IT NEVER ENDS WELL

I've been thinking about baseball quite a bit lately. It happens this time of year, every year. Spring training begins, and every year I get hopeful that this is the year for my Beloved Reds. There's some good vibes coming from the Reds this year. And yes, this is the time of year when every baseball writer writes a column from spring training mentioning something like "this spring, hope springs eternal" or blah blah blah. But baseball is coming full speed. And opening day is a month or 6 weeks away. So it's on my mind. And there's a train of thought in my head about how old baseball players fade away. I see Barry Larkin on MLB TV every night, and he's very good at the commentating gig he's landed on the network, very polished. I remember about ten years ago, he did some play by play in the post season for FOX or whoever had the post season games. And I thought then that Larkin could be an excellent broadcaster. He is very good and very smooth on air. And I've been thinking about the contract that Carl Lindner gave him when he was about 37 years old. Something like $9 million per year for 3 years I think. That's not a great deal for a club that doesn't have really deep pockets. Uncle Carl gave him the deal, I think, more as a tribute to Barry's long service with the Reds more than anything else. And Uncle Carl probably figured that someone else was going to pay Barry that kind of money anyway, so he did the deal and kept Larkin as a Red for the final years of his excellent career. So what I've been thinking about is how it just never ends well for old baseball players. It doesn't. It never does. It probably can be true in football or basketball, but I know more about baseball, so I'll stick with what I know best for this article.

Larkin was injured quite a bit in his final years on the diamond. Shortstop takes it's toll. It's an extremely demanding position. I'm 39 right now, and I know I couldn't have done any of the things Larkin did at 39, no way. Larkin should get into the Hall Of Fame. He was that good. If he doesn't get in, then the Hall is broken. He has the numbers, the awards, the championship, the authority of his position. But baseball players are human. Humans break down. Humans get brittle. And that's what makes Hall of Fame careers so incredible. HOFers are lucky enough to have side stepped any career threatening injuries. Or in Jr. Griffey's case, they are so dominant in the first ten or 12 years of their careers, they get their HOF credentials in early. And Junior is a good topic right about now. He's my age. He graduated the year I did. He's been playing baseball year in and year out for 20 years since he got out of high school. He practically had his legs replaced over the last 6 or 7 years. And he still came back each time, and produced on the ball field at a high level. You can work out and run and take care of yourself and eat right and do all that you can do. But the human body breaks down. And there's no way that most people can go through what these guys go through year in and year out. To play professionally for 20 years is a huge accomplishment. To be productive long past when most players flame out is amazing. Junior is a lucky guy. Science and medicine have worked well on those ol' legs of his. I can't imagine going through what he's gone through. I've had some leg surgeries as well as my back surgery. No way.

So back to Larkin. It never ends well. Look at Barry Bonds. No, let's not. Look at Pokey Reece. Really? Yes really. Pokey was one of the most gifted infielders this game had seen in a long while. He was a magician and had the best hand eye coordination i've ever seen. But what happened? It didn't end well for him. He just fizzeled out. Life got in the way. Personal issues and family and life just didn't conspire to help him get through baseball that long. It happens. Look at Bret Boone, another gifted infielder. When it goes it goes. Was Bret on steroids? Probably, not sure, don't care. But when it goes, it's just gone. And it's not pretty to watch. You see these once gallant ball players, swinging at pitches they shouldn't. Pulling on balls that should be pushed. They can't run like they used to. The fans boo them. I can't imagine doing the things that they have to do every day. I can't. Yet the fans don't care. They boo when they strike out, they boo when the get thrown out or picked off, they call them bums when they walk to their positions. They're old. Old for baseball. Let's put it this way. Say you're an accountant. You've been an accountant for 40 years and you're 60 years old. You kind of feel like you can do your job with your eyes closed. And for many years you could do your job with your eyes closed, and you were good at it. But at a certain point, you reach the peak of your career and then you start losing it little by little. You don't keep up with all the tax codes like you should, you take a few short cuts here and there. And before long, you're an overpaid partner that really can't carry the workload any more. Same with mountain climbers, you train to climb. And climb you do, and finally you climb to the summit and you start down the other side of the mountain. Yet all you've trained for is climbing up. You always strived for the top, the summit was your goal. And then you're climbing down the dark, cold side of the hill. You trip some, gravity pulls you, you roll down the hill a bit. All this happens in a blink. And before you know it, you're in a crevasse, covered in snow, with no rope and no communication. And what do you do about it? You trained to climb, not to get out of a freaking crevasse. And that's the way it goes with baseball players. It's tough to watch. See Jim Edmunds flailing around Wrigley Field or Jim Thome coming off the bench for the Dodgers. It happens. The fans want them, the owners want to get one final good season out of their horses, and you know the players don't want to quit. They're baseball players, they don't know anything else. It's not just a job it's a way of life for them. And for those few that are lucky enough to get to the pinnacle of their careers and still flourish for years after that, well those are the lucky ones. Luck does happen. I hate to see the stars of yesteday fading in front of us. It happens though. It happens all the time. So I'm glad to see Barry Larkin doing something he's really good at again. He's not the captain over on MLB TV, at least not yet, but he really could be. And did I mention that Opening Day is a month or 6 weeks away? Can't wait.

THE READER

I love when I see a movie that I know nothing about. With all of the media access points available to us today in papers and magazines and websites and blogs and radio and TV, it's tough to not know anything about movies. So when one comes along that I know nothing about, and I literally have no idea even what the movie is about, and I see it, and it actually turns out to be a good film, man, that's a good feeling. And thank the maker for DVR's. I wouldn't see most of the movies and tv shows that I do if it weren't for the DVR. So a week or two ago I saw "The Reader" on HBO and decided to record it. It sat there for a week or two before I even thought about watching it. I remembered that last year at the Oscars it was nominated for and won some awards. So I taped it, not really expecting much. And I watched it. And I loved it. I was so surprised by that movie. I literally knew nothing about it and had no expectations about it at all. All I can say is that it moved me. The acting was so top notch, it was so real. Kate Winslet deserved the Oscar for her portrayal of Anna Schmitz. Ms. Winslet is a terrific actor, and she's beautiful and she's damn sexy. The movie felt authentic and real. I felt like I was sitting at that dinner table with Michael Berg and his family because of the detail in the actor's costumes, the silverware, the bowls they were eating soup out of. I'm not going to get into any moralistic discussion here about what's right and what's not when i comes to affairs of the heart and when people mix the underage/legal age of affairs. I don't care about that discussion really at all. I do care about the Nazi war crimes trial but that's not what I'm here to write about either. The point of me writing this short little post is that I loved the movie, but moreover, I loved being surprised by such a great piece of art. Cinema is art. It is a collaborative effort of love and creativity and technical magic. The lighting was excellent, the direction was brilliant and the acting was so perfect. Just a great work of art. It wasn't at all the chick flick I thought it was going to be. It wasn't a chick flick at all. Yes, it was part love story, but what's wrong with a love story? One of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride is a love story. When Harry Met Sally is a terrific love story. But The Reader was incredible, it could've won the Best Film Oscar. If you haven't seen it, you should. It has such an unexpected twist in the middle, it's really quite compelling and thought provoking. Rent it, tape it, watch it. You won't be sorry.

SEEN IT 3 TIMES. YOU SHOULD TOO...AT THE THEATER

Jake Sully: The Sky People have sent us a message... that they can take whatever they want. That no one can stop them. Well, we will send them a message. You ride out as fast as the wind can carry you. You tell the other clans to come. Tell them Toruk Makto calls to them! You fly now, with me! My brothers! Sisters! And we will show the Sky People... that they can not take whatever they want! And that this... this is our land!

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TOMORROW

Holy Moses. Spring training is about to start. With 2 feet of snow on the ground here in Ohio, it's hard to believe that the Reds are in Arizona, and it's 80 degrees. I sent a picture of my deck covered in snow to my sister who lives in Tempe, and she replied "I hate to rub it in, but its 80 degrees here, and we're all wearing shorts. But yeah, we fry in the summer time." This is kind of like her summer time. They can't really do much when it's 118 degrees in the summer, now can they? Even the pools are empty out there in the middle of summer. Too freaking hot. But I digress. It's baseball time. I caught a little bit of the Hot Stove League on the radio last night, with Marty and Thom Brennamen. Marty's voice alone makes me think baseball. He's been there doing that job my whole life. Nuxhall was there too until he died. I miss the ol' left-hander, he was like everyone's grandpa, and not a bad bone in his body. I met Nuxie one time. I was running a bar in Mt Adams, and Clearchannel (which owns 700 WLW) was directly across the street. We always had sports and music celebs in there. and one day in walks Joe Nuxhall, sits at the bar and orders a Bud Light. We got to chatting for a minute, he knew my Dad, he used to go to our church. And nothing really phenomenal happened, i just got to talk to the guy that i'd heard on the radio so many years of my life. Nuxie was a gentleman and a gentle man. God bless him. I don't even think we talked about baseball.

But baseball is on my mind for sure. I can't wait to see the green grass of the outfield, and the crisp white lines of the infield. And i can't wait to dedicate 3 hours a day, six days a week to listening to people discuss the game of baseball playing out in front of them. And i can't wait to pump my arm in the air and watch as a Joey Votto smash bounces off the left field wall and rolls quickly back to the infield, while two runs score and Votto pulls into second with a stand up double and two ribeye steaks. God I can't wait. Soon...soon...soon.

NOT A CABIN FEVER POST

How many bloggers have typed a "Cabin Fever" post lately? I don't think I'm going to do that, but who knows how this post will end. Rarely do I know where I'm going with this damn blog. Mostly I know what I'm talking about by the end of the rant, not at the beginning. I think maybe that's why I haven't been writing much lately. I haven't really wanted to rant. My "passion-bucket" has been on low lately. Currently, I'm just kind of going through the motions of my life. Being a temporary stay at home dad is really sucking the life out of me. I really need to get out and experience people and the world. I have gotten caught up on lots of movies. I have seen 5 of the 10 Best Picture nominees for the Oscars this year. That's more than I usually see, percentage wise. I understand that the Academy has widened the field for Best Picture nominations from usually 5 (i think) to ten this year. A wise move, as I usually I haven't seen but maybe one of the Best Picture noms. Here's my rundown of what I've seen:

-Avatar-I loved it, saw it three times with Hannah. I love everything about this movie. It's really groundbreaking and is exactly what a best picture nominee should be.

-District 9- This was a weird movie, with weird actors and weird acting but good special effects. I have no idea why it is a best picture nominee though. It doesn't stand a chance.

-The Hurt Locker-Good movie, great acting, intense feel. If it wins, it will not be only because of the movie, but because they are doing a huge marketing campaign to get the votes. it's everywhere on the internet. I don't think you should be allowed to campaign like that. But what do I know?

-Inglorious Basterds-I love Tarantino movies, I always will. And this one had all the classic Tarantino elements...quirky acting, a good story, great dialogue, good actors, good star quality, and was fun to watch. I never thought it was a great movie though. And if this won Best Pic, that would just be an insult to Pulp Fiction.

-Up-Best kid movie of the year. I've seen it 5 or 6 times. Could be a dark horse.

-the others-

-An Education-never heard of it

-Precious-small film, lots of women in it...not interested

-A Serious Man-no clue

-Up in the Air-i keep trying to see this and hope i do before the Oscars. George Clooney again knocks it out of the park, and apparently its a really good watch.

-Blind Side-heard great things about this one, and Sandra Bullock is a hottie. Will wait for video.

And so I guess in the end, Avatar wins it. Avatar should win it.

And back to my post, which isn't about Cabin Fever....
I joined the Aquarium, which is a steal, if you plan on going more than one time per year, it pays for itself. It's equal to about one and a half times a single admission. Girls love it, and it never gets old. Plus, it's right by the Party Source, which has wine and booze. What's not to love? Then I joined the Cincinnati Museum Center. This is a killer day for the kids and myself. Four hours is minimum, but 7 hours could happen very easily. Better to eat before you go. And I got our season passes for Kings Island again this year, which we love. And we have our Zoo pass too. So I've got things to do every weekend. We've painted pottery and gone shopping. So, it's not like i've been sitting around. But the life that i need to write the things that i want to write isn't happening. Even now as i sit here at my kitchen table, i can barely concentrate because of the noise of Aloha Scooby Doo in the back ground.

But I'm close on work. Don't want to jinx it, but I'm close. And when I get back to the grind, and when there doesn't feel like there's enough time in the day, and when I feel like I'm running through the weeds with my hair on fire, I will remind myself that when I was a temporary stay at home dad, the days were long, too long in fact. And i will remember that the writers block that came from boredom was incredibly thick. I could wear this boredom like a warm down blanket. And I'll remember that it was a blessing to drive Hannah to school and to stay home with Sarah. And before you start rolling your eyes about how bad I have it, please spare me. It's just life. Meanwhile, I have some time to write a little bit about baseball. So that's what I'm going to do now. Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow!!! thank the maker.