Tossing batting practice…while taking up a collection to pay the ransom to free Tom Brady from whatever captivity in rural Idaho Drew Bledsoe has him in.

To quote the great George Costanza….I’m Back Baby!!!! (until I get writers block again)

Summer in the south really didn’t lend itself to a lot of interesting writing, other than the nightly Vin Scully moment where you laughed at the absurdity with which he connects generations of baseball like a creepy game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

With that, I think the return of football, as well as the onset of baseball playoffs makes it a good time to make a return attempt for as long as I remain interested in writing, or more importantly people remain interested in reading.

I trying to find a few silver linings in the Patriots performance so far, I mean lord knows I’ve long been the most optimistic of local sports fans this side of Ken Harrington. But really Brady has just not looked comfortable.
After the debacle against the Jets I had hoped that all week’s practice would consist of Vince Wilfork rushing untouched and drilling the Golden Boy until he realized it didn’t hurt anymore.
Alas the only thing missing from the Bledsoe happy feet repertoire was the ball tapping, and firing into double coverage. At least Drew stood in and took the hit that went with the horrific mistake he was leading us into.

When you live in a transient city like Atlanta you meet fans of all teams. The highlight of Sunday for me aside from the Pats win was watching the game with a Bills and Cowboys fan. We spent three hours telling Drew stories like it was some kind of support group for mentally anguished fans of teams led by slow footed quarterbacks prone to questionable decision making skills. Fortunately alcohol was there to heal wounds faster.

After week one everyone wanted to blame the offensive line, but really even in the Jets game the pressure only got to Brady because he currently has the quarterback version of the “Yips” or the “Shanks.”
Is there a name for it? Perhaps the Jamarcus’? the Delhomme’s? I think maybe the Romo’s fits best here as balls are sailing all over the place, as he refuses to set his feet and throw.

The success of the running game last week and in it’s brief incarnation in week one proves that o-line, aside from the pill popping rat manning the right tackle spot hasn’t been awful. I’m a proponent of throwing the ball all over the place, it’s way more fun to watch than a glorified soccer game consisting of excellent midfield play and punts. However, what’s even more entertaining to watch is the Pats defense getting an extended rest. So here’s hoping that with the running back spare part rotation that looks a lot like Theo Epstein’s bullpen building blueprint, maybe they’ll put a few more running plays on that wristband of Tom’s, and actually call them.


Joey Galloway really hasn’t been good since he played in Seattle. He was vastly overrated simply by playing in Dallas and not proving to be ridiculously incompetent (A slightly different version of the Romo’s). The last two seasons in Tampa I really couldn’t tell you what he did, all I know is he was always near the top of free agent wideouts taken after week two or three in fantasy football, and inevitably I’d always pass on him because I figured he can’t keep this up, or that was a huge fluke.
Well, I think right now Bill Belichick is looking like the guy in your league Galloway always inevitably ends up with, waiting for a breakout performance while trying to take solace in the two catches, and excellent route running abilities he’s shown.
That was really a long winded way of saying, I hope he rented, and it’s not in the same apartment complex as Jonathan Wilhite.

Speaking of Wilhite, how does a professional athlete hurt himself running from armed robbers? I mean if there’s one thing a well conditioned, defensive back who runs for a living should be able to do is not pull a groin while trying to evade intruders.
That really leaves little hope for me, in the unlikely event someone thinks I have a quarter million in jewelry hidden under stacks of old newspapers and fast food wrappers.

Beating an NFC South opponent has never meant so much to me, but after the grief I took everywhere I went for losing to the Jets there was no way I was going to be able to live that one down.

Alright one silver lining, I think the defense might not suck completely. You can see it’s definitely faster than the quicksand set of linebackers and D-backs the Pats have trotted out the last couple years. There’s also a bit of a mean streak especially out of Merriweather and Sanders, those two guys hit hard. I think the inexperience they have now will be gone by week 10 and the athleticism this group has may enable them to do a few more exotic things that the more experienced teams of the last two years simply couldn’t given their lack of speed. It could be like 2001 where the defense put it all together down the stretch.
However if they don’t find a way to put some pressure on the quarterback I take back the entire last paragraph.

Last night was honestly the first time I had watched a full inning of Red Sox baseball in about two weeks. I even had one of those elderly “who the hell is that guy, and boy does he suck” moments when JJ, I mean Josh Reddick struck out.
Incidentally Josh Reddick’s parents attend the same church as one of my ballplayers. These are the things southerners feel compelled to tell you because you wear a Red Sox hat. The other one being, “oh I’ve never been to Boston it’s real cold up there huh?”

End result, I’ll speak more about baseball in a separate post when games look less like ones being played at City of Palms park, and more like ones that have some meaning to and intensity to it.

Apparently the Bruins start this week, for a number of reasons there won’t be a lot of hockey talk here, the two most prominent being, 1. regular season hockey sucks and 2. I’m too lazy to look up how to properly spell Kreiji every time the subject comes up.
Had I been able to pick him out of a lineup I'd be sad to see Phil Kessel go. Dumping a star in his prime when his salary outweighs his usefulness and then go on a media blitz pointing out every one of his shortcomings…It’s called Red Sox! er rather Lucchinos! I mean Bruins!

With the Red Sox going out of their way to emulate the Patriots and their championship qualities, its good to see the B’s haven’t learned a damned thing, and they manage to pick out the worst quality in the second worst upper management member in Boston sports. (As long as that miser Jeremy Jacobs is alive, Lucchino will still be the Susan Lucci in the annual John Y. Brown award presented to the biggest d-bag owner in local sports).

I really like the B’s chances in the Adams Division this year, but both the Nordiques and Whalers will be tough outs if they can find any consistent scoring.