Saturday, July 28, 2012

IT'S ALL OR NOTHING

## Bobby Valentine has to treat tonight's game against the Yankees as though it was the seventh game of the World Series. Lose tonight and the Yanks win at least two out of three in this series. That would mean the Red Sox leave New York 2 games under .500 and 12 and a half games out.
They hit three home runs last night but so did the Yanks. The difference was, the Sox' homers were all solo shots while the Yanks had 2 2-run shots and a grand slam, or as Wallace Matthews calls it, a "Granderslam."
Former Yankee Mark Melancon didn't show much ability last night, but he did give us a language lesson when Grandy laced a pitch into the stands. I think it's obvious what the word was.
Boston has been searching for a shortstop for about 6 years now. Based on Avilas' performance last night, the search continues.

## The Angels took a big step toward catching the Rangers when they completed a trade for the Brewers Zack Greinke.  They probably could have done alright with their current staff, but this makes sure that Texas couldn't pick up Greinke to improve a glaring weakness in their starting pitching staff. The Rangers still have to figure out what's going on with Josh Hamilton, who seems to have lost interest in playing. Not only isn't he hitting, he can't even seem to hold on to the bat. Fans behind 1st base may have to start wearing armour if Josh doesn't stop flinging the bat into the stands when he swings.

***WATCHING THE OLYMPICS***
*The opening ceremonies were beautiful and colorful and Rowen Atkinson provided his brand of comic relief. We are now also very aware of Great Britain's Health Care system.
*I watched the Womens fencing competition. The referee spoke French, which we are told is 'The Language of the Sport.' That may be, but it only added to my confusion as to what was happening. All I know is that there were a lot of beeps and flashing lights and every now and then the two fencers would stop. The American ended the first session ahead 10-7, but I think she got style points for having beautiful long hair. At least, she stopped to show it to us -- twice.
*For those of you who are disappointed about the uniform style change in Women's Beach Volleyball, never fear. The uniform for Womens Indoor Volleyball consists of tight t-shirts and shorts that can only be described as 'panties.' Who says sexism is dead?
*The Chinese team won the match I watched. I wonder if their uniforms were made in the USA?
*Maybe I misunderstood, but while I watched the bicycle race, the announcer said they were moving quite fast and were up to 30 MPH, "...which of course, is the limit in the this portion of the race." Does it make any sense that a "race" has a speed limit?
*During the swimming portion, once the competitors were in the water, you had no idea who was who. Would it be that difficult to add graphics to each lane so we had some idea who was winning?

## The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to win. They have won 8 of their last 10 but still lost another game to Cincinnati, who sent 9-1 in that same period.  Currently, the best race seems to be in the AL Central between Detroit and the White Sox. Only a game and a half separate them. Forget the Yanks and the Red Sox, the most interesting baseball is taking place in the two central divisions.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Germany has opened a new hotline that lets people call in and yell curse words at strangers on the other end. We have something similar in America. It's called Time Warner customer service."  -- Jimmy Fallon
A Scottish brewery has released Never Mind the Anabolics, a beer with eight illegal, performance-enhancing ingredients and high alcohol content. Or as a Detroit Lion calls it, a real time-saver."  -- RJ Currie
"London organizers accidentally played the South Korean national anthem for the North Korean women’s soccer team.  It’s times like this I really miss Sarah Palin"  -- Janice Hough
"At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, they handed out 100,000 condoms. This year it's 150,000. That's 100,000 for the U. S. basketball team and 50,000 for everyone else."  -- Jimmy Kimmel
"The best reason to ax the Tour de France. If we shut down pro cycle racing completely, it would free up enough cops and investigators to stop all the crime in the world."  -- Scott Ostler
"After boxer Martin Tucker was treated for a bloody nose in a bout, the bloody Q-tip was retrieved and the DNA ultimately linked him to a bank robbery. The district attorney wants him to take a mandatory 20-year count.’"  -- Bill Littlejohn

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