You win some, you lose some.

Sigh, the Phillies won the World Series. Don't get me wrong, I love the National League. I feel like too often we get beaten in the All-Star game by that other league. Still...and I apologize to all my Phillies-rooting Phanatics out there, I usually do root for the underdog.

But the real reason I am writing this is not to congratulate the Phillies or console the poor Tampa Bay Rays who will have to retreat to their high seventy-degree paradise. Rather, as the game wrapped up tonight, I turned to my dad and uttered that one word that hangs over my beloved Cincinnati Reds like a pall: Pitching. One baseball expert put it best by saying that "pitching wins games and hitting keeps butts in the seats." The Reds can have a very fine group of hitters, but it doesn't mean anything without the requisite pitching staff.

The great tragedy or comedy, depending on who you ask, is the fact that Cincinnati has known this for years. Yet, nothing has been done about this. We wring our hands and lament it, but we are unwilling to make the necessary changes (i.e. budget or valuable player trades) in order to get better and move forward. I can attack and criticize my hometown all I want, but I realize that it is really a lot like my own life.

I look at people around me and how my friends move forward by sacrificing that which is truly unnecessary. I know the problems and have an hard time fixing them. Someone once said that admitting you have a problem is the first step, but I'd add that first steps really don't amount to much of a journey without the requisite next steps. Sometimes our sins are just too comfortable. So are beds I guess, but sooner or later you're going to have to get up and go.

The key is to just accept there are going to be rough spots in the outside world as well as in our own psyche, and that rarely will everything unfortunate visit us at the same time and not to worry when they do because there are bigger things than our worries. Meanwhile we can still be happy that there are things like the World Series and especially baseball.