TVSquad

(M4) "He's got back acne on his goddamn ears!" - Tommy

Pretty good timing that this episode was scheduled to air the same night at the MLB mid-summer classic, huh? As unfortunate as it is, you just can't have a conversation about baseball anymore without bringing up the subject of steroids. That's why this minisode was so well done though. Steroid use in baseball has been a hot topic for a number of years now, so the initial time-frame of when this conversation took place was ambiguous at first. Even though Lou was talking about Mark McGwire as if he were currently active, that still gave you a big window. Then Jimmy Keefe walked in.

I had to think about it for a minute, but this is the first time we've ever seen Jimmy "alive." We've seen him as a ghost via Tommy's mind and we've even seen him in some flashbacks as Tommy recalled the events of 9/11, but never living, breathing, alive.

Naturally, you'd think that his presence would be saved for a special (that might be the wrong word) occasion, and in some sense it was as this especially short minisode ended with a logical, but jaw-dropping shock - this was the conversation the 62 Truck boys (Tommy, Franco, Lou, then probie Sean, and Jimmy) had on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Whoa.

Anyway, the conversation was hilarious as the guys riffed on McGwire and Bonds for juicing and even made the obvious "prediction" that Roger Clemens was using as well. I think the funniest part was when Tommy speculated that if Babe Ruth had been juicing, then it would have fit right in with his lifestyle of excess which included eating three hot dogs, drinking a glass of whiskey, and having sex with a polar bear in the Bronx Zoo... all at the same time.

It was also great to see that Garrity hasn't really changed much since his days as the probie - he was just as unsure of himself, timid, and stupid back then too.

You'd think though, after the mess they were all about to walk in to, he would have changed.