In a giving mood (Bill)
Three things I'd like to give:
-Grudging respect to the Chicago White Sox, who did what they had to do. For a while, it looked as though the umpires were going to give the Sox the series, making yet another inexcusably terrible call on the Steve Finley catcher's-interference-turned-double-play in game three. But then the White Sox went out and won that game by a wide enough margin that it didn't matter, and continued on to take the series for themselves in five depressing games. One could still argue that they gained an insurmountable edge--both real and psychological--after the umpires allowed them to steal game 2, and that the series might have been very, very different had the Angels come home up two games to none. But the Sox had at least a 50% chance of winning that game anyway, and with the Angels' complete incompetence at the plate (particularly reigning MVP Vladimir Guerrero, who swung the bat like the ball was a particularly elusive opponent in a drunken bar fight), it's hard to argue that that one play would have mattered all that much in the end. I still don't think the White Sox are as good as they played this season, and I think that substantially the same team next year is looking at about an 85-win year, but they've earned their place in the Series, and if I keep bitching about it now I'm no better than...well, than a Sox fan from '02-'04.
-Happy thoughts in the direction of the Astros and their fans. It was great to see them finally make it to the Series, especially while Biggio and Bagwell were still around to enjoy it. I hope they win--let's be honest, I'd love to see them win four straight by identical scores of thirty-five to zero--but I've got to pick the Sox in seven.
-An electronic boot to the head to the over 100 Representatives, like California Democrat Bob Filner, who refused to support "The Cheeseburger Bill." At least half of the people whose idiocy gives lawyers such a bad name are not even (practicing) lawyers. To claim that refusing to hold fast food restaurants liable for obesity fundamentally harms "the need of our children" is one reason that, no matter how disappointed and disenchanted I become with Republicans and conservatives, I'll never be able to make the jump. Democrats say a lot of things that sound really great (after all, who would ever want to be on the side that puts "the need of big corporations before the need of our children"?), but those pesky bullies, Reality and Logic, keep getting in the way...
-Grudging respect to the Chicago White Sox, who did what they had to do. For a while, it looked as though the umpires were going to give the Sox the series, making yet another inexcusably terrible call on the Steve Finley catcher's-interference-turned-double-play in game three. But then the White Sox went out and won that game by a wide enough margin that it didn't matter, and continued on to take the series for themselves in five depressing games. One could still argue that they gained an insurmountable edge--both real and psychological--after the umpires allowed them to steal game 2, and that the series might have been very, very different had the Angels come home up two games to none. But the Sox had at least a 50% chance of winning that game anyway, and with the Angels' complete incompetence at the plate (particularly reigning MVP Vladimir Guerrero, who swung the bat like the ball was a particularly elusive opponent in a drunken bar fight), it's hard to argue that that one play would have mattered all that much in the end. I still don't think the White Sox are as good as they played this season, and I think that substantially the same team next year is looking at about an 85-win year, but they've earned their place in the Series, and if I keep bitching about it now I'm no better than...well, than a Sox fan from '02-'04.
-Happy thoughts in the direction of the Astros and their fans. It was great to see them finally make it to the Series, especially while Biggio and Bagwell were still around to enjoy it. I hope they win--let's be honest, I'd love to see them win four straight by identical scores of thirty-five to zero--but I've got to pick the Sox in seven.
-An electronic boot to the head to the over 100 Representatives, like California Democrat Bob Filner, who refused to support "The Cheeseburger Bill." At least half of the people whose idiocy gives lawyers such a bad name are not even (practicing) lawyers. To claim that refusing to hold fast food restaurants liable for obesity fundamentally harms "the need of our children" is one reason that, no matter how disappointed and disenchanted I become with Republicans and conservatives, I'll never be able to make the jump. Democrats say a lot of things that sound really great (after all, who would ever want to be on the side that puts "the need of big corporations before the need of our children"?), but those pesky bullies, Reality and Logic, keep getting in the way...