A Serious Man Who Smiles

Rep Charlie Rangel and I have at least one thing in common…

We both dated our wives for 7 years before getting married.

Man, his voice must drive people crazy.

Ok, Rep Charlie Rangel and I have two things in common.

I say a lot of hard things about this man and his talk of tax equity, national service (including a draft lottery) and his use of the word “immoral” to describe not just the war but our involvement in the middle east…

But God Bless You Charlie Rangel. I hope people hear your story and understand what it means to call out to Jesus (not make a deal with God) but call out in a time of need, and remember the promise made. I hope people understand the way you lived before and after Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. I hope people learn from you how hard it must have been to be a black man coming back from Korea in the 1950’s.

You were honest this morning when you said that if the President vetoes the spending bill the Congress will eventually give him the money for the troops. You did not pretend that it pained you to say this. You admitted openly that this was the way of politics and war. You see meanness, the unjust actions of men and the compromises that must be made. You have a set of answers to the things that burden our country.

You and I do not agree on many of these answers Representative Rangel.

But I do respect you.

SOXvsCubs

Closer – ADVANTAGE SOX. I think I can still say advantage Sox even with so many questions swirling around Bad Bobby Jenks. Jenks will not survive many outings if he cannot get the ball back up to 99 mph. He’s throwing between 93-95 but without movement. You can get away with throwing 99 movement or not because the ball is coming at the hitter 99 mph. I can’t hit that, can you? But again, at 93 mph, professional hitters will fight each other at the bat rack to hit that shit out of the park. Dempster? Please. I actually liked the guy (he was great on Silvy and Carmen) before he put his worthless 2 cents in the Sox cubs thing last year. But Dempster is what he is, if he can’t set up guys early in the count, 9^th innings will be lousy with walks, base runners and defeats snatched from the jaws of victory. The SOX and the cubs both have question marks with their #1 closer (?) but the SOX and Ozzie have proven that they can overcome those kinds of questions. Who remembers the closer at the beginning of the 2005 season?

If you guessed Shingo Takatsu you’d be right. The SOX still had to go through the Dustin Hermanson era before getting to Bad Bobby Jenks and the incredible run he had. Ozzie can pull the trigger and go to someone else – Thorton, MacDougal and the SOX have a wealth of power arms in the organization so they can afford to move up pitchers in their bullpen. The cubs don’t really have the luxury of moving guys up. Don’t get me wrong, Howry may be better (and definitely more seasoned) than most of the guys in the SOX pen, but if he becomes the closer there are problems with moving guys up in the bullpen. No question that Lou can pull the trigger but what do you do when there is no one to call on next?