Nationals Update: Last Week of June, Weeks 11-12, 2014

The National League East, composed of the Braves, Marlins, Mets, Nationals, and Phillies, is not that great in the winning column compared to other divisions at the current time.

The Nats are in in first place, but that is not saying too much. Last weekend they lost their first two games to Atlanta, which briefly took the division lead, but then superior National pitching won back the last two games, and with another great pitching from Gio Gonzalez and  some other good pitching they were on a roll this week before dropping the last three, one to the Brewers, who are having a good season, and two in the friendly confines of Chicago the last two days.

C Wilson Ramos is back healthy but needs to get up to speed, and Bryce Harper is still prepping at the Potomac Nationals 1A team in Woodbridge, VA.

My daughters and I saw them play Monday night and had a good time.

Wilson came back sooner and hopefully will make a difference soon.

Fister and Strasburg have come up short lately, and Tanner Roark today against the Cubs.

Just hanging 3 over .500, close to the Braves. 

Nationals Report: Weeks 9 or 10? First Week of June, 2014

This has been a really good week for the Washington Nationals. Today is June 7th (Saturday), and the Nats are looking up. Living up to some of the hyperbole.

One loss in their last 6 or 7 games. Looking like world beaters.

The one loss was last Sunday against the Texas Rangers' Yu Darvish. Sometimes it takes a half Irani-Japanese dominant pitcher to shut down a well-greased machine like the Nats. Yes, the Nationals are hitting the ball.

The offense has been clicking since last Friday (May 31) against the self-same Rangers.

Denard Span, one of the fastest guys in the majors, is getting on base. He leads off. That is what lead off hitters (or batters, perhaps more apt for the position) are supposed to do.

Get on base. Score. Like my favorite of all time, Tim Raines.

Ryan Zimmerman is playing outfield while he is getting back from his finger injury, but he is hitting.

Everybody is hitting, more or less. And the pitchers are doing really well too.

Right now the absence of Bryce Harper is ongoing, but they are not missing him too much.

The offense is getting their knocks, with some power as well.

Anthony Rendon has stayed at third base defensively, where he is really good, and has come back from a recent slump at the plate. Jayson Werth took the night off in right field last night in San Diego but he remains productive, as is the healthy Adam LaRoche. And catcher Wilson Ramos. And infielders Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa re doing their damage.

Even back-up catcher Jose Lobaton has been a productive bat in the line up.

Hurrah! Natitude. 

This is what we National fans (or former Montreal Expo fans like me) have been anticipating since Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg were drafted the last few years, and the Washington Nationals hoped to get a higher revenue based on a more expensive market like our nation's capital.

Vivre les Nationals!

See you around all-star break, Bryce!

And Braves and Marlins, I hope you get your pitching messed over a few times around the country.

I am not a hater, but you guys have had your World Series in the last decades...

Let somebody else do it.

Go Mariners!

Blog it, EMC.

Another Death in 2014---Maya Angelou

Another Death in 2014---Maya Angelou

my own mother is close to three months gone; June enters into a time, a season farther away

Perhaps it was sudden, but a couple of good things about the death of this, in some ways larger than life personality, is to be considered very positive in my opinion. She was announced dead May 28, which was a Wednesday. I heard a teacher mention it at lunch at my daughter's middle school.

A few teachers asked, "Who?", and I answered that she was a poet and novelist, almost glibly attempting to summarize that she was the "poet laureate of the Oprah Nation". After saying so, I added "Did I say that?". But yes: let it stand. Since then  I did a bit more reading about her, and she was so much more than a glib summary. I hope we all are.

1. She was 84. That is better than most, I think. I have thought this more times this year than perhaps any year since my mom passed away at age 73 (going on three months ago, as noted above), but I wish we could all live so long or longer! Good job, Maya. Let us all be octogenarians or better.

2. Her life was heralded far and wide; she was a pioneer of her own being and her other causes in so many ways. Well done, Maya. Oh, and she was quite a survivor. But we know that already, right?

3. Her life had a lot of meaning to many people, will be recorded by thousands, if not millions of sources, and she will never be forgotten. Her life in 84 years will be be very significant and meaningful for the rest of this existence. She did it, and much of it has been documented. Her artistry (poems, writings, performances, life interpretations), or her life's meaning, will largely be kept by so many.

Good job, Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014.
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So in my life, two people have died this year that have had differing impacts, for different people.

My mother, which is for me as for most people obviously, one of the biggest impacting people for their children as she was for me. And it involves a lot more personal reflection, usually, and personal time and efforts.

And then there is this huge publicly known person, Maya. I hope that they get together soon. I wonder what Maya would have to say to and about my mom. I think that they would talk about Africa and many other things.

The growing class of 2014.

I learned more about Maya Angelou while taking a communications class back in 1998, with an interesting professor named Doctor Calloway-Thomas. I suggested that Maya Angelou could be the spokesperson for our planet to another race or life, that she could embody the human voice for a foreign alien who knew little of humanity.

Professor Calloway-Thomas was impressed by my commentary and read it to her class.

Maya Angelou. Survivor and thriver. Well done.

And she has so many accolades given to her, as she may well deserve. Or rather, I consider that she does deserve immense credit for being a supreme artist of humanity.

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So since my mom has passed away this past winter, March 4th, (2014) it is good to write and remember about someone who is less acclaimed publicly, but very big to some.

Ruth Muriel Carpenter (now I picture her face and I see a thousand images passing the decades).

I am her only birth son; with two other daughters and a few other relatives, and a larger circle of friends, I wish to record a few more memories. But she has a larger posterity, especially in my opinion, because of her choices of faith and action.

She has a number of grandchildren that did not know her well enough; someday I hope that they can read this or other reports and records and know more about her.

I visited with her only brother, my uncle Bill, and his wife Ann, and one son and a couple grandchildren this past April, some 6 weeks after the funeral, for spring break with our children in Centreville, Massachusetts. This was a pleasant visit and reminded me more of my mom's origins. We visited the grave of my mom's parents who died in their eighties in the early 1980s; at a Congregationalist Church cemetery (modern name of the Puritans) in my mother's hometown of Hanover.

As I said before I was not able to visit other aunts or cousins as much as as I wanted, but the trip was good. Memories traveling across the Cape to Provincetown.

I was born (October 1970) when my family was living outside of Bloomington "out in the country" on Rockport Road. But most of my memories were of living at my "in town" Manor Road home, closer to the IU campus. As a child on occasion we would drive out in the country towards our old house and I would have weird feelings of memory or nostalgia. Crossing the railroad tracks or seeing the old water tower, passing slabs of old limestone quarries. My parents had become LDS (Mormon) before moving out there from living in different humble abodes in town, but they decided a town life was better for all of us. The friendships and associations of the church have remained strongly to this day.

An interesting club, this church. My mom figured a role in it, like other things she got involved with in her 73 years.

My mom was not too different than other moms, I suppose, but everything particular to one person is what makes them unique, special and different. My mother would actively visit her assigned sisters that she would visit teach.

I have fond recollections of being dragged along with her, to both church and other friends in and around Bloomington, some at rest homes, some at on-campus housing (like Pooh Westover, a friend who died at an early age of cancer), or other homes.

I also have many memories of going along to stores and garage or yard sales.

And then there were our numerous trips and vacations.

At home we watched our share of television and movies, but we did family things with books and stories and good food and get togethers. My mom surely spent her time on the phone with friends and family; we would travel to see her family often. As we aged this became less frequent, but they are a part of the imprimatur of my mother.

Visiting New England, or even talking to New Englanders, reminds me of my mom and brings back those good memories and feelings.

I remember seeing her plane take off at the Indianapolis Airport when I was about 4 towards Boston; maybe she would be gone 1 or two weeks. But I remember that farewell and the heavy empty feeling of seeing my mom go away. Now I see my own children deal with what we modernly call "separation anxiety" from their mother. I am glad it is me that goes away for periods of time, and not her.

Don't be separated from her. But it happens. All too often, children do get separated from their moms.

I was fortunate to have had access to her as much as I did, well into my adulthood. My wife and most of my kids got to know her as well.

My two oldest daughters helped make fudge with her this past Christmas. Even though she had been dealing with her tumors related to liver cancer, the subsequent ill affects of chemotherapy, she still had the energy and spirit to do that. We stayed in Bloomington about 5 nights over the winter holiday; our last Christmas with our mom. My mom. It was sweet. Late dark nights we would say our farewells in the family room at the end of their house, as I had done perhaps hundreds of times over the years since 1986, when they first had that home. As a teenager I would spend Thursdays and Sundays there. Eat a well cooked meal, talk with these adults who were closer to me as friends than those of my own age and station. I had three more full adult years of this pattern in the 1990s, plus the visits home from college or work. I was blessed to see and be with my mother all those years.

And as a married man (2001-2014), the pattern continued when we visited, despite some setbacks when my mother went into depressive funks, which she would suffer from on a regular but distanced basis. And they had their missionary forays, but we still managed to communicate and stay close across the oceans.

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My mom always had energy when I was child. She was a part of Weight Watchers; I remember going to some different churches while she attended these meetings; perhaps that might explain my interest and relative comfort in houses of worship other than my own.

I recall running across the dunes of the Cape with her while young and laughing hard, going on the whale site seeing tour from P-town (throwing up over the side but feeling much better afterwards), doing a hundred and one different things.

Dining, shopping, worshiping. Traveling, talking, laughing.

Reminiscing. May we all live forever. Do not forget the sweet memories of the past.

More later.

Blog on. EMC.

Clinch It Sooner or Later: Nationals Report Weeks 6-8

Clinch It Sooner or Later: Nationals Report Weeks 6-8: I see a pattern in my writing about the 2014 Washington Nationals baseball team, which I had an idea about reporting on once a week this se...

Nationals Report Weeks 6-8

I see a pattern in my writing about the 2014 Washington Nationals baseball team, which I had an idea about reporting on once a week this season, like 28 weeks or so:

It seems to be going further and further apart, meaning instead of once a week, the last post covered weeks 4 and 5 combined, while the first three were one per week.

Either I have become too busy, or a little bummed and apathetic, or simply uninspired and lazy.

But enough about me! The Nats are due this update for the last three weeks; I will dedicate a little extra ink to analyze the team and players, which still looks up as of the end of May. Eight weeks in the books?

The Braves did begin to lose the last few weeks, which gives the rest of the National League East hope. Despite poor play and injuries, the Nationals are still in it. And of course at the end of May, there is a ton of the season to play. Standings now are just an indicator of how things will turn out months from now.

Current standings?

EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10	POFF
Atlanta	28	24	.538	-	18-12	10-12	175	170	+5	Lost 3	5-5	40.7
Miami	28	25	.528	.5	20-8	8-17	246	222	+24	Won 2	6-4	49.0
Washington	25	27	.481	3	14-14	11-13	203	202	+1	Lost 2	3-7	28.3
NY Mets	24	28	.462	4	13-17	11-11	204	212	-8	Won 2	4-6	20.8
Philadelphia	23	27	.460	4	11-15	12-12	200	228	-28	Won 1	5-5	10.8

The Marlins have played well the last few weeks; even the Mets and Phils are still within striking distance. But the Nats have faltered, for sure.

Some sure or easily winnable games have been blown. Like last night.

Against the surging Miami Marlins, the starting pitcher Jordan Zimmerman fell behind 4-0, then was off the hook when the Nats scored 4 runs in two innings. Then in the 8th, the Nationals had the bases loaded and nobody out with the good batters of Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth and Adam La Roche up. 

Nada. Zippo. Neecheevo. (Not very good, those not up on Crimean language, for criminy's sake.)

And then they give up 4 runs in the 10th inning and game over, 8-5.

Relief pitching, as well as lack of opportunistic scoring on offense, has bitten the Nats again.

Yet, despite those current weaknesses, other than a bland scoring offense (the Nats had a three game streak this last week scoring one run each outing), perhaps the biggest poor trend is that the good/highly paid and rated Nat starting pitchers seem to give up their runs first. And to the team's credit, many times they overcome those early deficits and make it a game, with many come back victories, but a few others that come up short like the aforementioned game last night (May 28 2014, last of three games on Thursday, although the Wednesday night match up was postponed due to thunderstorms).

So the trends need to change for the Nats to be who they were overwhelmingly predicted to be both last year and this year, after a very promising 2012.

Positive recent developments:

Catcher and slugger Wilson Ramos has been back for over two weeks after getting hurt and placed on the DL (disabled list) since the very first week of April. His numbers should get better as he gets better rhythm and acclimatization. He hit a game tying homer last night (his first of the year, period), and all aspects of his healthy game make the Nationals better.

Adam La Roche is now off the more recent DL. He hit a two run homer his first day back after that leg injury related hiatus, but those were the only runs the Nats could muster. But he has been the most productive hitter for the Nationals, when healthy, all season.

Doug Fister is finally off the DL, and as a new acquisition starting pitcher I like his hustle and spunk. His first start in Oakland was a disaster, but he has shown the good stuff since.

Third baseman and sometime all-star Ryan Zimmerman is taking batting practice and is almost off the DL. Meanwhile, speaking of the DL, Bryce Harper will be there till sometime in July. Not good, but some guys are trying to take up the slack, like Nate McClouth, who seems to be finding his game lately (4 for 4 last night with a walk).

Troubling trends: 

Anthony Rendon as second baseman (but temporarily at 3rd in lieu of Zimmerman) has a great bat, but has not been hitting as well the last few weeks as when he started. I still have a lot of hope in his batting, his plate control, getting on base and being productive. His defense is good.

Ian Desmond has flashes of greatness, but not consistent as he should be.

Jayson Werth is not hitting as well as last year, which is hard to do. Still time for him to gel.

Danny Espinosa gets playing time with Rendon at third, but I am concerned with his plate discipline. Soon he will get less playing time.

Stephen Strasburg pitches well, but gets dumb losses, either due to early runs given up or lack of offense. Last year's (2013) poor overall output is looking a bit like this year. Frustrating.

Gio Gonzalez is not pitching as well as past years, but we still love his spirit.

More concerns:

Tanner Roark gets many good starts, but is still new to the majors. But I think he is a keeper and should do well with more productive batting behind him.

Pitcher Jordan Zimmerman is consistent and should be a double digit winner.

New pitching starter Blake Treinen is still a question mark. We shall see.

The relievers have their issues; Tyler Clippard has slipped many times, the final closer Raphael Soriano is overall solid, but a few middle releavers like Aaron Berrett and a couple others need to do better.

Easier said than done.

Let's see how the Nats do at home this weekend with the visiting Texas Rangers.

Time to use some home advantage, and their healthier players, and some home team advantage, as heretofore they are only .500 at 14-14.

That is the update up to week 8 or so.

Hope to be back sooner for week 9. And have more wins.

Go Nats.

Blog it. EMC.

The Russian Case

The Russian Case of Why We (the Russians) are the Best Hope for the World

[2022, May update: Russia is going hard on its southern neighbor.

CLARIFICATION: A dialectic is what happens when bisecting, or dividing, the THESIS and the ANTITHESIS. The middle choice, or path, is what Russian political scientists and artists from a hundred years ago would argue was the true way to arrive at truth, artistic form... If you saw this in a visual diagram, you would see two arrows point opposite of each other, but the dialectic arrow would be a compromise of the two. A third way.]

The rest of the world does not understand how right we are.

That is why "might makes right", in the case of the Commonwealth of Russia. Russia is mighty, and we are the true hope of right progress in the world. We have had some down times in the last couple of decades, but that is because our own people were being pulled between false theses...

Let me explain. Allow me to clarify. Permit me to expound, and please entertain what I say to you:

Russia is the reason humanity has hope. Because the answers are found in the middle.

Much of the world does not understand the concept of dialectic, or dialectic materialism, which is what Russia has been developing with mixed results since the days of Dostoevsky and Darwin. Or even before. The Age of Enlightenment had its bright stars, many Russians among them.

And Russia is the answer. Many Soviets (Russians and other proletariat comrades across our planet, from Chile to Laos) believed that the answer lied in Communism. We have seen this was not exactly true. But it was a necessary experiment to continue to arrive at, to evolve at where we need to be. The Chinese, and other cultures recognized that. World wide intellectuals and others with clear thinking still do. They have always recognized the power and virtue of eliminating the absolute and corrupting wealth strangle hold by the elite bourgeoisie. This mega-rich greed chokes and stifles all of us, the 99 percent who struggles to work and live. The workers need a chance, because we are all fed by the same sources. We all eat and breathe the same materials. One human (a super star celebrity or business magnate) does not deserve any more health care or favor than the lowest street urchin, or disabled senior, or physically or mentally deficient soul. We are all equal, the West proclaims, no? But they do not follow their own beliefs! The West is full of hypocrisy, as is the East...A sensible middle way synthesis is what is necessary, is empirically and logically sound.

In the Orient, nor does the antithesis have the correct way, which in the 21st century has been manifest as extreme Islam, or Wahabbism. It is the antithesis of capitalism and Westernism, because based on its fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran and hadith of the prophet Mohammad, there should be no financial interest of money and capital,  nor should there be principles of modern capitalism as we know it, nor should there be a democracy of the people, which is considered the ultimate good of the Western World. Or even education for the girls and women who make up half of our population!

The main thesis of the planet Earth in the last decades has been authored by the West, embodied in the United States of America with its traditional allies: Great Britain, France, Netherlands, the Scandinavian peoples and more begrudgingly Germany and Spain. And the other tag-alongs, of course: Canada, Australia, like much of Latin America and now Japan, and others. Even India seems to support this "capitalist thesis".

The Western thesis is what has forged much of the current capitalist model of the world, no argument.

And the current fighting and "Arab Spring" of the Middle East, plus the conflict of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the unrest across Muslim Africa is very much dealing with the tension between these two poles: Western "democratic" capitalism and Eastern Muslim wahabbism, which counters or opposes the basis of the former.

As we Russians know since Marx and Engels, and probably more importantly Vladimir Lenin, that the middle line, or dialectic, between the two theses that are the antipoles of the modern world, is the most proper way to achieve maximum positive results.

Russia understands this. In the 1800s, geniuses following in the human evolutionary chain like George Hegel, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Charles Darwin learned that the best will rise to the fore, the strongest survive. But unlike fascists such as Adolph Hitler or Francisco Franco, or misguided Socialists like Mao Zedong or Ho Chi Minh, or the delusional Western leaders like Winston Churchill or Dwight Eisenhower, or their more recent counterparts such as George Bush or Tony Blair, Russian leaders like Mr. Putin understand human history and interpret the results scientifically, rationally, and properly.

If Afghanistan had not been caught in the cross-hairs between the Western pro-U.S. mujahadeen and the Wahabbi extremists such as the late Osama Bin Laden (supported by both, ironically), this country would be a wonderfully productively place today, while currently in 2014 it is still a backwater and threat to all, internally and externally. As would all the former Soviet Socialist Republics in the USSR, if the Russians still had more influence in the Muslim "Stans".

But between greedy money grubbers and Muslim jihadi militants, the world is continually confused by the binary of false messages. East or West. Neither is best.

Only by recognizing and accepting the middle path, the Russian dialectic, as some Buddhists or Daosists claim the middle in word only, but by truly implementing the synthesis that is embodied in the Russian dialectic as the proper system of human advancement can the world be saved. Or at least the world will continue to improve, instead of digressing into worse misery than ever before.

And now Ukraine, in 2014, as Chechnya (Georgia, 2008) before and so many other places across the global map have fought and bled and sacrificed, confused by the ideological battle lines more than the physical and tactical ones, must figure out where Russia is the answer.

Still confused?

No worries. The truth will increasingly become evident. Why? Because we Russians are strong enough to prevail.

Blog it. Eduard S. Ruskiliya.

The Day of the Book of Mormon--Part II

The Book of Mormon had an original printing of some 5,000 copies in upstate New York back in in the 1830s. Since that time, the book has been printed and re-printed in many other languages. It is crossing the globe in its own way.

Some have claimed that they have proven it is untrue.

Others have claimed that they know it is true.

Perhaps many are undecided, or perhaps more people do not care. They see no relevance in it.

For the believers in the book, it has a special place and relevance.

The book itself does not claim, nor its believers claim that it replaces the Holy Bible as many of its detractors purport. Latter-day Saints believe it helps complete the knowledge and surety of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. It is as its sub-title, another Testament of Jesus Christ.

For many, figuring out whether this is true is not easy. Maybe it was not meant to be so.

In many ways, similar to other alleged holy books that have been introduced to humanity across the millenia: many believe in these books, trying to replicate their counsels and wisdom or values. And use their teachings as doctrine.

People become somewhat of a product of the beliefs of the books that they espouse. In the case of Mormons, who most undoubtedly view themselves as Christians, this encompasses the Holy Bible and other books, both ancient and more modern.

Muslims accept the Holy Bible as the Word of God, but the Koran trumps it. Jewish people use the Torah as their standard scripture, and other further texts like the Midrash add to their understanding. Buddhists, Hindus and other major and minor religions have their holy or sacred texts.

Each culture that derives their light and knowledge from their respective books have results and cultures that they produce.

As Jesus says, by their fruits ye shall know them.

Are Mormons representational of their holy books?

Is there a relationship that Latter-day Saints have with their peculiar holy texts?

I think that they do possess this special contract.

More later...