Oh please may I hear another story about how dour and uncolourful Bill Belichick is? Oh please may I hear that story again about John Fox that tells of what a transformation he's overseen at Carolina?

Oh please can read about how there aren't any superstars on Carolina or how this time New England has to be the favourite instead of the underdog?

Oh please can I read another article about why the BCS is a disaster and please can that article have all the cliches of how to fix it?

Oh please can someone else tell me why Pete Rose is the antichrist and doesn't to deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?

Oh please will someone else wax poetic on the CFL?

Oh please can you tell me why having Cameron and Reyes and Kaz in the middle of the defense will make a difference when you still have three hop Piazza pantomiming throwing out runners at second base?

Oh please tell me why Bud Selig can't be the Archduke Ferdinand of Major League Baseball?

Oh please will someone demonstrate to me how John Gruden can be the Holy Grail one season and not even in the postseason the next?

Oh please can you give the NY Knicks what they want? Willis Reed limping, saving the day, over and over again?

Oh please can you tell me the Yankees fans won't revel in that moment of realisation when the most overrated pitcher on the planet called Pettitte pitches for Houston and gets bombed over and over until his back fails or his shoulder hurts and then Roger Clemens comes running and pulls a groin or hurts himself like some other 45 year old man might in similar circumstances?

Oh please can you erase the WNBA?

Oh please can you give Mike Schmidt his due?

Oh please can you make me watch another thirty seconds of ESPN because I might have missed the subtle hip hop nuances and meanings?

Oh please can I watch another 12 consecutive hours of Super Bowl pregame hype = please times a trillion?

Oh please can my life revolve around billion dollar commercials that only famous people or computer graphics can act in?

Oh please can I see the Patriots falling behind early? Oh please can I see Carolina because I see all the other teams every year, like, I dunno Tampa, Baltimore, St Louis, all those teams that had shite quarterbacks and no one said stood a chance?

Oh please can I hear another hurrah for Tom Brady?

Oh please can I see another interception?

Oh please can I be in Las Vegas?

Oh please can I be a seven point underdog too if I study hard and go to school?

Oh please.

Carolina 20 NE 16

Let's Bring David against Goliath to Baseball
"Martyrdom... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability."--George Bernard Shaw

The FA Cup brought a bit of romance to football yesterday. It was a glaring contrast in size, pay and talent when the mighty millionaires of Chelsea, who ranked 104 places above the semiprofessional Scarborough, traveled this weekend to that Northeast seaside resort town to hold an important fourth round FA Cup match. The kind of stunning mismatch that invites giant-killing and mythological heroics that live forever in the minds of fans everywhere.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. --Chinese Proverb

I can't decide which is more absurd: that whining Yankee fans would accuse Roger Clemens of nothing short of treason and being a turncoat two-timer after he backed off his decision to retire and decided to sign with the Houston Astros instead, or the ridiculous attempt by Clemens to smooth ruffled Yankee fan feathers by confessing that "I still consider myself a Yankee."

Bye bye Vladdy, We Hardly Knew Yea

"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." --Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

ESPN, Where Art Thou?

"You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life." -- Bill Murray as Phil in Groundhog Day.

We don't get much NFL coverage here in England. We get the Sunday night ESPN game on live feed with a one thirty in the morning kickoff (so all you East Coasters whining about the games starting too late to cater to West Coast spectators, try focusing on a hyperventilating Joe Theisman at 3 in the morning sometime.) We get the Monday Night Game on Tuesday nights (most weeks) and if you've got Sky TV Digital, well, you might even get a live NFL Playoff game at a reasonable hour on a early weekend evening.

The best thing I can say about the coverage is that it is a live feed so you get real American professional announcers doing the game for an audience of people who already understand the game. Sometimes on Sky, you get the Sky network geniuses thinking how neat it would be to use their own announcers who always feel compelled to explain every nuance of the game to an audience they assume know nothing about it. If you think listening to John Madden's fatted veal grey lips spittle the same tired lines over and over again like the BAM! sound bubbles of a tv episode of Batman, is annoying, trying having a blitz explained to you by a ex-New York Giant Englishman for the twelfth time in a half hour. An added bonus, when watching the match on England's Channel Five, when ESPN/ABC takes one of their trillion commercial breaks, instead of pickup tits truck commercials and bad swill beer tits commercials and ominous ads about how your company will fail like a Twitney Spears Marriage without some sort of 28th century inside investment technology to lead you into the next generation of doom and killing, you get the tight analysis of Mike Carlson during commercial breaks instead.

Imagine that for just a moment! A sporting event without commercials! It almost feels like paradise except for the fact that by halftime it's already almost time to put the morning pot of coffee on and get the shower started.

Nevertheless, it isn't hard to notice how quickly the NFL coaching vacancies were filled, baddabing, baddabang and the smoke has cleared and look what we've got:

A retread dictator, the kind of hardass that will beat respectability into the Giants, a guy who took an infant franchise to the Conference Championship Game twice but never made it to the Super Bowl, a guy who makes the NFC East that much tougher. On the other hand, my first thought at the news of the Giants signing Tom Coughlin was: what the hell must Jeremy Shockey be thinking? Get me out of here as fast as possible? It should be intriguing to see, once the games of faux diplomacy and lip service have been exhausted and Shockey is back to being Shocking, just how it's going to sit with General Coughlin, a guy who doesn't like long hair, wants the players in suits and will run the team like they were playing at West Point instead of the East Rutherford. Yeah, I'm sure Shockey wants to win, blablabla, just as bad as the General but there's more than one way to skin a cat and while football is a game big on war metaphors, it isn't often that someone as unrelentingly uptight as Coughlin wins the Super Bowl. Gruden? Nah. Belichick? Grumpy, yes, but better known as defensive genius more than a little dictator. The Niagra Falls of Coaching, Dick Vermeil? No chance. Mike Shanahan? Nope. You've gotta go all the way back to 1991, also with the NY Giants, when Parcells was the dictator and coach and won a title. Problem further is that Coughlin isn't the motivational genius Parcells is. The Giants got themselves a good coach but don't count on him outcoaching Parcells against Dallas, Andy Reid against the Eagles or even Joe Gibbs against the Redskins.

Joe Gibbs is by far the most intriguing hire. It's such big news even the cloyingly annoying Tony Kornheiser had a good line in the Washington Post for a change: "So Joe Gibbs is coming back to coach the Redskins, huh? Coach "Joe"? For real? Bringing the Boss Hog, Joe Bugel, with him? Who else? Grimm? Henning? Torgy? Pec? Sort of like The Blues Brothers. "We're putting the band back together -- we're on a mission from God."

My first morbid thought upon hearing this news was that what ifGibbs doesn't succeed? Where does Boy Blunder Danny Snyder go from there? Throw up his hands and sell the team? There are no football coaches left in the world for the Redskins to hire if Joe Gibbs doesn't do it. It's that simple. Can he readapt to an NFL of free agency? Can he return after 11 years out of the loop? Sure he can. In DC, Joe Gibbs can walk on water. He is the Jesus Christ of NFL Coaching inside the Beltway. If he doesn't do it, no one will. But he will. He's got a Midas Touch and the only thing to fear in the end is after all the winning has waned and The Mighty Joe is ready to hang it up again, let's hope there's someone a little more prepared and a little more capable than Rich Pettibone waiting in the wings next time. In the meantime, can you find anything wrong in another pair of Gibbs-Parcells matchups every season? Can you imagine how hysterical that Redskins-Cowboys rivalry is going to get now?

Dennis Green, much like Marvin Lewis did in Cincinnati, brings automatic respectability to an otherwise lifeless and laughable franchise with an historically apathetic ownership. Frankly, you've got to wonder if Green is a glutton for punishment when just as easily, he could've had the Raiders job instead. Have the Raiders really floundered to the level of the Arizona Cardinals in a matter of a year or is Green afraid of disappearing from the NFL coaching circuit if he doesn't win, much like the Raiders' last fired black head coach, Art Shell? The Cardinals have reached double digit losses nine times since 1989 which, believe it or not, is exactly the same amount of times the Bengals reached double digit losses since 1989. But before Mr Green gets any delusions of grandeur, he might consider the fact that the Bengals were up against the likes of the Steelers, Browns and Ravens, whereas Arizona have to play in a division consisting of a considerably more formidable St Louis, Seattle and San Francisco. And let's face it, while no one might have imagined an end of the year scenario that had Marvin Lewis in tears thanking owner and the perpetually-hated Mike Brown, try and imagine the teletubbyish Dennis Green shedding tears of thanks for a cantankerous old Grinch like Bill Bidwell...As Adele told Carrie when asked in the movie Kalifornia if her Brad Pitt boyfriend, Early Grace ever hit her: "Only when I deserve it". As John Madden would say, in Batman sound effect bubbles KAPOOW! ZONK! Good luck in the lovely dry heat of the Republic of Arizona, Mr Green.

*****

You can't get ESPN Sports Center here, not through Sky TV, not even if you jam a coathanger into your tv antenae. And for the homages I read about how wonderful it is, the truth of the matter is, by the time I was leaving New York, Sports Center had gotten a little too clever for itself, a little too enamoured with its own sense of self-important news readers. I can tell you for a fact there isn't a man, woman, child, animal, mineral or vegetable in all of the United Kingdom as annoying as listening to Stewart Scott Ebonicize the American Sports Experience every morning. It was a terrible way to start the day. Evil enough to keep a spittoon bedside-handy on the off-hand chance you'd be force fed another "as cool as the other side of the pillow" line just as the vestiges of the previous night's partying was creeping it's way up your throat like a malignant bile waiting to explode at the next "BOOYEAH!". Ah yes. Stewart Scott is not a disease to be taken lightly.

We don't get much in the way of the NBA here either though for some reason, but we do get the Fox Sports NHL feed once or twice a week at around three in the morning. What we do get in bigger than life tabloid style coverage is FOOTBALL. Every page is soaked with the latest comings and goings, the finest details of every match played from the Premiere League down to the local levels. The funny thing is, you can't watch any matches on television unless you either subscribe to Sky TV or you head over to your local pub to watch it on theirs. In and of itself, this isn't such a bad thing until you find that there are "four or five" matches a week that are on Sky that you want to see and your mates in the pub slowly begin to become more familiar to you than your own wife. Not to mention watching the digits of your beer intake quadruple, your vision bloating into the onset of a permanent alchoholic haze and forgetting which match your watching by every halftime. Think about it though. Imagine if you couldn't watch a single NFL game on anything but ESPN. Imagine if every collegiate and professional game of the week could only be seen on cable. It's a mind-boggling sort of monopoly Sky TV has running here. Then again, Sky TV is paying billions to fund the Premiership. Money without which, the English League might well be like the Dutch Eriedivisie, an empty dreamland ghost of a league, twisting in the wind on its own youth squads, watching it's superstars develop in someone else's billionaire league in another country many many miles away.

*****

And perhaps the most amazing thing of all: making the news in the sports pages these days in England, perhaps underscoring the lack of interesting diversity, missing the NCAA Hoops, the NBA showboats, the NFL Playoffs, etc., you find yourself slowly gazing into the articles about people like John Boy Walton taking the World Darts Title and wondering what is wrong with the world. "He was busting 180s everywhere - he was buzzing.", the article quotes a fan of Walton. Real schoolyard, street-smart, hip-hop darts at its finest alrighty.

Now, I like darts just as much as the next pint-swilling lad in a pub but if I'm going to make fun of things like golf and bowling being called "sports" in America, then frankly, I've got to have a problem with darts being in the sports pages of the British tabloids and not running the lead in the local pub newsletter, as well.

The Mets finally have a new closer in Braden Looperafter dumping sad sack Armandogeddon the Mets have, in essence, traded Benitez for the three minor leaguers they got from the Yankees, plus a new closer in Looper. In his final two outings of the regular season, and throughout the playoffs, Looper regained his effectiveness as a setup man. He had two excellent performances against the Mets to close out the regular season, then went 2-0 with a save in the playoffs.

Looper's 1-2/3 shutout innings in Game 4 of the World Series against the Yankees particularly piqued the Mets' interest. In the outing, he escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the 11th.

Perhaps the biggest laugh is that the Marlins think they've solved their closer problems by signing Armandogeddon, but the truth is, the problems have only just begun.

"That was probably the last piece of this team that was really in need, and we took care of it," Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest said Sunday, a day after the hard-throwing right-hander accepted a $3.5 million, one-year deal with the World Series champions.

It was only last July that the Marlins were heavily rumoured to trade right-handers Nate Bump, Justin Wayne and Blaine Neal and Double-A left-hander Ryan Snare among the primary bait to grab Benitez from the Mets. As we know, Armandogeddon Sweepstakes were "won" by the Yankees, who lived to regret it and the Marlins, who never had to suffer Armandovision in the post season, later went on to defeat the Yankees in the World Series.

In forsaking the Marlins and helping them win the World Series, the Mets got, above all, Jason Anderson
On the other hand, given the general apathy of Marlin fans when the Marlins aren't World Champions, ole Armando might do just fine in a Florida climate of indifference before 8,000 fans every night.

Who Are These Dopes And Why Are They Ruining Baseball?

"The players association's intransigence and the arbitrary nature of its action are responsible for the deal's demise today. Reports that negotiations are continuing and shall continue are inaccurate." -- Lucky Luccino, on the end of Renaissance of the Red Sox, stillborn, half-term aborted.

It's another sign of the out-of-touch with the corporate world encroaching, imposing its stamp upon the sanctity and holy purity of the world of sports when it takes a degree in Quantitative Macroeconomics and Contracts Law to understand the anatomy of a baseball trade gone sour. Does anyone else get a headache trying to sort that A-Rod, for whom the contract was written, was willing to diminish the value of his contract, through deferrals, by $28 million; union lawyer Gene Orza would allow only $12 million?

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

"Goodness gracious me!" said Henny-penny; "the sky's a-going to fall: I must go and tell the king."

One thing that has been not missed in these days in England: the Beatlemania-like hysteria over The Madness of King George, Mad Scientist George and His Bad Chemistry Clubhouse, the rise and fall of Chemical George, and a string of other epithets to describe the ruination of the Evil Empire, the last, vile twistings and strainings of the death row prisoner as he suffers his fatal injection. Despite the defections and sour reasoning, King George is still around to save the day and the sky has not yet fallen.

Torre's Headache City: Mad Scientist George and His Bad Chemistry

Wouldn't it be a beautiful little clubhouse, Sheffield, Keven Brown, Lofton: one whiner after another. Why didn't they pick Manny off the waiver wire again? Chemical George, mixing up toxic clubhouse auras. Off his rocker. Mad with doom.

A sad man in his final hours, Chemical George.

Poor Joe Torre. The man who got too much credit for everything from an adoring media, get's nothing from his Boss but a kick in the teeth for insubordination and another episode of Steinbrenner Knows Best (awww, carrots again tonight pa?). Yes give us high paid malcontents and clubhouse cancers. Fly the Yankee flag.

Steinbrenner Soiled Again By His Own Stupidity

The good news just keeps getting better. Sox snag Yankee-killing Schilling. Sheffield, the petulant and troubled free agent only an idiot would sign begins his whine early, in preseason, before the contract is even signed, and demands more money from Slimebrenner. Now, the best news we could hope for:

Pettitte spurns Yankees and signs with Astros.

Is it bigger news that the Red Sox, suddenly the money bags of the AL East, offered, $54 million over four years to the Yankees final offer was almost half that.

Very quickly, the Yankees traded Jeff Weaver and a few bodies to the Dodgers for Kevin Brown.

On paper, this could work out better in the long run. Brown is old and oft-injured, but when healthy, despite his own rotten fish clubhouse personality, he can be one of the more dominant pitchers in baseball. It sorts out that he'll end up costing the Yankees less than Pettitte would have over the years and after all, it isn't win next year, it is win now. Should Brown be healthy for the year, he could be the staff ace, eclipsing even Mussina. Brown, too, has had his moments at Yankee Stadium. Overall, he's 12-3 with a 2.50 ERA against the Yankees, his top win total vs. an opponent and although he hasn't pitched in the AL in awhile, this IS after all, a pitcher who went 14-9 with a staggering 2.39 ERA. At one point, before the injuries set in, he won 9 straight giving up 9 earned runs over 65 innings, a 0.80 ERA.

So while, from the outside, at the onset, this looks like a Yankee loss, combined with the possibility that Sheffield may have whined his way out of a Yankee uniform, these seeming harbingers of Yankee doom might actually turn out to be godsends.

Let's hope not, of course. Let's hope for more failure and futility, but let's not get too jacked up on Yankee blood letting just yet.

Perhaps even richer, is the rampant speculation that now with Pettitte signed, Roger Clemens won't be far behind. Richard Justice reports:

Could Roger Clemens be lured into joining Pettitte and giving the Astros a devastating one-two combination, in terms of pitching performance and marketing potential? The Astros intend to find out. Even as team owner Drayton McLane made possibly his most dramatic acquisition since purchasing the franchise, he admitted he has one more in mind.

"I will call Roger at the appropriate time," he said. "We'll talk."

As for the two of them pitching for the Astros next season, Pettitte said: "Five days ago, I'd have said no. Now, I don't know. If he gives me any opening to say he might think about it, I'm going to jump on it pretty good. That would be awesome."

Off Seasons Are the Kick In the Balls

The real imbalance of baseball is the Off Season.

That's when money matters: on paper.

Newspaper you read every morning hoping desperately for news on who's in, who's out, trade rumours, free agent signings on page four:

In certain cities, there is no off season. The team sucked last year. There were no 162 games because none of them mattered. Loss is Loss. And Loss is loss after loss after loss.

The offseason are franchises that stand against the wall for execution as some junior high dance waiting to be ignorant and hoping not to be mocked.

Will Milwaukee re-sign Gary Sheffield? Fuck no. How could they?

So imagine yourself a stinking Brewers fan and you've got Bud Selig underpants and Bud Selig dishwashing liquid in your house and you've got no fucking hope that there will be improvement. Bud Selig to daughter, for example, is a precedent of bad decision making and why the hopes of Brewers fans are like a spreading rot.

Hey! What's going on in the Devil Rays camp these days?

Yup. Big fucking excitement. Heart attacks. Lou Piniella farts at charity dinner for corpses and doesn't apologise immediately! No one wants Son of Bitch Ben Grieve who can't hit nepotism pussy if it hit HIM in the face first.

Puke him out in bloody chunks-like stomach cancer or miscarriages into the toilet .

There's you're fucking off season.

No Fucking Hope

And no Fucking Hope for the future.

Some cities gets hope and somes gets losers, naive, bloodless servility.

Kill.

Win Hope!

Defeat envy!


(just checking if anyone was reading)

The Human Headache Waiting To Happen

The marriage made in hell: sourpuss and whiner extraordinaire, Gary Sheffield has, in the words of one baseball exec: "changed his mind and wanted more money."

Now there's a shock. What a relief it was a few seasons ago when the Mets were thinking about getting him from the Dodgers and cooler heads prevailed. The head case that is Sheffield will not survive the media spotlight of New York. He whines too often, he's too outspoken when there is nothing to say: Prima Donna's don't usually last in NYC with perhaps the exception of Reggie Jackson and even he too left one day.

As The Daily News reports it:

"There is still a chance a contract with Sheffield will get done, of course. But according to baseball sources, Sheffield upset the Yankees when he called George Steinbrenner - who is personally handling the negotiations - in the last few days and demanded that the contract be increased to $42 million over three years. The original pact had been for three years and $39 million and the two sides were haggling over how some of the money would be deferred, because the Yankees want the average annual value of the deal to be $11 million.

Friends of Sheffield's have been warning that he was pushing Steinbrenner too far with his latest gambit. No official said the negotiations were completely shut down, but Steinbrenner is probably unhappy that Sheffield tried to get more millions when The Boss thought the deal was nearly sealed."

So, although as a Yankee-hater, whilst I'd have loved to have seen Sheffield scuttle Yankee harmony all season next year, even MORE savory will be the hat-in-hand Sheffield, shuffling from team to team trying to find another idiot big enough to take on a headcase for millions of wasted dollars.

In a related issue, let's not listen to the normally rational Bill Madden in the Daily News who thinks the Mets should go crazy and try and swing for Vlad. Bad idea, methinks. Terrible makeup, this Vlad, despite his numbers and one should consider what a such an enormous salary increase would do. Too sensitive for the NY market. He's better off in Baltimore where he can disappoint in peace and make no difference to any team.

And before I forget, reservations now to jump on the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl bandwagon?

C'mon. Everyone already knows: KC Chiefs - St Louis Rams Final to see Vermeil meet his old team.

The Superstah Cometh

The Kaz man, Kazuo Matsui and the Mets appear to have agreed on a deal to bring him to the Blue and Orange.

"The switch-hitting Matsui is known for his speed, defense and batting average and is sometimes compared to Ichiro Suzuki, the Seattle Mariners' star from Japan. Unlike the stoic Ichiro, though, Matsui is outgoing and flashy, at least by Japanese standards.

Matsui is a native of Osaka, which is known for its straight-talking people. At the news conference near Tokyo, Matsui spoke confidently and happily about his desire to play in America, a marked change from Hideki Matsui, who is no relation, who apologized profusely when he said goodbye to Japanese baseball last year to join the Yankees.

When Kazuo Matsui turned professional, he changed the Chinese characters of his first name to mean "top earner in the middle," a nod to his desire to be the best shortstop possible.

Matsui's signing was the Mets' first move of the off-season and was a clear signal that the franchise, after two straight last-place finishes, is more interested in a quick turnaround than any painstaking rebuilding process. Still, the Mets have indicated they will be relatively modest as they move through the winter, and the acquisition of Matsui may be as bold as they get."

Of course, while this was the blueprint for the Mets' offseason, my other little plans, the resigning of Shannon Stewart by the Twins and of Hasegawa by the Mariners means I don't think the Mets should trade the whining, selfish Sheman Mike Piazza anymore. No, leave him in another year, let him platoon at first with a host of others and here's a potential lineup:

1B-Jason Phillips/Mike Piazza
2B- Reyes
SS-Kaz
3B-Wiggington
C-Piazza, Phillips
LF-Floyd

HOLES: CF and RF and almost the entire bullpen and #3/4 starter depending on where one slots Trachsel.

The beauty of this signing is that it can only mean that they are going to make another run, take another shot, load the guns again. They wouldn't sign the Kaz Man and leave him hanging with no one but the injury prone Floyd the injury prone Reyes and the sensitive Piazza to back him up would they? Nah. They will make some more signings before it's all over.

If we take a look at players not offered arb by their respective teams and are now unrestricted free agents, we see that Mike Cameron is now available to play CF for the Mets. Cameron, who turns 31 next month, won his second Gold Glove last season, committing only four errors in 492 chances for a .992 fielding percentage. Cameron hit .253 last season with 18 home runs and 76 RBIs. Something else to consider is the fact that he also set a franchise single-season record with 176 strikeouts in 2002.

Budget accomodations: Cheaper alternative to Cameron is infamous streak-hitter and 36 year-old Reggie Sanders whom the Pirates let free. Sanders batted .287 with 31 homers and 85 RBI last season in 130 games. For his career, which also includes stints in Arizona and San Francisco, he has a career 2.68 average with 249 homers and 802 RBI.

They say Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon might be available in a trade, but at what cost? Will the Sox be trying to dump a little more salary to make way for A-Rod and other off season signings?

Why not sign Reds reject Eric Owens on the cheap? Sure, he doesn't hit for power, but he adds speed and can play all three outfield positions. More speed cannot hurt the Mets plus, even if Cedeno started over Owens in RF, Owens could always be used to spell Sanders in CF or take over when Cliff Floyd suffers his inevitable season-altering injury in Spring Training.

Last word on cheap OF alternatives might be the Jose Cruz Jr, the man who failed to catch a routine fly ball that helped the Marlins' game-winning 11th-inning rally in Game 3. He is another switch-hitter to join Kaz and give greater versatility to the Mets batting order. .250-20-68 is steady enough provided he comes cheap. Plus, more speed (30 homers, 30 sbs in 2001). It appears the Mets would only have to outbid the Rangers and Devil Rays...

So let's look at a batting order that looks like this perhaps:

Kaz-ss
Reyes-2b
Floyd-LF
Piazza-C
Wigginton-3B
Jose Cruz Jr -LF
Reggie Sanders-CF
Jason Phillips-1B

perhaps this beats me previous lineup in a previous blog of:

Shannon Stewart (resigned with Twins)- LF
Kaz -ss
Reyes - 2b
Floyd - Lf
Ty Wigginton - 3b
Travis Lee - (still a Free Agent, unstricted) 1B
Aaron Rowand - (still untraded on the White Sox) CF
Jason Phillips - C

Yes, now that the Mets have Kaz, they should keep Piazza and roll the dice somemore.

Another good Pirate reject might be pitcher Julian Tavarez, 3-3 record and a 3.66 ERA. Other bullpen wish list might include Tim Worrell, whom the Giants set free. Worrell, 36, had a great year, saving 38 games after replacing injured closer Robb Nen. He might not be cheap and thus, might not be worth it in the end.

Who WOULD be worth it, just for the comedic value alone: If you noted, the Mariners declined to offer arbitration to ARMANDOGEDDON. Wouldn't it be funny to see him back at Shea? Yeah. Almost as funny as seeing his barber, Rey Sanchez, also a free agent no one wants, join him. Gaaaak!

Another ex-Oriole and ex-Mariner, Arthur Rhodes, is hanging around with nowhere to go to augment someone's bullpen.

What would Sidney Ponson cost to add to the starting rotation? Of course, he seems to be on the list of alot of teams. He had an initial salary of $4.25 million last year, which is manageable for most teams. He has a very shaky past with the Orioles though, despite last season and the question is, will he fulfill that promise finally, or revert back to his frustrating inconsistencies of the past?

A REAL low budget move might be to sign, as #4 starter: John Burkett is a free man from the Red Sox now. He's gone 109-84 pitching in the National League. Plenty of experience.
Looks like Millwood might stick with the Phillies after all.

I like the rumour that Vlad Guerrero is going to the Orioles. Guerrero, a four-time all-star, made $11.5 million last year for the Expos, and he hit .330 with 25 homers and 79 RBI while missing 39 games because of a herniated disk.

Glad to hear the human headache Gary Sheffield will ink with King George. Those two pigs deserve each other and it spells certain horrific chemistry for the Yankees yet again combined with Giambi's knee problems, the uncertainty over what to do with Bernie in CF and Soriano at 2B. The lack of a starting rotation: So far, Mussina, ex-Expo Javier Vasquez, whom is compared by the Baseball Crank, Choke Weaver, maybe the 40-going-on-100 David Wells coming off back surgery, definately not Clemens and perhaps not Pettite if the Astros can make themselves appealing. A rotten season indeed in store for the Yankees. Oh! If only it were true!

Is it not delicious, the rumours that A-Rod will go to the Red Sox for that whining Dominican, Manny Ramirez.

No Hundred Years War, but England To Meet France In Their Opener

There were many possible scenarios for the English side prior to this morning's draw for the groupings of the Euro 2004. Probably the worst case scenario was what happened to Germany, the unlucky nation from the second pot of four who were the ones getting stuck with Holland. Going into this draw, one knew straight away that whomever got stuck with Holland was going to have the toughest group because it meant Holland plus a number one seed to battle against.

England could have been stuck, in theory, with France AND Holland. Conversely, they could have lucked out an drew Sweden, Latvia and Russia as well. So other than not getting Holland from the third pot which would have sealed a group of death, the other main concern for England was obviously not to get stuck with France. They did, and they drew France as the opening match of the tournament for both nations. Sunday the 13th at the Stadium of Light in Lisboa.

In theory, England might be happy, having drawn France that they drew them as the first match of their ride. On the other hand, France, having been upset already in the opening match of the World Cup two summers ago, will not only take England more seriously than they did Senegal, but will clearly have the motivation of having something to prove as well since they were humiliated in the 2002 World Cup already and do not want a repeat performance. They've shown their resolve with a perfect qualifying record, quite a feat over 8 matches, even if it was only the likes of Cyprus, Malta, Israel and Slovenia.

Realistically, England would be happy with a draw against France, which would be enough, in a likelihood, to propel them into the second round, perhaps against Spain or Portugal. Following France, they'll meet Switzerland and then Croatia both teams they should be able to beat, in theory anyway and perhaps even on paper. I don't get any wild fantasies about Switzerland going very far. Sure, they won their qualifying group but let's face it: a qualifying group of Russia, Ireland, Georgia and Albania, is hardly a gauntlet to run. Sven says ""Swiss football is progressing very quickly - at youth level they are very strong. The Yakin brothers have been excellent for FC Basle, and Stephane Chapuisat is still a dangerous striker." but this is a lot of diplomatic bullshit. Switzerland are not scary. Perhaps compared to Latvia they are, but England should beat them readily.

Croatia are a good side with alot of young talent that have potential if they're given their chance, to create unwanted surprises. Should England lose to France, this match, in my mind, the final of the first round in Coimbra, is key. Sven notes here that "We played Croatia recently and even though we won 3-1 the Croatians showed that they are a good team. Teams from Eastern Europe do tend to be technically very solid, physically strong and are very very good at keeping hold of the ball. Their passing game is often frustrating because they can keep to ball for so long! I think that they are good - they beat Slovenia away to qualify and that is not easy so maybe they can do well in Portugal."

The early odds have England rated fifth behind France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Considering they have to play France first and then would likely face either Portugal or Spain in the second round, depending on which one finishes first in the group. Then again, let's not count Greece out too quickly. Greece are my darkhorse team. Given Spain's history of dismal performances in tournaments and given Portugal's outrageous underachieving in the World Cup, you might see Greece squeak into second place and qualify for the next round, perhaps against France, which would leave England stuck playing Portugal in Lisboa. Not a good taste.

Local Derbys In Portugal

You might look at them as derbys, given the hatred and rivalry sure to sweat out of these nations when they meet. My favorite one will be Germany-Holland. It's a big bias but if Dick Advocaat uses his head again and keeps the Dutch team young and hungry by leaving the egomaniacs and lazy mercenary stars on the bench like he did in that second match against Scotland, I don't think Germany will win this match. In fact, they will lose this match because they are still too old and uninspired. Yes, the Germans aren't bad tournament players. They know what it takes to win in these tournaments but I don't see the demonstrations that they are so much better than they were in Euro2000. The best result would be a severe and demoralizing thrashing because if Holland wish to advance, they are most certainly going to have to beat Germany to do it. This is the first match of their group and will be followed quickly by Holland having to try and overcome a Czech team that already humiliated them once in the qualifiers while Germany will toying with Latvia. So a victory by Holland over Germany is the key to their chances.

Spain-Portugal: More neighbors facing each other straight away in the first round. Spain beat Portugal in a friendly in September, in Portugal, it should be noted, by a 3-0 margin. Sure "just" a friendly but don't doubt that Spain are always eager to kick down their lesser cousins. Unfortunately for Portugal, this match comes at the end of the round with both teams likely equal unless Greece happens to pull off an upset early on. Greece will face Portugal in the opening match of the tournament and frankly, the pressure on Portugal might be a little too daunting. Greece might very well earn a draw, keeping them on pace for a spot into the second round. Spain, who plays Greece only after meeting a Russian team that will lucky to come away with a point in this tournament, will not be as prone to upset. They are better than Greece and they are better than Russia and by then, they will be better than Portugal.

Denmark-Sweden: Peter Schmeichel seemed a little unhappy in the draw that Denmark got, having to face both Sweden and Italy as well as Bulgaria. He noted that he was worried this grouping was even more severe than the Germany, Czech, Holland Group but frankly, I don't think Sweden are going to make it out of the round and Latvia, even though they beat Turkey to get here, are everyone's best bet for worst team of the tournament. Yes, Italy will be strong and probably unbeatable but

My take on how it all pans out is like this:

GROUP A:

Portugal and Greece tie the opener. Spain win their first two matches and draw against Portugal. Spain first with 7 points, Portugal second with 5 points.

GROUP B:

France will beat England handily in the first match but England will be able to crawl back against Switzerland and Croatia to make it as the second place finisher.

GROUP C:

Italy is the class of the group and will coast through unmolested leaving Sweden and Denmark to battle it out while Bulgaria tries to sneak up on everyone. Denmark, Sweden and Bulgaria all won their qualifying groups and frankly, Sweden, having to play Poland and Hungary, had the toughest entry. Sweden will defeat Denmark, just as Schmeichel seems convinced, and Bulgaria is my bet to pull of a series of ties and earn in over Sweden for the second place spot.

GROUP D:

One would hope that Germany are pummeled not only by Holland but by the Czech Republic, as well, avenging their Euro 1996 Finals loss. The Czechs are the class of this group and even though Holland, playing to potential, could beat them as easily as they themselves were beaten by the Czechs in the qualifying round, they have some sort of disease when it comes to playing in pressure over the years. The finish will be the Czechs and then the Dutch.

This leaves the following second round matches:

Spain to play England which is a match that England could seriously win, even if Spain are confident by having made topped the host nation in the opening round. England, playing better defence, win 2-1.

Portugal would then have the misfortune of meeting France and France, who beat them on penalties the last time around in 2000, will not have as tough a time at it, winning 3-1.

Italy would then face the Dutch in what could theoretically be a beautiful match with the strong Italian defence facing the firepower of the Dutch. Italy win, 1-0, as they win all their bloody matches.

Finally, Bulgaria would face the Czech Republic and would defeat them.

Sadly, England then plays Italy. Italy breaks-a-their little hearts, winning on penalties.

France and Bulgaria meet and perhaps this time, Bulgaria pull out an upset and lose to Italy in the finals.

Crazy speculation but let's face it: after the craziness and unpredictability of the World Cup, who is going to guess that there might not be a big suprise making it to the final?

Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop

"I guess I hate the Yankees now," Schilling said last night following his trade to the Boston Red Sox.

It's one of those blurbs you read and think, nahh, it's just wishful thinking, vicious rumour, propaganda from Theoland. But it's true, it's official and the first shot has been fired across the bow of the 2004 season.

You might think it's too good to be true: two Yankee humiliations within a month and it isn't even Christmas yet. The humiliating shutout loss to the Marlins for the World Championship was the poke in the eye with the stick and the trade of Curt Schilling to the Red Sox for what amounts to Casey Fossum and a load of chuff is the follow-up kick to the balls. The fact that they were Steinbrenner's balls that took the blow only makes the video replay all the more delicious in slow-motion, over and over, and you must wonder what is going on in poor little Brian Cashman's mind, the repercussions of King George's wrath at the failure and humiliation of having their arch enemies sign the best player available in the off season. And make no mistake about it: Bartolo Colon and Javier Vasquez, if you look at the record books, have won zero World Series games against the Yankees and zero World Championships. They aren't going to bring the title to the Bronx and neither will Gary Sheffield.

What does the coup of Curt Schilling to Boston mean? King George twists in the wind a little longer, sputters harder, turns a deeper shade of purple and will open his little Yankee pocketbook to Overspend on the Overrated yet another season in a row. All for naught. You'd think three successive years of failure and the dismal excuse of a baseball team over in Queens would teach King George he can't buy his way to the top anymore.

I'm skeptical about the whole thing though. Same way I was skeptical about the Phillies signing Jim Thome and trading for Kevin Millwood and beating their puny little chests about what world beaters they were before they'd even had a chance to get no-hit in Spring Training. There's something a little too obvious about trading for Curt Schilling that makes me think the Red Sox are just a disaster waiting to happen.

You've still got the biggest whiner in baseball to contend with in his contract season. If Pedro were a team player, not a quitter and a loser and a choke artist and a Yankee hero, you could say that this dynamic trio, this Pedro and Schilling and Lowe, would seal the season, end the "curse", slash the misery, breath hope into the tiny lungs of Boston. But Pedro is a season-long menstrual cycle whose cramps will become more intense as the season wears on. He isn't winning material, let's face it. How many shots against the Yankees did he have last year and how many times did he fail to close the deal?

With the trade for Schilling the Red Sox have only added by one, the number of pitchers who are Yankee-killahs on the Red Sox staff. Before Boston wakes up with the smelling salts, it should remember that a staff of one does not a World Champion make.

Nevertheless, it's good to watch King George squirm in the interim.

*****

Will someone please tell me why an aging, third-rate defensive catching liability with declining offensive numbers who refuses to do what is best for the team by moving to first base and selfishly persists on a trying to forge a false legacy, is a beloved commodity? Why is trading Mike Piazza so unappealing?

Because one thing for certain, the Mets will never go anywhere with him again and if the Met ownership werent' such sentimental fools, they'd demand Piazza be traded, they'd never have signed a washout like Tom Glavine, they'd dump Al Leiter while he still has a few gallons in the tank, and they'd hire someone to go and break Fat Mo's knees, just to make sure he doesn't get any cheeky thoughts about returning to wreak havoc on the Mets once again.

In return for Piazza we should net a few good, young pitchers and a stick. I wouldn't take any pitchers from the O's. They're all damaged goods. The O's had what, like 200 draft picks over a two year period and they used 99% of them on pitchers and 90% are already on the DL or recovering from some sort of major surgery that leaves their pitching arms dangling from their shoulder sockets by a few stringy tendons. Taking O's pitchers for Piazza would be like buying a house while watching it burn down. In fact, there is very little appeal in anything Orioles-like. And frankly, what makes anyone think they could convince Piazza to sign off on a trade to a terminal organization like the Baltimore Orioles? Would you want to play for a schmuck like Peter Angelos?

Texas has no pitchers to trade and since pitching is what they most sorely need, other than the salary relief of dumping A-Rod, Texas isn't an attractive alternative.

So where does it leave us? American League team with alot of good, young pitchers: how about the Chicago White Sox? Wouldn't Mike Like Chicago, just like the other Mike did? Mike and the implausibly redeemable Frank Thomas could trade off and on between DH and the field, Mike could catch to his heart's content when Frank is bone weary and Paul Konerko feels like hitting, and frankly, when you look at the other catching possibilities, what have you got in Chicago? The 60 year old Sandy Alomar and the .234 bat of Miguel Olivo? Imagine the batting order on a good day this would produce: Thomas (42-105 .267), Piazza (31-101 .305 in a normal season), Ordonez (29-99 .317), Lee (31-119 .291), Everett (28-92 .287), the ever-declining Konerko and the up-and-coming Crede. Not to mention the heart-warming reunion with Roberto Alomar this trade would produce. So the White Sox get a sorely-needed catcher and a big bat to add the heat to opposing pitching staffs, what do the Mets get?

Let's have a Damaso Marte (4-2 1.58 11 saves) for starters. Would the Sox squawk about giving him up? Did they squawk about heaving out our future closer in the form of Royce Ring in return for the dustbin of second base malcontents, Roberto Alomar? No, they were happy about it. So while we're at it, we'll keep our designs modest, and ask for Aaron Rowand, who the Sox have no room for in the outfield, to play centerfield at Shea and maybe dip into their Minor Leagues for a Tetsu Yofu because frankly, hasn't everyone always wanted their very own Tetsu Yofu to root for in their miserable little lives? And let's point out that he went 9-8 with a 3.50 ERA in AA last year. He could be next season's D-Train waiting to happen, who knows?

So there you have it Sportsfans: Mike Piazza to the Chicago White Sox for Damaso Marte, Aaron Rowand and Tetsu Yofu.

Now, after Fat Mo's knee caps have been dealt with and Piazza's salary has been jettisoned, the next bit of business is the pitching. Let's face it, Leiter, Glavine and Trachsel aren't going to scare anyone as a starting trio. Personally, I'd like to see both Glavine and Leiter gone. I don't care about what hard workers they are or what wonderful little community helpers they are or how much class they have. They've both seen their best years, now far behind them and keeping them around just so Wilpon can play daddy-for-hire just isn't worth it. Glavine belongs on a team where he doesn't need to be the first or second starter on the staff, somewhere he can wallow in obscurity and find himself for a final burst before the end of his career. 300 wins indeed. Ha! I'd trade him to anyone who would take him for anything they'd give us. Why not the Texas Rangers? They're a gullible lot. And Al Leiter would look very happy in St Louis and here again, I don't care what we get in return, just gut the starting rotation because it won't carry the Mets anywhere but down like a lead weight next season. Gut and rebuild and keep the sappy Mr Wilpon out of the baseball business decisions.

And while I'm on it, none of this will come to pass because like complete and unrepentant idiots, the Met brain trust couldn't be arsed to offer Omar Minaya the GM job straight up. Did they really think he was going to leave the Expos to play second fiddle to a talentless headscratcher like Jim Duquette? Sweet Jesus, that was stupid. But consistent at least. Sort of like: hey, let's fire one of the best managers in baseball but KEEP a complete drooling moron like Steve Phillips as GM because he's done such a bang-up job ruining the team with his bad decisions. It's one of the reasons you learn to love to hate the Mess Mismanagement. If there is a wrong decision to be made, by god, they will find it and they will make sure that they do it.

So it's certain that Glavine and Leiter will be at the head of the rotation, even if someone had the guts to trade Piazza. Glavine and Leiter might not be bad if you threw in Sidney Ponson. Maybe Miguel Batista is still going unsigned by the D-backs despite the loss of Schilling's salary. It's almost beginning to look like a rotation. I can't be arsed about Aaron Heilman at the moment. I'm still too excited about having Tetsu Yofu. So if you can sign Ponson and Batista or some other sod, like Shawn Estes and you've still got Trachsel to kick around and you've got a bunch of promising kids still a year or two away from the rotation, it isn't looking too pathetic. Then sign the mighty righty Shigetoshi Hasegawa to compliment the lefty Damaso Marte in the bullpen. It's a start. It isn't first division material, oh no, but it isn't hey, let's watch the Single A Mets lose another gut-churner to the effin Milwaukee Brewers again, either.

Problems in centerfield? Answered by the Piazza trade when they picked up Aaron Rowand. Solid and unspectacular and cheap. No head case. Just the sort of steadiness you need. Ideally, your CF is also fast and could lead off. Can we say that about Rowand, well, with a little luck and imagination, perhaps. But he's no Roger Cedeno out there. He isn't going to get hurt by getting hit in the head with a fly ball. In fact, I'd even venture to say that he might be another Rip Repulski out there and who can quibble with that? But you've got a must or two hanging on out there and one of them is Kaz Matsui because Kaz Matsui brings the pizazz to make up for the Piazza buzz loss and if a team in New York can't have some Kaz, they just aren't going to cut it. King George wants him too and now is the time, not next week or the week after, to go all out, recruit like your franchise depended on it, romance, wine and dine, make him feel like royalty. Now that isn't an easy thing to do when you're trying to sell a dump like Shea Stadium over the history of Yankee Stadium. If the standard deal is 3 years for $21 million, go for 5 years and $45 million. Yes, it's reckless and crazy but not as reckless and crazy as it was to give a washout like Tom Glavine a fat salary for another three years when he's already been washed up for a year and a half. Take a chance, generate a buzz, get noticed. Because otherwise, he's going to be winning for someone else down the road and it will be rubbed in the noses of Met fans for the entirety of his career. He is the cornerstone of the future middle with Reyes.

So, you've done the impossible: dumped Piazza and signed Kaz away from everyone else. Whew. You still have no power to speak of. You might have Kaz leading off and Jose Reyes behind him. You might have Reyes followed by Cliff Floyd but then you've got a big hole, like a pulled tooth, in the clean up spot. Here you will need free agent help because re-signing a stiff like Tony Clark isn't going to cut it. You won't or shouldn't or can't afford Guerrero and Sheffield is a BIG misadventure waiting to happen. You have two positions open, two positions that could supply a little power combined but not alot singularly: So you sign Tampa Bay's Travis Lee (.275-19-70) for a reasonable amount and get solid defense at first base if somewhat pedestrian production at the plate. Then to make up for it, you sign Shannon Stewart to a deal. Not this Shannon Stewart, the other one. The one who will be the leadoff hitter for the Mets.

Stewart - LF
Kaz -ss
Reyes - 2b
Floyd - Lf
Ty Wigginton - 3b
Travis Lee - 1B
Rowand - CF
Jason Phillips - C

Rotation:

Glavine
Leiter
Trachsel
Ponson/Batista/Estes
Heilman

Pen

Damaso Marte (L)
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (R)
John Franco (L)
etc.

Transatlantic Brawls

“Welcome To Hell” –-banners fluttering from every corner of Sukru Saracoglu Stadium during yesterday's England-Turkey battle.

"When this series began, everyone knew it was going to be quite a battle. It was going to be very emotional, a lot of intensity. But I think we've upgraded it from a battle to a war." Red Sox manager Grady Little.

*****

You’d be hard-pressed to choose just which of the unrest-riddled matches yesterday, both of which nearly erupted into full-scale riots and the kind of anarchic chaos which occasionally makes a sporting event eerie, was the most fascinating. One was fought between the two predominate American cities and biggest rivals on the East Coast in a skirmish for the third game of a potential seven game series to decide the American League Baseball Championship, and the other was an international football battle with a Euro 2004 berth at stake.

Prior To Wood Warm-Up?

Yes, as predicted yesterday, the Marlins beat the Cubs in the opening game of the series because, frankly, with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood up next to face the Marlins, if they hadn't won this morning, they might never have won a game in the series...

Still, culminating with one homer after another, the opening match of the series will probably be the headiest offensive assault we'll see:

NLCS Records Set:

7 homeruns in one game.

4 triples in one game.

3 homeruns in one inning by one team (Marlins, in the third)

17 extra base hits in one game.

Wonder how many fans were whining about a corked bat when Sammy Sosa nailed that game-tying homerun in the bottom of the 9th...

Yankees-Red Sox

We can point out a few obvious items to begin with: The Boston Red Sox, regardless of the claims of their fans, did not "win" their series against the Oakland A's so much as the Oakland A's lost it. The Red Sox Nation should think about that when pondering their signs of grandeur and destiny.

Is it really that big a deal that the Yankees rotation didn't give up 20 runs in four games again like they did last season getting knocked out by the Anaheim Angels? It's a little early to start congratulating yourself for not failing when you allege to have the best starting rotation in all of baseball, isn't it?

That said, Sports Amnesia remembers that the ALCS will play out thusly:

The Red Sox will take Game One in Yankee Stadium, adding fuel to the fire of the imagination of the Red Sox Nation.

They will then nip Andy Pettitte behind super-hero Derek Lowe to take a 2-0 lead in the series with the next 3 games in Fenway sending the Red Sox Nation into a feeding-frenzy of anticipation but then...

Game Three will be Roger Clemens' swan song, his final pitching performance in Fenway Park and he will be facing none other than Pedro Martinez who may or may not come down with the flu. Let's face it, Pedro hasn't been Mr. Clutch all season and the Yankees will win after he peters out in the 7th leaving the Sox bullpen to blow the game.

David Wells will then lead the Yankees to tie the series at two apiece swinging the hysterical ladder of momentum in the opposite direction.

Yankees win another to make it three to two and to keep the visiting team's perfect record of away victories intact.

Lowe will do it again for the Sox in Game Six in Yankee Stadium and then:

Game Seven will rematch Clemens against Pedro and I'll tell you, if it gets that far, I'll give my prediction on the day before because by then, I'll have to keep a close eye on Pedro's flu-like symptoms.

Vital England Match in Peril?

Threatening to throw a monkey wrench in an already highly anticipated match,the England football squad last night voted unanimously to strike unless Rio Ferdinand was reinstated to the squad.

The players said that they would not travel to Turkey for Saturday’s vital European Championship qualification match unless Ferdinand, who was dropped from the team for failing to take a random drugs test, was given his place back.

If they DO strike, guess I'll just have to forget my plans of spending the afternoon getting faced in the Queen's Head and watch Ireland trounce Romania in the World Cup of Rugby instead.

Quite A Drop-Off In Talent

ESPN, who will never let it go, reports that Phil Jackson, the Lakers coach and Michael Jordan's former coach in Chicago, intimated in a published report that he has reluctantly considered a scenario in which Jordan would play for him if Kobe Bryant is unable to.

Somehow, the 40 year old thrice-retired Jordan hardly seems an equal replacement for Kobe. After all, this isn't 1998 anymore.

Choking, Swallowing and Surviving

"...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

When Terrence Long took an inside fastball for another called third strike, the Boston bench and bullpen emptied onto the field in celebration and even from the radio, you could imagine the hearts spilling open in relief. All around the Red Sox Nation, the immediate notion that still looming ahead were the Yankees, was forgotten as Boston got its fourth playoff series victory since its last World Series title in 1918.

Oakland, on the other hand, have now lost nine straight games in which they could have clinched postseason advancement, extending a major league record for choking.

At least they didn't, like their AL West counterparts the Mariners, start their choke a month before the season was over for the second year in a row.

In some ways, you have to admire the fans of teams who come all the way to the opponents home field, watch their teams win the series and then stay so late celebrating, the losing team's PA has to broadcast warnings and threats to get them to leave. Like the apathetic fans of the Braves, who couldn't have gotten a ticket in Wrigley if they'd tried, A's fans were always at a distinct disadvantage in this series. It was a nice touch when an A's fan posted a large green sign simply reading "1918"; next to it was a picture of Babe Ruth on the facing of the Coliseum's upper deck.

Several hundred Red Sox fans gathered behind the Boston dugout 90 minutes before the game, cheering and clapping while their team warmed up. A few players rewarded the fans by throwing candy, wristbands and other treats into the stands.

You might not have surmised it based upon my anti-Pedro rants and Manny Ramirez attitude-bashing a month or two ago, I have to admit that I never had any serious doubts that the Red Sox were going to make it to the postseason when their only competition were the choking Seattle Mariners and Armandogeddon. However, certainly when they were down 0-2 with neither Pedro nor Lowe available, I didn't expect the Red Sox to pull this series out. I guess only a Red Sox fan would have had such faith. With limited news coverage, seeing that the Red Sox had lost the first two games of the series, I'd just assumed Manny and Pedro had come down with another variation of The Dominican Flu.

By the way, a belated condolence card to the Royal Blog. A month from now, after all the hoopla of the World Series dies down, few outside of Kansas City are going to remember how interesting the Royals made the season.

Somehow, Larry Bowa survived a team collapse and still hasn't been fired yet.

Bring on the Yankees?

The Red Sox will face the Yankees in the playoffs for just the second time, the first being a 4-1 loss in the 1999 ALCS. New York won 10 of 19 games against Boston during the regular season, but the Red Sox frequently teed off on Yankees pitchers. The Yankees had three one-run victories against the Sox.

And, down to the Marlins and the Cubs in the NLCS, it's looking more and more that the End of The World is neigh upon us.

Should the Cubs and Red Sox face each other in the World Series, which of course, they will because I am outside of America again and the last time I was living outside of America in 2000, the first Subway Series in 44 years materialized out of nowhere, people everywhere around the world will prepare for the End of the World as prophesied by <Nostradamus

Cubs-Marlins

Tim Kurkjian had it right and because I am too far away from the action to do a precise analysis, here is what he had to say:

The Cubs won their first postseason series since 1908. The Marlins are the fifth team in National League history to make it to the playoffs in a season in which they were 10 games under .500. The Cubs won 19 games in September, the most in that month since 1945, the last time they went to the World Series. The Marlins have the best record in baseball since mid-May. The Cubs have this incredibly loyal fan base that has been begging for a pennant for over 50 years. The Marlins fan base recently went from 5,000 to 65,000.

My hands-down Rookie of the Year, the single best rookie story of the year, former Cub farmhand, the D-Train, Dontrelle Willis, whom I thought some month and a half ago had obviously lost his magic, pitched a third of inning in a Game Two victory over the Giants and then lasted 5 1/3 unimpressive innings against the Giants in a decisive Game Four which the Marlins won anyway. He is scheduled to start Game 4 against Matt Clement, the guy the Cubs traded D-Train for.

Prediction: My take in the crystal ball I have in the cottage here on the NLSC is that the Marlins will win the opener at Wrigley and will then lose the next two games of the Series. The Marlins will then even the Series at home in Game 4 before the combined forces of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior fell them for good with the Cubs advancing to the World Series, 4 games to 2.

Meanwhile, Back in England

Two pretty enormous events will happen this weekend besides the little internet transistor broadcasting the NLCS and the ALCS games.

First of all, the 2003 World Cup of Rugby kicks off this Friday with Australia playing Argentina. While normally not one to follow rugby, having played a few times now here for the Shipston-On-Stour third team, and the sore bones to prove it, I've rapidly developing an affection for it.

Adding to the excitement is the fact that England is the top-ranked side in the world and have a very good chance of winning it all.

Of course, that's if they can avoid what England coach Clive Woodard called media sledging.

Yesterday, having an afternoon pint in the White Bear, I overhead the ultimate sad tale for a rugby fan, applicable to all sports fans of course. As a few of the locals were going over England's schedule in the first round, the guy next to me tells them to have a look at the match on the Saturday, October 18th match beginning at 1 in the afternoon, he says. As it turns out, the match is England against South Africa, quite possibly the biggest match of the first round.

"And guess whose getting married on that date at that time?" he muttered, pointing his stubby finger to his chest. "The best man nearly had a heart attack when he found out." And then of course, the usual suggestions followed, having a chat with the vicar about changing the time of the wedding (nevermind the bride), seeing if a small tv could be brought in over the altar, etc., with the sound turned down "low" (not "off", mind you)...

All akin of course, to having not had the foresight to know your team was going to make the World Series and scheduling an October wedding on the wrong date, at the wrong time.

On Saturday, England plays Turkey in a qualifying match for the Euro2004 football tournament, their biggest match of this round. They need only tie Turkey in Istanbul to advance but a loss would mean they could only qualify via a second-place playoff.

Adding tension to the match is the fact that the English fans have been warned to stay away from Turkey, in particular by the English national coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who warned fans that they could "risk to be injured and even risk your life" if they insist upon travelling to Turkey for the make-or-break qualifier.

Can you imagine Grady Little telling the Red Sox Nation not to go to New York because they risked their lives by doing so?

FA head of media Adrian Bevington added: "We would like to strongly reaffirm the position of ourselves, the Government and the police that no fans should travel to Turkey."

Of course they will and of course, there will be trouble.

Baseball For Breakfast
"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll

Well, it's a first for me. Having fallen asleep too early for the 3.00 am mlb.com audio broadcast here of the Red Sox-A's opening playoff game, I woke a little after 7 this morning fully expecting the game to have already concluded. Imagine my high-spirited surprise

Not Missing the Mets
"If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work."
William Shakespeare from 'The First Part of King Henry the IV'

One of the questions people invariably get around to asking me around here, perhaps one of the first in fact, is always something cleverly obstrusive along the lines of "what made you come here from New York?, " and they always ask this question with a disbelieving lilt in their voice given that a more polar opposite location couldn't be found between Blackwell, Warwickshire and Manhattan. And it probably couldn't. This is a village of about 10 families. The nearest pub is almost two miles away and of course, perhaps thankfully, there are no Mets, no Jets and no Knicks anywhere to be found.