I Hate Times Square!

I attended the Eucharist at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin this evening, which is located just off of Times Square on 46th beteeen 7th and 6th. The sidewalks both before and after the service were crowded, and everyone seemed to be moving at the slowest possible pace. To make matters worse, the hot dog vendor was charging $3 for a sausage and the Mr. Softy guy also charged me $3 - instead or $2 - for a small chocalate in a cone.

Times Square has to be my very least favorite place in my most favorite city. Tourists, go home! Just send in your money by check and leave the rest of us alone.

RFSJ

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today we observe the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Major Feast in the Episcopal Church that commemorates the visit of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. It's full of pregnant (pardon the expression) meaning, and it's here when Mary utters the great hymn Magnificat, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!"

I confess that the Prot in me is a little suspicious of the feasts of Mary, but I also realize that they have been a part of Christianity for a very long time. I hope I can make room in my heart and mind and soul to try to be open to what they teach me. I may never have a devotion to Mary, but I do pray to be able to enter into these celebrations in a more open spirit.

Here's a nice recording of a Magnificat for your enjoyment:

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RFSJ

Will wonders never cease?

RFSJuniors are back at a solid number 2! I don't think the #1 team, AllOutBulls, is going to be easily dislodged from the top of the league. They've been there for most of the season so far, except for a few days a week or so ago. But you never know - it's a long season. My original goal was to finish in the top half of the league. Now I'd like to place or show if that's possible. As I stated, the swings in overall standings ae getting smaller and smaller, so early performance (or lack of it) is going to be difficult to overcome. But if players stay healthy, ya just never know!

Also, I'm going to the Yankees game on June 12! I've never been to Yankee Stadium before, and the tickets are in Tier 17. They play the Diamondbacks at 7:05 PM. Anyone wanna go with me?

RFSJ

Ember Day Today

Today is the first of the summer Ember Days, when we pray especially for those to be ordained.


Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, in your divine
providence you have appointed various orders in your
Church: Give your grace, we humbly pray, to all who are
now called to any office and ministry for your people; and so
fill them with the truth of your doctrine and clothe them with
holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before you, to
the glory of your great Name and for the benefit of your holy
Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever, Amen.

I remember this day those to be ordained this Saturday in the Diocese of Newark, and all members of the General Theological Seminary Class of 2007.

RFSJ

Number 2-and-a-half?

Well, as of this morning, I'm no longer second in my league, but also no one else is - I'm tied with the the Go Dodgers for second and third place.

It was fun while it lasted, and hope springs eternal....

RFSJ

Balking is Bad

Well, I watched Armando Benitez (SF) lose a game against the Mets by, in part, incurring 2 balks in the 12th inning, when the Giants entered the inning ahead 4-3. A balk is a fairly technical error by a pitcher with a man on base. It's pretty rare in the major leagues and to do more than one in a game is very rare. So my own pitcher gets two in one inning and ends up losing the game when a runner scores on the second balk, followed by an admittedly well-hit HR by Carlos Delgado. I'm not sure I've ever seen a balk called in a MLB game before. Even the announcers weren't sure the balks were legit.

I suppose I can console myself that 2 balks in a single game, much less a single inning, isn't even a record. The most number of balks in a single game is 5, and actually three in a single inning.

I'm still annoyed, especially since I could have really used the save.


RFSJ

We're Number 2!

Well, at least for a day I get to bask in the glory being second in my league. My hitting is improving steadily and my pitching is more or less holding steady. I had a strong second place in Saves for a while but that has tightened up. Can't do anything about that until Joe Nathan gets his act together. Every win is important as well, which is why I've decided to drop Nate Robertson of Detroit for Matt Morris of San Francisco. Nate's ERA was just getting too high, and Matt's has been steadily improving. There's been a lot of churn in the pitching ranks in many of the other teams. Seems to me that starting pitching is too volatile a thing on any given day to make too much when a pitcher gets hit with a lot of runs in a given game. So I try to be a little more sanguine about individual game performance, although it always hurts to watch my pitchers get slammed.

I'm not at all concerned. Being #2 puts me in some good company:

Sandisk
Canadian Health Care
The Supersonics
Avis


RFSJ

In Remembrance

O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land, and of the entire world, share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

RFSJ

...and I Should Be Dead.

Watch this excellent video from NJ Governor Jon Corzine. And then please, please drively safely this Memorial Day Weekend!





RFSJ

Fr. Matthew Presents!

My friend and GTS classmate Fr. Matthew Moretz of St. Paul's Yonkers has a video ministry on Youtube which is gaining lots of attention recently. Here's his latest. Fr. Matthew writes:

I don't know where St. Paul's would be without our faithful acolytes. They
have enriched the worship of our embryonic church beyond measure. In their
honor, a short film was produced for"Father Matthew Present" entitled,
"The Tale of the Faithful Acolyte" It features the youth of our Acolyte
Guild. We wrote and filmed the piece together for one of our weekly youth
groups. You can view the piece here:





Hope you liked it!

RFSJ

Why is +Gene's Snub So Important?

Lee Clark is director of the Church Records Company and the spouse of The Rev. Diana Clark, lead clergy deputy from the Diocese of Newark, past president of the Newark Standing Committee.

He wrote this to the Newark e-mail list, (used with permission):

I have been reading the exchange between you [Giles Fraser of Inclusive Church] and Louie [Crew, of Newark] over the last 24 hours and feel compelled to respond to your observation regarding the way those of us in the United States approach matters such as the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church. There are times when seeing the glass as being half full is the healthy way to look at things. The dispute over Bishop Robinson’s invitation to Lambeth is not one of them.

In the matter of standing with Gene, and all our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, I am reminded of the integration the professional baseball in the United States in the middle of the last century. In the beginning there were many who wanted to kill the process, both fans and players, but a few stood up and supported the man chosen to cross the color barrier, Jackie Robinson. He was their teammate and was entitled to full inclusion in their world. They said that if he could not sleep in all white hotels, they would not. If he could not eat at all white restaurants, they would not. While, for many, the integration of baseball was not a popular move, it was clearly the right thing to do. That was not a glass half-full moment.

I am also reminded of the story of Adelaide Case, the first women chosen to serve as a full professor in an Anglican seminary. It was at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge Massachusetts in the early 1940’s. There was a protest by some students who insisted that the moment she walked into their class they would walk out. The president of the seminary responded that of course, they could do so if they wanted to; that was their right. But he went on to say that if they chose to walk out of class, they should continue walking out the front gate of the seminary. She stayed and at the time of her death less than ten years later, was one of the seminary’s most popular and respected professors.

There are times when courageous and decisive action is called for. Like the breaking of the color barrier in sports and the gender barrier in Anglican seminaries, this is one of them. This is not a time to view the glass as half full. The disrespect shown is not to Gene alone, it is to all gay and lesbian Christians and to the entire Episcopal Church. If Bishop Robinson is not given a full invitation to Lambeth, I for one, will be disappointed if any of our other bishops attend. This is not a “glass half full” moment in the history of our communion. I pray our Archbishop finds the courage to do the right thing.

Lee Clark

I particularly appreciate his historical comparisons to breaking the color and gender lines.

RFSJ

Let's not fight about sex - let's fight about money instead!

Today the Newark Clergy Association hosted Terry Parsons, the Stewardship Pooh-bah (a.k.a. staff officer) from the national church to talk about any and all things related to stewardship. It was an excellent morning. She defines "stewardship" as "using the gifts God has given to to do the work God is calling us to do." It's a great definition, and well worth pondering more.

But perhaps the most memorable part of the day was when Elizabeth Kaeton of St. Paul's Chatham said, "I'm convinced we talk about sex because we don't want to talk about money!" Terry then replied, "Yes, I'm tired about fighting about sex - I'm bored with it. Let's fight about money instead!"

That got me thinking. What if we asked all bishops, before they got their Lambeth invitations, to share whether they tithe? After all, Jesus spent about a third of the time talking about money, and far far less talking about sex. What if we asked them to explain how they personally and in their dioceses are encouraging the use of sustainable technologies? How about if we inquired the degree to which each bishop models practical spirituality in their own lives? In the C of E, for example, it's still a canon that every ordained clergy person is to recite Morning and Evening Prayer, publicly if convenient. How about an inquiry into that?

RFSJ

Dave Walker on Lambeth

Dave Walker is a now-famous cartoonist who draws about things Anglican. Here is his latest.

RFSJ

So My Dilemma Was a Non-Issue

A member of my league who I occasionally correspond with in a friendly way (he's currently first in the league) pointed out to me that I could put pitcher Shawn Hill on the DL and pull Kazuo Matsui off the DL without having to drop anyone. Duh! He was right. That's what I did, and it worked out well, because I really did not know who I was going to drop.

We'll see how Matsui does - I certainly have held him long enough.

RFSJ

This Week in the Daily Office

In the Daily Office lectionary this week, the (optional) OT lesson for Evening Prayer is a series of apparent theophanies taken from a variety of writings. I always like it when the Office Lectionary does something like that. Instead of in-course readings from Ezekiel (the OT sequence for Morning Prayer this week) we get a survey of readings that the Office Lectionary writers invite us to reflect on.

This week is the week of Easter VII, when we pray for the Holy Spirit that was promised to come quickly. So I've got to think that the OT lessons have something to do with the Sacred Spook, although at my first reading the overall theme isn't exactly clear, at least to me. But here they are. See for yourself and let me know what you think:

Sunday: Exodus 3:1-12
Monday: Joshua 1:1-9
Tuesday: I Sam 16:1-13a
Wed.: Isaiah 4:2-6
Thurs.: Zechariah 4:1-14
Friday: Jer. 31:27-34
Saturday (the Eve. of Pentecost): Exodus 19: 3-8a, 16-20

RFSJ

"If all are not free, then neither am I"

(Reposted with permission:)

From the, albeit retired, canonically senior woman cleric in the Diocese of Newark:

When my daughter was 7 years old (late spring of 1974 - please note the date) she wrote a short poem, the essence of which was, "if all women are not free, then neither am I". Seems nothing as changed. If the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, duly elected as Bishop in the Episcopal Church of the United States, is not acceptable in the Anglican Communion then neither are any of us from ECUSA.

As a grandmother, mother, former parish priest, and one-time member of the Executive Council, I need to say that we have so much more to do with our limited budgets than to waste a dime of it sending our bishops (all of them) to Lambeth, a place where just one of them is unwelcome.

Some may have walked away but Jesus never turned anyone away.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

RFSJ

Founding of the Anglican Communion...

So I've been following The Tudors on Showtime this season. It's pretty good, as far as drama goes. There's lots of backstory about the divorce of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. He needed an heir for his unstable dynasty and Catherine had only given him a daughter (the future Mary Tudor, predecessor of Elizabeth I). To get his divorce, Henry essentially initiated the Reformation in England. The Tudors is beautiful and dramatic and gives lots of good story about Cardinal Wolsey and the various high officials in the Court of St. James. In particular, its presentation of Queen Catherine is poignant and sympathetic. As far as I can tell, the facts so far are pretty good. There's not a whole lot on the theology involved so far, except from the perspective of Sir Thomas More, the moralist of the whole lot. Pope Clement gets a good treatment too, and there's a lot about the politics between France, England, the Papacy, and the Holy Roman Empire.

Interesting for a history buff, but also instructive for all Anglicans. Yes, there were theological differences that drove the English Reformation, but not right away. The King was initially concerned about getting an heir, and Catherine wasn't giving him one. He needed a divorce, and eventually got it. Thus, according the series, was the founding of what we now call the Anglican Communion. I think we should remember that during this time of incredible strurm und drang in the Communion itself. There's a line in this week's episode, something like "Love overtakes all." I know I don't have it exactly right, but the idea seems to be that one's desires can rule and overcome all other scruples. We were founded out of the sexual urges of a king, and we may disintegrate over the the sexual obsessions of some Global South prelates. How ironic.

And in the meantime, there's Good News to spread to all people, gay and straight, rich and poor, of all languages and races and peoples and nations. Are we doing that right now?

Pray for the church!

RFSJ

I'm Putting It Off a Day

I still haven't decided what to do about Kazuo Matsui yet. However, I benched Teheda again today, since he was 3-for-18 last week.

RFSJ

And Now from Nigeria:

Things are coming fast and furious today. Here's the reply (via Thinking Anglicans) from the Church of Nigeria about Bishop Minns perhaps not getting an invitation to Lambeth:

According to Anglican Mainstream:

Witholding invitation to Minns is witholding invitation to all Nigerian Bishops - Akinola

Tuesday May 22nd 2007, 5:42 pm

In response to requests for comments on the Lambeth Conference invitations, Archbishop Peter Akinola reaffirms that the Church of Nigeria is committed to the CAPA commissioned report “The Road to Lambeth”.

Since only the first set of invitations had been sent, it is premature to conclude who will be present or absent at the conference. However, the withholding of invitation to a Nigerian bishop, elected and consecrated by other Nigerian bishops will be viewed as withholding invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria.

The Lord bless you as you remain in Christ.

The Venerable AkinTunde Popoola
Director Communication
Office: +234 [0]9 523 6950/ 0987/ 0989 Fax: 1527
Mobile: +234 [0]805 800 1382
E-mail: communicator1@anglican-nig.org , communicator1nig@yahoo.com
Primate’s Office, 24 Douala Str., Wuse Zone 5, P.O. Box 212 ADCP, Abuja,
F.C.T., Nigeria.

It was Archbishop Akinola who called Lambeth a mere "jamboree." If so, why is an invitation to a "jamboree" so important? And again, whatever happened to John 17:20-26?

Pray for the church.

RFSJ

Here's What Integrity Said

Since our founding by Dr. Louie Crew in rural Georgia in 1974, Integrity has been the leading grassroots voice for the full inclusion of LGBT persons in the Episcopal Church and our equal access to its rites. ( am a member also, and today the Integrity Preisdent had this to say:

May 22, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Integrity is outraged and appalled," said Integrity President Susan Russell. "This is not only a snub of Bishop Gene Robinson but an affront to the entire U.S. Episcopal Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury has allowed himself to be blackmailed by forces promoting bigotry and exclusion in the Anglican Communion. This action shows a disgraceful lack of leadership on Williams’ part."

"Integrity calls on all the bishops and the leadership of the Episcopal Church to think long and hard about whether they are willing to participate in the continued scapegoating of the gay and lesbian faithful as the price for going to the Lambeth Conference. It is purported to be a conference representing bishops from the whole Anglican Communion. That can’t happen when Rowan Williams aligns himself with those in the Communion such as Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria who violate human rights while explicitly excluding gay and lesbian voices from their midst," Russell said. "Our bishops must ask themselves this question: 'Is complicity in discrimination a price they are willing to pay for a two-week trip to Canterbury?'"

Integrity is currently contacting the leadership of the Episcopal Church and consulting with our progressive allies about this situation. We expect to make an additional statement in the near future.

PRESS CONTACTS

The Rev. Susan Russell, President
president@integrityusa.org
714-356-5718 (mobile)
626-583-2741 (office)

Mr. John Gibson, Director of Communications
jhngb@aol.com
917-518-1120 (mobile)

RFSJ

An Initial Response from Bishop Robinson

Here's the rub:


It is with great disappointment that I receive word from the Archbishop of Canterbury that I will not be included in the invitation list for the Lambeth Conference, 2008. At a time when the Anglican Communion is calling for a “listening process” on the issue of homosexuality, how does it make sense to exclude gay and lesbian people from the discussion? Isn’t it time that the Bishops of the Church stop talking about us and start talking with us?!

He's right.

RFSJ

Not All To Be Invited to Lambeth?

ACNS has announced the first invitations to the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops are starting to go out. The Washington Post is reporting that Bishop Gene Robinson and Bishop Martyn Minns, of New Hampshire and CANA respectively, are not invited at the current time.

Hmmm. Maybe that's a solomonic move. I don't know. I will have to think on this. I already know what the reasserters are going to say, but I may go over to Stand Firm and read it anyway.

Update: According to The Living Church, the AMiA bishops aren't going to be invited either.

RFSJ

I have to make a decision tomorrow

Kazuo Matsui came off the DL unexpectedly today. He of course went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI while on the bench. But the decision I need to make is that I have 2 hitters and 3 pitchers filling all 5 of my bench slots. To bring Matsui off the DL I will need to release someone. Who will it be? I can hold off for as long as I choose, but cannot make any more roster changes until he comes off the DL. So I can't put it off forever.

Good news on performance this evening: my ERA is up 2.5 points and my Ks (strikeouts) up 2 points, for a current net of +4.5 points (as of this moment, at least). That's really helpful, because my ERA was last in the league this morning, and that is not a good place to be. But both Wang (NYY) and Sabathia (CLE) did very well in their starts this evening, so that will really help.

Check out my team here.

RFSJ

I bought an MP3 player today

I've been walking to work a few times a week, and up till now I've used an older Panasonic portable player for my music. It did the job more or less, but it finally died - for whatever reason it just wouldn't work anymore. So I broke down and bought a MuVo V100 MP3 player from Creative. I've spent the evening adding music. Here's what's on it so far:

· Rinaldo - Handel (artist unknown)
· Masters of English Church Music, Cambridge Singers
· Hail, Gladdening Light, Cambridge Singers
· Offenbach in America, by the Boston Pops
· Joy on Earth, Music of Taize by the Taize community
· The Classic Hoagy Carmichael
· Trompette et Orgue, Maurice Andre

I'm still trying to figure out how to organize the albums on the player.

And is there a place I can link to albums besides Amazon?

RFSJ

A Site Worth Visiting

As one who finds the Eucharist to be the center of my life, I think this site - dedicated to Anglican understandings of the Eucharist and what it means - to be worth visiting and revisiting.

Hat tip to Kendall Harmon over at titusonenine.

RFSJ

The Global South's Way Forward

By way of Thinking Anglicans, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) has published a report first delivered on September of 2006, (I don't know if this has been reported before, but it's news to me now.) The key to the report (which was submitted to the CAPA [Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, not the same as CANA] Primates by a study group of unnamed individuals) is this:

The churches in Africa, while grateful for the overall judgement of the Windsor Report, felt that it often did not go far enough in spelling out the needed steps of repentance and return. In various responses to the Windsor Report, member churches made the following points:

* That full repentance in word and action is called for by those who have violated God's holy will in Scripture;
* That this repentance would include the resignation or removal from office of Gene Robinson and the passage of legislation which would bar any similar ordinations of priests and consecrations of bishops;
* That this repentance would include a reaffirmation of the biblical standard of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman and the exclusion of all other configurations as a violation of that standard;
* That responses from our provinces to requests for alternative oversight from churches in North America are of an emergency order and not to be compared to the full and blatant violations of biblical morality by the churches of North America.

Seems pretty clear. I'm saddened, especially after having read and heard celebrated the unity that Jesus both calls us to and promises in John 17: 20-26 from Sunday's gospel.

The hand cannot say to the eye, "I have no need of you!"

RFSJ

PS - Links updated!

That trade went through...

I now own Aaron Hill as of tomorrow. And of course, Michael Cuddyer, whom I released, had a HR and 2 RBI this afternoon. That would have been great, but I benched him! Isn't that always the way?

RFSJ

I'm Postmodern!

Well, I should hope so, being a member of Generation X and all:

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 89% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Roman Catholic 71% Neo orthodox 68% Classical Liberal 61% Modern Liberal 50% Reformed Evangelical 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Fundamentalist 0% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

I'm a bit surprised at the Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan bit. And I love traditional liturgy, so I think there probably weren't the right questions about that on the quiz. All in all, seems fairly accurate though.

Hat tip to Brad Drell at Drell's Descants.

RFSJ

It was a Triple :-(

Jason Varitek hit a 3-RBI triple off of Tim Hudson. My ERA has been tanking of late, so I think I don't think this. The guy after him hit an RBI single, so it's now 0-4 for Boston.

Rats*

RFSJ

*substitute your own personal epithet here.

I hate this!

Boston vs. Atlanta, bottom of the 1st, bases loaded, my pitcher Tim Hudson vs. my hitter Jason Varitek. Do I want a grand slam or a strikeout?

RFSJ

A Holy Coincidence?

Thursday was the birthday of our Rector, the Rev. Gerard Pisani. At our Highways thrift store, part of the outreach ministry of Trinity Parish, on that very same day someone donated a votive candle (never lit, no less) to St. Gerard, the Patron of pregnant women.

Hmmmmm.....

RFSJ

A View from St. Meinrad's

Here's a nice video of the Proclamation of the Gospel at a diaconal ordination Mass at St. Meinrad's Archabbey in southern Indiana. My colleague Fr. Greg Perez attended there, and I know the founders of the company that installed the Chapel Organ:



Pretty cool - I like the "Celtic alleluia" setting, although I did not recognize the Gospel tone chanted by the Deacon. It may be "Archabbey Usage," or pehraps it was ad-libbed. Maybe it's a contemporary tone of some kind?

RFSJ

Whew!

Miguel Cabrera went 2-for-5 with 1 RBI this evening. That's not bad. It's odd that I want my own player to do badly when I've benched him, no? But Kelly Johnson had a HR and 5 RBIs, and that's better. This time my gamble paid off.

I think I'm going to let that trade go through, BTW. It may be a horrible mistake, but we'll just have to see how it plays out.

RFSJ

I don't remember this being in the BCP....

Well, the Yankees are playing the Mets in the Subway Series today and tomorrow....

This is not original with me, but I do wonder abut praying for a sports team to win. I'd like to think God is a Mets fan, but if so, wouldn't they always go 152-0? Is not God a fan of all God's people and their sports teams? And that gets me thinking about why we pray. At the beginning of this week, during the Rogation Days, we read from Luke 11:1-13, about how to pray. We're told, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you." I don't think necessarily that intercessory prayer is wrong; after all, Jesus does encourage us to pray for our needs - look at vss. 5-8, for example. But the point of prayer isn't to change God, but to change us. Even when we pray for perhaps trivial things, like the Mets sweeping the Subway Series this weekend, it's us, by our willingness to be in relationship with God in prayer, who are being continually converted to the mind of Christ over time. We are the ones who change when we pray, not God. Ultimately, our best prayers are probably those that express our intention to be open to and strengthened to God's will in the world, but even less noble prayer is efficacious over time, it seems to me. Perhaps it's more the act of praying than the content of the prayer.

RFSJ

I Benched Miguel Cabrera Today

And that's a bit disquieting, because even guys on the Can't Cut list can play badly. And he has - last week he batted .182 - the worst on my team. Kelly Johnson, whom I've got playing 2nd today, isn't much better at the moment (.217 last week) , but there's a double-header with Boston today, so he might hopefully get some more ABs.

RFSJ

A Possible Trade

OK, so in RFSJuniors, I'm considering picking up Aaron Hill off of waivers and dropping Michael Cuddyer. My reasons:

• Cuddyer is good this year, but not excellent.
• Hill's production is almost as good as Cuddyer's.
• Hill can play 2nd or SS, and Cuddyer is 1st/OF. I already have two excellent players at 1st and OF in Prince Fielder and Gary Sheffield, so I don't need another.
• I could use backup at 2nd and SS: I have Miguel Cabrera (who is on my Can't Cut list*) and Miguel Tejeda. Nothing behind Teheda and Kazuo Matsui on the DL at second.
• Cutting Cuddyer would leave Gary Sheffield, Grady Sizemore (also on the CC List) and new phenom Hunter Pence in OF, with Curtis Granderson as well. If Pence doesn't work out, I still have backup already. I've been thinking I have too much OF and not enough infield depth. It's been hard to do line-ups and decide who to bench each day. This might make it easier.
• I'm picking Cuddyer to drop over Granderson because Curtis has more HRs than Michael at the moment.

* Each team has a certain number of marquis players that they cannot drop, to avoid situations near the end of the season when contenders try and get also-rans to hold a fire sale for all their best talent. It''s supposed to keep some parity in each league.

So we'll see about this. I have until the end of the day to make this trade or cancel it. I'm 10th in line on the waiver wire, which means there are 9 other teams that could, if they wished, claim Hill before I could. So this all may be moot anyway!

RFSJ

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Tomorrow is Easter VII. We've been reading from the Gospel of John throughout Eastertide, and on this Sunday we hear from Chapter 17, Jesus's High Priestly Prayer. In vss. 20-26, Jesus prays for "those who will come after," meaning us. His prayer, interestingly, is not that everyone will come to know Him - that actually comes second. His prayer is first for unity among believers, so the the "world" (unbelievers in the Fourth Gospel, i.e., all those outside the believing community) may believe. In other words, unity comes first as a tool for evangelism.

Of course, the Fourth Gospel uses the simplest words (even in the Greek) - "that they may all be one" and doesn't tell us what that means. What does "being one" look like? Does it mean, for example that we Christians need to all agree on everything before we go out looking for converts? Does it mean a single hierarchy? Does it mean hierarchy at all? After all, when you have hierarchy, that implies power, which some have and some do not. How does that fit into "being one"?

See for yourself.

RFSJ

Player of the Day

Grady Sizemore (Cleveland, OF) went 4 for 5 with a 2-run HR, 3 runs, 3 RBI, and a stolen base tonight in an interleague game against Cincinnati. He's definitely my player of the day!

Fantasy Baseball

So this spring I decided to join a fantasy baseball team for the first time since about 1990. I joined a public team on Yahoo Sports, and my team is here. As of this evening at about 9:30 PM, I'm fifth in my league of twelve teams. Back in 1990, we had a league of 10 teams and the stats were updated once a week by the league secretary. Every Wednesday, the secretary bought a copy of USA Today because it carried the entire set of National League baseball stats. He'd have to update the stats of every player by hand. Now we can updates on the fly as games are in progress. I can't believe we ever tried to do it manually!

So I've been as high as 2nd in my league, and as low as dead last. One of the keys to success is to get off to a strong start, since performance is cumulative. As the season goes on the swings in ranking become smaller and smaller, because a day's performance, even if excellent, won't affect one's overall stats very much on the 100th day of the season as compared to the 10th. My pitching is pretty good right now, although my ERA tanked after some bad starts. I need a lot more power hitting. I know it's there, but it's been spotty at best. You can see how each of my players is doing by clicking the link of each name. Right now, my best hitter is Milwaukee 1st baseman Prince Fielder, my best starting pitcher is Atlanta's Tim Hudson, and my star reliever is (again from Milwaukee) Francesco Cordero.

I've signed up for a mid-season league as well. When it's activated and I have my draft I'll post the link to the team as well.

RFSJ

Hello, World

Well, I've finally gotten on the bandwagon and decided to do a blog. This is my first entry. I'm a former computer programmer, and it's an old tradition that the very first program a programmer created (when learning BASIC, that is) was to print the the phrase "Hello, World" on the screen. The code looked something like this:

10 print "Hello, World"
20 end

and that was it, generically. you went on from there, learning abot program control and all of that. Now, with event-driven programming and all the rest, it's quite different. I wonder if the first lesson still gets you to print "Hello, World" on the screen somewhere?

RFSJ