Late last night I received an email from a student planning to return to George Fox this semester. The “subject” of the email was, “Response to Fear.” I generally try to avoid work emails that arrive in my inbox on Friday evenings, but my interest was piqued. I opened a very long email, of which I will just use the following excerpt:
“At a time when I believe students should be encouraged to dive into the Word and pray for revival, healing, and peace we instead have just been provided simply with the logistics and rules of completing college during Covid-19. This has created a climate of worldly fear among students and possibly even the faculty and leaders at George Fox. I believe it is important to remember that “Do not be afraid” is one of the most repeated commands in the Bible and that command still applies in the middle of a pandemic.”
I believe the intent of this email (and I think you would come to the same conclusion if you were to read all of it, as I have) is to motivate me – an employee of George Fox who is according to publicly accessible flow charts, 4 levels removed from the President – to encourage the university to change its narrative around COVID-19 and the reopening of the university this fall.
I, for one, have not actually experienced fear among the administrators who have been making decisions about the opening of the university this fall. I have seen and heard about all of the preparations that have gone into attempting to make the university safe for students and employees during a pandemic, and I know there has been a lot of communication that has been sent to students. I probably won’t tell this intrepid student what I am about to tell you, but I think there could probably be a tiny bit more fear about what might happen due to welcoming students back to campus next week.
That aside (and truly, hundreds of hours have been spent making sure the opening of George Fox is being done safely – and the ultimate variable is and always will be people’s ability to put the good of others before their own good), I am intrigued by the student’s (and I’ve seen it in others) correlation between preparation and fear. The subtext of the email is that because the university is so prepared, and is clearly communicating this preparation, it is afraid and that fear is wrong.
I have several friends who have climbed to the top of Mount Hood (and a couple of them have had serious accidents while doing so). They prepare incessantly for the trip, precisely because there is an element of fear, and there should be!
Fear is not bad. Fear is not a sin. And fear is what we should all have when we think about this very true reality – the Kaline Drive are running away with the 2020 EFL championship!!
If there is anything for which fear should be motivating us, it is this very thing! I know I have said before that it is neat to see the Drive in first, but it is only neat if they make it a relatively interesting season by letting everyone else stay in the race (well, almost everyone else…ok, to be fair, I only care that they let the Tornadoes stay in the race).
That is what we should be writing emails about, preparing for, and spending every waking hour obsessing over. Unlike the angels in the bible when confronting unsuspecting people, I tell you – BE AFRAID! And now do something about it.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Kaline Drive | 13 | 7 | .670 | — | 105.9 | 72.4 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 10 | 9 | .519 | 3 | 100.8 | 100.3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 10 | 11 | .459 | 4.3 | 94.3 | 106.3 |
| Haviland Dragons | 9 | 11 | .455 | 4.3 | 109.7 | 119.3 |
| D.C. Balk | 9 | 12 | .445 | 4.6 | 96.7 | 108.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 8 | 11 | .436 | 4.6 | 89.0 | 97.3 |
| Peshastin Pears | 9 | 12 | .436 | 4.7 | 99.8 | 113.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 8 | 11 | .415 | 5 | 95.5 | 124.0 |
| Cottage Cheese | 7 | 10 | .401 | 5.1 | 76.2 | 95.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 7 | 14 | .348 | 6.6 | 107.8 | 147.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 3 | 16 | .154 | 10 | 55.7 | 134.0 |
Kaline: W, 8-1 (42PA; 12IP)
| AVG: 0.371 | OBP: 0.452 | SLG: 0.743 | OPS: 1.195 |
| ERA: 3.75 | WHIP: 1.083 |
What does Kaline have to fear? It seems like they have nothing to fear but fear itself. They OPSed 1.195 yesterday on the strength of another good day from Jesse Winker (2 for 3 with 2 HRs) and twirled 12 IP with an ERA od 3.75, led by Dinelson Lamet who actually gave up 1 run this time, so I suppose it was a bad outing for him. The Drive don’t need to fear the Tornadoes, who are slipping more and more games behind the Drive every day. They don’t need to fear bad performances from their players, who this month have a +35 run differential and a team ERA of 2.93 over 91 IP. However, there might be one cause for concern, if not fear – rumors have it that a Drive player last night tested positive for COVID, and if it spreads among his team, that might be problematic. We don’t want that happen obviously, but he literally has nothing else to fear!
Flint Hill: L, 2-8 (49PA; 1IP)
| AVG: 0.159 | OBP: 0.245 | SLG: 0.364 | OPS: 0.609 |
| ERA: 9.00 | WHIP: 1.000 |
What do the Tornadoes have to fear? These days it seems like everything. We are afraid that the Drive will not slow down enough for us to catch them. We are afraid that yesterday’s hitting line will be duplicated again today (which has not started well). We are also afraid of finishing second AGAIN, which has already happened twice in three years and we can’t imagine it happening again for a third time and second year in a row. Teoscar Hernandez did his best to assuage our fears (3 for 5 with 2 HRs) but no one else thought it would be good to help him out.
Canberra: “W,” 8-10 (49PA; 2.7IP)
| AVG: 0.294 | OBP: 0.500 | SLG: 0.353 | OPS: 0.853 |
| ERA: 13.33 | WHIP: 0.741 |
The Roos are having a good month, even though they had a bad day. I suppose one fear they might have is that their pitching, which is ranked 2nd this month, might have more days like yesterday. I think they are also afraid that they have still hit so few HRs – if you remove the Marlins and Cards who have not played very many games, only three MLB teams have hit fewer HRs this season.
Haviland: L, 6-9 (28PAs; 9.3IP)
| AVG: 0.231 | OBP: 0.286 | SLG: 0.577 | OPS: 0.863 |
| ERA: 7.74 | WHIP: 1.935 |
Dragons are rarely, if ever, afraid. It’s part of the reason Bilbo was able to outsmart Smaug. Bilbo was afraid, but prepared well, or maybe just got lucky…anyway, what do these Dragons have to fear? One fear might be that their pitching staff will continue to perform as it has so often. Right now, the Dragons are 4th from last in RA this season. Granted, they are first in the league in RS which has helped them stay in the top half of the league. But something else is also emerging, perhaps, that they need to fear – for the month of August their team is dead last in hits. Maybe Dragon hitters are afraid of making contact? We shall see.
DC: W(-1), L2, (-1)-15 (44PA; 5.3IP)
| AVG: 0.103 | OBP: 0.182 | SLG: 0.282 | OPS: 0.464 |
| ERA: 16.98 | WHIP: 1.698 |
Yikes! That pitching is certainly fear-inducing. The good news (or maybe bad news?) is that the main culprit, Ivan Nova, just went on the IL. The Balk have 3 of the Top 10 hitters this month in terms of total Ks. That has to be a little frightening. And anytime a team has a three game swing in the wrong direction, it is sure to be a little frightening.
Pittsburgh: DNP, 2-0 (32PA; 8.7IP)
| AVG: 0.345 | OBP: 0.387 | SLG: 0.586 | OPS: 0.973 |
| ERA: 7.24 | WHIP: 1.264 |
There is nothing to fear in that offensive line. But the pitching has created a little tremor of fear for the Alleghenys. Namely, Trevor Gott was roughed up yesterday, and Stephen Strasburg left the game after .1 IP and was placed on the IL for a nerve issue in his pitching hand, which strikes me as very troublesome. But have no fear, Pittsburgh! You didn’t play a game yesterday and you climbed 2 spots in standings to 6th place.
Peshastin: W1, L2 13-20 (48PA; 2IP)
| AVG: 0.279 | OBP: 0.333 | SLG: 0.395 | OPS: 0.729 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 0.500 |
The Pears have already had their share of things to fear this season. They lost Mike Soroka for this year, and probably into next season, too. They spent the first several weeks without their star Juan Soto, and Marcus Stroman opted out of the season before pitching a single inning in 2020. I suppose their greatest fear is that they will continue to experience bad luck, and well, yesterday’s results didn’t do much to change that narrative.
Bellingham: W, L(-1) 6-(-3) (29PA; 6IP)
| AVG: 0.360 | OBP: 0.448 | SLG: 0.760 | OPS: 1.208 |
| ERA: 4.50 | WHIP: 1.833 |
The Cascades are perhaps the hottest offensive team in the EFL in the month of August. As a team they are OPSing .915 and scoring over 6 runs a game. In last place after July, they have the third best record in the EFL this month and have now passed three teams in the standings. What do they have to fear? I think one thing to fear is their team K rate will go up – I mean, is has to, right? Cascade hitters have struck out only 52 times this month. The next closest team to them? The Pears with 94 Ks. That’s right, they have 42 fewer Ks than the next closest team, and no other team besides those two have fewer than 100 (Old Detroit leads with 153 – yikes!). In today’s game, that K rate has to change, right?
Cottage: L, 2-11 (28PA; .7IP)
| AVG: 0.154 | OBP: 0.214 | SLG: 0.308 | OPS: 0.522 |
| ERA: 51.43 | WHIP: 5.714 |
Cottage has quite a bit to fear, it seems. 3 days ago the Cheese were in 3rd place, 2.7 games back of the Drive. Today? 3rd from last, 5.1 games behind the Drive. Yikes! The Cheese offense is afraid of something, it seems. They are dead last in runs scored this month. And it’s not because of replacement players, either. So the Cheese might be afraid that the Cheese hitters have become afraid of the ball, or perhaps afraid of crossing home plate?
Portland: W1, L2, 17-23 (42PA; 2IP)
| AVG: 0.243 | OBP: 0.333 | SLG: 0.568 | OPS: 0.901 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 0.500 |
I think the main Portland is fearing right now is going from a first place finish last year to a last place finish this year. Sure, it would be a top pick next year for the Rosebuds, but the optics of it would be sure to rankle the fanbase. They were able to score a lot of runs, but they also gave up a lot of runs, many of them due to replacement IPs.
Old Detroit: L, 1-8 (41PA; no pitching)
| AVG: 0.175 | OBP: 0.195 | SLG: 0.225 | OPS: 0.420 |
I think the Wolverines have a few things to fear: their players starting to play to their potential, thus losing the top rookie pick next year; the specter of a stalwart EFL franchise finishing last; the reality that maybe the heralded phenoms are just normal-noms.
Where to begin!?!
1. You tell us to fear something we all have been hoping to see — a Drive championship? Am I supposed to be afraid I of Christmas? Or Easter? Or peach pie and ice cream? (Well, actually, yes as to the latter since I am supposed to avoid sugar. Oh — is that what’s happening here? Can Tom make us diabetic, or inflame our arthritis, by winning a sweet championship?)
2. You urge us all to fight, fight, fight against a Drive championship. But notice who is most likely to “benefit” from such a thing! The Tornadoes!! YOUR team. In 16 seasons under the previous commissioner, did anyone ever spot a single instance where his comments promoted his own team’s interests? (The answer is a resounding, definitive “NO!!!”) (Also, the key word in the question is “single.”)
3. You ask us to be “afraid” that something good might happen to the Drive. Wouldn’t it make more sense AND be more Christian to urge the league to fear that something terrible might happen to one of our members? You kind of do this for the Rosebuds, because they might mope about not winning their THIRD championship in a row. But the Rosebuds are still in the peleton in this particular race. They’re just drafting for now, still in great position to make a move. The Rosebuds may be disappointed and anxious. They may also just be spoiled. They are just 3.3 games from third place — and, as you point out in the case of the Cheese, that distance can be covered in three or four days with the right breaks.
But there is a team that is TRULY suffering, that has never won 3 championships in a row, nor any championships within a relevant span of time. It is 3.4 games behind Portland. Shouldn’t you be warning the league about this team’s impending fate — which is truly bad and scary? Shouldn’t you be urging the league to fight, fight, fight against the tragedy befalling Old Detroit?
4. Even if it made sense to fear a wonderful event as much as a hideous one, the risk that the Wolverines will finish last is greater than the “risk” the Drive will finish first. The Drive are only 3 games ahead of the Tornadoes, while the Woeverines are mired 3.4 games deep in the cellar.
And by the way — I would be thrilled if my putative phenoms were normal-noms. Do far they have been
entirely de-nom-inated — and d(en)ominated.