Thursday, January 15, 2004

Let The QB's Call The Plays Page 2's Jason Whitlock picks up the theme we explored here after the Colts dismantled the Chiefs with Peyton Manning calling the plays.  3:59:56 PM    Say what?[]

I Regret Do you ever have regrets?  Of course you do, it's a silly question.  If we don't have regrets, we either aren't being honest with ourselves, or we aren't trying very hard to remember. I'm not talking about Life Regrets, such as, "I shouldn't have gone to that college", or "I should have spent the money for the name-brand condoms".  Certainly, many people have those, but I find that I don't dwell much on those kinds of decisions, good or bad.  What happens, happens, and you have to make the best of it. No, I'm talking more about little instances of time, things I might have said or done at a very particular time.  Almost always, the presence or absence of these events wouldn't make one whit of difference in how my life is today.  They are just little moments that come back to me at the strangest times.  Moments where I know I was wrong, moments I wish I could take back not because they would improve my life today, but just...because. I regret the times I pushed Jeff Goodman around when we were kids.  He never did anything to me but try to be my friend.  I think I pushed him around because I could. I regret the time I made fun of someone for their statements about Christopher Reeve.  I didn't even know the person.  Her statement meant nothing to me; it would have been so easy to just say nothing. I regret the time I threw the snowball at Michelle Hefner.  I didn't mean to hit her.  I regret not telling her that I liked her instead of picking up the snow. I regret my relations with the bearded woman.  I especially regret that Jim and Kevin were home at the time to remind me of this. I regret buying the second iguana.  The first one's demise should have told me everything I needed to know. I regret not having the guts to shave my head after the second perm. I regret letting Jane talk me into building the fence from scratch.  I believe she might regret that now, too. I regret irresponsibly sleeping late and missing my judging assignment at the Emporia debate tournament in 1995. I regret that I ratted out Steve that night in Emporia.  (No, not that night.  The other night.) And so many more.  It's hard to get through life without having a whole memory full of awkward moments, mis-guided stands, and just plain stupidity.  I count my blessings that I have yet to manage to engineer one giant, neon-sign flashing regret that would be so obvious as to make the mere mention of these smaller regrets laughable. I guess I'm thinking about these kinds of things more lately, and I'm not sure why.  They just pop into my head sometimes, and in many cases they'll be things I haven't thought about for years.  Is it just a part of getting older?  Is it something to do with seeing Linus approach the age where he'll be spending more time with the world on his own terms?  I have to think it's a combination of the two, and perhaps something else altogether.  Linus will be in kindergarten next fall.  Some of the things I regret date back to that era of my life.  Things I wish I had done differently, but either through a lack of thought, or confidence or something else, I just chose to do it the way I did it, and it turns out I made a wrong choice.  Not a "mess up your life for good" kind of wrong choice, but still, a choice that perhaps hurt me or someone else in some way.I don't think we can be immune to those choices.  I think we all must make them in the course of our lives, and then go from there.  It's just hard, feeling like you have to get your child ready to take it all on and take it all in, and knowing that no matter what you do they are going to mess some things up.  They will hurt people, and be hurt by people, but usually not in any big way.  Just small ways, so small that it is surprising how long they might stay with you. The hard part is knowing that, as a parent, I'll never really know what so many of those small hurts are.  They'll likely never make it to the dinner table conversation.  They'll just stay with him, for him to work through in his own way.  The teasing, the awkward moments, the confusion inherent in so much of young life, it will be his domain, his trail to blaze.  He will come to have his own regrets. May they be very, very small. 12:15:38 PM    Say what?[]

Halfway Around the World This weekend is the 2nd Annual Milwaukee Weekend for my fantasy basketball league.  I wrote about last year's experience here.  It's a great time, simply put.  We all arrive Friday night, from various spots around the country.  We settle in and party down, and then we get up Saturday morning to play two hours of good, competitive basketball.  (Well...competitive, anyway.)  We top it all off with box seats for the Pistons/Bucks game and a night out on Milwaukee.  As Woody Allen might say, it's about as much fun as you can have with your clothes still on. But the fun of it, like all great gatherings, is in the people who comprise the group.  Our league has an intertwining history of relationships that would be difficult to diagram.  Some of us have known each other for a very long time, through different contexts.  We have lawyers, business-types, computer guys, stay-home dads, James Joyce freaks, Peace Corps veterans and students, and we cover a wide geographic area, from California to Dubai, but mostly with a concentration in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Of the 17 or so people who make up the league, we think we'll have a minimum of 13 people show up.  Our thoughts are always with those who cannot attend, because they are missing one hell of a time. In particular, my thoughts will be with our Dubai contingent, Jim Haefele.  The reasons are many.  First of all, Jim has been one of my closest friends for almost fifteen years now.  We were debate partners and roommates in college and managed to stay close throughout the years.  We see each other far too rarely now, though the blogs and email, in some ways, have brought us closer than when we lived mere blocks from each other in St. Paul.  More than just my own desire to see a good friend, the entire weekend would be better for Jim's presence.  Jim is a vocal presence in our league.  He writes a weekly newsletter covering the exploits of the league, complete with faux Allen Iverson rhymes, predictions and not-too-subtle jabs at other owners.  I know that sounds incredibly geeky to anyone who has never done fantasy sports, but it's the kind of thing that really adds to the experience when it's done well, and Jim does it well.  In addition to that, Jim is a lightning rod figure in the league, because of his propensity to make hyperbolic statements and to challenge people's opinions.  (Yes, this must be a shock to anyone who knows Jim.)  He plays this role partly by nature and partly by design, I think.  One unfortunate thing about Jim not being able to attend is that it doesn't let him take advantage of the relationship-building opportunities the weekend provides.  There are times when our talks can get heated, because we all like to compete, even in a stupid fantasy league.  At some point, the reservoir of good feelings built up over these face-to-face meetings transcends whatever quibbles we might have over an issue.  Names you knew only via email become real people, and, well, that's so much a part of why we do anything.  Ah, well.  Such is our lot in life, at this time.  I'll take some pictures, and try to document as much of the weekend as I can for you.  And know that when I'm hitting the winning bucket to seize a win for the St. Paul crew, or guzzling free box seats booze, or watching a great NBA game (for an Eastern Conference matchup) and schmoozing with the league, a large part of my thoughts will be halfway around the world with you. 11:20:38 AM    Say what?[]

Big Win In San Antonio The Wolves played a HUGE second half last night to beat the Spurs in San Antonio.  After a first half of the Spurs' trademark stifling defense (which makes for a really ugly game), the Wolves decided to push the offense and take shots much earlier in the shot clock.  In many cases, they just allowed Sam Cassell to dribble down and take his little fadeaway jumper from the elbow.  This allowed the Wolves to take advantage of the Spurs' worst one-on-one defender, Tony Parker, and didn't allow for other Spurs players to come over to help.  When Cassell wasn't lighting up Parker, Kevin Garnett would leak out to the top of the key, where Tim Duncan wasn't inclined to follow him, and drain one open jumper after another.  I think last night's game was important to the Wolves, who may have developed a method to get the pace of the game where they want it against the Spurs, something that doesn't happen often against that team. One interesting part of last night's game was Flip Saunders' decision to let Garnett guard Duncan one-on-one the entire game.  It was a strategy fraught with two perils, both of which came to fruition.  One, Duncan could go off, and he did, ending up with 36 points and 20 boards.  Two, it could get KG in foul trouble, and it did: He only played 26 seconds in between the 1:20 mark of the third quarter and the 4:24 mark of the fourth, because he was saddled with foul trouble. Now, you read that paragraph above, and it seems like it probably couldn't have been a good night for the Wolves: Duncan goes off, and KG is out of the late parts of the game with foul trouble, something which almost never happens.  And yet, the Wolves won going away.  Why? Well, it helps that the Spurs are the worst free-throw shooting team in the league (Big Fundamental forgot to work on one, apparently).  But it also helped that none of the other Spurs were really able to get off, and that's probably a credit to the fact that the Wolves weren't double-teaming Duncan.  Since they see double-teams on Duncan every night, the entire Spurs offense is used to getting free and open perimeter looks, and with guys like Bruce Bowen, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Hedo Turkoglu, they can make you pay for that.  I have to think that last night was really a test case for Flip Saunders.  I doubt that they would go one-on-one with Duncan for great lengths of time in the playoffs, because that exposes KG to foul trouble so much.  But last night was a confirmation that you can do it and still win, that even if you give up a load to Duncan, you can beat this team if you shut the other guys down. And it helps if Sam Cassell absolutely goes off on Tony Parker. 10:34:07 AM    Say what?[]

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