Hovering

Monday is the start of the 2007 baseball season. I am both anxious and horrified. I love baseball, it is one of the true constants of my life, but I can't take a year like 2006. Or 2005. Or 2004 for that matter.

Your last three World Series champions:

2004: Boston Red Sox
2005: Chicago White Sox
2006: St. Louis Cardinals

I like Boston and have no problem that they finally won a title, but ever since the realization is that it is nothing more than a cruel reminder of what the Cubs haven't been able to do for the last Jeebus-Freakin'-Crisco 99 years.

Having the White Sox win in 2005 was agonizing, not so much because they won but because of the behavior of most of their fans (at least the ones I know) towards the likes of me. They were (and are) obnoxious, still more consumed with the misfortunes of the Cubs than the success of their own team.

The Cardinals winning last year? That was the worst. They are the only team that I root against every chance I get. They are the enemy( and I do hope you're reading this, General Turncoat).

Just writing those last few sentences has me thinking about a cabinet full of Pepto Bismol. I will write more about this coming season later. Let's end this with a Random 11:

(This is a blatant rip-off from here. I am not that original.)

1. "Radio Free Europe"-REM. So I guess it is just about impossible to get through this without a song from these guys. I was just reading earlier today that they are working on the 14th album. I can only come up with nine.

2. "Rock It (Prime Jive)"-Queen. I'd bet you've never heard this one before.

3. "Beautiful Day"-U2. So I guess it is just about impossible to get through this without a song from these guys.

4. "The Valley Road"-Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Whatever happened to these guys? They take up a significant part of th soundtrack from my late 1980s.

5. "Silver and Gold"-U2. This is not a remake of a Burl Ives tune from "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" though it would be a lot more interesting if it were. And it wouldn't be anywhere near my i-pod.

6. "City of Blinding Lights"-U2. Three out of the last four. What are the odds? I think this is one of their best songs ever.

7. "Sara"-Fleetwood Mac. This is actually not what came up first. I recognized the song before this as a repeat. I used to think that there was a stanza missing to this song whenever I heard it on the radio, the part where Stevie Nicks blurts out "in the sea of love..."

8. "Arc of a Diver"-Steve Winwood. Most lyrics that I can't understand of any song I own.

9. "Come Talk to Me"-Peter Gabriel. I can't think of anything to say.

10. "Accidents Will Happen"-Elvis Costello. I'm trying to recall the last time something happened to me that I could consider to be an accident. I'm drawing a blank. I smacked my left kneecap last week but I sort of deserved it.

11. "Walk On"-U2. The first one that came up was a repeat. I've got 554 songs on this thing, all by U2.

That was incredibly lame.