My First NFL Mock Draft of the Year!

Folks it's that time when the spring arrives and the time of renewal we expect each year is upon us. No. I'm NOT talking about spring training and the Red Sox reacting to the umpire's cry of "PLAY BALL!". Heck no! They won their World Series for the rest of this century so as far as I am concerned Paplebon can fat pitch in the clutch his way out of town if he so desires.

No, I'm talking of the most important days of the year for the true NFL fan - The Draft! This is when hope springs eternal for all lovers of the pigskin sunday parade and we all can be general managers in our own minds for what is now going to be, for the first time, a three day affair broadcast during prime time. Yes, we do love us some football in this country.

So, without further ado, let me unvail to readers of CHOWMEINSAMMICH my first NFL Mock Draft for the 2010 season.

1  ST. LOUIS; Needs, EVERYTHING;

 Pick , QB Bradford, Sam

St Louis is a mess of a franchise. They could have the first five picks in this draft and still only win 3 games next year, if that. You just don't pass up an opportunity to draft a franchise QB, so Bradford it will be!

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2  DETROIT; Needs, Everything but QB, and 43DT /G /DB/ OT ;

Pick, OT Okung, Russell

Their young QB Stafford can be great, but not if he's trying to pass from a prone position. The Lions could pick either Suh or McCoy for a stud on their DL for the next ten years, but Okung should be an All-Pro for at least that long, and he'd immediately extend the length and effectiveness of Detroit's best asset and player.
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3 TAMPA BAY; Needs, Yeppers, most everything, but for the sake of argument, 43DT/ 43DE /WR/ 43OLB  ;
Pick, DT McCoy, Gerald

While they seemed prime to improve this year, they still have many needs, so they will strengthen their defense by picking McCoy, who is big, tough , experienced , fast and a fantastic interior rusher who will stop the run and put pressure on opponent's QB with the inside rush. He'll be an All-Pro no later than next year, if not this year . McCoy has been rising on most draft boards of late.
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4  WASHINGTON; Needs, OT /G /34DT/ 34OLB ;

Pick, DT Suh, Ndamukong

After having solved their QB problem by trading for McNabb, the Redskins are trying to unload DT Al Haynesworth and RB Clinton Portis, two players who new Coach Mike Shanahan feels are "non-believers" and just plain too much trouble for the paychecks they pull down. In order to make their defense stronger, the pick of the player I feel is the most clear choice for "can't miss" in this draft, DT Ndamukong Suh, is just what Shanahan needs to set the right tone for his new regime. He'll be an All -Pro immediately and will stay one for at least a dozen years. Snyder will finally get  value for all that cash he will lay out for the best player in this draft.

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5 KANSAS CITY; Needs, 34ILB /S /OL/ 34DT;

Pick, OT  Bulaga, Bryan

Ex-Patriot Matt Cassell needs a 10 year All-Pro LOT in order to survive in KC, and this guy Bulaga is a beast with experience, strength, quickness, good footwork and a nasty disposition. This one is NOT hard to figure.

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6  SEATTLE; Needs, 43DE/ OT/ QB/ 43DT;

Pick,  RB  Spiller, C.J.

Ok, I know, I know, not on the needs list. But the new coach needs an exciting offensive weapon and a ground game, both of which he gets with C.J. Spiller, the fastest guy in this years draft. Score points, win a few games, sell out your stadium, and make your owner some cash right off the bat and you'll keep your job and have a longer chance to rebuild, right?

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7 CLEVELAND; Needs, S/ 34OLB/ 34DE/ QB;

Pick,  S Berry, Eric

I cannot see any pick sticking to the expected script more than this one, for a team with a huge need for a safety with special talents and who could be the best to enter the league since the likes of Ed Reed or Ronnie Lott. Another double digit year All-Pro.

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8 OAKLAND; Needs, OT/ G/ 43DT/ WR ;

Pick, OT Williams, Trent

Another need pick as Al Davis gets ready to give 290 pound QB Jamarcus Russell one more chance to achieve greatness by getting him a big, nasty, strong and quick LOT to protect his blindside. Tthe Raiders will be trading their 2012 1st and 2nd round picks for someone's low 1st round pick in next years draft for Russell's QB replacement. Just call me Kreskin.
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9 BUFFALO; Needs, OT/ 34DL/ 34OLB/ WR;

Pick, QB  Clausen, Jimmy

Here we go again, going off the script. Yes the Bills need OL's, and alot of other things. But first they need a decent QB to rebuild that franchise around. They have the makings of a fine defense. Just a few more tweaks and they are a division winning quality defense. The offense, on the other hand  is, well, offensive. A reliable and talented QB is required. You can get an OT in the second round.

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10  JACKSONVILLE; Needs, SS/ DB/ WR/ QB ;

Pick, DE/LB Morgan, Derrick

Jacksonville, a team with many holes,  is not going to pass up one of the best young pass rushers in this year's draft,  just full of good young pass rushers,  to make the full-time professional prognosticators happy. If Morgan isn't taken here, it will be one or two picks later, Here's my vote for the Jacksonville braintrust not being that stupid.

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11 DENVER ; Needs, C/ 34ILB/ G /WR/;

Pick, WR Thomas, Demaryius

Whether Marshall is gone or not ( and I think he will be) Josh McDaniels will want to add this big, quick, high jumping, good blocking, good hands receiver who may be the best all around WR in this years draft. But the biggest thing about Thomas is that he's a reliable TEAM player. He will be a star, although it may take a full season before he makes an All-Pro type impact.

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12  MIAMI ; Needs, WR/ 34DT/ 34OLB/ 34ILB;

Pick, 34ILB McClain, Rolando

I hate Miami and I hate this pick...because this offense killing 34ILB will be an All-Pro for years to come, crushing Patriot's backs twice a year. Great pick by Miami, and if he's available, this is about as much of a lock in the 2010 draft as you can expect to see.

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13 SAN FRANCISCO ; Needs, OT/ DB/S/ G/ 34OLB;

Pick, LOT Davis, Anthony 

Another pick aligns well with the popular script. Davis is a tad immature , but that won't last long with SF and their crazy eyed coach. He's strong, quick, experienced and doesn't like human beings very much. Nuff said.

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14 SEATTLE; Needs, 43DE/ OT/ QB/ 43DT;

Pick, 43DE  Pierre-Paul, Jason

Back to script, almost. Jason Pierre-Paul is a physical freak, a real great all around athlete, but is really an unknown quantity because of his  scant few games played against good competition. He promises to be a boom or bust pick. I think he could be a boom pick if he has patient teachers.  Seattle's staff , many coming from USC with their old head coach, Pete Carroll, will be doing alot of teaching across the board on this Seattle team. He does ok in 2010, and will eventually grow into a dependable All-Pro.
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15 NY GIANTS ; Needs, 43MLB/ DB/ OL/ 43OLB ;

Pick, 43ILB/OLB Weatherspoon, Sean

Weatherspoon can play any linebacker position in either 34 or 43 defense. He's got the size, speed, strength, experience, football IQ and football instincts to be an All -Pro in  a couple of years, as well as a long, productive career in the NFL. Loves to inspire and talk on the field, a real swagger guy, who the fans in NYC will love. A match made in heaven, a big play guy who'll fly all over and make plays in the biggest TV market in the world.

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16 TENNESEE ; Needs, DB/ 43MLB/ WR/ C ;

Pick,  CB Haden, Joe

Haden was expected to go much sooner then #16 just a week or ten days ago, but a couple of fast risers like Kyle Wilson and Devin McCourty have been playing havoc with revised Mock Drafts. Not here. Haden is fast, tough, physical and a big hitter and has played many, many games for Florida against the best competition in the best football conference in college football, the SEC. He's the best CB in this years draft. No one is a close second, no matter what they say about his ten yard quickness.

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17 SAN FRANCISCO; Needs, OT/ DB/S /G /34OLB

Pick; 34 OLB  Graham, Brandon

The SF head coach loves talented, smart, tough , relentless and athletic LB's, and that's just what he gets in Brandon Graham. He'll be an instant impact player because of that combination of strength, quickness and constant motor. A total team layer and a coaches dream.

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18  PITTSBURG ; Needs,  OT / G/C/  34OLB/ 34DT ;

Pick,  OG Iupati, Mike

A pretty popular projection that I agree with. Iupati is a no-nonsense tough guy who comes to war on every play...tough and strong, he is another player who hates humanity once the uniform is on. A classic lunch pail type of blue collar worker tailor made for Pittsburgh.

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19  ATLANTA ; Needs, 43OLB/ 43DE/  WR/TE/  OL ;

Pick, TE Gresham. Jermaine

The Falcons perennial All-Pro TE Anthony Gonzalez won't play forever. So Atlanta thinks about the future and takes the only first round worthy, all around talented and experienced TE in Jermaine Gresham. Gresham is alot like Gonzalez in that he's tall, rangy, fast, has good hands, runs good routes and is a better blocker.

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20  HOUSTON ; Needs, DB/ G/ S/ OT ;

Pick,  CB Wilson, Kyle

Once again we go according to script. Wilson fills a big need in the Houston def. backfield, a backfield that was unable to hold opponents in several games when the Teaxans had leads against good teams during the second half of the year. Wilson is tough , experienced and fast, and should fit in nicely with a young defense.

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21 CINNCINATI ; Needs, TE/ G/ S /43DE;

Pick, S  Mays, Taylor

The Bengals pick a tall, fast, big, rangy hard hitting safety known for absolutely awesome smack downs in the def. backfield. He's could be a game changing hitter, able to alter the feel of a game with his violent hits. Anyone going into the def. backfield will always have an eye out for this hitting machine. That alone will prevent plays as opponents will be forced to make "career decisions" (ie, run out of bounds) when not sure if he's lurking close by, and particularly if he is.

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22  NEW ENGLAND ; Needs, 34DE/ 34LB/ WR/ TE ;

Pick, 34OLB  Kindle, Sergio

I am torn between selecting Kindle, a proven commodity at OLB and an outstanding athlete with experience and pass rushing skills, or Everson Griffen, a much bigger, tougher player with speed, but little direct experience playing the 34OLB position. In this case I'm picking Kindle because of the track record for a team playing in a tough conference and his history of playing well in big BCS games. Texas' Def. Coordinator has a history with Bellichick and is a friend.

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23 GREEN BAY ; Needs, DB/ OT/ 34OLB /RB;

Pick, LOT Campbell, Bruce 

Campbell is a workout warrior with a chisled body and great stats from the combine. His stats are a bit better than his performance, however, but anyone who's over 6'5" inches, weighing in at @ 300 lbs, has long arms, can lift a barn, runs a sub 5.0 second 40 yard dash , plays in a good league -ACC- is going to be drafted in the first round of the NFL draft.

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24 PHILADELPHIA ; Needs, FS /43OLB/ 43DE/ G/C ;
Pick, 43DE Griffen, Everson
              Everson Griffen will fill a need at DE, but is also probably the best athlete available on a defense that has gradually been getting younger over the past couple of seasons. This is a good fit and should pay dividends right away in the ever competitive NFC East.
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25 BALTIMORE ; Needs, DB/ 34DE/ S/ 34LB ;

Pick, 34DE Dunlap, Carlos

Dunlap has the speed and quickness to  rush the passer and strength to play tough against the run, but will need a season or two to build himself up in the weight room and he can do that with a deep team like the Ravens. His motor has been questioned in the past, but the veternas on the Ravens won't let that become a problem. A great pickup for the Ravnes who have a real knack of developing good, tough defensive linemen.

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26 ARIZONA;  Needs, 34OLB/ 34ILB/ DB/ 34DT;

Pick,  Odrick, Jared

The once great Arizona Super Bowl team has gone through what all great teams do once they've made it to the top of their Conference...player defections over money! They must now rebuild a bit to get back into playoff significance, and will pick the best 34DT in the draft, Jared Odrick from Penn State. Odrick is 6'5", 300 lbs. runs a sub 5.0 40 yard dash, has the strength and quickness to play the 34 or 43 def. tackle position. A solid pick for the Cardinals.

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27 DALLAS ; Needs, OT/ G/ 34DT/ WR ;

Pick,  OC/G Pouncey, Maurkice

Dallas just may pick Earl Thomas from U-Texas, but I think Pouncey is the best G in the draft after Iupati, and may be the best value on the board at this point because he's just as good a center as he is a guard. Dallas likes flashier first round picks but they will love Pouncey over the course of the year.

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28 SAN DIEGO ; Needs, 34DT/ RB/ OT/ 34ILB ;

Pick, RB Mathews, Ryan

San Diego cannot have a good, solid ground game with just Sproules. In order to make their passing game effective they have to be able to keep teams honest up the middle. To do that they need a human "between the tackles" battering ram, just like Fresno State's Ryan Matthews. He's quick and fast ,strong at the point of attack, can make defenders miss him when he breaks past the line of scrimmage and line backers and is a very good blocker in the backfield. NEXT!

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29 NEW YORK JETS; Needs, 34OLB/ G/ WR/ FS;

Pick, WR  Bryant, Dez

NYJ want a game breaking WR who can catch AND run fast to get open deep and that man is Dez Bryant. He's a load to manage and motivate, but between Ryan and the veterans on that team I don't think it will be a problem in the long run. If it is, I'll enjoy that even more! BAHAHAHAHA!

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30 MINNESOTA ; Needs, DB/ OT/ G/ S ;

Pick, CB Robinson, Patrick

The Vikings get a first rate CB with all the tools...he's tall, rangy, fast, quick, an athlete and will play at a high level for many years. He will solidify the Vikings def. backfield and will help prevent late game meltdowns like the one the Vikings experienced against the Saints.

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31 INDIANAPOLIS; Needs,  43DT/ G/ DB/ 43OLB ;

Pick, 43DT Price, Brian

This is one of those rich getting richer deals. Brian Price is one of the best penetrating, quick DT's in this years draft who spends alot of time in the opponents backfield . He's also strong and tough as well. He'll fit in great with the Colt defensive philosophy of quick penetration and disruption between DE's Freeny and Mathis. I hate him already.

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32 NEW ORLEANS ;  Needs, 43OLB/ 43ILB 43DE/ 43DT;

Pick, 43DT Cody, Terrence

Well...he's a biggun, that's for sure. At 6'5" tall, 350+ lbs and actually quick from tackle to tackle, this immoveable object can dominate double team blocking at times. After an unimpressive combine it didn't look good for this talented DT, but watching a few years worth of Alabama game films shows a man who can destroy a line of scrimmage when motivated. He'll ALWAYS draw a double team, and beat it more often than not.

No real surprises here at all, really. And for teams with additional picks in round two, the sins of the first round can still be made good the second time around because this draft is very deep (3 rounds) for starter grade players.

I'll be updating this Mock Draft each week until the NFL's version of a birthing room starts April 22. I just can't wait to hear the Jets fans protest whoever is their team's first round selection. It makes me so happy I thinks it's my birthday - until Belichick trades down! :-(

Local Firm Hits A Home Run!

Batter up! Mass. company’s
maple bats are a hit

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 Thursday, April 8, 2010
 Bryan Rourke
 Providence Journal Staff Writer
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( This article is accompanied by a very interesting video displaying a bat being spun and shaped on a computerized lathe at the Nokona factory in Fall River. The bats can be modified for an individual player and made while they wait. Find it at :
http://www.projo.com/news/content/baseball_bats_04-08-10_GGHS9HQ_v56.3c0ff5a.html
Nokona Athletic Goods is the last company to make baseball gloves in America. It does that in Worcester. In Fall River, Nokona makes baseball bats, including bats for David Ortiz of the Red Sox.)



FALL RIVER


The baseball season has begun. The Boston Red Sox opened on Sunday. The Pawtucket Red Sox open Thursday. Both have high hopes for the season, as does one local company that has stepped to the plate for both teams: Nokona Baseball.
Three years ago, the company, now based in Fall River, began manufacturing baseball bats, and promptly broke into the major and minor leagues. Last year, the company made custom hard-maple bats for Boston’s David Ortiz and about 40 other major league players. A half-dozen PawSox players were also among its customers.


“If there’s anything a player doesn’t like, they go back and fix it,” said Carl “Goody” Goodreau, the PawSox clubhouse manager and equipment director, about the company. “They will get that bat so it’s perfect for that player.”

The Nokona bats are readily identifiable from their many better-known competitors because they’re emblazoned with a flamboyant letter N on the barrel.

“The players who got them loved them,” said Goodreau. “There is nothing bad I can say about these bats.”


But two years ago, maple bats were getting a bad rap in major league ball.


Bats were breaking. Splinters were flying, endangering players and fans. So in 2008, the league conducted an investigation. From July to September it gathered 2,200 bats broken during games. Of those, 750 broke into multiple pieces, with maple outnumbering ash threefold, raising suspicions that maple bats were particularly susceptible to shattering.

The MLB panel of engineers and wood specialists found important differences between ash and maple bats. Ash best absorbs impact on the stacked edge of its grain. (Think of the side of a stack of playing cards.) Maple best absorbs impact on the face of its grain. (Think of the top of a stack of playing cards.)

“You can see the grain on an ash bat,” said Jerry O’Connor, Nokono’s CEO. “Maple [grain] is much harder to see.”


When the grain goes straight up and down the barrel of a bat, O’Connor said, the impact with a ball is absorbed throughout the bat. But if the grain angles out, the bat will eventually break at that point.

“Manufacturers were not aware of this spiral growth in maple,” O’Connor said. “Major League Baseball has to be applauded for this.”


MLB drew an important distinction between bats made of soft maple, such as silver and red maple, which has been banned from use in the professional minor leagues this year, and bats made of harder maple varieties such as those used by Nokona and most other major league manufacturers.


The league developed a dye that’s now dabbed on hard maple bats about one foot up from the handle. If the dyed grain veers off center by more than 3 degrees, the bat is banned from use. The policy went into place last season, and the effect was immediate and significant.


In 2009, MLB reported a 35-percent decline in broken bats from 2008.

And now, post investigation, hard maple is more popular than ever, and safer, too, sharing the batter’s box with less hard ash, the longstanding wood of choice for bats.

“Some players had great success with maple,” says Mike Teevan, MLB’s manager of media relations. “So there was a shift toward maple in the last 10 years.”


“You get more pop,” O’Connor said. “You hit the ball farther. It’s physics.”


Barry Bonds popularized the physics in 2001 by using hard-maple bats to set the single-season home run record while playing for the San Francisco Giants. (Bond’s alleged use of performance-enhancing steroids arose later.)


In addition to last year’s maple-monitoring system, MLB instituted new bat dimensions this year to further reduce breakage: the maximum barrel diameter has decreased from 2.75 inches to 2.61; and the handle has increased 1/50th of an inch.


Bats have changed a lot over their history, according to Louis Ledoux, Nokona’s operations manager and a managing partner. Bats back in the time of Babe Ruth were thick through the handle. Now they’re not. Handles are thin. Barrels are big.


“Players like the way the bat whips more,” Ledoux said. “To get a bigger [barrel] bat, you’ve got to get the weight from somewhere. They’re taking it from the handle.”

A Nokona bat can be milled to a pro player’s preferences for handle style, length and weight and weight distribution. And it only takes one minute to custom-make a bat from a billet of wood using a computerized lathe.
Nokona is one of 33 companies sanctioned by Major League Baseball to manufacture bats, some 35,000 a year. The company began in 1926 as a maker of leather goods in Nocona, Texas, and started manufacturing baseball gloves in 1934.


In 2006, the company moved its glove-making operations to Worcester, and, in 2008, it opened up a 12,000-square-foot bat-manufacturing plant in Fall River. Besides Ortiz of the Red Sox, other major league customers have included Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs, Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers and Vladimir Guerrero of the Texas Rangers, according to the company.
Of the bats Nokona makes, 85 percent are maple, 15 percent are ash. And both woods are the best available, although 10 percent of the maple billets the company receives fail the grain-dye test.

“We are very fussy,” Ledoux said. “Wood that’s not good enough for baseball bats is downgraded and used as furniture.”

When I was a kid I loved to play baseball. My brothers and I, our dad, grandfather, my uncle, even my mom were baseball fanatics. My grandfather on my dad's side used to barn storm with a semi-pro baseball team as a catcher before the current minor league system was being fully developed and such teams were feeders for the big leagues. Everyone except my dad was a die hard Red Sox fan.

 My grandfather took my mom to see Babe Ruth at the very twilight of his playing career for the Boston Braves when they played at what would become BU's Nickerson Field. My father grew up in the west so he was a die hard St. Louis Cardinal fan because for decades they were the closest team to them and their radio broadcast reached throughout the  sky to fans in the midwest and west. For my mother's side of the family it was bad enough my dad was from the west and was a (gasp) Protestant, but the final infamy was that he was a Cardinals fan! The brutal "stealing" of the '46 World Series by the Cardinals over the Red Sox because Johnny Pesky held onto a relay throw from the outfield before firing to the plate a fraction too late to stop Enos Slaughter's mad dash from first base would be a millstone gladly carried by my father until his death. It actually gave him joy to upset all of the Southie clan of  "mackeral snappers", as the Irish Catholics soldiers were nicknamed during WWII. It only got worse after Bob Gibson's  Cardinals almost single handedly beat the Red Sox again in the "Impossible Dream" season World Series of 1967. I still remember the relish with which he taunted his South Boston tormentors after every strikeout thrown by Bob Gibson during that World Series.

When we lived in Dorchester we owned a triple decker and had a tenant on the third floor who worked as a national sales rep for Gilette who at the time claimed a huge protion of advertising on major League Baseball broadcast and print outlets. He was constantly on the road and stayed in the same hotels as the teams he traveled with for Gillette to make sales pitches in the Red Sox opponents home city. In addition to an avalanche of free Gillete products, most notably razor blades of all types, "Walt" would bring home baseballs and baseball bats for my brothers and myself.

One bat was a " Jimme Fox " model. It had the thick handle mentioned in the article and weighed 44 ounces. Fox definitely was a strong man with huge hands to swing that bad boy! But, he hit enough home runs with it to let me know how strong he actually was. It must have been like trying to hit a B-B with a tree trunk! At least that's the way it felt to me when I was 12 and playing in pick up games. When you made contact on a fast ball with that beast you could barely feel it at all, not even in the handle. Amazing stuff!

The next bat was very similar to what is described in the Nakona story (above). One day Walt brought home a special bat made to his specs by the HILLERICH & BRADSBY company, and produced a Louiville Slugger "Walt _ _ _ _ _" Model bat, 36" long and weighing 36 ounces, with a thin handle , but still with the knob at the handle end of the bat.  (This at a time that the shaved knob handled bat made popular by Roberto Clemente of the Pirates and Frank Robinson of the Orioles was becoming popular among power hitters). It too was a beast of a bat to swing when you were 12 years old, but the power you could produce, if your hands, wrists and arms were strong enough to create good bat speed, was unreal. Again I learned the feel of hitting a baseball hard, hearing that "CRACKKK" of the bat and feeling like I was swinging through warm butter,  watching the upward flight of the ball like an art student watches a Rembrandt painting in a museam. That was the single best bat I ever swung.

Problem is, the White Ash hardwood used by "H&B", which grows almost exclusively on the border of Pennsylvania and New York, is being threatened by a new species of insect.

" U. S. ash trees are now under attack from the Emerald Ash Borer an invasive insect species native to China and first detected in Michigan in 2002. While H&B's forests are not yet infested by the beetle, the area being destroyed is growing and moving closer to them. The company is making plans to utilize other woods in the event North America's ash forests are totally destroyed. "

Why mention all this? Because I am more readily able to recognize the great significance the strides Nakona has made in the past and it's growing position to capture more of the baseball and softball products market. This means a company with great growth potential to make a product which reaches into the very fabric of what makes our country what it is. "As American as mom, baseball and apple pie" is etched in minds around the world as things that represent the U.S.A. And to all Americans, it brings a warmth of pride for who we are, our character, our sense of everyman's ability to live peacefully, prosperously and simply in happiness and security. And those products are being made here, in Fall River. I can honestly say this makes me feel pride to be a resident of this City. It's a business we should value and do whatever we can to keep here and make ever more productive and growing.

With the constant threat to White Ash hardwoods, Nakona's use of maple hardwood to produce 95% (after removal of their bad white ash stock) places them in the forefront of reliable bats for professional baseball use. Also, the lathing, almost high-tech, method of fast bat prodcution is a  godsend for customers who have specific requirements in a product they need for  immediate delivery. I'm sure major league customers like David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada and Vladimir Guerrero can make a quick phone call from the dugout to Nakona and have another dozen bats delivered the next day if required. That would have been unthinkable even 15 years ago.

So you have a growing company positioned with superior raw materials to make professional quality equipment on a moments notice competeing for a specific sub market against an established firm (H&B) whose own dwindling raw materials are subject to a growing and alarming failure rate with a laborious and slow production cycle when compared to it's younger, more nimble competitor. Yes, things look good for Nakona. And because of that, things look good for Fall River as well.

Don't forget the same company produces baseball and softball gloves with a plant in Worcester, MA, gloves which are widely used by Major Leaguers. It's a true MA success story in which we here in Fall River play a leading role. We should feel good about it! We've hitched ourselves to a winner!

Happy Easter - Remember Those Who Are Truly Alone

I was taking a shower after I woke today hoping it would bring me to complete consciousness gently, feeling the warm soapy water flow over me, my head, and my back. I have found that sometimes I do some of my best thinking then, and maybe my most honest thinking, with all that warmth and steam opening up more than just my pores.

I thought of the day, Easter Sunday, and I thought about my brother, gone from me for the last several years. I thought how my mother always used to take us to Robert Hall and buy each of us a new suit for Easter and the round of pictures taken with my brothers and sisters and grandparents. But my oldest brother was always the star, the leader, the braintrust of the kids.

Then I was very sad to think of him dying alone, in a small apartment, of a stroke brought on from years of far too much alcohol and pills, of a soul sickness no amount of coaxing ,counselling, cajoling and love could ameliorate, even for a few days of his brilliant, confounding and painful life. He was the single brightest, smartest man I ever knew, and I've known scores of highly intelligent people. He could learn and master anything he desired. But to me he was always my oldest brother, my big brother. To have his approval was everything to me, I think, for my entire life.

So the fact we had an extremely hard time getting along always hurt me in a way that was unique and devastating, especially as I grew older. We both had our own ups and downs over the years as adults. And rather than being ever supportive, there were times I'm sorry to say we were far too competitive and jealous of each others success and too quick to understand the hows and whys of the other's failures. It seemed time and circumstance conspired against us both. But it was really just us that did the conspiring, to live within the needless boundries by which our hurt feelings penned us.

After not hearing from him for several years I received the terrible news that he had died alone and had suffered one final stroke that killed him. After finally catching up with family I had had no contact with for many years at his memorial service several of us, his brothers and sisters, pieced together his life of the recent past, as if we were putting a puzzle together upon hearing each other and his friends tell accounts of their contact with him the last couple of years. It was a portrait of struggle with old demons and occassional hope, really a reflection of his entire life.

What struck me was that not one single person, either family or friend, knew the entire picture. Not a one. That was the way he apparently wanted to live. It was as if his greatest desire was to live in this compartmentalized cocoon of the things and people with whom he found solace and safety. He knew little trust of people. These things combined to keep him isolated and alone. He lived a false security and in the end I believe the pain of that isolation killed him. The stroke was the medical reason. The real reason was a broken heart and a tortured soul. But that never shows up on the death certificate, does it?

It brings me great pain indeed to think of this basically wonderful person dying alone, in pain. How horrible a fate, to know you will die and have no one there to comfort you, to touch you with warmth and care, to help fight for you, to attempt your rescue as life slowly, painfully leaves you. No one to cry out to. I cannot think of a worse way to pass on.

We are a social animal blessed with abilities and a "devine spark" that makes us unique unto this earth. Our single greatest need is to be with others, to communicate, to protect each other, to touch, physically touch each other to offer love, warmth, care and support, even if it is simply a drive deep within to replicate the earliest loving touch we all received from our birth mothers. That touch, that love, that communion of ourselves with another is so necessary that to be without it means you cannot exist well or successfully. It is part of our souls, if you will. To know real human contact is all of this. To not know this human contact means certain death. We are simply built this way and this I truly believe.

On this day of renewal, of new beginnings, I want anyone who lives within the walls of a singular and lonely existence like my own brother to know that I put out my hand to you, that I, by this writing, hope to touch you in some way and to let you know you are NOT alone. No human being should live a life of hopelessness and isolation. I cannot stand idly by and allow fate to hand down a death sentence on those who's only mistake is to trust only themselves and let their souls, their "devine spark" to wither more with each passing day.

Why do I write this? I fear such lonliness everytime I think of my brother. I fear it could swallow me some day. I cannot sit idly by my own desire to live deep inside myself, my own fears and my own losses. Most of all, I never want to accept the idea of dying alone without the touch of someone who cares.

Happy Easter.

HATE MONGERING: Revival of an American Sport

The 15 Papers That Didn't Mention
Health Care on
the Front Page

********************
Dylan Stableford
Published: March 22, 2010
********************
Nearly every newspaper in America devoted at least part of their front pages on Monday to Sunday night’s historic vote on health care.

But not all. Of 406 U.S. newspaper covers uploaded to Newseum.org on Monday, 15 did not mention the health care vote.
For some of them, the vote probably occurred too late for their deadlines. (Others opted to run stories acknowledging a vote was taking place.)

Here are the aforementioned 15, along with the subjects of their top front-page stories:


Benton County Daily Herald, Bentonville, Arkansas
Spring snowstorm.


Northwest Arkansas Times, Fayetteville, Arkansas
"Overnight accumulation leaves
 Northwest Arkansas roads slippery."

The Morning News, Rogers, Arkansas
Spring snowstorm.

Stars and Stripes, Washington, D.C.
NCAA “bracket busters.”
Palm Beach Daily News, Palm Beach, Florida
"Census Forms Arriving in the Mail."


Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida
A story on Hollywood's suddenly feeble
leading men pegged to Ben Stiller's
"Greenberg" character.


Commercial-News, Danville, Illinois
Photos of a maple syrup open house.


Herald-Press, Huntington, Indiana
School staff reduction.


Peru Tribune, Peru, Indiana

A local cattle show.

Wabash Plain Dealer, Wabash, Indiana

Fatal car crash at intersection kills two.


Cecil Whig, Elkton, Maryland
Fire destroys home and runaway emu found.


AMnewyork, New York City
Teen subway mugging.


The High Point Enterprise, High Point, North Carolina
"Bus seat belts not likely."


The Mount Airy News, Mount Airy, North Carolina
"Boy Scouts learn skills at Merit Badge College."

Bluffton Today, Bluffton, South Carolina

Construction of a new middle school gym.

But just because health care made the front cover didn’t mean it was always the biggest story. Tiger Woods’ first interviews since his sex scandal split some tabloids, like the Boston Herald.

For others, local stories were played just as big. In Duluth, for instance, Obama’s health bill had to fight with the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s triple overtime victory in the NCAA Division I women’s hockey final, and Joe Mauer’s $184 million contract extension with the Minnesota Twins. In the Rio Grande Valley, it was “mutton rides.”

UPDATE: Howard Witt, senior editor at Stars and Stripes, takes issue with their inclusion on "this list of shame":

"We are a newspaper published for U.S. troops overseas, hence our deadline is 2pm EST each day. Which means the health care vote occurred fully 9 hours after our deadline. We are of course putting the story on our front page in the next available edition, namely Tuesday’s."

Let me say up front that I am very happy Health Care Reform passed the Congress and was signed into law by Pres. Obama. As Vice Pres. Biden was recorded saying to the President yesterday "It's a big F_ _ _ I N G deal!" Indeed it is. If you've ever been without insurance coverage and needed it, you know what I mean.

In fact, as far as I am concerned the reforms didn't go far enough. I'd have been out of my gourd happy if they approved a single payer system. Make it comprehensive, as if great health care were truly universal, like all of the rest of the industrialized world. Health care should be a right for every American citizen, not any kind of guessing game. Illness is not a trivial matter. Neither is proper preventitive care. I say thank God we are finally and formally going to institute changes that will start this nation on the road to better health for all.

That being said I must also tell you the digusting, racist, homophobic and all around tragically uninformed "Glenn Beckian" behavior exhibited by the vast majority of teabaggers in Washington DC the day of the vote by the House of Representatives
sickened me. We have seen this ugliness from these festering puss wounds over and over again. What happened in D.C. over the weekend is just another incident in a long line of such dangerous behavior. I understand there is deep anger in this country but these morons are getting carried away to the Nth degree and can no longer be tolerated.

These vicious dullards attacked the senior African-American members of the House of Representatives with an avalanche of "N word" epithets. They then went after Barney Frank in a mass exhibition of homophobia that is apparently both a chronic and acute condition for these radical right wing DOUFI (pronounced "doof-eye", which means the plural of the word "doufus" ). All of it seems the byproduct of both the Republican Party, which uses the teabaggers as their own home grown "shock troops" reminiscent of the Brown Shirts during Hitler's rise to power, and the official press arm of the Republican National Committee, Fox News. (I do not see how they are a "news" operation...they live and broadcast in an alternate universe inside a different dimension)

In terms of the "list of shame" newspapers that did not run the Health Care Reform Bill's passage story on their front pages, I am amazed more didn't refuse to do so. Yes, with the exception of "Stars and Stripes", most of these papers are located in parts of the country well known to be staunchly Republican and teabagger full.  For the most part they are also places where white supremisists,  KKK and anti-immigration protests are very common. These states are a collection of absolute teabagger, rageful people producing parts of the country.

What utter hypocracy. I understand if people are angry about the country's economic situation. But these cretins lack the mental acuity to correctly assess blame for their financial state. It was the Republicans under Bush who increased the deficit for 8 straight years. At the same time they loosened all controls on banks and other financial institutions put in place by a Democratic Congress and FDR during the Great Depression, regulations that would have stopped "credit default swaps" and the use of "derivatives" which almost lead to the collapse of the Western World's economies. It was the Bush White House that started the huge "too Big to Fail" bailouts. Yet these idiots are so uneducated, so easily led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh's hate filled rantings, they happily become the army of derision for anything done by a Democratic  Congress or the first African-American President in the country's history. "Gimme back my country" indeed.

Look, just take a gander of the pics I include above and you'll get a fast idea of just how sick and sorry these teabagging zealots are. What they are doing and saying is both dangerous and ominous. For all their talk of freedom they are the ones trying to intimidate others from exercising their rights under the law. They should be ashamed for letting the Republicans use them to a particular political end by joining them in support of tactics like the big lie (anyone remember DEATH PANELS?)  violent intimidation (remember the teabaggers wearing GUNS outside Health Care Reform information sessions?) and endless amounts of hate speech. It's probably only a matter of time until someone else is shot and killed, just like the deranged white supremisist who shot an African American guard at the Holocost Museam in Washington, DC many months ago. The nutjobs will be crawling out of the woodworks. You listen to Michelle Bachman (above) , a notorious  "walnut headed" Repblican member of the House of Representatives who routinely employs the "big lie" and "hate speech" and you tell me that it hasn't been this way for a long while already!

Hmmmmm...I  LIKE these folks!

This was no regular news story. It really was a big deal to pass Health Care Reform. We have made universal health care one giant step closer to reality. The stock market hasn't collapsed, the tides still flow and unlike "Rosemary's Baby" there are no pointy headed, all red babies being born to waif like caucasian girls that would prove President Obama is the antichrist. No, in fact the new polls show a majority of people in America already approve of the new law 49% to 40% disapproving. Soon, the approval percentage will start to skyrocket as more and more people, including some out of work teabagger families with kids out of high school and under 26, or  those with pre-existing conditions, find out for themselves what they had been saying about Health Care Reform simply is not true. Oh and don't forget grandma and grandpa - no DEATH PANELS!!! If the Republicans think they've got a winning issue here for the Fall elections, the "Party Of NO"  has a rude awakening headed their way. They blew this one badly.

Variations On A Theme, Part II

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Variations On A Theme

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