You're right, it's an exaggeration to claim Bay can't give the Sox equal or better overall production than Manny for the rest of this season and next. But it's not about the numbers. While a goofball and a flake, Manny's been remarkably consistent at a very high level for a very long time. He's slipped this year, but fans, pitchers, and opposing managers still arguably perceive him as the Manny of old: a nightmare to face with the game on the line. Bay cannot strike the same fear, and that's bound to hurt the Sox (unless, as King would say, it doesn't).

And I agree w/ you on the Pirates. People have criticized them for not netting a Longoria-type prospect, but with sheer numbers some of these guys are bound to pan out. They did fine.

Is that it's Elizabeth Bennett whose pride gets in the way of the match. D'Arcy actually turns out to be a good guy, as others have noted.

Dowd is an idiot.

To the first poster: agreed that every country, especially a first world power like the US, must look around at its glass house before casting stones. But last time I checked, the US wasn't routinely hustling its own citizens off into the shadows to kill or imprison them for the mere act of dissidence. That's just the thin edge of the wedge of the human rights issues that are bothering people about China and these Olympics, me included.

As someone who remembers all too vividly the events in Tianenmen Square almost 20 years ago, it's particularly troublesome to see China using that space as a staging venue, spiffed up as if nothing happened.

My wife has vowed to boycott these games, sad because we're both crazy about Olympic competition. But there's just no way to watch them and forget about all this.

By the way -- all this "glass houses" talk, a phrase I've used myself, is kind of a circular argument, no? Just because you disagree with U.S. policies and etc. in recent years doesn't mean that you should ignore what's going in China and/or embrace the Olympics because "we're just as bad."

What's wrong with protesting here with your votes, your dollars, and whatever else you want to do, as well as objecting to China's rights record and its approach to these Games? Likewise, I don't think King or other journalists should shrink from criticizing China out of some kind of political embarrassment.

are 2x voters for GW Bush and supposedly will vote for Obama. I say supposedly, because we've been down this road before, only to have them get into the booth and pull the lever the other way, which they've sheepishly admitted to me after the fact. This time, their frustration level with the ineptitude of the current administration, the war, and the economy might be too much to waver from.

But on a recent visit, my father asked me, ominously, if I'd heard about the new book about Obama "by that guy who did the Kerry stuff." I'm bracing myself for the inevitable doubt that creeps in based on some kooky "fact" from one of these smear documents, which have already begun to come fast and furious.

I hear what you're saying about "my uncle charlie," but I really do believe that if my folks remain steadfast and vote for Barack, he will win the election. The demographic they represent is simply too large, and too ready for change.

I didn't see Bolt's 100 meter run, and thus the supposed showboating. I have to agree, however, that short of doing a cartwheel with 10 meters to go while flipping off his competitors and roman candles shooting out of his ass, I don't get what Bolt could possibly have done to offend "Rogue" and whoever "we" is. They should be celebrating him and his great accomplishment.

Then again, these are the same tone-deaf morons who gave us the shady dealings that awarded the games to Salt Lake City, the horrendous judging scandal at those games, and the many less-than-savory aspects of these games (see 79-yr-old women assigned to labor camps for applying for protest permits; 12-yr-old girls masquerading as 16-yr-old gymnasts, etc.) that King rightly points out.

Luckily, I live close enough to Canada that I can pick up the CBC broadcast, which I turn to whenever I have the chance. There is some rooting for the home athlete, but necessarily less since there are far fewer events Canadians are competitive in.

I think the tipping point for me came early on after the dramatic US swimming relay win, when the announcers couldn't help gleefully rubbing it in the French team's face. Yuck. This kind of gloating is especially distasteful given how quick people are to jump on other countries' athletes (see: the Usain furor).

In the immortal words of Crash Davis: Act like you've been here before, meat; and don't show the other guy up.

First Palin was a "stroke of genius" pick for McCain's VP, energizing the base and motivating recalcitrant conservatives to get off their butts and start working hard for their candidate. Seems I read that line a mere 72 hours ago, and it sent a foreboding shiver down my spine, till I realized, "Wait, it's still just the end of August, there's a long ways to go."

Now the pick's going down in flames -- kinda sorta -- and instead of rubbing my hands with glee and waiting for Palin and McCain to shrivel up and vanish before my very eyes, I'm falling back on the same realization. This is a close race now, and it's going to be a close race whether McCain has Palin at his side or Dwight D. Eisenhower or Daffy Duck. The reason is simple: 95% of the country is already decided, loathes the other party, and is about as polarized as it can possibly be. The other 5% are apparently not paying attention, and probably won't for quite some time yet.