Chapter 72.4: Thank You, Omar

It's a long, long baseball season, and even months in first place doesn't guarantee that your team will be there at the end. Case in point: the 2007 Mets.

But my Mets have taken a much needed and long awaited step toward absolution for the 2007 season by acquiring a man who may be the best pitcher in baseball. Johan Santana, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, is on the brink of joining the Mets. All that stands in the way is a multi-million dollar contract, which is expected to land in the realm of $150 million for seven years. By the time the new stadium opens next year, I'll count myself lucky to still be able to afford to watch them play on television.

But I can always read a paper, and I look forward to recounting around twenty wins next season and perhaps even another Cy Young Award for Mr. Santana. Welcome to New York, Johan. We're happy to see you. Now win.

Chapter 72.3: Even More Competition

This story from the Los Angeles Times made me wince. It hadn't occurred to me that in addition to the writers' strike consigning us all to a springtime of reality shows sprouting up like weeds, it will also pose a new challenge to authors (like myself) hoping to break into the ranks of the publishing world.

Those people who are able to spin teleplays to us over the TV screens are looking for something else to fill their time as the strike continues. So they've turned back to the novels they said they'd write "eventually." Well, Eventually has arrived, and these people should have the discipline to actually finish their work, unlike the people like me who have strong drafts that need a little tweaking but who put that off to do things like attend a Burns Supper on a Saturday night and recover the next morning (to read, mostly).

Ok, that's not so bad. People have to enjoy life in order to write well about it. And I'm not truly threatened by the "increased" competition that's out there, primarily because the industry is so difficult to get into any way that these other writers don't really scare me. What's another hundred zombies (ick) when you're already up against ten thousand?

So bring it on, writers' strike! Challenge me! Challenge us all. As long as we all get some good books out of it, I say: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the competition, I will fear no evil.

Chapter 72.2: Burns Supper

We're about to head out for a Burns Supper. For those who aren't familiar with them, Burns Suppers are the annual remembrance of the Scottish bard, Robert Burns, who is best known for the poem Auld Lang Syne as well as A Man's a Man For A' That, To a Louse, and To a Mouse. Burns was born on January 25, 1759, so next year will be a hearty anniversary indeed!

Of course, at a Burns Supper, you can't enjoy the night without the Address to a Haggis. While people usually have a bad impression of haggis -- primarily because it's cooked in stomach lining -- it's actually not all that bad. And it goes well with scotch.

In keeping with the life of Rabbie Burns, who fathered at least eleven children, a Burns Supper has a tendency to be filled with vitality and fun. Ribald stories are often told in addition to respectful recollections about the bard himself. But like most special dinners, it's mostly about community getting together and sharing a meal and a pleasant time. Aye.

Chapter 72.1: Pitchers and Catchers

It's freaking cold outside! While I'm very happy about the Giants making the Super Bowl (more on that over the weekend), I'm getting a little antsy waiting for baseball. I just started reading Fantasyland by Wall Street Journal reporter Sam Walker, which is about how he fares in his first Rotisserie baseball experience, playing in one of the toughest leagues out there, Tout Wars.

I've been playing fantasy baseball for close to ten years now, though not in a formal Rotisserie league. My unfamiliarity with Roto drafts hasn't gotten in the way of my enjoying the book, which -- at least from a baseball fan's perspective -- is hilarious. Indeed, I'm finding the book inspiring; I will spend some time this weekend starting to analyze the players and getting a better sense of who I might want for my team. If the guys in my league are anything like those described in the book, I'm way behind already.

Baseball is an important part of my life. I know it's a game, but there's something that's so eternal about the sport that it transcends simple things like who won and who lost. Of course, I want my team to win, but I also enjoy being able to look back on the careers of players I've watched and discuss with other fans whether this guy was better than that guy or great plays from the past.

Yes, I'm a traditionalist, and I'm a guy who appreciates the little things that help teams win. As any fantasy baseball player out there reading this has probably determined, it's true: I suck at fantasy baseball.

So, with approximately twenty days to go before pitchers and catchers report, I issue a request: Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor tips for how I can improve my play. Tell me Web sites you find helpful. Leave a comment (anonymously is fine with me). What's in it for you? I don't know yet, but I'll at least give you the electronic equivalent of a hearty handshake and genuine thanks for well meaning advice.

I play in a free Yahoo head-to-head league with guys from work. For the first time we're going to include Holds. So I've got to figure out who the better middle relievers are and likely will be. I'm not sure where to start evaluating them and how they'll affect my staff. So any thoughts on that in particular would be appreciated.

Chapter 72: That's What I've Been Saying...

Finally, there's something I can point to that supports what I've been telling people about John McCain: He's a conservative, not a moderate. He's probably more conservative than President Bush in many areas.

Of course, I could have done the investigative work myself and misleadingly taken credit for espousing this viewpoint -- which is not exactly new, merely not commonly reported. But why bother right now? I'm not voting for him in the upcoming primary. I can wait for the national election if he's the Republican nominee, which I now think is how it'll work out. I've said before that McCain is a noble politician, and I still believe that. I respect this man. I'll have time to do the research.

Anyway, back to my point. The New York Times published the op-ed by Adrian Woolridge that I linked to above and added an "Editorial Observer" opinion piece by Francis X. Clines about the senator and his appeal to South Carolina primary voters.

I wish I had written this paragraph from Woolridge's piece:

There is a reason Republican primary voters are so confused by Mr. McCain. He is a Republican who is disliked by the hard core of his party but loved by many independents and Democrats. He is almost universally regarded as a moderate and a maverick, a combination that independents love and conservatives loathe. The trouble with this widespread understanding of Mr. McCain’s politics is that it is entirely wrong.

He goes on to explain that McCain's squabbles with other conservatives have been primarily to battle for principles he believes are not conservative enough. "He opposed torture because he thought it was a violation of the American tradition of human life and human rights," Woolridge writes. (As a moderate, I agree with him.) McCain's opposition to Bush's tax cuts were because he felt Congress was spending too much (that's a discussion for another time), and he promoted immigration reform "because he thought the 'conservative' alternative (encouraging illegal immigrants to go home) is unworkable economically and dubious morally." Yeah, I can see that, too.

What I like about McCain is that he is intelligent and takes reasoned stands on issues. Democrats could learn a lot from him, and I hope they do. And fast, because I think one of them is going to be running against him for president throughout the summer and into November.

Chapter 71.75: Antarctica Anniversary

In light of the death of Edmund Hillary -- and my own interest in things south of the border (as I continue to research and "pre-write" sections of my next novel) -- I thought I'd note the anniversary of Captain Scott arriving at the South Pole, where he discovered that he was late to the party. Roald Amundsen and his group had been there first.

The story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott is tragic and amazing, and one that I don't have time to go into right now. But check out the original story from the New York Times, which I've linked to above and here.

Chapter 71.7: A Man Atop the World

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, has died. Ad Astra, Sir Ed.

Less well known is that Hillary had ventured to Antarctica, too, the first time just a few years after his trek to the mountaintop. In fact, he died days after the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival at the South Pole. Decades later, he and Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, flew over the Arctic and landed (back when that was still possible). So Sir Ed was the first to set foot on both poles and the Everest summit.

What I like about Hillary is that he remained humble. Moreover, he helped the people of Nepal. Unlike the way these things usually happen, Tenzing Norgay, his partner on the Everest climb, became nearly as famous as Hillary; it's all too common that the white man is credited with the accomplishment (read also Matthew Henson, who was first to reach the North Pole). Only after Norgay wrote that Hillary was actually first atop Everest -- by about six feet -- did Hillary take the credit. They shared their fame. It's an example I hope other adventurers follow.

Chapter 71.6: There's No Crying in Politics

There may be no crying, but there certainly seems to be political capital in coming close to crying. Hillary Clinton has taken New Hampshire, surprising me and probably a lot of Americans who were starting to think that the Obama Express was getting into gear and powering up for an impressive spring. That still may happen, but Sen. Clinton clearly isn't done.

What surprised me more than Clinton's victory in the primary, however, was that there were voters who were swayed by her emotional answer about how hard the campaign slog can be and why she is still doing it. I don't believe it was forced; I accept that she has finally found her voice, as she said later. But she'll need to back that up with an even more grueling schedule ahead of her. And I don't think for a second that Sen. Obama is going to concede anything either.

Chapter 71.55: Goose and Rice

The Baseball Hall of Fame results are in, and I can't disagree with the selection of Rich "Goose" Gossage. I'll admit I've had my misgivings about his Hall of Fame at times, but his inclusion feels right. I'm not going to gripe about it.

That Jim Rice still isn't in, however, is a mistake. I'd like to get onto a high horse about what a travesty of justice it is, but I also understand some of the arguments against him. While he wasn't the same player in 1988 as he'd been in 1978, he was still a fearsome hitter. Still, I know of few other hitters that seemed to come through in the clutch as well as he did. And as a kid who hated the Yankees, how I loved to see Jim Rice stand in the box against one of the pitchers from the Bronx.

How appropos it would have been for Rice and Goose to enter the Hall together, a member of the Red Sox and the Yankees. Especially this coming summer -- thirty years after the exciting 1978 season. A lot of folks in the New York area forget that there was a newspaper strike back then, so there was even less news about what the teams were doing than we'd see in this Internet era. We often had to settle for the local television news updates and listen to the radio. And then there was also Pete Rose's hitting streak. Talk about an exciting baseball season, especially for a kid who was crazy for the sport!

Growing up in the New York area, I saw Goose pitch a lot and wished my Mets had someone like him (of course, those Mets teams had little need of a fireballing stopper, as they were sometimes called in those bygone days, thirty years ago -- "closer" came later when Dennis Eckersly changed everything in Tony LaRussa's bullpen.) It almost seemed unfair that the Yankees could have Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage. Of course, Lyle was gone soon enough, languishing in Texas after the '78 season and a couple other places. Of course, looking back, the Yankees made the right decision (perish the thought!), despite Lyle entering the '78 season as the reigning Cy Young Award winner; he was in his 30s, and his career was on the decline.

Anyway, back to the Hall vote: I'm not too surprised at Tim Raines receiving 25 percent of the vote. It's a hard road ahead if he hopes to ever gain entrance. Even harder is the path for Harold Baines, who I think should be the first DH elected. Once again, he only had 5 percent. His chances are unlikely to get any better without a major shift in how baseball writers consider the designated hitter. If I can change my mind, however, surely they will eventually too. For Baines' sake, I hope it happens before another thirteen years pass.

But I congratulate Goose Gossage on being voted into the Hall of Fame. You were one of the best relievers of all time. I hope George Brett hands you a pine tar-coated bat.

Chapter 71.5: Baines Motel in Cooperstown

I was poking around some blogs recently and found a good discussion about the Hall of Fame prospects of Harold Baines. While I never lived in Chicago or any of the cities where Baines starred, I'm enough of a baseball fan to know a pure hitter when I saw him.

Baines was a clutch performer and his RBI totals back me up. While he only topped 100 RBIs twice, he averaged more than 90 per year. That's not too shabby, especially when you're talking about a 22 year career. He nearly reached 2,900 hits, and I'm sure that if the work stoppages hadn't occurred he'd have hit at least another 125-130 knocks, which would have placed him close enough to 3,000 that the White Sox (or some AL team) would have brought him back for a season to garner the last remaining hits to reach the magic number.

I suppose the knock against Baines is that he was a designated hitter; his 1,652 games at DH remain the all-time high, I believe. But the DH has been around for 35 years now and even traditionalists like myself recognize that it's a part of the game. I believe it's time for the best DHs of all time -- Baines and Edgar Martinez -- to be shown the respect they deserve. Baines now, and Edgar in a couple years when he's eligible to be voted into Cooperstown.

Baines never got the accolades that many of his contemporaries received, and the White Sox were rarely very good during that era. He did play in a World Series for the A's (1990, in the loss to the Reds) and his lone hit was a two-run homer. And he was an all-star as late as 1999 -- two years before his retirement -- albeit for a mediocre Orioles club, before he was traded to the Indians for their successful playoff push (and eventual post-season loss). Baines was one of those guys that winning clubs liked to get in their clubhouse: a winner who led by example. His number was retired by the White Sox while he was still playing, and un-retired for his two returns.

While I don't think we'll see him inducted when the announcement is made on Tuesday, I hope to see his numbers increase. That only 5.3 percent of baseball writers voted for him last year is a crime; Harold Baines deserves better.

Chapter 71.45: BookCrossing

More than twenty years ago, Sting sang "Free, free, set them free. ... If you love somebody, if you love someone, set them free."

His grammatical error aside (someone ... them), the former teacher offered good advice for lovers everywhere. Now book lovers can follow his advice. Just before Christmas, the New York Times ran a pleasant little article about BookCrossing, which helps people adopt stray books. Perhaps that's overstating things a bit; it seems from the article that these books are neither neglected nor truly abandoned. Indeed, it is as Sting sang: if you love them, set them free.

I've not yet signed up, though it's possible I will. I find myself adopting books often, though I've not left any published works on their own. It goes against my grain to leave a book, but perhaps this site will help me send books that I won't read again to someone who will enjoy them.

Indeed, their hope is to turn the whole world into a library. I likethat. To me, the world is a story factory, but that doesn't preclude it from being a library too. I've had several inspirational moments smack me in the head at libraries (a few pretty girls too, but that's a different story).

But it also appears to be a wonderful, inexpensive way for new authors to share their books and perhaps create an audience. I don't know if that has worked yet, but it is something I'd be willing to try once I've gotten my novel (and its successors) published.

So I encourage you to check out BookCrossing.com No library card required.

Chapter 71.4: Iowa, the Meaningless But Influential Vote

So what did we learn from the Iowa Caucuses? Well, since they don't really mean anything -- no delegates were won -- then I think the answer is "very little." But they've started to shake things up, and let's face it, the campaign had grown boring already.

So here's my little assessment of what we know about these candidates now. I'm pleasantly surprised by John Edwards. While I consider myself a moderate, I like Edwards, who is clearly more on the liberal/progressive side of the fence. I just don't know whether Edwards can be elected president at this time. His performance in Iowa, while encouraging, doesn't come close to guaranteeing that. It doesn't guarantee anything. But it shows that his message has reached many people in a state better known -- at least nationally -- for conservative values.

I was shocked that Hillary came in third, but her showing was 29.5 percent of the vote as compared to 29.7 percent for Edwards. And considering the whole nonbinding aspect of the caucus, that's a completely negligible difference.

But Edwards needed to be closer to Barack Obama to be viable. They're targeting the same type of Democrat. So if they split the African Americans and liberals (do we agree that Hillary is not a liberal/progressive, she's a moderate?), then that suggests the majority of the party is still on the L/P side rather than the moderate side. In a national election, that's a different issue, but here in the primaries it's all about what kind of Democrat are you. (While I consider myself a moderate, I also believe that poverty relief -- a liberal concern to be sure -- is one of the most important issues facing this country and the world. Never forget what type of Muslims attacked us on 9/11; they were poor. That is the overriding issue throughout the world.)

There are still many important questions on the Republican side of the campaign, too. I was not surprised at all that Huckabee led the Republicans. He's a former governor, so he knows how to lead people and organizations, and he's a Baptist preacher, so he appeals to the evangelicals in Middle America. I was, however, surprised that Fred Thompson came in third. This guy has been talking about how he doesn't really care for campaigning. Does that work in Iowa? I wouldn't have thought so. But he placed third.

Thompson's showing is far more impressive than Hillary coming in third for the Democrats. I was more shocked that Rudy fared so poorly. How can anyone call this man a frontrunner if he can't even garner 5 percent of the caucus votes in Iowa? This may mean he's not a national candidate and is only viable as a VP nominee. He really needs New Hampshire or he may find himself out on his own on Super Tuesday. I'm kind of pleased, actually, that McCain fared as well as he did. He's a real candidate. I believe he's actually more conservative than he's generally considered, and I wouldn't vote for him for that reason, but I do think he is a noble politician who cares about the country. There are few that I hold in the same regard.

As for some of the other names that will one day not even warrant a mention on a Wikipedia entry about the 2008 election, I'm glad to see that Joe Biden (who I generally like, but isn't a viable presidential candidate at this point; he's a possible Sec. of Defense, perhaps, though that would rankle a lot of folks too.) has dropped out. I'd forgotten that Chris Dodd was still in.

And as for Republicans, will some Mexicans please take Tom Tancredo out and rake him over the coals... And while they're at it, do the same to Democratic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, who should never, ever be elected to anything after letting the Los Alomos situation "blow up" on his watch.

That's a long answer to explain why I can only shrug my shoulders and say "I don't know" to the question of what I think about Iowa. What do you all think?

Chapter 71.3: Changing the Ink

Anyone who loves newspapers will want to take a look at this. It's written by Paul Steiger, and it appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, one of this country's greatest newspapers -- I say that even though I'm clearly not a conservative.

Steiger, who worked for many years at the Journal, writes lovingly about an industry that is struggling. He's about to embark on a new veture at the nonprofit ProPublica, which is funded primarily by Herbert and Marion Sandler, who made billions from the sale of Golden West Financial. But he also recognizes that journalism is at a transition point.

I wasn't aware of the state of the newspaper industry fifty-some years ago. He describes a moment where a newspaper photographer kept a dead bird in his car to use as a prop for photos. "The bird," he writes, "was for feature shots on holidays like Memorial Day. He'd perch it on a gravestone or tree limb in a veterans' cemetery to get the right mood. Nowadays such a trick would get him fired, but in the 1950s, this guy said, there was no time to wait for a live bird to flutter into the frame."

I spent ten years working as a reporter for a trade journal. There are times when working there resembled a scene from The Office, but I enjoyed it for the most part. The "non-most" part, however, included dealing with dwindling advertising dollars and moments when I recognized that my paycheck was supplied by advertisers that I wanted little to do with.

I encourage anyone with an interest in the newspaper industry and the communication of important information to average Americans -- and anyone, really -- to read or at least skim Steiger's article. The United States needs a strong cadre of journalists who aren't afraid that their jobs will evaporate like water on Mars. The kids coming out of college know this already. Let's do more than just hope there are readers for them when they're ready.

Chapter 71.2: Happy Birthday, Spirit!

My, how the time goes. It seems like just a little while ago we thought you two wouldn't make it to your first birthdays.

That's right, the little rovers that could are still going strong, several million miles away on Mars. Spirit turns four tomorrow, and her twin, Opportunity, celebrates the same birthday three weeks later.

The rovers weren't expected to last even six months, but look at them now! Last summer, scientists feared that massive dust storms would disable them both, despite the rovers being located far away from each other. Opportunity, rolling around near the Martian equator, took the brunt of it. But Spirit has not gone without challenges, breaking a wheel a couple years ago. That "disability" actually enabled it to dig up nearly pure silica, which helped to prove that water once flowed in the area.

And of course, they've taken some fantastic photos during their time on Mars.

So, happy birthday, Spirit. And Opportunity, a happy birthday to you too, coming up. Hopefully, there'll be several more to celebrate.