Listen....as a Red Sox fan for 51 years I know the pain of the Cubbie Fans....You really don't want to win it all....there are so many good and unifying things about being the jinxed team....

We here in Boston had something really special before 2004....A rare thing really....A baseball team that was operating under an active, actual and scientifically verified (ok, so I'm lying a bit) curse....we had it all...we could NEVER win and we understood that role.....we had a fan base that was rabid....I mean people in other parts of the country cannot begin to understand the nature of this....for decades we had a cheap #### of an owner, we pissed literrally in troughs, we had horrible concessions, obstructed views, #### weather, lunatic players.....and the knowledge that somehow, some way our team would blow it....In our annual despair we united behind a team the way that no other baseball team has ever been supported....the fans were largely blue collar, they drank, sang, swore, threatened, booed and chanted in unison for more than 2 decades (there is a legitimate debate as to when this all started....'67 I was 10 and already a fan, by '75 I was 18 and suffered my first real Red Sox wound) clearly in 1967 the Red Sox began the long and steady climb to respectability and ultimately supremacy,,,,but the team really became relevant nationallly in the 1975 Series against Cincy's Big Red Machine (what a team that was by the way).....We knew Bucky Dent was coming...we knew that Yaz was not going to come through, Red Sox fans were cursing at Bob Stanley and we knew that when Dave Stapelton was left on the bench that John McNamara blew that game...it was a done deal...but the real pain was not in losing....remember that year?  The Mets were a team of the century...they had it all....every position was solid and they had a great pitching staff....what killed us was that we got ahead when we shouldn't have and THEN we blew it.....I remember that year thinking that Clemens was out of gas...it was Bruce Hurst who was our best pitcher in that series, what made that painful was that we weren't supposed to have a chance....we beat up on the Mets....and just when we started to believe that we had 'em.....John McNamara choked....and let's be clear....Bill Buckner made an error with a "defensive" replacement sitting on the bench.....We then struggled with an unprecedented collection of bad managers (yeah you, Kennedy, you stiff), terriblle ownership and horrible people as players...Mike Greenwell, Mo Vaughn, Jose Canseco, Carl Everrett and Jose Offerman to name just a few...How about Grady Littlle who is regarded by most Bostonians as mentally challenegd since his brilliant move to leave Pedro in the game....that was as painful as it got because even the nitwit announcers knew what was coming....half of the City of Boston went to bed and we stuffing their faces into the pillow before Grady got back to the dugout....it was over and every person I know as a true Red Sox fan knew that....we struggled but it was who we were....you people just don't understand....well you Cubs fans get it,,,,,and you know what....winning is such a relief but then what?

Blow the series...Cubs....Without you Chicago is just a cold assed city filled with corrupt politicians, that #### Oprah and some sort of bizarro world beliefs as to what to put on a hot dog....If the Cubs win sure you'll have a great time...you can write to your Yankee fan friends about how much they suck, you can finally wear a Cubs world series hat....talk radio for 3 weeks will be a love fest with everyone agreeing that it just doesn't matter anymore and then it will slowly begin to dawn on all of you....you were the lovable losers....you were tough beyond all understanding, you battled the odds....you HAD character and true grit....after you win...not so much....you are now no different than the Toronto Blue Jays fans....no character....no grit.....no nothing....other more important things will change too...

At Fenway Park these days they sell Legal Seafoods chowder, cuban sandwiches, pulled pork and gourmet popcorn;  they have club seating, they have "pavillions", they have bars everywhere, they will sell a sponsorship sign on you if you sit in one place for 2 hours,  the troughs are all gone, there are advertising plaques above each urinal, they have Dunkin Donuts, they have NAPKINS and RELISH (don't lie to me if you tink they had relish before you are a faker) Papa Ginos pizza....they get $40.00 to park, the bars in the area like the Baseball Tavern are now megasized entertainment destinations...and the fans are all carrying cameras and these ####s flood the entry and exit ways to get a shot of their fat ugly pink hatted wives standing in front of the now completely ad covered Green Monster....the announcer blares out....ads sponsoring everything including the seventh inning stretch, the Budweiser Pavillion, the Dunkin Donuts Corner, the Papa Ginos fan of the game etc etc..... and a ticket in the left field lower lodge is $85.00 per game......make no mistake about it....a seat along the left field line at Fenway is quite a seat.....but in the post '04 World the ####s who now have made Fenway "America's Favorite Ballpark" don't stay in their seats for an inning because none, not one of these peckerheads gives a rat's #### about the game....they are there to say that they were there....they would pay $500.00 for the seats and they are almost all wearing pink hats or hats that aren't formed like a baseball hat...you know those LL Bean loser hats with an off weathered white cotton and....in cooler weather they wear LL Bean...they only stay to hear Sweet Caroline and they all start looking around in gleeful surprise when the wave starts.  They ALL ask why people are booing when Kevin Youklis walks to the plate and then they smugly smile like those in the know when they are told by normal fans that the  "Boooooo" is really "Yoooouuuuuu########"....the most annoying thing about this new breed of fan is how they gasp and shreik when there is an in field pop up....THESE DIPSHITS SEE EVERY HIT BALL AS HAVING A CHANCE TO GO OUT....IF IT'S TOUCHED BY A BAT AND GOES INTO THE AIR THESE FOOLS JUMP UP AND SCREAM....My young son usually explains to the venture capital loser next to us..."You should watch the ball and the outfielder to see if it has a chance"....Then the enterprising ownership will convince these dopes that for $75.00 they too can become a member of Cub Nation....you even get a real membership card and a window sticker so that you and the other 3,000,000 of you can be unique.....in short my Cubbie Brethren....baseball as you know it will die when the Cubs do win.... I hope that you understand that baseball in Boston just isn''t the same...What has softened our descent into anoynmity is the fact that the Yankees REALLY suck and they have that piece of #### at 3rd....that plus we are all enjoying Derek Jeters slippagge into the dust bin of history......hey when you guys do win this year can we borrow Bartman or the goat....I'll even take the black cat from '69....we need more help now than we did in '86.....

While I Certainly Tip My Hat To Green By for It's Football Team...Here's Why It Is Not Title Town At This Time.....

The Green Bay Packers are at BEST an average football team in the post Favre world....With Favre in his MVP prime they managed a single Super Bowl win.....from 1967 to today the Pack have won one Superbowl....Yes you have won 12 "championships" but the first three 1929, 30 and 31 were awarded based upon regular season end of season standings....The NFL did not start playing playoffs until 1936 and yes from that point until the idea of a "Super Bowl" was started for the 1966 season the Packers were clearly a top team in the 1930's and a Power House in the early to mid 1960's.....ok....so let's ask the really pressing question....WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY....after Lombardi left,  the Packers went into a three decade swoon....from 1967 to 1995 the Packers had two seasons where they posted 10 or more wins (1972 and 1989), in that span the team had 15 losing seasons! When Holmgren and Favre arrived the team became a contender but still managed only to win the big game once and then they really sort of choked in the second appearance in a stunner of a loss to Denver....

I point this out because some giant of a mind has informed me in response to an earlier posting that Green Bay is "Title Town" until someone takes that away....in 41 years YOU HAVE ONE TITLE in a one sport town....that takes away any ability to claim Title Town....using your logic the following Cities have a much stronger claim to the moniker....here goes my list for cities with a substantially stronger claim to title town than you Cheeseheads....

1.  Boston-15 Titles since 1967 ....(Celtics 8, Bruins 2, Red Sox 2, Patriots 3) and since the start of the century no city has been close.....

2.  New York 11 Titles since '67...Yankees 6 WS wins since '67, the Giants 3 Superbowls, the Jets 1 Superbowl, and the Rangers 1 Stanley Cup win

3..  Los Angeles- 11 Titles with 9 NBA Titles for the Lakers and 2 World Series Wins for the half watched Dodgers LA. I do not count the Angels win because they did not identify themselves as the LA Angels.....

4.  Detroit 9 titles  (Red Wings 4 titles; Pistons 3 Titles; Tigers 2 WS Titles)

5.  Pittsburg, 9 titles( Steelers 5, Pirates 2, Penguins 2)

6.  Chicago 8 titles  (Bulls 6, White Sox 1, Bears 1)

Honorable mentions include San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, San Antonio (a one horse town) Baltimore, Philadelphia, Toronto, Minnie, St. Louis, Montreal,  Miami, Oakland, all of whom have won the golden ring MORE than you blockheads in Green Bay....

Of course were we to do what you have done...count the records since the dawn of time...then the Yankees, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Celtics and Lakers alone would smoke you guys by HUGE margins....

So my dear little cheddar heads....Green Bay is not and cannot claim title to anything beyond being a really cold and very average footbal town....I would urge you to resubmit your application in a few years...in order to make the top 6 the Pack will have to win 7 more tiles and with 1 in 40 years that should happen sometime in the year 2288...give or take a few decades....Green Bay Title Town ....that's a hoot...but thanks for playing and try again in about 280 years......

Here's our question for the day:  Will Green Bay win more than 6 games in '08?  I say yes, they win 7....I mean it's very hard in that division not to win 7....Detroit, Minnie and Chicago are all horrible so they should come out of that with a minimum of 4 wins....they also get Atlanta, Carolina, Seattle, Houston and Tampa Bay....You will know what kind of season you'll have right out of the box in Green Bay....Minnie at home and the on to Detroit....if the Pack loses both then they tumble into the abyss...if they split...then they have a shot at 7-9 or 8-8 which might give them 1st place in this crappiest of all NFL Divisions.....This squad gets croaked by Dallas, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indy and New Orleans....Who will lead this team that you could count on to do anything significant...Aaron Rodgers?  Listen closely....Senor Rodgers has thrown for a total of 111 yards over his three years in the league....clearly not his fault given that he was playing behiind the great one....but...that does not mean that he should be given any credit as a proven replacement because he has not established that he can play in this league.....Additionally, who in the name of all that is cheesey are the back ups?  Add to that the fact that Rodgers entire body of post high school work has consisted of playing in 25 college games and you have what?  In his life after high school this guy has played in 30 games....if you're counting on much here you may end up with a bad taste in your mouth when he's staring down the throat of that Jacksonville Defense or when Dallas comes to town.....he may well turn out to be a great player like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or, but history tells us that he'll  more likley be another David Carr or Byron Leftwich...plus the guy needs a haircut...Green Bay is in for a long cold winter...unless BF comes out of retirement....

Get past the QB mess and this team clearly has talent with little depth....If Ryan Grant stays healthy and can repeat his '07 performance they will still need a lot more help for the long haired freaky dude calling signals....he could have T.O., Marvin Harrison and Chad Johnson and this team might still stink if Rodgers plays as soft as I suspect he will....

Early season favs include the obvious picks....Indy, NE, Dallas, Jacksonville and then it's a bunch of unknowns....will Tennessee continue to improve....has the Jets spending spree landed them a team (still need the QB me thinks)....bet on this Atlanta will slowly start to improve, Baltimore will be horrible, along with AZ, San Fran, Cleveland and I would not bet the farm that Oakland, Miami, Tampa Bay or the Niners have figured anyting out.....

Divisionally the NFC East and AFC South are the two to beat, Pats should clinch a playoff berth by about the middle of September and Indy and Jacksonville should be the best divisional games this year....I think Dallas is right there talent wise, I am no fan of Tony Romo because despite all of the hype that has surrounded this guy he has shown a disturbing trend as not being clutch in playoff games....I have a lot of doubt that he is the answer....but the NFC should fold up nicely foor Dallas to breeze....in the AFC it once again comes down to New England, Indy and Jacksonville....this year I think it's a jump ball in light of all of the secondary turnover the Patriots have had.....

The take.....

Since 2001 NO city, I mean NO city has Come Close To this City's Teams.....

THERE CAN BE NO LEGITIMATE DEBATE ABOUT IT....BOSTON IS TITLETOWN.....

Let's give Detroit it's due...the Red Wings and Pistons are awesome teams....but let's be clear....Detroit has NO claim to being title town....Hockey Town ----probably but that's it....the Tigers suck, the Lions are worse and the Pistons won only one as that team is presently configured....

How about New York....the Giants deservedly won their Superbowl but beyond that let's see....the Yankees are a good team with an aging but still powerful lineup and NO pitching staff. The Spanks have not recovered from the single most humiliating defeat in organized professional sports history....you may remember that 2004 ALCS....I know all of you suddenly quiet Yankee fans remember it don't you?...how about those Knickerbockers.....they may well be the worst franchise in organized team sports given their money and the absolutely horrible teams they have paraded onto the Garden floor...oh wait...how can the Knicks be the worst franchise ever when they play in the same market as those Mets....the second highest payroll in baseball and they lay all of the blame for their '07 colllapse on a manager and not the dipstiick who overpayed Pedro, Santana, Glavine (we know he's gone but he took a lot of $ while he was there and didn't do ####), Beltran, Delgado and that ace Wagner....wanna fire someone who IS to blame....schedule a 3:00 a.m. meeting with Omar while you still have a fan or two left....and then there are the Rangers and who really cares...

How about L.A.?  Well the Lakers had a nice run until they played a complete team and they promptly crapped out....I remember just two short weeks ago a lively interview with Kobe and Stephen A. Smith where Steven A. pressed Kobe as to why it wasn't fair to compare Kobe to MJ and at the time I wrote it off as a good reporter just asking the questions because many many people had started to believe that Bryant deserved such a lofty comparison....and maybe Kobe will still someday be able to be compared to Michael...just not at this time....Kobe was so outplayed by the Celtics trio of Pierce, Allen and Posey that he was barely the best offensive player on his own team....he was clearly out played, out hustled and outschemed by tthe Boston Celtics to the point where his legacy has been tarnished to a great degree..Michael Jordan would have carried his team to a win over Boston this year, there is NO question about that...but back to my point...LA is never really eligible to be Title Town without a real baseball team and without an NFL franchise....Christ even Charlotte and Jacksonville have teams.... what? you say that the Dodgers are a real baseball team because they signed Joe Torre?  To that I say, grow up...as good a manager as there is in the game does not make the Dodgers are real team.  Fans don't care, teams NEVER win (Kirk Gibson ain't coming through that door kids) and did I mention that people in LA have NO passion for sports....How many titles have the Dodgers won?  Nah, LA is not close to a candidate for Title Town USA....and what did Shaq say...."Kobecouldn't do it without me...."  Love it, LA blows.

How about Chicago....although the Blackhawks such #### and the Bulls are a disgrace, and the Bears are moving backwards again.  They do have the White Sox who have won a World Series and the Bulls of Michael and Scottie were all world....but what have done for me lately....you KNOW the Cubs will screw up somehow and someway and while Ozzie will probably get the Southsiders a legitimate playoff shot...even if they win they really don't matter...even in Chicago...what's that old line...."there's nothing lonlier that being a southsider in a city of northsiders"....so The ChiSox are not given any credit here until their own city backs em just a bit....so Nyet to Chicago...and Philly, Saint Louis, Dallas, San Antonio (one team sports towns just don't count), Saint Louis, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Miami, Cleveland, Cincy, Oakland, KC, New Orleans, Houston or Seattle....nope not one of these cities can say that they have won world champioships in Football (3) Baseballl (2) and Basketball (1) since 2001....only one place on the planet can say that and that's Boston.

Oliver Wendall Holmes once called Boston the "Hub of The Universe" because the city is the eductaional center of the Country with no fewer than 100 colleges in the city and its thriving suburbs....and those colleges include Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson and Boston College to name just a few.  Add to that an extremely low crime rate, a bevy of world class hospitals, four gorgeous seasons and the birthplace of our democracy and you have a city that is truly the best place to live on the East Coast. 

It is almost unfair that the Red Sox are by far the best team in baseballl over the last 5 years, that the Patriots are still the best team in football and that the Celtics have now resumed theiir rightful place atop the NBA and won their 17TH title....a feat that no other team has ever topped....to put that in perspective.....that is 17 more titles than Cleveland, Denver, Charlotte, New Orleans, Dallas,  Utah, LA Clippers and New Jersey Nets have combined to win....

Then there are the Red Sox....again in first place, again with the best rotation in the game, again with out any hole in their entire lineup, great manager, great closer, sold out EVERY game for decades.... wealthy and committed owners and a fan base that dwarfs the Yankees...if you doubt that for one minute try to buy a single game ticket for next season from the Red Sox ticket office....it will take an act of Congress and a great bit of luck.  Then go to Baltimore (AKA Boston South) and see how the BoSox fans outnumber O's fans  ...they have utterly destroyed the Yankees who simply will never recover from the beat down they took in '04....manager's gone, owner's feeble and his nit wit replacement is managing the team, they hired a manager who is so obnoxious that he got himself fired in the same year as he was named Manager of the Year in the NL and then there's the GM who must bear reposnibility for Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, ElDugue, Alphonso Soriano, Roger Clemons third comeback tour and the whole notion that Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes were legitimate major leaguers....what you ask have the Red Sox done with young talent????  Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, John Lester, Jacoby Elsbury, Jed Lowrie, Clay Buckholtz, Justin Masterson, Manny DelCarmen, Craig Hansen are ALL playing and the team won last year's Fall Classic by destroying the Rockies....are you kidding me?  It is amost unfair....the Red Sox are still in firts place and Curt Schilling is out, David Ortiz is out, Daisuke Matsuzaka is out...Manny is out...Coco is out....the Cubbies lose Zambrano and they WILL collapse....This is the most talented team of young players to play in 25 years....

I will not offer any excuses for the Patriots....they lost and they deserved to lose to a team that is now a long shot to return to the playoffs.  The Pats are again favored to return to the Superbowl and only a fool like Tom Jackson would seriously question that...they have quietly reloaded a secondary that was not very good last year and they picked up three solid linebackers in the off season...anybody wanna wager with me?  I say they win 12-14 games and retuirn to the ALCS where they will beat Indy, or Jacksonville....as usual.

Now there are the Celtics who have a real small window because they have not shown that they can figureout how to draft NBA players from the lower end of the first round....but...for noow they will likely return to the Conference finals next year and unless Cleveland can figure out how to win on the road the C's should return to the finalls to face NO, Utah or San Antonion...it won't be the Lakers...Kobe will see a lot of Tom Thibodeau's defense next year the way that Kurt Warner got figured out after Bellichik figured him out in 01....Let's face facts...Luke Walton, Vukocic, and Radmanovic are not legitimate NBA players....they were useless in the Finals and then their is the quickly aging and slowing Dereck Fisher and the riddle that is Lamar Odom....plus can someone tell me why Pau Gasol gets such high praise....he's is everything we expect from a European player...he no like hitting...him no like physical ball....him no play defense.....so the Lakers won't be having to worry about another Boston Beat down next year....if New Orleans gets a better 2 they will be the team....or at least I hope they will.....

So my little pinheads....Boston simply rules the sport's universe and yes I did not mention College sports because there is not a single college team that can beat even the weakest professional team at anything so it don't count.....

Hopefully Congress Will Take Its Sweet Time Investigating Clemens so That Bush, The Other Texas Con Man, Won't Have The Ability To pardon him for perjury....

W#### cares that Roger Clemens is an ####, he has always been a bit of a buffoon...remember Terry Cooney, the bat throwing incident, the defiant staring at the Press Box in Fenway...the old Texas Con Man as the late Great Will McDonough used to call him has done it again...The pampered athlete is looking a bit unsure of himself right about now.....Roger Clemens cannot be telling the truth for the following reasons:

1.  In Clemens last two years in Boston his innings, strikeouts, wins and pitch counts were all way down, he had gained a lot of weight and appeared tired and pretty much past his prime.  Now I know that the popularized version is that Roger, ever the fierce competitor, sucked it up while motivated by the slight of Dan Duquette, and rejunevated himself into a repeat Cy Young winner and World Series Champ....of course all of that is #### because we know that he became leaner, more flexible and stronger because of a workout regimine aided by the illegal use of Human Growth Hormone (HGH).  PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED...THE USE OF ANY PRESCRIBED SUBSTANCE WHETHER BANNED BY BASEBALL OR NOT IS ILLEGAL.....So as if the Baseball Gods had shined approvingly upon the "greatest pitcher of all time" and made him young again....Halleleuiah...a miracle right in front of mine own eyes.... His innings went up, he strike out legions of American League hitters, he was returned to the top of his game as if by magic...well at the time he pointed to Mr. McNamee and credited him for the legendary workout he'd devised.  Whatever the reason, though,  he became effective beyond anyone's wildest dreams and man he showed the Red Sox...hell it is likely that his departure caused the early demise of Duquette's once bright future as a young and forward thinking GM....Duquette simply acknowledged what everyone in the world knew....when Roger left Boston he was a shell of the Roger of '86-93....that was not a debatable point. Buy hey miracles do happen...right?

2.  If the fact of the new and improved Roger isn't enough (ask yourself first if it was enough for Barry Bonds, why not the Rocket)...let's examine the claims of his trainer.  The Mitchell investigators were not specifically asking about Clemens, McNamey volunteered that information.  If he lied, naming Roger or not, he was subjected to a Federal indictment and almsot sure incarceration.  So why name Roger if it wasn't true....But how can we measure the "he said ....she said" on this one?  Well let's go to the pudding, they say the proof is always in there.   Was he right about Knoblauch?  Petite?  Debbie Clemens?  Yes, yes and yes...He described the times, the dates and the manner of the injections which is far far more than what anyone knows about Bonds and yet everyone is screaming for Barry's head on a platter (myself included).  He gave specific information ALL of which has been admitted to by the others he named, all of it including the revelation that he injected Mrs. Clemens...gotta admit she was ripped on the SI cover don't you?  Not too many moms look like that after the litter of kids these folks had....but I digress, Roger's wife is allowing Roger's trainer to inject her in Roger's bedroom and we are supposed to believe that she must have just assumed that McNamee just so happened to have HGH on him...How did Debbie Clemens even know that McNamee had this stuff to begin with?  Must have just come up in casual conversation I guess.  Laughable how idiotic this guy's defense has been, even those tired old guys on Capitol Hill saw right through it.   Roger cheated and he got caught.  Imagine what you would have said to one of your closest friends on the phone after you learned that the guy fingered you to the authorities for something you did not do...You would have ripped the guy a new one, you would have called him a lying piece of #### and you would not have equivocated about that...well what did Clemens say..."hey buddy, what's up?"  HA,,,,what a load of horseshit.  Clemens, that weasel, called his so-called buddy and said nothing, called him no names, didn't challenge him one time and all the while this so-called hero was secretly taping the guy.....a REAL hero would have taken a very different approach and it might have landed him in the can for a few weeks but Mr. McNamey would need the services o####ood dentist....Clemens did not challenge McNammey on the tape because Clemens knew what he was going to hear in return..."I DID tell the truth Rog...."

3.  Clemens would have you believe that he NEVER heard from his wife that she was injected?  Are you kidding me?  That is laughable and completely idiotic.

4.  Andy Pettite remembers all of it and he has testified that Roger DID it, that he bragged about it and that he reccomended it to others.

5.  Chuck Knoblauch also remembers that Roger reccomended the stuff to him.

6.  There are items of physical evidence like the syringes and cotton swabs that purportedly contain Clemen's DNA.

7. McNamee told Mitchell that he caused a subcutaneous abcess...uh oh...guess what sport's fans Roger was treated for that abcess in Tampa right where and when McNamee said he screwed up an injection.

You would have to have no mind not to believe that Clemens is a liar, his lawyers obviously have no control over him because whether he is indicted or not is not the issue, he has certainly exposed himself to indictment and would not have done so had he simply denied the claims and then said no more. 

Clemens should be disgraced and his records should be asterisked the same way that white America has suggested that Barry Bonds' records should be tarnished.  Anything short of the same treatment for the same crime legitimizes all of the claims that Bonds is being treated as a demon for only one reason...his skin color.  Indeed, Bonds has been cast as a villain for the past decade and while he almost certainly has used these substances, he has been constantly dogged about it and I was first to laugh when he suggested that rascism was at the heart of the matter.  I did not believe that BS, another black man living almost exclusively with white people screaming that he has been the victim of rascism...nah I didn't buy it when OJ tried and I wasn't buying when Barry said it....but now we can test that hypothesis can't we.  If Roger Clemens is pardoned, if he is simply not prosecuted or if the media start to proclaim that he is still a lock for Cooperstown...then add my voice to those who believe that race is the determining factor in American life.   The only difference here is that Clemens is white and is connected to a President with equally questionable moral fiber (remember Scooter Libby and the whole WMD scam????)...unfortunately he may end up beating this...I hope that he is fully prosecuted for any crimes he may have committed of he has in fact done so....and I say that because I think that he lied to Congress and I hope that he serves as an example for people coming up. But most of all I really hope that The Rocket will NEVER be in the Hall of Fame......

Would Someone Please Make Sure The Rockies Lower The Dosage of Their Team Sleeping Pills Before First Pitch In Colorado

Game 1....Hey Ryan Speier...the guy in the funny outfit standing behind your very confused and yawning cather is called an Umpire...he is supposed to yell "STTTTRRRRRRRIIIIIKE! after you throw the baseball....sound familiar little bucko?  I want to know something....if Clint Hurdle suffered a stroke in the dugout how would we know?  I mean I guess when his ace was getting pummelled or his second lefty starter was letting Boston bat around that he must have just assumed that the game was over and no sweat....wrong Skip....you should have gotten Francis outa there in the third inning, he had nothing and was behind on almost every batter...what are you thinking skip?

The Rockies have a pretty special lineup of hitters and a pretty good closer.  Then they have some issues, starting pitching is a stength but I wonder how they will match up against a team like Boston.  Remember the Indians had Boston beat but no because of Carmona or Sabathia, both of whom didn't pitch well at all.  My point is that the Boston team has faced American League pitchers all year long including 18 games agaiinst New York, they are a tougher lineup than anyone Colorado has faced thus far...all due respect to AZ and Philly...the Red Sox would have crushed BOTH in straight games as well. 

Game 2---Jiminez pitched well enough to win, the problem is so did Schilling and Yokajima....Papalbon has no equal as a closer in this series...the pick off was just a nice play...anyone in Holliday's position should be looking to get a good jump in that situation.  How good was Youklis' tag, I mean that guy plays real good baseball

That loss hurts more than the lopsided win in game 1, that game was right there for the Rocks and they just didn't get it done....is the hole already too deep?  Stay tuned.

The Rest of The Way

The Rockies pitchers should be hit consistently if Boston doesn't go into one of its inexplicable slumps.

Is it over for the Rocks?...no, they can hit with anyone and the Red Sox are a strange team, they can light the scoreboard up in scary fashion one night and then go remarkably cold for three games in succession.  Last night Boston hitters were uncharacteristically impatient and Jiminez was on.  Are they heading into a cold spell or was last night just some let down...we'll know Saturday....

The Red Sox now come with Daisuke and he was pretty good against Cleveland in game 7 of the ALCS....He is certainly beatable if he has coontrol issues....the problem here is that Dice-K usuallly makes the 5th inning before he develops control problems and by the then the Sox may have already feasted on Fogg...if they have a real solid chance on paper it will be against Jon Lester who is a very solid lefty but he has not pitched coming off of cancer treatments that ended his very productive '06 campaign.  If the beat Lester, they have to get past Beckett and that is a tall order because he is almost unhittable right this second-oh by the way a week or so ago I comented that Becket deserves to be considered on a par with Gibson and everyone jumped up screaming...unlike most of you knobs, I actually saw Bob Gibson play and my only point is that IN THE PLAYOFFS BECKETT EQUALS GIBSON IN SHEER DOMINANCE both in '03 and '07...nobody is saying that Hall of Famer and all-world pitching Phenom Bob Gibson isn't better than Josh Beckett...but in the playoffs Beckett is his equal up to this point in his career....

I like the Sox in this one but I'm still thinking irt might take 5  games for it to be over...Rocks need to come out loose and swinging to make this a series...