Sometimes it is hard to follow the baseball

As the World Series started tonight I am reminded of a tragic base ball story I read about that ends in hope, love and faith. Picture this – a family enjoying a baseball game outing. A father, mother and their beautiful 4 yr old boy at a minor league game in Niles, Ohio watching the Class A Mahoning Valley Scrappers game. They were given tickets sitting front row just behind first base. As they settled into their seats they noticed as they looked to home plate that they needed to squint; the sun was in their eyes. As observing as a dad may be, he commented on watching out for foul balls. As a couple innings went by the sun was setting and they let their guard down.


Chad, Nicole and 4 yr old Luke Holko were having a wonderful evening. Luke was hamming it up for pictures but was starting to get tired and had asked to go home. Minutes later the worst happened – a foul ball was hit. Of course plenty of people yelled “watch out” but before anyone knew it Luke was hit by the foul ball. His skull was fractured. He automatically went limp in his father’s lap.

Within minutes Luke was carried to the concourse and whisked away in an awaiting ambulance. Nicole being a medical assistant knew the situation was not good. She was made aware how grave it was when they were told he needed surgery immediately because the blow had knocked part of Luke’s skull toward his brain. Pressure was building and he was not stable.

So many questions? What if they were not in that seat? What if the batter took that pitch? What if there was some type of netting? Chad and Nicole do not place any blame. They are aware of foul balls at a ball game. They saw the warning signs. Chad even had mentioned that they should be aware. There about 40 foul balls per game. The average major league team sends about 3,000 foul balls into the stand each year.

The Holko’s do have insurance and their community has offer lots of help. No one knowing what their medical expenses will add up to. Luke’s condition has improved from critical to serious but stable. The doctors say he is in a “locked in” position with the ability of knowing what is going on with limited response. He now is moving his arms and legs and pushing yes/no buttons. He has even begun to swallow bits of Popsicle.

Chad and Nicole believe in hope, love and faith. They pray and focus on helping Luke heal. They hold on to the positives. They know that every little thing that Luke accomplishes is a blessing.

You can follow Luke’s progress at www.caringbridge.org/visit/lucasholko

Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse

or send a friend request on facebook http://www.facebook.com/cris.chasse

E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list.



Please forward to your friends and colleagues to enjoy. The more readers I have, the more money that is raised for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.



e-mail: drcrischasse@verizon.net

voice 206-350-6437

NBA Season is here

Tonight the National Basketball League starts their season and every team is in first place as the night begins. The new season arrives with promise for all of the thirty teams in the league. Parity is not part of the NBA mantra however, as there is huge disparity between the haves and the have not’s. There are literally only a few teams with a chance to win the league championship.

The NBA is one of the premiere leagues in sports rivaled by the NFL and MLB. The league can be seen on TNT, ESPN, and ABC. With great television exposure the stars of the league are well marketed and the league is extremely profitable.

The overall talent in the NBA has never been better with an influx of foreign players. The NBA is now a world league like MLB is now. Each team now has foreign scouts to judge talent all over the globe. Since 1999, a foreign player has been picked within the first fifteen picks of the NBA draft every year.

With the salary cap the NBA has, it is almost impossible to make a bad team better in one season. An exception to this was the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics who went from last to first with two blockbuster trades. Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were both traded to the Celtics in separate deals before the season started. While this is not the norm it can happen.

Year after year, the lowlife’s in the league fail to become competitive because of the way the league is structured. If you are mediocre one year, you will continue to be mediocre until you either make that rare trade or you win the NBA draft lottery. Teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors have continued to lose year after year because they can’t find that one superstar to put them into title contention.

The NBA is a superstar driven league and if you do not have a superstar you will not go very far. Stars like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Lebron James do not just dominate a game they are the game. They make their teams instant title contenders year after year. It is the supporting cast that determines whether you go far into the playoffs or not.

The players today are definitely not like the players of old. In every sport the athletes are getting bigger and stronger, but in the NBA the players have not just become bigger, faster, and stronger, but their pure basketball skills have diminished as well. Basketball fundamentals have slowly become a thing of the past. While I still cheer loudly for the amazing slam dunks that I see in the game today, I still like to cheer the behind the back pass or the bank shot. I have not seen a good bank shooter since Jerry Schiting in the mid 80’s.

I still enjoy the NBA immensely and I hope that the game will go back to its roots of passing, shooting and defense. Games that go 10 minutes without a basket is becoming the norm in the NBA. Final scores of 75 to 70 have become a regular occurrence in basketball and the games have become a bit of a bore. Let’s hope as the new season arrives teams will go back to fundamental basketball. NBA fans will cheer no matter what for their teams and their favorite players regardless of the basketball being played, but there is still nothing wrong with playing it the right way.

Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse
or become a friend on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cris.chasse

E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list.

If we put a man on the moon, then why can't we.....

I love to say, “We put a man on the moon, yet we still have not figured that out?” I put some of these thoughts together and will share a few.

Do you ever drive in the morning and one pot hole in the high speed lane creates the biggest traffic jams day after day? Why can’t they just fix the pothole and save everyone’s gas? Seems like the Department of Transportation is not using its brain here.

It takes years to build a bridge nowadays yet it should only take no more than a year. Delay after delay for no apparent reason other than the fact that we try to extend every project to maximize the cost to keep the costs up. The army core of engineers can build a small bridge in a few hours.

Why can’t we find a way to make bread last more than a few days? Every time I try to go to make a sandwich I always find the bread to be stale. Can we make bread last as long as we now make milk last two months?
I want to know why we cannot find a way to stop the world from going hungry. We throw away more food everyday than we could possibly eat. Shouldn’t we be able to feed the world? Why can a simple process get so complicated?

I do not understand how this country cannot produce a vehicle that does not need gasoline. We can go to the moon, the moon for god sakes, and we depend on gasoline fueled cars and trucks. We make synthetic oil now, what is wrong with making synthetic gas?

We brought Apollo 13 home on a whim yet we cannot work a miracle like making a substance that will fire proof a home. Five alarm fires are on the nightly news at least once a week and yet we do nothing about making it a thing of the past. Lives are lost because of faulty materials yet there is not a company that has yet to step up to make a fire proof house, why?

How about a light bulb that last more than one thousand hours?

Sneakers that do not wear out.

Grass that will grow anywhere, a personal wish.

Pens that will never run out.

Computers that will not crash. (No offense to Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Steve Jobs)

And a cardboard box that will not let items fall through the bottom.

We have the ingenuity to do so many great things and hopefully if we put some of that ingenuity to the problems we now face things will get better


Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse
or facebook http://www.facebook.com/cris.chasse
E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list

Weekly Thought Bonanza October 24

On Sunday, I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. The column is based on all of the random thoughts that run through my head all week, and trust me there are a plethora of them. I will try to share as many of these thoughts as I can, so each one of my readers can think just a little bit extra over the coming week.
Rozanna al-Yami, is a Saudi Arabian journalist who participated in a interview about sex toys on Saudi television. She was charged with a crime and given a punishment of 60 lashes for doing the interview. Why in the world does this constitute a crime? Isn’t free speech something we as a citizen of this earth be entitled to. This is another example of how Islam is so out of date.

Boston College and Notre Dame are the only two Catholic Colleges that play division one football. It is an absolutely great rivalry and I look forward to the game every year. This game is how college football should be played. Two well coached teams that play the game hard with class. Absolutely awesome, in my opinion.

Utah has implemented a four day work week for its state and municipal employees to save taxpayer money. An added bonus to the plan is that overtime has been cut tremendously as workers do not tend to want to do any overtime work after a ten hour day. Every state should look into adopting this policy change. Getting government to work leaner and smarter is a great idea.

Another child was mauled by a Pit Bull this week, (read my column on Pit Bulls http://drcrischasse.blogspot.com/2009/09/poodles-not-pit-bulls.html ). What is it going to take to stop this madness? Where are the animal rights groups with their outrage? Oh wait, Pit Bulls are those warm and cuddly dogs that do no wrong, right? I am going to write about this until someone corrects the solution.
Combos are a tremendously underappreciated snack food. Wash it down with a Root Beer and you might have found a little glimpse of heaven.

The Baby Einstein videos and CD’s had their legitimacy challenged by several groups. Disney, the owner of the collection, has offered refunds to anyone who has bought the product since 2001. I do not understand why people buy all of this “junk”, for lack of a better word. Teach your child to explore yourself, teach them new things, and most importantly show you love to him or her. There is not a DVD out there that can do that.

Toronto’s annual Boobyball party to benefit the charity Rethink Breast Cancer, has had a few risqué ads to promote its charity. It’s just one of the edgier ways awareness is being promoted among younger women during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With over three hundred thousand hits on You-Tube the campaign seems to be working. Of course, there are plenty of protesters because of the ads being run. I say awareness is awareness and if it raises monies for research, god bless.


If you have a nice salad for dinner does it defeat the purpose if you eat ice cream after the salad? My guess would be yes.


I just started to use Flickr from yahoo to post pictures of my family. It is very easy to use and well worth it. You can use it for free or it is 24.99 for the year for unlimited uploads.


Does anyone besides me feel that one day we will wake up in the morning and turn on our television to find the Israeli’s at war with Iran. I do not see Israel standing by while Iran tries to build nuclear weapons.


If I was not afraid to fly before, I just heard that two NWA pilots took a nap during their flight and missed their runway by one hundred and fifty miles. Thanks guys!!


The Weekly Thought Bonanza thought of the week; Apple picking has become the next best thing here in New England. My question is why? Isn’t it just as easy to go to the store and buy a bag? Half the people who go and pick the apples will not eat twenty five percent of what they pick anyway.

Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse
 or facebook  http://www.facebook.com/cris.chasse
E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list.
Please forward to your friends and colleagues to enjoy. The more readers I have, the more money that is raised for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

e-mail: drcrischasse@verizon.net
voice 206-350-6437

I am not tough enough to be sick

There is not a care in the world that I have more than the health of my family. You never feel as powerless in your life when you cannot help someone you love get well. My family has been hit and hit hard by the sickness bug. It is how we persevere and how we step up to the plate for our love one’s that matters the most.
I am not great at being the strong one. I let my emotions, selfishly perhaps; dictate at times how I react to news that is not the best. I have to learn that this is not about me and my feelings; it is about the people I care about who need all the love and support I can give. Love and happiness is the best medicine of them all.

I ask myself often why this happens to good people. Isn’t this the same question everyone asks during a time in stress when things are not going well? We try to get reasons instead of looking at what is in front of us, the problem at hand.

The birth of my son has changed me in so many ways even as a PhD mathematician I cannot even count that high. He is my whole world wrapped up in his 19 pound frame. Even when he keeps me up all night, his precious little smile makes all my worries go away. I wish I could give that feeling to the people in my life who need it.

I know I dwell on the bad in my life and do not appreciate the good in it. I get way down when I cannot control the situation and I certainly cannot control the health and mental stability of my loved ones.

I had a rude awakening today as I did the unthinkable. I did not help someone in my family who needed me. I thought of my feelings first, and that I am ashamed of. I obviously had no malice in feelings today, I just wanted the person to be well. Can a person really be well without the support one needs? My thoughts always go back to one thing and one thing only, laughter.

I firmly believe that people who are ill do not need the self pity. They need to feel that they still have that self worth that they always had. They stay strong for us and not for themselves. That is the most selfless act there is.

When I started to write a column, I had hoped more than anything that my thoughts would help me to become not only a better person, but to be more understanding. I always hear that I am the one with the big heart and the one who will always be there for everyone. I am a workaholic, a believer in the good in everyone, (even though that has burned me over and over again, but that is a column for another day), and a positive thinker. I make all my decisions based on my heart and what comes out from my soul. That is what gets me into trouble.

I have to learn a balance between worrying too much and not worrying enough is all I can take from this column. Of course, I will always worry too much because that is what I do. I will have to pretend to not worry and that is where my worrying will show through and I will act stupidly and trip over my tongue, which I have become a master at.

I want to be the best I can be when the deck is stacked against my family. I wish the pain would go to me and I have always believed that. Except I do not believe I am even close to being as strong as the people in my family to handle it. I still would take that challenge any day though.

Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse

or facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cris.chasse

E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list.

Please forward to your friends and colleagues to enjoy. The more readers I have, the more money that is raised for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.



e-mail: drcrischasse@verizon.net

voice 206-350-6437

A new President with new ideas

My best best friends love to tell people I am running for President of the United States, when we go out on business trips. I know I am the ex-CEO of a defense contractor and my friends even got me in a blurb on The Hill newspaper about me running for Congress. That one went over big at my house, not! Maybe or maybe not that run for office is in my future, but I have a few thoughts about what I would do if I were President of the United States in my first one hundred days of office. I thought I would share.


Number one on my list would be to get rid of all of the subsidies to any country that does not respect the people of the United States. Americans have always stepped up when there is a natural disaster, a food shortage, or a sick child. Americans step up. If you cannot respect us, then you cannot send monies to countries that that do not.

I would immediately ban all assault weapons in this country. There is not a reason that I can think of that would make them anything more than a danger to society.

Affordable healthcare would be a major task I would tackle immediately. I would start a think tank with all of the major players and come up with a plan that would be sensible for all Americans. With the best doctors in the world, and with the most groundbreaking technology in the world, every American would get to share in America’s great innovations.

America’s infrastructure has become old and tired. My administration would put taxpayer’s dollars to work on restoring the beauty of American. New highways, bridges, and public transportation would be key portions of a bill sent immediately to Congress.

We need to get Americans working again. Investing in new technologies would be key to getting us back to work. Our factories are being turned into condo’s, instead of making computers, wind turbines and synthetic materials used for everything from clothes to tires. Blue collar workers have always been the backbone of America and our backbone needs to get strengthened again.

America needs to invest in our schools. Our children’s Math and Science skills have not increased in this country over the last decade. The communities that have the monies can invest in new computers, planetariums and science labs. Every student should have the same opportunity to flourish in school. It will take some money that is for sure, but money can be saved in other places.

One of the places monies can be reallocated to schools is to stop pork barrel pork projects. Here are some specific pork barrel projects, along with their congressional sponsors. Some of them are just examples of traditional congressional excess. These include: $500,000 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-Texas) for a Manned Space Flight Education Foundation in Houston to create "a virtual space community for students"; $200,000 by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) for the Providence Holy Cross Foundation tattoo removal violence prevention program in Mission Hills, Calif.; and $98,257 by Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) a member of the House Appropriations Committee, for funds from the Small Business Administration for the Georgetown Metro Connection, a bus service that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. "to the neighborhood of Dupont Circle in D.C. and to Rosslyn, Va.," which, the group points out, happens to be in Moran's district. Cutting the fat, no pun intended, and using these monies on projects that will actually make America stronger and a better place to live would be an immediate priority.

The housing market is in the worst slump since the great depression. Tax credits have started to bring the market up a bit, but I have to make it a priority to do more. Tax credits, low interest loans and stricter regulation would only be a start. Every American should have the dream of owning a home. Being able to keep that home has to be the ultimate goal.

Maybe it is just a what we need a person willing to make the tough decisions and make decisions that might be outside of the proverbial box, but willing to do them. America needs to reinvent the way it does business from the ground up. America needs to be run like a well oiled corporation willing to take risks to benefit everyone.







Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/drcchasse

E-mail me at drcchasse@verizon.net to get on our mailing list.

Please forward to your friends and colleagues to enjoy. The more readers I have, the more money that is raised for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.



e-mail: drcrischasse@verizon.net

voice 206-350-6437