Chocolate Eggs in the Night

"I was over in Australia during Easter. It was interesting to note they celebrate Easter the same way we do; commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night." --- Bill Hicks

SKETCH: Plutocracy

INT. Plutonian Oval Office

President KHYPER is standing doing some sort of meditation/yoga/tai chi poses. WARREN BUFFET enters.

BUFFET

President Khyper.

Khyper lets out a strange wail.

BUFFET(contd)

Your robot let me in. He said you'd be expecting me.

KHYPER

(composing self)  Yes of course. You must be Mr. Warren Buffet.

BUFFET

I am.

KHYPER

I apologize for the rude reception Mr. Buffet. I haven't seen anyone if 50 years, and then boom, all of a sudden. A person.

BUFFET

I tend to sneak up on people now that I travel by wormhole.

KHYPER

Wormhole? That must be expensive.

BUFFET

It is a business expense...

KHYPER

Oh, so you are here on business?

BUFFET

I am always on business. They say don't mix business with pleasure. Luckily I have no pleasure, only business.

KHYPER

On Pluto, I have no pleasure or business ... or anything.

BUFFET

That's what makes Pluto such a nice place to be. I've only been here for 2 minutes and I love it already. Makes me feel young again.

KHYPER

You do look younger than I thought you'd be, Much younger ... skinnier ... and more Jewish.

BUFFET

Wormholes do funny things to a man's complexion. I'd look in the mirror myself, but I had my reflection removed for my 115th Birthday.

KHYPER

You're 115?

BUFFET

I know. I'm getting up there in years. I'm sad to say that no matter how many fetal spinal fluid injections I receive, I cannot escape the jaws of mortality ... and that is why I am moving from Nebraska to Sector 11 Dog Balls, Pluto.

KHYPER

I don't get it, why would you want to move to Dog Balls, Pluto?

BUFFET

Because of your long years. I don't have much time left, but on Pluto if I live just one more year, that's another 250 Earth Years. Also I like Dog Balls ... it's got a nice ring to it.

KHYPER

Mr. Buffet, this is very exciting. You can live here with me and we will be best friends.

BUFFET

I am sorry Mr. Khyper, but Enemies are the only friends I have.

KHYPER

So we will live together as Best Enemies then.

BUFFET

Well we could do that, but I'd have to shoot you for trespassing.

KHYPER

Trespassing?

BUFFET

You see I bought this Planet and I intend on retiring here, alone. And you are now trespassing.

KHYPER

I am not …. You can't buy a planet!

BUFFET

But you can buy a planetoid.

KHYPER

A planetoid?

BUFFET

Yep, planetoid, that's the bullshit term I made up for this planet, so I could buy it.

KHYPER

But I was chosen by JFK himself to be his man on Pluto! While Neil Armstrong was playing hopscotch on the moon, I was headed toward Pluto, aboard a top secret spaceship, Destined for Anonymity!

BUFFET

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news Mr. Khyper, but JFK was killed by Frank Sinatra. Neil Armstrong is a hero, and you obviously don't know what "anonymity" means.

KHYPER

But I can't leave Pluto. Where would I go? What would I do? I have made Pluto everything that it is .... even though it is nothing.

Khyper is distraught, Buffet consoles him.

BUFFET

Relax. I have big plans for you. You will return to Earth through my wormhole, and take over for George Lopez in the midnight slot on TBS! Following Conan Obrien.

KHYPER

I don't know what any of those things are.

Khyper begins to walk away

BUFFET

(bribing) I could turn you into a star?

KHYPER

(he turns back)

A star like Elvis or a star like the Sun?

BUFFET

Whichever you'd like.

KHYPER

I always wanted to be a white dwarf?

BUFFET

Like Peter Dinklage?

KHYPER

No, like The Pup from Canis Major?

BUFFET

Consider it done.

KHYPER

Oh thank you Mr. Buffet. You are my best enemy.

BUFFET

So it's settled then. Now step on out back, and I'll show you my wormhole.

Buffet pushes Khyper offstage. KHYPER screams. BUFFET laughs maniacally.

Quick Movie Reviews

Here's some mini-reviews of movies I've seen recently. Rated on the 5 smiley face (☻☻☻☻☻) system. I fall asleep easily while watching movies so I will tell you how much sleep I got during the course of the movie and you can interpret that however you'd like.

Life of Pi 3D - ☻☻☻ 
Visually spectacular. Epic journey. At times it was a bit sentimental. Definitely illustrated the difficulties of being stranded at sea with a tiger. One of those movies that I wasn't raving about when I left the theater, but that stayed with me over the next few days. I think I might read the book, which I also hear is 3D.
Sleep Factor: zzz - 3 or 4, 30 second power naps sprinkled throughout.

Looper - ☻☻☻
If you can get past Joseph Gordon Levitt's weird face, Emily Blunt as a blond, and Bruce Willis in yet another time travel movie, this one is pretty good. I have a soft spot in my heart for time travel movies, but I don't really dig telekinesis. So this one was a little lukewarm for me. Also, not a great time to watch movies where toddlers are killed.
Sleep Factor: z - didn't get much sleep if any during this one. so I was either well rested or it was very edge of your seat engaging.

Ted - ☻☻☻
This teddy bear reminded me of a lot of friends that I've had in the past. You know, the type that will twist your arm just a little to blow off work and smoke pot with your teddy bear. Overall it was hilarious. I'm really sick of Mark Whalburgh  Wahlburg  Marky Mark, but not sick of Mila Kunis at all. So it balances out. Throw into the mix a hard-partying teddy bear that sounds like Peter Griffin, and you're pretty much ok with the 20 minutes you spent downloading this this legally from legal sources.
Sleep Factor: z maybe dozed off for a second but recovered easily. I think I even staid up late watching this one.

Moonrise Kingdom - ☻
I haven't been super into Wes Anderson since Rushmore, but I see all his movies anyway. Wes Anderson is like the Kevin Smith of the 2000s, except Wes's Jay and Silent Bob are a downtempo Bill Murray and mandatory Jason Schwartzman. I really loved Rushmore, but I think that was his Sixth Sense. Basically he figured out some kind of cool thing and how to capture it and then made an endless string of movies trying to recapture that, with diminishing degrees of success. At this point, when I watch a Wes Anderson movie, I can't figure out if it's a movie, or an Etsy storefront that sells artfully crafted Bill Murray dioramas.
Sleep Factor: zzzzzzzzzzzzzz I fell asleep 20 minutes into it and Slept the entire time. One of the best 2 hour naps I've ever had. I kept waking up from dreams where I thought I was Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Sleepwalk with Me - ☻☻
I was pretty disappointed in this one. I am a fan of Mike Birbiglia and stand up comedy in general. I also really like This American Life and Ira Glass, who produced this movie. There were a few good laughs in this one, mostly from Birbiglia's stand up sets, however in the end this movie left me feeling pretty non-plussed. One problem was that Mike Birbiglia's character name was Matt Panapiglia, which I guess was supposed to be a joke, or at least the set up for a joke (people kept calling him Panda Piglia), but it was just distracting and kind of annoying, especially since we all know from his stories that this is pretty much an autobiographical film. Secondly, he's a real self-centered miserable sack of shit (as many comedians are) and his girlfriend in the movie Lauren Ambrose (Claire from Six Feet Under) is way too good for him but he treats her like shit and cheats on her, and generally ignores her. Also he's such a coward that even though he wants to break up with her he ends up proposing to her, and lets her go on planning a wedding that he has no intention going through with. If you've ever planned a wedding you know this is tantamount to somebody forcing you to clean their toilet with your bare hands and then throwing the toilet away once it's spotless. In general it's just hard to root for Birbig's character in this, which makes it a shitty movie experience since he's the protagonist.
Sleep Factor: zz I don't remember falling asleep in this one, but if I had it would have been better.

Defiance - ☻☻☻☻
This movie is pretty bad ass. I watched it because this dude I work with was telling me that his grandparents were part of the resistance camp in Belarus that this movie is based on. The courage and resolve that the Bielski Otriad showed is a true triumph of the human spirit. Daniel Craig's character said it best when he said "Let our survival be our revenge."  Next, let me send a big FU out to all the Nazis in the world. Dead ones, living ones, bigots, tyrants, and all the rest. Go Kill yourself, the world will be better for it.  Every time I watch a holocaust movie I cannot believe that people can be that disgusting and cowardly. If anyone ever tells you to do something that you know is wrong, immoral, or inhumane, don't do it even if they threaten your life. Better to die with your integrity than to be party to an atrocity. And don't think that this is something that happened over 60 years ago. It is still occurring. Look at Darfur, Rwanda, Yugoslavia in the 90s, etc.  Do not let down your watch, tyranny is all around us.
Sleep Factor: None - you can't sleep when people are starving in the woods.

Liberal Arts - ☻☻
This is one of those movies that was definitely written by someone who just graduated college or something. It is full to the brim of cliches that only someone with no life experience could dream up. It's about a dude who is 35 who works in admissions at some college in NYC, presumably NYU. Get this, he's from Ohio originally, as is almost everyone in every movie that lives in New York or LA. Ohio is a place people are from I suppose. I live there now. Feel free to write a screenplay about me moving to the big city. This guy is an admissions officer because the person who wrote the movie has never done anything but go to school, and doesn't know what people do if they aren't in school or working at school. The only person in the movie that has nothing to do with school works in a bookstore which is presumably where 100% of the population works if they aren't in school. No Starbucks was shown in the movie, but there is a cafe.The 35 year old dude goes back to his college for the retirement of one of his favorite professors. Then he meets a 19 year old sophomore who is into improv and Twilight. He also befriends a random dude on shrooms and a depressed kid who likes David Foster Wallace. At one point he ends up sleeping with Alison Janney which is the most imaginative part of the movie, since I never would've guessed that people would sleep with Alison Janney. SPOILER: In the end he ends up with the chick who works at the bookstore.
Sleep Factor: zzzz i got at least a good 20 minutes of z's during this one. Best 20 minutes of the movie.

The Giant Mechanical Man - ☻☻☻
This is just your run of the mill romantic comedy, but it's really good. Jenna Fisher, Chris Messina, and Topher Grace star. I think I liked it because it romanticized directionless wandering through life. Chris Messina is with some chick that no longer digs his robot on stilts street busking routine, and Jenna Fisher is just depressed or something because she's adopted. They both end up taking shitty jobs at the zoo and falling in love. I really like it. What? Screw you. It was cute.
Sleep factor: zzzz Some intermittent z's here and there, but when I woke up I rewinded to see what i missed.

Fire Andy Reid? For Who? For What? 

As Published on CrossingBroad.com

Listen to the radio in Philadelphia for a minute these days and you’ll hear it over and over again: Fire Reid! Skim an article online you’ll see it repeated ad nauseum in the comments section: Fire Reid! Ask any guy in line at Wawa what he’d like to see the Eagles do in the offseason and he’ll tell you loud and clear: Fire Reid! It’s the battle cry du jour in the City of Brotherly Love. This is often the case at this time of year, after the Eagles season has ended with an all too familiar thud.

After 12 years of coming up too short, Eagles fans seem to have had their fill of Andy Reid’s stewardship. In some ways that’s fair. Andy never seems to improve his weaknesses. But in other ways it’s almost childish entitlement, after all, this year was supposed to be a rebuilding year, a year where the Eagles jettisoned all the veterans and handed the ball over to all their young talent.  But then from out of nowhere Mike Vick, the supposed back-up QB, showed up with a Superman cape and dumpster full of fireworks, makinh us all believe again. And all of a sudden a 10-6 record, a division championship, and a playoff berth became a big disappointment in a year where none of that was even expected in the first place. And so the fans cry out once again, Fire Reid.  But for who? For what?

If you ask Andy Reid’s detractors who they would rather see piloting the Eagles, many would summon the name of Bill Cowher, the former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and by popular opinion one of the greatest football coaches still alive today. Cowher has been one of the most coveted coaches on the market since he retired from the Steelers in 2007, and many Eagles fans see him as a guy who can finally deliver a championship to this “close but no cigar” franchise.

Cowher earned this reputation by winning exactly one Super Bowl, in his 14th year as the head coach of the Steelers. Before that he, like Andy, was the overrated coach that could never win the big one. He, like Andy, was on the losing side of four Conference Championships and one Super Bowl. But eventually he did win a Super Bowl and transformed himself from the guy the Steelers just wouldn’t give up on, to one of the greatest living NFL coaches. One Super Bowl, it’s all that separates the idiots from the geniuses in the NFL.

Thanks to that Lombardi Trophy, Bill Cowher is widely considered a great football coach, a winner. A man who understands how to win the big one. A brilliant defensive mind who knows the importance of a power running game. A real genius. By contrast, Andy Reid, who has never held that trophy as a head coach, is to his detractors, an idiot who will never win the big game. After 12 years as head coach, they say he is too stubborn, that he doesn’t run the ball enough. That he can’t make in-game adjustments. He can’t manage the clock or challenge calls appropriately. He’s too nice. Too fat. Too Mormon.  But Bill Cowher also went 12+ years without winning a Super Bowl, surely they must’ve said the same type of things about him in Pittsburgh. A quick search reveals that yes, they did.

Here’s a little excerpt from the comments on a blog post from January of 2005, just after the Steelers lost another conference Championship game, 12 months before Cowher would win his only Super Bowl.

“4 Championship losses at home and in all of them but one they were favored and in 2 of the ones that he lost they were favored by double digit points. Also, him deciding to kick that field goal in last year’s game made him look like a retard. He is not an x’s and o’s coach he is a system guy, when he faces a defense that can stop the run he is not smart enough to handle it…”

Here, Cowher is criticized for not being able to adjust to a defense “that can stop the run”. In other words, Cowher runs too much. Reid, as the old song goes, passes too much. They are 2 sides to the same coin. The commenter goes on:

“As long as the man is our head coach he will never win anything major. [...] they need a Bill Parcells or someone who has a track record of winning. Bill Cowher great in the regular season a drooling retard in the playoffs …”

Sound familiar? What would’ve happened if the Steelers fired Cowher that year and hired Parcells? Would they have won the Super Bowl? Ask yourself that when you demand Reid’s head. What would a guy like Cowher be able to do with this Eagles team? You might say, “Cowher is a better coach than Reid”. The numbers tell a different story. Let’s take a look at their careers side by side, through 12 Seasons.

Through 12 Seasons    Reid       Cowher

10+ win seasons	8	7
Division Titles	6	7
Losing Seasons	2	3
Conference Championship Record	1-4	1-3
Super Bowl Record	0-1	0-1
Regular Season Record	118-73-1	115-76-1
Playoff Record	10-9	7-8

The symmetry of this chart is uncanny. Through 12 seasons, each coach enjoyed several Division titles, conference championship games, and winning seasons. Their overall records are separated by only three wins. They each even have one tie for crying out loud. Each coach came frustratingly close to the Super Bowl a number of times, and each lost their lone Super Bowl opportunity to a budding dynasty (Eagles to the 03 Patriots, Steelers to the 95 Cowboys) with their quarterback throwing 3 interceptions (McNabb, ODonnell) in that game.

Through 12 years, the two coaches are in a dead heat, but only through 12 years. Add in Cowher’s next 3 seasons, and he wins a Super Bowl, adds five more playoff victories to his resume, and retires as a genius destined for Canton. As for Andy Reid, we’ll have to wait and see.

Perhaps a similar fate awaits Andy. Perhaps his next 3 years with the Eagles will be magical. Maybe he can break through and win that Lombardi Trophy and cement his spot in the Pantheon, next to the Great Bills, (Bellichek, Cowher, and Parcells). Perhaps not.

The fact is that we will definitely get to find out. The only people who truly want Andy Reid fired are a large portion of the fan base, and a few radio hosts that have an axe to grind, or a show to fill. We all know that Jeffrey Lurie has no intention of firing Andy. After all, he has two more years on his deal, which will bring him to his 14th year. Maybe Lurie has been following this Cowher parallel all along. Maybe if he doesn’t win it in one of the next two seasons, the Eagles will finally have to turn the page and move on.  But until then, don’t waste your breath trying to fire Andy. He’s here to stay. For now.

I used to make analogies between McNabb and Steve Young, but then later I learned that he was really Drew Bledsoe. So it remains to be seen, is Andy really Bill Cowher …  just without a running game, a defense, and a Super Bowl Ring, or is he merely Jeff Fisher. Only time will tell.

Game Five Roundup

As Published on CrossingBroad.com

THE FOUL BUNT

Too much is being made of this foul bunt called fair.  FOX couldn’t stop talking about it and Ken Rosenthal led off his post-game interview asking coyly for an admittance of a foul ball from Roy Halladay. Obviously that was a foul ball whether Doc admits it or not, but the result of the play was no better than had Doc just laid down a fair bunt: runners are moved over, one out. Had Doc been safe at first then that would’ve resulted in an extra out and baserunner for the Phils. Bases would have been loaded with no outs, but Doc stayed in the box and was out at first anyway.

Had Kungfu Panda not missed the bag at third, the Giants would’ve gotten a double play out of a foul bunt. The Phillies would’ve been screwed. So back off, FOX. That bunt was not a game changer as much as it was a hairy situation for the Phils that turned out neither as good or bad as it could’ve been.

ANGRY ROY AND HIS GROIN

Roy Halladay was visibly mad after a 1st inning showdown with the artist formerly know as “Trade Pat Burrell”. He was seething. Red in the face. The angriest Mitch Williams had seen him this year- that's angry, man. This was very uncharacteristic of Roy, who is normally all-business, cool as a cucumber. 

Ken Rosenthal, the only reporter who fits in Tim Lincecum’s pocket, asked Roy how he succeeded without having his best stuff.  Roy said he “battled”, and he did. He struggled, going deep into counts, but got all the outs he absolutely needed. Overall he pitched well, despite some booted balls, an unfavorable home plate umpire, and a Giants team that was having an unbreakable chain of quality at-bats. He did this while battling an injury, in an elimination game, on a rainy night, against the two-time reigning NL Cy Young winner.

 THE HOME RUN

Werth’s home run in the 9th inning, a towering opposite field poke, was gigantic. Some may look back and say it wasn’t necessary because the Giants failed to score in the bottom of the inning, but its impact on Brad Lidge’s confidence and freedom in the save situation can not be underestimated.

That extra run opened up the pitching bag of tricks for Lidge in the 9th. He could throw his regular slider and his dirty one. Perhaps more importantly, it served to deflate the Giants, who had been quite at home in the anti-home run dimensions of “The House that Steroids Built”. That long poke just may turn out to be the turning point of the series.

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The Season is in Joe Blanton’s Hands

As published on CrossingBroad.com

Panic Button time? Not yet, but you should get it out of the closet and dust it off. It’s probably right next to your collection of “Relentless” t-shirts and T.O. bobble figurines. You don’t have to get it now, but come 11pm EST Wednesday night, you might need quick access to that panic button.

With the series hanging in the balance, and with Joe Blanton set to take the mound on Wednesday for his first start since September 29, the Phillies faithful are a justifiably nervous bunch. Blanton hasn’t been the most trustworthy starter this year (not even close), and here he is with the keys to Ruben Amaro’s $145 million Red Lamborghini. Ruben promised he’d take us all to Disney World again this year, but he didn’t say Joe was gonna drive for the scary parts.

This season, when Joe Blanton was set to make a start, Phillies fans could be seen grunting their way to the ballpark. They cursed Joe Blanton, the Phillies rotation and the rotation of the planet itself for landing Joe Blanton on the tickets they bought three months earlier. But more often than not these pessimists left the park eating crow, having seen a Phillies “w”, and an offense come to life.

Despite Blanton’s 9-6 record, his 4.82 ERA, and his general inability to go deep into games this season, the Phillies won the vast majority of his starts, going 17-11. Contrast that with a 22-11 record in Roy Halladay’s starts, and an 18-15 record in Hamels’ starts, and maybe you’ll start to think that Blanton is almost as good as those guys. You’d be wrong, but you’d have some numbers to back your stupid case.

The truth is that the Phillies’ bats had just a little extra pop with Joe on the hill this year. The numbers bare this out, as Blanton received more run support of any Phillies starter, 5.7 runs per game. Comparatively, Hamels got only 3.3.

What was the cause of the disparity? Who knows. Maybe Joe seldom faced a top flight starter. Maybe Joe pitched on hotter days where the ball carried more. Maybe Joe has an extra hot wife and the everyday players tried extra hard to impress when she was around. A quick trip around the internet would probably disprove all of these theories, but we can’t worry about any of that right now, and neither can the Phillies.

The bottom line is the Phillies need a win in game 4. They need to hit a guy named Madison Bumgarner. They need to hit the ball. With runners on base. And they need to do that more than the San Francisco Weird Beards. Victorino needs to get on base, and then steal bases. Raul Ibanez needs to do something, anything, even if what he does is change his name to Ben Francisco. Jimmy Rollins needs to get the back end of the order going. Joe Blanton needs to hit another moon shot. Howard needs an RBI or ten. Polanco needs to go 4 for 4. Utley needs to sit on an inside fastball and drive it into the bay. Werth needs to swing at strikes, and hit them, hard. The Phillies need to score runs, in bunches. I know this all sounds odd, but this type of thing used to happen, all the time, not all that long ago.

Think back to a Joe Blanton start against the Dodgers on August 12th. He gave up 3 quick first inning runs that night, settled in for a few more, and left the game in the 5th with the Phillies down 4-2 and not hitting a lick. And then with the Phillies buried 9-2 in the bottom of the 8th, they woke up. Scored 4 in the 8th, and 4 more in the 9th to win the game. That’s the type of magic that never happens with Cole Hamels on the hill, but that’s exactly the type of thing the Phillies do for Joe.

Maybe a Joe Blow start is just what the doctor ordered. Maybe a 3 run San Fran first inning is just what these Phillies need to see to remember that pitching can’t beat pitching. Maybe just seeing a guy on the mound not named Lincecum, Cain or Sanchez will be enough to wake the bats from their postseason slumber, but one way or another, if the Phillies are going to play for another championship, they have got to score runs.

For one game only, it’s not about pitching. But if it does turn out to be about pitching, well then, you can go ahead and hit that panic button

Doc, a Day Later

As published on CrossingBroad.com

How many watchable Super Bowls have there been? How many times has Lebron James ended up not being Michael Jordan? How many times have Crispy Chicken Nuggets been all that crispy? How many times have things just fallen so far short of expectations that we have all instinctively learned to keep our expectations low?

Let’s think about that.

Think about all the steroid-driven home runs and Photoshopped models. Think about all the comedies we’ve seen that just weren’t very funny. Think about a much touted running back named Ricky Waters, who rode into town on a high horse named For Who For What. And then let’s think about Roy Halladay, the real deal, the genuine article. A man who allowed us to expect greatness, and who delivered something even better in return.

Roy “Doc” Halladay took a postseason mound for the first time in his illustrious career on Wednesday, with all the bloated hopes of the franchise that traded for him resting squarely on his shoulders. Pile on top of that, his own expectations of getting a World Series ring after so many years of toiling in Toronto without an opportunity. Add to that the fever pitch expectations of a demanding fan base desperate to cry out “Dynasty”.  Add to that the fact that Doc found himself in this pressure packed spot as a the man who precipitated the exodus of 2009 postseason hero, Cliff Lee, a move that left fans across Phillies Nation asking a lot of questions.

“An ace for an ace,” they all asked. “It makes no sense. Why not keep both? Don’t they want to win. I’m sure Roy Halladay is a damn good pitcher, but how could he ever top what Cliff did?” A good question to anyone who watched Cliff Lee a year ago. You can’t pitch better than that. Yet somehow Roy did. What’s better than Perfection? I have no idea. You’ll have to ask Roy Halladay.

Consider this: on a team that finds itself with three Aces at the top of the rotation, Halladay was a no-brainer to start game one, even though he is the only pitcher of the three with zero postseason experience. Even though, of the three, he seemed to be the one running out of gas at the end of the year. Even though he pitched more innings than anyone else in baseball this year, and should be a little tired. But we’re talking about Roy Halladay here, an Ace among Aces.

He took a rain slicked ball on a chilly day, and turned it into something transcendental, a postseason no hitter. Something that until now has only been done by Don Larsen. Once. In dusty history books, and on decaying film reels, not live and in HD, not in real time for your eyes to see. The second no-hitter in Postseason history. Against the NL’s most potent lineup. A lineup containing the NL’s likely MVP. I’m sorry, Schill, but that bloody sock has nothing on this.

No matter what else happens this postseason, we will always have this, and Doc will live the rest of his life as the only pitcher in MLB History to pitch a perfect game and a postseason no-hitter in the same year. I can guarantee that.

Even as we bathe in the afterglow of his outstanding feat, I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t half-expect that Roy would pitch exactly how he pitched in Game One.

Historically dominant in his MLB Postseason debut. Fair? No. Realistic? Not at all. After all, a postseason No Hitter is something that just never happens. But with Roy, hell, I expect him to do it again. Why not? That’s like expecting it to rain frogs, but we’re talking about Roy Halladay here. I bet if you asked Roy Halladay to make it rain frogs, he’d be mad at himself if it only rained tadpoles. Now don’t we owe it to this guy to bring him a ring? I think he’s earned his already.  Phils 1 – Cincy 0. I can’t wait to see what’s behind Roy #2.

NOTE: It was said during the broadcast that Charlie Manuel called Roy Halladay a “big Greg Maddux”. That is indeed high praise. I couldn’t think of anything scarier for a hitter to face than a big Greg Maddux, unless of course you’re talking about a regular sized Roy Halladay. Now that’s Halloween scary. Or should I say, Doctober Scary?