Scooter Chronicles

Tigers’ New Shortstop
The Tigers had decided that Carlos Guillen wasn’t the best fielding shortstop that they could have. Even during the season, they experimented with him playing first base. After all, they didn’t want to lose his bat, but the errors at short. Apparently Guillen has agreed with the move on a full-time basis next year. So when the announcement came that Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his contract with the Yankees, I wondered if the Tigers would be crazy enough to try and sign him. They answered quickly the next day by announcing they had traded two prospects to the Braves for Edgar Renteria. I am sure many will feel the same way, this is a great move. Renteria is a very good fielder, and has a very steady bat. He doesn’t have the home run power we have seen lately from shortstops (like A-Rod), but he has kept his average above .290 or better for the better part of the last six seasons, and other then this year where he missed almost 40 games, he usually tallies 70 or more RBI’s a year. He also comes at almost a third the price that A-Rod may command. Some are saying that A-Rod will be asking (and getting) anywhere between $25-$30 million a year. Renteria is only making $10 million a year. That leaves more money for pitching.

Politics
I refrain from talking politics on my blog because they frustrate me too much. But David and I were emailing each other about something, and the subject of a recent move by our wonderful President came up. And the reason this has me feeling terrible is because I am a father.

You may have already heard that Bush vetoed a recent bill to expand health insurance coverage to children that don’t have it, yet turned around and asked for more money for his war. So he is saying that the health of our children, of the VERY FUTURE of this country, is not as important as liberating a country that will more then likely fall into a civil war anyway after we are done there? Going after bin Laden and terrorists were one thing, but this has gone beyond that. And if I ever find myself out of work and Nigel can’t get the health care he needs because of cuts or limits to this program, you can bet I will be finding a way to get to Texas, or Kennebunkport, Maine, and punch ol’ W in the face.

(OK, so I won’t really, but the man disgusts me right now.)

Moving … Slowly
Marcia and I continue to work our way to getting our own place. We have been doing very well, and have been working on a budget the last couple of months that has worked. It has been tight, especially near the end of the month, seeing as I get paid monthly, but we are moving in the right direction, and have been now for six months or more. One big hurdle was health care costs while I was a contract employee. Having gotten through 95% of that, we have really made a dent, or more like a huge chunk, of the mountain that we are moving out of our way. Last week I had seen a few places available to rent, and was thinking that we might want to make a move sooner, but we still just aren’t there yet. But with the winter months ahead of us, we really wouldn’t want to be doing a move anyway. So this gives us even more time to make more adjustments.

Nigel’s Allergies
Nigel will be taking a “Milk Challenge” this morning. He was scheduled to take this with another allergist a month or so ago, but given our insurance changes, we had to reschedule with another doctor. Nigel has shown he is building up a tolerance to milk and dairy products, though still showing signs of having small allergic reactions to eggs. We will see what the test discover today.

It is going to be a tough challenge for Marcia, too. She will have to be at the doctor’s office with Nigel for around four hours. And after administering the start of the test, she will have to make sure that Nigel doesn’t lay down or sit back, as this will disturb whatever it is they do to his back for the test. So in actuality, Marcia is in for a bigger challenge then Nigel is. And hopefully we will be able to start introducing real milk to Nigel, and start weaning him off of the soy milk (which he loves).