Another Chicago Cubs Scapegoat
Whenever a general manager/front office of a professional sports team fires a good coach, or in baseball manager, I am suspicious of the true motivations behind the decision. I tend to think such decisions are often deflections of attention away from the front office. Today the Chicago Cubs dismissed David Ross and hired Gregg Counsell and many will note similarities in this decision with how they dismissed Ricky Renteria in 2014 to hire Joe Maddon who unexpectedly become available. I personally do not think the two situations are the same.
Renteria had been on the job for only one year, had not really proven himself as a manager, and did not have any history with the Cubs. Ross is one of the heros of the 2016 world championship team and had taken the Cubs to the playoffs as a manager. Counsell is a good manager and had taken the Brewers to the playoffs five of his six seasons with them, but did not have success in the playoffs. I do not think Counsell is as good a manager today as Joe Maddon was in 2014.
More important, David Ross was not the reason why the Cubs did not make the playoffs this season. The Cubs did not make the playoffs because of a depleted bullpen and in my opinion bad offseason acquisitions that were eventually released during the season, and those decisions were made by the general manager and president of baseball operations.
Ricketts might have bought Hoyer’s argument that jumping on the opportunity to get Counsell is similar to when Epstein jumped on the opportunity to get Maddon, but if Ricketts really wants to address the root cause for why Cubs did not meet expectations this season he ought to be questioning the decisions made by Hoyer and hold him accountable. If the Cubs have decided to completely move on from 2016 that means moving on from Jed Hoyer. In my opinion, the Cubs released the wrong person from their team.
Oh, and by the way, if the Cubs make this move of stabbing one of their own in the back, they darn well better be aggressive at signing free agents during the off season.
I find this to be an interesting debate of whether or not humans have free will. I think argument made against free will might really be making the argument for how we are all connected. The argument against free will appears predicated on the idea that for it to exist decisions must be able to made without any outside influence, and what that really seems to argue against is randomness. Perhaps the important question isn’t whether or not we have free will, but rather, if we don’t have free will, then so what?
“Our growth (transformation) relies in embracing the seemingly conflicting values of liberty and unity, by transformation from an either/or worldview to a both/and worldview. The transformation will not be easy because everything we know and see around us is built on and reinforces either/or. Either/or keeps power in power.” True when I wrote this more than two years ago and true today. We hope for miracles and only get change when we need to transform.
Seven years ago the greatest game ever played was played, on a Wednesday, in Cleveland.
I thought that the Arizona Diamondbacks were going to win the World Series, but I guess I forgot to take into account the fact that the middle three games were in Arizona and how the Rangers won every road game during the playoffs. It’s the first World Series that the Texas Rangers have ever won. Here is something overlooked, Aroldis Chapman helped the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years, and now has helped the Rangers win their first World Series in 63 years. I think that Chapman does not get enough credit for the Cubs winning game seven in Cleveland. He gave up the tying home run to Raji Davis in the 8th inning but then came back out in the 9th and held the Indians to no runs with the potential for let down from the 8th inning being huge! The Indians could have walked off in the 9th inning, instead the game played on, the Cubs went ahead in the 10th inning and then won, and Ben Zobrist was named MVP.
Just Looking In The Rear View Mirror
From the perspective of my life time of 1966 to present, I think the most consequential change on society has been the rise of conservatism. Today many people claim themselves to be conservative while not being clear what they mean. Wikipedia defines conservatism as “a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values.” How conservatism is practiced varies among societies.
At the risk of over simplifying, I think Americans who claim to be conservatives mean they are for smaller government, translated to mean lower taxes, lower government spending, and less government involvement in their daily lives. Recently I think the label has simplified to just mean, not liberal, or “Trump supporter.” While some want simply to be left alone and have more agency over their lives, many want to return to some time in the past, such as during the 1950s, when they believed life was better.
I believe conservatives and liberals have an unhealthy obsession with the past. Conservatives want to return to the past, liberals want to correct the past and it seems neither understand that the value of history is to learn from the past for the purpose of not repeating mistakes in the future. I think it is ironic that conservatives and liberals are seen as polar opposites while in reality both are obsessed with the past and neither side has a healthy perspective on progress. In short, you can’t really make progress when you are constantly looking in the rear view mirror.
Don’t believe me? Can you think of any area of politics that is not about the past? From the age of our government leaders, to how the U.S. constitution is currently used, to why there are wars, to why we cannot decrease the number of mass shootings, work to improve the climate and become healthier, every one of these are only really viewed from the perspective of the past. If most people agree that we should do something about these things, why can’t we?
The current obsession with polarization means more interest is in the argument rather than progress. I am not sure either side really wants progress because whenever either one has the ability to make progress disagreements within their ranks prevents it from happening. Polarization is focused on getting one’s way and beating the other and lost is any amount progress that in past times was born out of debate between the two points of view.
It’s one thing to have different ideas for how progress is to be made, or even what is progress, and another to not want to progress at all. Right now the United States has no desire for progress, we see this in how everything of significance is being handled in the world. I think how we got here is born out of a belief, more shared than we like to realize, that humanity cannot really improve itself. Too many now think the world cannot be better for future generations so it’s not even worth trying. So long American dream. No wonder why Gen Z is pissed of at all older generations and considers everything they say as b.s., and we are seeing the consequences playing out.
Consequently, why bother with empathy? I don’t need to consider how events affect you, the other, when I know how they affect me. Without empathy there is no way to love my neighbor, nor see my neighbor as a part of myself, I only need to know the world through my own feelings and state of being. In fact, they aren’t neighbors, most are enemies. No need to imagine a better world and the hope that inspires, rather one’s imagination only produces nightmares.
Humanity is driving itself toward extinction, what only seems open to debate is how, destruction incrementally via climate change, or suddenly via nuclear war? It always has taken work and the desire to co-exist with and even love the other with whom we share space with on this planet. What is certain is destruction will happen while we are only looking in the rear view mirror and not through the windshield toward the future. Humanity is so diverse that there will never be agreement on which turns to take along the road, but surely we can agree it is desirable to move forward!
I’ve read, and recommend, Steven Sinofsky’s reaction/response to POTUS' Executive Order on AI. I am inclined to agree on it’s true purpose, which is regulatory capture to enable a smaller group of people to make a ton of more money. Fear is almost always used in such way to gain power. If there is a root cause problem that gives the appearance for the need for such an order it’s that lawmakers and POTUS are too old and thus tend to not fully understand, nor have interest in understanding, the latest technology developments.
Was it an event or a release? For me an event is in real life and running a pre-recorded video stream is something else, and I wonder whether that is why Apple choose the time (8 PM EST).
It’s 30 degrees outside. Just five days ago I was walking outside in a T-shirt.
This article in The Atlantic raises concerns about the changes in the U.S. economy driven by private equity but doesn’t touch on what may be even more concerning, which is that due to move from corporate pensions to 401Ks, most American’s retirement savings is dependent on the stock market. If the market is not transparent and properly regulated that puts the lives of millions of Americans at risk.
World Series Starts Tonight
Two wildcard teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers, will play each other in the 2023 MLB World Series. Before the playoffs began I alluded to how wildcard teams have an advantage from being forced to play playoff level games for longer. I expected the Diamondbacks to do well and I am not surprised that they made it to the World Series. The Rangers should have won their division but lost it on the last day of the regular season to the Houston Astros. Now that the Diamondbacks are in the Series, I think they are going to win.
Wearing a T-shirt outside on October 26, 2023.
I took many pictures during our trip last week, and some of them are too good to not share. Therefore, expect more pictures over the coming days. This one is the sun rising over Mackinac Island.
I learned via HPC Factor that Microsoft’s extended support for Windows CE 8 has come to an end, completing the embedded operating system’s 26+ year life span. Windows CE was the operating system for the Handheld and Pocket PCs that I moved to after Steve Jobs orphaned the Apple Newton MessagePad. The operating system not only powered my favorite mobile devices in the early 2000s but it also was a platform for which I wrote four editions of my books.
Fall colors are not just about the leaves, it is as much about how the sunlight hits the leaves. My wife took some incredible photos during the golden hour in Houghton, Michigan on Saturday, October 21, 2023.
We traveled from the southern most point to the northern most point of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan last week during near peak fall colors.
I understand the frustration that Dodger, Braves, and Orioles fans feel right now, their teams won divisions and had the best season records but are no longer playing for the World Series championship. Once something different, the World Series today is a tournament, and the season records are merely tickets for entry into the tournament and the scheduling of opponents and games. Every tournament format of every sport brings to the fore the hottest team at the moment, which is not necessarily the best team of the field. Tournaments exist because they generate a lot of money and do so because of Cinderella stories. March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, basically funds the entire NCAA. My recommendations to fans are, first recognize your team just only won opportunity to play in the tournament, and next, make note of how well the team is playing in the weeks leading up to the start of the tournament. Finally, consider the possibility that the real best teams might be the ones capable of overcoming what others might claim are disadvantages.
The smoke alarm near our bed room decided to notify us that the battery was getting low at 4:15 AM. It’s a sealed, ten year unit so I will need to replace the entire unit later today.
I recommend this article in The Atlantic, What Happened to Empathy? From it this question, “How emotionally healthy are we, as a people, when, in moments of profound and painful tragedy, we feel compelled to insert our political opinions or policy positions?”
Morality cannot coexist in a world in which the ends justify the means. A world void of morality is barbaric. This article by Zack Beauchamp of Vox is worth reading.