Deep Thoughts

Its early morning, the in-laws are in town (but asleep), and I’ve got a nice Latte in the belly. A few thoughts to the end year…

1) What if the H*%& happened this year? Cavs in the NBA finals, Tribe loses three straight to Boston to lose the World Series (we would have swept Colorado), the Browns win 10 games (count ‘em 10) and miss the play-offs, Lady Boilers don’t cover and I had a HA in June (I’m down 10lbs and feeling great). Here is hoping for a bit of sanity in 2008 (I’m giving that long odds).
2) I like Eric’s question regarding Bhutto. However, and I think I’m like most Americans here in that I’ve got no clue about the political climate in Pakistan or the implications of this event. We are in for a wild ride.
3) I got a MAC and love it. B-bye PC.
4) Wine always tastes better in the Riedel glass. Is that being snooty?
5) A new attitude and approach to my golf game is just around corner. More focus on fun and friends and bit less on the competitive/tournament edge (the amount of effort to get to next level probably isn’t it worth it right now).
6) The Patriots are powerful and I’ve gained a bit of respect for the Giants. They played their hearts out (as it should be). Except for the result (nothing personal here Jay, I just don’t like BB), that was the best game I’ve watched all year.
7) Indy has no viable option after Manning. Frye might be better than Sorgi. I thought I heard the announcers say that Sorgi just signed a contract extension. Did I hear that right? What is the Colts strategy here?

7 brief items to end the year …I like that number, especially on the 1st throw.

What snapped me out of my funk?

So I am still sitting here, bitter and enraged. How could this wild, fun season end like this?

And then a NutriSystem commercial comes on.....starring?

A Shirtless Tony Orlando. Wow.

That image will be forever burned in my mind.....

I can't believe it

What a disgrace. Dungy should be ashamed of himself.

At least f'in try, huh? You don't get $1 off at Payless for every time out you keep with you at the end of the game.

I hope San Diego beats them 55-10 in two weeks. THey deserve to lose and lose big. F you, Dungy.

(and for those of you who want to yell at me and say the Browns controlled their own destiny last week, F you too. I know that. )

Charlie Frye is twice the quarterback Jim Sorgi is. And that tells you how bad Sorgi is.

Historical Parellels?

Does anyone else get the sinking feeling that

Benazir Bhutto (2007)
=
Archduke Ferdinand (1914)
?

I'm not surprised that the assassination of Bhutto occurred - I'm sure the ruling Pakistani government hated her - but I am surprised that the government woul dhave allowed it to happen, given her massive popularity. They'd have to know that her death would trigger massive demonstrations and violence.

Bhutto has got to have the biggest testicles of any world politician - and she's not even a man. She lived here in the US for 8 years, ripped the current Pakistani government, and then went back to lead the opposition party. I'm sure assassinations were part of any conversation that happened before she made the deicsion to go back. So - here is a woman that can make a difference in her country, and is fully aware that if she goes back, she probably will die - and she decides to go anyway. Wow. What courage.

I remember when she first got elected in 1988 as Prime Minister of Pakistan - and it was hailed as a great leap forward for that part of the world to have a female leader. And now - she was killed. It may have been from Al-Qaida.

I don't know what is next, but it won't be pretty.

Terps.

Is it just me or are the Terps the lock of the year tonight. And no I'm not talking about the Terps vs Delaware basketball game. And yes I will be taking Delaware. Rather I'm talking about the Terps football bowl game against Oregon St.

Tomorrow's game

Well, I haven't blogged much about the Browns on here -since I've been talking a lot about them on the phone. I got tickets to the game down here in Cincinnati tomorrow - and will be seeing a chance for the Browns to clinch a playoff spot with a win against the Bengals.

Note 1: People talk about how confusing the NFC race is - but may I remind you: how many teams in the NFC have clinched? Four. In the AFC? Three. Pittsubrgh, Jacksonville, Tennessee, nor Cleveland have clinched yet. And, with a win, Cleveland - who would be tied with Pittsburgh but lose a tiebreaker with them - will clinch, but the Steelers still may not have a spot yet after tomorrow.

Note 2: After a 60 degree day here today, the weather for tomorrow: 40 degrees at noon with the temperature continually dropping; winds of 25-40 mph (gusts to 50) are expected. Perfect Phil Dawson weather.

I am scared of tomorrow's game. The Bengals will have revenge on their mind - from week 2, where we apparently derailed their season - and from 2003, where we won down here in week 17 to deny the Bengals a playoff birth. We need to expect an all-out effort from the Bengals - fake plays, gadgets - and defend as such. I think if we get up by 10-14 in the first half, we may be ok - but we can't let them hang around.

I've never seen a playoff clinching game - the most important game I've seen, by far, in person was teh Jan 1, 1995 playoff game vs. the Pats (Belichick vs Parcells)....but never a possible playoff clincher. Let's bring one home.

Is this true?

From The Economist: (the Dec 22 issue):

Today poker is the third most watched sport on cable television in the United States, after car racing and American football, trumping even NBA Basketball.

Is this really true? The word "cable" that snuck in there may have some big meaning, but still....this means poker beats Sunday Night baseball in ratings, beats any NCAA Basketball game that ESPN puts out there, and certainly beats any 1st/2nd round coverage of golf events.

Wow. This certainly explains a lot.

Cosmopolitan Eric

Yes, here I am enjoying myself one night in a Bangkok restaurant, with 2 people from Guangzhou, China; one from Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam, and another one from Beijing.

In a Bangkok restaurant, this group was lamenting the problems of the Paris Metro system. Boy - does that qualify me for an automatic ACLU membership and a New York Times subscription? Maybe I should just vote for Hillary and make the transition complete....

PS - See the cylidrical lamp in the background? No, not the cone-shaped ones, the cylinder. What material are they made of?

A huge dump....

Once again I'm sorry for not posting more. Sort of in a little bit of depressed and sick. My job is going shitty, I can't pick college basketball to save my life, and I can't kick this little cold.

Eric in Bangkok: I can honestly tell you that I sorely miss my brother. I never realized how much we talked. We probably talked twice a day about random shit. Who am I going to call when Cal-Northridge gets hammered by St. Marys?

Danny Haren: I'm really bummed. Probably the top pitcher on the market behind Santana and all we get are prospects? He has three years left that were super cheap. Jury is still out on the prospects, but I'm sure we could of gotten something better than prospects. But as always I will have to blindly trust Beane to do what is best.

Bonds: There was a huge scare that the A's were going to sign Bonds and I was prepared to boycott the A's if they did. Actually, the entire Athletics Nation was prepared to so. Cancel my XM, MLB package, and cancel any trips to the bay area.

College FB: I'm very proud of the atmosphere I have created at work with college football. I have hired recent grads from UCLA, USC, Cal, Oregon St, Penn St, Florida, Ohio St, and Notre Dame. It has sort of made the Terps useless in any conversation, but there was so much shit talking going on in the office going down the stretch.

Martin O'Malley: What the heck is going on? They passed the largest tax hike in Maryland's history in November? The only time ever in any state where they raised the income, sales, and business tax all in the same year? Wow.

Arnold: Oh, and its just not O'Malley. Arnold has vowed to raise the payroll tax by 6% in efforts to implement his statewide Healthcare plan. Not too sure how this will go over as this is the second time in the same year he has tried to get universal healthcare coverage.

Presidential Candidate: I'm really interested in Eric's posts about the race. I can honestly tell you that I have no idea who I'm going to vote for. I have zero interest in any Republican candidate and really not to interested in the Obama-Hillary race.

Mitchel Report: These athletes are stupid. Paying for roids with a check? What the fuck? And David Justice is weak. I really liked him when he was with Oakland, but his response was so weak. Does anyone remember when the LA Times suggested that Bo Jackson took Roids, and Bo came out and stated that he was preparing to file a lawsuit for slander, and the LA Times retracted the statement along with an apology. So for any player who doesn't do this is guilty. Sorry. Don't tell me an attorney wouldn't take that case on a contingency.

I promise....

I promise when I get back to start more discussions on the presidential race. Wow, is this getting fascinating. I really wish I was back in Iowa for this.

Hillary - plummeting? Is Obama ready?
Are the Republicans going to commit "Huckacide"?

More to come next week on this...

Random Bangkok thoughts

Random thoughts the day before I leave:

- It's amazing what the activity level is of this city at 6:30 in the morning. The streets are jammed, the street vendors are out selling chicken, beef, noodles, etc. And yet the city is still crowded at 11, 12, 1 in the morning. When does anybody sleep?
- If I had a nickel every time I said to myself "Oh God, we're going to die" while we are in the van....well, I'd be able to buy a TV. American driving is soooo much more civil than the rest of the world. it's a free-for-all.
- And the motorcycles.....there are no rules for them. You have three lanes of traffic, jammed bumper to bumper, moving about 20 miles per hour.......and then you have motorcycles weaving in and out finding any possible space between lanes, between cars, even drving on the wrong side of the road.
And yet -there don't seem to be any accidents.
- The broken English that I run into every day is just funny. I passed a sign on a Store:

Index
Home Furnishings
"It's Home Everything!"

What does that even mean?

The locals tried to explain the election day-drinking prohibition to me - but they can't pronounce "l"s very well, and it comes out like an "r". So what day is drinking prohibited? "Erection Day".

- Buses are everywhere. That's a main mode of transportation to get workers to their jobs. Each bus is ornately decorated in 1970's style American gaudiness. Purple, pink, green and yellow are the predominant colors. It's like the Partridge Family bus on steroids, 1000 times over.

- There is some signficant pollution in the air out here. It seems to be worse than LA. A thick haze is over the city during the day. People who work outside wear masks sothey don't breathe in the pollution.

- Food: Food has been fine. I had a problem at one restaurant where they brought a seafood soup out; I can only describe the look of the soup in this way:
Imagine you go to a Southern Gumbo - and you help yourself to multiple bowls of the gumbo, filled with crawfish, shrimp, sausage, vegetables in tomato sauce........
but then you get sick.
The soup resembles what you would have vomited up from that Gumbo.

On the other hand, had a wodnerful dinner tonight - crab meat, scrambled egg and curry. I know, it sounds bad but it was delicious.

Well, off to a market tomorrow before the flight back to the US.....Sunday will be spent in LA as I make Derek wear a Charlie Frye jersey when we watch the Browns and the Bills. I can't believe we are favored by 6. The weather is supposed to be bad; a possible 4-6 inches of snow in Cleveland for the game. Awesome.

Why are they so popular?

I have two bad memories of music from my college days.

(um, you're not one to talk about bad music, Mr. I-own-a-Jamiroqui-CD! -ed.)

Well, it's not about my music - it's about being tortured by music played endlessly by my suitemates.



The first bad experince is with the Cure. I had a suitemate freshmn year that played the Cure over.....and over.... and over again. He played it when he was alone, he played it when the hot-but-unattainable Joelle DiCarlo came over to his room......(but they weren't doing anything. He may have been bisexual, and was asked out by a chinese homosexual later that year. Anyway....)



(are you going to tell your Joelle-and-Steve story? -ed)



Well, alright. So Steve - my college golfing friend, if people don't know (along with Kermit) - knew Joelle, and when I mentioned to him that she lived in my dorm, Steve suddenly found many reasons to drive over to my room from north side.



Anyway, I asked him to come over one day and take me to the liquor store, as we were hosting a party and it was illegal - ILLEGAL, I say - for this 19 year old to buy the booze. So Steve shows up, parks his car right underneath Joelle's window.



As fate would have it, we get ready to leave the dorm and Joelle pops out of her window like Rapunzel. "Hi Steve!" she says. Steve almost melts.



We get in the car to drive to Cleveland Heights - and get pulled over. The officer comes up to the car, tells Steve how fast he was going - and then notices that Steve forgot to put on his seat belt on... another $25 added to the fine.



Steve still blames Joelle for that ticket (although he blames me more for making him run out for the booze).



Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Cure. He played the albums about 18 hours a day. By the 2nd week, I knew all the lyrics to "Friday I'm In Love", "Pictures of You", and "Fascination Street". And I was instantly depressed just listening to that album.



God, it's taken me about 15 years to restrain myself from punching the radio whenever the the Cure came on. I actually kind of like them now...15 years too late.

Anyway, the 2nd scarring musical experience came a year later. We moved up two floors and had an open room - which was filled by a junior from the Netherlands, Johannes Van Der Putten. He hung around with another one of our suitemates,a junior as well.

Now, Johannes was starting to experience American rock music - and for whatever reason, he became fascinated with the Scorpions. Every day, after classes, he'd blare that album that was popular (I guess) in the early 90s:

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the Wind
Of Change....

Argh! Make it stop! I never experienced a true American follow the Scorpions - it was only Johannes and some of his foriegn friends. Why was this band so popularamong foreigners but it was never played on WMMS?

Fast forward 16 years..... we (there are 5 of us at the hotel here in Bangkok) are being driven to the plant by a driver. I am the only American and the other 4 P&Gers are from Asia and speak some, but not a lot, of English. So it is pretty silent in the car.

The driver - who speaks zero English - pops in a CD....

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park....


Chuay! Raa siang pleng!

What the hell is the obsession that the foreigners have with the Scorpions???\

Please take note

Note posted in hotel lobby:

Please Note:
The Emporium Suites hotel will not be serving alcoholic drinks on Monday, December 16, in accordance with local laws. by law, no alcohol will be served on a National Election day.


Wow. Imagine if that rule applied in the US......Why, we wouldn't have elected...
(well, the jokes just write themselves on both sides of the aisle, don't they?)

College Football Bowl Pool

Yes, it's that time of year. Time for the annual $5 College Bowl Pick em pool - where you pick every single bowl game against the spread.



Let me know if you are interested - I will forward the email!



(And - let's start a side pool for F&J readers. Care to throw in another $5 into the pot for a separate F&J prize?)

Hello from Bangkok

Well,I am here safe and sound (but my luggage? Well, that's another story). I am up sitting at my computer at 5:00 am local time following the Browns-Jets game on the Internet and watching the Pats-Steelers live on an English station. I guess I should be glad the Browns game is not on TV, since it would put me back to sleep, apparently.

Anyway, some notes/observations on the trip so far:

- Got some great news at LAX when I checked in for the "non-stop" flight to Bangkok; they told us we have a smaller plane than normal and the headwinds are up - so we will have to refuel in Japan. Add another 3 hours onto the 18 hour trip. Nice. (Well, at least I get to say I've been to Japan now.)

- Fill in the story: I helped a French man (about 22, 23 years old) find the Qantas terminal in LAX. We had to walk from the domestic terminals all the way over to the Tom Bradley Terminal Funhouse. He did not know a word of English, and he was on his way to Wellington, NZ.

After we parted, I then was puzzled by him. What's his story? Where is he from? He can't be from France, since....why would he fly from France to New Zealand through LA? My best guess is that he has been born and raised in Montreal his whole life, and this is his first trip away from the city. (What? You got anything better?)

- These long frlight are extremely disorienting. After we got on, had a meal, I fell asleep for 5 hours.....I woke up, my watch said 2:30 (???? am? pm? what time zone?) and the only thing I could think about was breakfast. Next thing I know, the beverage cart comes down the aisle....

"Wine? Red or White?"

What? No....no! It's time for hot chocolate, not wine!

- Went to get our luggage at the airport. Was next to an Asian woman - she got her suitcase off the rack and set it down next to me. I glanced at it.... wait a minute....I see something familiar on that bag. Is it? Could it be?

Yes - there is a tag on that suitcase from....the Monte Carlo casino in Las Vegas. Good for her.

- No luggage for me. The official word is that it didn't get on the plane in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if I believe that (although, what other explanation is possible???)

- A person from the plant took me out for a trip around the city - we went to the palaces, a couple of temples, yes that's fascinating, but.....
we went to a shopping mall near out hotel so I could get a shirt for the next day. We went into a department store - and the men's areas was crowded. We found a shirt, I tried it on....
and then went to check out; there were six people at the checkout desk that were ready to check people out! Let's see, two at the register, one to hand my purchase over to the register lady, and three to pack the single shirt into a bag.
I then look back in the department - most of those "people" who I thought were customers were store employees helping people! I swear, there were 12 people or so in the men's golf shirt area that were working. Just.... fascinating.

(Oh- by the way, on the way home in the taxi from the temples, the taxi driver stopped the car on this side street. He said something to my host in Thai, and then he got out of the car.

I looked at my host - "oh, not a problem. He just has to go pee."
I turn around and look outside the back window - yup, there he is, going against a tree on the side of the street.)

- Sensory overload: there is a shopping complex in the hotel here....I ask at the front desk if there is a place I can by a razor. She says yes - 5th floor is the grocery store.....

ok. I go up to the 5th floor. All I can say is .....wow.

Imagine - and I don't think you can - this site as you step off the elevator:
- to your left, a busy and large mall food court.
- straight ahead, you can see 4 or 5 restaurants that are laid out in a very similar manner to restaurants at the front of the Mirage casino (you know, no walls, restaurants separated by rails....)
- In addition, a Starbucks and HaagenDazs store thrown in
- and to your right, a full service grocery store.
- and, in the distance, past the restaurants, looks to be the electronics department of a major department store. TVs, computers.....

Wow. I still can't find words to describe it.
You can take your gold temples and your 400-year-old ruins....get me to a local mall and let me spend 4 hours there. That,to me, is truly fascinating - what modern culture really is made of in foreign lands.

December 8 will not exist

Well, we're only two days away from my first trip to Asia - going to Bangkok for a week. (I will report whether the citizens of Bangkok can recite, line-by-line, the famous lyrics from "One Night in Bangkok" on demand).

I have no idea what I am in for - a person at church said that his first time going to Asia was like "going to Mars". We will see. The travel, however, will be interesting.

I am leaving on a non-stop flight from LA to Bangkok; the flight leaves LAX at 9:30 pm on Friday, Dec 7; I land in Bangkok at 6:30 am on Sun, Dec 9. Ah, the mysteries of the international date line.

I've already studied the time differences so that I know when important events are occuring in BKK. Case in point: Janice was trying to give me advice as to how to adjust to the time quicker; she said I have to stay up as best I can on Sunday.....you don't want to stay in your room and nap all day Sunday, because you'll just get up at 3:00 am wide awake Monday morning.

But, I countered - that's what I want! The Browns kick off at 4:15 am Monday morning! I can't miss that!

Breaking News

High level negotiations ongoing currently between Cincinnati participants on the Vegas trip....all options on the table, including an early Wednesday arrival and a 6 pm Sunday departure...

Developing....

Ravens = Whiners

OK, at first glance the defensive holding call was pretty ticky tack, but looking at the replay in slow motion Watson was clearly held up on his route. Tough call. But other than that, why are the Ravens whining so much????? THEY called a timeout, you could clearly see Rex Ryan on the sidelines calling timeout standing right next to the ref. Then the Pats O-line clearly false started. There is no conspiracy on that, the right guard moved. Are the refs not supposed to call that?? That was a gift five yards, turned a 4th and 1 to 4th and 6. Where is the issue? Lastly, the Gaffney catch was close, but it looked like he kept his fingers on the ball through the whole catch. I don't know how they could overturn the call based on what the replay showed.

Instead of bitching at the refs, why not pick up a first down in the 4th quarter? How about not throwing into quintuple coverage when up by 7? STFU!

Anyway, with that off my chest there is something very troubling with the Pats right now. The way they were blasting teams through the first eight or nine weeks, really covered up how very average their defense was playing. It reminded me of the 99 Rams, whose Defense was greatly aided by having situations where they were up 17 - 3 early in the second quarter. When that happens it really changes how the other team plays offense. IF they don't get the defense ironed out, they will not go undefeated or win the SB.

• People are really picking on Ellis Hobbs. It seems like he can't cover anyone right now
• LB core is really thin now that Colvin is out. Seau and Bruschi can't play fulltime in the 3-4, which means that Eric Alexander has to get on the field - which isn't a good thing.
• IF they could ever get Eugene Wilson healthy again, they could probably go to a 3-3-5 "big nickel" formation with Harrison, Sanders and Wilson on the field.
  
• Maroney needs to be more involved. They are going to really need him as the weather continues to go south

Next weeks game becomes VERY interesting. The pats look a little warn out with all the prime time games, Pitt seems to be catching them at a very good time. 14 points seems like too much.

Two ramblings

Argh. What a frustrating game yesterday. I'm not all that pissed about the ending - although I was jumping up and down on my couch screaming "HE GOT PUSHED OUT!" -but we didn't deserve to win. 4 turnovers (resulting in 21 points), too many stupid penalties, including a key 3rd and 4 in the first quarter, where our CB LeighBodden made the stop and caused an incomplete pass. He then saw the ball on the ground and - yes! - kicked it. 5 yeard penalty. First down. On that drive, Arizona drove for a TD.

"I didn't know it was a penalty", said Bodden.

Wow. And who didn't tell you that was a rule? It only happened LIKE TWO WEEKS AGO in OUR GAME vs. THE RAVENS!

Gees.

Anyway, two random topics as I dream about more pumpkin pie:

1) Did anyone catch the CNN/YouTube debate controversy? Apparently, at the primary debate last Thursday, there was a question submitted from a "voter" about gays in the military. It turned out that the submitter was a general who is associated with the Hillary campaign. Another questioner was found out to be a supporter of John Edwards.

Wow. Too much sloppiness on CNN's part to talk about. But this is a clear example of media bias and ignorance. Hear me out.

What is the point of a Republican primary debate? This is for Republicans to learn more about their candidate so that THE MEMBERS OF THE PARTY can choose their candidate. So, naturally, the questions should focus around the concerns of the party's members.

CNN could not understand the Republican party less. How it thinks that a gays in the military question is appropriate is beyond me. If anyone were to ask me about the political issues of the day, I'd prioritize them as:

1. Terrorism/the War
2. Illegal Immigration
3. Taxes
4. Iran/other Foreign Policy
5. Corruption/Earmarks
....
65. The "horse collar" rule. Can some candidate tell me what the hell a horse collar tackle is and why the Browns get called for it, but when Jamal Lewis is tackled in the same manner by Mr. Murder, Ray Lewis, there is no call?
.....
129. Gays in the military.

I am pretty sure that among Repbulicans, that issue is down on the list as well (right around cornhole policy and outlawing the 5-team teaser that is won EXCEPT FOR WHEN VA TECH RUNS A TOUCHDOWN BACK WITH 11 SECONDS LEFT!! *#&*($@Q^#^$#^@ (oh, sorry).

CNN completely demonstrates that they have no idea as to what makes a Republican voter tick by asking this question. Can you imagine if a flat tax question was popped up to Hillary?

Should this question be asked in the general election debates? Absolutely. But it's not a concern to Republican voters that are the audience for this debate.

Not knowing your audience is usually death for an organization.......but CNN can not be kileld and will continue to shape policy/questions their way, audience be damned.

And the fact that CNN couldn't bother to fact check and determine that the questioner is a Democratic operative is....farcical. Can you imagine if Fox News put upa debate for Democrats and a Republican questioner slipped in?

(Oh right, the Democrats are too scared of Fox News........)

2) What's with the Johan Santana love? I don't get it. People make him out to be the greatest pitcher since......Cy Young? Pedro Martinez circa 1999?
He's good, don't get me wrong. He is a #1 starter, no question.
But is he the best starting pitcher out there on any team (which I have heard numerous people say)?

Of course not.

I saw him this year. As a fan of the Tribe, I cowered when we faced him this year. The Tribe's result against Santana?

Win.
Win.
Win.
Win.
Win.

Santana was 0-5 against us this year.

Postseason? His numbers are mediocre, at best. 1-3 with a 3.97 ERA.

1-3.

Again, not the stuff of the best pitcher in the AL.

You can make a case he is the 5th best pitcher in the AL, behind Beckett, Sabathia, Haren and Lackey.

Is the 5th best pitcher in the AL worth a complete surrendering of the farm system, if you were Boston or New York?

No.

Let me upgrade you....

First, I can't get this song out of my head. I've been walking around for the past two weeks singing this and doing that little dance she does. Not good times, but its just so catchy. "Let me upgrade you". Also, I don't know where the rest of you stand, but Beyonce is so underrated. Super hot and sexy. MMMMmmmmmmmm.

NFL Picks Week 13

I don't know why I do this anymore, since I have no touch (and, yes, feel free to bet the other way on my picks. This is getting ugly.)

Last week: 3-10; overall: 78-97-10.

Predictions for this week:

SF 16, Car 13;
Ind 24, Jax 17
SD 24, KC 17
NYJ 20, Mia 13
MIn 20, Det 17
StL 24, Atl 16
Oak 24, Den 20
NO 23, TB 16
NYG 28, Chi 17 (I'm MARRIED to Eli in my fantasy league....c'mon, buddy!)
Pit 26, Cin 21
Sea 27, Phi 24
Ten 17, Hou 13.

Best bets this week:
SF +3
NYJ +2
Det/Min under 44 1/2
StL -3
Oak +3.5
NO -3.5
NYG -1
Sea +3
Sea/Phi over 38 1/2
Hou/Ten under 39 1/2

You can take this card and stick it up your ass

Happy December folks!!! I really can't believe that it is only 4 months until the big Vegas Trip. Over the Thanksgiving weekend I was watching Casino and forgot how funny the Pesci playing Blackjack scene was. "Why don't you take this ten and stick it up your mom's ass". And unfortunately I could relate to him. Many times I wanted to take cards and fling it at the cocky smarmy dealer.

Anyway, for those of you that care, I am building a very solid understanding of the Big West College Basketball Conference. I guarantee that this will pay off big time during our trip. I'm going to go to a couple of LB State and Irvine games to do some recruiting.

As for Eric and I's record setting weekend, I have tried to slow down a bit. But of course when I slow down, my picks hit, which makes me very upset. I somehow need to find a happy medium. I'm thinking that there is no happy medium when you have a gambling problem. Its sad that when I jump online I can easily find 6-10 games I want to wager on. NBA, College, NFL, etc. That's not right. I was pissed because the website didn't have womens college available.

Just to shed some light on what is happening with Eric and I right now, let me post my picks for today:

College Football:
Oklahoma
USC
Oregon St.


CB
Duke -8
Minnesota -20.5
Santa Barbara -6
UC Davis +9.5
ODU-9
Loyola
Butler -5.5

Thanskgiving Thoughts

Time for a data dump of thoughts & events that occured over the Thanksgiving Holiday....

The plans for the weekend included:

- traveling up to Columbus for the day for Thanksgiving
- On Friday & Saturday, Janice's mom would come down to bake cookies for 2 straight days with Janice....and I would be watching the kids most of the time
- And on Sunday, we'd make the trip up to Cleveland for the Browns game.

So - with us being at home and me not having definte plans, what better way to test my mental acuity than to pick every conceivable game in the NFL, NCAA F, NCAAB, NBA,and NHL during those 4 days! And since Derek was at his house too for the weekend, this couldbe (and turned out to be) a record-setting weekend in terms of phone calls, completely obscure picks and desperate parlays/teasers.

Wed night - after the kids are in bed, Janice is getting some food together - turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes. What is that for?

"It's to take to my brother's house. He flies back from Austria tomorrow. But's it's late - and I need to get ready for tomorrow....."

Would you like me to take it down for you?

"Sure!"

Great......let me hop on the computer, put in a couple of late night parlays......off we go! The night ended up with the last team in my parly - getting 8 - losing in overtime by 11.

Thursday was the drive up to Columbus - and a good Thanksgiving dinner with Janice's family. I was taken aside by one of the cousin - someone who is a golfer, lived in Cincinnati for a while before moving back to Columus - and was admonished for not joining a Country Club. In time, in time. Took a walk with Warren on the 13th hole of Royal American Golf Course. I wouldn't let him build sand castles in the greenside bunker.

That night, Janice and I talked about our plans for the next day. We needed to get a Lego Star Wars X Wing fighter for Freddie - and one option was to get up and hit target & Toys R Us at 6 am on Friday. Ugh. I volunteered.

Friday morning - the alarm did not go off; we awoke at 6:15. I threw on a hat and sweats and was heading out the door and Janice started with the cookies.

I was downstairs ready togo when I see Janice's mom there, dressed,with purse in hand.

"Is Janice ready to ehad out shopping?"

Well, uh, no...I'm heading out on the toy hunt.

"Oh. Mind if I join you? I need to get one thing at Target...."

Now, I have no problem with my mother-in-law, but the thought of:

- shopping

-with her

- at 6:30 in the morning the Friday after Thanksgiving

was not my idea of fun.......

We got back by 9 am; frightened by what I saw on Black Friday I retired to the bathroom with my laptop and made my picks for the day.

The rest of the day consisted of taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A (while cursing my page that it didn't give me updates on the 10:30 am Penn St- Rider game), going to the pool (where Warren had an accident....argh), and a last-minute call from my neighbor for a poker night (which I came ahead $70!). As far as picks, I had a 5-team CF teaser which came down to Boise +9.....it's a layup!

Saturday: A late start; I took Freddie, Warren, and a friend of Freddie's to the Bee Movie. Had an insight that afternoon to take the infamous Jackson St-Hartford over, which just missed going over by 25 points. Went shopping for tailgating; I distinctly remember waling up and donw the bread aisle looking for buns as Derek let loose on a strem of profanities talking about the Stanford football team.

Sunday: 6:30 leave the house with Janice (not bad!)

10:10: Arrive in the Burke Lakefront lot. Temperature was a cool 37 degrees. What a wonderful atmosphere. When I took Freddie up for the Miami game, it was 65 degrees, sunny, adn the Browns were 2-3. No one was really sure where this reason was going. And - I think this is teh most important - the Tribe was still alive and the Miami game was just after the game 2 marathon. The atmosphere then was more frivolous and fun.

Sunday's tailgate was more like the tailgates I remember from 94 (and a little in 02). there was a clear sense of aniticipation. There was excitement - the team was 6-4, and a win would be another big step toward the playoffs. The weather helps- the colder it gets, the more intense it gets. It's a different type of fun - a more serious fun, if that is clear.

10:30: Steve and Susan shows up; the grill is fired up. Steve beats me at cornhole, 2 games to 1. I have 3 Italian Sausages and 3 Killians.

12:10: Time to leave the lot for the game. But - we brought pumkpin pie and Cool Whip but we haven't opened it.....what do we do? Easy solution - take a paper plate and plastic fork, put a piece of pie and a lot of Cool Whip - and walk to the stadium with pie in hand!

Most of the hard core tailates were drinking their last beers while walking in - and there's me, with my William Green #31 jersey, with pumkpin pie. Steve completely disagreed with my actions - pie should not be eaten while walking - but I will tell you, I'm sure there were 300 pound drunk men walking in ogling my pie! (wait, should I rephrase that?)

4:30: I should have a separate post about jerseys people see at the stadium. I think Browns fans are put in a unique situation - we have a history of tradition and supporting our teams, but the jerseys you see exhibit the ineptness of our players over the past 10 (20?) years. Some jerseys seen at the game:

Willie Green (me!), Tim Couch (at least 100 of these), Wali Rainer, Leroy Hoard, Vinny Testaverde, Darren Chiaverini, Kelly Holcomb, Clay Matthews, Webster Slaughter....the list is endless.

And at the end of the weekend, we are 7-4 and 1 game up in the wild card race. Go Browns!

(PS - Good news for everyone here but me; the Case Spartans ended up losing on Saturday. A 2nd round exit for their first visit to the playoffs....)

Please note for future reference

Hello there. I'll have am ore substantive post coming, one that epxplains some of the Jackson St. Action from this weekend....

...but I want to post this for future reference. This is Dr. Z's analysis of the New England Patriots as listed in his power rankings on CNNsi.com today:

New England Patriots (11-0)The defensive scheme in the secondary is to overplay the boundaries, thus it is vulnerable to in-cuts and crosses over the middle, provided the opposing QB has enough time. That information was furnished by John Madden on Sunday night, one of the many helpful insights he offered during NBC's telecast of the game, and I am thankful for it. What I saw was that two of the four starters back there, Asante Samuel and Rodney Harrison, are guys not to be messed with, but RCB Ellis Hobbs and FS James Sanders can be exploited. But which teams coming up have the highly sophisticated passing attack, and that includes the protection, to do the exploiting? If Brett Favre and his run 'n shoot, five-receiver gnat attack were on the horizon, I'd say look out. But the slate now lists the Ravens, Steelers, Jets, Dolphins and Giants, and I don't see a highly developed pass-catch game anywhere there. Just more grist for the "Will-they-go-undefeated?" mill.

Just want to note this...for now.

What the hell is going on out there????

Reason number 2304 why I should of stayed a bookie. So far this week, Eric and I have placed 88 wagers on NBA, College Hoops, College Football, and the NHL. I didn't get involved until Wednesday night if that tells you anything. Eric and I have combined for 21 parlay and teaser bets ranging from a 5 team 1st half college basketball parlay to a Jackson St vs Hartford over at 152 (layup). It has gotten out of control. So much so that VIP.com (our online site) gave us a $15 bonus for our frequent play. Its just that there are so many college and pro games going on during these next four days. And when they through out those 1/2 juice lines, its almost a crime not to take it.

Happy Thanksgiving

From the Zahn Family....I think Eric either just found out that he hit the grand salami bet or that the Indians just resigned Tadano for 4 years.

No words to describe it!

At this point, I give up trying to analyze the Browns' season. I'm just enjoying the ride. Unbelievable.

Don called and asked what the hell happened? Well, try explaining the last 30 seconds in under 100 words. You can't. Hell, I don't even know if there is a technical name for the thing that Dawson's FG hit off of...the curved support that holds up the uprights? The thingamajig?

6-4.....6-4.....6-4.....wow. And I'm going next week to see if the team can go 7-4 against a surprising Texan team. Things are getting really interesting now.

I know no one cares...

Really, Eric, I don't want to go all Allen Iverson on you....

but this is Division III football we are talking about here.

Not Div I. Not BCS.

Division III.

Not the BCS.

Division III.

Well, to all of you: too bad. The picture is of Jeff Mayer scoring the winning touchdown with 2 seconds left. Did the ball break the plane? Thank God there is no instant replay in Div-3.

Game Story: Case takes pride in win

NFL Picks Week 11: Bizarro Seinfeld

How about those Spartans! Next Saturday, in Cleveland, vs. Wabash at noon. I'm actually going up for the Browns game on Sunday, but I don't think we will be able to make it to the CWRU football game the day before. No matter - I'll post the live internet video feed for all 3 of you that are interested.

Anyway, I've been waiting all season to break out this Seinfeld reference at the right time, and I think this week is the week.

There are a lot of teams out there where public opinion sways wildly everyday. Those opinions certainly judge the line and how people think about games. What we have to do is cut through the instant analysis and get to the soul of the team....what does their body of work say about them? How does this week's hot read differ from what you know about this team throughout the season?

Let's start:

Hou 27, NO 24. Well, maybe a bad example to start. However, we have a clean slate here with Houston - Schaub and Johnson are back - and is this the beginning of another losing streak for the Saints?

Cin 26, Az 17. Current wisdom: Cincinnati sucks. Real wisdom: You going to only give 3 to Kurt Warner on the road?

Ind 23, KC 14. Current wisdom: Indy is steaming mad and will punish anyone this week. Real wisdom: Punish how? With what weapons? Harrison & Gonzalez are out.

Min 16, Oak 15. I really have nothing much to say here. But Minnesota being favored by 4 1/2 without a quarterback or A Peterson does not make a lot of sense.

GB 24, Car 20. Current wisdom: Favre! Lambeau! 14-2, here we come! Real wisdom: A desperate Carolina team is coming in with their own aging, magic quarterback and a coach that can play defense.

Det 27, NYG 24. I've gone back and forth on this one. Not sure.

TB 20, Atl 10. Current wisdom: There's a team in Tampa this year? Real wisdom: Your 2007 NFC South champions (and you don't think they'd be feovred over the Lions in a playoff game?)

Pit 27, NYJ 13. Again, not a lot of comment here.

Chi 20, Sea 19. Current wisom: Chicago sucks! Hasselbeck can move the ball through the air! Real wisdom: Seattle is completely one-dimensional, and they are not good on defense (Monday night does not count). This will be an upset.

Jax 20, SD 16. I have no idea which team on either side will show up.

SF 19, StL 16. Classic game. Current wisdom: All of a sudden the Rams are back! Real wisdom: Do you really believe that? Really? This is an outdoor game, too.

Phi 20, Mia 17. Current wisdom: McNabb! The Eagles are back in it! Real wisdom: Miami doesn't quit, and Philly is due for an other head-scratchign game.

Dal 27, Was 20. Don't feel good about this, but this could be a trap for the Cowboys.

NE 34, Buf 16. I don't think Buffalo will keep this close. The line is set right.

Ten 24, Den 17. Browns need a Titan loss, so I will pick them to hedge my bets. Titans win, I win! Titans lose, Browns fans win!

Best bets this week: (last week: 8-9-1; overall: 70-76-10).

Hou -1

Cin -3

Cin/Az Under 48

KC + 14 1/2

Oak + 4 1/2

Mia +9 1/2

Car + 9 1/2

GB/Car over 37 1/2

Det +3

TB -3

Pit -9 1/2

Chi + 5 1/2

SF +3

Was +11

Ten +2

only 4 favorites, and 9 underdogs. Hoo boy, the dogs better be a trend this week.

More on Case Western!!

Actually, no. I thought I would post some random thoughts to break up the casewesternfans.com talk.

• I'm a little bit concerned with the Bills this weekend. Brady has never played well up there for whatever reason, and making that game a night game will help the Bills. The Bills hung around in the first half in the meeting earlier this year, then the Pats blew their doors off. Lynch not playing is a HUGE plus, but I would caution bettors out there that Brady has mentioned several times in the past that he hates that field for some reason.
  
• Since the Celts are 8-0, the Pats are 9-0 - the last "meaningful" Boston loss was game 4 of the ALCS. Haven't had a loss since Wakefield toed the rubber. Now THAT is a nice stretch!
• If the Pats end up getting a top 5 pick from SF, they will certainly trade down to pickup a couple mid 1st round picks (or future picks). I can't see a way that they could fit that mega salary structure into their cap.
  
• Bonds, Arod, Bonds, Arod, Bonds, Arod.
• Well, it looks like I might be close to joining the dark side of employment. I interviewed with a group HQ-ed in Bethesda (CSGP) and they are likely going to give me an offer next week. We'll see. Damn, I'll be a regular working stiff!! If anyone has any inside info on these folks let me know.
• Sheesh, Maryland probably couldn't beat Case Western at this point. We have sunk like a stone, back to the good ole Vanderlinden days.
  
• I went out to eat at Ruth Chris with Laura a few weeks ago. I got dressed up a little for the occasion wearing a suit and tie. When my son saw me he said "Dad, why are you wearing a long string on your neck?". Ha! I'm pathetic.
• Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. How great is it to completely chow down, then have a bunch of dessert?? My favorite thing is around 8:00PM (we always eat at halftime of the Detroit game), to heat up the leftover turkey and make a hot sandwhich, then have another round of pie. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
  

Case Wins!

Case Western Reserve wins their first round playoff game!

Case 21, Widener 20, on a touchdown pass from Dan Weldon to Jeff Meyer with 2 seconds to play.

Next week is round 2; location and opponent TBA.

Terry Pluto actually writes about Case football here.

Three work pet peeves

Of course, have to start this game day post with the Case logo to the right. If anyone else is interested, internet audio of the biggest football game in Ohio* this weekend can be found here.

PS - Let's stuff the ballot box for 2007 Coach of the Year! Vote here for Coach Greg Debeljak!

OK - three work pet peeves from this week:

1) A lot of the doors at work have now been equipped with a automatic-open system. There is a button about 10 feet from the door that people can push to have the door automatically open. The handicap icon is on the button - so the intended use is for people with disabilities to use those buttons to open the doors. I've got no problems with that.

BUT - if you are an able-bodied 25 year old, you have no need for that button. Hey Lazy ass, open the door yourself. I'm walking on the other side of the door toward the door, and 2 25-year olds push the button - and the door swings open and almost hits me. Hey jackass, open the door yourself. How lame are you? I swear, I think I am the only one to actually not be lazy and open the door manually.

2) Why did God make chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies look so similar? It's a terrible feeling when you are in a lunch meeting at work, you grab your lunch, grab a couple of choclate chip cookies on your plate, sit down.... and then 15 minutes later you find out they are actually oatmean raisin and not chocolate chip. Damn - now you are stuck.

3) I understand why people would send an email requesting a receipt that the note was read, but I had a first the other day - someone (who is on this blog, by the way) sent me a note that wanted to send a note back when I deleted the message. Come on! How vain and Ludicrous is this? How much of an Ego do you have to have to track exactLy when your distribution throws your emAils iN the Delete folder? I swear......

Playoffs! Playoffs!

I can't believe this has slid under the radar so much, but with the Tribe, Browns, and work - I haven;t caught the best story (so far) of Cleveland sports.
I was waking up this morning, lying in bed watching ESPNEWS, when the ticker rolled by.... Division III playoffs start on Saturday:

"Widener at Case Western Reserve"


Wait, what? How did this happen?


Apparently, we are the #18 ranked team in Division III. We won the UAA this year (and finally beating those inbreds from Carnegia Mellon, 20-17, in OT. We ended up 10-0, and are rewarded with our first playoff appearance ever.


(Which is odd...if I have a chance, I check the USA today for the Division III scores to see how Case did, and I swear I thought I saw a loss for them this year. I guess I was wrong!)


Our first round game is Saturday at noon vs. Widener. Who the hell is Widener? I have no idea.


What a proud day for Case sports. Wow. The closest moment like this that I can remember was in 2002, when we made the Women's Basketball Tournament - and won a first round game on a half court shot.


The field of 32 is announced here: just 5 wins to the Championship!


Go Spartans! (And, since I am biased here (Case '93, G'94), I need someone else to set the line. Do they have lines for Div III playoff games? Derek? Wiz? Leland? Don? Anyone want to set a line?)

How do I feel?

Ask me how do I feel

Ask me now that we're cosy and clinging

Well sir, all I can say, is if I were a bell I'd be ringing!

From the moment we kissed tonight

That's the way I've just gotta behave

Boy, if I were a lamp I'd light

And If I were a banner I'd wave!

Ask me how do I feel, little me with my quiet upbringing

Well sir, all I can say is if gate I'd be swinging!

And if I were a watch I'd start popping my springs!

Or if I were a bell I'd go ding dong, ding dong ding!

Ask me how do I feel from this chemistry lesson I'm learning.

Well sir, all I can say is if I were a bridge I'd be burning!

Yes, I knew my morale would crack

From the wonderful way that you looked!

Boy, if I were a duck I'd quack!

Or if I were a goose I'd be cooked!

Ask me how do I feel, ask me now that we're fondly caressing

Well, if I were a salad I know I'd be splashing my dressing

Ask me how to describe this whole beautiful thing

Well, if I were a bell I'd go ding dong, ding dong ding!

OK, enough lyrics for now. I'm not sure how I feel after that game today vs. the Steelers. I feel like I should be a lot madder than I am now.

Going into the game, I knew three things:
- Our defense sucks;
- I'm not convinced Romeo knows how to handle challenges/handle timeouts;
- We can't run out the clock if we have the lead.

So - all three of those things came back to bite us in the end. It's not a shock - Romeo cost us a timeout; our defense let up numerous 3rd and longs in the second half, and we couldn't run and pick up a first down with a lead.
(I didn't figure that Derek would play like an ostrich in the 2nd half).

Winnable game? Sure. Are we as good as Pittsburgh? No. That's clear. But we have significant weakenesses that will cost us against good teams. HOWEVER - this may be the last good team we play this calendar year.

I don't know why, but if we lost like that to.... the Jets? Bengals? Ravens?.... instead of the Steelers, I think I would be extremely more pissed. I had this chalked down as a loss; our weaknesses came back and bit us in the end and we ended up with that loss.

I don't know. Am I mellowing? I hope not. I was still screaming like a girl on Cribbs' return....this time, however, it was in a restaurant.....

NFL Picks, Week 10 - the Whale

Well, as I did my picks this morning, I feel like the Whale from Seinfeld. I'm making my picks, and this overwhelming sense of doom comes over me. I have too many favorites - lots of them - and I feel good about each one individually, but I know that Vegas makes their money off of people betting favorites. With each pick, I feel the golf balls hitting my back coming from the shore. This may be the week that a ball plugs into the blowhole and sets me back for good -unless Marine Biologist George comes out and rescues me in time.

Will George come out and save me from teh favorites in week 10? Let's find out.

GB 20, Min 13. I think the Packers have the run defense to counter Peterson.
NO 31, St L 17. New Orleans is back on track.
KC 24, Denver 17. Is Denver ready to implode? I think so- they are one of a couple teams that may start to pack it in now.
Ten 20, Jax 10. Again, I'll ask: How exactly is Tennessee's opponent (Jacksonville this week) supposed to score points?
Mia 19, Buf 16. My last hunch that involved the Dolphins was to take them and the Giants over in London - where they did not cover the over/under BY 25 POINTS!
Was 23, Phi 13. Another team ready to pack it in?
Car 17, Atl 10. What a oddly fascinating game this will be. It's going to be like watching 2 4-year olds try to play mini golf - one might win a hole with a "9" vs. the opponent's "10". How will these offenses move?
(Hint to Leland: take the over, then. Maybe this will be a 35-30 turnover fest.)
Cin 31, Bal 21. I refuse to believe that the Bengals will give up yet, and I continue to state that the Ravens are still a fraud.
Chi 20, Oak 10. If the Bears lose this -they'll be done. I can't believe I am going this way.
Dal 28, NYG 23. Should be a good game. (there's some good insight for you).
Det 27, Az 20. Again, what's wrong here? You have God's team (Kitna and the Lions) against a banged up Cards team. At 7:15 tonight, I'll find out why the line was this way.
Ind 28, SD 17. I have no faith in the Chargers tonight.
Sea 28, SF 13. Wow. Just a terrbile game.

Best bets: 18 of them (!). Last week: 12-3; overall record: 62-67-9.

GB/Min under 40.5
NO -10.5
KC -3
Ten -4.5
Ten/Jax under 35
Mia +3
Mia/Buf under 41
Was -3
Car -3.5
Car/Atl Under 36
Cin +3.5
Cin/Bal Over 44.5
Chi -3.5
Chi/Oak Under 38
Dal -1.5
Det + 1.5
Ind -3.5
Sea -9.5

I hate YouTube

My God...I just wasted about 2 hours this morning on YouTube. I found out that old game show clips are on there. Geesh, I could spend the whole weekend watching 3 minute clips from Pyramid...... Match Game.......The Price is Right.......$ale of the Century....... Scrabble......and so on.

(and do you know that the correct search term on YouTube is $ale of the Century, not Sale of the Century. Some people are more anal about their game shows than I am. Instant Bargain, anyone?)

PS - Summer Bartholomew was hot.

Who is worse?

Who is the king of the cable TV idiots?

1. Anderson Cooper (CNN)
2. Donnie Deutsch (CNBC)
3. Glen Beck (Headline News)

The True "Game of the Year"

Honestly, you wont' find a more entertaining game than the late game on Fox on Sunday. It wasn't the highest quality football - but it was a 3 3/4 hour rollercoaster.

I know we all like to give fellatio to the Pats and Colts in an "epic" game, but the Browns-Seahawks game was a nailbiter for 2 hours - filled with good plays on offense, defense, and plenty of reviews.

(For those of you who missed it, I'm talking about Browns 33, Seahawks 30, OT).

5-3, baby. 5-3. Wow.

How did that other game on CBS go?

Wiz's wedding

I'm no shape to write up a long blog about Wiz's wedding, but let's say that his reception involved Lee on roller skates, Michael McDonald, an old Bullet's flag, and me doing a Championship celebration on the dance floor and hitting some older lady with beer all down her back.

NFL Week 9: Mickey Abbott

So the Pats-Colts game is Kramer, and the rest of the schedule is his friend Mickey - the swarf. I'm too lazy to come up with a better analogy for this week.

On to the predictions:

NYJ 20, Was 17. I think Clemens will give this team a lift (and too much is being made of the "don't worry about the Skins" angle after the loss last week. The Skins aren't that good.

TB 24, Arz 14. I think Arizona is a sinking ship......

Det 27, Den 20. Speaking of sinking ships.......Detroit is playing with a lot of confidence right now.

GB 23, KC 20. Is Arrowhead still a really tough place to play?

Ten 20, Car 10. How exactly will the Panthers score points?

Atl 19, SF 10. Folks, the Niners are miserable.

NO 31, Jax 20. The Saints are like Kellogg's Corn Flakes. "Take them again....for the first time". I think we have officially erased the first four weeks of the season from our memory.

Cin 24, Buf 17. Woo hoo! So the Bills beat the Ravens at home!!! You want to crown their ass, then crown them! I still think they are in the bottom 5 of the AFC.

SD 27, Min 13. Too easy! Too easy! Look out!

Oak 16, Hou 13. How many look-ins will Jim Nantz and CBS do for this game during Super Bowl 41 1/2?

NE 31, Ind 24. Should live up to the hype. Colts are +210 on the Money Line, by the way. Not a bad bargain there.....

Phi 27, Dal 24. Just a hunch.

Pit 24, Bal 10. I was wavering until I remembered that the Ravens won last year's games by a combined 59-7 or something. That will be remembered.

Best bets: (last week: 7-6-1; overall: 50-64-9)

NYJ +3.5

TB -3.5

Det -3

GB +2.5

GB/KC over 37.5

Ten -4

Atl -3

Atl/SF Under 37

NO -3.5

Jax/NO Over 40

Cin pk

SD -7

Hou/Oak Under 41.5

Phi +3.5

Pit -9.5

2 overs, 2 unders....7 favorites and 3 dogs. Ugh - not sure about that.

Halloween Candy Ratings

I'm staring at our dining room table, still filled with the sorted candy from the loot from Wednesday night. Warren (our 4-year-old) really got into it, running from house to house in search of a house "with a light on".

We need to rate the different candy types in order from most to least desirable. My rankings:

Beg, Borrow and Steal to get:
1. Kit Kat
2. Reese's Cups
3. Butterfinger
4. Almond Joy
5. Mr. Goodbar

Nice to Have
6. Hot Tamales
7. Dots
8. Rolo
9. Skittles
10. Sweet Tarts

Average, and usually overrated
11. Hershey's candy bars
12. Nestle Crunch
13. Snickers
14. Krackel
15. M&Ms

Fillers (role players)
16. Dum Dum's
17. Dubble Bubble
18. Jolly Ranchers
19. Hershey Kisses
20. Bit O Honey

Pac-Man Jones (may look good, but are Team Cancers and should be thrown back)
21. Three Musketeers (God, I hate this)
22. Candy Corn
23. Any Reese's Knockoff
24. Taffy

Thoughts?

Gotta get that picture off the screen

I think I can finally rationalyl talk about the Red Sox win. Two quick comments that popped into my head after last weekend:

1) The A-Rod thing. Yes, of course, it was horrible timing to have A-Rod and Boras announce his free agency during game 4. Of course they should be villified.

But who's the silent partner in all this? It's the media. To hear:
a) Gammons go OFF on the timing of the announcement, and then
b) hear ESPN sportscenter devote 10 minutes to the subject that Monday
is pure hypocrisy, plain and simple.

Look, if ESPN, Fox and such think that A-Rod shouldn't upstage the World Series, then don't let them. Buck doesn't have to talk about it. ESPN could put it at minute 45 of SportsCenter. But no, they are willing players in all of this. It makes me sick.

2) So you are Bill Belichick. You have, in your mind, the greatest team ever assembled in NFL history. Last Sunday - however - you felt delegated to second-class citizens because the Red Sox were about to win the World Series.

Monday morning would be focused on the Sox sweeping the Series and not being focused on the pure domination of the Sox. So - what could possibly upstage the Sox on Sunday?

That's right - running up the score against a classy guy, thus ensuring that you will be talked about even as the Sox win the Series that night.

It's a plausible explanantion that no one has covered yet. Belichick did that against the Skins to try to upstage the Sox.

3) Football: Yes, I can't wait for the 4:00 game on Sunday between two teams with exciting quarterbacks, thick in the middle of the division race, playing in front of a raucous crowd with a lot on the line. The result will go a long way in determining playoff position. I will be watching intently.....
oh yeah, and the Pats-Colts are on at the same time as well........hmmmm... maybe I'll catch 5 minutes of that meaningless Pats-Colts game.

Sweep!

Well, Laura is pregnant and the RS win the World Series!! Maybe I'll have to rethink not having any more kids...

IF the Sox had lost that game, they would have been in tough shape for game 5. Papelbon, Okajima, and Timlin all probably would have been unavailable. That is why it was HUGE to end it right there. Give them life and anything can happen.

Nice that Lester got the win.

Nice that Ellsbury actually started playing in this series instead of Crisp. Give Terry credit for finally making that move (even if it was later than most wanted, at least he DID make it). I'd say he made a difference, no??

PLEASE DO NOT SIGN A-ROD!! That would be a disaster. I would bring Lowell and Schilling back. 1 yr for Schilling and 3 yr / 40+ for Lowell. Not sure if he'd bite since you know the Yanks will throw crazy money at him. Let A-rod thrive in the regular season in Anaheim and watch him dissolve in the playoffs. Lather Rinse Repeat.

How great was Francona in the WS? A couple minor quibbles with the BP management, but he was spot on with when to yank his starters. Always better in the playoffs to pull a guy one batter too soon instead of one batter too late. He really "changes gears" better than any manager. He is completely different during the marathon of the regular season, compared to the sprint of the playoffs. Not sure why he hasn't gotten an extension yet.

I HAVE to make this comment about the Pats. Its getting ridiculous with the way they are running up the score. The ending TD against Dallas was cute. I mean, its Dallas and Wade Phillips - go ahead and put your stamp on it (especially since they called the timeout at the end which kind of forces their hand). But, the past couple weeks have been blatant. I feel like you are spitting in the face of the football karma gods to keep piling on like this. Eventually someone is going to say "screw it", and pull out the vintage Charles "Too Mean" Martin hit towel with the #12 on it, and take out Brady. One injury to Brady and all this offensive fireworks and inevitable march towards an AFCCG rematch with Indy is out the window. When you are up 30+ at home in the second half, start handing off with a vengeance and countdown to the final gun.

Wedding Gifts

I'm always confused on what to get people as a wedding gift. In the past I have left it up to the ole girlfriend or just gave cash. But now with Carol not knowing many of my friends back in Baltimore that well, she has left it up to me to purchase the gifts.

So there is a wedding coming up next weekend where I have never met the wife and I'm debating on what to give them:

• Cash- Very boring, but very safe.
• Crate and Barrel- When Carol and I registered at Crate and Barrel, we only put crap on the list that we would use and if someone bought the item, we both would be happy. I want to teach this guy a lesson for some of the crap that is on their list. 6 fondu forks, chipotle salsa, and two sets of cocktail napkins courtesy of the Zahns. Enjoy.
• Mirage Bucks- I have a Mirage credit card and have been racking up the Mirage bucks over the past year. Anything that we can put on the card and then payoff we have been doing in preparation of our March trip. I think I have something like $1000 Mirage bucks, which I could give my gambling friend who would probably appreciate it, since they can be used as chips, but it probably wouldn't be a great first impression with the wife.
• Go off the grid- I could get him something from his college, or make a deposit to his online gambling service, or gift certificates to some local golf courses, or an autographed picture of Jimmy the Greek, or a year supply of Stoli Vodka. Since I don't know the wife, shouldn't my gift be geared towards him instead of her?

NFL Week 8: Kenny Bania

Well, this is what I am reduced to right now with my NFL picks. I feel like I am Kenny Bania. Oh sure, I have a confident face - I have my material, my Ovaltine, my conviction that the Dolphins will score 20 points in London - but deep down, I'm insecure and looking for help.

It's so bad that Jay could come up to me and say: "hey, look, I'm worried. I not only think the Pats game will be close, I think the Skins can win!".

That's Gold, Jay, Gold!!!!!!

Anyway, I have absolutely no confidence in any of these picks, and that's usually a good sign.

Det 24, Chi 17. I am thoroughly unimpressed with Chicago.
Ind 24, Car 16. Maybe I'm giving Vinny (!) too much credit here. This Vinny thing is amazing, no? He was a veteran for us - in 1994!!!!! And now here he is.
NYG 34, Mia 20. Derek is convinced the under will happen here - and logically, that's the right way to go - but do you think the NFL will let a 20-7 snorefest occur in London?
Ten 23, Oak 13. Ten is my prediction for a wild card and to knock off SD in the first round ofthe playoffs. Mark my words. (The other AFC Wild Card matchup? See 2002 (but hopefully a different result).
Min 19, Phi 16. Just a hunch here.
Pit 27, Cin 20. Should be a lot worse than the score indicates.
NYJ 23, Buf 17. Why am I doing this to myself?
SD 24, Hou 10. Gees, Hou has been bad the last couple of weeks. And the 4th quarter last week was a fluke.
TB 20, Jax 10. I will be shocked if Jax wins this game.
NO 27, SF 10. This prediction makes me queasy. Something is wrong here with the line - only 2 1/2?
NE 30, Was 13 - I'm not saying Was will stop New England, but there will be enough ball control (on both sides) to slow down the game a bit.
GB 23, Den 17. Let's not give Denver too much credit here, ok?

Best bets: Last week: 3-12 (woo hoo!); overall: 43-58-8. Oh my God.
Det +6
Det/Chi Under 45
NYG/Mia over 48
Ten -7
Ten/Oak under 40 1/2
Min +1.5
Pit -4
NYJ -3
SD -9
SD/Hou under 45
TB -4
NO -2 1/2
Was/NE under 48
GB +3

6 favorites, 3 underdogs. I don't like that.
4 unders, 1 over. I don't like that either.

Thank you!!

Since I have been living on my own for the past 45 days, I really slacked off on many things. One of those things would be the mail. Now that Carol is back, the post office won't have to hold my mail anymore. Sorry for the delay, but Carol and I want to say thank you to everyone that sent cards for Carol's mom.

Sox and Pats

I hate the Red Sox. Some of it has to do with the media. Some of it has to do with their fans. But what I find strange is that while I hate the Red Sox, I don't hate the Pats. Its the same fans. Its the same media exposure. But I find myself cheering for the Pats to cover every spread even though I might not be wagering on them. I find myself actually listening to the coverage and reading stories about them. I'm just a little confused.

Saturday notes

Rough week.

1. Deposed- Has anyone gone through a deposition? Probably not, but now I have. What a terrible experience. Even though I had a top notch LA defense attorney beside me, and the plaintiff attorney was pretty cool, it was very grueling. 5 hours of straight questioning. I can't tell you how many times I stated "I don't recall".
2. Wedding Ring- I get a call yesterday on my way home from work from a balling Carol. I can't even understand what she is trying to say since she is crying so badly. After she calms down slightly, she tells me that she thinks she lost her wedding rings in the parking lot of Target. She was putting lotion on her hands in the car, put the rings in her lap, then forgot about them and exited the car and they must of dumped into the parking lot. How long ago I asked? Two hours. Strangely I wasn't mad. All I could think about was how would I leverage this into something awesome for me? Crazy enough we found the rings under a truck. Nothing missing and no damage. After we got home, I went on this rant about how I was going to put stripper poles in and Ben and I were getting hookers that night.
3. Last night Ben, Carol, and I went out for some drinks. Somehow we got o the subject of who have you slept with that had the ugliest body. Mine of course was the linebacker (the back of a Ray Lewis). But Ben trumps this with a girl from Yuma named "Spongebob Square Pants". That alone sent Carol, Lee (we called him), and myself into a hysterics. The story behind it was even better, so when you see Ben next time make sure you ask him about it.
4. College Football- As most of you know I gave up gambling on college football two weeks ago. 1-10 was a sign that I should stop. Well, I can't stop. Took West VA, Terps, and USC today. I have a little bit of a problem.
5. For once I don't think that the cable news channels are doing the firestorms out here any justice. It is horrendous out here from Bakersfield to the Border. For reference purposes, that would entail Philly to Richmond. Now just imagine that everything from Philly to Richmond has a heavy cover of smoke and ash. Have you ever seen is snow ash before? This is the second time for me. It gets old. Today is the first day that it doesn't smell like a campfire. What's wrong with the campfire smell? Its nice for the first hour, but 4 straight days and it is unbearable. I had Carol's friend Laurin, her husband, and her parents come stay with me since they were evacuated. Laurin's dad had to make a decision to either take a lot of their personal belongings in their Jeep, or leave everything and they take the Astin Martin? Let's just say that they had to take the Jeep, and when I left for work the next morning at 5:00am, the dad was getting up to go back down to the house to get the car.
6. Some interesting notes- San Diego County does not have a fire department. It is made up of little fire departments like the volunteer Hereford Fire Department. How is that allowed?
7. Ben text me on Wednesday telling me that Camp Pendelton was on fire that the fire jumped one of the hillsides and was heading towards the I-5 checkpoint. No fire department. No nothing. Just a huge wall of flames coming down towards their building. The wind changed at the last minute and they got an airdrop of water and luckily the fire fell short.
8. Can everyone stop comparing the fires to Katrina? Let's see what are the major differences? Slow and effective evacuations in SD allowed people to move to several locations that had plumbing and electricity. Supplies and assistance was easily able to get into these locations. Only one road was closed at the beginning (I-15). Christ all of our executive team was able to drive to Qualcomm to make breakfast outside and hand out different shit. Katrina was just a little bit different.
9. Insurance 101- I was on a conference call yesterday giving a status on all of the claims from the fires and someone from our Foremost company had to give a status on their claims. Foremost is a company that we bought 5-6 years ago that specialises in mobile and pre-fab homes. They were saying that one of the fires destroyed a trailer park that had 300 homes in Fallbrook. Someone asked how many homes do we have in the park and they responded with 150. Um...that's not good. In insurance, the max exposure that you want in a certain area is 25%. State Farm, which is the #1 insurance company hovers around 20% nation wide. How the hell do we have 50% of the trailer park? "Word of mouth" was the response from the marketing guy. We did such a great job selling to a couple of homes in the area, that word spread and everyone moved over to Foremost. Someone will probably lose their job over that.

I love the Salami!

(upon reading this post title, Steve and Kermit ask "well, what took Eric so long to come out of the closet?)

No, not THAT salami. The Grand Salami!

The Grand Salami has the capability to pull the NHL out of the abyss.
What is it? It is a gambling proposition every night on:
1. the over/under on the total number of goals scored for all games;
2. the total # of goals scored by home teams vs. away teams.

Last night, I decided I needed a distraction from the adult Halloween haunted house - 600 kids at an Elementary school for trick-or-treating. Anyway, there were 9 NHL games last night; the Grand Salami over/under was set at 52. So if gambling was legal, I took the under.

By 9:00, a couple of games were final at 2-0 and 3-0. The Salami bet was looking good!

A 1-0 Phoenix final came in at the end - the grand salami total came in at 39. I was a winner!

Tonight we continue to push our luck with the salami (if gambling were legal, of course); I have the over 29.5 and the home teams -1.5 goals. Five games are on the schedule tonight.

Tomorrow is the grandest of all grand Salamis - 12 games on the docket. I'd expect the over'under to be around 72 or so.

Leland is actually going to glance at the ticker when NHL scores are shown - that's a HUGE gain for hockey and the NHL! Those VS ratings will quadruple from 0.01 to 0.04 with Leland and I now paying attention.

Random Notes

Some hot topics:

1. I'm a little better after Sunday night. Thanks for asking. But it will be hard to watch the World Series. Now, this won't be a complete media boycott - such as Super Bowl XXXV. To the amazement of Derek, I made a decision to boycott the Super Bowl that year and consciously did not watch any of the Super Bowl. I puttered around the house - did the bills, watched a random South African golf tournament on the Golf Channel.

Derek ended up calling around 10:30 or so that night. I still remember that conversation.....

D: "Hey - did you see the end of the game?"
E: "Uh, no, I said I wasn't going to watch it".
D: (clearly still not believing me) "You didn't? You didn't see Stover's kick?"
E: "No. What happened?"
D: "Stover won the Super Bowl on a last-second kick. 3-0, Ravens, final".
E: (sigh, 5 seconds of silence...)
"Well, I guess I'm happy for Stover... he's an old Brown"
D: (5 more seconds of silence, now a bit shocked)
"You're serious? You didn't see it?"
E: (annoyed) "No! What part don't you understand?"
D: "Wow..... "
(10 seconds)
D: "So do you want to know what really happened?"
E: "I guess....it is good news for me?"
D: (3 seconds....)
"No....31-7 Ravens....they dominated"
E: [click]

I'll watch some of the series - but I won't go out of my way or plan any viewing. In fact, I'm watching a TiVo'd episode of "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America.

2. Browns play the Rams this weekend. The interconference games occur every 4 years now (in the past, it could have been longer than that). It's fun to reminisce on the rare times we get to play NFC teams. I usually can recall each and every game vs. NFC opponents over the past 10-20 years.

Last time we played the Rams was in Cleveland, in 2003 - the last home Monday night appearance for the Browns. Couch got hurt; Kelly almost led the team back as we lost, 28-23 (and we were 4 pt dogs, I think, so no cover for the Browns.)

1999 was our first year back in the league; when the schedule came out, I circled the Rams game as one of the few chances for us to win. The Rams were coming off a 4-12 season, and in week 1, Trent Green got hurt. Even a better chance for the Browns, right?

Well, we should all know the story..... Kurt Warner came in, and then in week 7, the eventual Super Bowl winners killed us, 45-13, in the most recent game in St Louis.

We also played them in Cleveland in 1991..... .wow.......I was supposed to go to that game, being a junior at Case. Steve got me tickets and was going to pick me up at the dorm. I ended up canceling for a reason that I probably won't talk about here.

Will the Browns actually win 2 in a row and go to 4-3?

3. So - how am I going to break out of my Travis Hafner-like slump? Another terrible, horrible week (3-12). Geesh, Freddie can probably pick better....

hey, what an idea! Maybe I'll let the kids pick my 14 games this weekend. I mean, it can't get any worse....can it? How am I going to snap out of this?
Feel free to pull a Leland and take the opposite of my picks for a while. Lord knows, someone needs to win money off of my horrendous performance.

Congrats

Congrats to Jay and the Red Sox for winning the AL Pennant.

NFL Picks Week 7: Bob Sacamano

Does an NFL week occur if your favorite team is not playing? It's always a weird feeling with the bye week. My routine and scheduling for a Sunday is off. Should we actually make plans during the day? Should I make sure I'm around at 3;45 and 6:55 Eastern to watch the end of other games - games I'm not truly emotionally invested in?

Does an NFL week occur if you're not paying full attention to it? If you don't watch it?

Does Bob Sacamano exist if no one sees him? Bob is Kramer's friend that is never seen in any episode, yet Sacamano's exploits are the basis of a few shows. Does he really exist, or is he a figment of Kramer's imagination?

Sacamano is probably related to another famous TV character that only exists in one person's mind....Snuffleupagus.

(By the way, two fascinating pieces of movie trivia I stumbled upon myself this weekend.....

1. While watching the end of "The Naked Gun", the lady who was the mayor of LA gave Frank Drebin an apology at the end of the movie. I instantly recongized her but couldn't place her. What other famous character did the mayor in "The Naked Gun" play?

2. Everybody remembers the blackjack scene from Austin Powers, right?
"You have 5..."
"I'll stay!"
"Sir, I suggest you hit! You have 5!"
"I ALSO like to live dangerously!"

The blackjack dealer later played a famous role in a sit-com. What is that role?

On to the picks:

Was 27, Az 10. I believe the QB situation is now the end of the Arizona mirage.

NO 30, Atl 13. Why am I jumping on this bandwagon?

Buf 20, Bal 17. OK - I'll be honest. Baltimore is a FRAUD. A Fraud, all right? Don't you people understand this? Doesn't anyone? They have played: @ Cin (L), NYJ (W), Az (W), @ Cle (L), @ SF (W), Stl (W). Jees - when you list 6 teams and Cleveland BY FAR is the best team on that list, that's a weak schedule. And here they are playing Buffalo.

Dal 28, Min 20. Don't have a real idea on this one. Peterson could break out again.

NE 31, Mia 20. I'm sorry, I don't care how good you are - if you are a home team and are getting 16-17 points, you have to take it. Miami's not that bad - they're not 1999 Expansion Browns bad. They're just not.

NYG 16, SF 10. This is a letdown game for the Giants.

Det 24, TB 21. Does anyone know anything about these two teams?

Hou 20, Ten 17. I think Johnson is back for the Texans.

Oak 24, KC 20. KC is not that good - Cincinnati is that bad. That explains last week's Chiefs' win.

Cin 27, NYJ 24. I really want to pick a JEts win here....

Phi 27, Chi 21. The Cincinnati chapter of "I picked McNabb as my Fantasy QB and now look what crap I have" will meet at my house at 1 pm on Sunday.

Sea 23, StL 10. I'm secretly rooting for a Rams win here....I don't want to face them next week when the Rams are 0-7.

Pit 24, Den 10. Safe to say the only way I'll be watching this is if the Red Sox are up 8-0 in the 4th.

Jax 27, Ind 24. Should be a Monday night classic.

Best bets: (last week: 4-8-2. Geesh, time to start heating up, Eric!. Season: 40-46-8)
Was -8.5
NO -8.5
Buf +3
Mia + 16.5
SF +9.5
SF/BYG under 39 1/2
Hou +1.5
KC/Oak over 37 1/2
NYJ +6.5
Chi/Phi over 41 1/2
Sea -8.5
StL/Sea under 39 1/2
Pit -3.5
Jax +3
Ind/Jax over 44 1/2

Is it time to panic?

Why, yes! Yes it is!

I'm depressed this morning. I am shocked at the results of the game last night - especially how we (and how Boston) looked.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of game 5. Steve and I - before big games - have a phone call where we give our predictions. Before game 5, he said 4-1 Boston (almost getting it right before the bullpen explosion) and I said 4-3 Boston.

Well, last night Steve said 6-1 Cleveland and I said 6-4 Tribe (with a Borowski-induced near heart attack). Needless to say, we were way off last night.

Schilling clearly did not have his stuff, yet that doesn't really matter when you are down 10-1 in the 3rd. Cleveland doesn't look scared, but they do look young and inexperienced. The errors. The "mailing it in" cloud seem to hover over this team when Drew hit the grand slam.
Now questions are arising on this team:
- Travis Hafner, please pick up the white courtesy phone
- Asdrubal (or Ashtabula) Cabrera is starting to come back to earth
- Perez, of course

And Boston? Well, when Lugo is starting to get 2-run doubles, then you know they are heating up.

While I never - honestly! This is the truth - while I never thought the series was over at 3-1, I thought we'd play well in the following games and at least have a fighting chance at winning games 5 and 6. But no. That's 2 striaght blowouts. I truly am shocked.

How do we turn it around? One inning, one at-bat, one pitch at a time. That's a lesson from golf. You make an effort to make your next shot a good one. It's very, very tough to forget about the past - but yet we somehow have to do that. One batter, one pitch at a time. We have the talent - now we have to execute.

I have no idea how Wedge will use the pen here in game 7. You could guess he would have a short hook, but then who? Say it is 4-3 Boston in the 4th. Now what? Byrd? Lewis? Betancourt? Sabathia? I think if trouble arises in innings 2-3, Byrd will come in. If it is 4 or later, we can start with Lewis for 2, then Betancourt for 2 - that will get us to the 8th, and then we will see where we are. To answer Jay's questions - I think that's why Borowski came in last ngiht. To save Betancourt and Lewis for longer outings today, if needed.

But now, in a game 7, it seems the better bullpen is on Boston's side. Say today is an implosion of a game for both sides: it is 6-6 after 3. Who has the advantage:
Boston: with Lester, Beckett, Wakefield, Okajima, and DelCarmen?
Cleveland: with Byrd (Laffey out), Sabathia, Lewis, Betancourt?

The long relief in my mind favors Boston. That's why Jake has to go 5 or 6 innings tonight.........and I don't like the chances of that.

Rat Pack Shine on Saturday Night!

Yessssssssir!! The crew who I criticized as a Rat Pack of automatic outs, actually dominated game 6 - who knew??? I had to Tivo the game since I was going to the MD / UVA game (homecoming). We had a great time at the game, and planned to leave no later than halftime (around 9:30). I was taping the game on two different Tivos on two different channels - just in case. It was KILLING me not to be watching it live, but Luke was REALLY looking forward to the football game, and it was a beautiful night to be outside, so what can you do??

We ended up leaving a little before halftime, as I narrowly avoided seeing the score that was flashed on the big stadium video board. I covered my ears as Laura was screaming "DON'T LOOK!!! DON'T LOOK!! COVER YOUR EYES!!". I covered my eyes and shrieked in horror. Basically we re-enacted the opening of the Ark scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. People sitting next to us must have thought we were mental.

Couple thoughts:

• Derek put the mega whammy on Carmona and CC. Seriously, they would "win all their starts"? Well he was close. They went a combined 0-3 with 23 ER in 16 IN. What do I owe you?


• I know the Red Sox are very conservative and careful with their pitchers, but I don't know how you can't look to get 2 or 3 innings out of Beckett. If Derek Lowe can throw 6 innings in Game 7 on two days rest in 04, then why can't Beckett give you a couple innings of relief?


• Gagne and Perez looked great in their new roles as mopup men


• I know you try and keep guys from getting rusty, but was it necessary to pitch Borowski in that game? Wouldn't you rather have him rested and ready to go in case he's needed for multiple innings?


• Jacoby Ellsbury - finally. If I had to watch Crisp fly out weakly in one more AB I was going to lose it


• I can't tell you how pleasant it is to watch a Sox playoff game in which the broadcast doesn't have the word "Curse" in it. Such a relief.


• Tito better have a quick hook tomorrow. Dice K has a fabulous Wakefield-esque ability to go from cruising to "4 spot" at any moment. This will be an incredibly difficult decision to make. It isn't like the bullpen has been great, although adding some innings from Beckett would be a lift.


• If you were Wedge, would you go to CC in a close game tomorrow (on 2 days rest - like Beckett) out of the pen? They made a big deal about never relieving, but I don't think that matters. Of course you wouldn't bring him in the middle of an inning since that would be foreign to him, but I'm saying to start an inning. Say 6th inning of a tie ballgame. Would you do it? He's pitched like such crap, but he's the Ace. Incredibly tough call.


• Did anyone miss seeing towels? It looked like a great playoff atmosphere to me. We don't need no stinkin' towels!

There is one game on Sunday night, there will be exactly one game to be played on Sunday night, so win that one game.


Its alive, Its Alive, ITS ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!!