Tim Ellsworth

And all the people said …

Chief Illiniwek danced for the last time last night, as the University of Illinois bowed to pressure from the NCAA to eliminate the mascot.

Want to go to church — but not really? Then maybe you should try the Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church, where people can sit in their cars and listen to the service over the radio.

They also take communion from their cars — which really defeats the whole purpose of communion, because the very word denotes the act of fellowship and, yes, “union” with other believers. I’m guessing it’s hard to fellowship with other believers when you’re sitting in your car. But maybe that’s just me.

Here’s a photo essay on the church from Time magazine.

Hat tip: Brian

American Idol contestant Chris Sligh has a blog called Theological Digressions, in which he makes some observations about his life as a follower of Christ. Here’s an excerpt from his post on “Forgetful of Grace”:

The big question I’ve always had is this: when does grace end and responsibility begin? I think we as Christians have to struggle with this. I’ve never had a Christian friend who is honest who doesn’t struggle with the balance between grace and responsibility or consequence. When do we cross the line of abusing grace and discarding liberty for freedom?

But in asking these questions, I think that we miss the point of what grace is. Grace is not overlooking sin and poor choices. It is looking those poor choices straight in the face and saying that His grace is enough to get past them. It is being able to forgive without forgetting, because as humans we don’t forget. We don’t have the ability to seperate it as far as the East is from the West. Yet Christ’s grace is so much better than my feeble attempts to explain it. His grace does seperate it from his memory; He doesn’t remember my faults.

Our NL-only league is full, but it looks like we still have seven spots left in our mixed league. There’s plenty of room. Even if you’ve never played fantasy baseball before, don’t worry about it. Come on and join us. Comment here if you’re interested, or send me an email.

I was talking to Leland yesterday, and we had a short conversation about our favorite sports. I thought it might make for an interesting blog topic.

Here’s how I’d rank my favorite sports:

1. Baseball
2. NFL
3. College football
4. Golf
5. College basketball
6. Horse racing (Triple Crown races)
7. NBA
8. Hockey
9. Tennis
10. NASCAR WWE

During high school and college, college basketball would have been number two on my list, and maybe tied for first. But for some reason I haven’t followed it as much over the past few years.

Interesting story about Ron Paul, the Republican Congressman who actually understands the Constitution.

When most members of Congress see a bill for the first time, they immediately judge the bill on its merits, or if you’re more cynical, they determine what the political interests that support them will think of it, or how it might benefit their constituents.

For Paul, the vast majority of bills don’t get that far. He first asks, “Does the Constitution authorize Congress to pass this law?” Most of the time, the answer to that question is “no.” And so Paul votes accordingly.

We’d be a lot better of with a Congress full of Ron Pauls. I may vote for him in the primary.

Every night before Daniel goes to bed, I read him some Bible stories and go over his memory verses and catechism questions with him. One of the catechism questions we recently did was, “What effect did the sin of Adam have on all mankind?”

To which Daniel responds, “All mankind is born in a state of sin and misery.”

The past few days we’ve been working on memorizing the Lord’s prayer. And the past couple of nights, here’s what he’s said:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in misery.”

So the weasel Charles Logan shows up again. Not the guy I was wanting to have to watch some more.

Lennox’s plan to betray his aide didn’t surprise me. Now, the question is, who’s ultimately behind this assassination attempt?

Here’s a story about Shawn O’Hara, a Mississippi man who has filed as a candidate for eight statewide offices: lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, agriculture commissioner and insurance commissioner. He’s running for all of them at the same time.

O’Hara, 49, has run unsuccessfully in the past four gubernatorial races under various party labels. He also has run unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and House and for mayor of Hattiesburg.

Evidently O’Hara gets only 1-2 percent of the vote every time he runs, but he refuses to give up. So he’s either determined or delusional, or maybe a little bit of both.

Hat tip: Geno

Here’s an email I sent to Major League Baseball about their MLB.TV service:

I’m thinking about purchasing an MLB.TV package, but I’m skeptical about the quality. Does the purchase come with a money-back guarantee for a certain period of time? Meaning, if I try it out for a few days and am not happy with the quality, can I get a refund?

Pretty straightforward, no? I just got this response:

Dear Tim,

Thank you for sending your email.

I apologize for the difficulty experienced. Please call our Customer Support department at 1-866-800-1275 so we can improve your experience.

If you are calling internationally, please call (925)798-8100.

Thank you for taking the time to write!

Say what? How does that answer the question I asked?

So I send another email:

OK, let me try this again. I’m not having any difficulty, because I haven’t purchased anything yet. Please read my original email again and provide an appropriate response. Thank you.

I’m now awaiting a response.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

Conviction, or convenience?

Mike Mussina has 239 career wins with an ERA of 3.63. He’s fifth in career wins among active players. He has not won a Cy Young Award, but he’s a five-time All-Star and has six Gold Gloves.

Mike Mussina: HOF or not?

Discussed previously:

Pedro Martinez
Jim Edmonds
Fred McGriff
Juan Gonzalez

Looks like we have one opening left in our NL-only rotisserie league, and four openings left in our head-to-head mixed league.

If you’ve been thinking about playing and want in, please come and join us. Either post a comment here declaring your interest, or send me an email.

If you indicated that you wanted to participate in our NL-only rotisserie league, you should have received an invitation from me. If you didn’t, let me know.

I’m still waiting to hear back from two owners, so it’s possible we may have another opening or two.

Scott Gladin will be getting things set up for our mixed league. More info to come on that soon.