It Could Either Way
Tonight is the All-Star Game, and I’m not watching. This is not unusual; I avoid all-star games in any sport. They are usually just exhibitions, and they count for nothing. The baseball one used to matter because it determined the home-field advantage of the World Series, but that ended in 2017.
If you look below, you’ll notice that the Red Sox’s chance of making the playoffs is exactly 50%; it could go either way. It’s a coin toss. A little less than four weeks ago, the figure was a bit more than one-tenth of that, or 5.9%. Nine days ago they were sitting at a quarter of that, 12.7%; then they won the next 9 games.
I fully expect them to crash and burn once play starts again. First, they have to play the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays for 4 games, starting with a doubleheader on Friday. Secondly, they always seem to fall apart right after the four-day break that is the All-Star game. And I guess thirdly, it’s what they do.
Track, Daily, Crush
| Track | Daily | Crush |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 Lotus Elise | 2000 BMW M Coupe | AM General HMMWV |
 |
 |
 |
| A couple of yellow stripes and I’m set for racing. | Clown shoe! Clown shoe! |
Should be destined for the missile target range. |
Here is what last week’s cars sold for or were bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Track: 2023 BAC Mono R Sold for USD $265,000 07/09/2026
Daily: 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sold for USD $10,500 07/09/2026
Crush: 2023 Jeep Gladiator Sport S Diesel Apocalypse Hellfire 6×6
by SoFlo Customs Sold for USD $98,000 07/09/2026
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Typical Sunday Routine: bike, eat, wash clothes, baseball, drive, and add a car wash…
Eight is Twenty-Two
This afternoon I watched Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. In the pantheon of twenty-nine Star Wars properties ranked on IMDb, today’s entry is number 22. Tomorrow’s final installment of the nine main movies is ranked four further down the list at #26.
It was a no-car day. I walked to Stomping Grounds for my latte. Not long after I complained (March first last year) about how noisy it was and the amount of traffic and said I didn’t think I’d do it again, it was actually not bad. Timing helps, early morning on weekends and mid-morning on weekdays.
I also finished up another jigsaw puzzle, I watched the Red Sox win again, and I caught up on YouTube. I also cooked a dinner for myself instead of my go-to lazy weekend meal: a mini bag of Orville Redenbacher washed down with an Ensure.
What Are The Odds?
The Sox were one of Apple TV+’s selections for Friday Night Baseball tonight. The last time they were on Apple, I didn’t particularly enjoy the call from their announcers. This time I noticed that you could swap the audio to either team’s radio broadcast. Nice. So I changed over to Boston’s WEEI to listen to them while watching it on TV. Really nice. The advantage of this setup is that you don’t have to pay close attention to the TV, and when something good happens, you can look up and see the replay of it.
I’d like to do this for the regular Red Sox games; MLB.TV offers that option as well, but they never have the timing together. You’ll see what happens before the radio call, or you hear what happens before you see it. Apple TV+ nailed it, perfectly in sync.
The Red Sox had a bad delay happen on their flight into NY from Chicago, so they didn’t even get to NY until almost 5:00PM for a 7:40 start. And the team took it right in stride; they suited up, did some stretching, and went out and won the game 6-2. They have been on a tear for the last couple of weeks; they are 12 of 14 in those games.
The chart below was started about 3 months ago when they started playing awful and were almost 15 games below .500, and I decided I wanted to watch as they slowly descended down to a zero chance of making the playoffs. Well, a funny thing happened…
Star Wars
This past April I started to rewatch the Star Wars movies. The original trilogy first and then the prequels (in B&W). But somehow I never got around to watching the sequels. I forgot all about this until today. While trolling YouTube for mindless time-wasting videos to kill some time, I stumbled on one that discussed the making of the originals.
Mindless? Yep, I’m pretty sure I didn’t learn anything. Time-wasting? You bet, it clocks in at over two and a half hours. Maybe tomorrow I’ll cue up the sequel trilogy, AKA the worst of the movies. I sense some black-and-white viewing.