Teach your sons to throw curveballs

I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was really
on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his finger that sure
looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I had a sneaky
suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great Britain. 100 meter
freestyle, made the finals in '96.

Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
$5Million in the big leagues.

From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid. Playing ball can be worth
millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.

Eric

ekurth@broadcom.com left this mess on 31 Jul 2003 10:58:18 -0700 for The Way to clean up:
>
>
>Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
>$5Million in the big leagues.
>

Especially if you can get the Mets interested.

Tao te Carl

"It takes a village to have an idiot." - Carl (c) 2003

Except I once worked for a collegiate pitcher who would have made the major leagues except that he
blew out his shoulder. He was a salesman at a quick printer, and he was not a very good manager, in
fact the worst type of manager, a micromanager. Also, he had a college degree and since retiring
from baseball had taken up a new sport--reading. I was then a stopping-out-to-earn-money English
major. He asked me if I had ever heard of this wonderful, new (to him) author, Charles Dickens. He
had just read a Tale of Two Cities. After I quit gasping for breath, I explained that I had written
multiple papers on Dickens, had read Bleak House several times, etc. Then he asked me if I had heard
of Mark Twain....I asked him if he had not read these people at all in high school or college. Well,
he had read one Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, but that was about all, and in college, well,
they had "people" to do that pesky reading...

Of course, countless Rhodes scholars prove that a person who is good at sports is not necessarily
bad at academics. At least swimmers swim for the love of it, not for the millions. Madelaine

4precious wrote:

> I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was
> really on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his finger
> that sure looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I had a
> sneaky suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great Britain. 100
> meter freestyle, made the finals in '96.
>
> Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
> $5Million in the big leagues.
>
> From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
> submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid. Playing ball can be worth
> millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.
>
> Eric

ekurth@broadcom.com (4precious) wrote in message
news:<de2ed4fb.0307310958.1fd82441@posting.google.com>...
> I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was
> really on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his finger
> that sure looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I had a
> sneaky suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great Britain. 100
> meter freestyle, made the finals in '96.
>
> Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
> $5Million in the big leagues.
>
> From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
> submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid. Playing ball can be worth
> millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.
>
> Eric

the only plus is the when the olympic swimmer falls off a boat, he isnt sinking to the bottom
like a rock.

On 31 Jul 2003 10:58:18 -0700, ekurth@broadcom.com (4precious) wrote:

>Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
>$5Million in the big leagues.

If they aren't one of the 98% that get injured first.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

4precious wrote:
>
> I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was
> really on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his finger
> that sure looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I had a
> sneaky suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great Britain. 100
> meter freestyle, made the finals in '96.
>
> Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars.

Maybe that's just his day gig. Not everybody is adicted to making lots of money. My experience is
that competitive swimmers tend to be the better students. They go into professional fields like
medicine, law, and engineering. Swimming is a sport to them, not a profession. Later on it becomes a
social activity, and way to stay fit, of course.

> Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least $5Million in the big leagues.

Actually those aren't the mediocre ones. The mediocre ones played in the minors for a few years and
then got a job renting cars. There aren't very many job openings in professional baseball.
Considering that millions of guys play, only a tiny fraction of a percent ever get paid to play, and
only a fraction of those ever make the big bucks.

> From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
> submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid.

I think it was actually because of segregation and poverty. For decades, black people were barred
from tennis clubs and other places that had pools, and so did not have access to many places where
swimming lessons and coaching were available. And swimming lessons were costly for poor people and
so were considered a luxury. The effect was that too many black kids didn't have the opportunity to
learn to swim properly, and so it became a bit of a cultural trait. I'm sure the vision of glory on
the court and on the field and the money that goes with it has an effect, but it effects both black
and white kids and certainly doesn't imply white kids who swim are stupid.

By the way, kids shouldn't be throwing curve balls. It will cause elbow damage. They shouldn't be
throwing curve balls until high school.

martin

> Playing ball can be worth millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.

I'll bet that the average salary of adults who were competitive swimmers is a lot higher than the
average salary of adults who played little league.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: mws@computas.com Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway

It's sad and incorrect that money is perceived such a metric of happiness.

I'm not stupid, maybe a wee bit idealistic, but I can swim.

T Ireland

"4precious" <ekurth@broadcom.com> wrote in message
news:de2ed4fb.0307310958.1fd82441@posting.google.com...
> I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was
> really on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his finger
> that sure looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I had a
> sneaky suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great Britain. 100
> meter freestyle, made the finals in '96.
>
> Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at least
> $5Million in the big leagues.
>
> From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
> submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid. Playing ball can be worth
> millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.
>
> Eric

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 11:54:30 +0200, "Martin W. Smith" <mws@computas.com> wrote:

>Maybe that's just his day gig. Not everybody is adicted to making lots of money. My experience is
>that competitive swimmers tend to be the better students. They go into professional fields like
>medicine, law, and engineering.

And architecture. :-)

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

Did you bone him ?

"Madelaine" <mgd@sei.cmu.edu> wrote in message news:3F2970A4.72C627BC@sei.cmu.edu...
> Except I once worked for a collegiate pitcher who would have made the major leagues except that he
> blew out his shoulder. He was a salesman at a quick printer, and he was not a very good manager,
> in fact the worst type of manager, a micromanager. Also, he had a college degree and since
> retiring from baseball had taken up a new sport--reading. I was then a stopping-out-to-earn-money
> English major. He asked me if I had ever heard of this wonderful, new (to him) author, Charles
> Dickens. He had just read a Tale of Two Cities. After I quit gasping for breath, I explained that
> I had written multiple papers on Dickens, had read Bleak House several times, etc. Then he asked
> me if I had heard of Mark Twain....I asked him if he had not read these people at all in high
> school or college. Well, he had read one Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, but that was about
> all, and in college, well, they had "people" to do that pesky reading...
>
> Of course, countless Rhodes scholars prove that a person who is good at sports is not necessarily
> bad at academics. At least swimmers swim for the love of it, not for the millions. Madelaine
>
> 4precious wrote:
>
> > I dropped my car off for maintenance today and got a rental. The man working the counter was
> > really on the ball, taking care of at least two customers at once. I noticed a ring on his
> > finger that sure looked like the five rings of the Olympic Games. Given his size and physique, I
> > had a sneaky suspicion. Sure enough, he was an Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000 for Great
> > Britain. 100 meter freestyle, made the finals in '96.
> >
> > Boy, all that talent and now he's renting cars. Mediocre left handed relief pitchers make at
> > least $5Million in the big leagues.
> >
> > From time to time there's some racist posting here about why black people can't swim. I humbly
> > submit it's not that they can't swim, it's that they're not stupid. Playing ball can be worth
> > millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.
> >
> > Eric

Sam Hain <samhain1313@hotmail.com> wrote:
>the only plus is the when the olympic swimmer falls off a boat, he isnt sinking to the bottom
>like a rock.

He isn't? Those guys are the only ones lean enough to sink in salt water!

Bertha, otoh, will float till the rescue comes.

--
Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

Martin W. Smith <mws@computas.com> wrote:
>> Playing ball can be worth millions, swimming ... well quite a bit less.
>
>I'll bet that the average salary of adults who were competitive swimmers is a lot higher than the
>average salary of adults who played little league.

given the population sizes, the difference should be present, but slight.

Both suggest living in the suburbs where little league and high school swimming/water polo is
common. The latter will lead to a healthy number of college scholarships are Div I schools, a
portion of which wouldn't have been attainable otherwise (Cal, Stanford).

--
Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

Donal Fagan wrote:
>
> On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 11:54:30 +0200, "Martin W. Smith" <mws@computas.com> wrote:
>
> >Maybe that's just his day gig. Not everybody is adicted to making lots of money. My experience is
> >that competitive swimmers tend to be the better students. They go into professional fields like
> >medicine, law, and engineering.
>
> And architecture. :-)

How could I forget?

martin

--
Martin Smith email: mws@computas.com Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway