Dan Gould

I don't know where my mind was at but my wife put on Law & Order as we sat down to dinner and I had a complete brain cramp. Hopefully they'll re-run this one soon. When they were running Seconds from Disaster last year in prime time, the new episodes seemed to run the next week during the day.

JIM! Glad to see you, and extra glad to hear that you are ready to make good on your debts. People had seriously wondered about you when you left like that.

Thanks for the head's up on tonight's new episode. I can't think of any accident where human control vs autopilot was an issue so I am curious what it will cover. Of course, it could be one of those air emergencies that don't end in disaster and didn't get a lot of media attention. I did catch the last half of "Out of Control" - reminded me of the episode where the maintenance personnel used the wrong size bolt and the windscreen blew out and nearly sucked the pilot out of the aircraft.

Gotta agree with that. I mean, even I'm not all that interested in the time that Gene Harris belched "Thing Ain't What They Used To Be".

Actually, I see that I was wrong: The Rays will be a game ahead in the loss column but the Sox will be two up in the win column, so we'll still be barely holding on to the lead. I should also make it clear that I am giddy at the thought of the Yankees falling below .500 again, and extra giddy at the knowledge that Pettitte, who has to pitch effectively for them to have a chance this season, is looking every bit his 36 years, with an ERA up to 4.40. IIRC, last year it took some bad starts at the end of the season to get his ERA over 4.00. Surely the Yanks are in trouble if only Wang can pitch with any consistent success.

And in about an hour or two, you can say hello to the first place Tampa Bay Rays, too. And after this fucking abomination, is there any question that Buchholz deserves to be sent down or sent to the 'pen? He was fucking atrocious all night long. And now, after Tavarez was DFA'd, Buchholz goes 4+ and they have to wear out the bullpen again, without their long "reliever". I am frankly glad that Hansen was kept up because he looks to be a better option than Timlin, Aardsma or DelCarmen at this point. But it makes me wonder what they plan to do with Colon. He's only made one rehab start, of three innings. Are they going to keep him at Pawtucket til they've stretched him out with two more starts? Will he make one start and then be called up, with the intention of giving him a long relief appearance to finish his rehab? That would be fucking stupid. Its obvious to me though that either Buchholz or Lester, and Buchholz clearly deserves it, will become the long reliever when Colon goes into the rotation. But it makes absolutely no sense to go two more weeks without a long man in the 'pen.

Throw in some short round tables and some chairs and you've got the Borders I visited last Saturday.

I should have noted that the replacement for the Braves on the Red Sox schedule is the Brew Crew. The best thing is we miss Ben Sheets, who is scheduled to pitch Thursday. Next best thing is the players and fans get to say hello to old friend Gabe Kapler. Most disappointing thing is that while we may get a chance to face Gagne, its unlikely to be with the game on the line since he was removed from the closer role. Won't make a difference though as I am quite certain he will get booed the way certain Yankees get booed. Gagne did one smart thing while he was a Red Sox. He tried to protect himself against any lingering resentment by the fans by holding up this shirt during the Rolling Rally (it won't help him this weekend):

I only have a problem with interleague play when the schedule is so uneven between division foes. We get Arizona while the Yankees get San Diego? Give me an f-ing break! It hardly matters what order you put any of those other varying-degrees-of-shitty teams - none of them have much of a chance against most AL teams, but the Yankees sure as hell get more of them this year. If we're lucky, they give the Yankees fits again this year, but I seriously doubt that will happen. I hated interleague before because our so-called "natural" rivals, your team, usually played us very tough. Only recently did we start to beat them, so naturally we get a break this year and don't play Atlanta.

I meant to post this over the weekend but I finally stopped at the Borders which, ironically enough, was the first Borders I ever visited, back in the early 90s. I was visiting a friend and as we were driving to dinner, I saw the Borders sign on the building and thought, "I've got to go in there, Borders is supposed to have a huge music selection." At this time I had only been collecting jazz for about five years, so there was a lot of stuff I didn't have yet - and I was in heaven spending about two hours going through their jazz section. Whenever I came back to south Florida, I made sure to take the opportunity to stop in and act like a jazz piggy again. Well, obviously in the intervening years, the selection narrowed, and DVDs invaded the available space, but I was truly blown away when I walked in there on Saturday: Imagine an entire room, so large that is was nearly the same amount of floor space as was devoted to books & magazines and was once filled with music, DVDs, audio accessories, and music books. Its now got all of the music crammed into a space approximately 20% of its former size. Between 30 and 40 CD display racks have completely disappeared, and in their place sit two lonely tables with chairs around them. No wonder there was no one on duty at the desk. It looked like a fucking mausoleum.

And before anyone makes assumptions about the Yankees (or the month of May for that matter), let's take a look at the interleague schedules for June: Tampa: Florida twice, Cubs, Houston, Pittsburgh That's one flukishly successful team, one contender, one piece of shit, one slightly less bad piece of shit Boston: Cincinnati, Philly, St. Louis, Arizona, Houston That's the best team in the league, two contenders (one surprising), one piece of shit, one slightly less bad piece of shit New York: Mets twice, Houston, San Diego, Cincinatti, Pittsburgh That's four pieces of shit of varying degrees, and another team that is grossly underperforming its roster talent Unless the Yankees completely collapse, they will look a helluva lot better after this abominable interleague schedule is over.

My only consolation when the Rays take over first place is that the Yankees would have to be about the same distance behind. Seriously, I fucking knew that their early inning futility with men on base, which was motherfucking pathetic, would bite them in the ass in the end. Then again: If Lowell doesn't muff the ground ball, its a tie game OR If old man Timlin, who is cooked as cooked can be, doesn't serve up another home run to a hacker like Monroe, its a tie game (and if neither of those happen, they take the lead) OR if dumb ass Drew doesn't come to complete fucking stop in the middle of the baseline to give Nathan time to pick up the ball and nail him at third by 5 feet, its a completely different situation in the ninth. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Drew? You are going on contact, particularly if you are half way down the fucking line. If you go on contact, and Nathan fields it cleanly, he can try to get the runner at home (you're safe at third, Coco at first) OR he can get you at third (run scores, runner at first) OR he can get Coco at first. Once he muffs it, if you run from the start, you are safe all around. One run game, runners at first at third, one out. You can still fucking steal the game, even with Manny's 0 for 6 with five Ks against Nathan.

Can the Rays really sweep the Angels and the Red Sox within about three weeks of each other? It sure looks like they will ... now I am really torn: Do I encourage you to keep it going and sweep the Yanks or do I hope that the Rays cool off so that maybe the Sox can hold onto first place?

I have the Doris Day album - its better than you'd expect. The album Dan refers to probably is the one Day made with the Andre Previn Trio (Red Mitchell, Frank Capp) in 1961 Oops, silly me - I was thinking of Dinah Shore, not Doris Day. I have her 1960 Capitol release, Dinah Sings Some Blues with Red. You haven't heard "I Ain't Got Nothin But The Blues" til you've heard Dinah sing it!

I have the Doris Day album - its better than you'd expect.

Buchholz can't pitch a full season as a starter, plus October, without bumping into his inning limit. He's on pace for 180 innings, and last year he thew something like 145. Normal progression for a young pitcher is to go no more than 30 innings more than the previous year. So if Buchholz stays in the rotation, he's shut down before the playoffs. I don't think anyone wants to see that. Lester has a very similar limitation, having thrown 154 innings last year, but he also actually on a pace to throw a few more innings right now, too. Basically, they need to have Colon, and hopefully Schilling, take some innings from the youngsters. I wouldn't mind seeing Masterson up, too, although I think the ultimate plan for 2008 is to have him slide into the bullpen by the stretch drive if not before.

Bartolo Colon touched 97 in his first rehab start with Pawtucket, and after a lengthy rehab/shoulder strengthening regimen, Curt Schilling has started to throw. Seriously though, if Colon is anywhere near the velocity he had when he was winning his Cy Young, he will be the steal of the year. If Schilling pitches again, I'd put Beckett - Dice - Colon - Schilling - (Wake, Clay or Lester) up against anyone in either league.

And against the consensus best team in the league! If Lilly's start on Friday is a sign of things to come, that's a real good thing. But I still hate to see Soriano and his microscopic OBP leading off. The offense got much better while he was hurt, and a big part of it was the rest of the lineup waiting for their pitch.

I don't defend the kind of razzing that the article describes, but I have to take exception to this statement: Is this writer really asserting that there was a "well-established line" (violated at will, apparently) protecting "addicts" from fan abuse? I have a hard time believing that when "addiction" didn't really become part of the popular vernacular until recently, relative to the history of the game. Now, what I am not sure about is how well-known it was that, say, Hack Wilson or Mickey Mantle were perpetual drunks. We know more about current players than old-time sportswriters used to share. But at a time when alcoholics were called "drunks" not "addicts" I kinda suspect that fans might have not been as understanding.

There are no guarantees in this game. Look at Detroit - everyone was punching their ticket for the World Series and they look atrocious. I also have a hard time believing that the Yankees will be in free fall - I've seen them have two crappy months and still win the division (or last year, barely miss taking the division from us) too many times. And there is no reason for the Rays not to compete down to the wire. They've got pitching, offense, and a bullpen. If anything, I am less concerned about the Jays because they just lost Vernon Wells for 8 weeks with a broken wrist, and its likely he'll be a shell of his former self until next year even when he gets back.

Another really nice win. And another infuriating blown save by Papelbon. Once again, from the first hit, I had a bad feeling, and that is fucked up. All on Papelbon, too - he couldn't put people away. Got to two strikes and walked what became the winning run. Two strikes on the fucker who blooped it into left. People say, ah, its only May, no big deal. But every game counts the same, and in the end, one fucked up loss can mean the difference between winning the division and going home, or the wild card for that matter. And off hand I can think of three infuriating losses to date - Buchholz in Tampa, and now Detroit and Minnesota stealing one in the ninth within two days of each other. For all the games we've won in the last at-bat, we've fucked away too many games already.

Can't begin to say how sorry I am to hear this, Jim.

And another late-inning clutch hit for the Rays as Longoria hits a two run walk-off as Shields throws a 1 hit shutout. So, sandwiched around a stinker against the Sox, Shields has thrown 18 innings of shutout ball and allowed three hits to the Red Sox and Angels.

You want the fans to boo someone who helped you win a world series? I will never understand Red Sox fans. That motherfucking piece of ass-licking shit muffs another one, number 11 on the year, and one batter later its a two-out two run single. Hell yeah I want him booed until he cries like a pussy.

I got an email from Footlocker.com for an order I didn't place. What I could never figure out was how/why the individual would have submitted my email. I called to try to straighten it out and never received anything or (of course) got charged for anything. But I still get spam from Footlocker every week.