Weekend catchup

Hey, on the brightside, looks like the Red Sox will be playing 92% of their games under the three hour mark (last night's debacle a notable exception). Seeing as it would appear the lineup couldn't punch it's way out of a wet paper bag, it appears the pitching is going to have to carry the Sox, meaning a never ending conveyor belt of 4-5, 5-4 and 4-3 scorelines for the summer of 2009. Personally, as a pitching aficionado, this suits me down to the ground but hey that's selfish and nobody likes that, many fans will miss the 10-8, 9-7 and 12-6 batterings administered in the last couple of seasons by various Red Sox juggernauts. Thing is, those games take time, plenty of. For '09 it appears we will be seeing more two and a half hour games and less four hour epics. Surely that has to be a good thing, right?

Red Sox '09 version - needs more Beckett

Imagine back in say 1998 or maybe 1999 if you said that Nomar Garciaparra would be playing as a backup with the A's by 2009 and would be merely a footnote on the Boston Globe's sports page. Well, people would have thought you were higher than The Wire's lovable addict, Bubbles.

Nomah!

It's a pretty cool feat for such a small nation as Ireland to have two teams in the Rugby Heineken Cup semi finals. Sadly Munster and Leinster have to play each other, although you could look at that as a glass-half-full situation as there will definitely be an Irish club side in the 2009 Heineken Cup Final.

Irish rugby - scoring tries in European competition near you

America becoming increasingly insular alert number 4589:B7. How about the flat-line commentary at the end of the Masters on Sunday night? As Angel Cabrera two putted the last hole of the playoff, the commentary team almost fell asleep on air. The 'winning call' sounded like Owen Wilson's depressed, low key answering machine message in 'The Wedding Crashers', complete with lonely sighing. One online sporting site greeted the Argentinians win with; ''Oh, and some fat guy from another country won the whole shebang in a three-way playoff''. You stay classy, Deadspinners. Far more main stream online sporting medium, ESPN, settles for this unbelievably arrogant, disgusting article suggesting Cabrera should feel grateful the powerful Americans allowed him win the tournament by not playing to their superior level.





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