SAT

Part I: Analogies

Flintstone's Car : Fred's Two Feet ::

(a) Beckett : fastball

(b) Posada : piece of cheese

(c) Red Sox offense : Roger Clemens

(d) Babe Ruth : 6" hoagie

(e) bat : ball

The correct answer would of course be (c). Fred's Two Feet would ultimately stop the Flintstone's car as Roger Clemens halted the Sox offense last night. I suppose you could make the argument that a piece of cheese might very well stop Posada, being the rat that he is, and that a hoagie surely would halt the Babe's portly ass, but the most correct answer would be (c). There, now wasn't that fun and educational at the same time?

I wrote yesterday about renewed hatred. I write today about a rampant hatred that's alive and well...kicking and screaming...seething and spitting. It's back, folks. For all of you who have been sitting back in the old recliner all season, mouth agape as you hum along in lala land with this feeling of comfort, the fear is back. Last night's win was an official momentum shift, if not a swing. Granted a Sox victory this evening will cancel it out but I'm not confident in Schilling. I'm also not too fond of facing Wang.

Isn't this better though? Having laid mention of the this thought before, I won't go too deeply into it but this is what Septembers are made for. Summer is coming to an end, school is back in session and the AL East race is tightening up. The smell of football is starting to tickle the nosehairs but the stench of sausages, booze and October dominate the late summer air. We live for this part of the year here in Boston and we thrive on the taste of the postseason. Even though it would take a collapse of epic proportions to claim the playoff life of the Sox, it could happen. Thankfully, I don't think there's anyway that our pitching staff is conducive to that sort of occurrence so let's bury that whim right here and now. There will be playoff baseball in Boston. The only question is, will it involve that stripey whale from the Bronx?

There is a lot to think about going into this home stretch for Boston. As of yesterday, we're staring at a potentially serious injury to Manny's oblique which, as one can surmise, is as devastating an injury as any hitter can have. Twisting and turning your torso unfortunately cannot be avoided when swinging the lumber. So that is an intriguing and unpropitious situation at this juncture. There's also this little issue of the clutch hitting and comebackability...if you will. While the Sox offense would appear to be built to score a lot of runs, they just haven't been doing it with regularity. The bright side of this shows Ortiz and Ramirez being much more productive since August began, but of course Manny can't keep that up if he's not playing. It is not, however, out of the realm of possibility to think that Papi could carry the offense in his shoulders is he has to. He's done it before (see 2004).

Big sports night tonight: Schilling v. Wang, Pats final preseason game before the opener against the J-E-T-S and the college football season opens with the nation's #2-ranked team (LSU) taking on Mississippi State. So get that grill fired up, crack a Miller Chill and take it all in. Think of me as you sip that chelada-style beer, as I'll be painting, hauling boxes and painting. I'll also be painting.