timwakefield

Like I said, I know you guys love nothing more than everybody going on and on about the Sox-Yankees rivalry. But after what happened in '03/'04, it really had gotten stale because it had reached its apex. Not that nobody cared or was excited, but it could never be that exciting again.

I will still be surprised if the Yankees don't also sign Cano. The upside of the Ellsbury deal for Sox fans is that it immediately renews our stale rivalry with the Yankees. I'm sure you guys are all very excited about that.

Fuck. Fuckity fuck. More than wanting Ellsbury back, I wanted him to go anywhere but the Yankees. I love the guy, now I have to root against him and hope he's a huge bust. I'm not at all surprised, I had a fear all offseason that he would go there. EDIT: 7/153. So, I'm glad we didn't give him that, but still. The Yankees? THE YANKEES?!

Sox sign AJ Pierzynski for 1 year, $8.25m. Pretty excellent move. It's a super small contract, we have David Ross and Ryan Lavarnway to back him up, and it's a bridge to our somewhat highly touted catching prospects Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart who, everybody says, could each be ready in as little as a year. Now we just need to re-sign Napoli, get a CFer (I would actually be extremely happy if we can get Ellsbury for 6 years or less, but it doesn't seem to be in the works), and we're pretty well set.

At least as bad as the zombie shield was the bulletproof filing cabinet. Like a dozen bullets pinged off of it and didn't make a dent. It's sheet metal, bullets would go straight through it. Why not try to make it look more realistic when building the set? It just seems lazy. I dunno, I was kinda let down by the episode. The whole shootout just seemed too unbelievable. Way more good guys shoulda died. The Governor had a tank, which they mainly used to harmlessly shoot at random unmanned spots on the 2nd floor of the prison, rather than at people. Maybe I woulda liked it a bit m

It was a torrent.

It's definitely not terrible, and the main actress does a pretty phenomenal job at playing a number of different characters. It started off pretty good but then got a bit cliched and obvious, but I only made it through 5 of the 10 episodes. I still might go back to it. It may have been a let down because I too wanted to love it. I did like it okay though, you should definitely check it out.

Watched a few episodes of Orphan Black. It's okayish. Very visually impressive though (one actress plays a ton of different characters who all constantly interact with each other, and it's almost completely believable, visually). It's kind of like Lost, but in Canada and also there's all these doppelgangers. But the same sort of eyeroll cliffhangers and cheesy dialog and "spooky" mysteries.

It's actually outstanding and critically acclaimed. It's not a "cop drama" or some shit like that. It's good.

Any of you homos watched The Fall? It's dark and grisly and beautifully made. Really fucking good. Just 5 episodes in the first season, with another season coming sometime next year.

He's that good.

Yankees 8/195.

Well the Tigers have gotta be over the moon. I'm kind of amazed anyone wanted Fielder's contract.

Kermit Ruffins is pretty awesome, I've got his album "Live at Vaughan's." Looks like Dr. John will be on next week.

You guys finally convinced me to check out Justified.

Well somebody needed to say something after my dumb post about the WSOP.

Last word on Koji's amazing season - He took over as closer on June 26. From that time until the end of the season opponents hit .097/.108/.152 off of him, over 44.1 innings. He gave up 2 earned runs on 14 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 59. At one point he retired 37 straight batters, a streak of 11 consecutive perfect appearances. In the playoffs he went 13.2 innings and opponents hit .152/.152/.261 off him and scored 1 run.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/11/11/131111ta_talk_smith Short article by Patti Smith about Lou Reed's death. Sad as fuck, and also beautiful.

I dunno if any of you watched any of the coverage of the WSOP main event this year. I recorded the final table broadcasts and was watching a bit (they now do a massively long broadcast on ESPN2 and show every hand on a 15-minute delay). Anyway, I was only half-watching, but I kept hearing some portion of the crowd chanting "Larry Walker" at various points. I didn't know who they were supporting and didn't know why they were chanting it, and didn't think too much about it. That is, until this likeable young shortstacked Canadian got a walk in his big blind while the crowd was chanting

So you were right about the retro chick. She might be a good or even great chef (it's yet to be seen), but she's pretty damn annoying. I was sorry to see tomato boy go. Obviously he was completely outmatched by almost everyone, but he was also funny and weird in a good way.

This article explains it pretty well: http://www.fangraphs...-lackey-clause/ Basically he'd had some recent elbow troubles that the Sox were concerned about, so together they came up with this as a solution, and were willing to give him a juicy 5 year deal despite his elbow questions because of the clause. The article also says that Felix Hernandez's new contract has a similar clause. As far as players being reticent to accept a contract with a similar clause, I would kind of expect mlb owners/GMs might all try to just make it a standard thing for pitchers at least, considering

So John Lackey had a clause in his contract where if he missed a year due to Tommy John surgery (I'm not sure how specific the clause was, or if it covered any major injury) the Sox would get him for an extra year at the end of his contract for the league minimum. In 2014 he's making $15 million. In 2015 he's making $500k. Why isn't this standard?

Koji didn't allow a walk in his final 35 appearances.

"I use my single windup, my double windup, my triple windup, my hesitation windup, my no windup. I also use my step-n-pitch-it, my submariner, my sidearmer, and my bat dodger. Man's got to do what he's got to do." - Satchel Paige