the intersection of life and grace

No one wants to get old. especially youth workers.  So, earlier this week when my son sent me a link to the infamously annoying to teenagers mosquito tone (a noise in the high-end range that our ears lose after years of  loud music, screaming kids, and chronological advances), youth workers everywhere started posting with glee if they were over 25 and could hear this noise.  It’s a fun site, with a badge you can use to boast of your achievement, or mourn your aural insufficiency.  You can try it here.

Enter Adam, my sarcastic genius of a friend.  I mean that as a compliment, mostly!  Within 24 hours of my passing the link above to him, the Parent Audio Test was online and cracking me up.  Click here, try it, grab the badge, tell your friends, because it is just that funny.  If you don’t think so, – yes, I’m just that mature. 

The last section of Shea Stadium fell today into what will be the parking lot of CitiField, which is slated to host the final two exhibition games of the Mets ’09 spring schedule on April 4 & 5 against Boston. (two videos embeded below)




Farewell, old friend. Maybe my name will get picked for tickets the home opener, April 13, 7:10 pm against the Padres? That will quite possibly be as cold as the Tigers game we went to in Detroit last April, when the temp at game time was about 40 degrees (and only fell from there)!

HT to Metsblog

Yes, the Mets lost their bid for the post-season.  Again.  After a season that began for me with such joy. Yes, I hate that because every year I invest vast amounts of time and energy in watching their games, and was looking for them to keep this promise.  However, I’m really not as crushed as I was over The Collapse of 2007 because the ’08 Mets fought hard to the bitter end with play fairly consistent to what they managed all season.  Hopefully this lengthy off-season will bring some changes to that dynamic, so that there is less focus on the brilliance on paper replaced by more brilliant baseball moments on the field.

Be that as it may.  I lost a little logo wager with this guy, now fulfilled by this random logo.

To console myself, I placed a little bid on an ebay auction for a New York Mets Wait Until Next Year Kit I saw on Metsblog.com, and to my surprise, I won!  Yesterday’s mail brought the kit, described by the compassionate, sympathetic, entrepreneurial, Rangers-fan seller as follows:

NEW YORK METS
WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR KIT

Today I signed on ESPN.com to read about another disappointing Mets season. Back to back seasons now, the Mets stay in contention all the way until the final out, just to fall short! Oh, the agony the fans of the Metropolitans must feel! OUCH!

I figured I had to help. So, I’ve decided to put together a unique kit with everything needed to get through the dark winter that includes all of the following

• A package of Kleenex – To wipe away all the tears you shed!
• A 25 count box of Dora the Explorer bandaids – To bandage that wounded pride.
• ORBIT gum – to rid your mouth of that bad taste left from the season.
• An 18 month daily pocket planner- to help you count down the days until next season.
• 2004 Bowman Eli Manning Rookie in near mint condition – To remind you that NEW YORK is still the home of the SUPER BOWL CHAMP GIANTS!
• Personalized sympathy card – a personalized card expressing heart warming sympathetic thoughts.
• Over 25 HIGH quality New York Mets baseball cads – They break your heart every year but you still love them.  CARDS INCLUDE INSERTS AND A REFRACTOR!
• Jimmy Rollins baseball card and Sharpie – your chance to be creative and do what you want with the card, intended to be therapeutic.
• Brand new deck of “All In” playing cards – to burn time playing all the solitaire you want until spring training rolls around.
• 1973 TOPPS Willie Mays – Even the the “Sey Hey” kid took a few swings as a Met.  The card is in rough condition with soft edges but still a neat card for any Mets fan.

An orange gift bag with four baseball stickers will house all contents. I can personalize this as a gift to anyone you like. What better way to make that DIE Hard Mets fan laugh off another bad season. I’ll also include a note on the sympathy card with information as to why the heck they received some of the items they received.

It was like Christmas unpacking and looking through the treasures. There are some really fun cards and reminders of happier times. Most of these will end up in as decorations on the Mets wall in my home office.

And then, there’s that Jimmy Rollins card and sharpie… I’m not really a trash-talker, and to deface a guy’s card seems extreme to me… so, leave a comment and let me know what you think I should do with that.

It’s not any kind of a secret at all that I love baseball.  I also have a growing love of minor league baseball.  Three quick thoughts about why: inexpensive; live baseball; raw talent.

Last night I got to combine my love for baseball, fan loyalty for the NY Mets, and an evening out with my family and good friends, and head over to the lovely Joe Bruno Stadium to see the Mets single-A affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones play the local Astros single A affiliate Tri-City Valley Cats.  I’m happy to report that the Mets farm hands out did their MLB parent, taking the set 8-3 (see the play-by-play here or read the story here). We’ve enjoyed several Valley Cats games this year, it’s a fun night out.

Maybe the most fun part of last night’s game was paying my $7.35 for my e-ticket and getting to sit in the front row adjacent to first base (and the visitor’s dugout).  That means a field-level view of the game, and of two buzzed-about players – Brooklyn’s Ike Davis and Tri-City’s Phil Disher, both first basemen.  There are a  number of excellent players on the Cyclones!  I wasn’t disappointed, and even nearly got my camera smashed by a hit that bounced off the wall in front of me (and stayed in play for Davis to field right in front of me).  That was awesome!  No, I didn’t get a picture… can you say ‘deer in headlights’?! 

Here are a couple of shots I did get of those two at work – Valley Cats in white, Brooklyn in gray – you can click for a larger view.

Did you see last night’s Olympic swimming?  Specifically the men’s 4x100m relay?  If you missed it, go watch it here right now!

Now we’re off to Albany High to get Cathie’s athletic dept paperwork finished for for swim team (practice starts next week).

Some Monday morning randomness:

• For some strange reason, the post below this one has decided to appear in the RSS feed as though it was published on June 2 rather than on July 13.  Crazy.  Who knows why…
• Another random, and far more concerning issue arose with the arrival of Tim’s tuition bill for his first semester.  Poof! scholarships missing, full price bill.  Yes, we need to get that figured out since I have the paperwork they gave us with the scholarships listed…
• Great things are happening with Verbitude!  It was super-encouraging to me to receive 3 project  offers from 2 different youth ministry companies in just the first 2 weeks!  I’m keeping busy, and doing fun and interesting work.  I don’t think it gets much better than that combination and I can’t wait to see what God does with it.
• I’m really curious about what will happen to this post in the RSS feed.
• I’m looking forward to getting together with some friends on Sunday we haven’t been able to hang out with for a while.  Bonus is that we’re hanging out at our local Single-A baseball team’s game.  Friends and baseball!!
• Speaking of baseball, the Mets won their 9th game in a row yesterday!  Of course, now it’s the All-Star Break and it can only remain to be seen if that will help or hurt the winning streak.  I’ve just been excited to see them come alive again and playing some really stunning baseball.  Though, there is part of my baseball heart I’m holding in reserve… so sad that the broke it so badly last Fall.  I know a lot of Mets fans are feeling the same way.
• Not sure if I’m going to watch the All-Star events or not…
• I’m going to be attending the YS National Youth Workers Convention in Pittsburgh, heading down on October 29 for a few days to participate in some pre-convention stuff and a fun aspect of the convention I’ll share when it gets closer.  If you’re from the Capital Disrict area and are interested in carpooling, give me a shout.
• I heard that a former student, who is interning in youth work in Belfast, shaved his head for a cancer charity, but moreso to keep a promise to a 9-year-old from the church he’s serving who recently died from leukemia.  That just blows me away; I can’t even explain it.  I love what God is doing in him!
• Praying for a bunch of friends with needs this morning: James, Rachel, Elise, Pat, Jason, the McLanes, the Sheehys, the church fam folks in Belfast, Debbie & John, Torre & Jean, Tara & Rome, and long list of families expecting babies soon.
• OK, hit a lull… time to get about the to-do list!  Have a great day!  (I really am curious to see where this post goes in the RSS feed…)

[Baseball] is a game played by two teams, one out the other in.

The one that’s in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn’t count. If they get in before they get out it does count.

When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that’s out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.

When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get
the ones in out before they get in without being out.

The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in.

HT Lisa via email

Baseball is reminding me of the worst in church behavior this morning. Middle-of-the-night firings, on a trip, after at least a week of whispering and rumor-mongering. If I didn’t know these were a baseball manager and two coaches, I might believe it was a youth pastor. But you know what? It’s cheap and hurtful behavior no matter what kind of organization is behind it.

No argument from me that things need to be shaken up in the New York Mets organization, but, the Wilpons should have had this done in the light of day – they should have handled it like men and not cowardly puppeteers. Omar Minaya may have indeed been instructed to hand out the bad news, that’s the GM’s lot. But Randolph, Peterson and Nieto deserved to be treated with more respect than to be booted out under cover of darkness, thousands of miles from home.

And, by the way, the Mets organization doesn’t have a corner on the NY-idiocy market. Did you see the ridiculous, whiny comments made by Hank Steinbrenner? In short, “It’s the National League’s fault.” Read it for yourself (enjoy!):

The Yankees’ loss of their ace, Chien-Ming Wang, for up to 10 weeks prompted the team co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner to chastise the National League for playing without a designated hitter.

“My only message is simple,” Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. “The National League needs to join the 21st century. They need to grow up and join the 21st century.”

Steinbrenner said he was angry and added: “I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”

Making a rare appearance on the bases at an N.L. park in Houston on Sunday, Wang pulled up rounding third and hobbled home on a Derek Jeter single.

“This is always a concern of American League teams when their pitchers have to run the bases and they’re not used to doing it,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s not just us. It’s everybody. It probably should be a concern for National League owners, general managers and managers when their pitchers run the bases. Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that.”

I guess Hank forgot that the DH rule is what’s new (MLB rule 6.10, allowing a team to have someone bat for the pitcher, was instituted in 1973). That “rule from the 1800s” is part of the traditional game where everyone plays baseball on offense and defense. Hank, your baseball player got hurt playing baseball, that’s part of the deal… pitchers run all the time, whether on the bases or making a play, so quitcherbellyachin and stop looking for someone to blame for an accident.

Here ends my baseball rant (for now).

Today is the Mets first game in New York this season. It’s the last “opening day” at Shea Stadium. It’s also against the Phillies – the nemesis, the rival, the keepers of the strangest looking mascot in baseball. Oh yeah, thanks (at least in part) to the Mets 2007 spectacular end-of-season collapse, the Phillies are the ::cough::NL East Champions::cough:: as well. Such are the ups and downs of being a Mets fan.

Just for fun, I have a taken a little wager proposed my YMX friend Brian – who is a Phillies fan. If the Mets win the NL East, Brian will sport their logo on his profile on the YMX forums. However, if the Phillies with the division, I will display their team logo on my forum profile. I don’t think we sorted out for how long, though, so we’d need to establish that. Of course, while neither of us wants to admit it, there is the possibility that another team could win the division. We shall see.

Game time!

It’s Opening Day. Ask anyone, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the return of baseball since the final out of the 2007 World Series.  I’ve been waiting for new stories, new accomplishments to overcome the sad memories of the ’07 season-ending collapse of my beloved Mets.

As I write, the Mets are winning again the Marlins.  My favorite player, David Wright has had a good day, including a 3-run double in the 6th.  SP Johan Santana has finished a solid 7 innings of work and the bullpen has it’s first opportunity to do it’s job.  If the bullpen gets these 6 outs, this will be the clubs 30th Opening Day win in their 47 years.  Of course, there are no guarantees in this game, and these are the self-same Marlins as played spoiler to the Mets last gasp in the ’07 fall. But, I’m not looking back there! Today, it’s all new.  My hobby is back, and it will take me into spring, through summer, to fall, with ups and downs, rivalries and sleepers, and maybe even some moments of baseball brilliance.