FRS

Deus ex Machina

Show number nineteen feature John Locke in the flashbacks where we learn that he has very flaky parents that he never knew and probably now wishes he never did. On island Locke is frustrated in his attempt to open a strange hatch buried in the jungle that he uncovered a couple weeks ago and has so far kept secret.

Tonight is game 5 of the ALCS and the Red Sox have their backs against the wall trailing Tampa 3 games to 1. Past years playoff hero and star pitcher Curt Schilling, who is injured and hasn’t played at all this year, tossed out the ceremonial first pitch. Turning a possible inspirational moment into a feeling of dread, Curt, famous big league pitcher, bounced it up to the plate. He was 60′-6″ away and threw it all of 45 feet.

In the top of the first inning the thirteen trillion yen man walks the lead off hitter and the next guy up hits it into the monster seats. We have been playing ball for all of five minutes and the FRS are down 2 runs already. Here we go again…

I know it is early and the Sox are still an excellent team capable of coming back and winning this game and even the two following to advance to the World Series, but if you look at how it has gone so far, I’m thinking they are going to be watching the Rays and the Phillies play the those World Series games on TV like the rest of us (except for maybe in HD and on a lot bigger TV.)

Started down, still down.
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Lost In Translation

I had a different image picked for Episode #17, but I swapped to use this one because it is the pose that inspired McFarlane’s Series 2 “action figure” of Sun. The show’s flashback is more about the back story of our Korean couple. I think the show’s writers hit their stride with this episode, the on island story centered on the wife and her feelings while the off island stuff was more about the husband and what was going on in his head. But this married couple is comprised of two people who are not communicating with each other real well, so they don’t know that their problems are so similar that a hug, an apology and some honesty would make their marriage stronger, but instead they end up moving to separate on island camps. While the Sun and Jin story was the main focus of this episode, we also received a lot of interesting developments in a few of the other relationships.

I’m not watching the game, it is too horrific. I’m listening on the computer where it seems somewhat less painful. If the Rays score one more run here in the sixth inning the umpires will invoke the 10 run rule and award the game to Tampa. Once that happens we will have the Rays just where we want them, up 3 games to 1 and over confident. Last year in the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians we were behind 3 games to 1 before coming back to win and then going on to sweep the Rockies winning the World Series. In 2004 the FRS were down 3 games to none to the MFY before coming back and taking 4 straight to get to the World Series. Where they then swept the St. Louis Cardinals.

Started down, still down.
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Blame Me

I sensed it was over right after B.J. Upton hit the three run homer in the third inning. I turned the game off at the end of the 4th with Tampa Bay leading 5 to 0 to watch an old Law & Order rerun on TNT.

There is a comedian (I say comedian, I think he wants to be considered an impersonator, but of the numerous imitations he does, the only one I recognize is George W. Bush, and that is not very good) called Frank Something-or-other who has a show on TBS that is getting relentless promotion during the baseball playoffs on that network (so much so that in an effort to try and take the edge off, they even filmed a commercial with Frank threatening even more promos if we didn’t watch the show or whatever.) So what do you think happened during breaks of L & O on TNT? Right, I got a couple of Frank TV promos…sigh.

I checked in on the baseball game later via the web to see if I was correct in my gut feeling that the FRS were going to lose, hoping against hope that they had had an offensive explosion and I was way wrong. It didn’t happen, they were losing 9 to 1 in the ninth inning. The official Sox web site put the best positive spin on things they could by trumpeting the fact that the FRS had scored a run in the seventh — the Nation rejoices. Who are they fooling, the headline should have just said, “Red Sox Are Road Kill!”

You can blame me for the defeat though, it is all my fault. When I crossed paths with a fellow Red Sox fan (Hi Jerry) at work today I said, “We’re back in Fenway tonight, home cooking and lights-out Lester is on the mound, we can probably go ahead and chalk this one up in the win column.” We are both old-school Sox fans and are more used to having our hearts ripped out in game sevens than this whole World Series Champ thing, so he smiled, shook his head and replied, “I wish.” I knew the feeling, so volunteered, “Yeah, will probably get our asses whooped.”

Damn if it didn’t happen.

Started down, still down.
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Outlaws

We watched Episode #16 tonight instead of tomorrow because tomorrow the FRS play game three of the ALDS at 4:30 PM and if the game goes as long as last night’s it will be past my bedtime, leaving no time for TDTVS viewing. In the flashback we learn a lot about Sawyer’s motivation in the flashback and on island we learn that he is not smarter than your average boar.

In between this morning’s cloudy dampness and this evening’s rain we actually had a nice, albeit windy, day and after lunch instead of a bicycle ride around town to pay our bills (that windy thing) we walked.

Right now I’m couch-ridden with Endoftheweekenditis, but don’t worry about me, Dr. Gregory House is on the job.

Started up, went down, still down.
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All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

Episode 11 is chock full of Jack. Pre-island Jack rats on his dad being drunk in the Operating Room and on island Jack gets monkey stomped by Ethan the Other.

Last night the FRS had their earliest starting time for any game in the 2008 playoffs, 7:30 PM, but played their longest game — 12 innings in five hours and nineteen minutes. Because this is our early starting nine hours days at work, I went to bed at 11:00 PM in the middle of the 7th. The game was tied at four runs a piece at that point and the Angels ended up winning the game, but I got 6 hours sleep instead of 4-1/2. Tonight’s game starts at 8:30 and I’m still going to bed at 11 even if it is only in the 5th inning.

Started down, still down.
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Regular Season Wrap

The FRS are finishing out the the last of their 162 game regular season today. Ordinarily these last three games with the MFY would be very meaningful and have every Sox fan (and Yankee fans too) on the edge of their seats, this year it is different. The Red Sox clinched a Wild Card Playoff spot several days ago and the Yankees are not going to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. I am sitting here listening to the broadcast and most of the time I’m not sure who is batting and who is in the field. Not because I’m not paying attention, but because both teams are playing the scrubs.

I started listening to this afternoon’s game, but quit for a bit because I had something else to do, when I tried to reconnect I couldn’t get back to the Boston web site. I couldn’t even get to MLB.com. I guess a lot of people took advantage of the daily or weekend pass for MLB TV and they overloaded the servers.

When I first checked the Boston home page this morning to see what they planned on doing about yesterday’s rain out, I noticed an advert to buy some Red Sox playoff gear. I’m not sure if you can read the hat, but it says “2008 Division Champions.” Someone forgot to check their facts because that ship sailed on Friday when the FRS lost a squeaker to the Yankees 19-8. If you clicked on the link you got to see the gear the Sox really earned, the much coveted “Wild Card” or “I Kissed My Sister” hat.

Myrtle Beach

We are staying in a place called Sea Crest in their 15 story tower with a room that has a balcony. From the room you can see the beach, but you can’t hear the surf over the 20 water features in the kiddie pool. And even if you could shut off the water there would be the music from the bar to contend with…

I didn’t really pay to close attention to all the hotel had to offer, because if I had I would realized that the place didn’t offer in room internet. My first clue was when I opened the wireless utility and there wasn’t any signal labeled with any variation of Sea Crest. There was however about a dozen unsecured connections, several with real good strength, labeled Hotel Blue, a 15 story neighboring monolith.

We went for a big loop drive today and took Post Office pictures, a baker’s dozen. We also took a walk on the beach, went to a Greek Festival, looked at the fishies in the Ripley’s Aquarium, didn’t watch the FRS (they were rained out), took a nap, bought some souvenir t-shirts and when it got dark we drove a feww miles south and west for a nightcap, one more Post Office.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
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