So I was anxiously awaiting the call last night from Dan after his games yesterday. After how well he did down in Florida and then going 0-6 in the two games played last week I was a little worried that his streak had come to an end. Well, the streak had but that didn't mean his hitting had come to an end. I just didn't want to focus too much on it.
I got the call around 9:00 and in typical Dan fashion he beat around the bush for a while telling me the game results, one win and one loss, what position he played, left field, and so forth. I finally asked how he hit and he told me, again quite too casually about hitting either 3 or 4 for 6 with 2 walks. He then said, "Dad, I have something for you." "What is that?" I asked. "A home run ball," he replied.
I went crazy of course, "No you didn't!, No you didn't" I remember shouting into the phone. Maybe the young man is the real deal after all. I was quietly amazed that he is batting in the clean-up slot since he has never been one that I would call a power hitter. I could see him hitting 1, 2, or 3, but clean-up? Wow! A home run? Amazing! I could just imagine him trotting around the bases. well, running as his coach would never allow grand-standing.
Anyway, he promised the home run ball to me but I may see if he wants to give it to Courtney instead. I would treasure it, of course, but hearing about it from him was something quite special in itself.
OK, I am going to see if they updated the game results and stats on the CHC website by now. Of course it is way too early since they got home late last night but there is nothing wrong with being impulsive.
Before I close I should mention Steve as he has been eclipsed a little lately. The week of such good news about Dan was also met with equally bad news about Steve in that he has Mono. He is side-lined for at least a couple of weeks and this the week before his high school baseball season starts. He was doing so well in his preparation for his sophomore year so the news was quite devastating.
I did take him yesterday to watch his high school team play against Lawrenceville Prep and he seemed to have fun getting out of the house for the first time since Thursday. Both the JV and Varsity lost their games and the coaches really need Steve back on the team to pitch and play. He has to take it slow, though, to make certain there is no complication or relapse. I hope he will be able to play some within two weeks.
OK, that's it for now. That is my baseball report for the baseball that matters the most to me. Great news, tough news, but what is great with baseball you get to play again, and again, and again. Love you Dan, love you Steve for your triumphs and trials and yes, love you Vincent for the accomplishments that are ahead of you. In baseball or in life.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Dan's article, Dan's accomplishment
What can I say? What can I write? Rookie of the Week for the entire freaking conference? Has at least one hit in every game of the 7 game spring trip to Florida. I will have to check to see that he may have hit safely in every game he has played so far this year. A consecutive game hitting streak? WOW! Pinch me. More importantly stop me, don't jinx a streak. Everyone in baseball knows that.
I can only imagine what is going through Dan's head. He was so funny on Sunday when we were having lunch. So laid-back, so calm and within himself. So Dan. Two things are worth writing down to commit to the future.
"Dad, you know I figured it out?" Dan said.
"Figured out what?" I asked.
"I just hit fastballs. That is the secret" he replied.
"Oh, OK, That sounds simple," I remarked, amazed that he could figure something out that sounded so simple but others have such a problem with. Just hit the fastballs. It makes sense. Why would anyone ever want to hit something curvy or slurvy or slidey or sinky or changey? Just hit the fastballs. Hear that major league guys?
The other one was about his pre-at-bat routine. This one he told me he shared with a player friend who was struggling at bat and asked for advice. He told his friend, "put the Bratt's bat on the left side of the warm-up circle, put the regular bat on the right side. Swing the Bratt's bat five times in a circle with the left arm and then five times with the right. Take three swings with the Bratt's bat, then two swings with the regular bat and then go in and get a hit."
With that action he is showing what seasoned athletes do in establishing a routine and regimen that brings forward the ability to focus completely. Who taught him that? Not me, not coaches, no one, he figured this out himself because it makes sense to him. He very easily enters the moment and that is what success in his sport is all about. Entering the moment at the plate where there is nothing but him and the pitcher, even remove the pitcher and it's just him and the ball. Here comes the fastball that he is looking for and sees with his spectacular vision and "bam" there the ball goes. And run to first base really fast. Like I said before, simply amazing.
The great afterword is that he said the friend took his advice and not only went three for three in batting, he also played much better defensively after struggling before. And that is Dan, too, completely unselfish. Love you, Dan. Keep doing what you are doing, keep being Dan.
I can only imagine what is going through Dan's head. He was so funny on Sunday when we were having lunch. So laid-back, so calm and within himself. So Dan. Two things are worth writing down to commit to the future.
"Dad, you know I figured it out?" Dan said.
"Figured out what?" I asked.
"I just hit fastballs. That is the secret" he replied.
"Oh, OK, That sounds simple," I remarked, amazed that he could figure something out that sounded so simple but others have such a problem with. Just hit the fastballs. It makes sense. Why would anyone ever want to hit something curvy or slurvy or slidey or sinky or changey? Just hit the fastballs. Hear that major league guys?
The other one was about his pre-at-bat routine. This one he told me he shared with a player friend who was struggling at bat and asked for advice. He told his friend, "put the Bratt's bat on the left side of the warm-up circle, put the regular bat on the right side. Swing the Bratt's bat five times in a circle with the left arm and then five times with the right. Take three swings with the Bratt's bat, then two swings with the regular bat and then go in and get a hit."
With that action he is showing what seasoned athletes do in establishing a routine and regimen that brings forward the ability to focus completely. Who taught him that? Not me, not coaches, no one, he figured this out himself because it makes sense to him. He very easily enters the moment and that is what success in his sport is all about. Entering the moment at the plate where there is nothing but him and the pitcher, even remove the pitcher and it's just him and the ball. Here comes the fastball that he is looking for and sees with his spectacular vision and "bam" there the ball goes. And run to first base really fast. Like I said before, simply amazing.
The great afterword is that he said the friend took his advice and not only went three for three in batting, he also played much better defensively after struggling before. And that is Dan, too, completely unselfish. Love you, Dan. Keep doing what you are doing, keep being Dan.
Amazing Dan
Now here is a truly amazing thing. Check out this article about Dan Etherton being the Rookie of the Week for his college baseball conference.
http://www.chc.edu/page_template.asp?section=1&file=592_Baseball_News#3_18_2008
Dan, I am very proud of you!
http://www.chc.edu/page_template.asp?section=1&file=592_Baseball_News#3_18_2008
Dan, I am very proud of you!
How to Keep Up? How to Get Ahead?
As I am riding the train this morning doing a little computing work I am puzzling over the questions of How to Keep Up and How to Get Ahead? What I mean by those questions is how to get the information that is meaningful to prevent becoming obsolete and also how to use that information to get ahead.
It's all about knowledge. Information. Not simply data blasted at you from a variety of sources. I have somewhat of an advantage because one of my strengths is INPUT. It is true that I seek input by the truckload. Much of it can be quite random and useless if I let it. I like to read science fiction. I like to watch cooking shows. I like to watch shows about how to make things, how things work, and the way things got to be the way things are. I like to discover, learn, and understand. Mostly I like to synthesize new understanding or new application of knowledge.
But how can I possibly keep up? I am a member of about a dozen list-servs offering information daily about IT, leadership, management, and a variety of other topics. My email is regularly overloaded with snippets of information I hate to filter out but I rarely have enough time to review or read. I feel like I am drinking from a fire-hose of data, knowing there is important stuff in there if I had the way to process it better, not just faster but with more depth of understanding.
Maybe there should be a page rank value assigned to data or information so a person could know better what the value is of the data coming in. Who knows? If anyone out there in blog-land has ideas, let us know. For now, I have to continue trying to sift and sift and sift. The image of the gold prospector comes to mind. It seems I am sifting the Sahara Desert, though. With more and more coming each and every day.
It's all about knowledge. Information. Not simply data blasted at you from a variety of sources. I have somewhat of an advantage because one of my strengths is INPUT. It is true that I seek input by the truckload. Much of it can be quite random and useless if I let it. I like to read science fiction. I like to watch cooking shows. I like to watch shows about how to make things, how things work, and the way things got to be the way things are. I like to discover, learn, and understand. Mostly I like to synthesize new understanding or new application of knowledge.
But how can I possibly keep up? I am a member of about a dozen list-servs offering information daily about IT, leadership, management, and a variety of other topics. My email is regularly overloaded with snippets of information I hate to filter out but I rarely have enough time to review or read. I feel like I am drinking from a fire-hose of data, knowing there is important stuff in there if I had the way to process it better, not just faster but with more depth of understanding.
Maybe there should be a page rank value assigned to data or information so a person could know better what the value is of the data coming in. Who knows? If anyone out there in blog-land has ideas, let us know. For now, I have to continue trying to sift and sift and sift. The image of the gold prospector comes to mind. It seems I am sifting the Sahara Desert, though. With more and more coming each and every day.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Heading to Baseball
It's Friday and I am heading to baseball!
What a great thing. If the rain will hold off and the train will hurry to station and the traffic will cooperate I will be watching my son Steve play baseball for the first time this year. What a great and wonderful thing!
I was able to get to the train station to make an early enough train to be able to see him play his first game with his JV team at Princeton High School.
I'll report more later but need to close now to prepare to sprint to the car and head to the field. Happy weekend everyone!
6:45 AM - Report of the game from the following day
To continue, was first to the car, traffic cooperated, the evening was beautiful, and I made it to the Princeton Valley Road field in time to see Steve make the last defensive out of the 2nd inning. He made a play at 3rd base which he later recapped as "the ball hit my foot and kind of stuck so I picked it up and ran three steps to 3rd for the force-out." On thing I love about Steve is his ability to understate (rather than over-dramatize). Another is that he truly does understand the game of baseball and can make the right play from just about any position. Most young people get programmed in to a specific position and have trouble adapting to others.
The timing was perfect for my arrival as I got to see him bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, and although it was a grounder back to the pitcher, it was an at bat that I got to see. Also, he was then able to spend the remainder of the inning warming up for going in to pitch the following inning.
He ended up pitching three solid innings, allowing no runs, no hits, no base-runners, nothing even out of the infield and most hit balls coming back to him for easy put-outs to first base. It was a typical outing for when Steve is throwing strong in that he had hitters off balance, swinging behind his fastball, or pounding the ball into the ground for easily fielded balls by the infielders. He also rung up 3 batters with strike outs.
The PHS JV team ended up winning the game 3-2 with the game going 6 innings and then time ran out. Steve was fortunate to be able to pitch 3 innings this early in the season but his work through February at pitching lessons enabled him to do that with ease. It helps that his pitch count is always low, yesterday he threw only about 30-35 pitches in his three innings. First pitch strike, getting ahead of the hitter, and always being around the strike zone has been Steve's hallmark from since he was 8 years old. A great example was when he got behind a hitter with a 3-1 count and battled back to get the out.
In all, a great 1st outing for Steve to chalk up a win and to build from. His coach talked to me during the game and expects that Steve will be the ace of the JV squad. That is good because I think he will get more play time and have more positive experiences with that coach and team rather than moving up to Varsity too quickly. Maybe he can earn his way up to Varsity for special games when the JV don't play. That is what happened last year between the Freshman team and JV.
Well, that is it for this report. Once again I am glad for having retired from coaching so I can be a full time fan of Steve (and Dan, too). Of course there is the little one on the way up but right now he is only 4).
What a great thing. If the rain will hold off and the train will hurry to station and the traffic will cooperate I will be watching my son Steve play baseball for the first time this year. What a great and wonderful thing!
I was able to get to the train station to make an early enough train to be able to see him play his first game with his JV team at Princeton High School.
I'll report more later but need to close now to prepare to sprint to the car and head to the field. Happy weekend everyone!
6:45 AM - Report of the game from the following day
To continue, was first to the car, traffic cooperated, the evening was beautiful, and I made it to the Princeton Valley Road field in time to see Steve make the last defensive out of the 2nd inning. He made a play at 3rd base which he later recapped as "the ball hit my foot and kind of stuck so I picked it up and ran three steps to 3rd for the force-out." On thing I love about Steve is his ability to understate (rather than over-dramatize). Another is that he truly does understand the game of baseball and can make the right play from just about any position. Most young people get programmed in to a specific position and have trouble adapting to others.
The timing was perfect for my arrival as I got to see him bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, and although it was a grounder back to the pitcher, it was an at bat that I got to see. Also, he was then able to spend the remainder of the inning warming up for going in to pitch the following inning.
He ended up pitching three solid innings, allowing no runs, no hits, no base-runners, nothing even out of the infield and most hit balls coming back to him for easy put-outs to first base. It was a typical outing for when Steve is throwing strong in that he had hitters off balance, swinging behind his fastball, or pounding the ball into the ground for easily fielded balls by the infielders. He also rung up 3 batters with strike outs.
The PHS JV team ended up winning the game 3-2 with the game going 6 innings and then time ran out. Steve was fortunate to be able to pitch 3 innings this early in the season but his work through February at pitching lessons enabled him to do that with ease. It helps that his pitch count is always low, yesterday he threw only about 30-35 pitches in his three innings. First pitch strike, getting ahead of the hitter, and always being around the strike zone has been Steve's hallmark from since he was 8 years old. A great example was when he got behind a hitter with a 3-1 count and battled back to get the out.
In all, a great 1st outing for Steve to chalk up a win and to build from. His coach talked to me during the game and expects that Steve will be the ace of the JV squad. That is good because I think he will get more play time and have more positive experiences with that coach and team rather than moving up to Varsity too quickly. Maybe he can earn his way up to Varsity for special games when the JV don't play. That is what happened last year between the Freshman team and JV.
Well, that is it for this report. Once again I am glad for having retired from coaching so I can be a full time fan of Steve (and Dan, too). Of course there is the little one on the way up but right now he is only 4).
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Tales from the Train - Riding the Train from NYC to Hamilton
I downloaded and activated my Journal software on the new laptop and configured to be able to automatically post to my blog. It is a great thing to combine journaling with blogging as often my blog is like a journal. At least until people start weighing-in on various subjects with comments and opinions.
I don't know if I can use The Journal as a full-featured blog editing tool but I will experiment with the functions that I find most useful. For anyone interested in this software you can locate it at http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal . People may have better software for journaling, particularly within the aspect of online journaling or blogging but this one seems fairly full-featured with what I want it to do.
I like the aspect of it being secure and private, even though I am posting this entry as a blog-article. If anyone know of or has a recommendation for true online journaling software with public view capability as well as private, be sure and let me know.
It is Thursday and I am riding the train from NYC to Hamilton, NJ. I have been liking the 5:30 express train that only stops in Newark Penn Station, Princeton Junction, and Hamilton. It seems to make it out of the city before things get overly congested traffic-wise or overly full people-wise. For a long time I was taking the 6:03 but in addition to it being a busier train, it is normally one of the old types. This 5:30 express is one of the new double-decker trains being operated on the northeast corridor by NJ Transit. A very nice ride for commuting to NYC every weekday.
I was also checking the Chestnut Hill College website for a report of the baseball team's progress through spring training in Florida. Dan has been calling me or text messaging daily with updates but I wanted to check to see his overall stats. It seems his hitting has been doing very good averaging over .500 so I couldn't ask for a better start to his first college season. The Griffins aren't doing all that good as a team with a pre-season record of about 1-6 but Dan is off to a great start.
It is a nice pre-spring day in central NJ and I can't wait for the temps to warm up for actual spring. Steve starts his spring baseball season tomorrow and I can't wait to see him in his games. He indicated he will be playing short stop and will pitch one inning in the first scrimmage tomorrow. I would love to be there to see him but have a budget meeting in the afternoon. Maybe God will smile and make the meeting not happen.
As I write this and prepare to send it to my blog-site, I am reminded about how I began blogging using my Blackberry and Treo. At that time, the Tales from the Train series was much more difficult to write seeing as how I was punching the keys with my thumbs. On this laptop (Dell Latitude D430) I have an almost full sized keyboard and can keyboard much better. Of course one of the good things at least from a reader's perspective was that my articles were fairly short as it was so hard to type on the mobile devices.
I am enjoying this new computer and praise Scott for taking the care to set it up the way he did. It is a smaller and lighter laptop and is easier to pull out quickly and get something written. The other one was just too cumbersome to want to whip out and use during a normal commute. I am working to keep things better organized on this computer and am using various online tools including BaseCamp and Sakai to store things better. I have really enjoyed learning to use Sakai and bringing forward the ideas for a system that incorporates collaborative tools including blogs, wikis, file repository, podcast library, and discussion board. It will do more but those are the main things I have been using for my collaborative system needs.
Well, that is enough for this entry and I will end this to attempt to send it to the blog. I did a test yesterday and it seemed to work fine but we'll see. Have a great evening, everyone. David
I don't know if I can use The Journal as a full-featured blog editing tool but I will experiment with the functions that I find most useful. For anyone interested in this software you can locate it at http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal . People may have better software for journaling, particularly within the aspect of online journaling or blogging but this one seems fairly full-featured with what I want it to do.
I like the aspect of it being secure and private, even though I am posting this entry as a blog-article. If anyone know of or has a recommendation for true online journaling software with public view capability as well as private, be sure and let me know.
It is Thursday and I am riding the train from NYC to Hamilton, NJ. I have been liking the 5:30 express train that only stops in Newark Penn Station, Princeton Junction, and Hamilton. It seems to make it out of the city before things get overly congested traffic-wise or overly full people-wise. For a long time I was taking the 6:03 but in addition to it being a busier train, it is normally one of the old types. This 5:30 express is one of the new double-decker trains being operated on the northeast corridor by NJ Transit. A very nice ride for commuting to NYC every weekday.
I was also checking the Chestnut Hill College website for a report of the baseball team's progress through spring training in Florida. Dan has been calling me or text messaging daily with updates but I wanted to check to see his overall stats. It seems his hitting has been doing very good averaging over .500 so I couldn't ask for a better start to his first college season. The Griffins aren't doing all that good as a team with a pre-season record of about 1-6 but Dan is off to a great start.
It is a nice pre-spring day in central NJ and I can't wait for the temps to warm up for actual spring. Steve starts his spring baseball season tomorrow and I can't wait to see him in his games. He indicated he will be playing short stop and will pitch one inning in the first scrimmage tomorrow. I would love to be there to see him but have a budget meeting in the afternoon. Maybe God will smile and make the meeting not happen.
As I write this and prepare to send it to my blog-site, I am reminded about how I began blogging using my Blackberry and Treo. At that time, the Tales from the Train series was much more difficult to write seeing as how I was punching the keys with my thumbs. On this laptop (Dell Latitude D430) I have an almost full sized keyboard and can keyboard much better. Of course one of the good things at least from a reader's perspective was that my articles were fairly short as it was so hard to type on the mobile devices.
I am enjoying this new computer and praise Scott for taking the care to set it up the way he did. It is a smaller and lighter laptop and is easier to pull out quickly and get something written. The other one was just too cumbersome to want to whip out and use during a normal commute. I am working to keep things better organized on this computer and am using various online tools including BaseCamp and Sakai to store things better. I have really enjoyed learning to use Sakai and bringing forward the ideas for a system that incorporates collaborative tools including blogs, wikis, file repository, podcast library, and discussion board. It will do more but those are the main things I have been using for my collaborative system needs.
Well, that is enough for this entry and I will end this to attempt to send it to the blog. I did a test yesterday and it seemed to work fine but we'll see. Have a great evening, everyone. David
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Nolan Ryan Plaque from MBL Hall of Fame
This is the plaque for Nolan Ryan in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Linda and I went there for my birthday in 2007 and of course I had to search out the items for my favorite baseball player.One interesting aspect is the photo of past and future stars which had Roger Clemens in the foreground and Nolan Ryan in the background. I wonder now if the Rocket will make it into the Hall.
I hope they take his record into account prior to "alleged" steroid and HGH use. One could argue that he shouldn't get into the Hall at all as penalty for the charges against him but it seems that rampant performance enhancing drug use was part of the history of the 80's and 90's. Keeping Roger out might send the message to others but I am sure there will be some inductees that did the same thing.
Nolan is untainted as far as I know so here is my tribute to the "Ryan Express."
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