All you need to know about my recent luck with going to Yankees games is this: they're 11-1 this year when I'm not even in the country.
But there's more... I saw Boomer give up seven home runs to the Sox last year. I went to Game 1 of the ALCS, which we dropped at home. I was at two of the April games we lost to Boston earlier this year. I went to only one game in Baltimore last weekend, the one they lost. I was at Friday's bizzaro game (Sturtze makes like Koufax, Manny does it with his glove, Cairo rounds bases on an out, Mariano fails), which was great for 8½ innings. So as the Red Sox made what may or not be their last trip to this year to Yankee Stadium on Sunday, I needed to walk down those ramps a winner.
See my photos from the Evil Empire's 11-1 domination.
My thoughts on the weekend series:
• Even by my standards, this pre-game warm-up was legendary: four beers, two hamburgers, two hot dogs and one sausage ... in an hour.
• Who is Pedro Martinez?
• Leader Check! Jason Varitek goes 0-for-10 with eight strikeouts. Derek Jeter goes 5-for-12 with five runs scored.
• I like Manny being Manny when Manny is being 0-for-8 with no RBIs and one run scored.
• Ranking Sunday's home runs on the sweetness meter: 1. A-Rod (who would've thought last winter that the Sox would have neither Nomar nor Rodriguez?). 2. Sheffield (payback for Martinez drilling him in July). 3. Jeter (those intangibles went like 400 feet). 4. Posada (you know he hates Pedro).
• I did a guest spot on the Dan Back radio show last Thursday and was asked, "Is this Yankees team capable of winning the World Series?" I said, "Even if you take Kevin Brown completely out of the equation and we go into the postseason with a starting rotation of Mussina, El Duque, Vazquez and Leiber, we don't just pack up and go home." That quartet is 9-1 in September.
• A-Rod's stats: .295, 35 HRs, 99 RBIs, 107 Rs, 26 steals. Not bad for a guy having an off year.
• Derek Jeter's stats: .290, 22 HRs, 74 RBIs. 106 Rs, 22 steals. Not bad for a guy having an off year.
• Yanks are 94-55, are 52-22 at home, and are on pace to win 102 games. Not bad for a team with no pitching.
• Yanks are 13-5 since losing 22-0 to Cleveland on Aug. 31. Who could've predicted such success after a humiliating thumping? Oh yeah, me. Remember getting no-hit by the Astros last June, at the time their 24th loss in 40 games? Well, they ripped it up afterward. It deja-vu all over again.
• When it comes to talking shit, Red Sox fans are first-ballot Hall of Famers. I'm surprised more don't have seeing-eyed dogs, though.
• Combined World Series rings for Luis Sojo, Ricky Ledee, Shane Spencer and Clay Bellinger: 7. Combined World Series rings for Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk and Manny Ramirez: 0.
• The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 25-5 over Saturday and Sunday, and only three batters got drilled by a pitch? Must be some kind of record for them. If these games were held at Fenway Turd Hole Park, it would've been six, with a few warm-up throws tossed at Torre's head and Stottlemyre's back.
• If Red Sox Nation is the force it claims to be, why cry about the economic support we provide our owner, the emperor of baseball, Mr. George M. Steinbrenner III, who has presided over six World Series championship teams? (Yankees set their season record for attendance on Sunday.)
• Props to Boston for that scorching inning against Mariano on Friday: a walk, a hit batsman, a grounder and a flare. One out of 27 ain't bad.
• Missing Schilling was a bit of a break this series. I hear he's been better since the Yanks thumped him for seven runs on 10 hits in just over five innings in Boston on July 23.
I briefly caught some of the game on Saturday and it was 14-4 Yankees, at the time. A great game for those of us who hate the Red Sux. I love my Phillies and they lose everytime I attend a game, too.
Great pics of the stadium.
BTW, how did you get that pic of me cooking?
Posted by Cass at September 20, 2004 9:28 AM