Late night hotness . . .

Say, are those wh . . . *backs away slowly*

Valentine notches first win as Sox skipper . . .

. . . as David Ortiz agrees to salary arbitration to return to Boston for the 2012 season.

Make no mistake, Papi was headed out of beantown. At the end of last season, Ortiz publicly declared his desire to leave the Sox as he stated he was tired of the drama surrounding the team.

After becoming the Red Sox's new manager, one of the first things Bobby Valentine did was make a trip to the Dominican Republic to chat with the award winning DH. Claiming he was invited by Ortiz' reps to attend Big Papi's charity golf tournament there, the real reason was to reassure the big slugger that he was wanted and needed in Boston and that things would be different next season.

Valentine has been a whirling dervish, meeting or contacting as many players as possible since signing on with the team. And that's some good pr for the new manager and a needed boost for player morale to see that the new skipper is going out of his way to reach out to them.

Bobby V's putting a smile back on the face of this Sox fan.

You learn something new every day

Part of the fun of being a mailman is interacting with the customers. In fact, with as crappy as things are at the P.O., it's pretty much the best part of the job.

So I'm delivering this fairly heavy package to one of my customers today. And I joke as I give it to him that it must be a fruitcake. Because of the weight, you see. Come on folks, work with me here.

But he corrects me by telling me it's a special Italian grain for the upcoming feast of St. Lucy on December 13th. He goes on about how St. Lucy is the patron saint of blindness (or the eyes) and what they make and how no one really celebrates the day down here in Florida and all.

How cool is that?

So of course, I google it and read some info on it and, voila . . . a bit more out of the ordinary knowledge creeps into my soggy brain.

So it was worth getting out of bed today after all.

Okay, so I was wrong

The Bucs can't beat the bad teams either.

Sunday, the Bucs suffered a 38-19 thumping at the hands of the 3-8 Carolina Panthers. I had said in a previous post that at least Tampa was able to beat the sub-500 teams, but even that is beyond their abilities at this point.

With the defense slumping to 30th in the league in total yards allowed and points allowed, head coach Raheem Morris still doggedly works every week to dismantle defensive guru Monte Kiffin's legendary Tampa 2 defense in favor of something only a former defensive backs coach (as Morris was) could love - a blitzing, man-to-man coverage defense similar to what was played in Miami years ago.

Of course, when the Dolphins were having great success with that scheme, they had DE luminary Jason Taylor and hall of fame corners. The Bucs have neither of those. Just a defense so full of rookies and inexperienced young players, that Morris is scaling back the defensive scheme yet again to try and help the floundering players.

Under Morris, the defense is on pace to become the worst in francise history. Last year's 10-6 record is now obviously an outlier and a 4-12 record for this year is not out of the question.

What should be questioned is whether this team needs new management. There's no bright light on the horizon that gives fans hope here. Josh Freeman may be a great quarterback someday. Then again, he could be another Vinnie Testaverde - a guy who looks great in the pocket but never quite reaches the potential you think/hope might be there. Or even another Michael Vick - a guy writers and pundits claim is the next big thing yet never seems able to deliver any team to the promised land. The defense has no rising young stud, despite Morris' penchant for referring to any and all of his guys as "studs."

So how many years do we give this coach and gm to get the job done? Plenty of head coaches with bonifide credentials have been hired by other teams, while we keep our "trendy" choice and slump ever lower in the standings. How many more losing seasons do we endure before we think about a change here?

Just askin.

Seriously . . . for a comic book?!

Nicholas Cage just auctioned off his prized comic book that features the first appearance of Superman for over $2 million.

$2 million!!!

Now granted, he'll lose 99.99% of that to the IRS for all the back taxes he owes, but come on man! $2 million?! That's just wrong.

On a completely unrelated note, the ceiling fan in my living room conked out and my right front tire is leaking air, so I'm looking at $1000+ in tires and such right before Christmas this year.

But I'm totally okay with Nick's little windfall there . . . *grumble*

Maybe this'll take my mind of that inequity . . .

Nope, didn't work *grumble*

So, what have I missed -- sports

Hey, what do you know, the Red Sox signed Bobby Valentine to be their new skipper! Wow! Who could have seen that coming? Oh yeah, me! Way back after Francona stepped down, I was one of the first voices to suggest Bobby V for the job.

Of the crop of available hires, Valentine's the best for the job. I think he'll be a good change from Tito's laid back style, so I'm a bit more optimistic about the upcoming season.

Maybe this Cherrington guy isn't such a doofus after all.

The bloom is off the rose with the Bucs. Lumbering to a 4-7 record, everyone could see what I and others thought, that last season was an outlier. The Bucs cannot beat anyone with a winning record. But they can beat teams with a losing record. So I guess that's something.

I got my facepalm moment last week, when St. Pete Times sport reporter John Romano lamented that the Bucs coaches seemed to think they were above reproach from the media. Romano couldn't figure out where such hubris came from. Really, John?! The local sports media has shown about as much critical diligence in their reporting on the Bucs as Times political reporters have shown towards the Obama administration.

Which is to say, they've been wearing rose-colored glasses with lenses as thick as coke bottle bottoms!

Don't know what's up with my Bolts, but they've got me shaking my head. Mired with an 11-11 record, this team has way too much talent to be so freekin' skitzo in their play. I don't know if this is specific to Tampa or what, but with each coaching change, this team takes off for a year then melts down. I don't get why they won't stay bought in to any specific coaching philosophy, but there's a small window for St. Louis, Lecavalier, and these guys to get to the Cup again before age begins to wear them down. I'm dying for some more Stanley Cup games here, so these dudes need to get their game on now.

My alma mater's team, USF Bulls, have stumbled to a very disappointing finish to their season. Starting off a nifty 4-0, the wheels came off quickly and they lost last night's season ender to West Virginia 30-27. Their season record of 5-7 is bad, but their conference record of 1-6 is frightening. With the state of Florida football in flux, the Bulls could have been in a position to make a big push in recruiting to get some of the top tier talent that usually ends up at the Big 3 - UF, FSU, and Miami. But this season's debacle isn't going to help them out much.

*sigh*

So, what have I missed -- politics

If you're one of the three people that regularly drop by to bask in my daily meditations on . . . well, anything, you've probably noticed I haven't been writing much these last weeks. Well, with what we call the season in full swing at the Post Office, I've been working like a low rent whore recently, and just been collapsing when I get home at night. Hence -- no ramblings. But I'm gonna give it a go and get caught up here.

First off, politics . . .

Hey, what do you know, flavor of the month Herman Cain is melting under media scrutiny and looks to drop out of the race. Gee, didn't Sarah Palin accurately note his bright, shiny new thing status a while back and get slammed for it?

I said from the get go, that Cain doesn't belong anywhere near the Presidency due to his stunning lack of legislative and international affairs experience. And finally that's come out. Along with some really dirty laundry. Why people think stuff like this won't come out under media scrutiny is beyond me. As was Cain's lament about the scandal not coming out when he was a 1%er in the polls.

Just shows more naivete on his part.

And the Great Seducer is now surging in the polls. Newt-mentom is running rampant! Again, I said early on that Newt was the best debater and can shred anyone in political talk. And now that he's showcasing his encyclopeadic knowledge on these idiotic weekly debates, his poll numbers are rising.

As are the shrieks from conservatives who remember his positions on the global warming hoax, tea party, etc.

I said he's the ultimate beltway insider, and he still is. And he'll sell out any position to gain a political victory. Of course, anyone's better than the currrent president, but Newt's just not my idea of the right guy.

Mittens is bitching about not getting softball questions from FOX, Rick Perry's trying to point out that we're not electing the Debater in Chief (a good point, imho), and Michelle Bachmann's jumping up and down trying to get someone to notice her.

If only Sarah had decided to run . . .