…I think I spoke too soon the other day about a much-welcome change in the weather pattern here in the Valley of the Sun. While it looks as if the days of 100+ temperatures are about to be past us, the long-range forecast still has tempertaures hovering around the 100-degree mark for the next two weeks. Too bad – guess I’ll have to head to New England if I want to experience fall-like temperatures. While it feels great to have the temperatures finally under 100 for a change, make no mistake about it – 100 is still 100, and being outside when it’s that hot is no consolation.

…The Boston Red Sox will not win the World Series this year. There, I said it. In fact, although I hate to say it, the New York Yankees are the team everyone is going to have to beat, in my opinion. Why, you ask? Because, at this stage of the season, the hottest team is what you want to put your money on, and like it or not, the Yankees are H-O-T hot. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – outside of Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, the Sox have no emotion, and no killer instinct. To lose a game like they did on Friday night is a disgrace, and to allow the Yankees to take 2 out of 3 in Fenway Park is disheartening, to say the least. I’m sick of this team right now.

…Along those same lines, I’m done watching the Sox this year, and will not watch any post-season games. And it’s not just because watching baseball coverage on FOX and ESPN is like watching morons at play. I’m tired of watching manager Terry Francona standing there in the dugout happily and casually spitting sunflower seeds out while veteran players like J.D. Drew stink up the joint, Manny Ramirez takes his typical late-season sabbatical from the team, and the overweight and out of shape (both mentally and physically) Curt Schilling gets rolled out there on his regular rotation like some 98-year old Rose Kennedy in a wheelchair. Sorry, Curt – but what have you done for us lately? The answer is nada. And all the while, the former “boy genius” GM Theo Epstein and Francona do absolutely nothing about it! Earth to Francona – your team had a 14-game lead on the Yankees and you’ve blown it. Well, fine – if you’re gonna go down in flames during the playoffs – which you will, I’m not gonna watch you do it. I’m sick of J.D., I’m sick of Manny, I’m sick of Schilling, and I’m sick of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and his dopey loyal battery-mate stooge Doug Mirabelli.

…Sorry to sound so bitter about the Sox, but watching them lose 2 out of 3 to the Yankees in Fenway Park is the last straw for me. See y’all in Fort Myers next March.

…I suppose if you’re the New England Patriots tonight, you’ve got to be feeling pretty good about yourselves. With all the crap swirling around you this week, you not only bury the San Diego Chargers, but shut LaDainian Tomlinson’s mouth, at least until the playoffs. Talk about winning football and coming up big when it counts. If only the Red Sox knew what that was like.

…And count me as one that didn’t watch much of the final round of the Tour Championship that Tiger won in a breeze. Very little was being said about the golf in the final round, just the obscene pay-outs each player was playing for. It was a total exercise in greed I found incredibly distasteful, and I’ll make damned sure I watch none of the Fed Ex Championship playoffs next year. Increasingly, the PGA Tour is about nothing but greed, and watching it has become less enjoyable with each passing week. I mean, how much money is enough? Maybe people like Hillary Clinton are right when they say that a little redistribution of income on the part of the rich is a necessary thing. After all, there is such a thing as out-and-out greed – and if the PGA Tour doesn’t understand that, the pampered, out of touch athletes that comprise it may very well come to understand that soon.