Bryan Sherwood is bloggin’ again! Glad you’re back!
Month: October 2004 (page 3 of 3)
Billy Beane is the general manager of the Oakland A’s, arguably one of the most efficient, if not successful teams in the big leagues. Check out what he has to say about building a playoff team vs. building for the regular season:
“Getting to the play-offs isn’t random: Over 162 games, if you have the right team, the odds work out. But once you get to the postseason, everything becomes random. In a 5-game series, you can flip a coin five times, and you might come up tails five times. In our market and many others, we can’t build a team that’s specifically geared for 162 games and also for a 5-game play-off. That I don’t think we’ll ever overcome.”
Maybe some other GMs should read that…
For more on Beane Ball in Oakland, check out the whole Fast Company article.
Last year, around this same time, I posted this in this space…
The Greatest Mystery of Life
No, not that one! This one…Why can’t the Braves hit in the postseason?
Man!
Oh, well…now that they’re out (big surprise!) I’m pulling for the Cubs and the Red Sox! Now THAT would be one of life’s great mysteries solved, don’t you think?
The only difference? Now, I’m pulling for the Cardinals and the Red Sox!
I guess you could say it’s just a game. I guess you could say we weren’t supposed to get this far this year anyway. I guess you could say you’ll take the 13 consecutive division championships over say, the other extreme. You could say all that, but it doesn’t make it any better when they lose like this.
Say…how ’bout those Falcons?!?!?
UPDATE, 12:27 a.m., 10.12.04…
Now I know what the problem was! Not too long after I posted the last baseball post, I get an email from my brother! No wonder the Braves lost…turns out my nephew, my big brother’s eldest and only son was in attendance at the game!
The Cubs can talk about the curse of the billy goat and the Red Sox can talk about the curse of the Bambino, but there apparently ain’t no curse in baseball like the Braves’ “Pharis Curse.” Every time somebody in my family – besides me and my bunch, of course – is actually at the game, they lose!
So to Braves fans everywhere, my apologies on behalf of my family. It’s all our – no, HIS fault! (Well, that and the fact that they still can’t hit in the postseason!)
I went to the very first Catalyst four years ago. I had to lie about my age – you know, it was advertised as being for leaders under 40 and all that stuff, and I had missed the cutoff by about a week. Good thing they were interested in my money and not my ID! But I digress…
The very first one was really one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. Great, eye- and heart-opening stuff!
I noticed this guy and this guy are blogging about this year’s installment.
I was just wondering if anyone else went, and what did you learn that would rock our worlds?
Well, Sally’s as right as some of the “pc” pap I’ve heard…
The Red Sox are in, the Yankees are in, the Cardinals are in. The Braves bring it back to Turner Field tonight! We should have lost that game yesterday, but we managed to pull it out!
And BTW…isn’t it amazing how when they are losing, our team is always “they?” But when we are winning, it’s as though “we” are right out there on the field with them. Go figure!
Oh, and Go Braves!
Furcal comes through with a big homer in the bottom of the 11th. Maybe that’ll be the sparkplug this team needs.
Said Marcus Giles: “A big hit like that can turn our whole offense around. I hope it does.”
I’ve got one of my favorite CDs in right now…the One Day Live CD from our buds over at Passion. The words of that one song keep coming back to me today. In a time when we try to focus on a thousand different things at once, we need – I need! – to keep the main thing the main thing.
Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You
To know and follow hard after You
To grow as Your disciple in Your truth
This world is empty, pale and poor
Compared with knowing You, my Lord
Lead me on and let me run after You
“There is still no cure for the common birthday.”
I love fall. It’s my favorite time of year.
I also love keeping up with the Wanderings of a Post-Modern Pilgrim. He writes about the fall leaves in Minnesota. Pretty powerful, in my opinion.
What will my true colors be? What about yours?