Life. But if you like story and character development and something as conventional as a plot, then you may find, after watching it, that you’ve just lost 2 ½ hours of your life that you’ll never get back. To say this movie is ponderous and challenging to watch in our short-attention-span-world is to say something as obvious as noting that Mt. Everest is tall.

So, using the Bill Murray test and throwing out the four movies I haven’t seen, what movie would I choose for the Best Picture Oscar? Not Moneyball, which is about baseball, for goodness sake. Not Midnight in Paris, because it’s too quirky for such a mainstream award. Not Hugo or The Tree of Life for the reasons I’ve mentioned above. Which leaves The Descendants, a film I believe is truly worthy of the little golden man. But I don’t believe it will win, bringing me to pick The Artist, a movie I haven’t seen. Forget Bill Murray. I’ll be cheering when The Artist wins Sunday night, because I love picking a winner.

Obama's Catholic Blunder and Reformed Folks

The administration's birth control blunder has me thinking about the gaps between official church policy and the actual behavior of average people. This is a new entry on The 12, you can read it by clicking here.

Jeremy Lin: The Rejected One

I’ve got Linsanity.

Since I posted so much on Tim Tebow last fall, I believe it is time to come clean and admit I’m a Jeremy Lin fan. He’s the freshly-minted New York Knick point guard who has suddenly come from deep off the bench (and from sleeping on his brother’s couch) to inspire millions with both his athletic ability and his Christian faith.

Over the course of the football season, I warmed to Tim Tebow, but didn’t start out there. But with Jeremy Lin, I’m a fan and I haven’t even actually seen him play a game. I’ve been asking myself what’s different. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• Jeremy Lin went to Harvard.More US Presidents have come from Harvard than NBA basketball players. I like that.
• Jeremy Lin went to InterVarsity at Harvard. I have friends who work for InterVarsity. I like that.
• Jeremy Lin has not invented a public praying posture. I like that.
• Jeremy Lin actually is from a minority group.When Tebowmania hit, I heard an apologetic being made for Tim T. as a persecuted minority. I never bought that. I do buy that Jeremy Lin is crashing stereotypes. I like that.

Finally, there’s this thought, something I heard Frank DeFord eloquently commenting on about Jeremy Lin on NPR the other day. (I’m paraphrasing his idea for those of you that didn’t hear it.) I’m rooting for Jeremy Lin because he symbolizes all the talented and creative people in the world that never got their chance. The Knicks are his second NBA team this season and the only reason he got some playing time was their roster was depleted by injuries and the coach figured he had nothing left to lose by giving him a chance in a game. The Knicks promptly went on a Lin-led winning streak that probably saved the coach’s job. But how many Jeremy Lin’s are there in the world? How many songwriters have written beautiful music that only their family and friends have heard? How many people with great voices never get a shot? (I haven’t seen much of American Idol, but have seen enough to know I have NO idea how the judges make their decisions.) How many great books do publishers pass on every year? For every JK Rowling who kept going after 9 or 10 rejections and finally found a publisher, how many others are there who get discouraged after rejection after rejection and quit trying? I mean, most of us had a lifetime worth of rejection in adolescence and aren’t interested in going through it again. Van Gough never sold a painting in his lifetime. Gerard Manley Hopkins never had a poem published until 23 years after his death.

So keep going Jeremy Lin. It seems ironic that a recent poll named LeBron James, who first appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated under the headline “The Chosen One,” as the most hated athlete in America. Jeremy Lin is the anti-LeBron, the rejected one instead of the chosen one. Lin is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. (A great issue, I might add, because not only is Linsanity covered, but there’s a moving article about Fennville’s Wes Leonard as well.) The headline says “Against All Odds.” I wish I was writing headlines for SI. I would have said, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Let's hear it for the vicar

A recent episode of Downton Abbey and the compromises we make to "get along" in life are on my mind in today's post on The 12, which you can access by clicking here.

Duck Soup

My latest classic film recommendation for the "Into the Dark" project can be accessed by clicking here.

Duck Soup is one of my favorite movies of all time, and is one I return to again and again as perhaps the greatest comedy ever made. If you've never become acquainted with the Marx Brothers, do so. You won't regret it. And let me know if you do.

The Grave Dangers of Turning European

I've trod some of this ground before, but this is the first time for The 12. Enjoy!

Eugene Peterson's less-than-self-involved memoir

Here's my new life: posting at 7am. Whatever happened to slow, quiet mornings? Oh well . . . I'm enjoying my new challenges.

I posted this today on The 12 about The Pastor, Eugene Peterson's memoir that was released in 2011. My review is tongue in cheek, but it's a wonderful book and a great read for both people in pastoral ministry and those of us who care about them. You can read the post by clicking here.

Enjoy -- I need to go to work.