or the yankees vs the dodgers or even the dodgers vs the giants

but the cardinals + cubs rivarly is a nice one

maybe a little too nice

and this year hopefully the cubs can break a few hearts (other than the man in the picture to the left who flew for some reason bought airline tickets from boston to minnesota to try to get nomar’s autograph despite the fact that the all star shortstop played for years in boston… until yesterday).

the cubs as you might know are in second place behind st louis in the national league central, ten and a half games out.

the cardinals have the best record in baseball at 67-37.

only one other team in baseball has over 60 wins and its a team with arod jeter sheff matsui rivera mussina v�zquez rivera and now olerud, and even they havent won as many as the redbirds.

and so when i declared this weekend on this very blog that it would not be the cardinals who would end this season in first place in the central, that instead it would be the cubs, i got a little flack from one particular JJ who left not one but four comments (rightfully) questioning my sanity.

“Ok, I did some math. AS I type, The Cards are 67-37, with 58 games remaing. Now, if they merely play .500 ball the rest of the way, 29-29, that puts them at 96-66, a pretty nice record probably good enough for the NL central title. By the same token, if the Cubs were to catch St. Lou, they need to go 39-18 the rest of the way which would be a lofty .684 clip. Possible? I suppose. Probable? Hell no.

Those 39 wins (which they won’t get anyway) are only good, remember, if the Cards play .500 the rest of the way, and they way they’ve been playing, I don’t forsee that happening. The fact is, Nomar is a nice addition, but the Cubs didn’t address their most pressing need, bullpen help. They’re not going to win the 39-45 of the last 57 games they need to win it with this team.”

– JJ

which made me do a little math.

the last time the cubs ended their season near 39-18 was a year when they finished their last 60 games 37-23.

that year happened to be last year.

a stretch in which they didnt have derrick lee, greg maddux, corey patterson, or nomah.

are those four guys the difference between two wins from last years finish? i would believe so.

are the cardinals going to continue this scorching hot streak, outpacing everyone in baseball including the yankees who somehow dont even need jason giambi?

i would believe not.

unlike the first two thirds of the season, the cubs are now relatively healthy. for the exception of mark prior who, when healthy, is virtually unhitable, this last third of the season finds the cubs at almost full strength with a favorable schedule including lots of games versus the mets, pirates, expos, and marlins.

of course the cubs dont have to make up ten games over ten weeks.

but they could.

and if they would do it to anyone, it wouldnt be sweeter than doing it to the cardinals.

who never did really anything bad to the cubs. and sorta, indirectly, gave us harry caray, who i would easilly give lou brock up for.

24 hour revenge therapy + virginia anne + aaron’s baseball blog

from blogging from the dnc convention. hes buying this crud that u2’s beautiful day was a bad choice for kerry to end his speech with.

hey, i don’t care if welch was ten feet from the podium, i was on my couch like most of america and it played better on tv than 98% of his sweaty speech.

welch claims that it’s sometime-pessimistic lyrics contradict what you’d expect for a theme song of sorts.

to which i want to say “what lyrics?”

here’s the lyrics to Beautiful Day, and i am someone who watched a LOT of tv, including mtv and vh1, i saw u2 twice on that tour, the first being the first time me and karisa ever hung out.

“it’s a beautiful day,

la la la la la its a beautiful day

blah blah blah

touch me!

blah blah blah blah

its a beautiful day,

lala lalala…”

i think it’s a great song because it’s ridiculously uplifting. bono has no business writing another classic anthem that will be played forever.

and although springsteen’s “no surrender” is a great tune with some real songwriting, Beautiful Day brings that message of hope to this new century. not only is No Surrender twenty years old, it feels 50 years old compared to u2.

i understand that after the speech, kerry and edwards went to a democrat fundraiser where ll cool j performed.

mamma said knock you out would be a cd i’d rock if i was in charge of the music at the next dozen kerry rallies.

matt is secretly a terrific singer songwriter + twenty-something + bob mould

i know it’s hard to believe. but it’s true.

ive kissed sisters. i’ve had three way kisses. lots of new years eve kisses.

ive kissed some people i probably shouldta, since they had boyfriends, etc. but that goes with the territory… i think.

some of the kisses have been drunken sloppy ones where hands started grabbing all over here-n-there.

some were rolling on the ground dunken ones. some were hey we’re in an elevator lets kiss ones.

a few years ago i was on a weird little streak of trying to only kiss girls in their teens. they ended up kissing a lot like girls who were no longer in their teens.

you cant really predict how good or bad someone is going to kiss. pretty girls arent always pretty kissers, and normal lookin girls sometimes kiss beautifully.

i once fell asleep while kissing a girl, and she wont kiss me any more for unrelated reasons.

sometimes a nice long kiss on the cheek, if you can believe it, is hotter than any other sort of kiss. i dont know how thats possible, but it is. trust me, it is.

with that said i dont know where the best kiss i ever got was or who it was with.

but one time i was skatingboarding in isla vista coming home from a burrito place.

i saw three young women sitting on the curb giggling.

hey tony! they yelled.

yes they were on the popular recreational drug at the time, ecstasy.

they wanted to kiss me. one at a time.

i had a girlfriend at the time so i had to say no.

my girlfriend at the time, however, they reminded me, was cheating on me.

plus it was only a kiss they said.

so i sat on my skateboard and watched them put on some lip gloss

and i kissed the first girl

and i slid down a foot to the next

and then i slid down to the next

and i nearly fell over

and they laughed and laughed until i asked for a do over.

no do overs! they yelled and laughed and i skated home forgetting to make them kiss each other.

ken layne + paige + low culture

they say they’re not trying to but they are. im not paranoid, im flattered.

got into the office today and there was chopper one being worked on.

the mechanics were all, “hope you have a good book.”

i was all, “i have a great book.”

they went, “hope it’s long.”

apparently the suits showed up over the weekend and tried out some new pilots.

behind my back.

and they not only failed, but the brainiacs fucked up the priceless helicopter that has had its problems over the years, but nothing that has grounded it for a week, like the mechanics are predicting.

“why dont you take a little vay-kay?” they asked me while on a little smoke break.

why should i burn vacation days just because they damaged my fucking vehicle? i asked them and pulled up a little beach chair and flipped open my laptop and shaved the stubble off the top of my head.

what i dont understand is im not getting paid very much, i havent been sick in years, i get along with pretty much every one. i have zero aspirations in going into management.

and yet at every turn it appears that theyre trying to squeeze me out. out of what? out of a crappy ass dangerous job where almost any day i could literally die on the job.

so the good news is, maybe this week i can blog the way that i’d like to blog: a shitload.

today we begin our Olympic pre-write coverage. Above you see Logan Tom, outside hitter for the US womens vollyball team.

the 23 year old will be competing in her second olympiad. The four time American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American was a NCAA Final Four All-Tournament team selection while at Stanford.

In her final two years at school, the Long Beach resident was the AVCA National Player of the Year and the 2002 Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Tom was a highschool phenom at Salt Lake City’s Highland High where she led her Rams to two state championships and was crowned the 1998-99 Gatorade Circle of Champions National High School Volleyball Player of the Year.

The hottie was also a straight A student and the homecoming queen.

Tom, 6’0″, then went to Stanford which in her freshman year became only the fourth freshman to make the AVCA All-America first-team, and helped lead the Cardinal to the 1999 NCAA Championship match.

She made the jump to the US Olympic Team in 2000 while taking her sophomore year off. At 19 she was the youngest player on the team and the only collegiate player, earning the nickname Doogie, as in Doogie Howser.

If Tom can lead the US team to victory, it will be the first time the US women’s team has ever won gold. They are currently ranked #2 in the world behind China.

over the last two years logan has played professionally in brazil and in italy.

vodka pundit + flagrant never bores me + sk smith