Ramble On

"Leaves are falling all around....it's time I was on my way...." Sorry, but whenever I hear the word "ramble" that Zeppelin song comes to my head immediately.

All apologies for the lack of posts this week. I've been having serious headaches due to eye strain and have been trying to limit my time on computer as much as possible. Bad times. But excuses aren't welcome here at the Den and I don't intend to make any, so I'm sucking it up and making up for lost time with a bunch of random thoughts on everything from "Frank TV" to the baseball playoffs to, of course, some E-town sports. Buckle in Den Dwellers and let's go for a ride.

• Watching Game 5 of the NLCS right now (Rollins just led off with a home run, 1-0 Phils). Joe Buck (who I just find awful as an announcer) just said that five of the eight starters for Philly are batting under .200 for the series, yet the Phils are up 3-1. I've watched every game (except for Friday when I was covering the Bears), and from what I've seen, yes, a bunch of them are struggling, but all have come up with big hits when they've needed to. There isn't one guy carrying this offense, but a total team effort. I think the Phils are going to take care of business tonight, especially with Hamels on the bump. His change up is Bugs Bunny, seriously. Gives me shivers. That said, I'm not sure if anyone can beat these Tampa Bay Rays. I mean, they are absolutely embarrassing the Red Sox. As an Oriole fan, I couldn't be happier about that. Hamels may be able to shut Tampa down, but what are the rest of Philly's staff going to do? And even more important, how in the heck is Tampa on the verge of the World Series? Seriously. A real seamhead with no allegiance to any of the teams left, like this lowly blogger, has to root for Tampa. They built their team the right way. No money + awful stadium + competing in the AL East = impossible to sign big name free agents. So Tampa went out and built themselves a great team the old fashioned way, through the draft and growing the farm system. They don't thrown $200 million at people. They just grow GREAT talent (Evan Longoria is disgusting, and I mean that in a good way), and it's working. Hard to root against them. Well, except if your a Boston fan.

• Memo to Tim McCarver:
Go away. Please.

• Say what you want about Manny, but dude can rake. I'm glad he's out of my life, though, and playing in the NL.

• If I see one more House of Payne or Frank TV commercial, I will light myself on fire.

• Casey Blake's up right now. I love playoff beards.

• Good news: Tony Romo's out and Pacman is suspended. Bad news: The Cowboys just got Roy Williams. Dude is the real deal. Going from the Lions to the Cowboys is like upgrading from a '72 Pinto to an '09 Lexus. If TO was crying because he didn't get the ball enough before, wait until he has to share catches with Williams, while both realize how awful it is to have Brad Johnson throwing to you.

• In the Chronicle in the NFL offseason, I said the Skins were going 12-4. If they do it, I'm giving myself a raise. Wait...I don't have the authority to do that. Maybe I'll just buy myself some Swedish Fish. Mmm.

• The EAHS football team is two points away from being 7-0 right now. Wow.

• Speaking of the Bears, that game against Cocalico last Friday was awesome. Cocalico is the real deal, and Kyle Fisher is the fastest kid in pads I've seen in my time in Pa. The only kid faster I remember is a guy I went to high school with named Darius Wilmont. That kid could complete a 50-yard pass. To himself.

• I'm working on a new feature to this little blog: Journalist vs. Jocks. What it would be is me going against various EAHS athletes in their sports: A game of HORSE vs. a boys basketball player, trying to get a hit off of one of the softball pitchers, wrestling a period against a wrestler, etc. All I need to figure out is how to film it. If nothing else, it'll give you all something to laugh at as I embarrass myself and it might give me a chance to try out my health insurance. Stay tuned.

• Tough break for the EAHS boys soccer team. The Bears missed out on the L-L playoffs by losing to CV in a game that decided the Section Two title on Saturday. But the Bears will still be in Districts starting Oct. 20.

• Speaking of tough breaks, cross country runner Dustin Horning went into yesterday's L-L meet as the top ranked boys runner in the league, but came down with cramps that made it impossible for him to breathe, and he couldn't hang in there. I really thought he had a great shot to win the thing, but he'll get his chance to make noise at the District meet on Oct. 25 and will certainly qualify for states there.

That's all for now everyone. Please drop me a line if there's something you'd like to see on the blog that I don't do. Until next time, stay classy E-town and thanks for stopping by.