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Food: Caffeine

Caffeine is the most consumes drug in America, and probably in the entire world. In the United States, it is estimated between 85 and 90% of the people, consume some amount of caffeine daily, with the average being about being about 164 mg per day.  Over the years caffeine has gone from being bad for you, to being good for you, back to being bad, and now it is considered good for you, again. There are many medical and food sites, that discuss the pro and cons of consuming caffeine.  The general consensus is, that for the most part caffeine can help you, more than hurt you.  It’s pretty common knowledge, that caffeine affects the brain, and it seems to allow you to concentrate better, and be more alert, about one hour after consumption. The common side affects, are  keeping one awake at night, and it might give you some heart palpitations at higher doses.  Anyone can go on line and find the information.  However I did find some things that were interesting, and surprising, about how the scientific community feels about caffeine, and  there is still a lot to learned.

One thing I found that has to with nothing, but is interesting, is caffeine supposedly was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder, who gave it to his goats, and it seemed to give them more energy.  Why you would want goats to have more energy is beyond me. The second new fact, for me anyway, was that there is not a lot of difference between what is safe to drink and what could cause some problems.  Taking in about 150 to 300 mg of caffeine per day seems to be very safe.  However taking in about 500 mg very quickly can cause some heart and blood pressure problems. So drink that coffee slowly. There is a debate in the scientific community, on whether caffeine is addictive.  Some sites say that it definitely is, while other sites say that it does not have all the traits of what constitutes an addictive drug.  All I know, is that some people do seem to have withdrawal symptoms from caffeine, if they try to stop taking caffeine abruptly.  They can get the shakes, headaches, and will be come more agitated in certain situations. My most surprising finding was that it seems that we are all drinking  coffee at the wrong time.  It all goes back to that darn circadian rhythm, again.  Its seems that when we wake up in the morning, that cortisol levels are at their highest, and therefore we do not need that jolt of caffeine, even though are brains may be telling us something different.  It is best to hit the coffee machine about 10 am, when your cortisol is starting to go down, and your body really does need that boost.  We seem to cycle back down around 1:30 so another cup will help again.   It is best to end the caffeine intake just after 2PM if you want a good nights sleep.

There is no doubt that caffeine is a drug, and the affects of are real.  On the whole caffeine can be a benefit, to help and maintain a healthy lifestyle.  However, there are more dangers involved than the general media puts forth.  After all, the coffee industry is a multi billion dollar business.  It goes back to those idiosyncratic responses that so many people have to so many different substances.  I know many people that say they can drink one or two cups of coffee at 7 to 8 PM, and sleep like a baby.  If I drank one cup at 7 PM, I would be up all night. Caffeine has many health and wellness claims, some more substantiated than others.  One claimed benefit is helping to prevent gall stones. The dose for prevention is 400 mg per day and even higher.  I think I would take my chances with gall stones.  I am going to start drinking my coffee later in the morning, when possible, and see if it makes any difference. It boils down to the same old thing.  Please. just listen to your body, it will tell you all you need to know.

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Sports: Spring Training

Spring Training, everybody knows what that means, without saying anything else. In other sports they all have camps.  If you say summer camp, this could be something your kid is doing, not the start of the NFL season. When you say Spring Training, you know baseball has started, thank God.  This year, Spring Training is taking on a different feel for more than one reason.  You have teams apologizing, managers and general managers just acquiring jobs, and this weird feeling that the season is already over. I will explain that later. Spring Training, just has a nice ring to it.  Spring is coming, wonderful. The players are training, because that is what baseball requires. It is the most difficult game to play, but that will be for a future blog.  The game is swimming in money, and there is just something about baseball, that  makes you feel good.  But let us look at what is making this Spring Training, very unique.

First there is the “apologetic” Houston Astros.  The Astros would have been better off, just letting the media talk to individual players, rather than have Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman, make those pathetic statements of apology. Then to top it off, their owner, Jim Crane, said that he did not feel the Astros sign stealing methods, affected the outcomes of games.  If that doesn’t prove that money is not synonymous with brains, then nothing does.  It also supports the theory that one of the biggest factors in being successful, and making a lot of money is luck.  Just think about what he said for one moment.  He said, that knowing what pitch is going to be thrown, is not really that much of an advantage.  REALLY REALLY.  Why not lobby to make what the Astros did, to be within the rules. Why did you fire your manager and your general manager.  I have never seen an organization make things worse for themselves, on a daily basis.  Because of the illegal sign stealing scandal  we had three teams scrambling for managers and a general manager to run their teams.  We will see how this affects the Astros, Red Sox, and Mets.  If the Astros win the division, I will be shocked.  I also look for the Mets and Red Sox to perform below expectations.  The other thing that makes this Spring Training unique, is that you have the feeling, that you could go to sleep, wake up around October 20th, and be certain that the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, will be playing in the World Series.  MLB Network likes to talk about the super teams in baseball, and will name 2 to 3 teams, in each league,  that they feel fall into that category.  This year, the Dodgers and Yankees have separated themselves from the rest of baseball so much, that both of their years could be historic.  The Yankees could break the all time record for wins in a season.  I think 120 wins would not be unrealistic, considering some of the bad teams, that are going to be in the American League, again this year. The Dodgers could do this too, but face stronger competition, in a more balanced National League.  Yes, I know the games have to played on the field, and injuries could affect any team severely, but if nothing unusual happens, I don’t see anything stopping these two teams from dominating the entire season.

Then there is my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates, who enter spring training with a whole new regime of coaches and a team that is basically unchanged. In my view, a team that has done so little during the off season, is harder to evaluate, than a team that has made a lot of moves. I will not do a final analysis, until just before the season starts, but you still have to wonder, what are they doing?  I was not for a complete tear down and rebuild.  I thought this team needed a third baseman, right fielder, and one or two starting pitchers, and they would be able to contend for the division title.  This is not a long list.  They did none of this. In fact, they lost their center fielder and really have not found a replacement, that approaches his value.   The few additions they have made, were  large defensive upgrades, at their positions.  That makes sense.  The Pirates were one of the worst fielding teams in baseball, no matter what defensive metrics are used.  There are moves that still can be made.  Even if the Pirates stay exactly as they are now, I do think that they are going to be better than most projections. The one on USA Today had them losing 102 games.  I still have to take a wait see attitude on the new regime.  So far, they have not done a lot to impress anyone, but the season has not even started.  Like I wrote, spring training has begun, and it still gives me that nice warm and fuzzy feeling, even though it is only 20 degress outside here in the Burgh.

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Food: How Did We Get Here

The consumption of food is costing us billions of dollars every year. I don’t mean the cost of the food. I mean the results of consuming too much food for our own good.  Over half the world is overweight.  Over one third of world is a lot over weight.  I am not going to use the o word, in describing how much a person is overweight. In my view, any amount of weight over your ideal weight, can cause a problem. This is different than being pregnant, where you can be a little bit overweight.  This should not lull you to sleep, thinking that this is probably ok for your health, because it is not. Spend an entire day carry around a 10 bag of potatoes, and see how you feel at the end of the day. This is how your body feels, after it  carries your ten pounds of excess fat around, for the last so many years. This blog is not about how to lose those 10 pounds or more, but to try and find out how the world go so fat. How did we get to this state.  This is a problem that is on the rise.  More people die from complications of being over weight than smoking.  The cost of treating weight related diseases is estimated to be 147 billion dollars a year.  Each individual has to take responsibility for their own condition, but let’s look at some big picture elements, that have a lot to do with it, and what if anything we can do about it.

The beginning of the fast food chains, has done has as much as any industry, to cause people to eat more.  The fast food industry has taken a lot of criticism, over the years, for not offering as many healthy choices as they should.  Because of this criticism, fast food has improved in quality and variety. However, fast food still entices you, in many clever ways, to eat more than you should.  From catchy names like the Big Mac, The Whopper, The Whaler, MAKE IT A MEAL FOR ONLY $1.50 MORE and SUPERSIZE IT, DUMB ASS. Not only do they entice you with catchy slogans, but the more you eat, the less you pay per unit. A single Burger at Wendy’s is 4.49, but put another patty on, for just a buck, and make it a triple for just another dollar.   It goes on and on, and every chain is like this.  Should there be a law against this.  If that’s what it takes, to keep this from happening, yes, I am all for it.  There should be at least a suggestion, like on alcohol commercials, to eat responsible, because we all don’t want to pay for  those 5 stents you’ll get in 5 years.  You should not have to pay more, but you should not get a discount, because your appetite is like the offensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The entire food industry is like this.  That’s the whole purpose to buying clubs like Sam’s and Costco’s, in that they want you to buy in bulk and save money.  Unfortunately, I think this makes you eat in bulk also.  This kind of thinking. in my view, must come to an end.  The idea of the bigger you buy, the less it will cost.  It is not doing us any good. By the same token, all you can eat food bars, should come to an end. Again, they just contribute to a problem that is escalating at an unbelievable rate. I know that none of these things are going to happen, but it would be interesting if they did, just to see if they helped this costly problem of American  and world health.

Everyone is responsible for their own health and well being, but it does not help when people are bombarded with the above nonsense.  Can we learn a lesson from all this? We can all get into the mode of moderation.  With some moderate consumption habits and some moderate exercise added to our daily regime I think most of us can get back to a more healthful condition of our body.  Even though I wrote that any amount of being over weight is not good for your body, any amount of weight loss is good for your body.  Enjoy your food, but only eat one patty of ground meat, and eliminate the word large or big from your vocabulary, anytime you are going to order food.  Unless you have a big family buy small and eat small.  In the long run you will make you and the world a better place. Now excuse me, as I take my 54 tater tots out of the oven.

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Meditation: Breathing and Control

Breathing and control, two things that seem to be very different, but can have a strong relationship, if you understand them.  Breathing is something you have to do, to stay alive.  Control is something that you strive for, in managing your life.  Well meaning friends and relatives,  will often say get control of your life, when things may not be going well for you personally, or professionally.  This could mean trying to control an unwanted behavior, or making a decision concerning your career, to time manage your life better.  Trying to set aside more time for your personal life, and not letting a job or business run you.  Is control something we should strive for? Is it even possible?  Before we answer those questions, let’s look at breathing to see how unique it is, and how it applies to getting control of our lives.

Breathing is a function of the lungs, where we take in the oxygen from the environment, and expel carbon dioxide into the environment.  We breathe without thinking about it. We can control our breathing to some degree.  We can hold our breath for a certain amount of time. Some people are better at this than others, but most of us can hold our breath for at least 30 seconds.  Eventually, we all have to start breathing again. Under stress, our breathing may become very short and rapid. If allowed to go to an extreme, we may start to hyperventilate.  This is when we are told, to take a deep breath, and try to relax.  You will see athletes take a deep breath, as a way to relax, before they perform a function, in their sport. They are exerting some control of their breath.  When we start to exercise, our breathing will start to increase, and as the exercise becomes more strenuous, the breathing will become more rapid.  There will come a time depending on how good of shape we are in, that the breathing will become so labored, that we will have to slow down, or stop altogether. All of these things can be beneficial when dealing with everyday situations in life. Even though breathing is a natural and spontaneous function, there are ways we can inflict our control over how we breath, but only to a certain degree.

The same thing can be said, when we try to control what is going on in our lives. We all might think we have control of our lives, but in reality this control does not exist.  At times, we can control some aspects of our lives, but over all, it is circumstances, that are in control.  For many people this is a hard pill to swallow.  Trying to get control of your life, or certain situations, can lead many people to have debilitating frustrations. In order to gain control of your life, you must give up control of your life. When you realize this, your life will take on a whole new meaning, and it will free you from not only trying to control yourself, but other people as well. Just like breathing ,there are certain elements of your life you can control, like what time you might want to eat dinner, go to bed, and get up in the morning.  Even those things can be fouled up, by unforeseen circumstances.  Trying to set goals and not accomplishing them, may be seen as failures, in getting control of your life.  Even trying to improve personally, and not achieving a desired result can be more devastating, when it is tied in to the ability to control one’s life. That is why, when you give up control, that you get back control of your life.  When you realize, that life’s circumstances, whether seen or unforeseen, is what controls your life, you will become more flexible in dealing with day to day life.  It’s when you let go, allow things to evolve in the proper time and place, that your life becomes easier to live and accept. You create a new awareness, that will enable you to deal with life as it happens, not as you want it to happen. When things seems to be getting out of control, remember that life, like breathing, can only be controlled so much. Sit back and take that deep breath, dig in, and make the best of it.  You will be doing yourself your biggest favor.

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Golf: When is a Fault a Fault

It has been one month since I have written anything about golf.  I have  played 2 rounds, since the last blog, thanks to some of the up and down weather, we have been having this winter. Nothing major to report on my own game, and was just happy to get out, and play once in January, and this past Monday, in February. No matter how good we play, we are always looking at our swings, and feeling, that in someway, we have some kind of flaw, in the way we swing a golf club. Even when I was trying to do, what I called 100% Mental Golf, I would find myself, still trying to think about my swing, and make it “better”.  I am not as bad as I use to be, because I can play the game without swing thoughts, during the round, but I still think about, what I could do to improve my swing, when I am off the course.  I continue to do this, even though I know, there is nothing I can do to improve my swing. My swing  is my swing.  With an index now, of 4.7, thanks to the new handicapping rules, my swing can not be all that bad. Yeah, that’s one way to lower your handicap, have the USGA,  just change the rules. No practice is necessary, which I don’t do anyway. Can a single digit handicapper, have a swing flaw that is keeping them from improving. My guess is they do not.  Some instructors, when talking about golf swing flaws, often like to use the Jim McLean term, “death move”.  This is a term used to describe a flaw in the golf swing, that keeps you from hitting the golf ball with any accuracy, or even hitting the golf ball at all.  Depending on what year it is, there are anywhere from 21 to 25 death moves, described by  Jim McLean. Do you really think so? I doubt it.  I tried to find these death moves on the internet and some of them are not death moves at all.  One of them is being shut faced or closed at the top of the swing.  Dustin Johnson and Lexi Thompson give back all your money, because there is no way you could hit the ball that well, and be as  shut faced at the top, without some non-conforming help. There are other  moves mentioned, but are they being done by anybody, who has played  the game for awhile, and shooting below 90, not very likely.  Yes, these moves are being done by beginners, but if they are getting any lessons at all they are all easily correctable.

Are there swing faults, that are keeping players from improving their game? Well, maybe, but I am having my doubts, more every day, and my new hero is Matthew Wolff, on the PGA tour, and he has already won a tournament. He no doubt, has the worse golf swing, in the history of tour. The only one that is even close, is Miller Barber of the 1960’s.  Because he has won a tournament, and drives the ball a long, long way, all anybody wants to talk about, is how great his swing is, and all the good things he does. The golfing public would be so much better served, by showing and emphasizing all the things he does wrong, from the standard golf swing techniques.  I would say that he does at least 7 of the so called death moves. I am not being critical  of Mr. Wolff, or his swing. I am being critical of what everybody his saying about his swing and how it could be the swing of the future.  Are you kidding me?  There have been articles that state, that there are things in Matthew Wolff’s swing,  that the average golfer should try and incorporate in their own swings.  I would say, if the average golfer tries to do this, he will probably wind up in the hospital, in traction.  Everybody is eventually going to have a golf swing, that they can call their own, if they let it happen, and it will serve them well.  Once you get to a certain point in playing golf, there should be other things you concentrate on rather than your swing.  The bottom line is this.  There are no faults, in anyone’s golf swing, that is keeping them from improving. Once you realize that, you will improve, at a rate that you may not believe.

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Meditation: Ten Minutes Don’t Bet On It

There are many meditation apps available today, and they all have some positive things to offer.   They help with sleep, relaxation, stress management, and show other benefits of meditation. There is one area, where it seems they have all gone astray.  They seem to feel that 10 minutes a day of meditation is acceptable, and with this  amount of time, one will receive the full benefits of meditation.   I do not agree.   Maybe they feel in this day and age, with time being of the essence, that 10 minutes is all you can expect from the modern world. They are trying to make life a little easier by only requiring 10 minutes per day to meditate.  Whatever the reason, this has become a popular viewpoint. To me the minimum time for meditation, has to be 20 minutes.  Considering that there are some people that meditate for one hour or even longer, 20 minutes does not seem to be very unreasonable.  There are some things that need to be accomplished during meditation, and 10 minutes is not enough time. It is like any part of life,  how much can you accomplish in 10 minutes.  Do you eat lunch in 10 minutes.  Are you even able to complete any task at work in 10 minutes.  Now some people may argue, that there should not be any goals in meditation. These same people will use the term benefits when advocating meditation, but to achieve these benefits more than 10 minutes will be needed.  If you are a starting to meditate, naturally you will have to build up to 20 minutes.  Meditating for even one to two minutes per day will get you started.  Gradually increasing the time every 4 to 5 days, will eventually get you to the 20 minute mark.  Let us look at two important reasons to meditate and why 20 minutes is necessary to get the best result.

The first benefit of meditation is to relax the body.  It is a process of scanning the entire body, and relaxing each section.  This is going to take some time.  Think of other ways to relax the body.  One of  the common ways is to get a massage.  Most massages are going to be at least 30 minutes to do a good job.  I don’t think the 10 minute massage is going to sell anytime soon.  The hot bath or steam seems to be another method to relax those tired and tense muscles.  Does anybody take a 10 minute hot bath? In meditation not only are you trying to relax the muscles of the body, but also the mind. We should all know by now, that sleeping is not relaxing for either, the mind or the body.  Sleep is a necessity in order to function at your best.  It has nothing to do with relaxation. The second  benefit or function of meditation is to discover your inner or true self.  Sometimes journeys of self discovery are aided by health professionals.  Does anybody have a 10 minute session with them. If you are going to have a substantial benefit from meditation, then you must commit the 20 minutes per day per session.  Ten minutes is simply not going to do the job. Maybe that is why there are all the extras, such as sleep aids, relaxation music and coaches for success, on these sites, to make up for the fact, that they seem to think that 10 minutes is enough. Remember morning meditation is always nice, but you can meditate anytime during the day, and it will be just as helpful in finding your true self and well being. I know we live in a busy and hectic society, which makes it even more essential  to set aside that 20 minutes, to do the most important thing, that you can do for yourself, meditation.

 

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Food: Breakfast, I Just Can’t Do It

The breakfast experiment is over, after only one week.  Maybe, you can not teach an old dog new tricks.   For 7 to 9 days,  I made a concerted effort to eat breakfast, before I started my day.  I will admit, I may have had more energy in the morning, but what I felt were problems, outweighed that perceived benefit. First, when I awake in the morning, no matter what time, I am not hungry.  There is nothing I can do about that.   Now believe me, I have eaten at other times of the day when I am not hungry.  I would have fairly large amounts to eat at breakfast.  I would have 2 hard boiled eggs, potatoes, and one sausage.  Another morning I had yogurt, with fruit, and two slices of toast, with peanut butter or cream cheese.   I would have more non traditional breakfast food, once having a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with pickle.  It did not seem to make any difference what I ate, I was always very hungry around lunch time, sometimes even sooner.  Though I may have felt I had more energy in the morning, I did not do anything more, than I usually do.  I walked about 3.5 miles and did my exercises.  Maybe I did not give it long enough, but I felt stupid, eating when I was not hungry, first thing in the morning. I will just have to face the fact, that I am heading for a 20 to 25% more chance of developing coronary artery disease and type II diabetes, by not eating breakfast on a regular basis.  Am I really?

The more I think of this breakfast thing the more I feel that my initial instincts were right.  I am not feeling this way, because of my failure to continue to eat breakfast.  Breakfast being considered the most important meal of the day is not something that is fairly new.  We have been hearing this since the late 1950’s and 60’s.  Let’s look at the three meals of the day, and I will take them in reverse order beginning with dinner. What foods do you associate with dinner.  The list can be very long, ranging from pasta, meats, vegetables, and other carbohydrates.   The same thing could be said for lunch, with some narrowing of the list.  For lunch, I think most people will think of soup, salad, and sandwiches.  Again, there can be a great variety of foods that one thinks about, for a typical lunch.  Breakfast has more of a traditional selection of foods.  Eggs, bacon sausage, toast,  home fries, waffles, and pancakes.  Breakfast cereals are at the top of the breakfast list.  Yes, some families for something different, may  have breakfast for dinner. There have always been more traditional breakfast foods.  To say the least it is a major industry.  Do you think the makers of breakfast cereals and eggs have anything to do with the thinking, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? The cynical side of me definitely thinks so.  Maybe this is the same side of me that is not hungry in the morning.

I will not ague the point, that I did not give the breakfast experiment much of a chance. Eating when you are not hungry, just seems to go against the grain of what makes sense, from a heath and fitness standpoint.  One of the newer crazes right now is fasting.  I am not an advocate of that either, but you could argue that. this is what people are doing unknowingly, when they skip breakfast.  Fasting advocates talk about, that not eating for 16 hours is considered a fast. Even if you eat as late as 8 pm, and then get up the next day, and don’t eat until around noon, you have done a fast. I not saying this is good for you either, but its becoming something, that is suppose to help your health and well being. As they all like to say, more studies and research is needed.   I think the bottom line here, is that it just goes back to the fact, that most recommendations fail to consider individual idiosyncrasies.  Are these the exceptions that make the rule.  I do not believe that, either.  I think everybody needs to plan their own form of a diet and health plan.  It boils down to one concept.  If it makes you feel good do it and if it doesn’t don’t. I am meaning physically good not emotionally good. Try to leave emotion out of it when it comes to health and food.  This sounds so simple but as I get older I am finding out that the simpler you make  things the better results you will get.  If anybody else that skips breakfast wants to do the breakfast experiment let me know after you have done it for three months.  I failed miserably.  But you know what? I feel much better for this failure.

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Sports: Pirates Rebuild, Just One Problem

When the Pirates finally traded Starling  Marte, the media jumped on this, as the sign that the Pirates, were going into rebuild mode.  There were chants of tear it down, and a list of other players to trade, to make this happen.  Ben Cherington on a radio broadcast gave the impression, that this might not be the case.  Many would say that he is not being has forth right as he should be, because this tear down and rebuild mode, is not being looked at too kindly, by major league baseball.  Since Baltimore and Kansas City seemed to have tanked the last two years, there is the feeling that every team should try to compete every year, to be fair to their fan base. This tanking  formula is credited to  the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros, who had some really bad years before they became World Series Champions and recent perennial contenders. Now, tanking is being frowned upon by MLB.  Giving the benefit of the doubt to the rebuild proponents concerning the Pirates, lets say that this is what the Pirates are going to do.  It appears that the target years for the Pirates to contend, would be 2023 and 2024. Before we look at future moves, the Pirates may make to do the rebuild, lets look at the Marte trade.

Starling Marte would be considered one of the best three players on the Pirate team.  You could argue for him being any number, from 1 to 3, but third would be the worst position that you could rank him on the team.   Once he became an Arizona Diamondback, this made the Diamondbacks the number one challenger to the Dodgers for the division title, and an immediate wild card contender, according to many media sites.  In other words this was a significant acquisition for the Diamondbacks.  What did the Pirates get in return?  They got two top 10 prospects that are 19 years old, one pitcher and one shortstop.  They were labeled as high risk, high reward returns.   You do not want to emphasize high risk, but you can not totally ignore it.  On face value, I have no problem with the trade.  Starling Marte is heading into his age 31 season.  He is already showing defense decline.  His abilities to steal bases is not going to improve.  He is not an analytic favorite, because he never has had plate discipline.  His walk percentage has always been low.  Watching Starling Marte play everyday, was at times frustrating, because at times he seemed to have mental lapses out there. Even considering all of this, he is a top 3 player on the Pirates.

So who is left to trade.  The names mentioned are Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, and possibly Joe Musgrove.   Let me add Bryan Reynolds to the list.  What would be the return? Are any of those players going to bring more than Starling Marte.  Josh Bell may bring a little more in the American League, because teams would not have to put up with his way below average defense. These players may bring a little more value at the trade dead line when teams are making a stretch run.  Musgrove’s value may increase at that time if he can improve , as teams are always looking for pitching down the stretch. Even if you want to stretch reality and say that these 4 players could bring back exactly what Marte did, do you really want 8 more high risk, high reward players.  Maybe you get one prospect for them that is closer to being major league ready but teams  do not like parting with prospects, unless the return is solid.  There are teams that are more prospect rich, and if they are in contention at the deadline, may be more receptive to such a deal. You are probably not getting much in return, for the Pirate  players that may be available. The  reason is, that none of them have had that long of a track record.  Bell had a great first half but became mediocre in the second half.  Even Reynolds had a bad September.   Frazier’s first year at second base, was a double surprise, as his fielding improving greatly but his bat seemed to falter.  From a fans perspective, if they stay on the Pirates, there is a good possibility  that they all can improve and build on their success in 2020.  From another teams perspective, they are all players that a wait and see attitude may be the best path before you give  up anything to acquire these player.

Whatever the Pirates do from this point on may be dictated by how they perform in the first 90 games of the season.  Last year, at the All Star break the Pirates were 44-45 and 2.5 games out of first place.  This was a two edged sword.  Two and a half games out of first place was nice but one game under 500 is really not all that great.  Most people feel that the Pirates have no chance of repeating this in 2020 for the first 90 games. We  do not know what, if any, more moves management will make.  If the Pirates could get in that same position that they were last year at the 89 game mark, you have to wonder what they will do.  They certainly will a lot of room to spend on some trade deadline pick ups.  This could be the shortest  rebuild in history.  There is the problem.  Just what do the Pirates have, to rebuild with.   What kind of prospects can they get.  In my view, not much, in order to win in 2023 or 2024.   That could change in a big way if the above players make a big leap forward. Are you listening Joe Musgrove?   I do not know how well the Pirates are going to do, but I do know this could be one of the most interesting seasons in Pirate history.  This would just be fitting, if Pirates became the team that tried to tank, but couldn’t.

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Sports: Super Bowl, Oh So Wrong

This is an updated version of a blog I wrote 6 years ago about the Super Bowl. Nothing has really changed about this event which disrespects the sport it represents more than any event in history. The game of football, the players and participating teams take a back seat to what is called the Super Bowl. It is one of the highest, if not the highest rated TV event of the season. At least half who watch it watch for the commercials and the halftime show. The NFL thinks there is nothing wrong with that. Greed is their number one priority. Let’s look at what makes this event so wrong.

This week will be Super Bowl 60. The first Super Bowl was in January 1967, and the powers to be in the NFL, decided to make this a unique game.  Pete Rozelle, the commissioner of the NFL at the time, gets a lot of credit for bringing professional football to the top of the rung, in professional sports.  This is one place, where he went off the rails.  Everything the NFL did, and continues to do concerning this game, is just succumbing to the whims of the television networks, who do not have the game’s best interests at heart.  Let’s face it, the Super Bowl is nothing more than the NFL Championship game, just like the World Series, the NBA finals, and the Stanley Cup finals is to those sports.  Maybe football has a bit of an inferiority complex, because it is only one game that decides their championship, rather than a series. During the playoffs, you never hear that old adage, the NFL use to sell, that any team can be beat any other team, on any given Sunday. Where did the NFL go wrong when it started the SUPER BOWL. Let me count the ways.

First, they decided to play the game at a neutral site. The reasoning was they wanted to make weather less of  a factor in such an important game.  This, despite the fact that some of the most iconic games in NFL history, have had weather has part of the equation.  The very next year was the famous Ice Bowl of 1967.  There was also the feeling, that this was too important of a game for one team to have a home field advantage.  The  result of this was giving the fans, who had supported the team for all those years, the shaft.  In this day and age, it takes most fans their life savings to go to the Super Bowl.  This ended the electricity of the home field created by those home field fans.  Just think of all those terrible towels at Three Rivers Stadium, or Hines Field, if the Steelers would have been able to play some of their Super Bowls, at home. Thank God, that the other professional sport leagues did not follow this idiotic  thinking.   The home field is what gives the other sports that special feel for their championship series and games. Pro football will never have this, and they really don’t care, since everybody is getting their pockets lined.

The decision to have two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.  Another decision to increase the hype, but in my view led to games that were not very well played.  Athletes are creatures of habit, and back when the Super Bowl started, there were no bye  weeks and no first rounds byes.   Once the season started the games were played every week with no breaks until boom, 2 weeks off till the Super Bowl.  Even today there is a debate, if a first round bye is a good thing in the playoffs.  I think the two weeks off is less of a factor today, because teams do have bye weeks during the season, and the bye week in the playoffs. There is no need to take the two weeks off, other than to increase the hype of the game. I still can’t believe that networks can talk about one football game for two weeks.   The game has gotten lost in the shuffle of what the Super Bowl has become, a non football event.

Yes, here is the final coup d’etat. Because of the HALF TIME SHOW, half time at the Super Bowl is about twice as long as the regular season.  Half time during the regular season is about 15 minutes.  The Super Bowl halftime  usually takes about 30 minutes.  To hell with what the players are use to, and the natural flow of the game.  This would be like making the 7 inning stretch in baseball 15 minutes, during the World Series.  You have to wonder,  do players warm enough before the start of the second half.  Then there is the commercials.  Many times  you see on social media, that someone says, I only watch, because of  the commercials. A new use for the DVR.  Fast forward the game and watch the commercials. This is pro football at its finest.  You have to wonder if the players realize how insignificant their championship game is, when the outcome could be affected by the halftime show and commercials. The Super Bowl is still one of the most watch events in the world, so nobody really cares, that it is being watched for all the wrong reasons. The NFL has taken a great game and turned it into a carnival. Over the years because players have gotten more use to the hype and Super Bowl issues the games themselves have been better. All of these factors in my view still can affect the outcome of the game. As long as the cash cow is flowing at a maximum rate nobody really cares. 

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Meditation: Death

Death took center stage this past Sunday, when Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash.  Anytime a well known person is suddenly killed, especially at a young age, the shock and sorrow is felt nationwide.  A tragedy of this significance, seems to bring out the best and the worse in the populous.  We hear of not taking any day for granted.  Give your love ones a hug, and appreciate them everyday, because you never know what is going to happen.  All of this is good advice, and it is a shame when something this sad has to happen to make people verbalize something, that should happen as a natural part of life. There is the saying, I believed attributed to Ben Franklin, that the only two things certain in life, is death and taxes.  However, in this day and age, with a good tax attorney, you may not have to pay taxes.  That only leaves the certainty of death. No matter how much we may think that we have  a lot in common with other  people, there is only one thing that links all of us, and that is death. There is not one day that goes by that someone from every age, from birth to 100 years old, will die.  Anytime, when someone young dies or children die, we try to make sense of it, or ask the age old question of why. There is no reason or explanation for when some people die.    For something that is going to happen to all of us, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information on the subject.  When somebody loses a loved one, whether young or old, people will say they have gone to a better place.  Is there any place after death? People like to thing so.

Let us look at some of the more popular beliefs of what happens after death.  The most common one is of heaven and hell.  If you are a good person you will go to heaven, and if you are a bad person you will go to hell.  This was started by the church in my view to help keep people in line.  The other belief was, that no matter how many bad things you did, you could be absolved by the church, at the time of your death, and still make into heaven.  Again, something the church made up, to keep people coming and giving. If you want to believe in such nonsense, I won’t try and dissuade you. There is no absolute proof that you are wrong, but you are.   There is no heaven or hell.  Then there is reincarnation, where we come back in a different body or form, maybe even an animal.  Again a nice fairy tale, but there is more of a chance of this being true, than the heaven and hell theory.  Then we have the belief of the spirit world.  This is where we become spirits, and roam the world in a totally different form.  Movies, like Ghost and Hereafter, depict  what the spirit world may be like.  Then, there are people that believe that this is it baby, we are born, and when we die it’s over, we are nothing. This one is always the hardest to come to grips with, if they are right.  But if they are wrong, and let’s say there is a spirit world, do they get to participate, because they do not believe?  Does what you believe in life, have any relevance at all, after you die?  Say there is a heaven and you have lived an exemplary life, but do not believe in God or heaven.  Do you get in?  Does a contract killer get in, because he believes and the church absolves him of his sin? Does your life have any affect on the so called after life, if there is one?

The questions about death are pretty much endless because nobody knows what exactly happens when you die, except the obvious, you no longer exist, in the living world. There are all kinds of way to die.  Death can come suddenly or it may be slow in a prolonged illness.  Is it worth fighting to stay alive.  I do know one thing, there are a lot of things in this world that are worse than dying. What some people have had to go through in their lives, whether it be through illness, actions of other people, or losing love ones, can make death seem like a blessing.   I wake up everyday knowing that this could be my last day on earth and go to bed every night thanking the higher power that my life is still good and my love ones are alive and safe.  I know I have no control over either situation. Like any one who has lived a number of years, I have had my close brushes with death.  As a 12 year old I fell through a ceiling and came out virtually unscathed, except for a small abrasion on my arm. I have had other close calls as an adult.  When people live to be 100 years old, there is always the reporter, who wants to know the secret, to the persons longevity.  They go through a few things, and some may make some sense. They all seem to leave out one very important thing.  Luck, in my view is the number one reason for longevity, just good old luck. What happens after is anybodies guess.  I will do my best to let you know when it happens to me.