Promises to myself

As a mother I made a promise to myself years ago that unless it were a matter of life or death I would never ever ever EVER step foot inside of a Chuck E. Cheese.  And after being a mother for 9 years, one month, and 5 days I can say that I have kept this promise.  (Thank you to Mom, Francisco, and the Normal Parks and Recreation Department for filling in for me on these horrific occasions.)

Recently I made another promise to myself.  I would try as much as possible to avoid reading about, watching, thinking about, or mentioning a certain person.  That promise is about to be broken here in my blog.  And that person is...

Benn Gleck.  Oops, did I say that wrong? 

Well, you know who I mean. 

The reason I am writing about GB is...baseball.

Right about now I imagine you are all saying...What?  What the heck?  What is that quirky woman up to NOW?

Here is what inspired me to write about the Glennbeckistan rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday.   (You all know the details so I don't need to go into them.  And if you don't know the details, well, mister I want YOUR life...in the ignorance is bliss kind of way.)

I don't have Fox News on my minimalistic Cable package.  So I have learned most of my news about said rally from watching clips from Comedy Central this week on my computer.  But last night I was reading baseball news on MLB.com and saw this little tidbit of a news item:

Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols attend [that guy]'s rally in Washington DC.

If you also live in the world where you don't know who Tony and Albert are, then let me enlighten you.  Tony LaRussa is the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.  A few years ago he was arrested in Florida for driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.8.  THAT is not a typo.  The legal limit in Illinois, for example, is 0.08.  So he had 10 times as much alcohol in his blood that night, behind the wheel, as is allowable.
 The blurb about his arrest was the last news I could ever find of that.  No jail.  No time off from baseball job.  Nothing.  When your team has won the World Series in the last few years, I guess you get a ....Get Out of Jail Free Card.  Of course, it might only be good in Florida.

Well, that's Tony.  Albert is a fabulous first baseman, one of the best players in the game, a leader on his team, a guy setting records every year for the last 8 or 9 years and never had his name come up even once in the steroid scandals.  I think of him, or I did, as something of a hero in the world of sports.  Even as a Cubs fan, I do like him quite a lot.

So.  They went to the rally.  Big deal.  So what.  They were in Washington anyway to play the Nationals this weekend, so it's not like they did anything other than hop on the metro, I mean hop in a limo, and hightail it on over to the place where exactly 47 years before Dr King stood on the steps and gave his I Have a Dream speech, not exactly of course as Geck Blenn stood 2 flights below that exact spot.

Here's why it's a big deal to me.  Deep in my heart I know that God isn't giving one hoot about who hits a home run, strikes out 20 players in a game, gets into the Hall of Fame, or wins any particular game.  BUT then, yesterday, I started to wonder about this belief I have, because the last place Washington Nationals whipped the very very good Cardinals 14 to 5 last night.  The Nationals scored more runs in that game than they have in any game since they...well, since they became the Washington Nationals.  (Before they were the Montral Expos and before that I can't remember..)

SO maybe it was just a happy coincidence.  BUT on the same day, the Florida Marlins got whipped by the Braves 12-3.  TWO in one day?  I think God may not care about sports, but perhaps she is just trying to give Tony a gentle warning.