Precious In The Sight …

Today is a sad day for many of us, but joyful in heaven. Monday morning, while sitting in her chair, Mrs. F, a precious and godly woman, went to be with her Savior. My guess is that her late husband was excited to see her too. Mrs. F’s passing once again reminded me that my prayer support is getting thin. You see, I have a special love for Mrs. F. Very early in my ministry, back when I knew that I knew it all, there were a group of 10 ladies who prayed for me at least 30 minutes a day. Mrs. F. was one of those ladies. Now, time has passed since college, and I am not saying she still did that every day the past few years when we didn’t see each other regularly, but she was a woman of prayer. And her prayers meant a lot to me. Heaven’s gain is our loss. She was a godly wife, a loving mom, and a true servant. Thank you, Mrs. F., for the difference you made in my life.

Changing lanes suddenly, it is the first night of the Sweet 16. Here are my picks for the Weekend. In the East take Carolina over Wazzoo, & The Ville over The Pearlettes. And the Heels will dance over the Cards on Saturday. In the Midwest, Take Kansas & Davidson over ‘Nova & the “Stinking Badgers”. And it’s Rock, Chalk, Riverwalk Jayhawk! In the South, I just pray that Memphis beats Michigan State, b/c even though I like the “H to the Izzo”, his team plays ugly basketball. And dear Lord, between Austin & Palo Alto, please let the Smarter Team win. That’s all I ask, Lord. And if The Tigers can get past the Spartans, I think they will be able to take Beale Street south to the Alamo Dome. In the West, UCLA will dominate WKU (it won’t be close), and Xavier ends “Huggy Baby’s” season (it will be close). And UCLA will make the 4th number 1 to be in San Antone. Now, do I really believe four #1’s will make it? No. But I don’t want Texas to be there, and I don’t think Stanford is capable of beating both TX & MU; and while I would love for Davidson to beat KU, I don’t think the slipper will fit. And yes, I am just praying that Davidson beats WU, it’s not much of an educated guess. But I can’t root for ’sconsin. Having any Big 10 team in the final sets basketball in general back 15 years. It’s just not good for the game.

Baseball Has Started, Right?

I heard a rumor that the baseball season has begun. I even saw a score that The Red Sox beat the A’s yesterday, and the A’s returned the favor today. I wouldn’t know. You know why? Because the game was in freakin’ JAPAN!!! AT 6 IN THE MORNING! What is MLB thinking? I know, I know, they say that they want to “expand the international market” and “grow the game of baseball”. Well, I have a newsflash for them – they might ought to think about growing the game here in the US. Do they realize that even though attendance figures have never been better, hardly anyone bothers to watch the MLB playoffs? They are in danger of becoming the third or fourth most popular sport, behind NASCAR & College Football.

I am a marginal baseball fan. I love sports, listen daily to ESPN radio, love the Cardinals, keep up with the baseball standings. I only listen to some of the Cards games on radio, and rarely have the opportunity to see a MLB game in person. My guess is that I am like most people.  I do enjoy Opening Day. I used to enjoy catching 3 or 4 games on ESPN throughout the day and being excited about the start. But opening day as far as I am concerned is over. They have already let the cat out of the bag. Who told Bud Selig this was a good idea? The same guy that told him that “Steroids is not a major problem” five years ago? If they are not careful, even the Red Sox – Yankees fans won’t save them. Yes, lots of fans are coming to the games. But there is not nearly the excitement about the start of the season that there used to be. They had better make sure they grow the game here, or else baseball is in danger of becoming less and less relevant.

After Easter

After Easter. Hmmnn. It’s kind of a depressing thing, like the day after Christmas. All last week I could say, “Happy Easter!” to people and they would smile and say, “Thank you.” It was exciting to look forward to celebrating the rez. But now it’s over. I wonder what the disciples felt the day after the resurrection? Or better yet, the day after the ascension? Did they wake up after the amazing day before kinda melancholy? Easter was awesome, but now, not only is it a Monday, but it’s the day after Easter. At least it was sunny today. And I still had the “afterglow” of a great Resurrection Sunday, thanking God all day for the blessing of yesterday.

On an altogether different subject, my brackets are trashed. In one set of brackets (yes, I had two), I have 12 of the remaining 16, but 2 Final Four teams out. Thank you Pitt and Georgetown! So much for the “vaunted Big East.” In my other bracket, the one I had time to edit and think about more, I have 13 of my 16, and Kansas, UNC, and UCLA remain.

There are 3 things you can root for in March madness, other than your team(s). You can root for your brackets, your conference, or “Cinderella”. Each can be equally fulfilling, and surely one of those can keep your interest. Which raises the question: Do you root for a hated rival (Kentucky, Texas) if they are still in it and your team isn’t? For me, the answer is easy. If it’s the longhorns, absolutely not. I would never degrade myself to rooting for them. I’m better than that. But if it’s Kentucky, or another SEC team, yes, I could see myself rooting for them. Although it’s hard to root for Kentucky b/c they have won so much, and I like underdogs. But if they were playing a Big 10 team or someone I didn’t like, sure.

It’s also fun to root for your brackets. Why are brackets important? Well, I am sure ego is one reason. The pure pride of being able to say you were right. But I look at my brackets as a way to evaluate my basketball IQ. It helps me know how well I am “up on” the game and how well I have evaluated match-ups. That’s not important to anyone else, but b/c of my love for college basketball, it’s important to me. I want to think I still know the game, even though I can’t play it. I do my brackets more for my personal joy rather than anything else. It doesn’t give me great joy to tell someone I am smarter than them because I picked the right team. It does, however, give me great joy to have a good knowledge of the game and be able to tell which team will win. For instance, I took great personal joy in being able to realistically look at the Razorbacks region, analyze it, and know why they would beat IU and why they would lose to UNC by more than twenty. I knew that match-up wise, the Razorbacks would be outclassed at the point, and would not be able to even come close to Carolina’s speed. Carolina plays at a different level, and it is going to take a team with a GREAT PG as well as defensive excellence to beat them. And Gary Irvin is barely a good PG, definitely not very good or great. Sorry, Gary, don’t mean to be rude, but you should have transferred to a smaller conference. You just aren’t SEC (or ACC) material.

Finally, it’s fun to root for your conference. And against other conferences. For instance, it was fun to watch Florida win the last couple of years b/c of the way they played. They had a team-first attitude, played with joy, and played the way you should play. So it was fun rooting for the SEC. Of course it’s fun to root against other conferences, like the Big 10. The only way I would ever root for a Big 10 team is if they were playing Texas. Sorry, I just hate the B10. In all sports. And while I love the SEC, I like Carolina better, so I will be rooting for them. As for the SEC, Tennessee is all we have left, and I just don’t care for Bruce Pearl. Why? It’s the divorce thing. I hold coaches to a high standard, and his divorce bothers me. I wish I knew more of the reasons behind that so I could know if he tried as hard at his marriage as he did at coaching. He is a great guy, and likable. I like the fact that he goes to Pat Summit’s games and cheers for them. But the SI article, his comments after last year’s SEC tourney, and his attitude just rubs me the wrong way.

So there is still a lot of the NCAA tourney left, and there are still lots of stories to root for. And, Happy Day After Easter, everyone!