It’s unbelievable how hard it rained yesterday! It seemed like each raindrop was gallon-sized. Now the place is flooded. Here’s the lawn in front of the church:
It was tempting to pull out the old raft and lounge in Lake CrossWay!
Obama Landslide
Whoa. I can’t believe how badly Barack Obama crushed Hillary Clinton in the voting booth yesterday!
Yesterday morning I listened to Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” and they were talking about how unlikely it was that Obama would take the lead in delegates yesterday. One guy said that he would have to take 70% in D.C. and 60% in Maryland and Virginia. Last I saw, he won 76% in D.C., 62% in Maryland, and 64% in Virginia! Dag! I don’t think anyone expected to see this kind of momentum.
Obama has now edged past Clinton in the projected delegate count. This is getting interesting! I wonder what will happen with Ohio and Texas on March 4….
I just saw that Michelle Obama gave a speech at a local university yesterday. Interesting. We don’t see that much national political action here on the Shore.
10 Random Things
10 Random Things:
(1) Today is when voters here in Maryland, along with Virginia and D.C., get a shot at the national spotlight. I’m registered Independent, so I can’t vote. In my 14 years of voting eligibility, I’ve been registered as a Democrat, Republican, and now Independent. I’m thinking about switching back to Democrat so I can vote in the early rounds. Might as well. As you can see, I’m not exactly a strict party guy. (Good thing, since I don’t have a party.)
(2) Carolyn and I recently finished watching the complete series of Voyagers. That’s “complete series” as in the whole one season it ran. Too bad it didn’t go longer! Great ’80s show, complete with hokey one-liners such as, “I work alone, kid,” and those fantastic corny ’80′s not-so-special effects. And of course Phineas Bogg, with his open shirt, falls in love with a different woman in every episode. But it’s still a classic–I definitely recommend the show!
(3) Recently I’ve been getting hits on this blog from people researching Babe Ruth’s infamous called shot. Let there be no doubt about it–the Babe called it. In the third game of the 1932 World Series, the New York Yankees were playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were heckling Ruth, and finally he’d had enough: he’d let his bat talk for him. So he pointed to center field and knocked the next pitch over the wall–exactly where he’d pointed. I know of at least two sources which confirm the truth of this story. First of all, I’ve heard a recording of that at-bat, and the announcers themselves mention the Babe calling his shot. Second, a friend of my dad’s who passed away in the mid-1980s was there at the game, and he confirmed the story. Below is a picture of Ruth pointing, right before he homered.
(4) Speaking of blog traffic, there are two topics that repeatedly bring more hits to this blog than anything else: searches for surfing, and searches for chapstick–more specifically, chapstick conspiracy theories and chapstick expiration dates. In fact, if you Google “chapstick conspiracy theory,” this blog is the first listing that comes up. Weird.
(5) Last night I cleaned the house because we were going to have a church meeting here. The meeting ended up getting rescheduled, but at least the house is clean now.
(6) Carolyn is off from work today because of the election, so she’s going to visit the Training Station with me. She hasn’t yet met the Tuesday/Thursday kids. She’ll love ‘em!
(7) Butch Marvin, whose ministry has had a significant impact at CrossWay the past couple years or so, is doing a two-week series at CrossWay in May. (If you’re reading this and you’re on our Worship Planning Team, I’m not holding out on you–I just got the email confirming the plan!) His messages are about “Becoming a Hope Dealer.”
(8) Today a group of ministry leaders in the Berlin area are meeting to plan a special event called “Celebration of the King.” It will be held on Friday, April 4th, which marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s an attempt at bringing together the black and white communities in this area, which is the most segregated place I’ve ever lived. We’re going to honor Dr. King and worship his King, King Jesus, who is also our King!
(9) Next week I’m getting to meet with some pastors from the Ocean City area. I’m really looking forward to it, because I’ve been wanting to meet these guys and get to know them.
(10) CNN.com is the dumbest news website on the Internet. I need to find a good source for up-to-the-minute news. They used to be a great news source, but now they mostly just have stories about people doing horrific things to children. Whatever happened to real news coverage?
Iowha?!?
Looks like the night of the underdogs in Iowa! It’d be great to see Huckabee & Obama continue to make strong showings throughout the rest of the cauci (or whatever the plural of “caucus” is–it just sounded right).
The Iowan voters seem to have a penchant for sanity that I hope reflects a greater national mindset.
11-1 and at the Top of the Pack!
Wow: 11-1! Dallas did it last night–they put away the now 10-2 Packers. That’s amazing that in 12 games so far this year, their only loss was at the hands of the undefeated Patriots. Had to miss this game, but it sure is fun even just to read about it! You can check out the recap here.
The only problem now is that if the Cowboys have to face Green Bay in the playoffs, Brett Favre–who left with an injury in the second quarter–is going to come out looking for revenge!
That would be so cool if Dallas wins the rest of their games, which they could definitely do. They’re heavily favored in each match up, but in the NFL you can never know for sure.
Go Cowboys!
The Barry Bonds in All of Us
Here we go another round. With the indictment of Barry Bonds for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from his grand jury testimony about his steroid use (we can all drop the “alleged” now), we’ll have the newest season of real reality TV as millions hungrily follow the unfolding disgrace.
Another fallen hero.
And another chance for us to show how utterly hypocritical we are.
I haven’t been a Bonds fan since his Pittsburgh days, but I do not rejoice in his indictment and possible imprisonment. Sure, he brought it on himself. Justice will be served. But how disgusting that many of us who celebrate his fall will gleefully snicker at him as we go on lying and cheating in our daily lives.
That may sound harsh, but think about it. Yeah, Bonds is insanely arrogant and prideful and seems to worship himself as a god. (Perhaps that’s unfair since I don’t know him personally, but there’s plenty of video and direct quotes to back this up!) But I submit to you that one reason we despise him so much for these things is that it’s exactly what we despise in ourselves.
How many people do you know who truly don’t live as their own god much of the time? How many people do you know who succeed 24 hours a day in not acting as though they are the center of the universe? How many people do you know who are always completely honest, never putting up a front or trying to deceive people into overlooking a weakness?
Okay, so that might appear to be too sweeping a generalization. And yet I’ll say without hesitation that if any one of us had to sit in front of a grand jury and answer direct, penetrating questions about our own lives, we would likely all be found guilty of offenses that would invite the jeering, mocking scorn of the masses. You know what else? If we were in that situation, I have no doubt that many of us would lie about it.
Hopefully you understand what I’m saying here. What Bonds did is wrong. It was destructive. It was despicable. He should be prosecuted. Yet even if most of us don’t commit federal crimes, I’m not so sure that most of us really have a stronger moral fiber.
If you’re offended, I hope you’re offended for the right reasons. It’s easy to grind Bonds into the dirt to make us feel better about ourselves. After all, if the ridiculously wealthy all-time home run champ–tainted record and all–is indicted and revealed as a fraud, how great we must be! We’re better than him! Right?
If we’re really “better” than that, then let’s show it by exercising humility and enough honesty and self-awareness to recognize that most of us are a lot more like Bonds than we’d like to admit. If we sneer at his exposure and failures rather than genuinely mourn for the damage it does to our collective sense of human dignity, are we really any better?
Could It Be…?
It’s still very early in the season, so I’m trying not to get too excited… but the Dallas Cowboys are off to a 4-0 start and are already leading the pack in the NFC East! Like I said, I’m not getting my hopes up, but they’re looking good. Their defense finally showed up against the Rams on Sunday, and Tony Romo may be the Troy Aikman successor that the Cowboys have been waiting for (not that I’m making any comparison between the two!).
So I’m not getting too anxious about it yet… but it sure has caught my attention!
A True Kingdom Effort
This morning something really cool is happening in Berlin. Two churches from different denominations are coming together for worship.
SonRise Church and the Ocean City Worship Center have spent the past four weeks doing a series on the Kingdom of God. Their pastors planned the series together and each one preached it at his church. This morning the series is culminating in a joint worship service led by pastors, musicians, and others from both churches.
SonRise is a Southern Baptist Church and the Worship Center is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. But rather than focusing on their differences, they’re focusing on what they have in common: their Object of worship, Jesus Christ.
Pretty cool stuff, huh?
A Hall of Fame Weekend
About three weeks ago my dad and brothers and I made a trip to Cooperstown, New York, to see Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Okay, so I should have written about this before, but hey–vacation is a busy time! There’s so much to tell about that amazing weekend, I’d have to write a book to share it all. So I’m going to share our adventure with you through pictures. For those of you subscribing by email, I apologize–I know this will make a huge file. But here it goes:
We set out on Friday morning, July 27th. It should have been a six- to seven-hour drive, but it stretched out to about 11 or 12. That was mostly due to abominable traffic for much of the ride. But, of course, we did stop for lunch–and to play baseball for an hour or so at an American Legion field somewhere in Pennsylvania. It was dark when we arrived at our motel a few miles outside of Cooperstown, so it wasn’t until we emerged from the room the following morning that we discovered this amazing view:
We headed into Cooperstown on Saturday morning and set up our chairs at the site of the following day’s induction ceremony. A friend of my dad’s had cued us in on the fact that the place was already filling up with chairs and blankets as people marked out their turf! From there we went to the Hall of Fame Museum and bought admission tickets. Before heading to breakfast, we took a few minutes to admire a new display of Ripken memorabilia.
After enjoying a decent breakfast that took a loooong time because the restaurant’s capacity was beyond maxed out, we headed back to the museum. It was then we realized we’d made a mistake in not going before breakfast. The place was packed wall to wall on every floor. We could barely even move, and it took about a minute to go forward one step. Every floor was like that! The next day we learned that we were in the middle of the largest crowd the museum has ever had on a single day. Nearly 15,000 people went through its stiles that day!
Since it was so crowded, we decided to leave which we eventually succeeded in doing. We headed over to the Hall of Fame game, an annual contest between two minor league teams at Doubleday Field near the Hall of Fame. One of the teams was the Aberdeen Ironbirds, owned by Ripken. It was a great surprise when Ripken made an appearance before the game. It was his first public outing in Cooperstown that weekend. At one point the crowd started yelling, “Thank you Cal! Thank you Cal!” He turned around and waved, signed a few autographs (for the players!) and left.
The game was hot and sunny, then it rained for about 45 minutes, then it was hot and sunny again. It was a very good game, lots of action, several homers. Former Orioles Brady Anderson and B.J. Surhoff made appearances on the sidelines during the game. The only sour note came when the Ironbirds pitcher took a line drive right in the last place a guy wants to take a line drive. He actually made the play at first before collapsing. It took the paramedics about half an hour to get him off the field. They brought out a tarp, covered him, and did their initial examination right there on the field! That is one sight you couldn’t pay me to see. I don’t know yet how the guy turned out, but I’ve prayed harder for him than for anyone else I don’t know personally!
We went back to the museum, where it was much less crowded. As you might expect, we saw some absolutely amazing stuff. I haven’t yet uploaded pictures from inside the museum, but when I do, I’ll post some pics like the first baseball used in a professional game (from the 1800s), Babe Ruth’s locker, Ty Cobb’s jersey, and stuff like that.
I don’t remember where we ate dinner that first night, but we probably just bought hot dogs or hamburgers from someone grilling on the street. Seems that’s how we ate most of the weekend. The town really capitalizes on Hall of Fame weekend! Everyone is out there selling something on the sidewalk.
We went back at evening to check on the site we’d staked out for our seats at the induction ceremony. While we were there, we climbed up on the stage where the ceremony was to be held the following day. We figured we needed to break in the podium for Cal (and for Tony Gwynn, the San Diego Padres great who was also inducted), so we posed for pictures and made induction speeches there at the podium on the platform. Ripken and Gwynn made history the following day by drawing the largest crowd–75,000 strong–ever to attend a Hall of Fame induction ceremony. But little did they know that the previous night, my dad and brothers and I, escaping the scrutiny of the media, made history by drawing the smallest crowd ever as we inducted ourselves with our own little ceremony. I think we had about eight in attendance.
As you can see, Cal tried to look like me in his induction speech the following day. His speech was pretty good, but mine was better. Probably because I stole it from Lou Gehrig, complete with echo effect.
You’ll see Cal surrounded by some of the greatest players ever to play the game. That’s pretty cool and all, but I was surrounded by some of the greatest fans ever to love the game.
Here’s the Hyde guys at the induction ceremony:
From left to right that’s my younger brother, Dylan, my dad, me, and my older brother, Jason. Notice all the Orioles gear. Of the 75,000 people in attendance, I’d guess 65,000 or maybe even 70,000 of them were Orioles fans–and dressed accordingly. It was like a private affair for Orioles fans! All 53 of the Hall of Famers who were present were introduced. Each one who was an Oriole got a long standing ovation. And during the national anthem, the “O!” toward the end was the loudest I’ve ever heard, even louder than a riled up Memorial Stadium crowd. One of the speakers in the ceremony even said something about how Baltimore must be empty that day, because all the people there had gone to New York! Even one of the local Cooperstown dogs was a big O’s fan.
Here’s a shot of Ripken and Gwynn with their brand new Hall of Fame plaques, immediately following the ceremony:
After the ceremony we enjoyed a nice dinner at a real restaurant, then went to see Cal’s plaque newly installed in the Hall of Fame. As you can see from the picture below, we got quite fried during the ceremony.
Cal’s plaque is the one on the bottom (Gwynn’s is on top). Here’s a closeup:
Cooperstown is a beautiful place and we had an amazing weekend. In the picture below, the sun has gone down and a Cooperstown moon rises to bring an end to one of the most special and enjoyable days of my life.
Dad’s Reflections On Cal
And now, the writing about Cal Ripken, Jr. that I mentioned yesterday, composed by my dad:
When our family moved to Maryland in October, 1980 our three sons were 7, 5 and 3. It was the month before the presidential election and as it turned out, only three months remained in the Carter presidency. The Mormon temple near Connecticut Avenue was brand new. When we purchased a home, our realtor gushed about how fortunate we were to get a 12.78% interest rate. There were still pastures off Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg with herds of cows.
And it was the fall before Cal Ripken, Jr. began his major league career.
Camden Yards in Baltimore is a beautiful baseball park, but Memorial Stadium was the home of great baseball. We went to several games a year, and our boys grew up watching Cal Ripken. Along with hundreds of other kids, they knew not only where the players parked their cars under the stadium. They recognized their cars. After every game, our boys wanted to go around to the side of the stadium and wait for the players to come out. Sometimes we wouldn’t let them, but a lot of times we would.
One night we were standing in the parking lot long after the game was over. The boys had waited by the gate, seen several of the players and gotten some autographs. It was late and I was ready to go home, but the boys insisted that Cal’s car had not left. It was so late that as we stood there the lights inside the stadium were turned off.
I told my sons that we had to go, and as we were leaving, Cal’s car started edging out of the gate. We were about 20 yards away and as the boys started to run toward the car, we saw a girl–I guessed at the time a 10 year-old–and what must have been her little brother. From about 10 yards away we watched from the shadows (the parking lot lights had also been turned off) as they approached Cal’s car (if you’re wondering where their parents were, so did I, but let’s not mess up the story).
What we saw next was more amazing to me than any of Cal Ripken’s homers, great plays or Iron Man streaks. The girl had in her hands a stack (not a few, but a stack!) of snapshots and she and her little brother pointed to the pictures and told Cal about them as he looked at each one. It was not a perfunctory, quick look that says “Yeah, that’s nice.” He took time to look at each one, and talked to them about what they were looking at together.
When the girl and her brother left, we walked quickly up to the car. I don’t think he knew we’d been standing there. As he signed my sons’ baseballs, cards and caps, I said, “Cal, that was really cool,” and he actually looked embarrassed, as if he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do.
Jason, Nathan, Dylan and I are going to Cooperstown this weekend to see Cal Ripken, Jr. inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. We’re leaving Friday morning and coming back Monday. A lot of glowing words will be spoken about his career, and deservedly so.
As for me, while I’m standing in the heat at Cooperstown with no telling how many thousands of other people, I’ll be honoring a guy who took the time to look at pictures with two children after a long night’s work when there no cameras or sportswriters around. And I’ll honor a great player who over and over again had time for my three sons.
