Slow output

The actual hiking is interfering with writing about hiking. Since I'm way behind, I'll satisfy myself with the observation that sending John Lackey for Tommy Johns surgery is an adequate, although expensive, way to keep the SOB out of circulation next year. Both that, and Theo's inauguration in Chicago, come on the the 25th anniversary of the Buckner Ball. If you want to make something of that, you're too late.

I want to know if the Cubs are going to feed Theo stewed kid as a reminder to go after the goat.

Just so much material

Good side of the Greek Tragedy in Yawkey Way: The heat's off Bill Buckner and Grady Little. Yes, fans, it is Greek tragedy in the clearest sense, with the 2500-year-old theme of the penalty of hubris at the forefront. Let us learn from this.

Moving on to unimportant matters, as we have said here before, in the "war on terror," the gods are on the side with the fewest idiots. It is al-Qaeda's curse that it seems even better than the GOP presidential primary race at attracting idiots. The terrorist idiot du jour seems unclear on the difference between flying a remote-controlled jet about the size of a riding mower and flying a balsa-wood airplane with a rubber-band engine. He seems shaky on the idea that it is one thing to dream of blowing up the Pentagon (a building slightly larger than Rhode Island) with a few pounds of plastique, and another actually to do it. Ferdaus seems also to be one of those charmingly naive people who have made the underside of the Internet, and especially Internet commerce, all that it is today. "Oh, I'll need some explosives and technical advice. Let me just Google that and I'm sure I'll find reliable sources." Heh.

All this does begin to resemble the U.S. Communist party in the late 1950s, when FBI agents in the ranks were said to outnumber Leninists by about 50 to 1. We can but laugh.

One down, one to go

Long before Julio Lugo darkened the doors of Fenway Park, there was Julian Tavares. I grant that the unlamented Heathcliff Slocumb was in a class by himself as dismal pitchers go, but Julia(n) seemed determined to give him a run for his money. No talent, and an overall appearance that suggested the Red Sox had resorted to grave-robbing to fill out the pitching roster.

And as a starter, for far too long: what were they thinking?

This was a pitcher capable of defeating the Red Sox if the other team didn't even bother to show up. The welcome news of his release has finally come. Oh Frabjous joy!

Don't be kind just yet

Some unnamed people of my acquaintance have been waffling and about to cut Julio Lugo some slack.

Then we have performance's like last night's. Granted he didn't screw things up on his own (Wild Thing!! What happened?) but at certain moments this guy sets the tone.

Oh Julie!!! Want to try softball? (Right...they'll kill ya.)

There's always a reason

back before winning ways had become a habit with the Red Sox, there was this phenomenon which ensured that no series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays* could pass without at least one act of gratuitous violence per game, or even per inning. Now, of course, this may have been acting out, or it may have been that a critical mass of retired Sox fans and retired Yankees fans live fairly locally to Tampa. The TBDRs simply became a surrogate allowing both groups to express their hostility without getting into denture-throwing contests in the stands.

Or, it may have been a logical Red Sox tactic to keep these uppity youths in check. If that was the objective, and some one in Red Sox management has gotten too PC to resort to damaging the opposition batters, well then they have bloody well paid, haven't they?

Next time, score more runs and cause some casualties, preferably in that order.


*What's with this business of calling them "the Rays" anyhow? For a more articulate exploration of this question, go here.