A Clemens-Like Return

Well I'm back from my two week long hiatus at the lawn gnome convention. Good times. I apologize a thousand times to the 3 of you that read this with the even slightest bit of regularity. For today, just some things I've been thinking about lately.

First of all, the American League East race is not over. Not even close. It's still May people. Now here's the kicker. Let's say the Red Sox don't suffer any injuries at all the rest of the season, the same kind of luck they're having right now (except Josh Beckett's uh..."avulsion"). If they don't get hit by the injury bug that killed them last year, this thing is over. They'll win it going away. As it sits right now on May 19th at 1:30 pm, the Red Sox are 28-12. The Yankees are 18-20. That means there's 122 games to be played for each. If the Red Sox go .500 which would be a 61-61 record, the Yankees would have to go 71-51 obviously. Now if the Red Sox play .500 the rest of the way I'd be shocked and dismayed and bummed. The Yankees certainly have the capability of going 20 games above, and more, but not if they play like this all year.

Roger Clemens, you are a fat greedy turd.

By the way, Clemens will not make the difference in this race. Mark my words. For a few reasons too. First of all, the Yankees are looking at a 10 game difference right now. If Clemens goes 10-0, which he won't, trust me, then what does that really mean? One guy, especially a starting pitcher is not going to make the difference for that team. Secondly, Clemens is not a reliever. The Yankees bullpen has been garbage all year, partially because their starters have been bad too, but the bullpen has just been dreadful. And Roger isn't going to help that at all. I think I remember hearing that Clemens averaged about 6 innings a start last year at the most. That's not going to help save a bullpen that's already been depleted. And last, Clemens chokes in any big situation, so keep that in mind.

I was lucky enough to get to the Mother's Day game at Fenway last week. Probably the best Sox game I've ever been to, all because of the 20 minutes that was the ninth inning. Funny game that way. But that's just the Red Sox right now. They don't lose, it's like muscle memory now.

I feel dirty, I feel very dirty. I have been watching some of the NBA Playoffs, but it's not that bad because I haven't been watching the Eastern Conference. I was very intrigued by the Suns-Spurs series, and it pains me that the Suns are done. Now we get the pleasure of watching two of the most unpleasurable teams to watch battle in the conference finals. The Spurs are not interesting at all, and they're opposed by the Utah Jazz. Quick, name the Jazz starting line-up. Uh...Stockton, Malone, Hornacek...?

Start watching the NHL playoffs. It's fun.

I could talk about football, but I'd rather not.

Full day of baseball today, with the Sox playing a day-nighter with the Yankees-Mets game (the Yankees' 27th game on national TV already this year it seems) sandwiched in between. And I've got a good vibe because as I started this entry, Julio Lugo hit a homer (fantasy points!) and Youk stayed red hot with a homer of his own as I finished it up. Happy baseball watching kids.
-MC