Freddy Sanchez, World Champion Team Player

Talk about taking one for the team. Game 4, I'd call a must-win game but in the World Series every game is a must-win game. I'm thinking about Freddy Sanchez' at-bat where kept fouling one off, fouling one off, fouling one off. I must admit I got more excited with each foul ball. A battle of epic proportions wherein F.S. refused to go gently into that good night. No. Battling. Battling. Battling. Why? Because this is what team players do. Begin with the end in mind and FORCE the pitcher to wear himself down. Freddy finally went out--and returned to the San Francisco Giants' dugout to high fives and kudos all the way around. Why? Because that was a TRULY great at-bat. Any cliche' works here. "You've got to love the way the kid's hanging in there," "He's putting in a day's work right there, etc." Battling. Battling. Battling. He swung that wood with elan and a determination to keep connecting, keep wearing that pitcher down FOR THE TEAM. You've got to think Randy Moss is not in Sanchez' study group. Good for Sanchez! Good for us San Francisco Giants Fans! Good for Major League Baseball! And, oh yeah, the next batter, Cody Ross? He hit a home run on the very first pitch. How's that for teamwork?

Excellence

Tom Peters has what he calls a "Cliff Notes" version of his new book, The Little BIG Things. It is very good as are all of Mr. Peters' writings. The overarching theme of his book could be described as "Little things mean a lot," or "Little things mean everything." Back in the day, Mr. Peters wrote a series of books about excellence. What is it? How is it created and maintained?

Which leads me to think, "What ever happened to American excellence?" How did we ever get so far away from what and who we are as a nation?

And I was reading through my copy of The Little BIG Things and I found at least part of the answer in Mr. Peters reference to yet another book entitled Enough by John Bogle (Group founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group). Mr. Bogle's words ring true and it is worth noting that the Vanguard group which he founded has never been known for anything except for making reasonable amounts of money over an extended period of time. So, now that we know something about bubbles, whether they are of the real estate, dot.com, or mortgage funding variety, we are a little bit more aware that bubbles burst because it is in their nature. And the bigger the bubble the bigger the burst.

So, as an answer to my question about American excellence, and as a take-away from this post, we could do a lot worse than read, and then reflect, on some of Mr. Bogle's chapter titles as follows:

"Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value"

"Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment"

"Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity"

"Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust"

"Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough Professional Conduct"

"Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship"

"Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus on Commitment"

"Too Many Twenty-first Century Values, Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values"

"Too Much 'Success,' Not Enough Character"

Health Care...Just For the Record

The health care "reform" package passed by the Senate will not reform anything except health care professionals income upward on the breaking backs of the American middle class.

Dithering Through Afghanistan

I know some of you think my views on Afghanistan changed when Tye (our grandson) got there. Not true. You see, I've come to feel about America's direction much the same as I remember feeling when Jimmy Carter was in office. Drifting. Waffling. Revisiting issues at a later date. Goodness, gracious, sakes alive boys and girls. Wouldn't half of a bad plan still be better than no plan. We "fight" for what? President Obama now appears not up to the job. He surrounds himself with creeps from Chicago politics (a sewer). Axelrod, Gibbs, Emanuel, et al. A high-ranking member of his communications team admits to admiring Mao? Where will it end?

Memorial Day

Just a quick note to say I am re-posting last year's comment about Memorial Day and I hope you find it likable:

Today, we remember those who gave their lives for America. Both my parents served in WWII. My father served in the Army Air Corps, a forerunner of today's Air Force. My mother served in the Navy, and, like my dad, served overseas during the war. And while they both survived to tell the tale, they never let us forget that, like the song says, "All gave some, some gave all."

It is the height of disrespect for some misguided folks to use Memorial Day to protest the war in Iraq. Yes, they, like all of us have the right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble. Ironically, part of the reason they have those rights is because other patriotic people down through the centuries of America gave their lives so that we could live in freedom. To protest a current action on Memorial Day diverts attention away from the true patriots--the ones who gave the last full measure.

Our country needs more people to commemorate Memorial Day for what it is--a national acknowledgement that we enjoy our liberty because people have gone before us so that we could be free. To quote the Gipper, a true American hero, "We will always remember."

Recovery Built on a Rock

We couldn't help but notice that in describing the economic recovery plan as being built on a rock the president was describing The Gipper's Shining City Upon a Hill. A review of the quote on our masthead demonstrates rock-solid evidence that we here at ASCUAH have been here from the start.

Who Gave the Order?

Taking a line from a classic movie, we'll point out that the separating of the Somali pirates from their mortal coils was an act of defense and pure courage. With so many of the chattering class musing as to whether or not President Obama was capable of handling that "3:00 A.M. Phone Call" the verdict is in. Here is an example of another festering problem brought on by the previous administration's failure to act. The world now has an answer as to what manner of man occupies the Oval Office and it now appears this is very bad news for the bad guys. Hooray!