cur in reverse - the volunteer caterer may just have forgott

The Toronto Blue Jays fate right now reminds me of the scene in the movie The Princess Bride were the wizard Miracle Max, played by Billy Crystal, is assessing whether the hero Westley is dead or if he can be saved. He used adjectives like "nearly" and "mostly" but saying ultimately that Westley wasnt dead and could be revived with his chocolate-coated miracle pill. Until the great back-to-back pitching performances in San Francisco this week by Josh Johnson and R.A Dickey, I think most Jays fans were looking ahead to next year. In fact, Ive heard many suggest that maybe its time to trade Jose Bautista and get as much as you can for him. For my part, that would be a mistake - at least for now. Its true Bautista will be 33-years old in October and his production has diminished over the last two seasons; largely because of injuries. Still, hes second on the club in RBIs with 30 and tied for second in home runs with 12, and after a horrible start over the first five or six weeks, has his batting average up to .263. Bautista is also the closest thing to a team leader this team has. With Edwin Encarnacion, he gives the Blue Jays a 1-2 power punch that ranks with the best in baseball. Theyre not Cabrera and Fielder in Detroit, but they supply the intimidation factor in the middle of a line-up that a contender simply must have. Bautista still has two years left on his deal with the Blue Jays with an option year, worth $14 million apiece. If things dont work out for this years edition of the Jays and things dont improve by next years trade deadline, that would be the time to move on Bautista. To do it now just doesnt make any sense. I can think of three other teams that traded star right fielders who watched those deals blow up in their faces. Lets start with the Cleveland Indians. On April 17, 1960, they swapped their beloved slugging right fielder Rocky Colavito to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn, who had won the American League batting title the season before. But Rocky was a hero in Cleveland and had blasted 42 homers and drive in 111 runs in 1959. The trade didnt really help either team all that much and hurt Cleveland the most because of how crushed the Indians fans were over their favourite player being moved. Frank Robinson had a solid 10 year career with the Cincinnati Reds and was only 29-years-old when the ball club hinted he was starting to look old and dealt him to Baltimore for pitchers Jack Baldschun, Milt Pappas and outfielder Dick Simpson. Robinson went on to forge a Hall of Fame career in Baltimore, helping the Orioles win a World Series and finished with 586 homeruns. He capped his career by becoming the first African American manager in the Majors in Cleveland. The Reds got burned again on November 3, 1992. They swapped Joe DeBerry and a 29-year-old outfielder by the name of Paul ONeill to the Yankees for outfielder Roberto Kelly, who was touted as a rising star. ONeill turned out to be the difference maker. He played mainly right field for the Yanks and helped them win four World Series titles between 1996 and 2000 under Joe Torre. Though his temper flare-ups were part of the reason the Reds moved him, it was ONeills rage to win that helped put the fire in the belly of those great Yankees teams. Im not saying dont ever trade Jose Bautista -- just not now. See how this season and next play out and then if you have to make, your move. Cuban defector Yasiel Puig is off to an incredible start with the Dodgers. In just four games, the 22-year-old, five-tool player is hitting .438 with three homers, including a grand slam and nine runs batted in. His OBPS is a staggering 1.501. He also has an incredible throwing arm and gunned down a runner at the plate to end a game from the warning track. With Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford injured, Puig will get plenty of playing time playing right field and batting lead-off. But when those two return, the Dodgers are going to have to make some pretty tough decisions, especially with the contracts Kemp, Crawford and their other outfielder Andre Ethier have. Seven of the Blue Jays next 10 games are against Texas - three at Rogers Centre and four at the Ballpark at Arlington next week. Going into last nights game, the Rangers had a 36-22 record - the best mark for 58 games in franchise history. So the next week-and-a-half could really tell the tail on the Blue Jays season. Cheap Air Jordan 3 Wholesale .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem. Air Jordan 3 Discount . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. http://www.airjordan3wholesale.com/ .C. -- Manny Malhotra had two goals and an assist, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Wholesale Air Jordan 3 Cheap . The defending champion beat Gael Monfils of France 7-6 (6), 6-3, while second-seeded Andy Murray of Britain dispatched Edouard Roger-Vasselin, also of France, 6-3, 6-3. Making his first appearance since injuring his wrist a month ago, Del Potro had difficulty with his service games in the first set. Air Jordan 3 Cheap Online . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. On a cultural level, Australia has been forced to confront the harsh reality of a federal politician called Pauline Hanson, who has touched a raw nerve by questioning what it means for migrants to embrace Australian values. No one is quite sure what these values are meant to be, who drew up the list of these values, and how far back in time you have to go to determine the source of these values, but Hanson has done what she set out to do - embroil the nation in a testy debate around notions of inclusivity and diversity as it applies to her monocultural frame of reference.Much of the focus of her wrath is seemingly directed at ethnic and religious migrants from Asia and the Middle East. For many of those who may feel the sting of her words, cricket is their sport, their passion, their sense of cultural identity. Having had the privilege of being on both sides of the fence - first as a migrant in 1984 and now as a long-time resident, with children born in this land (weaned on cricket), and working as an educator in the field of diversity and inclusion, I believe firmly that cricket represents a bridge that can span the chasm between Hansons rhetoric and the history of a nation built on migration.That Cricket Australia promotes a culture that is wholly inclusive is not in doubt. I have personally witnessed their commitment to making the sport accessible to all. It is not lip service but a genuine recognition of cricket as a truly global sport that is richer for the broad church it draws from. It may yet be another generation before the proliferation of South Asian names seen in junior cricket scorecards is reflected in senior Australian teams but most of that is beyond CAs influence at this early point in time.For instance, at the national championships that my 12-year-old son participated in recently, most of the state teams had significant representation from boys with subcontinental heritage. Yet in the Under-17, U-19 and rookie squads I work with, the numbers have thinned out noticeably. This has very little to do with discrimination and everything to do with the traditional focus on higher education that many South Asian families still demand of their children. It may yet be some time before cricket is viewed as an equally attractive and viable career option for a subset of the population for whom higher education is still the holy grail.I felt that pressure in the late 1980s when I pursued a modest cricket career, and it was only the luck of a cricket scholarship to Oxford that appeased my parents sufficiently to allow me to chase that futile dream for a few more years. But inclusivity at grass-roots level runs a lot deeper than merely playing the game. It is about finding ways to encourage people from all backgrounds to be an active part of club culture. Until that happens seamlessly, there will always be the perceptionn that gives rise to Hansonism - this ridiculous notion that if you dont share her version of Australian values, you dont belong.dddddddddddd Its plain to see why the smallest oversights can lead to the perception that some cultures/religions do not want to assimilate, and the barriers to entry can easily be removed with nothing more than enhanced cross-cultural understanding on both sides of the fence.For example, many cricket clubs wonder why some cricketers or their families are reluctant to volunteer for simple things like running the canteen. It might not have occurred to them that they never actually invited that person to step behind the counter. If youre a second-generation club member, like my sons are, they see no impediment to volunteering for any role, but when I posed the same question to my father, he confessed that while he felt like he should have offered to help, no one actually asked him, so he did not want to force himself on people whom he did not know.It could be as simple as the Aussie staple of ham and salad rolls or hot dogs being on the menu. For some, handling certain types of meat is not an option. Serving alcohol might present a similar obstacle to volunteering in such roles. How many clubs (and Ive seen this occur in England too a thousand times) serve food that has pork or beef products and then look suspiciously at that one person who distances himself from the group and looks like he is not mixing in with his team-mates? In similar vein, Ive played cricket in India and Sri Lanka where similar situations occur in reverse - the volunteer caterer may just have forgotten to include a type of food that is non-spicy. Nothing sinister - just an oversight that leads to false perceptions that fuel the sort of myths that Hanson then makes sweeping generalisations about.Then theres dressing-room etiquette. In all my time playing cricket in Australia and England, it was standard practice for males to get changed and shower alongside each other without being self-conscious about nudity. It never occurred to those cricketers that there may be others who feel uncomfortable with that. It has nothing to do with being gay or being unhygienic (Have you noticed he never showers after a game?). And yet, those minor misunderstandings can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies that stand in the way of true inclusivity.I am now in South Africa, a proud cricketing nation that is dealing with the equally thorny issues around quotas, inclusion and opportunity. We have Pauline Hanson. South Africa had Nelson Mandela: Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. ' ' '