Couple of friends found the weekend activities at the Federal Hill Columbus Day Festivities to be quite entertaining.

Onto the readings! Over the weekend Shaughnessy tells us we got what we wanted, which I agree with. While it doesn't matter to me if the Sox had played the Yankees or not to get to the World Series, its certainly more appropiate. Also the following quote below, which while I have no idea if this is correct or not, (Super Bowl coverage?) he has a little more perspective than me.

The tonnage of coverage generated by another Boston-New York Trojan War will exceed that of any sports story of this century.

And somehow, PB finds his way into Fenway for Friday nights' classic contest (so did Adam V for the record). What was I doing? At a wedding (where I should have been) checking on the score every 10 minutes or so, but missing what Shaughnessy called one of the most electrifying moments in the history of a ballpark that's almost older than household electricity.

From the killing-two-birds-with-one-stone department, he's a little snippet from the New Yorker on why not to vote for W, (he takes pleasure in violence). And how great was Robin Ventura who announced his retirement following Sunday's season-ending loss to the Cardinals. I'll always remember him as MLB's active-leader in grand slams. Moonshot Manny now takes over that role I think with 17 career grannies. On a side note, has anyone heard this Moonshot Manny song that floating around out there?

In answer to a question from the audience, Bush alluded, with a low chuckle, to what I’d heard from friends in Texas was his favorite Nolan Ryan moment—on August 4, 1993. Ryan, on the mound at Arlington Stadium, with Bush not far away, in the owner’s box, struck Robin Ventura, of the Chicago White Sox, with a pitch. Ventura lost his temper and charged the mound. Ryan, who was then forty-six years old, twenty years Ventura’s senior, caught Ventura in a headlock and delivered six blows to his head and face, from a distance of about six inches, really whaling the shit out of him. The scene quickly became a canonical bit of sports video.

And for the record, you can write off UMass football (2-4, 0-3 Atlantic 10) for the year. A bad loss at James Madison, their fourth straight, has turned the Minutemen into an upset team. Screw the others! Onto college basketball which starts up this weekend! Midnight Madness across the country at the stroke of midnight on Oct. 15!