Baseball, Christians, etc.

Here's something interesting: the Christian Science Monitor looks at how well private retirement accounts have worked in Galveston. (The answer: not as well as Bush made it sound, unsurprisingly.)


And I haven't linked to Mark Morford in a while, and that's partly because I was behind on reading his columns, but here is a good one: Where are the good Christians?

They are the decent Christians. They are the calm, morally progressive, compassionate, open-hearted Jesus-loving folk who don't really give a damn for archaic church dogma or pious noise or sanctimonious candlelight vigils, for repressing women or bashing gays or slamming Islam and, in fact, turned to Christianity precisely because they believe these things are abhorrent and wrong and, well, anti-Christian.

And why do we not hear more from these people?

It's because they are not organized. They are not a club. They do not have a unified attack agenda. They do not have pamphlets or advertising budgets or congressional lobbyists or the complaint line of every TV network and program except Fox News and "The 700 Club" on speed dial.

In baseball news, my secret boyfriend Jeff Bagwell finally went on the disabled list - the same day, coincidentally, that Roger Clemens became the winningest living pitcher in baseball.

The 12-19 Houston Astros have an old roster, and two of the clubs' veterans are heading in very different directions.

In his 15th season, Jeff Bagwell's body appears to be breaking down. The first baseman has played his entire career in Houston and hit 449 home runs, but his on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS, in the geekspeak we love) has declined each year since 1999. Now he's missed six straight games because of debilitating shoulder pain. "He's forced to confront the possibility that this is the beginning of the end," Richard Justice writes in the Houston Chronicle, adding, "His arthritic right shoulder is dying a day at a time. He hasn't been able to throw for three years. Now he's having trouble swinging a bat. There's no indication it's going to get significantly better."

Then there's Mr. Bagwell's 42-year-old teammate, Roger Clemens. Mr. Clemens became the winningest living pitcher last night with his 330th win, passing the retired Steve Carlton, and is now 2-1 with a microscopic 1.10 ERA in seven starts this season. South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Mike Berardino calls Mr. Clemens a "true living legend" and points out that his win total may never be passed in his lifetime.

(From the Wall Street Journal's "Daily Fix")

It's Bagwell's first trip to the DL in over 5 years, I believe. I just hope it's not his last.