Sometimes, you need a call to the bullpen for a sub, but Best Friend actually made a call from the bullpen, and was a late day replacement to see Bob Dylan at Scene Pavilion last night. I give Dylan a lot of credit, It would be so easy to roll out the Bob Dylan Songbook from the '60s and take your cash home. But he doesn't compromise and actually reworks some of his older tunes, as well. It's basically reminding everyone, yes, I have written songs in this century.

As far as stage banter, there is none. The only time he spoke was when he introduced the band during the encore. His band wore all gray suits and hats with black shirts and Dylan wore a black suit and white shirt with his hat. He played more keyboard than guitar. One of the biggest ovations was the first time he played the harmonica. After the first note, the people went crazy. It was kinda humorous. But the band was pretty tight and it was some really good music that they played.

The Band:

Bob Dylan - Electric guitar, keyboard, harp
Tony Garnier - Bass
George Recile - Drums
Stu Kimball - Rhythm guitar
Denny Freeman - Lead guitar
Donnie Herron - Violin, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel

Here is the setlist:

Cat's In The Well
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Watching The River Flow
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
To Ramona
The Levee's Gonna Break (From "Modern Times", his last record)
My Back Pages (A beautiful song)
Honest With Me
Spirit On The Water (From "Modern Times")
Things Have Changed (From "Modern Times")
When The Deal Goes Down (From "Modern Times")
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Nettie Moore (From "Modern Times")
Highway 61 Revisited (By far, the highlight for me)

(Encore)
Thunder On The Mountain (From "Modern Times")
Blowin' In The Wind (An oddly-affecting uptempo version)

Meal of Links

The "Wealthiest Americans Ever". Note that only two men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are photographed in color, which means they are still breathing, I guess. It is an interesting read.

Most folks think Iran or Syria is responsible for most of the insurgency in Iraq. Uh, that would be wrong. It's our good friends, the Saudis. But you never hear that mentioned.

How Sequoyah was almost our 51st state. But it entered as Oklahoma. Which means "Red People" in Choctaw, BTW.

Exercise Yard

HBO had a tripleheader of welterweight boxing matches last evening. Probably the most important fight was the Antonio Margarito-Paul Williams bout which was the feature. The prelims included Arturo Gatti vs. Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron vs. Walter Matthysse. Can't think of many great fighters named Walter, but there you go.

First up, Cintron-Matthysse. BTW, the first two bouts are in Atlantic City with Michael Buffer doing the intros. Cintron has one of the welterweight belts and his nickname is "The Killer". Uh-oh, Walter. In fairness, he throws a big left hook, while Cintron has a big right one. Well, Walter didn't have much of a chance in this one. Cintron knocked him down in Round 1. Within 29 seconds of Round 2, Walter was knocked down twice, with the second one an unbelievable display of devastation. A left pretty much KO'ed Walter on his feet and a big, I mean big, right hand put him down for good. Cintron says he wants to fight Shane Mosley.

Second fight, Gatti-Gomez. Arturo Gatti is the adopted favorite son of Atlantic City and he gets another home match. Gomez, you may remember, is from "The Contender". Gatti has not fought in 356 days and Buddy McGirt is no longer in his corner. Micky Ward is now his trainer. Yikes! This one was not pretty. On paper, Gomez was inferior, but he whipped Gatti for 7 rounds, before putting him down. No question, Gatti has been hit like this before, but he usually had an answer. Tonight...nothing. Gomez with a big Round 4 kind of set up the home crowd for what was happening. It was only a matter of time. In the 7th, Gatti got hit with everything and I may have even seen the kitchen sink flying in there. The ref was giving Gatti way too much credit, given his past, and should have stopped it. Or his corner. Or a fan. Anyone. Bueller? Finally, Commissioner Larry Hazzard strolled into the ring and stopped it. First time in a long time, a man in a suit stopped a fight.

Give Gomez some props. He stepped into the lion's den and showed a nice right hand. Cannot go overboard, because Gatti was so bad, but it was a dominating performance. Sad to see Gatti end his career this way. After the fight, he said he doesn't feel right at 147, and he cannot make weight at 140. Therefore, it's, "Hasta la vista, baby!" and he is retired.

The feature from California was Williams-Margarito. If title-holder "The Tijuana Tornado" Margarito wins, he gets Cotto. BTW, Paul Williams has the nickname, "The Punisher" and Jimmy Lennon, Jr. handles the intros. He must not be "Classy" when he's on HBO. Since, Harold Lederman was in New Jersey, Lamps had to read the rules of the bout. But he didn't say "Jim" at the end. That would have been funny.

This was a pretty good fight, Williams dominated the first six rounds, until Margarito realized he may be in trouble, and, oh yeah, I'm blowing this deal with Cotto. So, Margarito got busy in the second half culminating with a big 11th round. But Williams kept his head about him and just kept working. He won the 12th round, which won him the bout on two of the judge's scorecards, 115-113, while the other judge had it at 116-112. Williams immediately called out Cotto after the fight.

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