Since it was brought up in the Myths dispelled thread...

The Blue Goose Open, run by the Southern Peru Copper Corporation, is held mid-July every year.

1 hole, par 80.  It runs across 2 mesas, three gulleys, and then heads 15KM accross the Atacoma desert.

You carry an iron (usually 4-5), a wood (3 or 5), and 1x2 ft astroturf mat.

Walk to the ball, place it on the mat, and give it a whack.  Repeat 80-90 times.  Aim for the billowing smoke in the distance (they light a huge bonfire as a target).  Enjoy the beer trucks driving through.

The "green" is a 30-ft diameter patch of sand mixed with oil.  Rolls pretty true (moderate break), but slow.  They have to sweep after each golfer (which is ok, since they straggle in about 1 every 5 minutes).

I spent a summer on an archeological dig in Peru, also sponsored by the SPCC.  We academics were invited to participate.  I shot an 83, and came in third.  I'm pretty sure the "winner" was full of it, though, since he was 7 shots behind me coming out of the cabradas, and claimed to shoot a 77.  (2nd place was legit, though, so no complaints).

Remeber, there are fewer metaphors than people think.

(Repeat from the bottom of a USSM thread, but let me know what y'all think)

McLaren has a real simple probem - he is too busy being a friend to the players.

Early on, McLaren stated that telling Ellison he was DFA was "the harderst thing" he'd (McLaren) had ever had to do - he was practically in tears about releasing a 25th-man 4th OF.

He's riding the veterans, letting the players decide who plays (of course Guillen wanted to play, no matter how bad his hand hurts, but it's not good for the team), and just looks afraid to upset anything.

Bear with me for a moment here, but I'm a new manager at work, and I'm having a hard time "managing" coworkers who were friends first. It's much easier with the new guys I've hired, for whom I've been the boss since day 1.

Heck, I've got one guy who just isn't getting the job done, and I don't know what to do - I've been giving him easier, and less important tasks, but it's still not working.

Just the other day, I gave him a softball of a task - I figured I'd give him an easy chance for success. Kind of like sending a struggling righty up to bat against a tiring HoRam. Unfortunately, it took 3x as long as it should have, he got it wrong, and it blew up in my face (db jobs failed, customer impact, etc.).

Ok, so now what do I do? Clearly, I need to sit him down, but he's a friend... See how that sucks?

Fortunately for me, I'm not managing Richie, Raul, Guillen (against righties), Vidro, etc. How do you tell a friend (Richie, or Raul) that he just doesn't have it any more? Easier to put off the new kid (Jones), rather than have the hard conversation with a buddy.

As a bench coach, McLaren could be the players' buddy - he was their pal, even a confidante other than Hargrove. He was free to make strategy suggestions without worrying about egos, hurt feelings, etc. Now he's the man, and he needs to toughen up. The buddy act is clouding his judgement, and hurting the team. He needs to grow some balls and stand up. Because, until he does, he will continue to cripple the team