Balls, Sticks, & Stuff | Phillies, Eagles, golf and other matters of great importance...

The Fat Lady Sings on LOST

There's no good way for something to end that you've enjoyed thoroughly. Be it a book, a piece of birthday cake, a dram of Laphroaig, you're always finding that even though you want to consume more of it, the irony is that that very action is going to cause you to run out.

For several seasons, that's the way LOST fans have known things were going to end. No matter how the actual ending was scripted, you knew you were going to be wanting more whether you liked that ending or not.

[If you haven't yet seen the series finale, you may want to stop reading here.]

A Message from Kanye West Regarding the Start Times for the Phillies/Rockies NLDS

[Inspired by @MPNPhilly]

Monday Mullings

Long weekend for many of us.  Fun of course, but long.  In order to help all of us get back into the swing of things, we'll keep these thoughts short and simple.  This will be a diatribe-free zone today...

...Friday July 2nd might have been the turning point for Jimmy Rollins.  He's 7-15 in his last four games with 3 doubles and a home run that set the tone for Sunday's win over the Mets.

...As goes Jimmy, so go the Phillies, 3-1 since his [hopefully permanent] turnaround.

...Brad Lidge sure looks good too.

...Could not be more disappointed in "The Pen" on the MLB Network.  Very little is revealed about the Phillies relief corps that you wouldn't already know from reading the sports headlines every day.  It's a shame too, because by all accounts there are some real characters out there.

...Tiger Woods won his own PGA Tour event over the weekend at Congressional Country Club outside of Washington, DC.  In 2010 and 2011, the event will move to Aronimink Country Club in Newtown Square.

...Koho paloka for Shane Victorino.

Analysis of Wednesday [LOST, Phillies, Tiger Woods]

The Phillies stink!  OK, maybe not, they are the defending World F. Champs after all.  And, it's still early, as a matter of fact, it's as early as it can possibly be.  The good:  Jamie Moyer pitched like he was only 40 [which is also how he pitched when he was 35], Raul Ibanez knocked in Jimmy Rollins for a run, something I'd like to have happen 40 to 50 times during the regular season, and one of the few sources of right-handed power in the entire Phillies organization, prospect John Mayberry, knocked in a run as well.  The bad: Joe Bisenius.  Bisenius allowed four runs in the fourth and it's a shame to see how far Bisenius has fallen since 2005 when he was talked about as one of the hottest pitchers in the system.

While the Phillies were opening Grapefruit League play, Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour.  He started out his match-play round birdie-eagle.  Ho-hum.  Nike had a great ad chronicling hist return and what went on while he was on the mend.

Finally, if you haven't watched last night's LOST yet, stop reading here.

It's the Morning After the Season Premier of LOST... Or is it?

As regular readers of this site know, I have a longstanding infatuation with the television show LOST and the show returned last evening with a one-hour recap show followed by a two-hour season premier.

The more the show goes on, my interest in it surprises me because as I've mentioned to a few people, science fiction is not my thing.  And clearly, LOST is of the science fiction genre.

Fortunately, however, the episodes rarely get so caught up in the sci-fi that the characters do not remain the focus of the show.  For me at least, it's the characters that bring me back and my guess is that is the case for most people too.  Clearly, inner conflict sells.

A few links to pass on so as to impress your peers at the water cooler...

Reason No. 589 to Watch the MLB Network

Jimmy channels Rickey:

Things I've Learned Watching Don Larsen's Perfect Game

The newly minted MLB Network has been re-airing Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series and here's just a few of the things I've picked up on after watching it:

MLB Network Off to a Great Start

We still have a month and a half to go before pitchers and catchers report, and three months to go before meaningful baseball games, but the MLB Network is going to make it easier to pass the time.

Base Knocks & Linkology

With apologies to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, here's a whole lotta links...

Surprised it Took That Long

With seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds left in the Eagles/Browns game tonight, on Monday Night Football, play-by-play man Mike Tirico referenced the Santa Claus and snowballs incident 40 years ago.

Was it me, or was the theme of tonight's broadcast, "Rip Philly"?

Say It Ain't So!

Surfed over to ZaneLamprey.com while watching him imbibe vodka in Moscow and came across his plea for help in saving "Three Sheets" when the MOJO HD channel is discontinued.

Please, if you enjoy...

1. Travel shows to exotic locales.
2. Adult beverages.
3. Clever humor.
4. Travel shows centered around the consumption of adult beverages in exotic locales with cleverly humor.

...then you must do your part and implore a network to pick up "Three Sheets"!

Instant Classic

Perhaps the Phillies' World Series win is still clouding my judgment to the point where everything seems better than it really is, but last night's episode of The Office, "Customer Survey" was laugh-out-loud funny.

Here's the best clip:

And here's the entire episode:

Programming Note

For those of you that have grown weary of the Fox broadcasting crew, 1210 AM has synched their broadcast to Comcast's cable broadcast.  It's pretty much perfect, I can hear the pop of a pitch in the catcher's mitt on the radio right as I see it on my TV.

Give it a try.