2012 New Years Resolutions?

[Haid D' Salaami]

Ok since the new year is like 2 days away, what are some of your New Years Resolutions? Baseball and personal.

Mine..

Keep losing weight and going to the gym.

Try not to have a quick temper.. in life.. but in baseball for some reason I don't..LOL

Be happy with what I have.. and try to not want more.

Stay in touch with God, and Pray more.

Work on my Umpire game, Keep your mouth shut and Umpire....LOL

I will think of some more..LOL

[Kevin Finnerty]

Man, you sure laugh out loud a lot.

[Kevin Finnerty]

I guess I resolve to:

• Eat smaller steaks and bigger salads
  
• Keep finding and visiting more old friends
  
• Take more long drives---especially to umpire games (did about 1200 miles over the holidays and loved it---especially those stretches when my wife wasn't telling me to slow down)
  
• Speed less when others are in the car
  
• Get less pissed off when people don't signal a lane change
  
• Get less pissed off, period (like the "Hide Man," I rarely get angry as an umpire)
  
• Play more catch with my son (even though he can hurt me with the velocity and late movement)
  
• Rescue my father from his OCD wife more frequently (just imagine Hillary Clinton, but not as smart)
  
• See more concerts (good thing to do with my bassist dad when I rescue him from his OCD wife)
  
• See more movies (my son's a theater manager and he gets endless comps)
  
• See more Angels games --- WE GOT PUJOLS! (we have a friend on the club and we get endless comps)
  
• Go to spring training --- WE GOT EFFING PUJOLS! (I still can't believe it)
  
• Go on more Bruins road trips (endless comps...)
  
• Keep moving up the umpiring ladder
  
• Stay in good shape (if not, get in great shape)
  
• Find a drug that, by taking a dose, makes me willing to wear the hideous MLB light blue Majestic
  
• Learn five more languages
  
• Heighten my consciousness to the degree that makes me the all-being, all-knowing master of time, space and dimension
  
• Set at least two goals that are impossible
  

[yawetag]

Keep finding and visiting more old friends

Close to mine. I've decided that I'm going to begin conversing more with old friends. A quick facebook message or email to ask how things are will do the trick to start. I miss some of my friends and I've found the past few months that I need to rekindle the friendship.

See more Angels games --- WE GOT PUJOLS! (we have a friend on the club and we get endless comps)

I hope you enjoy paying him over $30mil a year in the last few years of that contract. :)

[AZump78]

Ok since the new year is like 2 days away, what are some of your New Years Resolutions? Baseball and personal.

Mine..

Keep losing weight and going to the gym.

Try not to have a quick temper.. in life.. but in baseball for some reason I don't..LOL

Be happy with what I have.. and try to not want more.

Stay in touch with God, and Pray more.

Work on my Umpire game, Keep your mouth shut and Umpire....LOL

I will think of some more..LOL

"Can you 'L' a little less 'O-L'?!?"

One of my favorite lines from the show Modern Family (gotta be the funniest show in TV).

[Kevin Finnerty]

Keep finding and visiting more old friends

Close to mine. I've decided that I'm going to begin conversing more with old friends. A quick facebook message or email to ask how things are will do the trick to start. I miss some of my friends and I've found the past few months that I need to rekindle the friendship.

See more Angels games --- WE GOT PUJOLS! (we have a friend on the club and we get endless comps)

I hope you enjoy paying him over $30mil a year in the last few years of that contract.

First of all, billionaire Arte Moreno is paying him, and after watching him pay Vernon Wells $26 million to bat .210 with 25 homers and 66 RBIs, I no longer care what anyone makes, or how they get paid (or who has to pay them). Secondly, when he is at the end of that deal, he's going to be passing Ruth, A-Rod, Aaron and Bonds on the all-time list, after getting his 3000th hit, 2000th run and 2000th RBI as an Angel. That'll all be worth plenty. Thirdly, if anyone will defy age and logic in the way he performs at an advanced age, it's The King. He's special. None of the standards for performance apply to him, because he has set his own. So, it's my guess that he'll still be reasonably productive at 40 and 41 after which he becomes Moreno's partner.

It's a Magic Johnson deal. The person is as important as the player. (By the way, Moreno just signed a $2 billion-plus broadcast rights deal. Albert's deal is going to be easy to swallow. But again, I don't care.)

[yawetag]

I hate the fact Albert left St. Louis. However, I hate more the reason he left.

[Kevin Finnerty]

The main reason Albert is not currently property of the Cardinals:

They chose to lock up this guy instead.

What the Cardinals did by giving Matt Holliday a $100-plus million extension, while allowing Pujols to reach his walk year is truly laughable.

Matt Holliday is a good power hitter with average speed, a below-average arm, and perhaps the poorest defensive skills of any left fielder in the National League. Albert Pujols is the greatest right-handed power hitter since Jimmie Foxx, if not the greatest ever. He's accomplished feats that even Foxx can't match. He is still in his prime, and was at his peak when the Cardinals should have, and could have locked him up at a much lower price and for two fewer years.

Their roll of the dice is why Albert's gone. They could have had him locked up for his useful life as a player for roughly $85-$100 million less than Arte Moreno stepped up with. LaRussa's departure would have been a non-issue then, and having the opportunity to have Tony's departure become a factor definitely worked against the Cards.

The Cardinals tried to get away cheaply, and instead committed one of the colossal f - - - ups in free agent history.

I am as sorry for all Cardinal fans as I feel happy for all Angel fans. I hope the next Angels World Series is against St. Louis.

[Umpire in Chief]

2012 is going to be my comeback year personally, professionally and as an umpire.

While I thank my lucky stars 2011 wasn't any worse than it was for me and I know I'm blessed because it was much harder on others; I'm going to make a comeback in 2012.

Personally:

• Continue to lose weight.
  
• Keep a positive mental outlook
  
• Do more for others
  
• Spend more quality time with the family
  
• Become more organized
  
• Run at least one race
  

Professionally

• To be more aggressive and assertive - bring my umpire persona to work!
  
• Continue to move from reactive to proactive
  
• To develop my team more to be more well rounded professionals
  
• Delegate more so I can take on new responsibilities
  
• To position myself to be seen as the SME in my field I am
  
• To be more responsive to others
  

Umpiring

• Regain lost confidence from assigners.
  
• Attend 2 camps/clinics this year
  
• Help develop / mentor new umpires
  
• Have a better attitude to non-shaving aged games
  
• Be more involved in my associations
  

[Kevin Finnerty]

I must add a resolution to my list:

Switch to an iPhone.

I made this resolution after I "lost" my Samsung Droid on New Year's Eve. That's what the cop said happened, so that he didn't have to write a report or conduct a time-consuming investigation. When he told me it was "lost," I said, "Don't you even want to go into the manager's office and see the surveillance footage of the guy taking it off my table when I lost it?"

My New Year's wish to the waste of human tissue that helped me "lose" my smartphone: I hope the next time you feel the sensation of having someone's fist crush your nose, when you wake up and your scrambled brain starts functioning again, you'll think of me and all the needless grief you caused me. And may 2012 be the year you finally get caught for something special and do your first long stretch in an all-male setting.

[zm1283]

Ok since the new year is like 2 days away, what are some of your New Years Resolutions? Baseball and personal.

Mine..

Keep losing weight and going to the gym.

Try not to have a quick temper.. in life.. but in baseball for some reason I don't..LOL

Be happy with what I have.. and try to not want more.

Stay in touch with God, and Pray more.

Work on my Umpire game, Keep your mouth shut and Umpire....LOL

I will think of some more..LOL

This is one of mine too. I am pretty calm when officiating, whether it is basketball or baseball. My temper gets the better of me sometimes in other settings, like at home or while driving. Just need to take a deep breath sometimes and relax.

I must add a resolution to my list:

Switch to an iPhone.

Hopefully the iPhone5 comes out in June, which is my birthday month, so I can make it a present to myself. I have had a DroidX for about a year and a half and I am sick of it. Camera quit working, it shuts off at random times, and the battery life is starting to suck. Not to mention it is just slow and the keyboard is jumpy and hard to type on. Unless the new Droids are drastically better, I am not impressed with them.

[Umpire in Chief]

Unless the new Droids are drastically better, I am not impressed with them.

I switched to a Droid 3 and love it. I chose the 3 b/c of the slide out keyboard. I'm bad with touch screen typing. It's fast, responsive, my only complaint is I wish the battery life were better.

[zm1283]

Unless the new Droids are drastically better, I am not impressed with them.

I switched to a Droid 3 and love it. I chose the 3 b/c of the slide out keyboard. I'm bad with touch screen typing. It's fast, responsive, my only complaint is I wish the battery life were better.

The problem with Droids is that they come out with a new one about every month it seems. My original Droid X is "old" by now, and I've only had it for about 15 months. (It wasn't a year and a half I guess) If the phone makers (Samsung, Motorola, HTC) would focus more on quality than quantity, they might have better hardware, although I'm not sure how much of it is the hardware and how much is the Droid OS.

The iPhone's I have used (My wife has the 4) are just so much smoother and more reliable than my phone. She had the Droid Incredible before her iPhone and it was junk. It had memory issues and would not send/receive texts, it shut off after about five minutes of use...just a lousy phone. The X is not much better.

I was pretty loyal to the Droids when they first came out and I didn't want to jump on the Apple bandwagon, but I'm starting to really rethink that. I don't know anyone personally that doesn't like their iPhone.

[semperfiguy]

Get yourself an iphone. You wont be sorry. Its right up there with the wilson gold/platinum cp's. the gold standard of equipment.

[BT_Blue]

oh man I hope it comes out in June. THat would be awesome. Wife got an iPhone through her work just to make me jealous. Then she figured out she really likes it...