Arraez goes to the Phils; Nats are Sliding

    The trade deadline came and went. I check on today's game with my Nationals of DC agains the Philadephia Phillies, a team that has three former Nationals that I (and even my son) have liked and followed: Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber. They are doing all right as a team. The Nationals have beeing doing okay, but lately got a four game sweep by the Braves, and are now shuffling. They gave up a decent Luis Garcia to the Yankees for some pitching prospects.

    I have admired Luis Arraez for the years that he has been an outstanding hitter in the major leagues. A few years ago I thought he had a chance to hit .400. This has been unheard of and not been accomplished since Ted Williams, the Splendid Splitter, way back in 1940. Only a few players have come remotely close to hitting that well. Perhaps Wade Boggs a few times with the Red Sox, and Tony Gwynn with the San Diego Padres. In the 1970s George Brett nade it to .400 in July. But no, things did not stay that way.

    Who can touch Ted Williams these many decades later? No one. 

    But maybe Luis Arraez. That would be cool. Call me the eternal kid at heart, but I would like a hitter to do it. And, for many years now, I would like Bryce Harper or Juan Soto to march up the home run list and beat out the all time home run hitters. Time will tell. Maybe Kyle Schwarber, a former Indiana alum, the way he crushes it. To catch Albert Pujols, or Alex Rodriguez, or Babe Ruth, or Hank Aaron, or even the best (and potentially worst), of all time, Barry Bonds.

    But anyway... 

    It is a team game, and the Nationals are starting a disappointing slide. My American league team White Sox are doing all right.

    Why do I or anyone else even care about baseball, and home runs, and batting averages?

    They are distractions, and perhaps do not count as the important things like my career, or my son on a mission for the Lord going to amazing places and learning from and teaching wonderful people in a far off place, or my daughter dealing with the sickness and mortality of her best friend, or romantic interest. Or my other children, or so many other things that I should care about. 

    But, baseball is a constant, and kind of poignant and beautiful, so I care, still. Even though I know that I should put more time and attention into other great things, perhaps that have more import in the long run.

    Sure.

    But here we are.

    I blog this, and I blog it. Blog on. As I have said many times in the past.

Pictures from the Old World. Made in 1972. Released in 1988.

    I told a group of some 30 people it was my favorite film, but I could not remember its name.

    I have re-watched it; now I am not sure. I have lots of favorite films. Each one has its virtues.

    None are perfect.

    What did this movie bring?

    I will have to think and write more about it.

 The Braves and the Big Spenders - They Beat the Little Guys. Can We All Win?

    In sports, like many things in life, there can only be one winner at the end. But can we all be winners by participating? When we lose do we fall inextricably behind? Or, can those "at the bottom" still succeed, too? I would hope that we can all succeed, even if we do not all make the most money or are not the fastest or smartest or strongest.

    Take the Braves. Or the Dodgers. They rack up a ton (tons and tons) of revenue and the smaller market teams struggle to have the right competition to make it all the way. What about the Mets? They have spent a lot, more than most, but are still losing. And the Yankees, among the biggest spenders, have not won the World Series since 2009. Many young Yankees fans have never seen them win it all in October.

    Hard to imagine. Killer money and power does not always translate to winning it all.

    But they are still winners.

    They monetize and succeed.

    What about computers and Yuval Hariri? He says us humans may be eked out.

    Hmmm....

    More for later.

    Oh, last thought: I wish the Nats could beat the Braves.

AI Gemini in August

 Getting Older, Looking Back, and Trusting the Process

I am getting older all the time. There is no point in hiding from it, and honestly, I am just incredibly fortunate to have made it thus far in one piece. If you’ve spent any time reading my thoughts here on Clinch It Sooner or Later, you already know I don’t write anything that big or great. I just write stuff that could be interesting to some, usually born from a random thought I had while raking leaves or thinking about the different lives I’ve lived.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the paths we take. Looking back, my own journey looks less like a straight line and more like a map drawn by someone who couldn't quite decide where they wanted to go. I’ve worn a lot of different hats over the years. I spent time working as a Spanish linguist for the DEA, translating and analyzing things that felt incredibly heavy at the time. I've stood around on movie sets as a background extra, waiting hours just to be a face in a crowd. I've handed keys across the front desk for the local government, subbed in classrooms for Loudoun County Public Schools, and, if we’re going way back, shoved snow, delivered newspapers, and served burgers at G.D. Ritzy's.

At the time, each of those jobs felt like its own distinct world. When you're standing out in the cold with a snow shovel, you aren't exactly thinking about intelligence analysis. But looking at it all now from the vantage point of getting older, I see how every little piece fits together. God shows truth in the scriptures, and one thing that always stays with me is that there is a season and a purpose for everything under heaven. Every odd job, every long shift, and every strange transition was teaching me patience, resilience, and perspective.

We tend to rush through life trying to "clinch" our goals right away. We want the perfect career, the final answer, and absolute certainty by tomorrow morning. But life usually doesn't work on our timeline. Some things you clinch sooner; some things you clinch later. The timing isn't up to us, and that's probably a good thing.

If you're currently in a season where you feel a bit scattered—maybe you're working a job that doesn't feel like your "true calling," or you're just trying to figure out what comes next—don't lose heart. Keep doing the honest work, look for the truth in the quiet moments, and trust that you are exactly where you need to be right now.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling from an old guy for one day. The leaves in the yard aren't going to rake themselves, and I've got some reading to catch up on.

Be blessed, and thanks for stopping by.

— Edward/Eduardo

 Artificial Intelligence and Me. And You. And Us.

    I was asking Google Gemini about me today. Like how I would write a blog post. The first response was pretty spot on; I read it to my daughter-- she laughed with me and also was surprised of disturbed at how much the AI can know of me.

    I have published a  lot. Maybe 3,000 pages? Maybe more.

    I never thought of how many pages I had written until now. Today, Saturday. Some of my first two Fox sports blogs were wiped out. Maybe 100 pages? Maybe more. My own personal blogicide. 2006 to 2009. And then... maybe the Wayback Machine can help.

    Yuval Hariri thinks there is a Silicon Wall, my oldest daughter says. She read this book.

    AI Gemini got confused and mixed me with my dad, but more consistently has me as some business guy with strong opinions about being decisive and making deals. Wrong. Not me.

    I am not Tony Schwarz and definitely not Donald Trump. No arts of the deals with me.

    I have read more anti-Trump books than pro. That before I lost my government job wile thousands lost their in the DOGE months. A dark winter.

    I was struggling, and perhaps my partner. Trying to figure some things out.

    Growing pains. Living and learning.

    Today we helped a brother move some belongs from one storage unit to another. He has much more at his apartment; we are trying to figure out how to fix things.

    That apartment complex has lower income folks. I have known a few over the years.

    What about AI? Will it kill us all? Sometimes it wants to.

    Terrible. Our own technological Stalins and Hitlers. Who needs that?

    Yikes.

    We shall see how it progresses. Perhaps it will digress. 

    AI and me. And you, fair reader. What will become of you?

    I asked my daughter's boyfriend some questions. This is good.

    Get to spend some time with the kids.

    Nice.

 My Favorite Champions in Sports of All Time

    1. Indiana Hoosiers of basketball, 1987

    2. Brigham Young Cougars of football, 1984

    3. Indiana Hoosiers of football, 2025-26

    4. Washington Nationals, 2019 World Series

    5. Michael Chang, French Open in tennis, 1989

    6. Indiana Hoosiers of basketball, 1981

    7. Indiana Hoosiers of basketball, 1976

    8. Indiana University of soccer, 2003

    9. Indiana University of soccer, 2012

    10. Indiana University of soccer, 1988

    12. Boston Red Sox, World Series 2004

    13. Chicago Cubs, World Series, 2016

    14. Detroit Pistons, NBA 1989

    15. Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA, 2017

    16. New York Yankees, World Series 1996

    There have been other teams that relieved me greatly and that I celebrated. Especially in college basketball, but across the sports.

    1. Villanova over Georgetown, 1985 NCAA men

    2. Arizona over Kentucky, 1997 NCAA men

    3. Villanova over North Carolina, 2015 men

    4. New York Giants over New England, NFL circa 2007

    There have been others, in football, like Texas over USC in football in 2005, and baseball, and basketball and tennis. Soccer, too. I follow college more. The Olympics. and World Cup, and what else?

    Yeah.

    'Nuff said.

    5. Arizona Diamondbacks, World Series 2001

    11. Chicago White Sox, 2005

    

1. Artemidoris (Julius Caesar), English. 1.5 billion

 1. Artemidoris (Julius Caesar), English. 1.5 billion native speakers

    The largest language in the world in 2026, it is the Shakespearean giant and widespread global lingua franca. Many of us have been born and raised in it, immersed by many former colonies where the sun never set on the vast British empire. Based on wealth and power, wars fought and trade agreements and commerce enforced, Hollywood and musical magic crossing the airwaves in all directions.

    This is the biggest ocean on the planet, and it grows every day. Indians speak it more than ever, as do people in Africa and other far flung parts of the planet. I and we read its literature.

    The Alpha language, the ubiquitous waters of an everflowing mass: from Chaucer to the Bard, Melville to Hemingway, Vonnegut to King. 

    I am 55. At least 50 of my years I have been listening, conversing, and reading it, primarily. American drawls and properly enunciated grammar from Harvard scholars, the Queen's English, the pidgin from Sierra Leone or of the Bahamas. Even when surrounded by other seas and waters, like Spanish and Arabic and even German, this is the ocean of my basis and life. I have spent more time from it than many U.S. folks, yet it is still the main mode and method of my understanding and operation.

    Even the foreign favorite authors we read in our native tongue: Allende, Hugo, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky. Perhaps Chinua Achebe of Nigeria composed his works in English, I imagine. Naghib Mafouz of Egypt, Garcia Marquez of Colombia, Miguel de Cervantes of Spain. Goethe of Germany or Ibsen of Norway.

    It seems they all come to us. Conrad of Poland, actually perfected his craft in English. Now we have more speakers than ever: the flow of English, the hybrid developed in the United Kingdom of Tudors or Stuarts and the other royals surrounding them, the mix of Latin and Germanic, with differing options between the the more Roman versus the hinterland of principalities and tribes with their gutteral utterances.

    Artedimoris: our massive ocean of language surrounding us, encompassing us in the empire of "yes, no, and maybe so."