Two Days in a Row? I Must Be Sick.

Should anyone really be surprised by Matt Clement's recent performances? This is the same guy that started out like 6-1, maybe even 7-1 with the Cubs in 2004 and finished the season 9-13. Not a strong finisher. Everyone is talking about how he hasn’t been the same since he played Carl Crawford’s liner off of his head, but honestly he’s done this for about the last 3 or 4 seasons. There’s a lot of explanations for this. He doesn’t work out on his own in the off season; he dog’s it during Spring Training; or my favorite, he sits on his ass snorting whip-its and eating Twinkies all off season. And hell, maybe he misses it so much that he starts doing it again in early August each season.

I hope that Red Sox fans are happy that they chased Mark Bellhorn out of town. Yeah he was having a let down season, but what the hell did you expect, its Mark f-ing Bellhorn. The guy had one good season in like 2002. And he did play great during the playoff run last season, but you had to accept that what you were seeing this year was the real him. Well anyways, Tony Graffanino is a quick fix that just happened to come to the team and get hot. Honeymoon over, effective in the 5th inning yesterday. I know that Bellhorn isn’t a Gold Glover, but he makes that play. Now the BoSox are down 2-0 with a guy pitching next game that the weather really dictates what kind of game he has. Wakefield will tell you that. He can grip the ball better in certain weather conditions and the ball moves more in certain conditions. Sox fans better be rooting for Wakefield weather or their done. Look for Alejandro Machado to be the starting 2nd baseman next season.

I was pretty excited to see Orlando Cabrera get the game winning hit last night against the Yankees. I always liked this guy, even before I started working for the Expos. He plays with a lot of confidence. And he was a little down this year, but he was hurt some. I think he’s going to have a big post season. Look for him and the guys leftover from the 2002 Angels to pull them through the Yankees series. Playoff experience cannot be underrated in baseball, or any sport for that matter (except maybe hockey).

I know that the playoffs don’t count towards the MVP voting, but for anyone watching last night, Alex Rodriguez lost the game for the Yankees with his glove. He let a fairly routine bouncer eat him up because he took his eye off of the ball. The Red Sox might be down 0-2 but its not because of Big Papi’s bat (.375 in the first 2 games) or glove.

Tim Hudson decided not to show up for his start yesterday against Andy Pettitte. Hudson was uncharacteristically wild. He walked five batters in 6 innings. You don’t expect that from your #2 guy, and you just can’t do it in the playoffs. I was surprised they scored 3 off of Pettitte, and normally that would be enough with Hudson pitching, but obviously not yesterday. The Braves bullpen still looks awful. I don’t know what happened to Chris Reitsma, but he has just lost it. I will be watching the pitching match up tonight, Smoltz versus Clemens. Both of these guys are old, but you know they both are looking forward to pitching against each other. I could see this going along the same lines as Smoltz vs. Morris in 1991. But I would be more than happy for a reverse repeat performance of their duel in 1999 (Smoltz: 7, 3R, 6H, 11K, L; Clemens: 7.2, 1R, 4H, 4K, W).

How long will it take MLB to finalize the Nationals sale? With all of the steroids talk I don’t think that anyone remembers that this is still a team owned by the other 31 clubs. It’s pretty sad that this huge organization can’t get this done. DC proved this season that they can more than support a club, now get an owner so that team can put some players on the field.

The NHL started up again last night. I didn’t watch. And I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon. Bowling Green hockey is about the only puck I care about.

There are some really great commercials on right now. The Burger King ones are great. I didn’t think they could come close to topping the NFL clips with the King in them, but the one with the lumberjack is great. Them log rolling at the end is awesome. But I think that my favorite commercial on TV right now is the Citi one with the D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) guys sitting on a couch giving these two other D&D guys orders on what attacks to use because they are waiting on the game system. Its pretty awesome and it doesn’t get old. I laugh at it every time.

Bowling Green is going to get a game from OU this weekend. Frank Solich has those guys playing at a high level. They could be a really good team once he gets his players in there and establishes his system.

I got nothing.