Check out this moving story about a high school star baseball player, a teammate of A-Rod and Doug Mientkiewicz, who never made it:

Butler was Westminster Christian's best player that year. A left-handed pitcher and first baseman, he went 13-0 in 1992, his junior year. He was named the Dade County player of the year, edging Mientkiewicz and easily beating Rodriguez. He was also named an all-American.

"If you would have said anybody on that team would have gone on to the pros besides Alex, I would have thought Steve Butler," said Steve Owens, a reserve player in 1992 who now works as a financial analyst. "He had a great arm and more talent than anyone. I don't know what happened to him."

Anyone who follows baseball seriously can think of other such examples (Gerry Priddy's failure to keep pace with Phil Rizzuto is the one I can think of most readily). For every successful career we watch on the major league baseball fields, there are many others who do not see, but might have. Whether due to injury, personality quirks or a simple inability to grasp an opportunity, the careers that never were haunt the games we see.

Why so few?

On another note, congratulations to Bill Simmons and the Sports Gal (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the reason).

Here's an interesting piece about why the obscene concentration of obscene wealth in NYC is good for the city and its inhabitants:

For literally centuries, New Yorkers have complained about the effects of extreme wealth on the city. Many would, of course, prefer an egalitarian paradise where the working man has a window on Central Park, too. But such utopian notions obscure what is, in fact, a very successful aspect of New York. The historical record clearly shows that when the very rich lose interest in living in a city, the dominoes tumble. Look at Philadelphia or Cleveland.

...So love them or hate them—we’d better learn to live with the rich. They’re not going away. If 9/11 couldn’t scare them off, one has to wonder what will. The very rich may be carving out more space for themselves. But in this highly uncertain economy, that’s something of a blessing, not an unmitigated curse. The ultimate definition of a city’s health is the ability to attract people, companies, and industries that can choose to be anywhere in the world. “You can argue about the dangers of having an economy at the beck and call of the very rich,” says economist Ken Goldstein. “But it basically comes down to this: It’s better than the alternative.”

Read the whole thing.

No time for anything thoughtful tonight, so chew on this outstanding piece about the NYC subways. This should be a mandatory part of the platform of any successful candidate for Mayor or Governor. I'm sure it won't be.

As long as we're on the subject of inappropriate reactions to disabilities, here's one that I've occasionally heard.

Many people of a certain religious sensibility commonly react to news of an ongoing or long-term tragedy by reassuring the unlucky party that "God only gives people what they can handle."

I know it a) is meant as a compliment, b) is the messy result of when the laudable desire to console meets the unconsolable, and c) may even be true on some level. But - coming from another person - it is also a selfish response: The person reacting thusly does so because he or she is unable to confront the reality without giving a reason, no matter how inapt. The "answer" may work for someone uninvolved with the situation on a daily basis, but here's a tip: it doesn't work so well for those who have to live with it. As such, it's about consoling the consoler.

Here are two responses I've (sort-of) bit my tongue on:

1) "Thanks for calculating our merits and deficiencies so carefully. Can we get a recount?"

2) "Suppose we want to have another child. According to the best current estimates, that child would have approximately a 1 in 15 chance of being autistic as well. So for the sake of that child, we should work hard to erode all of our coping habits and strategies, as well as undergoing hypnosis to forget everything we've learned about how to help an autisitic child. Oh yes - we should gamble away all of our money as well - it wouldn't be prudent to have any financial resources that could go towards helping an autistic child. Can't take the risk of actually being able to handle it."

It's much better to resist the impulse to answer the insoluble. Just expressing sympathy (and asking if there's anything you can do - with autism at least, the answer is usually "no," so it's a safe question) will encompass the overwhelming majority of what can be done.