58259

goals

amy and i just got back from kelly's in eastie where we spent some time working on our goals for 2011. goals about our careers and neighborhood involvement, personal/individual projects and things we want to accomplish together.

one of my personal goals is to try to find more ways to channel my passions into productive and creative endeavors. i love baseball, but a lot of the time that passion dissipates into time wasting efforts like fantasy baseball or clicking on endless links. this year, though, i am trying to be more intentional about these kinds of things.

so, i am helping launch a new blog. it's called "baseball monk" and we can be found at baseball-monk.com.

i say "we "because (and this is my favorite part of the whole project) i get to do this with some of the dudes i grew up with. we all have moved from the Bay Area for one reason or another, yet retain our passion for baseball generally and for the Giants specifically. so doing this "in community" is especially fun. jon huckins, josh stover, and tim spier will be joining me on this endeavor.

so, for those of you who enjoy baseball, or you just like passionate people writing about one of their favorite topics, go check it out!

tim's first article is up today. josh wrote our most popular piece to date. and i recently posted a three part series over the break that you can read here, here, and here.

enjoy!

57259

one_more_giants_post

one more thought on the world series victory. every fan takes a certain level of responsibility for the outcome of their team's games. most of the time this is an unhealthy level of responsibility =) my not-so-secret-shame is that during game 6 of the 2002 world series i called my friend bruce as dusty baker was removing russ ortiz from the game with a 5-0 lead. the giants bullpen that year was "nails". with the game going to the 'pen needing 8 outs to win it was as good as done and i foolishly jumped the gun. so, of course the resulting disaster was my fault...

...but if i blew 2002 then i should get some credit for 2010 (or, at least, my friend devin should). i've already told this story in this space but a quick summary here will be helpful: devin calls a sports radio station thinking he might win an autographed tim lincecum ball and ends up with season tickets. SEASON TICKETS!!! of all seasons =)

well, devin, because he is a saint, used his blessing to bless us and support Sojourn on a recurring basis. i love that in some weird way the 2010 World Series winning San Francisco Giants are supporting campus ministry in Boston. this is the crazy upside world we live in now. 

how's that for a redemption story!

also, this guy has been the best pitcher in major league baseball for the past three seasons...go figure:

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giants_win_the_series

where to start? a few weeks ago i highlighted the "torture" of being a giants fan. i could go on and on about what this means to giants fans. just ask one. for me, though, this is a different world. anything is possible now!

the only regret i have is not being able to call my grandma boutry. she would have LOVED this team, and she would have loved this moment.
---------------------
for the next week or so baseball nerds will try to figure out this giants team. the new school guys will talk about strikeouts, homeruns, xfip, and a bunch of stuff like that. they will drool over the pitching staff and the extra base hits. the old school guys will talk about team effort, grit, determination, and gamers. 

the "team" angle of this story is certainly legit. the list of hero's is long: ross, renteria, huff, uribe, posey, sanchez, lopez, affeldt (game 6), bumgarner, cain, wilson, even burrell hit a 3 run bomb against the braves and jonathan sanchez struck out 11 in that series as well.

that said, 2 people stand out to me. bruce bochy used to be a source of joy for me and my dad back when he (bochy) was managing some of those punching bag padre teams. the look of exasperation on boch's face when some middling reliever would leave a hanging slider for bonds to whack 500 feet was a guaranteed laugh for my dad and i to share on a random august afternoon. when the giants hired him in '07 i thought the pick was pretty uninspiring. have to tip my cap though, he had the best month of any manager i can remember in a long time. several teams have won the WS in the past few years in spite of their manager, but everything bochy did this postseason turned to gold.

however, the old cliche is that players play the game and that's why, for whatever its worth, if i had to pick one guy as the MVP/most-important-player it would be tim lincecum. no other player perfectly represents san francisco, and no other player on this team better encapsulates the whole.

lincecum is a baseball mystery...no matter how much they analyze him no one really grasps how he does it...how does such a weird little dude dominate so thoroughly? how does this giants team win a world series? mystery...

lincecum beat derek lowe (NL pitcher of the month in september), roy halladay (probably the NL Cy Young winner who was coming off only the second playoff no-hitter of all time), and cliff lee (the "unbeatable" cliff lee of recent post season dominance) twice. he won all three game ones...the giants (for all the torture talk) never trailed in any of the three series they played in the playoffs. he threw 37 innings (16 more than any other giants' pitcher) and had 43 strikeouts, a 2.43 era, 0.92 whip, and 4 wins.

renteria is a hero, cody ross will never have to pay for a meal in SF again, and buster is the future, but the Giants are not champions without tim lincecum. 

56959

world series

this:

and this:

56859

progress

If all the news you have of my life is culled from my recent twitter and facebook updates than you might think that the Giants are the only thing going on right now. As fun as it has been to watch them make this run, there is actually a lot of really great stuff happening in ministry!

Our northeastern group is growing numerically and deeply. This last week we had a bit of breakthrough with them: the first girl joined our weekly meeting and we had one of the best “honesty” moments of the year as they wrestled with the story of Joseph in Genesis. It was awesome to see them move beyond easy answers and sit in the tension of messy stories.

We have our first Read.Retreat.Serve. event coming up next weekend. The response so far has been great...it looks like we could have 20-25 people attend this event which would be a new record. I really love RRS because of the way it demonstrates our values so clearly to students and it raises the question of how to engage culture for students in a fresh way. 

I am probably most encouraged by our progress at UMASS-Boston. A month ago we nearly lost our RSO (registered student organization) status, but now, for the first time, it feels like we are really starting to gain momentum.  We’ve seen new people join our weekly meeting and it seems like this is a time that students are seeing as really valuable to them.

We are (finally) launching our SAT tutoring program next week at UMASS, and I am excited to see students take ownership of this and get involved. I love seeing students get passionate about an idea that helps promote kingdom values (The “hope” bracelet you see pictured is something I bought from a girl in our group who is raising money for a students without borders project.)   

UMASS-Boston is still a work in progress as we try to figure out effective ways to minister to students at that campus. Our experiment of the week involved setting up “baggo” in a central location and inviting people to play with us (picture is of the game but not on campus).  This went remarkably well and we played for over two ours and met about 15 new students. Slowly but surely we are establishing a presence and becoming part of the fabric of the campus.

A month ago I was in a bit of a funk trying to see the “win” but right now I am feeling super encouraged about Sojourn’s progress on campus this semester!

Also, go Giants.

56759

56659

being_a_fan


i am obviously enjoying the Giant's playoff run so far. it's been fun to "go through" this with amy who has never had the awesome privilege of experiencing my behavior during a playoff swing. 


in my life time Giant's baseball has been a "tortured" affair (to use the trendy descriptor of this 2010 version of the team). i recently explained the torture of my particular life from '85's 100 loss team, to '87's NLCS collapse, to the WS earthquake in '89, to the team almost moving to tampa, to the bonds era, to the marlins in '97, robb nen and the one game playoff in 98, to benny agbayani in 2000, to falling 2 games short in 2001, to the world series collapse in 2002, to the marlins again in '03 (this time with the horrible iconic images of jose cruz jr and jt snow), to the late season disaster at the hands of the dodgers in '04 (darn you steve finley), to the dark ages of '05-'08, to the "are-we-really-going-to-waste-historically-good-starting-pitching-with-this-lineup" of last season, to some of my sojourn colleagues. i don't think they look at me the same way.


baseball seems to produce a special kind of suffering...a suffering that cannot be brushed aside for a week and engaged only on sunday's...no it is deeper and more pervasive than anything other sports can offer. giants fans, often overshadowed by the red sox (until 2004) and the cubs and the indians and various other teams, have suffered as long and as traumatically as anyone.


this postseason can end triumphantly and ecstatically or with another chapter of suffering written, but either way, without a doubt, i will be back next year (sooner actually because i will likely be scouring the internet for off season news). 


i've been reading some excellent baseball books recently, and the one seen here (are we winning) is now safely among my all time favorite books. will lietch nails what it means to be a fan:


"these men (referring to management and players) can go somewhere else: dusty baker can go to chicago and then cincinnati. jeff kent can become a dodger and an astro (i changed examples here for the sake of the analogy). we have no such options. we're not going anywhere.


when you break it down, what exactly is a sports franchise? is it a succession of ownership? an institutional philosophy? a corporate machine? pretty orange and black uniforms? all of these can be changed...


...but when people talk about The Giants, they are not talking about players or managers. they are talking about us. that's the constant. that's the single continuous line..."


Go Giants!   

55559

it's a good time to be a giants fan...the team is winning...this pennant race is going to be close all the way to the end...and, for the first time in a while there are a variety of likeable characters.  for example, how do you not love this:

41259 Day 219

the_sf_giants_and_fundraising

i love this story...

i have a good friend from california who has been a part of several groups i've led over the years and who has a tremendous propensity to find himself in the middle of great stories.  seriously, spend an hour with this dude and you will wonder at his incredible tales.

he's a super generous guy (actually one of the best people i've ever had the privilege to know) and is always interested in what i am doing, but when i began fundraising he didn't have the means at the time to join our financial support team (in fact, he was working for the state of california, which had no money and had to pay him in i.o.u.'s...no joke!).  anyway, he's been super supportive in a ton of other ways and keeps close tabs on our progress.

well, apparently a few weeks he was driving around listening to KNBR (the flagship radio station of the san francisco giants) and heard a promo offer for a ball signed by tim lincecum (who is really, really good at pitching).  naturally, he called in and it turns out he won the ball.  except they screwed up somehow and sent him season tickets instead of the ball.  

unfortunately, he’s not able to make all the games (as awesome as that might be) and so he’s been selling the tickets and wants to use this new revenue stream to help support us.  how cool is that!

it just goes to show that there is no end to the creativity of God’s economy.  plus it’s cool to think that somehow the giants are actually supporting college ministry in boston =)


ps. if you know who i'm talking about don't make a big deal about this to him...story used with his permission on the condition of anonymity =)

38759 Day 194

dave_dravecky


ran in to this Giant's great this morning at the airport!  for those who don't know dave, here is a nice summary of his story.  very humble, nice guy...you never know who you're going to meet.