Greetings again this week. This past week I spent a day with our church at Holiday World. I came away with mixed feelings. The company was great and very enjoyable. The park is clean and well organized. The variety of rides and attractions are very adequate. In addition, soft drinks and sunscreen is free and the food is reasonable. What I have a problem with is the lines. The big rides themselves, both water and coasters, are so short that they can only operate about two sets of riders at a time. Therefore, the lines demand you wait from 45 minutes up to 1 ½ hrs for a ride lasting from 45 seconds to 2 minutes. Furthermore, due to onerous restrictions, you can’t bring a book or other amusement to pass the time without risk of them being stolen while riding. Now, I’ll admit if you just want to swim and ride smaller “family” rides or watch shows, you can get more bang for your buck. But if you want the thrill of the big rides, you must stand until your feet hurt. Plus, we were there on a Thursday after Indiana students had started back to school. Imagine the lines during the early summer or on weekends. I figured for the day, in which I was there from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm, I rode 8 rides lasting at most 15 minutes and spent a good 6 hours waiting in lines. Is this good use of time or money? One has to wonder – do we really crave amusement so much in our society that we will tolerate anything to gain a few precious seconds of excitement? From the crowd, in a supposedly lousy economy, the answer is sadly yes.

Once again, the Reds have proven to be not ready for prime time players. In being swept by St. Louis handily, several factors emerged. First, while they have a bright future, the young pitchers are not experienced enough to shoulder the burden that has been placed upon them. They threw way too many pitches in trying to stay away from St. Louis hitters. Second, the Reds hitters can feast on second-rate pitching, but cannot compete against good pitchers. Third, the Cardinals have three starters far superior to anything the Reds can put on the mound at present. Lastly, as I have mentioned before, they are being shortchanged by an incompetent manager who puts soothing egos above winning. The second base brawl game was a prime example. In a 2-2 game, the Reds left their starter in to get knocked around in the 6^th inning for 3 runs until they took him out. In the bottom of the very same inning, the Cardinal pitcher let 2 men on base and was promptly removed. That is the difference in managerial ability. Plus, I feel that deep down inside, the Reds players don’t believe they are as good as the Cardinals and pressed badly in the series. I fear for the upcoming west coast trip against the “best of the west”.

See you next week. Doc