2007 American League East Champions

Out On a Limb

This man has taken a lot of slack this year. Most of the slack this man has taken has been deserved. And I have a feeling, I don't know why, that this man is going to be a huge part of the Red Sox playoff run. Or I hope at least. This man is JD Drew.

Monday, Monday, Monday

A little multimedia for you to enjoy. Don't really have anything to say except the Packers are better than most thought, and the Chargers, not so much. Have a good week kids.
-MC

So This Is What Quicksand Feels Like

You don't even know where to begin. The Red Sox lead over the Yankees in the AL East is down to 1.5 games and only one in the all too precious loss column. And I don't even know what to think.

I'm mad. I'm really mad. I'm so mad, that I'm almost not mad. Anyone who watched the last six Red Sox games should know what I mean by that. They are playing terrible baseball right now. And I don't care how many games are left or who they are against, it's not good right now. The optimists will point to the fact that the Red Sox have nine games left, plenty of time to get their act together. Sure, that's a true point. But the thing that should bother Red Sox games is the fact that they are playing with no real signs of urgency. I don't care that last year the Cardinals were playing terrible heading into the playoffs and marched to a World Series title. That's the exception. If the Red Sox continue playing this bad, and limp into the playoffs (which with the help of the Tigers slumping play is the worst case scenario), it won't matter. I guarantee they won't win the World Series.

The optimists also point to the fact that the Red Sox have an easy schedule left. It's three this weekend in Tampa, then back home for two against Oakland then four against Minnesota. All three teams will be watching the playoffs from home this year or from their respective country clubs. Guess what? Toronto's going to be right with them, and they just swept the Sox. My point is this: The Red Sox shouldn't be worried about who's on their schedule or even what the Yankees are doing. The Red Sox should be worried about playing better baseball. Now.

The weather's getting a bit cooler, the air smells a bit more ripe, and the leaves are slowly but surely turning from bright green to autumn shades of red and orange. That of course means, it's time for a Manny Ramirez saga. Where the hell is this guy? It's pretty obvious that the Red Sox don't have a great line-up. And that's with Manny in it. With him not in it, it's even worse obviously. The Sox are 10-12 since Manny went down with his tender oblique and 7 of those 12 losses have come by two runs or less (Thanks to Dave D. for that stat). Meanwhile, David Ortiz has found his kryptonite in the form of a bum shoulder and knee, but the guy just. keeps. grinding. Take notes Manny. It all comes back to that urgency thing...

I'm not even going to get into the fact that Terry Francona is managing like it's March 19, not September 19, Eric Gagne officially sucks, Jonathan Papelbon is apparently human, and JD Drew, well is still JD Drew. On a positive note though, JD hit his 9th home run tonight, which still gives him an outside chance at 14, which would equal a homer per million dollars he's getting paid this year.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not throwing this season away (although with the Packers playing the way they are, it's becoming more tempting). I'm still with this team. I think when they're playing good baseball, not many, if any teams in baseball can hang with them. The only problem is, they picked the absolute worse time, in the midst of a pennant run to play their worst baseball. Here's hoping that changes soon...

PS - To make matters worse, the Sox have shut down Hideki Okajima indefinitely. Neat-o.

Cheaters Do Actually Win, And Winners Usually Cheat

It could be argued that Bill Belichick is a bad person. Now I don't know the guy personally, but I tend to think that statement is somewhat true. Don't get me wrong, if we're looking at wins and losses he's one of the best coaches in NFL history. As someone who doesn't like the Patriots at all really, I always pointed as Belichick as the only guy I could stomach in that organization. But as new reports come out that the Patriots were nabbed for cheating this past Sunday against the Jets, I've lost respect for him too. An associate for the Patriots, a video guy if you will, was stopped by NFL personnel Sunday just before halftime and his camera and tape were confiscated, as he was accused of videotaping the Jets' defensive signals. Belichick has even come out and apologized to the front office, players, and the rest of the league for his and his team's actions. It's just another thing Belichick has done in the somewhat recent past that has called his character in question. There was the supposed affair he had with a secretary when he was with the Jets, and of course there's the not-so-friendly approach he has takes when dealing with the media. Also, the Patriots' injury report from week-to-week is, to be nice about it, "vague". So vague that it is often looked at as misleading to their opponents when trying to prepare for the upcoming week. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, Belichick had some influence on Rodney Harrison's use of HGH. Just throwing that out there... It's these little things that have called Belichick into question recently.

Now you can look at the fact that I dislike the Patriots and I'm also an aspiring journalist and thus, throw dirt on my argument here. But Patriots fans who don't realize there's some shady business going on here are totally naiieve.

I guess that this is just the culture that we live in in sports today. The biggest individual record in all of sports is held by a cheater. Rick Ankiel is the feel-good story of the summer that was marred by dogfighting, the aforementioned Bonds* saga, and an NBA official caught in the middle of a point-shaving scandal. And now we know that because of HGH use, the Ankiel story isn't as magical as we'd like to believe. It is what it is. Unfortunately, it's the nature of sports as we know them today. And I guess, when you think about it, Belichick may be a bad person, but maybe that's what makes him so good.