Follow-Upping

-First things first. Former broadcasting buddy, and the brains behind stlmedia.net, Mike Anderson is going through a rough stretch. His weekend storm damage can be fixed. But, the loss of beloved pet Boy Dog cannot. Both unfortunate occurences made life miserable for my friend this weekend. Mike was so supportive and understanding when we lost our Springer Fergie in July, I wanted to call to offer condolences...but knew that we would both wind up a mess if I did. I'm sure in doggie-heaven "Boy" is singing the praises of the animal-loving Andersons to all of his canine buddies who will listen. In honor of Boy, and at Mike's suggestion, I'm adding links to the Belleville Area, and Metro-East Humane Societies to the links list at the right.

-Thanks to those who've offered advice as to how to approach the apparent attempt to rip me off by an ebay seller that was written about last week. Both comments, one by old friend Matt Gordon, another by Gary, were helpful. As it turns out, I was fortunate enough, (certainly not wise enough) to pay through PayPal which offers a process by which one can report a problem sale and begin a dispute resolution procedure. If, after a reasonable time for both parties to resolve the problem, PayPal's people feel the buyer was "ripped-off", they will refund your money. Since filing a dispute last Friday, the seller has contacted me by e-mail offering to, again, send me a projector lamp...and a little something extra for my trouble. After I demanded it, he also offered to provide a tracking number so the delivery process can be monitored this time. I'll let you know how, and if, things work out.

-Looks like the Cardinals, led by their "urine-weak" pitching, are going into a death-spiral. The World Champions looked anything but after a spanking by the Cubs in Chicago in the make-up of that earlier rain-out. Really good teams rarely lose four-in-a-row at this time of year. But, I guess, our red-feathered friends did it last year before winning it all, didn't they?

-The Gateway Grizzlies found out about the old baseball adage..."Good pitching always beats good hitting" in the Frontier League playoffs. The "Murderer's Row" line-up that manager Phil Warren was able to field all season couldn't outscore the Washington WildThings and Warren's outstanding rookie campaign came to an end with three straight losses. I'm sure it still hurts a bit for Phil. But, he's a smart baseball man and I'm sure will use this lesson when constructing his team in '08.

-I'll be at the Scottrade Center Thursday through Sunday of this week. I'll be on hand to do the p-a announcing for scrimmage games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then it's the Blues and Atlanta Thrashers for a pre-season tilt on Sunday at 5. Saturday at Scottrade should be fun with all sorts of fan-friendly stuff going on at FanFest from 9am to 5pm.

-I'm thinking that as soon as Rick Ankiel has his day with the folks at the Major League Baseball offices, that he'll come out with more details about his "prescription drug" involvement back in '04. The way I see it, all he has to do is stand up and say "Yeah, I took HGH at the advice of my physician. It was done to help me heal from surgery. It was perfectly legal at the time. Once it became a substance banned by Baseball, I never touched it again. Thank you very much. Have a nice life of your own. I'm going back to take some BP." I can't see how anyone would think he's a terrible cheater in the category of Barry Bonds if he did that.

-Whatever fantasies anyone ever had about Britney Spears were "cold-showered" by that pitiful display at the MTV VMA's. Geez, what made her think she could get away with that? Her once promising entertainment career is likely at it's cellulite-filled end.

-Speaking of those awards, I'm sure the Ultimate Fighting guys are trying to line up a match between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee after their little dust-up. I might even pay to see that one.