Almost time to go

Okay, I haven't blogged in ages because A) I have a baby now, and apparently they actually require a pretty big time commitment, B), it's baseball season, which means I'm watching the Sox and playing lots of Diamond Mind, and C), it's crunch time for pre-production on Whiffleball. I leave on Monday to drive up to Chatham, via Brooklyn, where I'll be picking up co-star and co-producer extraordinaire Michael Poignand. Anyway, this will be a big, rambling blog hitting on lots of topics in no particular order.

TV: Did anyone happen to catch that show Drive on FOX? I loved it...so, naturally, FOX cancelled it after three episodes. Honestly, they couldn't possibly have done anything more to give this show no chance at success: for starters, they premiered it in April, when most things on the air are ramping up toward their season finales. That's terrible call number one. Then, they show the premiere on a Sunday night--horrible decision number two. Finally, they follow up the premiere two-parter with another episode the very next night. Now, I was anticipating this show literally more than anyone I know and this absurd scheduling even managed to screw me up, as I forgot to TiVo the Monday night ep right after the premiere. I even downloaded it from iTunes so I could watch it all. So there you go, FOX. Enjoy your cut of my 99 cents. This network is becoming an absolute joke.

So let's move on to happier TV stories. NBC has ordered half a dozen scripts for Friday Night Lights, and although that certainly isn't quite a rining endorsement for the show's future, at least it's something. HOWEVER (spoiler alert), I didn't like how they ended season one. Really, the only way to write it was to have Dillon lose the championship game. This would fit the tone of the show and it would give Coach Taylor real motivation to stay in town and finish what he started. I can see letting them win if the producers knew that the show had been or was going to be cancelled--fine, end it on a happy note. But where do they go from here now? Who knows. I just hope NBC gives us a chance to find out.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the return of Studio 60. If NBC has a clue, they should renew the show for another season immediately, as how the show fares now really has no bearing on anything. It's been off the schedule for weeks and they are throwing it back on late, on a different night, so what do they expect? Maybe it will do great numbers on Thursday, but that shouldn't be the deciding factor on if it returns. Just renew it already. It's a brilliant show.

I'm loving this season of The Sopranos and I honestly have no idea how it is going to end...and I love that. There isn't much out of the realm of possibility at this point: Tony in jail, Tony turns state's evidence, Tony gets killed by someone from New York, Tony gets it from someone in his own crew (Christopher???)...who knows. I can't wait to see how it all ends.

So, the Red Sox are pretty good. I thought that everything was in place for them to get out to a hot start and for the Yankees to flounder and that's exactly what has happened. I don't think that our out-of-this-world pitching can be expected to keep up this pace--a team ERA of 3.28 in the AL East is just ungodly--but clearly the staff is in good shape from top to bottom. Beckett has turned the corner and Okajima is the second great bullpen arm that we've been missing since...well, since Mike Timlin was younger and better. When the weather warms up our hitting will get even better, so all in all I'm really, really happy with how things look right now. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens has all but cemened the fact that his plaque in Cooperstown should have a dollar sign on the cap. And to think that I talked myself into getting excited for the happy ending if he signed with us. My bad. He remains nothing more than a greedy villain in pinstripes. When October rolls around enjoy coming up short once again, Rocket.