Batter up! A new season is set to begin

If you live in central Illinois, and are even half as passionate about the game of baseball as I am, then you can relate to this quote by one of the games greatest players, Rogers Hornsby.   

"People ask me what I do when it's winter and there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

How is a person supposed to fill the void left in our lives when the page on the calendar turns to November, and the game that we love has ended for the season? Personally, I turn to re-watching games that I recorded during the season and postseason. I immediately start evaluating the needs of my team and creating my own wish list of roster moves for the next season. I read any blog or website devoted to major league baseball.

This year, I've been blessed with a new way to pass the time until Opening Day. My fiancé and I are expecting a baby boy in May and I have been allowed to decorate his nursery in anything Cardinals.

I would be interested to see how my readers get through the doldrums of winter.

Since spring training has officially begun, I don't want to devote too much time to surviving without baseball. Rather, I would like to take a look at what happened in the offseason. My next post will focus solely on the three teams of local interest, the Cardinals, Cubs and White Sox.

The three biggest stories of the offseason were the Dodgers signing virtually anyone and everyone, including Zack Greineke, the blockbuster deal between the Marlins and Blue Jays, and the Angels signing Josh Hamilton.

On paper, the Dodgers look like the team to beat in the National League. They have a lineup that could easily produce six or seven All Stars. Their starting rotation has more pitchers than they know what to do with. They have three guys who are legitimate candidates to be an Opening Day starter (Kershaw, Greineke, Ryu) and five other starters that have been team aces in the past (Beckett, Billingsley, Capuano, Lilly, Harang).

Aside from pitching, the Dodgers also have a lineup that includes Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, and rising star Dee Gordon. The only place the Dodgers seem to be lacking an All Star is at catcher, but what remains to be seen is if the high priced talent will also come with high priced egos that require constant stroking. Who will be the team leaders and will any of the guys listed above who are used to being leaders take more of a spectator role in terms of leadership? Will the pressure of being the odds-on favorite cause the team to self destruct?

My prediction: The Dodgers will have a remarkable season (thanks in large part to beating up the Padres, Rockies, and Diamondbacks a lot), but they will fall short of winning the World Series, which will cause pundits like myself to question whether or not the core of the team is overpaid and past their prime.

The Toronto Blue Jays made headlines this offseason by being the buyer of talent that Jeff Loria and the Marlins acquired the previous winter. The additions of Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio, as well as Melky Cabrera to the Blue Jays lineup will prove to be one of the greatest trades ever completed by any team. This team is well balanced with speed and power on offense and a pitching staff able to go deep into any ballgame. They also maintain a good core of less experienced talent whose enthusiasm will ignite this team time and time again this season. I project this team to win 100 and the World Series this year and maybe next year, too.

What will make this team different than the team assembled in Miami for 2012 will be the manager and the general manager. John Gibbons knows how to manage a team and will do a great job leading this team, and general manager Alex Anthopoulos seems to turn everything into gold. If something needs adjusted to make this team a winner he will get it done. On the flip side, I see the Marlins being the first National League team to reach 100 losses. I think the great experiment with baseball in Miami will come to an end soon. Even when they were supposed to be great the Marlins couldn't get people to the ballpark, and now they will be trying to convince fans to come watch what amounts to decent Double A team in their new, hideous ballpark. 

Josh Hamilton, the often criticized center fielder, whose story of personal struggle and redemption has been told a million times by a million writers, signed a five- year, $125M contract to bat in an Angels lineup that already includes the likes of Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, Peter Bourjos, Vernon Wells, and Mark Trumbo. The Angels are now set to be one of the best offensive and defensive teams in all of baseball, and that's a very good thing because they are going to need a lot of superb defense and a ton of runs if they are going to win because their starting pitching is a little shaky after Weaver, Wilson, and Vargas. But if the starters can pitch with a lead through six innings, their bullpen appears to be solid enough to win more times than not.

MacKay accepts permanent CEO position at Heartland Partnership

Cal MacKay will remain with The Heartland Partnership as its permanent CEO, the organization announced on Monday. The move is effective immediately.

MacKay, former chief financial officer of Methodist Medical Center, had been acting CEO since last August, when he was named to that position after the resignation of Jim McConoughey.

Mark Spenny, chairman of The Heartland Partnership board of directors, said MacKay has been instrumental in guiding the organization through a reorganization, which he termed "a very difficult period." The Heartland Partnership is being restructurwed to better align itself with the new regional economic development plan being created by Focus Forward Central Illinois (FFCI).  

"Under his leadership, we have been able to streamline our costs and enhance our efficiency and we have also refocused our efforts on the private business sector so we are in alignment with the current regional vision," Spenny said.

When MacKay accepted the role of interim CEO his plan was simply to help the organization get through the reorganization and to step aside when a new permanent CEO was hired. He decided to accept the permanent position, however, because he found the work enjoyable and rewarding.

MacKay said one of his biggest accomplishments so far at The Heartland Partnership is the newly formed CEO Council (formerly the CEO Roundtable). 

"It not only has a new name, there's a new mission, updated vision and new members. There are currently 59 members on the CEO Council and we continue to grow every week. We have had two meetings so far and we couldn't be happier with the engagement we've received," he said.

MacKay said the CEOs involved are working together to promote a common vision and strategies that promote the growth of Greater Peoria. The first three initiatives they plan to get involved in include the warehouse district/downtown revitalization, the Greater Peoria Regional Scorecard and education/workforce. 

"The goal is to promote a climate conducive to fostering entrepreneurship, commerce and growth in order to make Greater Peoria a top mid-sized region in America.  We want to work collaboratively with other organizations throughout the region that have similar missions.  The members of the CEO Council are ready to roll up their sleeves and make a difference in our region," MacKay said.

MacKay has lived in Peoria for the past 11 years and currently serves as treasurer on the Peoria Riverfront Museum board of directors and president of the WD Boyce Council of Boy Scouts of America Council board of directors.  He also sits on a variety of committees and workgroups for FFCI.  

MacKay was the former Methodist Medical Center chief financial officer for 10 years and held similar roles in Atlanta, Ga. and Nashville, Tenn. prior to that. 

He replaced McConoughey, the Partnership's CEO for more than 10 years. McConoughey resigned rather than allow any possible friction between The Heartland Partnership and the FFCI to make its way into the reorganization process.

CAPTION: Cal MacKay, the new CEO of the Heartland Partnership

In the spring an old man's fancy turns to thoughts of Cubs

The heck with Alfred Lord Tennyson.

True, the renowned poet died in 1883, so when he wrote "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," it was a lot closer to when the Cubs last won a World Series (in 1908) than today – 104 years since.

However, it's preferable for many of us to think, "In the spring an old man's fancy turns to thoughts of Cubs."

The Cubs beat the Angels 11-2 Saturday, launching Spring Training with an offense fueled by Brett Jackson (two triples) and Luis Valbuena (home run).

Excitement bubbles like your gut after a couple of White Castle sliders:

Everything's fresh and new (if cold and dormant); everyone has an equal chance (depending on off-season acquisitions and injuries); and the possibilities are endless (at least until the 162-game season starts).

There's been a notable absence of decent Cubs coverage in area dailies compared to Cardinals and White Sox stories, despite thousands of die-hard Cub fans. Newspapers from Canton, Monmouth, Pekin and Peoria arrive and, despite scouring even inside pages, readers can find scarce notice beyond a brief here and there.

So let's look ahead.

Wrigley Field turns 100 next year, giving president Theo Epstein 12 months to make last season's 61-101 record more than an opportunity to draft higher.

Team keys are first-baseman Anthony Rizzo, Gold Glove second-baseman Darwin Barney and shaggy pitcher Jeff Samardzija (only 9-13 last season, but with a 3.81 ERA in 174.2 innings). There's also Starlin Castro, of course, the free-swinging poster child for MLB ADD (logging 27 errors last season and still getting signed to a $60 million, 7-year agreement), but he remains "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," as the saying goes.

A question mark.

Other question marks:

* Matt Garza (5-7, 3.91 ERA) probably is preparing to announce that he's confident he'll recover from a strained muscle enough to be on the Disabled List by Opening Day.

* A pair of newcomers, Nate Schierholtz and Scott Hairston, will form a tandem to platoon in right field.

* Re-signed letdown Ian Stewart may have a second chance at third and outfielder Jackson also may get another shot, but where? Jackson's promise of power and speed were tempered by holes in his swing that a Boeing 787 could taxi through – without batteries.

* Backup catcher Dioner Navarro, a decent switch-hitter in limited action with Cincinnati last year, could give tentative starting backstop Wellington Castillo a run for his shin guards.

* Somewhere in the farm system, Gerardo Concepcion will try to prove that although he wasn't the ball of Cuban fire fans hoped for in 52.1 innings for the Peoria Chiefs last year, he can compete. After all, he's a lefty in a staff with just a handful of southpaws. (Plus, he was born on Leap Year and just turned 21, so maybe he'll leap into higher minors this season.)

The biggest question mark may be Chicago's starting rotation, which could stun the NL or be a disaster or a mere disappointment transformed into trade bait. Edwin Jackson and Carlos Villanueva, plus the "fighting Scotts" (Baker and Feldman) join Samardzija and lefthander Travis ("did I give up another dinger?") Wood.

The bullpen could be a bright spot – or a black hole, as Carlos Marmol (who's listed as an antonym for "consistent" in my book) and fairly solid setup loons Shawn Camp and James Russell are joined by the Japanese League's 32-year-old Kyuji Fujikawa, who's logged 220 saves and a 1.77 ERA in 12 seasons for the Hanshin Tigers.

Will Marmol have a good enough April to be trade bait? He'll cost $9 million this season and will be a free agent, so he may be more valuable leaving than staying.

Other franchise-building trade bait is led by 37-year-old left-fielder Alfonso Soriano, coming off a stellar season (.262, 108 RBI, 32 HR), but it may include even Castro, despite the long-term contract he got last summer. Why? One reason is top hopeful Javier Baez, a first-round draft pick in 2011 and a shortstop who might make the transition to third but presents a nice "problem for second-year manager Dale Sveum (again, rhymes with "game," not "tame" or "lame"). Baez could generate 25-plus homers as a 3-hole batter. He hit .333 for the Peoria Chiefs last year before fading with a minor-league promotion.

Meanwhile, there seem to be more prospects in the wings than a musical at Corn Stock. A big one is Cuban defector Jorge Soler, a 6-3 200-lb. outfielder who just turned 21, got a $30 million, 9-year contract last season based on his power and sense at the plate and his good throwing arm, also demonstrated at O'Brien Field last year.

Dark horses: RHPs Jensen Lewis and Hector Rondon, OFs Albert Almora and Dave Sappelt, 1b Dan Vogelback and the clubhouse "Scrabble" duo – OF Matt Szczur and RHP Arodys Vizcaíno.

Meanwhile, Jim Deshaies is the new TV color man and the jury is out whether the ex-Astros broadcaster can live up to Bob Brenley's fan-friendly performance in recent years.

It's only five weeks to the home opener April 8, against Milwaukee.

Compared to the 5,408-plus weeks since the Cubs won it all, that's poetry.

CAPTION: New Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa asks, "Hey, where are the Bleacher Bums" after signing with the team at Wrigley Field.

Homeway Homes wins top ActOnEnergy award

From the time Homeway Homes started in business in 2005 it has been committed to building energy efficient houses able to stand the test of time.

It was rewarded for that commitment on Saturday with the first Outstanding Program Ally award for Ameren Corp.'s ActOnEnergy program. The award was presented outside the model home Homeway Homes erected inside the Peoria Civic Center as part of the annual Spring Home Show.

To date more than 50 of the Homeway Homes floor plans meet the guidelines necessary to be certified as an Energy Star builder. That is a prerequisite to being a participant in the ActOnEnergy program.

"This is a very important honor for us because of the commitment to energy efficiency we have made and have always had since my father started the company," said Ted Schieler, president of Goodfield-based Homeway Homes. He accepted the Program Ally award from Larry Brown, program director for Conservation Services Group, an Ameren ActOnEnergy program partner.

Brown said the Outstanding Ally Award is basically the ActOnEnergy program's "builder of the year" award. Selecting Homeway Homes to be the first recipient of the Ally award wasn't difficult, he added. 

"Even though the ActOnEnergy program has been in place for four years now, this is the first of these awards because we needed to build up the number of builders that are part of the program. We have many builders with us now, but Homeway Homes has been part of the program from the beginning," Brown said.

"We wanted to recognize this company not only for its production values in meeting the Energy Star requirements every yea, but also for its continuing focus on doing the right thing, " he added. "This company is the kind of ally the ActOnEnergy program needs."

To be Energy Star certified homes must be verified, by a third party, to be at least 30 percent more energy efficient than homes built to the 1993 national Kodel Energy Code or 15 percent more energy efficient than the state energy code, whichever is more rigorous, according to ActOnEnergy program literature.

Homeway Homes is the only downstate Illinois builder to be certified 100 percent Energy Star compliant, it said. Schieler said that is something his company takes pride in.

"We build and sell only Energy Star certified homes," Schieler said. "Being part of the ActOnEnergy program made perfect sense for us because energy efficiency has always been one of our staples. This award illustrates our commitment to efficient building practices, our deep respect for the environment and our dedication to the principles of sustainability.

"A lot of builders can say they are energy efficient but this is good way to prove it," Schieler said.

The Homeway Homes factory is in Deer Creek. The company gives regulars tours of the plant to show customers how each component is made, including how each is made to certain Energy Star specifications.

The company has model home centers in Goodfield, Springfield and Galesburg. It's floor plans can be viewed on the company website, www.homewayhomes.com.