Matthew

Mariners are playing depressing baseball right now, it's like the pitcher has to throw a shutout just to have a chance to win -- just look at the Tampa Bay series, great pitching, but lost the series. There are definite roster problems right now, with Mike Sweeney & Ken Griffey being their for their supposed leadership, though how two bench players can be leaders on a "contender" -- I don't know. One of them has to go, just taking a roster position for a playing to could add something to the mix. Jermaine Dye could really help this club, but I doubt the Mariners will even try. Luckily, the West is awful, and it looks like 85 wins could take the division.

Heard this about a week ago, and now I can't get it out of my stupid head. Elvis Presley: Rubberneckin' Paul Oakenfold Re-mix. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pC7-NzEK9xY

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. Strangely enough, for the first time ever in my life, I'm becoming interested in Elvis, even going so far as listening to the Elvis station on XM Satellite Radio. This book is turing out to be a good introduction to his early life, stopping at Elvis' induction into the Army. An interesting read on someone I never had any interest in before.

The Venture Bros. Season One.

Amazing! Cleveland just flat-out quit at the end of the game. The Knicks should rethink putting all their hopes in LaBron, he quit on his team tonight.

SofW locked the topic on Elena Kagan as a joke, then taunted Allen about it. It just hit me as completely wrong.

Locking down topics -- Not good! I'm getting very tired of this stuff.

This is hilarious! That's not the way we roll in the 209!!!! What? They do it different in Modesto? Lodi? Turlock?* The 209! I can't believe this guy is making me defend the Yankees... *Not that I have anything against these cities, but Stockton is the big city of the 209! PS: I've been on the road so much lately, that last night's Giant / Met game was the first game I've been able to watch in three weeks.

I do not take a back seat to anyone in my disdain of ARod (a lying, self-centered fraud, plus a major drama queen in my book) but I have to agree with ARod on this: Mountain out of a mole hill. I actually laughed at his "okay, nobody player, just go back to the dugout and shut up" hand wave.

Sign of a great pitcher: Lincecum really did not have good stuff last night, mostly getting by on guts and a change-up, yet still shut down the Cardinals: 7 ins, 1 earned run, 3bb, 8ks. I would love to see a Roy Halladay vs Tim Lincecum match up, that would be awesome, that would rank up there with the Doc Gooden vs. John Tudor, and Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens classics.

Thanks for pointing this one out, looks like it might be a good bio. On an interesting side note: I notice that Kevin Starr is quoted praising the book, I wonder if he has written anything on jazz, a writer of that quality on jazz would be worth reading.

Happy birthday!

I've seen a number of Cub games so far -- Soriano's is flat out awful. I think, for Cub fans, you have to go back to Dave Kingman to find someone else who is as inept as Soriano in the field.

Absolutely gorgeous in SoCal. Here's a crappy picture taken from my backyard.

The way Tim Lincecum & Felix Hernandez are going, they're not going lose a game this year. Lincecum especially looks great.

See where that freakin' idiot Vicente Padilla nailed Aaron Rowand in the face, with the result that Rowand has two small fractures in his cheek, plus a mild concussion. Texas got rid of Padilla because of stuff like this, now the Dodgers are stuck with him, especially after he signed for a big contract. Rowand has never been one of my favorites, but he plays the game full out, and that's something you have to respect, so I hope he comes back full strength. Padilla is such a loser, good luck with him Torre.

Congratulations Chuck! Saga of the Outlaws for me, is the reissue of the year, important music that needs to be heard.

Man, are Soriano and Fukudome terrible outfielders, butchers to anything coming their way....

Oh, oh, Chuck: Carlos Silva is going for the Cubs today. You're in for a long day.

More here. Dan, I love you bro, but a Red Sox fan complaining about another teams "out of town fans???????"

Oh I know that. I was just looking for an excuse to use the "browning in the skillet" line. ...which I loved!

While reading this book, I'm embarrassed that I forgot so much about Merton's life, and completely forgot about the unsettling "crucifixion incident" at Cambridge, where, according to Mott, Merton was Jesus in a mock crucifixion, and might even have carried a scare on the palm of his hand as a souvenir -- Yikes! Also amazed that the book kind of skips over his conversion to Catholicism also, a very cursory glance at that part of his life . Still, it's worth the read, I'm not even up to when Merton enters the Trappists yet.

For some reason, I never felt that the Cubs would get anywhere with Lou Piniella as manager. The Cubbies seems like a team that needs a calmer touch to it, and Zembrano definitely could benefit from a different style of handling.

The Mariners look flat-out terrible right now, offense stinks to high heaven, Bradley's not doing a thing, no one is doing anything decent. Awful.

No, no, I assure you a middle-finger gesture does not make me think, "Hey, that's just like Matthew!" Just that I know from your previous posts that you're none too happy about his presence on the Mariners....and I thought Griffey's comment was pretty funny.