Safety Harbor All Stars Win 11-7

The Safety Harbor All Stars came back from an early 4-0 deficit to win their first game this tournament 11-7 over Tarpon Springs. We could not have asked for a better game to start out the tournament. Gabe batted second and also played second base. He went 2-2 with two doubles and was walked twice. On defense he caught two pop flies and had three throws to first for outs. No errors.

You can see his two hits by clicking HERE or on Pic below...

It's best viewed on Internet Explorer and, depending on your internet speed, it may take a short time to download completely. The file is a flash file, so you'll need a Flash plug-in installed. Most browsers already have this plug-in, but if not you can download one free www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.

Thanks to DC for taking the video!

Tomorrow we play a strong Palm Harbor team, a make-up for last night's rain out.

Great game Gabe!

Charade (1963)

Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, is an odd, quirky, funny and strange film about a woman (Hepburn) who's husband is murdered over a missing $250,000. She comes home to find her apartment emptied and a man (Grant) offering to assist her. She has no idea where the money is located and is hounded and threatened by a CIA official (Walter Matthau) and ex-US military buddies (James Coburn, George Kennedy) who served with Hepburn's husband.

The film has an odd sense of pacing and very light-hearted and often uncommon sense of humor. The film's logic is light and weak at best, but the weight of Grant and Hepburn's charm carry the film.

The film was not critically acclaimed, but was widely popular when it was released over 40 years ago and I can see why. The plot holes are big enough to drive through and the reactions to people being threatened with murder are far from realistic, but it's all in good fun.

It certainly will never be one of the greatest films of all time, but it is a treat to see Hepburn and Grant working together.

All-Stars Rained Out

As expected, our game was rained out last night. It will be made up on Sunday. However, we hope to play our scheduled game today at 2:00 p.m.

All-Stars Begin Tonight

Weather permitting Gabe's 10-11 All Star team begins play tonight. They have three games and the top teams move onto a playoff.

We've had two intensive weeks of practice. When Paul and Jonathan were down, we went down to the field so Jonathan (a catcher) could catch Gabe (a pitcher). During the practice, Jonathan notices a very small chink in Gabe's mechanics. When fixed, it added another five mph to Gabe's pitches. I was so relieved. I had been trying to figure out what the issue was that was causing the reduction in speed, but could never figure it out. Thanks Jonathan!

The chance of rain down here is very high, so there's a good chance the game will be postponed, but you never know.

We'll see what happens...

Killing the Family

I was watching one of my favorite shows on EWTN called Faith & Culture hosted by the charming Colleen Carroll Campbell. The show covers Catholicism in today's culture.

Last night she interviewed Helen Alvare, a Catholic expert on family law. During the interview Alvare said something very interesting. She said that, prior to the 1960s, family law in the country primarily focused on the welfare of the family. That's why divorce was much harder to get because it was often times not in the best interest of the family.

Now, however, family law has moved from the best interest of the family to the best interest of the individual. So, now, if one person in a marriage wants a divorce, they can get it easily, no matter the overall effect on the family.

But the most disturbing outcome of this migration in family law from focusing on the family to focusing on the individual is abortion and euthanasia. As Alvare explains, the concept of family has been distorted so strongly that the only people you can legally kill are members of your own family. You can kill your own child through abortion and people are pushing for us to allow the killing of our own family members through euthanasia.

Think about that for a minute. If you kill someone else's child or someone else's family member, you are a murderer. But if you murder someone in your own family through abortion and euthanasia, you are not.

Stunning.

To me, it just goes to show how resilient, clever and powerful Satan has become in destroying the primary location where faith and morals are defined and taught... the family.

Psycho (1960)

My daughter and I sat down last night to watch Psycho... the first time for her. Afterwards we re-watched certain scenes and discussed Hitchcock's use of audience expectations to build suspense and misdirect the audience. Hitchcock's genius lied in his ability to effortlessly read and anticipate what the average audience viewer wanted to see and then use that to his advantage. He does this to great effect on Psycho.

Hitchcock had seen the advent of low-budget horror movies and they were all making money, so he thought, "What would happen if I made a horror film?" So, he limited his budget to $1 million and shot the film, loosely based on the book Psycho by Robert Bloch. Hitchcock used books as inspiration, but he never felt compelled to stay true to the source material. After all, as he once said, film and literature are two different mediums. When making a film, staying true to the book is as invalid as staying true to a painting that may inspire you. Would you setup a camera and shoot a painting for two hours? No.

He and screenwriter Joseph Stefano concocted the opening of the film to revolve around Janet Leigh's character, Marion Crane, and her embezzlement of $40,000 instead of about the Bates Motel and the psychos that live there. Hitchcock was a great believer in what he dubbed the MacGuffin, which is basically a plot device that the audience felt was important, but in reality was only a tool to propel the story forward. In Psycho, its following the money.

So, when Janet Leigh shockingly meets her demise in the shower and Norman Bates, played brilliantly as Anthony Perkins, cleans up the crime scene, Hitchcock keeps the folded newspaper holding the stolen money on the end table continuously in the foreground. Why? Because the audience thinks that's what the movies about. At first, the audience thinks the story is about Marion Crane, but she dies, so then the movie MUST be about the money. The audience expects that Norman will stumble across the money and use it to escape his domineering mother. So, Hitchcock lets the audience think that, until Norman picks up the paper and throws it into the back of the trunk with the dead body, unaware the money is even there.

So now we're thrown into a tailspin.

For some reason, I've begun to feel sorry for poor, awkward Norman. I'm actually empathizing with his predicament and appreciate, on some level, his dedication to protecting his ailing mother from the murder.

And, if the main character played by an A list star just got killed off and the story isn't about the money, then now we have NO idea what is going to happen next. And, that's when Hitchcock has got you right where he wanted you all along.

That's why he's a genius and the rest of us are not.

Shot in black and white and with other strong performances by John Garland and Vera Miles, Psycho is a great film not because of the violence or necessarily the editing, but it, along with The Birds, Rear Window and North by Northwest, show how Hitchcock was so adept and using our own emotions and expectations against us.

We go into the movie theater, sit down and let Hitch steer the roller coaster knowing it's going to be an exciting ride. And he rarely disappointed.