Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Red Sox

The Sox didn't win any games against the Yanks in that 5-game set... losing some late leads, unable to get runs across versus Rivera, had a bullpen ERA over 12, it was ugly. Saw them play Monday in Oakland, and it looked more like a spring training lineup - no Manny, No Ortiz, No Manny Ortez, the 2B and SP were wearing #'s in the 60's, castoffs Carlos Pena and Eric Hinske were in the lineup, etc., etc. etc. I saw on ESPN's news crawl that Ortiz was experiencing irregular heartbeat symptoms, so his injury concerns are whole-life, not baseball (don't try to separate the two when speaking to Red Sox fans).

In the National League, none of the teams seems willing to take charge. 8 teams are within 3 games in the loss column, 10 within 5. Even the Marlins with their $14 million payroll are in that group after winning 8 in a row. Consider this: Take SP Dontrelle Willis' salary ($4.35 million) off their books (which might have been attempted in July), and the teams payroll drops below $10 million! The Yankees pay 11 individual players more than that and will pay about $28 million to the leauge office in payroll luxury tax! I wonder how much of that $28 million the Marlins are getting... My Braves didn't make the summer run towards the Wild Card that I thought they would, but any of the teams within 3 in the loss column has a near-equal chance to take the last postseason berth.

NCAA football starts this weekend, and the NFL the following weekend. QB Jeff George is on an NFL roster again, and WR Terrell Owens is vintage 2005, not 2004 for the Cowboys. His response to HC Bill Parcells wanting to see him on the field before playing him: "There's 10 years of film". Actually, TO, there's only 9 1/2. PK Mike Vanderjagt hasn't been on the field in the Dallas games that I've watched; I interpret that as not a good sign for a team where Owner Jerry Jones had more influence in selection of those players than Parcells would have liked.

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