When to PRESS ON!

Last night while we were warming up on a sultry, well groomed youth league park in Plano…my son, Luke and his Ranger Team were about to play the last game of the season…and RA Dickey was throwing a second 1 hitter in a row…the first time since 1988 when Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays threw two of those one hit wonders.  It should be noted that the cruel fate of baseball had both of Stieb’s back to back no hit outings being broken up with 2 outs, 2 strikes... in the ninth inning…oh the brutal reality.

I remember that 1996 spring day, on my commute home, when cruel fate would strike… just 8 years later from when the Baseball gods wreaked havac on Stiebs back to back one hit games.  The Rangers had sign RA Dickey to the “Big Leagues” with an impressive signing bonus of $810,000.00.  For a change, the Texas Rangers were focusing on a pitching phenom…a total paradigm shift from “lets bludgeon to death the other team with big bats.”

A Rangers physician saw Dickey’s right throwing arm hanging oddly in a photo and requested further evaluation.  The evaluation completed and Dickey’s signing bonus plummeted….to $75,000.00…the reason…Dickey had no ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint.  Doctors were bewildered of how he could even perform day to day task without enormous pain…little lone hurl an 87 mph fast ball.  He labored in the minors…made it to the majors in 2001….but his stuff wasn’t very good…and in 2006 the Rangers slotted him as the 5^th hurler in the rotation only to be rocked by giving up 6 home runs in his season start.

In 2007, a guy by the name of Doug Melvin, GM for the Milwaukee Brewers signed him to the organization…Melvin should ring a bell for the Rangers fan…he was the GM for the Texas Rangers when they signed Dickey in 1996.  To cut to the chase…and to be brutally honest…Dickey’s ERA looked more like James LeBron’s rebound average than a big league pitching ERA.  He bounced around in the minors…from the Brewers…to the Mariners…then on to the Mets…

Somewhere along the way, RA Dickey learned how to throw the knuckle ball…yep…the much maligned knuckle ball.  The pitch that will give the batter fits…heck…most the time the pitcher doesn’t know where it’s going…but it seems Dickey throws it different…he actually pounds the strike zone with it…he doesn’t walk hitters with it…and here is the kicker…it can range in speed from 83 mph to 55 mph…that fact alone makes me want to write bad checks.  His ERA is now where “Holy Cow he can Pitch” ERA’s should be…teams that face the Mets now calculate out where Dickey is in the rotation and pray to the powers to be that allow the same brutal reality that faced Dickey back in 1996 to show mercy on their poor hitting souls in 2012.

This eclectic, avid reader and born again Christian is an enigmatic personality that has scores of life’s lessons wrapped up in his biography.  You never give up…you never quit…even when you labor in anonymity…you Press On despite what cruel reality comes your way...and continue to evaluate who you are…what you are…adapt…over come…and when you can’t seem to throw the fast ball to get an out…do something unorthodox…like maybe the knuckle…yeah…throw that knuckle…

And We Were Kids Again...

Baseball is an endurance sport…the grind of 162+ games of a full season…night after night…after night with only the occasional day off.  It is enough time for players to go in and out of slumps…sub par performances….multiple times.  The hard core fan loves it…analyzing counts on a batter…situational hitting…how to shift a defense on certain batter…how to pitch a player…the list is absolutely endless.  For the casual fan, Baseball is a sport with a slow rhythm….most of it mundane with a few moments of excitement.

You see there are games where you know something special is going to happen…remember a few years ago when the Season Home Run Record was in jeopardy…as the game approached with  the chance of Mark Mcquire rocketing past Roger Maris...the ticket prices went through the roof….the press was in full attendance.  It was the same on August 22, 1989….Nolan Ryan was scheduled to pitch…and expected to get his 5,000 strikeout…and somehow my brother had a ticket to the game.  He said that atmosphere was electric as the expectations mounted…and when the magic moment happened…the strobe lights of cameras made the old Arlington Stadium look like Club 54.

Then there are those games where something awesome may happen…but you can’t really plan for it…like a no hitter being thrown…or even more rare, the perfect game.  There have been only 19 of those in the modern era (defined from 1900)…and 21 ever in the history of Baseball.  Those games start out as normal games…but as they progress…the crowd excitement grows…the news wire picks up…and now MLB Network will cut into the game.

Last night was one of those games.  In Camden Yard, Baltimore Maryland…before only about 11,000 fans…Josh Hamilton did something that only  15 people before him have done. That’s right….there have been more perfect games thrown than what Josh did…hit 4 home runs in one game.  In fact he went 5 for 5 from the plate with 4 home runs and one double…18 bases total….more bases than Albert Pujols had in all of April.  What do Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio, and Ted Williams have in common?  None of them did what Josh did last night.  It is argued that just hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in sport to accomplish.  A professional that hits 3 out of 10 times for a lifetime is considered Hall of Fame…but to take one yard….that, not only indicates hand eye coordination, but the coveted Power…and then to do it 4 out  of 5 times in a single game…there are not many words to describe that…

For the casual fan, and before of the 11,000 Baltimore fans in Camden Yard…who by the way gave Texas Ranger, Josh, a standing ovation…the standard mundane game turned into pure excitement .  For the avid fan, well….it was something special to behold…something to tell your grandkids about…something beyond the media guide stats that you pore over.  Josh said when he rounded 2^nd Base on his last one and saw his teammates jumping around, it reminded him of playing Little League again…and the excitement that went with that.  That is why we love the sport so much in this country…it reminds us of childhood sandlots…and a summer afternoon with our buddies….for Baseball is an endurance sport…for over 150 years…it has endured…and last night was part of the reason why…Last night you were 12 again…and your buddy hit a bomb…and you and your teammates jumped around.

Life's Ride...

I am rolling…on a carbon frame Trek ...and through life.

Exhilarating….sometimes at break neck speeds…other times cruising along with no effort…

The climbing of hills and the descending into the depths…

At times the wind to your back, pushing you along with no effort…or the chilling head wind to be weathered...laboring.

Sometimes the ride is with friends…and other times the blaring silence of being alone.

Regardless, I continue….to push…and at the end…when the ride comes to a close, I pray that I have given it my all…no regrets.

For the blessing is in the ride granted.

Creating a Esprit de Corps with Your Family

An ultra marathoner has a crew, especially if it’s a difficult 100 miler. You, know…those people that take care of the runner…sometimes pacing…sometimes taking care of blisters and feet…sometimes encouraging…other times admonishing. A lead cyclist in the Tour has somewhat the same thing….the Domestique…the workers….pulling the team…protecting the lead cyclist of the time…working together…a unit…a fine tuned machine.

My wife and I look at our family in somewhat the same way…oh….she doesn’t think about ultra crews or domesiques…but that is how I relate it. A unit…a Team….in fact we both refer to our family as a whole as Team Elliott…all 6 of us…and with that, Bren and I both have made attempts to create an Esprit de Corps.

It is encouraging how we see our kids help out each other. We often get comments from outsiders as how well our kids get along…usually followed up with the question, “Do they ever argue or fight?”…To answer that question honestly…”Hardly ever.” Sometimes Luke may pick on Macy and Hope…usually in fun…and sometimes the get upset with him…but it is nearly always short lived. This usually has a follow up question…”What do we do to keep them from fighting.” Frankly, I have to credit my wife with that…and how they behave…and support one another….and that got me thinking. What do we, as parents, do to foster such behavior? How do we create an Esprit de Corps? Why is that Luke is already asking when he and Kyle can share a room…and why did my girls want to share a room? Why is that I have seen Luke willing to take the blame for something that Macy has done…and why have I seen Macy run to the defense of Luke? My wife and I began to discuss…and below are some of my thoughts. Yes…I also believe some of them are transferable to the business world…and others are unique to a family.

One of Bren’s favorite mantras is “The World Does NOT Revolve around You.” (I usually respond in jest, that it does around me…cause I pick origin of the coordinate system. All the engineers just chuckled..the rest of you either rolled your eyes or looked confused.) I hear her say this Mantra nearly once a week. It was something we taught our kids from birth…even when Luke was the only one for a while…and we never acted like the world stopped on their command…or when they threw temper tantrums…Nope…throw a fit…and then go sit in time out…heck…Luke sat in time out so much he broke the time out chair by the time he was 3. The world doesn’t revolve around you…or anyone else…simple fact of life. It seems to be easier to learn this with the more kids you have I think…Kyle will know that the world does not revolve around him by the time he can verbalize his thoughts. We now have 4 kids that know that it is not all about them…but each other.

That brings me to my next point…Bren has made a very concerted effort to teach the kids to be thoughtful of others. We as family usually adopt family at Christmas. Our kids have "financially adopted" a Child in Guatemala through a foundation….they see what the money does and how it helps the child or the family. And from this, we try to parlay it into being thoughtful of your siblings. One of the coolest things is seeing one of your children really proud of the accomplishments of their brother or sister. Watching them brag on each other to outsiders is kinda cool.

Bren and I do our best to not create an environment to where there is resentment of the siblings. We never to say, “Why can’t you do that like your sister.”…or “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” We understand that each kid has different gifts…and do everything we can to help develop those gifts and interest. We don’t compare the grades of the siblings…only that they do their absolute best in all they do and compete with their classmates. In fact, the grades of each child are known only to us…Mom and Dad….trust me….that is enough pressure.

There are days when the kids will come home from school and have had a rough day. We have made every effort to make home the refuge from the storms of life. Bren will say nearly every week that at the end of the day you will always have each other. You may have a "so called" friend impale you in the back to the hilt...but you can always rely on the love of your brother or sister. I am always trying to instill the loyalty you have with each other. We may have our differences in house...but when it comes to the outside world..."I have my siblings' back." I have seen how that has helped bond our kids.

Lastly…we try to spend quality time together as a unit….we try to eat dinner together in the evenings. Sometimes this proves really difficult with all the activities. We take at least one vacation trip a year together as a family. We laugh a lot…sometimes we just like being silly. We don’t allow a lot of whining. In fact that is our family motto, “No Whining!”….just ask my 5 year old, Hope. More than once I have asked one of them when they get a little whiny…”What is our Motto?”…and “What are you doing right now?” That usually rings a bell with them and they usually quit.

Trust me…Bren and I have made a lot of mistakes parenting…but we try our best….pray a lot…laugh at ourselves…and by the Grace of God…we have been blessed.

p.s. We came up with the Team Elliott Logo...everything in it has a meaning...if you are interested about what it all means...email me at" delliott (@) timberlakedickson.com

Beauty and the Beast...and the Beast was slain...

Ok…here we go…a synapsis of Beauty and the Beast 67 mile ride…just south of the piney woods of Tyler Texas. The course…67 miles of hills…non stop…ascending …descending…over and over …and over…if you hate climbing…then this race would be torture…I love climbing though…so when the weather of 78 degrees with no wind was forecasted…I thought that it may be a pretty good day.

We get there…and Michael, Amber and I line up…and we are off….the start of these things is always a little hairy…people are excited…we are in tight…18 inches from each other….and the adrenaline usually has people cooking it…so after about a ½ mile…I look down and we are doing 27mph…with a 90 degree turn coming up…slowed…hold the line…I made it through…Amber made it through…and then we hear a crash…a quick glance…Michael was down…Amber and I look at each other…concerned…she asked if we go back…there was no way…without causing another pile up. I say we go on….and at the first stop we will wait to see. It was not to be…Michael escaped any serious injury…but the bike’s shifter for the rear gear set was broken. He was out.

The hills commence…and I just hold a good pace…keeping the heart rate down…and learned that climbing may be my forte…I passed a lot of people on hills…and with not a whole of lot of effort. At about mile 5 or so I must have passed Amber on a hill…and didn’t immediately realize it. About 10 miles later it was to be confirmed by our friend Don who served as a support vehicle. I pull into the aid station at mile 20…to take care of some “over hydration” and refill water bottles…Don told me that Amber was about a mile behind me…and as I leave…she was pulling in. She was doing great…looking strong…and then gave me her blessing to go hammer this course like a monster…and I was off…for the next 40 miles…hills…more hills….keeping a great pace…keeping the heart rate in check. Passing…and occasionally looking back and seeing cyclist trying to stay on my wheel. At mile 63…there is a hill called the Beast…I get there in good order….and notice that no one is riding up it….they were walking there bikes up that hill….then and there I knew that I would not be one of those people…even if I died in the saddle. For nearly a mile…the steepness…it took nearly 5 minutes to get up there…and at the top the heart felt like it was about to explode….as I neared the top…I heard a cyclist who had raced the Beast….shout out “TAKE THAT HILL MARINE.” Breathing was loud…the sweat dripped…and DONE….I tore the gates of hell of it’s hinges and killed the BEAST! Four miles to the finish…and I put it in the big ring and rode it in at 24mph…and averaged 18.1mph for the entire 67 miles. I was elated…felt like I rode well for the first long ride of the year…till then the longest was 2 ½ hours on the trainer. Ok…I have a base to work with now. As for Amber…she finished in a great time and averaged 17.2mph. Michael was a bit scraped up…but nothing serious…and so…we will PRESS ON!