Offensive....

This song and the Boston Red Sox are offensive. The problem is that the Sox have no offense...NONE!!! Once again Theo has dropped the ball again. Last year he made no trades even though many players were banged up. He proved he had no plan at all. This year he has done the same thing. As mentioned on this Blog, he strengthened the Sox strength and let its weaknesses remain weak. The bench is awful and the offense is OFFENSIVE. For more than a few weeks Manny's back has been hurting him and we all know about Papi's various injuries this year. Most of the logical thinkers out there thought that the Sox needed a back up plan for when they would have to miss games. And now Manny is out for atleast 10 days and ERIC HINSKE(Thats right THE Eric Hinske) is out in left. I am glad that the Sox are still up 5. I still feel confident about winning the division, but this team WILL NOT win the World Series. They just won't. And the fact the Sox have great pitching, Papi and Manny and they still have no chance...is just as offensive white guys rapping about girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch.

She's Got the Right Stuff...

Happy Birthday to Amy! I have wanted to post something all day about Amy, but it turns out that her birthday happened to be on my busiest day of school. So after a long 9-5 day hitting the books, I have gotten to spend some time celebrating my favorite holiday with my best friend!!! I love her so much and I am so grateful for all that she does for me and Grace. We could not be luckier or more blessed to have her. Thank you for everything Amy! You do have the RIGHT STUFF...oh oh oh oh oh!

Today I am the "Greatest American Hero"...

Why you ask? Well after surviving my first week of graduate school I had to go a pay the rest of my tuition bill. The other day I found out that for some reason I still owed UNC $.04! 4 lousy cents!! So, I walked over to the cashiers office with a friend of mine so that I could give them our last little bit of money! When we got there I told them that apparently I still owed 4 CENTS of my tuition. They all laughed and then looked it up and they could not believe that I actually owed 4 CENTS!! I then commented that I did not think we had to the money to pay this much and my family would have to go without food and maybe they could take out a collection. They laughed and then one of the cashiers took out a book and paid the rest of my extremely large tuition bill. I believe that pulling off that small miracle makes me today's "Greatest American Hero!"

Stat of the Century

This Stat blows my mind. On Tuesday David "Big Papi" Ortiz had a triple and an infield single! IN THE SAME GAME! As you can see they don't call him Big Papi for nothing. While I cannot prove it, I believe this has to be a first for him and I am going to guess it will be the last too. Congrats, Big Papi, Congrats.

Perfect...

The other night Amy and I stayed up looking up TV shows on youtube. One of us would look for the a show and the other would have to guess what the show was by the intro. Let me tell you, this was good times. And because I know all of my readers will enjoy it, here is the the Intro to the Classic show...PERFECT STRANGERS!!! (there will be more shows to come in the future!)

Whenever Baseball makes me mad...

this girl reminds me what is important! This last week has been orientation for my masters program and it has been fantastic! The professors and my fellow classmates are great and I am really looking forward to school starting. The highlights of this week have to do with Grace though. On Wednesday we had a potluck dinner at the director of my programs home and of course we brought Grace a long with us. At one point she got a little frustrated because no one was paying attention to her. So, naturally she screamed at the top of her lungs. Everyone, and I mean everyone, turned around looked at her, which was quite embarrassing for Amy. As soon as Grace noticed she had their attention, she smiled, laughed and screamed a little bit more. Later on that night one of the professors came up to talk to Grace. As she said hello, Grace immediately reached out and grabbed her glasses right off of her face! This was Classic Grace! As you can see in the picture she had a great time eating blueberries for breakfast this morning and felt that the it would be fun to put them all over her body! Thank goodness for our little Grace, who reminds me what is important everyday!

Designate Him for Assignment

On this very blog I wrote that I felt that the Sox had to go get something at the trade deadline. I felt that getting Eric Gagne would completely change every game and after the 6th inning every game would be over. This has not been the case. I have now watched Gagne lose 3 games for the Red Sox all by himself. The Sox offense has given him EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO HELP THEM WIN GAMES, but he has blown them all. 3, not 1, not 2, but 3 games he has blown. He is personally the reason the Red Sox are NOT 8 games up right now. Even though the trade made sense at the time, it is the single worst trade in hind sight that I have ever seen. When I said that they should trade for him, I had obviously not done any research. During the Month of July Gagne posted a 4.35 ERA. He had not pitched since July 24th, because they used him in both ends of a doubleheader. I did now know this, but Theo had to have know this. For that he should lose his job. And if the Computer Geek did not know this, then he should lose his job. 3 GAMES! I just got off the phone with Sean and we talked about how they need to use him in mop up duties ONLY. But I have changed my mind. Get him off the team and call someone who wants to help a team win up. Let Buchholz do this or Pauley or anyone else. This guy has got to go. He is hurting the team in every way you can. Designate him for assignment now and let's move on.

I do NOT condone drinking...

BUT I do condone laughter!! Here is some real men of genius ads for your to laugh at from Mike and Mike. Trust me, you will think this is awesome.

Seriously, I give up...

I am done. The season is over. I know I know...4 games. The Sox have an easier schedule, blah, blah, blah. This team is awful.

When Amy and I got back to Carolina our TV remote control was not working. We could turn on the TV from the TV itself and all that stuff, but the pleasure of sitting back and changing the channels was not there. So, what did we do? We got new batteries and the problem was gone. We fixed the problem. We did not call the cable company or a TV repair man. That would be stupid, the TV was not the problem. What does this have to do anything? Well, the Red Sox have a problem, they have had it all year. It was not their bullpen. They had this Delcarmen/Timlin, to Okjima to Papelbon working great. So, they decided to fix that. The problem was their offense. NO ONE is hitting for power...NO ONE! Only 3 guys have hit over 15 homeruns and NONE of them have over 20. No one is knocking in runs...NO ONE! They get on base a lot, they work the count a lot, but they do not score enough runs. But they decided not to fix that. Theo and his brain trust (his Gorilla suit) fixed the TV and not the remote. I give up.

i give up

I do I really do. I give up. And these idiots are why....

Seriously, WORST EVERYDAY PLAYER IN BASEBALL

The Sox took a 4-2 lead and look great. Then after some awful pitching by the always streaky and unrealable Tim Wakefield the Angels made it 4-3 and had runners on 1st and 2nd. A ROUTINE groundball gets hit to the smiling moron and he makes the an error. $9 MILLION FOR THIS! Now it is atleast 5-4 with no out. Francona, if you are a reading this....STOP PLAYING HIM!! HE IS LITERALLY THE WORST EVERYDAY PLAYER IN BASEBALL.

There's no need to fear....

This past week Amy and Grace took me to Boston for my birthday. It was a fantastic trip. We had dinner at Legal Seafood and walked the streets of my favorite city. On Thursday Amy got us tickets to go see the Sox beat the O's 7-4. It was a great game that was highlighted by Grace cheering, clapping and booing as she watched her dad go a little crazy throughout the game. It was great. The day we left we went a bought some Red Sox t-shirts with the players name a number on the back. I was having a hard time deciding whether I should get a Kevin Youkilis #20 or a Dustin Pedroia #15. These are my two favorite Red Sox, not Papi or Schill or Manny. Nope. I love those guys, but for some reason these are my guys. I have a Trot Nixon jersey hanging in my closet because the whole time he was a Red Sox he was my favorite player. I love these guys and Amy recently asked me why. I told her it is because I love the guys that come up through the Sox farm system. All of these guys were drafted and eventually made their way up to make a key contribution to my favorite team. But as I thought about it more this was not the reason at all. The reason why Youk and Pedroia are my favorite Sox is because I feel like we have something in common...we are underdogs.

Both Youk and Pedroia are fantastic players, but they are not blessed with any special physical gift. Both do not have professional athlete bodies and neither really looks the part. Youk spent most of 2004 and 2005 riding the shuttle between Pawtucket and Boston, never sure how long he would be in either place. After the Sox decided to part ways with 3rd basemen Bill Mueller in the 2005, it appeared that he would have a permanent spot on the Sox. But then they traded for Mike Lowell and Youk once again was left to wonder what would happen next. They placed him at first and during the whole off season their were still rumors that the front office was trying to find another 1st basemen to fill the spot. They signed JT Snow because the felt they would need him to fill in defensively and you have to believe that Youk once again felt if he had a place.

Dustin Pedroia is a different story. He was always a favorite of the front office in Boston. He quickly moved through the minors and hit a every level. This season he won the job in spring training and appeared ready to be the everyday 2nd basemen. There a few problems though. One, in a late season call up on 2006 he was awful. He hit just .192 and had an OPS of .561. Most people, including Bill Simmons, thought he was over matched and the Sox had made a mistake. His second obstacle was the first month of 2007. Once again the only word to describe it was awful. He hit .182 and had an OPS of .544. He was getting worse and Alex Cora was putting up Big Papi type numbers(.360/ OPS 1.007) Everyone and I mean everyone, was calling for Pedroia to be benched and Cora to be the Sox 2nd basemen.

But things changed for both of these players. Youk gained value as a lead off hitter and played everyday. He mastered the art of playing first base, not his natural position, and is key part of this 2007 team. Pedroia never lost his job and has made the Sox very happy for the decision to stick with him. In May he hit .415 and had an unbelievable OPS of 1.072 and is now permanently sitting a top the Sox lineup. Both of these guys overcame the notion that maybe they were not cut out to make in the Majors and are both proving that not only do they belong, but they are key parts to the team with the best record in baseball.

Now, this next part is going to get quite cheesy but it must be written anyway. How does this apply to me? When I started out at the University of Utah I was an awful student. When I finished my first semester my grades were high enough to keep me off academic probation, but low enough that I got put on academic warning. I spent the next almost 3 years serving as missionary in both Brasil and Washington, learning what it takes to succeed. I returned home and went right back to school needing to prove that I belong. I had no critics around me, my family all believing that I could do it, besides myself. Over the next 3 years my study habits got better and I graduated by making the dean's list 2 of my last 3 semesters. I had proven myself wrong. This fall I will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obtain a Master of Health Care Administration. When I applied to UNC I did not believe I had a chance of gaining admittance. I would tell people that I did not think I would even go if I got, mostly to protect myself so when I did not get in I could just say I would not have even gone. I was surprised when I was asked to interview and then could not believe who I was interviewing with. The other students there attended schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford and I felt intimidated, like I did not belong. How could I be in a room with students of that caliber? A few weeks passed and to my surprise I was accepted and a few weeks later we decided that would be were we would attend. Once again I am my own worst critic. I feel like I am entering a school were I do not belong and very soon others will know it. I feel like an underdog, but this time an underdog who knows he can do it.

Amy found a way for me to get both the Youk and Pedroia shirts. These guys are my reminder what underdogs can accomplish.

Congrats to Slappy McBlue Lips

Today Arod became the youngest player to ever reach the 500 homerun mark. Seriously, congratulations. That is quite the achievement. This guy will make the Hall of Fame and there is a very very good chance he will break the homerun record that Barry Bonds is about to set. He will go down as one of the greatest to ever play...so once again congrats. BUT let us not forget who AFraud really is....
This is the ARod we all know and will always remember...no matter how many records he breaks. Thank you for the memories.

worst everyday player in the Majors