Ozzie's In

The Southsiders joined their Wrigleyville cousins tonight, as both Chicago teams are in the playoffs in the same year since the 1906 World Series. The Windy City teams, following the lead of their managers, are so bland as to be unrecognizable. And I have a bridge in New York, and swamp land in Florida, to sell you.
People like Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella make the game fun.
If Der Kommissar for Life wants to actually do something in The Best Interest of Baseball, he should decree that Ozzie must be employed as a manager somewhere in the game for the rest of his life. The White Sox skipper is honest, even when it gets him in trouble, and that is a regular occurrence. On multiple occasions, Sox General Manager Ken Williams has wanted to fire Ozzie for shooting off his mouth. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has not allowed it to date. They haven't even thought about a change due to on the field performance. The Sox play for Ozzie, as evidenced by their 2005 World Series championship, the franchise's first since 1917. We Red Sox fans liked to point out that their wait was 88 years; ours was only (?) 86! Ozzie analyzes the games honestly, and, so, sounds like he is ripping his players from time to time. Not so. Ozzie protects his guys. When things get too hot and heavy, he'll say something outrageous to keep the press focused on him. His player can then go about the task of getting straightened out without being constantly bugged about how long it's been since his last hit or win or save. Ozzie was a very fine shortstop who didn't hit much; he knows what the players go through. He does everything in his power to keep the reporters off their backs.
Ozzie had a famous feud with Jay Mariotti, late of the Chicago Sun-Times. Mariotti is the load that likes to try to match wits with Woody Paige on Around the Horn. Unarmed men should never go into battle. Mariotti is also the guy who somehow held, for years, a sports columnist's job, when he never went to the ballpark, the football stadium, the hockey rink or the basketball arena. He developed the habit of ripping everyone from the players to the executives to the ownership to the kids that sell popcorn, all the while failing to every talk to any of his subjects, or meet any of them face-to-face. Ozzie called Mariotti on his shenanigans, and Jay was hurt. Insulted. Almost in tears. Poor Jay. Jay no longer has a job. Good for Chicago. Chalk up another one for Ozzie.
Baseball needs more Ozzie Guillens. That's more real people who tell the truth, as they see it, and are willing for the chips to fall where they may. Ozzie missed the class on coachspeak. He was never trained by the diplomatic corps. He's a baseball guy!
And a very, very entertaining one.
The postseason will be much more fun with both Chicago managers involved.

Paul Newman, American

It is especially important at this moment to applaud the life of a great man who was, genuinely, a great American.
Paul Newman was a great actor. He was a great figure in automobile racing. He was, in my opinion, a great political figure, as he once reckoned his spot on Nixon's Enemies List as "the greatest achievement of my life." Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, gave generously to liberal candidates and causes, and raised millions more for them through fund raisers thrown in their homes. None of these items is the reason for my deepest appreciation of the man. And that reason is why he matters so much right now.
Paul Newman appreciated the blessings of his life, and showed that appreciation by using his notoriety to provide camps for ill children. That would be, he cared for people outside his own home, circle, and those who were not his economic peers.
That's not the way it's done among American leaders today.
We have been taught, throughout the Conservative Revolt (as in, to channel Mel Brooks' History of the World, Pt. 1, Crony: "Your majesty the Conservatives are revolting!" King: "You're telling me!") that the whole point is that "Greed is Good." Yes, Gordon Gecko's gospel from Oliver Stone's Wall Street came to life. Is it totally lost on the NeoCons that Stone's character was named for a slimy lizard? What, Bush missed the satire? Who'd have thought!
Nonetheless, Goober may have seen the movie, and thought it was an instruction manual. (and by the way, a friend refers to the alleged President as Gomer. No, no...Gomer did his military duty. Goober hid out at the gas station; hence Bush is Goober. Only Goober was smarter. Paul Begala was close to the truth; I don't think the moron is that high-functioning. But I digress.)
If Paul Newman had started a food company as a family business, and handed it down to his kids and grandkids to grow the Newman family coffers, no one would have thought anything about it. And you can be damned certain he wouldn't have run the company looking to loot pension funds, cut insurance benefits and disregard his firm's footprint in the environment. We know that, because he didn't do any of those things, creating one of the most responsible companies environmentally, and one of the friendliest for employees. Newman gave away over $250,000,000. Two Hundred Fifty Million dollars. No wonder he wasn't welcome in conservative circles. He didn't pass the selfishness test.
The Hole in the Wall Gang camps serve children who suffer from cancer, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia and sickle-cell disease. There are six of the camps in the U.S. and six more around the world. None of the families are charged for their participation; Mr. Newman saw to that. (If you would like more information, http://www3.holeinthewallgang.org/default.html)
How different the world would be if the Friends of Henry Paulsen had spent their lives and their blessings focusing on the needs of the world's children, the poor, the sick, the neglected and the desperate, rather than seeking the end of one more regulation that would enable them to cut one more corner so that they could have a solid gold umbrella stand ($15,000, Dennis Koslowski, former CEO of Tyco, out of over $600,000,000 pilfered from his company), or a birthday trip dropped on the wife, paid out of company funds ($200,000, Ken Lay, CEO of Enron, out of billions stolen from pension funds and kept off the books by crooked accountants, some of whom went to jail, while others committed suicide when exposed for what they were).
Retirees from one coast to the other wouldn't be making decisions between food and medicines. Parents who had held good jobs wouldn't be despairing for their sick children's lives because of the health care that died with their looted companies. And that's just if the deregulated crooks had been honest. Imagine the change if they had consciences and souls!
We need to celebrate Mr. Newman. We desperately need to be instructed by him, as a nation. We need to see those who need assistance the way Paul Newman saw them.
And, God knows, we need to be different from our pathetic, grasping ways.
We need to, uh, change direction!
"Repent, and believe the Gospel," someone said.
God bless you, Paul.

Mr. Red Sox Takes His Rightful Place

(Mr. Red Sox, Johnny Pesky, escorted from the Fenway Park field by his ceremonial first pitch catcher, Big Papi David Ortiz, on Sunday, September 28. Mr. Pesky's number was originally scheduled to be retired on Sept. 25. The event was moved to Sunday due to rain.)

Sometimes the rules just have to be broken.
John Michael Paveskovich, Johnny Pesky, will receive his just due tomorrow night at Fenway Park. His number 6 will be officially retired alongside Ted Williams' 9, Bobby Doerr's 1, Joe Cronin's 4, Carl Yastrzemski's 8 and Carlton Fisk's 27. Jackie Robinson's 42 is retired in every Major League park.
There are rules. For the Sox, a player must have played 10 years. He must have ended his career with the Sox. And he must have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The rules were bent for Pudge. Carlton Fisk ended his playing career with the Chicago White Sox. But you couldn't keep the New England native who had won Game 6 of the 1975 World Series by waving that home run fair in the bottom of the 12th, the man who caught more Major League Baseball games than any other, out of the line of Red Sox immortals.
Johnny Pesky didn't play 10 years for the Sox. He didn't end his playing career with them. He certainly isn't in the Hall of Fame. He simply embodies the living history of the franchise. Johnny was nicknamed "Needlenose" by Ted Williams. He was along for the trip that was chronicled in David Halberstam's wonderful book (Halberstam, wonderful book...never more redundant than that) Teammates, as Johnny and Dom DiMaggio made one last journey to see Teddy Ballgame. Pesky played with Dom and Ted and Bobby Doerr on the best Red Sox teams (until now) in anyone's living memory.
He has done everything for the team that a man can do. He has played, coached, managed, broadcast, taught as an instructor and represented the team everywhere and anywhere. Johnny will be 89 on Saturday. He is marking 69 years in baseball. 57 of those have been spent with the Red Sox, the last 40 consecutively. Some of the most touching moments in the clubhouse celebration of the 2004 championship came when Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, David Ortiz and others grabbed Johnny up in turn and told him that the moment was for him as much as any of the current players. And anyone who didn't tear up when the old man, in uniform, was called out to receive his World Series ring at the 2005 home opener just doesn't have any humanity in them.
On the eve of his 89th birthday, Johnny Pesky's number 6 will be officially retired. As it should be. Mr. Red Sox forever!
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules!

Don't Worry, George Has Your Back

The alleged President of the United States appeared on television tonight, again, playing the part of someone who is in charge. He spoke on the critical circumstances of the U.S. economy.
Not once did he accept any responsibility for the situation. Not once did he acknowledge that the deregulation of anything that resembles a business that has been Republican gospel for the 20 of the last 28 years that they have occupied the White House has directly lead to this moment. Not once did he lay the blame on any of his cabinet or staff, nor did he announce the resignations or firings of any members of his administration.
Instead of acting like an adult, he talked about this situation building for 10 years...when Bill Clinton was President! George blamed him for 9-11, why not this, too?
Instead of even pretending to be a leader, he still refuses to stipulate in the bailout that our money shall not be used to pay for any more golden parachutes for CEOs who made bad loans and paid themselves and their cronies so absurdly that they bankrupted their firms.
Instead of telling the truth and taking responsibility, the Decider passed the buck again. But at this point, no one in this country should be surprised at his course of inaction. This man has never been at fault in anything at any point in his entire life. Not when the businesses that his father had the Saudis pay for went belly up. Not when he spent his first 20 adult years addled on alcohol and cocaine. Not when he toughened Texas state law to give life sentences without the possiblity of parole to people who did exactly the same things he had done earlier in his life. Not when he stole the Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution that, in the greatest lie of a life full of them, he twice swore to God to protect and uphold. Not when he became the first U.S. President in our history to openly and proudly start a war against a smaller country that had done absolutely nothing to us whatsoever, and then declare, upon the Russian invasion of Georgia, that in the 21st Century, larger countries no longer have the right to invade smaller countries. Not when he hides his responsibility for the deaths of over 4,000 Americans in his Iraq war by barring any photographing of the flag-draped coffins being brought home. Not when he was asked in one of his extraordinarily rare press conferences if he could name a mistake he had made in office. And he couldn't.
This man is beneath contempt. He has ruined our standing in the world. He has discarded the moral authority of our country, both in the starting of his wars and his refusal to adhere to American policy that dated to George Washington himself, that we do not torture. He has ruined our economy. He is bankrupting our government with his wars, his cronyism after natural disaster, and now his paying off of his Pioneers in the bailout of the banking system that he deregulated so that it could become entirely corrupt.
I wrote two years ago that George W. Bush was the most reprehensible public figure of my lifetime. Little did I realize that he was just warming up at that time.
He closed his speech tonight by saying, "May God bless you." My prayer is a bit different: God help us. Deliver us from this evil, evil man and all of his sycophants.

Oh, And About that Elitist Thing...

Just click the pic if you need a bigger look. Enjoy!

Tito Goes 4 for 5

As the Boston Red Sox' closer, Jonathan Papelbon, retired Victor Martinez on a pop to short to end tonight's game against the Cleveland Indians, Liza Minelli broke into the lovely strains of New York, New York, signalling the biggest NYA loss of the season: elimination from the playoff chase for the first time since 1994. (Sinatra's version follows an NYA victory; take a break Frank, they don't need you any more this year!)
At that moment, Terry Francona went 4 for 5. Tito led the Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years in his first season at the helm, 2004. In '05, the Sox were swept in the ALDS by eventual the eventual champions, Ozzie Guillen's White Sox. '06 was a disaster of injuries, and the only year so far that saw Francona out of the postseason. 2007 brought Tito's second title, and tonight his team clinched at least (most likely) the AL Wild Card.
At this moment, Terry Francona is, officially, the most successful manager in Red Sox history.
And that, almost necessarily, makes Theo Epstein the most successful General Manager in Red Sox history. Theo's contract is up at the end of the season. Word is that the Mets have extended Omar Minaya for four years. Given the Mets' performance, what does that make Theo worth? It's good to be Theo!
And Tito. He was basically run out of Philadelphia as a nice guy who was widely perceived as incompetent. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn't. But name another young guy who went to school so well on a first managerial job in Major League Baseball.
As he sets out in pursuit of his third World Series championship, Francona has, undeniably, joined the ranks of the top handful of managers in baseball. That club basically includes Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Lou Piniella. And now, Tito Francona.
Att'n, Messers. Henry, Werner and Lucchino: redo Terry's deal, and redo it now.
And make his contract, and Theo's, very, very rich and very, very long!

The $700 Billion Bailout of Whom?

"Democrats demanded that the measure limit pay packages for executives of companies helped by the biggest financial rescue since the Great Depression. The administration was balking at that, and also at a proposal by Democrats to let judges rewrite mortgages to lower bankrupt homeowners’ monthly payments." Associated Press, 22 September, 2008

There is no clearer statement of the difference in the two American political parties than this: King George II and his cronies want one more opportunity to pay off the Pioneers before leaving office. This administration has no intention of helping the American people whose backs are against the wall. They only wish to further cushion the landings of the fatcats whose demand for deregulation, whose importuning to "trust us" created this fiasco in the first place.

His majesty wants one more blank check for the people who brought you trillions of dollars of irresponsible spending in Iraq, and billions spent after Katrina on people other than those who lost everything. This from the same "philosophy" that gave us the Savings and Loan debacle twenty years ago, one part of which was the discovery of the Senators who took bribes from one S&L operator named Charles Keating to cover up the deregulated corruption as it was happening. Let's see now, one of those Keating Senators had a familiar name...was it...McLane...McDane...Oh yeah, I got it: McCain!
I wonder what those reform conscious Republicans ever did with that bribe-taking, corruption-covering-up, Washington insider?

The Babe's House Closes Its Doors

They weren't even on the map before he arrived.
The New York Highlanders started with the American League in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles before relocating in 1903. They derived their name from Hilltop Park, their home from 1903 through 1912. They weren't very good. Their futility reached its nadir in that 1912 season. They finished 50-102, a whopping 55 games behind the eventual World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. In fact, prior to the Babe's arrival in 1920, the Highlanders, officially renamed the Yankees as of 1913, finished fewer than 11 games out of first only three times.
After the Polo Grounds burned in 1911, the Highlanders allowed the Giants to finish their season in Hilltop Park. That generosity led the National League team to accept their AL cousins as tennants at the new, rebuilt Polo Grounds. Relations stayed warm until the Babe showed up. John McGraw, ever the ferocious competitor, became furious that the Yankees were outdrawing his Giants, and he threw them out. That eviction led to the decision to build Yankee Stadium. The House that Ruth Built was, actually, the House that McGraw Made Necessary.
Once Harry Frazee, owner of the Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees (and his soul to the devil), the ultimate nightmare of John McGraw came true: the Yankees set out upon the greatest period of success in the history of professional sports.
They have won 39 American League pennants and 26 World Series championships.
The Dodgers have won 21 National League pennants, good for second place in Major League Baseball. Second in World Series titles: the St. Louis Cardinals, who won their 10th in 2006.
In case you're struggling with the math, the Yankees have almost twice as many pennants as anyone else, and almost three times the World Series titles that anyone else owns. And to play with the numbers a little more, only in the dreadful 1980's did the Yankees win fewer than three pennants in any decade since the 1920's! Only in that same decade of the 1980's did the Yankees fail to win at least two World Series; they took 5 in the 1930's, 4 in the 1940's and 6 in the 1950's. That averages to every other year for 30 years!
The names of the others are universally known: Lou, the Clipper, Whitey, the Mick, Reggie, Munson, Gator, Catfish, Jeter, Billy and The Boss are just some of the baseball immortals who have seemed a bit bigger for playing on the biggest stage.
Theirs is an amazing legacy of achievement. The Babe's House deserves all of the accolades and attention attendant upon its closing this weekend. There will never be another like it.

The Cubs Win...Again

It hadn't happened in 100 years.
The Chicago Cubs successfully defended their National League Central Division championship, and, as a result, they will play in consecutive postseasons for the first time since the 1907 and 1908 seasons. And this time, it certainly appears that they will not have to face the Arizona Diamondbacks. In fact, it seems, with only a week left in the regular season, that the Cubs will secure the home field advantage (considerable at the Friendly Confines) by virtue of the league's best record, and will then host the Wild Card winner. In all likelihood, the Wild Card will be the National League East loser. Milwaukee has slipped so badly that it's almost impossible to see them resurrecting their season.
The Cubs, under Lou Piniella, are lovable losers no longer. They are a big market team whose front office now acts like it. They have built a considerable team. They should represent the National League in the World Series, because they have been the league's best team all summer. Of course, baseball doesn't always work out the way it should. Pardon the cliche, but that's why they play the games.
The ability to play the games behind Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Rich Harden is the reason the Cubs are where they are. Kerry Wood seems to have a meltdown about once a week as their closer, but in the playoffs, once a week may not even roll around. Theirs is a balanced attack, with veterans like Derrek Lee and Mark DeRosa providing leadership, Aramis Ramirez providing Gold Glove defense and joining with Alphonso Soriano to deliver a basket of homers and rbis, and the enthusiasm of youth with Geo Soto, odds on favorite to be named NL Rookie of the Year, as a catcher no less!
I don't envy the Mets, Dodgers and Phillies (as it appears today) having to deal with these Cubs.

The True Conservative Position

It's all about the money.
Ultimately, it's never about anything else for the conservatives. I will never forget the speech that George I gave at his second nominating convention. Polite applause for all of the talking points: abortion, homosexuality, school vouchers and so on. But the eruption came with the main point: Read my lips, no new taxes. I remember it so clearly, because it was the last of their conventions I watched. Keeps my blood pressure down, don't you know.
By the way, all of the "social conservative" points are all about money. I'm not talking about the decent, well intentioned people out there in the red states. I'm talking about the ones you see on TV and hear on the radio. For them, it's all about the money. They don't give a damn about aborted babies. They just don't want to pay taxes that might go to the bills of poor women.
This is precisely why government is bad, according the the right-wing whacko mantra: it takes my money.
Interesting, then, isn't it, that the first word out of the mouths of all the big, unregulated banks and investment houses when things went belly-up for them over the last few weeks: GOVERNMENT!
I don't disagree with the government assisting them, by the way. That's what the government should be doing: helping those who need help.
I just wish there were some reason to believe that this month has been an epiphany for George II and the rest of them. I would love to believe that they now understand that they need to be helping those who are hard up against it. Like the unemployed, and not just those afraid of becoming unemployed. Like the poor, not just those afraid of becoming poor after another bad week for the Dow.
For decades, conservatives have labeled the government bad any time that a finger was lifted to improve the lot of people having problems.
Perhaps now, they will see the light.
And monkeys will fly out of my butt.
Vote Obama.

A Much Better Night

Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 3. -1.5 for the Eastern Division; +7.5 for the Wild Card.
That's good news. The Sox ventured north of the border on the heels of that terrible visit to Tampa, knowing that A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay were waiting to welcome them today and tomorrow. Also, Mike Lowell is out of the lineup while on the plastic grass, trying to spare his damaged right hip. So, somewhere south of their best (J.D. Drew's back still has him parked, and he may be done for the year), the Bostons went out behind a just-good-enough Paul Byrd, and beat the birds, kept pace with the Rays, gained another game on the Twins in the Wild Card standings, and generally accomplished all that they could tonight.
Now we look to the second round of the Jon Lester-Doc Halladay show at High Noon (at least by Central Daylight Time). Lester better be at his best. But then again, these days, when is he not?

Time to Vent: Keep Thy Saliva to Thyself!

I am a patient man. I navigated teenaged years with two daughters. I have served eight churches, and over 3,000 elderly people in the retirement homes. I have served under eight District Superintendents and four Bishops. As I said, I am a patient man.
This condition is about to change.
It must be clearly understood: I have never, ever, not once in my life, spat upon money that I was about to hand to someone else. Never. Ever.
However, I have repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly been expected to extend my hand and accept money that has been coated in saliva by various clerks in multitudes of stores.
Apparently there is an epidemic afflicting those in the retail industry that causes one's fingers to be ineffective in picking up cash, and an accompanying notion that the only resolution to the problem is licking one's fingers. I'm sorry for your plight. I will donate to research on the problem. I will pray for you if you tell me it is a physical, psychological, emotional or even spiritual problem.
But I will no longer, ever, not once more, accept money from anyone who slobbers all over their hand before handing me said cash.
I will call your manager. I will, as calmly as possible, explain the problem. I will ask for different money from someone who has not just tasted herself or himself. I will propose that your manager send you to the restroom to wash your hands. I will explain that I will never, ever again shop in your store. And should I ever come in again, and be treated in this same disgusting manor, I will do everything in my power to see you fired.
Stop the spit! It is gross. It is disgusting. It is not in the interest of public health. And, first and foremost, I didn't spit on the money before I gave it to you. You shall not spit on the money before handing it to me!
Now then; I feel better.
Until the next time I have to go and buy something. And I will be watching! And dry!!!

A Very Discouraging Night

The Sox had the opportunity to leave Tampa tied for the AL East lead. It seems that they left their carpe diem at the hotel. I have trouble faulting Wake. Knuckleball pitchers can be great, mediocre, or horrible on any given night, and Wake has been great far more than he's been anything else this year. The team, apart from Papi, just didn't seem ready to play tonight, and that's really disappointing.
While they depart Tampa/St. Pete only two games behind, and three in the loss column, I have a real sense that they should now look to the Wild Card and prepare for the postseason. They will face A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay in the series at Toronto. Happily, the Twins don't seem to have any energy for getting back into the WC race.
Congratulations to Joe Maddon and the Tampa front office. It seems that the right people are now in place to make that franchise legitimate after 10 years of awful ownership, poor drafting, signing of broken down free agents, and general stupidity. The more good organizations in the game, the better the game.
I'm not particularly concerned about the route taken into the postseason, and the rest of Red Sox Nation shouldn't be, either. We won in 2007 as the Division Champion, and in 2004 as the Wild Card winner, so Tito and the boys have done it following both paths. The obvious difference is that little matter of the Fenway home field, but the Angels still have to show that they can find a way to beat the Sox after October 1.
Get the pitchers in order. Rest Lowell's hip as much as possible. Figure out if Drew will be available, and if available, helpful. Play Kotsay until he finds his stroke. Get Tek a little rest.
Then bring on October! Something, by the way, they won't be saying in the Bronx.

More Evidence for the Ballot Box

The Republican mantra from the time of the 1980 Reagan campaign: "Government isn't the solution to our problems. Government is the problem!" Always spoken to great cheering.
Nobody is cheering now.
Enron. Bear Stearns. Lehman Brothers. Merrill Lynch. More airlines than you can count. Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac.
Deregulate Everything, along with Don't Tax the Rich, are now thoroughly discredited as the sum total of Republican economic policy. To everyone, that is, except Sen. McCain. Today he was making the rounds to try another explanation for his "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" pronouncement. Today's attempt: "I mean that the productivity of the American worker is fundamentally strong." Get real!
The American worker isn't working. The jobs are all in Singapore. Or Malaysia. Or China. Being performed by prisoners. Or children. Or women, locked into sweatshops and dreaming of being treated as well as slaves.
The big companies, unmonitored, became too big, too greedy, too stupid. So they have, over and over again, killed the Golden Goose. And we foot the bill for all of it.
Republicans believe that you trust corporations to do the right thing, and regulate people, because they won't act right.
Democrats know that you can trust the people, but you trust these corporations only as far as you can throw Wall Street, and even then, to your own peril. Our regulating should be limited to those who steal the retirements of elderly Americans, who finance the movement of our entire manufacturing sector to foreign countries, who cynically count on the government that they do not trust to save their asses when they screw up. That would be the corporations.
How can anyone really want to keep these same people, with their same idiotic policies and ideas, in charge?

To Quote Charlie Brown, "Argh!"

Rays 2, Red Sox 1

In Which the Defending World Champions Finally Catch the Upstarts

Since shortly after the All Star Game, the Devil Rays (I know, I just don't care-and they picked it ten years ago) surged to the top of the American League East standings.
Top of the first, Kazmir pitching: Crisp, walk; Pedroia, walk; Ortiz, home run; Youkilis, fly out; Lowell, home run; Bay, strike out; Lowrie, fly out; Boston 4, Devil Rays, 0.
Ever since, the Sox have been trying to catch up.
Bottom of the first through bottom of the third, uneventful. Boston 4, Devil Rays 1.
After the Devil Rays took 2 out of 3 in Boston last week, many people said that the race was over.
Top of the fourth, Kazmir still pitching: Bay, home run; Lowrie, walk; Varitek, home run; Ellsbury, single; Crisp, double; Kazmir replaced by Talbot; Pedroia, single; Ortiz, force out; Youkilis, home run; Lowell, ground out; Bay, strike out; Boston 11, Devil Rays, 1.
Sox fans were despairing as only Sox fans can.
Bottom of the fourth: uneventful. Boston 11, Devil Rays, 1.
Then, with a good weekend for the Sox at home against the Blue Jays...
Top of the fifth: Lowrie, walk; Varitek, gidp; Ellsbury, home run; Crisp, walk; Pedroia, fly out; Boston 12, Devil Rays, 1.
...while the Devil Rays had a bad weekend in the Bronx with our new best friends.
Bottom of the fifth: uneventful. Boston 12, Devil Rays, 1.
That left us one game behind heading into Tampa for three games this week.
Top of the sixth: Ortiz, double; Youkilis, double; Lowell, HBP; Bay, gidp; Lowrie, walk; Varitek, strike out; Boston 13, Devil Rays, 1.
With Dice K on the hill, hopes were running high.
Remainder of the game: uneventful; final score: Boston 13, Devil Rays 5.
And the Beantown Bombers have caught up. And will go for the outright lead tomorrow night behind a little fellow named Beckett.
I do hope the Devil Rays have enjoyed their little fantasy!

Big Z!

He is a big man with a big arm who swings a big bat while trying to contain a big ego, a bigger temper, and some humongous emotions. He is the ace of a very fine Chicago Cubs' starting rotation who hadn't pitched since September 2 due to rotator cuff tendinitis. He is a Venezuelan made good in the United States. It was an Astros home game, against the Cubs, being played in Milwaukee. All of which made it the perfect night!
Carlos Zambrano has pitched a no-hit, no-run game.
Big Z is as entertaining as any character in the game. He is living theater. He seems to always walk along the razor's edge. And tonight it all fell his way. Ron Santo sounded like he wouldn't make it until the end. Pat Hughes was, as always, spectacular in recounting the action. Even Lou Pinella got caught up in the excitement, allowing a returning from injury, front of the rotation pitcher to go 110 pitches deep into a game that meant very little to the Cubs. At least it meant very little until that linescore was posted: Cubs, 5-7-0; Astros, 0-0-1.
Cubs fans look for any sign, absolutely any sign. Here's another in a year full of them: first Cubs' no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972!
I've gotten to see the Red Sox' 86 year drought ended. I've seen the White Sox' 88 year wait rewarded. Now we're down to cases: the Cubs have waited for a century. Maybe Z's great game marks the path. Can Next Year really be This Year?

Fifth Anniversary: Warren Zevon and Johnny Cash

Warren Zevon looked like he knew something you wouldn't want to know. There were reasons for that. Warren may not have been the original sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll boy, but if he didn't write the book, he surely edited it for a new edition.
In the course of living the life, he produced the work to back it up. Sure, I knew Werewolves, but I learned Warren just like most of America (outside Southern California) after David Letterman introduced us. Warren filled in for Paul Shaffer on the High Holy Days, and any other time he was needed. And he played his music, his wonderful, wonderful music. Another godawful crime committed in the community? Awww, he's just an Excitable Boy according to the neighbors. Think boxing is all art? Listen to Boom Boom Mancini. Tired of hearing all that crap about potential? Try Genius. And talk about real life love songs? Get Mutineer, Reconsider Me, Searching for a Heart or Keep Me in Your Heart. Want the even darker side of Hotel California? Go into a room by yourself and play Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me; just make sure it isn't the abominable Ronstadt mutilation.
Warren was just plain noble following his terminal diagnosis (he had mesothelioma-the asbestos cancer; even his illness was bizarre). His appearance on Letterman's program in October, 2002, was designed as a public farewell of sorts. He lasted almost another year, and produced a final album that is as powerful and poignant as anything you'll ever listen to. Dave tells a story about that night in the current edition of Rolling Stone. After Warren had shared his now epic advice to "Enjoy every sandwich" and thanked Letterman for being the "best friend my music's ever had" the long-time friends visited after the show. As they talked, Warren stowed his guitar in its case. As he closed the snaps, he handed the case to Dave, and told him to take good care of it. The legendary wiseass was reduced to sobs.
So was I when Warren died on September 7, 2003. So am I each year when I lift a glass in his memory.

Johnny Cash looked like he knew something he wished he didn't know. There were reasons for that, too. Cash made as many runs up to the abyss as anyone who ever lived, and he lived to tell the tale every time until September 12, 2003, five days after Zevon left us. Johnny didn't sing as much as he rumbled. He had this BIG baritone voice that seemed to come from somewhere down around the earth's core. He was the voice of apocalypse, the voice of doom, the voice of a prophet.

He started in the Cradle of the Immortals, Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service, soon to be known as Sun Records. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Howlin' Wolf, and Cash, among many others; not bad company for schooling. Fresh out of Arkansas, Mr. Sam got him, as only Sam could, and made him a star.

Johnny Cash knew from early on that life sucks and then you die. He knew it from childhood (inflicted on him) and adulthood (self-inflicted). But he also had hope of redemption, as learned through the eternal grace of love that came into his life through June Carter. Johnny kicked against the goads all his life. He kicked out of anger before June; he acted out of expectation once she entered his life. He sang and fought for the downtrodden, whether prisoner, minority or radical. The authorities at San Quentin told him he couldn't perform Folsom Prison Blues due to the line about having "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." Don't want to rile the inmates, don't you know. Maybe that's why he seems to almost scream those words on the recording of the concert. Debuting his short-lived Johnny Cash Show on ABC, he wanted Bob Dylan on the premiere. The network shrieked that he would lose his audience if he had one of those anti-war anarchists on the show. Dylan performed. That was Cash.

Eventually Cash, like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard (championed from his prison time by Cash), couldn't find a recording contract in Nashville. Country Music without Cash, Nelson and Haggard is pretty much the best definition (next to Dubyer) of "All Hat and No Cattle." So in typical Cash fashion, he went to work with Hip Hop Entrepreneur Extraordinaire Rick Rubin, and produced some of the most powerful, most American music (no pun intended) of his career. Hunt up those last albums. They are gold, and I don't measure by units sold. Most everyone knows the gut-wrenching take on Trent Reznor's Hurt that became a sort of valedictory for Johnny's career. The sound recording was devastating. The video (which, all by itself, made the medium acceptable), featuring June but released only after her death, as Johnny moved through the closed House of Cash museum, intercut with images from younger, and much happier days, proclaimed, again, the apocalypse: "I got old and you will, too" the old prophet boomed out. "I should have done better" said the voice of experience. "Don't throw your time away!"

Johnny Cash was America. That's why I got my first taste of a Cash concert. He was chosen to headline the show on July 4, 1976, beneath the Washington Monument on the Mall in our nation's capitol. Then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller ran on at length about something or other, and then this figure took the stage, almost invisible in his black mourning coat, black shirt, black pants and black shoes and thundered "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash!" Before, I had known who he was. That night, I learned what he meant.

He still means that much to me. And to everyone else that knows about life's shit. And believes in the possibility of redemption. Well done, good and faithful servant! I'm certain that you've entered into the joy of your master. But, brother, would I be grateful to have heard you sing about where our country is now, and how much better we should be doing!

The Problem of a Free Society

We just passed the day that posed arguably the greatest challenge to a free society. September 11, 2001, forced us to evaluate just how precious our freedoms are to us and how committed we are to them. To date, we have failed that test miserably.
Today, we find the test posed again.
As Hurricane Ike raged toward Galveston and Houston, the United States Government, in the presence of the National Weather Service, called on citizens of the Texas coast and inland areas in Ike's path to evacuate, or "face certain death." Let that sink in for a moment.
In other parts of the world, parts I don't even want to visit, much less live in, the government would simply send in the troops and remove people from their homes, perhaps even relocating them permanently. We don't work that way. And so, there are still more people than can be counted trying to ride out the storm in their homes.
What do we do about that?
Is there any rationale for asking those valiant young men and women who serve in the various helping agencies to go into an area that has been declared to "face certain death" to rescue hardheaded people who were warned in advance (this time)? Certainly, they are trained to deal with deadly situations, but where is the line?
At what point does personal responsibility for decisions made really become personal? When does society's responsibility to help end?
As a Christian, it is a mandate to say that we must help no matter what. But there is a big difference in handing a hamburger to the man with the sign at the intersection and risking an entire helicopter crew (with spouses, children and parents depending on them) to save Jim Bob whose case of Budweiser told him he was tougher than any goldarned storm.
As an American, I find one more place where we still will not respect the decisions that other free people make. We will, before this is over, hear tragic stories of the loss of brave people trying to save others, who made bad decisions, from themselves.
And I have no idea how to grade this one.

...And A Word In Support of Community Organizers

Please don't be surprised at the attempts to disparage Barack Obama's work as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago after he finished law school. Rudolph Giuliani, or 9/11 Man as he wishes to be remembered, laughed at the thought of a Harvard law grad wasting time helping people thrown out of work by Republican corporate overlord-types seeking greater profits by moving their factories to foreign countries at the expense of working Americans. Barbie also dismissed Obama's work, likening it to a small town mayor's job, only "mayors have real responsibilities." In my little neck of the woods, towns of about 8,000 people don't even have full-time mayors. But I digress.
Of course, Republicans will never understand why a brilliant young man would spend several years of his life helping the unemployed, the underemployed, the desperate and the despairing. Republicans like Giuliani sit back and laugh when the people who do the real work in this country, paving the streets, staffing the assembly lines, waiting the tables and cleaning the mayor's $5,000 suits, find their jobs disappearing because of the policies of George II. Suburban blight like Sarah Palin run as far away from the real problems and suffering in this world as they can possibly get, and then pretend that they are being persecuted when one of their kids acts like a kid. Look, madame governor, it's your boys, the Bill O'Reillys and Rush Limbaughs of this world, who have built careers screaming about the irresponsibility of parents who let their little girls get pregnant out of the traditional family order of things. Community organizers have the courage and the passion for people that takes them into the very neighborhoods that people like the good governor try to avoid, to look the problems in the eye, and pursue solutions. And it is precisely us awful Liberals who have developed and implemented all of the programs to help young women in the position your daughter is in, and children coming into the world as your grandchild is. Prenatal healthcare, Headstart, school breakfasts and lunches, day care and afterschool care, public education; that's all courtesy of your friends, the Liberals. And mostly through the initiative and efforts of those awful community organizers you think so little of. They are the people who deliver the change that you Republicans strive so hard to avoid or squash.
You're welcome. You lying jerks. Why don't you go quote some more of that scripture that you love to toss around so much, but understand not one bit, for instance, how we treat "the least of these" is how we really feel about God!

Old and Tired

Senator McCain's speech is made. It was, indeed, old and tired.
I do not aim those words at the Senator. Just his rhetoric.
The Senator decried Washington, the Washington that he has been part of for 26 years. He decried the financial irresponsibility of Washington, the Washington that his party has run for the last eight years. When Bill Clinton left office, this country had a record surplus in the bank. George W. Bush and the Republican Congress that ruled for the first six years of the Bush administration have squandered that surplus and run up the greatest debt in the history of our nation. Not "Tax and Spend Democrats." Republicans, the "financial conservatives", have done this. The only sacrifice that Bush called for was for the wealthiest Americans to wrench their arms reaching for their wallets so that, for the first time in our history, he could dump another tax cut into their pockets. Senator McCain knew, at the time, that was a bad idea. Candidate McCain wants to extend those same tax cuts. And, apparently, incur the even greater deficits that will come with them.
There desperately needs to be a change. But change cannot come by leaving the reins in the same hands that have held them for the last eight years, hands that have failed miserably.
Morally bankrupt from a war that should never have been fought, financially bankrupt from the waste in Iraq, out of ideas after showing the Neocon "vision" for what it is (bullshit), McCain has no option but to deny any responsibility for the Bush years.
And, by the way Senator McCain, Barack Obama has never, ever, claimed to be put in place by God to be President, not once, not ever. But one person did, indeed, make that claim about himself: George W. Bush. And, clearly, if King George II is accurate in that assessment, God has a lot to learn about American politics.