LET ME MAKE THIS SHORT

The Netherlands? The Netherlands?

Wait , hold on…so the Dominican Republic has a combined payroll of hundreds of millions in player salaries from those currently involved in playing Major League Baseball. The Netherlands has a grand total of zero in salary dollars currently in the major leagues. Wouldn’t you know it – the Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic today in that wacky off season World Baseball Classic. It’s becoming more fascinating by the minute. Ummm…nothing else on that, except that money can’t buy you victories. Oh, and yes, for all you Yankee haters - I’m still a NY Yankee fan. Must I always remind you that Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Petite, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Melkey Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain (must I go on…really?) are all products of the Yankees only minor league farm system. So get off my case when I decide to shell out a few bucks to fill in a few roster spots.

RUN FORREST RUN

So me and my boy interrupted our viewing of the big Baseball Classic while routing for Italy (can you believe they have a team?), and caught the beginning of Forrest Gump and kept it on the whole time. First time I've seen the movie all the way through. I'll say this much....all in all an OK history lesson and a unique way to put a movie together. Hanks as usual is quite good and it's another music that causes you to think about what's important in life. I'd recommend it - was a nice way to spend Saturday afternoon before the big concert day.

ELECTRICITY

So Sunday I'll conduct my youth orchestra in the beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. There will be so many relatives and friends of these kids in attendance. We've given out 1400 tickets and I expect the crowd to be close to 2,000 in a 2,400 seat hall. I believe the performance will be electrifying. Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of teenagers to play with intensity and electricity? It takes a lot of rehearsal time and a lot of coaxing. In my pre-game speech tomorrow I will be telling them to play like it's game 7 of the world series......use your intelligence, channel your emotion, and give the people what they want. By the way - I'm too tired to edit tonight so sorry if there are some typos. Catch ya later.