The finest in the land!

Many apologies for the long absence. What an enjoyable two months. Capped off today with another comeback. Down 9-1 in the 7th inning, the Cubbage fights back. No lead is insurmountable this year- confidence at an all time high.

The genius of sweet Lou is that everyone gets to play, just like in grade school. Even Jimmy Edmonds joined in the fun today. Murderer's row has now fully come to roost. They have overcome poor pitching, injuries, and even poor hitting to find unconventional ways to win.

More than anything, Lou brings confidence to the dance. Unbelievably the Cubs are playing up to capabilities. We still have Pie and Murton waiting to be called up to revitalize any poor play.

They are on pace to win 102 games- will it happen? Only time will tell, but the showdown with the Sox has never been more exciting.

United !

We all hate penalties to end a soccer game - even one going on for two hours - but since it was Manchester United that emerged on top in the shoot out over Chelsea - well, I'm not complaining. Winning their third Champions League trophy in their history stamps United as the best team in Europe - until they have to prove it again when the season starts again in eight weeks.

And I think they deserved it. The first half was was controlled by United- though largely the second half was Chelsea. The game - played in Moscow under an increasingly harder rain - was very sloppy @ times. Often players on both sides - two teams filled w/ incredible players - stumbled over the ball or slipped. But there was also many great plays on both sides. It was a great game to watch.

I watched it Fado, an Irish bar on Grand and just east of State. I was supposed to meet people @ the bar, but when I got there 45m before kickoff, there already was a line out the door to get it. Packed? Again and again the manager had to walk around w/ fire marshals making sure the capacity wasn't over maxxed. As we didn't get shut down, I suppose we were under the limit.

The crowd was great. More Manchester Red than Chelsae Blue , both sides were in fine singing form. They tended to sing the same songs over and over -and since I entombed myself in one of the Red pockets I heard far more songs about Giggs, Rio , Scholes, Vidic, and Tevez. Very beautiful crowd.

And good. I like songs praising United players. And what a fucking team this is. Take a look @ the line up-

Edwin van der Sar,
Wes Brown (Luis de Abreu Anderson, 120),
Rio Ferdinand,
Nemanja Vidic,
Patrice Evra,
Owen Hargreaves,
Paul Scholes (Ryan Giggs, 87),
Michael Carrick,
Cristiano Ronaldo,
Wayne Rooney (Luis Carlos Nani, 101),
Carlos Tevez

I totally know that many readers will have no idea of how powerful this line up is, but those who do - look @ that shit!! Not many world Cup teams could beat a team like this - but Chelsea almost did.

My favourite Blue? Well, he was red - Didier Drogba, The Blues great forward, was red carded right before penalties. It meant that Chelsea had to play a player down for the last 5m of the match. Playing down for that short amount of time didn't hurt the team, but it did mean that he wouldn't be able to take part in PK's.

Old man as I am, I was glad to see reminders of the 1999 team still around. Alex Ferguson is still coach. Wes Brown and Paul Scholes started the 2008 game. And best of all, Ryan Giggs, on as as sub in the 87th minute, played in his 759th game as a Red - the new record.

The second spot

In a lineup seeimingly sodden with .210 hitters, Ozzie finally did something to try and shake the batters up. Like Tony LaRussa's move to put Carlton Fisk in the two-hole of the '83 Sox lineup, Carlos Quinten -the suprise in the lineup- is now batting 2d behind leadoff batter Orlando Cabrera.

The season started nicely. Although Jerry Owens had won the leadoff spot before injuries shelved him, Nick Swisher stepped in and was getting on almost half the times he came up. Although not a natural leadoff hitter, he performed well the first two weeks of the season.

But then, like last year, the Sox bats stopped hitting. The batting averagres of some of the players are almost jokes (or mirror images of their avgerages last year)= certain starters avgerages read like this = .196, .197, .209, .215, and .220. Ughh!! Now, the OBA's of these players do partially make up for it - but the clutch hits of the open weeks are long gone.

There are bright spots. No major injuries like last year. Pitching, both starting and pen, has been great - seems this is gonna be a more than great year for pitching, even if Gavin Floyd doesn't finally nail down a no hitter this year. Defense has also been great.

But despite the more than good news on the other accounts - there is no hitting. Sure, lots of walks. But this team is in trouble if we cannot score any runs. Last year it just seemed like the whole team lolled around waiting for the bats to start - never. And there is that danger again this year -waiting around.

And the team must NOT wait around.

Sluggers Konerko and Thome - despite the occasional massive homer - are again having dive years. Second baseman Juan Uribe Still hasn't worn out his welcome, although he must be on his last legs. Crede and Dye - station to station hitters. This team relies too much on the home run and the big inning. Off season moves to improve the offense and increase the number of baserunners garnered Swisher and Cabrera but has not resulted in a renewed offense power.

Answers? Speed on the basepaths?

I'm not sure that Jerry Owens is the answer. Although he has potential 60 steal speed, there doesn't seem to be a spot in the lineup for him. Quentin has solidified his spot (league leader in HR's, 3d in slugging, 4th in runs scored, 5th in RBI's) and Dye and Swisher are only going to sit if they are injured.

Outside of a mjor restructering of the offense, I fear that the offense will have problems all year. Somehow in 2005 this team overcame offensive woes of this exact sort - but one can see how badly a team can play if it can't get past it's offensive woes.

We need speed.