(S01E17) In the spring of 1998 my buddies and I took a trip to Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia to watch Mark McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals play the Philadelphia Phillies. He was red-hot that spring, with like four thousand homeruns in April alone, and I figured seeing him would give me a "I got to watch him play live" story to bore my grandchildren with. Parking problems made us miss the first inning and, as it turned out, the only plate appearance by McGwire that night. He was pulled after one at bat to get a shot of horse steriods into his eyeball rest. Though I had some small consolation watching a few typical Philly fans throw batteries at J.D. Drew, the evening, on the whole, was a disappointment.

Watching tonight's Studio 60, I couldn't help but be reminded about my McGwire experience nine years ago...

(S04E18) One thing we can say for this episode, the answer to the mystery wasn't obvious from the get go. Between the loan shark, the shady freight carrier, and the return of Mike Franks (Muse Watson), it was a complicated affair. That's ok though, because it made for a pretty entertaining episode.

The folks in promotion over at CBS get a couple demerits this week for the misleading teasers. The various previews I saw kept mentioning "a connection to Gibbs' past." Now, that's some of the good stuff that I think a lot of fans are waiting for. If there was a connection in this episode, it was either very minor, or I completely missed it. If that connection was just Mike coming back again, then they horribly oversold it.