A look back on my first year in CreComm

This is a post about my first year in CreComm (which is why I started this blog.) It's certainly been great at times, other times its been stressful. All-in-all I'll say this:

It's been the most fulfilling experience of my life.

In my six months or so here, I've met some really good people. I've enjoyed all of my classes, and most of the assignments.

CreComm has introduced me to some of the most genuine people I've ever met, and I feel like a better person just for knowing you all. I found pretty quickly that if you're open with people it's easy to make friends.

When I first came to CreComm I didn't know what to expect. I heard rumours that it was like a family, and that you would make new friends but I wasn't sure. I've never been the sheltered type and I've generally gotten along with most people I've met. As everyone else was when we started this program in September, I was shy.

But it's easy to be open with people who are so nice and welcoming. In no time I made friends.

After the first semester concluded I wasn't happy with myself. I wasn't where I wanted to be but more importantly I wasn't where I knew I could be. I struggled with my marks, I found myself questioning my abilities, questioning my work ethic. I thought to myself, "maybe this program isn't for me, maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew."

After speaking with a few people I decided to stay and work to get better.

Boy am I glad I did.

After the thoughts of quitting, what brought me back was the people in my life, and I'd like to wrap up this post by thanking them.

• I want to thank my instructors for helping me along whether it was an assignment I was struggling with, or just needing someone to talk to. I want to thank them for being honest, straightforward and for giving me the skills and confidence necessary to work harder.

• I want to thank my family (Mom, Dad, Rachel, Graham & extended family) for supporting me through this first year. Especially my mom, who'd text me worried when I had to stay at the school late.

• I want to thank my friends for being patient with me. This school year I've missed birthdays and other parties/get-togethers because there was so much going on. Thanks for sticking by me, you guys.

• Most importantly I want to thank my fellow classmates. Getting to know you all over the past six months has been amazing, and I'm proud to say I've made a lot of new friends. We've all worked our asses off this school year and it's safe to say we all deserve a break. You are some of the best people I've ever met, and working with you all has been an honour.

As far as the magazine project goes, I want to thank the CHARGE team. You made the stress of that project completely bearable because we had an amazing group of people to work with. Thank you, Cella, Brina, Derrick and Emily. You all kick so much ass.

Seeing everyone's magazines turn out totally awesome was just the highlight of what's been a great year. Some of you I still don't even know all that well, but I'm proud of every single one of you. It's going to be a pleasure moving forward with you all.

This has been a stressful and challenging but equally enjoyable and fulfilling school year. I want to thank you all for making it so great.

MLB Update

There's been some teams that have been surprises and others have been disappointments, but the season is still very young. Here's an update of the standings so far this season.

American League

AL EAST		WINS	LOSSES	GB
NY Yankees		5	5	0
Tampa Bay Rays		5	5	0
Toronto Blue Jays		5	5	0
Baltimore Orioles		4	5	0.5
Boston Red Sox		4	6	1
AL CENTRAL		WINS	LOSSES	GB
Detroit Tigers		5	2	0
Chicago White Sox		5	5	1.5
Cleveland Indians		5	5	1.5
Kansas City Royals		4	4	1.5
Minnesota Twins		3	6	3
AL WEST		WINS	LOSSES	GB
Oakland A's		6	3	0
Seattle Mariners		5	3	0.5
Los Angeles Angels		4	5	2
Texas Rangers		4	5	2
Houston Astros		4	6	2.5

National League

NL EAST		WINS	LOSSES	GB
Washington Nationals		7	2	0
Atlanta Braves		5	4	2
Miami Marlins		5	5	2.5
NY Mets		4	5	3
Philadelphia Phillies		3	6	4
NL CENTRAL		WINS	LOSSES	GB
Milwaukee Brewers		7	2	0
Pittsburgh Pirates		6	3	1
St. Louis Cardinals		5	4	2
Chicago Cubs		3	6	4
Cincinnati Reds		3	6	4
NL WEST		WINS	LOSSES	GB
Los Angeles Dodgers		6	4	0
San Francisco Giants		6	4	0
Colorado Rockies		5	5	1
Arizona Diamondbacks		4	8	3
San Diego Padres		3	6	2.5

Athletes! Let your feelings out.

"There's not a human being alive that could have reacted quickly enough to avoid contact"

- Cinncinatti Reds annoucer Marty Brenamen

Aroldis Chapman has been credited with the fastest pitch in MLB history at 106 miles per hour (mph.) That's insane, like superhuman insane. Now try to imagine how fast the ball would be going if he were to throw one of these 100+ mph pitches and the batter hit a line drive right up in the middle off the sweet spot of the bat.

It happened. Chapman was hit square in the forehead by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City Royalsbatter Salvador Perez. The video is posted below. I'll warn you right now, it's a bit graphic. 

As you can see in the video, the ball smacked off Chapman's head so hard that it travelled past the third baseline, almost into the Royal's dugout. Can you even imagine the speed that the ball must have been travelling for it to smack off his head and travel that far?

It's hard to watch this video, you can hear the ball make contact with Chapman's head, watching him squirm on the ground in agony, and watching a remorseful Salvador Perez pray for him beside the pitchers mound.

It's been speculated Chapman will be back pitching in four to six weeks. But how long will it take for him to recover mentally?

This brings me to the point of this post. Baseball, and sports in general need to discontinue the notion that it's not alright for players to talk about how their feeling, especially when they're suffering from depression caused by injuries of the sport their playing.

Aroldis Chapman post surgery

Iread a really in depth article the other day about Ryan Freel who was Bipolar. Freel, a former Major League who commited suicide because he had upwards of nine or ten concussions during what was just an eight year baseball career. That's more than a consussion per season, and it didn't help him that he wasn't able to talk about his feelings.

When I was reading this article I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by sadness. Ryan Freel was a 33-year old former baseball player with two daughters who was never able to talk about his feelings or his illness in his locker room because there's still a stigma out there that only the weak talk about how their feelings. He shot himself in the chest with a shotgun. This notion that only women talk about
their feelings, and if a man or an athlete does, then he's a wimp.

One can't help but think of the NFL players who have committed suicide recently such as Junior Seau and Paul Oliver, or hockey players like Rick Rypien and Derek Boogard. All of these men played high contact sports, all of these men suffered from mental illness, all of these men weren't able to talk about it because they might be branded as wimps, fags or pussies. All of these men commited suicide.

It's time for Major League Baseball to step up to the plate. The NHL and NFL have already begun implementing programs for players with mental illness, creating a more accepting environment for players who have them. The NFL recently settled on paying former players $765M to former players who claimed the league didn't do enough to inform them about brain injuries and the resources they could use if they ever needed to do anything about it. There's currently a group of former NHL players preparing to sue the NHL over the same thing.

Both leagues are now also taking preventative steps to reduce the number of head injuries.

Ensuring that players are safe is something that every league should put the utmost effort into doing. Baseball is not a contact sport, but that doesn't mean head and brain injuries won't happen. The league should be doing everything it can to make sure that players are safe and have the resources available for them to talk about it.

Take the MLB banning home plate collisions, for example. I'm a huge fan of this move. What does a guy running at full speed barreling over a catcher who more often then not hangs on to the ball anyway going to do for the game? Nothing. That play is so reckless and dangerous. I'm shocked it wasn't banned long ago. Thinking of Buck Martinez here.

In this video, Buck Martinez' leg was broken after a collision at home plate. Somehow he was still able to record the second out at home. Amazing pla, right? Amazing moment in sports history, right? Well you're forgetting one important part of it...HE BROKE HIS LEG!

How can you ignore the fact that because someone collided with him at home plate so hard that it literally snapped a bone in his body? How can you be in favour of keeping home plate collisions in the game after that? There's a fine line between toughness and stupidity, and allowing collisions like these to continue is moronic and dangerous.

Aroldis Chapman taking a ball in the head wasn't the MLB's fault. There's no way anyone could predict that was going to happen, but in cases like Ryan Freel's, the culture of Major League Baseball and the culture of sports didn't allow him to talk about his illness.

Athletes are people with emotions, they should be able to talk about their feelings without judgement. The old cliché is a team is like family, but I can't bring myself to agree with that.

Families support each other, families listen to each other's problems, and families don't judge or look down on a family member when they have mental illness. People will mental illnesses are not weak, they're sick, and the "only wimps talk about their feelings" mentality is a load of crap.

This reminds me of a case not long ago with Ritchie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. I still hear people say, "can't a guy who's 350lbs just defend himself?" Physically? Probably. But what these people ignore is the fact that not everyone internalizes bullying the same way, and classical notions of what it means to be a man are changing.

It's time for Major League Baseball to do more to help players who've suffered brain injuries and let players know that it's not only fine, but accepted for players to talk about their feelings, it's time for sports to get rid of the mentality that says only wimps talk about their feelings. It's time for athletes to lend a hand to each other and say "we're here for you, because you're my teammate and your health is important to me."

I'd like to end with a call to action. I want athletes to talk about their feelings. Especially if they have a mental illness. I want other athletes to let everyone know that they will help them and create an accepting environment. I want athletes to dispel the notion that because they have traits that aren't associated with traditional manliness, doesn't mean their less of a man.

I'm Stephen Burns, I play hockey, baseball, and had a brief stint in football. I cried when Dobby died in Harry Potter, I enjoy the odd musical - with the exception of ones that star Zach Effron, I've been single for four years and sometimes it totally sucks. I also have amazing people in my life who support me through all of this. They're my team.

I realize that these are just mere facts about me, and no I do not, nor have ever had a mental illness, but athletes should know that it's good to talk about these things.

Let me know in the comment section below, or tweet me at @srossburns and let me know what your feelings are, it's time for people to let athletes know that they don't have to be afraid to let their
feelings out. 

B b b b b b BASEBALL'S BACK!

Hey gang! I know it's been a long while since I've blogged about the ol' ballgame. But I'm back now.

I won't delay at all, but what I will do is give you my predictions for this year's MLB season. Here's who I think will place where, and who will win the main awards.

American League

AL EAST
1: Boston Red Sox 

2: Baltimore Orioles (WC)

3: New York Yankees 

4: Tampa Bay Rays 

5: Toronto Blue Jays 

AL CENTRAL

1: Detroit Tigers 

2: Cleveland Indians

3: Kansas City Royals

4: Chicago White Sox

5: Minnesota Twins

AL WEST

1: Oakland A's

2: Texas Rangers (WC)

3: Seattle Mariners

4: Los Angeles Angels

5: Houston Astros

AL MVP: Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels)

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (Detroit Tigers)

AL Rookie of the Year: Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox)

AL Comeback Player of the Year: Josh Reddick (Oakland A's)

National Leage

NL EAST

1: Atlanta Braves

2: Washington Nationals

3: New York Mets

4: Philadelphia Phillies

5: Miami Marlins

NL CENTRAL

1: St. Louis Cardinals

2: Pittsburgh Pirates (WC)

3: Cincinnati Reds

4: Milwaukee Brewers

5: Chicago Cubs

NL WEST

1: Los Angeles Dodgers

2: Arizona Diamondbacks (WC)

3: San Francisco Giants

4: Colorado Rockies

5: San Diego Padres

NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona Diamondbacks)

NL Cy Young: Adam Wainwright (St. Louis Cardinals)

NL Rookie of the Year: Billy Hamilton (Cincinnati Reds)

NL Comeback Player of the Year: Curtis Granderson (New York Mets)

The big ones

AL Champs: Detroit Tigers

NL Champs: St. Louis Cardinals

World Series Champs: St. Louis Cardinals

Spring Training Update

Hey ya'll, it's been a while since I've blogged, but I'm hopefully going to start blogging more often because the baseball season is fast approaching. Spring Training is in full swing, so here's an update on how each team is doing so far, provided by espn.com

Cactus League
CACTUS	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10
Cleveland	15	4	.789	-	8-3	7-1	122	83	+39	Won 1	6-3
Seattle	14	5	.737	1	5-4	9-1	148	106	+42	Won 1	6-2
Oakland	10	8	.556	4.5	6-3	4-5	144	124	+20	Won 2	4-4
Arizona	11	9	.550	4.5	4-5	7-4	98	95	+3	Won 2	5-3
San Francisco	11	9	.550	4.5	6-6	5-3	97	110	-13	Lost 4	4-5
Kansas City	9	8	.529	5	3-5	6-3	116	108	+8	Won 2	4-5
LA Angels	9	10	.474	6	6-5	3-5	110	86	+24	Lost 1	5-4
Colorado	9	10	.474	6	3-4	6-6	104	87	+17	Won 1	3-4
Chicago Cubs	10	12	.455	6.5	4-7	6-5	92	118	-26	Lost 1	4-6
Chicago Sox	7	9	.438	6.5	3-4	4-5	94	113	-19	Lost 1	4-4
Milwaukee	9	12	.429	7	6-5	3-7	104	120	-16	Won 1	3-7
Cincinnati	9	12	.429	7	4-6	5-6	105	114	-9	Won 5	5-5
LA Dodgers	6	10	.375	7.5	4-5	2-5	85	98	-13	Won 1	2-6
San Diego	6	11	.353	8	2-7	4-4	93	125	-32	Lost 3	3-5
Texas	6	12	.333	8.5	3-5	3-7	114	141	-27	Won 1	4-5
Grapefruit League
GRAPEFRUIT	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10
Tampa Bay	12	4	.750	-	7-2	5-2	93	61	+32	Won 4	7-2
Miami	13	7	.650	1	5-5	8-2	92	69	+23	Won 2	6-4
Baltimore	10	6	.625	2	5-3	5-3	103	75	+28	Lost 1	5-4
Pittsburgh	10	7	.588	2.5	3-4	7-3	87	76	+11	Won 1	4-6
Detroit	11	8	.579	2.5	6-5	5-3	124	80	+44	Lost 1	6-3
NY Yankees	11	9	.550	3	6-4	5-5	98	79	+19	Won 3	4-5
Washington	10	9	.526	3.5	7-3	3-6	117	101	+16	Lost 1	4-6
NY Mets	9	10	.474	4.5	3-6	6-4	99	112	-13	Won 1	5-4
Minnesota	7	8	.467	4.5	3-4	4-4	81	78	+3	Lost 1	2-5
Boston	8	11	.421	5.5	4-5	4-6	76	106	-30	Lost 1	6-4
St. Louis	6	9	.400	5.5	3-5	3-4	92	108	-16	Lost 2	4-5
Atlanta	8	12	.400	6	5-4	3-8	96	111	-15	Won 1	6-4
Houston	7	11	.389	6	3-5	4-6	74	108	-34	Lost 5	4-6
Toronto	7	11	.389	6	4-6	3-5	69	105	-36	Lost 1	3-7
Philadelphia	5	12	.294	7.5	3-6	2-6	67	97	-30	Lost 1	4-5