papsrus

... It's been 24 hours. I went to a stop-smoking clinic and got one of those injections of a cocktail that shuts down the nicotine receptors in your brain. Also got a pocket-full of other drugs specifically designed to aid in the process, and am determined to break a 35-year habit that would likely give me emphysema (at best) if I continued. The drugs (particularly the initial injection) are very strong drugs. And why not? This is a very strong addiction. But, if anyone else wants to take a run at breaking this nasty habit, check out www.quitdoc.com ... Feeling woozy from the drugs, but have had zero cravings in the first 24 hours. None. Amazing.

I'm getting tired of interleague play , i thought the Sox were playing the Rays this weekend? ...but NO its the Astros . This is way too many interleague games . I agree. Inter-league is nice for putting together regional match-ups -- Yanks-Mets, Rays-Marlins, Cubs-ChiSox -- but things like a Mariners-Nats or Phillies-Rangers series have little appeal, IMO.

Kazmir goes Saturday, which means he misses the Red Sox by a game. It will be Masterson vs Shields, Wakefield vs Garza and Dice-K vs Jackson. And for what its worth, its virtually a certainty that Coco's appeal will be decided today or tomorrow, meaning that unless it is reduced from 7 to five games, he will miss the entire Rays series. So hopefully Papelbon will get the memo, and everything will proceed properly. I learned in today's Globe that it is somewhat impressive that with a less dominating bullpen and starting rotation, and major injuries to critical players, the Red Sox are, at the half-way mark, 1 game off of the pace they set last year. The difference between last year's 50-31 and this year's 49-32? Oh, only ten full games in the standings. Last year they had a 10 1/2 game lead over the Yankees and Jays and this year it is a 1/2 game lead over the Rays. And let's put the Rays in perspective, too. Last year, the halfway point for the Sox came on July 2nd. On that date the Devil Rays were 33-48 17 games back So, with the Red Sox playing essentially as well as last year, the Rays are 47-31, virtually a complete reversal from last year, 16 1/2 games better. I'd say the name change worked. Coming into June -- which I saw as a fairly tough schedule for them -- I figured the Rays would be fortunate to go .500 in the month. Sweeping the Cubs and now the Marlins really helped. Losing the series to Houston hurt. But they're 13-9 in June so far, and July looks a little less rigorous. After the BoSox (which will be tough) they play KC, the Yankees, Cleveland, Toronto, Oakland, and finish with KC and Cleveland again. No gimmes, especially with the Sox, Yanks and A's. And even the Royals are playing better. But not as tough as June looked. BoSox and Yanks tangle for two series in July. That'll be key.

Nice! One-hitter by Garza today to give the Rays a sweep of the Marlins, who looked like anything but a contender during that series, anyways. I sure hope they've found some serious MoJo heading to Pitt and then home for the BoSox, which has all the makings of a great series. Don't know where the rotation will be at that point, but it would be nice to see Kaz get a start.

Happy birthday PJ!

Man, Percival barely hung in there again last night to get the save, walking four in the ninth. He is shaky as hell, but they stick with him. I dunno. If it wasn't for the Marlins pen imploding and walking in two runs, and some stellar defense by Longoria, Rays would have been toast.

That was a classic: "Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting, and unnecessary roughness. ... Baseball has the sacrifice." The entire riff here.

Kind of shocking news. For some reason, 71 doesn't seem that old to me anymore. From what I saw, Carlin's performances didn't strike me as being contemptuous of his audience. He pointed out the absurdities in life that we all fall victim to, in a way. But he talked to his audiences in a very conversational way, I think. By laughing at what he was saying, you basically were agreeing with him.

Nothing like a parade to liven up the afternoon! Thanks for the pics.

Here's hoping that the ... ah ... Price is right! ... I was hoping for the summer, sometime before the trade deadline, so they could make a deal with some other arms somehow. Probably not in the cards. Kaz seemed to lose his location a bit today after he passed 100 pitches (sixth inning). That's the second game in a row, I think, that he's reached 100 in the fifth or sixth. Slider wasn't great and he just wanted to throw high heat. He just pounds it in there and the batters keep fouling them off -- and the pitch count keeps climbing. ... I wish he'd go to some off-speed stuff more than he does, especially for a strikeout pitch when everyone in the park knows the batter is sitting on fastballs. Yankees are getting a little too close for comfort. And they go to Pittsburgh now, although the Pirates did handle the Jays pretty well ... but ... the Jays stink, apparently. Toronto and Seattle have to be the two biggest flops of the year so far. They Jays, especially, given that everyone figured their pitching would have them battling for the division. Doh!

I guess that kind of puts the old saw to rest that "he puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else." I'm been trying to lose some weight, so ... yeah, the pants ain't fitting too well lately. (Or, maybe I'm just hip now?)

Happy birthday!

It's a birthday extravaganza! ... Have a good one.

Hey Parkertown, you have a great birthday! Enjoy ...

Thanks! ... It's a nice surprise seeing all these good wishes. And it's shaping up to be a really good day - week, indeed. Might even get a little slice of cake out of this deal. (still going strong, but getting to that age where it's time to trade in the Miata for a van. ... We'll see.) Thanks again.

Let's see...last night, the Reds beat the Yankees. Pirates beat the Jays. Houston beat Tampa Bay. San Diego beat Detroit. Washington beat Texas. Cubs beat the White Sox. Did I forget anyone??? Oh yeah, the big bad Cards, minus their one superstar Albert Pujols, and with a guy on the mound who any team could have picked up for next to nothing in the middle of spring training getting the win against the Red Sox...Yeah, you're right, the NL does suck! Seriously, Dave Duncan has to be the best pitching coach in all of baseball, right??? Kyle Lohse has 9 wins right now, hasn't had more than 9 wins since 2003??? 3.63 ERA this year, 4.73 for the career?Jeff Weaver gets released by the Angels in 2006, ends up a WS star that same year with the Cards??? Is terrible in 2007, and gets released from AAA this year???? He should write a book if he hasn't already..... It's fairly even over the years, actually. Since interleague play began in 1997, the AL is out in front with 1,387 wins vs the NL with 1,317 wins (excluding 2008) It looks like so far in 2008, the AL is 79-61 vs the NL, somewhat above the historical average, with about one week to go. The NL's best year looks like 2003, when they went 137-115. The AL went 154-98 in 2006 (wow!). LINK

Echo those sentiments. Both my parents are 84 and always a concern.

You don't suppose this means he'll soon be offering up his pearls of wisdom from some lucky TV studio somewhere, do ya? (I actually think he'd probably be good on TV).

Sorry, missed the bump earlier. Yeah, it's good as far as offering nice, crisp sound, to my ear. But by using lossless files, it means there's no way in hell I can even get a fraction of my collection on my computer, let alone the iPod, so I have to manage the music by dragging albums from a remote hard drive into playlists in iTunes. A little cumbersome. Not quite like picking a CD off the shelf and firing it up. Overall value-wise, quite satisfied. (I think I paid around $400-$500 for it). But I'll be picking up a new tube-based system by year's end, I'm pretty sure, including a CD player. Lon pointed me to Decware, and from my limited looking around, they seem to offer some great values as well. (I don't know how much you know about tube amps, but generally they don't come with treble or bass controls, although you can order them with these controls, and the Fatman does have a remote with treble and bass controls. But the general view is that these controls just muddy up the sound quality. As one manufacturer said, if you want us to put treble and bass controls on your amp, we'll do it, but if you get them, you'll need them. ... Meaning, they'll screw up the crispness of the sound just by being there. ... has something to do with resistors or something.)

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Unreal. Crawford goes first-pitch slam and a 1-0 game at the end of the 6th is 8-3 at the end of the 7th. ... H - o - l - y s - h - i - t. EDIT: small correction ... it was a 1-0 pitch.

Rays agree to deal with No. 1 overall pick Tim Beckham. Took a little BP before tonight's game. Woo-hoo!

I agree with this. Along with developing new energy sources, we will certainly have to adjust our consumption patterns across the board. And it won't just affect our consumption of energy, but also the production, distribution and consumption of things as basic as food and water, seems to me. When they ask "paper or plastic?" at the supermarket checkout counter, why not answer, "I brought my own bag, thank you." ... adjusting behaviors. Better yet, shop at the farmer's market! (The produce is fresher and less expensive.)

Fuckin' ridiculous. I can only hope the luck runs out tomorrow. Percy made it interesting again, but seemed a little less wild than he was last night (thankfully).

Another exciting Rays win over the Cubs tonight. Man, what a game! Two in a row over the best team in baseball ... Looking for the sweep tomorrow with Shields on the bump (after a nice long rest). 5-4 ... Unreal game.