All-Star Break Ramblings

Pittsburgh, are you ready... The Dave Matthews/Sheryl Crow shows at Fenway Park were awesome. I had not seen DMB in seven years but he still puts on a great concert. I'm only a little pissed he didn't play "Satellite." However, his rendition of "Sweet Caroline" did make up for that... Has anyone seen the ESPN piece with the NFL analyst panel picking the playoffs and Super Bowl winner? If you have then you must have heard when Sean Salisbury, in picking the mythical Patriots-Steelers AFC Title Game, said that Ben Roethlisberger reminded him of Derek Jeter because he makes it to championship games and always wins. Hmmm. Big Ben has played two years, won just one of two AFC Title Games and has won a Super Bowl. If that makes him Jeter, then Tom Brady must be Joe DiMaggio (five years, three AFC Titles, three Super Bowls). By the way, ESPN and Salisbury have the P-A-T-S winning in Pittsburgh before losing to Carolina in the Bowl. My July 10 prediction for the Super Bowl is this: Pats - 31, Falcons - 10... While I'm making predictions, Ryan Howard takes the Home Run Derby... Click, Adam Sandler's new movie, sucks! And this comes from a guy who took Madison for his confirmation name... Okay, so it's only been two summer league games, but Sebastian Telfair is growing on me... Rich Hill, the 1999 Milton High grad, will start the 2006 Triple-A All-Star Game in Toledo on Wednesday. In thirteen starts for the Iowa Cubs, Hill is 6-1 with an ERA of only 1.81 and has K'd 107 in just 84.2-innings. Are you telling me some pitching starved team couldn't desperately use a 6'6 lefty like that... Nice work by France's captain, Zinedine Zidane, who was ejected by way of a red card in Double-OT of his team's eventual penalty kick loss to Italy in the final of the World Cup. The French hero headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 110th minute on Sunday. Without him, France couldn't figure out Italy's defense and lacked his shooting skills during the fateful penalty kicks. Imagine Michael Jordan headbutting an opponent in the 1992 Olympic Gold Medal Game, multiply that by 1,000, and you see the effect of the Zidane foul on the pitiful nation of France... American League - 6, National League - 5. Papelbon comes on for the save and the MVP on Tuesday...