Greg and Keith; Friends in 2015

Greg and Keith; Friends in 2015

    This life is full of people that we come to meet; some of them we get to know at varying levels. Some people we briefly encounter in lines or on the road, others we rub shoulders with through work and play.  Still others we are begotten from, grow up with, date, marry, and have the opportunity to do some begetting ourselves (to give birth to and raise as offspring).

    Friends and family are the ones that we count as the true parts of us that move us to smile, laugh, worry, and weep at their triumphs and travails.  We grieve their passing and remember them nostalgically when they leave.

    There are more public and famous people that we may never meet in person but affect us greatly nonetheless.  We can cry when beloved well-known figures die or suffer, or more random strangers go through incredible trials and events that incite or inspire our empathy.

    In this life we encounter friends, some that leave indelible impressions.  Some last decades, some only days.  But true friends leave an impact no matter how long the duration.

    I would be remiss if I did not pay a written tribute Greg and Keith, who both moved on to the post-mortal realms this year.  I will not include their last names in respect to their surviving family and loved ones.
    

    Greg. A Sweet Soul
    

    I met Greg in early 2011 after he met the local church missionaries of my faith; he was an enthusiastic learner, joining our congregation through attendance and baptism in quick fashion. Greg always maintained that the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our faith presents it and how he applied it made his life so much happier than he was before.

    Greg was already in his late fifties and his body had seen better days.  He suffered from chronic pains and aches which he would try to deal with through medicines and drugs of all kinds, some that he admitted he would abuse at times.  He was looking for solace or comfort of any kind, both for his physical maladies and his mental or spiritual ills.  Greg had had a long, hard life of psychological unrest.      

    He had married very well, and he lived in a good enough home and environment, but it seemed demons of his past stalked his present.

    His new-found faith helped a great deal, as he was wont to share with me and others, as he came to church, received more lessons and visits in his home, and prepared for becoming more committed in taking part of personal ordinances in the Washington DC Temple. He was able to do that pretty much at his anniversary of conversion in the winter of 2012.  I got to be there when he went through, as many others of our church ward were there as well.

    Greg grew up in Chicago, probably in the 1950s and 60s (as he was about 63 when he passed away earlier this year), and it was not easy.  He told me that he did not have a lot of positive role models and that he learned to do things that were bad and damaging and he later regretted those things.  He also played competitive football up to the semi-pro level and caused himself a bit of chronic injuries on his body and nerves.

    He was spiritually hungry for a long time, looking for answers to his physical and spiritual pains and aches. In 2011 he met a couple sister missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ; he felt he had made it to his home. He made a lot of friends in our ward, and I counted myself as one of them.

    Based on further complications of his difficult but well experienced life, Greg ended up living in an assisted-living facility where he made more friends.  Tragically, while living there at the end of his first winter of stay, he passed away in his room unbeknownst to anyone at first.  It took some time for those around him or the rest of his friends and family to find out he had run out of time.

    I attended his funeral services at my church and I was able to speak about him and his friendship, how he inspired me as so willing to learn and commit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    Our consensus as those who reviewed his life and impact and the meaning of his life to us was that Greg was a spiritually powerful man whose smile and spirit would be with us forever, and that Greg was in the Lord's hands at rest.

    I love this guy.  Glad to have known him.  Some of his friends and family had come, even recent friends at the facility where he last lived, and this was a missionary learning experience for them to be among us, and us with them. Some even said that they would read the Book of Mormon.

    Greg was a pioneer convert of his faith, our faith, till the end.  We said good-bye to him at the end of his mortal sojourn. And he is now working on the rest of his life, which is an eternal round that we have problems fathoming, but I trust it is full of joy and light.

    Thanks Greg, for making my life a bit brighter with fondness and determination.

Speaking of joy and light, Keith was a guy I got to know this year. 

Keith. A Grand and great human.

    He came to the office where I was newly working back in February within a few workdays of my arrival; we became friends pretty quickly.  He was smart and funny; we shared a lot of stories back and forth. We also shared a bit of work that we needed to coordinate, which was a pleasure to do with his help.

He was funny and witty and made me laugh; we had some really good times joking, but along with his professional zeal and enthusiasm and know-how, he was intellectually and culturally curious, which inspired me to know more. He sent me emails about various subjects which I have kept.

He loved his family, his wife and two little girls (having red the obituary in 2023, he had another girl prior, who had passed). I realize that someday they may read this eulogy, and I wanted to share a little bit about their dad. Gone too fast. The Tuesday morning that I learned of his passing seemed like a bad dream.

    He was not perfect, but he was a perfect co-worker.  He brought joy and light to our office, and the intellectual curiosity and joie de vivre were omnipresent. All encompassing.

    I discussed a few things with him in confidence a few times prior to his early morning attack that took his life; things at the office with a co-worker that had caused him some stress and triggered his smoking again. I had a few ideas as to what we could do to help him overcome a habit that had plagued him off and on, smoking tobacco which we discussed at an outside smoke break.

    But we would not get to that chapter this fall: Keith had somewhere else to go, someone else to touch.

    He definitely touched me. Made me laugh, made me think, made me stretch my understanding.

    He was a great friend in the relatively short period of 8 months, out of his total 46 on the earth.

    Thanks Keith.  Thanks for being there for me, albeit way too brief.

    We, speaking for myself particularly but for a host of others, will never forget you.

    I wish to converse with you again in the heavens. Maybe a celestial northern Germany.

Good morning. Guten morgen.

Moi! Moi Moi! Ich liebe dich, mein camarade.

Baseball Numbers, History, Glory--Da Homer Lists

For a lot of people who follow Major League Baseball, there is nothing more glorious and historical than who has the most career home runs.  The top five pantheon, the top 10, the top 20. Even the top 100 is a pretty amazing list.

My favorite player of all time, Tim Raines, Senior, (played 1979-2002) comes fifth place in all-time stolen bases, which is his most dominant statistic for his career numbers.  As far as home-runs, he being a great lead-off hitter and scorer, his career 170 HRs ranks him tied for 406th all time with four other players. He will always be my childhood favorite player, which is hard to replace, but there is a new franchise player that has my attention and fancy, and that guy is a man with more elite natural long ball power: Bryce Harper, number #34 (2012-present).  It took a decade since Rock Raines to find the new one for me.  And now my kids might see him as their favorite. Sounds kind of fun to share a favorite player. Whatever ...

Along with his proclivity and reputation for hitting home runs at a good pace, Bryce can also hit for average and on-base percentage, as proven this season, the possible National Leauge MVP for the year of 2015. (At present this Columbus Day we have another 3-4 weeks to find out if he earns that prestigious honor at the ripe age of 22-23 years-old).

More about him later.

Our present list of top home run hitters is a bit skewed by what many think is cheating by way of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the modern "long ball/steroids era", which is reason to think a new long ball king should be anointed in order to cleanse the palette of the most legendary stat, first established in our collective conscious by none other than the Sultan of Swat, the Bambino Babe Ruth  (played 1914-1935).

Just a little analysis and contemplation as to what Babe Ruth meant to baseball, to the United States, and maybe the world:

In the 1910s (the teens, as we might call them 100 years later) baseball was established with legends and heroes, but the home run was not part of its renown.  The Babe changed that a couple years after World War I, starting in his first year with the New York Yankees in 1920: Ruth blasted an unheard of number of 54 dingers in our most famous and biggest city, followed the next year with an alluring 59 at the age of 26! King Kong may have been a mythical ape that would later scale the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building, but Babe would prove that a real larger than life mythical creature could be fashioned in this wondrous city by clouting the magical 60 in 1927, four years before that tallest building in the world would be erected.  Also of note, two other Manhattan skyscrapers held the record as tallest building for a year before that iconic ediface was finished, giving hope to some that despite the economic downturn of the stocks, bank savings and overall work malaise around the planet moving into the 1930s, industry and modernism were advancing to the betterment of all humankind.  And baseball was another indicator of hope and happiness, even prosperity in the face of long and dire odds.

Keep in mind, a couple of traumatic world events had just taken place prior to the first Yankee decade of the Babe, the Roaring Twenties, both the "War to End All Wars" and the Spanish influenza epidemic.  Both events shook the earth and its collective psyche: everyone knew someone tragically removed by violence or disease.  It seemed that the world was a sinister place, that Darwinian implications of survival of the fittest was in reality a brutal contest of death by happenstance or cruel fate. Marxists had their ideas concerning the solutions for human deficiencies and unfair conditions, while many Westerners vehemently disagreed; diseases in general were an awful sentence that plagued the most benign and innocent parts of our population.

Russia, Germany and Japan loomed as new powers that threatened the world order, which would not be known or manifested for sure until the 1940s and thereafter.

But the United States had baseball, and the Bambino long ball of the Yankees, which must have helped a few million beleaguered citizens have a little ray of optimism and respite despite overall dark forebodings of our young men going off to fight another overseas tyranny, many never to return. While most of their bodies were at least recovered for proper burials, many thousands have never been discovered to this day.

Babe Ruth finished his hallmark career in 1935, the middle of the Great Depression, but had left the hugely towering feat of 714 career home runs.  The Bambino was the closest thing we had to a real life Superman.

Threats and dangers and depressive finances raged in the 1930s and 1940s, but hope had rays of light in the fanciful swings and pitches of the green ball park and neatly manicured diamond of our biggest industrial cities. The poor, hard working class had reasons to treasure as they came home from the five o'clock working bell. Kids would do the same from their days of schooling.  Mothers and daughters could share in the excitement, although baseball has been a "sport of men", the game of the strongest and fleetest.

Racial separation had been a plague of the United States for all of its existence.

And then Jackie Robinson and the rest of integration became a reality and the sport of baseball truly did become the national pastime, offering a chance for every US citizen to become its best and brightest.

Which is what Hank Aaron, Junior (played 1954-1976) did to prove that blacks belonged; they always had, but his numbers proved it.  Baseball confirmed that fact and celebrated it. Aaron, a southern African-American consistent home run hitter, proved to be the best career home run hitter of all time in 1974.  America had finally arrived at what it pretended to be in 1776.  All men were created equal, and the Louisville slugger helped prove it.

Baseball offered a chance to live the dream of Martin Luther King and all true Americans: we earn our glory through hard work, dedication and merit. And some luck.  Aaron stayed healthy. Hank kept his eye on the ball. For a long time. He did it!

Disease and poverty and misfortune can be overcome.

Thanks, baseball. And thanks to the family and coaches and teammates of Hammerin' Hank. You gave us a national treasure that is hard to understand and truly fathom as to its import as to who we are as a people. Black or white, we earn our rewards and glories as equals.

Fast forward to the days of Barry Bonds, Junior, (played 1986-2007) and it was not so much about race but about ethics.  Did he use illegal drugs to boost his strength and stunning late career numbers? He did. Like other power hitters Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, probably Rafael Palmeiro and a few others with prodigious power numbers since the 1990s.

Bonds did surpass Aaron (and notably Ruth before him) by the late summer of 2007, but it was tainted. Stained, tarnished, not right.

Bonds did get the career home run record at a high price, his and all of baseball integrity, and that does not sit right with many. Many who continue to believe the game is pure, that is a standard of truth.

So we await another king, a truer, righter champion of the home run. Not bulked out (i.e. drug juiced) Barry.

It could now be Alex Rodriguez (playing since 1994 to present) or Albert Pujols (playing since 2001), and the latter would be more welcome since A-Rod, most recently a Yankee has been punished for also using booster drugs, missing all of the 2014 season in result of the sanctions attributed to that accusation and sentence. A bit like Barry but tempered with a season punished by banishment. He is 40 years-old now, as opposed to Albert being 35 and still having spark in his bat in 2015. Both are Latino, which would be the way our country moves: we progress on to the new cultures, this 21st century perhaps being the age of the Latino.  And now we have supremely talented East Asians in the mix, too.  Baseball is a world sport and fair.

Looking down the road, there are some promising prospects to be the new Sultan, the new Hammerin' legend. With no caveats and asterisks, no rumors of foul play and unnaturally bulging muscles and necks.  There is an incredibly gifted player named Giancarlo Stanton, and a few others in their thirties who show some promise.

Doing it the right way.

I hope we are all around in the next decades to see how those homers will fly. And how the lists will change.

And who will be the new all-time great in our lifetime? Could it be Mike, or Bryce? Or is it someone else...

Baseball will keep track, and fans will let you know. And people across the world will start to care more than before, like they do about the Olympics or the soccer World Cup.

Swing for the seats, players, and keep your eyes on the prize. Play it right.

Thanks again, baseball. Thanks for letting a game show us that playing hard and fair offers its rewards for those who are not afraid of defeat. We can swing for the fences and overcome.

And dreaming and hoping come about every spring and fall.



Blog on, EMC.

Bryce Harper, the Playoffs, and Sabbath Day Worship

It's not easy being Bryce Harper.  (It can't be that bad either, of course.) But that uneasy tension is what having so much promise and ability and ambition is about: living up to and overcoming the criticisms and nay-sayers, the ubiquitous record books of daunting Hall of Fame achievements, the publicly known attempts to surpass the physical and mental and social constraints of a very demanding and competitive sport that requires the best and worst of preparation, practice and luck; to finally be who people want him to be.  And to be who he himself wants to be, by all accounts. And who exactly is that?

The great player, entertainer, teammate and champion. The record breaker, Most Valuable Player, the guy who gets people to stop and watch him in their own private or public moments in the batter's box and in the outfield, or on the basepaths racing towards home. The guy people recall seeing and doing all those things in baseball, that used to be said of the legendary Roberto Clemente or Micky Mantle, Ted Williams or Babe Ruth, Willie Mays or Lou Brock, Rogers Hornsby or Jimmie Foxx, Shoeless Joe Jackson or Ty Cobb.

Is he that guy? After his 4th major league season, the answer is maybe. He's got a chance; he lived up to the hype this year. 2015 will go down in the record books. Another 10 or 12 years like that one, and he's got a really good chance to be one of the best of all time. Time will tell.

Nevertheless, there inevitably exists a further complication: he is Latter-day Saint, aka Mormon.

Does that matter?  Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not an inevitable issue.

Religion, in this day and age they say, should not affect people that much as to how they perform. Or does it? Can it?

One famous example of religion affecting baseball was when the great pitcher Sandy Koufax, who was Jewish, would not pitch in the World Series on his Sabbath, which for us Gentiles is sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

Will Bryce take games off for Sunday services?  Not likely. Will he stop a playoff game for General Conference broadcast from Salt Lake City in October?  Again, not likely.

Will he marry a nice LDS/Mormon girl and raise Mormon kids?  More likely.  Will he attend church more in the off season than the 162 game marathon from March to September?  More likely. There are plenty of us LDS workers who do miss Sunday services because of labor obligations.  I have had to work my odd Sundays for years.  I first started doing some of that part-time back in the 1980s.

Sunday church services and dedications and devotions should not affect his numbers or career, like Steve Young as a Sunday player in the NFL who did the grand majority of playing on the 7th day, revered by his kind at BYU and his progenitors, back to the prophet of the faith, Brigham Young himself. Or Sunday TV commentator Steve Young BYU grad (twice) working on ESPN today, in the 21st century.

But it may affect how he is viewed as a Latter-day role model. The LDS major league baseball MVP of the 80s, Dale Murphy, has gone on to ecclesiastical highs like Mission President after doing his due diligence on the diamonds on the Sabbath, a day we try to consecrate for more spiritual pursuits.

Could Bryce do the same someday, being a spiritual leader like Dale Murphy or former NFL QB Gifford Nielson? Possibly.  More decades to go, as all things remain pending when it comes to potential greatness becoming an accomplished feat.

Speaking of decades to go: Bryce is legitimately entrenched in the race against the history books; this (2015) season has made it quite compelling.

As he turns 23 this month and awaits season number 5 next spring,  Mr. Harper is at an age where many greats are merely beginning this level of play, while he currently has 97 career homers, tied with another formidable young talent in Jason Heyward, who has now completed 6 major league seasons at the age of 26; Heyward, while succeeding in the same outfield position as Bryce and having a strong arm and some power, is not keeping up with the pace at which Harper appears to be moving in. Bryce is certainly groomed for bigger and better things.

And there is always the comparison to Mike Trout, who only a year Bryce's senior has achieved very remarkable career numbers in his four astounding years paralleling and mostly outdoing Harper. But this year was different.  Bryce surged while Trout, albeit still impressive, leveled into more pedestrian numbers, and the two look to be more comparable where after three seasons many thought that Mike Trout was by far the better prospect.

Now we seriously wonder if Bryce has turned the corner and found his MVP Hall-of-Famer groove.

It could be.

Many future Sundays, the LDS Sabbath, await this anointed one to put up many more tremendous numbers. As a big Nationals fan, I hope he stays in DC and puts up a total career and fabulous accomplishments in the nation's capital.

It might include World Series, which may seal Bryce's fate as an all-time great.

Numbers, victories, wins, results.

And Sabbath day resting in between.

Bryce, and his following, both people of his religious culture and those of pure baseball adoration, may have their guy.

Let's see about season number five. 2016 will be a fascinating time for the Nats.

Will he do so much at age 23? Could be.

Will he prove he is as good if not better than Trout? Will he go from #861 all-time home-run hitter (after breaking into the club of top 1,000 earlier this spring of 2015) and possibly clouting 50 or so and going to the top 500ish of all time? I think it is very possible. He could also get injured and miss the whole season; we never know what will come, how things may play out.

Yes, the future looks bright for this exuberant, aggressive yet humble (in my opinion), feisty, and ambitious somewhat of a lightning rod figure in the major leagues.

Yes, we will have other days of rest to contemplate and discuss where he belongs, and if in fact, any of these matters truly matter.

I, for one, love to watch to see this guy do things in the field of play that young men like me dreamed of doing once upon a time, fairy book style.

And God saw his labors, and it was good. And the morning and the evening were the seventh day.

God be with you Bryce.  And may you be with God. Seven days week, on and perhaps more importantly, off the field.  We pray for you to be who you want to be, and please God before Mammon. Be a good, or even great, Mormon. Do what you can to lift yourself and others, inspire us to be champions like the heroes we love to revere.

And then rest.

Nothing outlandish about that.

It's only baseball, it's just about winning through perseverance, and pleasing God in His due time.

Play on.





Blog it, EMC.

IU Hoosiers to Take Down PSU Nittany Lions for the Second Time EVER today

We will do it! Today, at noon, at College Park, in front of 108,000 plus fans.

FIRST TIME EVER IN PA!

Indiana has its best defensive lineman back (he was suspended for apparent academic reasons), Darius Latham, the starting QB Nathan Sudfeld and RB Jordan Howard have been banged up but we have ample replacements, and Penn State is down, not that great this year so far despite being 4-1 like the Hoosiers ... The Lions are down enough to get the Hoosier victory.

A new office worker has been chiding me about "his" Nittany Lions doing it again, as almost always.  Okay, Richard, we shall see.

Coming up soon.

More to come:

IU has a very proficient front line, I told a neighbor today that at least three of them should be drafted in the NFL.

UPDATE: Nope. Didn't happen. PSU 29-7 winners. The offense sputtered too much.

BYU Cougars: What to Say Now? Post Second Week 2015

Okay, okay ... college football may not matter that much, some people may not like it. I get that.

But I really dig it.  It has something I cannot ignore. Pitch and pathos. Ebb and sway. Millions do like like it and pay attention to it.  Some who are not alive now (2015) may read these words some day and care. For posterity, I write.

It could mean something after all, or at least for writing a few thoughts as I am wont to do.

So this weekend I could talk about a few things that have already happened in two weeks of college football related to Brigham Young University football.  In a word ...

WOW!

If I could put that word in bigger font letters, louder noise on a silent page and brighter and wowier colors and effects, I would.

This season is going a bit like a Disney film.  And all of it so far, two games in, mind you.

Now, not all Disney films are saccharine to the point of the exclusion of some real gut-wrenching tragedy or conflict. And BYU has had their fair share of some heartfelt loss. The would-be all-time leading rusher drops out of school before the season starts. He may come back healthy next year. 

Turn that page. 

Okay, let's pass the ball more with our Heisman candidate Senior who can run and pass ... NO!  He breaks his Lisfranc bone in the third quarter (well, maybe the second, but he's a tough dude) in the opener in Nebraska. Turn ... that ... page .  Kinda tearful, if you watch a post-game video.  He is probably done in the college game. He's ended three out of four seasons this way. So much promise, and so little reward ...

But these losses of pathos, certainly not pathetic, are not the story or the WOWs of which I am alluding to.

No, the wow factor is how the team and the particular replacement of said Heisman candidate has responded as the new leader of the squad.

WOW, WOW and WOW.

Spectacular.  I don't know if anyone has ever seen anything like it.

Two games.  Two very worthy opponents, and two game set-ups that allowed two really well thrown long passes that wind up winning two very dramatic games.

And this kid, a grey-shirt freshman twenty-two year-old who finished his church mission in Chile about 3 months ago in June, heaves these passes that are caught by BYU receivers, while bodies are flinging around like electrons around a fission war head!

Cougars win!

Cougars win!

And I actually want to talk about BYU going back to Pasadena this coming Saturday.

More of that later ... Really, that is what I started this post wanting to discuss.

UCLA of the past and near future. BYU has a date with ya.

Blog it, EMC.

Bryce Harper is Becoming the Elite: Top 955 HR Hitter and Counting

Bryce is making this season look like he has achieved his long (since he was 15 or 16 years-old) talked-about status. The bally hoo of years past, one of the promising baseball icons of the 21st century. The hope, the promise. Was it yet just a lot of banter, he being another of many hyped up ne'er do-wells that happens in every celebrated sport or art?

This season he is (finally?) hitting for power, average, on-base percentage. He fields well, he throws well, he runs well. And he is staying healthy and playing games. Unlike past years (this, his fourth in the majors, at the precocious age of 22), he is avoiding serious injuries. The occasional muscle pull or strain has taken him away from some at-bats, but he is sticking around. As his team is staying around in their division despite August woes, currently four back of the Mets in the NL East with about three weeks to go.

As of early Labor Day 2015 (the Washington Nats play the division-leading NY Mets later today) he has 88 career home runs, placing him tied at 955 all time, tied with Kevin Elster (1986-2000), Rich Gedman (1980-1992), Tommy Holmes (1942-1952), Dan Wilson (1992-2005), and Greg Zaun (1995-2010).

Back in May I wrote about Bryce's upcoming entrance into the top 1,000 home run hitters of all time. [See below]
Moose Solters and Seven Others: Joining the Club in 2015

Top 1000 all-time is nothing to write home about, per se, but for a 22 year-old I think it is significant.  So few players start their major league careers so young that those first years of success or failure can set them up for their career as a boon or bust: an all-time great, a career journeyman or a flash in the pan.

Bryce is backing up the hype in 2015; we can safely say, Mr. Harper has arrived as a big time player.

His debut year as a teenager was formidable back in 2012. But the two following years of 2013 and 2014 while still showing some of that freshman promise also indicated there was way too much injury and impatience when he managed playing while somewhat healthy.  Which, it was arguable how healthy he actually was playing, which was part of the overall problem.  Bryce's numbers were disappointingly low while his slightly older rival Mike Trout for the Anaheim/LA Angels seemed unstoppable as the player of the present and future. Trout has put up huge numbers in the same years Bryce has played. Trout has looked like another Mickey Mantle, Bryce maybe another ... Dale Murphy. Which is not a slight to Dale, but Mickey is top 20 while Dale is top 200...

This season, notably, Trout has suffered a little bit more injury and less-than-stellar numbers. Although, a down year for him is still pretty terrific. But not like a potential MVP year Bryce is having at present.

There are now 9 players tied with 89 home runs, which Bryce may tie or surpass today.  He is hitting well in the last few games, having gotten a homer in three straight wins.  The day before those games, he went 0 for 0 at the plate and scored 4 runs, not having swung at one pitch!  That tied a record with about 4 other players, all Hall of Famers, I believe, but Bryce was the first of them to not even attempt a swing.

Of course, baseball is not all about the long ball.  Part of the point is, Bryce is doing it all as a complete and dominating player. Walking, hitting for average (around .339 and leading the National League), scoring runs, playing defense, both catching and throwing (he leads in put-outs for an outfielder, I think).  He is getting it done as the overall best player in the best league in the world.

He is in a word, an elite of elites.

The one category he is not totally dominating is in RBIs, which has a bit to do with the hitters in front of him, and even behind him.  He could produce better there, but he has not been given enough opportunities to knock them home.  And when he does have those chances, like Barry Bonds in years of his brilliance earlier this century, he is carefully walked rather than allowed a possible purview of a throw close to the plate.  And who can blame the opponents for that?

Bryce has 34 dingers for the year, and will likely get to 40 for the season. The post-season is a question mark still, but Nats fans are hoping for good things.  Trailing the Mets by 4, with a huge series starting today.

What will be...

If he does hit 40 for the season, Bryce will be among the top 900 home run hitters of all time. By next time this year at his current rate he could be in the top 600 ...

But we will acknowledge that milestone of 900 on another blog post soon, hopefully sooner than later. And the future will take care of itself.  Many things could drastically change between now and then ....Word war, accident, mishap ....

For now we recognize this right fielder among the top 955. Not bad young man, for having half your young career blighted by the Disabled List and frustrated at-bats and seasons.  Play the game as you can.  Some think you are brash and egotistical.  Others think you are ambitious and hungry.

Confident. Bold.  Aggressive yet forbearing.  Smart.

Stay hungry. Go all the way to the top. Be who you are supposed to be. The best.

Blog on, EMC.

Chapter 2: PARINACOTA

Chapter 2: PARINACOTA 

(between 400 and 500 AD, La leyenda de Omer y Rayen)

     Omer and Rayen and everyone finally went to sleep on the beach, except for the older ones who took turns watching for danger.

     When the sun was rising over the mountains, Omer and Rayen's father had a premonition with the rising sun.  He felt there was something in the great eastern mountains that was necessary to see or do there.  A young man came walking down the beach to them, and they asked him from where he came.  His name was Lauca and he had come down from the mountains via the great stream that flowed until the sea.

     Abukabir took this as a great sign and asked if he could send one of his party with Lauca to a high mountain to fulfill a sacred mission.  Lauca agreed but in his canoe to return to his mountain land, he could only take one small person, one who weighed less than a wild wolf.
     Omer cried, "Take me!  I am light and very good at climbing!"
     Omer's father, Abukabir, consented with his permission.  Rayen said she would prepare Omer's favorite treat for him when he returned.
     Omer went swift and strong up the river with Lauca.  The snow-covered Eternal Mountains 
became bigger and bigger as they paddled their way up-stream.  They finally arrived, and then Lauca said he would help Omer reach the highest peak after eating cheese and fruit with his family.  They enjoyed it very much.
     Then they ascended the great mountain known as as Choquelimpie and it was one of the hardest things Omer had ever done, but Lauca was a good guide and Omer trusted him at the scariest parts.  They had carried boots and parkas and ice picks for the ice fields and glooming glaciers reaching up to the sky.
   And then he saw it: the soaring eagle with a fish in its talons!  Could this be the sign of his father?  
    The eagle shreaked three times and then dropped the fish!  It fell onto an ice ramp and slid to a small pool of crystal-blue water.  There Omer found it, and saw the red and blue stripes of its gills.
   Lauca said, " This fish portends to happiness and strength.  It is a legend among my people to enjoy the clean blue water and the red-hot coals, for body and spirit."  Omer knew this was the important message that he must bring back to his family.
     Clean water and vibrant warmth would keep them safe on their long journey, even if they had little to eat, as the eagle who lost the fish.

END OF CHAPTER TWO (2): PARINACOTA