Buchholz Is Lights Out Again

As I write, Clay Buchholz is helping the Sox school the Angels yet again with six shutout innings. In what will likely end up as a disappointing season for the Sox, Buchholz has been a major bright spot. Not including the present game he is 2-0 with a 1.61 ERA in his first three starts of August. On the season he is 13-5 and has an AL best 2.49 ERA. (By the way, this drives me crazy every time I look at pitching stats. This: 7.1, does not mean seven and one third. It means seven and one tenth. It should look like this: 7 1/3. I know it's not easy to represent 7 1/3 with a decimal since 1/3 is a repeating non-terminating decimal, but 7.1 is not correct.)

I'm pleased to see Buchholz develop and flourish in his first full season in the majors. He seemed to hit a snag after his no hitter in 2007. But now in my mind he has leap frogged Josh Beckett and joined Jon Lester as one of the Sox top two starters. Hopefully this a clear sign that the Sox will have excellent starting pitching for years to come.

A short football digression: I am selling the Jets right now. I just want go on record as saying that New York football's second class citizens will win not more than 10 games. If the sports media is high on your team, especially in the NFL, run for the hills. Also if Brett Favre comes back I'm setting the over/under on ints this year at 18.5. Which one are you taking?

Congrats Colts. Superlative Saints.

Wasn't just a month ago that I was killing these two teams for how they played out the last few games of the season? Though I was wrong about them, I did get the Super Bowl I really, really wanted.

As soon as Manning and the Colts drove 80 yards at the end of the first half to cut the Jets lead to 17-13, I said to myself, this game is over. The Colts took about 28 minutes to figure out the Jets and made a couple of bad mistakes on defense early. But after that, the Colts dominated. You could see it in Manning's eyes, I gotcha.

The other game just kind of got me aggravated. But after several careless fumbles, many inexplicable penalties, and one last boneheaded int. by Brett Favre, the Saints came out with the win. Favre's play has already been analyzed to death over the past 18 hours, so the only thing I have to say is... the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result.

Super Bowl preview coming soon.

NFL Hyperbolic Statements-Week 7

Bad Brett makes an appearance. The league's best team pulls one out of you-know-where. And some of my formerly prized sports garb may end up at the Good Will.

Worst Turnovers Ever: Twice on Sunday with the Vikes driving for a critical score, Favre handed it back over to the Steelers on Williams Sanoma serving platter. The Steelers take both the fumble and int. for six. Of course the grizzled one has done this too many times to count. It's part of his nature and a trade off that the Packers were willing to live with for years. No problem when Brett is throwing for 30+ touchdowns a season. But what make these the worst of his career are his pathetic attempts at a tackle each time. Granted, he don't get paid to tackle, and an injury to the old man would be cataclysmic, but this looked down right wimpy. He would've had a better chance spitting at Lamar Woodley. And by the way, 51 pass attempts and only 18 rushes for Adrian Peterson against a defense known for tearing QB's limb from limb? The Vikings better not fall too in love with their new toy, Favre. The road to the championship should be traversed on the back of number 28.

Most Awesome Comeback Ever: The Saints were down to the Dolphins 24-3 in the first half of Sunday's game. Drew Brees had three interceptions. It looked like New Orleans was going down for the first time. But any team that makes a Super Bowl run wins two or three games during the season that they have no business winning. This was one of those games for the Saints. They outscored the Dolphins 36-10 in the second half, 22-0 in the fourth quarter. Of course, teams that barely miss the playoffs always have a few games when they snatched

defeat from the jaws of victory. Miami let Indianapolis win on a last minute drive in week two and now this. Instead of 4-2, the Dolphins are 2-4. That doesn't leave any room for error the rest of the year.

Childhood Dreams Crushed: My team, the Washington Redskins, just plain sucks (that's a revelation). A pretty good defense gets the shaft every week from an offense that can't stay on the field for more than ten seconds. I honestly feel bad for Jim Zorn. He was placed in a position where failure was immanent. He was not prepared for head coaching in general, never mind this dysfunctional family of losers that makes the Bundys look like the Waltons. I'm tired. Just tired. It makes me want to jump ship, which of course, to most of fan-dom is punishable by flogging. But in addition when I picked Washington as my favorite team, I was ten. I did not consider the racist nickname I would have to wear on my team garb. So wearing a Redskins shirt is embarrassing in two ways. I don't know if I can do it anymore. My allegiance is now up for sale. Any suggestions? I leave you now with a picture of my favorite Washington player of the good old days, Darrell Green.

Trivia: We all know that no team has ever won three straight Super Bowls. Two, the Dolphins in the '70's and the Bills in the '90's, have appeared in at least three straight. But there is one player who has played for the Super Bowl winner in three consecutive seasons. Who is it? Answer on Friday, 10-30-09.

Restoring My Faith in Humanity: Sesame Street will celebrate its 40th anniversary next month. In a world of frenetic, high fructose corn syrup-fueled kid shows. It's good to know that a smart program like Sesame Street still has its place. It's got a seriously dedicated cast as well. Bob McGrath, who plays Bob naturally, has been there since the premiere. Sonia Manzano, who plays Maria, has been there since 1971. She's won 15 Emmys for her writing on the show. Happy Anniversary guys! You were an important part of my formative years.

NFL Top 10

Here's what you've been waiting for kids. Dan's first installment of the NFL Top 10. I have also included a special weekly feature at the end of the post. Enjoy.

1. Titans (7-0): This team has a nastiness that I like and a great O-line. I think they need find an offensive focal point. Chris Johnson perhaps.

2. Giants (6-1): I've never seen a team so deep with offensive play makers. They showed they can win a slugfest as well by beating Pittsburgh last weekend.

3. Patriots (5-2): You just can't count them out... ever. If you can't be the '07 Pats, then be the '01 Pats. They won it all, if you remember.

4. Redskins (6-2): The league's #1 rushing offense + no interceptions for Jason Campbell= Wins. Beware the second half swoon, 'Skins fans.

5. Steelers (5-2): They win when Big Ben plays well. So why can't they protect their best commodity? If Ben can't stay upright, they will be in trouble. He's partially to blame for not getting rid of the football.

6. Panthers (6-2): John Fox always gets this team to play tough. They will not be an easy out.

7. Bills (5-2): Yeah, I know they just lost to the Dolphins, but I'm not going to down grade for a close divisional loss. They're young and talented. Will they have enough to get past New England? B-squared likes to eat young and talented for breakfast.

8. Bears (4-3): The D is back and Rex is on the bench. How did they miss the fact that Kyle Orton is actually kind of good?

9. Buccaneers (5-3): They're in the playoff race as of now, but I don't like them very much. There's something about John Gruden I don't like. Maybe it's his face.

10. Cowboys (5-3): I don't know why, but here they are. I feel like things will get better when Tony Romo gets back (namely my fantasy team).

What the hell is up with....? Media coverage of the Jets. They complain that the Jets should have blown out the Raiders and the Chiefs in consecutive weeks because they're so much better. They lost to the Raiders in OT and barely beat the Chiefs. This is all I heard on New York radio on Sunday. Has it ever occurred to you that the Jets may be closer to the level of Oakland and KC than they are to the playoffs? They stink and so does Brett Favre. I like Favre as much as the next guy, but he's had it. Thanks to the media market we're in I get to watch his slow, torturous decline every Sunday until the Rapture.