Dan Gould

thank you very much, Hans. Very gratifying and yet definitely different in "feel" than the 2004 championship. Its nice that the team seems so well situated to do this again, and maybe again and and again, soon. Pedroia, Ellsbury, Beckett, Papelbon, Lester, Youk - all either locked up for several years or not even close to sniffing free agency. Big decisions upcoming on Schilling and Lowell and maybe Wakefield but this team is in great shape, and there are some strong prospects getting close too - especially the no-hit kid, Buchholz. But I can't imagine ever reading a better headline in my life than Red Sox Win World Series A-Rod Opts Out :g

When we first moved to CT, a lot of people had fun with our street name: Chicken Street. To soften the blow to our self-esteem and avoid any accusation of having insufficient courage, we were told that the name had nothing to do with poultry and was an anglicized version of the name of an Indian Chief of the late 1700s, but actually my Father had the best comeback: "I'm the biggest rooster on the block."

I try to keep an eye out for both Air Emergency as well as Seconds From Disaster on National Geographic channel. Seconds From Disaster doesn't always feature airline accidents but I'd say at least 50% of the episodes do. Both are very interesting and informative - the last Air Emergency I saw dealt with a fairly recent accident in which a Greek plane took off and the flight crew and passengers lost consciousness, the plane flew on autopilot for two or three hours and then ran out of fuel and crashed. It turned out that the maintenance personnel were checking to pressurization seal around the rear doors and to do that, had set the nob to "manual". When they were done, they didn't flip it back to "auto" and so the plane did not pressurize properly and the flight crew quickly lost consciousness before they could troubleshoot the problem. In fact, right before the Operations Center lost contact with the flight, the engineer on the ground sought to confirm that the knob was set to "auto" but the pilot, losing the ability to think clearly as his brain was running out of oxygen, asked about something else. Amazingly, one member of the cabin crew actually remained conscious. The oxygen tanks that supply air to the passengers only lasts about ten or fifteen minutes - its presumed that the flight crew will get the plane down to a level where oxygen isn't necessary in that time period. But without any message from the flight deck, this flight attendant, who had some but not a lot of flight training, realized something was wrong and made his way up to the flight deck. There are oxygen tanks that last an hour or so in the forward compartment and he apparently used those to stay alive - but did not attempt to enter the flight deck until the very end. The Greeks scrambled fighter jets and the pilots initially reported no one was conscious on board - then they saw him enter the flight deck and sit in the pilot's seat - but the radio was tuned to the departure frequency of the airport they took off from, so no one heard his message. He then tried to fly the plane but couldn't and it ran out of fuel. Really sad story, and its difficult to imagine the terror he must have felt - without oxygen for so long, everyone on board would have been brain dead anyway - but he was the one person conscious and aware when it went down, and all because a maintenance person didn't return the knob to where it should have been. Another frightening story of maintenance incompetence was a British airline plane that had the windscreen explode outward, sucking the pilot halfway out of the cockpit. Somehow they managed to land the plane, and because of the extreme cold, the pilot actually survived and recovered most or all of his faculties. Amazingly, it turned out that the maintenance personnel that had replaced the windscreen bolts didn't look for the right ones - he had a measurement and simply eyeballed it and installed the ones that looked right. Of course, they weren't right, and ultimately broke off and nearly killed 180 people. And the mechanic couldn't see what was wrong with his behavior! Insisted that to be certain that the right bolts were used would take too long and they wouldn't be able to meet their workload in a given night! Frightening. But one of the best episodes was the one about Egyptair Flight 800 - the one where the replacement pilot took over much earlier than usual, said "I trust in God" and then flew the plane into the Atlantic. The FAA said it was murder/suicide while the Egyptians kept trying to figure out a way to avoid that conclusion. I remember reading about what the FAA saw as compelling evidence, but this episode had the real, full story. An Egyptian pilot actually defected and was interviewed by the FBI. It turned out that the pilot had a problem with sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances - the Egyptian airline knew about it and was fed up with his latest shenanigans, and the day before his final flight, he was told that this was it - he'd never fly a transatlantic route again. So on top of that circumstantial evidence (the man who had made the decision to ground him was on the doomed flight himself), this pilot also told the FBI that the airline had told the line pilots what had happened - and sworn them to secrecy, even with their families. After learning the truth, its hard to watch the final segment in which a member of the killers family continues to insist that this was a technical problem that the Americans refuse to recognize and fix and that they are destroying the memory of an honorable man. Pathetic. Since I was a kid I've always been fascinated by plane accidents (insert Rain Man joke here) so I really enjoy both of these shows for giving in depth looks at their causes.

Or the Cardinals last year. Somebody's changed his tune. But I don't think I ever said that it was wrong, per se - only that some poor teams back into the playoffs and then get hot and win it all. This year's Rockies are a better team than last year's Cards, imo, and not only because they won 8 more games in the regular season.

I think that's the post-modern snarky title.

22 times in the World Series a team has taken a 3-0 lead. 19 times the Series ended in a sweep. 3 times it went to five games. BTW, the over/under on how soon a Fox announcer will mention that 1 year ago Game 4 starter Jon Lester was undergoing chemo treatment for non-Hodgkins Lymphoma is 5 minutes.

I think you're right that Jimmy moved into the soul bag more naturally than Lowell; I know Watson's evolution but I have stuck with the early Modern sides and not gone deeper. I think its the covers of some of those albums that have scared me off.

Well, fwiw, this series has had two games that ended up being very very very tense and the only WS game in 2004 that even came close was Game 1. So despite the result, I'd say this is a far more competitive Series than that one was. And I don't understand the complaint about hot teams/wild cards. Sometimes those teams parlay it all the way to a championship, like the Marlins in 2003. If anything is lacking, its the front-end of the Rockies rotation; otherwise they have a deep offense that just happened to be cooled off by superior pitching.

:party:

Not to derail this but don't forget to get back to me re McCracklin, Clem. I am curious as to your view of the breadth of his career and his soul period specifically.

I don't know where you came up with this but it is not correct. People who have owned their home a long time do have lower assessed values due to the limitations imposed by Proposition 13 (no more than a 2% increase per year). Actual purchase price is not the basis for property taxes, assessed value (subject to the limitations of state law) is.

I have the latest two Ace compilations, Volumes 1 and 2 of Jimmy and His Blues Blasters, so I assume I've got that one covered ... also found Blast 'Em Dead, an earlier, vinyl only Ace comp of Peacock sides - "She Felt Too Good" has some pretty funny lyrics.

I'm curious where clem places Jimmy McCracklin in the soul genre. Just recently I got a hold of one of his Imperial LPs and then an EMI comp of his Imperial and Minit sides that I also enjoyed a lot. For the breadth of his work from "Miss Mattie Left Me" on, I do believe Jimmy is an unjustly neglected master.

The Globe is reporting that Ortiz and Lowell will get the nod Saturday night. In a sense Youk might be more dangerous off the bench than Papi for the simple fact that his appearance won't necessarily mean the immediate entry of the best lefty the Rockies have. In other words, they won't necessarily make a pitching change to face Youk whereas they'll be hell bent on keeping Ortiz from being a difference maker. With a righty on the mound in games three and four, I think it makes sense to start with Ortiz and see what his bat produces and if his defense hurts. When they get the lead I wouldn't be surprised to see Youk in for defensive purposes sooner, like the seventh or no later than the eighth rather than waiting til the ninth. In related news, Ellsbury will lead off and Pedroia will bat second. That works better for me than moving Drew out of his suddenly productive spot at 6 or 7, though Ellsbury hasn't really hit much so far in this series.

Couple of other observations: Right before that critical pickoff, I watched Holliday start to take his lead and thought to myself "Paps never pays attention to runners - he figures if the hitter can't put it in play, it won't matter" and then BOOM - Holliday is caught in the middle of a step and is out by a mile. Despite his continued postseason success, I still say that Theo should tell big Curt "thanks for the memories" and let him go. I just can't see him competing against the AL East with that stuff when he is 41. Schilling has got to go to the NL to finish up his career - I'd say the Phillies but his veteran presence might be nullified by way too many home runs in that little park. San Diego would actually be a great place because of how big the outfield is, and actually San Diego would have another great benefit: Greg Maddux. Schilling wants to go somewhere to mentor young pitchers, the fact is that with his diminished velocity, he could use some mentoring himself from one of the greatest pitchers whose fastball could never break a pane of glass. With some help from Maddux and that big outfield, Schilling could even manage to pitch a couple more years. The Mets might be another potential landing spot but I think that would absolutely kill Pedro if twice in five years he had to watch Schilling be brought in as the "missing piece" of a championship team. Pedro hated him then and Schilling getting the spotlight made it easier for Pedro to leave for a team where he'd be the undisputed ace. So if Minaya cares what his little prima donna wants, he won't go after Curt. As for the question of who sits in Denver, it looks like Tito is leaning strongly towards keeping Lowell and Papi in the lineup and sitting Youk, who only leads all of baseball this month in hits and runs and is tied for the lead in home runs. Yet Tito was quoted as saying that playing Youk at third means playing two guys "out of position" and that Papi would get rested only if his knee demands it. Mark me down as less than pleased.

Was it just me or did it seem like the home plate umpire was giving about three inches in every direction on the strike zone? I swear, if Dice-K had been pitching he might have ended up with 10 Ks or more with that ump. Very tense game but it really seems as though the Rockie bats went to sleep after the layoff - Helton, Hawpe, Atkins, most of them just aren't hitting a lick. If that doesn't change in Denver, I can't see how this is coming back to Boston. Even with the shorter lineup in the NL park, Fogg and his 5 ERA should get hammered. I am inclined to agree with Marty that Ortiz should sit. Keep the defense strong on the corners, and Papi's knee trouble makes it easier to justify keeping him off the field. I think I'd drop Youkilis into the three spot and move Ellsbury to the two-hole.

The plaintiff has absolutely no compelling argument whatsoever, and the American Bar Association official quoted makes it clear that he wouldn't stand a chance in a US court anyway. He was damn lucky they offered him the maximum payout in the first place.

I don't think there is any question this is a must-win game for the Rockies. With Fogg pitching Game 3 and another mediocrity starting Game 4 in his first start since August, the Rockies have to have their rookie fireballer come up huge while the bats need to knock Schilling around. Not saying its impossible but I'll be mighty impressed if this youngster comes up bigger at Fenway than Sabathia or Carmona did. If the Red Sox bats stay hot, Beckett may not even have to pitch again.

seems to me Aloc is the one who should be living near that one. He'd have figured it out much sooner. In honor of the World Series, I'd rename the street Jim saw "Cup Check".

Even the Rockies are admitting as much. Funny, I think if they hadn't run into a pitcher at least as hot as they "were", they wouldn't be saying the layoff hurt, they'd be saying how hot they still are. If Schilling holds them to five runs or less, it will take a minor miracle for them to get their hoped-for split at Fenway, and that four or five game prediction by It Could Be You will be exactly right, only he got the team wrong. According to what I read, Ubaldo Jiminez can really throw the hard stuff, so I wouldn't be so sure that the Rockies can't win if they score 5 or less tonight. If he can somehow match a Beckett performance, a low scoring win is possible. He also has a nasty curveball he throws in the low 70s. The reason I am only mildly concerned is that his ERA on the road is horrible (5+) and he also has the worst control of any Rocky starter (4+ walks per 9 IP). Anything can happen, and maybe he comes up big, but to me, a rookie going into a WS game 2 on the road with those stats, a Carmona-like implosion has to be more likely than a shut-down type game. We'll see. Marty, I trust you are rooting for the AL team, right?

Even the Rockies are admitting as much. Funny, I think if they hadn't run into a pitcher at least as hot as they "were", they wouldn't be saying the layoff hurt, they'd be saying how hot they still are. If Schilling holds them to five runs or less, it will take a minor miracle for them to get their hoped-for split at Fenway, and that four or five game prediction by It Could Be You will be exactly right, only he got the team wrong.

Its not a question of Gagne vs Tavarez; Gagne was going to be on the roster regardless. Snyder got the spot ahead of Tavarez as long man. Its obvious that Tavarez has fallen precipitously, especially when you consider his ground ball tendencies and their potential value at Coors. Hopefully it won't matter a bit, but I would have preferred Tavarez, not least because of his ability to come out of the pen and give several innings and if necessary, do it again the next day. I don't think Snyder has been called upon to pitch very long or very often.

According to Foxsports.com, Jimenez is starting game 2 at Fenway and Fogg is starting Game 3 at home. If that is true, and the splits hold up, I LOVE IT! Since when did FoxSorts gain any credibility? So you hold court with Tim McCarver now? Oooo. Bad omen, Dan. Tim McCarver has nothing to do with what is reported on the website, and ESPN is reporting the exact same thing. I should have mentioned that I never have the sound on when Fox broadcasts these games, so I was thankfully unaware of McCarver's man-love for Manny Being Manny. If he went that overboard in his praise, that's just one more reason to keep the sound off. Youk's splits by where he bats in the lineup is very telling. Far and away his best "spot" is in the two-hole. Earlier in the season Tito tried to use him elsewhere, particularly when Drew and Varitek were in the depths of their slumps, and also when he was trying to get Lugo and Crisp going at the top of the order. But its clear that Youk feasts on the fastballs that tend to be thrown before Papi and Manny step into the box. Well, as was mentioned above, Wake is out. Not official yet but its believed that Lester gets his start. My best guess is that Tito likes the idea of Beckett, Schilling, Dice, Lester, Beckett, Schilling, Dice. It keeps everyone on regular rest or a day extra; it puts Schilling into the Game 6 spot where, heaven forbid, he might be needed to extend the series to a Game 7, and if it comes down to that, Tito can have Beckett available in the pen for an "all hands on deck" finale.

"Tornado Alley" also has that fault line (Madrid?) that is going to pulverize all of the brick homes in St. Louis one day and is probably more overdue than any of the other fault line areas.

I think the problem here is that you took my statement to be a personal attack or a criticism of your poll. NOT! I said "Good music is beyond category and I think people who close their ears to a broad spectrum of music short-change themselves." You may not agree with that, but you should not twist it into something it never was: an insulting assertion. That, Dan, is an interpretation without "basis in logic." I guess I find the notion of picking first and second favorite genres to be limiting. I didn't take it as a personal attack, and I in fact tend to agree with your assertion. It just isn't related to the poll. Saying that I, for instance, consider blues to be my second favorite genre doesn't imply that I short-change myself by "closing my ears to a broad spectrum of music," for the simple fact that I never said I don't have other genres of interest.