But then J.D. Drew and Big Papi prolonged the agony. As much as I liked seeing (or reading about) the Sox mounting this comeback, I would be shocked beyond belief if they went back to Tampa and won two straight against a line-up like the Rays have.

They’ve done it before (last year against the Tribe), so the situation is not without precedent. But Tampa has too many weapons. I think it’ll be a long off season for the Bosox (and McCain).

P.S. Drew’s homer is being compared to Kirk Gibson’s legendary round-tripper in the 1988 World Series against the A’s. No way. Drew didn’t have a pulled hamstring, forcing him to hobble around the bases.

I was in grad school and had just gotten back from a night class 20 years ago when Gibson pulled the trigger. I shouted so loud it woke up my wife (and I’m not even a Dodgers fan). I don’t think I would have done that if I had been awake last night.

P.P.S. Here’s a pretty good Red Sox blog.

The [researchers] found that the bronze-medal winners looked nearly as happy as the winners of the gold medal, whereas the expressions of the silver medalists more closely resembled the athletes who placed fifth.

Silver medalists at the Olympics seem to perform what psychologists call an upward counterfactual — they compare themselves against someone better off than them. Bronze medalists seem to perform downward counterfactuals — they tend to compare themselves with people who did worse.

Who would have thought finishing third would be more fulfilling than finishing second? I’ll have to remember that the next time I win third place for editorial writing at NEPA.

After all, there’s a poor bastard somewhere in New England who couldn’t write his way out of a paper bag and I did better than him. I wonder if horse jockeys feel the same way when they place. Better yet, I wonder what it does for the horse’s self-esteem.

I’m having a great time enjoying the summer Olympics in Beijing (didn’t it used to be Peking? When did they change the name and why?). I’m particularly interested in swimming (thank you Michael Phelps) and gymnastics (the U.S. women’s team suffered pratfalls at every turn, or so it seemed).

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I’ve heard the usual quadrennial grumbling from my friends about how Americentric the coverage is. It’s lamentable, yes, but are we really surprised that U.S audiences are more interested in watching their own athletes perform in a standard event than, say, Italy vs. Armenia in team handball?

[Although I did see a rather interesting match-up earlier this week in women's beach volleyball. Since the two teams were Russia and Georgia, the match took on a special significance. The four players seemed friendly enough, however, so perhaps the players have an easier time setting politics aside than their leaders.]

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NBC paid a whopping $894 million for the rights to broadcast the Beijing Olympics. I’d guess that with the network’s expenses in sending all those people (including 106 broadcasters) and equipment to China and putting them up for three weeks or more, NBC’s total cash outlay will exceed $1 billion. That’s a lot of money to recoup and what better way to do it than show people what they want to see?

My objection to the coverage has more to do with the subtle exploitation of the female athletes than anything else. On Wednesday I watched some of the synchronized diving (which is a great sport BTW). Evidently it’s customary for the divers to shower off the chlorine after they dive.

This is the first Olympics I’ve ever noticed cameras actually following them into the showers. Is it necessary to show the young female athletes pushing the water around their bodies like they’re models in a soap commercial? If the cameras have also peeked at the male divers in the showers, as Jill Goodman says, then I must have missed it.

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As for the aforementioned beach volleyball, have you noticed there is much more coverage of the female game? And it seems like after every point, cameras zoom in on their butts and flat stomachs. I guess I should stop protesting because, after all, NBC is just giving people what they want, right?

BTW, I was surprised to learn that some beach volleyball competitions, including the Olympics, have strict limits on the maximum size of the uniforms. That right, limits on how much of your body the uni can cover. I’m sorry, I know there are those who insist the skimpies are necessary. But this policy doesn’t pass the smell test, folks.

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Last night Phelps got his seventh gold medal. What a race. Phelps was trailing the whole way in the 100 butterfly finals. On the only turn, he executed brilliantly, made up for lost time and was gaining on the Serbian swimmer.

Down to the wire it looked like the proverbial photo-finish. In looking at the replay, the big difference seemed that the Serb finished his last stroke slightly too far from the end and had to glide in, while Phelps had just enough room for one more chop that allowed him to touch first by literally a nose.

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Now it’s time to focus on track and field, which I have always considered the epitome of Olympic competition. The 100-meter dash … who’s the fastest man alive? The decathlon … who’s the best all-around athlete in the world? The marathon … can’t wait!

H/T to Althouse. She’s right that the L.A. City Council’s idea to ban the opening of fast food restaurants in the city’s poorest neighborhoods is a crude insult to the less fortunate.

In every town where there’s a Burger King or Taco Bell, there’s bound to be an equally inexpensive Subway just down the street. A veggie sub with baked chips and a diet Coke have been on the menu for 30 years. But what do people want?

A Hardee’s Monster Thick Burger (see image above left) with crispy curls and a hand-scooped chocolate malt. But no, the poor people in South L.A. are too stupid to make the right choices, so we have to try to eliminate the establishments that give them what they want.

When I see such knuckle-headed ideas crop up in our urban enclaves, I am reminded why I like living in the country. Try as I might, I can’t imagine Curtis Rand or Wayne Euvrard telling me what to eat.

Clearly, something needs to be done. I am not for a government mandated price freeze of the sort Richard Nixon imposed in the 1970s. After all, we’re in a global economy and that sort of micromanaging will not work.

However, for what earthly reason are energy trades exempted from the kind of regulatory scrutiny that bond and stock traders must routinely cope with? Perhaps former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who helped lobbyists craft the so-called Enron Loophole, could explain why energy traders need such a comparatively unregulated environment. Note: Evidently, McCain is a defender of the loophole.

Second: I don’t write much about sports on this blog, even though I’m a fan. But tonight marks the return of one of the great rivalries in sport. We’re talking Celtics vs. Lakers in the NBA finals, folks.

It’s hard for me to get to worked up because I haven’t been following the Celts for years. When I think of those two teams, it conjures up images of Magic, Kareem and Worthy going up against the best front-court in history of basketball: Bird, Parrish and McHale.

But I will still be watching with interest. It’s gratifying to see the Celtics doing so well again. Looks like the maneuvering that gave them Garnett and Allen to support Pierce has worked like a charm. I’ve got one question: why do all the games (even those on the weekends) start at 9 p.m.?

I understand the need to give people in southern California the time to get home from the office for a 6 p.m. start, but is it necessary to make East Coasters stay up until the wee hours on a Sunday? I am demanding action! Where’s Dick Blumenthal when you need him?

It all stems from my upbringing in Texas. When I was a little boy in Dallas in the 1960s, we had no major league baseball. There was a triple-A franchise that played out in Arlington and my grandfather took me to a couple of games there. But the Rangers would not arrive until a few years after we moved out of the Lone Star State.

And of course, there was no cable or Internet, so my entire exposure to Major League baseball consisted of the CBS Saturday afternoon “Game of the Week.” And since the Tiffany network actually owned the Yankees in the days before George Steinbrenner barged in, that weekly game almost always featured the Bronx Bombers.

I got endless thrills from watching Mickey Mantle, Joe Pepitone, Whitey Ford and Bobby Richardson. So I basically grew up a Yankees fan. And even after my first visit to Fenway on the heels of our move to the Boston area in 1971, I retained my affection for the Evil Empire (and still do). There, it’s out in the open …

So Rudy, even though your endorsement of the Sox is a cynical ploy to curry favor with the New Hampshirites who will vote in the first-in-the-nation primary, I can relate.

Will Schilling be up to the task? In his really cool Red Sox blog, Jose Melendez offers the following:

Tonight is the classic battle of youth and power versus experience and control as fireballer Ubaldo Jimenez pitches against born again finesse pitcher Curt Euro.

I’m hopeful the Rockies ace will look more like Jose Jimenez than Ubaldo. Go Red Sox!

P.S. For anyone who’s interested, join me tonight in the comment section of this post for some live blogging during the game.

Not a good sign for Schilling to give up a solid hit right away. He got hit hard with a couple of doubles but got out of the 1st. Let’s see what the top of the order can do.

James Taylor announcing the Sox batting order. Sounds a little stoned. Maybe had a little too much to drink on the “the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston.”

Manny is up w/ 2 strikes. Tough to get him out in that situation lately. But he hits into the DP. Maybe he will settle down and Ellsbury will get some playing time. Come to think of it, why isn’t Jacoby starting instead of JD Drew? Ellsbury makes things happen …

Allright, 6-4-3 and the inning is over. I’ll take my remarks to the comment section now. Much more practical …

Go Red Sox!

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What a night it was last night for Red Sox fans. First they beat the Twins 5-2 at about 9:40 p.m. but they don’t know whether they’ll have the AL East title until the conclusion of the Yanks-Orioles game in Baltimore.

So the Bosox players head to the locker room unsure of their fate. Thousands of fans stay at Fenway to watch the conclusion of the Yankees’ game on the video screen high over the center field bleachers.

The table was set with the great closer Mariano Rivera trying to hold a 9-6 lead. He blew it, allowing Jay Payton to hit a bases-clearing triple to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

Then the Birds loaded the bases with only one out. Melvin Mora steps to the plate in what seemed to me to be an obvious bunting situation. He lays one down to his left and the winning run scores.

My question is why wasn’t Yanks third baseman Wilson Betemit (and most of the rest of the infield, for that matter) playing in so that they might have a prayer of getting the lead runner? Come to think of it, why wasn’t A-Rod playing at third? Would he have played that ball better?

[BTW, Tim has a terrific new post on his childhood progression from being a Yankees fan to a dyed-in-the-wool member of Red Sox nation. Alas, it was written before last night's heartbreaking loss to the Bronx Bombers in the second longest 9-inning game ever played -- the longest being another New York-Boston contest last season.]

There won’t be much blogging in this space today. I have to take my son to my old stomping grounds (Williamstown, Mass.) this morning for a soccer game. A little far-flung for an athletic contest featuring 11 year-olds, you ask? You bet, but that’s what seems to happen as your kids get older. They have to spend more time in the car to find a challenge — courtesy of … us.

Actually, it should be quite a day. Our game is slated for 11:30 a.m., after which we’ll head to Papa Charlie’s deli on Spring Street for one of those overstuffed sandwiches named for the many celebs who frequent the town in the summer during the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Then just down the street at Cole Field, the Williams College men’s soccer team hosts Connecticut College. A competitive Division III game should get the juices flowing for everyone. Then we’ll stop in Pittsfield on the way back for some shopping (more soccer equipment!).

I have a feeling we’ll be hearing Joe Castiglione’s voice on the radio while cruising down Route 7. Two 18-game winners (Chin Ming Wang and Josh Becket) will go toe-to-toe. The game doesn’t start until 4 p.m., so we should be able to catch the second half at home on Fox.

P.S. Click here for a really cool Red Sox blog by Jose Melendez. And, oh yeah, the New England Patriots are being sued by the ACLU.