Tom's Blog

Being in New England now for over 10 years, I have seen some of the most unpredictable weather anywhere...except along Lake Erie. 

Of course, it really doesn't where I have lived in my life, when there is a watch or a warning being posted by the National Weather Service, there is a reason why they do so.  Its not to inconvenience anyone, just the conditions are to where there is a strong possibility for a severe storm.  However, you always have those who end up getting injured or die because they didn't take the necessary steps to protect themselves or others.

I know all the weather people that I have watched over the years do the normal speech to inform the public, but there are always those that don't listen and get hurt or worse.  So please when there is a storm coming, be aware in what you should do so you don't get hurt.

As we get closer to the big party convention gatherings, I wonder what "big" spike the candidates will get?   The conventions are a joke anyhow since the only mystery is who the vice-presidental candidates will be. 

And for those who are blinded by all the glitz of the conventions, my biggest question is what will the mainstream media not report on...especially while the Democrats are living it up in Denver?   I really don't start getting information about the candidates until September.  I have other more important things to think about...like my 30th class reunion on August 1-2, a wedding to attend the following weekend, baseball games in July and August, and to make sure I have the right date for the Lewiston game in September.  I also have to work except on those weekends that I'll be either in Ohio or Connecticut.   Oh, I almost forgot, my step-son begins his junior year at Pinkerton Academy...no we don't directly pay to send him there, Derry NH doesn't have a public high school so the town pays the school to send the kids there (through the taxes that renters do pay indirectly through their landlord as well as homeowners).

So you see, I have more important things to think about than to sit down and watch the conventions. 

As the Indians have moved to the basement of the AL Central and for all intensive purposes done for the season, they are finally doing something off the field.

The first player to be purged was Joe Borowski on Friday which I don't understand why they got him in the first place.  Now, the winner of the CC Sabathia sweepstakes is...the Milwaukee Brewers for three minor leaguers at least one being on outfielder.  One of my questions to Mark Shapario is why make the deal now instead of next week when maybe you could get a pitcher that could help for the rest of the season?  My other question is why another outfielder when you have Francisco, Gutierrez, Sizemore, Choo, and Dellucci who should be shown the door too. 

So, curious minds want to know is who's next?  I have some ideas of who should be purged.  Let's see now...the ones that should go is Andy Marte who should of been charged an error that helped contributed to the latest loss, Jhonny Peralta who has not hit for average this year and really not a good shortstop,  Rafael Bettencourt and Paul Byrd who have been awful this year and David Dellucci who really haven't contributed much anyway. 

One other thought...what if Mark Shapario would of signed Tim Lincecum a few years ago instead of watching him become an All-Star for the Giants?  Or better yet, why has he picked up non-contributers like David Dellucci, Andy Marte instead of pitching help? 

Well, its Independence Day again.  My how time flies as it was just a few weeks ago we were talking about the snow and waiting for the baseball season to begin. 

Of course, Independence Day is becoming less important as most people are just glad to get a day off of work to go to watch fireworks or whatever they do.  The main reason why we have this holiday is to celebrate our independence from England and all their taxes.  Prior to our crafting our Declaration of Independence from England, it was more like the people coming over here to farm and mine for minerals and have to pay high taxes to the British Empire.  The Boston Tea Party was the beginning of the revolt which eventually became the Revolutionary War.  After the war, then we wrote the Constitution which became the foundation of how the newly formed country would be formed.  We also added the Bill of Rights and other admendments to the Constitution. 

Now, there has been times where we have to go to war to protect our rights as Americans and we have honored those brave soldiers during the community celebrations across the country.  And we have also had huge groups of people who became American citizens on Independence Day in the past too.  And we have baseball games all over country as well. 

With the freedom we have, there is also the problem of certain groups that are slowly taking away our rights to conform to their world view.  One of the important elections is coming up in which more rights could be taken away if we don't choose wisely. 

As we get closer to Independence Day, the Indians are still not playing the way they should be playing by now.  When the only off-season move you make is picking up Jamey Carroll instead of maybe making changes in the pitching staff, you are going to have problems. 

The starting pitching is slightly better as CC Sabathia is pitching better, but without Fausto Carmona and Paul Byrd pitching very poor...then that's part the problem.  The bullpen for the most part is very awful.  Other than Masahide Kobayashi, which at times has sat around in the bullpen waiting to pitch, the rest of the bullpen has been horrible.

Which brings me to the offense...which has been mostly a mystery of why has it been so lacking considering the talent we have.  Its about time that Travis Hafner was put on the DL a few weeks ago since there has been a problem for a while.  And the other big mystery is with Victor Martinez and no home runs prior to him being put on the disabled list too.  Its pretty bad when your lead off hitter is also one of the team leaders in home runs. Then there is the lack of runners on base which if the management thinks that Josh Barfield is the answer once he comes back from his injury...they are very mistaken.  Maybe the Indians should of done a little more during the off-season, as well as sticking with Astrubel Cabrera longer (surprise... he is hitting in Buffalo) and finally playing Franklin Gutierrez more than they had been from mid-May to Mid-June.  Ben Francisco better start hitting more or he will be sitting too...or be shipped back to Buffalo too.

Hopefully, the Indians will begin to play better and win two or more in a row without losing many more games and get back into the race, or else the line will get longer for the CC Sabathia sweepstakes.

As the New England region had yet another parade for the NBA Champion Boston Celtics, I was listening to a local sports talk show about how the other teams support each other during their seasons.  For example, you had some of the Red Sox and Patriots going to Celtics games, and then there are some Patriots and Celtics players going to Red Sox games...and you know where I'm going with this.  For years, the Bruins have been owned by Jeremy Jacobs from Buffalo.  All of the other major teams (including the Revolution) are owned by local groups.  The Bruins are the only team out of the four major sports that has not won a championship for a long time.  I feel that the fans relate better to teams if there is local ownership and they see players from other teams supporting each other. 

By the way, if anyone else noticed that the Portland Pirates will no longer be the Anaheim AHL team but the Buffalo Sabres will make the Pirates their new AHL team. 

As we go beyond the first third of the season, there are some interesting things in baseball.  First of all, the game the other night...did everyone forget that Dustin Pedroia did get hit by a James Shields pitch in the first inning?  And the other thing that was interesting about the game was that Jon Lester hit a couple of batters and got suspended too.  Really don't understand that one considering that a Red Sox pitcher had to at least hit one of the Tampa Bay batters. 

Secondly, we need to have more people to go see the other baseball teams like the PawSox, the Sea Dogs, the independent league teams in Nashua, Worchester, and Brockton, and soon the summer collegiate teams either on the Cape or the different NECBL teams...since getting a ticket to the Red Sox is tough and expensive. 

Then there is the question of which team in the NHL will send their prospects to Portland.  As the Anaheim Ducks have left Portland, I have to say that I will miss seeing their prospects (seeing the Stanley Cup was pretty cool last October) but it will be interesting if Buffalo or someone else will put their prospects in Portland.

Lastly, listening to sports radio...primarly Fox Sports Radio, I am getting tired of the pro-LA tune by some of the commentators.  Of course, ESPN would probably want LA to win because of Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.  However, I would rather have the Celtics win to shut all the LA fans up.

Well, the NBA finals will finally begin on Thursday.  David Stern is hopeing the Stanley Cup finals will be over tonight so he doesn't have to share the stage with anyone.  At least his Boston-Los Angeles final doesn't have to compete with American Idol or the Memorial Day races.  Now if those Red Wings cooperate and beat Pittsburgh to win the Stanley Cup tonight, then the NBA Finals won't have any competition for ratings. So there really isn't any reason why the NBA Finals won't be a ratings victory for David Stern and whoever is airing the Finals.

As for the series, I don't need to watch, my wife will do that for me...and give me updates when I'm at work.  Even when I'm at home, I will find something else to watch like maybe the AHL Finals on the NHL Network, or an Indians or a Rockies game on Extra Innings, or maybe a good Perry Mason movie on Hallmark Channel.  Maybe I can watch something completly different like a good movie on DVD, or one of the classic TV programs on DVD.  Anyhow, since the Cavaliers or the Jazz are not playing, I really won't be watching it. 

As summer is fast approaching, there are a lot of interesting stuff going on.  My vacation is rapidly ending, here are some stuff to maybe think about.

The price of gasoline is continuing to go up, the only thing that is decreasing is the money we have for other things like baseball games and other things that we like to do.  Even the $600 or more we will get to maybe stimulate the economy will do very very little in doing that. 

By the way, if God is compasionate in helping the sick, poor, needy and the hungry, then why is there is suffering in the world?   Another problem I have is that people who like to say that there is no God cannot explain why things like where the big mass that produced the "Big Bang Theory" came from.

As the NBA finals will begin on Thursday, how many people will not watch the Celtics-Lakers final that the league wanted...and how many games will it go in order for the league to maximize the money they will make off this series?

How many people are happy with the mostly nice weather that both Ohio and New Hampshire have had the past couple of weeks?  I have enjoyed it for the most part...except for the Nashua Pride season opener. 

As an Indians fan, I'm waiting for consistancy in their play...or the same lineup for more than one game.  I am sick and tired of one win followed by one loss...at least I  am happy that their defense hasn't suffered because of all the different lineup changes.  Maybe Eric Wedge should just put all the names in a hat and draw nine out and that will be his lineup for the day. 

Finally, I'm so happy all the primary elections will be over very soon!  Of course now its all the other political ads that will be rolled out now...like the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate ads that are appearing on the local channels in the New Hampshire-northern Massachusetts areas.  Why can't we have a break from the political ads?

Well, as the basketball playoffs roll on, my two teams have finally played better once they came back home.  The Cavs finally beat the Celtics which I was happy about and my wife was disappointed.  Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz beat the Lakers to even that series yesterday.  Of course, when I was talking to my sister on the phone, she was getting ready to go watch her team play... the San Antonio Spurs.  Oh well, hopefully the Cavs will beat the Celtics tonight and win the series.  If everyone on the Cavs play as a team, then they should beat the Celtics.

As I was watching ESPN News this morning, I was saddened to learn that the majority owner of the Columbus Blue Jackets, John H McConnell, passed away yesterday at the age of 84.  He was one of the major reasons why the Columbus Blue Jackets was born as he put up the $80 million for the expansion fee for the new team.  He also felt it was more important to give back to the community as it was to keep building wealth. 

As a fan of the Blue Jackets, I wish that they would of made the playoffs this season so that they Mr. McConnell would of seen them in the playoffs.  However, the spirit on Mr. McConnell will live on as long as we feel the need to give to the community is more important than to build wealth.  There are items about Mr. McConnell in the Columbus Dispatch as well as the Columbus Blue Jackets website.

 Isn't it amazing that every time gas prices go up that people want the government want the old gang to go after the oil companies for all the money they supposidly make from us.  I heard the "top story" about gas prices in the Boston area hitting a record high before the peak vacation period.  Lets look at the record of the government and gas price

In an editorial by Jonathan Williams that appeared in the April 6th edition of the Providence Journal, he states "American motorists pay an average of 47 cents a gallon in state and federal gasoline taxes.  If your vehicle uses diesel fuel, you pay more than 53 cents a gallon on average." 

He goes on to say, "Taxes on gasoline don't end there.  The government collects billions from energy companies in corporate income taxes, offshore royalties, severance taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes; the list goes on."

To give you an idea on how much the money the government takes from the oil companies, Mr. Williams continues "According to Department of Energy data, from 1997 to 2004, federal and state governments extracted $397 billion by taxing the profits of the largest oil companies and an additional $1.1 trillion in taxes at the pump-that's nearly three times what the oil industry made in profits over that same period."

For all the people that want government to do something about gasoline prices, its like all the taxes they have on tobacco.  The government makes too much money off gasoline and diesel fuel to do anything about it.  To end this post, I'll end with Mr. Williams last thoughts, "However, when you feel the pain at the pump, remember who is really cashing in-your good friend Uncle Sam."