Kucinich/Varitek 08

October 16, 2007

It’s my birthday tomorrow. Woo fucking hoo.

I’m deliberately not listening to Game Four. I’m not sure exactly why. Steeling myself against disappointment, I suppose.

Great article on Dennis Kucinich in this month’s Esquire. His wife is SMOKIN’ hot. If I didn’t have such a man crush on John Edwards, I would definitely have one on Kucinich. I can’t disagree with anything the man says. And his wife is hot. He doesn’t have a flaming chance, though. Much as I’d love either Edwards or Kucinich to win the nomination and take it to the right wing fascisti, they won’t. It’s going to be Hillary. I just hope she can overcome the fact that there is a solid 30-40% of this country that will never vote for her.

This Yankee postseason should be fascinating. Whether or not they let Torre go is one question, and whether or not ARod opts out is another. They also have to decide whether or not to resign Posada and Rivera, both of whom have been mainstays and both of whom are getting older. Although Posada put up great numbers this season, he’s 36, if memory serves, and he can’t last much longer, logic would dictate.

Boston faced a very similar problem with the question of whether or not to resign Varitek a year or two ago. They did, obviously, and, while it is nice to see him back there and it’s easy, as a Boston partisan, to root for him, we now have our own 30+ year old catcher who will not get any younger.

You hear constantly from announcer bots that Varitek calls a great game, and all the pitchers love working with him, and blah blah blah blah blah. Any study on the issue seems to hint that there is no such thing as a catcher affecting ERA. Is this another one of those things, like clutch hitting, that everyone knows is there but no one can show?

I’m sure he does call a great game, and I’m sure the pitchers love working with him. And, so far, I’m also sure that the Kevin Cashs and Molinas of the world couldn’t hit any better than he is hitting right now. I just have this uncomfortable feeling that, in the years to come, I’m going to regret us having paid him that much money. It remains to be seen if the Yankees will make the same decision, and if they do, how it will affect them.