Two things for today:

- Keith Foulke retired the other day. While only one of his three years with the Red Sox was actually good, he made it count. Foulke was amazing in the 2004 postseason - if there was an award for overall MVP, instead of an award for each series, Foulke probably wins it hands down. There's no way we win in 2004 without him.

Foulke had signed a guaranteed contract with the Indians for over $5 million to pitch this season, and did the honorable thing and walked away from it when he had elbow pain and realize he wouldn't be able to pitch as effectively as he would like this season.

Foulke said some regrettable things while he was here, and his WEEI radio show in 2005 (which he did in exchange for a new truck) was appointment listening in a car wreck kind of way, but I'll always be grateful for 2004, especially the postseason run. Good luck, Foulkie.

- I have mentioned the remastered classic Star Trek episodes here before, but I watched an episode today that really blew me away. The episode was one of my favorites, The Doomsday Machine. For those of you who don't know, the short synopsis of the episode is that the Enterprise has encountered a giant machine that eats planets. It has already nearly destroyed one starship, the USS Constellation and sets it's sights on the Enterprise.

I remember watching this episode when I was 11 and not being able to sit on the couch because of the tension level. The episode had darn good special effects for the '60's, and the remastering takes them up another level. Shots that couldn't have even been attempted in 1967 are pulled off nicely here. The planet killer is based on the original design, but looks even more menacing, it's neutronium hull pitted with the weapons fire of previous, unsuccessful attackers. One shot that took my breath away was the Enterprise skimming along the planet killers surface, firing phasers ineffectually onto it's hull.

The Constellation in the original episode was, beleive it or not, a modified AMT model kit that you could have bought in any hobby store. The Constellation gets a digital makeover as well. There is a gaping hole in the hull and you can see the decks below. The warp nacelles are trashed and you can see inside to the warp coils.

I had complained earlier in the remastered episodes run that the effects team wasn't going far enough for me. They were basically reshooting the original shots with modern tools. No more complaints from me after this episode.