Thank You Tedy!!!

Today, Tedy Bruschi announced his retirement from the New England Patriots and the NFL. I only got the hear the tail end of the press conference and heard the interview on WEEI after wards. I will miss him and his smile on the side lines. I'm sure he realized that his playing time would have been cut drastically and deicided to retire instead of clomming on as an extra.

I respect him for noticing the end is here and that he decided to hang them up. He and his wife sould like very down to earth people and I wish their family all the best.

Headed to Fenway!

Going to Fenway tonight. Looks like the start of the game could be a little wet. Sitting in the Coca-Cola pavillion in the left field corner, upper deck. Told the missus to bring the umbrella.

A Penny Saved.......

Ah, not so much. Brad Penny was released by the Sox of a red color today. You can't imagine how happy I am that this finally happened. Penny probably had 2 decent starts. The rest, just plain sucked. People complain how painful it is to watch Daisuke pitch, but Penny was just as bad, with most of his start going well above the 4 hour mark.

ESPN is reporting that at least 3 NL teams may be interested in Penny and possibly a couple of AL teams, as well. Good luck to the team that does decide to take a chance on him. Of course, if he does go to the NL, he will probably flourish and make us all look bad.

With Death Comes Hypocrisy

Five years ago, when Senator John Kerry was running for President, he and Senator Kennedy petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to change the law that allowed the Governor to appoint a temporary replacement for Kerry if he was elected. It did not take too much convincing, as the Democratic led legislature passed said bill quite easily. Of course, at the time, Massachusetts had a Republican in the corner office. Now that we have a Dem. in the Governors chair they want to change the law back, allowing 'Cadillac' Deval Patrick to appoint a replacement for Senator Teddy. This is political hypocrisy at its worse and comes very close to making me physically ill. Senator Kerry himself almost made me throw something at my 50" Sony, as he spoke on the issue yesterday. How can you look the Massachusetts people in the face and ask us to change the law, when just 5 years ago, you would not allow then Governor Mitt Romney to appoint your replacement? Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy!!!

Guitar Hero I

The original guitar hero, Les Paul died today at the age of 94. Many talk of the influence that the Beatles, Rolling Stones and others have had on rock and roll, but without Les Paul, even they may never have been.

Ortiz, "The List" and The Miserable Week That Was

First, I want to believe Big Papi, but I'm not sure he's being 100% truthful. I really would have liked him to say what vitamins and supplements he was taking in '03 that he believed triggered the positive test. I'm sure the union told him to stay away from specifics.

With that said, I am now officially tired of "The List". I now could care less who is on it and why.

And, with that said, I did some reading on the subject this weekend and listened to the union talking heads. I had a slow day at work today and began to try to unravel this whole mess in my mind.

First lets start with the facts. 1430 players were tested in 2003. So, 5% of players testing positive would would give you 71.5, let's call it 72. We've always been led to believe that 104 players tested positive. But, according to the union, 8 players were confirmed to have received a false positive because of some suppliment that was not banned nor illegal in 2003, so the number in now 96. The union states that they also contest 13 others. OK, we'll give 'em to ya....That makes it 83, well above the 72 needed to trigger the more stringent testing policy. So why in the hell did the morons at the player's association NOT destroy the test results like they were supposed to? Of course, there should have never, and I mean NEVER been any names associated with these "anonymous" tests in the first place. If I am a player, I trust no one with any semblance of power in the union. These players are truly being screwed here.

Yes, they were taking something they probably shouldn't have, but there is still no excuse for having names associated with the tests. And don't get me started on who the hell is leaking information that is supposedly sealed under court order. Unfortunately, 1 or 2 names will continue to leak out every couple of months or so and once again, the media will bombard us with their rants of good and evil.

I just wish it would all go away, so I would not have to spend my slow work days thinking of this shit!

And to top all of this off, the Sox get mini swept by the Rays and bitch slapped by the Yanks, 4 straight. 6 games.......6 losses. And, to top it all off 3 of those games were pitched by either Jon Lester or Josh Beckett (all 3 of those were pitched pretty well, I might add).

I need a drink!!!!

Smoltzy, We Hardly Knew Ye!

It's been reported that John Smoltz has been designated for assignment today, effectively ending his short Red Sox career. After my FB rant last night, I of course am pleased with this decision. The Red Sox have until Tuesday to decide what to do with that rotation slot, but me thinks Michael Bowden will eventually be called on to work on Tuesday (really no other options).

With the Red Sox wasting 5 mil. on Smoltz and another 5 x-tra large on Brad Penny, this past off season is looking more and more like a dismal failure. Throw in Dice-K's meltdown and Wake's back, what looked to be a promising rotation, is now a total mess beyond Beckett and Lester. It's time for Clay Buccholtz to man up and become the pitcher with the no-hit stuff we saw 2 years ago and in Pawtucket this season. I know Buccholtz is young and it took Lester some time to find a command of the strike zone, but Clay is now the defacto #3 starter now and has to pitch better than he has thus far. Time to show us what you really got, kid!