Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Draft Results
So every year at about this time, I get together (online that is) with some old college chums of mine for the right-of-passage that is the fantasy baseball draft. If you think rotisserie refers to a way to cook chicken, let me explain fantasy baseball. You have a group of owners (e.g. a bunch of college buddies) who draft a team of all-stars from major league baseball rosters and then compete against each other to see whose team does better by the end of the season. The way we decide the winner is based on a 5x5 points system (five pitching categories and five hitting categories). Each team is made up of 20 players (11 hitters and 9 pitchers) plus reserves or bench players. Hitters are awarded points based on batting average, runs, runs batted in (RBI), homeruns and steals. Pitching points fall into wins, earned run average (era), strikeouts, whip (walks and hits per inning pitched), and saves.
So all that to say, below in the team that I drafted today. If I think about it, I'll periodically post how I'm doing during the season. Also, I'll try to post my final season roster as because of injuries, trades and additions, it usually looks quite different. Enjoy! - Jeff
C - Brian McCann (ATL)
1B - Adam LaRoche (PIT)
2B - Ian Kinsler (TEX)
3B - Kevin Youkilis
SS - J.J. Hardy (MIL)
CI - Paul Konerko (CWS)
MI - Clint Barmes (COL)
OF - Hunter Pence (HOU)
OF - Jason Werth (PHI)
OF - Xavier Nady (NYY)
OF - Mike Cameron (MIL)
OF - David Murphy (TEX)
U - Luke Scott (BAL)
SP - C.C. Sabathia (NYY)
SP - Diasuke Matsuzaka (BOS)
SP - Scott Baker (MIN)
SP - Gil Meche (KC)
SP - Chris Volstad (FLA)
SP - Jessie Litsch (TOR)
SP - Randy Wolf (LAD)
CL - Bobby Jenks (CWS)
CL - Frank Francisco (TEX)
BN - Kelvim Escobar (SP; LAA)
BN - Travis Ishikawa (1B; SF)
BN - Josh Anderson (OF; ATL)
So all that to say, below in the team that I drafted today. If I think about it, I'll periodically post how I'm doing during the season. Also, I'll try to post my final season roster as because of injuries, trades and additions, it usually looks quite different. Enjoy! - Jeff
C - Brian McCann (ATL)
1B - Adam LaRoche (PIT)
2B - Ian Kinsler (TEX)
3B - Kevin Youkilis
SS - J.J. Hardy (MIL)
CI - Paul Konerko (CWS)
MI - Clint Barmes (COL)
OF - Hunter Pence (HOU)
OF - Jason Werth (PHI)
OF - Xavier Nady (NYY)
OF - Mike Cameron (MIL)
OF - David Murphy (TEX)
U - Luke Scott (BAL)
SP - C.C. Sabathia (NYY)
SP - Diasuke Matsuzaka (BOS)
SP - Scott Baker (MIN)
SP - Gil Meche (KC)
SP - Chris Volstad (FLA)
SP - Jessie Litsch (TOR)
SP - Randy Wolf (LAD)
CL - Bobby Jenks (CWS)
CL - Frank Francisco (TEX)
BN - Kelvim Escobar (SP; LAA)
BN - Travis Ishikawa (1B; SF)
BN - Josh Anderson (OF; ATL)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
God and His Word
"Assuredly, when the word of God is despised, all reverence for Him is gone. His majesty cannot be duly honored among us, nor his worship maintained in its integrity, unless we hang as it were upon his lips."
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (2.1.4)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
My Off-season is Officially Over
As of yesterday I am officially coaching basketball again. I had a nice, relaxing week between the end of the junior high season and the beginning of elementary basketball. Fortunately, this year I'm co-coaching the elementary team with the girls' JV coach who also happens to have a son on the team. Steve has been coaching a lot longer than I have and so I am eager to learn from him. It also should be easier to control a bunch of 4th-6th graders with two coaches than just one. Our first practice I thought went really well and although the kids certainly have a LOT to learn, they seem excited about starting up the season and I believe this will be a good group of kids to work with. However, it's only the first week and we're already going to have to cancel a practice...
That's right, we're currently experiencing yet another snow storm. I thought that we were not only done with new snow but that most of what was still on the ground would be completely melted in another week or so. Not so fast my friend. Apparently March tends to be the snowiest month of the year and even though we been having nice weather the past week or so, we're back to the frozen tundra of North Dakota. School in Underwood is canceled and therefore basketball practice as well. In addition there's already been quite a bit of flooding in the state from the melting snow and from ice-dams forming in the rivers. I'm looking forward to our vacation to LA!
So how's your bracket doing? Well, thanks for asking. I am actually in two brackets and both of them seem to be in good shape (it helps when you pick mostly the same teams and they're all still in it). As those of you who know me could probably guess, I picked Duke to win it all. Now I know they are only a "2" seed this year and have a tough road ahead (Nova, Pitt and then a "third time's a charm" game against UNC) to even make it to the finals but what can I say?
I read an interesting book over the past couple weeks. "Odd Man Out" was written by a doctor named Matt McCarthy who in-between his graduation from Yale and beginning medical school at Harvard, played baseball in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's organization. He was a left-handed pitcher who was was drafted in the twenty-six round by the Angels and pitched the following year for the Provo Angels in the rookie ball league. It was interesting learning about the minor league baseball culture and experience. I gave me a whole new appreciation for what guys who've come up through the minors have gone through just to get to the major leagues.
By God's Grace, Jeff
That's right, we're currently experiencing yet another snow storm. I thought that we were not only done with new snow but that most of what was still on the ground would be completely melted in another week or so. Not so fast my friend. Apparently March tends to be the snowiest month of the year and even though we been having nice weather the past week or so, we're back to the frozen tundra of North Dakota. School in Underwood is canceled and therefore basketball practice as well. In addition there's already been quite a bit of flooding in the state from the melting snow and from ice-dams forming in the rivers. I'm looking forward to our vacation to LA!
So how's your bracket doing? Well, thanks for asking. I am actually in two brackets and both of them seem to be in good shape (it helps when you pick mostly the same teams and they're all still in it). As those of you who know me could probably guess, I picked Duke to win it all. Now I know they are only a "2" seed this year and have a tough road ahead (Nova, Pitt and then a "third time's a charm" game against UNC) to even make it to the finals but what can I say?
I read an interesting book over the past couple weeks. "Odd Man Out" was written by a doctor named Matt McCarthy who in-between his graduation from Yale and beginning medical school at Harvard, played baseball in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's organization. He was a left-handed pitcher who was was drafted in the twenty-six round by the Angels and pitched the following year for the Provo Angels in the rookie ball league. It was interesting learning about the minor league baseball culture and experience. I gave me a whole new appreciation for what guys who've come up through the minors have gone through just to get to the major leagues.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Where We Fail, Jesus Succeeds (for us)
At the decisive moment of Jesus' earthly life and ministry His disciples completely abandoned Him. But the good news for them and for us who have also failed Jesus is that at this same moment, He succeeded. This Sunday I preached on Matthew 26:31-56, Jesus' prediction of Peter's denial and all of the disciples' failure, His faithfulness and their unfaithfulness in Gethsemane and Jesus' betrayal and arrest. The main point as I saw it relating to us is that "Where we fail, Jesus succeeds for us." We have all been unfaithful but He remained faithful and in so doing provided the solution for our failure. If you would like to listen to the sermon, click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
Why St. Patrick Deserves his Own Day
Like many Christian holidays, the meaning of St. Patrick's Day has been hijacked by our secular culture and turned into a day to wear green, pinch those who don't and drink green beer. Now I don't have a problem with any of these practices, if done in moderation (e.g. you don't want to be overly pinching people). But they have distracted us from the significance of the person to whom this day is set aside. In fact, St. Patrick lived quite a life that's worth celebrating.
St. Patrick (well, actually long before he was a saint) was born in England in 384 AD to a nominal Christian family. But he was abducted by pirates as a child and taken to the pagan country of Ireland as a slave. During his six-year captivity he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and his relationship with God grew. He was able to eventually escape and return to England. But that's not where the story of St. Patrick ends...not by a long shot.
In 431 AD (30-40 years later) he has a dream in which the Irish people beg him to return and to share the Good News of Jesus with them. So even though he was not well educated, he returned to the country of his enslavement and spent the rest of his life (until his death in 461 AD) spreading the gospel throughout.
The gospel's penetration into Ireland is almost exclusively due to God's use of St. Patrick's enslavement and faithful return. That my friends is why he deserves his own day!
By God's Grace, Jeff
St. Patrick (well, actually long before he was a saint) was born in England in 384 AD to a nominal Christian family. But he was abducted by pirates as a child and taken to the pagan country of Ireland as a slave. During his six-year captivity he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and his relationship with God grew. He was able to eventually escape and return to England. But that's not where the story of St. Patrick ends...not by a long shot.
In 431 AD (30-40 years later) he has a dream in which the Irish people beg him to return and to share the Good News of Jesus with them. So even though he was not well educated, he returned to the country of his enslavement and spent the rest of his life (until his death in 461 AD) spreading the gospel throughout.
The gospel's penetration into Ireland is almost exclusively due to God's use of St. Patrick's enslavement and faithful return. That my friends is why he deserves his own day!
By God's Grace, Jeff
A Disappointing End
This past weekend marked the end of the junior high basketball season. During the regular season we amassed an 8-2 record and unofficially tied for first-place in our district. But the end of the season district tournament was another story. We were matched up (randomly) with Turtle-Lake in the first-round. This was the other top team during the regular season and we had split our two previous match-ups. I felt confident going in as we were finally healthy. We were down by one at half but I was still optimistic that if we came out and played well in the second-half we'd have a good shot. Unfortunately they outscored us 19-4 in the third quarter and even though we tried to claw our way back in the fourth it was to no avail. The guys were pretty bummed about losing the opening round as even though we still had a couple more games to play, the best we could now finish was fifth. However, even that was not to be.
Saturday morning we played Wilton and although maybe not at the top of our game, were able to take care of business and get the win. So in the afternoon we were matched up with Washburn (a team we'd beaten twice already) for fifth place. However, from the opening tip they seemed fresher and hungrier for the victory than our guys. We were down by double-digits at the beginning of the fourth quarter and again put up a furious comeback but fell a few points short. Afterward I tried to console the guys by reminding them that as eight graders their basketball careers were really only beginning and if they stuck with it, worked on improving over the summer and used this game as motivation, the future would be bright.
Other than the basketball tournament, this past week was fairly quiet. My wife and I Netflixed the movie "Changeling" which is based on a true story of a woman's fight to locate her missing son amidst a corrupt LA police department. I really enjoy movies based on actual events and this one was no different. I thought it brought out the struggle between maintaining one's position of power and doing what's right even at potential personal cost.
On Sunday we had a family from the church over for supper (i.e. dinner). Actually it was a mom who's in her 90s and one of her sons (who's in his 60s). They are both members of the church but my wife and I had never really had the opportunity to get to know Rich. Come to find out that while served in the Navy he was part of a convoy that assisted in the recovery of the Apollo X astronauts' space capsel and that he used to be an avid golfer.
And in case anyone is curious, the weather is beginning to warm up around here. The last few days have been in the 40s and the snow is finally beginning to melt.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Saturday morning we played Wilton and although maybe not at the top of our game, were able to take care of business and get the win. So in the afternoon we were matched up with Washburn (a team we'd beaten twice already) for fifth place. However, from the opening tip they seemed fresher and hungrier for the victory than our guys. We were down by double-digits at the beginning of the fourth quarter and again put up a furious comeback but fell a few points short. Afterward I tried to console the guys by reminding them that as eight graders their basketball careers were really only beginning and if they stuck with it, worked on improving over the summer and used this game as motivation, the future would be bright.
Other than the basketball tournament, this past week was fairly quiet. My wife and I Netflixed the movie "Changeling" which is based on a true story of a woman's fight to locate her missing son amidst a corrupt LA police department. I really enjoy movies based on actual events and this one was no different. I thought it brought out the struggle between maintaining one's position of power and doing what's right even at potential personal cost.
On Sunday we had a family from the church over for supper (i.e. dinner). Actually it was a mom who's in her 90s and one of her sons (who's in his 60s). They are both members of the church but my wife and I had never really had the opportunity to get to know Rich. Come to find out that while served in the Navy he was part of a convoy that assisted in the recovery of the Apollo X astronauts' space capsel and that he used to be an avid golfer.
And in case anyone is curious, the weather is beginning to warm up around here. The last few days have been in the 40s and the snow is finally beginning to melt.
By God's Grace, Jeff
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