HOF 2011 Prologue

The 2011 Baseball Hall of Fame Writers ballot voting is underway. The results will be announced in early January. As I did for the 2010 voting, I will be breaking down the vote in several previews over the next few weeks. I will again reveal how I would vote if I were A voting member. I will also predict how I think the voting will turn out.

My predictions last year were (with actual results in bold):

• I think there will be 1 player elected to the Hall this year and I think that player will be Andre Dawson.One player was voted in and that player was Andre Dawson.

• I think the top 3 vote getters will be Dawson, Roberto Alomar, and Bert Blyleven. The top 3 vote getters were Dawson, Alomar and Blvleven.

• Along with Alomar I think 3 other first ballot players are likely to get more than 5% of the vote and stay on for 2011. They are Barry Larkin, Fred McGriff, and Edgar Martinez. 4 first timers were on the ballot received at least 5% of the vote (needed to remain on the ballot in coming years). These 4 were Alomar, Larkin, McGriff and Martinez.

Yes if you are scoring at home I went 3 for 3 in my predictions. Don't believe me? Click here for my predictions and here for the results.

I'll be back shortly after Christmas with a full HOF preview.

Lego Robotics

Our family spent all day today in a Jr High gymnasium. Sounds like fun, huh? Actually it was. My son was in a regional competion for Lego Robotics today. There were several facets to the competition, but the best part was the awards ceremony. His team didn't win any of the first place awards in the four competition categories . However, they were 1 of 4 teams in the regional to advance to the state finals!! Go Spider Droid Go!!

Carnival of Homeschooling @ Homespun Juggling

One of my favorite blogs is celebrating one of my favorite numbers today at the Carnival of homeschooling. What blog? Homespun Juggling. What #?

Well let's say you read 2 blogs that post exactly 3 times a day every day. By the end of 1 week how many posts have you read? Thats (2*3*7).

I was unable to contribute this week but there are at least 42 reasons to check it out!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I saw the movie The Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night. I took my oldest son and daughter to see it with me. They will be putting their reviews in their blogs in the coming days.

I thought it was an excellent film. Roger Ebert suggested seeing it in 2-d rather than 3-d, advice with which I heartily agree. In one way it is a "reimagining" of the book. The book is a series of adventures without a specific focal point. The movie incorporates a minor plot device from the book and turns it into a specific focal point that all the adventures emanate from.

This choice, in my opinion, allows the movie to deviate in many ways from the book while still maintaining the integrity of the book. For example, two adventures take place on the same island in the film where they took place on two different islands in the book (and in inverse order) . I was glad that the books integrity was kept in this film as I thought that the movie version of Prince Caspian made changes to the characterizations that were much different portrayals than on paper.

Unfortunately some of my favorite parts of reading Dawn Treader were kept out of the movie adaptation. Dawn Treader has one of the best opening lines I have ever read: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." As I have taught my co-op students when I taught the Narnia books last year, in one line C.S. Lewis introduces a new character and tells you of his character. This is just one example of how a great movie about a great book still cannot replace the book.

Next Time: A funny thing happened on my way to home school.

Alice predicts Paul Konerko's next team.

Paul Konerko
Originally uploaded by chicagogrl95

We have this thing in our house called doing an Alice. It's based on a Brady Bunch reference. There was a big football game and Greg's team won. The family came home told Alice they won and she pulled out a big cake said Congratulations. Mrs. Brady then asked Alice what she would have done if they lost she proceeded to take a second cake out of the fridge that said better luck next year.

Sometime today or tomorrow it will be announced if Paul Konerko will be the White Sox next year or if he will be going to another team to finish off a stellar career.

When he makes his decision, I will make an announcement at Crazy Uncle Dave's. Until then, let me go ahead and do an Alice ...

Congratulations on your new deal Pauly Longball (a nickname I gave him). Looking forward to having you back. Rings in 11!


Go way down to see the other cake.
















































Pauly! We will miss you. Good luck with your new team. Thanks for all you did for the team. Thanks especially for taking a home town discount in 'o5 instead of heading to the Angels for the cash.