The SoapBoxers

This article was first published on Feburary 17, 2009.  Early in this year’s new baseball season, I bring it to you again.  I have added a couple of sites to the original list (denoted in brackets).  I have also, sadly, removed one good site that died.  RIP From Small Ball to the Long Ball.

Another baseball season is finally upon us! I follow baseball with a passion that borders on addiction. Well, perhaps it’s beyond the border. The internet is a great place to get information. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite baseball sites.

MLB.com, of course, is the official site of Major League Baseball. In addition to news, standings, etc, MLB.com is home to MLB.tv and MLB Audio. For $100 (or $120 for premium content) you can watch any game on your computer (subject to blackout restrictions) all season long. For $19.95, you can listen to the audio feed of any game (not subject to blackout). This is a nice, cheap option for following out of market teams.

MLBTradeRumors is a nonstop source of rumors about trades and free agent signings. Updates occur multiple times during the day, hitting a frantic pace at the trade deadline. The guy who runs the site scours multitudes of other sources in an effort to compile every rumor.

SportsBlog Nation is a compilation of blogs from every major sport. The folks who run each blog keep up to date on every aspect of the team and pass the knowledge on to you. In addition to covering the major league team, they also keep you up to date on all of the minor league teams in your organization. The fan interaction is also a great feature. Game threads – in which fans are commenting on game action as it occurs – is pretty cool.

Renowned minor league analyst John Sickels runs Minorleagueball.com. John is one of the most knowledgeable minor league experts in the country. He publishes a book on prospects every year, but he also gives out an incredible amount of free information on his site.

There’s also the official Minor League site. MILB.com posts draftee profiles each spring.  Andy Seiler’s MLB Bonus Baby site [2010 new addition to my list] is another great draft resource.

You can find player salary information in several places, but COT’s Baseball Contracts keeps tracks of all the nitty gritty details – such as incentives and service time (helpful for determining when players will be eligible for arbitration or free agency).

baseball-reference.com is the best place I have found for baseball statistics. It tends to allow you to delve a bit more deeply into the numbers. In addition to tons of great content, BR’s premium “PI” service allows you to do some really deep searching. You can subscribe to PI for very short time periods (as low as $2.00 for 24 hours) so you don’t necessarily need to pay the $29 annual fee for a short research project.

Fangraphs goes into a lot of depth in their statistics. Considering the name, it should come as no surprise that they also have graphs on the site. The graphs show how player performance has differed from year to year, while also comparing the performance to the MLB average for those statistics.

The Lahman Database is a free (donations accepted) compilation of statistics for every player from 1871-present. MS Access, SQL, and CSV formats available.

The College Baseball Blog, not surprisingly, follows the college game [2010 new addition to my list].  NCAA baseball gets a lots less attention than its football and basketball cousin, in large part because much of the elite talent is drafted out of high school and come up through the minor league ranks.  As such, you typically have to hunt for good information.  This site is a great one-stop shop for college ball.

Summer Ball covers collegiate players, with a specific focus on the collegiate summer leagues. The summer leagues use wood bats instead of the aluminum bats used in NCAA games. If a player performs well in a summer league, it can often boost their stock in the draft, since the adjustment to wood can be a problem for some players.

Nippon Baseball Tracker covers Japanese leagues.

MLB’s Collective Bargaining Agreement can be downloaded in PDF format. I actually have a printed copy of the CBA which I keep in a binder. I wouldn’t say that it is a page turner, but it is great for settling arguments.

Lady Antebellum has exploded in popularity in the last year. Today, I review the album Need you Now.

Cheris	Song
	Need You Now	I recently heard this referred to as “The Booty Call Song”.  That’s probably not the most elegant way to describe it. but also not entirely wrong.
	Our Kind of Love	I love the very beginning of this song, and overall, it’s a pretty good song about a special love.  At this point in the album, you really begin to take notice of the strong instrumental aspects of this album.
	American Honey	Far and away the best song on the album.  Quite often, I’ll listen to this song of “growing up slow, like American honey” a half dozen times in a row.
	Hello World	Like Our Kind of Love, I also enjoy the very beginning of this song.  Hello World slows things down a bit and talks about what’s really important in life.  The choice to put this back to back with American Honey results in a rather interest audio contrast – which I enjoy.
	Perfect Day	The tone of the music becomes upbeat again, taking us through a day which will surely be remembered as one of the “good old days”.
	Love This Pain	Ah, love can be so painful at times … but it’s the best sort of pain, isn’t it?  A nice toe-tapping beat.
	When You Got a Good Thing	This song is another slower song, describing a wonderful love between two people – “you gotta know when you’ve got a good thing.”
	Stars Tonight	Once again, the song has a very strong instrumental introduction.  Stars Tonight takes us inside the experience of being a musician on the stage in front of an adoring crowd.  I’ll give this song the nod as the second best song on the album and award five Cheris.
	If I Knew Then	A tale of regret at missing the opportunity for love – messing up the chance at true love in a number of different ways.
	Something ‘Bout a Woman	There’s just something about a woman that makes the singer feel wonderful – even the seemingly insignificant parts of her.
	Ready to Love Again	The album ends on a slower note.  An album filled with quite a few upbeat love songs finishes up with a song of a woman deciding to finally move on and take the risk of falling in love again.
Album grade: This is a stunningly strong album, top to bottom.  I personally think that American Honey is off the charts in terms of quality, and there really isn’t a weak song in the mix.  Not only are the songs well written and well sung, but they also feature very strong instrumentals.  I have no problems awarding a perfect five Cheri rating.  Lady Antebellum consists of Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, and Hillary Scott.

Lady Antebellum Need You Now

I have been a fan of the Colorado Rockies since their inaugural season in 1993.  I had deserted the Cubs the previous winter after losing confidence in the front office in the aftermath of Greg Maddux leaving town.  I decided make a clean break, and picked an expansion team to follow.

I live 800 miles from Denver.  This means that I’ve only been to one game at Coors Field, and that I have rarely had the opportunity to catch a game on TV.  Unless they play the Cubs or the Cardinals, the game is not on TV.  I have been a longtime purchaser of MLB.com’s audio package, and have listened to a lot of games over the years.

This year would be different.  I purchased the MLB Extra Innings package through DirecTV.  I would now be able to watch every Rockies game!  I looked forward to opening day.

Imagine my frustration when I found out that that game was blacked out.  Why?  Because Iowa is considered a “local market” for the opponents of the Rockies, the Milwaukee Brewers.  I have lived in Iowa nearly all my life, and I have met exactly one Brewers fan during this time.  He was in town on a temporary assignment and was from Wisconsin.

Iowa is considered a local market for six teams – the Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Twins, Brewers, and Royals.

The main reason for blackouts is to force people to watch game on local and regional channels.  This would make some sense – if those teams were actually available to me on local and regional channels.  I can tune in to nearly every Cubs games.  Most White Sox games are also available to me.  A smattering of Cardinals games appear on the WB during the season.

As for the Twins, Brewers, and Royals?  There is no way for me to tune into these games.

There is also gross inequality in the system.  My friend Lazy Man hails from Boston.  How many teams are blacked out in Boston?  Just one – the Red Sox.  The Sox are readily available on a regional channel.  Lazy Man currently resides in the Bay area.  How many teams are blacked out there?  Two – the Giants and A’s.  Again, both teams are readily available on local and regional channels.  Contrast this with Iowa and Nevada, which each have six teams blacked out.

The fact that I am paying a premium price for this package makes me even more upset.  If Major League Baseball is really that concerned that my ability to tune into a Rockies – Brewers game via MLB Extra Innings will somehow take money away from the local stations that carry the Brewers games, there’s a really easy solution for that.  Take some of the money that they get from me (via the conduit of DirecTV) and pay some of it to those stations.  Problem solved.  Baseball has a happy customer who will renew Extra Innings next year and the Brewers stations are being fairly compensated.

Want to know what teams are blacked out in which areas?  Here’s a nifty map.  It’s from 2006, and while there may be slightly more updated maps available, I have found this one to be the easiest to understand.

The first customer at the Hyrax Publication Store today will get their entire purchase price refunded.  Yep, your purchase could be 100% free!

Even if you’re not the lucky first customer, I’m confident that you’ll find the prices quite reasonable.

If you haven’t read the first part of the story, you’ll definitely want to read it first (it’s here).

Miranda paced back and forth and the stage and wrung her hands, obviously unsure of what to do next. Finally, she spoke again.

“Well, folks, I guess the show must go on. The next part of the act calls for me to push the box back together and have Sarah pop out of he box unharmed. I’m afraid it is too late for Sarah, but we can at least honor her memory by finishing the trick.”

Miranda moved slowly toward the two halves of the box. She pushed them together and halfheartedly uttered some magic words. She barely glanced at the box as she opened the door.

Miranda had already turned her back to the box and was walking toward the front of the stage when, to the amazement of everyone in the theater, Sarah popped out of the box and onto the stage. The crowd went absolutely wild – Miranda and Sarah received several curtain calls before finally retreating backstage.

After the crowd had left for the evening, there was a meeting in a back room at the Riverview Theatre. In attendance were Marcus, Miranda, and the three male members of the entourage.

Marcus immediately tried to take control of the meeting.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove with your stunt tonight – “ he began.

“Oh, shut up,” responded Miranda. “You don’t call the shots any more. I’m in charge.”

“How do you come to that illogical conclusion?”

“I’ve put up with a lot from you over the years. The verbal abuse, the condescension, and now the affair. You have no friends in this room. It’s the end of the line for you.”

Marcus laughed. “The end of the line? What are you going to do – kill me?”

“Oh, even better than that,” replied Miranda. “I know how fascinated you are with the Amazon. I’ve decided to give you the gift of a long vacation there.”

Marcus was now ever more confused. “And this is some sort of punishment?”

“It’s a rather remote spot. In fact, it’s my belief that this area has never experienced human contact.”

Marcus was still a bit slow to understand.

Miranda explained further. “Did I mention that this is a trip for two? We’re going to drop you and your mistress into the middle of the rainforest. If you and Sarah ever want to see other human beings, you’d be well advised to start breeding like those stupid rabbits you use in your tricks. Maybe you can start an entire race of sub humans.”

The next day, a plane flew over the Amazon and pushed Marcus and Sarah out the door. Their parachutes slowed their descent until finally they disappeared below the canopy of the rain forest and were never heard from again.

Weeks later, Marcus’ PR firm sent out a press release informing the media that Marcus the Magnificent would be taking a long sabbatical to re-discover himself. In the interim, his wife would be taking over his show. The media and the public had become jaded to Marcus’ antics over the years, and this news was barely a blip on the radar.

Thousands of miles away, one of the greatest magicians in the world was failing at some of the most basic tasks of a hunter and gatherer. The raw meat made him nauseous, but he had not yet mastered the ancient art of creating fire.

If you noticed the theme of scorned women taking revenge carrying over from last week’s story, The Proxy, don’t worry – it’s not the sole theme of my stories.  The two stories simply originated from the same brainstorming session.

Editor’s note: I’d like to welcome all my friends from Man Vs. Debt to The Soap Boxers.  Sit down in a comfy chair, kick off your shoes, and enjoy today’s story.

The third rabbit hopped out of the hat, looked around for a moment, and then quickly joined his friends. The three rabbits hopped off the stage, into the hands of the assistants.

“Those suckers multiply faster than a math teacher,” boomed the voice from the middle of the stage. The large crowd responded to the bad joke with a combination of laughter and good-natured boos.

Marcus the Magnificent was on his game on this hot August night. He was playing at the Fairview Theatre – his normal venue. The massive theatre was filled to the rafters with adoring fans.

The master showman guided the crowd through his act, starting with small tricks and gradually building to two big illusions at the end of the evening.

As the evening came to a close, Marcus called his assistant, Miranda, to the stage. He had Miranda step into a box, closed the door, and told the audience that he would make the women vanish.

“Look now – the lovely Miss Miranda has completely disappeared!” With that, Marcus yanked on the door of the box. To his surprise, he was greeted by an enormous plume of smoke, and then he felt himself falling. This was most certainly not a part of the act.

When the smoke disappeared, Miss Miranda was standing on the stage, but the magician was nowhere to be seen. The crowd was puzzled at this turn of events.

Miss Miranda quickly took the reins. She stepped back toward the box and peered inside.

“Marcus?” she called. “Marcus? Where have you gone?”

Miranda turned back to the crowd. “I’m afraid that Marcus the Magnificent must have used the wrong magic words – as he himself has disappeared! Perhaps we should continue with the act and try to make him reappear.”

The crowd murmured as Miranda closed the door of the box.

“Great magic box, I command you – bring Marcus back to us!” There was another plume of smoke. A moment later, Miranda yanked open the door to the box.

“Marcus, step forth!” she shouted.

But Marcus did not step forth. Miranda was still alone on the stage.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, folks. This has never happened before. I’m really not sure where to go from here. Should I send you home for the night – or do you want to stay and watch me perform a few tricks I have learned from Marcus?”

“Stay, stay, stay!” shouted the crowd.

“OK, OK,” she acquiesced. “The show must go on! I’m afraid I’m not very familiar with the schedule for tonight’s show. Johnny, can you bring me Marcus’ notes for this performance?”

Marcus’ assistant Johnny crossed the stage and handed several sheets of paper to Miranda. She took a moment to glance through the itinerary for the evening. She pondered aloud, allowing the crowd to hear her thoughts.

“Boring, boring, too hard for me, boring, stupid rabbit trick … ah, here we go. This is a trick I can perform.”

Miranda strode to the center of the stage.

“Ladies and gentleman, the next trick has amazed and astounded crowds for decades. In front of your very eyes tonight, I will saw a woman in half.”

As the crowed focused on Miranda and waited for her to perform the best illusion of the entire evening, Marcus the Magnificent began to regain his consciousness. To his great surprised, he found himself bound, gagged, and in the captivity of three rather mean looking men.

Miranda finished sawing through the box and pushed the two halves of the box away from her. The crowd could clearly see the woman’s head sticking out of the top half of the box and her feet sticking out the bottom half of the box.

The crowd gasped when the spotlight focused on a small pool of blood on the stage.

“Oh dear,” cried out Miranda. “I’m afraid this is the first time I have tried this trick with an actual person. Perhaps I should have practiced it first.”

How will this story turn out?  Come back tomorrow to read the conclusion!  (Or just subscribe via RSS or email to catch all future editions of The Soap Boxers)

Dispelling the Health Care Rumors

I’ve seen a lot of arguments on both sides of the health care debate in the past few months. A lot of smart things have been said, and a lot of flat-out untruths have been spread. I’m here to take on the ones that bother me the most.

1) The government is just intruding on your freedom

The Truth: The mayor of East Podunk, Kentucky could sneeze and someone out there would see it as a governmental invasion of your freedom. The fact is, the government isn’t forcing you to buy health care any more than they’re forcing you to buy auto insurance if you own and drive a car, but you will pay a tax if you don’t have health care come 2014. Right now the majority of Americans have health care through their job, so if you’re reading this odds are you fall in that category. If you’re not one of those people, don’t have health insurance, and don’t want health insurance then you’re a liability on us all: if you get sick or injured to the point where you have to go to the ER, you’re a burden on everyone’s taxes, including your own.

2) This is just one more step toward socialism!

The Truth: The average person who says that has no clue what socialism really is. The US has, and has had for many years, socialist systems in place: Unemployment, social security, police forces, fire departments, and even the military. The military is like a little socialist bubble society within American society. Beyond that we already have socialist systems in place, you’re going to pay a tax if you’re not already receiving health care from your capitalistic job so that if you should be injured or get sick to the point of needing emergency medical services you won’t be an undue burden on the government. Gee, that tax kind of sounds like … insurance, doesn’t it?

3) This is government takeover of health care.

The Truth: No. Private insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals will still exist as private, for-profit businesses. The government is already in the health care business from Medicare and Medicaid, programs which millions of people are very happy with. Here’s two typical right-wing talking points that don’t logically work when combined: the government can’t run anything right, and health care companies are afraid the government will run them out of business. If these companies are so successful why should they be afraid of an inept and bumbling government?

4) The US already has the best health care system in the world, we don’t need any new laws or to change anything.

The Truth: The US, according to the WHO in 2000, ranked 37th in the world as far as health care goes; slightly above Slovenia and Cuba (you know, Cuba, that socialist, communist, pinko country to the south of Florida). This ranking was based on number of preventable deaths, healthy life expectancy, health performance rank, and total expenditure of percentage of GDP for health care. I know, if Canada has such good health care, why do their leaders come here to see our doctors? They don’t. The only positive proof of this I was able to find was a Canadian Parliament minister coming to the US to see a specialist for a very specific issue. I can even counter that with a personal anecdote: I had a friend go to Germany for experimental cancer treatment when his US insurance was unwilling to pay for expensive treatment that might have saved his life. Sadly, he died a few years ago because of that cancer. Yay capitalism.

5) “Death Panels” will decide when your grandma dies.

The Truth: That is so outrageously false I’m shocked that anyone actually believes it, but then I’m shocked people believe half the things that come out of Glenn Beck’s mouth. The best I could come up with is the term “Death Panel” was made up by Sarah Palin in an attempt to sensationalize end-of-life counseling and use it as a scare tactic. When people get old, they sometimes need more help from medical professionals than when they were younger. This can get expensive. To help best plan for this time often their children consult with a doctor on what to do. This is called end-of-life counseling. Here, I’ll re-label it. Let’s call it … Elderly Living Assistance Planning.

6) Non-jailed sex offenders will be able to get viagra on this plan!

The Truth: What? Are you serious? Senator Coburn of Oklahoma brought this up in yet another attempt to scare people away from the idea of health care reform. A convicted sex offender not in jail could get viagra on this new health care reform law in the same way a convicted murderer not in jail could get a gun – through someone willing to give it to them. The outrage at this issue is misplaced, as that scenario is no less or more likely 2 years ago than it is 2 years from now.

7) Costs will go up with the new health care law.

The Truth: What’s to prevent costs from going up now, say … the way they have the past 10 years? Since 2000 there has been a 100% increase in the cost of health care to the average individual while the average wage increase is a fraction of that. Yet, health insurance companies have been reporting record profits and your average health insurance company officer makes tens of millions of dollars a year. At least with an open market system we’d have a chance at real capitalistic price wars. Right now the CEO’s paycheck is padded each time a pencil-pusher gets a pat on the pack for denying you coverage on something. I’d rather have a complete government takeover – I trust the “inept, bumbling” government with my health more than I trust someone to pick my health over greed.

Butler – Duke

I was on the phone with DirecTV diagnosing why, exactly, my receivers were not picking up the MLB Extra Inning package (despite being signed up several weeks ago) and managed to miss much of the NCAA championship game.

I did manage to catch the last 12 minutes or so of the game.  I was pulling for underdog Butler.   When they missed a shot with less than 5 seconds remaining, I thought that they were finished.  I was stunned at how close Gordon Hayward’s desperation shot came.  Had he made the shot, I would have ranked it as the best moment in the history of the NCAA tournament.

It’s time to close the door on another basketball season and transition to baseball.

Is There an Editor in the House?

Earlier in the week, USA Today announced that their annual survey of baseball salaries indicated a 17% drop – saying that the average player’s salary dropped from $3.2 million in 2009 to $2.7 million in 2010.  A number of sites reported this news, only to later print news of a correction.  Player salaries actually ticked slightly upward (less than 1%).

I can understand some Mom and Pop sites believing this news, but struggle with how a big organization (ESPN, I’m looking at you) fell for it.

There are a number of ways to calculate this, but if we assume simply the 25 man rosters of each team, a $500,000 decrease per player would have been a $375 million decrease across baseball.

This really should have begged the question – where did this money come from?  Sure, there were some players taking pay cuts, but others signed contracts that paid them more money.  A few notable players retired, but they didn’t take hundreds of millions of dollars in salary with them.

I think one thing that may have made this believable was that the crop of free agents didn’t sign for as much money as last year’s crop.  However, that doesn’t mean that salaries declined – it’s a completely apples to oranges comparison.  The fact that Matt Holliday signed for less money this year than Mark Teixeira did last year doesn’t mean that this negatively impacted salaries.  Holliday isn’t making as much as Teixeira, but he is still exceeding his own 2009 salary.  That’s what we should be looking at.

Much of the blame should go to USA Today, of course.  They’ve been generating these reports for many years, and yet nobody realized that there was no basis for the reported decline.  The amount was large enough that it should have caused raised eyebrows and verification of the data.

The Resin Bag

I’m going to call this section – with short blurbs – The Resin Bag.  Welcome aboard, Resin Bag.

Tiger Woods fielded some questions from reporters and once again apologized for his actions.  OK, at this point, you either believe that he is contrite, or you don’t.  Is repetition going to change your mind?  Let’s move on.

Kurt Warner threw out the first pitch before the Diamondbacks game on Opening Day.  It was a bit to the third base side of the plate, but not a bad effort compared to the typical first pitches we see.

Marc Bulger – who replaced the “injured and washed-up” Warner as quarterback of the St. Louis Rams and was expected to lead them back to the Super Bowl – was cut loose by the team after a 1-15 season.  The consensus thought is that the Rams are paving the way to select Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford with the #1 pick in the draft.

Fantasy baseball heartburn began early this year, with the Youra Peeins third baseman Ian Stewart teeing off of Peeins teammate Yovani Gallardo.  It’s always a bittersweet moment when one fantasy player succeeds at the expense of someone else on your team.  In this case, Stewie is not only a Peein, but also a member of the real life Colorado Rockies – making it easier to cheer for him to succeed.

I also got roped into a “straight” league (as opposed to my Alphabet Soup League) as a last minute spot filler.  I haven’t even had a chance to take a close look at the rules, so the other teams will probably chew up Bats in the Belfry.  On the plus side, it’s an opportunity to compete in a CBS league – which I’ve heard good things about.

[Note: this article is from 2010 and refers to Lisa by her maiden name throughout.  I have changed the title to include her married name in an effort to make it easier for fans to find this article.]

I am an alumnus of Iowa State University and a former high school track athlete (albeit a slow one).  Thus,  I am  following the career of Iowa State runner Lisa Koll with considerable interest.

Koll won exactly zero state titles in high school.  She has made up for this by adding several NCAA titles to her resume.

The most recent record breaking performance by Koll was on March 26 at the Stanford Invitational (outdoor meet).  Koll posted a time of 31:18:07 for the 10,000 meters.  She won the race by 28 seconds.  If you don’t think this is impressive, stare at your watch for 28 seconds.  That’s quite the lag time between first and second place.  She broke the collegiate record by more than 8 seconds.

The NCAA also keeps a record of the fastest collegiate performances by Americans.  Many of the elite NCAA track performers are athletes from other countries who are attending college in the U.S.  Koll’s time was more than 59 seconds faster than the previous record for an American collegiate performer – 32:17.10 by Christine McMiken in 1986.

Koll was battling an injury last year and finished a mere 9^th in the 10,000 meter run at the NCAA outdoor championships.  In 2008, she won the title with a time of 32:44.95.  In other words, she has sliced 86 seconds off a time that was already good enough to win a national title!

Koll is not a one trick pony, though.  She recently won the women’s 5000 meters at the NCAA indoor meet.  In the Big 12 conference indoor meet, Koll set a new collegiate record in the 5000 meters.  Her time of 15:41.57 was more than 17 seconds faster than the previous record.

Koll also finished second in the 3000 meters at the NCAA indoor meet.  She had run the 5000 meters the prior day; her main rival had not (and was thus fresh for the 3000 race).  Koll was edged by 0.12 seconds in the race.  She had dominated the event at the conference meet.  Her time in the 3000 meters at the Big 12 meet was “just” the third fastest collegiate time for that event.  At the conference meet, she finished more than 22 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.  This is an enormous margin for a relatively short race.

Distance runners tend improve after their collegiate years, so it’s likely that we haven’t yet seen the best of Koll.  As a point of comparison, the current national record of 30:22.22 for the 10,000 meters was set by Shalane Flanagan when she was 27 years old (that record is an impressive 28 seconds faster than the 2^nd best runner).  At this point, Koll is “only” the sixth fastest American woman ever.  If she can improve her time by 5 seconds, she would jump into the 4^th spot.  A half dozen years of improvement after college, and perhaps she’ll grab the national record.   The current world record is 29:31.78 – could this possibly be in play?

Watch for Lisa Koll in the 2012 Olympics and beyond!

Another Easter has come and gone. For Christians, this is an especially important holiday. It is the culmination of all of the teachings of the Christian churches. As a Roman Catholic and as a Boy Scout leader, Easter has significance that many may not know or understand. You may think, what has Boy Scouts got to do with Easter? That is actually the simplest question to answer. Boy Scout troops are under an obligation to assist and participate in sponsoring organization activities. If a troop is sponsored by a VFW , they are expected to assist in the placement of flags on the graves of veterans on Memorial day, Flag day, and Veteran’s day and participate in activities for the various services’ birthdays / anniversaries, Armed Forces Day and Patriot day. The troop which I serve is sponsored by the School attached to my church, a Roman Catholic Church. We support the church carnival, fall clean up, spring spruce up, decorating for holidays and supporting the Easter service.

What is involved in the Easter service at our church is slightly more difficult to explain. In the Catholic Church, any items bless for the use in any or our rites must be disposed of properly. Liquids such as holy water should not be put down the drain to be mixed with common waste, instead it should be spread in a garden or poured on a plant. The Catholic Church as many rites, and many items used to perform those rites. Some of these items are as common as prayer slips (little slips of paper people write names on for private prays) or more specialized like the chrism (anointing oil) which is used for Baptism, anointing of the sick and other activities.

On the Easter Vigil (Saturday night before Easter from sun down to midnight in some parishes), the items that can be burned are consumed in what is called a new fire. This is a fire build not by using a flame from the existing flame (a candle that is kept continuously burning from Easter to the following Easter Vigil, but made from a new fire. The Boy Scout troop at our church is responsible for building that fire and keeping vigil until the Priest burns the left over oil (it is olive oil, so you can’t really keep it more that a year even if it is blessed), the cotton balls used to anoint, the prayer slip and anything else he has to burn.

This fire is quite dramatic. The boys have a good fire going before the Priest arrives, then he throws oil on it! From that fire, a new Easter Candle is lit, an incense coal is started and the parishioners head into the church for three hours of readings, prayer and song. The boys stand by the fire until it has burned down, quench the flames with water and gather the ashes to spread in the forest behind the church on Monday night.

Not all churches have this participation service, but all Catholic Churches dispose of certain items in the flames. Our church does not have a permanent fire pit, the boys construct one in the hours that lead up to the ceremony, and tear it down when they are done. When they leave, there is no evidence a fire was ever there. For the engineers and boy scouts in our audience, this fire pit is built in the following way: 4×4 piece of plywood laid on the ground, 16 paver ties on top of the plywood, 120 paver stones in a stacked circle about 3 feet high, 3-5 gallon buckets of sand poured in as a base. The sand and ashes are gathered in 5-5 gallon bucket which are filled with water as well to make sure the fire is completely out, and we wait until Monday to spread them in the forest for additional safety.

Easter is really one of the nicer holidays. Sure there is a lot of hype, and other holidays are nice too. I am partial to Easter because it marks the true beginning of spring. I hope that all of you had a good Easter, and for those who are not Christians, I hope that you are having a great spring.