Tomorrow night, I will be live-blogging the broadcast of Game One of the ALDS. Likely topics will include discussion of the overrated-ness of K-Rod, complaints about the frequency of Frank TV ads, mockery of the TBS announcers, and, hopefully, further praise for Jon Lester. Thanks to the late west-coast start time, things might get a bit interesting towards the later innings. Stop in and say hello.

I’ve been saying for a while that this October seems already shaping up to have a 2005-Tony-Graffanino kinda feel to it.

Lately, though, I’d starting thinking that assessment was a bit harsh. After all, who knows. Sure, we’re banged up, definitely don't seem to be the well-balanced, leak-proof attack machine we were last fall.

They just can’t seem to seal the deal. Sorta starting to remind me of Obama in the primaries.

Hopefully the same won’t hold true in the World Series and the general election, respectively.

(Incidentally, the Sox still have a 11.16 percent chance of winning the division, says Baseball Prospectus. And Nate Silver, who made his bones at BP and has since branched out into politics at his excellent site FiveThirtyEight, has sifted through the polls, crunched the numbers, and weighted the data all appropriately, and seems to suggest things are looking up for Obama

Eh. Not quite the result I was looking for, Timmeh.

Moving on.

About this Schilling thing?

Just. Shut. Up. Already.

Seriously, what is the point at this point? Manny is kicking ass and taking names in Los Angeles. Curt is designing video games in Maynard. This is all old news. Whatever happened to live and let live?

Uh, yeah. Perhaps I should not have been so hubristic.

A dose of humility may be just what the doctor ordered. So, Wake, could you please float like butterfly tonight? A win would be much-appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

In the mean time, I’m gonna try to erase the memory of that tragic waste of a dynamite Beckett outing by thinking back on my honeymoon, where I was surprised to discover that Red Sox nation extends south easterly to the British overseas territory of Bermuda.

Great, great news.

"We are all on the same page with regard to our vision for the organization," Henry wrote in an e-mail this afternoon. "The negotiations were pleasant and were all about rewarding Theo for the great, great job he has done in bringing two world championships to the Red Sox. We look forward to the difficult task of trying to win a third."

If we only win one at the Trop all year, I suppose that’s a good way to do it.

But, of course, we’re not gonna win just one.

We’re gonna win tonight.

And then tomorrow night.

And then we’re gonna stay on top and finish this thing up.

Those devilish Rays had a nice little run at it this summer, and I’m sure it’s done wonders for their self-esteem.

In Bill James's Gold Mine 2008, he talks at length about Nolan Ryan. In short, he finds Ryan to be a fascinatingly unique pitcher - unique in his approach, and in the results he got by going about his work that way. Ryan, as he tells it, simply refused to get a batter out any way but by striking him out. And to a degree, it worked - he is the all-time leader in strikeouts.

More like "Scott Kaz-yourworstnightmir," am I right Sox fans?

Okay, fine: Kazmir has given up seven runs in nine innings (two starts) against the Red Sox this year. And yeah, he has problems pitching late into ballgames (which looms as a potential bugaboo for the Rays come playoff time.) But we still fear him when he pitches against the Sox.

We are the jockeys; the jockeys are we.

So a lot of people have been talking up the idea of Dustin Pedroia winning the MVP award lately: the Fenway crowd chanted it at him, Ozzie Guillen famously called him a "jockey," David Pinto used his success in the cleanup role as an excuse to post the video of Andy Kaufman performing the Mighty Mouse theme on Saturday Night Live, and even Rick Sutcliffe floated the possibility during the broadcast of Wednesday's Rays-Yankees game.