Archive for June, 2007

The C’s draft is tonight, and I don’t really care. There are only three people I know that really care that much about it, too: my buddy Aaron, my co-worker Matt and Bill Simmons. Other than those three, I just don’t know that many people that are very attached to the Celtics anymore. Seriously, when was the last time the Celts were playing and it was appointment television, or you scrambled to get tickets?

I feel for anyone that is emotionally invested with the Celts, because it’s a losing proposition. I want to see them win their games, but I just don’t really get worked up about them either way. Had the ping pong balls gone their way, everyone would be jazzed up about tonight. However, with the C’s only drafting No. 5 there’s just nothing to get excited about. Throw in that they’re talking about trading away their one solid young player with a future, Al Jefferson, and it’s a complete joke. As Matty said, “they’re going to screw it all up.”

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Man, I’m no fan of Paris Hilton, nor the ever-encompassing media coverage of her jail stay, but this story is hysterical. I love the NY Post, only they can get away with writing a news story and calling someone a “celebrity skank.” Wouldn’t the world be a better place if Paris Hilton would just go away. I mean, her sister Nicky is maybe better looking, but she’s nowhere to be found. She just goes about her business and has a great life. If only PH would do the same.

Every parent’s nightmare. Imagine a flight having to be diverted and all of the passengers spend the night in a different city than their intended destination, all because your kid loses it.

We’ve added a new member to the Maclone clan. No, Lyra’s not pregnant, so don’t let any rumors start flying about another Maclone kid (in my opinion, two’s enough for now). We bought a dog, that’s right, there’s now a puppy at Casa Maclone.

The new pup’s official name is Dewey Yawkey Maclone, but we just call him Dewey. He’s named after my all-time favorite member of the Red Sox, Dwight “Dewey” Evans, the first player I ever lived and died by. When I was like 10-years old Dwight did a commercial for McDonalds, who were giving away cheap trucker style Red Sox hats at their restaurants. In the commercial Dewey caught a fly ball with one of the hats, and I thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I started to root for old No. 24 and he’s been my favorite player ever since.

Dewey the Dog is a Golden Doodle, whiich is a mixture of Golden Retriever and Poodle. He’s one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen, and definitely too smart for his own good. We’ve had him only about a week and he’s pretty much house-trained already.

We decided to get the dog a little over a month ago. I had won a nice chunk of change in a poker tournament and we wanted to take the dough and put it towards something for the family that would be fun. We probably should have just put it towards a new stove, but it’s hard to really enjoy money that you’ve won when it’s being spent on appliances.

Seeing that I”m allergic to more things than I can count, if we were going to get a dog it was going to have to be one with hair. We did a bit of research and people kept telling us about these Golden Doodles. At first I was put off by the name, it just sounds like something that Paris Hilton would have in a purse, but then I saw what they looked like, and read about them, and I was sold.

Most breeders were charging an arm and a leg for them, though. Again, the Internet came through for us as we found a great breeder from Virginia who was selling them at about half of what everyone else wanted. We put down a down-payment and then I bought an airplane ticket to BWI so that she could meet me there and hand over our new pet. The airfare was actually pretty cheap, so it was still way cheaper to fly down and pick him up rather than just pick up a local one.

The weeks leading up to Dewey’s arrival was pretty crazy. Rye and Leanna literally counted down the days to his arrival. At breakfast each morning one of them would chime in with “only 15 more days until we get Dewey.” It was cute.

The day of the big arrival I woke up early and was at Logan at 11 AM for my 12:45 departure. I arrived shortly after 2 and they were supposed to meet me at 3. Now I’m going to tell you, I was very worried about them making it at all when I got an email from them the day before in which the lady said she’d “never been to a big airport before.” All I could picture was Aunt Bee from Mayberry putting on her nicest hat for the big trip to the city.

Since it was just under 90-degrees in Baltimore when I arrived, I decided it would be okay to splurge on a Frappaccino from Starbucks and read a book while I watied for the big hour to arrive. Around 2:50 I headed down to the lot outside arrivals and waited. I made a phone call and left a voice message. The clock hit 3:15, and no pup; 3:30, still no puppy, but one sweaty Rich. by 3:45 I was beginning to get really, really worried, since my return flight was slated for 5 PM.

I called Lyra and asked her to start working the phone because my stupid Razor phone won’t hold much of a charge these days. When I first got it, one charge lasted three days. Now I’m lucky if it holds through the whole day.

Finally at 4:05 my cell rung and it was the family dropping off Dewey. They said they were in the arrivals area, but of course they weren’t It took me another 10 minutes to find them (they were up a level) and then another 10 minutes to go over all of the little things. I didn’t want to be rude, but I had a flight to catch back to Boston and they were taking too much time. I was sorry they got lost on the way in, but it’s not that hard to Mapquest directions, is it?

Poor Dewey was very, very nervous that he was being handed over to a stranger, and really who can blame him? I had to go through security and pull him out and show him to the checker and he was shaking like a leaf. Somewhere between BWI and Logan he threw up inside the carrier, but luckily it wasn’t too gross or big. He finally fell asleep and slept until I got him out to the car.

The ride home was uneventful. I unzipped the top of the bag so he could see what was going on and he poked his head out and watched me the whole way. I would reach over and pat his head every couple of minutes and he seemed to be getting somewhat comfortable.

When we got home, right around 9 PM, the kids were still up and amped to see their new dog. They instantly fell in love with him, as did Lyra. Now, eight days later, he’s a full fledged member of the family, which is why Leanna wasn’t too angry with him when he scratched her chest today. He was playing like puppies play, and he got a bit rambunctious. So did she, and she paid the price, but only minimal amounts of blood was drawn.

He did give me a heart-attack today, though. I put him out on the run while I was working on the computer around 11:30 and then went to get a drink of water about 15 minutes later. I looked out the window and he was nowhere to be found. My heart sunk. I thought he’d been stolen. I ran outside screaming his name, but got no response.

After five minutes of this I happened to look to my left briefly and spotted a little bit of white fur under the deck. Somehow he had released himself from his run and decided to hang out under there. I dragged him out and it was just like when a kid has done something naughty. He looked up with those big eyes that said ‘what’s the matter?’ and started licking my face. I just started laughing and rolling around on the grass with him. When I put him out later, he was tied very, very, very securely.

So there’s the big news. The Maclone family is now five strong, and even cuter than before, and we didn’t think that was possible.

I’m currently sitting in the pressbox at McKeon Park in Hyannis, having a blast watching the Commodores-Mets contest here with my old friends from H-town. Big Willie B is to my left and John Cabral is in the house, good times are being had as we make fun of everything in our general vicinity. Sometimes being snarky is just fun.

The Comms just took the lead, 5-4, on a homer by Matt Hague. To say he crushed that ball would be an understatement. The team was down 4-0 early, but is showing some signs of life, which is good seeing that the team is 1-7 heading into this one.

I just saw a guy wearing one of those Red Sox jersey T-shirts, which isn’t exactly a rare sighting in these parts. The player, though, was. Seriously, why would you invest in a JD Drew No. 7 jersey? What does that say about who you are? I like players that can’t be counted up? I like players that go for the big money and opt out of their deals? I just don’t get it. He plays for my favorite team, so I guess I’m somewhat obligated to root for the guy, but I can’t see wearing that shirt.

I only have 9-percent life left on my laptop. I seriously need to head out to the car to grab the power cord. I feel a bit like Kramer test-driving the black Saab to see how far he could get past E. I feel so alive.

I heard today on EEI that the NY media is turning on the Yankees. Oh it’s going to be a beautiful summah, I just know it. I love that A-Rod has 28 homers to lead MLB on a team 11 1/2 games back. It was fun to log on to ESPN this morning to check the standings and see that Toronto was now in second place.

The home plate ump at this game between Falmouth and Hyannis has one of the smallest strike zones in the history of baseball. In order to be a strike you basically must hit a golf ball-sized area somewhere in the vicinity of home plate, but it is continually moving up and down, left and right. Apparently the guy doesn’t have dinner plans.

We just reached the E, I need to go get the cord.

Wow, impressive, the power ran out while I was getting the cord, but when I plugged in, I got right back to this page. That’s a bit scary, but we’ll take it.

My good friend Jamie, who I went to Liberty with, is currently in Vegas being destroyed by the poker gods. The guy has played in a handful of the smaller tournaments and has suffered some horrible go-home-and-kick-the-dog beats. He lost with Ace-King against Ace-6 to be eliminated on the money bubble the other night just after having been knocked out of a tourney with top pair to a guy who hit a straight on the river. To you non-poker players, that might not mean much, but to those of us that know our way around the felt, it’s a kick in the groin. Not good times for Jamie, not at all.

Wow Hyannis has vendors walking through the stands with drinks. This is new. I like it. They need to learn to yell what they’ve got, but hey, it’s a start. The Cape League is coming along.

Speaking of food in the Cape League, i was over at Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth the other night and they sell some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen, the Slider and the Hurler. Basically they are cheeseburgers served inside — are you ready for this — donuts. The hurler is served on a jelly donut. The slider is a glazed. Both have spray cheese on them. Will said he had one once. “It was fine, but I’m never going to have one again. I felt the years slipping away.” Apparently they are also served with sign-up sheets for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Went to the movies the other night for the first time in about six weeks and saw Fantastic Four. It was alright, but nothing special. I love comic movies, and the Silver Surfer was pretty cool. It might have been superior to Spider-Man, but it didn’t make me leave dying to own the DVD. I hate that we have to wait for another 13 months for Batman.

Seriously, in Utah, they had a hard time finding this guy? Call me crazy, but wouldn’t he stand out in a crowd just about anywhere. In Utah, he’d be like a Yankees fan at Sully’s Tap. I counted at least 10 swastikas on his face, but I might have missed a few. He needed more hugs as a child, that much I’m sure of. The Smoking Gun web site has all of the info on who he is. According to the drudge report he was the most wanted man in Utah, and had evaded law enforcement for a while.

For now, that’s going to be it from H-town. Be back tomorrow, and probably with pictures.

John Hotchkiss, our IT guy here at the Enterprise, came up to me today to show off some interesting web stats regarding out web site, capenews.net. Apparently you guys like me, quite a bit (I’m blushing). Of all the pages viewed at capenews.net, there is only one page on the web site that’s viewed more, the front page.

There’s been almost 1,100 visits already in June. Thank you. Seriously, thank you.

As for stuff, it’s all good right now. I’ll have a surprise for you in tomorrow’s blog (at least I’m hoping it’s tomorrow’s). Something cool happened to the Maclone family and I’ll be sharing it with you guys.

Feeling really good about the Sox right now. They keep taking 2-of-3 in just about every series and the Yankees seem to be finally cooling off again. Any time the lead gets to 10 you feel like you can breathe a sigh of relief.

That’s actually the funny thing about the Sox. All year long they’ve had a big lead, but when it dipped to 7 1/2 we all started to freak, even though at the time it was still the largest lead in the big leagues. Right now they have the best record in MLB and the biggest lead. And, Coco and JD Drew are starting to come around. Other than the Schilling thing, which doesn’t really concern me all that much, life is pretty good for our favorite baseball team.

I caught the AFI Top 100 last night and there weren’t too many surprises on that movies list. I thought that maybe The Godfather would be No. 1, but you really can’t argue with Citizen Kane. However, I believe that they really over-value the older movies that no one’s really seen other than film nerds. In the top 20 I think I might have seen a total of five.

Our No. 2 Photog (inside joke), Dan Brown, said that I should do a Top 20 of my favorite movies. I think that’s a good idea. It’s research time. The list will obviously be a very guy-laden type of list. If you have any suggestions, feel free to email them over to me. I think I’ll shoot for next week on that one. All I know, for sure, is that it’s a big job to come up with that list.

I’m 33 and let’s say conservatively that I’ve seen one new movie per week, on average, over the last 15 years. That’s about 780 movies right there. To whittle that down to just three percent is going to be hard, but I’ll come up with one, although I know some good stuff will be missing.

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Good God, they’ve found El Guapo, and he’s still pitching, and not that far from here. I loved that guy. Interesting note: he cried when the Sox won it in 04.

I’ll admit it, I dislike Shaughnessy too. As a young writer, I tried to say ‘hi’ to him during pregame at a Sox game I was covering. He blew past me like I wasn’t standing there. Whatever, I also don’t like Bill Mueller, but that’s another story for another day, and don’t get me started about Bobby Orr.

Of all the comic movies that are out these days, one franchise stands above the rest and it is the second coming of the Batman franchise. Although, there’s still room for them to screw it up because they’ve only made one movie so far.

Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins was what the character is supposed to be about. It’s dark, it’s gritty, and it’s driven. During the first round of movies that began in the late 80s, the only one that got sort of close to those roots was the original with Michael Keaton. Then wearing the cowl became some sort of status symbol, which is why we were mistreated to the horrible editions with Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

The last one that they made, Batman and Robin, attacked everything that comic book movie fans wanted to see. The villains weren’t good, and worst of all, they took a great villain, Bane, and made him nothing more than a steroid junkie that served as a henchman, when in the books he was actually quite intelligent and was victorious over the caped crusader. But, I digress.

The Dark Knight, which is due to hit the theaters next July, looks like it is rounding into shape nicely. I am pumped for this movie.

Anyway, at least it won’t be like the youtube clip below. The old batman series with adam west was fun, but this was a jump the shark moment before Fonzie ever put on his skis.

Okay, I learned the hard way — which is the way I always learn — to just shut up. Seriously, women take strong stands on certain issues, and we should know how they’ll lean before we start a conversation.

Actually, I didn’t even start a conversation, I just made a dumb comment. A commercial for the show about Mark Philipousis, the former tennis pro, that will have to choose between a bunch of 20-somethings and a bunch of 40-somethings (kittens and cougars) Bachelor style came on and I joked that “that’s an easy decision.”

Okay, dum-da-dum-dum.

Lyra flipped out on me. Why was I assuming that he would automatically go for the young women instead of the older ones. The older ones could be wonderful ladies that have their stuff together and are looking for a relationship, etc., etc.

Me, I was just thinking like a typical male, which — in a lot of ways — I am. I love sports, cards, raunchy movies, gross out humor, cheeseburgers and steaks, greasy french fries, a good beer, loud rock n’ roll, and T-shirts. I’d rather sit through three hours of bad baseball than 90 minutes of a good chick flick. I’d rather bubble in a poker tournament than have a meaningful conversation about my feelings. I’m a guy.

So I believe that, in the end, the former tennis pro will pick a hot young chick to win the show. I don’t necessarily believe that it’s the “right” thing, but it’s going to happen. Just watch, although I won’t be, because what guy is actually going to invest time into that garbage television anyways? My wife, though, I’m sure will have a TiVo season pass on the thing and she’ll complain out loud to the TV each and every week, but she won’t be missing an episode.

You ever feel like you’re in a place that you belong? That’s how I feel right now at this moment. I’m sitting in the press box at Guv Fuller Field in Falmouth. It’s late in the game, the Commodores are up 2-0, and it’s a crisp late-spring night.

I love the Cape Cod Baseball League. Everything about it resonates with me. I love seeing the same faces each and every year. When I pulled up to the front gate here at Fuller the first person I saw was Al Irish, and it made me happy. Wareham’s John Wylde is in the press box keeping score, as he always does, and that makes me glad. John is the CCBL to me.

It’s just great that this is back. One game down (almost) and 43 left to play. It goes by way too fast, so you’ve got to enjoy it while you can.

FYI, the players I like so far for the Commodores are David Adams, the shortstop, and tonight’s starting pitcher, Kyle Gibson. Adams, of Virginia, has a ton of speed and a good glove. He legged out a triple earlier tonight and later scored. Gibson threw six scoreless and threw hard. The Comms’ staff looks deep.

Also good to see Matt Nuzzo back. He’s from Everett and has a temp contract. He played the whole season with the team last year and I’d love to see him stick this year too.

That’s all for now. It’s the top of the ninth and Preston Claiborne’s out to close for the Commodores. Here’s to a 1-2-3 ninth.

It’s late on Wednesday night and I just realized that I haven’t blogged in like 48 hours, and that’s not like me, so I figured I’d throw something up there just to see if it sticks. This has been one of the busiest weeks ever, with the FHS tennis team going for the state championship tomorrow and the Cape League opening up on Friday night, plus all of the Summer Stars stuff we’ve been doing, there’s no time for anything.

Tonight I’m stuck working at home because my dad decided to sign his two daughters-in-law up for some kind of gun training class. All I know is that Lyra left the house nearly four hours ago and she’s not back yet, and she’s been playing with firearms. I’m not saying a Quentin Tarantino film broke out at the gun range, but let’s just say you can’t help but think about stuff like that when your wife is late and she’s been at a gun range.

I’m trying to work on a feature story right now for Summer Stars about former Commodores’ catcher Kevin Cash, who is toiling right now for the PawSox. I’m trying, but it just aint’ coming. Probably the reason is that I like the guy, and most likely he’s never getting another taste of the big time. He’s the back-up at AAA now, and that’s never a good sign, and he’s not hitting. In fact, since he’s been playing pro ball he’s never really hit, which is a shame. Hey, he’s played more than 100 big league games, how many people can say that?

I’m wondering if its time to start worrying about the Sox and Yankees. NYY is winning big right now and the Sox are losing. That would slim the lead to 8 1/2 games. Normally you would feel great about that kind of lead, but it’s still only mid-June and those smug Yankees fans keep telling us “don’t worry, the Sox will blow it. We’ll be in first place in a month.”

Rationality tells you that the chances are slim. But, we are Red Sox fans, we’re not rational. I can’t help but think about the potential for a collapse, even though, in all reality, the Sox aren’t playing that bad right now, it’s just that the Yanks have caught fire.

Anyways, gotta run, have to finish this story that isn’t exactly writing itself. Sometimes this is real work, I tell ya. Not that often, but some times.

It has been a busy, busy AM here at the Enterprise. We are just putting the wraps on our first issue of Summer Stars magazine, and it looks pretty good. Make sure to check out my article on Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox next big thing. I sat down with Jacoby last week at McCoy Stadium and he’s pumped about his future. Ellsbury is going to be a star, mark my words.

The reason I have to be quick is that i have to get out on the road ASAP. I have to be in Lexington for the Div. 1 boys’ tennis semifinals. The FHS boys keep winning and winning and winning and I’m along for the ride. I hope to finish up in time to make it back to Dino’s to play a little cards this evening, but it will take some Stewart-esque driving on my part to make that happen. We’ll see.

As for The Sopranos, I may get more in depth into this later, but I actually enjoyed the finale. I know lots of people are feeling that it left them feeling unsatisfied, but how could they really wrap that show up and satisfy everyone? I’m happy, for one, that Phil Leotardo met a gruesome death. He deserved that.

Here’s an interesting theory I’ve heard about the show. Apparently Janice was late meeting the family for a dinner when Johnny Boy Soprano was whacked, when the kids were younger, much like Meadow, and I’ve heard that the guy at the diner was Phil’s cousin. If you think about it, him walking by Tony into the men’s room is a bit reminiscent of Mike Corleone going to the head to grab the gun at the italian restaurant in the original Godfather.

The tension of the final five minutes was palpable. Hey, it’s David Chase’s show, and we were along for the ride. If that’s how he wants to end it, so be it.

Another interesting theory is about the cat. Apparently Chris was the rat that the cat caught, and that’s why he kept staring at the photograph. I don’t know, that seems out there, but who knows. For a show about the mob, The Sopranos gets very deep and you have to think outside the box to really get it. I enjoyed it, though.

Just like Steven Tyler around 1984 Curt Schilling looked Back in the Saddle yesterday afternoon. Wow, what a performance by the outspoken one. It was unfortunate that he lost the no-no at the end, but it just goes to show, you never shake off your catcher when he’s calling a near-perfect game. That’s one thing that people need to realize, it’s not just the pitcher throwing the no-hitter, but the catcher is quite involved, too. It’s not like Schilling was overpowering those guys, he only had four K’s all day long. His one mistake was changing that pitch to Stewart. Would the one that Tek had called for been a hit? Who knows. But, you’ve got to trust you catcher, especially when he’s that on.

We vacated the office in the top of the ninth to get over to Liam Maguire’s to see the bottom of the ninth. Like good baseball fans, Mark, me and Don all made sure not use the words “no-hitter.” You just don’t want to jinx it, even though all rationality tells you that there is no way that you actually can effect circumstances 3,000 miles away, but since when did rationality ever come into play with sports fans?

So we’re at the bar watching the game and making sure to tip-toe around those words, and we’re really into. Schilling got the first two outs with ease on grounders, and we’re high-fiving and fist-bumping and having a grand old time. Then, it happened.

Some idiot sitting at the bar, who had obviously been spending more time at the bottom of his pint glass than with the TV looked up and said, ‘what, does he have a no-hitter or something?’ We all groaned out loud. “Dude, what are you doing? You don’t come out and say it like that.” Two seconds later, line drive, right field, no-no over. Thanks idiot.

Of course, had Schilling not pulled a Nuke Laloosh, and shook off Varitek, well maybe it never would have mattered. There’s plenty of blame to go around, half for Schilling’s decision-making at the end, and half for the drunk guy that violated an important rule of baseball etiquette.