I was flying on US Air flight 3054 on Wednesday night, travelling from LaGuardia to Portland.  As the flight attendant shut the door, she gave the standard line, “Please turn off all portable electronic devices.”  We all know this is the rule, and many people try to finish up that one last email or phone call before they are asked, personally, to turn off their phone.

I was in seat 3A.  Across the aisle from me, in seat 3D (I’ve never understood why they skip letters on these little planes), was the guy in the photo.  He had an iPhone that, after the announcement, he hid under his JAMA magazine.  When the flight attendant sat down, he continued to send and receive text messages and check email.  As we taxied down the runway, he kept texting.  And as we took off and rose above New York City, he didn’t stop.

My first thought was that there are some people in this world–way too many people in fact–who simply don’t believe the rules apply to them.  Rules, to them, are meaningless restrictions on their freedom of choice.  And it causes you to wonder:  if this guy has no qualms about bypassing this safety rule, what other rules does he choose not to follow?

My second thought was about safety and personal responsibility.  We all know–and I assume this guy knew–that use of a cell phone on an airplane can cause interference with the plane’s equipment.  In this case, what is my responsibility?  Should I or the woman on his other side have asked him to turn off his phone?  Should I have notified the flight attendant somehow?  It was interesting to me that he didn’t care at all what his airplane neighbors saw or thought–he just didn’t want to get caught by the flight attendant.  Any time she walked by, he hid the phone under his medical journal.  In the end, however, I did nothing but take his picture so I could post it here.

My final thought was that this guy was a McCain supporter.  Although “Country First” is written on Senator McCain’s campaign signs, a very large number of his supporters have a “me first” attitude.  This guy clearly was thinking only of his own needs, everyone else be damned.

Even when they were ahead 1-0 last night, it simply didn’t seem like the Red Sox had what it was going to take to win game 7 of the ALCS.  The mojo wasn’t there.  Lester pitched well enough to win, but Boston’s offense simply could not get it together.   They created a few–too few–opportunities, but ended a lot of at-bats with checked swings called as third strikes.

I wish the Rays good luck and predict they will beat the Phillies in 5 games.  

Carolina basketball starts in 26 days.

Back in 2004, a great deal was made of the now famous Bloody Sock.  A lot was written–okay, too much was written–about Curt Schilling’s “gutsy” performance, about how he pitched through pain, how his pitching may not have been vintage Curt Schilling, but his heart certainly was.  It all quickly became overly dramatic, and it didn’t take long for people to start suggesting that it all was a ruse.  The unfortunate thing is all the excessive hype covered up the fact that, in reality, it was a gutsy performance.  We’re talking about the limited context of baseball here, but what Schilling did in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series really was pretty amazing.

We saw the same playing on heart from several Red Sox players in last night’s ALCS Game 6 between the Red Sox and the Rays.  Josh Beckett clearly is hurting and is not at his best.  But for five innings and 78 pitches, he gave the team everything he had.  Allowing only four hits (two of which were home runs), Beckett put the Red Sox in a position to win.  It was not the vintage post-season Beckett we saw last year; but being one of the best pitchers in baseball is not just about how hard you can throw.

Similar performances came from Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jason Veritek.  Okajima has not been able to repeat his sensational 2007 season this year, but he pitched his heart out last night in some very difficult middle innings.  Papelbon clearly does not have a great deal left in the proverbial tank, but he gutted his way through that final inning with whatever he could deliver.  Veritek’s go-ahead home run after posting a battering average of 0.00 in the series up to that point was nothing short of exhilarating.

It’s interesting that it largely has been the young guys that got the Red Sox to this point.  Pedroia has been sensational all year.  Lowrie stepped in for the injured Julio Lugo and has played extremely well.  But last night it was the veterans demonstrating that baseball is not just about youth and talent. 

As an aside, twenty-four-year-old Justin Masterson also was sensational last night, but for different reasons.  He does have youth and talent.  But after hitting the first batter he faced and falling behind in the count 2-0 to the potentially tying run, Masterson looked like he was going to collapse.  You could feel the momentum start to swing.  Timely visits from his catcher and pitching coach allowed Masterson to get his head together.  The next three pitches were strikes, retiring Iwamura, and he got B.J. Upton (a very dangerous batter) and Carlos Pena on infield pop-ups.

And so now the Red Sox go back to relying on youth:  John Lester, who, in game 2, looked very tired.  Boris Becker once set that the fifth set is all about heart.  The same can be said for games like last night’s and tonight’s.  Tampa Bay is a young and very talented team, but it has been a long season.  It will be the team that plays most from the heart tonight that wins.

I thought I knew who John McCain was at the start of this election.  Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about how Senator McCain is not being himself, that he’s caved in to party politics and has adopted a win-at-all-costs approach to this election.  Frankly, I’m not sure that they’re right.  I’m beginning to think that this is the real John McCain.  What we’re seeing today is who this man actually is.

His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate provides unique insight into this man.  This country needs intelligent, experienced leaders.  Selecting an untested individual with no world experience was nothing short of irresponsible.  The whole Ayers mess–which McCain continues to press in his Robocalls–shows that McCain is much more interested in winning than truth.  And now he’s dropping the “S” bomb, suggesting that Obama’s policies are Socialist.

When McCain became the clear choice of his party, I actually was pretty pleased.  It seemed at the time that even if the Republican party were to keep the White House, we would have a moderate, centered individual as president who can make well-reasoned, extra-political decisions.  The last six months have shown that this simply is not the case.  In the spotlight, we now are getting a chance to see who John McCain really is.  And what we see is immensely disappointing.

The two videos below are in McCain’s own words.

So, there they were.  Down three games to one in the American League Championship Series, and losing 7-0 in game five.  Not only were they losing, they looked awful and had looked awful ever since losing that extra-innings heart-breaker in Game 2.  Games 3 and 4 were in Boston, and the Red Sox lost by a combined score of 22-5.

Game 5 had not looked any better, with Boston falling behind 2-0 before either team recorded an out.  Matsuzaka made it through only four innings but gave up 5 hits and 5 runs in that time.  By the time the second half of the seventh inning started, Boston was down 7-0, having only 2 hits.  Rookie Jed Lowrie started off the bottom of the seventh with a double, but Veritek and Kotsay both flew out to Upton (my vote up to that point for series MVP) in center field, and everything looked pretty hopelss.  The Rays were just 7 outs from the World Series.  Then, Crisp singles, getting Lowrie to third, and Pedroia singled in Lowrie in an 8-pitch at-bat (”yea, it’s not a shut-out”).  Up comes David Ortiz, who has had a miserable post-season (batting around .100 in this series).

It’s still unclear to me why the Rays manager did not bring in a different pitcher to face Ortiz.  He had hard-throwing lefty J.P. Howell in the bullpen, but he chose to let right-handed Balfour face left-hitting Ortiz.  Perhaps he thought a six-run lead was sufficient.  Perhaps Maddon simply had not seen (or remembered) the last two American League Championship Series in which the Red Sox had participated.  This is October, and these are the Boston Red Sox.  And this is Fenway.  Papi placed the ball nicely in the right-field stands, and suddenly it was a three-run game.

It was like the Red Sox suddenly started playing right-handed.  Like someone from the sidelines had yelled, “NOW!”  The momentum at that moment swung, and the Red Sox simply didn’t stop.  Papelbon quickly dispatched three batters in the top of the 8th.  Jason Bay started the bottom of the 8th with a walk, and J.D. Drew smacked a two-run homerun to make it a one-run game.  With two outs, Kotsay hit a double off Upton’s glove (it really could have been caught, although it would have been a fantastic catch), followed by a beautiful ten-pitch at-bat from Coco Crisp, that finally resulted in a run-scoring single to tie the game.

After 170 +\- games this season, Carlos Pena has hit into only two double plays.  Two, all season.  With one out and two on base in the top of the 9th inning, Red Sox fans were very pleased to see his third.  But the reality is that it was not Pena’s fault:  the Red Sox already had decided that they were going to win this game.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Youkilis reached on an in-field hit (which also could have been an out) and got to second on the throwing error to first.   I was surprised to see Tampa Bay walk Jason Bay to get to J.D. Drew.  I guess you look at the stats and make a call, but Drew has accepted many opportunities to be a hero, and last night was no exception.  With the count 3-1 (a hitter’s count, and Howell did NOT want to load the bases), Drew hit a change-up over Gross’s head in right field, and another Boston miracle was complete.

The Boston Red Sox have one eight straight ALCS elimination games.  I would love to see them make it ten, but last night’s victory also meant the season will not end with Boston simply lying down.  Let’s hope they can keep this momentum going for one more game.  If successful, they’ll need just one additional game to get back to the World Series.  Wouldn’t that be fun.