Thursday Musings

1. The baseball season is reaching its climax with most races decided, but a couple of thoughts. First, I have readily admitted my Yankee fandom, but I am really growing to hate the Red Sox more and more. Their performance on Tuesday night was pure bush league. This is a team that has made the playoffs 5 of the past 6 seasons and, much at it pains me to say it, won 2 of the last 4 World Series. And they have a full throttled celebration for clinching a wild card birth?!? Act like you've been there before . . . because you have. Papelbon is the biggest idiot of the bunch, and annoys me to no end. (I will say that as much as I fear Ortiz, I certainly respect him, and I would love to have Youklis on my team.)

2. In contrast, the Rays, who are about to finish ahead of the Red Sox, showed more restraint in their celebration. This is a team that has never won more than 70 games until this year. They could have had a massive celebration on Saturday night, but instead they have remained focused on winning the AL East ensuring that the Red Sox and Angels meet in the first round while they host the White Sox/Twins winner. Go Rays!

3. Mrs. Bartender and I attended our final Nats game of the season last night. Disappointing year for the Nats--riddled with injuries, they are going to lose 100 games for the first time in franchise history. (That includes the 36 years spent in Montreal.) Attendance at the new stadium was mediocre, but as long as the team improves, the attendance will as well. If, however, nothing happens in the off season, tickets won't be hard to come by next year (except when the Red Sox come to town in June).

4. I ran into Marc Lerner at the game (his family owns the team), and had a nice chat with him. He was very interested to talk particularly once he knew I had been to about 20 games this year. I made a bold suggestion of adding lights to the out of town scoreboard to indicate how many outs there were in other games, and he immediately had someone looking into the possibility. So if this happens next year, you can thank me.

5. Ah, politics. Every day I ask myself, what the hell was John McCain thinking in picking Palin. She is so far out of her depth, it is truly sad. She has neither knowledge nor intellectual curiosity, and while no one seems to want to say it, she just is not very bright. That she cannot, after having weeks of tutoring, be able to answer straightforward questions about the economic crisis our nation faces with anything other than the most basic platitudes is shocking. I certainly do not believe that a first class mind is required to be a great president--indeed, of the 4 most successful 20th century presidents (TR, FDR, Truman, and Reagan), only Teddy Roosevelt was a first class mind. But there are limits, and she is so far from what is required, it is shocking.

6. As for the McCain attempted time out yesterday, did it make any sense? Was his advertising somehow affecting the economy? If anything, it helps as it spends money! And do all of his campaign workers need to devote time to the meltdown (of the economy, not his campaign)? Was it anything more than another desperate gambit and an attempt to prevent Friday's and next Thursday's VP debates? In the end, McCain it seems is going to have to blink and show up in Oxford tomorrow, and the "suspension" of his campaign will be little remembered.

7. Finally, a little pop culture--isn't that what we're supposed to do around here? As I mentioned a while ago, we have been watching the Heroes DVDs. We have 1 episode left from season 2 before the season 3 premiere from Monday night. Season 1 was very good until the last episode; season 2 (and I don't yet know how it ends) sputtered with extraneous heroes that we cared nothing about, stories that dragged on way too long (Hiro in Japan), annoying actors (West and the black tear wonder twins), and characters who constantly act like idiots (see Mohinder). To its credit, the final few episodes were an improvement, but to compare this show to something like Lost is a joke. It's fine but not great television. (I think one friend likes it because it is providing employment to numerous former Star Trek actors. Too bad Bones and Scotty are both dead.)

8. Very excited for The Office but am sad that 30 Rock isn't back for another month. I do need some Michael Scott back in my life.