Memorial Day Musings...

Just a few thoughts this Monday afternoon...

Bears Release McDonald
I'm not sure what the Bears were expecting from Ray McDonald, but today they got exactly what a lot of people thought would happen from the beginning.  McDonald was released this afternoon after a morning arrest in Northern California on charges of misdemeanor domestic violence and child endangerment.  McDonald has a checkered history to say the least, one so littered in legal issues, that the 49'ers cut him loose in December.

Here's the statement released by GM Ryan Pace today:

"We believe in second chances, but when we signed Ray we were very clear what our expectations were if he was to remain a Bear,"  the statement continued, "He was not able to meet the standard and the decision was made to release him."

There's two schools of thought here, kudos for the quick response, and what the heck were you thinking in signing him in the first place? This was a highly questionable signing from the beginning. This was not actually a second chance for McDonald, it was more like a third or fourth, so there are many wondering why take a chance on this guy, instead of say somebody else?

Again, not a real shock to me how this eventually turned out.  Hopefully the Bears can move on from this, I think they'll be able to for sure.

Big 10 and Bradley
Big 10 baseball is back and with a vengeance.  The conference put 5 teams into the NCAA's for the first time ever.  It boasts the #6 overall seed as well in Illinois.  From doing some games on BTN this spring, I was impressed with the quality of play by the schools, great pitching, and all the teams seemed very fundamentally sound.  What a tribute to the Administrators that took a serious look at baseball at their Universities and identified that facilities needed to be upgraded, and money needed to be spent to get and keep quality coaches. I applaud them and the proof of success is in the preverbal pudding.

My alma mater Bradley University is also in the field competing to get to the college world series for the first time since 1968!  Yes, that was even before I attended the fine school in Peoria.  Kind of tying in with my above statement, the Braves are the #2 seed in the Louisville bracket and will face #3 Michigan.  Let's go Braves!!

Memorial Day...
I hope you are all enjoying your holiday, but also keeping in mind what it actually means.  This holiday is to honor those who gave their lives in service of defending this great nation of ours.

My time in San Diego, really brought the message home, about what military service is all about. I came into contact with so many brave men and women, old, young and in between, who are making a sacrifice to keep us enjoying our freedoms here in the US. Before living there, I probably would have found it odd to walk up to a person in military uniform and just say "thank you for your service".  I'd never experienced it before, but now it's almost routine to me, whether it be at the bank, at a restaurant or in an airport.  I'm not preaching to you, trust me, everyone is free to enjoy/observe the holiday as they choose, but isn't that the beauty of living in this great country?

Social Media/Photography
For those new to my blog, welcome, and for those vets, please continue to support this blog, I do appreciate it.  For the regulars, please indulge me for a minute to again let the 'newbies' know where to follow me for social media and my photography.

Twitter: twitter.com/Andy_Masur1
Facebook: facebook.com/AndyMasurBroadcaster
Instagram: instagram.com/andy_masur

For my photography, 2 places to visit:
Flickr:  flickr.com/Andy_Masur
Photoshelter: andymasurphoto.photoshelter.com

Thanks!!  Have a great week!

Andy