Bring home the trophy

Fantasy Football is a tricky proposition. You draft players with your peers, taking the best available player, or, if you're more savvy, you've developed a strategy. You avoid injuries, the dreaded bye weeks, but there's never any guarantee that you're a winner. Even if you have drafted the best possible squad. Every week is a crap shoot, nothing is consistent unless you are lucky enough to draft one of the top 3 players. American Football season is now upon us, a grinding 17 weeks where every week matters. Ok, so I'm not standing by the Vince Lombardi trophy, rather Lord Stanley Cup, in the more attractive days of my youth 8 years ago. But the point is to win, to the victors the spoils, and I intend to be victorious. I just need to place in the top 4 for a chance at the 2 week playoff. There's no monetary gain, only the splendor of bragging rights, but the victory is just as sweet. Now to dispatch 11 SG peers...

The Red Sox clubhouse is starting to look more like a MASH unit lately as the injury count surmounts. Luckily, this first day of September, the rosters are expanded, not a moment too soon. Tonight isn't a must-win versus Baltimore, but it would sure be good for morale. A Yankee win earlier this afternoon isn't encouraging either.

Insomnia, or, Are You Ready to Ramble?

This is the second of the past three nights that I haven't been able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Tonight, after watching a somewhat painful loss to the Yankees, a game that we were in until a late inning 2 run shot by traitor Johnny Damon, self-indulgent curtain call included, I am still awake wondering why can't we give Daisuke any run support? I'm still not concerned about a Yankee run-up to the playoffs. Well, I am but I'm not. I had to check where things stood 29 years ago, the sodding Bucky Dent year, yes, 1978. The Red Sox were ahead by 7.5 games at this point in the season. We are now at 7 after tonight's loss. No worries, we have Josh Beckett tomorrow, "Commander Kick-Ass of the F**k You Brigade"™, versus that overweight, overpaid, overage unctuous Texas toad named Roger Clemens. The Dixie Chicks should have also been ashamed to be from Texas because of that asshat Roger, in addition to that other asshat, the Decider. It's Texan vs. Texan night. Ok I've fulfilled my quota on mentioning Texas for awhile.

Sunday night? I wasn't sure what was eating me, so I watched 2 hours of "A History of Britain", hosted by noted Cambridge and Columbia University historian Simon Schawa. Of course I couldn't wait to watch it, I wanted to learn more about Cromwellian England. Thusly, after watching it, I was a little skeeved; the normally short walk back to bed felt like an abnormally long one in the dark, haunted by cruel wars that tore apart the British Isles, tormented by that face of cousin and Lord Protector. God help me if I ever make it to Ireland to travel one day. One slip of that name could cost me. Then again, that's just the paranoid in me talking again, and thank heavens I'm not directly related to him, only his grandfather, uncle and cousins. Like I said, my line was kind enough to come to America to live a life of obscurity in Boston, then Tewksbury MA, then eventually upstate New York. And now that I've satisfied a lot of my curiosity of England, I move further back in time to Welsh ancestry, near Cardiff, with internet information going as far back as the mid 1100s before Edward Longshanks.

Ok, I've got to go to bed. 6 o'clock is calling, however I have about 2 weeks worth of Hollyoaks to catch up on! Another time...

Photo care of: AP, Bill Kostroun.

The Ugly American

The more time passes, the more I obsess on my heritage and all things English and try to distance myself from the commonly regarded "ugly American". The past week or two I have been trying to surround myself with BBC America TV, BBC Radio 1 (which they play way too much American hip-hop/R&B music, I would much prefer that they play European artists only), and have been familiarising meself with Britain itself in a Fodor's travel book and researching on Wikipedia anything I come across. Having been Americentric for my first 30 years on the planet, especially with the state America and the world is in currently, it would do me good to think outside the box from a world point of view.

In other news, my daughter's just learned how to stand up in her crib on her own. And both the Red Sox and Yankees keep on winning, only 5 games separate the two, making it rather uncomfortable for Sox fans like me who have seen it happen all to often before - Yankees heat up in August, while the Sox flounder. To the Powers that be: Please make the end of the summer as glorious as the beginning of the summer!

It ain't my fault

Digging further into my past and the history of Britain, my great x 9 grandfather's family had a hand in the English Civil War. A major one. Sir Richard Ingoldsby was forced against his will to sign King Charles I death warrant by his cousin Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. This was my great x 9 grandfather's brother and cousin, respectively. However, John Ingoldsby fled to Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640, just prior to the wars, and changed his child's name's spelling to (Ebenezer) Ingalsbe. He was either smart to flee with impending war, disloyal, or encouraged to join the Puritan population in Massachusetts. This link to the past connects me to Sirs and Sir Knights as far back as 1230 A.D. in the Ingoldsby Manor of England.

Lastly, last night's game stunk - Beckett did not have a good night. More tonight at home vs. the orange birds.

Cheers!

A whole month going by without a new post? Unacceptable, I know. Very busy with a young child in the house and a week's vacation. By the time I get home from work, it's just about time to put Sierra to bed, and since the computer is in her room, I don't have access to it most nights. One of these days we will have the ambition to move some furniture.

These are great days for the Sox. Manny is on fire, Lugo has turned around his first half slump, and it seems the team is firing on all cylinders. There is not a slow cog in the machine, we've won 7 of our last 8 (10-6 since the All Star break). Even Wily Mo Pena had a breakout game the other night (4-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI). I really think the Sox don't need another piece to add to the mix right now, except maybe a 4th outfielder and deal away Pena. Schilling was reported to come back next week (August 4 or 5), but what does that do to the rotation? Kason Gabbard has been a rock star for all but 3 bad innings of walking batters/not hitting the strike zone. If he has another good start this week, it would be really hard to send him back to Pawtucket. Could the Sox do with a 6 man rotation? Or trade a pitcher? The Sox are in a good position for the end of July.

I can't stop thinking of plans for a trip to the UK, my motherland. Kept me up most of the night last night. Some initial thoughts: the trip should be at least a fortnight for what I want to do. Of course London we can't miss, and all the action there - that's at least 4 days. Then on to Huntingdon/Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire, where my Ingoldesby & Cromwell ancestors are from. 2 days there should be enough. Then on through Peterborough (Applied Energy, who supplies our electric tankless water heaters, resides there), north towards North Yorkshire, where there's a small town with my namesake, Dalby (variant spelling, of course). Near there is the North York Moors National Park. One of my other missions is to visit all 14 British National Parks, but that will be too much to do in even one month's time. I'm still collecting all my thoughts on a grand holiday in the fair isles, which it will take years to accomplish, but consider it a new hobby.