The Florida Marlins Win the World Series!!!

From Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel:



"Can you believe it?" Jack McKeon said as he walked out to the field, shaking hands as he went, his last managerial stroke to pitch Beckett on a controversial three days' rest now looking the most brilliant.



Beckett was being lifted up on his teammates' shoulders now. Someone tugged a "World Champion Marlins" cap on his head backward. The caps were going on everyone, T-shirts, too. The phrase will take some practice: World Champion Marlins. Read it again and weep a little, considering many of the Marlins were by now: World Champion Marlins.



They didn't just do what no one said they could. They did it their way in the city that sings about just that. All last winter and through the spring, as the Marlins first assembled their team and then started playing, they were told small-ball wouldn't work. Couldn't work. Doesn't everyone knows running and bunting doesn't work in this big-bang era of baseball?



Look how they won Game 6.



They bunted. They ran. They played great defense. They played for one run, pulled it close, then played for another and pulled it closer. They played the smallest of ball all the way to the biggest of wins, to the most unlikely of celebrations, coming into a place full of baseball history and making some of their own.

Here's Hoping the Florida Marlins Can Win the World Series Tonight!!!

The manager Jack McKeon is a daily communicant. When I saw the Marlins play in Cincinnati earlier this year, most of the team was at Mass in the Cathedral that Sunday. Mike Lowell and Mike Redmond sat a few pews in front of me and both conducted themselves like this wasn't an infrequent occurence in their lives. Perhaps the real secret of the Marlin's success is their manager's faith and his dependence on God not on sports.



From the Sun-Sentinel:



He arrives just before the 8:30 a.m. mass at St. Matthew in Hallandale Beach, just another worshipper in shorts, golf shirt and gray hair. Plus, there's the cigar. You've got to love this touch. Even here, Jack McKeon has a trademark cigar puffing, as well as a strategy for it.



"This is my spot, right here," he says, placing the cigar carefully on the ledge of a post before walking a few steps through the church door.



Do you want to know how it felt to wake up Thursday as everyone's Manager of the Year, as the surprising boss of baseball's surprise team, as the leader of the Marlins as they stand one game up in the wild-card playoff race with 16 games to go?



It felt about the same as it did any day. That's just being honest. The man's 72. He has his days down pat by now, no matter where he wakes up. Go to mass. Take communion. Say a few prayers. And then, of course, hope your cigar is still waiting for you on the way out.

The Manager of the Florida Marlins--Jack McKeon

From Street Miami | 08/01/2003 | MEET ... JACK MCKEON:



"Got any good stories?



I was managing the Reds. Like me, [then Los Angeles Dodgers manager] Tommy Lasorda likes to go to church. So one Sunday morning, in Cincinnati, we went to the same mass, at 8 in the morning. I asked him if he wanted a ride to the ball park afterward [the Reds and Dodgers were playing each other that day]. He said ''sure.'' So after church, I went outside, but he stayed inside. I went in looking for him and he's at the altar, lighting a candle [and probably asking the Lord for a Dodger victory]. Well, when he started to walk out of the church, I walked back in, just for minute. Later that day, before the game, we're at home plate, exchanging lineup cards, and I said, ''Hey Tommy, I saw you light that candle.'' He said, ''Oh yeah?'' And I said, ''Yeah, I sneaked back in and blew it out.'' I really didn't, but that's what I told him."

Pope Doesn't Say Mass for Students

From Welcome to AJC!:



"The Vatican dropped an afternoon Mass from Pope John Paul II's schedule Friday to give the frail pontiff more rest after a hectic week, officials said.



The Mass with university students in St. Peter's Basilica is an annual event and was confirmed by the Vatican on Tuesday.



But the pope's spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said it was dropped to ``lighten his schedule after such a busy week.''



The 83-year-old pontiff suffers from Parkinson's disease. He presided over weeklong events to mark his 25th anniversary as pope, concluding with a Mass on Wednesday with 30 new cardinals installed the day before.



He has been handing over more of his ceremonial duties and, because of difficulties in speaking, has turned over most his speeches to aides to read.

Navarro-Valls said the pope will hold his regularly scheduled meetings on Saturday.



``Almost 90 percent of the activity of the Holy Father these days has been live on television, so everybody saw him. He was a bit tired because the schedule was hectic, with many long ceremonies and so on,'' said the spokesman when asked about John Paul's health. "

"The End Is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"

A priest and a pastor are standing by the side of the road pounding a sign into the ground that reads:



"The End Is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"



"Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" yelled a driver as he sped by.



From around the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splaaaashshsh!.



The pastor turns to the priest and asks: "Do you think the sign should just say: "Bridge Out!"?"

Back to the Beginning (GENESIS)

"After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years," (Genesis 9:28).



Ananova - 'Humans could live for hundreds of years':



"Scientists say people could live active lives for hundreds of years if humans follow the same biological rules as laboratory worms.



By carefully tweaking genes and hormones, scientists extended the lifespan of the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans six times. In human terms, the worms stayed healthy and active for 500 years.

The researchers pointed out that the chief mechanism they tampered with - a signaling pathway involving insulin - was common in many species, including mammals.



But many people might find the price of immortality a little high. The worms with the longest lifespans also had their reproductive systems removed."

Schiavo's Spouse Explains Side, Parents Respond

Schiavo's Spouse Explains Side, Tells Of Struggle - from Tampa Bay Online



Schindler Family Statement In Response To Michael Schiavo Statement - from Tampa Bay Online