The SoapBoxers

Take a deep breath and relax.

And in this corner, at 6'3" and 215 pounds ...

A lazy day of spring training was livened up a bit when Ubaldo Jimenez of the Indians intentionally threw at Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, clearing the benches and getting himself a five game suspension.

There has been a lot of tension between Jimenez and the Rockies this season.  The beef that Jimenez seems to have with the team is that Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez signed big extensions following the 2010 season, while the team made no move to extend Jimenez.  Why didn’t the Rockies offer Jimenez an extension?  Because they already had him under team control through 2014.

At the time he signed the deal (January 2009), these were Ubaldo’s thoughts on the subject:

That means a lot, that they’ve put a lot of trust in me, and I’m not going to let them down.

Sounds like he was pretty happy with the deal at the time, right?  Sure, he’d had a monster season in 2010 (fueled by a 15-1 start, which included a no-hitter) and perhaps rightly felt that he had outperformed the contract, but the Rockies had taken a risk by signing him to the deal before he had really proven much at the major league level.  At the time of the deal, Jimenez had a career record of 16-16 and a career ERA of 4.06.

Additionally, pitchers are more injury prone than position players, and pitchers for the Rockies are going to throw more pitches per inning than pitchers in other parks, because the park is very hitter friendly (and hits extend innings).  Considering that baseball contracts, unlike contracts in other sports, are guaranteed money, it’s risky to extend a pitcher too many years into the future, especially when he’s still under contract for several years.

Is he upset about being traded?  Seriously, how could the Rockies turn down a deal that included Drew Pomeranz and other pieces.  Pomeranz has the upside of Jimenez and is younger (cheaper).  The small market Rockies are often looking for cost efficiencies.

I like Ubaldo, but he really needs to put this in the past and move forward.

More big contracts

Actually, the Giants are paying for Matt Cain's arm.

Nah, man. I can pick up the tab for dinner. No worries, mate.

Spring training has served as a late Christmas for a some players.  Just yesterday, teams spent $350 million on players, with the Giants locking up pitcher Matt Cain for six years at a cost of $127.5 million and the Reds extended first baseman Joey Votto through the 2023 season with a ten year deal worth $225 million.  Cain’s deal has a vesting option (which turns into a team option if it doesn’t vest) that could push the deal to $141.5 million over seven years.

I’d like to point out the fact that Matt Cain’s career record is 69-73, and he has never won more than 13 games in a season.  I’d also like to point out the fact that win/loss record is a horrible stat to use when judging pitchers, and applaud the Giants for completely ignoring it in this case.  In 2007, for example, Cain went 7-16 for the Giants … but had a quite good 3.65 ERA and hit 200 innings – as a 22 year old.

Votto’s the third first basemen to notch a $200 million deal in recent months, following in the footsteps of Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.  Unlike Pujols and Fielder, Votto opted to remain with the team that drafted him.  Votto still has two years left on his current deal ($9 million this year and $17 million in 2013), so the new deals kick in for the 2014 season.  He’ll be 40 years old at the end of the contract.

I think Votto’s a relatively safe risk, as first baseman are less prone to injury than other position players (they don’t run long distances to field balls, nor are they often involved in collisions with baserunners).  However, I think it would make some sense to add easily-reached vesting options to protect against severely diminished skills or career-ending injuries (although teams often have disability insurance for injuries).  Set it up so that the option vests if the player gets 200 at bats in te previous season.

The Dodgers

Not this Frank McCourt

This is the guy.

The long, drawn out saga of Frank McCourt seems to be drawing to an end.  A group that includes NBA great Magic Johnson is going to buy the Dodgers for more than $2 billion, the highest price ever for a sports franchise.  McCourt will retain some rights to the parking lots, but will not receive parking-related revenue (this was a major issue).  McCourt paid $421 million for the team in 2004, so he should reap a tidy profit (even after using some of the cash toward his divorce settlement).

Why so much money?  Television rights.  Currently, Fox pays $38 million per season for the rights to televise Dodgers games.  That deal expires after the 2013 season, and the price is going to go through the roof.  How much do the Dodgers stand to gain from TV rights?  Well, the cross-town Angels recently signed a deal that will pay the team $3 billion over the next twenty years.

I’m actually a bit disappointed to see the Dodgers messed cleaned up.  The longer it lingered, the more it helped the other teams in the Dodgers’ division – including my Rockies.

Ryan Leaf: the anti-Manning

Two college quarterbacks are certain to be drafted 1-2 in this year’s NFL draft.  The near-certain #1 will be the polished field general from Stanford, Andrew Luck.  After the Colts snap up Luck, the Washington Redskins will select Robert Griffin III, the freakishly athletic QB from Baylor.

In 1998, the Colts also had the first overall pick in the draft.  That year, too, two quarterbacks were certain to go 1-2.  There was the polished guy from Tennessee, Peyton Manning.  Not only did he seem to understand the game at a very high level, his dad (Archie) had also played in the NFL.

The other guy was Washington State’s Ryan Leaf.  If you wanted raw athletic skill, you’d pick Leaf.  The Colts were divided internally, with the scouts preferring Leaf but the people with actual power in the front office preferring Manning.  The rest is history, with Manning winning a Super Bowl and taking the Colts to heights their fans could never imagine.

The San Diego Chargers calmly selected Leaf with the second pick, ecstatic to have a franchise quarterback.  It was probably the worst mistake the organization ever made.

Leaf picked fights with the media, alienated teammates, played golf when he should have been studying film, and played terribly when he was on the field.  The highlights of his rookie year were two touchdown passes.  Unfortunately, the low points were the fifteen interceptions.  He was eventually benched in favor of Craig Whelihan.

Leaf was out of the NFL by 2001, at the age of 25.  He finished his career with 14 touchdowns and 36 interceptions.  Had the Ryan Leaf story ended at that point, he would have simply been a spectacular NFL bust.  There have been plenty of highly touted quarterbacks who performed very poorly in the NFL.

But the next steps in Leaf’s life have made him not just a bust in football, but a bust in life.  Leaf has developed an addiction to pain killers, and it’s been landing him in jail on a frequent basis in recent years.  In 2008, while working as an assistant football coach, he asked a player for a painkiller.  It is, of course, illegal to use someone else’s prescription drugs.

In recent years, Leaf has taken to burglary to feed his habit.  In 2010, he was sentenced to ten years probation for burglary and possession of a controlled substance.

Last year, he had a benign tumor removed from his brain stem – something that would scare a lot of people straight.

This past Friday, he violated that probation by breaking into a house to steal pills.  He bonded out … and was arrested again today after breaking into another home and stealing three bottles of pills.  Police obtained a warrant for GPS data from Leaf’s truck, which placed him at the scene of the crime.  Police were checking with residents of ten other homes where Leaf stopped.  Texas authorities are revoking Leaf’s probation.

Authorities also believe that Leaf has been received small, rattling packages worth more than $500 once or twice per week.  You can probably figure out what’s in those packages.

It’s sad that Leaf’s career turned into the mess that it did – but it’s just sports.  It’s tragic that a young man who once was lauded by millions has become nothing more than a common junkie.

Ryan Leaf is still a relatively young man – 51 weeks younger than me – so there’s still hope for him.  But he needs to turn his life around immediately, or he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison – or he’ll stumble toward an early grave.

Writing (and speaking) like a professional

This is the first of a series of articles to look at professional writers and how reading can help your writing.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a writer.  He also happens to be the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  He has a new book out titled “Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier”.  It is not exactly an historical review of the space program (although there is some of that), it is more a discussion of why we have stopped.  This could seem to have a limited audience; space buffs.  Although space buffs will be interested, it is actually a broader discussion than just space exploration.  Dr. Tyson dives into the political, philosophical and practical implications of space exploration and the lack there or.

Dr. Tyson is not just a highly intelligent, highly educated scientist, he is also an excellent writer.  That title is applied because of his ability to explain complex ideas in ways that almost any reader can understand.  In addition to the readability, it is also entertaining.  He understands and can actually execute the salesmanship required by writers.  He follows in the foot steps of Carl Sagan.  Most people can picture Dr. Sagan immediately upon hearing his name.  He popularized Astronomy including the exploration of the solar system with the Pioneer and Voyager missions.  Dr. Tyson has that same ability, to popularize without marginalizing the intellectual basis of the topic.

Dr. Tyson is also a very good speaker.  He spoke about his latest work on C-Span. There are a lot of writers who want to just write and have people read and appreciate their good work.  Unfortunately, this is not the way the world works.  As a writer, you have to seek out and engage your public.  To be successful as a writer, you will have to get in front of people and talk about your books.  Learning to speak in public is just as important as learning how to write.  Reading other successful writers and watching their public speaking will provide hints and pointers to improve your writing and speaking.
 

 

Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

 
[Editor’s note: I’d like to take this time to mention that Princess Kate is now on her way to becoming Dr. Kate.  She has been accepted into a PhD program.  Congratulations.  -Kosmo]

No reproduction can do this painting justice. It’s enormous, seven feet high and twelve feet long, expansive yet exquisitely detailed, seemingly lit by the real sun. Thomas Moran’s Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone not only permanently changed American landscape art, it also changed how Americans thought of themselves and their country.

Despite the painting’s misleading title, Moran’s painting depicts the Lower Yellowstone Falls in Wyoming. The Yellowstone River plunges 308 feet over the falls – twice the height of Niagara Falls (although with considerably less water, as the river is only 70 feet wide at this point, compared to Niagara’s half-mile). The largest volume waterfall in the American Rockies, the falls are so impressive that many early visitors greatly overestimated their height. An especially hyperbolic news story from 1867 lists the height at 1000 feet.

Immigrant painter, American landscape

Moran’s painting certainly emphasizes the magnificence of the scene. A native of England, Moran and his family settled in New York where he became an illustrator for Scribner’s Monthly, an illustrated monthly magazine published from 1870 to 1881. Moran first heard of Yellowstone after illustrating Nathaniel Langford’s account of the Washburn-Doane expedition through Yellowstone in 1870. His illustrations were based solely on Langford’s descriptions of these wild places he had never seen. Intrigued by Langford’s reports of soaring mountain peaks, endless rivers, and wide open skies, Moran convinced Jay Cooke, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad to finance his trip west. Cooke secured Moran a place on the Hayden Geological Survey, led by geologist Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden. The survey left from Virginia and explored the northeastern corner of Wyoming that would later become Yellowstone National Park.

Many people assume that national parks were set up purely for conservation purposes – making sure exquisite pockets of American wilderness remain so in the quickly evolving landscape. This is untrue. By and large, national parks were created to generate income from tourists. The Northern Pacific Railroad had a lot to gain from a major tourist attraction along their western line. Hayden’s entire expedition relied on the generosity of railroad magnates like Cooke, as well as federal funds.

Shifting Perspectives

Along with famed landscape photographer William Jackson, Moran spent the expedition recording the beauty of the American west. Unlike Jackson’s photographs, which had to be painstakingly staged, Moran was free to sketch whenever and wherever he chose. He sketched the falls and canyon over and over from various vantage points and angles, determined to capture every aspect and color. When the survey returned in the fall of 1871, both Moran’s sketchbook and memory were full of nothing but the falls. A selection of these sketches illustrated Hayden’s exclusive article in Scribner’s describing the expedition. Many of these sketches would later be reworked in Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Always careful to explain that his paintings were not “literal transcripts from Nature,” Moran strove to portray the wild spirit of Yellowstone through his enormous painting, without tying himself to topographical and geological exactitude. The seven by twelve foot canvas took two months to paint. The resulting painting was immediately hailed as a masterpiece.

In an era where not many people traveled, illustrations and paintings like Moran’s were Americans only window to the western frontier. Photographs, still grainy and black and white, couldn’t yet capture the sublime nature of Yellowstone, the magnificence and scale of the canyon. Americans, used to looking to the large cities of the eastern seaboard and to Europe for inspiration, now began to look west, and to consider the wide sky of the Rockies and beyond part of their natural birthright. This God-given beauty, so perfectly captured by Moran, was part of being American.

With the case of Florida vs. Department of Health and Human Services, the circus came to Washington this week in and outside of the Supreme Court. Now that the arguments are over we will sit back and debate over things ad nausea until the opinion of the court is released, which is not expected until sometime in June. It basically will come down to how Justice Kennedy will decide upon the issue of the individual mandate. It is going to be a 5-4 decision either way, and I am really unsure at this point how things will fall in the end.

On one hand you had Kennedy discussing an analogy of burial insurance on the arguments over the individual mandate. Would you go up to a young person and say that you are going to die one day so you must buy this burial insurance policy from me to cover your expenses. Now I liked this analogy, at least in the fact that it was original, unlike that partisan hack Justice Scalia and his talking points handed broccoli analogy. Then on the other hand, later in his talks Kennedy talked about maybe healthcare being different.

Like I said at this point I have no idea how his vote is going to sway. I do know though that depending on how the majority opinion gets worded and whether they go all Bush v. Gore and state that this cannot be used in any other case, it is going to have a profound effect on many things if it is a 5-4 decision striking down the individual mandate.

Like I said it all depends on how the opinion comes out, but after decades of trying to do so, the Republicans have backed into a way of getting rid of Social Security and Medicare. Based on the Justices’ line of thinking on those obviously voting to get rid of the mandate both Social Security and Medicare can be deemed unconstitutional. What gives the government the right to come to me as a young worker and say you must put side this money for later on in life for you and to pay those older workers currently receiving the benefits of this if I choose not to. Hey I’m young I can do that later, if I really want to. Hell even the Republicans tired old private accounts argument would be unconstitutional. So you are going to force me to put my money into the market? What gives you the right? Then the same applies on to Medicare as well. What gives the Government the right to force me to put money forth for older people’s medical coverage now and mine in the future if I really don’t want to? Under the argument set forth in the Justices’ line of questioning this rational would be the same for these as well.

Another effect that a ruling that strikes down the law would have is disturbing as well. If you don’t like something the opposition party writes into law, have it brought to the court to strike down. Say Mittens or Santorum by some evil joke of God wins the election. A state with liberal control will just bring its argument against the law before the court. It’s a long shot in any circumstance to succeed, but right now it’s a 4-4 split of hard conservative to moderate liberal on the Supreme Court. Then with Kennedy and is usual swing vote there is a shot you can get things done and with this precedent set try and try again will constantly be the partisan fight from now on to get rid of whatever is passed that you don’t like.

Maybe Gingrich is right. Did I just say those words; I am throwing up in my mouth just a little. Anyways, I have been thinking this all day in hearing the arguments on what the Justices felt on different parts of the law if the individual mandate was struck down. We really do need to just arrest these partisan Judges from legislating from the bench. Your job in my opinion is over with you striking down the individual mandate, you don’t have the authority on which legislation is worthy to be kept or not, or what can be salvaged for cost reasons. That is Congress’ job, not the Judicial branch’s

job.

Tragic

That is the word I would use to describe the death of Trayvon Martin. It’s a loss for his family that I can’t even begin to understand. I think about losing one of my children to a death like this and it infuriates me. It makes me think how much I would want revenge. How much I would want to take George Zimmerman and clean the floor with him. Unfortunately, we’re seeing this reaction from people without any skin in the game and without any knowledge of what happened.

At this point in the investigation very little has been “officially” released to the media. We know that George Zimmerman, a 27 year old 5’9” 200 pound man, shot and killed a 17 year old man who was 6’3” and 150 pounds. We’ve heard some of the 911 call. Almost everything else has been rumor and innuendo. The only people that should be having a meltdown right now is the family of this young man. I can understand vigils, but marches and demonstrations are not what we need.

Now, the Black Panthers have gotten involved which is probably the least healthy aspect of this. They’ve offered a $10,000 bounty for George Zimmerman. They have alleged that Zimmerman (who is ½ white and ½ Hispanic) shot Martin because of racial tension – yet that has not been released by the police or prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, I’ve seen two different news reports that indicate witnesses have reported seeing Zimmerman on the ground being beaten by Martin. Martin allegedly tried to get Zimmerman’s gun, a struggle ensued and that is when Martin was shot.

Someone from the police department leaked that Zimmerman had lost Martin while following him and had started to walk back to his vehicle. Martin allegedly then approached Zimmerman and either attacked him from behind or confronted him and began hitting him.

The police have “officially” reported that Zimmerman’s injuries and other physical evidence was consistent with what Zimmerman told police although they didn’t elaborate on what that version was. The police have turned over their evidence to the prosecutors. I’ve read that the FBI is also looking in to this situation for another independent review. The grand jury is ready to review the information on April 10th.

I have seen marches, demonstrations and candle light vigils for Trayvon Martin. All the usual celebrities have made their way into the spot light (Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc). I ask this though, “Who are we to judge either man with the little bit of information we have?” People have already condemned and crucified Zimmerman. This hasn’t gone to trial and we don’t even have all the information from that night or the autopsy.

While I’m on my soapbox, shame on the media. I’ve seen nothing but pictures of Trayvon that look like he’s 11 or 12 years old. He was 17. Are you telling me there are no pictures of him taken in the last 5 or 6 years? Obviously there are, but pictures of children killed by grown men stir up more emotions than pictures of men killing men. No one is talking about Trayvon’s current 10 day suspension for marijuana use. This may or may not be relevant. What if he was high when this happened? Don’t you think it could impact his judgment? Does it make you mad that I brought up his marijuana use? Think of how it must make others feel when people say that this was racially motivated? It’s likely a similar feeling.

The police had a hard job to do. The prosecutor’s office has an equally hard job to do and the Grand Jury is going to feel like they’re in hell. The last thing they need is the distractions of a bounty for Zimmerman and the Black Panthers saying an eye for an eye and a life for a life. (Watch this video because Zimmerman will never rest easy again)

I don’t know where this story will end, there is a lot of evidence they need to consider. The injuries to each person should be very telling. It’s possible that they will confirm no charges will be filed against Zimmerman. If that happens, what will the consequences be? From the current look of things, we will see riots, civil unrest and likely violence on a wide spread scale. The Black Panthers in the previous video have promised to hunt down Zimmerman and bring him to justice on their own. The demonstrations will without a doubt grow and become more unruly than we saw with the growing demonstrations from the Occupy movements.

I hope that whatever happens, the family of Trayvon Martin can eventually find peace. If it is decided that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense I hope he can find peace and safety as well. I pray that the different groups currently protesting will be satisfied with the outcome of the investigation either way. If Zimmerman is arrested, tried and found guilty…let the court determine his punishment. If Zimmerman is exonerated, I pray that they will accept his legal defense and move on from this.

Squeaky…

Is Tiger set to blast out of his life's bunker?

Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Love him or hate him, Tiger Woods is good for the game of golf. One thing for sure is he has been controversial. He has been in the news a lot over the last few years.

Is he the best ever? Can’t stand the guy? What happened to his game? Can you believe he cheated on his wife? Have you read Haney’s book? Is his knee/head/Achilles ok? Will he catch Jack’s record winning Major Championships?

Seven continually repeated questions, so many opinions, so many yet unanswered.

Seven Time Winner

Sunday might have been the first time Tiger has answered back with his golf game and not his comments in a press conference.

This past weekend, Eldrick won for the first time since the 2009 BMW Championship, giving him 72 victories all-time. This is the seventh..that is right…seventh time he has won the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational. He played very well (other for a couple of errant tee shots on the back nine) and was the only player on the first page of the leaderboard when the day started to post an under par round in the windy conditions.

Woods started out the tournament with a fairly routine 69, but propelled himself to the top of the leaderboard arena with a 7 under par 65 on Friday. The win propelled Tiger from 18th in the World Rankings to 6th. One place ahead of last year’s Masters Champion, Charl Schwartzel.

Scratching the Seven Year Itch

In two weeks, Tiger looks to be in very good form as he attempts to win his first Masters Title and 5th overall. The last time he won…7 years ago in 2005.

As I write this on Monday it will be just one short week until I find some good ol’ Southern hospitality. This year I will be in attendance at a practice round on Monday. This will be my second trip to the Masters as I was lucky enough to go in 2009. On that trip I was there to watch the weekend – being in attendance on both Saturday and Sunday.

That day Tiger and Phil were paired together. Both were starting Sunday 7 shots back. I followed the twosome for the first 7 holes on the front nine. I saw Mickelson hit some of the most amazing shots I had ever witnessed in person as he was in route to a 6 under par 30 on the front nine. I moved ahead of the throngs to get into position at the seats we had placed out directly to the right of the 12th tee.

Yes I was there when Mickelson splashed it in the water and pretty much dashed his hopes. But for about 2 ½ hours that day, the electricity in the air was something you could just sense. This was Tiger and Phil, this was them playing together and playing well. This was exciting.

Seventh Sign of the Golf Apocalypse?

A lot of people have written him off, and maybe this last win was just a flash in a washed up pan.

I don’t think so.

There has been a lot happening with Tiger in the past couple of years, but right around the President’s Cup last fall it all started looking different. The focus looked different. The swing looked different.

Now the confidence appears to be back, the focus appears to have returned. The broadcasters and fellow tour players are starting to say it is looking again like the “Old” Tiger Woods. Will the results be different?

If this is in fact true – and Tiger is able to bring his game back to the level that he was previously able to achieve-  it will be an awakening for the young tour players that have not really had to experience the Tiger effect over the last 2 ½ years.

One thing is for sure. No matter what, he once again has the golf fans talking. And THAT – is good for the game of golf.

Until next time, Stay Classy White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia!

This last week, there were several politically charged gatherings.  The Occupy Wall Street group celebrated six months of continuous protests.  The Tea Party group started their now annual rallies leading up to tax day and anti-Tea Party groups protested the Tea Party.

Tea Party protesters fill the National Mall.

The Tea/Anti-Tea protests are very well-defined.  The Tea Party thinks that Americans are taxed enough already and do not like some of the programs that are being funded by the federal government, specifically the new health care legislation that is now two years old.  The Anti-Tea Party groups think that rich people are not taxed enough and that too much money is spent on the military.  They also specifically support the new health care legislation as a way to save money in the future by guaranteeing that everyone has affordable health care.  The arguments on each side are well articulated and, in general, are civil.

The Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.

The Occupy group is still rather nebulous in their message.  They have returned to the “forgive my student loans” issues.  Why the banks are evil on this issue is confusing.  The students chose to take the loans and knew the expectations of repayment.  It would be like charging for tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert then expecting the credit card company to forgive that short term loan.  The argument could be made that a college education is different than a concert, but the basic premise is the same.  If you cannot afford the college costs, is it the bank’s fault or the college?  If you cannot afford the concert ticket, is it the credit card company’s fault or the entertainer’s?  Or in both cases, has the borrower made a bad financial decision and gotten into debt that they should not have taken?

We as a nation have bailed out car companies, financial institutions and certain people with bad mortgages.  The occupy group wants to add to this list people with student loans or apparently loans of any kind that they do not want to have to pay back.  Although most people would like a freebie every once in a while, there will be a cost if the occupy group is given what they want just has there has been a cost for the bail outs that have already occurred.

The previous bail outs have driven the national debt higher.  Unless the federal government pays off the loans that the occupy group wants forgiven (which will add even more to the debt), then the people who deposit in the banks will lose.  Even if they do not lose their actual deposits, the will get extra fees, reduced rates on their investments and many other costs.  The banks are not individuals, they are corporations.  Corporations sell products, in this case, interest to attract deposits and loans to make money.  If the money source does not make money, they will stop providing the product (meaning the next group of college attendees will have no loans available) or charge more for existing products to recover the lost revenue.  Getting the loans forgiven may seem like a good idea for the moment, but it will not get those people jobs, income or opportunities, in fact it will limit opportunities for a very large group of people who could include the protesters themselves.

George Will is a big baseball fan. He also writes on other topics.

In the midst of a semi-related topic on another site, once again I saw someone bring up the old stereotypes – sports fans are dumb.  They have no interests outside of sports and just lay on the couch watching football and eating Cheetos.

Clearly, the stereotype is exaggerated.  However, there are certainly a lot of people who consider sports fan to be intellectually challenged.  I’m won’t argue that every sports fan is a member of Mensa (although I know some who are), but it’s also not true that all sports fans are dumb.  Are there some sports fans who are also dumb?  Sure.  But find me any self-selecting group of several million people that doesn’t have a few dim bulbs.

The sports fans I come into contact with on a regular basis are pretty bright.  Our resident sports writer, Johnny Goodman, has a degree in Economics and History.  He now works in a different discipline.  We work for the same employer (different offices) and the feedback I hear is that he’s very much in-demand for his expertise.

Martin Kelly is an aerospace engineer who has worked on NASA projects.  Frequent reader Evan is a lawyer by day and tech writer by night.  My good friend Lazy Man, despite the name, is a successful entrepreneur.  I talk baseball with my dentist.  My wife is a CPA and also a big fan of the St. Louis Rams and Iowa Hawkeyes.

Nearly every writer on The Soap Boxers is a sports fan to some extent (although I believe Kate’s level of interest is fairly low).  Obviously, all of them have interests outside of sports, since they write on other topics.  Issues such as legalization of marijuana, drilling for oil in ANWR, the morality of torture, and how to become a more effective writer.  Personally, I have a lot of interests outside of sports – among them computers, forensic science, paleontology, and world history.

To cast the net further, look at George Will and Nate Silver.  Both are very well-known in the world of politics.  The New York Times once called Will “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America” and Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com had millions of fans before the New York Times decided to license the site for their own use.  Clearly, these are two bright guys.  They are also big sports fans.  Will has written two books on the subject (Men at Work and Bunts) and Silver developed the PECOTA method of projecting future performance of players (currently used by Baseball Prospectus).

My point?  Don’t assume that someone is dumb just because they happen to be a sports fan.  In return, I won’t assume that you are dumb because you like Dancing With the Stars or scrimshaw.  A person’s leisure interests provide flavor to their life.  Leisure is supposed to be fun, not work.  So if your idea of a good time is kicking back and watching a game, don’t feel any guilt – just do it.

Talking TO my generation

I realize I’m in my early 30’s so some may see me on the cusp of the generation I speak of, but I have to make my voice heard. Social media makes it easy to speak, and while I’m a big defender of the first amendment, I believe social media has allowed speaking one’s mind to become way too easy.

I meet so many people who meet with me after I address a crowd, whether it be a GOP event, a rally or even a school board meeting, and they say they “could never speak in public” because it’s their biggest fear. And then they tweet.

Isn’t that exactly what twitter is? Public speaking without the face to face crowd? Think about it. Say you have 500 followers. Every time you tweet something, up to 500 people could be reading it. If it gets a re-tweet? Your words, your statement, just went to all of your followers, followers.

Facebook is the same thing. Say you have 500 friends. Everytime you post an update, up to 500 people could be reading it.

So why is that different than public speaking? Is it because you’re not physically in front of all 500? Your words carry just as much weight (if not more) on social media because, with the restriction of characters, it really can’t be taken out of context like a public speech can be. With your words already put into text, it makes it a lot easier to copy/paste.

If you want to be taken seriously, use correct spelling. If you write like a moron, I will think you’re a moron, it’s as simple as that. You could be writing the most brilliant, thoughtful tweet or facebook update ever…but if u rite it liek thes…I won’t read it. And if it was important enough for you to take time to write it, you must want others to read it, correct? Then take the time to make it readable.

Unless you’re yelling something, DO NOT USE ALL CAPS. I READ IT AS IF YOU’RE YELLING AT ME, EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT. And you just read that as if I were yelling at you, didn’t you?

I’m tired of the arguement “It’s MY Facebook/Twitter wall…” because, well, that’s just a false statement. Do you pay for Facebook or twitter? No. And if you are, you’re getting hosed. Therefore, you don’t own “your” wall. If Facebook or Twitter wanted to suspend your account, they can. And they will. And then you’ll realize while you’ve been held accountable for your words, you no longer have the medium you seemed to think was “yours”.

Come on, guys. We’ve got a great tool in our hands. Social media IS a tool. Think before you tweet/post/update “Is this something that I’d actually SAY in front of 500 people?” If your answer is “no”, please hit delete. 

If you think I’m overreacting, I’m not. Anything you tweet is being archived in the Library of Congress. No, really.  Think of it this way, in 300 years, my great-great-great-great grandchild might want to do a history report on me. Do I really want them to see that on March 22, 2012 I tweeted the size/shape/color of a bowel movement? No. And no one in the present day wants to know either.

Don’t let this tool make a tool out of you. Stop and think. Is this something I would approach a podium and announce?

That being said, feel free to follow me on twitter @bowmama.