Will Sports Illustrated’s cover be clairvoyance or a curse?

The cover of a Sports Illustrated edition in 2014 boldly declared the bottom dwelling Houston Astros would be the 2017 World Series champs.
The picture of George Springer swinging away in a throwback Astros jersey just made the claim seem to be that much more audacious.
Well, here it is, 2017, and wow! The Houston Astros are in the World Series! The clairvoyance of that cover and the story about the building of baseball’s best farm system has just about come true. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers stand in the way. For a sport so steeped in superstition this can only mean one of two things – either the Astros will lose and the dreaded SI cover curse will stand or the Astros will become a team of destiny. I’m hoping for the latter.
Last year the Chicago Cubs won it all, ending the longest championship drought in sports history, erasing 108 years of futility. The Astros now hold the dubious honor of baseball’s second-longest current drought, one year shy of the Texas Rangers. The two Texas teams are among eight who have never won a World Series. The Rangers were founded in 1961 (as the Washington Senators) and the Astros in 1962 (as the Colt .45’s).
Only two teams – Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals – have never been to the World Series. The Houston Astros are the first team to make it to the series in different leagues. They were in the National League in 2005 when they went the first time and are now in the American League.
It would only be fitting that the Astros continue the streak of championship baseball in the Houston area. Our beloved Sugar Land Skeeters won the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball championship last season. An Astros win in the World Series would give the Houston area two consecutive professional baseball championships. Not only that, but it would give us something to brag about over our cross-state rivals.
Sometime this week I’m going to have to get me a new orange shirt. I have several orange shirts already, but they are emblazoned with Denver Broncos logos. I need one with a star and an H on it. Of course there is a frugal side of me that says wait and get one with a World Series championship image on it. Should the Dodgers prevail, we’ll probably find deep discounts on Astros ALCS championship memorabilia. I’m thinking I’d rather wait and spend a few extra bucks for World Series gear.
I learned that strategy growing up as a Broncos fan in Denver. When the Broncos won the Super Bowl, you could find T-shirts and things everywhere. In the years when they lost, stores were closing out of conference championship merchandise as if it were a fire sale. Still, if I want to wear something during the World Series, I’m going to have to break down and buy it.
Baseball is a sport I did not appreciate until I was an adult. Denver didn’t have a Major League team to root for and my own experience in Little League ball was less than stellar. When you’re slow and have poor eye-hand coordination, you’re not exactly the kind of player teams can use. I played ball because that what everyone did. It frustrated me because I really didn’t understand the game and I was terrible at it.
In 1987 I married and moved to Minnesota. I went to my first professional baseball game and had a good time. That was the year the Twins won it all and by the time the World Series came around I was a born again baseball fan. There was an expansion of my love of the game when the Colorado Rockies began play in 1993. For a few months in 1996 I was employed by the Rockies as a ticket taker. That was a good time.
Since moving to the Houston area in 2008, there has not been much in the way of baseball to cheer for, locally. The Lastros were living up to their nickname. Finally, in 2012, the Skeeters started playing. They have become my favorite baseball team. Games at Constellation Field are much more fun than any I have experienced in Major League parks.
This, however, isn’t a column about the Skeeters, or the Rockies or the Twins (which, by the way, all three of my favorite MLB teams made the postseason this year), this is about the Astros. This is about a team that just three years ago was the worst team in baseball, yet predicted to be the winner of the 2017 World Series. More than the Astros, this is about the city of Houston. This year the nation was rife with racism and unrest. When Hurricane Harvey hit, Houston proved its might as one of the most diverse and caring cities in the nation and we came together as #HoustonStrong. Now we stand united again under the orange Astros banner. We are #HoustonStronger!

Boy Scouts provided a lifetime of adventure, but what now?

I was in the fourth grade when my friend Kevin McConnell convinced me to give this Cub Scout thing a try.

He was having a great time with it and figured I would too. So I joined and thus began a lifetime of fun and adventure. Almost all of my buddies were in Scouts in Pack 161 at Niwot Elementary School. We did all kinds of fun, cool stuff like go hiking, race pinewood derby cars, make crafts, play games and so on. As we progressed from Cubs to Webelos and onto Boy Scouts, the things we did became progressively cooler and a lot more challenging and fun.

Joining Troop 161 was amazing. We were a camping machine. Every month we escaped into the Rocky Mountains, pitched tents, cooked over open campfires and engaged in whatever seasonal activities there were to do. We hiked, did wilderness survival, fished, climbed rocks, went skiing, built igloos, studied wildlife, and did all kinds of great stuff.

At our Scout meetings we drilled in first aid, learned to tie knots, shot model rockets and explored a world of discovery as we earned merit badges and advanced in rank. Kevin and I were in the Rebel Patrol. We were a tight-knit band of brothers. We even did things together outside of Scouts. It was within Scouts, however, that we learned to experience life and develop our character as young men. We became leaders and mischievous pranksters who pushed the rules and our boundaries.

Among the first merit badges I earned were beekeeping and rabbit raising. Our main fundraiser for Troop 161 had nothing to do with popcorn sales. We cut and sold firewood. Talk about turning boys into men. Give a kid a chainsaw and a forest full of beetle-killed pine trees and look out! It was hard work, but it sure built confidence and character in each of us.

Every summer we alternated between attending a weeklong camp at the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch in Red Feather Lakes, Colo., and doing a weeklong canoe trip down the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and Utah.

Those summer camps, especially the canoe trips, are some of my fondest childhood memories. They made us seasoned outdoorsmen as teenagers. I loved it so much that when the opportunity arose to work on camp staff at Ben Delatour, Kevin and I jumped at it. Kevin lasted one season but I worked there four summers.

My first summer was in the kitchen. The last three I was in Centennial Village where I dressed in the buckskins of a mountain man and taught wilderness survival and Indian lore. I lived in a teepee, shot black powder rifles and played the drum for the Indian dances for our Order of the Arrow lodge. My partner my last summer was a blacksmith, so we had a forge and pounded a lot of iron.

Eventually Kevin and I became Eagle Scouts. It’s one of the biggest and most significant achievements of our lives. We were proud to be Scouts. We learned skills and had experiences that we never would have dreamed possible if it were not for the Boy Scouts.

After I turned 18 and left Scouts (you can leave Scouts but Scouts never really leaves you) I eagerly awaited the day I could return with sons of my own. As my friends and I grew up, married and started our lives, several of us began families and had daughters right out of the chute. But then we each had sons and the adventure began anew.

My friend Kieth Fiebig and I started Cub Scout Pack 157 at our church. I was the Cubmaster for five years as we brought our boys from Tigers through Webelos. At that point my family made the move from Colorado to Texas, so we joined the Boy Scouts in the Lone Star State.

The Boy Scouts had changed quite a bit in the 20 years from the time I left until my oldest son, Wesley, began. There were a lot more rules, regulations and restrictions.

I know Wesley enjoyed the things we did, but his experience was very different from mine. He had to deal with a lot more restraints and limits. Our first troop in Amarillo was essentially a merit badge factory. There was a strong emphasis on earning badges and advancing in rank.

Three years later we moved down here and joined Troop 1000 in Richmond. At the time there were over 100 boys in the troop and it was very active. Wesley worked his way through the ranks and completed his Eagle rank just four hours before his 18^th birthday (which is the age limit to be a Boy Scout). He also followed in my footsteps by serving on camp staff at Bovay Scout Ranch near Navasota.

While I was helping Wesley through Boy Scouts, my wife, Sandy, was helping our youngest two, Luke and Colton, through Cub Scouts. She served as a Den Leader and did one year as a Cubmaster. We were a full-fledged Scouting family. Then, as Wesley moved on, Luke dropped out. Sandy went back to school and Scouting in our family dwindled to Colton and me. My job made it increasingly difficult to get home in time to make meetings on a regular basis. Similarly, we watched as our troop dwindled in numbers from more than 100 to fewer than 30.

Colton is now a Life Scout and is working on his Eagle. But his heart’s not in it anymore. We’re not sure if it’s a problem with the troop, changes in the national program or a combination of things, but we are burning out on Scouts. In recent years we’ve watched as Scouting’s values have declined. Reverent has become amorally irrelevant. Morally straight has become morally ambivalent. Recently, the Boy Scouts announced that beginning next year it will start admitting girls to the program.

Having talked it over with my wife, we have decided to help Colton achieve Eagle – something that will have huge benefits for him when he graduates high school and goes into the Air Force – and then we’re done with the Boy Scouts. It has drifted too far from its core values and purpose. It’s not the same program that helped shape me into the man I became.

By integrating women, it will defeat the purpose of teaching boys to become young men. It will become just another youth organization not unlike many others out there.

I will always be thankful to the Boy Scouts for what it has done for me and my family. I hope and pray the Boy Scouts will find a way to restore its values and become relevant again. I would love to be able to return some day and help my future grandchildren experience the adventure of Scouting.

‘Chicken Soup’ author back with book on managing success

Do you remember Jack Canfield, the author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books?
He’s back, and this time he has teamed up with noted entrepreneur, businessman, and business success author Steven L. Blue on a new book called “Mastering the Art of Success” (Celebrity Press). At least the copy I have features Blue as a co-author. He indeed did write a chapter, along with Canfield and 43 other authors in this self-help book about being successful. It’s written in the inspirational, multi-author style of the Chicken Soup books.
One of the clever marketing ploys for the book, from what I can see in my Google searches, is it’s printed in multiple editions with Canfield partnering with several of the contributors, listing them as co-authors. Blue’s publicist found me last summer and sent a preview copy.
I’m glad they did.
This is unlike any other book about success I’ve ever come across. You get the benefit of 45 authors from around the world, each an expert in their own field. Because the book is done in the Chicken Soup format with each author getting a chapter, the book is easily digested a few inspirational and educational bites at a time.
Canfield has the opening chapter and talks about the importance of networking and relationships. He urges you to build a mastermind group (a group of mentors and peers) that you can meet with regularly to talk about things of a mutual interest.
Blue is an innovator and talked about his trademarked Innovation Potential program. It involves unleashing the creativity of each employee and creating a time and space where each person can think and develop new products, procedures or solutions to problems they have on the job.
He is a firm believer that anyone can be taught to be creative, even the old dogs. Those that can’t or won’t be taught need to be replaced with those who can. He estimated that 99 percent of the brainstorms go nowhere, but the 1 percent that do pay huge dividends. He said it brings high risk and higher rewards and requires a firm commitment from your whole team to make it work.
This book is chock full of great ideas and programs designed to teach you not just how to be successful but how to manage your success and instill the entrepreneurial/creative spirit within your sphere of influence.
A lot of the concepts in the book are not new. What makes this a worthwhile read is the way the concepts are explored and the different angles or perspectives given to them. Sometimes you need a simple reminder and other times a change of perspective will do the trick. Then again, there are some things you might find new an enlightening that you haven’t thought of before. The important thing is this book helps you learn and grow as a person and in your profession.
If there is one thing I have learned on this journey called life is that you should never stop learning. Your education does not stop once you get out of school. In many ways, that is when your real education begins. That’s when you learn what your life is all about. School teaches you what to do. Life teaches you how to do it. We call that experience. I believe that experience is nothing more than learning to adapt.
Things change all the time. Successful people learn to adapt to the changes. The very successful people lead the change. For example, Apple made the iPhone. That’s leading change. The rest of the industry – and the world – has learned to adapt.
When I was a child, there was no such thing as a personal computer. They were just taking hold while I was in high school and college. Since then, there has barely been a day go by that I have not used one. I’ve learned to adapt. We all have. If you don’t have or use a computer, you’ve learned to live in a world dependent on them. You’ve learned to adapt.
Personally, I like to think I’m the kind of person who leads change. It’s kind of like being a legend in my own mind. The truth is, I’m an adapter. When I started in this business, we put film into cameras. I’ve had to adapt to the digital age. We used to print out stories and photos and cut and past them to large grids we called paste-up sheets. Now it’s all done on computer. We’ve adapted.
The game-changer for newspapers, however, is the Internet. For the past 20 years newspapers have been trying to figure out how to successfully move from a print product to a digital one. Actually, we know how to do it and for the most part we do it really well. The problem is we like to eat … and pay our mortgages and buy clothes and fuel our cars and, well, you get the point.
We have not learned how to monetize our digital product at a level that allows us to live. People have grown accustomed to having their news for free online. Advertisers will not spend nearly as much money to be on a website as they will to be in print. So, we keep printing our papers waiting for someone to successfully flip that switch that allows us to turn off our printing presses and do everything on the great Information Superhighway.
In the meantime, I will draw inspiration from things I have learned from reading “Mastering the Art of Success” and try to find ways of making our product better and more relevant to the people of Fort Bend County. I can promise you that changes are coming. I invite you to be a part of that change. If there is something you would like to see in the Fort Bend Star, please let me know. What would make this paper more relevant to you and your neighbors? This is your chance to help lead change. I can be reached at jsouthern@fortbendstar.com.

Integrity, respect lead to a change of loyalties to football teams

Fort Bend Star Editor Joe Southern poses with Houston Texans mascot TORO at a game last year. The Texans have replaced the Denver Broncos as Southern’s favorite football team by showing excellent character in times of crisis.

Loyalty and respect are character traits very important to me.
When it comes to sports teams, I have been steadfastly loyal to the Denver Broncos. They are and have been my favorite team in all of sports. I was born and raised in the Denver metro area and season tickets have been in my family since 1986. My blood runs orange and blue.
From the Orange Crush to the Mile High Salute and being United in Orange, I have been unapologetically and enthusiastically a proud supporter of all things Broncos.
As a Broncos fan I am a natural Raiders hater and have a special dislike for the ever growing list of teams that have beaten the Broncos in the Super Bowl – especially the Cowboys.
Recent events, however, have shaken me to my core. There has been a paradigm shift in my fandom. The Houston Texans have supplanted the Broncos as my favorite team. Even as I sit here I cannot believe I just typed that last sentence. It seems surreal and anyone who knows me well will know that I do not make that statement lightly.
Wow, this must be what it felt like when Anakin Skywalker went over to the Dark Side. Is this what it’s like for a politician to switch parties? I feel like Saul must have when he, the Christian hunter, converted to Christ and became the Apostle Paul.
All this comes from a combination of gaining respect for the Texans and losing respect for the Broncos. I suspect that proximity to the teams for the past nine years has something to do with it as well, but that’s only a minor factor. The game-changer came Sept. 24 when 32 members of the Broncos knelt during the national anthem. At that same time the entire Texans team stood with arms locked in unity.
Like I said, loyalty is very important to me. The Texans demonstrated that even though they were hurt and upset by comments made by President Donald Trump they were big enough to set that aside and stand for the country. They stood strong together. They were loyal to one another and to our nation.
The Broncos couldn’t even show unity amongst themselves, let alone loyalty to the country. I know players felt they had to make a statement in regard to Trump’s statement and for the racial equality issues that initiated the original kneeling protest. I feel strongly, however, that disrespecting our national anthem and our flag is an unacceptable form of protest.
Taking a knee, however, isn’t the only reason for the switching of my allegiance. There are many reasons. First, let me explain why I like Houston. My interest in the team came when the city, in an underdog role, beat out presumptive winner Los Angeles for an expansion team after the Oilers defected to Tennessee. When the Texans won their inaugural game in 2002 by defeating the Cowboys, I knew there was something special about this franchise that I would like.
I moved from Colorado to Texas in 2005 and then to the Houston area in 2008. Throughout that time the Texans have been my second favorite team. I am now in my second year as a season credentialed photographer with the Texans and I’ve had a chance to see the team up-close and very personal. The organization is top-notch.
They’ve been very accommodating to all of my credential and interview requests over the years. I’ve done stories on and befriended the mascot TORO and Texans cheerleader Taylor H. It’s not just that I’ve appreciated the access; I’ve appreciated the friendliness and professionalism everyone in the organization has shown.
This year, however, the real character of the team came through when Hurricane Harvey hit. J.J. Watt started a relief fund with $100,000 with the goal of raising about $200,000 to help those in need. The last I heard that fund had crossed the $37 million mark. Watt and his teammates put skin in the game by helping unload trucks of relief supplies and becoming directly involved wherever they were needed. The organization has also donated to hurricane relief efforts and has been very active in the community.
On top of that, rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson donated is first game check to three Texans cafeteria ladies who lost a lot in the storm. It doesn’t get any classier than that!
The Broncos, however, began to disappoint me when they caved in to linebacker Von Miller, who, despite being under contract, threatened to hold out last season if the team didn’t meet his demands. The Texans are in a similar situation with lineman Duane Brown, but have the integrity not to negotiate with a player who has two years remaining on his contract. Apparently these guys don’t understand what a contract means. The Texans do and I respect that.
Another problem I have with the Broncos is linebacker Aqib Talib. This thug should be locked in irons, not playing on the gridiron. He has a long history of off-field violence and gunplay. Last year he was shot in the leg outside a Dallas strip club and lied to police about it. It turns out he shot himself. He has been accused to battering a taxi driver, shooting at his sister’s boyfriend and fist fighting with a former teammate.
Last season he really irked me when he ripped a gold necklace off of Raiders receiver Michael Crabtree and didn’t get penalized. This guy is seriously lacking in character and I can’t stand for that. Yet the Broncos continue to parade him as one of their stars.
If this shift in team loyalty isn’t shocking enough, I have to also admit to finding something admirable about the Dallas Cowboys. I respect that they made their statement before the national anthem rather than during it. They, along with owner Jerry Jones, locked arms and took a knee and then stood for the flag and anthem. That was respectful, unified and appropriate. I’m still a Cowboys hater, but with much less malice than before.
Likewise, I’m still a Broncos fan, but now I’m Untied in Orange.
We are Texans!
#HoustonStrong