2 Out of 3 Ain't That Bad

Sure, I was really hoping for a sweep of the Yankees this past weekend. I think 2 straight series sweeps of the Yankees would make up for the 4 game sweep the Yankees pulled on the Sox last year. But hey, 5 out of the first 6 is great news. Thanks Yankee's bullpen!

In other news, I was really looking forward to seeing the Cubs play the Cardinals on ESPN. Its not very often I get to see the Cubs on TV out here. Unfortunately, one of the Cardinals pitchers, Josh Hancock, was tragically killed in a car accident last night, so the game has been postponed. He was only 29 years old, one year younger than me - and he pitched 3 innings in Saturday's Cubs / Cardinals game. He actually made his major league debut with the Red Sox back in 2002 (he retired the first 6 ML batters he faced). Another strange fact - this is the second Cubs / Cardinals game that has been postponed due to a player's death in the past 5 years. Back in 2002, a game at Wrigley was postponed due to the death of Darryl Kile.

Home Run Etiquette

At Fenway, is it expected that home runs hit by the opposing team should be thrown back into the field?

I ask, because being a Cubs fan, home runs hit by the opponents MUST be thrown back into the field. You'll even see people out on Waveland or Sheffield who catch a ball launch it back INTO the park. Fans who don't throw it back risk loud ridicule, beer showers, and bombardment by empty beer cups.

(I don't think Wrigley Bleacher Bums are savvy - or sober - enough to throw a slice of pizza, they're too busy eating hot dogs and drinking Old Style. However, after the 4/16 Fenway pizza incident, are slices of Connie's Deep Dish in play? Man, that would hurt.)

Got Room in Red Sox Nation For a Recovering Cubs Fan?

For years, I've been somewhat of a fair-weathered Red Sox fan. My true allegiance is to the hopeless Chicago Cubs. I really love the Cubs, but as usual, they're in the basement of the NL Central. That's the same place they ended last season. You'd think with a lineup of Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, and Barrett with Zambrano, Marquis, Lilly, Hill, Prior, and Wood on the mound the Cubs would be unstoppable. Of course though, they don't get the clutch hits and their bullpen routinely blows games. Some things never change. I'm going to join Cubs Anonymous and follow the 12-step program to rid myself of the pain associated with my obsessive behavior in yearning for a winner.

This season, though, a strange thing happened to me. I've finally found myself seriously rooting for the Red Sox and actually caring about the outcome of the game. I actually want them to win for once. Being a Cubs fan, I've always been jealous of the Red Sox and the team's success. But I've finally realized that the Cubs really do stink - and I've been able to appreciate the talent of the Red Sox.

When the Sox are down a few runs, I expect them to mount a comeback and win the game, and they do. When the Sox are winning in the 9th inning, I expect the bullpen to save the game, and they do. My feelings for the Cubs are exactly the opposite. When they're down a few runs, I expect them to lose, and they do. When the Cubs are winning late in the game, I expect the bullpen to blow the game, and they do. Its just no fun rooting for the Cubs. I'm tired of it. However, I still won't give up on them - there's still a little bit of optimism left that they'll get it together and put together a winning season.

It all came together for me this past Friday. I was out at the People's Republik with my buddy watching the Sox / Yankees game. When the Sox put up 5 runs on Rivera in the bottom of the 8th, I think I was one of the loudest people cheering in the bar. My buddy told me that he'd never heard me cheer that loudly for the Red Sox. It feels great to cheer for a great team. Plus, tonight - seeing back to back to back to back home runs solidified my Red Sox fandom.

The other thing that finally hooked me was actually listening to Remy and Orsillo call a game on NESN. They're a great duo up in the booth. (As good as they are, I still miss watching the Cubs on WGN listening to Steve Stone and Harry Caray calling a game.) It was the pizza incident last Monday that made me realize just how great Remy and Orsillo are. I know its last week's news, and its already been blogged over at Deadspin, but I absolutely love the play-by-play of the April 16th pizza incident. Every time I watch this clip, I still find myself laughing out loud. Its stuff like this that's really pulling me into Red Sox Nation.



So, Red Sox Nation, do you have room for one more fan? Please? I think I'm hooked.

P.S. - I love Fenway, but Wrigley is still better.

Scratch that - Back to Back to Back to Back

HOLY CRAP! Is this some sort of a MLB record? Back to back to back to back home runs. I need to stop making blog posts about the game! Because as soon as I make one, I have to update it!

Ramirez, Drew, Lowell, and Captain Kapow Varitek.

Back to Back

Wow. Back to back homers by Manny and Drew. Awesome

Neglecting my blog

I've totally neglected my blog here. I'm not sure if its writer's block, or if I've just been too busy. Its strange - I think about posting my random thoughts here pretty much every day. Yet, in the end, I don't.

Why? I'll have to give that some thought.

Tonight's Beer - Old Chub

Tonight's beer is a delicious Scottish Style ale IN A CAN! Its called Old Chub and is from the Oskar Blues Brewery in Colorado. Its not just any can, its a totally cool looking can. Yeah, I'll admit it - I bought it because the can looks cool, but its also got a totally cool name. (but the beer is excellent too).

Old Local TV Commercials

In my previous post, I ended up searching for "Dean's Home Furniture" to see if I could find some sort of link to the furniture chain's old TV commercials or tag line. Lo-and-behold, they don't exist anymore, and my quick search turned up almost nothing.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I scoured the web for some old TV commercials from my homeland, back in flyover country. All I can say is that I struck GOLD!

The jingle for this first commercial has been implanted in my brain since I first started watching cartoons on TV. To make things better, one of the funniest local TV hosts appears.

I'm pretty sure there's not many people that read this part-time blog of mine, but I will personally buy a beer for the first person who can name the comedian in this commercial. (I'll take his real name, or the name of the TV show he hosted. 2 Beers if you can get both).

Who says local commercials are crap?



Does anyone remember this?

P.S.
If you recognize that commercial, you'll probably remember this one, this one, this one, and this one too.

Tales From the T - Red Line Slow Zones - UPDATE

As soon I blog about slow zones on the Red Line, they seem to be corrected! Over the past week, I've noticed that the T has finally fixed the rail problems northbound between Harvard and Porter. It seems to me that the trains are back up to speed, instead of crawling along at 6 m.p.h. until halfway to Porter.

In addition, it seems the T has fixed the rails just outside of Harvard heading toward Central Square. For about the past 2 years the trains have crawled up the incline out of Harvard up to the crossover. Finally, though, we have been relieved. It probably saves a total of 30 seconds of commute time, but it feels so much faster.

One question remains though: Now that trains are back up to speed, will we see a return of the advertisement along the wall heading towards Central?

As they once pronounced on the ad for Dean's Home Furniture: "I Doubt It!"

[I found one Youtube link for Dean's Home Furniture, but its missing the good ole "I Doubt It!" audio. Apparently they were a shady, scamming furniture chain and closed shop in 2003. No wonder I haven't seen the commercial in years!]

Tales From the T - Red Line Slow Zones

This is neither a rant, nor a rave about the Red Line. For a lack of better terms , I'll call this an Info-Post.

If you're a regular rider of the Red Line between Harvard and Porter, you've probably noticed that the T crawls along the tracks at 6 m.p.h. just outside of Harvard northbound to Alewife. I think they may have found some fractures in the rail and have reduced the speed to prevent further damage. In the subway section between Harvard and Alewife, the rails are bound to concrete, instead of your typical wooden ties. As a result, its a bit more cumbersome to replace the rails than the rest of the Red Line.

On the other hand, there have been a number of slow zones lifted from the Red Line! Over in my neck of the woods, inbound trains are back to 50 mph between Central and Kendall, plus the Longfellow Bridge limit has been raised back to 40 mph. Plus, south siders can enjoy a 50 mph ride between JFK and North Quincy.

Many thanks to my fellow railroad pals posting on this thread over at railroad.net for the info.

Tales From the T - Porter Maintenance Spree

This morning, Thursday, it seemed as if the MBTA was on some sort of "surge" of its own - a maintenance spree at Porter Station. There were about 5 trucks parked all around the sidewalk and there were about 10-15 people working on random things. In my disbelief, I saw:

• 2 escalators actively being repaired
• 4 fare gates actively being cleaned and repaired
• Installation of a new 360 degree security camera

On my return home tonight, the middle escalator was still turned off, but ALL the faregates were working and there is a new Vegas-style security camera overlooking the entire mezzanine.

One question remains: will the camera actually be connected to anything? Or, in classic MBTA style, will it be purely for show?

I'll admit it - I'm convinced they're actually going to use it and monitor it. In the past few weeks, thanks to the security cameras, we've discovered a former T employee cashing in tokens for CharlieTickets and we've had suspects in the Back Bay Station stabbings apprehended.

Wow. That's 2 recent posts from me praising the T. I feel great!

Crime in Porter Square

One of my co-workers who lives in Porter Square let me know today that someone broke into his apartment last night. Apparently there was a "rash of break-ins" yesterday on the Cambridge side of the commuter rail tracks. So be on the lookout - and LOCK YOUR DOORS.

Just hearing that has kinda put me on edge all day today. Its one of those events that I'm constantly worried about. I've always thought that the Porter area is generally pretty safe. One of the reasons I moved from Boston over to Porter Square was the crime rate in Boston steadily rose over the 7 years I lived there.

So, after a bit of searching today, I found some links to the Cambridge and Somerville Police Logs.

• Cambridge: http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/police_and_fire_log
• Somerville: http://www.townonline.com/somerville/police_and_fire_log
  

I don't really read any of the local papers, so I don't keep up with the local happenings. Its really kinda sobering to read these logs and see all the arrests, robberies, and break-ins that happen -- especially when they happen right down the street from your own apartment!

This is just a reminder for me not to fall into a false sense of security. Make sure valuables are hidden and you've got renter's insurance.

Anyways, I need a beer now.... Well whaddya know - its Wednesday - and Wednesdays are for drinkin' at the People's. How convenient.

Jackhammer

Ugh! Jackhammering going on outside here. I can't see it - but I can sure hear it! Thanks Somerville or Cambridge - I can't tell who's doing it!

Finally Kicking the Cold?

Thank goodness my company has VPN and allows its employees to work from home. I was still hit hard by my cold this morning - but I was suffering from cabin fever and really wanted to go into work. However, I stepped outside, and thought better of myself. I decided to stay in the warmth of my apartment, drink some more OJ and tea, and work from home. I felt awful for not going into the office - we're hitting crunch time on our project. But, its really best I didn't go in -- there's no reason for me to get more people sick. This cold has been going around the office for the past week, and we had a few more people drop off today too.

So, after all my verbosity above, my point is that I'm having a few more glasses of my Bushmill's tonight. Sure, I'm getting a little hammered, but I feel 10 times better than I did this morning, and 100 times better than I did yesterday.

I'm convinced that the best way to beat a cold is to get some old-fashioned rest, and some glasses of some old-fashioned whiskey. Lemme tell ya, it does the trick.

Speaking of the People's...

... did you know that they were closed last Tuesday for the filming of a movie? How awesome is that!

Seriously - there's a new movie in the works called 21. Its the story of one of the MIT Blackjack teams that took Vegas for millions of dollars.

How cool is it that my favorite bar will be front-and-center in a movie?!?!

I rolled by the People's after work on the day of the filming, but I think they were pretty much finished. There were tons of trucks around and wired running all over the place, plus some random tents set up in the driveway next door and the adjacent apartment building. I was kinda hoping that they'd pick one of their regular patrons to be an extra (I'm a pro at hanging out in a bar drinking beer). But hey, no dice. They've got professional extras for that stuff.

The good thing is that they didn't change anything at all in the bar, except for one small thing: the digital clock has been replaced with a neon red hammer and sickle clock. I was worried that the movie set people would have screwed everything up. Thank goodness, its still the same old People's.

Sigh of relief.