Poor Leadership

Joe Girardi, a manager that fans in Cincinnati and quite a few other cities would love to have, was fired today by the Florida Marlins after just one season. Girardi's termination occurred not because of poor managerial skills [baseball people would agree that his team overacheived this year] but because of his deteriorated relationship with Marlin owner Jeffrey Loria. Earlier in the season Loria was sitting behind the dugout and began to yell at the umpire because of some questionable calls. Girardi asked Loria to put a sock in it and Loria reminded him who signs the paychecks. Girardi, unfazed, told him again to shut his pie-hole and Loria left the game in a huff. They had a 90 minute shouting match after the game where Loria wanted to fire Girardi on the spot. Advisors suggested it would be bad PR to fire a winning manager and Loria waited until the end of the season to give him the ax.

Now you might think Loria was within his power; he owns the team and should be able to yell at whoever he wants. But Girardi was managing a young team, and insisted that only he discuss calls with the umpires. And when the owner tries to be all big shot and one-up his manager, I think Girardi was well within rights to tell Loria to shut it.

Loria made his fortune at an art dealer, not baseball [and he used some shady methods to even get ownership of the club]. He knows as much about Major League Baseball as I do- not enough to speak as an insider. There was no need for him to argue balls and strikes from the owners box except to make himself feel more manly. And when Girardi called him on it, he wanted to pretend he was a bigger hard dog and fire him on the spot. Loria was a prototypical micromanger, who lost an incredible manager, and will now face the consequences.

The truth is, the Marlins started playing even harder for Girardi after he stuck it to the man. They persevered through the season on hustle and grit, taking on the nature of their manager.

Mark my words: the Marlins will suck next year.

Truth Vs Fiction

Just finished watching Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. We've always liked Aaron Sorkin shows and this one, about a Saturday Night Live type show, seems to be a good one as well. Compare that to this past week's season premier of SNL. I've been a huge fan of Saturday Night Live since high school, and have probably seen at least part of every episode for the last 13 years. They've had some incredibly talented comedians during this time, but it seems that the sketch writing continues to get worse and worse. I found just a part of one sketch funny this past week. It just can't compare to the nightly punch that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report offer. Perhaps after a 32 year run, the show needs a complete overhaul or even the death sentence.

So if you're scoring at home: I now enjoy a scripted show about a live comedy-sketch show more than the actual live comedy-sketch show that the scripted show it's based on.

House Of Crazy

Things you need to know about E!'s new series House of Carter about the slightly dysfunctional Carter [Nick of Backstreet Boys, Aaron of . . . well, some pop-music crap] family. 1) The title of my blog came way before this reality TV show, and is in no way affiliated from Beit Carr.

1) It's absolutely insane. Therapy on camera. Crazier than Bobby and Whitney Houston. It could be must-see TV.

All In One Day

In case you missed it, today was the Biblical Day of Atonement- Yom Kippur. This is the holiest day on the Hebrew calendar, the culmination of the days of awe following Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the day that the nation's sins were forgiven. Two goats were selected to bear the sins of God's people. One was slaughtered, the other released into the wilderness [re: the scapegoat]. Might seem like a good deal for the second goat, but tradition states that they hid someone out in the wilderness where the goat was to be released to kill it to ensure it wouldn't wander back into camp.

Happy Holidays!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Padre!

Here's a birthday greeting to my father who is now secure in his early sixties. After his military service he needed to get his birth certificate reprinted and his current one claims that he was born in 1968. Not sure which is stranger: that my father was supposed to be seven when I was born or what that means about my mother. So even though my father is not the blog reading type, Happy Birthday, Dad!

The Mist'ah Mist'ah guy

Shout-out to Colerain grad Dale Reeves. This guy is my favorite name in local high school sports history.

DVR me ASAP

Our new life with digital video recorder is going to be awesome. I know, that's why they invented VCRs in the first place. But whereas a VCR would've taken a few minutes to program as well as double checking where the tape was, I was able to set a week's worth of recordings in a couple of minutes. Rock.

Are You Kidding?

Talking baseball. I know you're not interested but check this out: With three games to go, the Reds are 2.5 games out, the Astros are .5 games out. One series left in the season. The Cards host a decent Brewers team, having to face a couple of tough starters. The Astros visit the Braves, having to face Smoltz on Sunday. The Reds visit a Pittsburgh club nursing a seven game losing streak.

AND, the Cards still have a game that needs to be made up against the Giants if it affects the outcome of the division.

The possibilities are mind-blowing. One team could be the clear winner or there could be a three way tie. AND there's even the possibility that a division champ wouldn't be crowned until Wednesday, three days after the end of the regular season.

If the Reds could somehow sweep the Pirates, I really think this could get interesting. But the Buccs can't lose 10 straight to end the season, can they? Then there's still Houston. BUT the Astros have won 9 straight. They can't win 12 straight to end the season, can they? Of course there's still St Louis. BUT the Cards have gone mental. They can't blow an 8.5 game lead in two weeks, can they?

Crazy.

AND, in a related note, Pedro Martinez is out for the season so the Mets starting pitching is even more suspect. The National League is up for grabs.

AND, my fantasy team is in the championship, behind 50 points headed into the weekend [just thought I'd add that].

I never imagined I'd actually be watching baseball scores this weekend. In 1999, the Reds had a play-off berth wrapped up and tanked. Could this year be the opposite?

Finally, just had to wrap this up with a little glance at how ESPN predicted the Central would turn out this year: At least the Reds did a little better than the cellar this season.

Something's Rotten

Busy the past few days, but I have a lot of stuff I'll need to catch up on soon. But I have to say this whole Terrell Owens non-suicide experience has been puzzling. I don't believe T.O. tried to kill himself but do believe he had an adverse reaction to taking painkillers with his supplements. That being said, I find the following disturbing:

1) That T.O. only mentioned an allergic reaction to the drugs as an afterthought, as if it wasn't a big deal to be rushed to the emergency room in an incoherent state.

2) That his publicist either a) overreacted or b) was hysterical over the incident and refused to admit so during her portion of yesterday's press conference. Again, she played it off as if it was no big deal, but the 911 transcripts show that she was beside herself in worry and believed that he had tried to kill himself.

3) That TO should consider firing his publicist if for no other reason that she stated that he had "25 million reasons to live" meaning the amount of his contract with the Cowboys. Absolutely absurd statement. So is she saying that the main reason T.O. has not to kill himself is his huge salary? By fully playing out that statement, wouldn't one assume that if you don't make an excessive salary you have no reason to live?

And you wonder why Bill Parcells is sick of answering T.O. questions.

Justify My Blog

Someone accessed Beit Carr today via this site. I have no idea why. Manuel, my German friend, help a brother out.

57 Channels and Nothing's On [And Dish Network Sucks]

While the kid's asleep I thought I'd post something else I was meaning to rant about. This is a small part of the misery that was last week. When we moved into the condo a year ago, we hooked up with Time Warner Cable with a deal to do our cable/phone/internet. The contract lasted one year which was up last week. We researched the possibilities and figured out it would be cheaper if we went with Cincy Bell for high speed and phone [they force you to get the phone too, but it's not a bad deal] and then find someone else for television. Dish Network was running a sweet deal including 2 DVRs so we went for it. I had it all engineered to happen on the same day: phone/internet in the morning and television in the afternoon. It was brilliant.

The Cincinnati Bell guy was in and out in no time. So then it was waiting for the Dish guy to show up. We had a four hour window, waiting for them between 1pm and 5pm. By 6:00 no one had showed up so I called Dish to check the problem. After hours they transfer you to a call center in India which means it's extra difficult to communicate with their broken English. Example: the operator asked me, "What time does your clock say?" and repeatedly called me, "Ma'am." Anyway, the guy set me up with a new appointment so we would have to wait a couple of days.

So the second install time came and went. Called the Dish people up [this time an American call center] and was told there might be a problem with the install. I was given a local line to call. The local guy informed me that their installers actually stopped by our place on Monday and saw that it would be impossible to install without climbing over our neighbors' roof. This is where I got really ticked. Let me roll it off for you.

1) The installer did not stop by. Our condo faces the street, allowing me the opportunity to witness all the cars that come by. Also, our deck resonates footsteps and every time I heard them that day, I checked to see if it was them. They did not show up to my place. The best they did was a drive by. So I was lied to.

2) It should be noted that my neighbor has the dish in a more precarious place than us. So the "impossible" deal I'm just not buying.

3) When I asked if they would send another person out to confer with me personally and check about the installation, they said they wouldn't do it. Dish must be doing well enough that they don't have to sell units to stay in business.

4) The local guy I talked to was more confused than the Indian guy I talked to, and this was without the language barrier.

5) Of course, they had already charged our credit card for the service before they installed it. So that was one more thing we had to clear up.

So we had to re-up with Time Warner for the cable but were able to get the DVR while still getting a better deal than if we used them for all the services. So all will be right with the world. I won't have to learn any different channel numbers.

But I will tell everyone I encounter to the end of time that Dish screwed us over and is not a good company to do business with. It was bar none the worst experience I've ever had with a company.

Just thought you should know.

Backpack! Backpack!*

Something I forgot to mention months ago: Want to get organized? All about "to-do" lists? Want the ability to view your list on any computer?

Your time has come.

Backpack is a free app that allows you to easily keep track of multiple "to-do" lists online. It's free, though you can upgrade to a better account. It's good stuff. I used it multiple times a day while preparing for our relaunch. It was an awesome tool.

Take it one step further: working on a team project where members need to collaberate about certain tasks? Make a backpack account, give all the team access, and get 'er done. Me likes it a lot.

I'm not a big "Getting Things Done" guy, but if you like tips like this, you should check out Bob Hyatt's Pastor Hacks. It's helped me with many a useful application.

*I'm pretty sure that's from Dora the Explorer. Not quite sure because we don't have Kaelyn addicted to cartoons yet. Dora and I will have a great time teaching her [and her mother] Spanish.

Kicking Themselves

With six games remaining, the Reds are just three and a half games out of first place and a chance to make the post-season. It's hilarious that the Reds [two games under .500] aren't yet eliminated while the defending World Champions [seventeen games over .500] are. A look back at the season of what could've been: David Weathers' seven blown saves, a 2 for 8 West Coast roadtrip, swept at home by the White Sox and Dodgers. This was a season ripe with possibilities and they let them get away. At the beginning of the season I claimed that if this team could go 82-82 it would be a success. The team raised my hopes and then crushed them. Too bad the Bengals have left them in the dust. Now the Reds are known for the city's play-off drought.

Go get 'em next year, Mr Castellini. Pick us a winner.

Random

• Last week sucked. No way to really explain it. Couldn't have been worse. Maybe I'll write about it sometime. Anyway . . .

• Sunday started off a brand new week and it's already looking up. A [predicted] Bengals victory [win ugly, boys], a great gathering and fellowship time last night- this week will be much better. I can feel it.

• The little girl was awesome today. She was loving life. All smiles makes me smile.

• We took a walk this afternoon. It was absolute beauty. It's well known that fall is my favorite season. Eden Park is a great venue from which to view the autumnal transformation.

• Despite all that goodness to go around, I was rude to the wife twice today. Not my finest moments. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going crazy, then I realize I'm just human. Won't let that get me down though. Thanks for loving me, Kel.

• We're finally going to get the DVR this week so TV viewing will become much more convenient. Until then, ready to cue up the favorite fall shows [in particular order]: The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Studio 60, Survivor, The Amazing Race.

• I love life, even when I'm not good at it.

Go Kelly . . .

Of course it was probably the gloomiest day of the year: constant rain, overcast skies, totally absence of sunshine- but it didn't really matter: It's my baby's birthday.

Because of the weather conditions and the fact that we spent six hours in the car yesterday driving to and from the funeral of Kelly's great grandmother, Kel decided that we'd take a raincheck on full birthday celebration. That's one of the blessings we've had in our relationship: the ability to take a holiday mulligan to make it more conducive to our lifestyle.

Regardless, we've had the chance to spend some quality time in conversation together and it reaffirms how wonderful my wife is. There are numerous reasons to back this up: she's intelligent, hard working, a dedicated mother, and a phenomenal woman of God. But on this, her 29th birthday, I'm going to bring up a reason that could supersede them all:

She loves sports.

I never knew how critical this trait would be when looking for a spouse. I've even gotten her to take a walk on the wild side and venture into the realm of football, a sport she swore she'd never like. Just the other day I was watching ESPN and they were doing an interview with NY Giants RB Tiki Barber. Kelly makes the statement, "He and his twin brother have the friendliest smiles." I paused and stared at her, impressed that she knew that Tiki had a twin brother, Ronde, who plays for Tampa Bay. "I can't believe you know that," I responded, amazed at my wife's sports knowledge.

Then she then admitted, "Yeah, I saw them one time on Martha Stewart's show."

I had to laugh but then realized that if the Barber brothers were dumb enough to go on Martha's show, I should laugh at them and applaud my wife's skills to recognize the guys.

Kelly, you're incredible. Being married to you is the best deal I've ever made. Thanks for putting up with me. Thanks for showing interest in my interests. Thanks for being a great example for our daughter. Thanks for being my friend.

Love you.

It Must Be Said

I think this year's Bengals schedule is one of the toughest I've seen in the NFL . . . maybe ever. Prove me wrong. The Raiders and the second Browns' game are probably the only gimmies left. The Buccaneers are gripping but they're at home. And I know it's early, but six of the current undefeated's are on Cincy's schedule. I do believe they'll step up and win Sunday. Pittsburgh isn't that good this year. Unfortunately, these latest injuries will cost Cincinnati. They'll definitely miss Dexter Jackson at safety. Kevin Kaesviharn: coolest player name while lacking the most talent. Please prove me wrong, Kev: stop tackling high and wrap up those legs this week.

If the Bengals do win, I think they'll pull off New England at home, giving them a 4-0 record at the bye week. Every national analyst proclaimed they should be 1-3 after the first few games.

And if that happens, this city will go nuts. Even in '88 the hype wasn't anything like it is now; it picked up steam at the end of the season whereas this town has Bengal fever.

The Steelers might think, "We 'Dey," but this week they'll be wishing they "Were 'Dey."

London Bridge Is . . .

. . . in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Tonight as the wife and I debated the merits of Fergie's song "London Bridge" [How come some of the best soun-ding songs have the dumbest, dumbest lyrics around?] I was able to inform her of this Jeopardy fact. London Bridge was indeed falling down and in the 1960's was sold to a business man who moved it to a city he was developing in America's southwest. It's the state's second most visited landmark after some hole in the ground.

If you didn't know, now you do. And knowing is half the battle . . .

Save Pete From Pete

I didn't have a chance to get back to my father-in-law who left a voicemail on my cell at the beginning of the week. All he said was: "No joke: Pete Rose has autographed baseballs with 'I'm sorry. I bet on baseball,' written on them" Was I shocked? Of course not. It's Pete being Pete. As many of you know, I'm a big Pete Rose guy. That doesn't mean I'm an apologists for all his ridiculous actions, but I admired his playing style and the stats he accumulated throughout his career. He went to high school with my dad and was all westside. And most of all, he played for the hometown team. While I laugh at San Francisco fans who cheer for Barry Bonds, maybe I should remember that I still pull for Pete.

Here's the deal: Pete should be in the Hall of Fame. It's not like lifetime bans have never been overturned. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were both banned for life by baseball for working in casinos and saw those bans eliminated. And neither of them had to wait 17+ years for it to happen. You can't deny that Rose's stats aren't Hall-worthy. Keep him from working in baseball. That's fine [not like anyone will want to hire him anyway]. But put him in the Hall.

Until that happens, Pete will keep riding the current gravy train. He can continue making money as a sideshow. But if you let him in the Hall, he'll only be able to milk it for a few more years and then will ride off into obscurity. There are dozens of living Hall of Famers out there while only one "should be in there." It would solve everything.

And put Shoeless Joe in there while you're at it.

Trendy

Things you do while planting a church: humor people. This morning I had a meeting with a marketing company. One of their people lives in the neighborhood, received one of our mailings, and assumed we had tens of thousands of dollars at our disposal to do mass marketing. I repeatedly told them we had no intention of doing additional marketing in the near future but they still wanted to meet me and fill me in on their approach. So the way I see it, any time I get to tell people in the area about what we're doing at Echo is a good thing so I went to their office today and listened to their presentation.

I'll admit, it was very sharp operation. The way they integrate postal mailings with web interaction was fascinating; I've never seen anyone doing what they are. Despite dealing with mostly commercial businesses, they're starting to blitz churches, trying to pick up their business. Quite a few churches in our brotherhood have enlisted this company to help them market their churches. Finally, they told me their price, which would've been competitive for similar services but, still, was way more than I could ever imagine us spending on such a thing. I gave them a polite, "thanks but no thanks" and went on my way.

I do my best to stay up on church trends. There's always something new on the horizon that everyone is doing. I'm only thirty, but I've seen a lot of it firsthand. I remember, when I was a child, our church had a bus ministry. We would wake up early every Sunday morning and ride with my father to the place in Price Hill where they kept the bus. We then drove throughout the neighborhood picking people up. It was a trend that First Baptist in Hammond, Indiana started and everyone picked up on it.

I remember when our churched purchased a slide projector, so we could project new song choruses on the wall. And then it was video projectors. I've heard of churches now upgrading to Hi-Def for best picture quality.

Sunday School was created in the early 19th century in Great Britain. It was designed for poor street children to keep them from committing crime. They would feed them a good breakfast and teach them about Jesus. Sunday School became hugely popular in America in the 20th century, but altered the premise a little bit: we kicked out the poor kids and kept the food for ourselves. Ironically, small groups [which now all churches swear by as if they were mandated by Jesus] were just a convenient outgrowth of Sunday School.

And now it seems that the trend is marketing. You could call us at Echo sell-outs, since we did the mailing, but our purpose was to inform people about our portable church; we needed a way to announce our presence in the neighborhood and we picked the cheapest, most effective means; it really didn't cost much more than a good Yellow Pages ad would've run us.

But the truth is, if your congregation has no better substance than your latest trend, then your church is in trouble no matter how well your attendance is. I dreamed for years about the kind of church I would plant. We'd be cool. We'd rock. I'd get an earring. Stuff like that. But after God blessed me with the opportunity to mature and get a better grasp of what the church needs to be, I realized that we didn't have to be trendy. We just needed to focus and the message and let God do the work. And that's what we're doing.

Almost a year in now, I've come to the realization that getting Echo established isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to take some time. And I'm totally fine with that. Maybe by the time we arrive [whatever that means] we'll be a trend. Wouldn't that be cool?

If Your Family Tree Has No Forks . . .

Why no post last night? Begin rant: Growing up, I thought we were pretty redneck. Anyone with a bulldozer in their side yard and scrap metal piles in the back should qualify. It's not that I don't appreciate my heritage but when we bought the house up in Landen I took extra special precautions to make sure that we weren't known as the neighborhood hillbillies. Fortunately I was safe because my next door neighbor Roger cemented that position by leaving an extension ladder up on the side of his house for more than two years.

So upon this recent move down to city, dwelling amongst these refined, educated urbanites, I thought we'd have to be extra hip. I'll admit that there are still times when I take out the garbage while barefoot but beyond that I felt that we blended in well. But once again, I needed not worry about being the local yokel.

A stray cat has been hanging around the condo complex and decided to have her kittens around here. Of course, some genius thought it would be cute to put some milk out for them. So milk quickly turns to canned cat food, which whomever decided to leave out and not throw away the cans. So now the bushes by the parking lot are littered with old cans and cheap Tupperware pieces.

What this guilty party failed to recognize is that when you leave out food, it's not as if word doesn't get around. A couple of days ago I saw another raccoon in our deck/crawlspace area. I was thinking about resetting the trap, but didn't find the time. So last night, about 10pm, I heard all hell breaking loose outside. Of course the raccoon found the kittens and attacked. Because they were under the decking, I couldn't do anything but try to scare the 'coon. Eventually we found one of the kittens half dead out by the bushes. One of our neighbors took it in for the night and is taking it to the vet today [good thing cause there was no way I was doing it]. And I never found the second kitten.

So I spent almost an hour last night trying to chase this raccoon towards the trap that was left behind from our last escapade. This morning I discovered I set it at too much of an angle so the raccoon got the peanut butter I put in there to lure it in and didn't set it off. I'm going to take care of that critter today. I swear, if I get a chance I'll beat it senseless. Real classy, huh?

Memo to that "caring soul" who took care of those cats. See what it got you? Two dead kittens, a littered homestead, and a scavenging critter we need to get rid of. You thought PETA would be proud of your efforts but you're no better than an urban redneck.

Rant concluded.