Adventures in Syberspace

I Was a Teenage Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow is the Stairway to Heaven of writing. Anyone who even barely knows how to play guitar can play some portion of the Led Zeppelin classic. And everyone who writes even the teensiest bit has written an article about Tim Tebow in the past few months. This is mine, published in the Chicago Tribune today in the Perspectives section.

God and Stevie Johnson

 

On Sunday November 28th, the Buffalo Bills (not very good at football) forced overtime in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers (generally pretty good at football). Overtime is sudden death-- first one to score wins. At one point, the Bills QB threw a perfect (it literally could not have been thrown any better) deep ball to wide receiver Stevie Johnson (above), right in his arms in the endzone...and Stevie dropped it (video here, if you can bear to watch it). The game would have been over, the home crowd would have gone nuts, and Stevie would have been a hero. Instead, the Steelers went on to win with a field goal, and Stevie felt terrible. He also felt angry at God. Here's what he said on his Twitter account immediately after the game:

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...

His response got a lot of media attention and his later tweets had him retracting his statement, saying he wasn't blaming God at all. But let's be real. That's precisely what he was doing.

It is very interesting to me that Johnson did this, because while you often hear players praising God after a victory, you don't ever hear them blaming God after a loss. Clearly, he was tweeting out of his frustration and anger, and wasn't thinking as clearly as he would have liked. And who hasn't felt this way?

I find this to be such a teaching moment. Here's why. Those of us who espouse faith can sometimes fall into this (usually unspoken) deal we think we've made with God that goes something like this. I agree to praise you, give you glory, and generally be a good person most of the time. And YOU agree to not allow bad or even unfortunate things to happen to me. As long as life goes along "as it should," this arrangement works out really nicely. And it's easy to praise God, because...what's not to like? When things don't go the way we want them to, out come the fists, shaking skyward: "I thought we had a deal!"

Nope, no deal. Here's the deal. We praise God in all circumstances, and trust that even when things don't go the way we'd like, God's purposes are at work. Stevie Johnson is a young man and so I think he'll learn as he gets older that life doesn't always go the way you hope it will. (He really could have learned this lesson had he spent any amount of time with Buffalo Bills fans, but oh well). The message of the Bible is that life is hard, but God is good.

Keep being honest, Stevie. That's what the psalmists teach us. But at the end of the day, God is God and He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), many times in ways we don't understand.

How the Cubs Gave Me a Car

For those who'd rather I just cut to the chase, you can find out the very basics here and a little longer story here (notice the name on the caption above my story...strange). Also, all the pictures (with captions) are on my Facebook page, here.

For those interested in the longer version, this unlikely story begins on May 21st. Like a normal, relatively die hard Cubs fan, I was surfing on cubs.com and saw a story mentioning that the Cubs and Toyota were giving away a car (coinciding with the installation of a new, controversial Toyota sign above the left field bleachers), but you had to sign up during a game at Wrigley between May 25 and 30. I had no plans to be at a game during that time period, so I forgot about it. The following Sunday, a friend of mine offered me tickets to that Thursday's game (May 27 against the Dodgers). I decided I would go to the game and take Foster and Grace, and I also invited my friend Graham. The game was very exciting, a taut 1-0 pitchers' duel won by Ted Lilly. We stayed till the end and as we were walking out, I saw the "Fan Services" window out of the corner of my eye and for some reason, remembered that giveaway. I said to Graham: hey, you want a Prius? He obliged and we walked over to the window and I asked about the Toyota giveaway. The guys behind the counter didn't seem to know what I was talking about-- they had to sort of look around for the sheets, but they eventually found them and we filled them out. But I honestly wouldn't have been surprised had they thrown them out after we left. I immediately forgot I ever signed up for it.

Fast forward to Monday, June 7th. I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize and a woman named Jennifer tells me I've been selected as a semi-finalist for a "sweepstakes"-- I start to get annoyed when I hear this word, thinking it's some scam. I wonder how she's gotten my phone number-- then she says Toyota Prius and Wrigley Field. I remember signing up for the drawing, and start listening a little more intently. The deal is that I have a one in six chance of winning a new Toyota Prius but I have to be there Saturday afternoon the 12th before the Cubs-White Sox game. I realize that my plan was to leave Saturday morning to fly to Texas in order to rent the vans for the high school Mexico team that will be leaving later that afternoon. She tells me she'll have to move on to another contestant. So I tell her to give me a minute to see if I can make it happen. I call the van company and they tell me I can do everything remotely. I then realize that I can change my flight to the later flight (with the full team) at 5:30. However, they don't even know whether they'll have the event, which I surmise later was because they had to wait until the Chicago City Council approved the sign. I actually streamed the city council meeting live on Wednesday to see if they would vote on it, because if they didn't approve it, the whole thing wouldn't happen. They approved it, and Jennifer called me back Thursday morning to tell me it's on.

I asked my friend Bob to join me for the game (I got 2 tickets to the game) and my co-trip leader Steve advised me to make the whole thing a surprise for the team, just in case I won. The other cool piece of this is that my 12 year old Kaila got invited to the game by my sister-in-law and niece, so she took the train down with me, and she even got to meet Sean Marshall before the game.

So Bob and I get to go inside the offices and the other six contestants and their guests are waiting. We introduce ourselves, share our stories, and watch the US-England World Cup game (see below).

They come in and draw our names out of a basket, which was the order that we'd draw our numbered baseballs out of a bag. I drew 2nd, and drew ball number 1. We then moved onto the field, but not before seeing a Prius drive onto the right field warning track. Our guest Cub shows up in the person of Ryan Dempster (he would be drawing out the winning ball) and turns out he's one of the nicest guys you could ever imagine. I chatted him up about the Blackhawks, knowing he's from Canada and a big hockey fan.

Then it's time for the drawing. Now the deal is that I really wasn't nervous at this point, because I honestly did not think I was going to win. A one in six chance to win is...well, it's better than one in a hundred, but still, as my friend Peter pointed out, if someone told you you had a one in six chance of living, you'd be pretty bummed out. So I received the whole experience of going to Wrigley as the gift, pretty darn certain that that would be the end of it. 

The moment for Ryan to draw came, and again, I wasn't nervous. I was ready to cheer for the person that won. He drew out the ball, and did a great job of hiding the number. Then he revealed the number: 1. This was my immediate response:

Life immediately jumped into "surreal" mode. It was like an out of body experience. I remember staring at the red warning track gravel, as I doubled over. I walked over to Dempster, who offered me a handshake, but the only appropriate thing to do at this point was to hug him.

Kaila was a good ways away with my sister-in-law Chris, and they hadn't announced my name yet but she could see me hugging Ryan. Chris turned to Kaila and said: "Your dad is hugging Ryan Dempster-- I think he just won the car." The contestants began to congratulate me and I immediately had the thought: "this is definitely a dream. I'm going to wake up any minute." I hear someone on a cell phone talking to the press box: "Syler Thomas, S-Y-L-E-R." I then hear my name announced over the PA. I look to see Kaila and jump up in the air to celebrate with her from afar. I took my picture with Ryan Dempster, and they then invited me to get in the passenger seat to be driven off the field. The guy inside was very nice and congratulatory, and it still seemed way too hard to believe. I got out of the car once it left the stadium and found out later that that was actually my car, not a proxy but the real thing. I didn't take a good look at it except to note that it's white (Blizzard Pearl to be exact). Bob and I walked back into the Cubs offices to get the paperwork, and new Cubs owner Tom Ricketts walked by. In a "why not" moment, I stopped him, introduced myself, and thanked him for the Toyota sign since it meant I got a new car. He was very nice and let me take a picture with him. I also met Cubs chairman Crane Kenney who was equally friendly and congratulatory.

I know I should have been more prepared for it but I honestly couldn't have been more surprised had someone stopped me on the street and told me they were giving me a car. I spent the next two hours in shock, calling various family members. My mom called before I could call her, saying: Well I guess since you haven't called me yet, you didn't win. I responded: Not necessarily. "Freaking out" would be an understatement. Same goes for my sister.

Our flight to Texas was delayed to the point where I got a ride from Chris, who took me right to the airport, with just enough time for me to run to the gate as they were boarding, and I told the abbreviated story to the incredulous team, who all thought I was in Texas.

I absolutely loved being able to immediately step on the plane and head off to one of my favorite weeks of the year, taking my youth group to build homes with Casas por Cristo in Acuña, Mexico. This might sound like a cliche but winning a car really was the second most important thing happening that day, which is probably why it was such a shock.

I almost forgot this part of the story (which my mom thinks is the best part): I had been driving a '93 Toyota Camry with 187,000 miles, with no A/C and no radio. I actually love the car, and was kind of sad to sell it. But I did. AND...you know who bought it from me? My friend Bob who was at the game with me. Worked out well.

Picked up the Prius 2 weeks ago. Here it is, first night on my driveway. 

 

The Cubs logo does come off, and will eventually. (In case you missed it above, all the pictures worth sharing are on my Facebook page with comments, accessible here.)

Heidi's comment about the car was the best. "You have loved the Cubs for so many years. Now they've loved you back." The Cubs may never give me a World Series championship. But they gave me a car. For now, that will have to do.

Cubs.com: Have you been paying attention?

I got an e-mail today from cubs.com asking me to sign up to receive free game-day photographs sent to my AT&T phone. I don't have an AT&T phone so this doesn't apply to me, but I love how they sell it: "Get pictures of Carlos Marmol closing out another Cubs win, Alfonso Soriano crushing another homer onto Waveland Avenue & more exciting moments...."

Wouldn't you think if this was sent by cubs.com that someone who had some knowledge of the Cubs would have been consulted before sending it out? Carlos Marmol doesn't close games out. He's got 3 saves, but our closer is Kevin Gregg. And Soriano? Hitting home runs? Onto WAVELAND? The guy hadn't hit one before last week since June 7th, and only 3 of his 16 home runs have come at Wrigley. And none that I recall landed on Waveland. I just want to throw it out there that I'm available for editing e-mails if anyone at cubs.com wants to not embarrass themselves anymore.

On Father's Day Weekend, about my Grandfather-Father-Son Trip

In May, I took Foster to Houston for his birthday, and my dad met us there to stay in a hotel and go to a Cubs game. Foster has just recently started getting into sports in general and the Cubs in particular. I bought him some Cubs baseball cards over Spring break and I was using them like flash cards to help him remember the names of the players. We arrived into Houston, went to the hotel, had a quick swim on the top-floor (though indoor) pool, then went to the game at Minute Maid Park, just down the street from the hotel (picture below taken from our hotel room).

We got there early, and the gates hadn't even opened yet. When we got inside we went towards the Cubs dugout along with quite a few other Cubs fans (we're everywhere). I was really hoping we could get Foster a ball, but everyone wanted a ball, so I knew the chances weren't good. Here are some pictures I took, my favorite Cub Reed Johnson, Aramis Ramirez chatting with Lou one day before separating his shoulder, and a good one of Soriano.

Then Joey Gathright ran over and grabbed a ball that was sitting not far from us (in fact, you can see the ball sitting on the grass behind us in the picture below).

I wanted to yell to him, but didn't. But it was like I was communicating telepathically because he looked over at us as if to say: "Someone want this?" I said: "Right here!" And even though I called for it, there were still plenty of people who could have snagged it. Sure enough, the ball came right to me, I reached above the smaller young woman standing in front of me, and caught it. "Here you go, buddy. Happy birthday." At that moment, I thought: whether we win or lose, or this is the worst game ever, our trip has been a success. (Note: it was Joey's last great play as a Cub as he was traded to the Orioles the very next day).
We were sitting behind home plate (incredible seats) next to another Cubs fan, but there were mostly Astros fans around us, view from our seats below.

There were 2 particularly obnoxious Astros fans sitting in front of us who thankfully left after the 3rd inning. The game didn't start well with our pitcher giving up a two-run home run in the bottom of the 1st inning but we came back, Soriano hit a home run (remember when he did that?), and we were leading for most of the game. Lo and behold, the obnoxious fans returned in the top of the 9th and decided it was time to start heckling the Cubs. Soriano came up and they started yelling, "Soriano! Have you even been on base tonight?" Then it was quiet, so I said, "He actually hit a home-run earlier, guys. So technically, no, he wasn't on base. But he was on them all briefly." They felt a little embarrassed, but were undeterred. They continued to razz him, and I was thinking: "Please hit a home run. Please hit a home run." And right on cue, Soriano drilled another one. I went crazy and might have gotten myself in a fight but chilled out. We then spent a day in Galveston with my mom and stepdad. Foster and I bonded, we had some quality time with the grandparents, the Cubs won, he got a ball...what a weekend! And Foster has the ball to prove it.

My thoughts on God and sports, published in the Daily Herald

Find the story here. What do you think about what I said?

Breaking down the Cutler trade

It was a good day for Bears fans on Thursday, though we shouldn't start making plans to return to Miami on February 7 of next year just yet. See, Chicago teams (with the one exception being the Bulls during the Jordan years) don't do well with high expectations. The White Sox were able to win the World Series in '05 because no one expected them to. The '06 Bears made it all the way to the Super Bowl because no one really thought Grossman could get them there. In fact, virtually everyone picked us to lose Super Bowl XLI... which of course we did. But still. On the other side, the Cubs imploded under the pressure of heightened expectations the past two postseasons. So we would do well to not anoint Jay Cutler as The Answer, though I do think it was a great move. He also could use some help with his hair, but the Bears have had some interesting QB hair in their past.

I think Kyle Orton was a very good QB, and he's the reason the Broncos chose to trade him to the Bears and not another team. They get 2 1st round picks, plus a proven NFL QB in Orton. But there are very few exceptional, proven young QBs in the league, and Jay Cutler is one of them. It makes our team better, and it it addresses what Angelo said was a weakness in one of his interviews after the season ended.

Some might say that we had to give up a lot. True, but Angelo typically excels in the later rounds anyway. Forte was a 2nd round pick, as were Charles Tillman and Devin Hester. Recent third round Bears picks include Lance Briggs and Bernard Berrian. And we've shown we can pick up some good players in free agency that don't break the bank.

Don't forget that the Patriots looked like a sure bet to get back to the Super Bowl when their franchise QB went down the first day of the season. We have to be prepared with a quality back-up because injuries happen all the time. And as Rick Morrissey wrote today in one of his usual well-written columns, Cutler can't throw to himself; we've got to go out and get at least one, if not two receivers. I'd love to see us get a veteran like Torry Holt, plus draft one in the 2nd or 3rd round. And let's not forget the defense. If our defense had been able to stop the likes of the Houston Texans in the last game of the season (we gave up 455 yards), we would have been in the playoffs. So that has to change. And let's hope Cutler's disgruntledness doesn't happen here.

The Vikings and Packers will both be formidable opponents in the conference, but we have to be favorites at this point.

In uniform news, Cutler is the first Bear to wear number 6 since the beloved Kevin "Butthead" Butler, the kicker on the '85 Bears team who is the all-time team leader in points. Anyone who happened to own his old jersey need only change the "B" to a "C" and you can save yourself $80.

"Was the season a waste?" Find the answer in the Tribune

I wrote this piece soon after the Cubs were eliminated early Sunday morning, and it was published in today's Chicago Tribune on the editorial/commentary page. Click here to give it a read.

My night at Wrigley

(If you're reading this on Facebook, go to my blog to see the pictures in the right format) It was a week ago, I think, that Heidi's sister called to let me know that she had playoff tickets if I wanted them. Yes, I did. So I invited Tom Terrill, who had invited me to two playoff games in 2003, and began planning for the big day: Game One of the 2008 NLDS (National League Division Series) between the Dodgers and Cubs. I had been hoping we'd face the Mets because the Dodgers have the best pitching staff in the league and its most dangerous hitter in Manny Ramirez. But alas, the Mets couldn't win when they needed to, and I can't say it's all that bad that the words "historic collapse" are starting to get paired more with "Mets" than with "Cubs."
I had a meeting in the city in the morning, so I just planned on staying around down there all day. I brought my bike in on the train, then biked over to Wrigleyville and parked it in their free bike valet parking!
I walked around Wrigleyville and took some pictures for a while, then went in to find my seat.

I first found the batting cages underneath the bleachers, which I had always heard about, but had never seen. I even took an illegal picture, and was chided by the management.
 
"Ma'am! No pictures allowed" he yelled at me. I guess from far away, and with my headband/earwarmer on, I could look like a woman. Maybe it's time for that haircut. Anyway, I got the picture, and we later saw Soriano taking batting practice down there just minutes before the game. Apparently, it didn't help. He went 0-for-5 with 2 strikeouts.
We were sitting in the "bleacher box" section, which is in the outfield, right next to the right field foul pole. Second row-- really great seats. (We were sitting right next to that couple in the 2nd row-- you can see Tom walking in our row). I have always thought the bleachers were the best place to watch a game, and this was even better because we had a back to our seat.
My time there started very well, as a batting practice home run ball landed right near me, and I beat out a couple of kids to grab it off the pavement. I felt a little guilty as I said to them: "Sorry, guys. This one's for my kids at home." Besides, how would I have been able to figure out which of them to give it to? That's good rationalization, right?

(That's the ball)

I really enjoyed the lengthier open to the game, where they announced every player on the team, and have them come out of the dugout. Here's Lou and our starting 7, minus pitcher and catcher who were still warming up.
 
We quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Mark DeRosa home run that landed about 15 seats away from us. In fact, if you watch the replay of the home run you'll see Tom and me in the bottom middle of the screen at about 14 seconds-- I'm wearing that stylish navy headband (keeping my ears warm) and brown coat, and Tom is wearing a blue jacket with tan baseball hat. It was a cold, but beautiful night and things were looking good.

Here's a shot of Ramirez at bat after Lee walked. This is a pitch he should have swung at.
 
But then our "ace" decided to quit throwing strikes, loaded the bases on walks, and gave up a grand slam on a 1-2 pitch. When he hit it, I watched it travel and initially followed it, saying out loud "It's gone, that's gone." But then I couldn't look. I sat down and put my head in my hands, and hoped to hear cheering. But there was no cheering. It just became eerily silent, Tom said "Unbelievable," and someone nearby said "I'm going home." We still had some chances to get back in it, but didn't end up scoring any more runs.
And then to add insult to injury, one of the Cubs' greatest pitchers ever, Greg Maddux who is now on the Dodgers, pitched the final inning. That was just uncalled for, you know?

I keep telling myself it's just one game. It is just one game. And it makes me feel better knowing Anaheim lost their first game at home, after having the best record in their league. But if we lose tonight, it's over. So we have to win. That's all. No big deal.

Zambrano's no hitter

Just thought I'd put the significance of what Carlos Zambrano did just a while ago into context. For the uninitiated, Carlos Zambrano, a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, threw a "no-hitter" tonight, meaning that none of the batters he faced in all nine innings reached base safely as a result of hitting the ball. He did walk one, and hit one batter. The Cubs won 5-0. This happens maybe two or three times per season (out of a possible 2430 games per season) and the last time a Cubs player did this was in 1972, about 5800 Cubs games ago.

Some more interesting facts: this was the first no-hitter ever thrown at a neutral site (not surprising), and I think it's a more impressive feat that it was a National League pitcher who did it, because it means he had to bat AND pitch, not just pitch, as the American League pitchers do. In fact, Zambrano even got a base hit and scored a run, hustling all the way around from first to score on a double by Derrek Lee earlier in the game. It's also important that there is still a "pennant race" going on, the Cubs hadn't been playing particularly well, and the Astros had been red hot, so it was an important win for a lot of reasons.

The Astros have to feel like they got robbed (and expressed as much), having to fly to Milwaukee to play a home game. They wanted a more neutral site, but from a business standpoint, they'll make somewhere around a million dollars from these two games...courtesy of Cubs fans. And in baseball, the home-field advantage is primarly about getting to bat last, which they got to do. So quit your whining. After a pretty forgettable Bears game today, that was something I will truly never forget.