Time

Again time has been my enemy. A summer filled with World Cup, injuries, baseball and other events have yet again prevented me from posting with any semblance of regularity.

As usual I hope to do better....

World Cup

Well, what can you say? Opening game was magnificent with the Vuvuzelas creating a massive sound wave....and quickly turning incredibly annoying.

The Jabulani ball was hardly the best product Adidas has produced. I can't remember more than a handful of decent free kicks on target but a massive amount of wild kicks reminding me of the Fulham song....(to the music of That's Amore) "If the ball hits your eye and you sit in row Y, that's Zamora..."

Talking about Zamora, it was indeed a shame his injury prevented him from playing for England - I doubt he would have done worse than any of the so called England "strikers".

Hand on heart, only two or three England players could leave the tournament with their heads held high; Ashley Cole (as much as it hurts me to admit that), James Milner (excluding his first 35 mins) and possibly Steven Gerrard...although even Stevie had some sub-par performances.

For all the talk of the South American revolution, Brazil were dire, Argentina realised they needed defenders as well and only Uruguay performed well above expectation - although I personally think that Suarez foul should not result in a penalty kick but an automatic goal. Ghana played with technique, passion and flair and deserved to go through, despite the fearsome pairing that was Forlan and Suarez.

Obviously France and Italy need to completely re-build, as do England. Germany seem to always manage to do their rebuilds inbetween tournaments. Clearly there is a difference of priorities between the Premier League and the English national side with none of the current top three goalkeepers being starters in the Premiership.

Thankfully football won over hooliganism in the final, although this time on the pitch. The Dutch for all their technical players should not whine about Howard Webb's performance, instead they should be happy that they weren't the first ever finalist to have 3 players sent off. Both De Jong and Van Bommel should have had early showers on the day.

Baseball

There have been many parallels between my personal baseball ventures and the Red Sox 2010.

I've missed all but parts of 5 games due to three different injuries (although I was able to manage my team to the pennant and the top seed going into the playoffs!), at the same time the Red Sox have had a throw back year. As in throw back to 2006 with a myriad of injuries.

This year Ellsbury (twice), Beckett, Wakefield, Dice-K, Cameron (twice), Varitek, Martinez, Pedroia, Youk (season ending), Lowell, Hermida (DFA after DL), Delcarmen, Okajima have all spent some or considerable time on the DL. (Did I miss anyone?)

It's actually easier to count the starting position players not to go on the DL; Beltre, Scutaro and (shock!) Drew.

We've had such world renowned players as Kalish, Nava, Hall & McDonald roaming the outfield and Hall, Cash, Molina (not one of the famous trio of brothers) and a finally healthy Lowrie in the infield and behind the plate.

That the Sox are still only 3 1/2 game out of the wild card is astonishing. With Ellsbury, Pedroia and Varitek back over the next few days (or week) and the rotation starting to pick up, the Sox have a decent shot at making the playoffs.

Oh, and my post in May about Dice-K? This season he's 8-3 with a 4.09 ERA and since July he's 3-0 with a 3.53 ERA. More importantly, he's becoming more economical with his pitches, having gone into or completed the 8th inning 4 starts this year.

As witnessed in his most recent start, he does have a tendency to start nibbling if he gets hit well as he was by Snider, causing him to become more passive. Hopefully he can continue to be the aggressive pitcher he can be, forcing batters to swing instead of walking them. Still, he's got an almost 1.78 K to BB ratio this year and a career second best 7.8 hits per 9 innings in 2010. His WHIP has dropped from 1.87 to 1.33.

One more game against the Jays, then off to a tough Texas trip.

There's still hope....