Old friends

SPORTING GOODS

Because it's not bad enough seeing your team completely tank in August and have nothing to play for in September, let's take a look around at some recent Red Sox castaways. Since there are so many of them spread around the majors, let's focus on the NL only, allowing us to spare ourselves from looking at Johnny Damon's numbers.

Freddy Sanchez is batting .346 (best in the NL) with 85 RBI this year, while playing a solid 3B, 2B, and SS. The Sox traded him for Jeff Suppan and Brandon Lyon.
They also traded Mike Gonzalez in that deal, who has 24 saves and a 2.17 ERA this year.
Nomar has a .306 batting average, and a .511 slugging percentage, to go with 20 HR and 93 RBI in a pitcher's park.
Dave Roberts is batting .293 with 47 steals.
Hanley Ramirez is batting .292 with 51 steals and a .835 OPS. As a shortstop.
Scott Hatteberg has a .831 OPS.
Edgar Renteria? .291, 16 steals, 13 homers.
Josh Bard has a .945 OPS and is batting .335
Bronson Arroyo 14-10 with a 3.27 ERA (4th best in the NL)
Derek Lowe is 16-8 with the 10th best ERA In the NL
Cla Meredith has given up 4 runs in 49 innings. He was a throw-in in the Bard for Mirabelli (average: .190) trade.
Anibal Sanchez is 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA.

Why can't the Red Sox get players like that?

Michael Lewis

Sporting Goods?

I happen to think that Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell are the two best writers around. Michael Lewis's new article in the New York Times Magazine seems to confirm his place. A must read.

As a tool for overhauling the grade-point average of Michael Oher, as well as for broadening his experience of white people, Sue Mitchell had a number of things to recommend her. In her 35-year career she taught at several Memphis-area public schools. At Bartlett High School, just outside Memphis, she took over the cheerleading squad and whipped it into five-time national champions. She applied to work at the Briarcrest Christian School, but Briarcrest rejected her out of hand because though Mitchell said she believed in God, she had trouble proving it. (“The application did not have one question about education,” Mitchell says. “It was all about religion and what I thought about homosexuality and drinking and smoking.”) She wasn’t born again, and she didn’t often go to church. She also advertised herself as a liberal. When Sean heard that, he hooted at her, “We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend!”

Life imitating art imitating life...

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I enjoyed the first episode of "Studio 60" and look forward to the rest of the season. I'll always be willing to check out a Sorkin/Schlamme show, I really like a number of the actors and feel that the Matt Perry/Bradley Whitford combination will be fun to watch. With so many characters, it will take a while until I am invested in any of them, but there is plenty of time for that.

The "West Wing" comparisons are unavoidable, and some reviews compare Studio 60 unfavorably, but West Wing wasn't perfect its first couple of episodes, nor is it really fair to compare any show to one of the best TV dramas ever.

The setup for the show, a rant by Judd Hirsch was entertaining and right, even if it is setting up the show for a bit of a lofty expectation:

We're all being lobotomized by the country's most influential industry
which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting
of 12-year-old boys...And not event the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the
idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this
network...
there's always been a struggle between art and commerce, but now I'm
telling you art is getting is ass kicked, and it's making us mean, and it's
making us bitchy, and it's making us cheap punks and that's not who we
are....
We're eating worms for money, "Who Wants to Screw My Sister", guys are
getting killed in a war that's got theme music and a logo. That remote in your
hand is a crack pipe......
It's pornography, and it's not even good pornography. They're just this
side of snuff films, and friends, that's what's next 'cause that's all that's
left.And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every
psycho-religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a
boycott.

Anyway, finally caught the episode last night, which is why I find it particularly interesting that Saturday Night Live, the obvious basis for Studio 60, has been forced to make cuts to its budget and staff in the face of low ratings. I'm not one to think that SNL is an idea that is past its prime, but it certainly needs revitalizing. Maybe the smaller cast will help. Maybe Studio 60 will help inspire them to be relevant again.

See No Evil

SPORTING GOODS

The Yankees' magic number IS 6 entering a four-game home series against the Sox this weekend.

Close your eyes Sox fans; once again it looks like the Yankees will clinch the AL East in a game against the Red Sox.

Majorly edited because either I can't read or Yahoo had the wrong number up yesterday, and because there is no longer the need to speculate what would happen on Thursday. Story remains the same....go Pats!

2...2...2 posts in 1!

SPORTING GOODS

While much of the MVP headlines are being grabbed by the Ortiz vs. Jeter feud (note to Papi, I think you should just stay quiet on this one), ESPN radio and a number of other sports sources have already anointed Ryan Howard over Carlos "35% more Win Shares than Howard, not to mention a 16 game lead in the standings" Beltran. As MSNBC has said:

Regardless of whether his Philadelphia Phillies can secure the NL wild card, Ryan Howard appears to be locking up the MVP award.

I think you all know how I feel about that.

Oh, and while Howard seems to be the MVP "it" pick, Jermaine Dye seems to be getting the love in the AL now, which makes no sense to me. It pains me to admit it, but I think it's Jeter.
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Well it's been a couple of months since my World Cup hopes were smashed by, to borrow my wife's nickname for him, Landon "Waste of Space" Donovan and company. But US soccer actually had a great weekend…in England.

The 3 US goalies who are playing in the English Premiere League right now, Brad Friedel (Blackburn), Marcus Hahnemann (Reading), and Tim Howard (Everton), all posted shutouts this past weekend. Friedel stopped two penalty kicks in his (both wrongly awared by a terrible ref), and Tim Howard helped Everton beat their biggest rivals Liverpool 3-0. In Reading's shutout victory, Bobby Convey assisted on the lone Reading goal. Fulham was able to surprise Newcastle on Newcastle's home field, but perhaps more surprising was they were done in by Americans: Brian McBride slotted one home in the 82nd minute to tie the match at 1, and then McBride assisted to fellow American Carlos Bocanegra for the winning goal in the final minutes.

That's 6 Americans making significant contributions to their teams' wins, out of 13 Americans currently playing in the EPL. And in researching the latter number I was pleasantly surprised to find that DaMarcus Beasley has been taken on loan at Manchester City. Hopefully there he can learn how to play with the big boys in the physical EPL, and reacquire his nose for goal.

Lester

SPORTING GOODS

Not much to say about this one, except sigh and think hope for the best.

From someone who spends a decent amount of time following oncology, the good thing is that Lester is being treated at two of the absolute top cancer centers in the country, Dana Farber and Fred Hutchinson. It's fortunate that he, and the team that I'm sure is paying for it, can afford the best care and the travel.

The form of lymphoma that he has is treatable, which is good. The tough thing about it is that it is a relatively aggressive form (even though they caught it early), and because it is relatively rare, many of the advances in treating lymphoma, such as use of biologic based therapies, have not been studied in controlled studies. But if there are cancer centers that are testing experimental therapies with a strong theoretical basis for efficacy, then Dana Farber and Hutchinson will likey be involved.

I've said it before several times as a joke, but this time I mean it seriously: We want some mo' Lester. I wish him all the best.

Catching up ...

SPORTING GOODS

So, I just got back from a nice six week vacation in the jungles of Costa Rica without internet or cable TV. It was hard going without baseball for six weeks, but when I left the Sox were on fire and held a comfortable lead in the AL East (and over any Wild Card contenders), David Ortiz was ready to accept the MVP award, and Jon Papelbon was crushing any comeback before it could get started.

So I was very excited to see the box score from last night's game (another Win I might add). It seems that in my absence the Sox were able to pull away, and are now toying with the rest of the league. I mean starting a 3-4-5 of Loretta-Youkilis and Lowell, giving Manny and Ortiz a chance to rest? And I see we bolstered the lineup by adding Javy Lopez and Eric Hinske. Nice to have bats like that for the playoffs. Even little Dustin Pedroia is getting a cup of coffee.

And we seem to be resting our starting pitchers as well, I see Julian Tavarez took the mound to start the game. I love it. It's like we're telling the league, "we'll start a lineup made mostly of bench players, use our worst reliever as a starting pitcher, and STILL beat you."

Because the outcome is the same. Alex Cora plays the role of Papi, and Papelbon plays the role of Papelbon, shutting down the once vaunted Toronto Blue Jays. So it's great to be back, I can't wait for that playoff baseball!

Now, to just hit "Publish Post" and go take a look at the standings ...