February 7, 2022
👉 A pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night. “Yes, sir.” the boy replied. “And, do you always say them in the morning, too?” the pastor asked. “No sir,” the boy replied. “I’m not scared in the daytime.”
👉 Another section from our “Monday Pun” folder:
👉 In case you care, the NFC All-Pros lost 35-41 to the AFC All-Pros in this year’s football all star game laughingly called the “Pro Bowl.” “Pro” being short for “professional” giving an image of star football players, doing their best to represent their conference and win a meaningless game. If this play is any indication, we (and all I know about yesterday’s fiasco I learned researching for today’s blog) missed absolutely nothing. That humiliating sequence comes about because the players in the Pro Bowl came to a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts to have little or no tackling at all, trying to avoid contact at all as to avoid any unnecessary injuries. And there were no kickoffs – they just spotted the ball. As Charlie Brown said ...
👉 Our Monday morning sports report continues with a story of baseball card collecting gone insane. In August, a T206 Honus Wagner baseball card set the stratospheric record for most expensive sports card of all time when it sold for $6,606,000. This weekend, a sale was finalized for a T206 Honus Wagner card for $475,960, including a buyer’s premium. A Wagner card sold for less than $1 million? The catch? This Wagner card was torn in half. Wagner’s left jaw is missing, as is most of his torso. PSA, the go-to card-grading company graded it “genuine” which means that the Wagner is “real but nothing more.”
👉 QB’s sports report ends with news that the lockout of Major League Baseball players is entering its third month (Yawn!) with no end in sight, the postponement of spring training looming, and the delaying of the regular season in the works. At issue of course is money, money, money. The owners offered federal mediation and the players said:
The players are fighting any suggestion of a salary cap and salary floor (the only professional sports league without them). The players want the competitive balance tax – a predetermined payroll threshold – raised from $210 million to $245 million; the league is offering $214 million. The players want the minimum salary raised from $570,500 to $775,000; the league is offering a tiered minimum salary that starts at $615,000 and ends at $700,000. All this while the annual salary of the President of the United States is $400,000!
In published reports that will bring joy to baseball purists, there is progress in the negotiations, despite the preceding bad news: “The only real progress is that the league has agreed to a universal DH.” Yippee! (Read that with all the sarcasm you can muster mister).
Freeman played an incredible 159 games last year – the average for MLB players is between 47 and 104. So based on that, if the Braves sign Freeman this year, he will make $121,100.63 while you watch him play that game against the Washington Nationals. And you spent $516 for the pleasure (assuming you don’t buy more food or souvenirs – if you make $25 an hour, that’s half a week’s pay). Pittsburgh Pirates fans know that the payroll for the entire active major league team for 2022 is $95,000 more than Freddie Freeman will make – but then my poor pitiful punched-out Pirates haven’t played a world series game since 1979 and haven’t been close since 1992.
👉 Speaking of playing games, I enjoy Monopoly. There are 8 different sets of Monopoly here at 233 and that doesn’t include, if memory serves, 2 Star Wars Monopoly sets which I gave to the players at Herrington Manor. And Monopoly Longest Game Ever is in my Amazon shopping cart. Just so you’ll know, this version has 66 properties, and not even bankruptcy will get you out of this game – the game continues until one player owns every property. Oh yeah, there is only one die. No more doubles. For the record, there is a game in progress – the original version – on the dining room table to be concluded before supper tonight. Now with that introduction, I give you the following picture from Instagram:
Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.
“Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way” (Psalm 25:8)
God likes our sins even less than our neighbors do. But he treats them far differently. Whereas other people reject and condemn us when we are flawed and recalcitrant, God mercifully and patiently “instructs,” “leads,” and “teaches” us. Our sins are an occasion not for harsh rejection, but for loving reconciliation.
Prayer: I confess my sins to you, O Lord, confident that you will not reject this sinner, but find new ways to share your forgiveness and steadfast love, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.
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