The Nation
As I watched Game 6 last week, I may have officially become part of Red Sox Nation when I was at the Zone in the ninth inning. The classic shot of Red Sox fans, especially in games 4 and five last week, was of course those people watching the game thru their fingers. That was largely me on Tuesday. During the eighth and ninth I had taken a composite NBA schedule that was available their and nearly wore the ink off by rubbing it together in nervous anticipation. I was awed by what Schilling did, and what he did on Sunday as well. The man obviously has a huge pain threshold and frankly, may be one of the great teammates ever.

I am obviously rooting for the Red Sox, so this weekends two games were great. They do need to get better defensively, obviously, but that will be difficult when they ahve to put Ortiz at first. Manny literally falling all over himself in left certainly doesn't help.

As far as the Yankees are concerned, they just completed what has to be considered one of the freat failures in team sports history. It's not just that they lost 4 straight. They lost 4 straight when it mattered most, and when victory was literally withing the Hammer of God's grasp in the Ninth inning of game 4. My guess is they will go after Beltran, which won't help anything. This is a time when George is letting his ego get the best of him, and is not really looking at the makeup of his team. This team's offense was great, or atleast it was until game 4, but what it needs more than anything is a left handed starter and a reliable left handed reliever.

Horse race stuff is interesting: The Gallup poll was at something like 9 points for Bush last week, and now its at 5. The Washington Post tracking poll now gives Kerry a slight edge. From state to state though, things are not as encouraging. The Zogby polls showed Bush gains in a lot of battlegrounds, which there is not much time to reverse. Still, the story about the munitions dump, coupled with the gaffe from the Hannity interview may hurt Bush yet