Boring my three readers with soccer talk again

I wanted to write about the U.S./Panama World Cup qualifier, but it was a 3-0 snooze-fest. Other than a sequence in which Kasey Keller dove left to stop a header, then crouched to his right to stop the rebound, then jumped in the air to grab the third shot, there wasn't much to see. People may joke about a road trip to Milwaukee being tough, but try Panama City for size. The announcers said that the capacity crowd was making 100 decibel noise two hours before kickoff.

Crazy random World Cup qualifier information. Kuwait advanced in the Asia (more like Middle East/Asia) group over China. Population of China is 1.3 billion. Population of Kuwait is 2.3 million. There have been approximately three times as many people born in China this year as live in Kuwait.

It's kind of like the equivalent of the U.S. soccer team losing to a team made up of the survivors from the island in Lost.

This might be the best road trip to follow the Sox all year. They finished a three-game sweep in Colorado and head to San Diego starting this evening. The Rocky Mountains followed by the city that's always 72 degrees?

After this road trip the Sox will have a 12-game homestand. It's time to get some distance between first and second place in the Central.

It's the Red Sox versus the Cubs this weekend. Peter Gammons's head might explode. A lot of hype surrounds this series, and that's fine. At least it's not Red Sox/Yankees again.