Today I will rant a little bit about my favorite subject, Atlanta Braves baseball.
This year the Braves brought up a 20 year-old right fielder from AAA with the hopes that he would live up to his amazing potential as a baseball player and energize the entire team. There were many skeptics out there wondering whether or not that was a good move by the Braves. They wondered if he would be able to hold up under all the pressure and media coverage. Many believed he was too young and too inexperienced to handle it. Luckily for me, and all Braves fans out there, they seem to have been wrong.
It may be too early to tell, but through the first 50 games (of 162) of the season he seems to be living up to the hype that has surrounded him since day one. Among NL-Leaders he is ranked 1st in SLG (.596), 1st in OPS (1.017), 3rd in RBI (38), 3rd in OBP (.421), 7th in 3B (3), 8th in HR (10), 11th in BB (29), and 16th in BA (.301).
If you don't follow baseball (you should) then you prob don't really understand what all those stats mean, but to put it simply, Jason Heyward is among the best baseball players offensively in the Major Leagues this year. I am glad to see him and the Braves (28 - 22) doing well this season, but I can't wait to see just how good Jason Heyward becomes in the future.
Pardon the french, but this has been a hell of a week (or two).
So let me give you a short synopsis of the fast week or so.
I finished my final finals at Utah State University on Wednesday at 3:45 in the pm. I finished my last semester with a whopping two B+'s, one A-, and a B. I worked at Cafe Sabor Thursday and worked my last two shifts after nearly 4 years of employment as a server there. I spent Friday packing and moving out of the hole that my landlord calls "a house" and moved into a much needed upgrade about 3 blocks away. I woke at 7:45 on Saturday and spent the day graduating with two diplomas, becoming best friends with Danny Glover, finishing moving, and partying with Nat and my family. To top it all off I recently decided to go to law school at Santa Clara in the fall so in a few short months I will be moving once again to the debt-ridden state of California.
It has been a very bitter sweet week, a week with a wide variety of emotions. I know that you're all thinking that manly men like myself don't have any emotions other than angry and immature, but I have at times felt excited, scared, happy, sad, frustrated, unworthy, proud, content, optimistic, anxious, stressed, worn-out, forgotten, loved, grateful, ordinary, and accomplished.
The future is bound to bring some heartache and pains, but I am excited to move onto the next stage in my life. I can't wait to see what the world has to offer and to grow thru whatever experiences it has in store. But I am also scared to have so much change, so much uncertainty in my life. The last 4 years of my life have been filled with certainty and constancy and I am sad to be leaving this town and University that I have come to know so well and love so much. I am sad to think of leaving the the many friends that I have made here and perhaps never seeing them again. If I could choose one word to describe how I felt I would put sad and excited together and make saxicted, ya I'm saxcited.
This may be a little premature since I still have one more glorious Summer to experience, but I just want to say to Logan, USU, my many friends, and my family that we've made a good run and that I'm gonna love ya, I'm gonna miss ya. Seriously, I will shed a few tears over this.
I gots two items of business that happen to be interrelated and are of grave consequence:
One- I am finally graduating from USU after five years of skipping class and b.s.ing on my exams. It is weird to think about finally graduating since I began my college career at USU in the fall of 2003, almost 7 years ago and now it's all coming to an end...weird, huh?
Two- Mr. Danny Glover is the speaker at my graduation commencement. I think the University made a great decision in choosing the star of the Lethal Weapons saga, Predator, and Angels in the Outfield for the graduation commencement speaker. I can only think of two people I would rather receive council from as I go out into the world, those being Jack Bauer and Tupac Shakur of course. With that said I mean no disrespect to Mr. Glover and I am extremely excited to hear him expound the mysteries of the universe and the future to me and my colleagues.
Unfortunately not everyone is so keen on Mr. Glover. Apparently he is a friend to Hugo Chavez and is "out there" because he believes in global warming. I had no idea that my favorite black actor of all-time (besides Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, "Morphius", Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, Halle Berry, the guy from the All-State commercials, Tracy Morgan, Kenan & Kel, Denzel Washington, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Chris Rock, Bill Cosby, Vince Vaughn, Eminem, and Ice Cube) had such crazy ideas. Many people in Northern Utah are in an uproar over the USU's decision to have Mr. Glover, who is a "crazy", "liberal", "socialist", "communist", "nazi", "America-hater", and "non-conservative", speak at USU. Some opponents of Mr. Glover believe he should be stripped of his US citizenship because he has different views and opposes many of the actions of the government which we all know is not allowed in the US and is considered treason and should result in his being hanged. Some people are so disturbed by Mr. Glover and his crazy ways that they now hate USU and will never donate a penny to the institution. Apparently the whomever the University chooses for it commencement speaker at graduation becomes the face of the institution and shows the true character of the institution.
I am honestly baffled at the very stringent opposition to Mr. Glover. I myself don't agree with many of the views of Mr. Glover, but what does it hurt to learn about different perspectives and ideas? In fact, I bet that he doesn't even talk about his political views, but rather talks about succeeding in life and making a difference in the world, you know, something that would make sense at a graduation speech. All those critics and haters of Mr. Glover also seem to always leave out the fact that he is a very active philanthropist and holds a key leadership position in UNICEF, not to mention his amazing acting skills. He might have some crazy ideas and disagree with the opinions of many Americans, but that that is what America is all about and it certainly doesn't make him a bad person.
People always seem to be scared of what they don't understand and things they are uncomfortable with. This insecurity and people's inability or lack of desire to understand other people and cultures often results in bigotry, hatred, and conflict. People need to lighten up and open up their minds to new ideas and perspectives it makes the world a better, happier, and more interesting place to be. I'm not saying anyone has to agree with another person's opinions or ideas (especially not Mr. Glover's), but what does it hurt to listen and try to understand something/someone a little better?
...it doesn't hurt at all.
Watch this and then try hating Danny...it's not possible.
This year the Braves brought up a 20 year-old right fielder from AAA with the hopes that he would live up to his amazing potential as a baseball player and energize the entire team. There were many skeptics out there wondering whether or not that was a good move by the Braves. They wondered if he would be able to hold up under all the pressure and media coverage. Many believed he was too young and too inexperienced to handle it. Luckily for me, and all Braves fans out there, they seem to have been wrong.
