My grandpa - aka the dentist to the big red machine, and a damn fine jazz musician - was good pals with Woody and Earl Bruce. I believe Bruce was coaching the game you watched. I would tag along with gramps to Columbus as a boy to watch the Bucks. Tradition held that we would spend all morning at the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow (interesting name for the place the geezers gathered before games). I remember looking at Bruce in some ostentatious blazer knocking back martinis with my grandpa. I would wonder, "how did that guy hold John Cooper's job"?

Can't wait to touch down at LAX on Friday night. I'll be wearing your old red blazer to the game Grandpa. Here's hoping we win. See you on the other side.

O-H....

I caught the last 5 innings or so. One thing stuck out. They had Big Papi sacrafice bunt a guy into scoring position in about the 12th.

He succeeded, but I didn't quite get it. Okay, you get the guy to second - and you took the bat out of Papi's hands.

I think he's hit roughly 600 walk offs homers in Boston.

If he's injured or hurt at all - I get it. But if he's healthy you must give him a chance to end the game with a swing.

I got paid today. Let's see where some of those taxes went.

I'm helping to pay for this new Yankee Stadium. Thanks to Brodsky and Kaufman I now know I'm getting screwed.

I'm helping to pay for the war in Iraq. Enough said.

I'm helping to pay for rebuilding New Orleans. Absurd. I'm sorry New Orleanians, you're city is under sea level - and it sits next to the sea. I'm sorry it's where you're family has lived. I don't see why I have to pay for your city to be rebuilt. The city won't last long.

That's like taking a shower before running a 10k. You're going to need another one when it's over. Except, instead of a shower, we're talking about 300 billion dollars.

Fair points. Okay, rebuild and fortify the New Orleans Port. Very little else.

And I'm sure the game will start around 9:15pm and end around 1:30am. Thanks MLB and ESPN!

Middle finger right back atcha.

You need to quit throwing snowballs with dogshit packed in the middle.

My solution: the marriage form should be fill in the blank. If they can sign their names, they can probably write 'bride' or 'groom' or 'man' or 'woman' or '_w_h_a_t_e_v_e_r_'.

The government would recognize the couple as Party A and Party B for internal use - and no newlyweds would be offended by the form.

Or should the snowball fight continue?

I'm surprised you didn't mention the obvious tension between Michael Kay and Joe Morgan.

Kay was annoying the whole time. I bet he was invited into the booth to talk about announcing for the Yanks for a long time. Instead, he turned on his YES persona and announced the game. Edging out Miller and Morgan.

Morgan slammed Girardi for the way he handled Cano. Kay went back to announcing the game. Morgan picks at A-Rod's lack of cluch hitting, even defending A-Rod, and Kay wasn't really having it - or he is simply unable to engage in that type of converstaion.

I think that Kay doesn't like Joe Morgan because Joe dismantled his Yankees in the 76 World Series (just a guess), and hit the leadoff homer in the 77 All-Star game in the Bronx. And, Joe Morgan simply outclasses Michael Kay. Kay announces games to the least baseball literate fan-base in the game - Yankees fans (my opinion). Joe Morgan has the big national stage and the Hall of Fame career while Michael Kay spends his time shining his drool off of Derek Jeter's shoes.

Highlighting the tension -- Michael Kay thanking only Johnny for having him in the booth.

Consistency is important. You win with guys who are consistently good regardless of the situation. But, I don't buy that consistency = clutch.

To me, 'clutch' is getting big hits when the chips are down. Clutch is producing and it's overproducing. It's never underproducing.

A-Rod isn't clutch because he hasn't risen to his status quo in the playoffs.

Clutch is all-stars producing..(Jeter, Manny, Orel, Larkin, Joe D, Maddux, ... Any big guy who did it on the biggest stage, with a flair).

And, clutch is overproducing. Not as many examples of this. Tabler, Eckstein, maybe Millar - or an outlier like Aaron Boone.

To wrap this up - clutch is overproducing in big situations (interpret big situations as you wish) - clutch is playing like a stud in the playoffs (can't say those dudes aren't clutch) - and most importantly clutch isn't flying under the radar or sucking in big situations.

Clutch is more nuanced than consistency - unless you are consistenly badass (then you're grandfathered in)

Cheap Seats

He would better serve the Raiders in a foolish set of shoulder pads with tin-foil spikes. Making crazy deranged faces into the camera. That would be his most valuable addition to the team.

While we're on the topic of NFL futility. I think the Bengals should move to LA. I really believe that. Look at all the good reasons. Carson. The fun uniforms. LA Bengals sounds good. It's not Cincinnati. A change of scenery is just what those lame cats need. Maybe we can let Millen lead em.