Sox Acquire Beckett

Anyone who doesn’t love this Red Sox deal of acquiring 25 year old Marlin flamethrower, ex world series MVP, Josh Beckett, and Gold Glove winner, Mike Lowell for minor leaguers Hanley Ramirez and Isabel Sanchez is flat-out crazy!!!!!

The Sox picked up a potential number one starter for years to come, who, if healthy, can give them 20 wins, an ERA under 3.00, 300 strikeouts, and shut the Yankees down when needed. Sound like a young Curt Schilling to anybody?! And for what? A minor league shortstop with potential and disciplinary questions who will not play shortstop here due to Edgar Renteria's presence there. And they didn’t have to part with prize prospect Jon Lester, instead giving up borderline prospect Isabel Sanchez. To me, this is a win-win gamble that could pay huge dividends for this team for years to come.

All I want to know is which of the 42 guys running the team made this trade!

The Poseidon Adventure

I had to watch the 3-hour made for TV remake of the one of my favorite movies and the first movie I saw unattended in a movie theatre in 1972, I believe. And the results were not pleasing. The most I can say is that for a 3-hour a movie, it did keep me watching all the way to the end. With that said, let’s go through why it didn’t make the cut.

The casting was awful! I always say you can’t remake a classic movie if it also has a classic cast. To replace the likes of Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine and Shelly Winters for a Steve Guttenberg (who looks awful by the way), Rutger Hauer (who put me to sleep as a the priest; he only excels playing evil villains), and a cast of nobodies, just didn’t capture the "spirit" of their situation throughout the movie.

The whole idea of the ship being bombed by terrorist activities versus a tidal wave was also pretty lame. I realize they wanted to revise it, but you know, it worked the first time, stick with it! (I’m surprised they didn’t blame President Bush for the SS Poseidon!). I wanted to stuff the digital camera down that little kid’s throat, as the constant filming was beyond obnoxious. The best part of the original version was the survivors’ harrowing journey and escape from the top of the ship to the bottom (since it was upside down). But in this remake, every time we got a shot of them making their way through another harrowing moment, all momentum was killed with a cut back to the headquarters’ staff meetings, and Navy Seals. How stupid! I could go on and on but, what’s the point? Oh yes, and you like how the first group of survivors fought their way to their safety, but the second group just flew up the tree and blew through all obstacles in minutes to catch up with the first group?!

Anyways, on a scale from 1-4, 1 is the word.

Buh Bye Theo

It is time for Red Sox nation to stop eulogizing Theo Epstein, the man who put together (as a colleague suggested) "half a team."

In general, I believe he did a good job with this ball club, especially in helping to build up a prosperous farm system. With that said, for the record, the 2004 World Series team was really as much, if not more so, Dan Duquette's creation as it was Theo Epstein's. Pedro, Manny, Trot, Varitek, DLowe, to name a few were all Duquette people. As for the 2003 and 2005 Red Sox, they were the same kind of team as any Red Sox team that preceded Theo's arrival. So, yes I give him credit for Big Papi and Schilling, but he must also answer for the ridiculous contracts he gave to Matt Clement and Edgar Renteria. And the way Red Sox nation and the press has been reacting, you'd think Theo won a championship by himself! Actually they're acting as if he died, its ridiculous! He couldn't work with club president Larry Lucchino and he moved on (I can't blame him for that myself).

But for goodness sakes Red Sox nation, move on also, really!!!

Think Pats in 2006

This will not be the season of the Patriots, I can assure you. After getting stoked by the Colts last night on Monday Night Football, it is safe to say that if this team wins their division and makes the playoffs, they will not go far.

The one man associated with this team that I cannot blame is Tom Brady, who continues to show how terrific in the Joe Montana mold he is. But the defense in particular is awful. Where has Richard "I'm in my contract year" Seymour been? And without him, Warren, Woolfork, and Green couldn't stop my grandmother. Bruschi and Vrabel have done all they could at linebacker, but guys like Chad Brown, Willie McGinest, and Roosevelt Colvin are all washed up. And the secondary without Rodney Harrison? Abysmal! Samuel and Eugene Wilson play like rookies and Dunae Starks has a bull’s-eye on his back.

Anyways, don’t expect much from this year's edition, even if they make the playoffs. Belichick's real challenge will be reassembling a new squad for 2006.

House of Wax

You can do worse with today’s releases of “so-called” horror movies than to rent “House of Wax.” A far-reaching remake of the Vincent Price classic, this one did have its moments and atmosphere to make it worth watching.

In a nutshell, it’s a group of college kids that end up in a town where the “local residents” seem to manage their situation through their house of wax (I’m careful not to reveal too much!). And again, you can kind of guess what happens to these younglings when they cross those obsessed with wax.

My complaint is I wish they showed more of the wax transformations (if that makes sense) since, to me, that’s the best part of the movie. But with that said, I do recommend it.

Good Luck!

Today Theo Epstein officially says goodbye to Red Sox nation amongst the local paper Watergate going on here in Boston. Today on WEEI sports radio, the public was privy into the hosts, two obnoxious guys, Dennis and Callahan, roasting the author of the column that appeared in Sunday's Globe, the alleged article that pretty much supposedly nixed any interest of Theo in returning to the Sox. The gist of it is that the article was weighted in favor of Sox president and now number one archenemy, Larry Lucchino, and the thought amongst locals here is that his camp leaked private information that was privy to Theo and Lucchino. It’s made for some entertaining radio and gossip.

Bottom line is that Theo doesn’t want to work for anybody that is going to disrespect him and micro-manage him and for that alone, I can’t blame him. He'll move on to better things, and the Sox will hire another competent GM that will make some blockbuster deals (bye Manny!), and everyone will move on.

Good luck Theo!

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Time To Go To Sirius, Howard

I have been a faithful listener of the daily simulcast “Howard Stern Show” for years. But with his impending departure to satellite radio, it has now gotten to the point where I wish he would just leave.

This morning I awoke to him arguing with his GM, Tom Chiasano, because they used his voice from his David Lee Roth interview of a week ago, the man replacing Howard, to promote David Lee Roth. Howard went on his tangent again about the disrespect and don't use his voice-overs to promote his replacement, blah babababa. Sorry Howard, wrong!

He has spent the I don’t know how many shows promoting his future satellite programming, even playing clips from shows he's currently airing! Imagine! That would be like you giving your notice at work, and the last 2 weeks on the job, you bring your new employers work into your old office, work on it on company time, and tell the current employees how the current company sucks and you should apply to his new company! What employer in the universe would allow that?! But KRock and Tom Chiasano do and he gets roasted. Amazing!

And the other thing is Howard pontificating about how much money he’s made Infinity… guess what Howard? You made yourself millions at the same time, not exactly slave labor! And, not to mention it landed you half a billion dollars in your next gig!

As for being a good sport and wishing David Lee well, umm I’m not so sure based on what I heard; which were comments like "why would you want to do it since you were once on top? And people will now ask you if the rumors are true about you being gay”, (that you could tell kind of peeved David Lee).

Anyways, at one time, I thought with my limited funds that I’d invest in a satellite radio because I didn’t want to miss his show. But knowing now it’s going to be a $12 a month fee to hear him put Jeff the Drunk and his other cronies on there, along with more raunchy stuff that he thinks is "progressive and innovative," along with hearing him whine through his whole show about how Infinity is being disrespectful to him, etc., at this point I can’t wait for him to leave already (quite frankly he "jumped the shark" a long time ago) and to give David Lee a chance, for free, no less.

Bye Howard!