Patrick

Happy Birthday Lon, Enjoy the gifts of life, especially the beautiful people and beautiful sounds.

I am comfortable with Byrd as the 4th or 5th man in the rotation, but as the third, and a big dropoff to Westbrook and Lee, it will be tough to hang with Detroit and/or grab the wildcard. Bats, other than Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko, have been a bit underwhelming as well--mainly Hafner and Sizemore. At least Borowski took care of business the other night 3 up 3 down (an extremely rare occurence). Rotations shorten in the postseason, but the Tribe will not be there if Westbrook and Lee do not improve substantially. And they have each been solid starters in the AL for a number of seasons. Sowers, who had a promising debut last year, is struggling at Buffalo. Adam Miller, arguably their best pitching prospect, has had arm injuries and may be shut down for the season. (Texas was asking for him in exchange for Kenny Lofton--give me a break!] If only the team hadn't run out of options for Jeremy Guthrie in the spring. Why is that guy finally living up to his promise in Baltimore?

Boston funk is over, Cleveland's is not. At least the Tigers lost tonight. Hopefully Tribe can play better against the visiting Twins. Really wondering if management will do something about the season-long ineffectiveness of Cliff Lee and Jake Westbrook. Long relief for one of those guys? Ugh.

Think back to the previous night, and be glad that your team won that one. Carmona and Beckett are now 13-4. Has there been better back to back pitching matchups this season? Dice K, CC, Fausto, and Beckett were all tough, and not against weak lineups. And maybe a little more respect for Victor Martinez' (improved) arm. Nice to see the home crowd gave him a standing ovation when Boston ran themselves out of the top of the 8th. Gabbard has an excellent chance of winning because he is facing the brutal Cliff Lee who will not be able to keep Bosox bats silent. Book it. But remember a split in Cleveland is actually a reasonably good outcome for Boston. Insisting on anything more is being a bit greedy/unrealistic. Too bad it looks like Detroit and NYY will win tonight (at least at the time I'm typing this).

Indeed. Only followed parts of it on the computer but it looks like CC and Dice were both dealin'. Hopefully tomorrow's pitching will be as impressive (...maybe with a few more Tribe extra base hits ). Carmona can't qualify for ROY, but maybe most improved player (if they do that in mlb)? I think it is safe to say that BSox are out of whatever midseason funk they were in, ...even if Tribe wins the next two. And you gotta like not giving up ground when BOS plays Tribe while NYY plays KC.

Perhaps, but for a number of years there, you weren't at the Jake. In fact it was Tribe fans appearing in large numbers in Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore etc. Oh those were the days. Remember when Thome and Manny were the 7 and 8 hitters in the lineup, and Julian Tavarez was a lights out 8th inning guy? More than a decade ago now...

So maybe diet sodas aren't the healthiest beverage. Is anyone really surprised? But notice that this study, like so many others, is simply reporting a correlation (and not necessarily a causation). Causation may be in the other direction, that is, individuals that are unhealthy for other reasons (like to eat large desserts and not exercise) tend to consume lots of diet soda. The story even suggests a couple of possibilities along these lines. Setting aside water, is diet soda necessarily any worse to drink than other beverages (regular soda, juice, milk, coffee, beer, wine, spirits, etc)? Sure, some of those other things deliver nice things like vitamins, but they also deliver things like sugar, larger doses of caffeine, alcohol, etc. Maybe herbal tea is the non-water answer (though watch out for oxalic acid, I guess). Me, I drink a fair amount of diet soda, usually caffeinated, but not as much as they use to dose laboratory rats...

Tremendous return for Jon Lester tonight. Beautiful, cool night in Cleveland. Westbrook serves up 4 runs in the top of the first. Tribe helped out by hacking freely when Lester was walking guys, but Lester got out of his major jam in the 4th and cruised. Sox fans have to smile at that. Even Timlin continued his recent effective run. ...Great story, though I have to admit a disturbingly large showing of red sox nation at the Jake.

It drives my wife and me a bit crazy when the Braves are on ESPN given that many of their games appear on a superstation that is included in so many cable package across the country (including ours). Even worse is when they show Cubs/Braves. At least it appears that WTBS and WGN are showing fewer of these on the superstation (does MLB contract have something to do with this, or are America's Funniest Home Videos more entertaining than that baseball?). Of course this is nice for out-of-town Cubs and Braves fans. Which is your least favorite Caray announcer--Harry (RIP), Skip or Chip? I find Skip (the American Eagle) to be the worst (way too much whining about the opponent team, their ballpark, etc), though Chip has his moments. Back in the day I thought Harry was brutal though fairly amusing--I only heard him from the mid-80's onward. After listening to the next generations, my appreciation for Harry has increased. If only he could have announced a late inning battle (after downing several Buds) between Paul Assenmacher and Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

White Sox bullpen has been really bad all year--main reason they're not in the hunt right now. Tribe/Bosox pitching matchups should make it an interesting series: Sabathia v. Matsuzaka, Carmona v. Beckett, Lee v. Gabbard, and Westbrook v. Tavarez. Lee and Westbrook have been brutal the whole season. To think where the Tribe would (could/should) be with those two pitching closer to their normal levels of success...

Looks like Bosox will catch Tribe at a good time. They lost 2 out of 3 to Tor and Det before the break, and have been 3-3 against KC and ChiSox since. Fortunately, Carmona and Sabathia will pitch against Boston.

Happy Birthday. Enjoy the next chapter!

thanks

what's the bass player's last name?

Good luck finding a copy. I feel very fortunate to have won a sealed copy on eBay for $56 in 2003. I was the only bidder on a three day listing.

Some quick math suggests that the AL is 91-77 (.542) in interleague play this year. Only 4 AL teams (Bal, TB, CHW, Sea) have sub-.500 records against the NL. KC is 8-4.

LeBron is obviously young and obviously immensely talented, and at least to this point does not appear to have offcourt issues. He's also a hard worker who has improved his game. Lots of hype, but that is the way of the NBA. Names change, but the basic marketing strategy remains. Can't really blame LeBron, Cleveland, or the NBA if Nike and Coke want to throw gobs of $ at him. [Yes he could just say no, but it doesn't appear to be affecting his game. If anything, it's playing on the national team that may compromise his performance.] Meanwhile the Association cannot figure out a way to market/hype the Spurs who are a great team. Duncan may be low key, but there's got to be a better way to present Parker and Ginobili (and Duncan) to the casual basketball fan (heck even Bowen--is he a bad boy or isn't he?) than showing Eva at every lull when SA has possession. Parker and Ginobili are exciting to watch. Stern and the mkting geniuses should be able to figure something out. Or is it really sneaker companies that do all the hype?

Sabathia left in a little too long against the Braves...ugh...

Agreed that they need another allstar somewhere. Tough when your team has only one quarter of the Fantastic Four. LeBron is good handling the ball and passing, but I think he'd be even tougher on the offensive end if he would post more. Given his size, he should be able to do this against any small forward. But you need someone else to act as PG to do that (or so it appears for Cavs). So many times, all season long, the ball was being passed around the perimeter until there was no time on the clock and LeBron or one of the other supposed outside shooters had to heave up a prayer. Part of this is "watch LeBron syndrome". Part of this probably can be fixed with a coach that knows something about offensive schemes, but I think a solid PG is needed as well.

Thanks for the thorough commentary--fun to read. I feel the pain. Wickman definitely is not striking out too many guys now, so he needs the gloves behind him, and (at least during his time in Cleveland), he needs the tying run in scoring position--he'll put that guy on himself if he has to. He also cannot be run out there every night. I was a bit surprised that he came back for another season or two--maybe the NL is rejuvenating for old pitchers. Any chance Soriano is the longterm solution?

I don't think Parker is necessarily "great", though I agree that he's very good. Guy In Cleveland, the biggest shortcoming is the absence of a good point guard, and it has been that way since Andre Miller was traded to the Clippers (for Darius Miles, eccch!). If only Mark Price in his prime could have been on the floor this week (...or even Terrell Brandon). Heck, Brevin Knight may be an improvement as playmaker. In limited time in his rookie year, Daniel Gibson showed some flashes as a scorer, but he may turn out to be no better at running the offense than Larry Hughes (which is to say, not really running it). So perhaps I am overinclined to retain a "great" or "very good" PG, because I don't think there are many of them that can run the offense, get to the rim, and (apparently) shoot from outside. Not to denigrate Bowen's value--I just have difficulty measuring the individual contribution that BB makes within their excellent team concept. If I added Ginobili to the list, would he be the first to go? [easier question?] For me, this year, yes.

So we agree Parker deserved tme MVP and that team defense is what really mattered. We disagree on how important Bowen's contribution was to the latter (while recognizing that he did contribute). Bowen, Duncan, Parker--who do you let go?

Sorry, back to more pressing issues. Are Chauncey and 'Sheed wearing Pistons uniforms next year?

Thome is definitely a class player--still much-loved in Cleveland despite playing for the division foes in Chicago. Got a much warmer welcome back reception than other all-star sluggers pursuing dollars elsewhere (like Manny and Belle). I didn't follow him too closely in Philly, but in Cleveland he would sit there and talk to every single reporter, through good times and bad--no racing to get out of the clubhouse before the media arrived. He married a Cleveland tv reporter, and I think he still lives there in the offseason. Originally from Peoria, IL, he must be happy now to be playing close to his boyhood home (though I think his dream was Wrigley rather than Comiskey). Too bad he has had some health problems.

Watch out for the Reds. During the (ongoing?) Cleveland batting slumber party, Reds took 2 out of 3. Included was a 1-0 game in which Sabathia pitched 9 innings of shutout ball (3 hits, 6 K's), and had 2 of the 7 Indians hits, but came away with a no decision. The recently activated Matt Miller threw only one pitch in the bottom of the 12th--Alex Gonzalez singled home the only run. Ouch. Aaron Harang, starting for the Reds, was similarly impressive: 7 innings, 3 hits, 10 K's.