Ice on my windshield. The first time this year.

Crud.

It just occurred to me that I’ve been in the home stadium of both teams playing in the National League Championship Series.  We went to a game at Miller Park in Milwaukee when Jen and I went out to Wisconsin to visit Mike and Tammy in 2007.  We went to Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles when our world traveling honeymoon stopped in town for a night back in 2009.

Our seats at the Brewers game were pretty awesome.

Our seats at the Dodgers game were out in the left field bleachers.

As for the American League Championship Series, I’ve never been to Houston, but I’ve been to Fenway park a few times. A few times.

The Red Sox started kind of late last night.  The first pitch was at 8:39.  I was watching from the start and, partly due to some rough diabetes numbers, I saw the whole game.  Four and a half hours or so.  It was long, it was stressful, it was painful, but my team won.

But should they have won?

I’m not convinced.  I think we benefited from a screw up.  A colossal screw up by right field line umpire Joe West.  Altuve hit a bomb to right field.  Mookie lined up at the wall, jumped about 100 feet into the air (exaggerating, just a little), and…

His glove hit a fan and closed.  The ball hit the outside of the glove and a fan’s hand or two, and dropped onto the field.  West made the call, out by fan interference, the play was reviewed by the replay officials and allowed to stand due to lack of a view that was sufficient to overturn it.  Altuve is out, the base runner was sent back to the original base.  Houston was denied a two run home run and then proceeded to lose the game by two runs.

So the question is, did Mookie reach into the stands or did the fans reach into the field of play.  If Mookie reached into the stands then it’s a home run.  If the fans reached into play, then it’s an out.  The problem is that I, like the replay officials, can’t tell which case actually happened.  There is one fan clearly reaching over the wall, but that guy didn’t touch anything or anyone.  Everyone else, including Betts, seems to be right on the line.

The next question I have is a personal one, for just me.  Am I being a homer or not?  I really hope not.  I honestly can’t tell, but is the reason I can’t tell because I am a Red Sox fan and my brain is mushing things up to make sure I can’t tell?  Argh!  I don’t know!

The Red Sox now have a three games to one lead in the best of seven series.  A win tonight puts the Sox into the World Series and sends the Astros home for the Winter.  If Houston turns it around and wins the series, this play will be an after thought.  If Boston holds on and wins… Astros fans are going to hang onto this one for generations.  50 years from now, grandparents are going to tell their grandkids how the Astros got screwed out of an American League Championship.  Granted, an Altuve home run in the second inning does not guarantee the Astros would have won.  Assuming Betts makes the catch without the interference is probably a safe bet, due to Mookie’s general awesomeness, but you can’t actually bank on it.  A Houston win in game four would have tied the series at two games each, but it’s not guarantee that the Astros would go on to win the series.

So basically, the play does not actually decide anything, but it doesn’t matter.  If Houston loses, this will go down in their history as the screwing that cost them another World Series ring.  That is literally the only thing you can bank on here.

So… did they get the call right?  Here’s an MLB video from youtube with all the coverage.  You decide.

Silliness.  That’s what I feel about all of these GarageBand multi-track recordings I’ve been making at band practice.  This weekend’s performance was pretty sub-par, but the recording, the mix at least, is the best yet (I think).

The sky looked cool and the traffic was so stopped I could sit and admire it. Friggin’ traffic.

Early voting in Massachusetts begins on Monday, 10/22 and runs through Friday 11/2.

In Methuen, the poll is at Sanborn Hall (aka the police station), 90 Hampshire Street between 8:00am and 4:30pm.

For more information, https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleev/evidx.htm

Last week’s band practice was the second one I multitrack recorded. It sounded okay, but the performance was sub par. I played my Les Paul and used the Keeley overdrive pedal for the whole practice. Today I used my SG and my new Wren and Cuff fuzz box. I haven’t listened to the recording yet but I should be able to A/B the two to try and see which one I prefer. I’m thinking the D&M Drive is the better choice. We’ll see.

Last week Mike’s multi effects board crapped out on him. Today he hooked it back up and it was fine at first, but by the time we got rolling it was losing it again. He bypassed it and plugged his bass straight into his monstrous amp. The sound was wicked. It was just plain bad ass. I really hope I was able to get even some of that tone onto the recording.

Overall our practice was a little different than usual. Last week Kevin put together a set list for us to use for our 11/9 gig. Well, yesterday the 11/9 gig was canceled due to smoke damage at the bar. We knew there was a chance for this, but now it’s a reality. We started the night working off of the set list still. After a while though, we just started trying to learn 80’s songs by ear including sometimes not listening to the actual song. There were little snippets of some Sammy Hagar and some Dokken, and praise be to the holy trinity of Prog, there were a bunch of snippets of Rush. All hail, my brothers and sisters!

It was cool. Our audience came back for a while. I’m not sure how long they stayed though.

Now that practice is over, I’m multi-tasking. The Walking Dead is on, and so is Game Two of the American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox. We lost last night, but right now we have a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth. It’s only game two, but we’re already in must win territory. David Price wasn’t great tonight, but he was good enough to leave with the lead. Win it now, Red Sox. Please!