...and it continues

I was a little worried that I had just jinxed the rest of the season for the Sox in my last post. I thought Clemens would sign with the Sox and lay a big fat egg on them. I would have loved watching him suck, but I would have hated watching the Sox lose. However, as of this afternoon, Roger announced that he signed with the Astros. Click here for the story.

That made my day. Now I can relax knowing that I can still enjoy watching Sox games and I can still enjoy watching Clemens get crushed. He's old and he doesn't really want to play. If he truly wanted to play for the love of the game, he would not have retired.

I don't want to hear that he retired to be with his family. His entire family plays minor league baseball. There is no way they wanted him to retire. He retired because he's tired of baseball. Why did he come back? How does 22 million sound?

sidenote: I know the 22 mil is prorated... it's still ridiculous

The Clemens fiasco

This Clemens business is out of hand. Seriously, is it really that important to sign a 43-year old pitcher, who hasn't pitched all season? Can he really be worth 5 million a month? Did he win a championship last year? Am I missing something?

Somebody already tried throwing gas on the fire by claiming he already signed with the Astros, which was untrue. I would be willing to bet that it was just a ploy by Clemens' agent to get the other teams to panic and up their bids.

Personally, I want him to come back to baseball. I want him to sign with the Astros, Rangers or Yankees just to see them overpay him and watch him suck big time. Nothing would make me happier (with the exception of seeing Bond's arms fall off) than to root against the fatty and watch him fail. So much satisfaction to be had here.

Now that I've said something, I know he signs with the Sox, which then in turn ruins this baseball season for me. I can't root for the guy, but I can't root against the Sox. Maybe I can pretend it's 1985 and that he's not evil anymore. I've got a pretty good imagination... naaaw, it's not that good.

SOSH

I registered with the Sons of Sam Horn (SOSH) Message Board yesterday and I'm already hooked. I now have tons of threads to read through while I'm sitting here in my cubical bored out of my mind... I mean... ummmm... I'm not bored... just doing... ummm... research? Yeah research, that sounds better.

Some things I've learned from the SOSH site so far:

1. Referring to Arod as "Slappy" and Mariano Rivera as "Fruitbat" is absolutely hilarious.

2. Many people think DeMarlo Hale would make a good manager for the Sox when Francona steps down. Hey, after Dale Sveum, I'm ready to vote Hale for president.

3. People analyze way too many stats. What the hell is VORP, DIP or BABIP?

4. There is no better place to find current info on injured Sox players. I'm pretty sure I now know how well Coco Crisp handled his kidney stone situation. I mean, who wouldn't want to know about that?

5. The "Who leads off when Coco's back" thread is a very interesting read.

6. For some reason Alex Gonzales is called "Seabass". Not sure that I've figured that one out yet. He doesn't look like Cam Neely, does he?

7. Seriously, too many stats. EqA, PECOTA projections, WPA, BPA rate? My head is starting to hurt.

8. JT Snow wants to be traded (I'm not surprised).

9. Schillings stats before and after his 133 pitch game are scary.

10. No matter what Francona does, somebody is not going to like it.

And I've only been reading posts for 2 days now. There is just so much information on there I don't know if I'll be able to keep up. I'm pretty sure Coco passed another stone since I started writing this post and 7 people have commented on it (ok, I made that up). But seriously, if you need more info on the Sox, you've got to visit this site: Sons of Sam Horn

The Killers and baseball

I heard on the radio today that the Killers are working on a new album due out in September '06. No release date and no title yet. Since sophomore efforts are almost never as good as debuts (exceptions for Coldplay, Wilco and a handful of others), I'm a little worried. However, I'll be sure to order it as soon as it comes out anyway because Hot Fuss was that good

Good words to live by when attending a baseball game below. Quoted from the Sports Guy's website.

You only have eight responsibilities during a baseball game: Take your hat off for the National Anthem; don't take your shirt off; don't bring your baseball glove if you're over 13; don't wear a jersey with your own name on it; don't run onto the field; don't reach into the field of play to grab a pop-up or ground ball if it could adversely affect your team; don't boo one of your own players unless it's absolutely warranted; and don't throw up. That's it. Everything else is up to you. - Bill Simmons

The Sox are in first place! This is a fun team to watch this year. I'm very happy with the acquisition of Wily Mo and my fantasy team will be equally happy with the return of Coco Crisp. I can't wait to see how this team will do in October.

side note: On my fantasy baseball team this year - Manny, Coco, Youk, Nixon & Tek... but Tek doesn't play since Mauer has been on a tear. Just thought it was cool to have the entire Sox outfield on my team. Needed to be mentioned.

Update time

Lots of stuff going on lately, which explains why it's been over a month since my last post. Here's a recap.

Quick trip to Boston. Got to see Schilling tear up the Devil Rays. I'm just glad I got a chance to see him in action in my lifetime. It can be tough to catch a decent Sox game when you live in NJ. I hadn't been to Fenway in probably 10 years. My seats were amazing, 14 rows from the field right on 3rd base. The game was so much fun that I think I'm converting my girlfriend (born and raised in Jersey) into a Sox fan.

Spent a week in Vegas. I love getting paid to make this trip. I attended a conference by day and gambled my money away by night. Here are my top 3 favorite casinos in Vegas:

Hard Rock: Great atmostphere and fun dealers. I lost lots of money here.
O'Sheas: 18 hour happy hour & cheap blackjack. Came up about even.
Ellis Island: This place brews their own beer and sells it for $1! Plus they've got cheep blackjack, which is always good. Won money here, maybe that's why I liked it so much.

side note: I went 1 for 9 in picking baseball and basketball games while in Vegas. 1 for 9! How does that happen? I've got to stick to blackjack.

My roommate moved out and I'm taking over his room. You'd be surprised how long it takes me to do this. I'm probably the slowest mover ever. If I can move 1 thing per day, then I'm satisfied. At this rate, I believe I'll be completely moved in by 2009.

Slow-pitch softball. I love this sport. Last year my team (the Brew Crew) went 2-10 including being mercy ruled 5 times. So we really are not the best team in the world. I shooting for 4 wins this year and maybe cut down to 2 or 3 mercy rules. That's not asking too much, right?

I don't have much travel planned for the near future so hopefully I'll get a few more posts here here soon. Maybe something a little more interesting next time.