Closer to home

The Mackmen

For reasons I can't explain, I've been lusting after the above pictured 1950 Philadelphia A's home jersey from Mitchell &Ness. the problem, of course -- it costs $250.

Been too busy to post the past few days. I did watch some CONCACAF 2006 World Cup Qualifying and drank a lot of Old Style. I missed the big US loss at Mexico on sunday, but I caught the entire US/Guatemala match last night. The US cruised 2-0, but it wasn't that close. After the high altitude training for the Mexico game, the US looked fast against the overmatched Guatemaleans. The win puts the Americans in a solid position to qualify with their toughest test (at Mexico) behind them. Still not a sure thing, but close.

Cactus League Update: do you really want me to summarize the games from the last 3 days? The only real news was that Buehrle threw for 5 pain-free innings, 87 pitches allowing 2 ER and striking out 3.


The Sox have made some moves over the past few days.
-Brandon McCarthy has been (temporarily) reassigned to minor league training camp, along with Burke (which means Widger has won the back-up catcher job...for now). Once one of the old Cubans goes down, McCarthy will be in Chicago faster than you can say "alto!".
-The odd men out - Borchard, Davis and Adkins, were optioned to Charlotte. They'll also be up to the southside at some point in 2005.
-Felix Diaz was put on the 15-day DL with a right latisimus strain (I dunno, check yer freakin anatomy books, smart guy!).
-Valdez was released and picked up by the Met.
-Dustin Hermanson's suspension leftover from last season was reduced from 3 games to 1.
-Frank Thomas will rehab for "100 at bats" in Charlotte in April and May.

These moves leaves the roster at 27. It looks like Kevin Walker will be out, but its anyone's guess who unlucky #26 will be. I hope for Timo, but probably Gload or Harris.

The Sox get a bit closer to home tomorrow - taking on the Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee. There's a saturday night game as well. Both on TV. The weather looks like it should cooperate saturday, so maybe it will be a "roofless" game.

Baseball phrase of the day: scrub nine n. a team of rookies and/or substitute players.

Olde Tyme Movie Review : Moscow On the Hudson (1984). Dated but excellent Cold War-era comedy that has Robin Williams as a Russian saxophone player performing with the Moscow Circus who, while visiting the US and wdesiring to indulge inits decadence, defects in the cosmetics section of Bloomingdale's. Chaos ensues, and includes a very sexy performance from Maria Conchita Alonso

Today's music selection; the iPod shuffled in a laid back mode today; High Llamas Hawaii, The Church's Starfish, Cary Hudson The Phoenix, Del Amitri Waking Hours, and Wynton Marsalis Standard Time Vol 3.