Dan Gould

I'll probably ultimately jinx them into yet another walk off win, but down by a run, tying run at third, Aki just grounded out to the pitcher. They'll have to do it against the Royals All-Star closer. Is it too much to dream that the Sox could get that game they lost in the standings last night back today? First things first - go Royals!

PM on the way for these! Well, this is difficult. By a margin of less than a minute, Soul Stream posted first, but zanon's PM arrived a minute sooner. But I think its only fair to go by the first statement of interest rather than receipt of PM. Therefore, SS gets the Grant Green, while the Ike and Freddie Redd sets are on hold for Jay. Hope you gentlemen accept the final decision of the judge.

Since Mama needs a new pair of shoes and babies would prefer to eat this month, its time to liquidate. I'll be organizing and offering CDs and LPs soon, but here is the easy group to offer. Shipping will be at cost, which may rise as the need for properly sized boxes may develop. Paypal is preferred, money orders accepted, and I will ship worldwide. UPDATE: I have now run out of boxes that are deep enough for these sets. Therefore, everyone should expect a $3 or $4 additional charge for the box, in addition to the shipping fee which will be quoted. It would be very helpful if everyone indicates their shipping preference - Priority or Parcel Post or what. LATEST Update: Available sets are now listed at the top. All of the following Mosaic CD sets are in Mint or Near Mint condition except where noted: The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions of Ike Quebec $50 Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions $100 ************************************************* The Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie - 1959-62 $175 ON HOLD The Complete Roost Sonny Stitt Studio Sessions $100 ON HOLD The Complete Blue Note/UA/Roulette Recordings of Thad Jones $60 ON HOLD The Complete Blue Note/UA Curtis Fuller Sessions $60 ON HOLD The Complete Blue Note Blue Mitchell Sessions $80 ON HOLD The Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions (1956-61) $150 ON HOLD The Phil Woods Quartet/Quintet 20th Anniversary Set (partial price tag on spine/price tag mark on cover/small tear at lower right of cover) $50 ON HOLD The Complete Black Lion & Vogue Recordings of Thelonious Monk $50 ON HOLD The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of Gerald Wilson and His Orchestra $50 ON HOLD The Complete HRS Sessions $60 ON HOLD Columbia Small Group Swing Sessions 1953-62 $90 ON HOLD Complete Blue Note Recordings of Art Blakey's 1960 Jazz Messengers (binding of box started to tear, has been repaired with Scotch tape - binding is secure, its the paper over the top I am speaking of) $75 ON HOLD Complete Blue Note Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Studio Sessions $70 ON HOLD Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd (fading/browning on cover) $40 ON HOLD Complete February 1957 Jimmy Smith Blue Note Sessions $60 ON HOLD Complete Blue Note Horace Parlan Sessions (binding of cover has peeled about 80% - not really the binding, the paper on top with the name over the spine) $50 ON HOLD Complete Blue Note Recordings of Grant Green with Sonny Clark $60 ON HOLD The Complete Pacific Jazz Joe Pass Quartet Sessions $50 ON HOLD The Complete Mercury Max Roach Plus Four Sessions $140 ON HOLD The Complete Columbia J.J. Johnson Small Group Sessions $120 ON HOLD

And Tim, Dice-K has never iced his arm either.

You can't DL Manny unless he's seriously injured. It seems to be a lingering problem, for like two months, but in the last week, he scored from first on a double and went first to third on another hit. He's just not hitting like he was when he was red hot earlier. Someone needs to remind Manny that if he wants to stay in Boston, he's playing for his next contract, or at least to have his option picked up. They are already talking about trading for Teixeira if Ortiz doesn't come back - and as pessimistic as I am about how imminent his return is, someone in the Herald said that he's probably looking at the end of the month. That won't work at all - we need him back and get a clue about what he can do before the deadline. I wouldn't mind a shot at Teixeira to see if we can convince him to stay. They'd get younger, could move Youkilis to LF (I didn't say it would be fair or smart, just that they could do it), say sayonara to Manny and keep him away from the Yankees. With all the money coming off the payroll, its easy to foresee the Yankees going hard for Teixeira and possibly, though its not a foregone conclusion,

As far as I know, he is, and when he was up here he didn't look that terrible. He made all the plays he should make - and those are the ones that Lugo screws the pooch on. Its Theo's fault and everyone else's problem that he dished out so much money for such a worthless excuse, and there is no way Lugo should be a bench player. Bench players are supposed to at least field, and he sucks at that. Lugo has to be released. John Henry can afford it, particularly if Lowrie is allowed to take over. At the major league minimum, it would be as if he is paying Lugo but not playing him. If you trade for someone "established" it becomes another financial black hole like the Rent-A-Wreck contract/trade. Think of it - 9 million for Lugo to play elsewhere and 3 million for Eckstein of someone equally worthless? Now you've got a SS that costs 12 million dollars, and for what?

More blown saves to date than all of last year. Three walk-off losses this year out of five in his career. Yeah, I'd say he's been a POS. Tek gets partial credit for the idiotic reliance on the high strike zone strategy that has yet to work with him, but Papelbon is to blame too many times this season. He throws him out while stretched out on the ground? Cano was running all the way and he'd have been lucky to throw him out if he had fielded it cleanly. SS is the least of their problems, because they have an internal answer - Lowrie can field the easy ones that Lugo fucks up, and his hitting - particularly his OPS - runs circles around that worthless joke. I don't listen to these broadcasts - who are they shopping for? David fucking Eckstein? Maybe Omar Vizquel, who makes Varitek look like Yogi Berra? That was the name tossed around earlier in the year when Lugo started killing us. What this team needs is relief pitching (I fear Masterson in the bullpen because of his wildness and problems with lefties) and for people like Ellsbury, Ramirez, and Varitek to earn some keep with the bat. Not a trade for some other SS when there are other glaring weaknesses and an in-house solution. The Rays get one more against the hapless Royas, the Yankees and then the Indians. If they don't recover immediately against the red-hot Twins, they will be on the outside looking in. My five game prediction may turn out to be closer to eight games when the break comes.

Because I think new birthdays deserve new threads, I'm going to post this here: :party:

Who's to say? If he keeps going this way this season, we will miss the playoffs and he and Boras can go find some other team to con into giving him four years.

Well if this isn't gut-check time I don't know what is. Its certainly the first one since the ALCS. This team is not good right now. The bullpen sucks. The offense sucks. And Ortiz is almost certainly not getting back at the break, if they are only hoping he might take BP sometime this week. And there is no fucking time to waste. Manny is worthless, Tek even more so, Drew isn't doing much and the bottom of the lineup is a black hole. At what point do one run losses stop being "bad luck" and start being a fact of life that isn't going to change, because of a shitty lineup and bullpen? And this one run loss all falls on Papelbon, with one big assist from Varitek. WHY does he keep going to the "target at the shoulders" stance with Papelbon on the mound? HE CAN'T EXECUTE THE PITCH. HE NEVER HAS EXECUTED THE PITCH. In fact, what happens is that he fails to elevate the pitch but elevates it enough to make it a belt high fastball over the middle of the plate. Schilling, Pedro, sometimes Dice-K. Those are the guys who get the ball where it needs to be and makes that strategy work. Papelbon has NEVER made that strategy work. Every fucking strikeout he gets is on the hard stuff on the black, or with a splitter. And every time he tries to get a batter to chase a high strike, he feeds him a cookie and gives up a hit. Then of course there was Papelbon's complete incompetence on the bunt attempt. Cano is dead to rights if he picks it up and throws - but for some goddamn reason the asshole looked to first, as if the play is, check both bases, take whichever out is easiest. Fucking POS. So it didn't surprise me a bit that Slapsie Maxie "muscles" a ball 100 feet for a game winning single. 3-7 road trip. 5 games out of the division. If they don't get their shit together immediately in Boston, they will be out of the WC by the time Minnesota leaves town. And they motherfucking deserve to be.

What I've seen is impressive but between his physique and his motion, doesn't he seem to be an incipient injury risk?

Congratulations for doing what I said he wouldn't/couldn't. Anything else would be regarded as sour grapes so I'll refrain from commenting on his blatant disregard of the 25 second rule or his ugly forehand. Oops, I guess I did comment. Seriously, I respect his speed and athleticism. I hate his game which is as close to classic tennis strokes as my own. He just makes them work for him.

I cannot recall being this much on the edge of my seat during a tennis match since ... well between the Borg-McEnroe "Battle of 18-16", and maybe the last time Pete won it. But this is even more intense.

What did I say? And isn't it good to know that Wimbledon requires its champion to play out the fifth set? I wonder when they'll run out of daylight or if the rains will return.

Uh, the match I've watched is about as close a two sets to zero match can be. As much as Nadal picked up his game a bit to come back from a break down in the second and third set, Federer has played some incredibly loose points that helped him. He ain't done yet.

:party:

:party:

Interesting stat I read - after August 8 or something, the Rays have 18 games at home; the Sox have 25. Now the Rays are a .500 club on the road, unlike almost every other team in the AL, but given the way both teams dominate at home, that has to be an advantage to the Sox.

There's a surprise. Did her butt enter the stadium less than a minute after the rest of her did?

Double crap if you were watching the still-born comeback by the Red Sox while seeing the Cub score change in the bottom of the ninth.

You are a contemptible lying sack of shit. Let's talk reality. You continually goad me. You attack me for no reason when I've done nothing to attack you. Yeah I've given you a hard time in the past. Just as I do nothing to attack 7/4 until I've been attacked, I do nothing against you until you start piling the shit on my head all over this fucking forum. And as for 7/4 - let's talk what your host says. He has told me in the past that he has wasted time going through the forums to DELETE his little needling attacks at me. Here is his PM sent to me on February 13: And believe this, Lowe: No one sees what you do against me as anything other than what it is. The mindless acts of a child who has discovered that if he pokes the bear, the bear gets pissed, and you get to laugh at him.

its not an insult you motherfucking piece of shit. And when you talk about "hit and run" posts, just who is the asshole who spent about three days writing posts with grammatical or spelling errors and added "left unedited for Dan Gould to correct"? You are the asshole who posted something to hurt me. You get off on that? You enjoy attacking me? You want to see how far you can push me? Well now you know:

After seeing this posted a moment ago: I would like to offer an apology to certain specific people for certain transgressions I am guilty of. I am going through a number of extremely stressful, painful and difficult things in my life and I have come to realize that frustrations with those problems have found an outlet in un-called for displays of anger. Goodspeak, Jazzmoose and a few others are the people to whom I offer this apology and who I hope will accept it. However, there are some people who are just contemptible assholes to whom I have no hesitation to say the following: 7/4 and Allen Lowe: EAT SHIT AND DIE.

Weather permitting!

You mean that 1776 wasn't historically accurate? You mean the following exchange appears nowhere in the Congressional Record? Oh well - I'm still going to enjoy our holiday tradition later tonight - and I'll get a little verklempt during "Mamma Look Sharp" and I'll laugh at this: