I went with my wife to Old Navy over the weekend. I’ve been in the store several times over the past few months, and every time I’m in there looking at clothes, I have one thought:
What a bunch of junk.
All they sell are these ratty old clothes that look like something I’d find in a garage sale. Whatever happened to a nice pair of jeans? The ones they sell look like they’d fall apart after going through the wash a couple of times.
A lot of wheeling and dealing in baseball over the past couple of days, as the trade deadline looms this afternoon. Yesterday we saw Bobby Abreu shipped to the New York Yankees and Ronnie Belliard to the Cardinals. Today the Tigers have acquired Sean Casey. Other rumors still circulate around Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Tejada and a host of others.
One rumor has the Cardinals sending Jason Marquis to the Mets for Aaron Heilman. I’d love to see that happen.
I’ll be in St. Louis for much of the week. I’m doing a story on Major League umpire Ted Barrett, and am hoping to get a couple of other stories as well, maybe on the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright and the Phillies’ Aaron Fultz.
Hopefully I’ll be able to do a fair amount of blogging from St. Louis.
Let me ask for your feedback. If you were reading a story about a Christian athlete, what would you want to know? What are some questions you would suggest that I ask?
Here’s an interesting story about some of the items Major League Baseball players pack with them when they’re on the road.
And yes, Detroit Tigers closer Todd Jones takes only one pair of underwear with him — the pair he’s wearing.
“I don’t pack any underwear,” he said. “I wear it into the park, it gets washed every day and I wear it out of the park. I guess that’s weird. I’m not proud of it, but I’m cutting down on space.”
Here are some hilarious quotes from former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andujar — One Tough Dominican — taken from the book “Whitey’s Boys,” by Rob Rains and Alvin Reid:
- “There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is, ‘You never know.’”
- “I throw the ball 92 miles an hour, but they hit it back just as hard.”
- “There are 300,000 sportswriters, and they’re all against me. Every one of them.”
- “You can’t worry if it’s cold; you can’t worry if it’s hot; you only worry if you get sick. Because then if you don’t get well, you die.’”
- “God is back in the National League. In fact, he’s staying at my house. I’m having a barbecue for him.”
It’s a fairly lengthy article, but well worth your time.
“With the trajectory of where we’re going as a culture, I’d be very surprised if in 20 years time there are not laws on the books against spanking children,” said Tedd Tripp, author of “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.”
Given the proclivity of judges in this country to legislate from the bench, I’d predict we’ll see prohibitions against spanking children much earlier than that. When that day comes, many Christians who believe the clear biblical teachings about spanking may choose to defy the law and obey God rather than men. Some in Europe are already at this point, as the article points out.
My column this week is about Mason Leaf, a Campus Outreach staff member at Arkansas State University, who has seen several of the university’s baseball players come to know the Lord in recent months.
I wish I had a ton of insight into what it takes to be a successful blogger, but unfortunately, I don’t. I do, however, have a couple of suggestions for bloggers:
1. Post your email address on your blog somewhere. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to email a blogger, only to find that their email address is nowhere to be found on their site.
2. Respond to comments on your blog. One of the points of blogging is interaction. If I leave a comment on a site, and the blog owner never responds, chances are I’ll be less inclined to comment there again — and probably less inclined even to visit the site. This is especially important if you don’t get many comments. The more you interact with your readers, the more they’re going to visit and comment, which in turn leads to more visits and comments by other readers.
If I have any other brilliant insights, I’ll post them later. These are just a couple of things that I’ve come across recently, and I wanted to address them.
Christianity Today has an interview with Michael Gerson, former speechwriter for President Bush, on how evangelicals should operate in the public square.
Did you know Fernando Tatis was back in baseball? As a member of the Baltimore Orioles, he started his first game last night since 2003. He had two hits and drove in a run.
I hate trying to come up with cute, pithy sayings for Open Blog Friday, or interesting discussion-starting questions. I’m tired of it. So, no cute, pithy sayings for Open Blog Friday this week, and no discussion-starting questions. Take it whatever direction you want to go.
I will ask a question I want to know the answer to — is anybody running a fantasy football league this year? I’ve never done fantasy football, but might be interested in giving it a shot this year — but I’m not going to be commish like I am for our baseball league.
A minor league baseball player was arrested after being accused of breaking into several suites at Dodgertown and stealing credit cards and cash from his teammates.
Christopher Hobdy, 19, a pitcher for the Gulf Coast League Dodgers, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with seven counts of burglary and six counts of petit theft. He also was charged with trespassing and barred from returning to Dodgertown, the Vero Beach Press Journal reported for Friday’s editions.
The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs open a four-game series at Wrigley tonight. Although the Cardinals certainly have playoff aspirations, for the Cubs, the series is once again mainly about pride.
This will serve as the forum for any discussion related to the weekend series. I’m not going to get to see much of the game tonight or tomorrow night, but I hope to be able to watch the games on Saturday and Sunday.
The Phonak cycling team says it was notified of positive doping test by Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.
Landis won the Tour de France on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year after Lance Armstrong’s record seven victories.
The International Cycling Union said Wednesday that a cyclist failed a doping test during the tour. It originally said the name, team and nationality won’t be released until the testing process is completed, including the analysis of a backup sample.
