had some people over yesterday.

didnt plan it that way but there were these australian hitchhikers that i met at the vons. three of them got their paths crossed with some dirty acid.

i have a soft spot for travelers since ive travelled here and there on occasion and i know how vulnerable you can be.

took them to the castle, sat em on the couch, turned on the slow jams, talked about elvis.

doesnt matter what country youre from, your age, your political disposition, race, height, youre going to have an opinion about the king of rock and roll, especially if im leading the proceedings.

the girls thought that elvis was just ok but me and the fella were on the side of theres only one king, and there will only be one.

then we flipped on the tv looking for elvis movies but instead we stopped at the womens college softball world series.

now, i have a big tv.

thirty five inch (diagonal) picture tube made in japan by the mitsubishi company. sold to me by two gay guys who complained that it was too big.

and i had successfully mellowed out these four attractive australian girls by talking about elvis presley and allowing them the freedom to smoke their marijuana. yes i know it is illegal, but i thought i would turn a blind eye since they are foreigners and in very bad shape.

and then we saw berkeley bear first baseman veronica nelson on my glorious television.

and then we saw veronica nelson smack a home run

in the college world series

live from oklahoma city, where i am sure mad pony kristin was in attendance cuz she is perfect in nearly every other way.

and i turned to my guests and they were in tears.

it was a beautiful site. these people didnt really even know the rules of baseball, but they understood the triumph of the moment.

or they were laughing at her.

it was hard to tell.

it appeared that i had gotten a contact high.

so with my mind racing i made a big ass photo essay, for your asses.

city rag + leah +

the year was nineteen ninety

it was a more simpler time. when the first president bush sent us to iraq it was fucked up but no americans died. except those who shot each other on accident or smashed their helicopters against the ground.

saddam was still in power with his rape rooms but we were all its cool its cool. iraqis had the right to vote – they had the right to vote for anyone named saddam hussein. and again it was all good cuz even though these were the days of imbeciles youd also get voted out after a while.

like i say, they were simpler times.

didnt matter what radio station you listened to there was always something good on. they even tried to ruin it with pearl jam and stone temple fuckups but it just ended up sounding pretty decent no matter what they threw at us.

gasoline was ninety nine cents a gallon, girls would blow you on the first date without thinkng twice about it, and if you had a computer with a 40 MB hard drive you were so far ahead of the game it was retarded. i remember asking my roommate what the hell are we going to do with 40 megs – fly to the moon?

matt welch and i were 16 years old and we were allowed into ucsb early because we destroyed all over their standardized tests. me, i also had an incredible letter of recommendation from the mayor of my town and welch had pictures of the former chancellor with his nanny. we were set.

part of our scholarship was an agreement that we would give back to the community. of course we thought that it meant that we would either do some male modeling or supervise the amount of sunscreen that the coeds were using on the beach. when we were presented with the option of coaching 9 and 10 year old kids baseball, welch and i jumped at the chance.

with visions of undefeated seasons and decades of dynasties we scoffed at the santa barbara little league officials who told us that we were getting the worst team and considered it a minor challenge.

when we lost our first game 79-2 we understood what we were up against.

i had one kid hunting for strawberries in right field, i had one kid in the early stages of gang warfare at third base, and i had one adorable little chubby cheeked angel pissing his pants in the batters box.

1990. it was a season i will never forget. when my college girlfriend jeanine posted this picture to her buzznet page yesterday and i did the math and realized as welchie did that all these kids were either college grads by now or dead or in iraq it really brought home the olde saying that time really does fly.

it does my friends so do something memorable every spring.

who needs lameass blog debates

goose bumpswhen we have the ultimate grudge match

Yanks vs Sox, game seven, tonight, 5pm pst

from Bill Simmons today on ESPN.com:

Wait a second … I’m supposed to write about this???

I don’t have a central nervous system left. My head weighs more than Verne Troyer. My heart feels like somebody tried to make meatballs out of it. I can’t think straight. I’m a corpse. I’m a walking corpse.

If the Sox take this thing, they’ll rename the state Papichusetts.

For two straight days, I watched my beloved Red Sox stave off elimination against the Yanks, needing 26 innings over 27 hours to stay alive for Game 6 in New York. These weren’t just baseball games. They were life experiences. They broke you down in sections. They made you question God, the meaning of life, whether sports should possibly mean this much. On Sunday night, I stewed in my seat vowing never to raise my kids as Sox fans.

On Monday night, I skipped out of Fenway wondering if any other team could possibly mean this much to a group of people.

The Sox should have lost about 25 different times. The Sox should have won about 25 different times. They rallied to tie consecutive games against the seemingly invincible Yankees bullpen. They kept the games tied in extra innings with a never-ending stream of fringe starters and worn-out relievers. Their closer recorded 12 outs on 70-plus pitches in the span of 24 hours. They stranded the winning run on second or third base nearly 200 times. Including Saturday night’s game, their three starters recorded 40 outs, leaving another 65 for the bullpen guys. Somehow none of this was a problem.

from ObeyPedro.com:

Rarely in life does one get the chance to right a wrong. The Red Sox have improbably put themselves in position to do just that. Namely: avenge last year’s ALCS game 7 loss while advancing to the big show for a chance to win their first title in 86 years.

I was curious to see what I wrote before the 2003 Game 7 and here’s a snippet from the post:

So now the Red Sox face the improbable task of beating their most storied rival, the team with the highest payroll in the history of MLB, the New York Yankees, on their home field for the opportunity to play in their first World Series since 1986.

86 years — 1986. Coincidence? Of course.

Before the Angels series I felt strangely serene. After the Sox had finished them off in 3-games, I attributed my calmness to “knowing deep down all along” that they were going to win. I felt the same way before the Yanks series began but after NY took a 3-0 lead, I just figured that deep down I knew all along they were going to lose. But now I believe it was a positive vibe afterall.

Believe.

from Edw Cossette from Fox Sports New England:

Talk about Red Sox!

When I saw Schilling take the mound without the high top cleat but instead the low cleat and that blood soaked sock I teared up. I’m tearing up now again as I write about it.

Schilling’s performance last night was the greatest sports event I’ve witnessed. So we are told “it’s just a game.” Yeah, it is.

But in the same way that Beowulf is just a short story and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy chorale is just people singing.

all i know is karisa refuses to talk to me about it because we when we were on the phone last night the yankees scored a run, so apparently im bad luck for her team.

and you know what, i totally understand her paranoia.

go sox.

boston dirt dogs