27.10.04
I'm not a sportswriter. And I know that TBAA's loyal readers (all two of you) are probably sick of hearing about the Red Sox. With that said, here's another Red Sox post.
I'm not sure how I became a Red Sox fan. I know my dad liked them when he was growing up (in Raleigh), but I was raised a Braves fan. I was also raised to hate the (fucking) Yankees, so I guess that helped. I watched the Sox when they came on TV, which wasn't often, but from seeing only three or four games a season I couldn't rattle off lineups and pitchers and stats like I could with the Braves. Also, American League ball is inherently inferior to the National League because of the designated hitter. Though that's neither here nor there. But somehow, the Sox pulled me in. I don't remember the exact point that I went from being merely a Yankee hater to a Boston fan, but it happened and I'm glad, despite the baggage that comes with it as a free gift.
Last season broke my heart. The Pedro Incident, the Yankees comeback, and then the inevitable knife in the heart. This time it was Aaron (fucking) Boone holding the knife, but it could have been anyone in that Yankees lineup because everybody KNEW it was coming. There was no way the Sox would win that game. It was like an initiation, I think, for a new generation of Boston fans that were too young to remember Buckner or came to their fandom later in life.
But last season was different - different manager, different team personality. I loved them, but not like this year. This year, at least after the Nomar trade, things that seemed to go against the Sox in years past - goofy little bloopers that drop for hits, some random player getting hot at the right time, umps reversing calls - are all going the Red Sox's way (knocks on wood). The sense of impending doom that has hung over this franchise for so many years just. isn't. there. You don't watch the game with your fists clenched, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lots of reasons for it - Schilling's oozing ankle, Papi's clutch hitting, Mark Bellhorn stepping up (Mark Bellhorn! Who'd have thought!) and The Comeback (deserves to be capitalized from now on). They changed everything.
Could the worst still happen? Of course. I really like this Cardinals team. Tony La Russa is a fantastic manager, and a really classy guy. Jim Edmonds is an amazing player, as are Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols, and Edgar Renteria (whose last name sounds like a skin disease, unfortunately). I like the kind of baseball they play, with sound fundamentals and the willingness to play small ball, as opposed to the Red Sox's hybrid of Billy Ball and paying out the ass for players (payroll: $130 million). The Cards could go on a tear and win the next four game and keep the C-word alive for another year.
24.10.04
So if the Sox win this series, there's inevitably going to be a movie about it. Here's how I see the cast-
As Terry Francona: Paul Shaffer
As Tony La Russa: Max Weinberg
As Curt Schilling: perpetual "That Guy" Will Patton
As Johnny Damon: Who better than Jim Caviezel?
As Scott Rolen: Russel Crowe
And Stephen King as Himself
Words that strike fear into a Sox fan's heart: "Curt Schilling's ankle injury will prevent him from starting game 5 of the ALCS. Derek Lowe will start in his place.
Makes me want to drop to my knees and shake my fists at the heavens to the accompaniment of O Fortuna.
Wolf Call
Wolverine movie on its way? Fox plans to spin off Hugh Jackman's X-Men character, but he hasn't signed on by Brian Hiatt
The X-Men franchise may yet thrive without departed director Bryan Singer. Though no new director is in place for X-Men 3, Twentieth Century Fox has already turned its attention to a spin-off project, Wolverine, according to Variety. Screenwriter David Benioff (Troy) will pen the screenplay; Fox expects Hugh Jackman to star, though he has yet to sign on to the project.
Fox plans to simultaneously develop Wolverine and the third X-Men, but it's not clear whether they would want Jackman to appear in both films. Singer left the franchise in July to helm a rival superhero project, the long-in-development Superman. He took most of the X2 team with him, from screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris to composer John Ottman. Fox is no doubt hoping that Singer won't cast Hugh Jackman as Superman.
Oh, Janet Leigh, you died this morning, and that makes me sad
You were a really good actress in Touch of Evil
Even though Charlton Heston didn't look anything like a Mexican
And Psycho scared the bejeezus out of me
Remember when everyone thought that they could see your boobs in the shower scene, but they really couldn't?
You had some kids
And one of them is really famous now
She was awesome in True Lies
And you really could see her boobs in Trading Places
I'm sorry you had vasculitis
I don't know what that is
Hold on, let me look it up on Google.
OK, so it means that your white blood cells attacked your blood vessels and got them all inflamed
That really sucks.
I hope you didn't get gangrene in your finger.
3.10.04
Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted. It's not that I'm lazy, I was just waiting for something interesting to happen. And, with my dad around, interesting things happen with alarming frequency. Take, for example, today. My dad decided that today we should empty all the bags of sand we have in front of the house into various holes in the yard. The sand is left over from last year's Girl Scout luminaria sale, but that isn't really important to the story. Anyway, I'm schlepping this sand all over the yard with my parents, doing my Hulk impression and crashing through the woods (Hulk smash!), when I feel this intense, horrible stinging on the back of my arm. Turns out I had walked through a yellow jacket nest. Ok, so it's hard to see it, but there was a nest, trust me. I'm lucky I only got stung twice. My dad got the other sting. We were looking at the swarming yellow jackets from what seemed like a safe distance when my dad suddenly screamed, jumped three or four feet in the air, and grabbed his butt. Stung right in the caboose.
Of course, nothing stings my dad in the butt and gets away with it. We decided to take care of the yellow jackets with extreme prejudice. We didn't just want those things dead. We wanted them to suffer. A lot. So we assembled our tools: wasp and hornet killer and lighter fluid. Did I mention my dad has no common sense? Anyway, we started by spraying the nest with bug killer, which made my arm feel a lot better. But there's nothing like lighter fluid to really express your anger at yellow jackets. Burn, you miserable bastards. That's what you get for stinging my dad in the butt.
1.10.04
Since we were curious, some info from EW.com:
Writing Up a Storm
Fox moves ahead on ''X-Men 3.'' Screenwriter promises a big, ''Return of the King''-like finish for the trilogy by Gary Susman
Even without director Bryan Singer on board, 20th Century Fox is on track toward getting a third X-Men movie into production, but it will probably be the last one. The Hollywood Reporter cites sources as saying that all the principal players in the superhero saga are expected to reprise their roles in X3, though deals have yet to be worked out. Also, Fox has hired a screenwriter who knows a few things about Marvel superheroes. It's Simon Kinberg, who also wrote drafts of the studio's Fantastic Four and Elektra scripts.
Kinberg told the Reporter that X3 will mark a big finish for the franchise. ''I had a great experience with Fox and Marvel on the other projects, and when they came to me and asked me if I had any interest in X3, I was ecstatic,'' said Kinberg, who also wrote next year's XXX sequel and the upcoming Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie thriller Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Of the X-Men characters, he said: ''I grew up on them, and I love these comics, and it's exciting to take a whack at making the third the biggest and best in the trilogy; it's our Return of the King.''
Fox still needs to hire a director to replace Singer, who directed and cowrote the first two films but recently left the franchise to helm the upcoming Superman resurrection for Warner Bros. The studio hopes to shoot X3 next summer.
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