Category: Texas Rangers (Page 30 of 33)

Hoops and Harms

March 18, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

I don’t know why I filled out my NCAA bracket last night. The farther away I get from my former life, the less and less qualified I am to write in the names of the winners and losers. I used to spend the whole six or seven weeks following the Super Bowl watching nothing but college basketball. I watched every minute of every conference tournament. I recorded the selection show and poured over the newspaper articles. My bracket wasn’t always right, but it was always good.

Now, I have no clue. I can’t even pretend to know anything.

I watched about 20 minutes of a Texas-Baylor game a few weeks ago. That’s it. That’s the only college hoops I’ve watched all season. I have no idea how New Mexico is a #3 seed or how Wofford got in at all. I don’t know who Murray State’s played or whether K-State has great guards or a big front court. I have no idea.

But I’ve still filled out a bracket. Part of it is habit. Part of it is spring ritual. I’ve been faithfully filling out a bracket and watching the tournament for at least 25 or 26 years now. Usually it takes me two or three days.

I did it in about ten minutes at 9:45 last night. Not a good sign.

I won our family “Bracket Racket” five or six years in a row. But now I’m on a two year skid. Whitney unseated me two years ago and Carrie-Anne won it last year. I had intended for this year to be the year I regain my crown. But it’s not going to happen. I have no faith in my picks. But, for the record, here they are:

I’m going with Kansas, K-State, Kentucky, and Baylor in the Final Four. I’ve got an all-Wildcats final with Kentucky beating K-State in Indianapolis. There’s so much wrong with that, I don’t even know where to begin. Three Big XII teams in the Final Four is crazy. It’ll never happen. How could it? Kansas will probably choke somewhere along the way. They normally do. Rolando Blackman is no longer playing for K-State, I know. And is Baylor really going to beat Duke? Nevermind that. Is Baylor really going to beat Notre Dame this weekend? I know they don’t make sense, but there they are.

You should always pick at least one #12 seed to beat a #5, and mine is UTEP over Butler. I have Tennessee upsetting Georgetown for no real reason. And there’s no logic as to why I’ve picked the Aggies to beat Purdue. My picks just have to be better than Whitney’s and Carrie-Anne’s. That’s all.

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What do we do about Ron Washington and the Texas Rangers? Why is the manager of the Texas Rangers the first manager or coach in professional sports history to fail a drug test? For cocaine? Why didn’t Nolan Ryan and Tom Hicks and Jon Daniels fire Washington when they found out about it last July?

Washington and the Rangers are telling us that this was Washington’s first ever time to experiment with cocaine. First time ever. I find that impossible to believe, don’t you? Major League Baseball randomly tests all its managers once per season. Cocaine only shows up in these tests for four or five days after use. After that, it reportedly can’t be detected. And the Rangers want us to believe the odds that the only time Washington was tested all year was within 72-hours of Washington’s first-ever experimentation with the drug?

Even if it’s true, how could the Rangers trust the organization’s decision-maker after he made the decision to use cocaine in the middle of the baseball season? I don’t get it.

The cynical part of me (when Myles Brand was the president of the NCAA, he told me to be a critic, not a cynic; sorry) believes that the Rangers didn’t fire Washington when they found out about this last July because they had just extended his contract a few weeks earlier. Hicks is out of money, MLB was floating the team loans just to cover payroll, and they couldn’t afford to fire Washington. They thought they could cover it up. They thought it would disappear. It was a money decision. It was a calculated PR move.

Now it’s too late. They can’t fire him now. They already made the decision to stick by him. And now the Rangers (including Josh Hamilton who admits to struggling with his various addictions every single day) are being managed by a guy who didn’t think it was crazy to use cocaine last July.

What do we do with that? I feel weird about Nolan Ryan today. He’s supposed to be above all this stuff.

Peace,

Allan

Royal Humility

July 13, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

We praise Solomon for the wisdom he showed in asking God for wisdom. The Lord came to the young king in a dream and told him to ask for anything he wanted God to give him. Solomon famously requested a discerning heart to govern the Lord’s people and wisely distinguish between right and wrong. And the Lord was pleased with his request.

No doubt, it’s an impressive request. Solomon did not ask for wealth or health. He did not wish death for his enemies. God recognized that those are the things most kings would desire. Those are the things that drive kings. It’s what motivates them. Instead, Solomon asked for heavenly wisdom and guidance.

That godly request came from a truly humble heart. I’m moved by what Solomon said to God leading up to his request.

“I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties” (1 Kings 3:7).

What humility. What an expression of complete dependence on God. Solomon did not rely on his schooling or his heritage or his position or his power. His special training and status for his important position meant nothing in the face of what God had appointed him to do. And Solomon recognized that. We would do well to imitate not just the request but the attitude that produced it.

Scripture tells us God was pleased with Solomon’s request. I believe God was pleased because the request showed him Solomon’s humility and dependence.

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There are 62 days left until the Cowboys kick off their historic 50th NFL season. And we’re counting down the days with the Red Ribbon Review. We’re looking at the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number. Anybody can put together a list of the top players. What’s the fun in that? Those are a dime-a-dozen. It takes a blog like this one to dig deep and give you something you can’t find anywhere else.

Getting caught up from the weekend, our second-best ever #64 is offensive lineman Jim Ray Smith. The Baylor alum had played seven outstanding years for Paul Brown in Cleveland, earning five Pro Bowl berths and three first team All Pro selections. He retired and moved to a real estate career in Dallas following the 1962 season and had begun work that summer of ’63 when Tom Landry called him and asked him to suit up for the Cowboys. Smith had topped out at $18,750 annual in Cleveland. The Cowboys were offering $25,000, which would make Smith the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league. And he went for it.

Two seasons later Smith was definitely done. During his short stint in Dallas, Smith suffered through two concussions, two knee operations, two broken hands, and a cracked vertebra in his neck. He couldn’t stay healthy. But he was the second-best #64 the Cowboys ever had.

#63 in the countdown is another offensive lineman from another era, Glen Titensor, who played seven seasons in Dallas from 1981-1988. A third round pick out of BYU, Titensor became a starter at guard in 1984 and stayed there through Tom Landry’s final season in ’88. He played in a total of 92 games for the Cowboys, including two NFC Championship games in ’81 and ’82. Today Titensor owns the Timbercreek Golf Center up in Lewisville.

Today’s #62 is (cringe) Brian Baldinger. I know. Sorry. He really is the second-best #62 in Cowboys history as mainly a backup on the offensive line for 5 seasons between 1982 – 1987. Baldinger, of the Flying Baldinger Brothers — Rich and Gary also played in the NFL — is famous really for only two things. One, he’s been an NFL analyst for Fox and the NFL Network now for years. And, two, he got his pinky finger really, really, really messed up in somebody’s facemask and never had it fixed. If you’re not too squeamish, you can click on that pic and blow it up a little bit and check it out. It’s pretty twisted. Much worse than Staubach’s ever was.

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Losing three of four to the M’s in Seattle is not the way to go into the All-Star break. But if someone had told me that the Rangers would hit the halfway point at nine games over .500 and only one-and-a-half games back of the Angels I would have taken it. Whitney’s happy. I’m happy. Valerie and Carley couldn’t care less. Carrie-Anne keeps reminding me that Texas is always close at the break. Drats and double drats. She’s right.

Peace,

Allan

Saying "No" To Creating Spectators

June 18, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

I’m still not finished with that second desert temptation of Jesus. Two more things. One today and one more tomorrow. If Jesus would have jumped off the roof of the temple and allowed God’s angels to save him in front of all those crowds, it would have been quite the spectacle. Amazing. Incredible. Wow.

Do it again.

People would have kept showing up every week, every day, if Jesus were going to jump. And that would have created a community of spectators, a group of people who came for the show. They would be there faithfully. Every time the doors were opened. And they would watch. They would sit back and watch. And then they’d go to lunch and talk about what they saw. They’d critique this week’s jump. How did it make you feel? What did you like or not like about this week’s jump? A community of watchers. Spectators.

Might that be one of the reasons Jesus said “No”? Creating spectators is not The Jesus Way.

I believe there’s a real temptation to try to dazzle our people in our worship centers on Sunday mornings. More culturally-relevant songs, more culturally-desired audio and video presentations, a more culturally-acceptable pace and tempo and environment. If we’re not careful, we’ll create a community of spectators, a generation—or several—of not disciples but spiritual couch potatoes. We’ll find ourselves filling up our bleachers and trying to give our people a show. Or an experience. I think that’s a very real temptation today.

And that’s just the opposite of The Jesus Way.

Jesus invites his disciples to participate, never to just watch. He invites us to participate in the worship and to join him in the mission. He sends us out together in groups of two and groups of 12 with his power and with his authority to drive out demons and cure diseases and to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Luke 9). When he feeds the five thousand in Luke 9 Jesus gives the bread and the fish to his disciples and has them serve it to the people. Participate. Get involved. Don’t just sit there.

The Jesus Way is to get up and get busy. Everybody. Nobody just watches. We minister as we’re ministered to. We care as we’re cared for. We forgive as we’re being forgiven. We love as we’re being loved. Together. That’s The Jesus Way.

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Thanks to Dale Bankhead and Brian Kendall (we’ve got to stop calling him Brittany’s husband!) Whitney and I got to take in Tuesday’s Rangers-Astros game in some sweet seats in the Ballpark. Ian Kinsler went deep in his first two at bats. Millwood and Jennings combined on a nice five-hitter. And Pudge Rodriguez tied Pudge Fisk for the all-time major league lead in games started as a catcher. (We gave Rodriguez a standing O when he hit his solo shot to cut the Texas lead to 6-1. I doubt he would have received the same level of love if his blast would have meant something for Houston.) A Lemon Chill and a new Josh Hamilton jersey for the Whitster, ballpark nachos for me, a big Rangers win and a great daddy-daughter night for both of us.

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Our Little Middle, Valerie, has been down in San Antonio all week on a Junior High trip to minister to urban children in the downtown parts of the Alamo City. We haven’t spoken to her since they left Sunday afternoon. But we’re able to keep up with her through the miracle of Lance’s blog. (It’s a miracle he’s actually updating it three or four times a day.) What a joy to log on and see Val, from 200 miles away, reading with little kids, teaching a Bible story with puppets, and giving piggy back rides. She’s so good with little children. She has a heart for that kind of thing. I think our God is going to use her to touch a lot of people in her lifetime.

First Place Texas Rangers

May 18, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

The magic number is 121!

Peace,

Allan

Diversions

May 7, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Most of you already know how proud I am of my brother, Keith, a Bible professor at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He teaches church history and New Testament theology and he is the world’s leading scholar and expert in the thought and theology and writings of Jacobus Arminius. Keith’s first book, Arminius on the Assurance of Salvation, was published two years ago. You’d need a small loan to purchase it. Most of you (us) would need a brain transplant to read it. It’s heavy. Deep. Profound. And very, very important. It’s meant for reading and research in theological libraries. And I know our mom has a copy. But John Mark Hicks has recently read the book and posted a wonderful review on his website, John Mark Hicks Ministries. You can read his review of Keith’s book here.

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And would you please do me this favor? It’s kinda cheesy, I know. Indulge me, though. Please. This will take a grand total of ten seconds. It’s a total of two clicks.

Randy Roper is the family life minister at the Edmond Church of Christ. We called Oklahoma Christian University basketball games together in 1988-89. I did play-by-play. Randy provided the color. Colorful color. Road trips. Late nights. Triple overtime playoff losses. We’ve got a bit of a history together. If you know Randy, ask him about Swampman’s Dunk, mayonnaise, or the stink bomb in the Eagle’s Nest during a game against SNU. (Don’t ask him about our halftime comments during crazy hat night against Oklahoma City University.) On a whim, he recently entered a contest in which the winner gets a free trip to New York City to accompany Oklahoma City Thunder officials for the 2009 NBA Draft Lottery.

The Thunder is the NBA team in OKC. It’s the old Seattle SuperSonics franchise that moved to Oklahoma two years ago. The set up here is to know that the team and its fans call their Thunder T-shirts and Thunder caps and Thunder sweatshirts and jerseys “Thunderwear.” It’s catchy. It’s clever. I like it. My brother-in-law and their two boys are always talking about their Thunderwear. We got them Academy gift certificates for Christmas last year so they could buy more Thunderwear.

The contest Randy entered is a slogan contest. The winner is determined by on-line voting. His slogan is “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square.” It’s down to three finalists. And right now, Randy’s leading the voting with 46%. “Thunder Loud and Oklahoma Proud” is next with 44%, so it’s close. Do me a favor. Vote for Randy right now. The voting ends at 2:00 CST this afternoon. Today.

Here’s the link to the site:

http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/lottery_challenge.html

The three slogans will pop up on the left. Click in the circle next to “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square” and then hit the “submit” button right under it. Again, it’ll take less than ten seconds max. Thanks. I owe you one.

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The Rangers are in first place this morning. They’ve won five straight. I’m not going to say anything about it. Don’t want to jinx anything.

And we’re down to one goldfish after two more kicked the bucket overnight. They’ve named him Spot. I think he’s in trouble.

Peace,

Allan

For Christ's Sake, I Delight…

October 1, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

“For Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” ~2 Corinthians 12:10

Terry Rush is good. Man, he’s good. Four out of five of his daily posts on his blog The Morning Rush are written to encourage preachers. They always encourage me. Always. And they always seem to be written especially for me at exactly the time I need it the most. Yesterday’s post by Terry, “A Tough Lesson To Learn,” couldn’t have been timed any better.

I’m beginning to understand that most, if not all, the things that hinder me or slow me down or rattle me or depress me or derail me or anger me or otherwise get in my way of serving our God and preaching his Word and ministering to his people are from Satan. He doesn’t want me to preach. He definitely wants me to get upset and cynical and angry and depressed. He wants me to feel ineffective. The devil wants me to be defensive and suspicious. He would much rather me withdraw than reach out.

So I’m trying to see all these things as positive signs that God’s Holy Spirit is empowering me and Christ Jesus is ruling me and the Father is loving me and Satan can’t stand it. I’m trying to, like Paul, delight in these things. Because God through my crucified and resurrected Lord gives me strength.

Here’s Terry’s post from yesterday:

Years ago Memorial was going through some tough stuff. Conflict was in the air. I watched as one of the families passed letters out to a few on a Wednesday night. They handed one to me. I didn’t need to read it. This family and a few of their friends had been on the elders’ case for quite some time. I didn’t open the letter. In disgust I tossed it on my desk and went home. I did go home and call a couple of friends of the elders asking them to give them a call as I knew letters were being handed out against them. I knew they must be hurting. I felt sorry and defensive for my men.

Well, I went into the office the next morning and there was that danged letter. So I opened it to see what they had to say this time about our guys. Oh, boy! It was about me! They handed out a letter voicing there dissatisfaction with me! While things like that hurt, I just had to laugh because I was so worried about the elders….and they had gotten the letter and were worried about me.

Some of you get that treatment. I don’t anymore from within the congregation. For those who are treated this way, I encourage you that everything will be all right. Don’t fight this kind of person. And, don’t fold up believing you are notoriously no good. Leave it up to God. He will take care of these matters. He will.

Insults aren’t easy for sensitive leaders like us. Yet, God says to be thankful for them; to brag about them (II Cor. 12:10). He is telling us the truth. Yes, they really hurt. And yes, we have it coming because we are walking in Jesus’ footsteps. The cross is not convenient and some will try to kill us….and we have it coming. If the church has real authentic hope, one of the reasons will be when the leaders refuse to retreat when injured. We often play the game hurt.

And while we do, God works! It is a tough lesson to learn; but surely worth applying each day. Keep your spirit smiling….even in the midst of pain. I feel sure somebody needed this right now.

Don’t quit.

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John Danks! Wow! Eight shutout innings in a critical do-or-die game for the White Sox! He dominated! Wow! Wouldn’t it be great if the Rangers could ever—I mean ever!!!— come across a kid like this? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Rangers could ever find a pitcher like this? What could happen if the Rangers could ever be so fortunate as to sign a guy like John Danks?

Oh, yeah.

Nevermind.

Crud.

Category: Texas Rangers (Page 30 of 33)

Hoops and Harms

Royal Humility

Saying "No" To Creating Spectators

First Place Texas Rangers

Diversions

For Christ's Sake, I Delight…

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