Grady's gone....and that's all I got to say 'bout that.

I've had a couple of interviews that I think went well. I can see myself at both companies and it's hard to think about which one I would want more. There are pros and cons for both, of course, but it's more or less 6 of one half dozen of another. One has a longer commute (it's across the street from FastChannel ironically) and the other one is in my hometown of Portsmouth, RI, a mere 15 miles away. But despite the difference in the commute, to be quite honest at this moment I couldn't tell you which I would except if both were offered to me. Let's hope I am blessed with that dilemma.

The position in Portsmouth is really an exception to the rule in the area. I went to a job fair in Providence today sponsored by the Pro-Jo and it was a clear indication of how desolate the job market is in Rhode Island. When I arrived there were all of 7 companies there and almost all of them were offering the same jobs that are advertised almost on a daily basis - low level (and paying) "professional" positions that are really only one step up from working at McD's for minimum wage. That's why I commuted 40-50 miles on each of my last 3 jobs. What was true when I was growing up in RI still holds true - most of the really good jobs are not advertised and are filled by the cousin of a guy that went to school with his wife's babysitter. I know that's true everywhere but in RI it's almost like a sport. That's why Rhode Island's real state motto is "I know a guy......"


A real fun but say day today....I took my younger daughter out with her best friend before she went home to California until the holidays. They were both really sad to say their goodbyes. It's hard for my little one as she's been in 3 different schools in the last 18 months and it's been hard for her to keep healthy relationships. I've set an e-mail account for her so they can write to each other. I know they are both only 8, but you can see by the way they play together that they are into this friendship for the long haul 3000 miles be damned.

So now the player we traded Pedro for and a player we released last July have rings. Sigh...

...and I cannot be nothing but happy for the Marlins mostly because they beat the Yankees.

The Yankees made the same mistake the Giants and the Cubs did....all 3 teams thought that their "magic" was gonna wear out and be beatable. It's hard to say if the Red Sox would have any success with them and if I take any pleasure from all this, it's seeing that the Marlins were not intimidated by the swagger the Yankees' were putting on.

What really bothered me was while in Game 4 in Miami, the Marlins' fans gave Clemens a nice ovation at the end his "last" start while tonight Yankees' fans sat on their hands when the Marlins' clinched. I'm sure they were disappointed that their team lost the series, but show SOME showmanship instead of entitlement. Just one of the reason why Red Sox fans hate Yankee fans.

Yeah, it's been a while....

...but I really haven't really had much to say.

I'm still out of work although I have an interview this week. I spend about 3-4 hours a day going through the want ads and it's been depressing as there is even less out there than there was 7-8 months ago before I started at FastChannel. And it's amazing how many sleazy job web sites there are out there that prey on the desperate asking for $29.95 and more for the chance of employment.

As for the Red Sox, after several days of thinking, and as much as it hurts to admit it, I came to the conclusion that it's in the best interest that Grady is retained as manager next year, even though it'll be murder to see him come out of that dugout next spring.

Why? Several reasons.....

1) You cannot ignore the fact that the man won 190 games in 2 seasons.

2) As painful as the one mistake he made last week, he made several brilliant moves in the postseason, some of which helped the team climb out of the 2 game hole to beat the A's in 5.

and most importantly.....

3) frankly, there isn't anyone out there in the managerial market that I feel would do a better job. Mike Hargrove? He quit on the Orioles half was through the season. Bobby Valentine? He's an asshole, plain and simple.

If Grady comes back next season, it'll be a tough one for him, but it's better than what's out there unless the Yankees lose the series and Steinbrenner fires Torre.

And a special thanx to Sports Illustrated for putting both the Sox and the Cubs on the cover 2 weeks ago.

Ok I can talk about it now....

I'm pissed off. To me this was worse then '86 mostly because I was not as into the Sox as I am now. Plus this wasn't an physical error by a player of a pretty evenly matched game. This was a game where the Sox were clearly the best team on the field and hey gave it away.

But, really, what else can be said? Grady kept Pedro in too long because he was either too afraid to piss off his ace or he didn't have faith in his bullpen, which I do not believe.

And, frankly, as great of job that Grady has done, the Sox need a manager that stands up to the superstars and take charge of the team. Granted, Sox management is just as guilty as the manager is about babying Pedro, but Grady has a target on his back right now. The Sox brass would be nuts of give him contract extension anytime soon, so Grady is going to dangle without a contract for a while longer they either let this game blow over (yeah, right) or find other manager.

Will I watch the World Series now? I'll check in on it, but I won't go out of my way for it until Florida is whacking the ball around the Yankees.

I do NOT want to talk about it.........

At least the Sox blew Game 6 away from Fenway.......

Not a good day all around as the Sox lost a totally winable game today and the Cubs lost a 3 run lead in the 8th inning to let the Marlins force a game 7. Imagine, they were 6 outs away from the Cubs' first WS in over 50 years. Almost makes me feel better about the Sox...at least they have gotten to the World Series.....

Watching the game and seeing the Marlins get those 8 runs in the 8th, I saw in front of your eyes 30,000 people's souls get ripped out of their bodies. Hopefully, this didn't do that to the player as well.

MVP!! MVP!! MVP!!!!

Tim Wakefield (who is a cinch for ALCS MVP if the Sox win) was again brilliant as the Sox pulled out a win and now it's a best of three with Derek Lowe going tomorrow in Fenway instead of the Stadium against David Wells. It really looks like the rainout really is working to our favor. If the Sox can win tomorrow, then we can go into the Stadium needing only one win to the World Series with Pedro for Game 7. Things are looking up!!!!!

What a DECADE I'm having........

I have not told anyone outside of my family until now for several reasons, but mostly because I didn't know how to tell anyone.

I was laid off from FastChannel last Friday.

I wasn't the only one, though. I was one of about 40 people out of 125 let go, including an entire product line. I figured that the reason I was chosen was mostly because I worked 3rd shift and they eliminated the shift. Of course this doesn't make me feel better. What makes me upset the most about it is that the company was giving everyone every indication that everything was going well and they have been spending money like water on travel and marketing. This layoff took everyone off guard (except the department heads and the CEO, of course).

As for me, I guess I'll be ok. I still have unemployment benefits left. And at least this time I have some help desk and IT experience under my belt. It's just that I LIKED this job, damnit!!

Hey, maybe Pedro thought Zimmer was the Bambino......

I'm trying to decide what I saw that was more violent today...."Kill Bill" or Game 3.

"Kill Bill" was a whole lot of fun. It's no "Pulp Fiction" by any means, but it's a good watch, although, like the "Matrix" films, being in two parts it ends suddenly, it's frustrating. But I'll in line for Volume 2 in February!!

Although I'm not happy with the results or the incidents of Game 3, you have to give it to Clements (you KNOW how I hate to do that!). Historically he always got rattled by events like the one in the 4th, but he came right back and kept his composure and go us. As for Pedro, I think his strategy was to throw junk the first few innings to save himself for the later innings and it came back and bit him. Let's hope Burkett can get us back in it in Game 4. (no, really, you shouldn't laugh........)

You always want what you cannot have......

I found out yesterday that tickets were going on sale for a special screening of all 3 Lord of Rings films back to back at select theatres nationwide. While I thought that was a very cool idea, my almost 40-year-old lower back said to me "Are you nuts? I'll be in pain for days if you sit in a theatre seat for over 12 hours!" So I didn't think too much more of it.

Then I read that 24 hours later, almost all 100 theatres in the country showing the trilogy sold out in one day!!! Although I knew the appeal was there I never thought that people would buy tickets to a movie over 2 months in advance. Not only that, the ticket announcement was strictly just over the web, no TV or radio. So obviously I took it as all theatres are gonna be full of geeks.

Now I really want to go. That's when I really felt like crap for being shut out. But it's just as well.......it's on a weekday and my days of taking off work for a movie are (or should be) long gone. And as long as I keep telling myself that I'll be fine.


As for the Sox, they lose Game 2 and now are heading to Fenway. I can't say that I am totally upset by it being that they managed to get one in the Stadium. I honestly didn't expect anything from Derek Lowe given that this was his 4th appearance in 7 games and he must be exhausted. But he did great! What killed the Sox tonight was not getting runners home, which is frustrating because Grady sat down the hottest hitter on the team (Walker) for defensive purposes. The sports talk shows will be buzzing about that one tomorrow.

Ticket for the possible World Series go on sale tommorow at 6pm. While I will make every attempt to get a couple of tickets (preferably for Game 6), I cannot believe the prices - Box seats are $180 each!! But can you imagine being there....?

"Every time I see a Yankees hat, I see a swastika just a little off kilter." - Bill Lee

With wins from the Sox and the Cubs tonight, we are 3 wins each from the apocalypse series.

As happy I am with the Sox win and how impressive Tim Wakefield was on the mound, I just happy, not ecstatic, or overly excited. I guess in the back of my mind I know it's only one game and that as complete a win it was it just wasn't the nail-biter that the previous 3 games were and this win is, well, anti-climatic.

What I enjoyed the most about last night's win? The fact that from the 4th inning on when we scored 4 runs you could hear a pin drop in the stadium, except for the 7th inning when the Yankees rallied to score 2. It's amazing how easy it was to take the crowd out of the game. I'm sure George will plant something in the Post to help get the crown into a frenzy.

As for that fan that touched the ball that Walker hit to the foul pole? A) If he didn't touch it would have hit the pole anyway and 2) No one in the Bronx was inciting fan interference in '98 when a fan reached 6 feet over the back wall for a home run that help put away the series for the Yanks.

But there is more to this game than meets the eye. The Bullpen, which has been the scariest thing to come out of Boston since MCAS, has been lights out and has not allowed a run in last 4 games and 12 innings. Amazing.

Start spreading the news.......

Whew!! 162 regular season games and 4 playoff games came down to a best of what turned out to be the end of the wildest playoff series in a long time if not ever.

All you need to know about this year's Sox is that when Jackson and Damon were lying on the ground after head butting each other so hard that you could hear it on television, Nomar still bent over his unconscious teammate to grab the ball and tossed it to 2nd to get the runner out and end the inning.

And now the frequent flyer Sox grab a cup of coffee, take some No-Doz and pick up their broken center fielder to head off to New Yawk to face the very well rested Yankees ("Thanx, FOX! Playing every other day can be fun AND relaxing!!!"). Who will replace Johnny Damon on the playoff roster? Will BK Kim and his middle finger and official Yankee-branded pair of Depends be left off? Who will be the Game 1 starter? I dunno. Right now Grady would probably take suggestions.

As for the A's, not only are they snake-bit losing 9 times (NINE TIMES!!!!) in elimination games over 4 seasons, but to start whining about a misinterpreted gesture that was made by Derek Lowe (in which he apologized for) is just sad. Granted that they are really frustrated (they had the winning run 180 feet away!), but don't take away from another team's celebration, even if it's on your own field (just ask the team that beat you....the Sox were eliminated at Fenway in their last 3 playoff seasons and each time got held their heads high, gave their best to their opponent and headed to the clubhouse).

Upon the end of the exciting game, hundreds of fans back around Fenway brought the celebration to the streets including overturning a car or two. And this is just the first round! Can you imagine if they beat the Yankees let alone win the whole thing? I've said it for years, when and/or if the Sox win it all, we'll get a new ballpark because the old one will be burnt to the ground along with half the Back Bay.

Not so fast Mr. Macha.......

It was an incredible weekend as the Sox rally late in both games to win games 3 & 4 and force a decisive game 5 in Oakland Monday.

Win or lose tomorrow, you cannot be any happier with this team. They have shown more heart and guts than any Sox team in a long while.

Thank you sir may I have another.........

Well, after 12 innings, an ungodly 4 hours, 37 minutes (ending at 2:45am!) and using 60% of their pitching staff including the scheduled Game 3 starter, The Sox lose one of the most painful games of the year 5-4. To a neutral baseball fan, I'm sure it was a great game, but to us Sox fans it was excruciating as one knew once the A's tied it in the 9th it was just a matter of time.

Sometimes I wish I didn't care....... but I do. And we'll do it all over again in 13 hours.

Good Day and welcome to my blog.

Before now I have always resisted starting a blog thinking that I do not really have anything I want to say that people would care about or anything I really want to share.

But now I feel that there are good reasons to have a blog: To share information, links and the like. But for me the best reason is that I found that blogs can be like having someone's ear to give your two cents about things, even if no one is listens or cares. It's out there. So for those of you that are reading this, welcome and I hope that I do hold your interest to keep coming back and I hope that I do not piss too many people off.

That being said I have several things that I need to get off my chest.

- My associate on another blog stated that he would rather see the Red Sox beat the Yankees rather than the Twins to go (and hopefully win) the World Series. He does have a point, but I have another motivation. The only reason I would like to beat the Empire instead of the Twinkies in the ALCS is because if the Sox do happen to win it all, I do not want to hear those blowhard Yankee fans say that our championship isn't real because we didn't face them to do it. We heard a similar faction from Denver a few years ago when the Pats went to the Super Bowl in '96 because we didn't play "The Best Team" in the AFC championship (The Broncos lost in the first round). Of course I'll take ANY championship the Red Sox or any Boston team give us, but after 85 years I don't want anyone trying to cheapen it.

- Speaking of the Yankees, my wife was telling me that my older daughter's friend wants a red fitted Yankees cap for Christmas and asked me to to buy one for her. As childish as it sounds (and I know it does I admit it), I said no way. I'll buy her a Red Sox cap or pretty much any other team, but I will not buy myself or anyone ANYTHING Yankees. Adding insult to injury is the fact that said teen is not even a Yankees fan or even a fan of baseball and basically it's a fashion thing. I told my wife that she can get one at Lids in the mall and if she buys it just don't tell me about it. Sorry, I have my pride.

- Did you see the picture of Halle Berry in the Catwoman outfit? Are you kidding me? Sure she looks really good in it and it's way better than the vinyl outfit from "Batman Returns", but it's an outfit that is made to create pre-release converation and nothing more. I rather see time and effort made toward the little things like, y'know, acting, story and direction? It's crap like this that made Daredevil suck. ("Sure, it doesn't make any sense, but doesn't it look cool?")


-hey