Dan Gould

Well, now that some order has been restored in my universe, I think I am ready to comment rationally about the Yankee series to date. I am quite certain I was incapable of rational thought until today's game was over. Number one, I will say that the loss on Friday was the biggest gut-punch killer of my 32 years of being a fan. Worse than Grady Little, worse than Bucky Dent, worse than 19-8. Why? Because the end came so suddenly. With Grady's brain fart, the damage was done and the loss was inevitable, no matter how long the game went. This was nearly as important a game, and the lead disappeared and the loss was tallied in the space of, from the time Papelbon came in, about five pitches. I was prepared for the game to get tighter, I was not prepared for him to go single, double, single, to give up the winning runs in the blink of an eye. It will forever make me sick just thinking about it. Number two, I do not have a problem with Tito's management of the bullpen. As Patrick says, you go with your best pitchers. While Okajima has had more mixed results of late, and just as with Dice-K, fatigue has to be an ongoing concern, it was a total fluke that he went homer, homer, walk, double. This was a meltdown that in all likelihood will never happen again while Okajima and Paps are teammates. Ever. But as far as Gagne goes, you had the lefties starting the inning - that is Oki's responsibility. Once the inning started its downward slide, under the circumstances, you have to go with your best, Papelbon. That is a core belief of Theo, not to mention Bill James. If Papelbon gets out of the inning and the lead is intact, maybe he starts the ninth, maybe Gagne does. But Papelbon has to be on the mound for the most important pitches. It just so happened that he executed about as well as Oki did. Number three, let's talk about some positives: First, the top two starters far outperformed the Yankees top two. While Dice gave up some walks and threw too many pitches, it was still an impressive return to something resembling form. Beckett today was simply outstanding, and having the likelihood of home field advantage throughout the playoffs is encouraging when you consider that Wang does not have a very good ERA at Fenway in his career. Second, the offense continues to produce in the absence of Manny, as well as the mini-slump that Lowell is in and the major slump that Youk has been in since the ASB. Papi is hitting, Pedroia has to be the favorite for RoY, and Ellsbury sure looks like a star in the making. Last, while I have not shown a great ability in my prognostications, I remain optimistic about our chances in the rubber game. Schilling pitched quite well in the loss at New York and I will be very surprised if Clemens is effective, and if he is, if he is effective for very long. Magic number is nine, should be seven, and ought to have been 5 when the weekend is over. But I'll be happy if it is seven when all is said and done. Then I think we'll have a chance to clinch on the road next weekend or certainly at the beginning of our final homestand.

Shouldn't we also toast Bob Weinstock for allowing the recording to happen after Coltrane had first agreed to sign with Prestige and then also signed with BN? It being fifty years old reminds me of what happened when I first heard this. I bought the album in 1988, liking the cover and not really knowing who the artists were. Completely blown away, before I flipped the album over to listen to it again, I scanned the back cover for a recording date. The only date I could find was 1985 (the date of this reissue), and so I thought to myself, well, this Coltrane dude must have a more recent release to check out.

I don't know. How many? How many versions of What's going on", "Willow weep for me" or "Since I fell for you" by a tenor player do you want to hear? Or maybe it makes a difference who he is. MG In the case of MartyJazz, I'm pretty sure he could do without any more versions of "Since I Fell For You" by a tenor player.

This set was probably the greatest bargain acquisition of timeless music I've ever stumbled upon. Someone had sold it to a used books/music store and the inconsequential mark on the disc relegated it to the "BLEM" (ished) section: $2.50

Too bad Pollo Tropical is well-established in south Florida.

Be that as it may, and yes, "gyp" is equally offensive, doesn't mean you need to indulge in the same behavior, whether you're commenting on his choice of words or not.

Anti-Semitic slurs are not cool, Clem.

Did you look at the back of the jewel box? For some reason I think they are there.

Never heard of the Buddy Montgomery before but it sounds good to me (I'm always down for longer, slower numbers - assuming they're steeped in the blues) and Possum Head is a no-brainer, particularly at that price. Might not be the best of the Argo/Cadets but each of them had their pleasures and the best of them stand up well with the BNs of the same era.

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes, and particularly to FFA for a very amusing comic - just wait til you live through one, my friend! The day was very nice, nice dinner with my wife and ice cream at Friendly's afterwards (you guys in the northeast know how good that is). Three very nice gifts, in order of appreciation: The two disc Stax compilation recently released The complete first season DVD of WKRP in Cincinnati Now, I know that for licensing reasons, they had to edit out the original rock/pop songs used and substitute generic songs but I don't really care. I'm going to enjoy one of the greatest moments in sit-com history later today, the Thanksgiving promotion episode punctuated by the immortal line delivered by the Big Guy: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly. :g A 19 inch flat screen monitor. Sweet! And best of all, the Yankees-Red Sox game was rained out, so the lead is still 5 1/2 games. Isn't it?

Hallelujah, the Yanks finally lost! Magic number is 11, I'll be happy if we drop that down to 7 this weekend. I can only imagine how the yahoos at the MLB Yankee forum are screaming about "Sleepy Joe" after he puts Chris Britton in to start the bottom of the ninth of a 1-1 game and he promptly went hit, stolen base, game winning single. Almost as if Torre didn't care all that much about this game, when it was a must-win if you want to have a chance at the division. I mean, while it might have ended up with the same result, isn't Kyle Farnsworth higher on the depth chart than Chris Britton? He's the guy you call on after the game has stayed tied through 10 or 11. Small consolation for Yankee fans would be that the rookie, Kennedy had his best start yet, actually outpitching AJ Burnett. Meanwhile the Angels lost to the Orioles, giving the Sox a little more room atop the league standings. While they have the best road record in the majors aside from the Mets, I still say that having home field advantage throughout the playoffs will be a big help.

Reading the posts on the Hoffman Forum, it's obvious the these people (with the exception of Rooster_Ties) worship at he altar of Saint Steve. I was gonna say.

Well, Papi picked the right time for his first walk-off of the year!!! Lester gives up a four spot in the first, Papi hits a three run homer in the third, and while Tavarez/Delcarmen/Okajima/Papelbon keep the Rays in check, they threaten but can't cash in on their pathetic bullpen until the ninth, when Lugo walked and after Pedroia flew out, Papi homered for the win. And I had visions of the Yankees pulling to within 3 1/2 Thursday after they finish the sweep of the Jays tomorrow. Now if AJ Burnett would just show some sac and help us out tomorrow, if Toronto has any pride at all. Late addition: Now that I've seen the replay, it was possibly the weakest homer he's ever hit at the Fens. Fly ball to right, looked like it would wrap around the Pesky Pole - that's what the right fielder thought, only it ended up ten feet beyond and hit off someone in the first row. With that low fence, if the outfielder had judged it right, it could have easily been a long out.

Even if these are "like hearing these ... for the first time," can it really be such an improvement as to obliterate all previous releases? I find it impossible to believe that a recording like Soul Station will be demonstrably different in a truly significant way. This is aural masturbation for audiophile wankers. Its the worship of sound rather than music. IMHO, of course, and YMMV.

Yeah, I can imagine the shock you got when you found out they'd won that game. Another game in the bank and then poof, its gone. Trust me that it won't make a difference in the end, but on the other hand, if it had happened to me and the Yanks had made such a comeback, I'd have set a record for F-Bombs in a single post. (If you thought that last one was impressive you have no idea what I can do when I'm really inspired)

Huh? The date: 9/11. There was an article in the Boston Globe about their stud prospect Jacoby Ellsbury and the fact that he missed out on his own 18th birthday celebration because of the events of that day.

Its certainly true that when he doesn't have command, its like BP. Overall, he can be expected to have a .500 to above record, 4+ ERA and plenty of innings (which suggests that its actually a strong ratio of good starts to bad). As far as late in the season or in the post-season goes, I don't know. He had a great post-season in 2003 and was going to be the ALCS MVP until Grady had his brain fart. However, looking at Baseball-Reference, his post-season numbers aren't really very good, aside from that one ALCS. Disconcerting, to say the least, with Dice-K not looking good and Schilling still an unknown quantity (certainly with his lack of velocity, if he mislocates a bunch of pitches, he'll get lit up), Wake needs to be a solid starter. BTW, Gagne did come in and he gave up two singles. Normally it wouldn't matter but since the first hitter took second on "defensive indifference", he scored on the second single. 16-10 the final. Still in front by five, the magic number is 13. Would be great if it can go down to ten before the Yanks arrive, but maybe 11 is more realistic. Toronto may be snakebit by that collapse against Detroit where Doc Holliday had a four run lead, two outs and nobody on and they lost.

Jack is definitely right. The guy put up tit-for-tat negative feedback with the hope of getting you to remove your legitimate complaint. He's an ass. How refreshing would it be if someone would put up a response to negative feedback that said "He's right, I screwed up. But it was an aberration and my record with other buyers shows it."

Yeah, I was going to come in and see if I could edit my entry but you already responded. Maybe the paranoia is running rampant but after the loss last night and Wake looking terrible tonight and the Yanks pounding on the Jays, I had a really bad vision of how the rest of this week would go, and that we'd find ourselves trying to back in to the playoffs in the last week of the season against the A's and the Twins while the Yankees finish against Baltimore and Tampa. 13-9 now by the way, on a three run triple by Youk and a double by Coco. But that comes with an alert: Gagne has been cleared to pitch and I'd expect he's going to soon. (He had four straight scoreless appearances, then figured out that he was tipping in his pitches by varying the way he'd reach into his glove for the ball (how does any experienced pitcher fall into such a habit, or change what he's been doing?) and he had a fairly strenuous throwing session to work on that - and came out of it with an achy shoulder. Now its better, and I'm sure he'll get the call here. I can only hope he won't blow it)

Well Wakefield has thrown batting practice and we are a few innings away from actually LOSING a motherfucking series to the Devil Rays AT HOME. Its official: I am no longer rooting for Detroit to challenge the Yankees for the Wild Card. The only intelligent strategic rooting I can do is for Detroit to lose as often as possible, so that when the Yankees take over the East, the Red Sox will still be in position to make the playoffs.

Well, would have been 74, anyway. OK if I listen to my Baby Face 45s instead?

I think I stumbled across this site a while back when looking for info about King Fleming.

I hate to say it but when me and Johnny were having our pissing contest, I kind of predicted that the stretch of games wouldn't go the right way. Meantime, the Sox lost a crusher to Scott Kazmir, 1-0 as the only run scored off of Schilling on a double, sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly. Over his last six starts, Schilling has an ERA under 3 but is only 2-2. I'd be more relaxed about it if A) the Yankees would lose occasionally and B) the Devil Rays weren't so hot (14 of their last 17, I believe) Wakefield goes tonight, which is normally a virtual lock against Tampa (19-2 lifetime) but he didn't have a very good night in his first start after missing one with back pain. The worst thing is that the Yankees don't get Tampa for another two weeks, by which time I am sure they will be back to their usual level of incompetence. So we're back to the five game lead we had after the Yankee sweep in the Bronx, with Wakefield and Lester going against Tampa while the Yankees send the two rookies and Mussina against Toronto, who counter with McGowan (12-5) and Burnett and someone else. Normally its a perfect time to gain a game or two, but the way the Yankees and A-Rod are playing, it doesn't feel like a normal time.

That's a good question. Jim, would it be possible to prevent people from taking a username that has been used and then deleted at the member's request? Whether its done by accident or maliciously, the only person who should be Chaney is Chaney, should he decide to return.

Blimey! Good on you! MG 'plays the big ones' was also on ebay from the same seller, but i lost out on that one. Bid went up to $2.99?