The World According To Chris

Christianity and North Korea

2006-01-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays, I watched a PBS documentary on the socio-political situation in North Korea that really opened my eyes. I knew that Kim Jong-Il was pretty much a ruthless, greedy dictator who hoards his money (about $4 billion) while the rest of his 22 billion people starve (the entire nation has a GDP of about $1,000 per person per year), but until I actually witnessed some of it in full color, I had no idea of how bad it really is for North Koreans.

In the documentary, PBS sent two cameramen undercover to North Korea to shoot the conditions under which the people live, and also to document North Korea's "Underground Railroad" which is run by a Korean Christian minister named Choi Yong-hun who the people call the "Korean Schindler." The cameramen essentially risked their lives to do this, and in spite of it were able to capture some amazing footage anyway.

The living conditions were atrocious. The scene that sticks out in my mind was a shot of some big, vacant, flat, muddy, treeless plot of land where North Koreans were gathered as far as the camera could show. It was cold, and all these people where gathered around huddled around whatever small fires -- mostly cooking fires -- they could muster. People lacked warm clothes, kids ran barefoot through the mud and the puddles, literally picking up muddy bread crumbs and eating them off the ground. It was beyond anything that most Americans could probably even comprehend.

Then, they began showing the underground railroad and outlining how it worked. Not surprisingly, North Koreans are trying to flee the country by the drove; the problem, of course, is that it's illegal to leave North Korea and those who are caught trying are generally executed. Some make it to China, where, if they're caught, the Chinese government ships them back in blatant violation of international law.

The goal of the railroad is to get people to Mongolia, which is over 1,000 miles to the northwest of North Korea. This is the only place they can really get safety; of course, the problem is that they have to pass through China to get there, and it's a risky journey.

There is one other way of escape that stops short of Mongolia, and that's to get inside a foreign embassy in China. And in the documentary, that's exactly what this party of ten or so people tried to do. By way of the subways, they got well into China, and had planned to have the men in the group storm the Chinese Army guards in front of an embassy, knock them down, and allow the women and children to get through, and then follow suit themselves. Once inside, they would seek asylum from somewhere else and get their freedom. One more thing: temperatures were well below zero for much of their journey.

The cameramen were stationed across the street to film the escape attempt. The people were dressed like Korean tourists, and a three year-old girl was given a ball and told to play with it to distract anyone who watched them while the men made the move.

What happened next was heartbreaking. The plan nearly worked, except that when the men tackled the guards near the gate, they ran on to the embassy property rather than hold down the guards and let the women through as planned. The cameramen captured the scene as the guards scrambled to their feet and picked off all the women and the child as they screamed helplessly. The men were nowhere in sight as the rest of the party was captured and scheduled to be sent back to North Korea to face probable death.

At some point in the film, the Choi Yong-hun had split from the rest of the group. Sadly, he was captured too, and since then has spent two years in a Chinese prison, where the Chinese refuse to listen to appeals for his freedom and plan on keeping him three more years.

There were several things that bothered me about this in addition to the obvious. First of all, I consider myself a well-informed citizen; I vote every election, and a good portion of the television I watch is national and international news. How do things like this so often escape the white-hot spotlight of the media, yet we're fully aware of the disappearance of the "Nun Bun," or whatever contestant advanced in the previous night's episode of "The Bachelor"?

Second, how can so many Christians be unaware of this? I'm in a regular Christian study group every week with a group of men who are conscientious and up on current events. I relayed this story to them, and none were aware of how bad it actually was.

I've been reading N.T. Wright's, "The Challenge of Jesus" over the past few weeks. In it, Wright stresses how Jesus tried to tell the Jews of his time that doing God's will was not about taking up arms and smashing the Romans to bits and establishing their political and social reign. Instead, Jesus' message was very simple: Be salt and light to the world.

And I wonder... Is there perhaps a loose parallel to the Jews of the day and much of Christian America today? We sit in blissful unawareness of a lot of pain and suffering in the world, thinking that our battle is against those heethens who want to take a "Ten Commandments" monument out of a courthouse somewhere, or that our calling is to boycott Disneyworld because they once had a "Gay Day," or to rage against the local city hall because they dared call the green orifice in their lobby a "holiday tree."

I am not saying that Christians shouldn't have an opinion on these things, or even take a stand against them when need be. What I am saying is this: Don't we have things a little out-of-whack when we have suffering brothers and sisters across the world, and not only are we largely not helping them, but we don't even know about them?

It's been three weeks since I saw this piece, and I can't get it out of my head. If anyone reads this and has ideas on how we can help these people, please E-mail me or post a response here. In the meantime, the least we can do is to keep them in our prayers.

Harry Belafonte

2006-01-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

I saw a re-run of Harry Belafante's comments as he stood with his pal Hugo Chavez in Venezuela calling George Bush a "tyrant." When the Tally-Man tallies Harry's bananas, I think he'll find him a few short of a full bunch.

Was USC-Texas the greatest college game ever?

2006-01-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

It's been over for five days now, but I can't stop thinking about how good a show that Texas and Southern Cal put on this week.

My question is this: Was this the greatest college game ever played? Consider:

Southern Cal was going for its third national title in a row, while Texas, one of the more storied programs in college history, was looking for their first title in 35 years. There was also the sub-plot of Mack Brown getting the "can't-win-the-big-game" monkey off his back.
The three best players in college football -- at least according to the Heisman voters -- were all on the field.
Vince Young had perhaps the finest title game performance ever, throwing for 267 yards and running for 200 more.
The ending was fantastic; Southern Cal goes up two touchdowns with six-and-a-half minutes to play, but Young rallies Texas twice to win, including a fourth-down scramble where he got just inside the end zone pylon before going out-0f-bounds.
There will likely be 40-50 players from this game that make the NFL.
These were undoubtedly the best two teams in America.

This game had all the elements that made it great, and for once, it was truly a big game that was bigger than the hype. With five minutes left in the game, I was actually sad for a few moments in knowing that I'd never get to see Bush, Leinart, or Young play in college again. Thanks for the memories...

The greatest MLB players of all time

2006-01-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Off and on for about the last six months, I have been working on my rankings of the greatest major league baseball players of all time. I have just recently finished my rankings, which I will share below, but first wanted to explain the ranking system and the ground rules for my rankings:

I have only ranked players who spent the majority of their careers in major league baseball; therefore, Negro League stars like Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleton, and Satchel Paige are not rated, or Japanese players such as Sadaharah Oh, because I don't really have a good feel for how to rank them.
I have ranked players according to their overall careers, but as a general rule, I give preference to players who were great for 5-6 seasons as opposed to some who were really good, but never really great, for 10-12 seasons. For example, Ralph Kiner and Dale Murphy rate above Andre Dawson and Dwight Evans because Kiner and Murphy were much-better in their prime, though Dawson and Evans had more above-average to good seasons.
My system is based on Bill James' Win Shares system, which rates players in the context of their era, their ballpark environment, and their defense. (James claims that Win Shares is the best evaluation of defense created to date, and I agree with him.) The primary determinants of offensive value are total bases and outs made. I did not give "credit" to players for time missed for injury, but did adjust for players who missed time for war at the peak of their careers (Ted Wiliams) and those whose arrival to MLB was late because of racial prejudice (Jackie Robinson), or to other circumstances beyond their control. For these reasons, my rankings are very similar to James' in his 2001 Historical Baseball Abstract, which, FWIW, is a must-have for any serious baseball fan.
James' win share numbers have only been published through 2001, after which point I used Win Share numbers calculated by BaseballTruth.com and HardballTimes.com. They basically used the same calculations as James, though HardballTimes tweaked James' methods slightly to slightly discredit relievers and players who truly had poor seasons more than James did.
Little credit is given to players who piled on stats late in their careers. For example, Daawson added 39 homers and 163 RBI over the last four seasons of his career, pushing him past 400 homers and 1,500 RBI, but because his on-base percentages were .313, .271, .305, and .301 during that time, he wasn't doing a lot to help his teams win.
Most of the ranking is based on players' regular-season contributions, with adjustments made for for post-season performance (Yogi Berra and Derek Jeter, among others, get a boost here), perceived defensive value above what Win Shares credits (it's hard to measure Ozzie Smith's contributions, or what it means to have Vlad Guerrero's arm in right field, or Pudge Rodriguez's behind the plate), and other intangibles such has clubhouse chemistry. Personally, I believe that the latter has been highly-overrated, but nonetheless, there are players like Jeff Kent and Dick Allen who are royal pains, and it only seems that should count against them to some degree.
When ranking two players with similar careers, I rank the player whose career came latest higher as I believe the quality of baseball has been on an upward swing since the game's inception.
Rankings are done from 1876 (the start of what James recognizes as "major league baseball") through the completion of the 2005 season.

Without further adieu, here are my top 230 players of all time, sorted in tens, with comments after every grouping. Players are listed at the position where they played the most. Here's my top 200:

1. Ruth, Babe (RF)
2. Bonds, Barry (LF)
3. Williams, Ted (LF)
4. Wagner, Honus (SS)
5. Cobb, Ty (CF)
6. Mays, Willie (CF)
7. Mantle, Mickey (CF)
8. Johnson, Walter (P)
9. Musial, Stan (LF)
10. Aaron, Hank (RF)

Ruth is unquestionably the greatest player of all-time, and steroids aside, Bonds is without a doubt now #2. I had a very, very hard time ranking Cobb, Mays, and Mantle, and the case could be made for any one of them as the greatest center fielder of all time. Mantle was the best at his peak and Cobb had the best number of really good seasons, although certainly the brand of baseball in the 50's and 60's was better than when Cobb played.

11. Speaker, Tris (CF)
12. Gehrig, Lou (1B)
13. Young, Cy (P)
14. Alexander, Pete (P)
15. Morgan, Joe (2B)
16. Hornsby, Rogers (2B)
17. DiMaggio, Joe (CF)
18. Schmidt, Mike (3B)
19. Collins, Eddie (2B)
20. Grove, Lefty (P)

This segment is dominated by players whose careers ended 65 or more years ago; this bothers me because it was easier to dominate baseball then and it seems unfair to more modern players. Then again, all these players were dominant and probably would have been good in any era. Morgan and Schmidt were always recognized as great players, but neither were probably given the complete credit they were due during their times.

21. Robinson, Frank (RF)
22. Henderson, Rickey(LF)
23. Ott, Mel (RF)
24. Foxx, Jimmie (1B)
25. Mathewson, Christy (P)
26. Rose, Pete (LF)
27. Mathews, Eddie (3B)
28. Berra, Yogi (C)
29. Bench, Johnny (C)
30. Clemens, Roger (P)

I had a difficult time deciding between Berra and Bench as on paper, both were nearly identical. Bench was a whiz defensively and caught slightly more games, but Berra played in 14 World Series (and played well), which accounts for the edge, but I'm not convinced I made the right choice. I feel that I may have slighted Clemens, who ranks sixth among all pitchers -- all of whom retired long before Rocket was even born. All those pitchers threw substantially more innings during most seasons than did Clemens, which made them more valuable during their time. If I had a vote, I would not put Rose in the Hall because of the gambling, but he was a truly great player. I have no qualms with putting Rickey as high as I did.

31. Spahn, Warren (P)
32. Rodriguez, Alex (SS)
33. Lajoie, Nap (2B)
34. Feller, Bob (P)
35. Seaver, Tom (P)
36. Bagwell, Jeff (1B)
37. Jackson, Reggie (RF)
38. Robinson, Jackie (2B)
39. Brett, George (3B)
40. Yastrzemsi, Carl (LF)

A-Rod will probably move into the top dozen players all-time before he's finished. Feller was spectacular, and missed his peak years because of WWII. Many people will take issue with my ranking of Bagwell, but I have little doubt that I've ranked him where he deserves. He played in an awful hitters park for most of his peak and still had fantastic numbers. Robinson didn't play until he was 28 and therefore missed out on some prime seasons.

41. Piazza, Mike (C)
42. Griffey, Ken (CF)
43. Jackson, Joe (CF)
44. Biggio, Craig (2B)
45. Sheffield, Gary (RF)
46. Vaughan, Arky (SS)
47. Ripken, Cal (SS)
48. Snider, Duke (CF)
49. Mize, Johnny (1B)
50. Yount, Robin (SS)

I might have ranked Piazza a spot or two too high because I allow some for the toll that catching that many games takes on one's body. Biggio, like Bagwell, was highly underrated his entire career. He was good enough to catch, play second, and play center field.

51. Maddux, Greg (P)
52. Gibson, Bob (P)
53. Nichols, Kid (P)
54. Murray, Eddie (1B)
55. Sandberg, Ryne (2B)
56. Thomas, Frank (1B)
57. Alomar, Robbie (2B)
58. Boggs, Wade (3B)
59. Greenberg, Hank (1B)

Murray was never as great at his peak as Schmidt, Brett, or some other contemporary players listed above him, but was good for an unusually-long period of time. Thomas's career is somewhat tained because his latter years weren't nearly as great as everyone thought they'd be, but he's undoubtedly deserving of the Hall. I don't know quite what to do with Kid Nichols, who was dominant but played from 1890 to 1906, when the quality of baseball wasn't always stellar, so I rated him about where James did.

60. Carlton, Steve (P)
61. McGwire, Mark (1B)
62. Raines, Tim (LF)
63. Killebrew, Harmon (1B)
64. McCovey, Willie (1B)
65. Waner, Paul (RF)
66. Gehringer, Charlie (2B)
67. Gwynn, Tony (RF)
68. Larkin, Barry (SS)
69. Baker, Frank (3B)

Maybe in time, we'll know how to rank the "Steroid Era" power hitters; for the time being, this is where I have McGwire. Raines was a truly-great player and I hope voters realize it when he's up for election in 2008. Larkin did everything you wanted your shortstop to do, never complained, never got in trouble, had a lifetime OBP of .371, and the only mark against him is that he missed a lot of time due to injury.

7o. Crawford, Sam (RF)
71. Palmer, Jim (P)
72. Hubbell, Carl (P)
73. Allen, Dick (1B)
74. Simmons, Al (LF)
75. Clemente, Roberto (RF)
76. Perry, Gaylord (P)
77. Roberts, Robin (P)
78. Ramirez, Manny (LF)
79. Campanella, Roy (C)

Dick Allen is one of the biggest jerks to ever put on a uniform, but there was no denying his greatness. I don't know how much that could cancel out his on-field contributions, but it would have to be a staggering amount to not rate him among the top 100. I have him as the highest-rated eligible player not in the Hall, excluding those who are still active or not-yet eligible, and, of course, Pete Rose and Joe Jackson. I was a bit surprised to see Manny this high at his age, but I think a decent argument can be made in his favor.

80. Cochrane, Mickey (C)
81. Fisk, Carlton (C)
82. Carew, Rod (2B)
83. Kaline, Al (RF)
84. Stargell, Willie (LF)
85. Carter, Gary (C)
86. Williams, Billy (LF)
87. Frisch, Frankie (2B)
88. Winfield, Dave (RF)
89. Doby, Larry (CF)

I struggle with rating catchers; the toll on their body is so high that it prevents them from being as great as, say, corner outfielders or infielders, but I struggle with rating them higher than players who were more valuable at their peak or good players for longer times. This is where I've decided they belong, and so I've grouped four of them between 79 and 85. I don't know what took the Hall voters so long to figure out that Carter was deserving of election.

90. Niekro, Phil (P)
91. Molitor, Paul (3B)
92. Sosa, Sammy (RF)
93. Johnson, Randy (P)
94. Walsh, Ed (P)
95. Minoso, Minnie (LF)
96. Wynn, Jimmy (CF)
97. Delahanty, Ed (LF)
98. Dickey, Bill (C)
99. Slaughter, Enos (RF)

Minoso and Wynn are in the Dick Allen category as the next-best once-eligible players not in the Hall. Both should be there. Had Minoso played in MLB before 28, he's surely be in. Wynn did everything you'd want a player to do -- he hit for power, ran well, walked a ton, and had a legendary arm -- but played for bad teams in an awful hitters' park. The fact that Wynn never received one single vote for the Hall is quite an indictment of the history of the selection process. Slaughter missed what might have been his best three years to the War.

100. Banks, Ernie (SS)
101. Santo, Ron (3B)
102. Cronin, Joe (SS)
103. Brown, Mordecai (P)
104. McGinnity, Joe (P)
105. Jenkins, Ferguson (P)
106. Reese, Pee Wee (SS)
107. Appling, Luke (SS)
108. Medwick, Joe (LF)
109. Marichal, Juan (P)

Banks was a great player, but never had as many really great seasons as I thought he did because of a very-unspectacular career on-base percentage of .330. Santo certainly belongs in the Hall, and I hope the Veteran's Committee puts him there one day.

110. Koufax, Sandy (P)
111. Clark, Will (1B)
112. Keefe, Tim (P)
113. Hamilton, Billy (CF)
114. Bunning, Jim (P)
115. Rusie, Amos (P)
116. Burkett, Jesse (LF)
117. Willis, Vic (P)
118. Grich, Bobby (2B)
119. Murphy, Dale (CF)

I had a harder time rating this group of ten players than I did any other grouping. Koufax is lower on this list than most any other... he had three truly historic years, another very good one, and one more pretty good year, and retired at 30 after his best season. He certainly would have ranked much-higher had arm problems not forced his retirement, but for the sake of maintaining consistency, I rated him here as to allow for his greatness but not give him credit for something he didn't do.

Also notable are three modern-era players who I believe have been underrated in retrospect (and one more if you skip ahead to #120). Admittedly, Dale Murphy is my all-time favorite player and for years, I wanted him to be in the Hall but wasn't sure he belonged. My research has convinced me that he does. Clark was way, way underrated and doesn't stand a prayer of getting in the Hall in his first term of eligibility this winter, as injuries got in the way and few realize how truly great he was.

This section also finds four players who played the bulk of their careers before 1900, and one more (Willis) who played from 1898 to 1910. All were great in their time and I placed them here, but have a lower degree of confidence with their ratings than I do with most all other players on the list.

120. Simmons, Ted (C)
121. Goslin, Goose (LF)
122. Smith, Ozzie (SS)
123. Williams, Bernie (CF)
124. Edmonds, Jim (CF)
125. Jones, Chipper (3B)
126. Puckett, Kirby (CF)
127. Robinson, Brooks (3B)
128. Brock, Lou (LF)
129. Jeter, Derek (SS)

I put Ozzie higher than the numbers rated him just because he was SO great in the field that it was hard to quantify all his contributions. Edmonds, Chipper, and Jeter will probably pass Bernie before their careers are finished, and all should go to Cooperstown.

130. Kent, Jeff (2B)
131. Martinez, Pedro (P)
132. Palmeiro, Rafael (1B)
133. Herman, Billy (2B)
134. Ashburn, Richie (CF)
135. Newhouser, Hal (P)
136. Ferrell, Wes (P)
137. Grimes, Burleigh (P)
138. Hartnett, Gabby (C)
139. Mays, Carl (P)

I have trouble knowing where to put Palmeiro, and probably would have ranked him higher before the steroid scandal. Ferrell and Mays are the only two here who have been eligible and are not in the Hall. Mays is, of course, the man who hit and killed Ray Chapman with a pitch, and that may have hurt his chances. He's my highest-rated pitcher who's been eligible and is not in.

141. Singleton, Ken (RF)
142. Bonds, Bobby (RF)
143. Blyleven, Bert (P)
144. Coveleski, Stan (P)
145. Thome, Jim (1B)
146. Hack, Stan (3B)
147. Dean, Dizzy (P)
148. Berger, Wally (CF)
149. Waddell, Rube (P)
150. Parker, Dave (RF)

Coveleski, Dean, and Waddell are the only three among these ten in the Hall. Blyleven's case gets a lot of attention from the Sabermaticians and he may one day get in given his strikeout totals. Singleton will probably never get into the Hall because he took a lot of walks in an era when few knew their value, and his homer and RBI totals weren't gaudy to begin with, and now that we're in a big power period, the context of what he did has been lost. He has a .388 lifetime on-base percentage and had a terrific arm until physical problems hampered him late in his career. Bonds had better power numbers than Singleton, but suffers from the same problem. Hack's numbers were outstanding in the context of his park and his day.

150. Cooper, Wilbur (P)
151. Heilman, Harry (RF)
152. Giambi, Jason (1B)
153. Drysdale, Don (P)
154. Kiner, Ralph (LF)
155. Hernandez, Keith (1B)
156. Cepeda, Orlando (1B)
157. Ryan, Nolan (P)
158. Rixey, Eppa (P)
159. Evans, Darrell (3B)

I feel really strange about not rating Ryan higher, and I'm sure someone will blister me for not moving him up. But you have to take the good with the bad in a player, and Ryan walked over 200 men twice, and over 100 a bunch more. That diluted the impact of a lot of the huge strikeout seasons, and he also played in the Astrodome for a long time, which means some of the numbers aren't as good as they look, and his wins are spread out across so many seasons which means he didn't have as big an impact on his team's success as 324 wins would indicate. Still, he had a 3.19 career ERA...

160. Wheat, Zach (LF)
161. Howard, Frank (LF)
162. Plank, Eddie (P)
163. Averill, Earl (CF)
164. Lemon, Bob (P)
165. Perez, Tony (1B)
166. Ford, Whitey (P)
167. Trammell, Alan (SS)
168. Rolen, Scott (3B)
169. Vance, Dazzy (P)

Only Howard, Rolen, and Trammell are not in the Hall. Rolen is on track to have a Hall-worthy career if he can recover from the 2005 shoulder injury, which was relatively serioius.

170. Mattingly, Don (1B)
171. Glavine, Tom (P)
172. Wynn, Early (P)
173. Faber, Red (P)
174. Clarkson, John (P)
175. Radbourne, Charles (P)
176. Brown, Kevin (P)
177. Lyons, Ted (P)
178. Martinez, Edgar (3B)

179. Pinson, Vada (CF)

Radbourne and Clarkson put up mind-blowing numbers in the 1800's. The Martinez Hall vote will be interesting; he DH'd most of his career and despite tearing up the minors, the Mariners didn't give him a chance until 27. The man could hit, for sure.

180. Roush, Edd (CF)
181. Clarke, Fred (LF)
182. Davis, George (SS)
183. Ruffing, Red (P)
184. Clark, Jack (RF)
185. Bando, Sal (3B)
186. Freehan, Bill (C)
187. Belle, Albert (LF)
188. Keller, Charlie (LF)
189. Rice, Jim (LF)

The Rice-for-the-Hall campaign is picking up a ton of steam, but he hit into a whopping 315 double plays for a career... that killed a lot of innings. Biggio's hit into just 130 through 2005, by contrast.

190. Murcer, Bobby (CF)
191. Cedeno, Cesar (CF)
192. Terry, Bill (1B)
193. Torre, Joe (C)
194. Walker, Larry (RF)
195. Oliva, Tony (RF)
196. Guerrero, Vlad (RF)
197. Flick, Elmer (RF)
198. Smith, Reggie (RF)
199. Rodriguez, Pudge (C)
200. Cash, Norm (1B)

Vlad will undoubtedly wind up much-higher once he's done. Pudge's career took a sharp detour south at 34, which may not bode well for the future.