Todd Helton deserves to be in the Hall of Fame

Helton bats in Petco Park

Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies has announced that he will retire from Major League Baseball at the end of this season.  Helton will finish his career having played 17 seasons, all with the Rockies, and having amassed some very impressive career numbers in many offensive and defensive statistical categories.   He deserves to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but I predict he will not make the cut because he played at Coors Field for half his games, and he never won the World Series.

Sign the apocalypse is upon us...

I have written a blog post two days in a row!!!! 

Pitchers and catchers report February 19 (via Troy Renck).  Last season I was full of confidence in the Rockies, but this year I am full of doubts.  Hope springs eternal, but I have my doubts about the pitching staff this year.

Also, I want to give a shout-out to Rox Walk Off, a new site for avid Rockies fans.  The site was created when Inside the Rockies closed up shop at the end of the year and left a crew of devoted commenters (and contributers) without a virtual home.  Several of the most devoted participants decided to create a site where the community that had been formed at Inside could continue.  They have a pretty sharp lookin' site up and running, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it operates during the season.  Power to the people!

Baseball as life, or life as baseball?

During my recent period of unemployment, there has been a lot of political discussion about extending unemployment benefits. Many Republicans have been against the extension based on their belief that people are gaming the system and not looking for work hard enough because the government checks just keep coming. All the right-wing radio personalities have been railing about how the moochers like me are just stealing money from the producers because we're too lazy to go out and produce something on our own. I feel the disgust and resentment and outright hatred in their voices when they talk about people on unemployment.


My feeling, based on my experience, is that financial status has much more to do with circumstance than with merit, particularly for those on the top and the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. We can swim around the vastness of lower and upper middle class expending all our energy trying to make it up to that next financial level, but no amount of effort will ever achieve what many are born with. What bugs me is the people who have been given so much through mere circumstance, and believe they have achieved something through merit. I read a quote the other day, "He was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple." I feel like I hit a single, and got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. And now that guy on third is giving me a hard time, even though I've got more hits than he does.

"I lost it in the lights"

This is the funniest sideline interview I've ever seen.  The guy jumps out of the way of a line drive and it hits his girlfriend.  Hilarious mockery ensues.

BP