Almost Halloween Treats

Blog Explosion has been working out well. Along with attracting a lot of visitors to this blog and two of my other ones (I hope at least some of those folks liked what they saw and will be back), it has also exposed me to a lot of blogs. I love Blogger's Next Blog button on its nav bar, but too often I run into non-English blogs (not a problem; I just click Next Blog again) or ones with those annoying popups where you have to click yes to get on the site and continue. Blog Explosion is for English blogs only and popups aren't allowed. I found 4 or 5 blogs I'm keeping an eye on, deciding if I like them enough to subscribe to them with Bloglines, and one I've already subscribed to and put a link up here: my so-called strife. If you like kitsch and pop culture, this is for you. And I've earned lots of credits (which translate to more hits for me) from surfing and from a couple of referrals from the link on my blogs. "

Otherwise, I didn't get much done tonight because I was watching, and as a matter of fact, am still watching, the Yankees/Red Sox game. Now, I'll probably incur the wrath of most of my fellow New Yorkers for saying this, but I'm rooting for the Red Sox. See, I'm a Mets fan. I used to like the Yankees, too, back in the '70s when they were cute and bumbling and their more entertaining activities were off the field and not on it (the Fritz Peterson/Mike Kekich wife swap was a highlight), but then George Steinbrenner bought them and they got obnoxious and arrogant, but not arrogant the way the Mets were in 1986 when they beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Talk about things coming around.

Now there are and have been Yankees I've liked over the past decade or two. I like the manager, Joe Torre. And I like Robin Ventura who put in some time as a Yankee, and John Olerud who is finishing his career with the Yankees, and David Cone and... uh, I see a pattern here. All of them, even Torre who was once the Mets' player/manager, were Mets at one time! Oh, the irony.

So I really don't like the Yankees and love rooting against them. I don't have this New York above all else thing going on. The Yankees have had their World Series wins and Boston has long suffered (there's that curse that was put on them, by Babe Ruth, I believe -- I'm not up on American League lore -- after all) and is due. They've already made baseball history by forcing a 7th game in a playoff series after being down 3 games, something no other baseball team has ever done. And I like a sense of history. Now, excuse me while I watch what I hope will be the last out....

Well, they did it! Boston beat the Yankees. WhooHoo! I am so tired of seeing the Yankees in every damn World Series. And the Atlanta Braves won't be in it, either. Tomorrow, the Red Sox and the rest of us will learn if they'll be playing Houston or St. Louis. No matter which, I'll be routing for them, because in spite of my joy over the Red Sox win, I'm a National League fan at heart. And one thing this series did was prove what a lot of us knew all season: the Yankees have no middle relief pitching and the rest of their pitching staff is shaky. "

But all is not good. The NY Daily News pulled the comic "Shoe" for no reason I can see. They've added some new, lame comics, so now I have to remember to check MacNelly.com to get my daily "Shoe" fix. "