Everything has a process to it and without question the appointment of a justice on the supreme court has a lengthy process that goes along with it. It seems like I have been hearing about her for the past several months and yet somehow she still has not been appointed as a member of the court. I am grateful there is a process and not just anyone can be a member of the court but the question I ask is; at what point does the process become too large, almost larger than the job it was put in place to hire(if that makes any sense, I will explain further)?
Everything in government seems to take so long. Before viewing this appointment process my opinion about the government taking it's time mainly had to do with the waiting period people have to go through before facing trial. The questioning in this process is warranted but at this point I am hearing the same questions phrased in different ways and it really is beginning to feel like an unnecessary process.
On to the Judge herself; Judge Sotomayor is a truly outstanding person. She seems to have faced all adversity that she has faced in stride and only fought harder to bring her to the place she is in today (only a step away from the Supreme Court). She grew up in a poor neighborhood but always tried to make the best of all opportunities given to her and anyone who has been through as much as Sonya Sotomayor has is a winner in my book and a fitting applicant for the court based on how she has answered the intense amount of questions. The sooner she is on the court, the better.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
MLB at the All Star break: State of the Yankees
Since the MLB is at the all star break I thought it would be fun to go through the Yanks and take a look at what they need and have to look forward to in the seccond half of the season.
The Yankees first half has been a very rocky road. By that I mean that there have been huge positive events but on the other hand there have been astounding disappointments. Since there are two ways to approach this I feel that it would be fun to write a review under the glass half full and the glass half empty views of where the team is at.
Glass half full- Coming into the all star break the Yankees are hot. They faced a small bump in the road in their series against the Angels but prior to that they were playing the type of ball that the fans have expected from them. One of the biggest pluses from the first half was the fact that the bullpen is developing very nicely. Phil Hughes has turned himself into reliable set up man for Mariano Rivera. I would not go as far as to call them a Rivera - Wetland combo but it has the potential to turn into something excellent. Offensively Tex started off slow and scared some fans but it got better as the month of May came around. Tex served as a great set up man for A Rod, pitch wise, and in the line up and kept a great on base percentage
Glass Half Empty- The Yankees have issues whenever they play a team of quality. They got embarrassed by the Angels, who had players missing, on their way into the break. As pathetic as it is the fact remains that the Yankees have yet to beat the Red Sox this season. Just look at that when you are asking yourself how we are in second place, maybe it is because we started 0-9 against our rivals! Pitching wise Wang has turned from a 19 game winner into a DL visiting dud. He has lost any kind of touch that he has had in the previous 2 years and who knows if he will ever get this touch back.
I tend to lean towards the more positive way of thinking being that the Yankees were on a hot streak on the way into the Angel series and are still only a small number of games out of first place and in first place for the wild card. If they do make the playoffs then who knows what will happen, it becomes a whole new season.
The Yankees first half has been a very rocky road. By that I mean that there have been huge positive events but on the other hand there have been astounding disappointments. Since there are two ways to approach this I feel that it would be fun to write a review under the glass half full and the glass half empty views of where the team is at.
Glass half full- Coming into the all star break the Yankees are hot. They faced a small bump in the road in their series against the Angels but prior to that they were playing the type of ball that the fans have expected from them. One of the biggest pluses from the first half was the fact that the bullpen is developing very nicely. Phil Hughes has turned himself into reliable set up man for Mariano Rivera. I would not go as far as to call them a Rivera - Wetland combo but it has the potential to turn into something excellent. Offensively Tex started off slow and scared some fans but it got better as the month of May came around. Tex served as a great set up man for A Rod, pitch wise, and in the line up and kept a great on base percentage
Glass Half Empty- The Yankees have issues whenever they play a team of quality. They got embarrassed by the Angels, who had players missing, on their way into the break. As pathetic as it is the fact remains that the Yankees have yet to beat the Red Sox this season. Just look at that when you are asking yourself how we are in second place, maybe it is because we started 0-9 against our rivals! Pitching wise Wang has turned from a 19 game winner into a DL visiting dud. He has lost any kind of touch that he has had in the previous 2 years and who knows if he will ever get this touch back.
I tend to lean towards the more positive way of thinking being that the Yankees were on a hot streak on the way into the Angel series and are still only a small number of games out of first place and in first place for the wild card. If they do make the playoffs then who knows what will happen, it becomes a whole new season.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Things that make me want to root for a certain player
I was having this discussion with a friend the other day and it had to do with the characteristics of certain players that drove us as fans to root for them. It would be all to easy to say that we root for players soley based on their statistics (even though that is one of the criteria). If that were the case there would be a lot more people who would pick Barry Bonds as their favorite player. So here is my list in no particular order of things that cause me to root for certain players.
-intuitiveness- This is an important one on my list because it says a lot about how well a player understands the game. For some players you can tell it is in their nature to be in the right spot when the play comes along and for others you can sense a longer mental process of the player having to think before making the correct move. The players who have the intuition look much smother in their play because of the way they position themselves and follow through, it makes them more pleasurable to watch.
-gratitude- This one has to do with whether or not a player realizes how lucky they are to have a job playing a game that most people would give their left arm to have a shot at playing on a pro level. Does the player make known that the fans are the reason that they have their huge contracts in the first place. An example of a player who does not get this concept of gratitude would be Gary Shefield who once commented that he really doesn't care about the fan reception because they do not sign his paychecks. In reality the fans do sign the paychecks and the athletes need to be thankful for this.
-effort- this has to do with whether a player hustles out of the batters box or slowly trots to first base because they are predicting an out. I could never find myself truly rooting for a player who dogs it out of the batters box after a pop up. You never know what is going to happen and it is simple baseball logic that you run out every ball to the best of your ability. Some players are willing to play the ball on a couple of hops and toss it back into the infield and then you have others who sprint at the ball so they put themselves into a position to make a diving catch. People pay good money to see the game and effort should be shown by every player for the money that they are receiving.
-off the field activities- With the amount of money that these people make it is only natural that there be some left over that can be given to local charities. It goes beyond the money though, what kind of things do guys do after the games; speed off in their cars or sign a couple of autographs on occasion. Word gets around between the fans and we do know who signs and who does not.
Feel free to comment on this post and let me know what you look for in the people that you root for.
-intuitiveness- This is an important one on my list because it says a lot about how well a player understands the game. For some players you can tell it is in their nature to be in the right spot when the play comes along and for others you can sense a longer mental process of the player having to think before making the correct move. The players who have the intuition look much smother in their play because of the way they position themselves and follow through, it makes them more pleasurable to watch.
-gratitude- This one has to do with whether or not a player realizes how lucky they are to have a job playing a game that most people would give their left arm to have a shot at playing on a pro level. Does the player make known that the fans are the reason that they have their huge contracts in the first place. An example of a player who does not get this concept of gratitude would be Gary Shefield who once commented that he really doesn't care about the fan reception because they do not sign his paychecks. In reality the fans do sign the paychecks and the athletes need to be thankful for this.
-effort- this has to do with whether a player hustles out of the batters box or slowly trots to first base because they are predicting an out. I could never find myself truly rooting for a player who dogs it out of the batters box after a pop up. You never know what is going to happen and it is simple baseball logic that you run out every ball to the best of your ability. Some players are willing to play the ball on a couple of hops and toss it back into the infield and then you have others who sprint at the ball so they put themselves into a position to make a diving catch. People pay good money to see the game and effort should be shown by every player for the money that they are receiving.
-off the field activities- With the amount of money that these people make it is only natural that there be some left over that can be given to local charities. It goes beyond the money though, what kind of things do guys do after the games; speed off in their cars or sign a couple of autographs on occasion. Word gets around between the fans and we do know who signs and who does not.
Feel free to comment on this post and let me know what you look for in the people that you root for.
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