Saturday follies - fish and falling off a ladder

Our fish have a new home - but it was a planned move, not like last year or the year before.

We decided to go from a 10- to 15-gallon tank, and because the weather was colder than it has been lately, I figured today would be a good day for the indoor project. Things were going so swimmingly during the transition that I decided to cut the grass in the afternoon.

But first, I had to turn off a motion-sensor light in the backyard that has been on for days. It would not shut off, so we decided to finally replace the thing that has never worked quite right since we moved here almost five years ago.

It was an easy project, but complicated because the light is at the highest part of the house and my ladder isn't quite tall enough. It was difficult at times trying to wire a light with one hand while clutching the house with the other, but I got the sucker up without major incident.

The major incident came when I was caulking to finish the job. Maneuvering a caulk gun and standing on ladder rungs you're not supposed to stand on don't mix.

As I fell, a couple thoughts crossed my mind: I'll just land on my feet - no problem ... oh wait, I'm falling, I can't move ... I hope Christine gets out the way, she could get hurt too.

I landed squarely on my back and had a little taste of what Mick Foley put himself through. I groaned, but thought I was OK until Christine pleaded with me to say something. I understood what she was saying, but kept groaning. "Oh no, I can't talk," I thought to myself. But soon enough I got my bearings and folded up that darned ladder.

One of the hardware stores has a 16-foot ladder on sale this week. I wish I knew that when I was at that store buying the light.

Postscript: I'm fine. Fishies enjoy their new tank. The light works as it's supposed to.

Phillies: Christine is upset because the Phillies game is not on again. They're on tomorrow (Roy Halladay), but she won't be able to watch much because she has work obligations. Jamie Moyer gave up five runs in the 3rd inning, but the Phillies regained the lead when Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer off Brandon Lyon in the 7th. (Yes, that's the guy who was part of the 2003 Red Sox bullpen by committee who the Phillies were supposedly interested in this year until Ed Wade signed him to what is considered the worst signing of the offseason.)

Red Sox: It wasn't the prettiest pitching duel, but tonight's matchup of Josh Beckett and Zack Greinke turned out to be a spirited back-and-forth contest. The Red Sox lead 6-3 in the 9th; hopefully the bullpen won't blow another one. (I knew I shouldn't have written last night that Tim Wakefield may get a win.)

On playoff eve, who's it gonna be?

With the Phillies and Dodgers ready to renew their LCS rivalry, it's time for Christine and me to renew our playoff predictions from the first round.

I went with my heart in the AL and was wrong on both counts. In the NL, I missed on the Dodgers and got only the Phillies right, predicting them to win in four.

Christine did a little better, only missing by picking the Cardinals over the Dodgers, but she did so thinking they would pose less of a fight for the Phillies in the LCS.

According to Rob Neyer, she may be right in that the Dodgers will be formidable. The stats guru picks the Dodgers in five, and he's backed up by Diamond Mind Baseball, which has the Dodgers winning 765 out of 1,000 simulations, most commonly in five games.

I haven't discussed this yet with Christine, but I'm pretty sure the SoxandPhils prognosticators will respectfully disagree with the numbers guy and computer.

I'll agree with Jimmy Rollins:

"You have to understand this team," shortstop and oracle Jimmy Rollins said as the champagne dried on his uniform Monday night in Denver. "We don't play this game to walk away at the beginning of October and say, 'Great season, see you in spring training.'"

I'll go with the Little Red Machine besting Dodger Blue in six. In the AL, the Yankees look different from their teams of recent years, but I think the Angels will pull it out in six.

Christine's picks:

Phillies vs. Dodgers: Phillies, no doubt.

Angels vs. Yankees: Angels. Because we all know by now that I picked the Angels and Phillies to meet up in the World Series.

Red Sox: How depressing. The Boston Globe's Extra Bases blog went 24 hours without an update - and that was just to run the postseason calendar.

Purely personal: We've had a tough time keeping catfish alive and happy lately, so we tried buying a pair of them instead of having just one in the tank. Christine and I couldn't decide whether they like each other - sometimes they swim together, but sometimes they stay on opposite ends of the tank.

"Maybe they're best friends/worst enemies, like teenage girls," she said.

"Oh-uh," I said. "I just named them."

(Usually when we name our fish it's a kiss of death.)

"Pedro and Jamie Moyer."

I just hope we don't have a repeat of last year's mess.

Troubled waters

Yesterday I compared the carefree SoxandPhils camps with that of the steroid-tainted Yankees. The cloud of steroids, which has already cost the Phillies their second-best reliever for nearly a third of the season, is now approaching Boston.

David Ortiz has trained with the guy who may be Alex Rodriguez' supplier. He's denying using, but sees no reason to stop going to Angel Presinal's facility. I really want to believe him, but we've heard denials before. Plus, he's tripping himself up already, saying he has to be careful with whom he associates, but that he hasn't stopped associating himself with anyone, including Presinal:

Do you have to be careful about who you associate with?
Ortiz: Of course. Especially in these days.

Are there people you don't associate with anymore?
Ortiz: No, I don't care what people say. It's the way you show yourself out there. That's what I think it is. But definitely you've got to be careful with anybody that is
involved in any kind of stuff like whatever is going on right now.

[...]

You said you have to be careful with the people you associate with, but there's no one you no longer associate with?
Ortiz: I don't have that problem. I'm pretty much always with my family. I'm not the kind of person that has relationships with strangers.

Then, he refused to answer the basic gimme question whether he is upset about the reputation the Dominican Republic is getting with steroids. "I can't comment about that. I don't know too much about that," he said.

Funny, he had no trouble commenting on the topic in 2005, when he said the steroids policy is unfair to Latin players who don't speak English.

I hope this all turns out to be coincidence, but I don't like where it's heading. Or maybe I'm just cranky from a lack of sleep.

Last night, when Christine and I returned home from an excellent dinner to celebrate her birthday (which is actually today) we looked forward to a rare evening in which we had absolutely nothing to do. But when I turned on the fish tank light, I saw the tank was leaking and had ruined the wooden fish stand. From experience, I quickly drained the tank and put the fish in a bucket. Christine found the receipt for the tank and stand, and I was soon on the phone with the pet store, less than an hour before it closed, to tell them I expected the items to be replaced.

The manager agreed - I think it was the desperation in my voice when I said, "My fish are in a bucket. This has to be taken care of tonight."

We arrived at the store just before it closed and got the new stand and tank. By the time the stand was assembled and there was enough water in the tank to get through the night, it was past 1 a.m. The ironic thing is that earlier in the day, I had seen a recap of the 2008 Red Sox season and I had forgotten that they trailed Game 5 of the ALCS 7-0. I guess those details slip your mind when you're unexpectedly scooping up fish.

No fish seemed to have been injured last night, thankfully.

Two more to go

We woke up tired but excited this morning. Christine is still sleeping as I write this, but she'll be up soon and I think I can speak for her on this one, after the Phillies crazy 5-4 Game 3 win that ended in the bottom of the 9th with a bases-loaded little dribbler to third. {Actually, I was awake when Greg was writing this. I lounged in bed for a bit, watching game highlights again on Comcast SportsNet. And maybe some 90210.}

I'll spare the details because I'm sure this game will be rehashed to death even though it's the all-important week eight of the NFL season.

Before Mitch Williams said it on the post-game show, and before the Phillies locked up this tenuous, rain-delayed, Saturday-into-Sunday game, I said that if the Phillies won Games 3 and 4, there's no way they'll lose Game 5 with Cole Hamels.

Before 2003, the Red Sox teams were always burdened by the pressure to end the drought. We see that burden with the Cubs. But the 2008 Phillies don't treat it like a burden; they see it as a responsibility to bring one home for the fans. And if they have the opportunity to win in front of their fans, they won't mess around with it.

So in some ways, the season rests with Joe Blanton tonight. Scary thought until Christine reminded me that they Phillies haven't lost in his two postseason starts. If that trend continues, there's a good chance we can watch a clincher Monday without having to hear Tim McCarver and Joe Buck prattle on about 24, marvel over Joe Maddon's hat and spew incorrect information, such as Citizens Bank Park is a homer haven, Carlos Ruiz is from Venezuela and how Carl Crawford's speed ignited the Rays two-run rally in the 7th when it was clear to everyone except the deaf and blind umpire that he should have been called out.

We'd also miss Harry Kalas' call, but I'm sure in a city starved for a championship, they might play that two or three million times in the offseason.

So it's up to Blanton: Win and this thing's probably done in five; lose and it becomes a three-game set for all the marbles.

By the way, have I mentioned my love for Verizon FIOS? It couldn't work miracles when TBS crapped out for the beginning of Game 6 in the ALCS, but at least it's not screwing up working broadcasts.

I did manage to catch nearly all the game. When the Rays switched pitchers in the 8th, I dozed during the commercial break and missed Chase Utley's strikeout and Jayson Werth stealing second and then getting picked off. I was up after that. Christine says she struggled around this time, but her displeasure with Utley's strikeout snapped her out of it.

Important update! 10:34 a.m.: I found the fishy song that was used to introduce the Rays! It's called Fishy Fishy Fishy by Sandi and Stevie. Here's a short clip. It's still undetermined whether this was played by the Fox broadcast or if this was played at the ballpark.

[Photo credit: Philadelphia Inquirer]

Rain delay

When the Red Sox were eliminated, I thought that at least the World Series games would end earlier. That probably won't be the case tonight. Rain pushed back the starting time of the first World Series game played in Philadelphia since 1993 an hour and a half.

With first pitch scheduled for 10 p.m., I'm not even going to pretend I'll be in any shape to post even the skimpiest blog entry after it ends. I hope I can stay awake for the whole game - I was worried about that even before I knew it would be delayed because I didn't sleep well last night and had a very eventful day.

In pregame notes, Christine loved the fish song they played when the Rays were introduced. We'd like to include the lyrics, but we can't find them.

Off to watch Jamie Moyer's first World Series start.

Another long night

What's that about the best-laid plans?

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us, so we had mapped out our plans for this evening. After work, meet at the pet store, buy a new fish tank and table to replace the one that was ruined by the leaking water, stop at the grocery store, come home to build the table and then start refilling the fish tank.

But then we were both held up at work, so we were running later than we wanted to. Greg just opened up the box to start putting together the table, and he was missing some random little plastic peg. The pet store is closed, and this was the only table in the store in this style anyway. So now he's off to Home Depot to search for a comparable little peg so he can make the table so we can fill the fish tank and return the fish to their home.

Despite less than ideal conditions, they appear to be doing swimmingly. Even the guy who might have had a broken spine. Good thing Greg isn't superstitious; otherwise, they might have to stay in the bucket until the ALCS is over.

Meanwhile, back in baseball land, things seem relatively quiet. The Phillies had a practice day, and everyone is concerned how they will react on Wednesday night after nearly a week off. They've just won 20 out of 25 games; the last thing they need is a six-day vacation to kill that momentum. Here's hoping they stay focused and sharp over the next few days. Personally, I'm going crazy already with no Phillies to watch. I miss 'em when they're not playing.

The Red Sox flew back to Tampa to finish up their series this weekend. Will the magic from Thursday night spill over into Saturday? After that comeback, it's a toss-up. Greg's official opinion: Whoever wins Game 6 wins the series.

Barring any other aquatic emergencies, Greg will be back tomorrow to detail the big game.

What a night

With the Red Sox facing elimination and trailing 7-0 in the 7th, I was pre-writing my gracious concession post to the Tampa Rays. Christine, not overly interested in the game, went downstairs to feed our fish. The tank was leaking.

So while my boys suddenly remembered how to play like champions - scoring seven runs in the 7th and 8th innings - I was trying to caulk my tank. After that didn't work, I was bailing water and setting up a temporary aquarium in a bucket. Why isn't every Wal-Mart open 24 hours a day?

Fish are taken care of - except the one whose spine I think I broke scooping him out with a net. I hope they can last in the bucket until I get home tomorrow with a new tank.

Meantime, I'm going to watch the Sox continue their comeback and salvage the SoxandPhils World Series.

12:17 a.m. update: We're going to Tampa. Sox and fish still swimming.