I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was spent largely glued to the television because there was an awesome line up of sports. Saturday, I watched Jerome Dyson and UConn whoop on number 1 ranked Texas. I've been a huge fan of Dyson since he arrived at UConn 4 years ago but he has taken it to new levels this year. He is currently the only player in the country averaging 19 points 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game.

Despite the gaudy numbers and the fact that he is arguably the most athletic player in the country. Dyson is rated the 77th player in this years upcoming draft. This makes sense with a player like Luke Harangody but not a guy with Dyson's game.

Sunday was a football filled day, my fiance made a big dinner while we watched Peyton Manning dismantle the Jets defense (he even was able to hit some receivers on Revis island) and Brett Favre gun sling his way to another overtime loss in the NFC championship game (I can close my eyes and see Corey Webster picking Favre off at Lambeau Field).

Really the game was decided by two other blunders. First, Brad Childress, in an attempt to confuse the Saints but instead confused his team, made a late substitution causing a 5 yard penalty and forcing the Vikings into the play that Favre threw the interception on. Bill Simmons has consistently criticized Brad Childress' end of game management and today Childress certainly lived down to expectations.

The second blunder was the NFL's refusal to institute a legitimate overtime situation. Since 2003, the team who wins the coin toss goes on to win the game approximately 60 percent of the time. It seems asinine to let a well played 60 minute football game be decided by a coin flip and a kicker. Imagine a college style overtime with Favre and Brees at quarterback. It would have been legendary.

I'm the type of person that has to do something while I am watching television. This weekend I was addicted to Sporcle.com. There are a lot great quizzes but easily the two hardest I tried were:

Can you name the MLB WAR (Wins Over Replacement) Leaders by Team and Year in the National League?the National League?

and

Can you name the 100 Greatest Movie Characters according to Empire Online?

I was able to get 60% of the National League WAR leaders and 70 out of 100 movie characters, see if you can beat me.

I've been bombarded with questions today very similar to the one below, so while I don't really feel like it is my place to say anything but people keep asking me so I might as well put my 2 cents out there.

From John 
City and State: Oakland, CA
Your Question: Shawn,

I read recently that fellow A's prospect Grant Desme recently decided to end his baseball career to join the priesthood. Did you play any with Desme? and what are your thoughts on this decision?.

Love the blog!

John

I had the pleasure of playing with Grant for the first half of the year in Kane County. It doesn't need to be said but Grant was obviously very talented. He had light tower power, good speed and a strong arm. Selfishly I was sad to see him moved up because as a pitcher who gets a lot of fly balls it was nice having a legit 5 tool player in the outfield tracking them down.

The funny thing is that if you ask anyone who played with Grant it was not his talent that stood out but rather his innate ability to lead. Our manager this year in Kane County, Steve Scarsone said it best, “Some of the younger guys were able to feed off of him. That is an important aspect of a player. It’s not necessarily teachable. It’s just something that he naturally has.” I am sure that this is a quality that will serve him very well in his future profession.

A lot of the emails I received were dumbfounded by the decision that Grant made. In essence he was turning down potentially millions of dollars, fame, the chance to play in the show etc (Grant was the MVP of the Arizona Fall League, look at the list of guys who won that award, he was going to play in the show).

I think what a lot of people are missing is that as much of a part of Grant's life was baseball, it by no means defined him. Grant has chosen a selfless path that will last his entire life, making the majors and being famous while nice was not as important as his calling to God. “Either way, if I played in the big leagues and became a Hall of Famer, it’s still going to end. I really started doing some soul-searching of who I was and who I wanted to be. This is where it has led me.” Rather than criticized Grant should be commended for a selfless action, very few among us would be able to make this choice.

I wish Grant the best of luck. Knowing the passion and the work ethic that Grant devoted to baseball leaves me with no doubt that he will make a great Priest someday.

Welcome to my IvyLeagueToMLB.com. For those of you have been following my trek through the minor leagues on my previous blog, thanks for the loyalty. If this is your first time reading my blog, welcome, I hope that you enjoy an inside look at the life of an ivy league educated minor league baseball player.

A few quick notes about the new blog. At the top of the page you will see an "Ask Shawn" tab. Click this tab to send me any questions or ideas. I really want to involve the readers in this new blog, so chances are if you ask a question I will answer it for you.

Another tab that might be of interest is the "Multimedia" tab. Here you can find pictures and soon videos of the past few years. It should help to put a picture with some of the places I have been.

The final section you should be aware of is on the right side of the page. The "New Blog Alerts" section allows you to subscribe to my blog so that you will receive and email every time I write a new post.

I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I enjoy writing it, feel free to comment on any improvements or article ideas that you would like to see. Thanks!