Yep, it's Tax Day

Yep, the year is flying by and it is April 15th that lovely day when we have to get our taxes filed or postmarked to keep big nanny government off our backs.

Despite the ceaseless whining by conservative no-nothing pundits, the Post Office will have selected offices open until midnight tonite to get your procrastinated returns dated for today. Because we're cool like that! You know, customer service and all that.

My "procrastination" remark is completely without condemnation as I myself have not completed my taxes yet either.

If you're like me, and either need more time or do not have all your paperwork aligned, you can file IRS Form 4868 either electronically or by mail (must be postmarked by today) to keep you legal and stuff.

Though I do not generally pimp for other services, I've used these guys in the past and have been completely satisfied with their tax extension service:

It costs $9.95 (I think) and they aren't trying to sell you filing software or force you to do your entire taxes with them just to get to the extension. Their site is simplicity itself, takes only a couple of minutes, and you get a confirmation of receipt by the IRS in about 3 minutes.

Remember, an extension doesn't relieve you of your tax obligation or extend the time period to pay what you owe, if anything. You'll have to drop some coin when you finally file your taxes. No escaping it.

Good luck!

Sox win despite video game managing by Rays

The Red Sox beat the Rays in 10 innings yesterday 2-1.

A very satisfying pitchers duel between reigning Cy Young winner David Price and Sox ace Jon Lester. Price, who has struggled this season, always brings his A game to Boston. And Lester seems to have shrugged off the funk of last season, either due to the return of his old pitching coach in new manager Farrell or the removal of several clubhouse cancers in the off season.

Whatever the reasons, both pitchers were at their best and it was one of those classic games that you love to watch, no matter who you're rooting for. My big gripe came in the bottom of the 10th.

Jacoby Elsbury got on base, then stole third on an errant throw by the Rays catcher. With Shane Victorino at bat, Ray's manager Joe Maddon goes to home plate to clear his decision with the umpire to bring Matt Joyce in from the outfield to create a five-man infield.

Here's my thing -- this isn't Game 7 of the World Series here! We're 10 games into a 162 game season and Maddon's playing this like it's the deciding game on the fate of humanity! Seriously?! You brag all off season about your talented fielders, then don't trust them to make a simple infield play in late innings?!

This is some beer league, video game bullsh*t right here! This isn't Moneyball or Theo Epstein bringing in a Gold Glove infield to back up ground ball pitcher Derek Lowe or anything like that. What's next? Five outfielders? Three guys in right field when Papi's at bat? This is a perversion of statistical analysis applied to managing.

In the paper the other day, they were speaking about the Rays new decision making on infield alignments and how they're using data trends on hitters to decide where to position their fielders. The whole idea of the prototype baseball infield is that the field is effectively covered by the four infielders and the pitcher. If your guys are even remotely talented and athletic, they can cover the area and make plays. With this kind of video game managing, they guys look like fools when a batter hits one where, say, the second baseman should have been standing had Maddon not put him on top of the bag or something.

I get it, Joe Maddon's a smart guy. He wears trendy geeky glasses, he quotes philosophers in post game conferences. Just manage the game, dude! I'm glad the Rays lost in this case, this isn't the way the game should be played, imho.

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And here's Jordan Carver looking pensive as she thinks on what I've just said as well as pondering the perils of the global shortage of bikini materials for full figured young ladies . . .

She's got the look

And here's a long time favorite of mine, Mischa Barton, rockin' some shredded shorty shorts . . .

Wasn't it just a couple of years ago she was going to start some swanky couture shop in England or something? Well, that's quite understandable, 'cause girlfriend's got all kinds of style going on right here! Aww yeah!

Been missin' your cuddly goodness, honey :-)

Rays working towards mid-season whining form

The Rays lost last night on a disputed . . . well, that's not accurate . . . a blown strike call in the ninth inning. Ump Marty Foster, initially claimed it was "close" but realized after seeing the replay that he missed it completely.

What's been missing in all the sturm und drang over this, is that Foster blew several calls in the same pitch sequence that would have given the advantage to Rangers closer Joe Nathan. Of course, no one's screaming about those. The whole thing looked like Foster knew he had missed some calls for Nathan already and decided he was going to make amends. His decision had been made to ring up Zobrist on the next close pitch. Problem was Nathan missed outside badly (it looked knee high on the replays, so I'm not giving folks the "low" complaint here) and Foster was already in full strike pump motion and couldn't call it back.

Wah, wah, wah . . . there's only going to be about a 1000 of those calls this season, get over it! We don't need robots or total reliance on FoxTrax (which misses plenty of times by my eyes) or replays or whatever. Human element, emotions, it's all part of the game. If the call had given the Rays the game, Rays fans would be shrugging their shoulders and smiling and saying they'll take a win any way they can get it.

The howling on the message boards is bad enough as well as my co-workers complaining that the Rays never get the close calls. Oh please! But Zobrist was in the paper saying he hoped the call "...doesn't end up costing us the playoffs in the end."

Dude . . . seriously?! One game in April . . . one game out of 162?! With seven guys on the team batting under .212, your top two pitchers struggling out of the gate . . . you've got more to worry about than one blown call. jeez

Along with the OMG face palms over last night has been the noise over Cy Young winner David Price's bad start. I've been loving the fan support claiming that his crappy start just shows "he's human", etc.

Really?! Dude's the reigning Cy Young winner. He should have come out of the gate smokin', with a chip on his shoulder as he tried to show everyone just how much he deserved last year's award. Instead, he's been tentative and hesitant on the mound. Remember a few years ago when James Shields flirted with the award? He came out the next season sort of slumpy as well. Not sure if there's a connection there or just coincidence, but who knows?

All I know is that Boston is leading the division, and the Yankees are in the cellar.

Life is good :-)

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Oh, and here's some sideboob from the Tis . . . just because:

So, how's baseball looking so far?

Well, we're six games into the new season. So how are my teams doing?

The Red Sox, who every prognosticator and sports writer decided would finish last in the AL East . . . is leading the East with a 4-2 record. Their fourth win came today in a 13-0 drubbing of the vaunted and endlessly touted Blue Jays.

The Sox are a completely different team than last year in oh, so many ways. I admit I watched Cherrington's off season acquisitions and thought (cautiously) that there could be a tremendous upside to his rebooting of this team. It seems that Cherri might have been on to something after all.

Lester and Buchholz seem like their old selves, both sporting sub 2.0 ERA's. Even Ryan Dempster wasn't all that bad in his loss, racking up 8 K's in a losing effort. The addition of Gomes and Victorino have added some gutsy speed to the team, enabling them to play a little small ball when necessary. And Middlebrooks and Napoli are bringing some lumber to the plate -- Middlebrooks hit three today plus a warning tracker, reminding everyone why the Sox were willing to dump clubhouse cancer Kevin Youklis without hesitation.

The bullpen is lethal as expected. Newly acquired Koji Uehara has been unhittable, Hanrahan has two saves and Bailey and Tazawa have been lights out as well. I imagine that as the season wears on, a late innings lead will be fairly safe. I am a bit disappointed that Lackey's (also 8 K's before going down) hurt already though. A year and a half out of baseball, and the dude goes down in his first outing. He may be back, who knows? But it's the only bummer so far for my boys up north.

And speaking of bummers -- the Rays (3-3 in the division) got pummeled by the Indians 13-0 (talk about synchronicity, eh?) today. Reigning AL Cy Young winner David Price was horrible today and only average in his other start, which was a win. The Rays were picked by SI to win the division, and had their style of play lauded by pretty much everyone.

Well, when your style of play is to hope your starters can throw eight innings of shutout ball every night and then hope that a group of guys who can't hit their weight will drive in a run somewhere . . . I don't know . . . but there's a reason why the Rays have been blasted out of the playoffs twice by the powerful Rangers. Not gonna get in and then win the Series with a lot of 1-0 games.

The aging Yankees and the big trading Jays are in the cellar and the Sox are on top. Nice way to start the year. I actually think it will be a fairly tight division this year and won't be surprised if there's only a half dozen games separating first from last by the time the year is over.

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Oh, and by the way, Sophie Reade is fairly attractive:

'Cause I notice stuff like that :-)

Safety tip of the day

With all this talk about the evils of texting whilst doing pretty much anything except sitting down on your sofa . . . wait a minute, isnt' that how I got my concussion? . . . anyways, you'd think kids today would be more careful.

But no. Here we have innocent young Amy Markham at the beach, blithely texting away, completely oblivious to the fact that she's falling out of her bathing suit. Scandalous!

Honestly, poor kid . . . she probably had to break off her conversation just to fix her bikini (a losing effort by the looks of things), such a shame. Tsk, tsk.

So play it safe, and be sure to wear proper attire while texting, kids.

You're welcome :-)

If you have any spare time . . .

. . . maybe you ought to think about hittin' the gym there sweetheart

Just sayin' cause here's some pics of the rarely employed, but always monied Lindsay Lohan at the beach, and she's looking a little frumpy for a 26 year old.

I mean seriously . . . droopy butt, coke bloat belly . . . eesh! Plus, what's up with the bruises? Looks like she's been brawling with Britney over the last jello shooter at some dive bar.

Nice touch with the industrial strength bikini top though. After pics of her falling out of her top in the helicopter turned up online the other day, why take chances at the beach, right?