Do you really need the 12 gifts in the 12 days of Christmas?

To answer that question, first I needed to know the cost of it all... this post is a continuation of another post that was posted on the main page and I felt it not exactly fitting to continue it there, so here it is here.

So I've decided to look over the list and see where (if it were being offered to me) I could cut back and save some coinage. Okay, first off... no dudes for gifts. So the Lords A-Leaping... out. Presuming that the twelve drummers drumming are men (nothing against women drummers) but in most depictions it is portrayed as men drummers. So the Drummers Drumming... out. Same to be said regarding the pipers... depicted as men. So the Pipers Piping... out. Okay then... that takes care of $9,045.

Now about all those birds... the swans, the geese, the calling birds, the hens, the turtle doves and lastly the partridge. Who needs that many birds? I mean really... unless of course you're going to make a toasty down coat or something. Otherwise it's the upkeep that will kill you... all that extra expense of caring for that flock of 23 birds. I'm not running an aviary... an orphanage perhaps, but not an aviary.

So what does that leave? The tree... for me, that's a keeper. Perhaps not a pear tree though... $200 is a bit steep. Then of course the ladies dancing and then those milking maids, which for the money... I'll take those Maids A-Milking over those Ladies Dancing.

Two reasons... okay three.

1. Eight maids vs nine ladies. Eight is one less than nine and that means on less nagger.
2. One out of the eight is bound to be good looking and lets face it... maids that milk is like music to a guys ears.
3. Lastly... the eight maids come with a price tag that's $4,707 cheaper than those ladies.
   

Oh yeah... those five golden rings. I'm thinking that I might keep them. Never know when one might need some appeasement for one of those maids.

Okay... enough of that.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

And no, that doesn't mean I'm singing while dressed in drag.

It's over, October baseball 2008 in Chicago officially ended mere minutes ago... and only fitting that Griffey Jr. made that last out and struck out swinging at that. Jr. was an acquisition that I didn't quite understand when the Sox picked him up. We already were well stacked in the "guys who can DH" and "guys who don't run well" departments and by his own admission, he wasn't sure if he could roam center field on an everyday basis. He was playing right field in Cincinnati, and we already have a better than average guy in right field in Jermaine Dye. I'm not going to rip on Jr. as he's a sure fire first ballot Hall Of Famer, but he is nowhere near the player he used to be and it's not his fault that he was expected to do something that he (in my opinion) is no longer capable of doing... at least not night in and night out. I have to figure that this was a one and done for Griffey, I don't see the Sox working had to keep him... or Cabrera for that matter.

The dynamic of this game along with the tone was set in the first inning when Upton launched a HR to stake the Rays to an early lead... then he did it again in the 3rd to pad the lead. The thing I don't quite understand is that they (Sox) were taking the first pitch. That in of itself isn't that out of the ordinary... the mentality is to get the pitch count up and hope that you wear him down. That is until you see that the guy is throwing first pitch strike... every time.

So there they were late in the game taking the first pitch and putting themselves in the hole... standing there looking at one go right down the chute and then swinging at the next one out of the zone... misguided aggression.

Overall, the Rays pitchers made the Sox look silly at the plate tonight, but with the way this line-up's bats have been swinging, they may have just as well gone up there with bats made out of Jell-O.

Ultimately it was the (lack of) hitting that, just like the Cubs, led to their downfall. Overall, the pitching of the Sox wasn't that bad... they really pitched well enough to keep them close. When you can keep the score to where you can tie it up with just one swing, then that's keeping it in reach... granted today would have needed a grand slam, but the Sox hit 12 (or is it 13? I can't remember which) this season, it's just the bats were JNT... just not there.

I think the ending of the regular season may have been different as would probably the outcome of the post season if they had Quentin in the line-up... they did not. So we will never know and will be left to speculate during the off season... right along with the Cub fans as they try and figure out how their team's colossal flop was allowed to happen.

So now the other half of the baseball fan base of Chicago can go back their regularly scheduled lives. Oh well, at least we did better than the boys in blue... we at least won a game.

Turkey anyone?

The End Came Swiftly

In a way, it's probably better for the Cubnation that the end came quickly... it freed up their Sunday to watch the Bears after all. I wonder how many remained seated until the wreckage that became the Cubs season come to a complete stop? I also wonder how many thought in these economic hard times, I'm not going to waste the electricity to run the television... I'm going to bed? To win 97 games is an impressive achievement in baseball and with it comes expectations, none of which were met for the Cubs and their fan base.

October isn't the most convenient of times for a team to go into a slump. Once again, the Cubs fail to make it out of the first round. Once again the cry goes out "wait until next year". Once again the fans must feel the wrath and teasing and jabbing of those crass South Siders, since they (the Sox) managed to keep their hopes alive with a victory. It showed that they... the Sox... have some fight in them, more than can be said of the Cubs and their walk-a-thon or error-a-thon charity drives they tried to pass off as playing baseball... I've seen less errors at a t-ball game.

So it's over for the North Side team as they will have the entire off season to mull over what happened. I have a word for it... CHOKE! I figure here will be plenty of people sitting around (over beer and wings) trying to discuss what happened and convince themselves that it must be the curse and all that. Look it's nothing more than just a good old fashion choking and everyone that cares enough about it has until February to see what the organization (if anything) is going to do about it.

I can tell you what I did about it... I laughed out loud when I checked in on the game (online) and just in time saw the last out being made. That's right, I laughed...

I saw a funny sign being held up in the stands at the Cell... well funny to me the diehard Sox fan. It read something like this... Hey Cubbies, leave the post season to us... well they (the Cubbies) have. The Sox were able to keep October baseball flowing, at least for another day... we'll see if after tonight they manage to keep it flowing a little longer. I predict yes... but my grades from school reflect how often I am right.

Misery Love Company...

And so in an effort to take some of the heat off the Cubs and their 0-2 playoff start, the Sox are keeping it real by going 0-2 right along with them... brothers in arms. A collective 0-4... Chicago against the rest of the baseball world.

The city was spinning faster than the Milky Way when it realized both teams had October baseball in their future. And now? Everyone is being flung off and landing in a heaps of "wait until next year" piles all throughout the Chicagoland area. There are still a few strong ones hanging on, but their grip is weakening.

The table is set, the guests have arrived and are being seated and the bird is coming out of the oven. Everyone is hoping for another appetizer or two before serving the cooked bird.

The way I see it, the Sox can't buy a hit when they need one. Even if they were given the chance to toss the ball up to themselves and hit it and the Rays had their shoelaces tied together they (the Sox) would still manage to strike out or pop it up and leave runners stranded. I can hear the knife being sharpened in the kitchen, but they should be able to keep that bird from coming to the table and being carved as the Sox play well at home. How they play road vs. home is like night and day. I know what I said in my last post about thinking the Sox would give a better showing in game 2... I think things would have been better it they left the wire hoop bats at home and brought some real lumber with them. Oh wait... they weren't swinging anyway. Obviously, if you don't hit, as in stringing a few hits together... and more than once per game at that... it decreases your chances of scoring runs. Let's face it, you kinda need runs to have any chance of winning and more specifically more (runs) than the other team.

The Cubs are donating their playoffs to the Dodgers through a series of walks and errors. I can't honestly say how the Cubs look playing, I've only watched an inning or two of their series, but from what I've read, it sounds like they're playing scared, but like I said, I can't speak first hand about that. I suspect the Cub fans might be hanging on to that Milky Way spin by their north side pinkies. Some may in fact be smelling the bird as they whirl around. But I think they would be willing to wait on getting it served to them.

You can't bow out in the first round being the team with the best record in the NL to the NL team with the lowest winning percentage among all playoff teams. Those rascal Cubs, that's what they are on the verge of. You are supposed to win at home... that's not to say that you can't win on the road, but the whole point of having home field advantage is to give the better team an added advantage. You work hard during the season and get rewarded by getting home field advantage and the Cubs have literally given that away. As a Cub fan, you better hope that they can win on the road because if they don't, you'll have to wait until opening day to step into the shrine that is Wrigley.

Chicago baseball fans have endured some of the worst baseball in the history of the game. Not only do we have a handful of World Series appearances... there's even less victories. We have had not one, but two separate teams delivering them to us. Unlike many other cities that have only one. You would think that the law of averages would catch up and the baseball demons (I'd have said gods, but gods are too forgiving to have such bad baseball year after year) would throw Chicago a bone once every ten years or so. Something so that each generation can say I remember when... Since 1903 the start of the modern WS... the Cubs have won the NL pennant 10 times emerging with only 2 WS wins. The Sox 6 times the AL pennant winners and 3 WS wins. Pathetic indeed given that's only 5 World Series wins for the city in 105 years. Or do you prefer 210 years given that there are two teams? Five WS wins is 1/5 the total of the Yankees... they have 26.

No wonder we freak out like prom bound school girls any time our baseball teams are playing in October.

I will probably tune in to an inning or two tonight to check in and see if the road to failure will be completed on the road or they wait until they come home so the Cub fans can rejoice in the great season with the crash ending. Someone might want to check and make sure Lou is heavily sedated tonight.

Anticipations, Expectations and Realities

Anticipation... the Cubs are going to the World Series.

Expectation... the Cubs could/should/would win at Wrigley.

Reality... (just see photo at left) They didn't and are in the process of doing it again as I write this losing 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th.

As a lifelong Sox fan... well as far back as I can remember (which these days is only hours ago) I'm not crying over their losses. If I'm being honest, at some level, I'm almost giddy. They have put themselves in a tremendous hole and HAVE to win the next three whereas the Dodgers only have to win one of the next three. I do feel for the Cub fans though, but not enough to not give any one of them the business about their team and its colossal choking thus far.

Anticipation... for the Sox none, they were supposed to finish last in the division. Just making it to the playoffs is a bonus... advancement (if any) is an additional bonus.

Expectation... again none, no one expected them to be in the post season, but now that they are there, I'd like to see them not go down without a fight.

Reality... just what I figured. Vazquez didn't pitch horribly, but he didn't pitch well enough to win either, and he didn't. Win that is. It could have been worse based on his previous three outings. They were in it most of the way but lost 6-4. Again it was the lack of the one big hit, escaping them yet again... just as it has plagued them all season long.

Well, tomorrow brings another day and another chance... for the Sox. I do anticipate a better showing from them tomorrow. Perhaps biasedly blinded because I am a fan hungry for a winner... as are Cub fans to be sure, but I am optimistic about their chances with Buehrle on the hill. They are pretty much in a must win situation tomorrow are the Sox, as were the Cubs, but you can see where they are headed... to LA down 0-2... it's win or go home for them. Luckily for the Cubs, they are off tomorrow, they better make good use of it and attempt to regroup. If I might offer a suggestion... they might want to make better use of their hands... oh I don't know... maybe by using them to grab onto their ears and then pull really hard so as to get their collective craniums out of their collective posteriors.

9-1 now in the 9th... oops 10-1. It's one thing to stand up and fight for it... it's another to kind of hand it to them. Yesterday 8 walks total (7 by Dempster) and so far 4 errors today. I don't care who you are, you aren't going to win many games this way.

Uh Oh, they're making a run here... 10-3 bottom of the 9th and nobody out. I will wait and see how this goes down before closing this out.

BRB...

If you're a Cub fan... and at this point you might want to keep that to yourself... it was a pretty pathetic ending to a pretty pathetic performance. The last two batters were called out looking... didn't even lift the bat... pathetic indeed.

This just in... we have a final from the not so friendly confines of Wrigley Field... 10-3.

It was equal opportunity botchery as every infielder made an error... solidarity for your fellow "stone-hand". Cub fans take solace in knowing that you are not alone in your suffering as there are fans of seasons past (many, many seasons past) that have suffered right along with you... all 36,514 days or so. What's one more day?

So it's off to LA down 0-2.

...Say g'nite Gracie