Tough loss tonight

Sox dropped to only a half game up on NYY with an 8-3 loss to the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only did Jon Lester pick up his first loss of the year, but we had to sit through a two-hour rain delay to watch it happen. Wouldn't be Friday night at the Fens without rain though, would it?

I know that the Angels are a very good team, and I'm probably overreacting, but I really can't see this team making the playoffs with the rotation they have right now. Schilling is our only ace. Yes, Beckett has just as many wins as Schill, but I just don't have that overwhelming confidence in Josh that I have when Curt takes the mound. Lester's just a kid. He's not a legit no. 3 starter yet. Unless Wakefield and/or Wells come back with some serious authority, this team will miss the playoffs.

I'm also not opposed to trading away some of the blue chip guys for Dontrelle Willis. How about Hansen + Ellsbury and a scrub for the D-Train? I'm not sure the Fish would take that bait though. I've heard Zito's name thrown around. I Don't like that idea at all.

The Sox apparently offered Coco (who is looking more and more worthless every day) to the ChiSox for pitching, but were turned down. Speculation is the pitcher was Brandon McCarthy, who was supposed to have been involved in that Soriano deal that never got done (yet).

Buster Olney has been the go-to guy at ESPN for trade rumors. It's times like these when I really miss Peter Gammons. I feel like you have to take everything those idiots at ESPN say with a grain of salt, Gammons being the only exception. If you're out there, Gammo, get well soon.

Back from my vacations

Your favorite Red Sox fan has returned from a two-week vacation in Italy, followed by a two-week vacation in Boston. I went to a couple of games at Fenway. Fenway's pretty much... Fenway. Shitty bathrooms, the most uncomfortable seats you ever sat in in your life-- none of which actually face home plate-- but if you can get around the inconveniences of a 94-year-old landmark, it's pretty much heaven on Earth.

The World Cup has come and gone. If it weren't for baseball I might just crawl up in a cave and hibernate until 2010. I'm pretty bummed that I couldn't be in Italy when the Azzurri won their first World Cup title in 24 years. But I did the next best thing: I partied it up with all of the Italian-Americans in Boston's North End. It was pure insanity. I got caught up in the Italian fandom while I was exploring Tuscany. I was, of course, cheering for my adopted patria, España, but then the fucking French knocked them out, so Italy seemed like the next best option. I was being very anti-French up until the final. At my grandmother's house we had a few French guys over to watch the World Cup final. My dad had to give them a ride to Connecticut directly after the game, so their only other option was watch it in City Hall Plaza with 100 million Italians. They opted for my grandma's cozy house in Beverly. I was cheering for Italy pretty much the entire game, and the Zidane headbutt pushed my Italian support over the edge. Maybe I'll write an entry on that incident later, maybe not. The bottom line is Zizou's actions were completely out of line, regardless if Marco Materazzi (I've been driving for 12 hours, not looking up if that's spelled right) called Zidane a dirty terrorist or insulted his sick mother or what not. Zidane's actions may very well have cost France a World Cup title. He likely would have been taking a PK, and maybe things would have been different. There is no way to tell. It's sort of like why I think NESN airing that "What if" special on the 2003 ALCS was completely pointless. It's stupid to look back and wonder what "might" have happened had so-and-so action not occured. It did. And Italy are the World Cup champions.

The French people we watched the game with were in tears after the game. My dad said they didn't say a word the entire drive from Beverly to CT. That's real fandom. Sometimes I wish I were a European soccer fan... a real fan. You just get caught up in their singing and cheering and jeering. I mean, Fenway Park can sing "Sweet Caroline" in unison, but I'll bet if we attempted to do what Liverpool fans do-- have an entire stadium belt the lyrics to "You'll Never Walk Alone"-- we'd be done after the first line. I boast about being a Sox fan. I am proud of being a member of what I believe to be the greatest fan base in American sports. I don't know another group of fans that have been through what Sox fans have, and still continuously sell-out the stadium. But we don't hold a candle to soccer fans.

I like how Bill Simmons has decided to adopt an EPL club to support. I think it's interesting, and it will make for some great columns in the future when he stars to feel the team out a little bit. I wanted him to pick Liverpool because of all the obvious Red Sox connections that I'm not going to discuss because you probably already know them or you can read his column. I still stick to my belief that you can't just "pick" a sports team though. You have to be born into it. If your father wasn't a fan of the team that you support, then you're a bandwagoner, plain and simple. And he's going to be a bandwagon Spurs fan. Whatever... that's his perogative. It's just nice to see Americans starting to recognize the beautiful game.

This entry was all over the place. You'll get some Red Sox thoughts when I have time later.