I've given up on the message board generating interaction. I guess people are conditioned to posting comments below. Here we go...
• If home-field advantage is worth a field goal in football, it's worth twice as much when talking Fenway vs. Yankee Stadium in October. How do you bet against the last at-bat with these teams, who seem destined to break every "longest-game" record there is? Against each other, and including the playoffs, the Sox have won six of the last nine at Fenway, while the Yanks have won seven of eight in the Bronx.
• I don't need to see 120 crowd shots of Sox fans about to throw up on themselves. I get it: they're tortured, nervous and ugly. Enough, FOX.
• Even with the tension in Game 5, there were a lot of laughs with the guys I saw the game with at Brother Jimmy's on the Upper West Side. That happens when both teams have little options other than guys who are expected to get cranked. "You want Paul Quantrill?! Are you nuts?" "Mike Timlin looks like Mel Stottylemyre, 'cept Mel pitched in the 1960s." And ya' know what? Most of 'em came through (except Tom Gordon). Even Esteban Loaiza was throwing well, before losing on a bloop.
• Here are Mariano Rivera's blown saves in nine years' worth of playoffs: Sandy Alomar, Jr. hits an opposite-field home run with his eyes closed, Luis Gonzalez drives in a winning run on a bullshit hit that's in no one's dream growing up, Bill Mueller cracks a legitimate shot through the middle after a walk to a scrub and a steal by a pinch-runner whom I've never seen hit, and Mo gives up one hit and no earned runs the next night.
• Pedro Martinez was mediocre ... again. Fourteen baserunners in six innings — six less than Mike Mussina — does not an ace make. The Yanks' bats just weren't timely, same as in Game 4.
• Not since Ken Griffey, Jr. and Edgar Martinez in 1995 have I been so scared of a one-two tandem such as the likes of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. On the flip side, Kevin Millar scares me like not at all. Like, if he were in the NL, we'd pitch to him so we didn't have to face the pitcher. And he's batting fifth.
• Is it just me, or does Yankee Stadium just feel twice as large as Fenway Park?
• You can't get on Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui — not after what they did Saturday night — but holy shit did they have some chances to win the pennant on Monday. 1-for-15. That's all, folks.
• Five hours and 49 minutes for a baseball game?
• The non-strike on Manny Ramirez in the bottom of the ninth, when he twirled around on a 1-0 pitch, was the worst call I have ever seen in baseball. And it's not even close. Didn't hurt the Yanks, because he flew out to center on the next pitch, but it was absolutely the worst, easily displacing Don Denkinger's "safe" call of Jorge Orta at first base in the 1985 World Series against the Cardinals. And that was horrendous.
• In case some of you Pirates and Brewers fans are wondering, you start counting outs to the pennant when you have nine left. I'm coining the phrase now, it's an "out-counting situation." So far in this series we've had two out-counting situations, and the Yanks blew them both.
• The Yanks and Sox have combined for 21 runs in 25½ innings over Games 4 and 5. Only 3.7 runs per team over nine innings. And yet I feel like this has been a hitter's series all the way. Oh, maybe it's because the Yankees left 32 (!) men on base during that time.
• New York is a big place, lots of transplants. We've got Cowboys fans, Steelers fans, Florida Gators fans, you name it. Anyway, in the first three games of the series, there were lots of Boston caps and jerseys in the bars. Last two games: not so much. I report, you decide.
• I've lost all respect for Mets fans — and I didn't have much to begin with — since I've discovered almost all of them are rooting for the Red Sox. I absolutely respect non-Gay-Rod-shirt-wearing Sox fans — it's just baseball, after all — but when I see a dork in a Mets cap cheering "Yes!" after a Yanks whiff, I think he should deported from the Big Apple. Have some respect, man. At least stay home and admire your Mo Vaughn baseball cards, you pathetic, straw-grasping weasel.
• Lots of people are asking, Do you want the 'Stros or Cards? Right now I want the pennant. But I keep saying the NL teams are pretty much the same: great lineups, decent pitching, good home crowds (since, unlike Atlanta, they're not bored yet of losing in the postseason). I just hope we get to face one of them. I would like to see Clemens make another start at the Stadium, though, 'cause I think we'd blast the absolute shit out of him. Then again, we couldn't hit a 55-m.p.h. knuckler needing one run to get to the World Series.
• Just wondering, Is Curt Schilling gonna talk about shutting up 55,000 fans again? Also wondering if I'm gonna have to rely on Kevin Brown in a Game 7. Stay tuned for more throw-up games, courtesy of the series that seemingly won't end!
You're right, FOX really needs to cut down on the fan shots. Cutting to nine different sections of the bleachers between every pitch is a little much. A guy on the radio this morning said it very similarly to the way you did: "We get it. Every person in the crowd has a look on their face like A-Rod just hit a homerun, carried the bat around the bases, then went into the fan's house and used the same bat to hit their puppy in the face."
Also, does Bill Simmons get to celebrate if the Sox win the pennant? If they win, I won't read his column about it (at least not without puking). In his Game Three recap he publically gave up on his team when they were still alive, something no fan should ever do. Even a Boston fan, who's used to getting set up for failure. I believe Mr. Yogi had a pretty good quote about when it's over... maybe Sox fans purposely don't abide by Yankee quotes?
Posted by RP at October 19, 2004 1:32 AM