Horst Muhlmann implores you to join us

Just a quickie here to let you know that I'm busting out the Fresca and Wheatables, planting my sorry you-know-what on the Official TATB Couch for three or so hours, and live blogging tonight's Pats-Bengals game. So be sure to stop by this address for a visit or two or 10 as you enjoy the Monday Night festivities. I can assure you that ol' Horst here will not be mentioned at any point (dude looks like a party, doesn't he?) but beyond that I'm not making any promises.

Couple of other items that crossed my filbert nut of a mind on the commute home tonight:

David Ortiz finished the regular season hitting .332 with 35 homers, 117 RBIs, a .445 OBP and a .625 slugging percentage. Maybe he wasn't always his superheroic self this season, but that is a great year by any mortal measure, and he's peaking for the playoffs. I say there's some postseason magic left in him yet.

They're both at fault at some level, but I blame Omar Minaya for the Mets' historic collapse before I do Willie Randolph. The Mets were at least two pitchers short all season, and Minaya did absolutely nothing about it. Too bad he traded Heath Bell, Brian Bannister, and Matt Lindstrom in the offseason for what amounted to a stack of Marv Throneberry baseball cards. Any one of those three might have made a difference.

So what was a bigger gag job, the Mets in '07 or the Yankees in '04? I actually think what the Mets did might be worse, just because it was so agonizingly prolonged and came against subpar teams like the Nationals and Marlins. As unprecedented as it was, there was no shame in losing four in a row to the loaded '04 Sox.

Jose Reyes is a Dog, capital D. He's a distant third among shortstops in New York (after the Yankees' third baseman and Captain Calm Eyes von Fistpump). Heck, he's a distant third among shortstops in the N.L. East (after the admirable Jimmy Rollins and Florida's Hanley Ramirez). I guess he's another one of those young players who confuses talent with accomplishment.

Can we admit that the Red Sox made a mistake by keeping Javier Lopez at the expense of J.C. Romero?

Man, Tony Romo is fun to watch. (I believe the NFL-approved term to describe him is "gunslinger," correct?) I'm looking forward to seeing how effective his style is against a Bill Belichick scheme later this season.

I think I've got it figured out. Peter King is to Brett Favre what Scotty was to Dirk Diggler in "Boogie Nights." If he shows up at the Football Night in America studios at some point this season wearing a super-tight No. 4 Packers jersey and tearfully muttering, "I'm SUCH a ---- idiot," you know there's a pretty good chance Favre rejected his kiss.


Okay, that's it from me until kickoff. Hope to see you then, and as for tonight's pre-Pats appetizer: Go Rockies!