Well, of course the Sox. 1.5 up with 9 to play. The odds are still on their side to win the division and the wildcard is practically in the bag.
Still, these Sox remind me of the 1987 Blue Jays who blew a 3.5 game lead with 7 left (going 0-7). Parallels abound....
1. Key injury to a key player? Tony Fernandez in '87, Manny/Youk in '07. Fernandez went down in a collision with about a week left, forcing Manny Lee into the lineup. Lee made critical errors down the stretch which cost the Jays at least one game. In '07, Manny's been out, forcing Crisp and Drew to play more and forced guys like Brandon Moss into the lineup.
2. Key power hitter going into a funk? George Bell in '87, David Ortiz in '07. Bell went something like 1-21 over the last week of the eason. Ortiz is on a 1-14 jag right now.
3. Ugly ass second baseman? Nelson Liriano in '87, Pedroia in '07. 'nuff said.
4. Solid starting staff? Steib, Key, Clancy in '87. Beckett, Schilling, Dice-K in '07. Unfortunate pitchers whose pens let them down time and time again.
5. Overmatched manager? Jimywocky in '87, GradyTito in '07. Seriously, what the hell is up with Tito's decisions the past few weeks? Better than Grady, but possibly worse than Jimy. At least he's not asleep like Cito.
6. Gritty veteran catcher? Whitt in '87, Varitek in '07. Varitek is a dead ass hitter. Whitt was always great.
We will see what happens the next week, but I'm inclined to call this season Manny Lee's Revenge.
Some links:
Keep your Sox on has a good piece advising everyone to just relax. Good tonic to the ridiculousness of Mike Adams on EEI last night. His math? If you are more concerned about the playoffs than the division, then you must want the Yankees to win. No, Mike. I would love for them to win the division, but it's not that important in the grand scheme of things.
Kind of in the same vein, but expressing the frustration is Over the Monster who still have revenge/Yankee hate on their minds. The sentiment is understood, but eyes on the prize people.
38 Cliches is back and reports (via Scott's shots) that the unbearable Glenn Gefner will see his role calling Sox games greatly reduced next year. Thank God. I'd prefer the color guy from Major League.
The Taxes Update
The biggest news from my perspective was the announcement that the US and Canada are signing a protocol to their treaty, extending treaty benefits to LLCs and their owners.
Until now, Canada did not recognize LLCs as residents of the US for purposes of the treaty with the US, and it did not look through the LLC to the owners to determine if they were entitled to treaty benefits. The result was that, for investments into Canada that resulted in a withholding tax (like an investment in shares of a privately held company), an LLC that made the investment would be subject to a full withholding tax, even if all of the members of the LLC would have been eligible for treaty benefits had they invested in the shares directly.
The protocol is long overdue and will make it much easier to structure investments into Canada.
The
TaxSis is in labor as we speak. Very soon TaxNephew will be born. We are all very excited. No idea what the name will be. The dad wants him to be a junior. My sis wants to name him Jackson William. We will see. A good night for the tax family in advance of the one year anniversary of my dad's death.
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