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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Jack Morris; or, The Best Pitcher not in the MLB Hall of Fame

So recently the National Baseball Hall of Fame voting took place. Each year, the Baseball Writers of Association of America vote for who they feel should be permanently enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Now, for those of you who don't know the process (and since I know all 3 of my readers, that's probably all of you), allow me to enlighten you. Basically what happens is everyone with a Hall of Fame vote is sent a ballot with the names of all eligible candidates on it. In order to be eligible for the hall, you had to play in the major leagues for at least 10 years, and be retired for a minimum of 5 years. At that time, you are placed on the ballot after all eligible candidates are screened to weed out and only have players who had a significant or stellar career. Now, writers are allowed to vote for up to 10 players. In order to be inducted in to the hall, a player must have his name on 75% of the ballots.


Ok, so all the boring parts are over, now on to the meat of this post. Growing up, I was a Detroit Tigers fan. Being a Tigers fan in the 80's meant that the names Trammell, Whitaker, Gibson, and Morris were the names I knew as some of my favorite players. That Morris was Jack Morris. He was the best pitcher on the team, and along with Gibson, had the greatest mustache.


Simply put, Jack Morris was one of the best pitchers in baseball for a decade. He won more games (162) in the decade of the 80's than any other pitcher. He was on 3 World Series winning teams, the 1984 Tigers, 1991 Minnesota Twins, and the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays. He was THE big game pitcher of his era. When your team needed to win a tough game, you wanted Jack Morris to be taking the hill. He threw a no-hitter in 1984, won 21 games in a season twice, and had possibly the greatest pitching performance in World Series History.


In 1991, pitching for the Twins against the Atlanta Braves, Morris pitched a gem of a game that is still talked about almost 20 years later. He was 36 years old, and on the downside of his career, but was still a gamer, and pitched 3 times in that world series including game 7. All he did that game, was pitch a 10 inning shut out, to win the game 1-0, and win the World Series.


He never finished higher than 3rd in the voting for the Cy Young award, but was also a 5 time all star, 3 time world champ, and when he took the mound, he wanted to finish the game. Morris was of the school of pitching that wanted to pitch all 9 innings, and win the game. He was and is a Hall of Famer in my book, and should get in. Morris deserves to be in, and I hope that it happens for him soon. After seeing Jim Rice get inducted last year, it keeps my hopes up that it will happen sooner rather than later. I will have to post sometime in the future about how the H.O.F. voting needs to be done in a different way, and not by the BBWAA. Writers can tend to be a bit petty at times, holding grudges against players they don't like (such as Jim Rice, who finally got in after almost 20 years).


Anyway, Jack Morris is a Hall of Famer, plain and simple. Let's hope next year the writers vote him in.


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Sunday, January 10, 2010

A New Year, a Fresh Start; or, I'm Back Kids

Well, it has been a while since I last posted to this here blog of mine. In the past my standard response would be that not much has happened, and I really have nothing to write about. The truth however, is that a lot has happened recently, and it's been a combination of laziness, apathy, and a somewhat busy schedule that has kept me from posting. That all will change as I am going to make it a point to post more often, and even have a few small projects in their infancy stages that will give me more of a purpose to write.


For starters, here's a recap of what has been going on with me lately. Anyone that knows me knows that I have been trying to get myself back to college. This is something that I really want for myself, and has been important to me for quite some time, but for various reasons, hasn't happened just yet. Now, I graduated from high school 10 years ago, and even went to a university for a short time the next fall. That didn't turn out so well for me. I was on a scholarship for athletics, but injuries and other outside forces took the wind out of those sails pretty quickly. I don't have any regrets, but it just was not the right situation. After that, I needed some time to grow a little, and get some things in order before I could go back to school. I wanted to go to film school a couple of years later, but that didn't work out either, mostly due to the cost of the school, and my financial situation at the time.


Well, most recently, I was going to attend a broadcasting school in the Detroit area. This school was much more affordable, closer to home, and something that I wanted to do. I was finally getting some student aid to afford college, and I felt good. So I packed up my belongings, found a place to live, and moved down. I knew I would need to find a job while I attended school, as the financial aid money was enough for school, but not rent. Not my ideal situation, but not a bad one either. The apartment was great, the neighborhood wonderful, and I even had a few friends near me so I wasn't going to feel alone.


Sadly, the economic situation in Michigan (and especially in the Detroit area) saw fit to give me a nice open handed slap across the face. When I moved from Traverse City, I left a part time job driving a hack (taxi cab for the uninitiated). Not a great job by any stretch, but it was alright, and kept my head above water. Finding a job downstate, was ten times worse. There were hardly any job openings, and far far more people applying for them. Needless to say, I hunted for work high and low, and the only thing I could find, was a part time sandwich delivery job, which wasn't going to pay my rent, let alone keep me afloat while I went to school. The decision had to be made, and just over a month after moving down, I packed everything up, and moved back to the frozen northern tundra of Traverse City.


I was not about to be defeated. And so, I moved in with my parents for the time being, and signed up for classes at the local college here. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to study, and in the end, decided that I was better off learning a good trade (in this case, information technologies and computers) and using that knowledge to get in to the career of my choice. Also, I am back driving the hack a few days a week, so that will help keep gas in my car, and food in my belly.


So, tomorrow begins my college career. Doing the full time student thing, driving a couple days a week, and starting my new path. Along the way, I have a few things I want to get going for myself. Continuing my growth as a cook, and as a audio/video guy. Be on the look out for a Shatner-like spoken word album coming soon-ish.


Also, this blog will be updated far more often, including posts of my mindless yammering, and reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, and Music. Why bother? Every third blog does the same thing right? Because it's what I know, what I love, and what I want to do. So be on the lookout. Until next time, stay frosty!


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