congrats

Tonight I will congratulate a few teams
Minnesota for a great year and batting champ, unless Jeter goes all out to get the batting title from Mauer.
Detroit for a great year
San Diego and Los Angeles for securing the west and wild card.

St. Louis will probably hold off Houston.

Illinois deserves a shout out for beating Michigan State on the road today.

Peyton Manning, why I don't like him

Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. However, I think he is OVERRATED. He is the type of guy that men would want their daughter to date. He is polite and talented. He doesn't have an edge that someone like Allen Iverson does.

He is the "Red State" quarterback. Grew up in New Orleans, went to U of Tennessee for college and plays for the Indianapolis Colts. Tom Brady is the Blue State quarterback, with more rings, plays for the Patriots, went to Michigan.

I like anyone but the Colts in the AFC, no matter how many TD's Manning throws for.

Let them play outside like regular folks.

On to baseball: AL is set except for the AL Central winner and wild card. Oakland Detroit Minnesota and New York.

NL: New York (probably San Diego), I think the Dodgers will win the wild card and St. Louis will barely hold off Houston in the NL Central, though I would like to see them gag, as would half of Chicago.

If Philly misses the playoffs again, they're either cursed or should move west to Indiana to get into the NL Central.
Pujols may have won the NL MVP last night with that homer in the 8th inning, called by former Sox broadcaster John Rooney. Reinsdorf, I think letting Rooney go was a mistake. Dump Singleton and Farmer next week, they're small town college type broadcasters.

from a friend of mine

A friend of mine sent this to me.

He is as Sean Hannity would say a GREAT AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/09/antiahmadinejad.html

Later,

Stuff

Well the Hawks beat the Cards 21-10 on Sunday. It was a good not great performance.

Mets clinched a spot last night by beating Florida 4-0. Yanks Cards and A's are next.

My elite 8: Oakland Minnesota New York and Detroit
Los Angeles St. Louis New York and San Diego

Also, J.P. Ricciardi has not improved the Blue Jays to the point of contention. I want a Blue Jays fan to convince me why he should stay on for next year. 5 years and they haven't put a dent in the Yankee-Red Sox stranglehold on the AL East.

sports observations

1) Why does Fox 32 in Chicago insist on using Jill Carlson as the Bears sideline reporter? I don't get it. She isn't knowledgable about sports nor is she EXCEPTIONALLY pretty. She's an affirmative action hire which I as a mainstream middle class male frown upon. If Fox needs to hire a woman, hire Julie Swieca formerly of the Score who is BETTER LOOKING and knows sports, probably better than any of the bozos currently at WSCR, a reject station that carries hockey games to fill night time air. 2) Joe Buck is not a good studio host. Jimmy Johnson (former Cowboy coach) and Terry Brashaw I could do without. It seems like the networks hire east coast know it alls or hayseeds from the South. Where are the Midwest and Western guys?

sports stuff

1) I think that the Yanks and Mets will be in the World Series barring an upset.

2) Five worst managers in the Majors
Seattle Mike Hargrove, not good outside of Cleveland
Texas Buck Showalter, probably the most despicable conniving person in Baseball today.
LA Grady Little, see October of 2003. Let him manage KC or Pittsburgh not a good team.
Cleveland, Eric Wedge, too stubborn with Fausto Carmona
San Francisco Felipe Alou, his team's performance the last two years has been less than stellar.

Close: Clint Hurdle of Colorado, he probably should be ahead of Alou, but the expectations for the Giants are higher than those for the Rockies.

As a matter of fact, the two or three worst organizations in baseball are the Cubs, Devil Rays and Rockies, Royals are bad but won a World Series so I can't rank them worse than the Cubs.

AL MVP: Sorry guys but it's Jeter's year.
NL MVP: Ryan Howard of Philly, ten homers in two weeks

AL Cy Young Santana
NL Cy Young ?? Probably Webb or Carpenter.
managers are Leyland and Girardi
most attractive girlfriend of a MVP candidate: Joe Mauer, Chelsea Cooley former Miss Teen USA of North Carolina

musings

First of all, I will review the date at a later time.

1) On the "war" in Lebanon: I would like to know what exactly was accomplished by Israel going into Lebanon halfway and then agreeing to a cease-fire. Are we (Jews and state of Israel) going to have peace or a semblance of stability in the northern part of Israel? Will there be fewer bus attacks in Yerushalayim or Tel Aviv?

I felt a duty to pray and say Tehillim in the end of July and August for our brethren in Israel but I don't want to let my guard down and it seems like it just ended but I don't think that everything is back to normal. Anyone such as Sarah Bronson or others who know what's happening more intimately than me your response would be appreciated.

2) I wonder if Sepharadim should say Av Harachamim. There's nothing inherently "Ashkenazic" in the Nusach, it describes a merciful G-d and that he should avenge spilled blood. That happened in Spain as well as France and Germany.

good news

Well I have a date on Saturday night with someone in my neighborhood. Again, credit Frumster.com with the setup.

Later,

Josh

sports stuff

1) The Chicago Cubs need to fire MacPhail and Hendry, not Baker. Baker is NOT the problem. Upper management is the problem as it is in Toronto, Milwaukee, Dallas, Seattle and Pittsburgh to name a few cities with lousy baseball teams.

2) The Cubs fans unfairly dumped on Todd Walker and I am glad that he's on a contender.

3) Bill Bavasi needs to be removed from his title as GM in Seattle and bring in a competent person who won't stand LOSING!!!!!!!!!! Preferably a east coast type.

Next Sunday

Next Sunday there's a frumster event at Kesser Maariv in Skokie. That is Rabbi Lazovsky's synagogue.

In my humble opinion, every single between 26-40 in Chicago should attend this event, barring medical emergency or some other valid excuse. Particularly those more Yeshivish singles who won't go to Lakeview because it's too progressive, etc.

Enough excuses, something good is here, take advantage of it.