George Kenneth Griffey Junior joined George Herman (Babe) Ruth Junior as well as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in the 600 Home Run club.

Throughout his career he has been known as “The Kid” or “The Natural” or just “Junior”, but if it had not been for a number of severe injuries (many of which were caused by his amazing catches at center field walls), he would likely be remembered as the greatest of all time.

Still, having seen some great players in my days, Griffey has been by far the most exciting and entertaining player I have ever seen… and has never been involved in any whisper of steroid use.

Thanks for all the memories, kid. You’ve been great!

The great time in America with family and friends.
Fellowshipping in churches – in English.
The contacts we’ve made and the vision for our future.

However, it is t-minus-3 hours to kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday. So, instead of writing about something serious I’m going to make my prediction for the Patriots – Giants game.

Admittedly, this prediction will be a reflection of my intense dislike for all Boston sports (nothing personal, Beantown, but when you grow up a New York Yankees fan, you have no choice but to dislike Red Sox nation and anything remotely connected to it – and now that they slaughtered my hometown Colorado rockies in the World Series they are even darker on my blacklist).

I have to admit that this Patriots team is the best team I have ever seen, but the Giants are a legitimate squad who are playing very well. And, since I can’t root for the Patriots, I can’t pick them to win either, so here it is:

…

Giants 31
Patriots 27

…

Enjoy the game everyone.

October belongs to the Colorado Rockies.

I have to say, I am really sad not to be in Colorado. To have a chance to watch our home team play in the World Series from a seat at Coors field – that’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity.

Coors Field : I would love to be back there this October.

Then I remember: every day I spend in Thailand, among my Akha friends, in my bamboo hut. These are rare opportunities as well, and I am incredibly blessed to live a life full of these moments.

Doi Mae Salong : Actually, I guess I would rather be here.

So I guess I’ll just enjoy the World Series whenever I can catch bits of it in the city. Go Rockies!

First, the easy predictions:

The Rockies will still be a bad baseball team. I could not be happier to have been so wrong. Josh Fogg and the Rockies bullpen found enough gas in the tank to carry the team until the offense exploded late in the year – winning 13 out of 14 games to force the first Game 163 in nearly a decade.

I’ll be on the road to Chiang Mai during the game, taking Manoon’s family out to get another of their children into a home that can care for his polio, so I’ll miss it – but I’m sure glad for the Rockies, and would like to predict that they will lose big to the Padres (after all, I predicted that the they would be a bad baseball team and they were a good team, so if I predict that they will lose big… )

Albert Pujols will still be the best player in baseball. No MVP season for Pujols, but another incredible year, batting over .320 with 30+ hr and 100+ RBI. The only thing is, after a “disappointing” season last year, Alex Rodriguez has again established himself as the best regular-season player in baseball. If he wants to overtake Pujols as the “best player in baseball” he will have to show that flash in October.

The Yankees and the Red Sox are the greatest rivalry in sports. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Now, for the hard calls, my 2007 MLB predictions:

NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks … Looks like I knew what I was talking about.
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals … Oops, maybe I didn’t. It really hurts to lose your Ace in the first month. Make that the Chicago Cubs.
NL East: New York Mets … Fell apart late. Opened the Door for the Phillies.
NL WildCard: Philadelphia Phillies … Actually won the NL East, leaving San Diego and Colorado to battle it out for the NL Wild Card role.

AL West: Oakland A’s … Oops. 10 games under .500 Make that the Angels
AL Central: Minnesota Twins … 17 games behind Cleveland
AL East: Boston Red Sox … Just barely – pitching is looking older.
AL WildCard: New York Yankees* … Overcame a horrendous start to almost catch Boston, but will settle for the WildCard – Young pitching looks good.

*it is very possible that the WildCard will go to a very good Cleveland Indians team who will not have to endure the difficult schedule of the AL East teams who will all beat up on each other. See? I did know that Cleveland was good.

NLCS: St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets … hmmm. Let’s change that to Chicago against NOT Phillidelphia (Seriously, I love the Rockies chances against Philly, if they can beat Peavy tomorrow.)
ALCS: Oakland A’s vs. Minnesota Twins … Once again – Nope. Make it: New York vs. Boston. I have to say this is what I wanted to write in April, but I couldn’t believe it might happen again

World Series: Oakland A’s over New York Mets in 6 … Lets make the world right again. After beating the Red Sox, the Yankees keep the Cubs winless in the last 99 years, back to 1908. However, next year will be interesting again as ARod might be off to friendlier fields in 2008, but we’ll save that discussion for my predictions next spring.

2007 Awards

AL MVP – Alex Rodriguez, NYY
AL ROY – Dustin Pedroia, BOS
AL CY – C.C. Sabathia, CLE

NL MVP – Matt Holliday, COL (actually, it might be Rollins, PHI – but it SHOULD be Holliday)
NL ROY – Troy Tulowitzky, COL (that’s right, the playoffs, MVP and ROY all in one year for COL)
NL CY – Jake Peavy, SD. Jake Peavy, SD. Jake Peavy, SD. And guess who’s pitching game 163 tomorrow?

I have been pondering sitting down to expound upon a number of posts inspired by conversations I have recently had and articles I have recently read covering topics from human trafficking to disenfranchised peoples, from Lent and the Easter season to the Emergent church. However, April 2nd, the sweetest of all spring days has arrived again. So today I talk about baseball.

The hot stove league has cooled as Spring Training has come to an end. Tremendous stories abound as Baseball becomes a more international pastime. As I mentioned last year, this is a time of excitement and new beginnings for ball clubs around the league. In that spirit of optimism, I am going to forget the fact that my predictions last year were awful and forge ahead, trusting that one day I will get something right.

First, the easy predictions:

The Rockies will still be a bad baseball team. That pitching staff is awful. Terrible. If they do not find a diamond in the rough, or, preferably, acquire a pitcher who can actually keep baseballs inside the diamond, they might finish as the worst team in the National League.

Albert Pujols will still be the best player in baseball. I was born 7 months before Reggie Jackson led the Yankees to his final World Series victory. Growing up watching baseball in the 80′s and 90′s there was no one else who consistently raised their team to a level of greatness like those old baseball greats. Barry Bonds comes the closest to instilling the fear that the greats instilled, but he has never been able to translate that into team success and a World Series victory. With his herculean statistics and last years World Series victory, Albert Pujols emerged as perhaps the best player that baseball has seen since the all-time greats of Aaron, Mays, Musial, Mantle and Williams.

The Yankees and the Red Sox are the greatest rivalry in sports. Although Toronto and Baltimore have both made strides in the standings in the AL East, the fire that New York and Boston play with is unmatched in baseball. In fact, a Yankees-Red Sox game is probably the premiere entertainment event in professional sports today; from a competition standpoint it is even better than the Super Bowl.

Now, for the hard calls, my 2007 MLB predictions:

NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL East: New York Mets
NL WildCard: Philadelphia Phillies

AL West: Oakland A’s
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL WildCard: New York Yankees*

*it is very possible that the WildCard will go to a very good Cleveland Indians team who will not have to endure the difficult schedule of the AL East teams who will all beat up on each other.

NLCS: St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets
ALCS: Oakland A’s vs. Minnesota Twins

World Series: Oakland A’s over New York Mets in 6

That’s what I have got for this year, as usual I reserve the right to apologize and do this again at the All-Star break. Remember that you can listen to some of your favorite team’s broadcasts live – look here for your teams radio stations.

I’ve always enjoyed Jim Armstrong‘s notes columns in the Denver Post and have felt that his approach to newspaper articles would be a better fit as a notes blog – that way the author can assume people know what he is talking about while providing a link to give more information to people who are confused. In honor of all newspapers in English, here’s my notes blog for the day…

I like Indianapolis over Chicago for Super Bowl XLI. But I’m almost always wrong…

That said, I have to listen to the home team broadcast of one of the two teams (I don’t get the national broadcast on NFL Fieldpass) so I will be listening to the crew from Chicago because they broadcast more like a national crew (and then I will probably be re-listening to the winning call from Indy).

Can I be the first person to say that although Super Bowl XL was the coolest Super Bowl year ever, something has to be done before we get to Super Bowl L. Please, please NFL, go away from the traditional Roman numerals for that one – even Super Bowl 50 would be better than Super Bowl L.

From super bowls to hot stoves…

Once the final gun sounds on XLI we begin the driest season of the year: 58 sport-less days until Opening Day. I guess there’s always hockey, golf and the NBA.

The biggest news out of the hot stove league is not whether Andy Pettitte will effectively replace the Big Unit, or what team the Rocket will be pitching for come October. No, the biggest news in baseball is who is on the iSquad.

iPods are certainly everywhere these days. Talk about a monopoly… when will Steve Jobs start getting the bad press Bill Gates gets?

My question for Major League Baseball is this: When Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens (finally) do retire, will they be the last of the great nicknames in baseball?

Another interesting conversation in the hot stove league has to do with the possibility of a Major League Baseball team in Portland. I’d love to see it happen, but in the meantime the Salem-Keiser Volcanoes put a pretty good product on the field.

To finish this notes blog, I might as well plagiarize the conclusion of one of Armstrong’s recent articles (is it plagerism if you cite the source? I think I’ve been working with the AOF director on his dissertation too long)…

…finally, today’s golden-oldie quote, courtesy of Hank Aaron: ‘It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.’

Back then it was an embarrassment to lose to the Nawlins Aints, as they were often called.
What a difference today makes.

With one game to go to Super Bowl XLI, the New Orleans Saints – the dogs of the league for every “last year” they’ve been around – are favored by every ESPN expert to beat Chicago at Soldier Field to advance to the Super Bowl.

Saints fans, passionate as they might be, always have a backup plan to the hopes for their football team, often involving a night on bourbon street to wash the memories away, and to hear people picking the Saints to go to the Super Bowl is beyond most of their expectations – but there does seem to be something special about this team.

Denver fans used to love and fear the Super Bowl. Four Super Bowls. Four losses. Until that fateful year when Terrell Davis and John Elway went to San Diego and beat the Packers.

This feels like that kind of year for the Saints, at least for this game.

Enjoy!

Albert Pujols.

The Dominican kid who became the Major League MVP and who, despite fame and fortune, values his family, marriage and faith in Christ. If you have an MP3 player, or if you just want to listen on your computer, take the time to listen to Focus on the Family‘s Dr. James Dobson and his conversations with Albert and Dee Dee Pujols:

For those of you who do not love baseball, allow me to explain. Think of tomorrow as New Year’s day for baseball. In the long run, January 1st really has very little impact on the remaining 364 days in the year – yet we celebrate it. This is Opening Day in baseball. Win or lose, our teams have 161 more games to prove themselves, but this is the holiday to celebrate the new season.

As with every year, the 2006 Baseball season brings promise and excitement – and gimmicks. So here are my observations / predictions on America’s favorite pastime:

Best Gimmick: This one is easy. The Gateway Grizzleys (minor league) of Illinois have released what they claim is the Baseball’s Best Burger. It is a combination of two things we just can’t get in Thailand – a good old American Hamburger and Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Burger King has nothing to do with this promotion, I just thought the image would look good – plus McDonalds has had some rough publicity lately). Although I can’t say I particularly find this combination very appealing, it is uniquely American.

Biggest Newcomers: I have to name two here. The most exciting up-and-coming teams in baseball are the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Milwaukee Brewers. I don’t think either make the playoffs this year, but they will be fun to watch.

Best of the AL: Again two must be named, the teams to beat will be the Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels.

Best of the NL: Hands down the St. Louis Cardinals. No one else is in their league.

Play Ball!

Now, of all my diversions, the NCAA Bracket is historically my worst. Although I enjoy college basketball, it is not a sport I follow much outside of the tournament itself. Still, every year I would scour pages from ESPN.com and Sportsline.com to see who the Cinderella team of the Tournament would be. I would then combine all the information I had gleaned from these experts and make my educated picks.

This year, I didn’t have the time to see who the “favorite” picks were, so I threw my bracket together with what little knowledge I had… and now I am in the 97th percentile of most successful brackets. Though it will likely not last too long, I am ranked 33,000 out of hundreds of thousands of brackets. Makes me realize all the time I wasted “researching” the big winners.

Of course, my picks aren’t completely without insight. As a test, we had an Akha friend of ours pick their own bracket, and she chose Duke to be upset in the first round and Utah State to win it all.

I know what’s important in Denver, and that a sad as you all are about my leaving, you are devastated to hear this news. Such is the salary-cap age of the modern NFL.

I can’t believe it, it’s incredible. I just don’t know what happened.
For my (early) Christmas present to myself this year I bought the NFL field pass, which allowed me to live in an Akha village and still come down to listen to the Broncos games when time allowed. After that first game in Miami, however, I thought I wouldn’t have to listen to many games this year. But I did continue to listen and though there was always a lingering doubt from that first game, I found myself asking “Are they really this good?” – fearful to get my hopes up too much (two consecutive years of a combined score of 90-34 against the Indianapolis Colts had certainly quieted we Broncos fans).
Not anymore. Now it’s for real. A 100-yard interception return from Champ Bailey and the magic gone from Adam Vinatieri’s right foot (I can still hear the Pittsburgh announcer “IT’S NO GOOD! HE MISSED IT! MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS FOR DENVER!”) and all of a sudden the Broncos are sitting pretty.
Nothing against Pittsburgh, but Denver hasn’t lost a game at home all year. And personally, I am just happy that the Denver Broncos have stretched out their season long enough for me to actually watch a game LIVE. It’s the little things, you know?

There are probably thousands of people writing the same thing all over (America) right now, but I will join the masses and throw in my two cents – Vince Young is an amazing football player. With all this build up about Reggie Bush being the best running back ever, his landslide heisman victory and his heisman twin handing him the ball no one looked twice at the player that made an average team amazing. I couldn’t follow college football much this year, but I saw the Big 12 championship game score as (an admittedly hurting) Colorado saw Texas put 70 points on the board. Even after that Young did not turn many heads.

Well, congratulations Mr. Young. A National Championship against a great team, no one can question your ability now (except maybe the NFL)