Life Stops

For the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and every other low paying, less talented team out there, it's hard to bear that their season is over even before it begins. They can never say this is going to be the year, because as long as there are the Rockefeller's and the billion dollar executive committees at the helm, players are bought and traded like stocks in the NYSE. One minute you are a AAA prospect just making a major league debut, and the next day your locker has a note on it with a one way ticket from a team guaranteed in making a trip to the post-season.

However, winning a championship attributed with a mixture of talent and heart on and off the field can not be measured financially. Redsox of 2004 were simply the underdogs of the post-season, settling for the wild card, almost down and out against the Yankees, then meeting the heavy favorite Cards in the Championship. If MLB instituted a salary cap similar to the NFL, every team would have an equal opportunity to win it all. You may even see the Devil Rays as division champions.

In the spirit of the "hunt for October", eliminated MLB teams seek the "underdog upset", the "delay in the champagne celebration", and at the end of the day, it makes you wonder, what do they have to play for? The fun, the heart, the ambition, the way that America's favorite past-time was once orchestrated. Men put on the uniform and were "honored" to have a job. Now you have over paid athletes complaining about not making "five extra million dollars".

You never know when it's going to happen, but it does. You win the lottery, you lose your house, you pull your hamstring/groin, your pet passes on, for the better or for worse, your daily routine changes.

As I was driving home today, I could hear my mother's voice "when your father and I were your age, we were working until two in the morning"; they had gotten married, and were raising a kid, with another (me) shortly on the way.

24 hours in a day (today's standards)
* 1/3 is sleeping
* 1/3 is working
* 1/3 second job, hang out with friends, college/higher education,
family, vacation, relax

I look at some of my friends, and leaving the parents for the real world is something they just aren't ready to face head on. In a time to reflect, this was an email that was just recently sent to me:

" With age comes wisdom"

" Anyone can help you climb the ladder, however, only you will be able to pull yourself up"

" It is ok to fail, just as long as you learn from your mistakes"

" If you never try, to what degree can you truly measure yourself?"

" A failure to plan, is a plan set up for failure"

" Without goals, there would be nothing to look forward to"

" Quit now, you will never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there!"

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails
and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back
of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next
few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily
gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails
were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You
have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be
the same.

When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You
can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm
sorry, the wound is still there. " A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.
They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.