Saturday, March 31, 2007

Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible" a strong sophomore effort


Over the past few years Canada has become the hot bed of indie rock talent. Bands like The New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene, Feist and Final Fantasy all hail from Canada and are among the most critically acclaimed groups in music today.

But the most popular members of the Canadian brotherhood of indie have to be Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire’s 2004 release, “Funeral”, appeared near the top of many “best of” lists, despite fairly modest sales. After almost two and a half years of waiting, Arcade Fire have finally released their highly anticipated follow-up to “Funeral”, titled “Neon Bible.”

As the name suggests, “Neon Bible” has a heavy religious theme running through it. But instead of coming off as preachy or cliché, the band manages to convey its message in a subtle and creative way. Never shying away from heavy subject matter, Arcade Fire also tackle the war in Iraq, poverty and the problems with society today in general.

“Black Mirror” kicks off the album and gets right into that heavy subject matter. With the final lines – “Mirror, mirror on the wall, show me where the bombs will fall” “Black Mirror” gives a grim view into the future. But what Arcade Fire does best is balance dark topics with lighter music. “Black Mirror” starts off with droning lyrics and soft piano, but slowly builds to its climax with increasingly loud strings, pounding drums and screaming vocals.

“Intervention” is one of the strongest tracks on the album and showcases Arcade Fire’s knack for unusual instrumental arrangements. The song starts off with an organ pound, followed by acoustic guitar and then a pinch of triangle, all of which are sustained throughout the song. Win Butler’s vocals get more and more passionate as “Intervention” goes on until he belts out the chorus one last time – “Working for the church while your life falls apart. Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart. Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home.”

The most uplifting and upbeat track on “Neon Bible” is “No Cars Go”. Sung by Butler and his wife/band mate, Regine Chassagne, the song tells of an imaginary Utopian society where “no cars go.” This song features a beautiful accordion part as well as some great up-tempo drumming. But the beauty of this song lies in its simplicity. The lyrics consist mostly of “no cars go” and emphatic “heys!” and really resonates when Butler and Chassagne sing with almost no music backing their voices near the songs apex.

“Neon Bible” is not without a few minor duds though. The title track is repetitive and seems out of place. Same goes for “My Body is a Cage”, a slow crawling piece that only picks up about halfway through.

“Funeral” was widely considered a modern masterpiece - it is foolish to think that Arcade Fire could replicate that emotion and flawless songwriting on “Neon Bible”. That being said, “Neon Bible” is in no way a disappointment. It is poignant, full of depth and covers a broad range of sounds in its 11 tracks. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see “Neon Bible” atop quite a few “best of” lists when 2007 is over.

Friday, March 30, 2007

You Love It: 3/30/07

So in the tradition of naming stuff after songs that I like (blog's name comes from a Locust song) I decided to name the weekly links after a Peaches song that is totally badass, "You Love It". I don't know why, so give me some feedback in the comments.

IGN makes another top 10 list
Via IGN

I will admit that I love top 10 lists. They are always good for sparking conversation and good natured complaining. IGN really loves top 10 lists, making a new one almost everyday. This is one of the better ones I have seen, the top 10 toughest games to beat. As with all lists, there are some strange inclusions and questionable order (Ninja Gaiden Black only number 10? That game took years off my life) but overall, a solid read.

Former MLB pitcher, Ugueth Urbina, sentenced to 14 years in prison
Via ESPN

This is truly a bizarre and sad story. Urbina, who last pitched in 2005 for the Phillies, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder of five workers on his Venezuelan ranch. It's strange to think that this guy was pitching in Boston a few years ago and won a World Series in 2003 with the Marlins.

Lil John receives officially dumbest Guinness World record ever
Via Tiny Mix Tapes

TMT comes off as pretentious more often than not (way worse than Pitchfork) but every once and a while they come out with gems like this. Apparently Lil John now holds a Guinness World record for, get this, "largest pendant in the world". No additional comments needed for that.

Gilbert Arenas, NBA's court jester
Via ESPN

Let me just say that Arenas is my favorite player in the NBA, and it has very little to do with how he plays. So far this season Arenas has: laid his jersey on an opponent's court after hitting a game winning shot, coined his own nickname - "Hibachi" and said he would score at least 80 points against this years Duke team. Add to that list "made bets with opposing fans that he would hit the game winning shot." Arenas bet Portland fans $10 that he would hit a game winner against the home team Trailblazers. Turns out he lost, but that's not the point. Arenas does all the ridiculous things us normal people would do if we were athletes. He's is a mix between Chad Johnson, T.O. and Manny Ramirez and maybe the craziest super-star we have in sports today. I can't get enough of him.

Mario and Sonic to appear in video game together. In other news, cats and dogs now living together
Via Kotaku

Back when my gaming habits were in their infancy, you were either a Sonic fan or Mario fan. Never both. I myself liked Mario more, I think Sonic was a little too edgy for me. Those spikes and that smirk were a bit much. Anyway, Mario and Sonic are now set to appear in a game together for the first time ever. This is pretty earth shattering for anyone born after 1980. It really doesn't matter what the game is, it could be a stupid Olympics tie in and people will still be interested in it. Oh wait.

Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster training to become ninja
Via AZStarNet

Absurd quote from this: "You have to (learn) how to throw a throwing star and nunchucks and all those kinds of things," the Chicago Cubs closer says. "Obviously you've got to do martial arts and learn how to be really quiet, which is a tough task for me because I talk a lot."
That pretty much sums it up.

Mysterious God of War site goes up
Via Kotaku

Viral and guerrilla marketing has become huge over the past few years. Most recently, that over-blown Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare. On the heels of God of War 2's release and the announcement that a PSP version of God of War will arrive sometime, comes this mysterious countdown site. According to the article, the site's URL was revealed when a gamer landed a 999,000 hit combo. The countdown also has nothing to do with the PSP version of the game. I love the GoW franchise and I am pretty interested to see what this is all about.

Kobe Bryant shoots his way into record books
Via ESPN

Earlier this week, Kobe Bryant scored 50 or more points in a record four straight games, becoming only the second in NBA history to do so. I have always felt Kobe gets a bad rap as being a ball hog and shaky character guy. The bottom line is, his team stinks and they need him to score 35-50 every night to win games. The Lakers won these four games by five, seven, two and six points. In short, they needed every ounce of his scoring to win. Did Kobe throw his name in the MVP race discussion? We'll save that for a full article.

Shaughnessy rips Schilling, bloggers
Via Boston.com

I saved this for last because it made me quite angry. In short, Globe sports writer, Dan Shaughnessy, decided to tear into Curt Schilling and his fans, particularly about Schilling's new blog. In the article, Shaughnessy creates mock messages sent to Schilling and subsequent Schilling responses. Using handles like "Sycophant38", "Lapdog38" and "Suckup38", Shaughnessy has no qualms about expressing his bias.

One passage that really struck me:
"Loser38: I used to go to Star Trek conventions and comic book trade shows. No more. Now this blog is my life. My girlfriend says I'm spending too much time on this site. I say she's being ridiculous. I mean, what's six hours a day when you have a chance to communicate -- cyberspace to cyberspace -- with a legitimate Hall of Famer? Do you think I'm being reasonable, Schill?"

That passage rips: Star Trek fans, comic book fans, folks who use the Internet, puppies, babies, rainbows and unicorns. Among others ripped in the article: Red Sox fans, people who live at home, anyone socially awkward, WEEI listeners and overweight individuals. All in two small pages.

Now I consider myself an ethical "journalist." Shaughnessy's article is unprofessional, foolish and immature, to say the least. I am shocked that the Globe would print it, as it subverts many unwritten journalistic codes. I understand that blogs are slowly dissolving the need for newspapers, and thus, Shaughnessy's job. And I understand the world is rapidly changing around him, with this crazy interweb seeping into the holy institution of news. But that doesn't give Shaughnessy an excuse to grind a whole lot of axes in a childish and cowardly way. I sincerley hope this article cost the Globe a significant number of readers. I know it has lost one.

I'll leave with this passage from Shaughnessy:
"CHB38: What do you say to those media morons who contend that you are a self-important blowhard with an ill-informed opinion about everything and an insatiable need to be worshipped by sheep-like fans and late-night blog boys who live in Ma's basement?" (Italics added by author).

Pulitzer prize committee, save yourself some time and give it to Shaughnessy now.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Weekly News: 3/22/07

I figure if I come up with something I can post once a week, that will get a lot more regularity into my writing, as posts have been sparse. So here's a few news stories for the week or so in music, video games and sports all in one, enjoy. Oh and if anyone can come up with a better name for this, leave it in the comments.

Papelbon to return to Red Sox closer role
via ESPN

According to the article, with Julian Tavarez and Joel Pineiro struggling in the de facto closer role, Papelbon is expected to return to his dominant closing role. This is a huge mistake. You could go to war with Schilling, Dice-K, Beckett and Papelbon as your starters. I have always been of the school that it is much harder to get to the 9th inning than it is to finish it. Why can't they go closer by committee with Tavarez/Pineiro/Donnelly/ Hansen/Delcarmen until one of them steps up? If Papelbon can't handle starting (I think he can) then I guess I can understand moving him back. But the Red Sox rotation is top 5 in all of baseball with Papelbon in it. Without him who knows. And who's to say his is going to be nearly as good a closer as he was last season?

Matt Schaub, Falcons backup QB, signs deal with Texans
via ESPN

Matt Schaub is the best back up in the NFL. He torched the Patriots for 400+ yards and a couple of touchdowns two years ago. He could have started for at least 10 NFL teams last season. The Texans gave up a lot (swapping first round picks this season with the Falcons and second picks over the next two seasons) for Schaub but it should prove to be worth it. David Carr, God bless him, is not the right QB for this team. He will be a good quarterback somewhere else, maybe Oakland or Cleveland, but after five seasons he hasn't lived up to his first-overall-pick status.

Wii's "Cooking Mama: Cook Off" another average game for Wii owners
via Kotaku

One of the best things about the amazing site, Kotaku.com, is their Frankenreview section. Instead of writing their own reviews, they compile scores and paragraphs from prominent gaming sites to give the reader a nice cross-section of opinions. I had been looking forward to Cooking Mama for the Wii since I watched some videos, as it looked pretty fun and unique. From these reviews, I think I will save my $50 for Super Paper Mario.

Top 30 Guitar Hero 3 song suggestions
via Idolator

I have been watching so many custom GH2 song hacks on YouTube I am happy to see something actually constructive about the inevitable GH3. The list has some dubious inclusions (#'s 28, 19, and 24) but is overall pretty good. I love the Sleater Kinney reference and of course the more Megadeth in my life, the better. Slayer's "Raining Blood" and Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and the Flames" (of hacked version fame) have to be in the next game. I will lead riots if they're not. And Harmonix/Red Octane, please if you're going to put a Guns and Roses song in GH3, make it "November Rain". That way I can finally play the solo outside of a church in the desert.

2007: Already pretty awesome year for music
via Pitchfork

Love 'em or hate 'em, Pitchfork is the most important site in Indie music. With Panda Bear's (of Animal Collective) solo album and LCD Soundsystem's new record getting 9+ scores from the oft-pretentious site, 2007 has had quite a few critically acclaimed indie releases thus far. The stat geeks over at Metacritic.com have a best of '07 list that contains a ton of indie all-stars. The likes of Arcade Fire, Patrick Wolf, Of Montreal, The Shins and Deerhoof are all there, all scoring at least a 79 or better.

Arcade Fire's Neon Bible debuts at #2 on Billboard charts
via Billboard

The Arcade Fire's long-awaited new album, Neon Bible, debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts last week. It has since dropped to 18th, but remains one of the most commercially successful indie albums in recent memory. Couple this with that appearance on SNL, and is Arcade Fire in danger of *gasp* selling out and doing an ad for iPods of Burger King? I think the whole "sell out" thing is kind of overblown anyway. It's nice to see smaller bands become popular and do stuff like SNL. More power to them.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

It ain't easy being green

This was done for my Feature Writing class and thus has a lot less stats and sports jargon

Ben Perkins watches his Boston Celtics struggle through another game, on the edge of his chair not more than a foot from his roommate’s 48” flat screen TV.

He jumps out of his chair at fouls the referees ignore or open shots missed by Celtic players. As the Celtics lose another heart-breaker, Ben Perkins can only watch.

The Boston Celtics record is 20 wins and 48 losses with 14 games left to play. They are the second worst team in the National Basketball Association. At one point in the season, Boston lost 18 straight games, a Celtics franchise record and a mere five games short of the all-time record.

The Boston Celtics are a pretty bad team.

Not only are the Celtics bad, they lost long-time patriarch and architect of some of the greatest Celtics teams ever, Red Auerbach, when he passed away at the beginning of the season. The Celtics dedicated their season to Red.

Perkins, a self-proclaimed life-long Celtics fan, is one of many die-hard Celtics fans that have suffered through the 2006-07 season. But unlike a lot of bitter Boston sports fans, Perkins has a more optimistic outlook on these Celtics.

“They’re a good bad team. It’s still fun to watch. They have a lot of young players playing hard” said Perkins.

Boston’s youth is its boon as well as its curse. The Celtics player’s average age is 25, very young for a basketball team. More often than not the team has shown its youth on the court: collapsing late in games in which they lead, losing to lesser opponents and seeming generally lost at points.

But all these growing pains the Celtics have endured this year may be worth it down the road, according to Perkins. “[The younger] pieces have improved this year. If they are healthy next year, they will be a good team.”

Injuries are something all sports teams have to deal with at one point or another, but the Celtics have been particularly bitten by the injury bug this season.

Perkins described the Celtics season thus far in two simple words: “Lotta injuries”.

The Celtics All-Star guard/forward Paul Pierce missed 24 games earlier this season due to a stress fracture in his left foot and an infected elbow. Boston lost 16 of its 18 game losing streak during this span.

Pierce’s absence definitely had something to do with that.

Perkins reflected on that historic 18 game losing streak in a hazy way. “I can’t even remember it. I watched most of them, they went by quick. When they finally won, I couldn’t believe they broke it, it was bizarre.”

All this losing does come with some solace at the end of the season. The teams that finish with the worst records get the best chance to draft the most highly touted college prospects.

As the Celtics season wore on and they kept losing, many fans thoughts went right to the draft. It would almost be better for the Celtics to lose games and secure a high draft pick than futilely try and win a few games here and there.

Perkins is not of those fans.

“The players don’t want to lose. I don’t want them to lose. If they win, they don’t need the pick. They have enough talent to win, to not be in last place. It’s a bad idea.”

Perkins sees his faithful cheering for a last place team as a right of passage, a weathering of a storm that makes winning all the more sweet.

Perkins compared this feeling to that unforgettable Red Sox season in 2004. He only became a baseball fan when the Red Sox made it to the playoffs that year.

“If [the Red Sox] won it would be great, but I didn’t have those 86 years of torment that other people had so it wasn’t as deep a feeling,” Perkins said.

This may not be Larry Bird’s Celtics of the 80’s. Or the team that won 8 straight championships in the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s. This team is not going to the playoffs and probably won’t win more than 25 games.

But the fans will endure, as they always do, hoping for that one moment when their team finally reaches the top. And when that team does, the fans will celebrate: scars of losing streaks, devastating injuries and everything else.

Red Auerbach once said “The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team. They are a way of life.” Ben Perkins and all the Celtics faithful live that creed every time they watch the Green suit up and play.

Win or lose.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

WarioWare: Smooth Moves Review

Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Released: January 15th 2007, $49.99
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

One instant you are picking a gigantic pixilated nose. The next, you are holding the Wii remote on your head and doing squats. Moments later you are holding the remote like a waiter holds a platter and trying to balance a broomstick onscreen. These are just a fraction of the frenetic micro-games featured in WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Nintendo Wii.

Wario, Mario’s evil doppelganger, is quickly approaching his kinder alter-ego in terms of great games. WarioWare: Touched! and WarioWare: Twisted! for Nintendo’s DS and Game Boy Advance respectively, were cult hits. Wario’s games feature a myriad of super fast mini-games, or micro-games, which test player’s reflexes as well as attention spans. Touched! exploited the DS’s touch screen and air sensor, while Twisted! came with an internal gyro-scope for tilt sensing. The Wii’s motion sensitive controls seemed tailor made for a new WarioWare title.

If you have never played a WarioWare game let me give you an idea of what a micro-game will be like. You will be prompted with a word or phrase (“clean”, “dodge!” or “find him” for example) and you have a very short time limit to complete the given task. The challenge isn’t so much in the task, they are generally simple to complete, it is in figuring out exactly what you have to do before time runs out. How to complete each game is where the real fun lies.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is the best WarioWare game to date, showcasing funny, inventive and completely insane micro-games that will leave players of all ages in stitches. The game’s “plot” boils down to a number of small vignettes: mini-stories with an ever-changing cast of characters. In each one the player is tasked with using the “form baton” (Wii remote) in a new way to complete a series of micro-games. You have a certain number of lives to complete the 10-20 mini-games and a boss fight at the end. But you don’t play this game for its sprawling storyline; you play it for the wacky micro-games.

The Wii remote is pushed to its creative limit in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. You complete each micro-game by using “forms” or ways to hold the remote. “The Mohawk” has the player holding the remote on top of his/her head like the namesake punk hairstyle. “The Elephant” asks the player to hold the remote to his/her nose, facing outward like an elephant’s trunk. If these poses sound ridiculous, they are. Those who have reservations about looking foolish while playing a video game should turn back now. What is impressive about WarioWare: Smooth Moves is the various ways in which the different forms are utilized. You won’t always be an elephant picking fruit while using the elephant pose. WarioWare finds cool and fun ways to push the forms to their limit, making for an experience that never feels stale or boring.

The micro-games style and look are the stuff of pure gaming joy. Many are hand drawn cartoons that look right out of a child’s coloring book. Some are throw-backs to old NES games. A few are even strange hyper-3D models. They all share one thing in common: being really weird and funny. WarioWare has style coming out its ears, even if it only lasts for 30 seconds. The games run the gamut from the everyday mundane like: swatting a fly, knocking on a door, using a key or picking your nose. To the bizarre: killing a ninja before it attacks you, directing anxious beach patrons to the correct restroom, plucking nose hair and scaring children with a skunk on a stick. They will make you smile, laugh and sometimes elicit a hearty “what?!”

Where WarioWare: Smooth Moves really shines is in the frantic multiplayer modes. There are four different multiplayer modes in WarioWare that all have something to offer. In Survival up to 12 different Mii’s can be uploaded from your Wii and used to play a simple game of last man standing. Taking turns each player plays one mini-game, if they lose that’s it for their Mii, which takes the form of an angel. As time goes on the games get more difficult and the completion time speeds up. This mode is a blast because of the sheer amount of people you can have playing this at once. Since WarioWare only requires a single remote, the act of madly passing it to the next person becomes a game in itself.

Lifeline is the next multiplayer mode and utilizes a race theme. Up to five Mii’s can participate in this race, taking turns doing micro-games of increasing point value. After five rounds, the racers are ranked and are taken to a jungle and strung up with ropes. Whoever finished the race in first gets three ropes, next gets two and so on. Players take turns cutting ropes until only one player remains. What makes this mode fun is the wild-card factor. Since there is no way to tell which rope goes to which player, the person in last can pull out upset wins.

Bomb is a variant on a childhood favorite, hot potato. The active player plays a mini-game. If they win they pick who goes next and what form they are to use. What makes this mode interesting is that each time the same form is picked; its difficulty level goes up. The only downside of this mode is it’s “whoever loses first, loses”, it doesn’t eliminate players until one remains. Balloon is similar in that the goal is to not be up when a balloon pops. When it is your turn you get a certain amount of time to pump up a balloon. After winning a micro-game, the next player in line steps up and can choose to pump the balloon. The key here is to pump up the balloon to put pressure one the player up next, but not so much that it pops on your turn. If you lose a mini-game, you have to keep going until you win, increasing the chance that it will burst on your turn. But again this mode is first person to lose, loses.

In addition to these traditional multiplayer modes, there are some more innovative ones to unlock. These utilize the Wii remote and nunchuk in coordination with one another to make for a unique co-operative experience. Speaking of unlockables, WarioWare has a good amount of unlockable content. There are practically hundreds of mini-games to unlock that take repeat play-throughs to get. There are also quite a few single player games that aren’t micro-game related. These are mostly variants on classic games such as Tetris, Breakout and Duck Hunt. That said, WarioWare won’t take very long for the average gamer to beat. My first run took about 2-3 hours and wasn’t all too difficult. Unlocking all the games takes longer (maybe an additional 1-2 hours) and the single player games can be fun in short bursts. Multiplayer and the “let me show you this hilarious game” factor will be what brings you back to this title.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves stands out in the sea of recent mini-game titles that have come out over the past few years. It also stands out as the best title in a long lineage of solid WarioWare games. Alongside The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, this is a must-own title for Wii owners. If for the nose-picking alone.

Fact or Fiction: MLB 2007 Season

I cannot convey how excited I am for this upcoming baseball season. Not being a big college hoops fan, for me the ides of March bring Spring Training and the beginning of another glorious baseball season.

So here I am going to try the proven “fact or fiction” routine. And yes, I do know it isn’t as compelling when someone isn’t asking me the questions, but oh well.


Fact or fiction: Barry Bonds will get to 755 home runs this season
Fiction. I would be surprised if Barry plays in more than 100 games this season, much less hit 21 home runs. He is playing outfield like a 90-year-old man, has no one to protect him in the inept Giants line-up and pitchers just plain shouldn’t fear him anymore. I think he hits in the neighborhood of 8-15 home runs, periodically fighting off nagging injuries all year. At this point he is hurting the Giants more than he is helping them.

Dice-K will be the ace of the Red Sox staff
Fiction, but with a ton of conditions. Schilling, Beckett and Papelbon should all be better than Dice-K, since he is in his first year. But if Schilling shows his age, Beckett gets dominated by AL hitters again and Papelbon shows growing pains becoming a starter, Dice-K will rise as the ace. As it stands now a lot of things would have to go wrong for the other starters and right for Dice-K for him to become the “ace” of the team.

Many of last year’s playoff teams will find themselves there again
Fact. Last year’s playoff teams: Mets, Yankees, Tigers, Twins, Dodgers and Cardinals should all find themselves in familiar territory this season. All the NL divisions seem to be relatively unchanged (with the Giants being the only team to make a splash) so last year’s division winners should have a good chance to repeat. In the AL, the Central will be tough again with the Tigers, Twins and Indians fighting tooth and nail to make it. The West is terrible and very up in the air. Oakland and LA seem to be the front-runners, but it is really anyone’s division. The East is going to be a dogfight between the perennial fat-cats, the Yankees and the Red Sox. Toronto is improved and got a huge boost finishing second last season, while Baltimore and Tampa Bay are both scrappy teams that should be tough outs for any team.

Both wildcard teams will come from the East
Fiction, neither wildcard will come out of the East divisions. In the NL the Braves, Phillies, Marlins and Nationals are all mediocre teams with glaring flaws. They will beat up on each other and thus take each other out of the wildcard race. I see the NL wildcard coming out of the West, in the person of the Dodgers/Giants/Padres. In the AL the Yankees and Red Sox are both very talented teams but I see one of the teams in the Central being better suited to land the wildcard. The Tigers are rock solid, especially with the addition of the dangerous Sheffield, and seem like the division favorites. But the Indians are coming off an injury riddled season and have a solid core of young talent that gets better every year. The Twins can never be counted out with Santana and the Mauer/Morneau hitting combo. One of those teams will be good enough to win the wildcard.



Big money free agents like Zito and Soriano will be worth it
Fact. Both Zito and Soriano are moving from the AL to the NL and should thrive in their new homes. Zito has not lived up to his 2001 form and was quite overpaid in free agency. But pitching against limp NL offenses like the Pirates, Brewers, Padres, Astros, Nationals and others will go a long way for him. I look for him to win about 14-18 games and maybe even 20 if he gets some offense behind him. As for Soriano he is going to be batting against weaker NL pitching and has a certain Derek Lee batting in the same line-up as him. Even though he won’t be in the launching pad that is Arlington, Wrigley is a fairly hitter friendly park. His home run numbers may dip a little but his RBIs and steals should rise.

Roger Clemens will pitch outside of Houston
Fiction. I just don’t see the Yankees or Red Sox shelling out the money to rent a pitcher for a few months. Then again you never know who will get injured. I don’t think a return to New York or Boston is what Clemens really wants, even if Houston ends up stinking. The Astros can and will give Clemens all the comforts he wants; hopefully he sees that and stays in Houston. Plus do you really want to deal with the media in NY or Boston again Roger?

The Cardinals will repeat as World Series winners
I will have to take the field on this one and go fiction. The Cards were the worst Series winning team in a long time. I mean Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver as your #2 and #3 starters? You must be kidding. Pujols as your only consistent hitter? Come on. The Cards won on about 15 Tiger pitching errors and every single Tiger hitting a slump at the same time. Even though the NL stinks and they will probably repeat as division champs, someone like the Mets or Dodgers should knock them out.