"ND shoots, he scores!!"

Thanks for that laugh, ND. It's been a rough week.

Or Bianca from Cyberchase on PBS.

PBS? Consider who we're talking about. Odds on he was looking for the cartoon mouse.

Just had new hires meeting. Am 9-10 years older than all of them. They were not aware, it seems. me=laughing.

I like the ita run in mascara and run out idea.

"ND shoots, he scores!!"

Right place at the right time.

DXM, seen this?

Todd Jones credits much of his success this year to his catcher, Paul Lo Duca. "I throw four pitches for strikes,'' Jones said. "I used to have every at-bat mapped out, using all my pitches: First-pitch fastball away, second pitch ... etc. It was a four-step process. What Paul has done is take me from step one to step four. It has been working really well.'' How often has Jones shaken off Lo Duca?

"Not once all year,'' Jones said.

Tim Kurkjian's column at espn.com

I'm going to have an A&W cheeseburger for dinner since I pretty much have no meal-like food at home. Unless I wanted a bagel sandwich, which I don't.

I really ought to go grocery shopping.

How often has Jones shaken off Lo Duca?

Our catcher has gotten a lot of hype about how well he calls games. Recently, the number of shakeoffs has increased a lot, right before strikeouts, and somebody let the cat out of the bag that the pitchers were faking shakeoffs in order to keep the batter guessing.

Now, if only these pitchers could actually throw the strikes called for. The best catcher in the world can't go out on the mound and do it himself, although don't think Red Sox fans wouldn't be game for trying it.

(I read recently that Jose Canseco got to pitch once, in a game back when he was a Ranger. WTF?? And injured his arm bad enough to miss time.)

yeah - that was when Bobby Valentine was manager. He was being a smart ass and got a lot of flk for it at the time.

The Red Sox had a lefty first baseman who was a decent pitcher last year -- Dave McCarty -- and he actually got to pitch, for like 3 innings the whole year. It was a fun line to read, though. I think he had a 0.00 ERA, and unfortunately a batting average about the same.

(THe low BA probably accounts for why he taught himself to pitch in the first place, and why it would have been no big whoop to send him out there to blow out his elbow on a lark.)

The Autumnal Equinox will be in about an hour (3:23 PM board time). I'd wait until then to post this but I won't be near a computer.

eta: or Vernal Equinox for folks south of the equator.