Beautiful Tiger Field...

Last weekend was opening weekend for Clemson baseball and I was able to make it to Clemson for the Saturday game.  It was wonderful, I sat down in the sun with a friend from college and his son (they still live in Clemson along with my friend's wife and their two daughters), and I took in a great baseball game.

Over the years, Clemson continues to make improvements to Beautiful Tiger Field (there is some controversy over the name, but suffice it to say... I'm calling it Beautiful Tiger Field unless something drastic happens) each year.  This year, they have added seats behind the right field and right centerfield fence with plans to add more along the left and left centerfield fence (my one complaint with them is they only do construction right before the season and just after it starts, lol).  Anyway, it's looking great and I wish I remembered my camera before I got halfway there so I could post some pics.  I'll be back down there and bring back some pics.

Hope this wasn't too boring for you. Thanks for hanging in there.

Weight loss update...

This week I was able to add back in fruits and whole grain carbs, bringing the diet to something I could really live and less like a restrictive diet.  I also ramped up the exercise a bit.  After discovering that I will not be able to run for very long without severe shin splints... I did work out 4 times this week and made friends with the elliptical machine again with plans to re-introduce myself to spinning class, swimming (I admit I have to lose a little weight to fit into the bathing suit) and maybe even the occasional session on the rowing machine...

Anyway, I lost 2 pounds this week.  Not sure how much more I would have lost had I not a miscalculation that the wrap at Chick-Fil-A was high in carbs but I needed a quick lunch and got a chicken caesar wrap with ranch dressing and thought it would be fine to eat the wrap too without emptying out the contents.  I checked the nutritional info later and it was not horrible but I would have been better served to just eat the filling.  Doubt it made a huge difference, though.

Anyway, I have now lost a total of 18 pounds for the year.  I cannot really see it in the mirror, but I can feel it in my clothes and can feel it in my wrists and collarbones (when you're fat you find anything that might show signs of weight loss :^) ).  So, halfway to my original goal, we'll keep plugging along.

Do NOT sneak into a Jim Calhoun press conference

and try to badger him into feeling guilty for the mismanagement of the state budget.  This reporter snuck into the press conference after a basketball game on Saturday and badgered the coach about his high salary.  Finally, Calhoun reminded (actually informed as the guy had done no research) him of how much money the basketball team made that was turned over to the state run university.  But I'm sure that for this seemingly liberal, border line socialist reporter, it was not enough.  How dare a man earn the money that he signed a contract to receive while others are spending more than they have and in need?

Maybe the state of Connecticut should do what rational people across the country do... set a budget and do not exceed that budget.  And if they do, then cut back in spending to make up the deficit.

Scandal in baseball!!!???

This may be old news, so forgive me if it is, but I just found out that a group of players broke the rules of baseball and also broke the laws of this country.  Evidence was shown to the baseball commissioner, he was convinced of their guilt, but was in a quandary.  He was entrusted with the welfare of the game and the game had just come through a major PR disaster and scandal that threatened the existence of the game at the professional level.  A few intriguing seasons had won fans back and the game was getting back on its feet.  He should have banned these players from the game.  Precedent had been set, but if he did so, would it drive a stake in the heart of the game and kill it forever?  What would you do?  What did he do?  Trust the game to endure while purging himself of the evildoers?  Cover it up and hope nobody would ever find out?  He covered it up.  He felt the damage that would be done to the game with another scandal was worse than allowing these players to remain in the game.

What was this scandal?  Who was this commissioner?  Steroids and Bud Selig??

No, it was throwing games for gamblers and the commissioner was Kennesaw "Mountain" Landis.  In the 1920s, on the heels of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal, a group of players were caught throwing games to get money from gamblers.  Landis, the man who banned 8 players for life (including Buck Weaver, who had nothing to do with the scandal, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who played better than anybody and there is controversy as to whether he was part of the scandal or was duped into signing a confession that he, as an illiterate man, couldn't read and was not allowed to get his wife to read to him) for conspiracy to throw games, covered up this incident because he feared the game couldn't take another hit.

What's my point? Selig intentionally covered up steroids positive tests?  No.  Selig is without blame?  No.  Selig is half the commissioner Landis was?  Certainly not.  My point is that this steroid issue, while wrong and needs to be taken care of, is not the first hit to MLB and its popularity.  At the turn of the century (1900s), brawls in the stands and public drunkenness led many to call for the banning of pro baseball, the aforementioned 1919 issue, the strike of 1981 was going to kill baseball, the strike of 1994 was the end of it and now this is going to be the end of it.  Sure, some people leave after each scandal, but baseball attendance is up each year at ballparks.  People point to empty seats and say nobody is coming and point to full stadiums at NFL games as proof people aren't going to games.  Let's look at that really quick... for the Patriots to sell out every game, they have to sell for 11 games max, counting playoffs. For the Red Sox (same city), there are 92 games possibly played in Fenway.  It's a different animal and half empty seats at a Tuesday evening baseball game can't be compared to a Sunday afternoon football game.  Also, I don't want to try to convert anybody into a baseball fan, if you want me to try that, I need to take you to a game to experience it.  But if you don't like it, that's cool, we're all different people.

Also, while I'm thinking about it... PUT SHOELESS JOE IN THE HALL OF FAME!!!! 

Why do I love baseball?

I was asked this question on Facebook and this is my response.

Some reasons I love baseball...  

1. I fell in love with baseball at a very young age, can remember when our family got cable and we got it for one reason... to watch Atlanta Braves baseball on TBS (which pretty much carried all 162 games back then). I can still hear Pete Van Weiren and Ernie Johnson (Sr. not Jr who now does basketball on TNT I discovered). Skip Caray also worked with another guy I can't remember right now. One pair would do TV the first half of the game and the other radio, then they would switch. We would spend summer days doing yard work or at the ballpark for little league (actually it was Dixie Youth baseball, we creamed the Little League all star team when we played them one year - just my season team not an all star team).  

2. I played organized baseball through high school and coached two years of summer ball while in college and two years of high school ball while in seminary. Wish I were good enough to make a living coaching and look forward to coaching my child's baseball or softball team if that ever happens.  

3. The pace is perfect for relaxing and talking with friends, old and new while not missing the action. Spent the afternoon at a Clemson baseball game today and while we are watching a masterful pitching performance from Clemson's freshman pitcher, we talked about things from the spiritual to the political to family and personal life and of course, a LOT of joking. It was a reunion of sorts as, separated by 2.5 hours and both having busy lives, we hadn't really talked deeply since last season.  

4. Baseball offers so many opportunities for strategy, tension, excitement, jubilation and sadness.  

5. There is no clock in baseball. If you get the lead, you still have to get 27 outs, you can't run out the clock.  

6. It is incredibly hard to play. The skill set required is possibly the toughest in all of sports (not the most physical game nor the one requiring the best athletes, just pure skill to hit a baseball or pitch it such that they can't hit it). I respect that. It has been said that every kid starts off playing baseball, they turn to other sports when they realize they do not have the necessary skill set to succeed in baseball. I know this is not always the case, but I think there is a lot of truth in this.  

I could go on, but I won't, unless you want me to...

If you don't have money...

don't buy it.  The advice of not spending money you do not have just seems needed in this country right now...

http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php

Wow...

Okay, I have been told more than once the importance, when trying to lose weight, of weighing yourself on the same scale at the same time of day (in the morning before eating anything, if possible) in order to get an accurate assessment of what you weigh due to the body fluctuating in weight throughout the day.  The weighing before you eat makes sense, however, I did not truly believe the day of the week thing until this weekend.

I felt like I had lost some weight and was just curious on Friday, so I hopped on the scale when I woke up Friday morning... same weight as I had been the previous Monday.  Hmmm.  Then, knowing that some friends were tracking my weight loss with me and might ask on Sunday, I weighed Sunday morning and had lost 2 pounds since Friday.  Not bad for 6 days, confusing to think I had lost 2 pounds in 2 days, but that gave me 13 pounds for the year and I was happy.

But then I weighed this morning on my regular time and day... and I have lost 5 pounds since January 1.  So, from now on... I'm just weighing on Monday mornings.  I'm pretty happy today and encouraged to run more and work out more and continue sticking to the diet.  Haven't cheated yet and can now have FRUIT.  

So, year to date... I am down 16 pounds to 266 and halfway to my goal of 32 pounds for the year.  I know that weight loss slows as you lose more weight (especially on South Beach as I can now introduce natural carbs back into my diet), but I suppose I will be re-evaluating my goal if I reach the 32 pound loss mark... maybe go for 10 pounds at a time until I get to a comfortable weight for me and my health and lifestyle.

Middle school basketball

Went to a middle school basketball game in Gastonia today.  No, I wasn't really bored, no I didn't get lost.  I have been volunteering with the youth ministry at church for a while now and an 8th grader there plays for this team (and is really pretty good).  I believe it is important in ministry, and especially youth ministry, to invest in the lives of the people.  I think you can see this clearly in the ministry of Jesus.  He does not preach and teach on Saturday and then go do his thing the rest of the week.  He is always out in the midst of the people, sharing life with them and ministering to them where they are (but not leaving them there, rather pointing them to God through himself).  I had been trying to go to a game for a month but was out of town every week for the whole last month and this was there last game of the season, so, I found myself in Gastonia tonight.  

I do not really like basketball.  I understand that all sports are influenced by officials, but it just seems like basketball is influenced more than the other major sports.  And the rules are open to such a wide interpretation (is traveling even a violation in NBA or college basketball anymore?) and seem to be applied in a very arbitrary manner.  I'm not talking about one team getting all the calls, it seems like a player from team A can touch a player from team B one time and it is not called, same thing a few minutes later and it is a foul.   Oh well, nobody really cares much what I think about basketball (and I know officials make bad calls in baseball and football, but it seems like players have a better chance of overcoming a bad call there in the same series or at bat), I just wanted to get that out there.

Tonight was not a good night for the good guys, they lost by one when a last second shot missed.  The guy I went to watch had an off night as nothing would drop for him (or the rest of his team), it seemed.  He had about 12 points (total team offense was around 33 points) but so many shots went in and out.  Oh well, some days you eat the bear, some days, the bear... he eats you.

Another good thing about tonight though, was my friend that is the assistant coach got to coach the team as the head coach was out sick.  I also think it is important to share in the lives of your friends, but that is often easier than sharing in the lives of a middle schooler.

A-Rod

I have not been keeping up completely with the A-Rod "steroid" confession (actually only admits to using a "banned substance"), I was at the Y working out and fighting back tears watching "Little People, Big World" (the one where Mike dies).  Strong men also cry, Mr. Lebowski, strong men also cry.  Anyway, apparently he did the right thing in confessing, then moved into making excuses like he wanted to prove he was worth the ginormous contract Texas gave him (is anybody worth that kind of money?), it was hot in Texas (hotter for him than other players?), it was a different time when many were doing it (a. does that make it right? and b. about 1200 players were tested in 2003 and 104 tested positive - since when did 8% become such a huge number that he "got swept up in it"?), and attacking the reporter who broke the story that he has admitted was true.

Alex... you did the right thing in confessing.  Both from a "moral" standpoint (no point heaping lies on top of wrongs, once you've made an error - confess and seek to turn from it and move in the right direction) and from a professional standpoint (American sports fans, right or wrong, are VERY forgiving and will forgive an athlete's indiscretions if they confess).  Now, do yourself a favor and stop making accusations and blaming others.

2009 Goals Update

As you may know, I set some goals for myself at the beginning of the year in an effort to become more healthy.  I just want to relist those goals and update you on the progress so far.

1.  Read through the Bible this year - so far, so good.  I am up to date and enjoying it thoroughly.  Concurrently, I am also up to date in my daily reading of Calvin's Institutes.  It is good to get back into some deeper theology in my reading.

2.  Lose 32 pounds - Well, so far, I have lost 11 pounds this year.  I have a renewed sense of purpose as I no longer see this as a vague attempt to "get healthy" but a necessary process to try to avoid some of the health issues related to weight (diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, etc.) that are very prevalent on both sides of my family.  Losing weight to live is easier than losing weight to look better...

3.  Go on at least 12 hikes - I have been hiking once this year.  It was a short hike due to my hiking boots not really fitting anymore because of the orthotics I got to help with my lower leg issues, but it was a hike nonetheless in Uwharrie National Forest.  So, I guess you could say I am still on pace for this one.

4.  Run a 5K race by the end of the year - I am in training for this.  I have started the "Couch to 5K" training plan I found at Cool Running's website, not the movie but a website with articles and advice about running,  (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml) .  Yesterday was day one of the 2 month plan and things went well with no real lower leg pain.  I went to the Harris Y and ran on their dirt track (much better than concrete for running).  It isn't much, but it is a start.

5.  Visit some minor league ballparks - Obviously, this hasn't started yet since baseball season hasn't started, but I have recruited a travel partner.  So, looking good.

Progress...

Wonderful weather for a February today in Charlotte.  Went for a walk in my new shoes (which are now officially mine since I wore them outside and not on the treadmill, meaning I cannot return them as there is definitely sign of wear on them). Ended up walking on the greenway for an hour at a decent pace (would have had to jog to go faster) and didn't end up with shin splints.  So that's some progress.  

Going to start running on a very modest plan using this "Couch to 5K Training Plan" I have to gradually add running back into my life.  The first few weeks, there is not much to it other than about 20 minutes of walking.  But, while I can handle more from a cardiovascular standpoint, I want to make sure I take time with getting my muscles back into shape.

Well, it's a start.

I went to the Y tonight and tried out my new shoes on the treadmill.  The verdict... 35 minutes with no shin splints.  Even mixed in a 5 minute run (more like a jog).  There was some discomfort in my right lower leg, but it never went beyond that and running for the first time in many months will probably lead to that.  So, it's not great but it is a start.

Also, to get more serious about this get healthy thing, I started South Beach diet again today.  The first two weeks are the worst as they don't allow fruit during this time.  Got to make it through this and I know I can handle the next phase.  I can't allow myself any cheats as I can't cheat a little, it's all or nothing for me.  But, I understand the health issues in my family and the risk of all of them is lessened by losing weight.  I don't want diabetes, or high blood pressure or high cholesterol or a heart attack.  So, I have my motivation, just have to remember it.  I'll keep you posted with weekly updates.  I weighed 276 pounds this morning.