So I was going to blog about this today, but I never got around to it. Turns out Mike beat me to it.
So…yeah. What he said.
Sunny and I were watching this last night live. I kept saying, “He’s not going to catch him, he’s not going to catch him.” I know, call me Doubting Thomas. I’m glad I was wrong.
This month, Baseball Tonight is ranking the top players in each MLB franchise’s history. Follow this link and you can vote from among several all-time greats on each team to help determine each club’s “Franchise Player”. For a baseball geek like me, this is just my kind of thing. In case you’re wondering, here’s my ballot.
Cards – Musial. At least for now. In 10 years, it’ll probably be Pujols. But for now, Stan’s the Man.
Reds – My gut says Bench, but this is tough. Morgan was great; according to Bill James, the greatest 2B of all-time. But I dock him points for his insipid television commentary. Frank Robinson also deserves consideration. Ultimately, though, these two also did significant damage with other clubs. Bench gets the nod.
White Sox – Eddie Collins, the 2nd greatest 2B of all-time.
Giants – This is impossible. Matthewson, McCovey, Ott, Mays. The Giants have had some great players. But you absolutely have to vote for Bonds. If you don’t, you’re crazy.
Blue Jays – What, no Garth Iorg? Kelly Gruber? There’s no real clear-cut choice here, so I’ll go with Delgado since he was there for a decade.
Astros – Bagwell.
Nats / Expos – Tim Raines. Man, the Expos had some talent. How come they never won?
Cubs – Ernie Banks.
Brewers – This is a close call with Yount and Molitor. I’ll take Yount because he played the field more regularly.
Diamondbacks – This is where it gets absurd. Randy Johnson, but who really cares?
Padres – Gwynn, with a nod to Hoffman.
Marlins – Pick ’em. I went with Conine simply because he’s known as “Mr. Marlin”. That has to be the lamest nickname ever.
Royals – Brett. Why even put anybody else on the list?
Pirates – Honus Wagner, although I really wanted to vote for Clemente.
Devil Rays – Again, who cares? Carl Crawford, I guess.
Angels – This is another one without a clear cut favorite. I haven’t looked at the numbers, but I imagine Garrett Anderson and Tim Salmon have similar career numbers. I’ll go with Salmon simply because he has a few years on Anderson.
Senators / Twins – I kind of wish they could split this one. It’s hard not to vote for Walter Johnson, but he played in a different era. He’d get my Senators vote and Kirby would get my Twins vote.
Indians – This is one classic franchise that doesn’t have that one all-time great, in my opinion. I guess you could argue for Feller or Lajoie, but I’m going with Larry Doby for his contribution to help integrate MLB. He’s considered the “American League’s Jackie Robinson”.
Mariners – Griffey.
Mets – Another tough one. I’ll go with Seaver, though. Random thought: Do any of you remember when Gregg Jeffries’ rookie card was worth like $20? Everybody thought he was the second coming of Pete Rose back in the late ’80s. Too bad he couldn’t even beat out Wally Backman for the starting 2B job.
Rockies – Helton. Go Vols.
A’s – I think there are four deserving candidates here: Henderson, Foxx, Reggie, and Simmons. Just for argument’s sake, I’ll say Rickey, although several of his best years came with other clubs.
Orioles – Ripken, with Murray receiving an honorable mention.
Tigers – Cobb. No brainer.
Rangers – Nolan Ryan is probably more identifiable with this club than anybody else, but I think Juan Gone is the choice here.
Braves – Aaron. No brainer.
Phillies – Schmidt. Greatest 3B of all-time.
Red Sox – This is an impressive list. The Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams, is by far the choice, though.
Yankees – Another slam dunk, in my opinion. Ruth is the greatest player who ever lived. The real question is who ranks #2 on this list? DiMaggio? Mantle? Gehrig? I’m tempted to give DiMaggio the slightest nod over Gehrig, but not by much.
Dodgers – Although his career was cut short by injury, Koufax was absolutely the best pitcher ever for about a six-year stretch there. I thought long and hard about Jackie here, but my gut says Koufax was greater, if even for a shorter period of time.
Your thoughts?
I think we’re going to have to institute a code of radio silence regarding our ghost. Apparently he didn’t like me going public with his antics.
Each of the past two mornings, we awoke to find that our baby monitor had been turned off.
If you’ve ever had a baby monitor, you know they can be pretty creepy in and of themselves. Random bleeps and sounds. Strange voices coming through the static. Out-of-nowhere noises in the middle of the night.
Add a playful ghost to the mix and I’m officially freaked out.
So…we have a ghost in our house.
At least he / she / it seems to be of the friendly variety.
I’m not Fox Mulder here; I don’t want to believe. But the evidence leaves me no other option.
When we moved into this house a year and a half ago, Sunny and I both started having these weird experiences. We noticed that when we were each alone in the house, we’d invariably get the feeling that someone was in the house with us. You know that sound that someone’s feet make when they’re walking across the kitchen tile? I’d hear that when I’d be here at the house all by myself. About two weeks ago, I promise you I heard a woman’s voice whisper “Hey” while I was watching Baseball Tonight in the living room. I honestly thought Sunny was playing a joke on me or something.
About two weeks ago, Sunny was here at the house one afternoon. All three kids were down for naps and she was in the study working on some school work. Outside the study we have some pictures of the kids hanging on the wall. All is quiet in the house; no one is slamming any doors; nobody stomping through the house. A rare moment of calm….interrupted by the sounding of breaking glass. This picture of Jackson, which had been hanging on our wall for the past 7 months or so, just falls off the wall. All by itself. Nail still hanging in the wall; hanging apparatus on the back of the picture still intact.
Of course, when the glass hits the tile, it shatters into a million pieces, shattering the silence in the house along with it. Before Sunny can even grab a broom to sweep up the shards, everyone in the house is awake. And cranky.
Our ghost is a mischievous little devil. Why else disrupt the peaceful slumber of the Bybee children?
Still not convinced? Last week, Sunny and the kids went up to Nashville on Tuesday night. I stayed back for a couple of days before driving up to join them on Thursday night. 
Which means I spent two nights here alone. Wednesday morning, I get up and get ready for work just like any normal morning. I’m shaving at the bathroom sink when I hear this crashing sound in our shower. Our shampoo bottle has fallen down. No biggie; I simply put it back in its place. Not five minutes later, while I’m still shaving, the shampoo bottle falls down again. Not only is our ghost mischievous, he’s persistent, too. Before he can bewitch me a third time, I take the shampoo bottle and sit it on the counter next to me. “If you do it a third time,” I tell him, “you’re gonna have to do it right here in front of my eyes. Come and get it, Casper.” Intimidated, our ghost retreats to more specter-friendly confines.
Until last night. At approximately 4:30am, Sunny and I awoke to the same crashing sound in our bathroom. Adrenaline pumping, I rush to the bathroom and flip on the light to find our shampoo bottle lying on the floor outside the shower, mocking me.
Touché, Casper.
Looks like this is shaping up to be YouTube week here on this blog. I have a few more “Big Story” videos I want to post, but I couldn’t resist doing another kids one. Last night Sunny turned the camera on to give everybody a sneak peek at Joshua and Abby Kate singing their new favorite song, “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys. The first part is nice; for some reason, the second half of the song turns into a mosh pit. Watch for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Jackson (who grins really big behind that pacy before disappearing). Sunny also captured Abby Kate doing her books of the Bible.
I humbly give you, “Life at Our House Just Before Bedtime!”
The following is a poem from the pen of Oscar Romero. I calls me to evaluate the idols of self-importance and busyness that I’ve created. It reminds me of my place as worker, not master builder. I hope it will bless you as much as it has blessed me today.
Prophets of a Future Not Our Own
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
It is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
Of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
Which is another way of saying that
The Kingdom always lies beyond us.No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
Knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete,
But it is a beginning,
A step along the way,
An opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.We may never see the end results,
But that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.
What is the Gospel?
For too long, the Gospel has been reduced to a series of propositional doctrinal statements one must intellectually assent to in order to experience personal forgiveness of sin and receive the promise of going to some sort of ethereal, non-material, spiritual “heaven” after death. While it is impossible to ignore the implications of the Gospel on a personal level and it’s attendant benefits, this treatise is an attempt to recover a more holistic understanding of the Gospel in light of its corporate elements that have implications not only for eternity but also for the present reality of Christian existence.
Gospel Defined: The Gospel is the story of God’s activity in salvation history to reconcile creation to God as revealed in Scripture. From creation to the call of Abraham, from exodus to exile, from Christ to church to consummation, God has been at work in the course of human history to bring about salvation. Salvation occurs when the Gospel is both encountered and embodied in the life of the believing community.
The following core concepts contribute to this definition of Gospel:
Anybody watch last night’s 15-inning All-Star marathon game? Everybody was all up in arms a few years ago when the Mid-Summer Classic ended in a tie. In light of last night’s yawner, that seems like an act of grace.
Here’s an idea to keep us from someday seeing position players pitch in an All-Star Game: in the event of a tie, each team chooses one representative for a 5-out Home Run Derby contest to determine the winner. How great would it have been to see Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols duke it out after 9 innings? No bullpens get burned up, you don’t further risk injury playing extra innings in a (practically) meaningless game…I’m no Bud Selig, but I don’t see the problem here. It’s better than a 15-inning slogfest that ends at 1:45am after half the crowd has long headed for the turnstiles.
And while we’re at it, can we get rid of the silly “winner gets home field in the Series” stuff? Please.
already & not yet 