Dan Gould

Great. Back to piece-of-shit Wakefield. If they are back two games with ten to play, and having lost the season series, that means you have to outplay the Rays by three games the rest of the way. I predict that in two hours it will be time to hope that the Rays finish off the Twins for us this weekend and then its time to start resting people and figuring out how in the hell we're going to beat the Angels when they'll never have to have Lackey pitch at Fenway. Edit to add And once again they're making a piece of pathetic shit like Garza into Cy Fucking Young.

And now both are gone.

Blues in Trinity is spoken for; the Clifford Jordan remains available.

Two discs Stupendously left over available to the first to send a PM: The Mellow Side of Clifford Jordan (Mapleshade) Dizzy Reece, Blues in Trinity (BN promo, sticker on CD and discoloration on insert from where sticker was) Let me know if you want a jewel box, I'll send with free shipping in the U.S.

How in motherfucking hell can we make Andy Fucking Sonnanstine look like Cy Fucking Young? If they don't figure out how to hit that pathetic bum, they'll never get past the Rays when it counts.

"Danger from Ike"? They played Sunday night and Monday afternoon. They were under more danger from the remnants of Ike where they played in Milwaukee than were their families or the city of Houston.

Yeah well I'll just point out that they very nearly should have lost three of four to the Jays this weekend. We were fortunate that Lady Luck smiled on us so soon after giving us the finger. And the reason that there is no precedent is that you never know how a team responds to a managerial change and that any change is likely to take longer than 12 games to become apparent. Now if the Mets collapse and the Brewers back into the playoffs, they were geniuses for canning the manager? My guess is that win or lose, it will be another 100 years before any team does what the Brewers did, because its just plain nuts, regardless of the outcome.

Well I like Beckett going tomorrow, he's looked very good since his return and should have no pitch count restrictions. And the Rays are sending Garza (I think) on short rest on Wednesday against Wake. Wake has usually been great in domes, it would be nice if he throws like he did against Toronto in the rain.

Can you say total panic? Brewers fire manager Ned Yost With 12 games to go, tied for the Wild Card lead? In the vague hope that this will somehow trigger different results then they've been getting? Like someone on ESPN said, there's no precedent for a move like this, but heaven help the next manager whose team is collapsing, should this actually result in them making the playoffs. Then all bets will be off and other teams will try such an insane ploy. And a nice start to the big series at the Trop. 11-1 through three and a half, with one home run after another flying out (5 altogether, 4 off of Kazmir). Of course, Dice is at 60 pitches through three innings, so ... we'll probably see Timlin in this one and then all bets are off.

The thing is though Ben that as ScottB's post shows, those types of quacks aren't exactly rare in the field. I have to believe that on a proportional basis, the ratio of quacks to skilled practitioners among Chiropractors is just huge compared to medical doctors. As it is, I don't reject eastern medical practices, I think that there are a lot of things we still don't know about how our bodies work. But I have a real knee-jerk reaction about chiropractors.

There was a guy in south Florida that ran an infomercial in which he railed about "pills, potions and surgery" and insisted that chiropractic was the way to solve all medical problems. IMHO, that makes the entire "discipline" quackery. (I was tempted to take him up on his "free consultation" just to ask him straight up, should my lymphoma-ridden brother have found a chiropractor or gone to the oncology department of Johns Hopkins?)

Anyone else question the decision to let Zambrano go for the no-hitter, in light of it being his first start in 12 days, being diagnosed with rotator cuff tendinitis, and having several poor starts before then when he said he just had a "dear arm"? It seems clear to me that if Beckett had done that in his return from his "elbow inflammation", Francona would have taken the long view and taken him out at whatever his pitch limit was. I for one was more nervous about him getting hurt on a maximum effort pitch than about the no-hitter itself. And I'm just glad that he didn't get hurt and completed it.

Thanks to all ... while it wasn't quite "stupendous" let alone Stupendous it was an enjoyable birthday nonetheless. And a word to the wise (blues fan): B.B. King's latest, One Kind Favor, belongs in every collection. Also a special thank you to Chris for the perfect photo-shopped card. My wife and I got a big kick out of that.

Glad to hear you're OK Erick though I am puzzled by what you say the officials said. It looked to me for several days that there were strong odds that Galveston and then Houston would get hammered, and that's just what happened.

On the other hand, I knew someone who asked that I burn discs no faster than 8X because his stereo tended to have trouble with those that were burned faster. But I never heard that from anyone else.

Here's a frightening first-hand account of Galveston up to the point that the back-side of the storm came ashore: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/14gal...amp;oref=slogin

You mean aside from Hank's squeaky reed?

I think the surge and the wind in Galveston will be extraordinary.

A nice win and return to form by Wakefield but here's another Francona decision I cannot comprehend. Wake is at 94 pitches with a chance to throw a shutout, you've got a doubleheader tomorrow with Byrd going in the early game and Colon in the late game. So what does he do? Send out Delcarmen to finish it off. Like he won't be needed a couple of more times in tighter games than 7-0. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure shutouts by 42 year olds are a fairly rare event in ML history.

It doesn't look like its going to strengthen as much as they predicted (second Gulf storm in a row not to strengthen as much, may be time to re-jigger the models?) but this is still going to do some major damage. I just wish the damage could be reserved only for the bible humpers who were trying to make it go away earlier in the week. Good luck to all.

I think I'll require proof. On second thought, maybe not.

They've been beating up some winning teams. I feel about 15 years younger every time the camera pans to the dugout and I see Cito Gaston managing. I'm happy for the guy as he's been such a loyal company man. I think you're right to treat them seriously. And Cito himself looks like he never left the dugout! I'm too lazy to look it up but the man has to look at least 15 years younger than he is.

I didn't know it in my heart, because I was in bed -- I work for a living. Still, he did his thing in the 14th-inning; your rant fails to address the anemic offense throughout the game, which was my point. Shows what YOU know - that was the same prognosis for Nomar, before he was lost for a season. Swinging a bat isn't Ortiz biggest problem, swinging the fork is. Toronto does not have the staying power and has not all season. They are NOT going to recover this much of a gap in the remaining 2-1/2 weeks; will not happen. They could sweep us, and they're STILL not going to catch us. Hate to rain down positive vibes on your parade of negativity, but the only team to worry about is Minnesota, and I don't think that's a "worry" situation. Nomar had a full tear, this was a partial. HE WILL NOT HAVE SURGERY. And if swinging the fork is a bigger problem than swinging the bat, why are you ranting that he must have surgery as soon as practicable? Say it with me AGAIN: HE WILL NOT HAVE SURGERY. Toronto has won 19 of their last 27. They can't keep it up? They have the best pitching staff in the league, and as you yourself noticed, the bats were anemic, and have been that way since they left behind the worst pitching staff in Texas. You expect the bats to bust out against them? What if they drop eight of the next ten? That is far from impossible, given who they play and where they play them.

It is pretty amazing how far they've come. Everyone laughed when they refused to be sellers at the deadline, and even added Randy Wolf to the rotation, yet there they are with a legitimate shot.

1. Timlin should have been DFA'd a long time ago, when it became obvious that he had nothing left. Keeping him last year wasn't a terrible decision because he actually put together a good month or two. He's sucked from day one this year, and don't tell me that you didn't know in your heart that this game was likely to be over when he came in. 2. Shows what you know - Ortiz needs no surgery. Surgery will not complete the recovery process. His wrist will be 100% when he stops swinging a bat for a couple of months. 3. Toronto is the hottest team in baseball. The bats have disappeared just as the best pitching staff comes into Fenway, dreaming of a miracle finish. And to top it off, they've whipped our asses most of the time. You think its impossible, and its far from that. This team can just as easily tank as make a drive for the playoffs, and if they do the former, it will start this weekend.