Dan Gould

If they'd only managed to win two or three of the last five, they'd have home field through the playoffs instead of the Yanks. Their collapse was almost as bad as the Indians was last year, except that they didn't collapse all the way out of the post season.

This probably belongs in the Hot Stove thread but its a bit too early for that, so: The first two casualties of the Red Sox failures have been announced: Batting coach Ron "Papa Jack" Jackson and pitching coach Dave Wallace, who battled a nearly fatal staph infection and a second hip replacement surgery to return ahead of schedule in July, only to get the boot now. I have to strongly suspect that Al Nipper will be officially named pitching coach, all with an eye toward getting Clemens to sign next year. As for Papa Jack, count me as one who is pretty surprised. His teams led the league in scoring and OBP every year until this one, and Ortiz made it a point to present him with the bat used to hit his team-record home run, with an inscription calling him the greatest batting coach ever. Yet, the Boston media was reporting that some players privately complained about him, that he was great when you were going good but incapable of spotting flaws and bad habits to get people out of slumps. Last year they hired a "video specialist" seemingly to help in that regard but he wasn't retained because Jackson didn't like him invading his turf. So now Papa Jack is gone.

I was afraid of that. The rule changed in 1991 - before that any official game with no hits allowed was an official "no-no". Too bad it didn't happen 16 years ago.

Ramierez? Pretty darn good for a rookie but, not amazing - yet. Good bat but, a so-so fielder. He just committed his 25th error of the season last night. Lots of potential though, he's only 22. How about them Phils?? Hanley should be a lock for ROY honors. About the only problem are rookie errors in the field, though he still makes plenty of spectacular plays, too. But he's got 50+ SB and 40+ doubles, and the sky is the limit. I'm sure he'll settle down defensively and make all the routine plays, too. I was going to argue about Uggla having a great year, setting records for home runs for a rookie 2nd baseman, etc...somehow missed how many RBI's Zimmerman had for the Nationals. 287 batting average, 20 homers and 110 RBIs!!!!! Only highlights I saw from National games were Soriano..... Yeah, I slept on Zimmerman, too. Definitely ROY in the NL.

That's probably because those bands are what programmers consider "classic rock" in addition to the Stones, Who, Led Zep, etc. Please tell me, aside from Hendrix, what black artists are missing from "classic rock" programming, because I thought that between Hendrix and Living Colour, there weren't any black artists involved in rock.

I never thought Gagne looked "pumped". And I hope he isn't done as I wouldn't mind the Red Sox offering him 1 mil + big time incentives. If he can come back and be Gagne again, we wouldn't miss Papelbon in the pen at all. And as for Giambi, there's absolutely no telling. The man admitted to using HGH, seemingly couldn't hit when he said he stopped taking steroids and HGH, then all of a sudden regained his stroke. With no test for HGH, I have serious doubts that his "comeback" wasn't fueled by something he already has admitted to using.

What exactly are the rules about getting credit for a no-hitter? The Sox threw a Nicaraguan who they found playing in Europe a year ago, Devern Hansack, and he's thrown five innings, allowing no hits, 1 walk and six K's. And now the rains have come again. Would be way cool for a rookie to toss a no-no on the last day of the season - even if the O's hitters were hacking at the first pitch just to get started on their vacation even sooner.

Yup. Along with the Mets, methinks. Meanwhile, how 'bout those TWINS?!!! All the way back to snag the division championship on the final day of the season. Now its the Twins-A's and Yanks-Tigers, the last combination I wanted to see. I'd much rather see the Yanks have to get past both the Twins and the A's but instead they get the reeling Tigers, who they've already whupped during the season. Tigers aren't patient enough at the plate and have a "closer" with a 5+ ERA (I assume its still that high). The Tigers are going to join the Mets as major post-season disappointments, I'm afraid. Meanwhile, congratulations, Twins fans!

Are his articles that much different from his books? Or are we talking about something other than his regular columns? The Slate piece makes it sound like there is a straight line from his columns to his best selling drivel.

Well, Grimsley admitting to using 'roids should have opened people's eyes to the variety of uses they have. And you're right about Clemens, this recent news almost makes me wonder whether Clemens' response to Duquette's "twilight of his career" line wasn't "I'll show you" but "I'll get me some steroids and show you". For that matter, Pettitte went from a strapping young man to a pretty big buck ... but the problem that we'll always have with the steroid era is that players took to strength training like never before, and without retroactive testing, or "trainers" that come clean, how can you know whether it was juice or hard work?

While the Cardinals are getting shut out, the Astros are down to their last three outs, trailing the Braves. How appropriate that these two deeply flawed teams are stumbling around when a playoff spot is on the line. I guess the '64 Phils can rest easy. But it would have been cool, for the sake of underdogs everywhere, if the Cards had completed their collapse.

Sorry, but this is just plain stupid. Do you think that the station that promotes "Motown Mondays" doesn't play Motown any other time? None of these stations "ignore" black music - people are just pissed that they don't play a wider variety than the a few "tried and true" hits. Well, welcome to the modern radio industry.

Interesting piece of information from the original LA Times report: I hate to assume guilt by association but we know that Grimsley used steroids and HGH and other things, and according to him, his source was recommended by the personal strength coach of Clemens and Pettitte? I wonder how close a friend this "personal strength coach" is to Clemens and Pettitte. That may be the only thing keeping them from some serious trouble. But regardless, this is an uncomfortably close association from Clemens and Pettitte to a known steroid-using pitcher.

What a stunning bit of news: Pedro Martinez To Have Surgery on Torn Rotator Cuff, Won't Pitch Off a Mound Before June 2007 About the only thing that would surprise the Red Sox front office was that it was the rotator cuff and not the labrum. But they certainly look smart for being so hesitant to guarantee three years and never match four. I wonder if this is a classic "Dizzy Dean situation" where a leg injury led to a change in mechanics and a screwed up arm. Boy, if Pedro was already becoming a soft-tossing nibbler, he's really going to be one now. Barry Zito and his spawn of satan agent are salivating right now, as you can absolutely positively count on the Mets outbidding anyone else for his services. He might get 18 mil a year by the time the bidding is over.

You would think that Magic 102.7 in south Florida would be one station that would have stuck with the 50s-60s model but not too long ago, they also dropped Elvis and the rest of the 50s and added f*cking disco from the 70s. There's something really annoying about any station that counts disco as an "oldie" but then again I'm just getting a head start on being an angry old fart I guess. On the plus side they've always played plenty of motown, and I've never ever known an oldies format that included Cream or the Yardbirds or Hendrix. BTW, before Magic made the switch, the most recent song on the playlist was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n Roll", which is at least 7 years younger than the rest of the old playlist but I guess it fit with the mentality of the programming. Now its just an anachronism, particularly when it comes up after "I Will Survive" or "Get Down Tonite".

The man takes time out of his busy afterlife to visit you in your dreams, and this is how you repay him?

Oh hell yeah.

I've enjoyed my life knowing very little about Mitch Albom, other than the fact that I didn't want to read his columns or books. But thanks for confirming everything that I already suspected. A thousand

And they deserve it. I'm keeping an eye peeled for the new "Live at the Kennedy Center" disc.

I'll see that and raise you this auction from the same moron. 1/4 of the front cover is gone and he calls it VG!!!

I've always thought Maxjazz releases sound quite good. I like the packaging, too, for that matter. If they can be found, all of the Landmark releases can be recommended. 32 Jazz put out a comp. of two of them, I believe. For Mulgrew with more than a trio, I definitel recommend this Novus release: Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Kenny Garrett, Steve Nelson explore a bunch of Grew's compositions.

B.B. King, "Worry Worry" which became "Worry Worry Worry" in a subsequent money grubbing reissue.

I'm cool with that now, Dave.

Oh boy, you Met fans gotta be shitting bricks after Pedro's start tonite. What a disaster. At this point I don't see how you can risk starting him in the first game.

Only if I am allowed to pick "not the Yankees".