The Baseball Update

Just ugly tonight. Sox lose 11-5. After being up 4-1. With Dice-K on the mound. Against a rookie pitcher with no major league wins to his credit. This did not look like a team ready for the postseason. For the most part, it looked like one bad inning by Dice-K, but approaches at the plate were bad, mop-up guys were bad, and apart from one inning where the Sox again got some gift runs from the O's, the bats looked bad.

Three things I noticed: (1) Dice-K, as mentioned everywhere, not just here, really needs to be able to work through adversity. It seems like once things start going downhill he almost gives up, or gets stubborn. Not sure what the issue is, but man does he get burnt by big innings. (2) What was Francona waiting for? Letting him "work through it"? It as clear after the Sox had their long top of the third that Dice-K did not have his command. Gary Thorne (if you can believe it) and Jim Palmer (best color guy going) made a good point on Dice-K's warmups. Kevin Cash didn't go out to warm Dice-K up after Varitek struck out (again) to end the top of the 3rd. This delayed Dice-K's warm-ups an may have added to the mess that was the third. (3) Charles Nagy is apparently in the Indians hall of fame (watching the Angels-Indians game now. Go ERVIN!) Wow is that sad. According to baseball prospectus, the closest career comparisons to him Loaiza, Hentgen and Woody Williams. Yuck. Of course, I had him several times on fantasy teams in the 90s.

Joy of Sox have the Game Story.

The Tax Update

Tomorrow. Carried Interest Summkakke.

The Death Update

No obits today.

Thoughts on dad though. Couldn't help get a little dusty in here last night watching Joba Chamberlain's dad get teary-eyed watching his kid pitch in the majors for the first time in person. Very sweet. Very cool also how he appeared to wish well all the moron Yankee fans who came over (beers in hand, Natch) to wish him and Joba (Jabba?) well. Just a great moment. I went to precisely 5 major league baseball games with my dad. The aforementioned Jays game. Another Jays game during the CNE, and three Sox games, one an Easter weekend, one my bachelor party night and one in between. I'm not poetic or smart enough to put into words what makes baseball such a powerful thing for many fathers and sons, but I can say that whenever we talked on the phone, once we ran out of "real" things to say (usually pretty quickly after hearing his latest movie review - nothing ever got fewer than three stars), we talked baseball. How well the Jays were doing. How well the Sox were doing. How the Yankees were doing, whom he secretly rooted for. I realize now. I don't think I ever called him when the Jays won their series. And I don't know why. But I would love to call him now, even just to talk about how lousy Dice-K was tonight. Make that call whenever you get the chance.