The Wire

Please forgive my deviation from the Soccer theme, but . . .

Tonight is the night, the Fifth and final season of The Wire begins on HBO at 8:00 p.m. This Baltimore based show is one of the finest television programs ever. It benefits from the writing of Dennis Lehane, Richard Price, and (my fav) George Pelecanos. Each season the show focuses on decaying urban institutions:

Season One - Corruption in the Police Force

Season Two - Unions

Season Three - Politics

Season Four - Public School System

Season Five - The Media

Woven throughout these themes is The Game - the drug trade with its kingpins, soldiers, touts, enforcers, hitmen, users, and the stick-up artists. The producers of The Wire - David Simon and Ed Burns - are a former Baltimore Sun crime beat reporter and a former Baltimore City Homicide Detective/School Teacher, respectively. David Simon spent 1988 with the Baltimore City Police Homicide Department and wrote the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streeta which was the source of the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Streets. Several years later, David Simon and Ed Burns joined up to write The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood.

Even the Washington Post's much jaded Tom Shales is a fan:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010401303.html

One of the aspects of Season Five I'm really looking forward to is the inclusion of Clark Johnson - who played the always interesting and understated Meldrick Lewis in Homicide: Life on the Streets. But also keep an eye on Dominic West and how he presents the alcoholic, cynical Baltimore POlease detective, James McNulty.

http://www.amazon.com/Homicide-Killing-Streets-David-Simon/dp/0805080759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199663598&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Corner-Year-Life-Inner-City-Neighborhood/dp/0767900316

http://www.hbo.com/thewire/

Saturday Morning Roundup

Serie A:

Good news for Roma fans, it appears that Alberto Aquilani is fit and ready to play after the winter break ends.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7631518

Speaking of Roma, the Corriere dello Sport has reported that Roma and goalkeeper Alexander Doni will be entering a new contract that will result in a significant pay raise for Doni. Doni's current contract is set to expire in 2009.
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=534889

Recent talk of Figo going to the MLS is premature, appears he wants to win Serie A and the Champions League with Inter.
http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=534865
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/01/03/scrap-that-mls-figo-doesnt-know-you/

This month, Serie A and Milan fans will get to see the much-hyped Alexandro Pato take the pitch against Napoli (Jan. 13). This past August, Milan paid a 22million Euro fee to Inter for the young Brazilian.
http://goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=534549

Siena has signed Richard Porta from River Plate, Uruguay. Meanwhile, Reggina has brought back Cristian Stuani who has been on loan at Danubio.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03012008/58/serie-siena-reggina-sign-strikers.html

A final Roma note, the team is going after Bari defender, Nicola Belmonte.
http://goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=535427

MLS:

It appears that the San Jose EarthQuakes will be bringing Moneyball to the MLS:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=495270&root=mls&cc=5901

-Can a stats oriented system produce a MLS Winner, I guess we'll find out.

Final Note:

Sunday night, my favorite television series returnst to HBO, for its final season: The Wire. If you haven't watched it, I highly recomend you do.