I think Vazquez is the wrong one—they should trade Lowe even if they have to eat salary—but I realize that reasonable people disagree on this.

I will be carrying my coffee mug filled with liquor on Saturday evening.  I am a traditionalist.

When I was a child in the bizarre Maryland exurb of Columbia we actually had two trick-or-treating nights. One was on Halloween, and it was around the neighborhood. The other was some Friday evening (usually) before and was at the local “village center” (smallish shopping center with grocery store, liquor store, and most other daily necessity-type shops, plus restaurants) and allowed the local merchants to hand us candy. I think it was supposed to be a way to build community among shopkeepers and citizens. But really, the candy for this one was provided by the village center, and so usually was pretty low-grade (lots of those ghastly peanut chews).

And really, what kid needs two nights trick or treating? Talk about obesity epidemics.

Grandma. Actually, two grandmas tonight.  They like to see the kids dress up so they come over, take pictures, and then hand out candy on our front porch. Win-win.

And if there’s any trouble, my dad will be there too, and he has a conceal-carry permit.  Just try to TP my house. I don’t care if you’re 7. You’re goin’ down, dude.

Craig, I may have mentioned this before, but…

We know divorcing owners can wreak havoc on a team’s finances.  The Dodgers probably need another pitcher and have a surplus outfielder (since they seem to think Juan Pierre’s good enough to be an everyday player).  Derek Lowe and Manny both somewhat underperformed their contracts last year.  Thoughts on a potential swap there?

I was also thinking about 1996, the last time the defending World Champions from the NL won game one of the WS in Yankee Stadium. 

Like you, I was in law school then, though I remember 1995 better.  Our prof (and dean) was from Ohio and an Indians fan.  A couple of poor souls wore their Braves hats after the Braves won, and no one else had to worry about answering any questions in class that day.

We all expect pictures posted on Facebook tomorrow,, including these infamous travel mugs in your proud-parent hands.

My favorite Tim McCarver quote from Game 1:

“Both the Phillies and the Yankees have 7 wins so far this post-season.”

Your little boy was Axl last year?

I recall reacting to one particularly stupid comment from Buck or McCarver last night toward the end of the game, but at that point I wasn’t paying close enough attention to care to remember the details.  And if that’s as bad as it got, I agree, Fox outdid itself.  And I actually like the triple-shot cameras focusing on the pitcher and hitter with the catcher in the middle flashing the signs.  Thankfully (shockingly?!?!), they consistently went back to the center field camera before the pitch was thrown.