I've been pretty miserable the last couple of days. I came home from work Thursday night, changed my clothes and discovered a pretty nasty looking rash on by chest and back. I went to the doctor on Friday and discovered I had shingles. This has nothing to do with roofing products. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. Apparently, once you recover from chicken pox (which I had when I was about 5), the virus lies dormant in your nerve roots. In many people, it stays dormant for the rest of their lives. I'm just one of the lucky ones that had the virus come back.

Along with the rash, which I'm trying desperately not to scratch, I've been having some fairly severe pain. The doctor gave me Percocet for the pain, which helps. I'm also taking an antiviral medication.

Shingles is no fun, folks. I don't recommend it.

Adding to my pain are the revelations from Pedro Martinez's press conference in the Dominican on Friday. According to Pedro, he TOLD GRADY LITTLE HE WAS TIRED AFTER THE 7TH INNING of game 7 of the ALCS. Grady, as we all know, took no action on this information.

I had been feeling a bit of sympathy about Grady losing his job, but that's pretty much all gone now. Even if Grady ignored all the statistics about Pedro's effectiveness after around 100 pitches and the evidence of his own eyes, the pitcher said he was tired. What else did he need to get the message that it was time to go to the bullpen? This just makes me angry about the whole thing all over again.

Based on Pedro's statements, I'm now in 100% agreement with the Red Sox management that they needed to go in a new direction. Grady may be a great guy in the clubhouse, but it doesn't appear that he's capable of making the on-field decisions to put the team in the best position to win. Hopefully the next guy can do better, whoever that is.