Dan Gould

Well I expected them to lose but I didn't expect to wake up to find out that Dice-K walked off the mound holding his back and hip - and supposedly its "shoulder fatigue". The guy who was described as having a bionic shoulder when the Red Sox got his medical records is now out with a bad shoulder. Jesus Christ. If this doesn't guarantee that the Sox won't "run away" with the division I don't know what would.

Maybe it would be impossible for them to deal with Concord, but it seems to me that McCoy would be the perfect artist for Da Bastids to reissue on their boutique label.

Not to worry, Rays fans, Matsuzaka is making sure that you'll hang on to first place.

Makes no never mind to me. The Marlins are playing over their heads and aren't likely to keep it up. The Rays are playing the way I feared they might. There is no reason they shouldn't be in it for the duration, barring any major rash of injuries.

Yes the same that had the 2nd highest payroll the 4 seasons before that, the same evil empire that has the 2nd biggest media market in the country behind them and the same evil empire that pays Dice K and Beckett more in salary than some other teams entire payroll. Yes, the same team that has won 2 of our the last 4 world series and had the best record in baseball with a seven game winning streak going into the weekend. The Yankees have developed young talent also but like the Red Sox they can afford to make mistakes on a player here or there due to the high revenue they that get. For the Rays and A's to compete everything has to break the right way. You have a great GM but lets see how good he is with the payroll of the A's. Come on Dan, the Red Sox are anything but a underdog. I don't blame them for reaping the benefits of the location they play in but enough of the poor little Red Sox how will ever compete against the big bad Yankees bull shit. I can't take it. Besides the Yankees will be in free fall mode by the all star break with that pitching staff. Bank on it. Sorry for the rant, btw Pedroia and Ellsbury are two of my favorite younger players in the league and are fun to watch, I hope they have long careers. Hopefully the A's won't get over excited about the weekend and stay focused and not get routed by the Jays. For those of you with MLB TV the Halliday vs Harden matchup in this series will be must see tv. So let's see - they have more revenue than most teams because their fans support them. Sounds real evil to me. You haven't heard anything about "poor little Red Sox" since 2006, and that is because since then the team is now reaping the benefits of the "player development machine" Theo endeavored to create. If there is indeed going to be a dynasty, it won't be because of free agents signed with all that terrible revenue they get from their fans. It will be because Pedroia, Ellsbury, Buchholz, Lester and many, many others excel in the major leagues. Now, I am sure you will bitch even more if the coming dynasty extends beyond four or five years because the team can afford to keep those players even when they reach free agency.

I had no idea that his background in acting helped make him so at ease in front of the camera. I agree that the scenes with Hoffman in Tootsie were classic. I also recall a fine appearance as a very expensive shrink on an episode of Mad About You. RIP.

I always identified with his partner, because I was five years old and also named "Dan".

Well it was against the Mariners but Colon looked pretty darn good last night, 84 pitches to get through seven innings, allowing five hits, 1 walk and 1 run. So as they continue to struggle, at least it looks like Colon could indeed be the steal of the year. And I guess congratulations are in order to the Rays for joining the 1903 NY Giants as only the second team to have the worst record in the majors one season and have the best record in the majors at Memorial Day the next season. FWIW, the Giants finished second in the league in 1903 before two successive 100 win campaigns with a National League pennant than a World Championship.

I had no idea that there were other Woolworths that continued on after the original US-based company shut down in the 90s and became Footlocker. My very first job was at a Woolworth's.

I'd agree with the "hellish" assessement of flying overall, but I prefer middle seats to aisles. No one dropping bags on me or standing with butt in my face during boarding. No carts whanging my extremities. Only half the 'up and downs' for the potty breaks of my seatmates. I suppose my 500,000km a year has taught me how to assert some claim to those armrests. Do you therefore prefer window seats overall? As far as I am concerned, there are four armrests for three people. Hell if I'm going to get frozen out completely.

I won't be getting a check... I'm self employed and usually don't end up owing any money to the IRS.. Randy, did you file?? It doesn't matter if you owe or not. You get a stimulus check if you file a return. that's not entirely true. I think you have to show $6000 joint income, $3000 as an individual to get the check. Below that you are SOL, which you were already anyway.

Much to my surprise JetBlue is one of those airlines. I know US Airways is doing it as well and I'm sure there are others. So when you select an aisle or window seat, you get an added fee as you are booking online? That's pretty stupid. It would be weird to book a flight and see all of the middle seats filled and the aisle/window available. What if you wait long enough that they have to give you an aisle or window seat first anyway? Then you aren't "requesting" it - there shouldn't be an additional fee.

We filed for an extension so I don't know how that will effect us but I am wondering if we should compare SSNs and list the one with the lower last two digits first.

Is it possible for the Mariners to be shittier, blowing a 5-2 eighth inning lead to the Yanks, and what are the odds they can continue to suck for three more games against the Sox? Somehow I have a crappy feeling about that likelihood.

Are you sure Night of the Living Dead is PD? Considering how many 100s of millions of dollars its supposedly made for a six-figure shooting budget, I'd be surprised ...

Hey Dan, what's up??? One hit last night???? We got 7 hits, and 3 runs off of Justin Duchscherer when Oakland came to town!!! Hey now, Duchscherer is good, he was a starter his whole career until he was a rookie in 06 and the A's put him the bullpen where he made the All Star team that year. He had the Rich Harden injury bug last year but I think he is right now where people expected him to be. Chad Guidan who got sent to the pullpen would make a 4th starter on most teams but there is no room for him in this rotation as Smith and Eveland have been pleasant surprises to go along with Blanton and Harden. Nice to see Ryan Sweeney start to turn into the player he was expected to be when he was the #1 prospect of the Wt. Sox. He crushed one against Beckett last night. Its nice to win a few against the new evil empire. You mean the evil empire with only the fourth highest payroll, the one that does it by drafting and developing great young talents (Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury, Youkilis, Buchholz, Masterson, Lowrie)? What's evil about that? And of course Duscherer is good - he was a Red Sox prospect til they shipped him to the Rangers for Doug Mirabelli.

On schedule but slow, slow, slow. On Saturday the doctor took the stiches out and took new x-rays, he said everything looks good and he's about where he expected him to be. But we're still looking at about 8 more weeks of keeping him in his crate and carrying him up and down the stairs morning and night. Oh, and my wife told me there were no fewer than five other dogs in the waiting room who had the same injury in different stages of treatment/recovery. Now, this guy is a knee specialist so its not surprising that the owners would be taking their pets to him, but all on the same day? I almost think doggie ACLs are more at risk than wideout's and running back's.

Hey Dan, what's up??? One hit last night???? We got 7 hits, and 3 runs off of Justin Duchscherer when Oakland came to town!!! I keep trying to tell myself, you're not as bad as you look when you're losing, but jesus fucking christ, six road losses in a row, and I won't be remotely surprised to see them back out of first place this afternoon. Aside from the tiniest hope that Lester could actually go Johnny VanDerMeer on the A's, I'm actually glad I'll be in Jupiter for an early Memorial Day cookout where I won't have any fucking clue what is happening until I get home.

I guess you're just going to have a get a copy and give it a listen. Not only did Gene Ludwig get the call to do the date, he did a darn fine job! This is actually Gene's second organ date for Bob Porter and Rudy Van Gelder. The material is really well done. Pattye Ludwig I have no doubt he did an excellent job. I said he was the unlikely part of the recording because I am unaware that he has played or recorded with Scott or Duke.

Don't worry Dan, the Red Sox will win the next two because they A's don't win series, in fact they haven't won one since the first week of May (thanks ESPN power rankings). The A's will lose the next two 2-0 and 3-2 but their stats will look good because it will say they are outscoring the opposition based on the lopsided victory last night yet its meaningless because they don't do the little things to win games like base running and catching fly balls in the outfield. Texas is tearing the cover off the ball and they should pass the A's in the standings soon. Well that's what I kept saying to myself last night, that we've got two good pitchers going Saturday and Sunday and the A's don't have anyone else like Harden. Meantime the Yankees are pounding the shit out of the pathetic M's, but at least with Toronto winning today, even if the Yanks win tomorrow (they certainly should with Wang pitching and since the M's used Sunday's starter today) the best they can do is to reach .500 but still be in last place.

She's adorable and all but 100,000 copies is nothing. And I'll say again that the vast majority of 14 year old contestants will suck or be poor imitations of the horrid noise that currently passes for "singing" on the radio. But that's not what Idol's producers really care about - they want to fix their problem with a declining audience in the younger demographics. Here's an idea: don't book Neil Diamond or Dolly Parton or have two nights of Beatles tunes either. I mean, I'll quit watching but you'll get a few more youngsters interested then.

An untitled blues on a DVD I recently received of Gene Harris at Otter Crest in 1981. The concert was released as an LP and later a Concord CD but the video of the entire show is approximately an hour and fifteen minutes longer, and includes a thirty minute mini-set by the trio before singer Bill Henderson comes out. They wrap it up with one of Gene's patented romping, stomping thoroughly invigorating blues. I've recently been feeling especially down over pretty much every aspect of my life, but one thing I should be thankful for is that listening to that performance, which isn't all that different from any of Gene's usual audience-pleasing shtick, still brings a smile to my face and a shudder up my spine. I may know what is going to come next, as Larry remarked in his thread, but I'm glad I can still listen to it.

Maybe there's hope yet that we can get some distance from the Rays in the coming weeks. SI points out that:

Well in the end the rocker won, and it wasn't even close. And now here is an early word on possible changes for next year, from the NYT: Since I really don't care much about the back stories of the contestants, an extended Hollywood Week at the start would probably be annoying. They do need to freshen up the beginning in some way though. But I much prefer the delusional losers in big doses, interspersed with half decent talents. I don't know that I could stand to watch the profiles of finalists, waiting to see the trainwrecks. But count me as strongly opposed to the idea of 14 year olds competing. That's just plain nuts. What are you going to get? A lot more inexperienced performers with even worse karaoke impressions. Going up in age gave them more experienced and polished performers. Does anyone think a 14 year old can win and become a hit-maker immediately?