Patrick

Like everyone else, my discs arrived quickly and in great shape! Thanks Paul.

Happy Birthday. You contain to remain extremely youthful!

Thanks my fellow Organisms. Talked a few coworkers into leaving work early for beers at the District Chop House, met the spouse for a great dinner at Rosa Mexicano, and then caught the early set of the Heath Brothers at the Kennedy Center. First time for me seeing Jimmy and Tootie. While I turned 44 today, Jimmy turned 84 this past Monday. Great music and I was definitely impressed by the life force on display. Jimmy stood up throughout the whole set, save for a feature for piano player Jeb "General" Patton (Horace Silver's Cool Eyes), and was smiling and dancing throughout. Returned home to find two packages waiting for me--one from amazon.uk with the George Russell Black Saint/Soul Note box set and the other from Newbury Comics with the Bill Evans Last Waltz box. Thanks for the tips on these!

Eric, Discs arrived quickly, in fine shape! Let me know if some more SteeepleChase titles get added.

It's only fair, I'm not yet sure the Phillies traded away more than 3 toilet flushes to acquire Cliff Lee from the Tribe. [Must take the long view...]. I'll admit I'm much more of a Josh Hamilton fan in recent months than I was prior to that.

Me too. Definitely have a rooting interest for Cliff Lee, but a lot to like on both teams (stories, players, youthful enthusiasm, etc).

Not really. Only one team showed up. Yeah, no kidding. As far as Jim's rant about the Yanks go, it's is not about money but because they have national, strike that, international following. It's been that way for years and ain't going to change. I mean you've got Ghost and Dave who love them as an example. Naturally, Cashman is going to be asked what's next. I'm not a Yankee fan but I want to know what's next. I follow them ad much as my own team. Rangers are a nice story but come next season the attention will decrease somewhat even if they win and people will want to know what the Yanks are doing, what the Dodgers are doing, what the Red sox are doing and so forth. It's just the natural order of things. As a Mets fan, I'm used to second place status; just the way it is. When your heritage is the Babe, Gherig, Dickey, DiMaggio, Mickey, Yogi (I could go and on), you've won 27 titles and play in the most famous ballpark in the world (maybe next to Wembley), you've earned that attention. Which is fine. But can we please start talking about it after this Yankeeless World Series is over? Right after the game ended last night, I flipped around the channels a bit and saw that ESPN1 (Chris Singleton and another explayer) were already discussing how Cliff Lee was going to sign with NYY next year. Please. Every other team's hot stove machinations don't start until November. True Yankee problem may have been too many ex-Indians (Sabathia, Wood, Kearns). It wiped out the Dodgers last year.

Indians magic number is much less than 45. If they can hold on to their 6-run 9th inning lead at KC(sign me up for the Choo crew: 3HR, 7RBI), their record will improve to 61-86. Thus their magic number will fall to 2.

Conversation with Jackie McLean and a moving story from Brubeck about race relations were worthwhile. I even liked Wynton's demonstrated enthusiasm for Monk. Agree that the narrative clung to Armstrong for way too long (especially with so much other interesting events/styles completely ignored or quickly glossed over). Fortunately, I don't think historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was consulted for this Burns extravaganza...

Nice to see Cliff Lee back in form. If only back in 2007... wouldn't have needed Paul Byrd for anything... ahhhh. Is it correct that the MLB/TBS game next week really is NYY/Orioles??? Is there not a more interesting national matchup out there, or is MLB really trying to drive everyone outside of Yankee Kingdom to watch the NFL? I haven't checked the schedule, but is there really not a better matchup than the best and worst records in the AL? Are we really suffering from Yankee underexposure? Ugh.

Chilling indeed. I read the story right after listening to the recent Fresh Air episode with Andre Agassi. Much the same story of an overbearing father trying to live his dream through the athletic prowess of his son.

Hats off to Fausto Carmona! Complete game shutout against the Twins, 3H, 1BB, 7K, facing two batters over the minimum, throwing only 108 pitches, and (with the assistance of the anemic Indian offense) finishing nine innings in just 1:57. Ex-Indian Carl Pavano (16-11, 3.47 ERA) takes the loss.

91-year-old Bob Feller, probably the greatest Cleveland athlete ever and arguably the best right hander ever has acute myeloid leukemia. It is treatable, and Feller has been taking a number of chemotherapy shots. The guy has been remarkably vital even in such old age--attending games, doing interviews (...better watch out, Acta may want him for an inning or two out of the pen). PD story

22 year old Hector Rondon, the Indians minor league pitcher of the year in 2009, just had Tommy John surgery. For a team (like the Nats) that is all about the future, kind of tough to see the future dimmed/delayed in this fashion (along with Carlos Santana). Tribe showed a little bit of a pulse after the ASB--started 7-1 against Det and Minn but have been a dreadful 9-21 since then. Magic number (to avoid first 100 lost season since '91) is 12. Can they go at least 12-23 the rest of the way?

No mention of Kurt Elling [...insert quip here]. Is that Bill Charlap accompanying Freddy Cole?

"Bird alone, flying high Flying through a clouded sky Sending mournful soulful sounds Soaring over troubled grounds" You Gotta Pay the Band (Verve, 1991) was my point of entry with Abbey. First checked it out from the Evanston Public Library--many an evening spent listening to this after a grinding grad school day. Thanks Abbey. Keep soaring.

Good news, given the situation. Hopefully, nothing too serious.

Ugh. Just saw the replay of the Santana injury. You know it's bad when the ESPN guys warn you ahead of time. Some folks already groaning about the Cleveland curse and mentioning Ray Fosse. I'm not there yet, but yikes/ouch! I'd be surprised if that thing is not broken or worse. Oh well. Otherwise, Fausto Carmona improves nicely on his 0-2, 40.50 ERA career record at Fenway. And Chris Perez has saved 3 in a row for the Tribe. Anyone need Shelly Duncan? The guy's a beast (...yet likely will clear waivers). Step right up!

Boston may have had a more epic collection of injuries, and Boston and Seattle had much higher expectations at the start of the season, but Cleveland has suffered their fair share of injuries this season: Grady Sizemore for the season, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo. These are the three best players on a team without a ton of talent. Now Santana. And the backup catcher is hitting about a buck seventy right now. Hopefully nothing too tough for Santana. Otherwise, might have to draft first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. for awhile. Three run blast from Beltre in the 8th. Couldn't possibly have Chris Perez come on with anything more than a one run lead in the ninth.

Tribe has thrown out two Red Sox runners at the plate, lead late in the 7th behind another solid start from Fausto Carmona. Go kids!

Thanks Brownie.

Not that anyone cares outside of Toronto and Cleveland (and possibly not even there), but another nice second career start from an Indians kid (Geanmar Gomez, 5IP, 2ER), and nailbiter save by Chris Perez. Geanmar's debut was 7IP, 2 unearned runs against Detroit. Tribe does okay against the Central and sub-500 teams elsewhere, but otherwise gets their brains beat in. Roster now includes only 2 players over the age of 30 (Travis Hafner and Shelly Duncan).

Nice to see Kerry Wood up to his usual tricks, fortunately not in an Indian uniform...

any chance someone could modify the thread title slightly to reflect AJ's current state? thanks

A bit more on the Jake Westbrook deal from the Plain Dealer: Nice change of pace from another athlete that recently left Cleveland...