This is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is usually just perfect which means it’s optimized for sleeping, the pennant races are really heating up, football season is getting underway and the leaves undergo their usual wonderous transformation that we’ve grown accustomed to here in New England – a transformation I still marvel at and appreciate every time. It remains to be seen how much I’ll appreciate it when they begin to fall into my new yard, though. Check with me later on that one.
Given their history, it might be too early to get excited about the Red Sox making the playoffs, but it certainly does seem like it would take a meltdown of epic proportions for the Sox not to make it to post-season play this year. Even if they don’t make it, this year’s playoffs promise to be a barn-burner – we’ve got all eight teams who seem to have a legitimate shot at winning it all, a far cry from the mid-1990s when there were between 2 and 4 teams that seemed to – yawn – be there every year. In retrospect, the 1990s may go down as one of the more underwhelming decades of baseball because of that very fact. While baseball does seem to be trying to fix their hideous class-based, market driven system, it seems they are still a long ways away before that black mark goes away and the talent field is distributed evenly again. Personally, I can’t wait until talent and player evaluation again dictates who fields the best teams. Not sure how long we’re all willing to wait for that to happen. Some good signs, though…..
Another good thing about September is the slew of returning TV shows with new episodes. Myself, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the return of new episodes from NYPD Blue, CSI, American Dreams and Everybody Loves Raymond. I’m being cautious about my expectations for Ed – will the show jump the shark now that Ed and Carol (hi, Julie Bowen) have hooked up? I hope not. There have been previous episodes of Ed that I would rank as having the best writing of any TV show in the last 15 years. I hope they can keep the train rolling.
Song now playing: Clem Snide “Long Lost Twin”