Sox Vs. Evil Empire (Part 4, Ver. 2007)

Oh Baby, this just keeps getting better. Currently 11-4 Yankees getting crushed by the Sox. Mariano Rivera came in to get some work and got rocked! Yanks now haven't won since that miraculous comeback in their game the day before they played the Red Sox. Now facing their 7th straight loss (4th to the Boston Red Sox ) the Yanks are a mess. Meanwhile the Red Sox bullpen leads the majors in ERA, Josh Beckett is 5-0 with an under 2 ERA, and Papelbon still has a 0.00 ERA. - How sweet it would be to take a 2nd championship in the last 4 years at the same time the Yankees implode. Well, reality tells me that 20 games in is only 1/8 of a season, lots of time and many stories still to be told.

Beast

BoSox 2, Evil Empire 0

What a great weekend so far for the heroic BoSox, once again fighting the Evil Empire and their newly christened star, A-Hole. Friday night was looking rough, especially after A -Hole (the hottest freaking hitter on the planet right now) blasted a 3 run homer in the 5th inning. However, even at this dark moment I saw something I liked; Coco Crisp's tumble into the bullpen while attempting to catch the HR. (As my friend Salad texted me "Ha Ha, Coco go boom=!" Well , Mr. Yankee fan, Coco did indeed go boom then, but his heart and guts showed through in the 8th inning when his 2 run triple against Uber-Closer Mariano Rivera blew the game against the Sox. Again. - (9 Blown saves out of 29 chances against the Sox) - Following up his blown game against Oakland a few days earlier against a player batting .059, Mo gives up the triple to the struggling Crisp (.192). 5 runs in the 8th, and then Hideki Okajima, an unknown dude signed primarily to help Dice-K be as comfortable as possible with his adjustment to Boston, gets a sweet 22 pitch save since Wunderkid Jonathen Papelbon had already pitched back to back games. Of course, the amazing A-Rod didn't come up with the big hit at the end of the game.

Yesterday another Sox win, 4th of the year for Beckett. A note to Yankee fans - if you want to remember prime Mo, just watch Paps. (0.00 ERA) So now the Yankees are a .500 team with a 195 million dollar payroll!. (The beauty of being a Sox fan is that even with our payroll at 142 million the Yanks are still higher by 53 million dollars. In other words the Yanks spend approximately 37 percent more on payroll than the Sox, so don't believe the hype about the Yankees cutting payroll. They are 1 mid season signing away from the 200 million mark!

Objectively I believe a ceiling and basement established for MLB teams would be a good first step and I've always considered the 60 to 120 million dollar range to be fair. Parameters like this would only affect the Yanks and Sox at the top end. San Diego, Colorado and Arizona are all over 50 million, with S.D. at 58 so spending a little more for these teams would keep them in the mix. Pittsburgh, Washington, Florida, and Tampa Bay would either have to pay up or get out. I would rather have 26 teams making a legit effort to compete than 30 teams with bottom feeders. MLB was disgraceful with the manner in which they handled the Nationals, the Marlins have shown they can win when they spend, Tampa Bay will never generate real revenue, even with a dome, and I don't know what to say about Pittsburgh. They supposedly have a beautiful park but until they become respectable they will continue to be a bottom feeder.

Test II

Big Papi - 2 on, 2 out. 1-1. Advantage Pettite, so any Sox runs a plus. Ground out, pass.

Test Time

Yanks Sox. Yanks with 2 on and 1 out. Men on 2nd and 3rd. Advantage Yanks. If they get no runs, big win for Sox. 1 run is a draw. More than 1 advantage Yanks. - Shit, Damon RBI and Yanks score! Oh shit, walk to Jeter. Runners on the corners, he gets Bobby Abreu , Yanks get a run, I consider that a draw for the skirmish, but Yanks winning the battle.

Sox Vs. Evil Empire

Here we go, the first of 18 opportunities for the heroic BoSox to go up against the evil empire and their new leader, A-HOle. Apparently A-Hole has sold his soul to the devil "Damn(ed) Yankee?" and he is absolutely on fire. Too bad 2 of the empires starters will be Wright and Karstens, up against Beckett (3-0) and Dice-K (The Monster has arrived!)

Sox take 2 out of 3, and a sweep is quite possible if the Sox get to Pettite tonight.

A Regular TV Week (April Edition)

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I spend my time. I believe that aging leads any introspective sort to become more attentive to the quality of their time , because it increases in value as it lessens in size. So, without further ado, here is my breakdown of how I spend some of my most precious time, in front of the TV! (Like that seque??)

Sunday nights start with Sopranos at 9 PM, followed by Entourage. HBO has long been a Sunday night contender and must watch for us, between shows like Carnivale, Six Feet Under, Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, and probably some I've forgotten at this moment. VCR comes into play when American Dad and Family Guy are on. (Both are huge faves and must owns for our DVD collection, the highest honor a movie or show can achieve.

Monday Nights - Heroes at 9 PM, when it finally returns from it's long hiatus. Otherwise, nothing.

Tuesday Nights - THe Shield at 10 PM on FX. Best Cop show not on HBO (That's the Wire, BTW)..

Wed. Nights - Currently only new episodes of South Park at 10 pm on comedy central, preceded by an earlier South Park, many of which I have not seen yet, . Basically a weak night.

Thur Nights - The Office and 30 Rock both major faves for me and the wife. Otherwise nothing.
Friday - nothing, although interested in checking out Painkiller Jane on Sci Fi.

Sat- not that old yet.

The only addendum here would be sports. Any Red Sox games (in full) and pieces of Mets and evil empire.

Beast Out

Red Sox Looking Good!

how Sweet the Sox are looking right now. They've won 5 of their last 6, Schilling has thrown 2 gems, Paplebon shows no soph. slump as the closer, Beckett is 3-0, and Dice-K has been as advertised. Oh, and the team is finally beginning to hit. Meanwhile, over at the Evil Empire's quarters, Pavano is on the DL (shocker!), Wang and Mussina are out, Jeter is throwing balls over the place (6 errors!, I love it.) Hell, if it weren't for A-Hole and Pettite where would this team be? (Below .500, oh, that's right, they already are). Oh, and ubercloser Mo Rivera served up a 3 run walk off homer on Sun., to a guy batting .059. This was after Mo gave up a single and a walk, thus blowing a 2 run lead in the 9th, with 2 out and nobody on.

Good stuff, for now.

Go BoSox!

Quick morning post here. Boston RedSox now 4-3, tied with the evil empire, but what pleases me the most is the last few pitching performances for the Sox. Schill goes 7 strong on Easter Sunday and Paps comes in to undo the damage caused by one time possible closer(?) Joel Piniero. Paps glared in and got 5 outs against the heart of the Texas Rangers batting order, including 3 strike outs. Yesterday Beckett goes 7 strong, 2 hit baseball to move to 2-0 on the season. Beckett adds 9 K.O.'s and now today we get the second performance by Dice-K, who only had 10 K.O.'s and a win over 7 strong in his MLB debut . At his point I would pick Boston's pitching over the evil empire's slugging.

Quick Movie Review - "God Told Me To"

Well, after one whole day in a row, I missed yesterday. So in an attempt to catch up, I will offer 2 quick posts today, starting with this review.

God Told Me To is a 1974 film written and directed by Larry Cohen. Cohen is well know amongst film geeks and had developed a cult following for putting together oddball, low budget films that are always stuffed with ideas and never follow a boring, by the numbers screenplay.

I do not want to say too much about the plot, because I found the many twists and turns to be outstanding and fascinating. The basic set up is as follows: various people in NYC go berserk and kill other people, including a cop who shoots up the St. Patrick's day parade (and his own family at home!). Othes include a rooftop sniper, a crazed older lady, and others. Each say that God told them to do the shooting/killing. The cop is obsessed with finding out more and from there the plot begins to shift into some bizarre, unanticipated directions. Highly recommended, and available on Netflix.

I'm Back

All right, O.K., due to popular demand, I'm back. It's been pointed out to me that I haven't posted since Feb. 26, so here is my promise to you, faithful readers. A post a day is the goal, and while I can't promise quality every day, I will do my best to deliver the product. (Like Bush promising a war to his business cronies looking for some nice profiteering, i.e. Haliburton - results not guarenteed, but war will be had)

If my good buddy Woodman reads this (great to see you for dinner) I still disagree with you. I stated that my frustration in most of my arguments with people is simple; I am right and they have no facts on their side. You stated that sometimes I am wrong yet couldn't cite any examples. How about this - my shots at the Yankees over the years for spending so much and the competitive imbalance this breeds is not necessarily a fact. We have argued about this many times but the truth is that there is no definitive answer to the salary cap (or lack of one) and its impact in MLB. However, in things like the Bush administrations performance, and the entire farce that has been the Iraq war, the facts back me up. This is why I choose not to engage with anyone who disagrees with me on those issues. I am right, and the facts are definitive. Anyone who thinks otherwise is self deluded and practicing spin, playing with semantics and their own sad ignorance.

Happy Easter - 653 days left of the Bush regime. (depressing, I know, but after being appointed by the Supreme Court (thank you, Antonin Scalia), he had 2880 days. We've made it through 2227 of them (I know, it feels longer) so keep the faith.