League Updates Uncategorized

Dropping the stone

What is the use of going to church?  It’s just a big pain in the … well, I don’t know where, someplace inconvenient.

Yesterday I said some harsh words about Jose Tabata. He’s the one who deliberately took a pitch to the elbow to break up Max Scherzer’s perfect game on what might otherwise have been the final strike (had Tabata swung instead – the pitch was well off the plate  inside).   Here’s what I said:

Well, of all the low-down, bush league things one can do!  This is worse than the umpire’s blown call at first that cost Armando Gallaraga his one chance at permanent glory — his no-hitter and perfect game on what should have been the last out. That was just a dumb mistake. Tabata cheated and got away with it.

Why didn’t they video review it? Well, it would have been awkward and not very classy.  So of course Tabata would never understand the decision not to review it. If I had Tabata on my team yesterday, I wouldn’t today.  Now  Max Scherzer Day will always have this shadow counterpart, Tabata’s Elbow Day.

I hesitated briefly before posting that.  I recognized it was harsh — but I decided it was less harsh than what Tabata had done or that maybe he deserved.  I realized I wasn’t giving Tabata the benefit of any doubt — but I had no doubt he did it on purpose. I realized my assertion that I’d cut him on the spot was pretty unforgiving, as if what he did was as bad as taking steroids or whatever Danny Salazar was alleged to have done. But I consoled myself that I wasn’t defending any personal interest. I don’t own Scherzer, the Pears do, who need to move further back in the EFL race before I will feel comfortable.  I didn’t first notice Scherzer’s budding perfect game — I heard about it in a text message from Ryan who alerted me in the 8th inning. The Nats are Ryan’s team, not mine.  So I might be merciless, but I was merciless in other people’s causes, not my own, so it was a high-minded mercilessness.

Then I foolishly went to church this morning. Rachelle Staley was preaching.  Rachelle has played a major role in our family, being the adoption agency counsellor to whom we turned when we decided to adopt internationally.  In a way she midwifed both of our adoptions.  Ben and Sam would not be in our family if not for her.

So I had to listen. And she had to preach on something along the lines of “How Do We Protect Other People’s Reputations?”  What an odd Father’s Day sermon.  Are we fathers always gossiping about others? Ha!  I go weeks without gossiping. We fathers more likely to get our reputations trashed by gossipy people around us.  I sat back to enjoy others getting their comeuppance.

Rachelle’s text was the story of the woman caught in adultery, brought to Jesus to see if he’d uphold the authority of Old Testament law directing that adulteresses be stoned. Jesus writes in the dirt, then commands that the accuser without sin to cast the first stone. Then he goes back to writing in the dirt until all the accusers have dropped their stones and gone home. “Is there no one left to accuse you?” Jesus asks the woman. “Then go and sin no more.”

At the very end of the sermon Rachelle said how much more redemptive it was to care about people who had sinned, to minister to them, to show them love and mercy — than it is to judge them and ostracize them.

Well, I said to myself, it’s a good thing I never judge and ostraci…

OK.  Which one of you told Rachelle about my comments on Tabata?

EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 48 23 .670 370.2 259.5
Haviland Dragons 45 26 .627 3.1 348.6 269.8
Cottage Cheese 40 29 .577 6.8 310.9 262.2
Peshastin Pears 39 31 .564 7.6 299.1 261.8
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 36 30 .542 9.3 311.4 285.9
Flint Hill Tornadoes 38 33 .538 9.4 342.7 317.8
Kaline Drive 33 38 .466 14.5 282.6 304.3
Canberra Kangaroos 32 38 .458 15.1 371.7 403.9
Portland Rosebuds 25 45 .352 22.4 281.5 385.3

 

 

Old Detroit:  W, 4 – 0.

Haviland: W 2, L (-1); 9 – 2.

Cottage: “W”, 2 – 3.

Peshastin: “L”,  6 – 5.

Pittsburgh:  W , 3 – 1.

Flint Hill” W, 13 – 6.

Kaline:  L, 2 – 3.

Canberra:  L, 8 – 13.

Portland: “W”, 9 – 12.

 

I’m sorry, I don’t have clever comments on the teams today. To fill the void, here are some headlines I thought were interesting, leading in most cases to articles you might find worth looking at.

 

Arizona Uncovers Gem in Rubby De La Rosa

Starling Marte is Having a Career Year

Newberg: You’re Chicago

Jason Kipnis: Baseball’s Best Second Baseman

 

Question and Answer—I

  • “Parks Dept Looking for Witnesses to ‘Grotesque, Sinister’ Kangaroo Killings”—headline, ABC News website (Australia), April 29, 2008
  • “That’s Right, Kangaroos Are Left-Handed”—headline, Reuters, June 18, 2015

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