A Couple of Saturday Thoughts

A Couple of Saturday Thoughts

Just a couple more things that are on my mind before I go wandering into the weekend:

I taped "Lost" on ABC the other night. Wednesdays are busy, lately. But I got intrigued by the ads over the summer for the new show, so I gave it a tape. I was also intrigued by Bill McCabe's comment on the show the other night.

I gave it a watch this morning. A plane breaks up in the air, and the remains come crashing to a tropical island. They're way off course. The survivors huddle together, and there are very large things in the woods that chase them, and pluck pilots out of cockpit windows when they look out to see what's moving in the woods.

Very interesting. Jurassic Park Island? Maybe they've stumbled into the Land of the Lost....

I liked the first episode, though I hope for a satisfying payoff, when it comes to answering the question of what's in the woods....

I'm heading to Atlanta this afternoon. We're going to catch the Braves and Marlins. I've hit one other major league game this year. Coincidentally enough, that game was also the Braves and Marlins.

The Braves clinched the division again last night. 13 times. Wow. It's hard to remember the Braves of my youth...the team with the powder blue uniforms who struggled mightily to win 60 games in a year. The team that couldn't draw flies. The team where if you brought a bat and glove with you to the game, they'd probably let you play after the seventh inning stretch.

But they've been doing this since 1991. There's a lot of credit that needs to go to both John Schuerholz, the general manager, for making so many great deals and pickups, and also to Bobby Cox, who cemented in my mind his place among the great managers, for guiding this team, with less talent on paper, and with a crazy number of injuries early on, to the N.L. East pennant.

I didn't know how they were going to do this year. I was like most. I didn't think they'd win the division. I figured they might win 85 games, and be a factor. I knew they had a lot of scrappy guys on offense who would wear opposing pitchers out by working a full count or close to it nearly every time they were up at bat.

But I didn't think they had the pitching. Beyond the first couple of spots in the rotation, or in the bullpen with the exception of John Smoltz. It's easy to think that when you let names like Maddux, and the year before, Glavine wander off to other teams.

But the Braves won again. And they did it the scrappy, manufacturing runs kind of way that I appreciate. That I envy, for a certain team that plays on the North Side of Chicago.

But I digress.

Heading down tonight. Because baseball kicks so much ass it ain't even funny.