In the wake of turning 30 yesterday, getting married only a week ago, and the stunning collapse of the 2011 Red Sox -- Well, posting content to the internet purely for the sake of posting content to the internet seems absurd.

Then I stumbled upon this marvelous link that not everyone has a chance to find in his or her own wanderings of the more secluded alleys of the internet. Since there is no real way I can spend the time to possibly draft an all-inclusive memoir post I realized that this is the next best thing. Sharing something wonderful I've found with folks who will, to varying degrees, care. Here!

Here is a gallery of shots from inside Fenway Park. It's not just any Flickr gallery, however, it's a gallery of photographs collected from Twins 3B Michael Cuddyer. Two ways that this gallery is truly special. First, these are modern digital photographs of America's oldest ballpark taken from a vantage point of the highest access possible. A real treat. And second, Cuddyer obviously enjoys photography as an amateur hobby. I'm trying to put it into words and failing -- but, as a sports fan, I find these photographs insightful to the human element. I will let the pictures finish my thought.

This made me think though, what if A-Rod were on the Pirates?  The Pirates, really the laughing stock of the MLB for a lot of years now (and also my favorite team), have low appeal, a small market, and not that much pressure to perform on the players.  If he got a contract with the Pirates in 2001, the pressure wouldn't have built up, and A-Rod would now be a squeaky clean baseball god whom everyone would love. I would assume that out of the 103 players on the steroid list with A-Rod, there are not many, if any Pirates players. I only say this because the Pirates are not good, and most of the time their players don't play very well, and well, steroids are supposed to enhance performance, therefore leading me to the conclusion that Pirates players have never even heard of steroids.

But anyway, I guess this relegates A-Rod to the league of super-steroid-star misfits, including guys named Sosa, McGwire, Clemens, and well, some guy named Bonds.  It's a shame, I like baseball, it's a great game, but now it's kind of the norm, so I guess I shall just deal.  People get all hot and bothered about Michael Phelps and his bong filled with Mary Jane, but until and if the day comes when he tells all of us that he used steroids to get his medals, which I hope he never will have to do, I will respect him. A-Rod, boy oh boy you've gone and done it.  Let's see how many home runs he hits in his career starting this season, and maybe one day he will be respected, and be considered great once again

I caught wind of uniform changes coming to the Red Sox a couple days ago. Dangerous territory. The unveiling of the new fabrics happened today. A breakdown:

Not even sure if this is a change

No big surprise here. Although traditional I would have to say no one was really married to the circle logo any more. It's actually kind of neat that the hanging sox are so iconic that they can be pulled right out of all the other badging. It would be like the top hat catching on from this symbol:

Let's go... top hats?

It's interesting to me when teams still take a stab at making these elaborate circle baseball symbols as seen even in recent expansions like the Florida Marlins:

Keeping it classy for all those Marlins fans

So the Sox outgrew it's circle. I'm not shocked, yet.

The PHU and the PRU

I have to say. I'm a big fan. I was not Sox aware during the 80's but I really enjoy this throwback to a time with simpler uniforms. The Sox will be hanging on the sleeve for this uniform as well. That's great, of course, they might have to be there because I would expect the socks for this team to be blue to match the lettering. Maybe not, maybe there will be enough red accents on these new guys to still yank the crimson foot tubes knee high. (The way they ought to be.)

Okay. Let's dispense with the pleasantries, on to the TDOW...W!?

Here it comes...

What is THAT on the hat!?

What is it!?

TELL ME WHAT IT IS!

Ooooh, it's that Sox logo I was okay with just a second ago. Well, not when you mess with that hat!

Not only was McNabb in the league when the last tie occurred (Atlanta v. Pittsburgh in 2002, tied 34-34,) but he also was in the playoffs with two teams that went into double overtime to decide a game (Panthers beat the Rams 29-23 in two overtimes in 2003).  The Eagles would go on to lose to the Panthers in the NFC championship game that year.  

Hey Donovan, ties are all around you man, sometimes you even wear one, but these are around your neck, not after an overtime period, and I wouldn't want you to be confused.  What the hell are you doing to yourself?  This was a bad thing to be honest about, if you're not sure about the rules, just keep it to yourself, and nobody would ever know.  Instead you look like the biggest fool in the NFL, and you're not even on the Lions!  Even though this whole thing is very entertaining, it is also very depressing that an all-star quarterback has no idea about a simple rule.

There is no sport that drains the fun out of a championship like NASCAR. There still remains truth in the statement that it isn't over until the checkered flag waves, but entering this weekend Jimmie Johnson needed to finish merely 36th place or better to secure his third title in as many years. When the last race of the 2008 NASCAR season finished the car in 36th place was the Chevrolet of Joe Nemechek... three laps down. While Carl Edwards drove his 99 Ford on fuel vapors to a well-earned victory, Johnson was walking his car to a 15th place finish. Apparently that's how exciting NASCAR immortality is.

Now the cloud of ho-hum that has been hanging over America's motorsport grows even thicker as 2008's last hurrah can no longer hide the real news from the weekend. Read: Economic woes lurk as Johnson celebrates, weekend wrapup.

Maybe it's all Barack Obama's fault, but amongst the NASCAR gloom I feel hopeful about the hammer coming down on the asphalt ovals. Could the shake up make the 2009 NASCAR season, dare I say it, interesting?

This brings us back to the Jimmie Johnson problem. History of NASCAR ranks Cale Yarborough as its only other three-peater. The "Greatest Driver Ever" argument has suddenly favored the Jimmie Johnson camp. This is the first sign of a flawed championship system: When personally, as a fan, I'm not seeing the correlation between three-peats and skill. I don't equate Johnson with skill, I equate him with boring, and furthermore, eyebrows. I'd search google for "Jimmie Johnson inside move" but I'm more likely to find a clip featuring an x-rated spy thriller than I am good racing.

Okay, but we can equate Jimmie Johnson with consistency, eh? Consistency, the bread and butter of NASCAR, needs money. With four drivers in the Sprint Cup and two drivers in the Nationwide series Hendrick Motorsports (Johnson's team) is valued at $335 million. Roush Fenway Racing is nearly as fat, operating five cup cars and four series cars worth a $313 million wallet. Lop off a third of that cash pile to unearth Joe Gibbs Racing in third place. In final chase standings that would be your first, second, third, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth place cars. Read: The Most Valuable Teams In NASCAR.

There is no arguing that in sports money can buy championships, we are already complacent to the practice (Example 1: New York Yankees, Example 1a: Boston Red Sox,) but forgiveness for the practice has been bred from the fickleness of sport. No victory is guaranteed. No lead is secure. (Example 1: New England Patriots, Example 1a: New York Yankees).

Two barriers bar NASCAR from shaking its new status as a sporting snoozer. One: Its got a laboriously long season that loses meaning once the summer sun retreats in favor of snowflakes and pigskins, and two: The Jimmie Johnson three-peat doesn't seem impressive, it seems unfair.

NASCAR is an event that depends on American ingenuity and glorifies American gluttony. Now that the feeding frenzy that pre-dated this economic turmoil comes with a price for stock cars as well as the stock markets hopefully NASCAR will take some moments to tinker with its competition in a new way. Artificial consistency feels less like an achievement and more like a lie. True success should come from the ideal 2008's incessant political drumbeat wouldn't let us forget: The American Dream. Rewards should fall not to those who are born into the success but to the driver who races hard, does something new, and shocks the racing world.