Three Blogs. Dedicated to the World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

Bullshit Memorial Stadium, which notes that the Giants gave Omar Vizquel a three-year deal. When I saw he had signed, I assumed it was for only one year. An amazing bit of luck for a 38-year-old shortstop going to a non-DH league.

(Not) Just Another Sports Site. His latest entry is on Varitek and his contract request.

Keys To The Game, Jose Melendez's GREAT fount of wisdom. I was sure Jose's site was on my list of links, but it wasn't. Sorry, Jose. ... Also, Jose is publishing a book of his 2004 Keys, which you should absolutely buy. It will be a unique addition to your pile of 2004 World Champions memorabilia.

... Because you know the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, right? That makes the Boston Red Sox the 2004 World Champions of baseball. ... And in the process of becoming World Champs, the Boston Red Sox rallied against the New York Yankees, making the Yankees the only team in baseball history to lose a best-of-7 series when leading by 3 games.

I'll never get tired of writing stuff like that.

The Week That Was. I promise to be better about getting Sox news up here.

Curt Schilling's surgery went well. His ankle and foot will be immobilized for about a month and he will need six weeks of rehabilitation.

Theo Epstein on Wednesday: "We have so many question marks, we have to remain flexible, add value where we can and get a big bang for our buck. We have solid players already and we can build off of that foundation. It's one of those years where there's so much in the air, we have to be open-minded. We're trying to cast a wide net, but out of respect for our own guys, we haven't got too specific with other free agents. But that time will come."

Jason Varitek wants a 5-year, $50 million deal with a no-trade clause. The Red Sox will not go for that, in part because they do not offer no-trades. Agent Scott Boras cited past examples of no-trade clauses okayed by John Henry, Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner when they were with other clubs, but the Sox say Boras isn't entirely accurate. ... In the meantime, Boston has asked about Washington-Montreal catcher Brian Schneider.

Pedro Martinez must know that the deal the Red Sox offered him -- two-year, $25.5 million, with $2 million in incentives and a $13 million option for 2007 -- is very fair. Now Friday -- the first day of the 2005 season -- has come and gone and Martinez can now discuss money with other teams. ... In interviews with Hoy and El Nacional, Pedro said his shoulder has fully healed and that he expects to throw in the mid-90s on a regular basis next year. He also said eight teams have expressed an interest in him, including the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, Cardinals and Marlins. ... Many around baseball think Pedro will remain in Boston.

In the unlikely event that Pedro went to the Bronx, that would be cool with Dumbo Posada: "I have nothing against Pedro - if he's my teammate. The guy's a winner; he knows how to pitch. He does everything possible to win and keep himself in shape. We'd talk it out. I would catch him."

The Red Sox are interested in Carl Pavano, Brad Radke and Jaret Wright. Florida has apparently put a 3/21 offer on the table for Pavano. Schilling -- who opposed Pavano in his major league debut on May 23, 1998 -- would love to have the Marlin free agent in Boston's rotation.

Boston is also one of a few teams interested in either of Oakland's Barry Zito and Mark Mulder. ... Troy Glaus is also in the Sox's sights. Glaus could play third base (with Mueller either moved at 2B or traded) or first (which would mean ditching both Millar and Mientkiewicz). ... LHP Billy Traber was claimed off waivers from Cleveland. ... Derek Lowe could return to Boston with a one-year arbitration deal, but the Phillies are also interested.

All hail David Ortiz -- "cleanup hitter of the world."

Bad News. From Baghdad: "People in Falloojeh are being murdered. The stories coming back are horrifying. People being shot in cold blood in the streets ... the people have nothing to eat. No produce is going into the city and the water has been cut off for days and days. ... There are corpses in the street because no one can risk leaving their home to bury people. Families are burying children and parents in the gardens of their homes. ... Iraqis will never forgive this -- never. It's outrageous -- it's genocide and America, with the help and support of Allawi, is responsible."

Denial of drinking water is a war crime under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva Conventions. Read here and much more here. ... And from AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who tried to leave Fallujah this week: "I decided to swim [across the Euphrates River] ... but I changed my mind after seeing US helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the river. ... I kept walking along the river for two hours and I could still see some US snipers ready to shoot anyone who might swim. I quit the idea of crossing the river and walked for about five hours through orchards."

From Zogby: "I smell a rat. It has that distinctive and all-too-familiar odor of the species Republicanus floridius. ... In one [Ohio] county where 88% of voters are registered Democrats, Bush got nearly two thirds of the vote ... In 30 [Ohio] precincts, more ballots were cast than voters were registered in the county. ... [N]early 100,000 more people voted than are registered to vote -- this out of a total of 251,946 registrations. These are not marginal differences -- this is a 39% over-vote. In some precincts the over-vote was well over 100%. One precinct with 558 registered voters cast nearly 9,000 ballots. ... Either the raw data from two critical battleground states is completely erroneous, or something has gone horribly awry in our electoral system -- again. ... The facts as I see them now defy all logical explanations save one -- massive and systematic vote fraud. We cannot accept the result of the 2004 presidential election as legitimate until these discrepancies are rigorously and completely explained."

Another report of Election Day trouble in Ohio. ... BlackBoxVoting.org has launched several fraud audits.

AL Cy Young. How about that! They got this one right. In a big way. ... By the way, can John Kruk get any stupider?

                1st   2nd   3rd   Pts

Santana, Min     28    --    --   140

Schilling, Bos   --    27     1    82

Rivera, NYY      --     1    24    27

Pedro, Bos       --    --     1     1

Nathan, Min      --    --     1     1

FRodriguez, Ana  --    --     1     1

A Speech With Slight Edits:

"The American government also acted decisively when faced by a threat. We are not like the ostrich that sticks its head in the sand so as not to see danger. We are brave enough to look danger in the face, to coolly and ruthlessly take its measure, then act decisively with our heads held high. As a nation, we have always been at our best when we needed determined wills to overcome danger, or a strength of character sufficient to overcome every obstacle, or bitter determination to reach our goal, or a steel heart capable of withstanding every internal and external battle. ...

"Three years of Republican leadership in the war on terror have been enough to make plain to the American people the seriousness of the danger posed by terrorism. Now one can understand why we spoke so often of the fight against it. We raised our voices in warning to the American people and the world, hoping to awaken humanity from the paralysis of will and spirit into which it had fallen. We tried to open their eyes to the horrible danger of Saddam Hussein, who had subjected a nation of nearly 25 million people to state terrorism and was preparing an aggressive war against America. ...

"I speak first to the world, and proclaim three theses regarding our fight against the terrorist danger in Iraq.

"The first thesis: Were the American army not in a position to destroy the danger from Iraq, America would fall to terrorists, and all the world shortly afterward.

"Second: The American army, the American people and their allies alone have the strength to save the world from this threat.

"Third: Danger is a motivating force. We must act quickly and decisively, or it will be too late."

More.

NL Cy Young Award. Roger Clemens won his seventh Cy Young Award Tuesday.

             1st  2nd  3rd   Pts

Clemens, Hou  23    8    1   140

Johnson, Ari   8   18    3    97

Oswalt, Hou    1    3    5    19

Schmidt, SF   --    1   10    13

Zambrano, Chi --    1    5     8

Pavano, Fla   --    1    3     6

Gagne, LA     --  --     3     3

Lidge, Hou    --  --     1     1

Sheets, Mil   --  --     1     1

I would have voted for Johnson. Fat Billy from Ohio had 18 wins (to Unit's 16), but Johnson topped him in the following categories:

Starts: 35 to 33
Innings: 245.2 to 214.1
ERA: 2.60 to 2.98
Adjusted ERA+: 171 to 145
CG: 4 to 0
Shutouts: 2 to 0 (inc. a perfect game)
Fewer Hits/9 IP: 6.48 to 7.10
Fewer Walks: 44 to 79
Strikeouts: 290 to 218
Strikeouts/9 IP: 10.62 to 9.16
Walks+Hits/9 IP: 0.90 to 1.16
Lower Opp. Average: .197 to .217
Lower Opp. On-Base: .241 to .292
Lower Opp. Slugging: .315 to .329

The small difference in wins can be chalked up to poor run support -- Arizona scored 0, 1 or 2 runs in 17 of Johnson's 35 starts.

The Elephant in the Voting Booth. Maureen Farrell: "On election night, Peter Jennings looked measurably surprised when he learned that President Bush had provided a tape of himself, sitting in the White House, commenting on his impending victory. It was an unprecedented move. No sitting president had ever addressed the nation while polls were still open. It was just not done. But there was George, exuding confidence, offering an election day reminder of our leader's legitimacy." ... (Much more and links galore)

You can find an ungodly amount of vote fraud links here. Also, Keith Olbermann has been giving this subject a lot of air time this week on his MSNBC show "Countdown." Check it out tonight.

9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey talks to CNN's Paula Zahn.

Kerrey: "[T]here's a credible case that the president's own negligence prior to 9/11 at least in part contributed to the disaster in the first place."

Zahn: How so?

Kerrey: Well, the The 9/11 report says in chapter eight -- now that it's beyond the campaign, so the promise I had to keep this out of the campaign is over. The 9/11 report in chapter eight says that, in the summer of 2001, the government ignored repeated warnings by the CIA, ignored, and didn't do anything to harden our border security, didn't do anything to harden airport country, didn't do anything to engage local law enforcement, didn't do anything to round up INS and consular offices and say we have to shut this down, and didn't warn the American people. The famous presidential daily briefing on August 6, we say in the report that the briefing officers believed that there was a considerable sense of urgency and it was current. So there was a case to be made that wasn't made.

Zahn: But what we continue to hear from this administration is that the threat was much too diffuse. There was no way you could zero in on the fact that al Qaeda was going to use jets as bombs and ram them into buildings.

Kerrey: That is a straw man. The president says, if I had only known that 19 Islamic men would come into the United States of America and on the morning of 11 September hijack four American aircraft, fly two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into an unknown Pennsylvania that crashed in Shanksville, I would have moved heaven and earth. That's what he said.

Mr. President, you don't need to know that. This is an Islamic jihadist movement that has been organized since the early 1990s, declared war on the United States twice, in '96 and '98. You knew they were in the United States. You were warned by the CIA. You knew in July they were inside the United States. You were told again by briefing officers in August that it was a dire threat. And what did you do? Nothing, so far as we could see on the 9/11 Commission. Now, that's in the report. And we took an oath not to talk about it during the campaign, I think correctly so ..."

If the information was in the Commission's published report -- and it was -- why did the Commission members need to take an oath, vowing to not talk about it during the campaign? Was it simply to avoid pointing out the truth about the Bush administration's negligence? Since Kerrey is not revealing any previously unknown information to Zahn, that's the impression I'm left with.

Wasn't fighting terrorism one of the big issues this time around? Shouldn't every American have as much information as possible when making their decision who to vote for? And these fucking hacks on the Commission were supposed to be non-partisan?!?

A Map.



Pascal: "Using final vote percentages from electoral-vote.com, I made a map showing the percentage of "red" voters in each state along with the percentage of "blue" voters. The color on top of each state shows the party that won that state's electoral votes."

USA: Tanks In The Streets. Liberal Mom has some screen shots of a video taken during an anti-war demo in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. According to one report: "At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered."

Mission Accomplished, Part II. John Ashcroft, in his resignation letter to George Bush: "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."

Is This Common Practice? Associated Press, November 8: "Surveys of voters just leaving polling places around the nation tilted toward Kerry early in the day and through much of the evening, causing early optimism for a Democratic recovery of the White House. That faded through the night as exit polls were adjusted to reflect official vote tallies."

Shouldn't exit poll stats be final soon after the polls close -- in the same way that pre-season predictions are "final" once the season begins? The AP quote sounds like a kind of CYA-move re: possible hanky-panky with the votes.

From an explanation of exit polls [here]:

Once the polls close, the interviewer will attempt to obtain actual turnout counts, and if possible, actual vote returns for their precinct. One of the unique aspects of the exit poll design is the way it gradually incorporates real turnout and vote data as it becomes available once the polls close.

I'm not sure what this means or how it is done.

Pitch To Pedro. The Red Sox have offered Pedro Martinez a contract similar to the one Curt Schilling signed last November. According to the Globe, it's 2 years/$25.5M with a $13M option for 2007 and $2M in potential performance bonuses. However, Pedro will likely wait and listen to offers from other teams (including the Yankees), which will start this Friday.

George King, NY Post, November 2: "And since Martinez has never said he wouldn't play for the Yankees, and since George Steinbrenner always desires marquee players, expect the two to dance throughout the process." ... Pedro to Stan Grossfeld, Boston Globe, October 29: "I promise. I'm not going to the Yankees. I want to stay right here."

Schilling is expected to undergo surgery on Tuesday. ... Boston has also expressed interest in Carl Pavano. ... The Herald claims that if the Sox cannot sign Orlando Cabrera (the Mets may go after him), they'll look at either Barry Larkin or Omar Vizquel. I don't believe this, but in case it's true, I say "Please, no."

Gordon Edes on Ortiz's Tokyo blast. ... Tony Massarotti looks at the decision to resign Jason Varitek and notes that he and John Harper (New York Daily News) are collaborating on a book about the 2004 season. ... Rumors: NYY trade Posada for Randy Johnson, then sign Varitek. Also: Nixon for Hudson.

Big In Japan. I got the moon I got the cheese / I got the whole damn nation on their knees.



Ortiz "drilled a lead off homer in the bottom of the fourth about as far one can hit a ball in the Tokyo Dome. It caromed off a strip of lights that separates a cinder block wall from the Teflon roof high above the right field bleachers. Estimated distance: 514 feet. 'I thought for a second it would land in the Dominican, said Ortiz ...

"Ortiz was cheered all evening by two sections of fans among the near capacity crowd of 52,000, who repeatedly chanted 'Let's go Red Sox' every time the lefty-swinger came up to hit. 'I felt like he hit the ball almost twice the length of the stadium,' [starter Shunsuke] Watanabe said about the Ortiz homer. 'Since the count was 3-and-0, I knew I could not walk him. So I threw a fastball knowing he might hit it. I saw one of the greatest home runs in the world.'"

I got the rooster I got the crow
I got the ebb I got the flow
Heh ho they love the way I do it
Heh ho there's really nothing to it

"Mostly Fair". Ninety-two observers from 34 countries in the Organization for Security and Cooperation reported that voting in the US election was "mostly fair." Polish observer Konrad Olszewski and his Canadian team partner, Ron Gould, said the e-voting system in Venezuela was better protected against failures and errors than the computers used in Florida. Olszewski added: "To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler."

AP: "A national voting rights group [Count Every Vote 2004] said Friday it documented hundreds of voting irregularities affecting poor and minority voters in seven Southern states -- from long lines and faulty equipment to deliberate voter intimidation. ... The group sent monitors Tuesday to 700 precincts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Democratic congressmen John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Wexler of Florida sent a letter to the General Accounting Office yesterday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections.

Some of the problems? A glitch in one Ohio county gave Bush 3,893 extra votes; faulty memory cards in North Carolina caused machines to lose 4,500 votes; software in Florida began subtracting votes when totals surpassed 32,000; and machines in both Florida and Ohio would either not register a vote for Kerry or would indicate a vote for Bush instead.

Another baffling "computer glitch" affected 57,000 votes in LaPorte County, Indiana.

Two graphs:
Kerry Margin: Exit Poll v Actual Vote, Paper Trail States
Kerry Margin: Exit Poll v Actual Vote, Non-Paper Trail States

Dumb And Gettin' Dumber. Bush on Iraqis and the presence of US forces in that country: "We're there at their invitation."

Anyone else think that Rove et al. have Bush say crazy shit like this every so often just to see how stupid the American people really are? They must laugh their asses off when no one -- including the media -- bats an eye.

It sucks being a part of the "reality-based community."

More Election Bullshit. "Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County [Ohio] officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. ... The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election. ... Commissioners made the security decisions in a closed-door meeting last week, but didn't publicize the restrictions that were made until after polls closed. ... Having reporters and photographers around could have interfered with the count, [County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel] said."

In Florida: At DU, batchdem04 posts links to two files and notes that in Palm Beach county "542,835 votes for president were casted, but only 452,061 voters turned out." .... Turns out that happened in a lot of Florida counties, actually (see 1st link). ... See also this chart.

Nothing to see here. Just more "isolated incidents." Keep moving.

1918 - The Film. From Sox fans Kyle Sullivan & Jay Burke: "An independent short film about two life-long Red Sox fans who miraculously land tickets to the World Series. On the way to the big game, disaster strikes at every corner. ... Principal shooting for the film took place October 16-25th and is now complete. ... It will be available for festival screenings (and on independently-released DVDs and VHSs) by January 2005."

Oki-no-Chichi. David Ortiz's two-run single in the sixth inning erased a 2-0 deficit and led an MLB All-Star team to a 7-2 win over a team of Japanese stars before 24,500 in the Tokyo Dome. After the game, Ortiz was given a check for 300,000 yen -- roughly $2,900 -- as the game's "Most Important Player." Ortiz: "I get tired when I wake up, but when I'm in the lineup I'm ready to go. Sure, he [pitcher Koji Uehara] had good stuff. But you know how we do it." [More on the trip.]

Fifteen Red Sox have filed for free agency this month: Pedro, Lowe, Varitek, Cabrera, Mirabelli, Leskanic, Mendoza, Williamson, Myers, McCarty, Reese, Kapler, Adams, Astacio and Burks. [Globe] ... The Red Sox have exclusive negotiating rights with Martinez until November 11 (though other teams can speak with Pedro). Fernando Cuza (Pedro's agent): "There definitely was substantial interest [from other teams]. For being so early in the process, I am surprised. Usually it doesn't heat up until teams are able to exchange money figures."

Curt Schilling says he will have surgery on his right ankle next Monday. ... Nomar is allegedly open to a change of positions (second or third), possibly in New York. ... Theo: "As an organization, we started thinking about 2005 in 2002. That's the way it works. In spring training this year, we were thinking about '05. During the year, we were thinking about '05. You don't wait until the day you stop playing to figure out a plan for the offseason." [Herald]

Millar on WhiskeyGate: "The beginning of the game, like I said, we did a symbolic salute like anyone would do on Christmas, at a wedding, or bar mitzvah. Then after the game, I'm not going to say no one drank Jack Daniels. But this was unfortunate for the city ... we're champions and people are still talking about a silly thing like guys were getting drunk. Baseball's hard enough to play sober. No one was out there playing drunk."

Lucas County, Ohio. At Tuesday night, 10:23 pm, this site showed:



And the votes for President in Hamilton County, Ohio, at 10:29 PM:

Cobb, David Keith - WI       39,541  34.62% 

Kerry, John F. - Democratic  39,541  34.62% 

Bush, George W. - Republican 34,804  30.47%

These "oddities" were, of course, quickly "corrected" once news of them spread across the Internet(s).

The point is that, as of now, we have no fucking idea how many people voted for Bush or Kerry in several states, including Ohio and Florida. And so we have no idea who truly won the election.