Another Little League Baseball season is quickly drawing to a close, and no....I'm not bitter. This year, for the first time, I had two sons playing Little League, thereby doubling my misery. With 2007 nearly in the books, it's time for my annual rant.
1.) Mr. Coach, your primary function is to ensure that the children have fun AND LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE GAME PROPERLY. Teaching them what to do - and why they should do it - will be infinitely more valuable to them than teaching them how to exploit the particular rules of the league they are playing in. If the rules call for a base runner to stop running when the ball hits the infield "dirt", that does NOT give you license to teach the children playing the outfield to throw the ball "to the dirt." In the future, please instruct my child to throw to the proper base or, at the very least, not take him to task for attempting to do so.
2.) Look at the score book from the previous game before you make out the lineup for the next game. I am tired of my son batting 10th out of 15 every game. I know it's not because he sucks - you have girls batting in front of him in the lineup that couldn't hit off a tee with a tennis racket. In fact, I'm certain that it's not intentional. You're usually making out the lineup right before you send the kids out into the field. Normally, this isn't something I'd complain about, but in a league where everyone is in the batting order, you need to change the order from time to time if you're not going to take the time to teach all of the kids how to hit. Which brings me to #3...
3.) It's high time you started having a "Come to Jesus" meeting with the parents at the start of the year. After the "blah, blah, blah, sportsmanship, blah, blah, blah..." talk, tell the parents that part of being a "good teammate" is trying to improve. That means practicing AT HOME. No one wants to watch your sucky kid strike out 3 times in an underhand lob league and listen to the , "that's okay, Tanner" crap coming from the stands. If you can't make contact with a ball thrown underhand from 15 feet away...PRACTICE!!!!!! It's not okay. Not when my kid is behind you in the batting order and, consequently, gets 1-2 ABs per game because your sorry butt is striking out. It's one thing to swing and miss occasionally, but if your kid is swinging before the coach releases the ball - take 5 minutes to put down the cheez puffs and pitch him a few in the driveway.
4.) If you're one of the coaches who has 10 kids on your team with mustaches and tattoos, how about letting the younger kids play the infield when you have a big lead? When Tanner finally makes contact in the 5th inning, it kind of sucks to see him get thrown out by 30 feet: especially when your team is winning by 15 runs.
5.) Give each kid two positions to learn, teach them how to play them, AND STICK WITH IT. The only thing more painful than watching kids strike out all night long is watching them field a ball and have no idea what to do with it. On second thought, there's something even more painful: watching a kid run to cover 2nd base on a ground ball while the ball ROLLS THROUGH THE AREA HE JUST VACATED. Teach the kids one position on the infield, and let them play it every game so they can learn something.
That concludes today's rant. Tune in next time when I reveal the secret to happy little league parents.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The simple solution to Toledo's trash problem...
For reasons beyond the ability of my 1 gallon bucket to comprehend, the City of Toledo can't seem to get out of its own way. From the mayor who came up with the idea of moving deaf people near the airport comes the latest in government innovation: a "garbage fee" followed shortly thereafter by a policy to not pick up garbage on holidays. The city, in the midst of a budget crisis, has decided that anyone whose regular garbage pick-up falls on a holiday, will not have their trash picked up until the following week. In the past, the city has postponed pick-up by a day for the rest of the week following a holiday, and paid approximately $40,000 in OT for the garbage crews to pick up on Saturday.
In an obvious attempt ( at least to my untrained eye and cheap, plastic bucket ) at poisoning public perception of their garbage men, the city's administration has gone to great lengths to point out that their garbage men work only four hours per day. Following on the heels of the "garbage fee", which is being assessed to city residents to raise money for other services like police and fire, one can only assume that the city would ultimately like to privatize their trash service, stop collecting "unlimited" amounts of trash, or both.
No one in the city administration seems to understand what is painfully clear to me and anyone else who's ever picked up trash to put food on the table: the city's refuse collectors are more productive in four hours a day than just about every other city employee is in eight. "Throwing trash" is a zero-sum game. When all of the trash is picked up, you get to go home. Until all of it is picked up: you don't. If you customers choose to bless you with copious amounts of post-holiday trash, or multiple bags of wet, freshly cut grass - too bad. Is it raining, windy, snowing, below zero? Tough. Get the route picked up.
If and when the city decides that they'll no longer pay their garbage men 8 hours pay for the day - regardless of how long it takes them to pick up the route - the end result is as predictable as a Carlton S. Finkbeiner temper tantrum. It will miraculously start taking the garbage men 8 hours to finish each days' route. Anyone who suggests that the garbage men are "slowing down" need only work the back of a truck for a day: I seriously doubt they'll have the same opinion after 8 hours on the job.
The solution to Toledo's problem is so simple that I'm not surprised that no one has mentioned it. If the average route takes 6 hours to complete 5 routes per week ought to take 30 hours. 30 hours works out to 7.5 hours per day if the trash collection takes place over 4 days. Surely someone at 1 Government Center is smart enough to figure out a way to restructure the trash collection so that it can take place over 4 days on holiday weeks. Somebody somewhere must have room in the bucket for that.
In an obvious attempt ( at least to my untrained eye and cheap, plastic bucket ) at poisoning public perception of their garbage men, the city's administration has gone to great lengths to point out that their garbage men work only four hours per day. Following on the heels of the "garbage fee", which is being assessed to city residents to raise money for other services like police and fire, one can only assume that the city would ultimately like to privatize their trash service, stop collecting "unlimited" amounts of trash, or both.
No one in the city administration seems to understand what is painfully clear to me and anyone else who's ever picked up trash to put food on the table: the city's refuse collectors are more productive in four hours a day than just about every other city employee is in eight. "Throwing trash" is a zero-sum game. When all of the trash is picked up, you get to go home. Until all of it is picked up: you don't. If you customers choose to bless you with copious amounts of post-holiday trash, or multiple bags of wet, freshly cut grass - too bad. Is it raining, windy, snowing, below zero? Tough. Get the route picked up.
If and when the city decides that they'll no longer pay their garbage men 8 hours pay for the day - regardless of how long it takes them to pick up the route - the end result is as predictable as a Carlton S. Finkbeiner temper tantrum. It will miraculously start taking the garbage men 8 hours to finish each days' route. Anyone who suggests that the garbage men are "slowing down" need only work the back of a truck for a day: I seriously doubt they'll have the same opinion after 8 hours on the job.
The solution to Toledo's problem is so simple that I'm not surprised that no one has mentioned it. If the average route takes 6 hours to complete 5 routes per week ought to take 30 hours. 30 hours works out to 7.5 hours per day if the trash collection takes place over 4 days. Surely someone at 1 Government Center is smart enough to figure out a way to restructure the trash collection so that it can take place over 4 days on holiday weeks. Somebody somewhere must have room in the bucket for that.
What is up with Cedar Creek Church?
Cedar Creek, if you were wondering, is a megachurch in suburban Toledo, OH. Started a little over 10 years ago by a Sears advertising exec. turned pastor, it has consistently been among the fastest growing churches in North America. My family and I began attending Cedar Creek almost 5 years ago, shortly after the church moved into it's facility in Perrysburg Township.
As I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church, and my wife and I began attending church together at a conservative Baptist church in Toledo, attending my first service at Cedar Creek was something of a shock. From the casual dress of the attendees to the giant video screen, theater-style seating, and smoke machines on what can only be described as a stage, nothing at Cedar Creek seemed like "church" to me. The church seems to go out of its way to be "hip" ( which is different from being "relevant", which is how church leadership would probably describe what they are trying to do...) and is positively driven by growth. Has the church reached the point, however, where they are too driven by growth?
"Reaching people for Christ" has always been the focal point of Cedar Creek. The flashy advertising and professional-quality staging of each service have turned "reaching people" almost into an art form. At some point, however, one has to wonder if every person who comes through the doors on a weekend is being reached in the most effective manner. When ministry becomes like cranking out widgets in a factory, what becomes of the widgets who don't meet the quality control specs? Do we just assume that they are better for the experience, and leave it at that?
Christianity is a "relational" religion. Evangelical Christianity, in fact, bases itself on a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." Sadly, finding a "personal relationship" with someone on staff or heavily involved with Cedar Creek if you're not an extrovert is nigh impossible. Apparently, eschatology isn't the only place where one can learn about being "Left Behind."
As I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church, and my wife and I began attending church together at a conservative Baptist church in Toledo, attending my first service at Cedar Creek was something of a shock. From the casual dress of the attendees to the giant video screen, theater-style seating, and smoke machines on what can only be described as a stage, nothing at Cedar Creek seemed like "church" to me. The church seems to go out of its way to be "hip" ( which is different from being "relevant", which is how church leadership would probably describe what they are trying to do...) and is positively driven by growth. Has the church reached the point, however, where they are too driven by growth?
"Reaching people for Christ" has always been the focal point of Cedar Creek. The flashy advertising and professional-quality staging of each service have turned "reaching people" almost into an art form. At some point, however, one has to wonder if every person who comes through the doors on a weekend is being reached in the most effective manner. When ministry becomes like cranking out widgets in a factory, what becomes of the widgets who don't meet the quality control specs? Do we just assume that they are better for the experience, and leave it at that?
Christianity is a "relational" religion. Evangelical Christianity, in fact, bases itself on a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." Sadly, finding a "personal relationship" with someone on staff or heavily involved with Cedar Creek if you're not an extrovert is nigh impossible. Apparently, eschatology isn't the only place where one can learn about being "Left Behind."
"emptying the bucket....."
Bucket = brain. The running joke at work is that communication with our boss must be limited. His bucket has only so much capacity, and any time something is added his bucket will overflow and something else will be lost. This blog is a forum for me to "empty my bucket". Whatever happens to be taking up space - the very space I need to remember where I put my keys - is fair game. If you should happen to stumble upon my bucket drippings, enjoy and, by all means, post a comment.
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