Only 13

I was listening to Harry Beadle deliver the 1pm (Eastern) edition of "CNN Radio News" today (Friday, October 31) and old Harry sounded like he was pretty geeked up about what he called, and I quote, "Good news out of Iraq today."

According to Harry, it seems not a single US soldier died in Baghdad this month!  Huzzah!

Then Harry had to go and spoil the whole thing and stress my mellow.  In following up he noted that "only 13 American soldiers died elsewhere in Iraq in October."

Really?  Only 13?  Only?

I will say this.  It's the first time this month I've heard any word whatsoever in the broadcast media anywhere about US war deaths in Iraq.  Maybe the first time in weeks.  In fact, there are entire months that go by without any mention of the on-going deaths in the War Bush Lied America Into unless I happen to be listening to This Is America with Jon Elliot (11pm Eastern on Air America Radio, 1310 WDTW-AM here in Detroit) on the first of the month.  During his first show every month, Elliot ends his broadcast by reading a list (name, age and hometown) of every US soldier killed in Iraq during the month just ended.

There have been months when it would take over an hour to complete the list.  May, 2007, for example. That one included 127 names and ages and hometowns. It took Jon almost two hours of airtime to read it.  This is America is billed by its host as "the fastest two hours on radio".  Not that night it wasn't.

Now, I get it that 13 is far fewer than 127.  But 13 of our brothers and sisters who were alive when this month began are now dead.  13 more have died for Bush's lies in the past month.

I fail to see the good news to which Mr. Beadle made reference.

By the way, the most recent Iraq War death, the 13th in the month of October, occurred Thursday.  The name of the decedent has not yet been released.  He or she is the 4,189th American to die in Iraq.  So far.

Four days until we change America.

"And He's A N-----!"

Just to make sure there was no sound dubbing involved, I checked this video against a different feed provided by The Des Moines Register and it is authentic.  This is from a Klan, sorry, a Palin rally Saturday.  The clip is less than a minute.  At about the :14 mark, you will hear a slur that should make your heart sink.

From her reaction (not to mention the slur was shouted loud enough that it actually created an echo in the Hy-Vee Arena) it is obvious that Palin heard it.  Other than stumbling over her words, she did nothing.  Nothing at all.  It was perfectly okay with her. 

It's like I said to someone I know to be a Republican over the weekend: "So, you're voting for Palin, eh?  Tell me what that's like."

Seven days until we change America. 

Spread the Wealth

I hear Insane John McSame scream at his rallies that "Barack Obama wants to spread the wealth!"  while his apparently vapid worth-a-hundred-million-dollar trophy wife stands there with that smug, crap-eating grin on her face and while I think about what a good idea Barack has there, I hear McSame's audience react to the to the suggestion that wealth in the country should be spread around not by cheering wildly, but rather by booing loudly.  As louldy as they can, in fact.  I am left slack-jawed in disbelief.

What could they possibly be thinking? 

Does everybody at a McSame rally make over $250,000 or are they just stupid? 

I usually depend on Wonkette for a laugh or two, but there was nothing in this post to giggle about.  It reports on a 30-country economic study which took two years to complete and which concludes that only two nations (Turkey and Mexico) have greater income disparity between the rich and poor than we have right here in the Good Ole USA.  And it notes that the gap is growing, that it has shot up in the last 8 years after the trend had been reversed  (albeit slightly) the previous 8 years.

The report says that the top 10% of US wage earners control 71% of all the wealth in the United States.  The top 1% owns fully 33% of the nations wealth.  That doesn't leave much for the rest of us, now does it?

So why are these idiots booing the idea of "spreading the wealth around"?  Spreading it around a bit sounds pretty common sense to me.

My wife says it's because all those people aspire to make it to the top 10% and don't want to get taxed once they get there.  I say that I'm all for them reaching that goal and as soon as they do (which, of course, the vast majority never will) they should right away turn around and become big-time Repubs.  But until that day, they are simply cutting their own throats by supporting Republican policies which hurt them; which have never done a single thing for them. 

I think Barack said it best yesterday: "Senator McCain isn't looking out for Joe the Plumber.  He's looking out for Joe the Hedge Fund Manager!"

Right on, my brother.  Right on!

13 Days

Boy, you skip a day or two because you're pissed off about Ohio State beating your team 45 to whatever or you're a little tired after broadcasting a high school game cause a running back ran for 5 touchdowns and the other teams quarterback threw for 5 and it all came down to a two-point conversion that failed but which could have been called either way and the game winds up 35-34 and you're so jacked you don't fall asleep until a quarter to dawn and before you know it, it's been almost a week since you checked in. 

So, sorry about that. 

Here's a musical interlude for those who like to listen to tunes while they read.  Long story short: my broadcast career began at a country music station back in the late 70's and while I hated most of the music so very, very much, there were a couple of tunes I liked.  Going with those few, here's a little Charley Rich Rolling With the Flow for you.  (Skip it if you want.  Richie?  He don't give a damn).

 

Ah, wasn't that nice?

A final word on the ALCS.  After they won Game 5 after being down 7-0 like that, I thought Boston was going to win, of course.  That's the only way it becomes a legendary story, winning the whole freaking thing.  But, they didn't so now it's just a pretty good story.  I did read in Boston's Game Notes that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the game marked only the 4th time in Red Sox history -- and the first time since 1961 -- that Boston had come from as many as 7 runs behind in the 7th inning or later to win a game.  Since, as you well know, the Bostons have played 16,728 games since joining the American League in 1901, what we saw in Game 5 was a once in a quarter-of-a-century event.  When Boston got that first-inning homer in Game 7, I figured it was all over, but I was wrong because that's all they got.  And that's because Tampa traded a pretty good ballplayer, Delmon Young, to get pitcher Matt Garza last November.  Garza, Tampa's Game 7 starter, gave the Red Sox that homer and that was all he gave them.  It's hard not to like Tampa as a team.  I like them to win the Series.  But I hate their ballpark.

Now to politics.  Here's the link to the Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast about how the GOP plans to steal the vote in 13 days.  It fall under the "must-read" category:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote

One last thing.  The game I'm broadcasting Friday night, our "Game of the Week" this week is a bitter rivalry game:  North Farmington at Farmington.  It's a terrific story.  In week 3, Farmington got beat 63-0 by Adams (the worst loss in school history) to fall to 0-3 for the season and to extend their losing streak to 15 in a row.  They hadn't won a game since 2006.  Since that loss, the Falcons have won 5 in a row (2 by shutout) including their first win over Harrison since 1977.  Now, that was a game.  Six lead changes and Farmington won it 20-19 on a touchdown with :53 left on the clock.  I was so jacked I didn't fall asleep until a quarter-to-dawn.  Now, if they can beat North Farmington, they will be in the state playoffs.  That's a hell of a story.  But only if they win Friday night.

13 days until we change America.  We'll talk again soon.

The Damndest Thing Everybody Has Ever Seen

And you thought Haloscan sucked.  I just finished off a long post on the Red Sox miracle win in Game 5 of the ALCS and lost it all when I kicked out the power cord.  Thanks, Windows Live Writer.  Nice auto-archive feature.

I just wanted to point out that what happened at Fenway tonight was the damndest thing I've ever seen.  In baseball, anyway.

I saw a graphic on the TV that said Boston's 8-7 comeback win -- they were down 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th inning and were only 7 outs away from having their season ended (and I'll tell you what, when the number of runs you trail by in a game equals or exceeds the number of outs you have left in that game you are in some kind of trouble) -- was the second-largest comeback in baseball's post-season history.

Right away I thought I knew what the biggest such comeback was.  From memory.  I thought it was Philadelphia (the American League A's) against Chicago around in a World Series around 1930. 

It turns out there is a pretty good memory on that baseball historian.

A check of the record book (it was in the retrieving of it from a nearby bookshelf that I kicked out that power cord and ruined my post) confirms that it was the A's and it was the Cubs, but it was 1929, not '30.  The Cubs, down two games to one, led Game Four 8-0 when Philly came to bat in the bottom of the 7 at Shibe Park and put a ten-spot on 'em to win 10-8 and go up 3-1 in a Series which Philadelphia took in 5 by winning the next game.  The stat that jumps out at you from the '29 World Series is that Philadelphia (aided, of course by that big rally in Game 4) outscored Chicago 19-2 from the 7th inning on in the five games.

I watched most of the fun from Fenway tonight on a computer feed which provided only ambient stadium sound and four fixed camera locations since I wanted to watch the episode of Countdown I'd recorded on the TV and, what the hell, it was, after all, 7-0 Rays by the time I got home from where ever it was that I had been this evening.

Whenever the ball was put in play, you couldn't follow it.  The cameras didn't move.  So, for example, I had to count how many men crossed the plate after Ortiz hit it out to know it was a 3-run homer.  And I only knew it was a homer from the roar of the crowd and the sight of said crowd going nuts.  And when Casey scored to tie the game, I saw him slide across home plate and saw the Rays start jogging off the field.  Since the crowd was going nuts again, I could only surmise that the run had counted and that the batter-runner had been subsequently retired on the base paths.  Which is exactly what happened, of course.

After that, I watched on TV like a normal person.  Quite a night.  The fans who were there will be talking about that game until the day they die.  Especially if Boston comes all the way back to defeat Tampa. 

They were dead, Boston.  Not merely moribund.  They were dead.  Like I said, I've never seen anything like it.  Only somebody who was old enough to be a fan in 1929 and who is still alive today has.

 

J.C. Christian, Patriot, Wins Debate

Everybody thanks, well, Jesus that we read Jesus' General. 

It is because of The General's website; because of the fine work the General has been doing now for years, that as soon as McSame made the first of his 25 references to  "Joe the Plumber" (getting his last name wrong but what the hell he's old and all) what seemed to  be to be 10-12 seconds into the third and final Presidential Debate Wednesday night we knew exactly who Grandpa was talking about. 

I figured I might be one of maybe 100 people in the country who did.

It was all because of a post The General had put on his site a few scant hours before the debate. 

The title: Obama Frightens Plumbers.  It was about "Joe the Plumber."  I had already posted a comment on the The General's site about it an hour or so before the debate began. 

So, when McSame brought him up, it was all, like, "OMFG, I know who he's talking about!"

Here's the man --not a world leader or an intellectual or American Hero even -- but rather a plumber from Toledo, Ohio who, with the election on the line and the leadership of the Free World hanging in the balance, McSame chose to hang his hat upon.  (Sort of like picking the Mayor of Wasilla, AK to be your running mate, when one thinks about it.)

Now, if it were me and I got to spend three minutes of face time with one of two men who will be the President-Elect of the United States in three weeks, I might find myself inclined to show that man some respect.  Not Joe, so much.  He's not quite that bright.  The enormity of it all failed to register.  It happens when you are not that bright.  It might have been interesting to hear the full exchange, but you know Faux News.  They covered whatever it was that Obama was telling Joe because, obviously, what Joe had to say to them on the phone clearly was of much greater importance.  Nice interrogation by Cavuto, though.  He actually posed, as question, "What's the deal?"  I don't watch Faux News.  Is the questioning always this insightful?

As I saw it, the debate ended in that same first minute which saw Old Man McCain bring up plumber Joe as he sneered his ugly sneer at Obama and said:

...You told him you wanted to spread the wealth around.  The whole premise behind Sen. Obama's plans are class warfare, let's spread the wealth around.

You know, that whole "spread the wealth around" thing?  With the top 1% (Cindy and Johnny McCain in that group? 'Ya think?) controlling 40-50% of the income and the wealth in this country, "spreading the wealth around" doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me.  In fact, I think it sounds downright American.  Maybe more people think as I do than think like McSame does, and maybe that's why, in 19 days, we are going to change the world!

Good night,  God bless, and thank you General, sir!

What I Don't Understand About Baseball

Everybody must, from time to time, write about baseball...

Everybody does not understand Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, at all.  Prior to the playoffs we stood up for the guy, decrying the fact that he was fired by the Yankees after putting them in the Playoffs for 12 years in a row, delighting in the fact that he showed 'em by putting his new team in the post season.

And then he goes and does something stupid like he did in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) Monday night.  There's Torre, with a 5-3 lead in the 8th, six outs away from tying the series against Philadelphia 2-2 -- and he decides to pull Hong-Chih Kuo just because Kuo had allowed a lead-off single.  An inning earlier, Kou got the Phillies out in order on 11 pitches, ten of them strikes, getting the last two hitters on strikeouts.  Kuo was unhittable. 

So he falls behind 2-0 to the lead-off man in the 8th and gives up a ground-ball single and out of the dugout comes Torre and out of the game goes Kuo, replaced by Cory Wade who, when the season began, was a Double A pitcher.  Wade lasted 6 pitches, the third of which was sent into the Phillies bullpen by Shane Victorino for a game-tying two-run homer. 

After a fly-out and a single, out comes Torre again and now he decides it's time for his closer Jonathan Broxton.  Matt Stairs hits Broxton's third pitch to Eagle Rock and it's 7-5 Phils and that is that.  Now, it's hard to blame Torre for going to his closer since Broxton had gone 50 straight appearances (!) dating back to May 31 without allowing a home run but Torre's mistake was in removing Kuo in the first place and, if he felt he absolutely had to make a change, it was in not bringing in Broxton to get a six-out save instead of doing what he did: putting a rookie on the hill in the late innings with the game on the line.

Had the Dodgers won Monday, Everybody would have given them the edge in terms of winning the series.    Instead, they are down three games to one and the task at hand (winning three in a row) is, while not impossible, daunting to say the least.

The last time a team came back from 3-1 down to win a best-of-seven series was Boston in the American League Championship Series last year against Cleveland.

The Red Sox will have to do it again this year to make it to the World Series.  The Sox won Game One 2-0 over the Rays and everything appeared to be as it should be.  But in the last three games the unheard-of Rays -- the team with the worst record in The Bigs last season -- have scored 31 runs and have the Bostons on the ropes, facing elimination.  Tampa last night became the first team in ALCS history to score at least 9 runs in three straight games.  We'd root for them were it not for the prospect of having to watch more games from Tropicana Field, easily the worst venue in the Majors, if not in all of sports.  But they are an exciting team, no question about that, and that makes them fun to watch. 

Maybe they could let them play their home games in the Series at Fenway.  I like Fenway. 

Get Off The Ice!

The title of this post is an actual quote from an actual fan yelling at me during a hockey game.

But, that's not what this is about. 

Democommie, a budding sports writer (?) has excellent post about Sarah Palin's, uh, chilly reception at the Flyers/Rangers game Saturday night in Philadelphia.  The video below (run time 2:25) provides the best idea of what it was like to be in the arena at the time.  It's all about the ambient sound.  The other versions I've seen, taken off the tee-vee, are muffled since the arena sound system (cranked up to the max, I suspect) covers the crowd noise.  Give this one an earful...

 

John McCain Gets BarackRoll'd

The news from Detroit: 

A share of GM stock is less than $5.00; Ford less than 3.

The Red Wings lose the season opener to the Maple Loafs.

And, worst of all, Bush addresses the nation on the economy again today.

That's a lot of sh-- sandwich to eat.  What we need is a guffaw.  So, here you go...

 

Make it  great Friday, everybody!

The Nature of the Beast

I wrote some time ago about an Obama rally that I went to with my wife and daughter in downtown Detroit and I talked about how good it felt to be in the midst of thousands of people who thought like we thought (i.e. We can change the world on Election Day!) and who, like us, were all having a blast even if we were stuck in a line that was at least eight blocks long.

It was a positive environment. People were happy. Hopeful.

In fairness to those we are about to see, I'm sure the presence of McSame supporters that day would have stressed my mellow. I'm sure I would have shouted something and I'm sure that the only reason I would not have flipped them off was because my little girl would have seen me and it so disappoints her when I do that. I know this to be true because she tattled on me for flipping off a McCain-Palin yard sign, so this is now something I am no longer allowed to do.

But I also know what I would have yelled to those mythical protesters would have been along the lines of, "Don't you know you're getting screwed?" Or, "Do you like the way things are going in this country?" Or even, "How stupid can you be?"

The latter question, "How stupid can you be?", is the one which is answered here as we tune in our fellow Americans, this time somewhere in Pennsylvania at a rally for the GOP ticket:

Credit (and thanks)to: http://keystoneprogress.org/page/content/ksp-home/

Two Easy Pieces

Illustration by Victor Juhasz/Rolling Stone

Naturally, everybody wants to know what those of us here at Everybody thought of the Nashville debate. Well, my friends, we thought Howard Fineman of Newsweek summed it up best when he called it a confrontation "between a 21st century candidate and a 20th century candidate."

It was the past taking on the future. It was an old and tired man against a young and vigorous leader.

It was no contest.

After the debate I came across a commentator at Wonkette who wondered why the profile of Insane John McCain in the current issue of Rolling Stone wasn't getting more attention.

So, we checked it out and it was, as advertised, excellent. Everybody recommends the story, Make Believe Maverick by Tim Dickinson to everybody.

At the end of that piece, under "related stories" we linked to an article which appeared in the magazine a week ago called Mad Dog Palin and Everybody will tell you it's among the finest writing of the current political year. It's by Matt Taibbi and it's a must-read.

An excerpt ensues:

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way.

Seriously. Great.

I wouldn't steer you wrong on something like this. My friends.

Who Supports Domestic Terrorists?

Why, it's John McCain!  Look:

 

Everybody notes that the above is courtesy of The Jed Report via  Daily Kos.

From Daily Kos: "One important detail about this legislation is that it was a standalone bill. In other words, McCain was opposed to this particular policy; he can't say that he opposed the bill for some unrelated reason.

Oh, No You Did'nnnnnt

Mrs. Palin has opened the door, so let's step through it, shall we?

If you want to damn someone based on their acquaintances, as she has done these past few days with respect to Senator Obama, then you have to accept the light being shined in the same way on those you have known.

Which, of course, brings us to the Keating Five and Senator McCain. I heard the audio of the following today on The Randi Rhodes Show, and I share it with you now:

In case the video won't load, here's the direct link.

Today, We Are All (Fighting) Illini

We'll get back to the politics in a moment (my, isn't that Sarah Palin a great big b-word? Golly gee, you betcha.) but first we have to get some boring sports stuff out of the way.

How about them Illini? Obviously uninspired by the Chicago Cubs (a collection of overpaid phonies who clearly, as it turns out, do not give a damn about winning or about whose feelings they hurt when they roll over and quit in front of the entire nation) the boys from Champaign ventured north to Ann Arbor and hung a 45-20 number on the once-vaunted Michigan Wolverines right there in the fixer-upper they insist on calling "The Big House". I think "The Big House" used to be what they called New York's Sing-Sing prison, but if you think naming your home field for a correctional facility helps you recruit and what not, go for it, I say.

Having attended The Michigan State University (actually, we don't use the word "The" when talking about MSU like Ohio State does in identifying their school because we figure it's superfluous; that unlike Ohioans, we aren't worried that people in our state will confuse MSU with, say, the Detroit College of Taxidermy Arts and think the latter might be "the" State University of our state) my two favorite teams are, of course, Michigan State and whomever is playing Michigan, so bless you boys!

We cracked open the Official 2008 University of Michigan Football Media Guide (and for you Palin fans out there, if you want to start burning books, I'd like to suggest that the Official 2008 University of Michigan Football Media Guide would be a good place to start) and learnt (hey! "learnt" didn't light up the spell-check thingy but "thingy" did, go figure) that the 45 points scored by Illinois Saturday was the most ever scored by the Illini in a game against Michigan, breaking the record of 39 set in 1924. Nice.

Now, keep it going. It turns out that Illinois have defeated Michigan at Memorial Stadium exactly once (in 1983) since 1957. The Wolverines go there next year and all of us newly-minted Illini fans will be pulling for you.

Now, the Cubs. Watching them get rolled by the Dodgers recalled the performance of my Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series against the Cardinals. Detroit hit .199 in that Series and saw their run production drop from 5.07 runs a game in the regular season to 2.0 in the Series. Chicago scored 5.2 runs per game in the regular season and 2.0 in the series against the Dodgers. Gaack. In other words, I know exactly how Cubs fans feel today, and it ain't great.

A Great Day for Michigan. And America.

O happy day!

Word broke late this afternoon that John McInsane is shuttering his campaign operations here in the Mitten State! He's closing down his campaign offices, sending staff to other states, and, best of all, cancelling his media buys in Michigan. This means I no longer have to listen to his bullshit lies. Hoo-ya!

As I mentioned over at the General's place today, this means I will no longer have to throw anything at the Tee-Vee unless a Detroit Lions game is on.

In honor of this great day, I invite one and all to get Barack-rolled right here!

I've got to go to choir practice now where I will sing with great joy before I come home to enjoy tonight's debate.

Peace out!

We Cut & Paste, You Decide

Here's from the transcripts of interviews conducted with the candidates for the Vice-Presidency as posted on the CBS Evening News website:

Katie Couric: Why do you think Roe v. Wade was a good decision?

Joe Biden: Because it's as close to a consensus that can exist in a society as heterogeneous as ours. What does it say? It says in the first three months that decision should be left to the woman. And the second three months, where Roe v. Wade says, well then the state, the government has a role, along with the women's health, they have a right to have some impact on that. And the third three months they say the weight of the government's input is on the fetus being carried. And so that's sort of reflected as close as anybody is ever going to get in this heterogeneous, this multicultural society of religious people as to some sort of, not consensus, but as close it gets. I think the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment … offers a right to privacy. Now that's one of the big debates that I have with my conservative scholar friends, that they say, you know, unless a right is enumerated - unless it's actually, unless [it] uses the word "privacy" in the Constitution - then no such "constitutional right" exists. Well, I think people have an inherent right.

Couric: Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?

Sarah Palin: I think it should be a states' issue not a federal government-mandated, mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas. Now, foundationally, also, though, it's no secret that I'm pro-life that I believe in a culture of life is very important for this country. Personally that's what I would like to see, um, further embraced by America.

Couric: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?

Palin: I do. Yeah, I do.

Couric: The cornerstone of Roe v. Wade.

Palin: I do. And I believe that individual states can best handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in an issue like that.

Couric: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?

Palin: Well, let's see. There's, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but …

Couric: Can you think of any?

Palin: Well, I could think of … any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.

O.M.F.G. Are you serious? Just look at the answers they come up with to the same question side-by side. It should tell you a lot. It should tell you all you need to know.

A few days ago I posted a Falin quote which struck me as so far off base that I just re-printed it verbatim and made no comment at all. The post was titled "Speechless", because that's how it left me. It turned out to be the same quote that Saturday Night Live ran with word-for-word in their Tina Fey sketch last weekend.

This is more of the same.

It's like one of the commentators over at Wonkette said: "I think she spoke how cats think."

Enjoy the debate tonight!

I Guess This Means A Sweep Is Out Of The Question

While I was looking for something with which to cheer von Ebers who, since he is living and dying with the Cubs here in the postseason and is therefore, at least for the moment dead, I came across this in the Cubs Official Game Notes:
Despite 118 years of mutual existence, the Cubs and Dodgers meet in the postseason for the first time … however, the teams have played 2,024 times in the regular season starting with their first meeting May 29, 1890 … through the first 2,024 games, the clubs have played to a 1,012-1,012 draw.

No. Bleeping. Way. You play over 2,000 games and the all-time series is tied? That may be the most amazing stat I have ever seen in my baseball career.

My bid to find cheering news in the Cubs defeat appeared to be an Epic Fail: Since 1995, the winner of Game 1 of the NLDS has gone 23-3 in the series.

But then this! Since 1995, the winner of Game 1 of the ALDS has gone 12-14 in the series.

Hey, how in the hell can this be? Well, all I can say is that if a team can come back to win in the AL, indeed, if they come back to win more often than they do not, the same thing can happen in the NL. So, go Cubs, I say.

Besides, I remember a little boy (moi) who was bummed to the maximum after Game 1 of the 1968 World Series when Bob Gibson of St. Louis fanned every Tiger who came to bat (okay, he only struck out 17) and the Cardinals won and all hope was gone and then Detroit came back to win the Series in 7 so let's not give up just yet.

First pitch at Wrigley comes at 9:37 (EDT), 37 minutes after the first pitch in the much-awaited VP Debate. We'll comment on that under separate cover, which is a fancy way of saying I'll write a stand-alone post on that topic.