the almost greats

here's a list of my almost top 5 greatest players of all time...aka the ones who could have been but weren't. sorry it took longer than i expected! enjoy!


10. roberto "arriba" clemente
right field / #21 / pittsburgh pirates (1955-1972)



:: stats
18 seasons / 3,000 hits / 240 home runs / 1,305 runs batted in / .317 career batting average (.357 in 1967 alone)

:: notable awards
15-time national league all star
1966 national league mvp
1973 major league baseball hall of fame inductee

:: other notes
clemente was a tremendous humanitarian; to get background info on the yearly humanitarian award named in his honor, check out this site: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/community/clemente.jsp .



9. pete "charlie hustle" rose
outfield, first base, third base / #14 / cincinnati reds, philadelphia phillies, montreal expos (1963-1986)



:: stats
24 seasons / 3,562 games played / 5,861 plate appearances / 4,256 career hits / 1,314 runs batted in / .303 career batting average (career-high .348 batting average in 1969)

:: notable awards
17-time national league all star
1963 national league rookie of the year
1969 lou gehrig memorial award
1973 national league mvp
1975 world series mvp
1976 roberto clemente award winner

:: other notes
as his nickname suggests, rose was a scrappy player. not necessarily known for his ability to hit the long ball, "charlie hustle" made up for it by being one of the scrappiest players ever to step foot on a baseball diamond. he played the game the right way as a player - always hustling and doing whatever he could to help his team win.

rose has been red-flagged by many fans, and even the baseball hall of fame, over the years for his involvement in gambling while he was managing the cincinnati reds. though the committee has attempted to vote rose into the hall on three separate occasions, the controversy over whether or not rose deserves a place there continues today. however, as the saying goes "numbers don't lie." and rose's numbers suggest that he was one of the greatest hitters baseball has ever seen.



8. josh "the brown bambino" gibson
catcher / # / pittsburgh crawfords, homestead grays (1927-1946)



:: stats
"almost" 800 home runs on his hall of fame signage, probably close to 900, some say he actually hit up to 972
.426 batting average in 60 at-bats against white pitchers
.350+ career batting average in the negro leagues

:: notable awards
1972 major league baseball hall of fame inductee

:: other notes
gibson should be penciled in the record books right next to maris, mcgwire, sosa, and the rest of the cats who've busted open ruth's single-season home run record. in fact, gibson arguably deserves a place there more than mcgwire or maris. in the 1931 season "the brown bambino" bashed 75 homers.

baseball historians argue that gibson - along with satchel paige, nap lajoie, and dozens of other great negro league players - paved the way for jackie robinson to enter the white major leagues through their outrageous talent. gibson was born in buena vista, georgia...so i gotta like the guy a little more because he's from my home state. if he wouldn't have died of a heart-attack, some say he would've been one of the first players to break the color barrier. three months after his death, jackie robinson broke through into the white major leagues with the brooklyn dodgers.

*** reason i'm not putting him in the top 5 with the greats: his exact stats are unknown.



7. mickey "the mick" mantle
outfielder / #7 / new york yankees (1951-1968)



:: stats
18 seasons / 2,415 hits / 536 home runs / 1,509 runs batted in / .298 career batting average (.353 in 1956)

:: notable awards
4-time american league mvp
20-time american league all star
1956 major league player of the year
1956 batting title (.356)
1956 american league triple crown
1962 american league gold glove (outfield)
1974 major league baseball hall of fame inductee

:: other notes
"the mick" made a run at topping babe ruth's single-season home run record alongside teammate and soon-to-be mvp roger maris during the 1961 season. mantle fell by the wayside due to injuries; maris outpaced him. the movie 61* does a solid job at documenting season-long saga.

some argue that mantle would have ended up the greatest player ever if it hadn't been for his bad knees. just about as many would argue he could have been a better player if he focused more on the game than he did women.



6. lou "the iron horse" gehrig
first base / #4 / new york yankees (1923-1939)



:: stats
17 seasons / 2,164 games / 9,660 plate appearances / 2,721 hits / 493 home runs / 1,995 runs batted in / .340 career batting average (career-high .363 in 1934)

:: notable awards
1927 american league mvp
1934 american league triple crown
1936 american league mvp
1939 major league baseball hall of fame inductee

:: other notes
lou earned the nickname "the iron horse" because of his consistent performance and for the fact that he appeared in 2,130 consecutive games throughout his career (despite 17 fractures in his hands, severe back pain, and various illnesses). gehrig from baseball in 1939 due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als), a progressive disease that involves nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord (both control voluntary muscle movement). upon his retirement, als became commonly known as "lou gehrig's disease." gehrig was famously the first athlete to ever have his number retired. he was also inducted into the hall of fame early; the normal waiting period at that time was two years from the end of a players career. the hall practically admitted gehrig immediately.




terms...
triple crown - league leader in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.
mvp - most valuable player, aka the best batter/position player in your league.

preview of the greats

thursday night is usually 'the office' night. unfortunately nbc is stringing the season out and playing with its viewers' emotions though, so in case you haven't noticed it's been a few weeks since they've unleashed a new episode. instead of 'the office' this means thursday night has temporarily become braves night.

(rant: i know, you say if i was truly a hardcore braves/baseball fan that would be the case on any thursday night; however, some of my friends aren't quite in love with the sport as much as i am. so i sacrifice borderline obsession with a sport for building real relationships with friends. seems like a pretty good tradeoff, even though i do miss the days i could quote the batting averages of every braves starter - aka when i was six.)

so this week during braves night, one of the more curious girls posed an extremely dangerous, age-old question..."who is the greatest baseball player of all time?" this question is one that, if examined in the middle of braves night, could have potentially led to loud, extremely divisive arguments. not to mention we probably would not have expressed truly individual opinions (again in attempts to practice some level of civility in the debate). we chose to forego the divisive "greatest player" question and save it for later.

well, it's now 'later'. and i've decided to voice my opinion in writing instead of arguing or shouting. there's a catch though. in order to definitively state whom i believe to be the greatest baseball player of all time, you've gotta understand the gravity and depth of this question better. so to help you do that, i'm gonna break down my lists of the greatest players over the next week or two: greatest players of certain eras, greatest players at specific positions, maybe some greatest players of certain teams, maybe greats from certain countries/regions, and hopefully somewhere in that mix i can come to a confident conclusion about who i believe really is the greatest player we've ever seen take the diamond.

for now, baseball fans, keep salivating. keep tuning in for your favorite team's nightly match-ups. keep up with your fantasy teams, for cryin' out loud. and for the duration of this string of 'the greats' posts, take some downtime to ponder who you believe actually deserves some love on the lists of 'the greats.'

favorite mighty duck?

so as i was preparing for a little friendly intramural softball competition today, i stumbled across a gem of a childhood memory. maybe this will take you back to '94 like it did me. whether or not that's the case though, it should cause goosebumps to pop up on your skin and potentially send a shiver down your spine...so it's not actually that inspirational, but you get the picture. check it out if you have a few minutes to kill.

ducks fly together!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyVF1glhAfk



i think my favorite mighty duck from d2 was dwayne robertson, the dude from austin, texas. i think his cowboy charm, the accent, and his ridiculous comments sealed the deal. the bash bros. came in a close second though. and so i will conclude this blog by asking, if you don't mind, who's your favorite mighty duck?

mint juleps done and gone

my student teaching experience is over. and as most influential life experiences, finishing my student teaching was bittersweet. i enjoyed teaching this semester. my students were great, my cooperating teachers were amazing, i learned way more in one semester than i ever did in my college of education classes, and i feel much more confident in the direction i am going in life now. and even though i haven't exactly 'enjoyed' the getting up well before 6 a.m. every day, i realize that we have to make sacrifices somewhere in the mix for the things we love doing and are called to do. to be a little cliche, i'll steal a line from maroon5 about life and say that, "it ain't always rainbows and butterflies." things that we view as inconvenient and uncomfortable, such as working on five hours of sleep a night for the majority of a semester, are sometimes just the price we have to be willing to pay in order to live influentially.

to close this post out and pay tribute to the amazing cooperating teachers i worked with throughout my student teaching experience, here's a picture of what the famous ms. joliet would have looked like if she lived in 1938. enjoy!

(ps - i totally misspelled mint julep as "mint julip" earlier in the blog...forgive me? i'm not so acquainted with the spelling of my alcoholic beverages yet.)

late march

i woke up this morning at 10 a.m. which isn't too atypical for a college student. however, as you might already know, i've been student teaching this semester, which means getting up anywhere between 5 & 6 a.m. depending on the day of the week. so needless to say, i felt pretty stinkin' rested this morning. and it gets even better. (why did i get to wake up so late? the high school kid-os have spring break this week, which is great for me because i get a 2nd spring break of 2010)

the rest of the day boiled down like this: corn flakes for breakfast, unrestricted-by-time quiet time, deposited some money at the bank (always good, right), some work on a cover letter/resume combo, an afternoon run, chapter, dinner w my boy g.law, writing this blog post, and later on i'm playing some bball with some friends. pretty solid day, right?

the day was made even better because i remembered a mind-blowing truth that i discussed sunday night with a guy named zach (he's a freshman, which puts him ahead of me on this learning curve). whether i (or you for that matter) end up teaching, interning, or some other randomly crazy-planned-out thing that God calls me to next fall, i can rest secure in the perfect fact that God has made my life to be ridiculously more meaningful than what i am doing right now, what i did two years ago, or what i'll be doing ten years down the road. my entire life is going to eventually be used to bring glory to the God i live for here on earth. not just one snippet of it. not just one relationship. not even one job/career/you name it. mom, if you're reading let me know what you're thinking about now.

and so ::

i'm living with everything i've got for God right now. because that's what i've been given. and i desire to live with purpose and passion much greater than my self.

my prayer / song ::

let hope arise

and darkness tremble in Your holy light

that every eye would see Jesus our God

Great and Mighty to be praised

with everything

check this song out, whether you just read the lyrics, listen to it, or download it.

...then picture me being 'that guy' jamming out at a red light next to you because i can't hold in the passion that the Spirit pumps into me when i hear this song (i made the cd skip in my car the other day because i was drumming a bit too hard). haha, so fun.

Name above names

Lamb that was slain

you're beautiful, God

You're King above kings

God of all things

you're beautiful, God

and there is no other name like Jesus

i'll give you all of the praise, o Lord Jesus

- pre-chorus -

so let hope rise and darkness tremble

and darkness tremble in Your holy light

that every eye would see Jesus our God

great and mighty to be praised

God of all days

glorious in all of Your ways

oh the majesty, the wonder, and grace

in the light of Your name

- pre-chorus -

so let hope rise

and darkness tremble in Your holy light

that every eye would see

- chorus a -

with everything, with everything

we'll shout for Your glory

with everything, with everything

we'll shout forth Your praise

- chorus b -

and our hearts they cry

be glorified

be lifted high above all names

for You are King with everything

we will shout forth Your praise

"with everything"

hillsong united

passion: awakening

(c) joel houston, hillsong united

"God's not dead, He's surely alive,

living on the inside, roaring like a lion!"

it's never a mistake to do something God is calling you to. never. i was reminded of this a couple of times in the past two days, once by a roommate and the other through pretty typical circumstances.

..:: way 1
my roommate, chaz, is probably the most obedient dude i know. the LORD has taught chaz what it means to be both sensitive to His Spirit and to surrender everything chaz wants for kingdom work, for the LORD's work. case in point: chaz went to starbucks the other day and felt like God was asking him to just tell the dude across the room who was doctorin' up his coffee that "God really does love [that dude] and that the LORD sets us free. " so chaz did it. and nothing at all immediately happened. chaz was a little discouraged, but didn't doubt for a second that God was using that somehow. so when chaz felt God urging him to tell some random lady and her kid the same message 2 minutes later in that same starbucks, he did it. willingly and faithfully. and the same reaction occurred - nothing at all immediately happened. so chaz thinks the LORD was just testing chaz's faithfulness and is okay with it...he goes back to drinking down his coffee and just chillin' out. then another lady - whom chaz hadn't talked to at all during this whole time in starbucks - approaches chaz and says this, "God told me to come to starbucks today because i asked him to show me that He was still at work in athens; i heard everything you said to that man, then to that lady and her kid." God used chaz's obedience and faithfulness to encourage His body of believers, that woman in particular. boom-shocka-locka-boom! the LORD is good and we are so ridiculously blessed to be used by Him, to partner with Him in the amazing Truths and Realities that He's unveiling all around us. He's awesome.

..:: way 2
i didn't want to go to wesley tonight because i had a feeling God was gonna move like something fierce. and i needed to write some lesson plans for school tomorrow/had an assignment due at midnight (yes, the same midnight that is quickly approaching as i write..what can i say, i wanna get this stuff down while it's fresh).you know the next part of the story...i went to wesley anyway. because really if there's anything of true worth that i've learned the past few years it's that God is way bigger than any assignment or obligation. that doesn't give us license to use God as a scapegoat for not doing our work or for being irresponsible at all...just means that being with God, in His Presence is more valuable than anything else in the world. period. so how did he unveil the value of faithfulness here?? he shed some ridiculous light on a couple of truths that i needed to hear, and did it while giving me plenty of time to eat & finish my assignment on time. it doesn't matter what my circumstances are - hardship, struggle, & suffering or peace, pleasure, & rest - God is always worthy of my praise and He knows exactly what He's doing (romans 8.28).