I was reading through some sites today when I came across a blog mentioning that five of the voters of the Baseball Writers Association did not vote this year. Big deal right?
This isn’t five voters who forgot to vote, they intentionally turned in blank ballots. Why? We don’t know all of the reasons why except for one guy, Jay Mariotti.
I didn’t vote for anybody in the baseball hall of fame this year. Ya know why? To me…the first ballot is sacred. I think Roberto Alomar is an eventual Hall of Famer, not the first time. Edgar Martinez, designated hitter, eventually, but not the first time. Same goes for maybe Fred McGriff. As far as Blyleven and Dawson…if they haven’t gotten in for years and years I cannot vote them in now. Ripken, Rickey Henderson and Gwynn. They are true first ballot Hall of Famers, but I didn’t vote for anybody, throw me out of the Baseball Writers. I don’t care. SOURCE
Wow, I’m sure that was a great reason.
Personally, I can’t believe that five voters who have a pretty big responsibility didn’t have the consideration to at least vote. If they don’t want to vote, they should give the responsibility to someone who does care about the Baseball Hall of Fame. For crying out loud, Jay even asked to be kicked out. Please, someone do it.
Why is this significant, ask Bert Blyleven about how he feels about missing out on the Hall of Fame for the 13th time. Guess how many votes he needed to get in?
5
I can’t believe that five people don’t think that following baseball players were worthy of the Hall of Fame, at all:
All are All-Star calibre players that any manager would have loved to have on their team. Great players whose names any baseball fan knows. Are they all worthy of the Hall of Fame, no, but you can’t tell me that none of these players deserve to get in. I also don’t think it’s right to leave the ballot blank just because you want to make a statement.
Something needs to be done about the Hall of Fame voting.
It’s been 9 years, but former Cub great, Andre Dawson, has finally made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I am very happy about the news. Last year, I posted about my disappointment that he didn’t make it.
Dawson’s numbers were not staggering, especially when compared to the juiced ball era that we are coming out of. His lack of any dominating category explains why he wasn’t a first year Hall of Fame player. He got in by how he played.
Dawson began his career in Montreal with the Expos, now the Washington Nationals. Early in his career, Dawson was known for his speed and great hitting. He and Tim Raines were a lethal pair. Unfortunately, the artificial turf in Olympic Statium destroyed his knees, and he was unable to run like he did in his early years. Throughout the rest of his career, his knees bothered him. Dawson’s problems with his knees started from high school football. He added power to his skill set to offset his lack of speed.
After playing on the turf for 11 years in Montreal, he had to move. Montreal was not going to resign him as they were afraid of the condition of his knees. Most teams were unsure of his knees and were hesitant to sign him. Dawson also knew he had to get back onto playing on the grass. He talked with the Cubs to ask if they would sign him, and they did. He just wanted to play, and he told the Cubs he would play for what ever they wanted to pay him. He got paid $500,000 that year, compared to $1.2 M the previous year. That season (1987), he then went on to turn in his MVP season for a Cub team that went on to be last place in their division that year. That year he led the league in Total Bases (353), HR’s (49) and RBI’s (137). MVP’s typically get picked from winning teams, but Dawson played so well, he was able to secure the honor despite his team’s lack of success.
I can remember watching him play on WGN as a kid. He was a great player, a steady clean up hitter. He struck out a lot, but could hit. My favorite thing about Dawson was watching his fielding. He played right field in Wrigley. The winds in Wrigley make it one of the toughest right fields to play. I remember watching him throw runners out with is powerful arm. My favorite was when he would charge a hard hit single and throw out the runner at first because the runner wasn’t hustling. The Wrigley faithful respected him. The bleacher bums in right would bow down as he would take his position.
Dawson’s teammates spoke highly of him. Although his knees hurt constantly and limited his potential, he didn’t complain and he didn’t let his knees stop him from giving 100%.
I decided to write a blog post to tell the tale of my getting married and the events around it. I’m sure some would love to read about it, and it makes for a good way for me to chronicle it for some day in the future for me. Pictures surrounding this epic tale can be found here. The tale of the engagement can be found on a previous blog post. The wedding date was September 27, 2009 to Wendy Millington. I decided years ago that for my bachelor’s party, that I wanted to go on a backpacking trip with my friends. So, I invited some of my backpacking buddies to go with me on a my trip. My brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Ramsey, were able to make the trip out here. Both of them were groomsmen in my wedding as well. The trip was to be known as the Bad Ass Bachelor Backpacking Adventure (BABBA). The plan was for us to go to Rocky Mountain National Park in North Central CO for a 5 day backpacking trip. I had poured over a map looking for a good loop route that we could take that wouldn’t be too tough on those coming from lower elevation. I had finally found my route. We were going to start on the Grand Lake side of the park, work our way up to the Continental Divide, and then back down to the North Inlet to put us back where we started. Chris made a nice profile of the trip co_trip
I had flown out to Salt Lake City to visit with Wendy the week before the trip. The house we had signed a contract on had a shady realtor who signed another contract on the house. This had put our house hunt on delay as we had hoped to close on the house on my trip out there. We found another one and we just had to wait for everything to go through. While out there, Wendy picked up cold from one of her patients which she happily passed along to me. We both hoped to be well in time for our wedding. I was more worried about being able to hack it on the trail.
The day I flew back into Denver, Chris and Ramsey both also flew in. I was to arrive within an hour of both of them getting there to try to ensure a small wait time. Southwest was late getting me there by about an hour. Once we all met up, we headed to my car. I had checked the weather before I left Salt Lake and discovered that the weather had gone from beautiful with highs in the 70’s to snow starting the day we were to hit the trail. Ramsey was from FL and didn’t even own a pair of blue jeans. He had his cold weather sleeping bag though. Chris was from VA. I had told him he wouldn’t need his arctic gear as it was beautiful weather. So much for that. Continue reading “The BIG Change”
Wow, what a year. Last year left off with Wendy and I going to visit each other’s families for Christmas. Now we are married! Lots of good changes have happened.
I proposed to Wendy in May of 2009. We got married Sept 27, 2009 in Evergreen, CO. The wedding was perfect. It was an outdoor wedding with great weather and we had lots of family and friends come to celebrate our day with us. Afterwards we went to Hawaii for 10 days for our honeymoon. We had a great time. The highlight for me was the helicopter tour. For my bachelor’s party, my brother Chris, and a good friend from college, Ramsey, came out to CO with me to do a backpacking trip. The weather didn’t cooperate, so we had to alter our plans, but we had a great time.
I had to resign from my EMT job at the ambulance company, Pridemark, when I moved. It has been an adjustment for me not having a job. I’m in the process of trying to get my EMT certification here in UT so I an get another job. So far, not going so well, but I’ll keep trying at it. I still am pursuing my dream of being a firefighter.
I had the privilege to work with some more great partners this last year at Pridemark. There are some great people who are in the business of EMS and Fire. I rotated through three full time paramedic partners this year, two of them who had just finished paramedic school. Bryan and I had started working together last year, and he found a job with another agency earlier this year. He too was a Boy Scout and a computer geek. We had a good time talking about common interests. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of good calls together. My second partner was just out of paramedic school, but had been a long time EMT at Pridemark. Pierre was a black cloud of death (we call people who attract lots of calls black clouds and those who don’t attract them white clouds). I got to see a lot of great stuff working with him. It was also nice to have some one who had an almost identical mindset on work, politics, etc. Deb was my third partner, and we unfortunately didn’t get to work very long but she was also a great partner. She had a very sweet personality and was also a very smart medic. She made some schedule changes for me so that I could have a good partner to finish off my time at Pridemark. Unfortunately, she got really sick my last week at work and had to go into the hospital. She’s better now, but she had us all scared there for a while. The most impressive thing about it was watching how the Pridemark family stepped up to help out during this time. I can only hope that I will ever be able to work with a group of people like that again. Definitely good people. It was actually a good way to go out as it helped reinforce to me how great the people were that I had been working with the last few years.
It was sad to leave behind friends and everything that I loved about CO, but I believe it was well worth it to finally be married and living in the same town with Wendy (we had known each other for 12 years). I will be returning to Denver for a few days in late January for the Children’s Hospital EMS conference. It will be good to get to see friends then.
Wendy is still working for Kidscare as an urgent care pediatrician. She really loves her job and the people she works with.
We bought a house in Sandy, UT which is a suburb of Salt Lake City. We really like the house. It has a great backyard, and lots of space inside too. I’m excited about have a home to take care of. The neighbors seem friendly, and the street is very quiet. One of the neighbors told me he can be at the ski resort in 13 minutes from his house. Wow, guess I better learn how to ski. I didn’t get much biking in before the weather got cold. I guess its part of getting old that I don’t like to bike when it gets below 40F. There seems to be good places to bike. About a mile from our house, one of the canyons starts winding its way up into the mountains. I’m excited about exploring new rides around here. There seems to be a lot of people who bike here in the warmer weather too.
This week, I got to check another thing off my list. As many of you know, I’ve been wanting another dog since I left MS. Monday, we drove up to Idaho to an animal shelter and adopted Maddie. Maddie is a 4 year old black and tan German Shepherd dog. We were lucky to find a full blooded GSD in a shelter. The family who owned her said she was chasing the neighbor’s cows and was afraid she would get shot. She is a fantastic dog. Really smart and sweet. Wendy and I are really happy to add her to our family. Benjamin, the cat, isn’t quite as excited about it as we are, but we are working on it.
This year, Wendy and I decided to stay at home or the holidays. Between her work schedule and us getting settled into our new home as newlyweds, we thought it would just be best to stay here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have to admit, I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of the airport around this time. We decorated the house and are planning to cook a big dinner tonight. We are excited to be celebrating the holidays in our new home and starting our own family traditions.
As always, our home is open to visitors who want to make their way to the land of Utah.
Today, my grandfather would have been 98. He was born 11/11/1911. He fought in WW2 in N. Africa, Sicily, and Italy. He was a a Lieutenant in the Army with the artillery. His CO was killed early on, and he stepped up to take over without ever getting a promotion until he got back home. My grandmother told me stories about how he flew in a little single engine airplane over the enemy lines to see where the targets were and where his artillery was falling. She said that when he got home, every time a plane flew over during the night, he would throw her on the floor with him on top of her because of the air raids that he had lived through. They decided not to get married until after he got back from the war in case he didn’t. My grandmother waited for him to return. I still have his cast iron helmet with it’s insignia on it. I treasure it. He rarely spoke of his experiences, but knowing my grandfather, he served with distinction, honor, and integrity.
My family has served in the military for a long time. Our last name used to be Cutting. Not quite sure when or why, but it changed to Cotting. We have records in our genealogy that tell of a Lt. Cutting who served with General Washington during the Revolutionary War. In the Civil war, a Colonel John Mosby CSA, led a famous group known as Mosby’s Rangers (Raiders) to fight against the Union. He was also a relative of mine. My grandfather’s brother (my great uncle) was in the Navy in the Pacific during WW2. My father served part time in the Air National Guard for 20 years. He started during Vietnam. His brother, my uncle, also served in the Army during Vietnam.
I’m so thankful for everyone that has ever served to protect my freedoms. From the Revolutionary war to today. Many have gone to the Alter of Freedom so that I could enjoy a life of freedom. Some returned, too many did not, but they were brave enough to go. Most of them don’t have a clue who I am, but they went anyway.
I hope that their sacrifice isn’t wasted. People in power don’t seem to realize what a country of freedom stands for. It doesn’t need all of their rules and regulations that they seem to think. I don’t need the government to tell me what is best for me. That is the opposite of freedom.
On August 30, 2009, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal requested more troops for the fight in Afghanistan. Obama has yet to give an answer. I personally believe this is irresponsible to be so indecisive. I can respect the notion of how difficult it must be to send our troops to fight and die. I can not respect the indecisiveness of a leader. This wasn’t his first time to hesitate when we needed him to pull the trigger. Anyone remember the pirates?
Our service men and women are the best in the world. Lets keep them that way and thank them for all they have done and will do.
I recently got to attend all four games of the Rockies vs Cubs series here in Denver. I was quite disappointed with it. Below is a letter I wrote to the Cubs, not that I expect to hear anything back.
Dear Cubs, I have been waiting with anticipation all year for my beloved Cubs to come to Denver to play baseball. I even took time off from work just so I could see all four games of the series. And I paid a lot of money for some of the tickets I got. Imagine to my surprise throughout this four game series, I didn’t get what I paid for. I paid to watch a Major League Baseball team play world class caliber baseball. What I got instead was a bunch of bush league baseball play that certainly was not the product I paid for. I only got to see one major league starting pitcher, Ryan Dempster, pitch well. Zambrano was scratched and the starter for that night only lasted two innings. Randy Wells, a rookie, was beaten up. And Gorzelanny couldn’t get out of the second inning before he got injured. He was then replaced by some minor leaguer. The defense was atrocious. It looked like the bad news bears out there. Do the Cubs even understand that the large brown leather thing on their hand is where the ball is supposed to go when the ball is hit at them? Do they understand that when runners are on base, they are supposed to drive them in? Does Soriano understand that he is paid to hustle, not lollie gag around the outfield chasing butterflies and hopping every time he makes a catch? And if the Cubs are so interested in winning, then why in the top of the 9th inning while the Cubs were rallying did Lee get lifted for Fontenot as a pinch hitter? Seriously, Jeff Baker was the best you could do for 2B? He’s not even hitting above the Mendoza line. I sat behind one of the Rockies executives on Monday night and he just laughed when Baker came up to bat. He said they were glad to get rid of him. So, the purpose of this mail is that I am asking for my money back. You miss advertised and I bought a product that was labeled on thing, and I got something that was of a much worse quality. If the Cubs come back to Denver again, please make sure to inform fans if this is their B team or their A team. If I am going to go to a game to watch minor league baseball, I would rather pay minor league prices to see it.
I think Bill O’Reilly makes a great point for how liberals self contradict themselves in saying they are for human rights. I have been told that I can not be pro-life as I am for the death penalty. I don’t think that is the same argument, and I sure some would try to argue the use of “torture” against terrorist is not the same argument as murdering unborn children.
Of course, I don’t see how you can call water boarding someone torture. Is it uncomfortable and scary? Yeah, it is, but it does not do anything to maim or permanently damage or scar someone for life. It’s just harsh treatment. The reason water boarding worked so well is because the terrorists thought they were going to die, but they weren’t. Hoping it would save their life, they spilled the beans. Now that that secret is out of the bag, we will have to resort to other measures that will be less effective.
O’Reilly makes a good argument. What is more important and a larger human rights violation:
Making life unpleasant for a short while for three enemy combatants against the US
Killing thousands of unborn babies for profit
Which topic gets more coverage from NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, the New York Times, and any other large media outlet? Food for thought.
I went to Salt Lake City, UT for my monthly visit with Wendy. We didn’t have much planned, but wanted to just enjoy time visiting. I guess I should preface this with a synopsis of our relationship so far.
Wendy and I first met in 1997 when we were working at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico as Mountain Trek Rangers. I took an interest in her that summer, but never did anything about it. We stayed in contact, worked a few more summers together. I never made a move, and she did not realize I was interested. Fast forward to the Summer of 2003. Wendy was working at Philmont doing one of her medical school rotations as a 3rd year Med student there in the Health Lodge. I did not work at Philmont that summer, but I finally got up the nerve to write her a letter to tell her how I felt about her and that I was interested in dating. Up to this point, we had never lived in the same town (except for Philmont). We started talking on the phone once a week or so over the next few years while we both lived our lives in separate parts of the country. We continued this way for a while, never actually saying that we were a dating couple. Finally in March of 2006, I decided to issue an ultimatum, that we were either a couple, or we needed to move on. Well, we decided to be a dating couple at that point. Time continued to drag on with her living in Salt Lake City, and me living in Denver. We would visit and call on the phone as often as we could. We both had things to work out before we were ready to get married. At some point, we realized that we were made for each other. Unfortunately, we both liked where we were living and neither one of us wanted to give that up. So, we were locked in a stalemate as to who was going to move, and if no one moved, then our relationship was never going to continue to grow.
Over Christmas, my dad offered me a diamond that had been in the family. Me driving an ambulance was going to make it very difficult to be able to afford much of a diamond. Thankfully, I had this option. So I used the diamond to get a ring for Wendy earlier this year. I had told Wendy that I wasn’t going to propose to her until we had decided on where to live. She really enjoys her job as a pediatrician at an Urgent Care. I really like the town of Denver, and I am established with my job. Wendy was offered a job as an Urgent Care Pediatrician here in Denver. Unfortunately, the job wasn’t what she was really looking for. I realize that my job is a lot less important and that I was not as established in my town as Wendy was in hers. I also wanted to make sure she was going to happy. I know she’s happy now, and I don’t want to change that. After talking to a lot of people, I was convinced that me moving to Salt Lake was the right thing to do.
That brings us back to this last visit. I brought the ring with me, because I thought this might be a good opportunity. I knew we needed to make a decision on where we were going to live before I left. So, on Monday night, May 11th, we ate at Olive Garden. I had hoped to maybe do something with a sunset or something, but it was too late in the evening. We walked across the street to Sugarhouse Park. We walked around for a little while, and then I proposed to her. The proposal itself was kinda funny, but that’s not something I’m going to publish on the Internet for the whole world to see. Anyway, when I proposed to her I told her that I would move to Salt Lake.
As for now, we don’t have a date for the ceremony yet. We are hoping maybe sometime in the fall, maybe in October. We want to do it in Colorado, maybe at one of the resorts. Anyway, we have a lot of planning to do before it happens. We are both very happy and excited about this. We are looking forward to owning our own home and I am looking forward to finally getting a dog again.
In January, I made my monthly trip to Salt Lake City to visit Wendy, my girlfriend. She is a huge fan of Sundance Film Festival. Its an OK event for me, but she is a huge fan. I went last year, and the movies are weird. There’s no Matrix or Transformers or Batman type movies, you know, good guy movies that I like. So, I wasn’t expecting it to be too great, but I went because I enjoy seeing her happy. She knows I’m not all that artsy about this stuff, so she did her best to pick movies I might like. I think she did a pretty great job.
The first movie we saw was called Taking Chance (IMDB). It stars Kevin Bacon and the movie is being put out by HBO. I have to say, I never thought I would have enjoyed a movie at Sun Dance as much as I liked this one. Straight up I’ll admit, I cried like a baby during this movie. It is really moving. It is about a US Marine Corps Lt. Colonel who volunteers for what is known as escort duty. This is something I was not aware of that happens. Escort Duty is where the remains of our fallen warriors are returned to the family in the US with a member of that branch of the service who is of equal or greater rank. The movie is based on the true story of Lt.Col. Michael Strobl who escorted the remains of LCpl Chance Phelps from Dover, DE to his home in Dubois, WY. Chance was killed in Iraq April 9, 2004, serving his country.
I can not do justice for the way the movie presents the care, dignity, and respect that is shown for the remains of America’s fallen warriors, as they are returned home. The person assigned escort duty stays with the remains throughout the journey until the fallen has been returned home.
After the movie was over, the director, Kevin Bacon, Lt.Col Strobl, and a few others involved with the making of the movie were on stage to answer questions from the audience. Lt.Col Strobl appeared to be a very humble man.
I don’t care if you are pro war, anti war, Republican, Democrat, independent, or what ever your view on the world is. If you are a citizen who enjoys the freedoms of living in the United States, you should really see this movie. It makes you proud to be a part of this country and grateful for the sacrifice that so many have given so you can have freedoms.
When I first realized what the movie was about, I had a sinking feeling in my gut that this was going to be someone’s tirade of how bad the war in Iraq is and that we shouldn’t be over there. Absolutely nothing about that viewpoint was made. This movie was completely apolitical. The director, Ross Katz, did an excellent job of making an unbiased movie that portrays the honor our troops receive after they have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
If you can’t see it on HBO, I’m sure it will be out on DVD some day, maybe even in theatres. Regardless, make an effort to see it.
