It's Showdown Week - (Weekly Sox Report)

So the boys won most of the games they were supposed to win over the past week. That's a sweep of the other sox, and only dropped one game in Tampa. While the Spankees have dropped 2 to the Angels, and 2 to Detroit (with one more game to go tonight). Plus, Mr. Gagne has calmed down a little, 5 k's, 4 hits, and 0 ER over his last 4 outings.

Now we're prepped and ready to go into Yankee stadium. The Sox haven't been there since May 23rd, and haven't even seen the Yanks since June 3. But they've felt 'em breathing down their necks for the past month, that's for sure. So we go into this 3 game set with about a 7 game lead in the East. Tito's set up the rotation so we get Dice, Beck, & Schill. Torre's bringing Petite, Clemens, & Wang. This is gonna be big. Especially with Seatle turning it on as of late, people are starting to notice that the Wild Card might not come from the AL East, or the Central either. So we gotta win the division. And that means winning the series this week.

Emotions will be high. We'll see some of the best pitchers & hitters in the game. Let's just make sure the Sox prove why they still got the best record in Major League Baseball. Game on.

Go Sox!

Weekly Sox Update - Setting up the stage

So Tito's starting to play some games here. The Sox were up by 5 games in the division, sitting with the best record in baseball, and are setting up the rotation like it's the end of September.

However it's really only the end of the August, but the boys in red are preparring for next week's series against the pin stripes like the playoffs depend on it (which they might). For those that don't know what I'm talking about, the Sox pulled up Clay Bucholtz on Friday for one of the double header games, in order to not mess with the usual starters schedules. OK, I like it, let's see Clay, he gets to pitch at home, and it keeps everything normal. Then comes Sunday, and who strolls out to the mound...Julian Tavarez. Is someone injured? Nope. Tito's making the call that he wants to go DiceK, Beckett, Schilling against the Yankees....which is over a week away. However I do like JT showing OC what happens when you try to steal our signs.

Talk about making a stand. Another interesting twist, Wily Mo is gone. He complained that he didn't wanna play Centerfield, when they needed someone to, and he really wasn't performing. So in comes Jacoby....but he didn't even last the weekend!?!? Next comes Bobby Kielty. Nothing against him, but I'm just wondering why make the two moves? If only JD could live up to half of his salary, this wouldn't be an issue at all. And is it just me, or on Sunday, the games on the line, runners on base, 2-outs, Kielty's got 2 hits already....let's ph Drew so he can whiff the game away. Come on.

And of course, the bad news, with Dougie Mirabelli getting injured. Now they had to bring in a new catcher, Cash. This could be huge. We'll find out tonight how well he handles the knuckler.

The Sox got two VERY important series here over this week, that can't be taken lightly. The Drays and ChiSox give us a huge chance to open the lead against the Spankme's before next week's series. I mean, New York's coming off battling Detroit to take 3 of 4, are going out to LA for the Angels, and then go into Detroit who'll be looking for revenge. That's a tough stretch, so Boston needs to take care of business, while they're battling on the road.

Go Sox!

Another weekly Sox Update



Here we sit with the Sox still on top of the entire league with 72 wins. They've been on this perch now for what seems like an eternity. So why am I so nervous?



A couple weeks ago, Theo goes out and snags the best reliever on the market, and adds him to the best bullpen in baseball. So how does that bullpen give up gameS to the Orioles? The 15 1/2 games back, more Sox fans in the crowd than O's fans, home away from home Orioles! I'm not about to say picking up Gagme was a mistake, but the job of a bullpen is to be lights out, and he's got a month and a half to prove that he is. Hopefully he'll prove it sooner than later, so that we don't get passed by the Yanks and M's and miss out on the playoffs.

Most important for the Sox right now is to take more than 2 of 3 from the Drays (and other similar teams). We got 28 games left against TB, BAL, TOR, OAK, and the Whitesox, and need to win at least 20+ of them. Add that with 10 games left against the Angels and Yankees that we need to split (ie get 5 of them), and the team will be in good shape for October. (Yeah, I'm ignoring the Twins series to finish out the season, cause that all depends on how the races are at that point, they could mean nothing, or they could lock the Sox in, or they could lock Minnisota in the Central. Who knows.)

Now as we look at the manually updated out of town scores on the green monster, let's pay extra special attention to that team from the Bronx over the next couple of weeks. 14 games with one day off against Detroit, Angels, Detroit, and Boston. That's a tough stretch for the hottest team in baseball (of course, Sept looks a little different with 6 games against Seatle and Boston, and 21 against TB, KC, TOR, & BAL). As well, we should keep the other eye on Detroit & Cleveland. They've got 6 more games against each other, 6 more games each against Minn, and 3 each against Seatle. But here's where it differs, Detroit gets the 8 games vs NY while Cleveland just has 3 vs the Angels. Advantage Cleveland.

Ahhh yes, the season is heating up pretty good right now. And our boys need to stay on top.

Harry Potter - My thoughts

Spoiler warning, if you have not yet read book 7, Deathly Hallows, do not read this post!

OK, so I just finished the last of the Harry Potter series, Book 7, Deathly Hallows. Add that to a few comments by fellow bloggers knocking the series, and that lead me to thinking that I need to express my thoughts on the series of books & movies, and hopefully start up a good discussion. So let's start at the most recent and work backwards:

Book 7 - Initial reaction: Great book. I flew through it, hoping that nobody I knew or online would spoil the end before I got there. And no one did. However, upon finishing the book I realized why....no big surprise. JK Rowling did such a great job with this series, keeping it good for pre-teens and adults alike, but starting with book 4 had been building the death toll up with every book. Yeah, this one was a bloodbath, but when you get to the end, Harry lives. And not only does he live, but she pulls the whole near-death experience tease. And then when the real final battle happens, she lets him defeat Voldemort, basically, with his own spell turned on himself. I mean, couldn't she let Harry try the killing curse just like he started using crucio? Nope, she keeps Harry as the patron saint.

The Epilogue - How do you take 7 books, over 4000 pages, and try to give you an idea of what happens after the battles in a few pages of an epilogue. You already finished the battle on the safe, cutesy, high-note. Harry wins. Evil is conquered. Everyone laughs and drinks at a banquet. The only thing missing was one more appearance by Harry's favorite dead relatives telling him the force was strong in him, and a few dancing Ewoks. No, JK thought that she'd continue the love-fest with a look 19 years later, everyone's happily married with kids, all going to Hogwarts starting the cycle all over again similar to Harry in book 1. And she keeps is so short, that she hardly covers what happened over those 19 years. I mean, what about the first couple post-war years? Why focus so much on what Harry, Ron, & Hermy will do for careers after school, only to lightly touch on it? What about the fact that the big 3 took a year off, shouldn't there be a year 8 as they go back to actually finish their schooling, or did that whole school thing lose it's importance? And JK did such a wonderful job creating SO many different characters in this wizarding world, yet the epilogue covers only a handful of the main ones.

OK, enough negativity, I thought it was a good book, so let's get into that:

"On with the bodycount!" - Here's something I really like. In my opinion any story loses credibility if no one dies. So in Book 4 a well liked student dies. A great example of how the dark Lord is back, and people are gonna start dying, most likely right under Harry's nose. Book 5 it's Harry's godfather. Now it's even more personal, there's more fighting going on, and of course some lives will be lost. One of those happens to be the only member left of Harry's Wizarding family. Book 6 it's Dumbledore. Now we're talking. If you're not gonna kill one of the kids, take out the next most loved character in the series, who also happens to be the most powerful. This of course shows that nobody's safe, and keeps readers on their toes. Cause anyone can die. Book 7, there are quite a few here. Every battle in this book has some sort of death or dismemberment. I mean, it is a war, right? And if you want to claim that people are risking their lives, you gotta show that they really are. And this time, there are a lot of battles, not just a big one at the end. Instead we get one every other chapter. Hence so many deaths and injuries. Good stuff.

A different storyline - For the first time really, in 7 books, JK varies from the typical Potter storyline: Life with the Dursleys, hint at trouble, Diagon Alley, back to school, minor issues at school, character development, further explanation of the trouble, Quidditch, love interests, everyone bails on Harry, then they come back just in time for the final battle, Harry defeats evil with a little help from his friends, they leave school. Yeah book 4 mixed it up a little bit with the world cup and tri-wizard tourney, which made it one of my favorite books, but that was about all it ventured from the formula. Book 5 added more at the beginning before school, but then back to the formula. Book 6 was excellent, but followed the formula to a T. Then comes 7. Totally different. Starts out the same, and then you realize they're not going back to school. And the big 3 go on their journey that takes half the book, and is unlike anything in the series to date. This is really what makes this book stand out.

More background story - Book 7 was all about tying it all together. Although Dumbly was dead, we really get a good look into his past here. And learn more about the type of person he was, and his really connection to Harry above and beyond his headmaster role. While book 6 was more about Voldemort's back story, this one was really more about Dumbledore's.

The final battle - Although I do feel that some things in Book 7 happened too fast (like how quickly the coup took over the ministry), the build up to the final battle really had to happen that quickly. With wizards that can just disapparate and fly from place to place, mobilizing forces should really happen that quickly. And how appropriate, staging the biggest battle of the series on the grounds of Hogwarts. The best part, of course, is seeing Neville as the leader of the student underground. The one that shares the same birthday as Harry, that could've been who the prophet was written about, gets to play a vital role in organizing people, defying the death eaters at the school, and then taking out the last Horcrux. By him doing that, does that mean that he really killed the dark Lord? I'll get into that in a minute. The final battle was described pretty well. With everyone getting involved, and so much going on whichever way you looked, and of course, so many casualties, it was pretty good. And best of all, when compared to other great movie final battles, at least this one didn't have the two sides lined up, and the main character give the Braveheart speech "Voldemort will never take...our FREEDOM!!!"

Who really killed Voldemort - For those of you not keeping count, Voldemort split his soul up 6 (or 7) times. So in order to truly kill him, you have to kill all of the pieces of his soul. So in order: Harry killed the diary of Tom Riddle; Dumbledore killed the ring of Marvolo Gaunt; Ron killed the locket of Merope Gaunt; Hermione killed the cup of Hufflepuff; Crabbe killed the Diadem of Ravenclaw; Neville killed the snake Nagini. So that's 6 Horcruxes, leaving the 7th piece of Voldemort's soul in him, and the 8th piece in Harry. Both of which were technically killed by Voldemort himself. So you tell me, who really killed him?

OK, that was alot there, but now I feel better, like I just talked with a psychiatrist. Hopefully I'll get some comments here, and get into a discussion. Then I'll break down the other books and movies as well.

Let's Try This Weekly Update Again

Yeah, I know I said I'd do this weekly, but I got a little absent minded, now I really will do it weekly. Especially as the season keeps on chugging. I can't say it's heating up, cause it has been pretty hot since the Sox's (is that correct grammar?) slight slump a month ago. But this week, I am gonna venture a little off baseball too, cause it's truly a fantastic time to be a Boston sports fan.

Sox - Lesson I learned last week, never get in a fantasy league with Theo. Am I upset with Kason getting shipped out to Texas, a little. After starting off all bitter that he pitched the game I was at instead of Schill, I warmed up to Gabbard. He did a good job, and got rewarded with a move to the black hole of Texas. He is a very emotional pitcher, and I doubt he'll ever get that fire built up in the non-challance of AL-west basement dwellers. But we did get Gagne. At first I was totally pumped to see him in Boston. Even if he is just a rent-a-player. Now he's gone out a couple times and what have we noticed, he's not as lights out as we would've hoped. But he just got here, so let's give him a little time to get in a groove. Only issue could come up, is that he's been talking how he would only get traded to a team he could be the closer on. Then the Sox came calling, and he said he would "close" the 8th, and the nights that Pap's not available or resting. That's cool. Until a month from now we find out that Oki is actually more lights out than Mr. Cy Young. Hmmm, how's he gonna take that, when Tito's calling Hideki's number more often or in more critical situations than Gagne? If he can really be a team player, he'll get alot of love bringing the heat out of the pen in Fenway, and can be part of the most feared 3-man bullpen combo in baseball.

Celts - KG, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. A little bit of improvement over the last few years, huh? As long as the guys stay healthy I see a top 4 finish in the East, and a legit shot at challenging Cleveland, Miami, and Chicago. However, I still fear that Detroit has too complete of a team from 1-6 (yeah, I'm including a 6th man off the bench) that this new big 3 can't hang with. However if the experiment works, and they can sign KG to some sort of an extension, then it's just a matter of filling the holes with younger guys. For those Boston fans that aren't 100% familiar with KG, he's still the ONLY player in the NBA that can honestly play every position on the floor 1-5. He's big enough for Center, and can dribble well enough to bring the ball up if necessary. His talent is amazing, as long as he's not falling off due to age. The Celts are now relevant, and will be alot of fun to watch with these guys.

Pats - Speaking of new faces in town, and guys I wouldn't wanna be in a fantasy league with. Hello, Scott Piolli! How do you take a team that was only a couple plays from yet another Superbowl, and bring in the kind of talent that they did this offseason. Who did the lose? Dillon, Banta-Kane, and possible Asante. Who did they gain? The best LB on the market (Adalius), arguably the best WR (Randy), a solid #2 wide-out (Donte), and a stud slot/returner (Wes). My only fear is that the receiving core from last year, who are ALL still on the team, don't getting pissy that they're all on the bench at the start of the game. Yeah, they'll cycle through some plays as Bill goes 5-wide, but honestly, if this crew does well this year. Look for Reche to be beggin for a trade in the offseason, and Troy to look towards retirement. Which is too bad, cause they're both solid guys, especially the way that Troy Brown was willing to go both ways, and do whatever was ever asked of him. He's the man.

Bruins - Uhhh, they need some help. And need to stop trading away the best players in the league when they have them. But how 'bout them Celts!

Till next week.