Dan Gould

I thought it was a little overdone but for the reasons Greg and Marty mention, I think they deserved it. Watching the fans getting doused in champagne really made me think how great it would have been if the Sox had won either the LCS or the Series at home. I think they would have had the entire party on the field, and needed ten times as much champagne to spray as many fans as they could.

I've always loved me some Plas, and I have his earlier Carell release, Hot, Blue and Saxy which wasn't as ballad-heavy as this one seems to be, but still nice (I used "Ease on Down the Road" from The Wiz on my first BFT). Thanks for the tip. Edit: As far as dates that feature Plas go, there were two Concord recordings in the mid-70s which can probably be found on vinyl. There's also an obscure LP titled LA 1955 which has Art Hillery on organ and features the super greasy side of Plas. Easiest to find is certainly Keep That Groove Going, co-led by Red Holloway.

Isn't that the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket???? I thought it was my 9th grade Social Studies teacher, Hans Colischon, who did a lot more than "kinda" scare young students. I swear he's the spitting image, if you age that photograph 20 years.

I'm afraid the Dodgers aren't going to do it ... But isn't baseball a funny game? The Twins cap off an amazing year by clinching the division on the last day, and then they get swept out of the playoffs. The Tigers lose 31 of 50 and the division on the last day, then whip the overwhelming favorite Yanks in 4. The Cards look the worst of all the playoff teams and are a game away from the LCS. The Mets looked to have big time pitching problems due to injury but are about to sweep their way through the first round.

You can call me Nostradamus. Here are a few random observations heading into the off-season that snuck up on NY so suddenly. As the shock wears off, Yankee fans are welcome to tell me what they think. Will Yankee fans start to boo A-Rod at the mere sight of him? Yankee fans can be merciless with those who don't produce when it counts, and that's on top of all of the other reasons to boo A-Rod, not the least of which is that it obviously bothers him. After 2 1/2 post-seasons of complete invisibility, I really have to wonder if Yankee fans will not even wait for him to strikeout or make an error and just start booing whenever he leaves the dugout. Whether that will necessitate a trade would be the next question. If anyone could pry away some of the prize Angel arms, it would be A-Rod. Did Barry Zito's price just go to 20 million a year? Between the Met injuries and age issues and the Yankee pitching failures, I don't think there's any doubt that they will bid up Zito's price til the spawn of Satan's calculator breaks when it tries to calculate his commission. George has had a stiffy for Piniella since forever; will he finally decide its safe to fire Joe? Certainly this is the last chance to get Sweet Lou in pinstripes again, since he's back on the market and has said this will be his last gig. I wonder if George has it in his mind that Piniella would have fired up the team better than Joe did. I think there are nearly even odds that George is going to start a press conference with "I gave Joe and Cash everything they asked for and they still couldn't deliver a championship ..." Do Yankee fans secretly hope that Unit will need back surgery and may miss most or all of next year? If that's the case - and who knows - it would certainly impact the bidding for Zito; on the plus side it would accelerate the process of finally getting younger on the pitching staff. I can't imagine any Yankee fan thinks that 43 year old Unit can do any better than the 5.00 ERA he posted this year. Whither Moose? Big dollars on the option year, which reportedly the Yanks want to decline and then sign him for less money but for more than one year. But in this pitching market, Mussina could get a big offer if the Yanks let him become a free agent (did I just hear Jon Leiber's name?). At the same time, even as Moose seemed to pitch better this year than in the previous two, he still got hurt, still didn't come close to 20 wins, and is now a year older. If Unit is seriously injured, they probably have to re-sign Moose ... but the odds are good that by the time he reaches the end of the next contract, he'll be a very mediocre pitcher. Well I guess that's it for now ... I feel for you, Yankee fans. I really do. 1.2 Billion dollars just doesn't buy what it used to.

Now I finally realize why he posted . He falls under "Henry, or other "royal" Kings".

Well I guess I stand corrected. Guess I shouldn't have said anything considering that its my wife who has always handled the ISP stuff from choosing a provider, a package, to installing the modem.

This may be so, but my friend's experience with "cable DSL" vs my experience with "DSL" from the phone company has consistently favored cable. FWIW, in the US, your average household is simply offered "DSL" with no delineation of different speed options. Its in businesses where you may choose to upgrade to a T1 or whatever. But I've never heard of household options where you can get "fast" or "super fast". You can stick with dial-up or go with DSL and then you typically have a choice of cable vs phone company service.

He's only showing one vote, though. You or Dan? Or, because he's a Dem-o-Kong, do they only count half each? MG

A friend of mine has had a cable modem while we've stuck with DSL and whenever we talk about connection speeds and go to whatever website it is that you can run a test, his cable connection blows our DSL out of the water. (I'll get to why we stick with DSL in my next post. )

No votes for Kong? That dude could swing!

Yeah, but those are about the only weaknesses, and you got through without Radke for a part of the season anyway. A healthy Liriano, an improved Boof, Hunter signed to an extention or just having his option picked up ... really the only thing you need is find a better bat than Rondell White. Twins will have plenty of support from the prognosticators next year.

dude - its just a little saturday a.m. diversion! Does that mean that come Saturday night, the King of Beers will pull ahead?

But they all fall in the same category. "Royal" by accident of birth.

For me, its B.B.

Rogers was flinging it at 94 last night. I thought he was a soft-tosser but if you can spot your FB at 94 and spin that curve, you'll shut down a lot of lineups. If Bonderman can hold that lineup one more time, I like their chances against Wright, particularly if Wright does his usual five inning stint. And Big Al, at least A-Rod is still sucking it raw.

My Graduate degree is from Wash U. so I guess I can help a tiny bit. I haven't been though for 15 years so some of my info may be wrong or out of date. For music shopping, Euclid Records has to be number one on the list. If you aren't familiar, check out their website. In University City (right next to Wash U.), there was a good vinyl place called Vintage Vinyl. If they are still there, I'd check them out. Restaurants, St. Louis is thick with them but I can't think of any near Wash. U. O'Connell's serves the greatest hamburger I've ever had anywhere. Best bar in U. City was Blueberry Hill.

What a sad way to end what? 4 months of superior baseball? Sorry Twins fans. On the plus side, presuming that the Yankees beat the Tigers, I do think that the A's offer a stiffer challenge. They clearly have the starting pitching to deal with the Yankee bats, and in fact I believe they won the season series pretty easily. The problem is the lineup which can be so anemic. But pitching wins, and the A's finally have a Division Series won.

What about the 2003 World Series against the Marlins? Quick add: There was also the 2001 W.S. with the Diamondbacks. If I may offer an excuse ... I just ain't too smart since I passed 40!

Thanks for that link, David. While there's a lot of speculation, it also contains a lot more info than has otherwise been disseminated publicly. The facts appear to be: Odd Flight Levels (like 370 or 37000 feet) are reserved for eastbound traffic like the 737. The executive jet was flying at FL370 instead of 360. The executive jet may have had no transponder signal and ignored communications from ATC; however this occured in an area known to have communication "black spots" which makes a mess of any assumptions about intent. It seems to me though that even if the pilots had willfully turned off their transponder and ignored radio communications, ATC should have had no problem recognizing the conflict and giving the 737 a command to avoid the collision. Think of what happened when the jet carrying Payne Stewart (?) flew on autopilot with everyone unconscious or dead. ATC couldn't raise the plane but moved everyone out of their way while the military jets were scrambled to investigate. There's absolutely no excuse, in my mind, for not giving the 737 the proper instruction, if in fact you can't raise the smaller jet.

I am also a concerned Twins fan, but I hope the Yankees win, eventually go to the World Series, and get swept by the Met's. That would really f#&k up the mind of Yankees fans! That would be ultimately sweet but those dern Yankees always seem to find a way to win. I'd say take em out early and often! Yes! A thousand times, yes!!! Aside from the unique and unheralded 2004 collapse, the only time the Yankees have lost in the Torre era is during the first round. Let's hope that Unit's slider is flat and he gets hammered, and that the Gambler brings his "A" game. I saw he has an outstanding home record, so that may help. A wint onite means that the Yanks face elimination with Jaret Wright. Me likey that. Will this be the first play-off match up of 40 year old pitchers?

Ya gotta love it - Tigers even up the series and that puts lots of pressure on an injured Unit to come up big. I like the fact that RJ is a mediocre 7-7 lifetime in the playoffs, and that when he's wrong, he gives up the long ball which it seems like the Tigers regularly swing for. Unfortunately, The Gambler is much worse in October. I'll tell you this much: Any Tiger fan has to worry every time Todd Jones comes in to close one out. One of these days its gonna kill them, and every one will wonder why he doesn't let the guy who touches 103 (with far better control than Farnsworth has even dreamed of) get those last three outs.

I knew we'd end up regretting giving Greg the heave ho ...