Dave James

Good news. Glad everything turned out OK. Up over and out.

At least Green Bay won. My Eagles just lost their second in a row. Andy Reid needs to enroll in some sort of run therapy class. The Birds threw the ball 56 times today and ran 13. I'm sorry, but you can't win consistently in the NFL without a more balanced attack. Reid just doesn't get it. Never has. Between this, his clock management and his penchant for wasting challenges, the Eagles have no hope. The guy has got to go. Please, Mr. Lurie, dispense with Andy when his contract is up at the end of this season. He's more than outlived his usefulness. Up over and out.

When I was in college, Cosby's albums were a right of passage. Why Is There Air?, Wonderfulness, A Very Funny Fellow, Right? are full of fall down funny, and now, classic routines. While I respect the fact that different people have different tastes when it come to comedy, I can't imagine how a person with a sense of humor would not find these early recordings highly entertaining. I think over the years, Cosby kind of wore out his welcome. Plus, to his credit, he steadfastly refused to play the scatological card. In terms of continuing to be "hip", he clearly wasn't. Up over and out.

Chuck, can we hold you to this? Up over and out.

If you haven't seen the Clint Eastwood produced Mercer piece on TCM, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for a repeat. I've always liked Mercer. There's something about his everyman voice that I find very appealing. Getting a better handle on his life story via this film was a revelation. Musically speaking, he was a true renaissance man, and, IMO, second only to Cole Porter in terms of his lyric ability. Even the relatively makeweight stuff he wrote was first rate, but the real gems like Midnight Sun, One For My Baby or The Summer Wind are truly stunning. Up over and out.

In Seattle, Junior walks on water. He is almost single handedly responsible for the very existence of Safeco Field. I think the M's could keep him on their active roster until he was eligible for Medicare and the fans up there would be fine with it. Up over and out.

I just saw a new 3 CD release that encompasses Billie's work for Commodore and Decca. I used to have the Decca set but it was a casuality of a rather unpleasant divorce, so I haven't had it in my collection for the past 12 years. I'm not familiar with the Commodore material, although I'm sure, given who's singing, that is has to be pretty good. Up over and out.

TWOZ is one of my S.O.'s favorite movies, so I splurged and bought the limited edition Blu-Ray box at Costco. Lots of truly unnecessary ephemera are included in this, such as an Emerald City wristwatch. We haven't watched the movie yet, but my understanding from reading reviews is that it's pretty nice. So vivid are the colors, that they had to rename the Yellow Brick Road the Zest of Lemon Brick Road. That'll give you some idea of what we're talking about. Up over and out.

Happy Birthday! Although I don't mean happy in the sense of blissfully ignorant, sleep-like, propaganda-fed, drooling T.V. zombie, denial anesthetized, pampered, bourgeois, too apathetic to think, instant gratification happy -- but a balanced, grateful, spiritually-conscious, community-supported, confident, impervious to corporate deceit, grounded, optimistic and lifelong kind of happy. Up over and out.

Seattle just announced the signing of Ken Griffey, Jr. for 2010. Also, good news for Dan if he's still lurking or for any other Red Sox fan. Jason Veritek, a.k.a. the most useless catcher on the planet, just notified the Sox that he's exercising his $3 million player option for the upcoming season. He hit all of .209 last year and threw out just 10 of 118 baserunners. No wonder Theo Epstein says they're expecting him to have a good year in 2010. Up over and out.

Has it occurred to anyone that I was unaware that this was a violation of board policy? The fact of the matter is, I was not. Instead of just blowing off the post, why not ask me to edit it? I would have been more than happy to do so. Up over and out.

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Hope you feel better fast. I think we all have tendency to hold physicians in high esteem, assuming that they are all uniformly good at what they do. The problem is, some are and some aren't. The fact that someone you relied on didn't mention the possibility of a potentially life threatening post-surgical complication is more than a little troubling. It just emphasizes what others have already said, that it's really up to the patient to make sure the right questions are asked. Not as it should be, but as it is. Up over and out.

This morning, Howard Bryant, a writer for ESPN, while recapping the just completed Series, referred to Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte as the classic quartet. Cool. Up over and out.

I'm not sure anything can ever erase the stain of 2004. The Babe Ruth Red Sox jinx was just plain fun. Now all we have are the Cubbies and the curse of the goat. That just doesn't have the same heft. The seventh game in '04 just killed me. Once the Sox had tied the series, it was like trying to stop the sun from rising in the East. You knew what was coming and there wasn't anything you could do about it. Tremendous bummer and in its own way not unlike 2001, when the Yanks really let one get away. There is still a dent in our coffee table, the one I hit with my fist when that dying quail went out over second base in the bottom of the 9th. I agree, the Martinez and Brosius home runs in that Series, along with the Jim Leyritz 15th inning shot against the Mariners in the ALCS, remain in my top ten baseball moments. It would just have been nice if our boys could have crossed the T. Up over and out.

Thanks for the good words, guys. The first baseball game I ever saw was on a neighbor's B&W TV in the early '50's, a World Series game that involved the Yankees. I've been a fan ever since, through the thick of the '50's and early '60's to the thin of the '80's. This was a great win for a core group of guys who won't be around that much longer; Pettitte, Jeter, Posada and Rivera. To see all of them reel this in one more time was extra special. Congratulations to the Phillies as well. A well contested and thoroughly enjoyable World Series between two quality teams. Up over and out.

START SPREADIN' THE NEWS! Up over and out.

Ghost, Not to hijack your thread, but that little bit of wizardry from Spinal Tap reminded me of an amusing jazz related video someone posted here awhile back. Up over and out.

Like a HR off Pedro? Then a two runs batted in single? Say any chance you'd be willing to give me a hand the next time I play the lottery? Up over and out.

I love it. The Yankee fans are chanting "Who's your daddy?" Poor Pedro is never going to live that one down. Up over and out.

I'm wound up tighter than a ten day clock. No way do I want this getting anywhere near a seventh game. C'mon Andy Pettitte, pitch us the game of your life tonight. I just wanna hear the opening strains of New York, New York sometime around 8:00 (PST) tonight. Up over and out.

I check the Mosaic website every day to see if anything has shaken loose with regard to the sets that are on backorder. It appears that the Johnny Smith box is once again available. That's good news in that it's the first of the backordered sets to actually go back in circulation. Up over and out.

Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson in the 1960 Series against the Pirates. He had 12 RBI's in seven games. Up over and out.

I saw the Doobies a couple of months ago here in Portland. They opened for the Allman Brothers. Truth be told, they were better than the Allmans, at least on that night. The Allmans were really, really loud, so much so that everything kind of melted together. The Doobies were very tight. I think it helped that the had their original drummer back with them for the first time in awhile. No problem in good 'ol Portland with firing up a (pardon the expression) doobie or two. There air was rife with the smell 'o weed. Up over and out.

If the Yankees win, I'd have to go with Damon, but I wouldn't preclude the idea of Chase Utley. Six home runs with as many as two games left is not something you just sneeze at. However, Damon's Dash, a phrase I just coined, is one of those things that will stay in Series lore. Perhaps not quite at the level of Gibson's home run, Buckner's error or Reggie hitting three out in '77 on three straight pitches, but it may very well be the one thing that stays with fans years from now when they think about the 2009 championship. Mo is Mo and would not be undeserving, but Damon is the straw that's stirred the drink. Up over and out.