Post-Weekend Hangover

Call it Monday Morning Hair of the Dog and fire up your old Nazareth records...

*The Yankees, so strapped for pitching they were about to take passersby off the street and test them in the bullpen, shell out $28 million (pro-rated, but then hit with 40% luxury tax so: a lot of money for a 45-year old) for Roger. Roger proves that he isn't all about the money, but may be the single most self-absorbed athlete ever. In any sport.

Would the Sox be a better team with Roger out there every fifth day? Probably. In theory, he's better than Julian Tavarez, and probably better than Jon Lester. But, he's also 45, and was a 5- or 6-inning pitcher on average in the National League--recent World Series ring aside, there's no doubt he faced weaker line-ups. So really, the biggest plus to the Sox getting Roger would have been keeping him from the Yankees. With the Yankees though, an older Roger swaps the relatively weak NL lineups for Boston, Toronto, and Tampa Bay on a fairly regular basis. 5 innings of Clemmens is better than 4 of Kei Igawa, but it still leaves 3 innings for pitchers not named Mariano to pitch, and the Yankees bullpen isn't going to get less worn out with a workload like that.

I didn't want to throw dirt on the Yankees season before, and it's a lot harder to do now, but I'm not going to concede anything yet either. Roger circa 1999 isn't coming back to the Bronx any more than Mordeci Brown is pitching for the Cubs. And when the Sox take the division even after Roger rode in on his expensive horse for the Yankees, it'll be that much sweeter.

*There's been a minor fuss on sportstalk radio about UGA QB Matt Stafford's alleged extracurricular activities (HT: GeorgiaSportsBlog). "Oh no, he's holding a beer keg," the standard refrain goes. Well yeah. But he's not drinking from it. The more disturbing thing to me about the situation (well, aside from being photographed spooning his backup, which makes the whole "I didn't drink from the keg" angle nil and probably assured Stafford of an extra trip up Sanford Stadium's steps around 5am some morning) is that apparently the coed he's chilling with is an Auburn girl. Now I'm not going to come out and say all Auburn girls are terrible (I know they aren't all bad).

But if your the starting QB for the University of Georgia, you should be hoisted kegs over Georgia girls. Being a few years removed from college I don't know if Stafford's celebrity on campus would be such that he'd rather hit up a NASCAR event than Twilight, but if David Greene and David Pollack could show up downtown (Pollack in particular I recall frequenting the pool tables at Classic City) so can Stafford. So, single ladies of Athens (well, those of you with no romantic interest in me) I beg of you: save our QB from the Auburn harpies. I'm not saying there dating, but if they were, I wouldn't put it past her to dump him right around the Georgia-Auburn rematch. Perhaps being dumped by a duplicitous Georgia girl is what led to Brandon Cox's performance? I'm not saying, but...

*Very uneventful weekend for your humble (sic) blogger. Friday was the highlight, with some great performances all around from the three bands (The Renegadez, The Empties, and Beyond Tomorrow--featuring former Of Mirth & Matter bassist Michael Ellers on keys!) with The Empties putting in a really solid performance. Saturday's planned Cinco de Drinko pool party was cancelled because of the weather, and I spent part of the day wondering if I'd gotten either too sensitive to weather conditions or if I was just coming down with something (turns out it is a cold. Guess who's buying some Claritin today?) Worse, my backup plan of spending the afternoon writing and recording was interrupted by what I have since dubbed the World's Largest Outdoor Sausage Party next door. My unofficial count: well over 50 dudes, 4 girls, and countless pointless bellowing. Here's hoping they all go home for the summer and my last few months as an Athens resident are largely dumbass free.

The lowlight came downtown Saturday when I was heading towards The Church and Walkers, only to overhear some dumbass passing the Human Rights Festival Stage yell "more socialism, vote democrat" like he'd just discovered sarcasm. And I wonder: would attempting to explain that if he supports Bush, he's more or less supporting a fascist register at all? Would he listen to reason at all (at say a later time when he's not drunk)? Or, was my first instinct to just beat the shit out of him the best result? Of course I also felt for most of the weekend that guys that wear visors need to be at least slapped upside the head on general principles (at least 90% are insufferable douchebuckets). If this were a livejournal blog, my mood would have been: bellicose.