An Open Letter to Jim Leyland

Dear Jim:

My wife, her brother, his wife, and I attended the Tigers' game against the White Sox on October 3rd. It was the only game we were able to attend this season. We were excited, of course, to be there while our team was fighting for the division title, although we were extremely disappointed that you guys had not been able to wrap the pennant race up earlier in the week. Regardless, we paid our money, we sat through the cold rain, we paid obscene amounts of money for hot dogs and drinks. We did our part. Could you please explain to me why you guys did not do your part? Why would you start Fiagaro with the division title on the line, and why, when he fell apart immediately, did you continue to trot mediocre reliever after mediocre reliever out there? Ni looked good; why not leave him in for a while? Why not go to Miner or Bonine? But the pitching was not the only disappointment. Not at all. I understand that, as a manager, you cannot make your guys hit the ball. But, as a manager, you could bench guys whose bats have gone cold. Why have you continued to play Inge even though his batting average is abyssmal? You benched Maggs long before his average dipped to .230; what makes Inge so special? Why would you pinch hit for Guillen in the 9th (and use Ryan at that - don't get me wrong, I love Ryan, but he's no good as a pinch hitter) and not for Inge or Laird? Had you just given up at that point? I know that you feel as though you need Inge defensively, but you have three other guys on the roster who have started at 3rd base professionally - Cabrera, Guillen, and Huff, and Ryan and Kelly have both shown an aptitude to fill in there. In the future, when Inge struggles (as he is wont to do) please bench him.

I know that you cannot win every game, but you should be able to make every game competitive, especially when you are playing against a time that you have owned all season, and at home at that. I am astounded that you allowed your solid lead in the Central to slip away. But mostly, I just feel cheated that we spent so much time, energy, and money to come to see your boys play, but they didn't show up. I truly hope that you guys can win in Minnesota on Tuesday, but I am very angry that it came to this. You have truly let us down.

Looking forward to 2010,
Jonathan Shelley
Grand Rapids, MI

Reflections on the last four years

Yesterday was my four year wedding anniversary, which is a significant milestone for me, since someone was actually willing to tolerate me for that long. Nice. But I started taking stock of the last four years, and I was surprised at some of the things I found. First, and most depressing, I've been working at my current job longer than I've been married. This is depressing since this job was just a temporary stop on the way to what I really wanted to do, yet I have been stuck in this cubicle longer than I've been married. In that same vein, I was just (re)starting my seminary education four years ago. I finished that, but have gotten absolutely nowhere with it. Blah. On the other hand, I have taken two vacations - real vacations - with my wife: Virginia Beach and a Caribbean cruise. Those were firsts. I've only moved twice - once due to a seedy element in the neighborhood that forced us out of our very nice townhouse, and once because we (foolishly) bought a house. A house with lots of snakes! I've published one book, which has sold approximately zero copies, given one scholarly presentation at a national convention, written a couple of journal articles that were not published, and adopted the cutest, tiniest cat ever. I've also tried (and failed, to various degrees) to learn German, Italian, Latin, and Hebrew. Oh, and I started a blog.

Four years doesn't seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but it is amazing to note how much has changed in my personal life (and the things that haven't changed) and in the world around me. We elected a black president and gave serious consideration to a female candidate, the government got into the automotive industry, Matt got a girlfriend, U2 has become about as relevant as The Rolling Stones, Jon and Melodee made it to ITALIA with residency papers, the Lions set an NFL record (you know which one) and I actually started to care about baseball (that makes me a real American). What a roller coaster!