Curse's demise ends a great season

Everyone who follows baseball by now has heard all he wants to hear about the Boston Red Sox and their "curse," now finally broken. I certainly count myself as "everyone" in this case, so I'll keep my comments about Boston brief.

I was rooting for the Cardinals, but I'm happy Boston won. The Red Sox had a great team this year, and they deserve the place in baseball history they're going to get. Not only did they break the Babe Ruth-era "curse," but they did it as if they were blessed, making a miraculous comeback against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series and then sweeping the World Series with four straight wins against the team with the most regular-season wins. Incredible.

Indeed, all the playoffs were entertaining this year. So was the regular season, at least until the Indians collapsed in mid-August. I honestly can say I haven't enjoyed a major league baseball season this much since I was a teenager. I can think of several reasons why this is, but near the top has to be the fact that Jacobs Field is such a fun place to visit. Of the six major league parks I've been to in my lifetime, the Jake is my favorite. Even more so than the original Comiskey Park, where I spent so much of the '80s. Also keeping me entertained this season was the Cleveland team itself, an interesting rebuilding franchise on the rise. I look forward to seeing this team in the playoffs in a year or two.

I'm glad to have a breather from baseball for now, but I'll be counting the days till spring training soon enough!

George Carlin is a foolish old man

Tonight on the comedy-oriented, Internet-based DefCon Radio Network, I happened to catch some of George Carlin's stand-up routine. I don't mean his stuff from 30 years ago, when he was funny. I'm talking about his recent moronic "humor" on the war in Iraq.

The first thing I hear is Carlin spewing that the United States bombs only "brown people." Oh, really, Georgie? You mean, like the Serbs? We all remember what a threat to national security Yugoslavia was 10 years ago, though, so an undeclared war without U.N. approval (gasp!) was justified there, though. Plus, France approved, and that's all that matters when the issue of protecting U.S. security comes up. Besides, French government officials weren't getting any kickbacks from Belgrade, so they weren't motivated to play pacifists back then.

Anyway, Carlin goes on about how he doesn't trust anything the government said. No, Carlin's too smart for that. He thinks for himself, he says. Apparently, he believes only what Michael Moore, Al Franken, George Soros and others like them tell him, and we all know how much they respect the truth. Hey, Carlin, speaking of Soros, maybe you should work into your act the irony of the neo-communist MoveOn.org's being funded by a billionaire currency trader. You want people to think for themselves, right? Put that out there, and let the tree-huggers chew on that for a while.

The last part of Carlin's "comedy" that I could stand to listen to was Carlin's proud assertion that he is unmoved by yellow ribbons and flags because they're symbols, and he leaves symbols to the "symbol-minded." Yuck, yuck, yuck. Hey, George, I could tell that the stoners who comprised your audience got a big kick out of that. Well, your aversion to symbols is ironic, George, since you are a symbol yourself. You symbolize the aging hippy liberal moron who is clueless about how the world really is.

Grow up, George. It's about time, don't you think?

How about those Red Sox!

As I'm typing this, I'm too tired to write about what I really want to. The upside to that is, I have the strength and motivation to write about the American League Championship Series instead. Not a bad trade-off, actually.

After the hated Yankees won the first three games, I thought I'd be stuck with them for another Series. I was so disappointed that Schilling, Pedro, Manny and Ortiz wouldn't make it. "They sure would have been fun to watch!" I said to myself.

Yes, they will be.

I hope the rest of the American League now wakes up and realizes the Yankees are human, after all. Human enough to lose a seven-game series after winning the first three games, something that's never happened before in the history of baseball post-season play. And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving team and team owner! Heh heh heh.

I'm still rooting for the mighty Cardinals to face Boston in a Series that will have the nation literally seeing red. But even a Boston-Houson series would be great. I'd love to see how Astros ace Clemens does against the Red Sox, given all the bad blood between him and his old team.

Well, Astros or Cardinals, whoever wins the National League Championship Series, I win. The Series definitely will be exciting. Not at all like last year, when the Yankees-Marlins matchup left me overwhelmed with ennui.

Let the games begin!

Go Cardinals!

Minutes ago, Boston lost its second straight game in the American League Championship Series, while St. Louis topped Houson in the first game of the National League series.

In other words, both series are going pretty much as expected. Bad news for the A.L.; good news for the N.L.

I really, really would like to see someone besides the Yankees representing the junior circuit in the Series for once. But those darned Sox just can't do the job, even though the Yanks are clearly outmatched on the mound. I sure wouldn't have bet on both Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez coming up empty in the first two games, but there you go.

Even if New York tops Boston again for a Series spot, at least I'll have a team to root for. Frankly, I don't mind having either Houston or St. Louis as the Yankees' eventual opponent.

The Astros as a team are almost as old as I am, yet hadn't even won a post-season series until oh, Monday. And it hasn't been for lack of trying. So the sympathy factor plays a big role here. Having said that, the team is good enough to deserve a Series slot. This year's edition of the Astros certainly is as good as any in the history of the franchise. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing ace starters Clemens and Oswalt plus the 2004 edition of "the Killer B's" (now up to four) taking on the Bronx Bombers.

But the Cardinals would give the Yanks a better fight, and would be more fun to watch in the bargain.

The St. Louis infield is the stuff of legend. An N.L. All-Star team with Rolen, Renteria, Womack and Pujols would be impressive. But having all four playing on one team is simply unbelievable. But wait! There's more! An outfield of Edmonds, Walker and Reggie Sanders! ("J.D." who?) The weak link in the lineup, Mike Methany, is hardly dead weight; he's probably the best defensive catcher in baseball. On the mound, the Cards aren't overwhelming, but they had a five-man rotation that's more than respectable. Without Chris Carpenter, the rotation is still above average, even if it has "only" three 15-game winners left.

If the Red Sox pull off a miracle and topple the Yankees, more power to them. But if they can't do the job, I'm confident that either possible World Series opponent can.

Welcome to my world.

Until recently, I thought keeping a blog would be a waste of time.

"I have enough to do," I thought. "Besides, writing the occasional 'Good Morning' column for the Erie Times-News is enough of an outlet."

Well ... it's not.

Writing a newspaper column is a lot of work. I'm not adverse to exerting myself, but when I get the need to share a personal tidbit or news item, I would like to do so without taking several hours to dissect it in a column.

Now I have a forum in which to vent without needing to crank out a tome. And those who want to know what I'm thinking, and what I'm up to, have a place to go. Woo-hoo!

This should be a challenge. But I'm certain this blog will be at least as interesting as those of left-wing atheist law students.

Thanks for coming. I hope you stick around.