In the meantime

A Death in the Family

Skip Caray died in his sleep in his Atlanta home Sunday afternoon.  The bulletin on the news wire a couple hours ago was not unexpected, but it still stung.  It was like hearing a member of the family had passed, because in a sense, that is exactly what happened. For more than 30 years, we've been listening to Skip call Braves games, telling us the hometown of fans who come up with foul balls and announcing that once again the wave has broken out in the ballpark "for no apparent reason." 

We loved his nasally voice, his blunt assessments of people and events, and his Yoda-like syntax ("Safely reached in each of the last five games, has Yunel Escobar...")  We loved his feigned indignation with fans who would call up during his pregame show with yet another question about the Infield Fly Rule.

Skip has been in poor health for the last several years.  He almost died this past Spring.  His doctors called the family in and told them to say their goodbyes.  But Skip rallied and even returned to the broadcast booth.  He sounded weak but he still had his trademark sense of humor and sarcasm.

There were some baseball fans who didn't care for Skip, but he was always one of my favorites.  He and Pete Van Wieren, "The Professor" made an incredible team.  They helped us get through the dark days of the 1970s and 80s, when it was mighty tough to be a Braves fan.  Skip even famously participated (along with Ted Turner) in pre-game shenanigans like Ostrich races to try to bring fans to the ballpark, since they weren't coming for the baseball.  Then, Skip and Pete were the voice of the seemingly invincible Braves as they brought post season play to Atlanta for fourteen autumns in a row. 

None of us will ever forget Skip's call of Game 7 of the '92 NLCS.  The Braves trailed by one in the bottom of the ninth. Third-string catcher Francisco Cabrera was at the plate, David Justice was on third and the notoriously slow Sid Bream was on second.  Skip calmly noted the huge gap in the outfield.  "If he hits one out there, we'll be dancing in the streets," Skip said prophetically.

Cabrera did just that.  Justice scored easily from third, tying the game. Bream lumbered around the bases as Bonds - not known for his great arm - loaded up and threw to the plate.  Bond's throw was up the first base line, pulling Pirates catcher Mike LaValliere off the plate.  LaValliere lunged back attempting to apply the tag to the sliding Bream.  Skip's call was a classic:

Swung, line drive left field! One run is in! Here comes Bream! Here's the throw to the plate! He is...SAFE! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win!...Braves win!

Skip Caray was a part of an iconic baseball broadcasting dynasty that included his late father Harry Caray, his son Chip, also a Braves announcer, and son Josh, an announcer for the Rome Braves. 

The Caray family was known for their colorful announcing, not for their family values.  Harry was, by all accounts, a pretty sorry excuse for a father.  Skip learned about his parent's divorce from a Chicago newspaper as he walked to school.  Sadly, Skip followed in his father's footsteps not just behind the mic but in his parenting skills as well.  Later in life, it broke Skip's heart to realize that he had inflicted on his children the same pain that Harry had inflicted on him.  He cleaned up his act and did his best to make peace with his kids and with his father.

As far as Skip was concerned, the highlight of his career wasn't the exciting calls he made during the Braves amazing 14-year run.  The biggest thrill for him was the 1991 game that he got to call with Harry and Chip not long before Harry passed away.  It was the only time in baseball history that three generations of baseball announcers shared a booth together.

After Chip joined the Braves announcing team, there was something very special about hearing the banter in the booth between him and Skip, especially when they would dispense with the broadcast formalities and refer to each other as "Dad" or "Son."  This past Father's Day, Skip urged the audience to call their Dads that day if they were still blessed to be able to do so.  "Once they're gone, you would give anything in the world to be able to talk to them, but you can't," he said.

Skip suffered from the same medical dilemma that my took my father's life - the deadly combination of kidney and heart failure. Treating the heart failure is bad for the kidneys, treating the kidneys is bad for the heart.  About all you can do is try to maintain a balance of treatments while the patient gets weaker and weaker.  Just a few weeks ago, Skip said he had no regrets. "I've had a great life... it's been a great run."

That great run ended today, and for us it is the end of an era.  It is so hard to imagine Braves baseball without Skip Caray.  It is so sad to realize we will never hear him call a game again, never hear the banter between Skip and Pete.  We'll never again hear him explain the Infield Fly Rule... again.  We'll never hear him declare that a fan from Monroe, Georgia came up with the baseball hit into the stands.  We'll never again hear him declare that it's "free baseball in Atlanta" as a game goes to extra innings.

Farewell, old friend.  You will be greatly missed.

The Fall of the House that Ruth Built

As a general rule, we Americans are among the most historically astute people on earth.  If you don't believe me, just see how many historical markers you pass on the way home tonight.  I live near the site of several significant Civil War battles, so those things are everywhere around here.  (My favorite is one right around the corner from my house that says "TARLETON'S MOVEMENTS." I have never stopped to read it, but the title brings out my inner 5th Grader and makes me giggle.)

So can someone explain to me why it is in this land that so highly values the preservation of historic locations we are tearing down Yankee Stadium?  Oh, I know the new one will be 63% larger and it will carry over some of the look and feel of the original.  And I also understand that the Steinbrenner Family (don't get me started on this subject...) all but blackmailed New York into building them a new stadium.  And I know that the old ballpark was built in 1923 and so it is really, really old.

All of which begs the question in my mind... "So???"

We are talking about the House That Ruth Built here, folks.  This place has witnessed more history than most places that are on (and protected by) the National Register of Historic Places.  More iconic - almost mythic - figures have graced these grounds than most places that we deem as National Landmarks.  If it is true - and it is in this writer's never to be humble opinion - that Baseball is America's Pastime, and that baseball history is inextricably intertwined with American history, then the tearing down of Yankee Stadium is as unthinkable as tearing down Mt. Vernon or Monticello and replacing it with a more modern version that retained some of the original's architectural features.  You just don't tear down history.

For those of you who might say this is just a ballpark, consider, if you will, the following:

When Yankee Stadium was under construction in 1922, the immortal Babe Ruth said, "I'd give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in the first game in this new park."  In the third inning of the first game ever played there on April 18, 1923, The Bambino went deep and became the first person to hit a home run in the new park.

As the legendary 1927 Yankees were barreling toward 110 wins and a sweep of the Pirates in the '27 World Series, Babe Ruth did the unthinkable by hitting 60 home runs.  To put this in perspective, that was more home runs than any team hit that year.

On July 4, 1939, an ailing Lou Gehrig bid farewell before a packed house of adoring fans - most of whom openly wept at the thought of never seeing him play again - and told them that he considered himself to be "the luckiest man on the face of the earth."  As ALS took it's toll on him physically, Gehrig had first benched himself, then retired for the good of the team.  That day was proclaimed "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" and it marked the first time in history that a player's number was retired.  Two years later, Gehrig was dead at the age of 38.  (Click here to watch Gehrig's famous address)

After the tragic 1979 death of Yankee catcher and captain Thurman Munson in a plane crash, Bobby Murcer delivered a moving eulogy at the funeral in Canton, Ohio.  The stunned team flew back to the Bronx that evening for a game against Baltimore. The Yankees trailed the Orioles by four runs until Murcer hit a three run homer in the seventh and then the game winning hit in the ninth, delivering a win in honor of their fallen teammate.  After the game, Murcer wept in the arms of teammate Lou Piniella. He gave his bat to Munson's widow, Diana. To this day, Munson's locker in the clubhouse sits vacant.

It was here in July, 1983 that Billy Martin instigated the famous "pine tar bat" controversy.  After a home run by Kansas City's George Brett, Martin complained that the pine tar was too far up Martin's bat. Technically, he was right according to the rules, so the umpire called Brett out and the home run didn't count.  Brett went ballistic on a scale that was off the charts. He had to be restrained from hitting the ump. Eventually, league president Lee MacPhail overturned the ruling, the ninth inning was replayed and the Royals won 5-4.

Those who played or managed in Yankee Stadium are the best of the best of the best in the game: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson and many others.

And it's not just baseball history that has been made in this place: Did you know that it was in Yankee Stadium on November 10, 1928 that Notre Dame played Army and the Irish and Knute Rockne "won one for the Gipper"?  Or that here in 1938 Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling and in so doing effectively punched Adolph Hitler and his "Aryan Superiority" theory in the teeth?  Did you know that the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants for the NFL Championship in Yankee Stadium on December 23, 1958? A one-yard touchdown run in sudden-death overtime culminated the game that many consider the greatest in football history.

I must confess that I am far from a neutral commentator on this subject.  It was in Yankee Stadium that my father first passed on to me his passion for baseball.  I lived in New York the first eight years of my life. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of being at Yankee Stadium and seeing Berra, Mantle and Maris play in person.  I had a glove signed by my hero, Whitey Ford.

Later this summer I will make a pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium to attend one more game there, and this grown man will probably shed a tear or two over the flood of memories... but also for the loss of a place that is hallowed ground to those of us who love the game of baseball.

Not The Only Thing

There was a time when the term sportsmanship meant something.  There was a time when winning wasn't everything.  There was a time when young men and women idolized spots heroes as much for who they were as they did for what they did on the field, the course or the gridiron.

Over time, the idea of sports building character took a huge backseat to the idea of winning at all costs.  Maybe it started when Vince Lombardi famously said that winning wasn't the most important thing... it was the only thing.  Or maybe the legendary coach was only verbalizing what was already the norm.  Regardless of when we started down that slippery slope, there is no doubt it has snowballed in the decades since Lombardi first uttered those words.  Maybe it's the money.  Or maybe it's just the culture of winning at all costs, but today's athletes tend to be willing to sacrifice anything - including their health and their bodies - just to win.

Doping scandals have hit virtually every major sport.  The current holder of Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron's home run record reached that pinnacle through the blatant abuse of steroids and growth hormones, and then continued to lie about it, even in the face of eyewitness testimony. There is not a person on the planet who believes Barry Bond's denials.  To top it off, Bonds is, by all accounts a monumental jerk.

This "win at all costs" mentality has spread beyond sports into every area of our culture.  Corporate ethics have taken a back seat to the bottom line and spawned the Enron scandal, corporate raiders, and CEOs who decimate a company and then walk away with a $100 million golden parachute.  It has most certainly permeated our political process, bringing us candidates who will say or do anything to get elected (I will resist the impulse to name names, but she knows who she is).

Saddest of all, this overemphasis on the outcome has spoiled amateur athletics, down to the lowest level. Parents get into fistfights at their kid's Little League games, High school football players face relentless pressure to win, the concept of the student athlete is now a joke, and worst of all, this pressure to win at all costs results in dozens of deaths each year as young men and women take deadly drugs in a attempt to gain an edge over the competition.

Every now and then, a story comes along that restores your faith in humanity; a story that lets you know that the concept of sportsmanship, integrity and fair play have not vanished from our culture.  Such a story happened last week in Portland, Oregon.  The girls softball teams of Central Washington University and Western Oregon University were pitted against each other in the Great Northwest Conference playoffs.  With two on, Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky unloaded on a pitch and did something she had never done in either high school or college - she belted it over the center field fence.

As Tucholsky rounded first base, she missed the bag.  As she reversed course to touch first, Tucholsky collapsed in a heap with a devastating knee injury.  She crawled back to first, but could not stand.  Officials told her that if her Western Oregon teammates assisted her, she would be called out. Her only option, according to the rules, was to call in a pinch runner and reduce her home run to a single.

Then something amazing happened.

Central Washington's Mallory Holtman walked over to the umpire and asked if there was anything in the rules that prevented the opposing team from assisting her.  The flabbergasted umpire told her there was no rule against it.  So Holtman, who is the Great Northwest Conference's all time home run leader, and Central Washington shortstop Liz Wallace gently helped Tucholsky to her feet and then picked her up and carried her around the bases.  They stopped at each base, setting her down gently to allow her to touch the base with her good leg.

The stunned crowd suddenly realized what was happening.  By the time they reached home plate, both teams were in tears.  Most everyone in the stands was, too.

Holtman and Wallace didn't know that Tucholsky was a senior. They didn't know that this was her first-ever home run.  They just knew that she hit the ball over the fence and earned the home run.  As they rounded the bases, through pain, laughter and tears, Tucholsky looked at Holtman and Wallace and said, "Thank you very much." 

Mallory said, "You deserve it, you hit it over the fence."

The irony is that Tucholsky's home run was the difference in the game.  Western Oregon won 4-2 and Central Washington was eliminated from the playoffs.  Doing the right thing contributed to their losing.

The losing coach, Central Washington's Gary Frederick, could not have been prouder of his team.  The 14-year coaching veteran called the act of sportsmanship he witnessed "unbelievable."

Mallory Holtman didn't see what she and Liz Wallace did as anything heroic. They felt that anyone faced with the same situation would have responded the same.  Would that it were so.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

Tucholsky's knee injury ends her season and her college softball career.  She will graduate in a few weeks with a degree in business. But she will never forget the last play of her college career.  Neither will anyone else who was there. Of all the games those girls will ever play, they will remember this one.  The will remember how it felt to do the right thing. 

They will remember that at the end of the day, winning is not, in fact, the only thing.

Hope Springs Eternal

ST.LOUIS - It is a rabid baseball's fan's dream.  My room at the St. Louis Hilton at the Ballpark overlooks the new Busch Stadium.  It's a beautiful park, designed in the style of Camden Yards and Turner Field.  The Cards moved in here for the 2006 season.  The room itself is decorated with framed photos of Cardinal players of old like Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, and the 1934 Gashouse Gang, along with modern day icons like Lou Brock, Bruce Suter, Ozzie Smith and Mark McGwire.

There's something strange about looking at an empty baseball park covered with a layer of snow.  I am well aware that as I write this the Cards, along with the rest of their MLB counterparts, are in spring training. "Grapefruit League" preseason play is now underway, which means opening day is just a few short weeks away.  But opening the curtains in my room this morning and looking out at Busch Stadium, it feels like baseball season is a long way away.

There is a reason baseball is called America's National Pastime.  The baseball season is a 165 game marathon, not the quick sixteen-game sprint of the NFL.  The season stretches from Spring until Fall, providing ample opportunities for teams and individuals to prove what they are made of.

At the end of the day, baseball is a game about hope.  I was in college before I learned that the phrase "hope springs eternal in the human breast" was actually written by Alexander Pope. It was just quoted in Thayer's classic "Casey at the Bat." 

Hope springs eternal.  That phrase applies so perfectly to baseball.  Every year, no matter how dismal the year before might have been, diehard fans look at the season ahead and think, "This will be be the year!"  (Isn't that right, Cubbies fans?  Hehehehe...)

The 1991 Atlanta Braves went from worst to first.  The year before, they were in the cellar of the National League's Western Division, and they won it the following year.  It is precisely that kind of outcome that every baseball fan is looking for from their team at the start of each new year. 

Oh, there are those who would tell you that Braves fans were surprised by the dramatic turnaround in 1991, but those folks don't know baseball fans very well.  At the start of the 1991 season, we were confident that would be the year the club's fortunes would change.

But, I must hasten to add, we were also convinced of that at the start of the 1990 season and it didn't happen. Ditto 1989.  And 1988.  And 1987...  You get the picture.

As Christians we also embrace the concept of hope.  But hope in a biblical sense is different from the "hope that springs eternal" for baseball fans.  The hope I have that the Braves will win the World Series this year is not the same as the hope I have in Christ.  Hope in the baseball sense is - let's be honest here - little more than wishful thinking.  My hope in Christ, on the other hand, is a settled assurance.  It is a hope that does not disappoint.  (Romans 5:5)

The difference lies in what that hope is founded in.  My hopes for the Braves rest in the abilities of men... very gifted, very talented men, but men nonetheless.  They might get hurt, their bats might all grow cold, all the breaks might go against them.  That hope is far from a sure thing.

But as for my hope of heaven, that hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Say It Ain't So

There is a legendary (and possibly apocryphal) story that is forever a part of baseball lore. Heartbroken fans were told that their heroes, the 1919 Chicago White Sox were crooked.  They allegedly had thrown the World Series and made a huge profit from it.  When the trial of seven indicted players began in June of 1921, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson testified about his role in the "Black Sox" scandal.  As he was leaving the courtroom, Jackson encountered a group of small boys, baseball fans who were crushed by what they had been told.  According to the New York Times, one of the boys looked at Jackson with tears in his eyes and said, "Say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so."  Jackson is said to have replied, "Yes, boys, I'm afraid it is."

The Black Sox scandal still stands as the lowest point in baseball history, but the idiotic strike that canceled the 1994 season came close to inflicting equal damage to the game. One of the things that brought Major League Baseball back from the precipice was the 1998 home run duel between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  Then came the dual revelations that Sosa was using a illegal corked bat and he and McGwire both were taking anabolic steroids.

The use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (principally Human Growth Hormone) has been the worst-kept secret in sports for the last ten years.  Baseball players have been among the most notable offenders.  No one on the planet who has ever seen Barry Bond's rookie card and compared the guy in that picture to the brick house who allegedly broke Ruth and Aaron's records this past season ever doubted he was taking steroids. No one seriously believed any of the hundreds of denials he issued about it.  Ditto for McGuire, Sosa and Palmero.  All of them vehemently denied using steroids, and all of them subsequently admitted they had lied about it.

At the end of the day, today's release of the Mitchell Report didn't yield any real surprises.  Roger Clemens was probably hammered the hardest.  The seven-time Cy Young winner was singled out 82 times by name in the report. Amazingly, Clemens is still spouting the Baseball player's steroid denial mantra (the same one spouted earlier by Bonds, Sosa, McGwire and Palmero among many, many other).  Through his attorney, Clemens today denied any steroid use and expressed outrage and indignation that he was mentioned in the report at all (much less 82 times on eight pages).

In some ways, this is worse than the Black Sox scandal of 1919.  Shoeless Joe and his six other co-defendants were eventually acquitted, but the stain on them and the game remained.  In this case, countless numbers of high school athletes are believed to be abusing steroids because "the pros do it."  More than a few have lost their lives because of it.  No one died because the 1919 World Series was possibly fixed.  Kids have died and countless athletes have ruined their health because of the abuse of anabolic steroids.

The Mitchell Report blames not only the players and the "trainers" that supplied them, but also said that Commissioner Bud Selig was culpable because he did not act soon enough or firmly enough.  Mitchell also decried the atmosphere that existed in Baseball that made athletes feel they had to use performance enhancers or lose their jobs (and tens of millions of dollars) to someone who was.

Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the player's association and players -- shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era. There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.

Selig held his own news conference a couple hours after Mitchell's, saying "If there were problems, I wanted them revealed. If there were individuals who engaged in wrongdoing, I wanted those facts to come to light. If there were recommendations that would improve our drug testing program, I wanted to hear them."

"His report is a call to action. And I will act," the Commissioner said.

One of those mentioned in the report was Paul Byrd. This also was not a surprise, since word came out after his great performance in the 2007 World Series that he had used HGH.  While HGH was not a banned substance at the time he used it, he knew fundamentally it wasn't right. He answered questions honestly and forthrightly in October.  Paul is a great guy and a sincere follower of Christ.  I coached Upward Basketball with him in Alpharetta, and my wife taught his kids music at school.  I knew him when he was playing for Kansas City.  We were all thrilled when he came back to the Braves in 2004.  I'm sorry he got caught up in this.  He's no Barry Bonds.  He has his head on straight morally, spiritually and financially.  Being a big league star never went to his head.

The early consensus just hours after the report was released was that the records in question will stand (albeit possibly with asterisks beside them) but that the scandal may cost the implicated superstars a trip to Cooperstown.  They may very well join the ranks of those like Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose who should be there but won't be because of what they did off the field.

But the most damage could be to baseball itself. A myriad of current and former stars are now implicated in this scandal and all of their accomplishments on the field must be considered ill-gotten gains at best and invalid at worst.  Bonds, the current single season and all-time home run record holder is under a cloud of suspicion, not to mention a federal indictment.

Will the game ever be the same again?

Read the CNN article on the Mitchell Report here. 

Download the Mitchell Report in PDF format here.

This n' That About This n' That...

No Run Newt

I had this really insightful post 90% completed on why Newt Gingrich should not run for President.  Then yesterday Newt inconveniently took my advice before it was even offered rendering the post about as timely as a discussion on the merits of Windows ME.  For what it's worth, here is the gist of my now-useless argument: Like Jimmy Carter, Newt Gingrich has been much more effective and useful since he left office than he was while in office.  The former speaker has done a great job of reaching across the aisle to get both sides to stop posturing and yelling at each other long enough to think strategically about solutions to our current problems.  It would be a real shame for him to leave that behind to go back to being a partisan political hack.  Plus his negatives are out the wazoo.  Good call, Mr. Speaker.

Millions Flock to Jesus' Defense... Well, OK, Thousands So Far

The good folks at The Miracle Theatre in Pigeon Forge are just not going to take a bad TV actress dissing Jesus sitting down.  (See Kathy Griffin and Jesus) So they purchased a full page USA Today ad ($90,000) in an effort to get one million Christians to sign their "Enough is Enough, Stand Up for Christ" petition.  So far they have 65,000 of their "One Million Voices for Christ."  And from their press release they are pretty proud of that.  Someone needs to explain to these Theatre majors that 65,000 is only 6.5% of 1 million.  That's like expecting 1,000 people for a concert and only 65 show up. 

I find it strange that their petition is not addressed to Kathy Griffin or even "Dear Low Lifes in Hollywood."  It is addressed to the American people and declares that they should not mock the name of Jesus or slander any of His followers.  If you simply must sign the petition and scream "Enough is Enough" at the "American People" click here.  But please don't.

Braves Miss Playoffs Again But Season is Saved By Monumental Mets Meltdown

I am sorely disappointed that the Braves season is over again this year in September, not October.  But my heart was strangely warmed by the record-breaking (worst in MLB history!) crash and burn by the team we affectionately refer to as "Those Scum Sucking Mets."  They were in first place by seven games the second week in September, but they won't be going to the playoffs.  This is just too sweet for words.

Q: Is it true the Mets are leaving New York and moving to the Phillipines?
A: Yes.
Q: What will they be called there?
A: The Manilla Folders!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I crack me up.

End of An Era

Yesterday was the last Braves game that will be broadcast on TBS.  For the last 30 years, this partnership made the Braves America's Team and turned a laughable, pathetic excuse for a UHF TV station into the first "Superstation" a broadcasting dynasty that also spawned the first 24 hour news channel.

Yes, the geniuses at Turner Broadcasting have opted to go with such laugh-packed winners as "The Bill Engval Show," "House of Payne" and "My Guys" and to turn their backs on the programming that got them where they are.  TBS's motto is "Very Funny" but none of the aforementioned programs are even remotely funny.  Sure, the reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends are funny, but they have already run through all available episodes several times now.  Skip Caray hit the nail on the head when he commented on TBS not asking him to be a part of the postseason announcing crew. "I'm mad at myself for thinking there was any loyalty left in this business. I should have known better."

For what it's worth, I choose to not watch TBS in the future.  No big sacrifice here, their programming reeks.  You guys not only have no loyalty, you have no class.

You should have heeded the words of that great philosopher Jimmy Dean and "danced with the one what brung you."

Vick: "I Need To Grow Up"

I watched Michael Vick's apology yesterday.  I have to admit I was fully prepared to find it shallow, self-serving and made out of expedience.  I also thought it would be a prepared, carefully lawyer-crafted statement.

My first surprise was that Vick didn't read from a prepared text, but chose to "take this opportunity just to speak from the heart."

First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that — that I've done and that I have allowed to happen. I want to personally apologize to commissioner Goodell, Arthur Blank, coach Bobby Petrino, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, you know, for our — for our previous discussions that we had. And I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least.

I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and, you know, what I did was, what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up.

I totally ask for forgiveness and understanding as I move forward to bettering Michael Vick the person, not the football player.

I take full responsibility for my actions. For one second will I sit right here — not for one second will I sit right here and point the finger and try to blame anybody else for my actions or what I've done.

I'm totally responsible, and those things just didn't have to happen. I feel like we all make mistakes. It's just I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And you know, those things, you know, just can't happen.

In the most controversial section of his remarks, Vick said that though this situation he had come to faith in Christ and found forgiveness:

Through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that's the right thing to do as of right now...I accepted responsibility for my actions of what I did and now I have to pay the consequences for it. But in a sense, I think it will help, you know, me as a person. I got a lot to think about in the next year or so.

All in all I thought Vick came across as sincere.  Around the Riley family dinner table tonight, mine was most definitely the minority view.  Everyone else saw it as a lame attempt to salvage his reputation and that he hit all of the talking points he was told to by his handlers.

It appears more of the pundits agree with my wife and kids than see it as I did.  They also found his apology too little, too late and lacking sincerity.

At the end of the day, that is not for me to judge.  Vick said today he had found Jesus, and that makes him my brother in Christ.  If he did indeed turn his life over to Christ through this tragic situation, that will be the best call he has ever made in his life.  I hope he has the opportunity to grow in faith and understanding over the next few years and that he does indeed redeem himself.  He's certainly got a lot of redeeming to do, but Mike Vick is a young man and can still have a great impact for good.

"Once again, I offer my deepest apologies to everyone," Vick said. "And I will redeem myself. I have to."

Click here to view Vick's apology.  Full text of the apology here.

Bravo, Roger Goodell

On Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wasted no time in lowering the boom on the league's biggest embarrassment and PR nightmare, Michael Vick.  Before the ink was dry on his plea agreement, Goodell suspended the soon-to-be convicted felon indefinitely.  The move means that for the time being, Vick's football career is over and the Falcons can begin proceedings to recover some or all of the 22 million dollar signing bonus they paid him in 2004.

As mentioned in an earlier post on this topic, I am at best a fair-weather football fan.  But I really like what I see from the NFL's top dog (no pun intended) so far.  Since taking over the post about a year ago, Goodell has shown that he is a worthy successor to Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue.  In recent years, bad behavior by pro athletes has increased dramatically, and the NFL has certainly had it's fair share of bad press from it.  Goodell has shown that he is committed to raising the bar and taking action to punish those whose behavior sullies the league's image.

In April, Goodell suspended "Pacman" Jones for the entire 2007 season and Chris Henry and "Tank" Johnson for half of the season under the new Personal Conduct Policy.  Now he has taken decisive action against Vick before he even officially enters his guilty plea to federal charges related to dogfighting, gambling and cruelty to animals.

The Commissioner didn't mince words, either.

"You have engaged in conduct detrimental to the welfare of the NFL and have violated the league's personal conduct policy," Goodell told Vick in a letter after meeting in New York with Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay.

"You are now justifiably facing consequences for the decisions you made and the conduct in which you engaged. Your career, freedom and public standing are now in the most serious jeopardy," Goodell wrote. "I hope that you will be able to learn from this difficult experience and emerge from it better prepared to act responsibly and to make the kinds of choices that are expected of a conscientious and law abiding citizen."

Major kudos to Roger Goodell for doing the right thing. 

Read the story from SI here.  Read Commissioner Goodell's letter to Michael Vick here (PDF).

Remembering Jackie Robinson

For most Americans, April 15 is the infamous day by which each year we must "render unto Caesar."  But in the world of baseball, this date marks a turning point in the sport.

On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier in major league baseball.  Robinson was no "token."  He is in Cooperstown not because of the color of his skin, but for the quality of his playing between the lines.  Dodgers manager Clay Hooper told owner Branch Rickie he would rather die than manage a black man.  Then he saw Jackie Robinson play and he became color blind.  Robinson was named Rookie of the Year in 1947. Today the Rookie of the Year award in Major League Baseball bears Jackie Robinson's name.  The Dodgers went to the World Series that year but lost to the Yankees.  But Robinson was now the talk of the town in New York, just months after having to deal with hate mail and death threats.

He beat out the immortal Stan Musial to become the league's MVP in 1949, his greatest year ever.

Robinson is remembered for one of the most dazzling and outrageous plays in the history of the game - stealing home in the 1955 World Series. By 1955, Jackie was in the twilight of his career.  It happened in the 8th inning of Game One with the Dodgers trailing the Yankees 6 to 4.  The Dodgers went on to win the game and the series. That feat is immortalized on the plaque given to the Rookie of the Year each year.

Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, and he died in 1972.  He grew somewhat hard and embittered in his later years, discouraged about the slow progress blacks were making in baseball.  Young black activists viewed him at the time as an Uncle Tom.  It wasn't until the 50th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier that a new generation of fans learned to appreciate the contributions of Jackie Robinson.  Today, on the 60th anniversary, dozens of players on MLB teams sported the permanently retired number 42.

Syndicated columnist George Will frequently writes about how the baseball mirrors life and society.  Sixty years ago today, the game of baseball, like the country it originated in, changed forever because of the character and actions of a remarkable hero. 

It's That Season Again

Regular readers of this blog know that I am an unapologetic baseball fan and a rabid fan of the REAL America's Team, the Atlanta Braves.  Today might be the final game of the Final Four (in case you're interested, I am also a huge fan of whoever is playing the Florida Gators in anything, so I'm pulling for Ohio State) and we've also experienced the thrilling cliffhanger of Donald Trump and Vince McMahon's battle of the bad hair billionaires on Wrestlemania (You know, I may be cynical, but I'm beginning to think that this professional wrestling thing may not be on the up and up).

But there was really only one story in the world of sports today in my never to be humble opinion... Today was Opening Day for the 2007-2008 Major League Baseball Season!

The Braves won their away opener in Philly, and it was a beaut.  If this is an indication how this season is going to go, it is going to be a wild ride.  This one had it all - great pitching, extra innings and a hero who was a hero twice.  Edgar Renteria homered in the eighth to tie the game and then won the game with a two-run blast in the tenth.  Brian McCann also delivered a two-run homer in the fourth inning and while Smoltz didn't get the win, he avoided the all-too-frequent opening day loss.

All in all a great way to start the season.  Go get 'em boys!

BOOM boom boom boom BOOM boom boom boom...