Random thoughts

Hello,

Yes I'll start working on the Salt Lake City Taylor Swift concert review soon. I just have some random thoughts that I want to get out of the way first.

With two of my MLB teams having history making collapses, I felt like I just couldn't ignore it like nothing happened. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed that both Boston and Atlanta choked up such big leads. Out of my five teams I think Atlanta is set up the best moving forward. They have a lot of great young pitchers and a fairly young offense. Also with Chipper Jones possibly playing his last season next season, they have extra motivation. Just some quick thoughts about my other teams.

First of all I suggest Boston bring back both Theo Epstein and Terry Francona.

Boston desperately needs some starting pitching. I can't believe with how much money they spend on their roster they don't have a better pitching staff. And the depressing thing is they still over $20 million total to the ineffective Jon Lackey and injured Daisuke Matzusaka next season. I wish contracts were non guaranteed like in football. The Red Sox could put Lackey, pay his guaranteed amount money and get rid of the bum.

Here's their players that are up for free agency. David Ortiz, who earned $12 million dollars last year, I'm 50/50 on whether they should bring him back next season. Jonathan Papelbon will probably be too expensive to bring back, besides they have Daniel Bard already. I don't know if Bard will be able to shake his late season struggles though. J.D. Drew and Erik Bedard: Escort both injury prone players out of asap. J.D. Drew was a terrible signing.

The Red Sox paid Drew $5,645 per at bat this season. As usual the injury prone Drew missed too many games, only playing in half of Boston's games. For $14,000,000 shouldn't the Red Sox received more production than 4 home runs, 22 RBIs and .222 batting average? I would like to use Drew as an example that Boston's collapse isn't either Terry Francona or Theo Epstein's fault. Should Epstein known that Drew was so injury prone? Sure, but did he know how worthless of a player he would end up being? No. Then it's not Francona's fault either, he can only do the best he can with the players he's given. There's not a whole lot he can do with a washed up player who can only give you a half of a season. Also Jon Lackey and his 6.41 ERA isn't Francona's fault. Both Lackey and Matsuzaka vastly underplayed their contracts so far and little hope that anything will change next season.

For Jason Varitek they should plan a huge retirement party. And if they can get Tim Wakefield back for $2,000,000 again, I would say that Boston should go for it. He was a huge innings eater and possibly their least injury prone player.

For the LA Dodgers they need to make sure they can keep Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp around for the next several seasons. They are two solid pieces to build their foundation on. For having such a mediocre season, I'm glad the Dodgers have solid contenders for both the Cy Young and MVP awards. Also they need to get rid of Frank McCourt asap and I'm grateful for MLB helping that process along. With all the McCourt nonsense and injuries, Don Mattingly did a very good job given what he had. The nice run at the end of the season gives Dodgers fans some optimism for the future. Also Albert Pujols would look great in a Dodgers uniform!

Pittsburgh off season needs include getting another bat to help Andrew McCutcheon. I realize with how cheap the Pittsburgh ownership is, that might not be very likely. McCutcheon also needs to work hard in the offseason to become at least a .300 hitter. If the Pirates are ever going to be a great team, they need more from him than .259 BA, 23 Home Runs and 89 RBIs. Other than that things seem to be heading in the right direction.

Now for the Cubs, sigh!, they just need to blow their whole team up and start over. Getting rid of Jim Hendry is a good first step. Step two, get a decent manager. Mike Quade isn't the answer, but either were Dusty Baker or Lou Pinella. I don't have a recommendation for them, but they desperately can't mess up when they get their next manager. Chicago also needs to get rid of all their malcontent players starting with Carlos Zambrano. It's also time to start working on finding the replacements for the overpaid Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriono. Carlos Marmol obviously isn't the answer as their closer. Although he did have 34 saves, more importantly he had 10 blown saves. That's not much of a closer. Those blown saves always seemed to be at the worst time possible as well. I'm glad they traded Kosuke Fukudome away.

Other news: David Stern is threatening to cancel the NBA season, which he obviously is using as a negotiating ploy. To David Stern I say: You are threatening to cancel the season and...? In other words don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. I would love to see this NBA season cancelled. Not only does NBA owners and players need a shot of bracing reality, but it would be fun to see all these NBA players to play in other countries.

Also BYU plays tonight for their second Friday in a row. I'm having a hard time believing I'm writing this, but I'm scared of USU. No matter how BYU has been in the past, they almost could guarantee a victory over USU each season. That is when USU beat BYU in Logan. I expect another tough game tonight. I would feel much more comfortable if Jake Heaps was more experienced and looked a lot better than he did in the first four games. If I was Brandon Doman, first of all BYU would be in real trouble. But anyway I'd emphasize the run as much as possible again. BYU was much more effective when running the ball than passing the ball. Again I suggest BYU hides Jake Heaps as much as possible.

TV update: So far I've watched the first 18 episodes of Season One of "Lost". I'm still enjoying the show although the middle of Season One is a bit slow. However I find that I need to keep myself from falling completely into the "Lost" universe or it might suck away my entire life. I also must say that John Locke is one of the most interesting characters ever. I love everything that he knows, how many people can tell you about Nigerian money? Some of the flashbacks have been cool, although they are starting to wear out their charm now.

I also watched the first episode of "Pan Am". I know it's the same period, but this show reminds me so much of "Mad Men". I keep on waiting for Don Draper to show up. This show had a good premiere, although a bit formulaic. I'm excited to find out more about the French woman, Collete. Is it a coincidence that two of the most interesting characters on "Lost" and this show are French women?

Episode 2 of "Revenge" was better than I expected, another show with a lot of beautiful women. Also I'm surprised how little I've cared about the "X Factor". I haven't seen a second of it so far this season and I'm not even sure what nights its on.

Here are some great songs:

A great country song by Anne Murray:



The great and under appreciated Linda Ronstadt. Back in 1989 Linda Ronstadt released a CD titled "Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind". Quite simply it's an amazing CD. This is one of my favorite songs on the CD, "Still Within The Sound Of My Voice":



One more from that amazing CD "Don't Know Much":



"Danger Zone":



I also like this Kenny Loggins song from "Top Gun". Warning you are about to see a very corny, unintentionally hilarious 80's video. But I love the chorus of this song, "Playing WIth The Boys":



Ashes Remain's "On My Own":



Prepare to get your butt kicked, Metallica's "Through The Never":



While exercising this morning I was thinking about life and I started thinking about the whole fubar experience of dating. This song isn't directed to anyone, it's just directed to the frustration of dating:



themusicaddict