The First Shall Be Last/Going for It!

Well I woke up and found that I haven't blogged in a little while so after a good weekend in Football (Mainly good because the Giants didn't lose, but for that matter they didn't win either. Bye week.) There were a lot of very good games this weekend that kept my interest otherwise. But today I want to tackle two things. One related directly to the game last night, and another to an ongoing saga in the NFL that I find hilarious. So while I stuff food down my throat and each lunch (multi-tasking) I will blog.....

Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler!?!?! To me this is a very funny situation. To those who weren't paying attention at the beginning of the season Jay Cutler was more or less a cry baby. Now I don't particularly care for the Broncos or the Bears (although the Giants play the Broncos in two weeks) but this was an example of someone who got what was coming to them.

As I was saying Cutler was basically crying about Denver and when they brought in new Head Coach Josh McDaniels. Now I don't know all the details, but Cutler didn't get along with McDaniels and Cutler more or less complained himself right out of Denver and into the eager hands of the Chicago Bears. And who did the bears have to give up? Kyle Orton. A young ok at best quarterback. There were some other details to the trade, but regardless at the time it seemed like a sweet deal for the Bears. Cutler was (and probably still is) a quick rising super star of the league with a good work ethic. But what got to me was how he went about leaving Denver. It was all done in a very public way almost like watching a child complain until he gets his way.

Fast forward to the current situation, Week 10. Right now the Chicago Bears are sitting at 4-5 and don't look quite like the team I am sure they thought they would be after acquiring Jay Cutler. Cutler has a QB rating of 76.0 at this point in the season. Not so good. He has thrown for 2353 yards with 14 Touchdowns and 17 Interceptions. Not quite what you would have in mind. Kyle Orton has lead the Denver Broncos to a 6-3 record with a passer rating of 91.1 while throwing for 2031 yards, 11 Touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. It would seem a tale of two quarterbacks?

Now granted there is a lot of football left, and I will point out that The Chicago Bears are beat up on both sides of the ball. (Especially Defensive) But at this point in the season it makes me smile to see how it is unfolding for Cutler. He most likely will go on to have a great NFL career (He is a super talented guy, so I am not disputing that), but just for now it brings him back down to a level where I think he needs to be to attain that greatness.

So with six weeks to go anything can happen. And yesterday Orton went down with an ankle injury (not sure how severe yet) but to this point it has just been a situation which makes me sit back and laugh a little bit. Personally I am routing for Denver to make the playoffs and for Chicago to miss out this year!

I went to bed very early last night and missed the end of another amazing Pats/Colts game! This always frustrates me because I always seem to miss these awesome games because of this thing called sleep. At a small group this morning one of the guys asked if I had stayed up for the game last night. Instantly I thought to myself, "darn it I missed another great game." And indeed my intuition served me well. It was a great game that came down to the wire and had some excellent controversy as well.

With 2:08 left in the game the Pats (up by 6) had a 4th down with 2 yards to go. Oh yea and it was from their own 28 Yard line! So what do the Pats do you might be asking yourself? Well of course they punted.........Wait what they didn't? No the play went live and Kevin Faulk came up inches short of a first down! Enter Peyton Manning (One of the best Quarterbacks in the Game) 4 plays later, touchdown Colts. The eventual game winner in fact.

So what does this mean. After listening to lots of opinions on the subject from people covering the game I wanted to state what I think about the way it all went down.
First off I agree with something I heard earlier on the way to the bank. If any number of other coaches had made this decision they more than likely would be looking for a new job. (This is where the Redskins fans start wishing that Jim Zorn would do the same thing and finally get fired! But since he isn't calling plays any more who cares)

But why would Belichick go for it on 4 and 2 from his own 28? Does he have that much confidence in his offense? Does he have that little defense in his defense. Does he do it just because he is Bill Belichick and he can? Amazingly most of his players came out and had Belichicks back. Star quarterback Tom Brady said "It's easy to second-guess, obviously. If we gain seven more inches, then it's a great call." His players still had his back despite this ludicrous decision. So what was going through his mind. I think I might have have some of the answers.

First,

"ESPN Stats & Information dug through the archives and found that entering Sunday's game, the Patriots had converted a fourth-and-2 or shorter 68 out of 89 times (76.4 percent) since 2001, Brady's first year as a starter."

76.4 percent? That's a pretty good average. There were a few tests in college that I didn't prepare for and I was happy with a 77 percent. It means 3 out of 4 times they are going to make it happen. Whether or not Belichick knew this exact number going into the play we might never know. But we do know that he is confident that his team can make the play and that they have made this play before! So that is the first reason he probably went for it.

Secondly,
I think he thought that the Colts would be a little thrown off by this odd play call, and that would give him an edge for catching them by surprise. Well he didn't catch them by surprise. The Colts were able to fend off the attack.

Thirdly,
"In Bill we trust" All of his players have publicly come out and said that he is the coach and that they trust his decisions. With this undying allegiance to their coach why wouldn't Belichick go for it. He knows that even if it didn't turn out the way he wanted it to, he still had the support of his players and ultimately that's what you want if your a coach.

Fourth,
I think Belichick honestly believed that even if they failed getting the first down, there would still be enough time left (even if the Colts scored) to rally his team for one last quick drive down the field. This was of course not the case. It is a bold type of thinking but in the end it didn't pay off this time. But it could have been an influence in his mind.

Fifth
It's because he is Belichick.

"Belichick has built up a lot of faith equity over the years. He runs one of the NFL's dominant franchises, the team of the decade. He has three Super Bowl rings and four AFC championships."

With that resume you know he has the utmost confidence that even if he fails. His job will still be there for him, and he still has a pretty great team at the end of the day.

But still is this a decision that any of us would have made? I would probably go for it on 4th and 2......If I was playing in a pick up flag football game that was happening in my backyard. I think it was a poor decision that he made, but I don't condemn him for it like some people have in the press today.

I think he just made the decision that he thought would win the ball game for his team!

-C-

Read Much?

Well after a nice refreshing day off yesterday I am back on it and ready to go with a work post!

Disclaimer: For the sports fans, I won't be talking about sports in this blog. Uh-oh to late.

I always try to make New Years resolutions that are a little more of a challenge, but at the same time it won't be something that I can't follow through on. Like this year I gave up eating chips. Chips you say? Yes, that's right I gave up chips! Potato Chips, Nacho Chips, etc. Any type of chips that you can imagine.

Now did I have a chip problem last year? No. I gave up chips because it's something that I really enjoy (especially when Amanda makes her awesome Mexican dip!!! It's so good) Most of my resolutions have been something related to food. One year I did no fast food or soda for the entire year, That was tough but i made it. One year I tried pizza, and failed miserably in the first two weeks by accident. I even went 8 years without eating an M & M. But you kind of get the point with all that.

So in a little bit of advance planning I have been thinking about what resolution I can make for next year. Besides trying to drink less coffee I heard a great idea at a conference I attended earlier this year by Bob Franquiz. Bob gave a great seminar called Zero to Sixty and it was about effective leadership and ministry.

I took a lot of things away from this, but there was one thing that got me thinking that he said. He talked about a discipline in his life where he would try to read a certain number of books in a year for his resolutions. It started off with 25 and grew to 50 and then 100 and even beyond that. In one year! And one thing that he said that truly made me think was "I've never had a problem I haven't been able to read my way out of." Profound words that i really had never taken time to consider. Can reading really help us that much?

Bob pointed out many good books an resources in this seminar and it got me thinking about my own readings. There are so many books out there that can help us with all issues of our lives and our spiritual walks. And even now as I am juggling 3 or 4 books (Bible included) this is a very time consuming but important part of our lives. Reading what other people have to say can totally make a difference in our lives. For example I recently finished the book we have been using for our home fellowships. "The Relationship Principles of Jesus" by Tom Holladay. This book was an awsome look into the six principles that can transform our relationships with others. And as we went over it in my home fellowship, it became only more evident that it was a book that the people in my group found to help them in their everyday lives and relationships with people.

So now that we have established that reading is something that can help us in our lives I want to get to my point. For my resolution this coming year I want to mirror what Bob has done. Granted I am going to start small but still challenge myself. I would like to read 50 books in the year 2010! And that doesn't include my daily studies from the Good Book! It would more or less equate to one book a week. I believe that I am up for the challenge. But it is all about discipline and taking that time to follow through. Although eating chips was kind of tough this year it wasn't particularly hard to ignore the chips at a restaurant or to find pretzels at a party. It doesn't take nearly as much discipline because it won't take time out of an already busy schedule.

Now comes the part where I need some help. If anyone is still reading this blog I am looking for some suggestions to add to my list for 2010. I am open to fiction and non fiction, plus I would love to read some books on spiritual leadership and youth ministries. So hope that this is a good start and if you post a book title I will consider it for my list. And when I narrow down that list I will post it on here.

Let me sign off with a quote about reading and what it truly means to "read"

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
~ Edmund Burke ~

-C-

GIANTS Mess!!!

So sticking to format best I can I am going to blog about sports on this next post. So There is an advanced warning for those who aren't terribly interested in hearing about some football. (A Ministry post will be back on the plate for next time) Ok warning aside let's get right into it.

Being from Connecticut and particularly the southern part of Connecticut I grew up liking the Yankees and the Giants! Now in my very first post I am obviously thrilled to be a Yankees fan right now. But now with baseball done for about 90 more days (Until pitchers and catchers report) I am now turning my entire focus to football, and unfortunately the last few weeks have been terribly sub-par for the G-Men.

I am not exactly sure where to start. Do I go back to their embarrasing first loss of this unimpressive 4 game losing streak, or do I focus my attention and start with this weeks game and the mismanagement by a coach down the stretch. Well I guess I will choose how it all began.

The Giants started the season off in impressive fashion going 5-0 (albeit against teams you would have to call subpar at that time.) But then going back to the game on 10-18 against the Saints is where things started going wrong. And let me first start off by saying I think the Saints are the real deal this year and at the halfway point they would be my pick to win the Superbowl. But on 10-18 it was a battle of unbeatens the Giants 5-0 and the Saints 4-0. You would think that's all it takes to fire up a team. Not so much! The Giants were outplayed and frankly embarrassed in the game by the Saints. And so began a slippery slope of lethargic and uninspired play by the boys in blue.

And skipping the games in which they played Arizona and lost, and Philly in which they lost (crucial since this was a divisional game) that moves us to this past weekend. This was the first game where I thought the Giants played well. Eli did pretty well going 25-33 wth 215 yards passing and 2 touchdowns. Mario Manningham is developing as a good young talent and the veteran Steve Smith is as always reliable. (especially on third down. They also engineered a great drive which ate up almost 11 minutes of the game. (The stat on TV said it was the first time they have had a drive that long since the early 90's)

The defense also finally started coming out of their atrocious slump. They were able to put pressure on Phillip Rivers and get a few sacks and force a few turnovers. All in all this sounded like the makings for a victorious Sunday right? WRONG!!!!

With about 4 minutes left in the game the Giants Michael Johnson picked off a pass and returned it all the way down to the Chargers 4 yard line. Up by 3 at this point a touchdown would have put it out of reach for San Diego. First play after that interception a costly holding penalty, (Penalties were killer 10 for over 100 yards) so restart this drive as 1st and goal from the 14 yard line. Still there is just about 4 minutes remaining. Coach Tom Coughlin decides to play it very, very conservative. A quick passing play and two running plays which ended up leading to a field goal.(Putting them up by only 6) Was he trying to run out the clock? I am left wondering why he wasn't being aggressive and going for the kill shot? Take a chance in the end zone at least once! Why manage this game like you are already at the 2 minute warning instead of about 4 minutes left and the chargers with all 3 timeouts?

Needless to say up 6 with just about 2 minutes to play Phillip Rivers calmly took his team down the field and scored with 21 seconds remaining. Leaving the Giants on the short end of the stick with with a 21-20 loss. Thus capping a terrible 4 game stretch.

After recapping this entire messy ending and 4 game losing streak I am trying to see what is ahead for the Giants this season. They have a bye next week, but at this point at 5-4 they are a long ways out of first in the division and will have a hard time evening going after the wild card.

For each week of the loss it seems like something is going wrong. Offense, Defense, Coaching. They have not been able to string these all together since the early part of the season. And as a huge fan it has been terribly embarrassing and hard to watch. Maybe the bye week will knock some sense into them!

That's about all I got for now. Since Big Blue is off next week maybe I will start watching Women's NCAA soccer, it's turning into MMA action. (New Mexico vs. BYU last week. Check it out if you haven't seen this yet.)

-C-

What I do and Why

I guess I will first start off with a fairly common reaction that I get when discussing my primary job with people who I meet for the first time. I work at a YMCA one night a week as a Total Health Coach helping people achieve their fitness goals. In this job I meet a lot of new people and usually end up talking about more than just fitness stuff. We usually get on the topic of jobs and family, and whenever I am asked what I do for work, I tell them my primary job is working for a church.

This usually brings the eyebrow raising confused look from the person I have just met. Despite being at the Young Mens Christian Association, people are usually a bit confused as to why I would want to work at a church, or what work even needs to be done at a church to warrant it being a full time job. This got me thinking that a lot of people may have a perception of church being boring, and an easy job for a pastor or staff person. Now how can the Kingdom of God be boring or easy to understand, I mean we are talking about the creator of the universe here!

In this post I wanted to briefly talk about our church and what I do here. First off our church mission statement is "Revolutionizing lives through the revelation of God" I think the first time I ever read that mission statement I was excited. It's not that I never thought about "revolutionizing" peoples lives, it's just that I had never thought of it in such an exciting way!

I came to Calvary in the Winter/Spring 2006 when we were still meeting at the Courtyard Marriott. It was about 10 people meeting in a small conference room, and for some reason I felt like this was a place where I could use my talents and gifts to serve. And over the past 4 years it has been one of the things in my life that has always been their and felt right. In June of 2009 I came on as a staff member. Now I was led to believe that Ministry was all about hanging out at the office and having Daiquiris hahaha and sometimes doing some work.(Thanks Mike I can now say it is not about that) Just Kidding, I came one in a very busy time for our church (New Facility, Special Events, and New Staffing) and it certainly was and wasn't what I was expecting. It was a challenge right off the bat and one that I was willing to accept.

I think in a way I was a little bit like the people that I previously mentioned when thinking about what work really needs to be done at a church? Maybe thinking how hard can this be? I knew it was a job that I felt called to, but I had no idea about all the inner workings of ministry until I came on staff. There are so many things that the average church goer doesn't see as a regular attender and volunteer. Example, I had no idea how much focus and planning goes into each message that Bill puts together. Hours and Hours of him pouring into the message throughout the week, counseling various resources. And after it is all over he is drained. Dave has tons of preparation and working with other people to get a set and band ready for each Sunday morning worship set. On top of the other duties that he has at the church.

And then there is me...

What do I do? Do I just sit in the office and goof around and answer phones? Do I go out and get Bill coffee?(Not all the time but occasionally hahaha) No, I am in charge of our Service Oversight and Assimilation. Then when we have special events I have a big part in planning them. Now the great thing about my job is that I find it to be a combination of all the other life experience that I have had (School and previous jobs) With assimilation and event planning I used to work at a YMCA doing a lot of similar things. With Service Oversight I had been volunteering at Calvary for over 3 years before coming on staff so I knew some of the inner workings of what it takes to make a service happen. And then I got some great on the job training from Mike Tolerico before he felt called to go back to Colorado. And then there are some of the fun little videos that we get to make around West Hartford and the office. I used to do some video production in college and also I grew up with a camera in hand making lot's of fun little films. (Check out our Youtube page just search CalvaryHartford for our videos)


If you had asked me a year ago when I was getting laid off from the YMCA "would you ever think about a career in ministry?" I don't think I would have said yes. So what changed? I thought and prayed about this long and hard during the interview process for Calvary. Mark Driscoll says "appoint slowly and terminate quickly" when discussing the appointing of Elders in his book "Vintage Church". I think the same can be said for church staff hiring.

During that time I felt that I was truly feeling the call for a bigger role at Calvary, but I knew that if it was what God willed it would happen in his time. During this process I was working at a pool supply store selling chemicals, pools, and spas, and thinking to myself there has to be more to my life than this!

And then I was hired at Calvary! And so far it has been an awesome ride working alongside a great staff and a great church body. And even now as I am sitting in the office finishing this post Dave is just sitting across from me listening to a new song he is learning for our services. He is just playing his guitar and learning the song by listening to it (I can't even comprehend this). And that is part of why working here is great. God has surrounded me with some great people with a great vision. "Revolutionizing lives through the Revelation of God"

-C-

First Post!

Well, blogging is something that I have always wanted to do but I have had a hard time thinking of how to come up with a successful idea for what to blog about. I have always been a huge sports guy and also this past year I started working at my church in West Hartford. Talking to a fairly experienced blogger (Bill) He suggested narrowing down my focus to make this blog more about one thing or the other. Well I wanted to narrow it down to two things. Sports and Job. So without further a due here we go.

It figures I decide to start blogging on a day where I am super excited about my favorite team going out and winning a fantastic World Series. I stayed up till about 1 A.M. last night watching the game and it's post game coverage. (I am paying that price at work this morning)

The first thing that I took away from the Yankees season was the sense that it was much more like past seasons where they won. There were many walk off wins, pies in the face, and just a genuine sense of team atmosphere. Since their last win in 2000 against the Mets I have always felt that the ownership (Steinbrenner) has been pushing and clawing to win a world series again, and it just didn't feel like the Yankee baseball. Signings like Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson always left me feeling like we were the franchise with the highest payroll and also a bit to"desperate" to win.

And before I go any further I did want to talk about payroll. There are a lot of facebook posts of very uneducated "fans" of baseball who just posted after the Yankees won, "I guess you can buy a championship." And you know what it is actually true. The Yankees went out and got the best players available. CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett (Not my favorite) and Mark Teixeira (My favorite signing). They spent tons of money on a fairly young group of great players that brought them the ultimate prize. A World Championship!

Now is this wrong for them to "buy" a championship? As it stands MLB doesn't have a salary cap. So it is up to team ownership to see how best to spend their money and how much of it they are willing to spend to make their team what it is. For those who don't know check out this article on revenue sharing in baseball (http://www.bnet.com/2403-13502_23-210897.html). It is a little known fact that the higher the payroll, the more of a "luxury tax" that you have to pay back to the league and in turn that money goes to smaller market teams.

I agree that without a salary cap any team can pay however much they want and outbid a smaller market team. But is that being greedy or is it a desire to win? If you have ownership that truly has a desire to win they are going to go out and spend the money in a way they see fit to win. Steinbrenner has been doing this for years, I just haven't always agreed with who he has spent it on. So sure go ahead and say the Yankees bought this Championship. If that is what makes Red Sox fans or Marlins fans or any other "fans" feel better about this past season, say it. True fans of the game know better!

But higher payroll hasn't made that much of a difference over the past 9 years in MLB. Since 2001 8 Different teams have won the World Series with only one of those teams winning more than one. (Red Sox 2004, 2007) And then check out this link (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/postseason.shtml) from the baseball Almanac to see how many different teams have even gone to the ALCS or NLCS in that time. Looking at the facts in those numbers it proves that even with a higher payroll and no salary cap it doesn't matter what you spend, it's how you gel as a team. We saw it with the Colorado Rockies in 07, winning 21 out of their last 22 games. Or last year with the Tampa Bay Rays who had the 25th lowest payroll out of 30 teams. (Respectably both these teams lost in the World Series) I guess my point is that it isn't always about the money. It is about a team and playing together as a team.

I find that many of the people who made negative comments on Facebook last night were people who I know never played a day of baseball past middle school. And that bothers me. You gain a whole different perspective growing up and playing the sport. For example my best friend is a huge hockey nut and played for a good portion of his life. He also refereed and religiously watches the Rangers. Whenever I used to watch a hockey game with him I would sit their and try to critique the game and say why would so and so do that it doesn't make sense? He would then calmly explain to me that I was wrong and educate me on the sport. I still don't know enough about hockey, but at least now I know a few things (Keep your head up, a 2 goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, and what offsides is, haha). Last the night the only true respect I saw for this game that I love came from a friend who is a Red Sox fan. And he simply stated "the best team won, enough said" This is coming from someone who grew up playing baseball and various other sports as well. He is someone who actually respects the game for what it is. It was the culmination of a great World Series and playoffs. And for the first time in a long time, the two best teams were in the World Series.

All the credit in the World goes to Cliff Lee, Chase Utley and the Phillies! They have a lineup that doesn't have a lot of holes in it and their pitching this series mostly left them in the game. CLiff Lee was outstanding, and Chase Utley had MVP type numbers in the Series. They have a team that is poised to make a run again next year. And if they had won last night, I thought they had the advantage going into game 7. Congrats on a great year for them, and I am sure we haven't seen the last of that team!

And now with baseball over I guess I will just have to deal with America's most popular sport Football! I have said enough for post #1. Thanks for a great season MLB and thanks Yankees for pulling this one out!

-C-