My fingers could not possibly keep up with how fast my mind wants to push the words out of them, so let's see what I can write without getting a case of the forgetsies or typos. I plan to write more later, too, but I have that "looking at a monitor too long and now there's a pain behind my right eye" thing going on, so I probably should keep this on the shorter side. Also, as of 11:40 a.m., I officially see snow falling outside my window. It's not sticking to the ground, but it's definitely not just rain.
Crap.
The end of the 2008 baseball season:
You can't win them all, though I think it's a lot easier to lose when you've known what winning feels like. Yes, I'm greedy - I would have loved for the Sox to have won the World Series again this year. Perhaps I'm feeling entitled these days. But after 86 years of futility, they won two World Series in four years. My grandfather never saw them win a World Series. My father never saw them win a World Series. I've now seen two in short order, with a team built to contend for years to come. As a fan, I'm disappointed that the team fell short this year, but overall I'm still quite content - especially given that I'm surrounded by Yankees and Mets fans who didn't even have a team to rally around this October.
And if there's a way to be happy in losing, this was the way to do it. The team was dead in the water, seven outs from the end of the series, and the miracle comeback occurred. Josh Beckett returned to form enough to force a game seven. And in that game seven, there were no weird plays, fluky bounces, controversial calls, or anything else to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Jon Lester was very good, Matt Garza was even better. No complaints - the Rays won, fair and square.
What could have ended bitterly in five games turned into a very competitive and undeniably entertaining series. And that's what it is for anyone not actually involved in the game itself, right? If you're not a participant on the field or in the business side of things - if you're a fan on a couch with some popcorn and a few hours to spare - you watch hoping to be entertained. I know I certainly was.
Would things have been different with Mike Lowell in the lineup? No offense to Mark Kotsay, but yeah ... probably. Papi proved he was human after all, Jason Varitek should have been pinch hit for late in game seven, and Tampa's starting pitching was solid.
Where do they go from here?
As many baseball columnists have written, Coco Crisp's performance in the ALCS have increased his trade value, and the time to move him is, I think, fast approaching (perhaps for a catcher?). If Crisp is traded, the Sox outfield is set with Bay, Ellsbury, and Drew. No need for further moves there.
The starting pitching is solid, and if the Sox want to make a run at Sabathia (given that Manny and Schilling will be off the payroll), it could get even better. Beckett, Lester, and Matsuzaka are clearly at the top of the rotation. Tim Wakefield had a better season than his stats would indicate, but he may be past the point of being anything more than a .500 pitcher at this point. Justin Masterson's best years should be spent as a starter rather than a reliever. Michael Bowden showed great potential in his few starts this season. I have no idea where Clay Buchholz or Paul Byrd might fit in at this point. That's seven starters, not including the possibility of Sabathia and/or a guy I'd love to see come back to Boston, free agent Derek Lowe.
Aside from Okajima and Papelbon, anything goes with the bullpen. Mike Timlin is gone, if my prayers to the baseball gods are answered. Manny Del Carmen is, in my mind, tradable if the price is right. Javier Lopez and David Aardsma? Ehh. You could do worse than keeping them, but you could do better, too.
I have no idea what happens to Julio Lugo, because he's untradable unless the Sox offer to pay at least part of his contract. Jed Lowrie and Dustin Pedroia are set in the middle of the infield. Kevin Youkilis (who needs a better nickname than "Youk" - Kevin "Youk" Youkilis? That's horrible. I propose Kevin "The Executioner" Youkilis instead.) is set at first ... or third?
There are interesting rumors swirling about Mark Teixeira, who would be a perfect (if expensive) fit with the Red Sox. If he signs, though, is Mike Lowell the odd man out? He's older, more expensive, and more injury prone at this point than Kevin Youkilis. Plus, Youk is probably the team's best pure hitter. Plus, Youkilis is just as talented defensively at third as he is at first.
After all he's meant to this team, though, I'd hate to see Lowell pushed to the side. And I realize that, aside from fans, there's very little loyalty in sports anymore - from players OR owners. Ask Manny Ramirez what it's like to give up on a team and its fans. Or ask Bronson Arroyo what it's like to show loyalty to the Sox by signing a smaller contract to stay in Boston rather than becoming a free agent, only to have Theo Epstein turn around and trade him to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena. Anyone remember Wily Mo? Didn't think so.
The issue of loyalty comes around again, and it wears the number 33. Jason Varitek - what to do with an aging catcher who can barely hit and rarely comes through in the clutch anymore. My heart AND my gut both say to keep him, as long as he doesn't insist on a bigger or longer contract. If he wants another four-year, $40 million contract and threatens to walk if he doesn't get it (his agent is Scott Boras), then I think we say Thanks, Tek - It's been fun. But if he's willing to sign a two-year deal in the $10-$15 million range, with maybe an option year or two, then he's back behind the plate next season (and his number gets retired a few years later).
Ahh, well. I love the Hot Stove kind of stuff ... and there should be plenty of it in a few days after the World Series ends.
The 8:07 starting times for the World Series are just too late, by the way. Kids can't stay up to watch the whole thing and be ready for school the next day, and starting so late practically ensures that rain-out disasters such as last night's are more likely. Or at least have a couple of day games on Saturday and Sunday. Anything.
If the weather stays bad in Philadelphia today and doesn't allow for the continuation of last night's game 5, would the game be finished in St. Petersburg at the Trop? That hardly seems fair to Phillies fans, who've waited 15 years to see their team make it to the World Series.
I don't know if my feelings are as extreme as those in this article ("Baseball's crown event is beyond repair"), but I absolutely understand and appreciate the sentiment. (My favorite line in that article is regards tickets in Florida: "Scalpers there are eating thousands of dollars because the demand for tickets is so flabby." Good. Scalpers are evil, and I hope they lose all their money. Douchebags.)
How to fix baseball might be a great topic for another entry (which I will probably never write, either).
Eh.
NFL Picks:
I wasn't home from my vacation in time to check out odds and post my five picks against the spread, but before I left I made my fantasy "Pick 'Em" choices in a league with some friends. It's just a straight "who wins" league - no point spread. 10-4 this week overall, for the record.
Braces:
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., I'll be squirming in my chair as I undergo the installation process. A lifetime of gap-toothed smiles will be eliminated in the next 12-18 months, if all goes well. (At which point, I will be hit in the mouth with a stray softball, messing it all up again. Mark my words.)
"Chinese Democracy":
I've heard most of the album now, and it's ... OK, I guess? I think I'd like it a lot more if it wasn't marketed as a Guns N' Roses album, because if Slash and Duff aren't on the record, it ain't GNR, you know? Call it an Axl Rose solo record, or come up with a different band name, and I'm there. A lot of the guitar solos sound like Slash played them (the tone and style, specifically), and the drums aren't as "rocking" as Steven Adler and Matt Sorum made them in the past. It sounds like there's a machine or sampler going on sometimes. There's also a lot of keyboard and weird bleeps and bloops, like someone was playing around with a Trent Reznor playset but hadn't mastered it yet. Lyrically, Axl isn't the same pissed off guy he was 15 years ago, and the songs sound like it. His vocal style has also changed quite a bit.
A quick rundown:
"Better" - a decent song, some good guitar. Weird intro - you may start to wonder if this is actually a Guns N' Roses song while you listen to it.
"Chinese Democracy" - you can check it out on gunsnroses.com, if you're interested. I wish more of the record sounded like this track. It's one of the "heaviest" on the album, and it's closest in sound to previous GNR albums.
"IRS" - the vocal intro in the first 20 seconds or so are horrible and should have been cut from the track. The short guitar solo at 3:30 is pretty sweet (I think it's Buckethead).
"Madagascar" - this is the song they played on the MTV awards a few years (!) ago. Of the songs I've heard so far, it's probably my favorite.
"Rhiad and the Bedouins" - Most of this is sung in Axl's higher register, and it gets a little annoying after a while. Another Slash-like solo at 2:30 saves this otherwise forgettable track.
"This I Love" - Power ballad alert! The final 1:45 is a long, gradual fade out that never seems to end.
"If the World" - Why, Axl? It took 15 years to record THIS? Horrible. There's some Barry White wah-wah chicka chicka guitar in the background, and the lyrics sound like they were written by an eight grader ("Never thought the way you looked at me would mean so much to me ...")
"The Blues" - Here's the big difference between old and new GNR: the "old" GNR had kickass guitar riffs and meaty hooks leading into the songs. Here, another piano intro. There's lots of piano on this record. Another power ballad with some good guitar solos. Some violin-sounding synth flourishes in the background, though - what is this, a Celine Dion record?
"There Was a Time" - opening "angelic" vocals reminiscent, purposely or not, of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want". At 6:51, though, it's a bit too long, but again the guitars save it.
"Catcher in the Rye" - utterly forgettable. Mid-tempo, piano intro, bleepy-bloopy nonsense two minutes in ... yeesh.
"Shackler's Revenge" - the first couple of lines reminded me of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows". Maybe it's just me. Disco drums at 0:37! Apparently it was called "Chicken Dinner" for a while because of the opening guitar riff. Lots of screechy synth on this one, too.
Bottom line: Metallica's "Death Magnetic" brought the band back to a sound closer to it's roots, but GNR's "Chinese Democracy" shows that the guy who would jump off the stage and assault fans in the front row has grown up and become a more mellow person, musically at least.
It's not a bad record by any means, honestly. It's a very different record, though, than many GNR fans are probably hoping to hear. Some people are going to think it's awful. I like it well enough, I suppose ... as long as I don't think of it as Guns N' Roses.
In the next two posts:
1. Politics
2. Our vacation last week at Disney and Universal Studios in Orlando
Crap.
The end of the 2008 baseball season:
You can't win them all, though I think it's a lot easier to lose when you've known what winning feels like. Yes, I'm greedy - I would have loved for the Sox to have won the World Series again this year. Perhaps I'm feeling entitled these days. But after 86 years of futility, they won two World Series in four years. My grandfather never saw them win a World Series. My father never saw them win a World Series. I've now seen two in short order, with a team built to contend for years to come. As a fan, I'm disappointed that the team fell short this year, but overall I'm still quite content - especially given that I'm surrounded by Yankees and Mets fans who didn't even have a team to rally around this October.
And if there's a way to be happy in losing, this was the way to do it. The team was dead in the water, seven outs from the end of the series, and the miracle comeback occurred. Josh Beckett returned to form enough to force a game seven. And in that game seven, there were no weird plays, fluky bounces, controversial calls, or anything else to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Jon Lester was very good, Matt Garza was even better. No complaints - the Rays won, fair and square.
What could have ended bitterly in five games turned into a very competitive and undeniably entertaining series. And that's what it is for anyone not actually involved in the game itself, right? If you're not a participant on the field or in the business side of things - if you're a fan on a couch with some popcorn and a few hours to spare - you watch hoping to be entertained. I know I certainly was.
Would things have been different with Mike Lowell in the lineup? No offense to Mark Kotsay, but yeah ... probably. Papi proved he was human after all, Jason Varitek should have been pinch hit for late in game seven, and Tampa's starting pitching was solid.
Where do they go from here?
As many baseball columnists have written, Coco Crisp's performance in the ALCS have increased his trade value, and the time to move him is, I think, fast approaching (perhaps for a catcher?). If Crisp is traded, the Sox outfield is set with Bay, Ellsbury, and Drew. No need for further moves there.
The starting pitching is solid, and if the Sox want to make a run at Sabathia (given that Manny and Schilling will be off the payroll), it could get even better. Beckett, Lester, and Matsuzaka are clearly at the top of the rotation. Tim Wakefield had a better season than his stats would indicate, but he may be past the point of being anything more than a .500 pitcher at this point. Justin Masterson's best years should be spent as a starter rather than a reliever. Michael Bowden showed great potential in his few starts this season. I have no idea where Clay Buchholz or Paul Byrd might fit in at this point. That's seven starters, not including the possibility of Sabathia and/or a guy I'd love to see come back to Boston, free agent Derek Lowe.
Aside from Okajima and Papelbon, anything goes with the bullpen. Mike Timlin is gone, if my prayers to the baseball gods are answered. Manny Del Carmen is, in my mind, tradable if the price is right. Javier Lopez and David Aardsma? Ehh. You could do worse than keeping them, but you could do better, too.
I have no idea what happens to Julio Lugo, because he's untradable unless the Sox offer to pay at least part of his contract. Jed Lowrie and Dustin Pedroia are set in the middle of the infield. Kevin Youkilis (who needs a better nickname than "Youk" - Kevin "Youk" Youkilis? That's horrible. I propose Kevin "The Executioner" Youkilis instead.) is set at first ... or third?
There are interesting rumors swirling about Mark Teixeira, who would be a perfect (if expensive) fit with the Red Sox. If he signs, though, is Mike Lowell the odd man out? He's older, more expensive, and more injury prone at this point than Kevin Youkilis. Plus, Youk is probably the team's best pure hitter. Plus, Youkilis is just as talented defensively at third as he is at first.
After all he's meant to this team, though, I'd hate to see Lowell pushed to the side. And I realize that, aside from fans, there's very little loyalty in sports anymore - from players OR owners. Ask Manny Ramirez what it's like to give up on a team and its fans. Or ask Bronson Arroyo what it's like to show loyalty to the Sox by signing a smaller contract to stay in Boston rather than becoming a free agent, only to have Theo Epstein turn around and trade him to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena. Anyone remember Wily Mo? Didn't think so.
The issue of loyalty comes around again, and it wears the number 33. Jason Varitek - what to do with an aging catcher who can barely hit and rarely comes through in the clutch anymore. My heart AND my gut both say to keep him, as long as he doesn't insist on a bigger or longer contract. If he wants another four-year, $40 million contract and threatens to walk if he doesn't get it (his agent is Scott Boras), then I think we say Thanks, Tek - It's been fun. But if he's willing to sign a two-year deal in the $10-$15 million range, with maybe an option year or two, then he's back behind the plate next season (and his number gets retired a few years later).
Ahh, well. I love the Hot Stove kind of stuff ... and there should be plenty of it in a few days after the World Series ends.
The 8:07 starting times for the World Series are just too late, by the way. Kids can't stay up to watch the whole thing and be ready for school the next day, and starting so late practically ensures that rain-out disasters such as last night's are more likely. Or at least have a couple of day games on Saturday and Sunday. Anything.
If the weather stays bad in Philadelphia today and doesn't allow for the continuation of last night's game 5, would the game be finished in St. Petersburg at the Trop? That hardly seems fair to Phillies fans, who've waited 15 years to see their team make it to the World Series.
I don't know if my feelings are as extreme as those in this article ("Baseball's crown event is beyond repair"), but I absolutely understand and appreciate the sentiment. (My favorite line in that article is regards tickets in Florida: "Scalpers there are eating thousands of dollars because the demand for tickets is so flabby." Good. Scalpers are evil, and I hope they lose all their money. Douchebags.)
How to fix baseball might be a great topic for another entry (which I will probably never write, either).
Eh.
NFL Picks:
I wasn't home from my vacation in time to check out odds and post my five picks against the spread, but before I left I made my fantasy "Pick 'Em" choices in a league with some friends. It's just a straight "who wins" league - no point spread. 10-4 this week overall, for the record.
Braces:
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., I'll be squirming in my chair as I undergo the installation process. A lifetime of gap-toothed smiles will be eliminated in the next 12-18 months, if all goes well. (At which point, I will be hit in the mouth with a stray softball, messing it all up again. Mark my words.)
"Chinese Democracy":
I've heard most of the album now, and it's ... OK, I guess? I think I'd like it a lot more if it wasn't marketed as a Guns N' Roses album, because if Slash and Duff aren't on the record, it ain't GNR, you know? Call it an Axl Rose solo record, or come up with a different band name, and I'm there. A lot of the guitar solos sound like Slash played them (the tone and style, specifically), and the drums aren't as "rocking" as Steven Adler and Matt Sorum made them in the past. It sounds like there's a machine or sampler going on sometimes. There's also a lot of keyboard and weird bleeps and bloops, like someone was playing around with a Trent Reznor playset but hadn't mastered it yet. Lyrically, Axl isn't the same pissed off guy he was 15 years ago, and the songs sound like it. His vocal style has also changed quite a bit.
A quick rundown:
"Better" - a decent song, some good guitar. Weird intro - you may start to wonder if this is actually a Guns N' Roses song while you listen to it.
"Chinese Democracy" - you can check it out on gunsnroses.com, if you're interested. I wish more of the record sounded like this track. It's one of the "heaviest" on the album, and it's closest in sound to previous GNR albums.
"IRS" - the vocal intro in the first 20 seconds or so are horrible and should have been cut from the track. The short guitar solo at 3:30 is pretty sweet (I think it's Buckethead).
"Madagascar" - this is the song they played on the MTV awards a few years (!) ago. Of the songs I've heard so far, it's probably my favorite.
"Rhiad and the Bedouins" - Most of this is sung in Axl's higher register, and it gets a little annoying after a while. Another Slash-like solo at 2:30 saves this otherwise forgettable track.
"This I Love" - Power ballad alert! The final 1:45 is a long, gradual fade out that never seems to end.
"If the World" - Why, Axl? It took 15 years to record THIS? Horrible. There's some Barry White wah-wah chicka chicka guitar in the background, and the lyrics sound like they were written by an eight grader ("Never thought the way you looked at me would mean so much to me ...")
"The Blues" - Here's the big difference between old and new GNR: the "old" GNR had kickass guitar riffs and meaty hooks leading into the songs. Here, another piano intro. There's lots of piano on this record. Another power ballad with some good guitar solos. Some violin-sounding synth flourishes in the background, though - what is this, a Celine Dion record?
"There Was a Time" - opening "angelic" vocals reminiscent, purposely or not, of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want". At 6:51, though, it's a bit too long, but again the guitars save it.
"Catcher in the Rye" - utterly forgettable. Mid-tempo, piano intro, bleepy-bloopy nonsense two minutes in ... yeesh.
"Shackler's Revenge" - the first couple of lines reminded me of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows". Maybe it's just me. Disco drums at 0:37! Apparently it was called "Chicken Dinner" for a while because of the opening guitar riff. Lots of screechy synth on this one, too.
Bottom line: Metallica's "Death Magnetic" brought the band back to a sound closer to it's roots, but GNR's "Chinese Democracy" shows that the guy who would jump off the stage and assault fans in the front row has grown up and become a more mellow person, musically at least.
It's not a bad record by any means, honestly. It's a very different record, though, than many GNR fans are probably hoping to hear. Some people are going to think it's awful. I like it well enough, I suppose ... as long as I don't think of it as Guns N' Roses.
In the next two posts:
1. Politics
2. Our vacation last week at Disney and Universal Studios in Orlando
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