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At least the greatest I’ve ever seen…

Even though it happened in Kansas City, and I only got to see it on TV and then about a million times on replay, the catch Jim Edmonds made over the tip of his cap in straight away center field is easily the greatest baseball catch of all time.  Keep in mind; this shot was taken from the camera-well, even with third base.  Viewed from home plate, all you see is Jim's cleats and backside.  I've been searching for the video of this, butt to no avail.  If anyone ever finds it, please pass it along.

Baseball Weekly rates it as the 3rd most amazing play of all-time!

I just needed something to reminisce about after last nite’s horrible display by my Angels.

oh, I ganja

I have often wondered how we ever got to this whole idea of sending along (aka forwarding) things that humor us, or enlightened us, or scare us, on to our friends and families simply because we receive them as emails from one of our other friends or family members.  Is it a way of keeping in contact with the ones we love?  Is it simply that there is a forward button on our email program, or are we so afraid that our own words aren’t as good as the ramblings of someone else?  And why don’t we do this with other things in our lives?  When you think about it, when was the last time you “forwarded” a Christmas card, or a hand written letter from someone, or a parking ticket, or your paycheck?  Well, if you’re like me, never.  All of these things have your name on them and are yours for the keeping, and personalized just for you, and that is the key.

Here is my challenge for all of you.  And I will admit, this isn’t my idea, it is only my idea to pass the challenge on to you.

Richard Carlson: author of “Don’t Sweat the Small stuff, and it’s All Small Stuff” writes in one of his chapters that each week you should write a “heartfelt letter” to someone you know.  Imagine, instead of a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or some other self serving endeavor, you resolve to do something for someone else.  Something simple, something from the heart, something that takes more thought than to simply add their name to the long list of names you are about to forward that silly chain email to.

I’ll admit, I’m not perfect, and I don’t write my letter every week.  But I do try.  The best part: when I get a personalized, heartfelt letter in return. I guarantee I never forward it.

If you feel like sending this on, be my guest, nothing bad will happen if you don’t.  If it gets more people writing letters, then it was worth it. Remember, no matter how bad you write, your words mean a lot more to the person you are sending them to than the words of someone else.

david

It is a phenomenon no doubt.  Seemingly ordinary, mild mannered, well adjusted people, women, children, grandparents, all hiding behind the anonymity of their internet connections, ranting, raging, cursing, berating, insulting, bashing, criticizing and just plain being rude to the rest of the on-line community, who are all doing the exact same thing in return.  What the hell is this world coming to?

Before the internet and email and chat rooms and myspace and online dating, we got our news from the newspaper and the TV, we got our mail from the mail box, we chatted on the telephone or in person, there was no world-wide narcissist network and we met our future lovers and spouses through mutual friends, at school, at church, in public!  In short, we interacted with each other in more personal, face to face ways.  We were a society, I would argue, of much more polite and socially mindful people, with a real understanding of cause and effect with regard to our words and deeds.

If a man made an inappropriate suggestion to a female at a bar, he got slapped, or a drink poured on him, and rightfully so.  “Please” and “Thank You” were common phrases.  If there was a difference of opinion, the way it was voiced was tempered by the possible response one would receive.  Letters to the editor were signed (if you wanted any chance of getting them printed.)  We took responsibility for our words.  We had to.  The person we were directing them at was standing right in front of us, or at the very least, knew from whom or where the words came.

Enter the Internet; the ultimate creator of cowards, or at least the enabler of them.

Now, with no possibility of repercussion, inappropriate, rude, and even downright belligerent comments are made online every second of every day.  A whole generation of people living by the credo “The pen is mightier than the sword!” and right or wrong, they are getting away with it, because no matter how mighty, the sword needs a physical target.

Like those that feel that a car (or better yet, the largest SUV on the block,) is well suited as an instrument of persuasion, so are those that hide behind the safety of their computer screens, mocking, ridiculing, insulting, berating, all without a single thought or worry of the consequences.  If only the person they were directing their hate laden words toward were standing within arms reach, would they be so bold?

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The 6 game (longest since April 2002) losing streak has ended.  Although, I fear it is not, if this is the end of the pain for this year, I’d say we got out without suffering too much damage.  How did we do it, you ask?  With the help of three rooks, two making their major league debuts and one becoming the 92^nd player in history to homer in his first major league at bat.  What a day!  Too bad it happened in Detroit!  Now, since the rooks picked up the vets today, maybe some of them will learn how to hit again.

And now, a quick note on Tim Salmon.  Even though he has cooled off a bit, he has shown that he can still hit big boy pitching for power.  We weren’t expecting .300 and that’s fine.  He is still a dangerous hitter, and a huge asset to a team of increasingly young players that need a veteran of Tim’s experience and attitude around for the dog days.

Angels snap longest skid since '02, cool off Tigers

oh, I ganja!

As if the U.S. didn’t have enough problems, with North Korea and Iran possibly developing nuclear weapons, the ongoing terrorist hailstorm in the Middle East, the future bird flu pandemic, the illegal immigration issues here at home, do we really need to go looking for another bees nest to stir up right now?  Can someone just put a fucking muzzle on our pea brained vice president before he starts another cold war?

Russian Officials Angered Over Vice President Cheney's Remarks

I have no problem acknowledging that Russia has its problems both internally and beyond its borders.  I can also can acknowledge that they too tend to apply pressure to those states that are not playing ball the way they’d like, but for the U.S. to even mention in passing that Russia is somehow overstepping ethical boundaries by using its natural resources to gain advantage or that they are unfairly restricting the rights of its citizens is just plain fucking hypocritical.

It is this holier than thou mentality constantly displayed by our government pinheads that continues to get us in hot water with the rest of the world, and continues to fuel those with less than honorable motives with plenty of material to justify their own self serving agendas.  Russia could absolutely be an exceptional ally of ours if only we would stop insulting them and pissing them off.  We are not the mother, father or big brother of all the world’s nations.  The fact is we need Russia on our side, if we are to check this jihad by the less fortunate, IQ challenged, religious zealots intent on destroying this planet in the name of Allah.

If we want the rest of the world on our side, or the very least stop telling us how to go about our business, we need to keep our noses out of theirs.

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