September 12, 2004 – Judah born. October 27, 2004 – Red Sox beat St. Louis to win the 2004 World Series.

June 11, 2007 – Abel born. October 28, 2007 – Red Sox beat Colorado to win the 2007 World Series.

[tags]Boston Red Sox, Tim Wakefield, Doug Mirabelli[/tags]

[tags]baseball, spring training, Red Sox[/tags]

John is retiring with an amazing career batting average of .295, and an even more amazing career fielding percentage of .995! He has two World Series rings, both earned in Toronto when the Blue Jays won back-to-back titles in 1992-93. To go along with that John won the AL Gold Glove three times: in 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Being in the Northwest I had the benefit of watching John play from 2000-2004 with the Mariners. He was one of those players that seemed happy to come to the ballpark every day. He was never boastful. He let his bat and glove do his talking. And that swing! I put his swing in the same category as Ted Williams and Will Clark. For me to put anyone in any category with The Kid (Ted, if you don’t know) is a BIG thing. I was happy that the Red Sox picked him up this last year, but was disappointed with the way that Tito handled the platoon at first. But hey, there’s next year. Only next year will be without Olerud.

The ALDS shapes up this way: LAA has the home field advantage over the NYY, ChiSox have the home field advantage over the BoSox. Unfortunately Chicago has handled Boston this year. But the California…no…Anaheim…no…Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim have handled the Yankees this year. Unless the Boston starting pitchers step up I see Chicago winning in 5. I’ll also predict the Crenshaw Angles of The OC in 5 over the media favorite Yankees.

1. We bought a house, as I mentioned here. With home ownership comes the responsibilities of a home owner…like managing a lawn, cleaning windows, and having a pet We got us a kitty, which you can see here. His name is Orley, named in memory of New Orleans. He was born on June 15.
2. As of today the Red Sox lead the AL East by 1.5 games. It is definitely going to be another intense September.
3. Microsoft has decided to release seven — yes seven — versions of it’s next operating system named Vista. Talk about mass consumer confusion just waiting to happen. Seriously, release three version at most: Basic, Intermediate, and Professional. The MS-hater in me believes this is their way to appease anti-trust people. “See, we offer a stripped down version, but no one wants to buy it.”
4. Judah turned one. Check out the photos here.
5. I’m playing my first season of Fantasy Football. It’s kinda fun. I think I’ve got a pretty good team. My #1 QB is Carson Palmer, and he is having a monster year so far.
6. A co-worker and I are starting to develop a professional website for Christian admissions professionals. We are trying to nail down the intent and scope of the site, as well as finding a software package that will meet the intent and scope that we decide upon Right now I’m toying around with tikiwiki. I just need to find a way to make it look less “geeky”.
7. Work is keeping me ever busy. I was commenting to Aj that I don’t remember feeling this busy last year. She pointed out that last year I was still learning my job, and this year I’m doing my job. Plus I think I have more responsibility this year, including having more people to supervise, which takes up more of my time.

Ok, I think that does a fairly decent job of letting you know where I’m at. Let the next week begin.