Monday's Musings on Sports - Waiting by the phone, a tale of two draft picks

It happens every April. After a brief lull in football related news, the media frenzy begins in earnest as teams circulate false rumors about players which they are or are not interested in drafting during the annual NFL draft. This will lead to hundreds of stories about teams and their interest or lack of interest in various players.

Those unfamiliar with the NFL draft may ask whether this is all just a smokescreen, but there is method to the madness. Each team has a list of players (aka "the draft board") who they have vetted and which will meet their needs or "provide value." The teams have invested time and effort in compiling the draft board and do not want other teams to pick those players ahead of their selection. At the same time, the teams also do not want to have to use a higher round draft pick to pick their coveted prospect if they know that the player will last into the later round. Finally, if the NFL team is aware that another team has the collegiate player on their draft board, the team may trade for an earlier draft pick ("aka trade up") in order to ensure that the player who fits their needs can be selected.

As part of the vetting process, the team will go to a player's pro day, interview or contact his college and even high school coaches and talk to each player's parent and/or agent. It is this last topic which led to the two phone calls which form the basis of this post.

As was reported by MJD in Shutdown Corner (click here http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/miscreant-prank-called-mohamed-sanu-last-night-told-153947666.html for a link to the full blog post ), Mohamed Sanu, a Rutgers player received a very nasty prank call on the first night of the draft. The caller stated that he was with the Cincinati Bengals and that Sanu was going to be the Bengals draft pick at 27. Sanu and his family were thrilled and Sanu's agent tweeted that Sanu was about to become a Bengal. All was well and good until the Bengals drafted another player at 27.

To his credit, Sanu did not react negatively. As quoted by MJD, the next day, Sanu tweeted "Thank God for giving me another day and another opportunity to chase my dream ... "

The second draft phone call story which caught my attention involved Pittsburgh Steelers' First Round selection David DeCastro. After finding out that he had been selected, DeCastro received a celebratory phone call from Ben Roethlisberger. For reasons unknown, DeCastro thought that Roethlisberger was the team's secretary and his response to the celebratory call was "did you get those flight plans?" Apparently, he asked this question over and over before realizing that Roethlisberger was the starting quarterback, not the team secretary.

The two stories show an incredible contrast in attitude and entitlement. Sanu was not upset about the prank and was actually picked by the Bengals in the Third Round of the draft. No one is publicly saying whether Sanu was picked because he was slotted there on the Bengals draft board or because they were impressed with his maturity when he found out that he was pranked. DeCastro on the other hand showed that he is ready for the NFL, as he already is ordering around team officials, rather than being grateful for his place at the table.

The two stories reminded me of something that took place during my year in Israel. A friend of mine was staying at the home of an Israeli talmid in Jerusalem when a visitor came to the door. When he asked the visitor who he was, the visitor said that he was Aharon and that he needed to leave something for the parents of the Israeli talmid. My friend told Aharon that he could leave the item in the hallway. Only much later did my friend learn that "Aharon" was none other than R' Aharon Lichtenstein, the Rosh Yeshiva of Gush. You can imagine his embarassment when he realized how he had treated this gadol...

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac's Blueberry Blonde Ale.

The newest offering from Saranac is the Blueberry Blonde Ale. It is available in the beers of summer mix box as well as in individual six packs. This marks a departure from the usual for Saranac as they usually do not not roll out six packs of a new seasonal brew until they have taken the market's temperature as to their new beer style. However, with both the spring White IPA and the Blueberry Blonde Ale, Saranac has "gone all in" and made these brews available in six packs as well as part of the mix boxes. Honestly, I am happy that they took the initiative to do so with the Blueberry Blonde Ale.

I have always been partial to Blondes ... of the beer variety that is. A good Blonde Ale will have just enough hops to remind you of its lineage, but also will have maltiness and a little fruit. In pairing a traditional Blonde Ale with the blueberry, Saranac has created a dessert type beer which is refreshing with pasta or other light fare or on its own after a long day in the sun. I purchased a six pack last week, and along with Mrs KB and crew, I have been experimenting with various meals and food types. While I would not recommend this with a steak or other charred meat, it would be a good accompaniment to many other dishes such as poultry and the aforementioned pasta. I wonder if I should try some with blintzes on Shavuous, but as this is only the 23rd day of the Omer, I will need to wait a while to find out...

Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/80356 .

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshios Tazria-Metzora

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Rabbi Frand started the vort by making reference to a story in the gemara about a peddler. The peddler would announce that he was selling the elixir of life and that anyone who wanted the elixir of life should come to him. The peddler was approached by R' Yannai who asked to buy the elixir. The peddler responded to R' Yannai - you are a tzadik, you don't need this. However, R' Yannai persisted. Finally the seller said to him - look in the book of Tehillim - it is written - who is one who desires life ... keep your mouth from speaking evil.

Following this conversation, R' Yannai was heard to say, all my life I would say these pesukim, but I never understood this until now.

R' Frand asked the obvious question - what was it that the peddler was able to teach R' Yannai about the pesukim in Tehillim which he did not know previously?

R' Frand (citing to R' Isaac Bernstein) answered this question by quoting the sefer Casnos Or which developed an interesting, but somewhat scary thought.

The Casnos Or stated in the name of Chovos Halivavos that a person who says lashon hara about another person loses his mitzvos and gains the other person's aveiros. When the speaker comes to be judged in the world to come, he will see that he has aveiros that he never knew he committed and he is missing mitzvos he was sure he kept. When he questions his record, they will advise him that when he spoke lashon hara he absorbed the other person's aveiros and forfeited his mitzvos to him.

The Chovos Halivavos tells a story about a man who sent a fruit basket to another person who had spoken lashon hara about him. When asked why he did it, he replied that it was a thank you for giving me the mitzvos by speaking lashon hara about me.

The Casnos Or also quoted the sefer Marpei Lashon which states that many people get extra reward in the next world that they were not expecting because someone regularly spoke loshon hara about them.

With this introduction, the Casnos Or answered the question on the R' Yannai story. R' Yannai knew that there was reward in this world for not speaking lashon hara. However, R' Yannai learned from the peddler that there is a reward in olam haba for those who don't speak lashon hara and have others speak lashon hara about them.

R' Frand then quoted R' Isaac Bernstein who cited to a footnote in the Chafetz Chaim which discusses the minhag that some people at the end of their shemoneh esreh say pesukim which begin with the first letter of their name and end with the last letter. Why do they do so? So that they will remember their own name when they come to shamayim. R' Bernstein explained that the Shelah HaKadosh clarifies (based on the above) that when a person comes to shamayim he will see all these extra mitzvos on his account. He will ask - where did they come from? He will be informed that some are so and so's mitzvos and others are from another person and so on and so on. All of these mitzvos will come because the person was the target of lashon hara. The person will need to be reminded of his own name because he will be overhwelmed by all these extra mitzvos.

Having said all of the above, R' Frand said that he had a problem understanding how a person can lose all of his mitzvos by speaking lashon hara. He addressed the problem by noting that the Marpei Lashon states that the person who loses his mitzvos is a habitual lashon hara teller whose very nature is to speak ill about others. This is the person who forfeits his olam haba to the target of speech. Having said that, R' Frand was quick to remind that there is a reason that the warnings exist about lashon hara and it should not be treated lightly.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shemini

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

This week's parsha recounts the tragic story of the death of two of Aharon's sons (Nadav & Avihu) after they brought an "aish zara" in the Mishkan. R' Frand quoted many interpretations as to what they did wrong: (1) They decided a halachic question with their teachers (Moshe & Aharon) present: (2) They were already judged as worthy of death for improper actions at Mt Sinai, but Hashem did not want to impact on the simcha and waited until now; (3) They never got married and could not keep the mitzva to be fruitful; (4) They awaited Moshe & Aharon's death so that they could be the leaders.

R' Frand asked - why is there rampant speculation as to what Nadav and Avihu did wrong? The Torah tells us that it was because they brought the aish zarah, so why not just accept that reason?

R' Frand answered by quoting R' Yaakov Kaminetzky in his sefer Emes L'Yaakov. R' Yaakov suggests that from the fact that we see that they brought the karban without asking Moshe and Aharon what to do, we see the source for the first answer above. R' Frand said that if he were daven in R' Elyashiv's shul and someone were to come and ask him a halachic question and he were to answer, he would be not showing proper respect for the Rav.

But why is it that they did not ask Moshe & Aharon? R' Kaminetsky states that it is because they thought that they could do a better job than Moshe & Aharon - Moshe was not good enough in their eyes. This links to the fourth answer listed above. It also is a derivative of their ga'avah about their own worth.

R' Yaakov states that this also can be seen in the third answer. The gemara discusses an Amora who never got married because he said that his soul was tied to the Torah. This was frowned upon, because there is an obligation to get married and be fruitful. However, Nadav and Avihu thought that they were better than everyone else and did not need to get married. This was yet another reason which derives from the central point that their ga'avah was the reason they were punished.

R' Yaakov explains that each person has a central source for his sins and all of his improper actions come from this, like a string which emanates from the source. This is why chazal say their different reasons - they are all variations on the same theme.

R' Frand also quoted a different answer to the question from a sefer Chiddushei R' Yosef Nechemiah Kornitzer (sp?) who was a great grandson of the Chassam Sofer. He wrote on the pasuk "B'krovi Ekadesh" (Vayikra 10:3) that they did not ask Moshe because he was their uncle. To them, Moshe was Uncle Moshe first and the Gadol Hador second. They felt an intimacy with him and did not give him the deference that he was required. However, it really must be the reverse. If family members do not have respect for the man, how can a stranger?

He then quoted his great grandfather, the Chassam Sofer who (utilizing a play on words) writes that Moshe should have had respect from his krovim (relatives) and since he did not receive it, he did not get it from the nation as well.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - Bacon, Go Carts and Fish

During the middle of chol hamoed, a story which had been percolating for some time became the focus of the mainstream media. Miami Marlins' manager Ozzie Guillen, who had never shied away from speaking his mind when he was the manager of the Chicago White Sox, was quoted in Time Magazine as saying that he "loved" Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. This was not the first time that Guillen had expressed his admiration for Castro, but this time it provoked a firestorm, largely because of the uniform that he was wearing.

In order to understand why Guillen provoked the response this time, a little bit of an introduction is required. For most of the last seven years, the Marlins have been ignored by baseball media and even their own fans. Although they won a World Series in 2003, the ownership had not invested in quality professional talent and the Marlins floundered. Even worse, the fans stopped coming down to watch the Marlins. Indeed, in 2011 they averaged under 19,000 fans per game (second lowest in MLB) and had a payroll under $54 million.

During the recent off season, the Marlins underwent many changes in an attempt to garner more attention. They changed their name from Florida Marlins to Miami Marlins. They signed marquee free agent players, including Jose Reyes and Heath Bell. They made an attempt to sign All-World First Baseman Albert Pujols. They brought in a big name manager (Guillen) after having three different managers in 2011. And they built a brand new, retractable roof stadium in the Little Havana section of Miami.

And then, after all these efforts to raise the profile of the team, their new manager was quoted saying that he loved Fidel Castro, the most hated man in Miami. The local Cuban-American community was in an uproar, but Guillen kept his mouth shut while the Marlins continued a road trip. The pundits speculated as to how the Marlins would react and whether this was a "fireable" offense. Guillen called a press conference and promised to answer any and all questions. But the Marlins jumped the gun and announced that they were suspending Guillen for five games. Why? Because of Bacon and Go Carts, but these two items need explanation...

On Monday of Chol Hamoed (the day before the Guillen story really exploded) I personally observed something and heard a story on the radio which helped me to understand why Guillen's statement provoked the reaction that it did.

Since the cousins were (almost) all together for chol hamoed, we decided that we would go to a small amusement park in Maryland. When we arrived there, we learned that a local yeshiva had obtained a discount package and the park was nearly full. My children, nieces and nephews stood on line for longer they would have liked, but they were not overly whiny about the wait time.

While waiting for the go-karts with two of my kids, I was faced with the problem that plagues amusement parks. Two kids were attempting to move up the line so that they would not have to wait (the line was about 45 minutes). When the kids reached me I firmly but politely said to them, "no you cannot go by". Having been on the line for more than half an hour at this time, I knew that they had not been ahead of my kids and thus they were not rejoining a parent after having taken a bathroom break. The kids (probably no more than nine or ten years old) told me that they "just wanted to see." I again told them that they would need to wait in line like everyone else.

Roughly two minutes later, a frum woman asked me if she could walk to the front of the line. I allowed her to pass and saw her approach the (non-Jewish) ride attendant. I could not hear the whole conversation, but I heard him tell her at the end of the conversation - "we have lines." She then went to the end of the line to stand with her kids.

The incident bothered me. Didn't she realize that because she and her kids were obviously frum it would be a chillul Hashem to try to jump the line? Although the park was full of frum people, there were non-Jewish patrons as well as non-Jewish staff workers at the park. By attempting to cut the line, people would see that a frum person was trying to avoid waiting and draw their own conclusions and possibly stereotype. I was barely able to resist the urge to speak with her (respectfully, of course) about the impression she was making on others.

A few hours later I was in my car driving back to NY and listening to the Mets-Nationals game on the radio. During the game, Mets' announcer Howie Rose told Josh Lewin (the new color commentator) about something that he could not believe that he saw in the press box. There was a breakfast being served and a member of the press who Rose did not identify was at the buffet. Rose painted a picture that the media member took a plate with eggs, potatoes and then added a piece of matzo. But before leaving the buffet, he put a piece of bacon the plate. Rose said that he had never seen anything like this and that it "just was not kosher."

In fairness to the unnamed media member, there is no way of knowing whether he was or was not Jewish and therefore would not be barred from having bacon with his breakfast. But the conversation made me cringe, thinking that the conclusion was being drawn that this person was Jewish because he was eating matzo on Passover and was also eating bacon.

The three stories have a common theme - people need to be aware that they are judged by their actions and the laundry they are wearing. It does not matter whether a person is a baseball manager, mommy or member of the press, they are all identified as part of a larger class of people. As such, they must know that the perception of their people (or team) is shaped by their actions.

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Stout

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Stout.

For my first post-Passover brew, I sat down and enjoyed a Saranac Stout. This beer was included with the 2012 Saranac "What Ales You" mix box. The 2012 Saranac Stout should not be confused with other Saranac stout beers, such as the Saranac Irish Stout (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunday-night-suds-saranac-irish-stout.html), Saranac Imperial Stout (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/04/sunday-night-suds-saranac-imperial.html) or Saranac Vanilla Stout (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-vanilla-stout.html) which have been rotated by Saranac over the last few years. In fact, the Saranac Stout has not been brewed since Winter 2008-2009.

When brewers reintroduce beers after having them out of production for a number of years, they often tweak the brew. Sometimes these changes are radical and other times they may be more subtle. I have wondered whether the changes might even be related to the beer being brewed in a different plant where the mineral quality of the water might have been part of the change in flavor, but I have no empirical evidence to support this hypothesis.

I mention the tweaking of the brew as a preface to my review of the Saranac Stout because the brew is significantly different than the brew I remember from back in 2008. The beer poured the same rich brown, near Guinness color that I remember. However, the current version is much richer than the 2008 version. When drinking this brew, you really need to sip it to enjoy the flavor, even if you were choose to drink it ice cold (which I don't recommend for the 2012 vintage). The beer has a generous amount of roasted malt and coffee and chocolate notes). I would pair this beer with deeply charred meat or stews, but it is equally enjoyable on its own after dinner.

Saranac Stout is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac Stout, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/1465.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ / to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - Bountygate - is this how the Matza crumbles?

Over the last month or so, I have been transfixed by the development of Bounty-Gate. As most football fans know, the scandal involved a pool which rewarded New Orleans Saints players for injuring opposition players. When the story first broke the focus of the media was on the figures at the top of the pyramid - the Saints assistant coaches, head coach and general manager who either knew about the pool, condoned it, participated in rewards or looked the other way.

Late Sunday night the story took an interesting turn as the media focus turned to the players who were involved in the head hunting. A source revealed that the NFLPA (the players union) had advised players that when they were being interviewed by the league in connection with the scandal, they should have a union rep (standard operating procedure) as well as a lawyer. The theory was that unnamed authorities were considering bringing criminal charges against the players for intentionally injuring other players.

This morning, the Mike & Mike show took this story to the extreme as Greenie (after evoking an admission from Golic that he did try to knock out other players) said that he wanted to make a citizen's arrest. They later brought Jay Bilas onto the show, but he begged out of representing Greenie in this endeavor as he had already been retained to bring suit against them on behalf of the "Cornpoke Gazette."

While it seems very far fetched that a prosecutor could bring charges in connection with injuries sustained in a sport where it is legal to hit and players regularly get injured on "clean plays", I began to think to myself - why would the players join a pool like this? The "payouts" for the hits were "only" $1,000 - $2,500 per player taken down. While awards of this type would be meaningful to the average middle class family, the NFL players making these hits had a median salary of $770,000 in 2009. Would an average Joe shoplift a fifty cent pack of gum and jeopardize his livelihood and freedom? Of course not. So why would a player earning three quarters of a million dollars annually put himself in a position where he could lose his ticket in order to pick up an extra thousand or two thousands dollars per game (max)?

The question made me think about a shiur that I heard from R' Frand about the matza that we eat at the seder. Early on in the seder we say the phrase "HaLachma Anya" - this is the bread of poverty that we ate in Egypt. R' Frand asked - why is it that we eat matza at the seder and point to this as the bread of poverty? Isn't the seder supposed to be a time that we celebrate being freed from Egypt? We should be rejoicing with raisin challah or some other rich bread and saying - thank you Hashem for taking us out of Egypt and making us free men!

Before answering the question, R' Frand prefaced his remarks by asking the question - would you rather be poor and happy or rich and unhappy? He said that the question had been asked to high school students and they overwhelmingly chose the rich and unhappy. He then posed the question to 8th graders via teleconference, but they were not as forthcoming with their opinions.

R' Frand asked how can a person say, I will have all the money that I want, but be unhappy? Doesn't everyone want to be happy? The answer is that in their minds they cannot be unhappy if they have money.

This can be a possible rationale for the actions of the players. They have well paying jobs, but the overwhelming desire for a few extra bucks blinds them.

The haggada teaches us the opposite concept. The seder starts by saying this is the bread of slaves. Why do we mention the matza and eat it? We read that the reason we eat matza is because the Jews were in a rush when they left Egypt and the matza could not rise. But by remembering this as a free man, isn't this the bread of freemen that we are using to remember that Hashem took us out of Egypt? The answer is yes - its both the bread of the poor and the wealthy. If you are happy, then its the bread of the rich man. If you are not, its the bread of the poor man.

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac White IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at the newest offering from the good folks at Utica's Matt Brewery - White IPA.

Over the last six months it seems like every domestic craft brewery has made an attempt to produce a "different" IPA. These include Black IPAs, IPAs with a fruit infusion such as the Samuel Adams Whitewater IPA (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/03/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams.html ) and IPAs with added spices, such as the Saranac White IPA.

The concept of adding flavor to an IPA is completely foreign to me and I have yet to wrap my head around why this has become an industry trend. IPAs are generally clean with a lot of floral hops providing the citrusy flavor. While Belgian IPAs are influenced by yeast strains, the recent domestic trend of adding fruit and spices to the IPA transforms the brew into something completely different.

The Saranac White IPA poured a cloudy orange and looked suspiciously like a hefeweizen. When bringing the glass to my lips, I could smell the hops as well as some spice (from the coriander). The first sip made me look back at the bottle to make certain that this was actually an IPA, but a few sips later I could begin to discern the characteristic IPA hop backbone which I know and love.

The label indicates that the beer was brewed with orange peel, coriander, wheat male and oats. The resulting flavoring yields a beer with an interesting set of flavors which defies classification in any neat category (notwithstanding the moniker White IPA). I will have to wait until after Passover to buy and try this with different foods, but I relish the opportunity to do so.

Saranac White IPA is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac White IPA, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/76375 .

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com / to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!