Papelbon's Home Uncovered

After months of scouring the Intertubes and the night sky, I've finally discovered Jonathan Papelbon's homeland. I've highlighted it here in this map of the universe.

I know some of his teammates have claimed that he's just a "redneck from Mississippi", but through my extensive research, I've found that story is only a myth. His real home is that distant star. Did you notice that when he threw his glove up in the air after winning game 4, it never came down? That's right - he tossed it back to his family - billions of light years away.

Seriously folks, after watching him Riverdance in his underwear with googles, after throwing 98 mph fastballs, did you really think he was human?

On the other hand, after watching the parade today, I think its really obvious that Papelbon would be the lead singer of some crazy band if he wasn't playing baseball.

SWEEP

Its done. How Excellent. Mike Lowell - MVP. Perfect.

Mike Lowell

The man is so good, they named the city after him. Sure, it may be a crummy city, but its still a city. How many cities are named after you?

BTW: He needs to be re-signed

Two Hands

I was taught way back in my T-Ball days that when you're catching a popup or a ball in the outfield, you always use 2 hands! Mr. Tacoby just lost 2 points in my book for making that last catch out there with only one hand. Thanks for the free tacos, dude, but catch the ball with proper baseball form!

Update: Mr. Lugo - same goes for you too. TWO HANDS! I really don't want to see you guys drop the ball.... again.

Tacoby

I think it would have been a much better deal for Taco Bell to dish out a free Taco for every double hit by Tacoby Bellsbury. By my count, I deserve at least 4 tacos now!

October Baseball is still here!

I'm not ready for the Boston baseball season to be over yet. I wasn't ready for the season to end last Thursday, nor was I ready on Saturday or Sunday. I'm still not ready for baseball to end. I can't describe how excited I am to see more Red Sox baseball this year. For some reason, even though the Sox were down 3 games to 1, I had some strange confidence that they'd be able to come back and take the series. I was really confident they could take game 5 and pretty confident that Schilling could step up for game 6. Game 7, however, was up in the air. I figured it would be a battle - which it was. The breaks seemed to go in favor of the Sox, and Dice-K didn't have his signature bad inning. Then finally, in the 7th and 8th innings, the Sox turned the dial up to 11 and poured it on!

Bring on the Rockies!

Updates to Porter Square Station

For the past year or so I've noticed that the MBTA has been making minor improvements to the station. There's new lighting down on the platform and new lighting on the mezzanine. Plus, they've fixed up all the escalators, and they all seem to be working now. [Knocks on wood. Did I just break the first rule of Porter Square Escalators? Rule #1: Never talk about the Porter Square Escalators, lest they break.] Plus, they've finally got all the message boards at the platform working again. Hooray.

Yesterday, I noticed that they've added some nice looking signs at the street level exit that direct riders to the 77/96 bus stop and the 83 bus stop. Plus, there's a great local Porter Square map in the mezzanine that shows the bus routes and local streets.

Its nice that they've added these small touches to the station, but were they really necessary? I've always considered the Porter Square station to be in relatively good shape. I'd imagine that the money for those small renovations would have been better spent fixing up the touristy stops. But hey, I just ride the T, I'm not in charge of the capital budget.

Hmmmm..... Maybe a T rider should be in charge of the capital budget??? Nah, that would make sense.

Horrible Commercial Songs

Arrrrgh! I know this stupid song is going to be in my head all night tonight. I've been watching the Rockies try to sweep the Diamondbacks in the background for the past 30 minutes or so, and I heard this really familiar song in the background:

Viva - Viva - Las Vegas!

Unfortunately, I turned to the TV to enjoy the song. To my dismay, [or should I say horror?] it was NOT an advertisement about Las Vegas. NO! NOOOOOOO! There were about 5 old guys playing guitar in some cabin singing

Viva - Viva - Viagra!

Read that again, and sing it in your head. "Viva - Viagra!" Its going to be stuck in your head all day long. And, for the rest of your life, every time you hear the "Viva - Las Vegas" song, you're going to chuckle and think

Viva - Viva - Viagra!
Viva - Viva - Viagra!

Don't blame me. Thank your friendly folks at Pfizer.

Borowski

So, here's the thing with Cleveland's "closer", Joe Borowski.

If we get in the wayback machine and head back to 2003, we'll see that he was a mediocre closer for the Chicago Cubs. Sure, all Cubs fans loved him back in the day, yet it was excruciating to watch him pitch the 9th. Borowski would constantly give up hits, walk people, and get himself into jams. He really wasn't that good of a pitcher, yet he managed to get the job done. He was considered the "working man's" closer - nothing overpowering, yet would pitch himself out of an inning.

Now, he's on the Cleveland Indians.

Now, he pitches even worse than he did on the Cubs.

It is absolutely necessary for the Red Sox to be patient, foul off his junk, and take a walk. His earned run average was way over 4.00, and he had 5 losses to his name this season. There is no reason for the Sox to let him get another post-season save this season. If the Sox can beat Mariano Rivera, facing Joe Borowski should be like facing a little league pitcher.

And one last gripe - if anyone on the Sox should know Borowski, it should be former National Leaguers Lowell and Drew. Lowell saw him many times in the '03 regular season, and again, against the Cubs in the infamous 2003 NLCS. I'm disappointed that the Sox aren't showing enough patience with him.

Kapow

That letter C on Jason Varitek's jersey stands for Kapow. That would be, Captain Kapow.