The Red Sox

Part of my reality is being a Red Sox fan. So I have to lament yet another blown opportunity by last year's savior Curt "Shelling." But here are some number on my team:

There are 107 qualified starting pitchers according to ESPN.com.
#59 Bronson Arroyo 4.26 E.R.A
# 61 Matt Clement 4.30 E.R.A
# 69 Tim Wakefield 4.42 E.R.A
# 77 David Wells 4.57 E.R.A

Wade Miller doesn't qualify yet, but his E.R.A is 4.57
*The entire starting rotation is in the bottom half.
The AJ Burnett trade gets us the#25 guy at 3.48, but we give up a good young pitcher to get him. I'm sorry, but the David Wells and Wade Miller pick-ups look silly.

Now to our qualified positional players. Based on their averages here is where they stand:

1B Kevin Millar .272 avg. 4 hr 35 rbi ranked #15 of 23
2b Mark Bellhorn .216 avg. 7 hr 28 rbi ranked #18 of 18 *yes, he is even worse than Brett Boone.
ss Edgar Renteria .273 avg. 6 hr 34 rbi ranked #10 of 20
3b Bill Mueller .280 avg. 4 hr 39 rbi ranked #9 of 18
lf Manny Ramirez .274 avg. 27 hr 90 rbi ranked #14 of 20
cf Johnny Damon .335 avg. 7 hr 48 rbi ranked #1 of 21
rf Trot Nixon .294 avg. 11 hr 50 rbi ranked #8 of 25
c Jason Varitek .305 avg. 15 hr 42 rbi ranked #2 of 9

For my money, second base and the bullpen are the issues. We need Schilling back in the starting rotation, a dependable bullpen and some numbers out of second base.

A Separate Peace

John Knowles writes in A Separate Peace, "...fear...surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadn't even known it was there. Because unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I had not been able to identify its presence. Looking back...I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean in the interval...I must have made my escape from it"(1-2). After reading this passage a few days ago, I've been thinking in regards to the fear that far too many Christians live in.
For the most part, Christians do not live in fear of persecution. But, I do believe we live in a great deal of fear. That fear encompasses our lives to the degree that, when we get right down to it, controls our every action. This word fear has a few meanings I would like to pursue here.
The first use of fear relates to God himself, or herself, if you are so inclined. A few years back I read Frederick Buechner's Son of Laughter, the historical fiction of Jacob. In the novel, the characters often refer to God, as in "I am who I am," as The Fear. It had never occurred to me to refer to God as The Fear, like one might refer to Ken Griffey Jr. as The Kid. And yet, it made sense. I recall the many Bible stories in which God, in his anger, destroys so-and-so, or this place and that. I grew up, like Gene in A Separate Peace, unaware that The Fear was always present. My life, and the life of many Christians, is swayed by that ever present Fear.
For I was convinced that, should God's son, Jesus, return to earth while I was listening to rap music, God would crush me with the heel of his foot.
Many of our churches do a great deal of keeping such beliefs around with great little diddies like: "Oh, be careful little feet where you go...for the Father up above is looking down with love." Nothing like the thought of an all seeing "eye" to prevent you from slipping up.
And so, in our fear of The Fear, we often grow fearful of our own peers, those who surely are far less sinful than ourselves. Because if you are caught sinning, well, at least the big sins, you may lose your ability to attend that church or sing in that choir. So, fear continues to surround us, only this time it is not The Fear, but those with Fear Envy. They shape our lives, dictating on behalf of The Fear, what is accaptable and what is worthy of condemnation.
Finally, with all of that fear circling around us, we begin to fear the very place we were called to be. The world. Go into the world, be the salt of the earth, be humble, and all of those other great ideas. That becomes scary to us because what if, in the middle of being out in the world, the world discovers that we are a sham. That all those things our preachers rant against, are the very things we ourselves do. What if, when the final bell is rung, this whole thing was a sham. That there was no virgin birth to a divine saviour, who lived a sinless life, only to be offered as a sacrifice for sin that never existed in the first place, finally to be raised from death in what amounted to nothing more than a made up story by some desperate soul thousands of years ago. Because if we are honest with ourselves, that is the greatest fear any of us has.
So I wish to begin a new organization, that starts with my life first. If the Palestinians can have and organization for a state of their own, than I think Christianity needs a new state as well. Only this state will not be land and settlements; instead it will be a state of mind--the Christian Liberation Organization. A new brand of Christianity that is no longer hindered by the sins of the past, both personal and collective, because God knows his church has caused a lot of unnecessary grief, but a group that in no longer fearful.