there's an article in the NYT today with the headline: "rays show the way for african-american players." ... and there are old-time east coasters i know who still refuse to root for the bosox because "they were the last team to integrate" (so they say; i have no historical evidence of this).

the parallels are downright spooky!

seriously, though... i know people try to do this sports-as-predictor-of-election thing every four years, but it really doesn't work. especially when there are two wars going on and the economy's in the tank. and besides THAT, as i mentioned in my first letter, the rays are still in control of this series; they're gonna win.

just in case it IS true...

this, along with the 100,000 who gathered to see obama yesterday, support what you say -- more importantly, it shows that supporters are not getting complacent. just the opposite.

i've been predicting the race would tighten up as we near election day, for a variety of reasons. then again, i predicted the rays would win last night. sometimes i like being wrong and i hope i am this time, too.

what an incredibly articulate, moving speech in support of obama. colin powell, you could have had a great career as a politician in your own right if you hadn't forever tainted yourself carrying water for the despicable run-up to the war in iraq.

i think he had to make some bow to his conservative background and ties to mccain by saying "either would make a good president," but yeah, that made my stomach turn, too.

in the other thread on this i wrote that powell will forever be tainted for his role in not just not leaving the administration, but actively aiding the spread of lies ramping up the war effort. however, that does not mean he's totally beyond redemption. if what joan claims is true -- that this endorsement, combined with the record fundraising by obama this month, are the final nails in securing the election -- i could easily see a place for powell in an obama cabinet, especially after his moving and eloquent endorsement. there are 2nd -- even 3rd and 4th -- acts in american political lives.

"she seemed at ease, gracious, reserved and in control -- and, in both appearances, she had the last laugh."

if by at ease, gracious, reserved, etc. you mean stiff and seeming bizarrely unaware of how dissed she was, then sure, i guess so. and if by "last laugh" you mean that she managed to hang in there and deliver a line in a reasonably natural-sounding way, all right. but neither of her bits was funny. the humor was at her expense, not generated by or with her in any way. she was a good sport, i'll give her that, maybe more so than she should've been.

all in all one of the stranger television moments i've ever seen.

was just a month ago and i wasn't able to go and felt terribly about it. why? i think it's because i'm just extremely curious about the people i haven't kept in touch with, which is basically everyone except my "best friend" who still lives within miles of our school and keeps me up to date as much as possible. we got to talking on the phone just a couple days before and kept coming back to the fact it had been 20 years... we couldn't believe it. in the end he made me feel not so bad about not going, because looking over the guest list he discovered that it was mostly all the jocks and cheerleaders who'd be there -- and we definitely weren't in the popular crowd.

still, i wish i'd been able to go.

or something that actually would have been funny. seriously -- the bizareness of the glitch was that it took a full 10 minutes for there to be any acknowledgment that something untoward was happening... i was flipping back and forth between fox and tbs and flipping out on my wife before the minimalist scroll at least told me what was happening.

that said, i can't say i'm happy the rays won, but i had a feeling they would. sometimes a team coming back from a big deficit uses all their energy up just getting back even, and they have nothing left at the end. that's how the sox looked to me.

an evening of near misses: coco crisp failing to slide into the bag on the fielder's choice that would have loaded the bases with one out. he had beaten the throw, but missed the bag. pedroia just BARELY getting under one with two on in the 8th. ortiz swinging through ball four as pedroia got hung out to dry on a busted hit and run.

they just didn't have enough left in the tank.

... that's the name of the new band Bachman's kick-started...

good job, asswipe.

with regards to the red sox lineup, i guess we can just wait and see what happens next year. no significant issues with free agents, unless i'm mistaken -- i did not hear the announcers go into their usual "will this be the last time we see this lineup" routine that they typically do when a team has many impending free agents.

that said, i do think there's a legitimate issue with david ortiz. he looked like crap through the whole postseason, and it had nothing to do with protection. if the wrist really isn't healed, that's a major problem going into next year. and varitek -- who, come to think of it, really is a free agent now -- does indeed appear to be done. at what point does getting absolutely no offensive production outweigh the brilliant pitch-calling behind the plate? guess we'll find out.