The Righteous and the Wicked...and other thoughts

"They are enormous role models for everybody," Arlen Specter (R. - Pennsylvania) said. "If you can cheat in the NFL, you can cheat in college, you can cheat in high school, you can cheat on your grade school math test. There's no limit as to what you can do. I think they owe the public a lot more candor and a lot more credibility."

Not like, say politics, where an entire administration and its party falls in lockstep in lying to the American people about reasons we should send citizens to die in a foreign country, a party owned by Big Oil, a party that has tried to distract the American people from real problems like the economy, war, human rights violations, and has disregarded the Bill of Rights.

No, politicians cheating the American people aren't going to send the message that, "you can cheat in college, you can cheat in high school, you can cheat on your grade school math test. There's no limit as to what you can do. I think they owe the public a lot more candor and a lot more credibility." Although if you do all of that, you might be qualified to be a Republican legislator.

No way what the NFL has done is worse than what Specter has done - ignored our President's illegal and un-Constitutional actions, ignored the questionable actions of the former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and then has hoped that the citizenry would buy the fact that he has never met with Comcast and assured them that he would look out for their interests, despite being his biggest campaign contributors. It's less believable than Bill Belichick's "misinterpretation" excuse.

The would-be stopper

The Red Sox entered the final game against Baltimore on a three game skid and lost five of the last seven. The reasons ranged from a lack of clutch hitting, to struggling starters - including ace Josh Beckett and wunderkind Clay Buchholz - to bullpen meltdowns (generally from closer Jonathan Paplebon).

Jon Lester did in the last game against Baltimore what everyone expected Beckett to do. He stopped the bleeding. He left the game after six innings, five hits, two runs, and only 86 pitches. He left with the lead - 3-2.

The bullpen, Javy Lopez, Craig Hansen, and Hideki Okajima, conspired to give up twice as many runs in two innings as Lester did in six.

As responsible as the starting pitching has been for some of these losses, the bullpen was just as culpable yesterday (just as side note - this in no way absolves the Sox line-up which hit into four double-plays, left five men on base, three of which were left in scoring position with two outs. However, the offense had produced enough to have the lead when it was turned over to the pen).

Lester did his job. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn't - for the third time in the seven games.

Two-face...

Comic book fans know the Batman character of Harvey Dent as Two-face - the one-time Gotham City district attorney turned villain due to an attack that resulted in a split personality. The character is, in essence, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

And it is evidently the playoff Celtics.

The most dominant team in the league during the regular season, and road warriors who dominated teams in the west in their own stadiums is winless on the road in five games this post-season and unbeaten at home.

Watching this team play on the road against Atlanta and Cleveland, it's obvious this is a different team than the one that shows up at the Gahden.

They appear flat and sometimes lost when they're in an opponent's arena. At home they dominate, and force the other teams into errors. But how long can a team survive playing all seven games in best-of-seven series after series?