And Now, Back to the Show...

Well, it's only been about a year and a half, but "In My Sights" is back. I guess reading my wife's blog day after day has finally motivated me to start it up again. No guarantees about how regularly I'll be posting, though - the schedule is pretty well packed, with three little kids and their activities to keep me fully occupied.

Speaking of the kids, my oldest (11) daughter's soccer season finally ended today. After going through the league season 8-2-1, they went down in flames in the playoffs, being held scoreless in three games. Now our attention shifts to her school basketball team. As a 5th grader, she was able to try out for the 5th-6th grade team for the first time, and made it. It's going to be a learning process for her, along with most of the other girls on the team, as she has only one summer of city rec department basketball experience.

Lately my web surfing has been almost exclusively confined to anything related to the baseball winter meetings and the eventual destinations of MLB's free agents, specifically if the Angels are going to be able to hold on to Mark Teixeira, and similarly, the Dodgers to Manny Ramirez. I get the feeling that the Angels are going to have to substantially exceed the Nationals' offer - because if they don't, the Red Sox will. That feeling was only made stronger when the Yankees added A.J. Burnett after signing CC just a few days before. The last thing Boston wants is to let the Yanks become a dominant force again. Among Angel fans, the Red Sox have become even easier to dislike than New York.


I don't understand what the Dodgers are up to with Manny. There doesn't seem to be a great number of teams jumping at him, the Dodgers need him badly, and they could probably get him for less than their original offer at this point. But, after all, this team is owned by the same people who publicly aired their naivete about Dodger fans, by wondering if "the community" wants them to go after prominent free agents such as Manny in light of the current economic conditions. Uh, Frank and Jamie, if you were really concerned about the economy's impact on your fans, maybe you could lower your ridiculous prices for food and souvenirs at the stadium, not to mention the $15 to park. And how about those $90 seats for EXHIBITION games in Glendale, Arizona? Is this pompous hypocrisy, or just plain ignorance of the LA baseball fan?


And, about the local baseball fan... this is a topic for another day, but another bit of nonsense is this notion, fairly recent in origin, that you can't be both a Dodger fan and an Angel fan. I have been a big fan of both teams for almost my entire life. They don't play in the same division, or even the same league, so where's the conflict? I thought most of us in Southern California hoped every spring for a "Freeway World Series." I still do, though it seems as if only one of the two local owners shares his fans' enthusiasm for the idea of even getting to the World Series.

More baseball thoughts next time, if time permits between all of our "holiday" preparations. And BTW, that's another can of worms - stay tuned...

Random Thoughts on a Four-Day Weekend

Way to Go Ducks!

Congratulations to our Anaheim Ducks for getting a come-from-behind win in the NHL finals opener over Ottawa. Too bad I can't say much more about the game, since it was shown only on the Versus network. Even with our dish, we don't have access to Versus. I did listen to some of the game, sandwiched around a family outing, and had to leave with the score 2-1, Senators. It's good to see the Ducks' tenacity and their ability to overcome their tendency to take too many unnecessary penalties. I think they can win the Cup this time around, though another win on Wednesday would do wonders for the old confidence level. Until their midseason slump, they were the best team in the league, and I'd like to think what we saw back then was the "real" Ducks.

Here We Go Again, Angels?

Bartolo Colon gets lit up again tonight and complains of "triceps tightness." Is it going to be another injury-ridden, in-and-out year for the former ace, or just a fluky outing to be followed up by the reappearance of the old Bartolo? With Ervin Santana having a woefully inconsistent start to '07, it could be dangerous for the Angels to carry two weak links in the rotation. Lackey has become a real horse, Jered Weaver looks like he's found his form from last year, and with the consistent brilliance of Kelvim Escobar, three of the five spots are too much to handle for most opponents. I'm happy to see that Escobar is, for the first time in his Angel career, getting good run support. He's been pitching well for, basically, his whole career in Anaheim red, but this year his great stuff has been complemented nicely by the team behind him, and the change in results is obvious. The imminent return of Justin Speier, and the improvement of the slow-starting Scot Shields, could make the bullpen a force again. Stay tuned.

Memorial Day Doings

A very nice Memorial Day - our family went to a ceremony commemorating the sacrifices of those who have fought for our country. We try to do this every Memorial Day, but, with three little ones (9, 5, and 3) we don't always get to it. We were impressed by the larger crowd this year. Hopefully, little by little, our kids will get the idea that our freedom isn't something that everyone in the world enjoys, and it didn't come to us by accident.

Afterward, we had a great time at our church picnic - burgers, hot dogs, desserts, games, and near-perfect weather, then a trip to the park with the kids for some slides, swings, and throwing practice for my 5-year-old son, whose baseball season just ended last week. He's moving up to the 6-year-old ("Shetland") league next fall, and needs the summer to get ready. More about the kids later on.

Capped off the day with a chicken-to-go dinner and walk around the free section of Knotts Berry Farm. A minimum of fighting between the kids, and the realization that I don't go back to work until Wednesday helped make it quite a good day and night. Thank God for the blessings of days like these!

Scripture for the day: "For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations." Ps 100:5 (NIV).