Avery's Arrival story - Part II

We only thought Avery was almost to sleep. Instead, she decided she was hungry again and so I just gave her a bottle and she is now swaddled in the pack 'n play with my trusty iPhone next to her playing my favorite classical piece ever, Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune.

Great time for part II of the story.

Saturday was pretty rough on Sarah. We woke up around 8:00am when the doctor came in to update her and check some stuff. When the doc left, Sarah said she was just going to go back to sleep and so I decided to use that time to go home and check on the dog.

Layla. Second to Sarah, she might have had it the worst of anyone. Her little world really got rocked. Mom and dad up and disappeared on Friday. Our neighbors (who she knows almost as well as us) took care of her Friday and Saturday night. Daddy kept coming home for brief windows at a time and would leave again. Then he comes home on Sunday, only to pack her stuff up and take her to a house she's never been to before.

A couple friends at church who had a little puppy of their own offered to keep her for a few nights and I thought Layla might like it, so she stayed with them for three nights. At first, their 6-month old Yorkie, Lucy, was not too thrilled with the introduction of another dog to her turf, but apparently by the end of the stay, Layla had another best friend. (Apparently, she also seemed to rediscover her taste for puppy chow and put on a few pounds.)

Sarah's parents arrived in town Saturday afternoon from Arkansas and her mother and I began tag teaming staying with Sarah in the hospital while would occasionally run home and continue to try to get things ready for a baby to come home. When you think you have three and a half weeks to clean and that gets shortened to a couple days, there's only so much you can do.

I got back to the hospital on Saturday evening got settled in for the evening. First off, UGA and Arkansas were playing at the same time. I was fully prepared to defer to baby mama and not even mention watching anything other than her Razorbacks, but, to put in perspective what the mag was doing to her, she said without question we were gonna watch UGA as she wasn't sure watching the R'backs was going to help her keep her BP down.

We awoke Sunday morning to great news, they were going to start weening Sarah off the mag. They came in and took it down to 50% and I am not exaggerating when I say that I could see the difference in Sarah within 5 minutes. I left for church and then ran home for a little bit. By the time I got back to the hospital, they had taken her off the mag completely and my wife was back to her wonderful self.

At the same time, things got a little tougher in that it was up to Sarah to keep her BP down herself until delivery or they would put her back on the mag.

Avery's Arrival story - Part I

So, I should have done this two weeks ago when Avery first got here, but I didn't, so I'm doing it now before I forget even more than I already have. Here is the story of Avery's arrival from her daddy's perspective.

We learned at Sarah's 36-week appointment that her blood pressure was pretty high and so she was put on bed rest to try to bring it down. I was CONVINCED that would work as I was sure it was Sarah's job raising her blood pressure. Well, Sarah went back on Thursday to get more lab tests run and we would get the results on Friday.

Anyone who has ever lived in the Atlanta area can understand why any expectant parent in this city is terrified by the thought of getting "that phone call" on a Friday afternoon with Atlanta traffic being as awful as it is. Of course I was downtown at Turner Field that day, finished up a tour of the ballpark when, yep, I got the call...or the texts actually. "Call me" "ASAP." I also see that Sarah has already tried to call me. Her doctor had called and told her that she had preeclampsia and said that she should go ahead and come down to the hospital and that she should go ahead and pack a bag. She had texted me at 2:37 pm. I'm at Turner field, 35 miles from home. Doc wants us at the hospital (another 15 miles from the house) for an ultrasound by 5:00pm. After nearly having a heart attack when I get on the highway to head home, only to find traffic crawling...OF. COURSE., I slowly get out of downtown and make good time getting home, my heartbeat climbing with each mile.

I get home, Sarah's nearly ready to go. I throw some clothes and laptop in the backpack and walk Layla. We get down to the hospital shortly after 4 and they pretty much took Sarah straight to ultrasound after putting us in what I have to think is the smallest room at Northside Hospital. I'm pretty sure it wasn't originally a room, rather some extra space that they converted into one. Sarah was gone for close to an hour, but once she got back, we just kinda settled in to wait for whatever was going to happen next. At this point in time, we were still thinking there was a chance that we could be going back home.

Before we saw a doctor, the nurses returned and began prepping her for an IV, our first indication we weren't going anywhere. They said they expected the doctor to put her on magnesium sulphate to regulate her body and the BP so that we could try to get Avery to full-term (37 weeks). If Avery didn't tolerate things to well or Sarah's BP didn't calm down to a safe level, they would induce delivery even earlier so that she couldn't have a possible seizure. Awesome. Reality really settled in when a nurse told Sarah that the next time she went home, she would have baby.

Thoughts on the magnesium sulphate: it was described to Sarah that "the mag" would make her feel like she had the flu. By my observation, that was underselling it. That stuff looked like it packed quite a punch on Sarah. I've never seen her with so little energy. Even though they tried to give her meds for the headache that developed on the way to the hospital, those didn't seem to help because we were told the mag could cause headaches. Sarah was on that stuff from Friday to Sunday morning, making for a very long weekend. But the stuff did its job, it regulated her BP well and while she was on it, we didn't have a lot of worries, other than her over all lack of comfort.

Back to Friday night. Right before Sarah was put on the mag, we had a surprise visit from one of our church elders and his wife, whose daughter is one of our best friends and also works in Labor & Delivery at Northside. They were so nice to spend a few minutes with us and pray over us before heading out.

We had already asked a couple times about whether we were going to be in this "room" for the night or if we were possibly going to get an actual room? By midnight, I was worried we were going to be spending the next 4 days there. There was no room for visitors, and I cannot describe how much noise there was around the room. Several times, it really sounded like someone was slamming a hospital bed into the other side of the wall next to my chair. After spending about 30 minutes trying to get to sleep, I had just decided to go ask what was going on with the noise when the door opened and some angels disguised as nurses appeared and asked if we were ready to be moved upstairs to our room. I was up and ready to go in less than a minute, and we were taken up to the High Risk Perinatal unit where we would stay until Monday...and most importantly get some sleep after an emotional roller coaster of a day.

To be continued...

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Our Father who art in Heaven,
hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on Earth as it is in Heaven.


So over the past two weeks, we've been trying to begin finding some sort of routine with Avery. One thing that Sarah said early on that she wanted to do was to read a book and pray with Avery every night before bed. I thought that was a great idea and was immediately on board. I was reminded of one of my good friends Jeremy and how he has read the gospel to his son every night for most of his life, so I tried to think of something I could do to also begin introducing God's word into Avery's life. And so I thought of The Lord's Prayer and decided we could add that on to the end of our nightly prayer and that could just be something that even though Avery's not "learning" it right now, she's still hearing it.


Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive our trespasses
as we forgive those that trespass against us. 
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The first night went great. It was just me and Avery and it went off without a hitch. Hadn't said The Lord's Prayer in a long time, but somehow it came right back to me. So the next evening, I shared the idea with Sarah and that I wanted all of us to do it, and we finished that evening's book and then prayed.
For yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Yep, turns out I did in fact need a bit of a refresher on the Lord's Prayers as somehow Psalm 23 found it's way into the prayer. I think Sarah also tried to throw in a couple of the beatitudes.


For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
forever and ever, Amen.

So there are two takeaways from this endeavor:
1) Study up in advance of new initiatives.
2) Even though I've been primarily reading from the New Living Translation the past couple years, apparently I'm doomed to be permanently stuck with King James in some areas.

Thoughts on my 1st Peachtree Road Race

I first began running on a somewhat regular basis during the 2009-10 winter season and did pretty well through the spring, however I completely fell off the wagon over the summer. I hated the humidity, the heat, the sweat, everything. But I LOVED the feeling I had when I finished a winter run, especially when the temperature neared freezing, and so I started getting back into it in December of last year. In February, we got the news that Avery was on her way, and in line with many fathers-to-be, I decided to take getting in better health more seriously.

With the help of the Couch to 5K training program, I ran my first 5K in May and then turned my focus on today's race. Having lived here in Atlanta for 19 years, it was about time I ran the Peachtree. I've always felt a twinge of jealousy every time I see someone wearing a Peachtree Road Race t-shirt, so this year was going to be MY year. So after running the PRR today, here are some thoughts from my first experience with it:

• I'm not sure there's a good way of getting to the race. Everything in print says to take MARTA because you're talking about getting to and leaving a 60,000-person race. I took MARTA, and while I'm sure parking at Piedmont Park would have been a nightmare, getting back to MARTA after running 6.2 miles STUNK!!! I'm guessing it was about 1 mile to walk back to the 10th street station and the majority was walking up a hill that was worse than ANYTHING on the actual race course.
• Speaking of hills, the rumors of "cardiac hill" (also known by some as "heartbreak hill," "pill hill," etc..) are fairly true in that it's no fun at all. That being said, I didn't think it was any worse than the other hills, they're all absolutely no fun.
• Guys, if you have Sherwood Forrest on your back, shoulders, arms, legs, and heaven knows where else, sleeveless shirts are not kind - to you OR anyone else.
• Walkers, I'm going to try to show some restraint here......WALK ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!! (Right as in the "right-hand" interpretation, not "right-correct") There is plenty of room on the road for people to run and walk, and it is clearly stated on every website and print instructions pertaining to the PRR that walkers are to stay to the right. Seriously, the most. annoying. part of the whole experience for me were the people who insisted on walking side-by-side on the left side of the road where we were running.
• Very fun atmosphere. Bands and DJs along the whole route, spectators cheering the entire way, plenty of water and misters. Aside from the aforementioned walkers, it was pretty fun to be out there with the crowd and it wasn't too hard to settle into a comfortable pace.
• My goal was to finish the race in 1 hour and 15 minutes. My official time was 1:14:59. Wow.
• I got my t-shirt. That might be the best part of the whole experience for me. Every bit as good as a trophy to me.

When I first started running in '09, I said that I just wanted to experience what it felt like to finish a race. I've finished two now and it's pretty cool. Gonna take the rest of the week off and figure out what I'm going to do next. One option is to begin working up to a half-marathon. I've got some good momentum now on the running and I really don't want to lose  it, especially after how hard it was to start up again this past December. On the other hand, I've been thinking about borrowing the P90X program from one of my friends. I don't know anyone who's finished the program, but I figure it's worth a shot and who knows, it could possibly help with my running. I'll decide later this week and get at it next week.

Fan Friendly Fridays - Dark Horse edition

With the MLB Playoffs beginning a couple days ago, I figured this week's FFF should be something related to the postseason.

A term you'll hear in almost any sports is dark horse. In most circumstances, this is a team that begins in relative obscurity and quickly rises to prominance.

Naturally, the term comes from the "sport" of horse racing where a horse that nobody knew much about would be entered into a race, making it difficult to bet on. According to our dear friends at Wikipedia, the first time the term was used occurred in 1831. In his novel The Young Duke, Benjamin Disraeli wrote,
A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.

Many mistakingly use this term to mean the same thing as an underdog. The difference lies in the "obscurity." Just because a team may not be favored to win doesn't mean they're a dark horse. Here are a couple examples:

• In the first round of the 2010 ALDS, the New York Yankees are facing the Minnesota Twins. Now let's say that...obviously hypothetically...the Twins are favored to win. For the simple fact that the Yankees are the Yankees, one of the most well-known brands in sports with a very high media following, I would argue that they can not and will never be able to be labeled as a dark horse. Everyone knows who the Yankees are and they they always have a chance to win.
  
• In 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays, long time residents of AL East cellar successfully made it to the World Series with a roster devoid of "superstars" and came from a city many people forget even has an MLB team and had minimal media exposure. In my opinion, going into the playoffs that year, the Rays fit the definition of a dark horse.
  

Thankful Thursday

Let us give thanks.

• I am SO. THANKFUL. for a job. I'll be going in Saturday to fill out paperwork and resume working at Starbucks. No, it's not in sports, and I don't anticipate it being long-term. However as I am REALLY wanting to get into sports broadcast production but am having difficulty getting in the front door, I really needed to do something to bring in a paycheck. Plus, there's something that happens mentally when you sit at home and don't have a job, and it's not good. I had to get out of that and get busy.
• I am thankful for Men's Fraternity. MF is a weekly curriculum that focuses on helping men identify, learn about, develop, and maximize their God-given responsibilities. We started back up last week and its really been a blessing for me, and I hope that Sarah has benefitted from it too. If there is a church near you that is offering the program, I highly recommend looking into it.
• I am so thankful that the Braves were successful in returning to the playoffs after a 4-year hiatus. We didn't make it in pretty, but we're in and that's all that matters now. Obviously its a little extra sweet because of this being Bobby Cox' final year. The Braves are going to have it tough facing the Giants because both teams have great pitching and both teams struggle to score runs, but I am really hoping we can split the two games in SF to start the series. If we can do that, I like our chances of moving on.
• I am thankful for a new opportunity to serve as a "Trail Guide" in the NACofC Youth Group this year. Trail Guides is kind of like a mentoring program where I've been given 4 7th-grade young men to meet with each month and just be a positive influence in their lives. I met these young men this past Sunday and I can already tell I'll benefit from this as much, if not more than they will.
• I am thankful for our small group at church. Sarah and I were reading a humorous blogpost yesterday about small groups in general, and while we were laughing at some of the parts of the blogpost that applied directly to us, it yet again reminded us how thankful we are for ours.
• As always, I am constantly thankful for Sarah. She's really hung with me through the job issue and I know that she spends a lot of time helping me find job postings and helping me think of possible ways to get some editing training. She's the best!

Sorry I haven't been around much. Fan Friendly Fridays will return tomorrow.

Pinch Hitting: Sarah of I'm Just Saying

Editor's note: Last week I came up with the idea of bringing in some Pinch Hitters, so to speak. I've invited a couple friends and fellow bloggers to write posts for you, our loyal fans in the stands. Naturally, the honor of the first guest post should go to none other than my esteemed wife and author of the well-read blog, I'm Just Saying. I was going to introduce her post saying "I am thrilled to present our first guest columnist"...but then I read the first line of her post below. By the time Saturday gets here, I'll be able to support the Hogs in their efforts against Alabama, but I'm not there yet. So with what bitterness I am still carrying from my UGA Dawgs choking and handing the win over to the Hogs, I'll say...

*queue up "SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake*

Now hitting: #41, the second baseman, Sarah.

Wooooooo PIG SOOIEEEE! Go Razorbacks! Hogs rule, Dawgs drool!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I'll tell you why I'm here. This blog needs a feminine touch!

Tonight at 11:09pm, we enter the most glorious season of them all. It's FALL, y'all! Why do I love Fall so much? Oh, let me count the ways! Cooler temperatures (allegedly), jackets and long sleeves and sweaters, chili and soups, and college football. Now, I can blog with the best of 'em about my favorite Autumn clothing and I can share a darn good chili recipe, but Michael has asked me to write about my love of college football. And what better time to do that than right after my team mopped the floor with his team the beginning of Fall?

I think the reason women can get into college football so easily is because we can relate it to our past. We can remember our high school days (and even younger) hanging out at the football game on a Friday night. I remember all of us girls worrying about dates to the Homecoming game, the VERY LARGE AND OBSCENE Homecoming corsages, playing in the band and marching at half-time, making fun of the cheerleaders cheering at the top of our lungs, dressing in school colors to show our spirit, and of course, checking out the hot football players. Good Friday night memories.

The excitement - for me - dropped off dramatically in college, because my alma mater didn't have that great of a team to speak of. I went to some games, but there was so much other fun stuff to do in college! Besides, our team mascot was gramatically incorrect. And that's just embarrassing.

But then.

In the late 90s, I went to work at a television station in Little Rock. It was there that I worked with The Voice of the Razorbacks, Mr. Paul Eells. How on earth could you not be excited about Razorback football when working with this man? I discovered my love for college football. There was so much excitement to be had! Calling the Hogs, tailgating, crazy fans, SEC rivalry games, wearing Razorback red, and of course, the hot football players. You just couldn't help but be excited...especially when some games went into seven-freaking-overtimes. Yep, I caught a serious case of college football fever.

And now, I live far from Razorback country. I married into the Georgia Bulldogs family. I have friends who are LSU Tigers fans, Tennessee Vols fans, Auburn Tigers fans, Ole Miss fans, and Alabama Crimson Tide fans. I even have a few friends who cheer for the Florida Gators...bless their hearts, they just don't know any better. I love them dearly, but I will always root for whatever team is playing the Florida Gators. Even surrounded by a melting pot of fans of other teams, I still call my Hogs on Saturdays. THIS is college football, readers. College football is the smack talk between rival teams, it's losing your voice from cheering, it's the car flags whipping in the wind, it's the tailgating with your friends and complete strangers, it's the heartbreak of a loss and the joy and gloating of a win. And for me, there's just something about hearing "TOUCHDOWN ARKANSAS!" that lets me know Fall is officially here, regardless of the date on the calendar.

It's just nostalgic.

That and it feels darn good when your team straight up rolls over your spouse's team.

~Sarah

Fan Friendly Fridays - Hokie edition

The other day, Sarah and I were discussing something related to college football and Virginia Tech came up. As you may or may not know, the athletic teams at VT are the "Hokies". But what is a "hokie?" Well, as I have struggled for blog ideas the past couple weeks, when Sarah and I discussed this very question the other day, I thought it would make for a good FFF post.

The following is a condensed version of the story behind "Hokie" as found on the Virginia Tech website.

Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 and was originally named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1896, the school's name changed to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnical Institute, which was so long that locals started referring to the school as "VPI".

With the chance in the official name of the school, the school cheer was no longer suitable and thus a contest was held for a new spirit yell. The contest was won by O. M. Stull, Class of 1896. The cheer, now known as The Old Hokie, goes:
Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy.
Techs, Techs, V.P.I.
Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah.
Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia.
Rae, Ri, V.P.I.

Later on, Team! Team! Team! was added on to the end of the cheer.

Stull said that he made up the word "hoki" to be an attention grabber. However, due to the popularity of the cheer, "hokie" (with the e added later) has remained a part of the Virginia Tech tradition ever since. With the new school name and cheer, Virginia Tech changed its colors to the burnt orange and Chicago maroon worn to this day.

Be looking forward to next week as I am hoping to have my first guest columnists featured on Stepping Up.

Fan Friendly Fridays: Around the Horn

You may or may not have heard the baseball phrase "around the horn", but more than likely, you've seen it. Infield players throw the ball around the horn after an out is recorded and there are no runners on base. Although the practice is more tradition based than anything else, the line of thinking is that it helps infielders keep their arms warmed up and loose during the game.

Example: the hitter hits a ground ball to the 3rd baseman who then throws it to the 1st baseman for the out. The 1st baseman will then throw the ball to the 2nd baseman--2B to the Shortstop--SS to to the 3rd baseman who is usually the one to return the ball to the pitcher. That is the typical pattern, but some teams alter it slightly.

Catchers will also start the ball around the horn after a strikeout with no runners on base. Most commonly, the catcher will fire the ball to the 3B who begins the cycle 3B-2B-SS-3B and then back to the pitcher. Some catchers will pick which base they throw to based on the handedness of the hitter.

There's your 2nd edition of Fan Friendly Fridays. Have a good weekend everyone.

Fan Friendly Fridays: Redshirt edition

A request has been submitted by the listening audience that we here at Stepping Up think is a great idea. Each Friday, our hardworking research staff will demystify sports jargon commonly thrown around that may not be clear to the casual fan. As always, we welcome requests from the crowd.

Leading off this series is a term most commonly heard around college football: "redshirt", i.e., "Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett played the 2009 season as a 'redshirt sophomore' after transferring from Michigan."

In collegiate athletics, athletes are given four years of playing eligibility, based on [what used to be] the normal amount of time needed to complete a degree. If an athlete is given the redshirt label, it means that they can attend classes as well as associate with and practice with the team without using a year of their eligibility. They cannot, however, play in any form of game competition. If a football player plays just one down in a season game, that counts as one of the player's four years of eligibility.

A player can be designated as a reshirt for a number of reasons. Three of the most popular reasons are:

1. A freshman coming in a position that is currently occupied by an upper classman. For example, if a college recruits a stud quarterback out of high school and currently has a QB in his last year of eligibility, they will likely redshirt the freshman his first year so that they can still potentially get 4 years of play with him. This also enables the redshirt freshman to get used to the college system and playbook so that he already has some experience when he starts competitive play.
2. An athlete coming out high school suffered a serious injury and so the school could redshirt that athlete to give them more time to recover and be active with the team outside of competition.
3. Whenever an athlete from a Division I school transfers to another D-I school, they are required by the NCAA to redshirt one year. This is to keep schools from trying to poach players from other schools. Going back to Mallett at Arkansas, he played for the University of Michigan in 2007. When Michigan hired a new coach, Mallett transferred to Arkansas and therefore had to redshirt the 2008 season. He then was referred to as a "redshirt sophomore" in 2009 because while he may have been a Junior in terms of academic standing, he was playing in only his second year of athletic eligibility.

On a related note, you will also hear the term "true freshman". As you might suspect, this is simply an athlete who is playing in his first year at that level of institution.

So I hope this has given you a better understanding of the term "redshirt." If you still have questions, just ask I'll be happy to find out the answer for you.

NCAA "redshirt" FAQs

Wikipedia

Feeding the addiction

Today was pretty exciting as I got my first information about becoming a stats reporter for STATS, LLC. STATS provides game data for clients all over the world including teams and news gathering agencies like Sports Illustrated. In short, after taking a few games to get used to the system, STATS will pay me to watch games and record the game events. I'll be starting off with baseball, pretty much focusing on the Braves but maybe every now and then I'll be able to do a game on a national broadcast. I'm also hoping to do some football and hockey in the Fall/Winter.

So what does that mean? I'll be able to honestly tell Sarah that I HAVE to watch the game...every husband's dream.

Pigs, gators, and stupidity

Yesterday a story broke that a reporter for The Hog Sports Radio was fired for wearing a Florida Gators hat to an Arkansas Razorbacks press conference.

You can watch press conference here, with Razorback Head Coach Bobby Petrino commenting on reporter Renee Gork's hat at around 1:35 into the video. Judging by his eye movement, Gork is somewhere off to his left. Both Gork and The Hog Sports Radio GM, Dan Storrs, went on the Dan Patrick Show yesterday and gave their side of what happened. Here are some links for you to catch up on:

• Sports Illustrated
• ESPN
• ESPN College Football reporter Chris Low

Aside from her apparent lack of taste in teams to support, I have no problem with her owning and wearing a Gators hat. The problem was that she wore a hat of a rival team on the job. Point of clarification here - it's professionally regarded to be in bad taste to wear apparel in support of any team when covering sports. In this case, Gork was employed by a station that doesn't claim to be objective and therefore the problem lies in that she was wearing the hat of an occasional opponent that is generally disliked across the rest of the SEC.

 Does anyone who knows me really think that if I was sentenced to work for the Mets that I would get rid of my Braves jerseys and hats? Or if one I am working for the University of Florida that I would simply no longer be a Georgia fan? Of course not! But you better believe I would be ULTRA-judicious about how and when they get worn in public. Wearing a Gators hat to ANY other team's press conference would be like Sarah going in to work at C*N wearing a "Faux News rocks!" shirt. Simply bad taste...on multiple levels.

Short and simple: you have got to always be aware of your surroundings. You must clearly know who you are working for, what they are about, as well as who is LISTENING to you and what they are expecting. The Hog Sports Radio apparently does not try to be objective, which is fine. If you are going to work for a station that has a stated purpose of supporting-not just covering-a team or school, and that's what the listeners are tuning in for, you simply can't make mistakes like that. People are always listening, and if it is known that you have an affiliation with another entity, someone who is listening is going to link your words or actions to that entity, whether correct or not. Whether she intended to or not, she put her employer in a position where they had to go on the defense, and that usually doesn't go over well.

I can't fault Petrino or the school for being irritated at Gork's attire. I also believe her side of the story that it was an honest mistake and she meant no disrespect. But how many times have we heard or read a story where the outcome would be drastically different had the person involved taken just 10 more seconds to think about what they were doing?

Thankful Thursday - Graduation edition

Understandably, there's been a lot going on the past several weeks, and I'm constantly reminded that I have so much to be thankful for. Thus, this Graduation edition of "Thankful Thursday."

It finally arrived. I always have a fear of crossing the line between being proud of an accomplishment and bragging. In this area I know that I have nothing to brag about. However as Sarah and I discussed the other night, this was a BIG. DEAL. And not that I just graduated, but how I graduated - "with honors" (Cum Laude). I definitely get that in the big picture, honors or not isn't that big of a deal, but just that I graduated. But to me, I've always looked back at graduating from high school and feeling like I was the only one among my circle of friends who didn't graduate with honors. I was just happy to get out with a somewhat average GPA, and I expected the same when I headed off to college. Then in 2008 when I finally returned to college, I carried the same goal - just make it through and finish the degree. Well I did that, and to my own surprise, I did it in better fashion that I would have given myself credit for. I am so thankful that I graduated which leads into my second TT item...

Sarah
She was absolutely amazing through my time back in school. She was without question my biggest supporter and encourager. The number of sacrifices she made so that I could finish school are too many to count. I'll do my best though to make sure she never forgets how thankful I'll always be for that.

My family & friends
I have the best family and friends I could ever ask for. I've wanted for YEARS for my parents to see their son graduate from college and I finally gave them that opportunity. As added bonus, my grandfather was able to make it to the ceremony, making it that much sweeter. Both my parents and Sarah's have been nothing but supportive and encouraging, and I know her parents really wanted to be there. It was great to have her brother there though, and I kinda looked at it as he was there representing the whole family which meant a lot to me.

Fairly often, Sarah and I talk about moving out of Atlanta, just to see what life is like somewhere else. But the hardest thing about seriously looking at it is knowing who we would be leaving behind. I cannot say enough about our church family and small group. They're just awesome. Our small group gets together as often as we can. We have great Bible studies, and we have great fun. When Memorial Day or July 4 or other events come around, that's who we want to spend it with, and we always have a great time. Just like my family, they stood by me throughout going back to school with nothing but support and encouragement, and our dear friends Josh and Erin even came to my graduation. I love those guys and everyone in our church group.

Turner Sports
Simply put, without this internship, graduation wouldn't have happened. I am so thankful for the opportunity I've been blessed with to come work at NASCAR.COM. I held my first presentation yesterday and all feedback so far has been nothing but complimentary. Every day I walk in, I'm reminded of how lucky I am to be here, and that one of the biggest reasons I am here is because of the help of others. This has been a great opportunity, and I'm looking forward to my final month here.

That'll conclude the Graduation Edition of Thankful Thursday, but that's not all I have. Check back later for the second part of Thankful Thursday.

The cake our NACofC Small Group presented me in celebration of graduating.

Take Out The Trash Day

I refer you to my earlier post about the concept behind "Take Out The Trash Day."

It's official, I am a full blown supporter of the use of instant replay in professional sports. I think the technology we posses today is too good to not utilize it. I don't believe that instant replay, if used correctly, will bastardize sports either. With the exception of U.S.A.'s elimination this past Saturday, I have been in World Cup heaven. That being said - the officiating has been absolutely AWFUL. While instant replay should not be brought in on fouls called by the referees, there is no reason for it to not be used on every goal scored...make that possibly scored as has been the case in this World Cup. The NHL does that, there's a lot more scoring in hockey, and yet it doesn't slow down the game. Heck, I don't know of any sporting event that has more "traditions" than the Championships Wimbledon, and they even use instant replay. Fanhouse.com has a good article on how the World Cup should use instant replay.

I have no problem at all with Stephen Strasburg pitching in this year's All-Star game, should he be selected. My motives here are 100%, unabashedly self-serving in this. I am sick of the American League winning. Even if it is only for one inning, that is most likely one less inning the AL will be able to score on us. (By "us" I am referring to the National League and all of us fans around the world who prefer REAL baseball.) I don't care that he hasn't served a lot of time in the league yet. I think in this case, it's an advantage, because most AL players haven't faced him yet. He's a weapon the NL has, and they would be well off if they used it.

Consider this my official joining of the Cincinnati Reds bandwagon. Every year, I look for a team that has been struggling but is able to use home-grown talent to try to turn their team around. In years past, I've been very impressed with the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, and the Tampa Bay Rays. I love that the Reds are competing this year. The Reds hold a special place in my heart, because the first professional game I attended was the Cubs & Reds at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, back when Pete Rose was managing the Reds and Don Zimmer his counterpart with the Cubs.

As I mentioned the other day via twitter, I have decided that I will not read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows again before seeing both parts of the movie. When Sarah and I paid to see Half-Blood Prince in 3D IMAX, I left the theater pretty upset after the movie. WIth the increasing price of movie tickets, we've had to become more selective in what we see in the theater, and multiply that for IMAX. Yet only the first 15 minutes or so of the movie were in 3D. But to make it worse, the movie was, in my opinion, drastically different from the book...and Half-Blood Prince is my favorite book in the whole series. So in an effort to be able to enjoy the final movies as much as possible, I don't want to use the book as a reference and compare the two. I really want to enjoy it, so I hope this works.

"If you don't toot your own horn, who will?"

On May 28, 2010, I posted the following tweet: [@machaffin] is considering beginning a campaign to get the Marlins to dismiss Fredi Gonzalez so that he'd be available for the Braves to replace Cox.

And what happened yesterday? The Marlins fired Fredi Gonzalez. Now while I didn't have anything to do with his dismissal, it does give me hope for next year.

I have a feeling that the top two candidates to replace Braves manager Bobby Cox are going to be Gonzalez and current hitting coach Terry Pendleton.

Consider yours truly part of the Gonzalez supporters. I have nothing against TP, I've met him and I think he's a great guy and could do a good job. But while he has interviewed multiple times for a managerial position and even withdrawn his name from consideration once, and has been a coach in the Braves organization for a long time in addition to his playing career, he lacks the most important part of a resume that Gonzalez has: experience.

Gonzalez took the Marlins manager job and turned out to be the winningest manager in team history, according to MLB.com. (see linked story above) Under his leadership, the Marlins went from finishing 5th in the NL East in 2007 to 2nd in 2009, albeit with a minimal payroll.

If the Braves decide to go with Pendleton, I won't hold it against them. But if he's still available next season, I think Gonzalez would be way to go.

You were doing so well...where'd you go?

Yeah, I had a really good month of May in posting regularly, but the past couple weeks have been very different in "life-scheduling" so there's been an adjustment curve taking place.

On June 7, I began my internship at Turner Sports, working in Business Ops with NASCAR.com. It's already been a challenging two and a half weeks, but I'm VERY happy to be here. My first week I got a crash course (pun halfway intended there) in website SEO and helped construct an HTML sitemap for NASCAR.com. What's the point? To make NASCAR.com come up at the top of the list whenever someone performs a NASCAR-related search with Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or any other search engine.

Then last week, I missed a couple days as Sarah and I travelled to Tennessee for a funeral. The rest of the week I spent researching International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Inc. These are the two companies that own and operate the various racetracks that host NASCAR events. I also spent a good deal of time learning about Bristol Motor Speedway, and it looks like I'll have the opportunity to go to BMS for the August "Night Race." I'm pretty excited about that.

For the first time in a very long time, I am working normal business hours, but I'm starting to get used to it. As you might have read on my dear wife's blog, we're also in the process of trying to paint the inside of our house.

I really enjoyed getting back into the blogging routine and am happy to get back at it. With the World Cup in full swing, I'm looking forward to pulling some material from that, as well as my Braves are in the midst of putting together a pretty darn good season.

The Perfect Game

Anyone who has had the fortune of watching a professional pitcher throw a perfect game got to witness one of the rarest occurrences in sports. According to Baseball-Reference.com, 37,279 players have pitched in a professional baseball game dating back to 1871. Of that number, only 20 have successfully pitched nine innings and faced 27 batters without allowing one of them to reach base. To put it another way, only 1 out of 1,864 pitchers will throw a perfect game, statistically speaking.

That is what makes the fact that two pitchers have accomplished the feat within the last month, and that fact that we saw a third get taken away last night absolutely astonishing, even moreso if you agree with me that the hitters are given every advantage possible over the pitchers.

I'm a big baseball fan. I'm not the biggest baseball fan by any means, I'm not even the biggest fan I know. But I'm a big fan. I consider myself a baseball "purist." I like day games. I hate the designated hitter. I don't like Interleague play and the only times the National League and American League should play each other are the All-Star Game and the World Series. The All-Star game shouldn't have any bearing whatsoever on home-field advantage in the World Series. I like the "human element" of umpires making the call on the field.

But even though I consider myself a "purist", I think Major League Baseball was victimized last night by its decision to lag behind on the use of instant replay.

I don't fault umpire Jim Joyce for blowing the call last night, and keeping Armando Galarraga from becoming the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game. Umpires are human and they will make mistakes. Everyone involved last night knows this and acknowledged it. Galarraga, Tigers Manger Jim Leyland, and Joyce himself all handled last night's unfortunate events with utmost class and professionalism. But the whole experience could have been avoided if the tool of instant replay had been available for Joyce to utilize.

As of today, instant replay is used by MLB for home runs only - whether they are in fair or foul territory, and if the ball actually left the playing field or was interfered with.

Every ballpark in the league has the equipment in place to make instant replay a viable resource on a questionable play. Instant replay should never be involved in calling balls and strikes, and in every play, the umpire on the field should have the final say. But I think there's a good chance that if he had the option of doing so, Joyce would have welcomed the chance to make sure he got the call right on the field by checking himself with instant replay. I have to think that anyone who takes pride in their work, whatever it may be, wants to utilize every resource available to do their job the best it can be done.

Commissioner Selig, it's time to make the resource of instant replay available...REALLY available.

Who Stepped Up? (May 28, 2010)

For the second installment of my weekly "Who Stepped Up?" post, the winner is Jordan Romero.

At just 13 years old, Jordan became the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Everest this past Saturday. According to his website, Jordan and his family are on a quest to knock off the 7 Summits, and now that they have checked off Everest, all that remains is Antarctica's Mt. Vinson.

Everest as long been a fascination of mine, the high point being when I was introduced to Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air. One day, I hope to have the opportunity to hike to Mt. Everest's base camp, but I have no grand illusions about attempting to climb it. Nonetheless, mad props to Jordan and his family for such an impressive feat.

If you are of the opinion, however, that the idea of letting a 13-year-old climb a mountain like Everest, you're not alone.

Take Out The Trash Day

If anyone who reads this is familiar with the show The West Wing, you might recognize the title of the post. "Take Out The Trash Day" was an episode title from Season 1 where the staff would use one day to throw a lot stories at the press in an attempt to overwhelm them and prevent the press from being able to focus on one.

This post is of that spirit in that I'm going to just fire a few quick, unrelated items at you, but not devote a blogpost to each one.

Leading off - the idea of the Atlanta Falcons getting a new open-air stadium. I cannot describe in full detail how against this I am, but I'm VERY against it - if it involves just 1 cent of public money. This comes from some columns I recently read on AJC.com. The Falcons play in the Georgia Dome which opened in 1992, also knows as the year I moved to Atlanta. Out of 31 NFL stadiums, 29 are younger than the Georgia Dome. I can understand looking around and seeing the majority of the league with new stadiums and not wanting to fall behind, but the Falcons are fine with what they've got. The GA Dome is in good shape, even surviving a tornado, and yeah it may not be brand new, but it's not like we're talking about Shea Stadium, the old home of the NY Mets. By and large, I really appreciate what Falcons' owner Arthur Blank has done for the franchise and the city as a whole. But there can be no justification for asking for taxpayer dollars for a new stadium when Fulton County just axed 400+ teachers and is hacking school programs left and right, including elementary music and orchestra. The Falcons have a good home that will likely be paid off in the next few years. They need to be happy with that.

Unless you're living in a cave, I have to believe you've heard SOMETHING about Arizona's new immigration laws. Well in the previous round of the NBA Playoffs, the Phoenix Suns decided to make a political statement in opposition by wearing jerseys that had "Los Suns" on them. This idea did not come from the players, but rather the owner. That is what blows my mind, and is what bothers me. The only thing for him to gain by doing this was dividing his fan base, alienating those fans who didn't object. It's a political matter and he should have kept the team - as a business - out of it. If players want to act on their own and on their own time, I'm OK with that. But it is not the responsibility of a professional franchise to dictate political policy and force its fans to decide wether they will continue to be a fan because of a public political stance. One other note on that - if the leagues are going to allows their teams to act in that manner, then they cannot go to Capital Hill and and tell the government what they do and don't need to legislate.

Let's end on a positive note. I came across another sportsmanship gem this past week, thanks this time to ESPN's Rick Reilly. The short version: Marshall Community's JV Softball team was playing its first ever game against Roncalli, a school riding a two-and-a-half year winning streak. Marshall barely had enough equipment for its team, and questions asked by the players before the game included "Which one is first base?" and "How do I hold this bat?" After just an inning and a half, Roncalli would offer to forfeit the game so that they could spend that time working with, helping, and teaching the Marshall players. Roncalli's team didn't stop there, and I hope that you will click here and read the rest of this wonderful story.

Write the Future

Found this short by Nike Football.com this morning. It's not an official World Cup ad, but but I love the mix of soccer and pop culture. Very well done in my opinion.