Skip to main content

Detachment Means...

Not checking the baseball start-times and wishing it was 7:15. At 11 AM. On a perfectly noble day that the Lord has made. Oh, but how I love baseball! Give me an inning or two to watch the starting pitchers, and I can tell you probably how it will go. Adam is pitching for the Cardinals tonight. That's Adam Wainwright to you uninitiated. He might be the best pitcher in the National League. (15-7, 2.58 ERA this season) For a certainty, though, he is the Cardinals' "ace." It's a semi-formal term to identify the starting pitcher with a track record of winning, the one who stops losing streaks, the one everybody counts on in a special way. If Adam were here in this room, he'd say, "Hold on, buddy. 'Carp' [Chris Carpenter] is still the ace of this staff, until he hangs 'em up." Fair enough, Adam, fair enough. We've been without him for awhile, though. I still hope he makes it back for 2014. Even if only for one game. Wouldn't that be poetic? Carpenter is the guy who has 14 wins in the postseason, not far from the all-time mark of 19, held by Andy Pettitte of the New York Yankees. His overall stats are not impressive, but it was after coming to St. Louis early in the last decade that he found his greatness. I have only enjoyed watching one pitcher more, and that man is Greg Maddux, he of 355 wins, 4 Cy Young Awards (given to the best pitcher in each league each season) and an absolute certainty to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame next year. I mean to say that my favorite guys act like pitchers, whether they have Hall of Fame numbers or not. They are the guys who can have a bad day, give up 5 runs in an inning, and you don't even think of pulling them out, because the team says, "We can still win this thing!" It's a weird trust that teammates and fans give. If you earn it, it is seldom revoked, no matter how old the man gets. Lance Lynn could easily win 17 games this year, but he's not the ace. He knows it, the fans know, the press knows. Now, if he does that for 5 years...maybe a different story.

Random Baseball Thoughts, by JK. Tune in next time...never mind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear Alyse

 Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...
Post a Comment
Read more

We Don't Need No Magisterium: (Jason's Version) (But Actually, We Do)

Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con...
17 comments
Read more

My Thoughts On The Harrison Butker Commencement Speech

Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...
Post a Comment
Read more