Becca's softball

Becca deserves her own post for her softball schedule. This is her first time on a team of any kind. Her team name is the Rangers and her games are at the Maxwell Park fields by Parkside Jr. High.
6/17 12:45
6/24 11:30
7/8 2:00
7/15 10:15
7/22 12:45
7/29 9:00
8/5 11:30

School's Out!

Tomorrow is the last day of school. The kids only have to go for an hour to pick up their report cards. Everybody is fine with that, but Drew has an interesting question. He wants to know if they only have to go for an hour, why does it have to be the first hour? I guess he wants to start sleeping in as soon as possible.

I was right!

There's your winner!

American Idle

Ok, I admit it. I have gotten hooked on the show that has taken the nation by storm. I am a fan of American Idol. I still can't watch the train wreck that is the audition episodes, but I have enjoyed the competition between the people who can actually sing. I decided to watch it one Tuesday about 6 weeks ago when I was home (I usually have orchestra practice at church on Tuesday), and it piqued my interest. The rest of the family enjoyed it too. We actually have ended up taping the show a couple of times if we're out. I suppose that's the real measure of whether or not you are really a fan.

Not only have we become viewers of the program, but we have even voted for our favorite singers. The first time we voted, we picked Chris and Katharine, who were the top 2 vote getters that week, due totally to our votes, I'm sure. One week we were too busy to vote for Chris and he was eliminated. I'm certain it was our fault.

My choice all along has been Katharine McPhee, who made the final against Taylor Hicks. He's pretty good, but she's pretty. And she can sing. Boy, can she sing. Too bad Taylor's going to win.

That's my prediction for tonight's finale. Taylor will win and I will have to find a more productive way to kill a Tuesday night. I'm thinking baseball.

Baseball & softball schedules

I posted basketball schedules, I posted soccer schedules, and now it's baseball/softball season. Believe me when I tell you that to post one master list would be quite a hassle. So I will go the lazy route and give you the links to the respective web sites for the kids.


David is team #315. Link to schedule.
Drew is team #203 Link to schedule.
Rachel is team #5, Tigers league. Link to schedule.
Becca plays on Saturdays, but we don't have her schedule yet. Look for more information later.

Pharmaceutical Phenom

Before and after.

Bye, Bonds

I don't like Barry Bonds. I don't remember ever liking Barry Bonds. I have admired him, I have been impressed with him, but I have never liked nor respected Barry Bonds. He is, or at least used to be, a phenomenal baseball player. In the early 1990's he was head and shoulders above the rest of the league as the most complete player to come along in years. In my uneducated opinion, he could have been a unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame. He hit for average, hit for power, played good defense, stole bases, and always put the team ahead of himself. No, wait a minute...scratch that last one. Barry looks out for Barry. His ego has always been the biggest in the league. Now his supersized ego may have cost him his earned place in the Hall of Fame.

About a month ago I read excerpts from the new book, "Game of Shadows" in Sports Illustrated. Even that truncated version contained damning evidence for the allegation that Bonds used steroids. Their take is this - Bonds watched in 1998 as what he viewed as an inferior (to himself) player, Mark McGwire, captivated the nation by setting the hallowed record for home runs in a single season. A veteran like Bonds could tell that McGwire was pumped up on something, and he saw that baseball was giving tacit approval to the drug usage by their lack of action. Baseball had alienated fans with the work stoppage of 1994 and the last thing they needed was a drug scandal. So, they applauded McGwire and Sammy Sosa and inadvertently gave Bonds permission to juice up. He did. Long story short, in the subsequent seven years, Bonds went on a tear and hit home runs at a greater pace than he did in his prime (and took the record away from McGwire). Now he is poised to break the career record and everybody is starting to realize that winking at the widespread steroid use has come back to bite baseball in the behind by "tainting" the sacred records.

Suddenly, Barry Bonds has become the personification of the "cheater" in baseball. Common knowledge, or at least common sense, says that hundreds of players at every position took steroids over the same time span as Bonds, theoretical re-leveling the playing field. Baseball didn't even have an anti-drug policy in place until two years ago. Yet Bonds is vilified and booed and hated everywhere outside of San Francisco. Why? He didn't break any rules. Like he always tells us, he has never failed a drug test. (How could he? They never tested him!)

Why is the weight of steroids landing on Barry Bonds' inflated shoulders? Because he's a jerk. I really can't stand the man, but I think he is unfairly taking the blame for too many others. He's owed his share of the blame, of course, but where are the others who used? McGwire, Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro are out of baseball. Other current players aren't as high profile as Bonds, so they can quietly go unnoticed. The reason Bonds' improvement was so eye popping is because he was that much better than everybody else already. For better or worse, Barry Bonds will be the face of the Steroid Era.

Bonds doesn't need defending for juicing up, and I am not trying to defend him. The real culprit here is Major League Baseball, who looked the other way for far too long with all the users. Barry Bonds made a poor choice, and history will vilify him for it. He'll make the HOF someday, but probably not as easily as he could have. He will be known as a cheater, even though due to the lack of a drug policy in baseball, he didn't technically cheat. His reputation has forever been sullied and his accomplishments are suspect, his legacy sacrificed on the alter of ego. He longed for fame and he gained infamy. Unfortunately, baseball cannot punish him for his actions, they can only scold him, which will certainly fall on deaf ears. He will go to his (steroid-induced early) grave professing his innocence, blaming racism or jealousy for the attacks on him, oozing arrogance and pride. I will not miss him when he is gone from baseball. The sooner, the better.

Approved workmen are not ashamed

Wednesday was our awards night at AWANA. All four of the kids received an award for finishing their books for the year. Becca finished her first year Sparks book, and was the only one of the Lemans with perfect attendance for the year. Rachel finished her third year Sparks book and now moves up to the Truth and Training level. Drew received the Excellence award for completing the second year T&T book. I am proud of each of them and the effort they put into learning their verses every week. But it was David who really impressed me by bringing home the Timothy award.

The T&T girls leader always puts things in perspective when she announces the book awards. She will tell us that by finishing book 1, your daughter has memorized 75 verses, book 2 163 verses, and so on. (I don't remember the actual numbers, but they're impressive.) By the time a T&T member has completed the fourth level book, he/she has memorized over 200 verses, and various other Bible facts presented in a way that is not just rote memorization, but the verses are used to back up thoughts like, "why did God give us the Bible?", or reasons why the Bible is true. As the boy's T&T leader pointed out, the numbers of boys & girls completing each successive book decreases. You might have 8 kids finishing book 1, another 5 through book 2, 4 kids through book 3, and every year we see only one or two making it all the way through book four. The achievement is rare enough and difficult enough, that the two boys who made it that far this year were singled out by name and praised in front of all the parents in attendance. One was Cole Mecum, a friend who used to attend our church, and the other obviously, was David.

Their leader told us all how significant this award is, and he opined that Cole and David would make good T&T leaders in the future. For someone else to publicly praise my son for a noteworthy achievement like this was very moving for me. I've heard the expression of a parent "bursting with pride" over their children, but I hadn't experienced it until that night. I have certainly been proud of each of my children numerous times, but this time was special. This was not a well played game of baseball, or a catchy tune performed in a concert. This is hiding the word of God in his heart. I have never been prouder.

I told David weeks ago, when he actually finished the book, that I was very proud of his accomplishment in earning the Timothy award. To his credit, he didn't understand what the big deal was. I think he is beginning to understand now. He got some congratulatory comments at awards night from other people who are equally impressed with him. It seems to be a big deal to others, so it's becoming a bigger deal to him. Of all endeavors in which one can excel, memorizing Scripture is one that will always bring a good return.

As proud as I am of all of my children, I have to give credit where credit is due. At least half of the credit for these milestones has to go to Dawn. If she didn't light a fire under the kids each week and help them along, they wouldn't be as successful as they are. Thank you all for your efforts. You will never be sorry, and I will never be prouder.