Dave James

That was fun. Thanks for sharing. I loved the description of the clip. "Orchestra men with trumpets and saxophones. Men and women dance." Whoever wrote that was blessed with a truly remarkable narrative gift. One question. Amongst Chaloff's arsenal, there appears to be a bass clarinet. Did he play that instrument?

The imminent return of Derek Jeter becomes more intriguing by the day. While the Captain has been laid up, the Yankees have been on a bit of a roll. In place of Jeter, Billy Gardner and Nick Swisher have handled the top spot more than adequately. So, you have to ask yourself, how disruptive is THE RETURN going to be? Girardi has already said Jeter will be leading off. If he stumbles in that role, and considering how he's performed so far this season, that's almost a foregone conclusion, what do you do? Unless he suddenly morphs into the Jeter of old, this could become fairly contentious in short order. What bothers me most is that Jeter has shown no interest in compromising. It's all about him. What's best for the team? Not my problem. Good clubs have stumbled over lesser issues than this.

If it "sounds real good", I don't understand what difference it makes.

Seattle in the World Series? I need some of whatever you're smoking. PM me for my mailing address. What Seattle is proving is that good pitching will work wonders. Nonetheless, when it's all said and done and your highest charting everyday player (Ichiro) is hitting .276, I wouldn't be doing much post-season planning.

Cliff Lee is on fire and pitching another gem tonight. Up 5-0 in the 7th on a one hitter. Over the last few weeks, he's easily been the best pitcher in either league. J.H. - Who needs those bruised up guys you mentioned when you're getting starting pitching like this?

This story could be somewhat apocryphal, but my understanding is that the delay had to do with the success of The Sidewinder. Blue Note did so well with that tune and album that they were interested in trying to replicate their success by striking while the iron was still hot. However, neither Gigolo or Charisma, albums that were already in the can, included any songs that were done in the Sidewinder style, so, instead, they cut The Rumproller and went with that.

Not sure to what extent you can use this series as a yardstick. Beckett, although starting tonight, hasn't pitched in awhile, plus injuries to Crawford, Lawrie and Bucholtz and having Big Papi pretty much confined to the bench put the Sox at too big a disadvantage to call this a true WS preview.

I would think Seattle is way too close to Vancouver; Portland would make much more sense. Not that we have any conflict of interest there or anything... In the '90's, Portland came within an eyelash of landing the Pittsburgh Penguins. I had some friends on the inside who knew the score and said that this was a matter of days from happening. Only an 11th hour intervention staged by Mario Lemieux kept the Pens on the East coast. Unfortunately, close only counts in horseshoes.

Agreed. It won't help sell future developments involving public funding if the league cuts and runs in Phoenix. Still, unless the Coyote equation changes reasonably quickly, I don't see how they can keep it together in the desert.

I can't figure out why the league is so desperate to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. Why anyone with the resources to buy a team would want any part of this situation is beyond me, especially when the price is so much higher than it should be. There a couple of Canadian cities in a position to support an NHL team (including putting a second team in Toronto) so why not let the chips fall where they may. I still hold out hope that one day Portland will land a franchise, but that seems less likely by the day. Even though they don't have an NHL-ready arena in Seattle, the league would love to have a team there to create a natural geographic rivalry with Vancouver. Whatever happens, the league better have it figured out by the time realignment arrives two seasons from now.

No need to wonder. It is and on many different levels.

MLB advanced the Mets $25,000,000 awhile back. Whether that was used wholly or in part to meet their payroll obligations, I do not know.

Rivers was something of a poor man's Yogi Berra. He was always saying things that were a little off plumb. Here's one of my favorites: "Out of what, a thousand?" Mickey Rivers, responding to teammate Reggie Jackson's claim he had an IQ of 160

Wise went to Madison High School right here in Portland. When I play golf at a course called Rose City, you can see his name and number on their HOF outfield wall. I think they won the state championship twice in the '60's while he was there. Never played against him but did against his brother Tom in a number of slo-pitch softball encounters over the years. Let me tell you, that kid was no slouch. The Wise for Carlton trade is widely considered to be one of the worst in baseball history. Not because WIse was a bust, but because Carlton went on to have a Hall of Fame career. The worst, needless to say, was the Reds dealing Frank Robinson to the Orioles in 1965 for a couple of tomato cans. The Reds GM was convinced that Robinson was what he called, "an old 30". All Robinson did was win the Triple Crown in his first year with Baltimore.

Since Derek Jeter was injured, Billy Gardner and Nick Swisher have shared lead-off responsibilities for the Yankees. In that span of seven games, their combined batting average is .423 and their OBP is .559. So, when asked yesterday if it was going to be difficult to decide who to lead off once Jeter is healthy, manager Joe Girardi said, "not at all. Derek's our guy." What am I missing? Statistically, Jeter is one of the worst lead-off hitters in all of baseball. Why then, when things are going so well, would you fuck everything up by putting him back at the top of the lineup? All I can think of is that someone must be threatening to go public with pictures of Girardi in bed with a goat.

The main difference for me between Lohan and Amy Winehouse is that Amy Winehouse actually has talent. Lindsay Lohan is one of those people who is famous for being famous, not unlike Paris Hilton.

Well all girls were little girls at one time. Here's the point. She wasn't born Amy Winehouse. She became Amy Winehouse. Here's Part 2 from the video documentary I referred to earlier. You may or may not find this interesting. There's a snippet embedded here of her first audition. Maybe not "this little girl" but not very close to the current iteration either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2Lfwp_gDk

That one didn't work for me, some plugin thingy I don't have. Here's the YouTube version though: I was at the 1979 All-Star game. It was played at the old Kingdome in Seattle. The NL won 7-6. I sat out in the left field bleachers. Great view. Great game. I remember that Parker throw from right. Sweet.

You know, the same thought occurred to me. That billionaire Russian guy who owns the Nets could probably buy the Dodgers for pocket change. Then he could go about setting up his own little sports fiefdom right there in the heart of Brooklyn. How cool would that be?

Boy, this Dodger situation gets uglier by the minute. Bud Selig has rejected a divorce settlement option that would have immediately channeled a huge chunk of Fox TV money to the McCourt's allowing them to satisfy some of their short-term financial obligations. Now that Selig has vetoed this, there's a serious question about the team's ability to meet its next payroll. At that point, baseball could declare them in default and put the franchise up for sale. That, of course, would result in another series of lawsuits from the McCourt legal teams and who knows when this will end. What a mess. An embarrassment for everyone involved. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mccourt-fox-selig-20110621,0,6709990.story

I'm always drawn back to a video I saw of Winehouse when she first auditioned for Island Records. Just this little girl, alone with a guitar, but a voice that said, better pay attention, Bucko, there's something a little different going on here. I feel bad for her, it's such a misuse of talent. Not that she's the first, or the last artist who got lost in her own ozone and couldn't find a way to exorcise the demons, but it's always sad and it's always wasteful and I can't help but think, unnecessary.

Anyone remember Rocky Colavito? He played for Cleveland, Detroit and late in his career. for New York. He had one of the very best arms ever. He even pitched a little for the Yankees. Also, how many ballplayers in the history of the game have had a curse named after them? There's Babe Ruth, of course, and Rocky Colavito. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Rocky_Colavito

Great arm. Great talent. I forgot, though, he was actually a five tool guy. He also had a temper.

Dawson was a four tool guy. He could hit, hit with power, throw and run. He had it all.

David, Don't forget to give A-Rod credit for taking the throw on the short hop and then applying the tag. The guy at the other end of a great catch and throw often gets overlooked. Here's one of my favorites. We're talking about nailing a guy going from first to third by at least three feet with a tape to tape throw out of moderately deep right field. If you find yourself at a loss for words, try "wow".