Well, if you're coming here -- and why would you -- for World Series news all I can say is: why would you? I know at some point I will watch some of it (why would I?) and have something to say. So far the most interesting tidbit to come my way is the fact that 400 year old Arthur Rhodes, who has one of those records for appearances without one of them coming in the Fall Classic (until this year), is double-dipping his chip. As part of the Texas Rangers until his release in August, the old reliever gets a ring no matter what -- win or lose -- as the Rangers have voted him a share in Texas as well as his due for coming out of the Card bullpen.


So, I took my favorite 10 year old to the movies yesterday and while I will say that "Dolphin Tale" is pretty good family fare it was rated PG and I wish someone had guided me a little; without getting into too much detail let's just say that neither she or I expected the movie to take us to a VA Hospital while her folks were at the VA Hospital. It's bad enough that my life imitates my art; I didn't expect that to be contagious, but there you are...

I have "committed" myself to another Nanowrimo; did I say that last time? All I have at present is a title: "Warm Button Issues." Perhaps it's SciFi, but I don't really think so. And yeah, I keep writing books that I don't do much with and barely let people read, but it just dawned on me that I probably wrote ten scripts to learn, then hone my craft without any real driving need to have anyone read them. Some stuff is to stock the drawer, right?

And I am near about to ask a new friend who actually seems to enjoy such endeavors to be the MC for Batting for Punto; of course no one including my co-conspirator in the writers salon knows of my plan. I guess you do now too, but you are awful quiet. Sometimes I doubt you have hands or mouth...

Okay, I'm going to run along a lake before it freezes...

Cheers,
Brian

First blog scribbled in the new place. Thurman locked in the bathroom being far too quiet for my comfort as the landlady's handyman/husband puts door closers on my front door. I had started to ask someone what a door closer was and found myself about to ask how frequently the Weekly World News comes out or when Saturday Night Live is on (although if you asked my opinion I'd say it went off the air twenty years ago). But that's what's happening as I write this.

And I can write this as I finally installed my internet and wireless. And yes, it had been activated last night and I did attempt to install, but doing so in the dark (literally as I haven't got much in the way of anything outside of "mood lighting") and having had some whiskey with a visiting friend (I am so central that friends keep stopping by and as long as they bring whiskey and beer and stuff it will be great for winter) I apparently was trying to put the phone Jack into the Jill -- if you catch my drift.

But even with the still very spartan surroundings -- and I don't plan on taking it that much past that -- I have a good spot from which to type: facing doors, facing windows out to the street all bode well. But, in two weeks I also move my desk into the downtown loft space and expect to have some good and quiet writing ahead of me there. It does coincide well with the start of Nanowrimo (www.nanowrimo.org) and even though I have nothing I want to write (outside of the Cave Girl movie) but I guess I have a week or two to come up with something resembling a plot...


Okay, okay - yes I am aware that the World Series starts tomorrow. And I suspect that I will watch some of it, but rooting for the Texas Rangers has very little appeal; I would rather Ron Washington touch that trophy than goddamn LaRussa but it's only the lesser of two evils. And the Rangers winning it all may embolden Nolan Ryan into not only trying to keep CJ Wilson (who, really is going to cost himself a lot of potential Yankee cash if he doesn't pitch well in the Series) and into going after CC, should he opt-out of his contract.

Cheers,
Brian

I missed much of yesterday's games having a social life. Sorry. Hope you watched; I wouldn't have been happy with either result; the ALCS game was tied late the last I had looked. Oh well. Instead of the sought-after Mid-West battle it's starting to look an awful lot like a St. Louis vs. Texas World Series is in the cards; I would have to root for the Rangers by default, but I doubt I'll seek out watching much of it. When's the Super Bowl?

Things are getting uglier and uglier in Boston after Francona was sacked and Theo Epstein was permitted to leave to the Cubs. Guess the thinking in Chicago is if he could break their curse he can break their's too; I'd call that unlikely-- at best.

Indian Summer looks like it's met its trail of tears. Cold, gray, windy and rainy and that's just 'til the snows come. I'm hoping I'm covered for that. Well, not covered by snow... not totally.

I feel a big rant coming on. It won't be today of that I am certain, but it's bubbling up and this may be the only forum on which I may let it fly. You'll be the first to know and mind you-- it ain't baseball related. Nope.

Okay, that's it for today. Need to get back to packing I suppose although that activity is feeling awfully familiar...

Thanks,
B.

So much for my baseball predictions. Alberta answered Tony Plush so loud it's probably still ringing in Nyjer Morgan's ears and the Cards made the Brew Crew look very beatable especially heading to St. Louis for the next three games.

Meanwhile, Texas came back against Detroit, forced extra innings and Nelson Cruz became the first in MLB post-season history to hit a walk-off, grand slam. The Tigers are ailing, but need to turn it on as the ALCS shifts to the Motor City.

In the world of the New York Yankees there are conflicting reports of whether Brian Cashman will return as GM. His 3-year contract expires at the end of the month and while he is still on the job, and initially word had hit the NY papers that a contract was in the works, but Cash' told the same papers that that simply is not true.  He claims that there has been no communication and no progress either forward or back. I am not sure whether re-signing Cashman is the way to go or not.

In some ways being the GM of the Yankees is the best and easiest job in the biz: you have all the money and the prestige behind you, but in other ways it's always a losing proposition unless you win the World Series each and every year. Other teams use the Yanks as a negotiating tactic, agents and the players they represent do the same thing.

And I do give great respect to Cash' for what he pulled off this year. In the Yankee brain, we "lost" both Andy Pettitte and Cliff Lee in the off-season; they were both "supposed" to be in Pinstripes in 2011 and despite all the great efforts of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia (who Cash' signed off garbage heaps and they helped the Yanks to the division and the best record in the AL) and the other castoffs that wound up filling the bullpen; a bullpen that wound up being the best in the league DESPITE getting nothing from Feliciano and Marte and injury-plagued seasons from Joba and Soriano. And he did that while being saddled with some huge contracts (including Soriano for 3 years which the GM was quite opposed to, but he did sign the lame Feliciano so... a push at best?) and plucking guys who came to the Bronx hungry and performed above all expectations. I'm talking about Ayala, Wade and that other guy here in case you're wondering.

Hmm... I maybe just talked myself into backing Brian Cashman into re-signing the GM. It's not like Billy Beane would work in NY. By the way, hadn't read "Moneyball," but enjoyed the movie far more than I expected to; I can really recommend it and it's rare that that happens...

Ok, I've got boxes to fill and emails to wordsmith to potential muses; better than a gub at the back of your head.

Cheers,
Brian

Well, now that the baseball season is officially over (Yes, I know the playoffs are going and Yes, I have watched quite a bit of even though the online package is essentially done-with (Yes, I do have the Tigers/Rangers game on the online radio. And if I had my way it would be an all Mid-West World Series, and No, I don't mean the Cards and LaRussa. Rooting for Tigers vs. Brewers in the Fall Classic and for Tony Freakin' Plush and the new Brew Crew to hoist the trophy if someone has to...) and you're probably wondering how I spend my time during the off-season.

I have a cave by a lake all picked out and it seems as if the sun is playing along. Could be that it's a gloomy-ish day, but Thurman was just requesting dinner more than an hour before dinnertime. I tried to explain how the digital clock on the stove works to him with less than stellar results.

Skipped out on the second rain-delay in game 1 of the ALCS; went to a party and spent a great portion of the evening in a hidden away hot-tub with a lovely, free-spirited young woman. Who won the game? Texas? Oh... Okay.

Meanwhile I was dog-sitting for some friends and despite a real fear of the seizures one of the pups was having we had only one real scare, but he was only "playing dead." No, I didn't kick him...

Tonight I'm going to try out the best local brewery's new release Surly Wet along with some food pairings, some cooked with the brewery's beer.

And I got to take a spin in a dear friend's brand-spanking new-fangled ulta-high-tech wheelchair; it's one of the kinds that can go up hills, lift up, stop on a dime et al. Goes about 6mph on the straightaway (perfect for TTITD) and can spin you around in a circle. I tried to break it, but only wound up stuck in a cut-out in the pavement and spinning my wheels in the leaves on the ground...

Okay, I'm going back to the baseball game...

Cheers,
Brian

Well, that's that- the Yankee season came to a grinding halt last night in the Bronx. It was win or go home and the Bombers did just that and they are going home. And although that old adage of "good pitching beats good hitting" very well may be true, but the Yanks were a hit here or there from taking the series and failed. Do I blame A-Rod? To some degree although sitting here there's no way to tell how healthy and ready for the series he actually was. But from that same seat, when A-Rod looked like he had nothing in the clean-up spot (he got 3 rbi early on but none from hits; his only 2 were late in a blow out game) and although I didn't have George's Ghost tweet it or write it here, I was privately calling for his benching and substituting the lefty Eric Chavez at third especially against the Tigers all right-handed starting staff.

I didn't hear one other commentator call for that. And feh, it probably would have been easier had AJ just been his inconsistent self; the Tigers would not have had the chance to celebrate on our field- first time at the new Yankee Stadium coincidentally.

And as the Yanks are built to take the ring, this is now 5 times in the last decade that they've been bounced in the first round. Cashman's contract is up and while there's talk that it will just be extended, this could be the chance to look around and see if there's anyone out there more up to the task of supplying this team with the tools (ARMS!) that they need to get the ring.

We're going to be saddled with A-Rod's albatross on a contract and after he most likely opts out so that he may opt right back in with an extra year and some extra money CC will most likely not be the same pitcher he's been four, five years down the line.

But this off-season one would have to imagine beside re-signing CC (and you have to figure the bosox will attempt to pry him away or, at the very least, drive up his price; it's the off-field battles between NY and Boston clubs that have maintained the animosity; one could say the sox owe the Yanks one for Crawford) that the Yankee GM will go very hard after Texas lefty CJ Wilson. A 2012 starting rotation of: CC, Nova, AJ, Hughes and CJ Wilson is a nice mix of righty/lefty and youth/experience. The bullpen was rock steady this year and hopefully will get something out of the oft-injured parts of the pen we haven't seen.

Anyway, I will leave the hot-stove stuff until the season is officially over. Now? Now I root for an all Mid-West World Series -- and I don't mean the Cards, although I'd be fine with them knocking out the Phillies but to a lesser degree since the Yanks, sadly, won't get to face either.

So yeah, let's go Brew Crew and yeah, I'll root for the Tigers now. WI vs. MI has a nice ring to it and at least the games will be in my time zone. Sadly that's all that's left...

Brian

Well... Batting for Punto: A Salon is officially postponed yet again. The silver lining is that when it does happen -- and it will -- we won't be going off half-cocked, so there's that. November, if it's not snowing, seems a much better month to sit inside and hear people talk about baseball and apple pie; I don't know if there's really any good season to talk about Mom...

But speaking of baseball it was a good thing that I decided to forego HSBG this year as the music would have been in direct conflict with the Yankee post-season ALDS schedule. So I got to see Freddy Garcia have just enough to lose to the Tigers yesterday and the bats finally wake up against the Tiger bullpen in the 9th which turned out to be just about enough to lose interestingly. You can't complain too much when you're able to bring the tying run to the plate in the 9th in the big bat of Robinson Cano; interestingly enough, Detroit skipper Jim Leyland actually considered walking Cano, putting the tying runs in scoring position and taking their chances with A-Rod still in the clean-up spot.

But Cano grounded out to second to end the game.

The upside of Friday night's rain-out was getting the tough Verlander out of there setting up this crucial "re-match" tonight between he and CC Sabathia for the Yankees. And I'd bet that the big lefthander has the same thing on his mind that I do: the loss of the off-day for travel means that AJ Burnett gets the ball and the start in tomorrow's game 4. It's bad enough for the team, the fans and my liver that Burnett gets to pitch; if the Yanks are down 2-1 the season rests in AJ's rather unstable hands and head. I expect CC to stand up like the #1 he is and make things really tough on the Tigers. The Yankee bats need to continue what they started in the Bronx and make Verlander throw a lot of pitches and get into their pen. That is the formula.


In script news, at least I am getting some interest on a few projects. "Crawlspace Charlie" has been passed upstairs at one production company and just went out to another. I have a sample scene to submit for a horror movie work-for-hire that would be just what the doctor ordered should I get the gig. "Head On" also went out as a sample today in a attempt to secure another gig for a company with a decent sized upcoming slate. Keep 'em crossed for me...

Okay, go read a book and then watch some baseball.

Cheers,
Brian