Thoughts on the Lost Season Finale: Through the Looking Glass

I’m a few days late getting this post up, but there was so much to process in the 2-hour finale, that I couldn’t summon the energy to think through it all.  I think I’ve finally got my mind around the episode, so I’ll just comment on some of the most interesting and important parts of the episode. 

Flash forwards – Well, the producers of the show promised a big change in the season finale, and I guess this was it.  Instead of the flashbacks giving us a glimpse of a characters past, in this case they were showing us the future.  I never caught on, but I kept asking myself “when was Jack this messed up?”  Even when Kate showed up at the end, I didn’t immediately realize that we were looking at the future.  Now, the question is, will the flash forwards be the norm next season?  Or maybe next season, they will focus on the present, and flash back to the island?  Or maybe the flash forwards are just one potential version of the future depending on what choices are made on the island.  I’ve got to think that the happenings on the island will still be the main focus, since their are still tons of questions to be answered.

Jack goes to funeral of an unknown person – This happened during his flash forward.  He went to the funeral of an unidentified person at the Hoffs/Drawlar funeral parlor (Hoffs/Drawlar is an anagram for “flash forward” by the way).  Jack is the only person that shows up and the guy working at the parlor asks if Jack was a friend or family?  Jack said neither.  So the question is, who is in the casket?  Could it be Ben, Locke, Walt or Michael?  Or maybe its someone we haven’t met yet.

Jack references his dad being alive still - Towards the end of the episode, in the flash forward, Jack is confronted about being drunk or on drugs, and he tells them to go get his dad and see if he is any worse than him.  Of course, we know that Jack’s dad is dead, that is why he was on the plane that crashed.  Either something has changed the past/future and his dad is still alive, or Jack is just really wasted.  I’d lean towards thinking that Jack is just losing it.

Jack meets Kate at the end - Obviously, they both get off island.  The first question I’ve got is, why is Kate not in jail?  Kate also said something about needing to get back so “he” doesn’t worry.  I wonder who she was referring to.  Maybe she’s with Sawyer in the future?

Jack is searching for the island so he can return -  Would he not know where the island was if they were rescued?  Maybe they get taken off the island by the people on the boat offshore, and they aren’t ever allowed to know exactly where they were.  Perhaps these new people, or Dharma, reinstate the measures that were used to hide the island from the outside world.

Charlie dies – Charlie was never my favorite, but it was kinda sad to see him go.  It seems like he could have just locked the door from the outside, or at least tried to squeeze through the window after the room flooded.  I guess he thought that he had to die for Claire and her kiddo to get off the island.  Also, how is it that Penny was able to communicate through The Looking Glass computers?  Could be that her family is part of the original Dharma initiative.  At least Charlie was able to let Desmond know that the boat was not Penny’s.

Locke kills Naomi - He hasn’t been willing to kill up to this point.  Why the change?  It seems that he is much more in tune with the island or with Jacob or with whatever the power of the island is.  Either he is doing the bidding of Jacob or the island, or he is just desperate to stay on the island due to its healing properties.  I think there’s definitely more to it than him just wanting to be able to walk.

No sign of Jacob yet, unless Walt was Jacob…. – Walt made an appearance, although he looks more like an NBA power forward now.  I don’t know if it was the real Walt.  Maybe it was Jacob or the smoke monster in disguise.

Who is on the boat that Jack called? - Are they really the bad guys like Ben said?  Or did Ben just say that to try and keep the island secret?  Could be that season 4 is very much about this new group of people who are about to come to the island.

There was other good stuff this episode like Hurley saving the day with the van, Sawyer shooting Tom in semi-cold blood, and Mikhail once again recovering from a crazy injury.  I wonder if the grenade finally did the trick?

Carlton Cuse on Season 4 of Lost

Carlton Cuse, executive producer of Lost, has revealed just a bit of what we will see next season on Lost.  You might remember the four-toed statue from the finale of season 2.  We are supposed to get more info on that mystery next season.  More importantly, Cuse says “There will definitely be a lot more of Jacob in Season 4.”  Too bad we have to wait until next February to see any of it….

The Best Television Shows of 2006-07

The guys at Yahoo! TV have put together their list of the top 15 shows of this past season.  I don’t watch a lot of these shows, but I always enjoy a good “best of” list.  My top 3 shows for this season are:

1. Lost – The first half of this season was certainly not up to Lost standards, but they’ve gone and totally redeemed themselves the last couple of months.  The interaction between Locke and Ben, Sawyer and daddy, and of course the Jacob episode have helped bring Lost back to level where it needs to be.  Maybe the most popular show ever with such a large cult following.
2. Heroes – Without a doubt, this is my favorite new TV show.  It takes a bit of a page out of the Lost playbook by trying to make you solve the mysteries of the show.  The biggest difference is that Heroes moves at a faster pace, giving us more substantial answers as we go along, and basically resolving everything by the end of the season.  Of course, they throw some cliffhangers in there at the end to try and bring us back next year, and yes, I’ll be back.
3. 24- In my opinion, season 6 was the worst season of 24 yet.  Even with that being the case, its still one of the only shows that I won’t miss.  Jack Bauer is definitely one of my favorite characters ever.  Let’s hope the show’s writers follow through with their promise to give Jack a change of scenery for next season.

Future Hall of Fame Second Basemen

Future Hall of Fame Baseball Player Series:

1. First Basemen
2. Second Basemen
3. Shortstops
4. Third Basemen
5. Outfielders – American League
6. Outfielders – National League
7. Catchers
8. Starting Pitchers
9. Closers

The are plenty of potential Hall of Fame first basemen currently in the big leagues, but at second base…. not so much. There are really only two active second basemen that have done enough in their careers to be a part of this conversation: Craig Biggio and Jeff Kent. Let’s take a look at their cases.

No Doubters

• Craig Biggio

Craig Biggio will go down as one of the best second basemen of all time. He has quietly put together some very impressive stats.

• 2,970 Hits – 28th all-time. In about a month, he will become the 27th player to reach 3,000 hits and if he gets another 100 hits this season, he’ll finish the season ranked 20th on the career hits list.
• 650 Doubles – 7th all-time. If he can collect 16 more doubles in his career, he’ll pass George Brett for 5th on the all-time list.
• 412 Stolen Bases – 61st all-time. Not super high on the leader list, but another very nice aspect to his well-rounded game.
• 1,802 Runs – 16th all-time.

He’s also got some other interesting “bullet-point” stats. If he gets hit by a pitch 4 more times, he will become the all-time leader in that category. He’s also the only player to be an all star both as a catcher and second baseman.

When you compare him to other HOF second basemen, there is no question he belongs. Take a look at his stats verses Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg:

	Biggio	Sandberg
Hits	2,970	2,386
Runs	1,802	1,318
Doubles	650	403
Triples	55	76
Home Runs	284	282
RBI	1141	1061
Stolen Bases	412	344
Walks	1147	761
Batting Average	.282	.285
On Base %	.366	.344
Slugging %	.435	.452

Biggio beats him in every category except for triples, batting average and slugging percentage. If the voters put Sandberg in, there really is no way they can deny Biggio entry into the Hall.

Really good chance

• Jeff Kent

As far as second basemen go, Kent is a bit of a one trick pony, but its not a bad trick. He’s the best power hitting second baseman ever. He’s got 351 career home runs, and 1,403 RBI’s. To go along with those power numbers, he’s also got 1,224 runs and 2,233 hits. He’s 38 years old, so he has maybe another couple of years of decent play left in him, which could put his RBI total over the important 1,500 mark. He also has won an MVP award, which not many second basemen can say. That always looks good on a resume. The only thing going against him is that he wasn’t know as a great defensive player, but that shouldn’t be enough to offset his offensive numbers.

Its pretty slim pickins at second base, but I think with Biggio, you’ve got a first-ballot inductee, and Kent should get in, although I’m not sure if he’ll make it his first year of eligibility.

Great blog series on having a Quiet Time

Joe Thorn is a pastor in Illinois, and he has a great series on the quiet time.  I happened upon this when I was doing some research for my small group Bible study, and thought it was better than anything I else I read of the subject of the ”quiet time”.  If you are a Christian and want a better understanding of why we should spend time with God daily, and how we can be more consistent in this aspect of our Christian walk, then check it out.

24 Renewed for Two More Seasons

Fox has announced that 24 will go on for at least 2 more seasons.  This is good news.  In my opinion, 24 is one of the best television shows ever.  Admittedly, this season has been the worst of the bunch.  The other good news is that the writers of the show say there will be a change of scenery for next season, which means we might not have the same plot lines regurgitated.  Let’s hope that means no more silly love stories, i.e. Milo and Nadia.

Thoughts on last night’s Lost – Greatest Hits

Compared to last week’s episode, this week seemed pretty tame, but there were a couple of interesting developments in this Charlie-centric episode.  I won’t try and give a complete summary of the episode, just a couple of highlights.

Most of the questions raised in this episode surround the Looking Glass station, which I’ll get to in a second.  The other interesting thing I didn’t catch involved the flashback where Charlie saved the girl from getting mugged.  It turns out that that woman was Nadia, Sayid’s childhood sweetheart.  Not sure what the significance of this connection is, just interesting.

Concerning the underwater Looking Glass station, Juliet tells the losties that Ben is using that station to block any signals from leaving the island.  Hence, the reason that they are unable to communicate with the outside world.  Juliet also says that Ben said that the station was flooded in some kind of an accident.  Well, it turns out that the station is not only not flooded, but it also is inhabited.  When Charlie gets down there, two women storm out with guns drawn.  I wanted to tell him to keep it down.  He was being awfully noisy.

Two questions.  First, who is lying?  Ben? or Juliet?  Ben either lied to Juliet about the station being flooded, or Juliet knew otherwise and lied to Jack and the gang.  If Juliet is lying, why would she be doing so?  Maybe she’s trying to lead them into a trap, or maybe she knows that there is a chance to get off the island if they can get to that station.  Why would Ben lie about it?

The second question is who are the women in the Looking Glass station?  Could be from the original hostile group that overtook the Dharma group.  Could be leftover Dharma folks.  Or maybe they are something completely different.  One theory is that the blonde in the station is Annie, Ben’s childhood friend from the Dharma initiative.  I’ve also read that the brunette looks kinda like Cassidy, Sawyer’s con turned love interest.  That seems a little far fetched.  I can’t think of any reason that Cassidy would be there, but who knows.

One final thought; if the purpose of going down to the underwater station was to shut off the “signal blocker”, why didn’t they just try the easy thing first and cut the cable that ran from the beach to the Looking Glass?  They were under the impression that the station was flooded, and therefore was basically useless, so in their minds there shouldn’t have been any harm in cutting or blowing up that cable to see if that would work.

Another good episode.  I can’t wait to see how “everything changes” in next week’s finale. 

Future Hall of Fame First Basemen

Future Hall of Fame Baseball Player Series:

1. First Basemen
2. Second Basemen
3. Shortstops
4. Third Basemen
5. Outfielders – American League
6. Outfielders – National League
7. Catchers
8. Starting Pitchers
9. Closers

When it comes to statistics and Hall of Fame speculation, baseball is king. It seems that baseball, more than any other sport, generates the most talk and buzz when it comes time to announce who made it into the Hall of Fame, and who missed it and by what margin. This is the first of several blog posts that will look at current major leaguers and examine their chances at some day reaching the Hall. For a look at my introduction to this series of blogs, click here.

Let’s get started. I’m starting with first basemen, for no other reason than their position contains the word first. Here’s my take on who should get in, won’t get in and why.

No Doubters

• Frank Thomas

During the prime of his career, he was probably the 1st or 2nd best first baseman in baseball, with Jeff Bagwell being the other great one over that span. He won 2 MVP awards (1993 & 1994), and finished in the top 5 of the MVP voting 4 other times. Thomas ranks in the top 25 of a number of categories:

• On-base % of .423 – 16th all-time (Bonds and Helton are the only active players ahead of him)
• Slugging Percentage of .563: 18th all-time
• 492 career homers place him 23rd all-time. He should become the 21st player to reach 500 career homers later this season.
• 1,597 RBI’s – 28th all-time
• 1,570 Walks – 12th all-time

Really good chance

• Albert Pujols

This beast of a man has a chance to go down as one of the best to ever play the game. He’s only 27 years old, but he’s already got 6 full seasons under his belt and has some impressive numbers:

• Hits – 1,159
• RBI – 758
• Runs – 748
• Home Runs – 256

If we assume he can stay healthy for ten more years and performs at 90% of where he has been, his career numbers would look like this:

• Hits – 2,897

• RBI – 1,895

• Runs – 1,870

• Home Runs – 625

Maybe most impressively, in each of his six seasons in the big leagues, he managed to finish in the top 5 of the MVP voting. He won the MVP in 2005 and the Rookie of the Year award in 2001.

• Jim Thome

Thome is one of those guys who seems to have fairly quietly put together a very impressive career. If he retired today, I don’t think he’d get in. He’s got some good numbers:

• 477 Home Runs

• 1,312 RBI

• 1,271 Runs

• .566 Slugging %

These are very good, but when it comes to other Hall of Fame first basemen, he isn’t quite as good. He’s 36 years old, so he can probably play for at least a couple more years, maybe even four or five more if his body can hold up. With two more good years, he would probably have around 550 home runs, and around 1,500 RBI’s and runs scored. If he does that, it would be tough to deny him HOF status.

50/50 Chance

• Todd Helton

Todd Helton is fairly unique when it comes to potential Hall of Fame first basemen. He’s the rare top-tier first baseman that has a very high batting average, but not a lot of power. Right now he’s got just over 1,000 runs and RBI’s, 290 home runs, and a career batting average of .334. He’s 33 years old right now, so five more years is not unreasonable. His numbers have declined a little bit the last couple of years, but if he can keep his batting average up, he should be able to get over 1,400 RBI’s and runs and maybe 350-400 home runs. The batting average will be his best bullet point. The one thing that could go against him in the mind of HOF voters is that he’s played his whole career in Colorado, which is a hitters park. It’ll be interesting to see what effect, if any, this will have on him.

• Carlos Delgado

Here is an example of a guy who has had a very solid career, but has not necessarily been a transcendent type of player. Right now he’s got 410 home runs and 1,305 RBI’s, which for a first baseman, won’t quite get it done. I think he’s actually got a better chance than Helton to get in because of the power numbers and he’s probably got 3 or 4 good years left in him (he’s 34 right now). If he can average 30 homers and close to 100 RBI’s for the next 3 years, he would end his career with over 500 homers and 1,600 RBI’s.

Iffy at best

• Nomar Garciaparra

Nomar is a classic example of player that looked like he was on his way to greatness, but then the injury bug starting making numerous appearances. The four year span from 1997 to 2000 was one of the best four years a shortstop had ever strung together. Over that span he had a batting average of .337, and averaged 28 homers, 110 runs, and 105 RBI’s, which is incredible for a shortstop. But, because of the injuries, he’s been forced to play at first base for the last couple of years, and his production isn’t quite what it used to be. Right now, he’s got 1,581 hits, 212 home runs, 859 runs scored, and 858 RBI. At 33 years old, it will probably be tough for him to put together enough good seasons to seriously be considered for a place in Cooperstown.

• Jason Giambi

Giambi’s numbers are quite similar to Delgado’s. Their just a little less impressive. He was an absolute stud in the early 2000’s, but three years of greatness won’t get it done. He’s currently at 355 home runs, 1,162 RBI’s, 1,031 runs and 1,671 hits. He would have to have at least 3 or 4 very good years to get into the conversation. Even with that, the fact that he all but admitted to using steroids will hurt his chances.

Too early to tell

• Lance Berkman

Current totals: 1,156 hits, 230 home runs, 774 RBI, 708 runs, .303 batting average, .561 slugging %. He would need to average about 30 home runs and 100 RBI’s for about 8 seasons to get his numbers where they need to be. At age 31, durability will be key. Can he stay healthy?

• Paul Konerko

Konerko’s number are pretty similar to Berkman’s and they are both 31 years old. Konerko’s got 1,317 hits, 249 home runs, 824 RBI’s, 689 runs, a .281 batting average, and a slugging % of .492. His slugging % is about 70 points lower and his batting average about 20 points lower. For that reason, I like Berkman’s chances of making it more than Paul’s.

• Derrek Lee

I may as well just copy and paste what I said for Berkman and Konerko here for Lee. He is also 31 years old and his numbers are right in line with the aforementioned Berkman and Konerko. He’s at 1,232 hits, 218 home runs, 677 RBI’s, 695 runs, a .280 batting average, and a .502 slugging %. His stats had been trending up, until he missed most of 2006 with the wrist injury, so if he can continue to trend upward and stay off the DL, he’s got a shot.

• David Oritz

OK, this is ridiculous. Ortiz – 31 years old, 1,082 hits, 240 home runs, 796 RBI’s, 649 runs, .284 batting average, and a .552 slugging %. Like Lee, Ortiz is also trending upward, so he’s got that going for him. And more than any of the other guys, he’s got an aura about him, and that certainly can’t hurt him.

Close but no Cigar

• Julio Franco

I think Julio Franco is the only baseball player that played alongside Joe DiMaggio and Alex Rodriguez, so I say put him in the Hall just for that accomplishment. Well, he has played 23 seasons in the majors, and since he’s been around so long, he’s got some decent numbers. 2,570 hits is nothing to sneeze at, but his body of work is just not quite good enough to consider him for enshrinement. Of course, he might play another 10 or 20 years and rack up another 1,000 hits….probably not though.

In the end, I think Thomas, Pujols, Thome, Delgado, and Ortiz will make the final cut. I’ve got a feeling the others will get lost in the current group of great hitters and will come up a little short. Next up, second basemen….

Future Hall of Fame Baseball Players: Introduction

Future Hall of Fame Baseball Player Series:

1. First Basemen
2. Second Basemen
3. Shortstops
4. Third Basemen
5. Outfielders – American League
6. Outfielders – National League
7. Catchers
8. Starting Pitchers
9. Closers

I’m a huge baseball fan, and I’m also a huge fan of sports statistics. Mix these two together and you’ve got an obsessive sports dork. Thankfully, I consider myself more of an intelligent sports stud. OK, maybe that’s pushing it a little bit too far, perhaps I’m just an intelligent stud.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The baseball Hall of Fame is the most famous of all sports Halls of Fame, and debating who should or should not get in can get quite interesting. I’ve decided that I’m going to throw my two cents in about which active players should get in, and the two people that might actually read this can let me know what you think.

I’m going to divide this into a different post for each position. The players I list will fall into these categories:

• No-doubters: These are the players that if they retired today or got hit by falling space debris, they would get in to the Hall of Fame, no question about it.
• Really good chance: These are players that are close to Hall of Fame status, but they may need to do a little more before the end of their career to solidify their fate.
• 50/50 chance: Pretty self explanatory. These are the guys that have had really good careers, but may not quite be Cooperstown worthy.
• Iffy at best: These are the guys who have put up good numbers, but really don’t stand much of a chance unless they put up some big numbers in their last seasons.
• Too early to tell: These are the young pups that are off to a great start, but need to keep it up for another decade.
• Close but no cigar: Good careers, but not good enough to be considered one of the elite.

All right, now I’m going to go finish reading the internet. I’ll get back to you soon with Hall of Fame verdicts for every current major and minor league first baseman, or maybe I’ll narrow it down to a dozen or so.

Using Nanotechnology to Cure Cancer

This is very cool stuff.  A bio-tech firm in Australia has developed a nanotechnology that can deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to cancer cells, without affecting any other healthy cells.  They say this could make chemotherapy much more tolerable to the patients.  Check out the article.