Sleepyhead

... So I got off my Regina Spektor kick.

And found a new flavor of the week.

Belle & Sebastian.

Quite honestly, I'm feeling ashamed for not taking notice of them sooner. I've been reading and hearing for years how great this band is. Sure, I added them to a list I keep of bands whose music I think I should hear more of, but I kept putting them off ...

Finally, over the weekend, I took the plunge.

Uh, yeah. They're pretty amazing ... I'm kicking myself for taking this long to add them to my collection.

Fresh pop hooks. Bouncy vocals. Smart, witty lyrics. Nods to '60s and '70s pop/rock. It all collides for a complete sound that is oh, oh, so sweet.

I haven't had this much fun listening to an album in a long time ... Ok, maybe since I got Wincing The Night Away, which actually compares pretty closely to Belle & Sebastian ...

But seriously. "The Blues are Still Blue," "We are The Sleepyheads," "Funny Little Frog," (Hey, isn't that the Grassroots "Temptation Eyes"?) "Sukie In The Graveyard," and "White Collar Boy" (Hello, Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" ?) are some of the coolest songs ever ...

And their videos are dang cool and imaginative too ...



Ok. I'm done gushing. For now.

* * *

Tonight, I'm basking in a reprieve. From the baseball.

I never thought I'd say this but ... I don't know if I've ever been so ready for a baseball season to end ...

These late games are kicking my butt.

I've managed to stay awake to catch every last out of all the games, including Friday's Rockies-D-Backs extra-inning thriller and Saturday's extra-innning Red Sox thrashing. And I wondered if I was the only one that was having trouble with the schedule ...

Turns out I'm not the only one, after all. Phillip Lerman's piece in the Washington Post last weekend was right on ...

The signs of fall are upon us: The days are shorter. The leaves are falling.
And dads are sitting in their basements, watching the baseball playoffs and getting ready for the World Series. Alone.

... For the last two weeks -- or however long we've been in the postseason; the days have been pretty blurry lately -- I've spent the late nights huddled in our basement, watching the small TV, and squelching my volcanic cheers so as to not wake up Kates ...

And I worry what it's going to be like for our kids.

Every time this subject comes up, I think of October 1988 ... One of the first significant baseball memories I have, that fall is also the first clear memory I have of watching any postseason baseball: The Oakland Bash Brothers and Dave Stewart's menacing stare againt the Red Sox of Wade Boggs, Ellis Burks, Mike Greenwell, Dwight Evans and Roger Clemens. And of course, it was the year I fell in love with the Dodgers -- Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, Steve Sax, Alfredo Griffin, Mickey Hatcher, Mike Scioscia -- as they beat the heavily-favored Mets in seven games in the NLCS and then took down the A's too ...

Yet, I missed one of the greatest moments in baseball history, Kirk Gibsons's homerun to win game one ... because I was in bed. The memory of my parents excitedly explaining the dramatic ending while Joel and I sat, jaws agape and hanging on their every word, at the breakfast table is cemented in my brain. It's a great memory of mine in its own right ... and don't get me wrong, I can't blame them. They did what they had to do. We deserved to be in bed, and our children will likely face the same fate ...

And it sucks.


But, hey, how 'bout those Rockies.

I said it before, and I'm saying it again: These guys are a team of destiny. I called their NLCS sweep after game one. Now I understand what everyone else has been saying all year about how good Matt Holliday and Troy Tulowitzki are. The team's defense has been as solid and dazzling as their namesake ...

How exciting was the final out of Monday night's game!?! Eric Byrnes hits a soft-roller to the left side, Tulowitzki charges it and snaps an off-balance throw to first. Todd Helton makes the stretch to catch it just before Byrnes slides headfirst over the bag ...


Last week, I remarked to a cohort about how crazy it was to see the Rockies and D-backs, two teams that didn't exist 15 years ago, facing each other in a championship series. And now, crazy as it sounds, the Rockies, a team whose expansion draft I remember racing home to watch on TV, are heading to the World Series ...

I'm having a ball watching their run right now ... and I shudder to think what an eight-day break before the World Series is going to do to their momentum. It certainly didn't help the Tigers ...

Lord also knows I'm loving watching the Indians run too, including last night's seven-run fifth inning and, well, watching Kenny Lofton swiping bases like it's 1995.

Last night, as we watched the game Kates asked who I'd cheer for in a Rockies-Indians World Series. I just threw up my arms and shook my head ...

It's gonna happen too. I'm betting the Indians close it out tomorrow night at Jacobs Field.

Good reads ...
a 6-run 4th seals fate for Diamondbacks
a Helton finally is delivered
a LINCICOME: Rockies a team broomed to glory