Life Lessons

Good article in this week's Sports Illustrated written by Tony Dungy on Michael Vick. I am all for giving people second chances-God does (the power of Confession). If I was an owner of an NFL team or GM-I would still be hesitant of signing him. Mike and Mike brought up an interesting spin on this as well-how is it different for guys who are convicted of abuse or who have wedlock children any different? Granted what Vick did was on a major and publicized scale, but is it really all that different? The moral issue is the one that comes into affect here-how do you want to be viewed with the team's fans and the public-don't forget for whatever team takes a chance on Vick would have to deal with PETA (not many people would want to do that). It would be nice to see Vick get on with a team and turn his life around. Dungy makes some good points that can not only be applied to Vick, but to everyone and getting second chances in life as well-and we only have God to thank for all the second chances He gives us in life.

""What you learn in life is the same thing you learn in football," I told Michael, who was scheduled to be released from prison this Wednesday to serve the final two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. "You have losses, and you have to rebound from them. The key thing is, How do you bounce back from a defeat?"

Waymon Tisdale 1964-2009
"You don't change because things come in your life. You get better because things come in your life."

Carpenter back on the Mound

It was nice to see Chris Carpenter make a successful return last night from the DL and pitch 5 strong innings shutting the Small Bears down and leading the Redbirds to a 2-1 victory last night. Now let's not get too excited-it was only 5 innings and roughly 70 pitches, BUT it will hopefully provide some stability and if Wainwright is back to form then the pitching staff should look as formidable as it did the first month of the season.

"I know that if I'm healthy then my ability has a chance to come out, and I have a chance to give my team a chance to win," Carpenter said. "Unfortunately I haven't been healthy a whole lot. And that's all that concerns me." ..."My stuff has always been the same," Carpenter said. —To be honest, the biggest concern was if (the nerve) was going to have the ability to get strong and fire again. Fortunately, it has. It takes a lot of work. And I continue to do that in between starts and everything else. It's a never-ending process."...


As for the offense....all I can say is it will be nice to have Ludwick and Ankiel back in the line-up. It looks as if Rasmus is slowly turning the corner (he has a history for starting slow) and if Barston (Brian Barden/Joe Thurston) can get out of the rookie funk they are and at least bat .27o then the offense should start to produce.

"When people say, 'How is Albert (Pujols) a great player?' you give examples. When someone asks, 'How is Chris Carpenter a great pitcher?' you can use this as an example. You can't do what he did tonight unless you're great," La Russa said.

"If I prepare myself, my stuff is good and I'm going to get outs," Carpenter said. "That is a fact."..."He's the nastiest pitcher I've faced all year," said Cubs first baseman and cleanup hitter Derrek Lee....

Let's sweep those Small Bears tonight!

Congrats to Albert for being named the #1 player in MLB by Sporting News.

Technology and the "Fall of Communication"

Now, I am not going to go into a big rant about how Communication has changed over the years from Abraham to now where we have instant communication-texting, blogging (Yes, call me a hypocrite), and tweeting (not Tweety Bird), etc. With that said in a ways communication can enhance people's lives-making them easier and more efficient, but sometimes doing it the old fashioned way is the easiest and most efficient-like making a phone call, etc. Too make a long point short, as great as this new-wave of communication and technology is, it has also led to the lack of or downfall of simple speech, grammar, and communication of people. This article "Defining Discourse Down" points out the problem of communication and how he defines it as "Discourse" as we know what communication is today.

"When has any debate in the last 150 years evoked memories of Lincoln-Douglas? And how is Twitter versus America’s most remarkable letter-writing first family a fair fight?...It’s not that we are all suddenly morons. This is not going to be some elitist rant on “if only everyone could be smart like me and my friends.” Likewise, the problem is not the banality of the world around us. There is plenty to discuss, dissect, and disagree on. The problem is not even that television has robbed us of the ability to communicate in complete sentences (though it certainly hasn’t helped). The problem with our discourse—are you ready for this brilliant insight?—is that some people are jerks and some people are too nice...."

This is a very interesting read and makes some good points.

Nice to see the Cardinals actually get a lead and win the game last night. Pineioro hopefully showed the rest of the pitching staff, that when you don't walk batter and serve up meatballs, good things happen to pitchers-a complete game 9 IP, NO WALKS, 5 K's, and 17 groundball outs-a 4 pitch 4th inning, and retired the last 14 batters. Hopefully with Carpenter coming back tonight we can get the ship back sailing in the right direction-and with Ankiel coming back as well. Go get em Redbirds!

Some investing tips

If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you
will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have
$33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago,
you will have $0.00 today.

But---- if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all
the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you
will have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily
& recycle.

It's called the 401-Keg.

Thoughts...

Then, I realized that this kind of thinking is Exactly, what has caused lot of the problems in our world today.

We try to keep God in church on Sunday morning....Maybe, Sunday night.

And, the unlikely event of a midweek service.

We do like to have Him around during sickness..... And, of course, at funerals.

However, we don't have time, or room, for Him during work or play....

Because.. That's the part of our lives we think.... We can, and should, handle on our own.

May God forgive me for ever thinking..

That there is a time or place where.

HE is not to be FIRST in my life.

We should always have time to remember all HE has done for us.

Yes, I do Love God.

HE is my source of existence and Savior.

He keeps me functioning each and every day.. Without Him, I will be nothing. But, with Christ, HE strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

Easy vs. Hard

Why is it so hard to tell the truth but Yet so easy to tell a lie?

Why are we so sleepy in church but Right when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up?

Why is it so easy to delete a Godly e-mail, but yet we forward all of the nasty ones?

Of all the free gifts we may receive, Prayer is the very best one....

There are no costs, but wonderful rewards.... GOD BLESS!

Notes: Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell..

Isn't it funny how someone can say 'I believe in God' but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also 'believes' in God).

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing?

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

A real player: Rick Ankiel

Rick Ankiel took a nasty spill into the outfield wall at Busch Stadium after making a magnificent catch Monday night against the Phillies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDlckYPRSAQ). Ankiel had to be carted off of the field on a stretcher and it did not look pretty. Ankiel left the stadium giving the fans and his teammates the thumbs up and was in good spirits at last nights game.

"Ankiel didn't shy away from watching the replays on television Monday night and Tuesday. "I watched it about 35 times," he said. "It was just like I imagined. It was scary to go through it."

But though Ankiel knew how the crash came out, he hardly could help but thank those lucky stars Tuesday night.

"Absolutely," Ankiel replied, when asked if he felt fortunate.

"I thought, 'This might be it.' I'm lucky to be walking today. Anything from here is a plus."

Not long after he was hurt, Ankiel was texting teammates, including right fielder Ryan Ludwick, from Missouri Baptist Hospital.

"He was hitting the right letters and making jokes," Ludwick said Tuesday..."

"He's already made a lot of good plays out there. It's pretty impressive for someone who's never played out there how quickly he's picked it up," Ludwick said. "He's Superman."

Well, not quite. But surviving that crash suggests that Ankiel must have some otherworldly power — because if his head had turned out as bent as his cap, he wouldn't have been reliving the moment Tuesday night."

From teammate Jason LaRue:
“The most significant part of what we all I saw, I think, is that it shows Ank doesn’t play with any fear of running into the wall. He’s going to make the play. He plays without fear. He’s a gamer.”

This is why Cardinal Fans love Rick Ankiel-he works hard, comes to the ballpark everyday, and gives it his all for his team. The man is a rare athlete being able to go from Major League Pitcher to a major impact Outfielder who reminds Cardinal Fans of all of those catches that Jim Edmonds made throughout his career. It is also nice to see that an athlete realizes the position he is and how lucky he is in a circumstance like this. Modern Athletes have the biggest egos and think they are above "normal people," but an incident like this reminds them of their "mortality." Nice to see that Ankiel realizes that and will still put forth the same effort the next game and the rest of the games he plays in his career. Get better Rick and help the Cardinals win!

Truly Adventurous

From Catholic Exchange:

Mark 4:19

And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

What makes life exciting? What really grabs your attention? Do you have a goal in your life that causes you to smile when you wake up in the morning? Is making money the most important thing in your life or knowing that you have changed lives for Christ? One evening in New York, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer entered into a discussion with John Sculley from the Pepsi Corporation. Jobs goal was to lure Sculley over to Apple. Sculley resisted and seemed to communicate that no amount of money would lure him over. Finally, Jobs said to Sculley, “Do you want to spend your life making sugared water, or do you want to help us change the world?’ Shortly after this conversation, John Sculley was hired as the new leader of Apple. What is exciting? To hear Jesus say, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”