Baseball's Own "Florida Man"

It’s become a fun routine to check the news for “Florida Man” stories. It’s more of a meme than anything. These are odd, often embarrassing news events centered on real people in Florida. Here are a couple of my favorite headlines:

“Florida Man in ‘No, Seriously, I have drugs” T-Shirt Arrested for Possession of Drugs”

 “Florida Man Gets Tired of Waiting at Hospital, Steals Ambulance, Drives Home” 

“Florida Man denies Drinking and Driving, Says He only Swigged Bourbon at Stop Signs”

 Nothing personifies the spirit of “Florida Man” more aptly than the Biogenesis scandal that took down Alex Rodriquez and further bloodied the MLB.

I saw a documentary that explained the whole fiasco. It's called Screwball because the story plays out in a zany ridiculous way. It’s one of those times when you lose faith in people and start thinking everyone is working an angle. The director Billy Corben had a lot of fun with it. He used kids in the dramatic recreations to give it a light hearted  slap-sticky feel.

Tony Bosch had a small time clinic in Coral Gables for weight loss and hormone replacement therapy. He was a glorified prescription writer operating under the radar but with a veneer of respectability. His father was a physician listed as the medical director and his signature was needed for the scrips. Tony Bosch goes to great lengths to explain to us (the audience) that he is a ‘real’ doctor, just not licensed for Florida. His dodgy demeanor seeps through like sweat on a cotton shirt. He isn’t Al Capone though. He’s more like “Dr. Nick” the infamous quack from the Simpsons.

His business runs along pretty smooth until he gives advice to some weight lifters on how to get on a cycle of steroids. The connection to sports and athletes begins in that bar. From there he meets Manny Ramirez, puts him on a schedule with strict instructions not to alter the plan. But Manny being Manny alters the plan.

He gets caught on a random test. Ramirez gets suspended while Dr. Bosch disappears for a while and stays away from baseball. He expands his regular Florida business with equally dubious tanning salon guys (think Jersey Shore) that own a string of buildings across Miami. One of the regular customers of the salon, Porter Fischer, becomes a customer of Tony Bosch and even loans Biogenesis some money. Porter is quite naive about the whole operation. He believes the clinic and Tony Bosch are on the level. His investment is a measly $4000 but Tony never repays, despite the constant badgering from Porter.

Porter steals some of Tony’s records to teach him a lesson, including the A-rod notebooks that show him as a paying customer. To think this entire fiasco could have been avoided if the good Dr. would have paid back the 4 grand, it’s almost unbelievable.

Porter clearly didn’t know what he’d done. He is referred to a few times as a sucker in the film but “sucker” doesn’t quite capture it. He ran afoul of some dangerous people and didn’t realize it until very late in the game. His smartest move was going to the local press. After he shows the books to a reporter there is nothing stopping the tsunami of lawsuits and theft, blackmail and legal wrangling. Lucky for Porter this group of misfits wasn’t quite ‘mob’ enough to take him out. Once the story hit the national press he stood a better chance of staying alive.

 It’s the ultimate “Florida Man” news story that snowballs into a media blitz involving celebrities, Major League Baseball and the FBI. All because a sleazy doc selling growth hormone to retirees refused to pay back a measly 4 grand. No one looks good in this.

Alex Rodriguez is an especially loathsome character. He actually hired protesters to hold up supportive signs and shout good will to him as he entered the courthouse in his challenge to the MLB. How did he pay them? With pizza.

I’ve only skimmed it here. The unfolding mess of a story is too good to be fiction. It must be Florida.

Training and Accountability

I was off work today so I decided to a usual short run. I’ve managed to put in 3 days a week on average, although I’m likely to miss a day and settle for 2. I’m planning another half marathon in September, in Colorado. That’s my vacation time and who doesn’t love that state? Rocky Mountain National Park is breathtaking. It just demands to be seen. The Grand Canyon is first on my list but the Rocky Mountains are just ridiculous. Someday I’d like to see Yellowstone but I haven’t made that trip yet. Nor California which is also packed full of natural beauty. 

Not my fault; it’s a big country.

The elevation should make the race interesting. I’d like to run the entire distance (13.1 miles) but without acclimating myself first, I’ll have to take it slow. Currently the weather here in Tulsa is brutal. It has rained a lot which pushed up the humidity even when the sun is overcast. I went for a long run on Sunday with the intention of getting a full 9 miles in. It didn’t go well. The humidity was upwards of 90 degrees and I was as wet as I would have been if the sky opened up and poured rain. Not having the sun in my face was great but the wetness slowed me up quicker than I expected. I only made 7.5 miles. Mostly I can struggle for a few miles and trudge the last bit feeling like I’m pulling a school bus. This time I couldn't.  

I went out again today and huffed through a miserable 3 miles. It’s frustrating to see others out on the trail seemingly dealing with the hot weather like they hadn’t noticed. I barely get around the 3 mile loop and they’re circling it again, with just a touch of perspiration. I know I shouldn’t compare. Especially when circumstances like age, experience and athletic ability come into play. But we do anyway right? I think most of us are competitive to a degree. There is continent size gap between individual levels though. Everyone knows at least one person who must win, at everything, all the time. Others can’t be roused to even try. Both are frustrating but under the right situations we all show grit when our particular sport, game or skill is tested. 

The best way to compete is with yourself, or rather the self you used to be. I like that Apple watch commercial where the guy passes his old self up on the way to exercising gains. He walks right by a slower version of himself and then runs by the walking version of himself. Soon he is swimming and biking in a competitive race. At every level he gets faster and stronger, ultimately healthier.

It’s true in running and it’s true in life, looking back at where you were and seeing improvement is the truest form of success. It’s also the easiest to control. 

There is an accountability aspect of why I started jogging in the first place. I needed to get healthier and lose weight too, but mostly I needed a goal or standard to hold myself to. Writing is the same way. I couldn’t improve unless I created a blog and forced myself to update it regularly. OK, so I don’t put things up every day or even 3 times a day like a proper blogger would. But even that is subject to a lookback, an accounting of how far I’d come. I think a lot of this ‘needing-a-larger-purpose' stuff is rooted in single life. Married people have kids and spouses, and soccer games and school plays, vacations and planning. They are weighted down with responsibility.  Single people have time, too much time really.

Time gets wasted so frequently (if you don’t have kids) that the real challenge is in being constructive. Doing something worthwhile for yourself and others is important for spiritual and mental health. Without accountability we wither on the vine, we can’t move forward and get better, even if getting better at our own slow pace.

Accountability is a first principle. Once you establish its necessity, you can build out from there and take small steps. Improvement comes slowly but it does come. Looking back at the milestones can be fun once accountability is in play. So I'll keep running and churning and pulling the school bus until the next race.

Guilt Free Napping

I took a long afternoon nap the other day. I set the alarm for an hour and passed out, hearing my own faint snoring as I drifted into dreamland. Nothing is quite as wonderful as a late day nap on a non-work day. Obviously I don’t sleep at work. I don’t sit for long stretches unless I’m in front of the computer. I move around a lot, walking the distance of the warehouse and retail store multiple times per day. I sit down to type up orders during slow times and screw around on facebook enter quotes for customers. Mostly I go from walking to hustling. Reading puts me out, after a few chapters my head starts bobbing like a fishing lure.

Napping like this reminds of the days I used to get up early on Saturdays for landscaping. This was before I had a part time job, so likely around 14 or 15 years old. My brother and I both worked for a teacher who had a mowing business in the summer. The summer work was short but the mowing, raking, trimming and leave blowing went on till early in the fall. Saturdays started around 6:00 am and finished around 1. By the end, we were exhausted. College football and naps followed quickly after. I rarely made it through a full game. Day time sleeping always makes me feel a little guilty, like wasting time.

But really, who cares if you like naps or if you don’t? For me it’s an old view that naps are for the lazy. Why is my inner voice always shaming me for dozing off? Is it that old Protestant work ethic fighting for space in my conscience? Proverbs alone list ‘laziness’ in multiple spots and multiple ways. “Go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise” (chapter 6:6). Why should naps get lumped in with that shameful fool from the Proverbs the “sluggard”? It’s pretty obvious Solomon was describing avoidance of work, not a welcomed snooze after a hard day. But the image of the daytime nap, as fit for a bum persists in my mind. Some things take willful courage to get over, at least until the snoring kicks in. Besides is watching 2 hours of TV really better than collapsing on the chaise like an overfed St. Bernard?

 Some cultures work napping into the daytime routine, to the point where afternoon business slows to a crawl. I noticed when I was in China how the afternoon work basically stopped, especially in the summer. The laborers even took long breaks and even napped after lunch in the shade. Same thing for the shops and restaurants in town. Chinese teachers know how to deal with post lunch grogginess, sack out on the office couches before afternoon classes begin.

 As an English teacher I lived at the school and early on, tried to get administrative stuff done during the lunch break. I’d march into the secretary’s office and wake them up to help me with some meaningless chore. I’m sure they rolled their eyes every time I barged in demanding they interpret some obscure bit of paperwork. Or I’d ask the IT guy to wake up and fix the internet connection. Hey don’t blame me, fix the modem man I got baseball scores to check! I learned to relax a little more with every passing month. They work long days (8 am to 8 pm) during the week and they only got every other weekend off.  A brutal schedule for anyone. I never got hip to their daily nap routine though.

I’m sure there are studies that show improved memory and alertness go up with short naps in the daytime. I’m a believer in the adaptability of the person though. Each one of us is unique, but despite that we can also get into a regular pattern of efficiency with or without naps. We might need to eat less during the day or sleep more at night, but efficient people thrive because they want to, not because they took a 30 minute snooze. Most of us have had to work a different schedule at some point in life. I feel much better with a regular 9 to 5 type schedule than an evening shift or a midnight shift. But I’ve done all 3.

Other than the laziness quirk I’ve always had about napping, there is the very real problem of wasting a good chunk of the day with a 2 hour siesta. On those days the napping is so good we reset the alarm for another hour, and another. When we finally roll off the couch and stumble to the kitchen and notice the clock. We’ve slept through another afternoon. Napping feels like disengaging. Not the good kind either where you unwind and de-stress, the “has-anyone-seen-Adam-this-year?” kind. If it leads to avoidance of projects or learning or spending time with loved ones it’s probably laziness. I guess that’s what Solomon was getting at. Sluggards or not, snoozing till late in the day feels amazing until the shame factor kicks in.

Now I love to nap after a long run or long week. It’s like a little reward, especially when football is on.

Origins on "First Principles"

I chose to call this blog “first principles” because I wanted to write pieces that break down ideas to their constituent parts. I admit it’s a big task. So far a lot of my stuff is sports and personal running goals. The blog has gotten pretty far afield since I started. I like to write light hearted stuff too, it’s a lot easier. But the idea of drilling down into core beliefs still appeals to me. I like the idea of thinking with first principles in mind.

I think the Cambridge English dictionary’s description is the best: First Principles “The basic and most important reasons for doing or believing something.”

In any age you need to know who you are and what you believe. What you believe should come through in the way you live. The core ideas about human nature and God, original sin and the afterlife come through in our views on existence. It isn’t intentional all the time but it’s there, running in the background like an app on your computer.

Here is a first principle: God created the earth and all life within. People are therefore His creation. Babies are people. Abortion kills a life that God created. I’m against abortion because the core of my first principle is that life is sacred because God made it so. It’s a belief that I link back to the Creation principle. The opposite argument also constitutes a ‘principled’ belief; there is no God and life is meaningless. Abortion isn’t a big deal because humans find their own meaning and create their own morality. Both are ‘principled’ in the strict definition of the word. Both trace an opinion on abortion back to a rooted value.

We don’t prove or disprove philosophical theories with first principles. We simply explain where the value comes from. We explain how an idea came to be. We explain how it runs through every significant view we hold like connective tissue.  

First comes the principle then comes the idea or view. Most political or philosophical reasoning comes straight from notions on human nature. I don’t mean that every person who votes for a tax increase to pay for local schools traces their opinion to Aristotle. But our governments, churches, schools and institutions have at their core, a view about human nature. Their functions are an outgrowth of their founding principles. 

Our government is broadly democratic because of the notion that “citizenship connotes responsibility. Citizenship is tied to the country’s founding and rooted in rights that are inalienable.  Since humans are born with these rights, the government must recognize them and protect them. Basic democratic norms begin with the principle that the individual is supreme.

Using first principles doesn’t mean mapping out connections with tacks and string on the wall like every killer in “Criminal Minds”. It’s more generally a way to think, a method of arranging mental parts. 

   

In the movie Money Ball Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) has an epiphany about finding value in overlooked baseball players. He puts together, along with his stat nerd, a list of players with high on base percentages (OBP) but low batting averages. Low averages mean they won’t cost the team much. The stats show that getting on base more frequently equals more wins, regardless of whether by hit or walk. So he rolled the dice on some bargain players past their prime. He didn’t have a choice anyway. The A’s had one of the lowest payrolls in the league. The Oakland A’s finished first that year, 2002. Beane used first principles to get wins by asking a basic question, how can we get more runs?

I think I envision doing more first principle type writing when I started the blog. Trying to find the basis for why people think the way they do has always appealed to me. I don’t always get it right and much of it is just opinion anyway. But I like to think if you go below the surface just a bit the image we all see can make a little more sense. In science, literature, film, religion, philosophy and countless other disciplines applying first principles helps us think clearer.  

Summer Training

I finished a long run this morning that should’ve included less walking and more running. But who is to say what is too much and what is not enough? It’s July in Oklahoma and although we started early the heat and humidity are impossible to ignore.

I guess the whole 11.5 mile route we took on (my brother and I) lasted around 3 hours. Obviously we didn’t run the whole path. We took a lot of stops for water at various parks along the way, some in neighborhoods as well. I haven’t gotten one of those handheld bottles for long distance running yet. Chuck had one but we needed the stops anyway, just to stretch and catch our breath. I’ve found out though that if you stop too much it gets harder to get going again with each new start. We knocked out the first 6 miles or so with minimal breaks. It worked out well because the hilly part defined the first leg while the second half was mostly flat.

After 6 miles we started taking longer breaks and even walking long stretches. I blame myself mostly. I was sweating so severely that my shoes felt as if I’d stepped in a mud puddle. My feet were soaked and it caused the inserts to shift around inside the shoes and bunch up. I stopped multiple times and retied them hoping that some change in position would alter the shoes just enough and help me ignore what I assumed would be blisters later on. Nothing worked. I eventually took the inserts out and carried them. It felt better even with the lack of grip inside the shoe. They felt roomier too which isn’t great for jogging but I couldn’t keep going with the inserts sloshing around.

 During the last half of the run the temperature was in the low eighties. That doesn’t sound like much but with the added humidity and full sun it was stifling. Next time maybe we should leave a little earlier. But despite not getting in a full run start to finish, I still acclimated to the temperature and hills. Those two things I’ve been making an effort to attack better. The later stages of races require grit that (honestly) I don’t have yet. You get it by breaking your muscles down and going at whatever pace is necessary to keep moving. If running is impossible at the moment, walk. Walk for a while until you can run again. Jog a hundred yards at a time if you have to.

I’m figuring it out slowly. I’m a little worried that nutrition plays a more important role in endurance than I’m comfortable with.  But like all diets/programs you can find one that claims whatever you need it too. If heaping piles of mint chocolate chip ice cream helps athletes run better than I’m a freaking triathlete. If coffee is a miracle drink than I’m superhuman! For me though, less is more with food. When I eat smaller portions I have more energy.

 Nutrition is like religion, people pick them based on their preconceived ideas about humanity and existence, good and evil. A rare few are willing to submit themselves to a higher cause no strings attached. I guess the “worry” comes the lack of a rigorous plan for losing weight and keeping down blood pressure. I just don’t want to think about it. I enjoy certain ‘bad foods’ and I don’t want to give them up.  Ignoring problems makes them go away right?

Next big run I’ll wear double socks and buy proper shoe inserts. Still learning.

Boldness in Truth: Acts Chapter 4

The book of Acts is an encouraging read. Acts follows the proceeding years after Jesus ascended to Heaven and the Holy Spirit becomes the “helper” predicted by Christ in John 16. The apostles take the mantel of leadership, teaching about the resurrection and performing miracles. In chapter 4 Peter and John get arrested by the Sadducees (religious leaders) for preaching.  But a significant amount of men, around five thousand, believed the message and it bothered the Sadducees. They tried to convince Peter and John not to speak by threatening them. Of course they refused and went on performing miracles anyway, healing in the name of Jesus.

Boldness is emphasized in this passage, Peter’s boldness in the face of opposition. Peter and his companions pray for boldness as well “Now Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word…” (verse 29).

 Boldness is critical for two reasons. First, it suggests moral clarity from the speaker, especially one “uneducated and untrained”. This was exactly what the Sadducees noticed in Peter before they shut him down. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee, a hick. Jerusalem was a cosmopolitan city, home to merchants and traders. A country boy like Peter would naturally feel out of place, unqualified to speak with authority on anything. He addresses the bigshots first “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel…” (verse 8). 

This is like the intern addressing the CEO “Excuse me Mr. President and staff, I'll need everyone's attention. I have something to say!”

It’s crazy. It’s improper. It’s bold.

Only a person who answers to a higher authority takes that kind of risk. Peter reacted to the truth right in front of him and the Holy Spirit did the rest.

 The second reason boldness is critical is body language, a practical need. People pick up on body language cues and presentation. A bold stage actor doing Macbeth is impossible to look away from. Their movements and voice attract the eye. Not that every act of boldness requires a demonstrative display, courage can be quiet and unassuming. But speaking to crowds demands a certain confidence in the message. If the speaker isn’t sure about what he is saying, why bother to stop and listen?

Boldness bridges the gap between our ignorance and God’s eternal truth.

We always think that boldness means doing some great act. History is full of examples of bravery in the face of persecution, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposing Soviet brutality in the labor camps, Martin Luther King championing equal rights in the South, and William Tyndale for translating a non-approved Bible into English. Most of the time though truth in boldness is closer to home. Honesty in job interviews or on resumes is a small act but one we easily blow off. Being honest with a family member or friend when you know the truth will alienate them. It’s tough to tell the truth because there is usually a measurable cost to standing up.

A belief in traditional marriage was never a courageous act, but as the culture changes so does tolerance for opposing views. Brendan Eich was forced to resign from Mozilla in 2014, a company he co-founded, because of his support for Prop 8 (pro-traditional marriage) in California. The board was so offended by his support for the bill and gave him a choice, renounce the donation and make amends with the gay community or risk having droves of users abandon the Firefox browser. He chose to resign. He stuck to the truth and accepted the consequences.

I watched a speech from Andrew Klavan where he told about a request from large book sellers in the U.K. to re-write characters in his books to hide their Christianity. Doing re-writes for different countries isn't that unusual but this particular request was too much for him. He denied the request and missed having his book sold in large book sellers in the U.K. 

So not having your book sold in certain markets isn't exactly like being burned at the stake. Still, if we can't tell small truths we won't tell big ones.   

The costs aren’t the end of the story though. Anyone who battles hard for truth eventually secures victory. Solzhenitsyn saw his novel published, Martin Luther King Jr. did see some victories in desegregation before being assassinated. Tyndale’s Bible was eventually printed (80% of it) after his death. The boldness that Peter showed was the first move toward igniting a movement that continues today, the spread of the gospel.

 Speaking truth in a climate of fear always costs something. Peter and John were thrown in jail, threatened and would forever be identified by the Sadducees as Christian sect nuts. But through their speech they influenced thousands and funded their ministry through the generosity of the multitude “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet;” (verse 34-35).

God had a plan for them that required a difficult first step.

Day-Off Blues

I’m in a testy mood right now. It’s Monday and I had the day off work. About the only worthwhile thing I did was go to the gym this morning and lift weights. With all the running I’ve done recently the weight lifting has dropped off significantly. Not to mention I always come home after work at least one day per week and mow the lawn. So my gym days are cut to 2 per week if I’m lucky. There was a time when that would have bothered me. I don’t have the energy or strength that I used to so the switch to running has been timely.

I took a nap this afternoon, yikes right? an actual nap. I could’ve worked on my kitchen floor and finished the tiling job which is quickly running into multiple months without being complete. Laziness rears its ugly head though. Days off aren’t days to lay around and do nothing. 

Because I instinctively understand this my conscience makes me miserable throughout the day when I do nothing. Hence the testy mood. 

I avoid people when I'm in a mood like this. Last time it happened I picked up cereal at the grocery store and haggled with the poor cashier over a dollar on a box of Honey Bunches of Oats. The label on the shelf had one price, the register showed another. Apparently the low price was for 8 boxes not 1. 8 freaking boxes of cereal! who buys that much? I made the bag boy shuffle off to check, everyone was rolling their eyes, sighing heavily, stomping off to other registers and generally hating me. "I hate all of you too! Hope you choke on your food!" I thought...but didn't say. 

I stayed in today.

I started out watching the Cubs and Pirates on ESPN but the boys from Chicago started a rookie and he got shelled. After the 2^nd inning they were down by 7. They kept giving up runs too even after they pulled the pitcher and began working through bullpen. I turned it off after 13-6. At some point you’re just watching the game for commentary, the win being so far out of hand.

I need to come up with a better plan for off days and stick to them. Plan a small project and do it before doing anything else. Set aside some money to buy products, house or yard, and get them the night before. I tried this once before and it proved remarkable effective. Of course I never have all the tools and products I need to do a proper job. I’m a 3 trip minimum on hardware store visits. That’s per project not per question I come up with for the employee in the plumbing department or the flooring section. It’s a little frustrating but Lowes is literally a block away so I can’t complain. Money is a little tighter than it was last year however. New cars will do that, as will the increased insurance needed for it.

All of have those things in life we’re good at. For me, exercise and fitness go in the plus column while home repair is firmly in the minus column. I’m not one who thinks every man should learn how to fix everything in the house. But I could certainly do more. Every year is a little better than the last though. I’m not totally useless. For the rest I’ll just get help. Anyway that’s what I’m working on, being more efficient with time.