Bullpen=Disaster

Today is May 30. It is National Start Freaking Out That We Have No Bullpen Besides Jonathan Papelbon Day.

The bullpen spoiled Jason Varitek's first clutch hit since sometime last season. He hit a three-run home run to tie the game when we were down 6-3. Turns out bringing in David Riske in the bottom of the eighth was, well, risky. Old Friend Shea got the winning hit off him, and we managed nothing off BJ Ryan in the top of the ninth. Figures.

I blame Terry Fran-coma for this lost. Should have brought in Foulke. Paging Mike Timlin. Where art thou, Mike Timlin?

I f-ing hate the Blue Jays.

In other news, Matt Clement still sucks.

Thanks, Willie. And thank you, Devil Rays.

I do enjoy playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With the Yankees playing the very sweepable KC Royals and a trip to Toronto looming, we were able to sweep the Rays and maintain our first-place standing. Sunday's game was one of those Oh-shit-I-think-I'm-having-a-heart-attack-and-it's-only-May games. In 16 or so years of cognizant baseball watching, I'm not sure I've ever seen a team so adament on blowing a game in the ninth inning as I witnessed today.

Thankfully we were playing the Devil Rays and Tom Foley did his best Dale Sveum impersonation, sending Joey Gathright around third on a Carl Crawford single. Willie Harris, filling in for Manny, threw him out at the plate by several feet. With Paps being totally overworked lately, we had to rely on Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez to get the job done today. You would think a five-run lead against the Devil Rays would be safe, but nooo, not with our bullpen.

For eight innings, Tim Wakefield pitched shutout baseball. He really owned the Devil Rays. Made those idiots at ESPN look stupid for moving us three spots down in their power rankings and saying that "Tim Wakefield's days as a dominant starter are over." I was all for leaving Timmy in for the ninth. He was at 110 pitches or so, but Wake can throw until his arm falls off.

Rudy Seanez entered the game having thrown well in May. He has something like a 1.50 ERA this month, so he has really rebounded well from his shakey month of April. Just as I'm telling my dad that I'm gaining more confidence in Rudy as a set-up man and not to freak out about Timlin going on the DL yet, Seanez walks Johnny Gomes, gets two outs, allowing both batters to go to 3-2 counts, then walks Travis Lee and Josh Paul. Bases loaded, no runs in yet, two outs. Enter Julian Tavarez. At this point the entire crowd is chanting PAPEL-BON, PAPEL-BON. Tavarez struck out Greg Norton, but Mirabelli got lacadaisical and the runner reached on a third-strike passed ball. First run in. It's now 5-1. No problem... just one more out. Only Tavarez then walks Joey Gathright. One more run in. Score's 5-2. That's okay-- one more out, but the top of the order is up now and I'm starting to sweat. Julio Lugo walks. Shit. Score's 5-3 and now the hottest hitter in the American League, Carl Crawford is up. Still no sign of Papelbon. Apparently Francona was waiting for the 10th inning or something. Crawford predictably singles, but the potential tying run in Gathright is erased on Harris' outfield assist.

Willie Harris threw the only strike of the entire inning. And yesterday I was going to write an entry explaining how he was Cesar Crespo Version 2. Oh well, you earned one more day on the roster, Willie. Thanks for that.

Only the Tampa Bay Devil Rays could lose a game like that. Might I add that all of their runs in the top of the ninth came on NO hits until Crawford's hit that ended the game. NO HITS. I officially have no faith in this bullpen again. Although I probably should give Tavarez some credit because he did strike out Norton. It was Mirabelli's fault the guy reached base. Tek woulda had it.

Coco's back too... a day early. Gotta say I'm gonna miss Kevin Youkilis hitting leadoff.

On to Toronto, where the Jays saved Roy Halladay just for us. Aww, isn't that sweet of them. We really struggle with the Jays. Hopefully NYY will do the same at Detroit.

Barry hit No. 715 today, and ESPN interrupted exciting Super Regional coverage of Michigan-Tennessee softball. I'm not being sarcastic. Michigan had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, down a run. We missed the end thanks to fucking ESPN showing us every home run from No. 1 to No. 715. Okay, not really EVERY home run, but the coverage was really, really unnecessary. Fuck Barry Bonds. I hope he gets run over by a bus.

Congrats to Curt

Schilling picked up win No. 200 in his career tonight against the lowly Devil Rays. He had his wife and kids in attendance, and coincidently it was his son Gehrig's birthday. The kid was adorable-- holding up a sign that said "GO DAD" all game. Schill even wished him happy birthday on the jumbo screen during the game.

Curt's a class act. Yeah, sometimes he runs his mouth too much. But when all is said and done, you'd be hard-pressed to find a major leaguer who cares more about winning than Curt Schilling. He truly loves the fans of Boston and winning in front of the greatest fans in sports. He learned to love us even more through Sons of Sam Horn, and I truly believe that once Curt retires and Boston fans reflect back on his years with us, we will decide he needs a statue just like Red Auerbach and Ted Williams. Without this man, 2004 doesn't happen. And without 2004, I think I would have killed myself already.

Here's to hopefully another 30 or so wins before Schill hangs it up. I'll be at Cooperstown in about eight years with my 2004 Red Sox World Champions banner cheering him on as he's inducted into the Hall of Fame.

So I know that Schilling is a total internet geek with us, and while the chances of him reading this are pretty damned remote, I'd just like to say thanks for all you did for our franchise, and almost as importantly, thanks for caring so much for the ALS sufferers of the world.

Timmy goes for the sweep tomorrow.

More Wells news

Deep knee contusion, no initial evidence of a break on Boomer's knee. Looks like this may not be career-ending afterall. With the good start he got off to tonight, we could certainly use him coming back.

The Sox are tacking on lots of runs as I type this. Looks like we should coast to victory and give Kazmir a big L.

Bye bye, Boomer.

Wells just took a linedrive off the knee that has been bothering him practically his whole career, the same knee he had surgery on in the offseason. I don't like to assume the worst without even hearing an injury report, but I gotta think his career is over.

It would be nice if the Red Sox could actually beat Scott Kazmir. I'm getting really, really sick and tired of the Scott Kazmir LoveFest on the DRay's broadcast. NESN is blacked out on MLB EI, so we're stuck with these morons. So far, they have compared Scott Kazmir to Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and BABE RUTH, and the kid is in his second full major league season. There are no words.

They also had another incredibly intelligent comment when one of the guys says, "You know, without Ty Wigginton, I don't know where this club would be."

My dad (always the comedian) had a classic response: "Well, I think they'd be in last place. Oh wait..."

You gotta find the small things to humor you because my God we're in for a long season.

Oh and the greatest line ever in Sons of Sam Horn Game Thread History goes to "OCD SS"

"The chances of David Wells reaching his incentives are ... remote."

(Think Red Roof Inn commercials on MLB Extra Innings. If you don't subscribe, you're really missing out)

David Ortiz just drove in two runs off Kazmir, after DeMarlo Hale failed to send Wily Mo Peña on a sac fly on the previous pitch. WIN IT FOR BOOMAH!!!! These Devil Rays announcers have really shut up with the Kazmir sploogefest all of a sudden.

F--k you Matt Clement

Matt Clement should be put on the Disabled List until his yeast infection clears up.

That, or shot. I really have no preference.

Kick 'em while they're down.

The win over the Yankees last night was sweet. Beating the Yankees always feels good. But I'm no moron, and I know the team we hammered last night is not the Yankee team we'll be facing in September and (knock on wood) October.

I was at the Alligator from 7:30 p.m. until well after the game ended, so I only caught bits and pieces in between copy editing various softball/golf/baseball-related stories. I had to fight Josh for control of the AlligatorSports television. Seriously-- Yankees/Red Sox or Spurs/Mavs. Yankees/Sawx wins out any day :)

I honestly didn't know the Yankees even had Terrence Long in their minor league system. Then I hear his name when he was involved in the play when DeMarlo Hale held up Mark Loretta at third when he should have sent them. Was anybody getting Dale Sveum flashbacks?! I know I'm not the only Sox fan who was waving Loretta home and then dying in horror when I saw Hale putting up the Stop Sign. I remember Terrence Long from the 2003 ALDS in Oakland. I distinctly remember Ramon Hernandez dropping a bunt in Game 1, rendering my staying up until 3 a.m. when I had school at 7 a.m. pointless. Remember that series? Then everything came full circle when Derek Lowe struck Long's ass out to end Game 5, setting up the 2003 ALCS with the Yankees.

That was a tangent. Anyway, the point is that the Yankees are playing with scrubs like Terrence Long and Melky Cabrera, who according to resident Yankee expert Erica, once ducked to get out of the way of a fly ball in the outfield in the minors.

As I said, a win is a win though, and Schilling picked up No. 199 in his career last night. He was incredibly dominant, and the only reason that the final score is close is because of Keith Fucking Foulke, who gave up four earned runs on five hits in the top of the ninth. Thank God Willie Harris and Alex Cora knocked in a few insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, or I would have been really sweating bullets. At this point, Josh had changed the channel to the NBA game and I was following the Sox online, so you can imagine my horrow when I'm seeing hit after hit after hit register on my screen.

Remember when George Steinbrenner was paying Ramiro "The Embedded Yankee" Mendoza to suck so badly for the Red Sox? My theory is that they are doing the same to Keith Foulke this season. It's not even safe to use him in mop-up duty anymore. From now on I only want to see Timlin and Papelbon ever in games where the Sox are up by less than 10 runs.

Typical Alex Rodriguez hit a home run when the game was already over. The game was at 9-1 when he hit a two-run home run. The Baseball Tonight crew showed footage of his home run, then proceeded to call A-Rod "very clutch." Luckily one of the other guys (not sure who) added that Manny and Papi hit home runs when the score is 2-1, whereas A-Rod hits them when it's 9-1. Just pointing out who the real MVPs are... don't mind me.

Tonight it's Jaret Wright (1-3, 4.94 ERA, 1.54 WHIP) versus Tim Wakefield (3-5, 4.17 ERA, 1.32 WHIP). Looks like a mismatch on paper especially taking into account Wake's consistent dominance over NYY... but I guess that's why you don't play the games on paper. Looking at Wright's splits, lefties seem to be hitting him a lot better, and Ortiz has a lifetime .385 BA/1.092 OPS in 13 at-bats. Sheffield should play tonight. He hits Wakefield decently. Giambi, who can't seem to figure out the knuckler to save his life, will probably get a day's rest. According to the Post, Joe Torre is also considering sitting Posada for Kelly Stinnett tonight, because Stinnett and Wright have worked well together in the past.

Should be another good game tonight. Go Sox!

Watching the Sox...

I'm currently watching a nifty pitchers' duel between Josh Beckett and Brett Myers. Both starters look good so far. (knock on wood)

I litteraly just typed that and Chase Utley hit a homer to break the 0-0 tie. I loathe myself.

I haven't caught a lot of Sox games recently because I've been working and trying to spend a lot of time with some good friends who are leaving for the rest of the summer. My dad's been in New Zealand too, and baseball is rather boring to watch by yourself. Especially when my dad and I are a great tag team at moaning and bitching about how much the Red Sox suck together. (Yes, we're in first place, but we're still Red Sox fans).

Aflack trivia: Which 2 Phillies OFers have won Gold Gloves? Bobby Abreu is one. Don't know the other.

In non-baseball news, please keep your thoughts and prayers with the beautiful horse, Barbaro. My guess is they're going to have to put the poor thing to sleep. He's got a nasty break in his hind leg. He came up lame during the first few seconds of the Preakness, ultimately spoiling another Triple Crown chase. ESPN reports that with the kind of fracture that the horse has, a human would have to spend six weeks in bed. Obviously with a horse that is impossible. It would be a shame if he had to be put down.

I think the Triple Crown has got to be the hardest feat in all of sports to accomplish. Forget winning a World Cup, sinking a hole-in-one, or even hitting for the Triple Crown in baseball. In horse racing you have one shot to do it. One. The courses are all completely different. The Preakness is relatively short and built for fast sprinters. In the Belmont, the longest of the races, you have to run 1 1/2 miles. And you have to accomplish the feat in a five-week span. There's a reason that it hasn't happened since 1978. Obviously, it's been a lot longer since someone hit .400 (Williams, 1941), and nobody has accomplished the Triple Crown in baseball since 1967 (Yastrzemski). But can you imagine only having one shot in your entire life to accomplish a sports feat? I guess that's why I think the Horsies Triple Crown is tougher.

Regardless, send positive thoughts to Barbaro.

Garry Maddox was the other Phillies OF to win a Gold Glove. Duh. He won a whole bunch of them in the mid-70s.

The Sox cannot hit Myers. This sucks.

Simmons at it again

With all of the rain, I feel like I have nothing baseball-related to write about. Keep your thoughts and prayers with the people of New England. They're fighting off a bitch of a monsoon right now. My grandma is in Beverly, where the damage has been pretty bad. She phoned yesterday and said she was okay though.

Simmons' new column was f-ing hysterical. One thing I miss about the North is being able to listen to Mike & the Mad Dog all of the time on the WFAN flagship stations. Anyway, he provides a running commentary of a show... complete with plenty of New Yorker jabs.

Simmons' column mentioned the greatest day in the history of talk radio:

Strange twist with the Dog: He's a diehard Giants fan who usually loves twisting the knife with Yankees fans; his joyous show after Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS should have been immediately sent to the Smithsonian. Meanwhile, Francesa is a huge, huh-yuge Yankees fan. See, this would never work in Boston -- you could never have an anti-Sox guy hosting a drive-time show. He'd end up getting shanked by Murph and Sully one night outside the Cask 'n Flagon after a tough Sox loss. And you think I'm kidding.)

Link to Simmmons' column

That made me want to dig up the transcript to that show. This is long, but well-worth the read.

MIKE FRANCESA: All I want to tell you, for you, for all of Red Sox Nation and for all of you doubters. Someday, some team will come back from 3-zip to win a series in baseball. Not on this day.

JOHN STERLING: Swung on and lined to deep right! It is high! It is far! It is gone! David Ortiz has hit a two-run home run on Brown's first pitch ...

CHRIS RUSSO: The Yankees, from the manager -- and you will agree -- right on down, are incredibly tight!

JS: ... and the Red Sox take a 2-nothing lead!

JOE TORRE: We've always respected their ballclub. We knew they had a ton of ability. Uh, you know, the fact that when they get on a roll, they can do things like they did to us...

JOE CASTIGLIONE: Swing ... and a high drive to deep right! Back toward the corner it goes! ... Sheffield looking up! ... Grand Slam! Johnny Damon! ...

BOB HEUSSLER: This is history. This is collossal collapse potential here on the part of the Yankees. And when they do that parade down the Canyon of Zeroes with the Karate Kid leading the way with his left-handed baton ... (Russo giggles) ... I want to be there to cheer them on. I want to be a part of that.

CR: There you go, Bobby!!!

JC: ... With one swing of the bat has given the Red Sox four more runs! They lead it 6-to-nothing!

CR: If you're going to break a hex, a curse that is almost insurmountable, you need to do something cataclysmic.

CHARLEY STEINER: There's a flyball to right field and Johnny Damon has hit another one! ...

BH: This will be remembered more for ... a first! A baseball first. A team that has won 26 world's championships, 39 pennants, would be remembered for the worst collapse in the history of baseball postseason.

CS: ... Into the upper deck. A two-run home run. It is now 8-1 Red Sox.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think to do what we did you have to have people chip and do some special things. We found a way to win some games while Johnny wasn't swinging the bat. Then, all of a sudden, Johnny gives us huge lifts.

JS: The pitch is hit in the air to deep right. Fair, it's gone. That ball is ... gone! It hit the foul pole. Mark Bellhorn homers off the right field foul pole, and the Red Sox take a 9-3 lead. ...

CR: The Red Sox tonight will dance at Yankee Stadium.

JS: ... All nine Boston runs on home runs.

Alex Rodriguez: I'm embarrassed right now. You know, I think in the long run this is going to make us better. We're going to come back and be a better team because of it.

JC: Swing and a ground ball to second base. Pokey Reese has it. He throws to first and the Red Sox have won the American League pennant! They mob Alan Embree on the mound! The Boston Red Sox have pulled the greatest victory in team history!

ORLANDO CABRERA: This is great. We've got faith from the beginning, when we were down three games, but we've got the heart. The people here played with heart and we knew we could do it.

Yankees home run chimes die a slow death.

Mike and Dog theme song.

CR: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYBODY!!!! Red Sox Nation in the South Bronx! Mark Malusis, Eddie Scasari, the Big Guy's here!

MF: Like I had a choice?

CR: (Laughs). Oh baby! Oh baby! Did you ever think you'd see the day! When Trot Nixon ... it's Wade Boggs in reverse! With the champagne in the bleachers in right! And the New York Yankees, epically, they've been asphyxiated! They have been used up. The Red Sox are going to the World Series!

Good afternoon there Michael.

MF: And how was your night?

CR: (laughs) Mrs. Lincoln.

MF: How was your night?

CR: Oh Boy!

MF: I saw how your night was.

CR: Oh boy. ... Well, you know who I feel good for? And I'll give you credit, because you got him in. He thinks I got him in, you got him in last night. And that's Eddie Coleman.

MF: Yeah, Eddie was ecstatic.

CR: Eddie's been sitting there for 50 years, his father, the whole bit. And he gets that and he wins a championship.

MF: You know, Dog I ... and we've got a lot to do -- and we have plenty of time, plenty of time, to field your phone calls, Red Sox Nation. And, yes, you Met fans who have been looking to take a piece out of me for about 10 years. I'll be here for your pleasure for the next five hours, listening to you. Because they've been calling the newsroom Dog, making sure I'm going to show up today! Yes, I was going to show up. I promised.

CR: Mike's going to be here.

MF: So, Dog, last night ... they way I put it when I was on Imus this morning, the first thought was, here was -- the expectation, we built it up to such a heightened state. It was like going to a heavyweight fight and all of a sudden, you're just in your seat, the defending champion takes a right hand and he's out for the count.

The problem with baseball -- in boxing you get up and leave. In baseball, they drag 'em around the field for about four hours, and that's what happened last night. They dragged the Yankees around the field for four hours. That was a mugging with an audience. That was a disaster.

And I'll tell you what I take, sitting there as a Yankee fan ... and Dog will give you the perspective in Red Sox Nation, which was about four seats away, it started and went for a about a mile ... with each passing home run, with each passing Yankee mistake -- and there were plenty -- with each bad at-bat, with each out that they registered -- and they were counting the outs after the third inning. I heard them ... ching! 17 ... 16 ... 15 ... 9 ... 8 ... counting them down.

CR: Five! When it got to five, getting past five was significant.

MF: The, the ... it seemed to be a very strange phenomenon in the Stadium. The Stadium seemed to change with each out from blue to red. And it seemed like with each out, the Red Sox fan was somehow multiplying before my eyes in the Stadium. Next thing I know, we're in Fenway Park in the eighth inning!

And I stayed to see the celebration. Now, I could only take about four minutes of the Red Sox on the field. That's about all I could take, and the chanting and the people going crazy -- Dog stayed for 45 minutes, he will fill you in on that. I stayed for the last out. I wanted to see it happen. I stayed and watched it. It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

And let's put it in perspective: No. 1 ... forever the Red Sox will be emblazoned as the comeback kids, because this is the greatest comeback in postseason history. And No. 2 ... the Yankees, who are the storied franchise as we all know, are now at a dark hour, because they just took the worst defeat, not only in my lifetime as a Yankee fan, I think without question the worst defeat in their history.

Because to be the team that has a team come back from 3-0 -- and we know the numbers, we've given them to you time and time again -- and now to be remembered ... because, you see, someone said to me this morning, 'Well, there are World Series losses that are worse.' No, that's not true. Yeah, the 60 Pirates was a bad loss...

CR: That's the second one.

MF: Yeah, the 81 Dodgers was a terrible loss up 2-zip and had Fernando on the ropes in Game 3. Terrible loss. Yeah, Arizona. Folks, I was sitting in the fifth row, Arizona was a tough beat. But World Series losses happen. They happened to Ruth. Didn't happen much to DiMaggio. They happened to Mantle. They happen. But you're still in the World Series. This is one -- and it's forgotten, you lose a World Series, you lose a World Series. You come back and win another World Series.

Now, whenever you see a team go down 3-0 in any sport, they will put up a graphic on television which will say, with a little asterisk, '2004 Red Sox, down 3-0, beat New York Yankees.' This is now part of sports history. And every guy who's got a team down with its back to the wall is going to talk about the Red Sox for the next 30 years.

CR: Absolutely.

MF: So this is a historic collapse, and, on the other side, a historic victory.

CHRIS RUSSO: Well, Mike, a couple of things: I would say the Mazeroski game would be the next closest thing...

MIKE FRANCESSA: I don't remember that.

CR: ... because they were dominating. They were so much better. They should have won that.

MF: They were. Mantle always said his worst defeat, but I don't remember ...

CR: So I would put that one second.

MF: ... I don't remember that one. The ones that came to mind for me were ... 64 did not crush me ...

CR: Not bad, not terrible.

MF: ... OK, 63 was frustrating, but we were overrun by that pitching.

CR: Right, exactly.

MF: The ones that bothered me the most ...

CR: 81.

MF: 81 forever. Because they had Fernando on the ropes in Game 3. They were up two games to zip. They lost the game, the had a 4-nothing, they lost the game 5-4 and they lost the rest of the series. So that was a crusher. And 2001, lead 9th inning, Rivera on the mound, as we know, in Arizona. That was a crushing loss. This. Is. Worse.

CR: Mike, I can't say ... listen, I think it definitely is. I mean, maybe that 95 is a bad one against Seattle, but that was the first year ...

MF: The first year back, I could live with it

CR: You could live with that one. That was a tough 9th-10th inning. But this is as bad as it gets for the Yankees. There was two things about it. First off, the biggest at-bat last night was the Ortiz home run. Not because it was a home run. It's because the Yankee fan could not celebrate the big play at the plate.

MF: I agree.

CR: The next pitch!

MF: I agree totally.

CR: So the Red Sox didn't even get a chance to feel, 'Uh-oh, here we go again.' The next pitch. Out of the ballpark.

MF: And it finished Kevin Brown.

CR: Ah, it killed him.

MF: It finished Kevin Brown, who showed nothing last night.

CR: Terrible. So that's the biggest at-bat, the biggest pitch of the game. And the Red Sox, to me, I know the game was very flat from a Yankee perspective. It didn't have any of that epic conclusion that you wanted to see. But I think the Red Sox had to have a game like that. I think if the Red Sox were in a white-knuckler last night, I'm not too sure if they could have gotten through it. So they needed to have a large working margin and they could even withstand Pedro -- will get to that in a second -- so that's No. 2.

No. 3 ... I think for a Red Sox fan, and I was with them all the last three days, so I'll tell you what they told me: This eliminates Bucky Dent, and this eliminates Aaron Boone. This does not eliminate World Series now.

MF: No, it can't. They still have to go on and win the World Series, otherwise that other curse lives.

CR: This does not eliminate Bill Buckner.

MF: Right.

CR: This does not eliminate Enos Slaughter. This does not eliminate that. But -- it doesn't eliminate Morgan against Burton -- but it does eliminate, if you're a Red Sox fan, it eliminates the Boston Massacre.

MF: Yup.

CR: It elimiates 13 1/2-game lead in July.

MF: Right.

CR: It eliminates Bucky Dent off Mike Torrez.

MR: I agree with that.

CR: It eliminates Gossage and Yaz. And, I'm sorry, I hate to say it to Yankee fans, because this is going to be very painful, if you're a Red Sox fan this has got to eliminate last year's eighth inning.

MF: I don't think there's any question.

CR: There's no other way ... if you're a Yankee fan who wants to put this ... you can't say that now, because they came from 3-0 down. Now if they just won a Game 7, it was tough series and they won a Game 7 10-3 ...

MF: You'd tip your cap and move on.

CR: ... You can get over it. But you blew a 3-zero lead in this series.

MF: And had a 4-3 lead with the best closer in the world on the mound in the ninth inning.

CR: Which brings us to the next point, and I'll throw it out and let Mike comment. The biggest at-bat, to me, in this series. The biggest at-bat ... is not Millar's walk. The biggest -- in the fourth game -- the biggest at-bat is A-Rod.

His strikeout against Timlin in the eighth inning of Game 5 after they got out of the bottom of the seventh on a Manny Ramirez double play, after Cairo hit that double off the left-field wall, it was a pin-drop in Fenway. Jeter lays the bunt down ... if the Yankees get that fifth run, this series is over. If A-Rod does what he's supposed to do, and A-Rod, he's got a lot to answer for ... he hits a sac fly there at 5-2, I think, myself -- Mike might differ -- I think this series is over.

MF: Oh, I totally agree.

CR: So from my standpoint, that, to me, is the biggest at-bat of the series. Mike might tell you the Dave Roberts steal, Mike might tell you Millar's walk, Mueller's hit ... that to me was the biggest at-bat of the series.

MF: Well, I think it all ties in at the same time, Dog. And I think the thing unraveled after that first game, because they did a bad job in the second game ... in Game 5, being the second game they lost ... from a lot of different standpoints in my regard. And the Red Sox got tougher and tougher as the series went on. And finally the Yankees' lack of pitching reared its head. It hadn't reared its head. We thought it would rear its head. Surprisingly, it had not.

But the Yanks got outpitched in their building in Game 6, by Schilling, who did a great job. Lieber didn't pitch badly, but he didn't pitch as well as Schilling. And then they got destroyed in Game 7.

And there's a lot of different things here. First thing you want to take is the big picture. I think Dog just did that with the Red Sox. No longer can you thumb your nose at the Red Sox about this. Now, the Red Sox haven't won their World Series. They have to go do that. That's up to them. But that's a different deal. This is about the Yankees. The Yankee perspective on this first. I'm going to give you that and we'll get to the Red Sox.

Because the Red Sox, they are going to chronicle this as one of the great moments in sports history. It's going to be one of the great comebacks and one of the great stories ever in postseason history, and they're right about that. It was that big. It was played out with that much tension, that much pressure, this built up all year. Remember, this is a two-year thing that culminated last night. It has been a two-year war with the Red Sox. It's gone on from Day One for two years.

And for them, under that scrutiny and that pressure ... and they were getting destroyed on Sunday morning. They were getting beat ... they were getting beat to a pulp on Sunday morning. And you know what, if you looked around there, you looked around that stadium that night -- ninth inning, Game 4 -- they thought they were dead! Why wouldn't you think they were dead?

CR: 19-8, 19-8. my god. ... Oh, you're talking about the next day ...

MF: Yeah, the next day they thought, 'We're going home.' But, you know what? They didn't go home. And then they got stronger from there. But the point of this is, there is a Yankee perspective to this, and the Yankee perspective to this is here is this team, built to win championships, that a) is no longer, no longer, has any connection. The book is closed. They no longer have any connection, and it's going to get worse and worse because guys who have been the staple of that, such as Rivera, who right now, maybe ready to hand off the mantel to this kid Lidge as the next great closer. I mean, he's already had a decade of it, you can't expect him to go forerver.

CR: I agree.

MF: OK. And Bernie Williams, who is winding down, and again -- again -- they try to bury Bernie Williams and he probably was as consistent as any Yankee again in this series as the guy you want up in the big spot every single time.

CR: Absolutely.

MF: And you know what, he's winding down. So the guys who are the remnants of that run -- and Jeter made that point last night Dog, and he did it with a little fire in his eyes when he said 'Don't be comparing those teams to these teams. There's no relationship.' And he's right. It's now four years removed from a championship and that group has whittled down to four and will whittle down from there. Soon, soon, it will just be Posada and Jeter. Eventually that's what you'll be left with for a while. And that's it from that core. And this group has not gotten the right mix.

But what happened here is different. You're talking about the Yankees, the proud Yankees, the way they're built, the money, the whole thing -- everything that makes the Yankees the Yankees. For them to collapse on the grand stage ... and right now the Red Sox-Yankees stage is even bigger than the World Series. It is. It's bigger. It's watched by more people. More people care about it. The city cares about it more. To have them collapse at this level, on that stage, when they are three outs away, three games up and three outs away and lose the series is, without question, the greatest postseason collapse in the history of sports. That's a lot.

CR: Hey ... if you want to look at it this way, when you're in enough of these situations, sooner or later you're going to have something bad happen to you.

MF: Not like this.

CR: It's funny about the Yankees. They have so much good history, that we all have to hear who hate the Yankees ... whether it was the trade, whether it's DiMaggio, whoever it might be, Gehrig, Mattingly, whoever it might be. For once, for once, the Yankee hater, the Crack Committee, now has something that will stick to the Yankees that's bad forever.

MF: Absolutely.

CR: And that is something that has not happened to the Yankees. Mike gave you the situations about the World Series. Games happen. They haven't had anything like this. They haven't had anything historic happen to them badly. Now they have.

MF: Yeah, in their whole history, Dog, they have had bad losses. '26 World Series to a team they were a 5-to-1 favorite over. They lost to Grover Cleveland Alexander. It happens. Babe Ruth lost that Series. Mantle, the '60 World Series. They won the three games by 90 runs and lost four squeakers and lost the Series. Worst loss of his life. That happens. It happens.

But this is different. This is an utter collapse. This is one that will reverberate. Now, we'll get to all the different things in the days to come. You know Steinbrenner is going to do something, who knows what. He doesn't really have a lot of options, which we'll get to. But this one, as Dog said, will stick to the ribs. This is one that will follow this franchise. This is a big blemish. Because this is the ultimate winning machine, and for it to collapse this way, is a big deal. You can't minimize it.

This is a black mark on the Yankee history.

Post columnist suggests NYY bean Ortiz?!

The typical New York med=iots are at it again. Today, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post called for David Ortiz to be beaned because he is too good against the Yankees. Brilliant, Vaccaro. If any Globe columnist like Shaughnessy or Ryan called for Jeter to be thrown at, there would be a complete uproar.

THE Yankees have to droppy Papi. They need to brush the beast back. They need to pick out one of David Ortiz' chins and let a little music dance across the whiskers. And they need to do this immediately.

I think Wily Mo Pena needs to kick this moron's ass.

Link to article

Schilling fired back this morning on Dennis & Callahan:

"Most of the guys and gals that write here [in New York] are such horrific hacks anyway that that stuff doesn’t… I mean, seriously, I’ve played in a couple of cities before coming to Boston and the dredge of the places that I played in respect to the media, the people who wrote there have left those cities and come here, and they write here now. If I could just pick out some of the guys and people that were just horrible writers and I thought bad people, the places that I played before I came to Boston, they all went to New York and are writing there now. It’s so perfect, but it’s such a different… they’re just bad people. It’s just stupid, stupid, irresponsible stuff to do because again, this is such a different series."

Normally, I hate when Curt opens his mouth, but something had to be said about the idiocy of Vaccaro's column.

Yankees Suck

Since I have the maturity level of a 5-year-old when it involves Sox-Yankees, I thought this picture was pretty money... (Boston Dirt Dogs gets all the credit)



Sox are owning Josh Towers right now. Game still in progress.

Squander, thy name is Red Sox

I fucking hate this team. I really do. Tonight's loss to the Blue Jays was so f'ing winable. They blew it... flat out blew it. I hate this. Josh Beckett is looking more and more like a .500 pitcher who had one good postseason. Loretta blows. Why is Alex Gonzalez even playing? How can you be a major league player who spent the majority of his career in the NL and can't lay down a critical bunt? Plenty of blame to go around tonight-- idiot Tito pinch-hitting Dustan Mohr for Trot. I mean, Trot's BA against lefties is actually HIGHER THAN MOHR'S. What was he thinking? Granted Mohr did get on base in the bottom of the ninth on the dropped third strike, but he should have been Out Numero Tres.

Pap took his first loss tonight. The offense should have bailed him out, and it should have never come down to that. I don't really blame the guy. You can't be unhittable all season.

GOD THIS TEAM IS SO FRUSTRATING! I hate how we lay over and die when we play the Blue Jays. I will be cursing Gregg Zaun and old friend Shea all night.

Sox Sweep Yankees

No game tonight. Damn the rain. Well, we took one of one and in my mind, that is a sweep.

Beckett vs. Halladay tomorrow. Should be a good one. I might have to skip Marvel's shindig for that pitching matchup.

Sox take first blood in war with MFYs

My Sox just pulled off an incredible win-- 7-3 over the Evil Empire of the South. The wind tried to steal a win from us (we should have had about 17 runs), but the Mighty David Ortiz would not be denied. How fitting that the homer he crushed to right center sailed right over Damon's head and into Papelbon's glove.

The deciding run was actually scored by Willie Harris, who appropriately had a slide that looked just like Dave Roberts' in Game 4 of the ALCS. Only it was Loretta driving him in and not Bill Mueller... and there was a different noodle-armed idiot in center field watching helplessly as he has no chance of throwing out the runner at the plate.

I very much enjoyed Jeter's critical blunders. Just as ESPN and the biggest fucking moron on the planet, Rich Sutcliffe, got done ball-washing him for the millionth time, he gets thrown off second in the DP that bailed Wake out of a jam. Take that, Captain Intangibles. He was very, very tangible tonight...

The story of the game had to be Doug "Superman" Mirabelli, who flew cross-country and needed a police escort to get to Fenway on time. Now, I am very familiar with the Boston area having spent my summers there, and I did not know it was humanly possible to make it from Logan to Fenway in a half hour, let alone 10 minutes. The Stud Who Hits Bombs told Erin Andrews after the game that they were going 100 mph down the freeway, and he changed into his jersey in the back of the limo. He had about two minutes to get re-acquainted with Wakefield before he had to catch him. Josh Bard gave up 10 passed balls already this year in five starts. Mirabelli gave up none today (and had some pretty nifty stops), and let's also mention that he threw out a would-be base stealer-- the first one to be thrown out with Wakefield pitching this season. Welcome back, Stud. I hope the PTBNL who he was traded for is Rudy Seanez (worthless shmuck...)

I like what I saw out of the Sox tonight. I feel like every loss we've taken this season, with the exception of the Cleveland blowout, we've been one hit away from breaking the game open. Tonight we did, and Ortiz put a cap on the victory with the home run off Mike Myers... an emphatic "F YOU" to the ineffective LOOGY. David Ortiz is too good for LOOGYs, Joe Torre, take note. I find it funny that the reason Mike Myers was acquired was to get David Ortiz out. So much for that...

Let's sweep this two-game series with a Josh Beckett win tomorrow.

I was going to write about the crowd reaction to Damon, but it's been discussed ad nauseum by everyone else in the media, so I'll just leave it at this: He should have been given a standing O in his first at-bat. After that, boo him all you want until it becomes almost comical. Without Johnny, the lives of Red Sox fans would be drastically different. We'd still be walking around with our heads down, sulking in our "Woe is me" attitudes, and wondering if God really does hate us all for 86 years ++ of suffering and torture we've had to endure. There is no 2004 World Series win without Johnny Damon. I would have stood for Johnny, because he delivered for us.

He's a Yankee now, and that's not cool at all, but for once, can we put aside the rivalry and realize that this man busted his ass 24-7 to bring us a title. If I saw him walking down the street, I'd shake his hand and tell him thank you for changing my life. I did that for Bronson Arroyo. I wish I could tell every single one of those 25 men how much they mean to me. Yes, Johnny Damon did a bad thing by signing with NYY (and lying about it on May 1, 2005)... but come on, Red Sox fans. Show some class.

Okay, I'm done now. Get it done, Beckett!

Patriots Draft

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog. For about a week, my school work had to come first. But my exams are over, summer has officially begun and life is good if you are Gator football players right about now...

The New England Patriots selected TWO Gators in the NFL Draft and proceeded to sign three more to free agent contracts. I always knew that Belichick and Urban Meyer were close... but this is ridiculous. (a good kind of ridiculous)

I love, love, LOVE the Chad Jackson second-round pick. Although I must admit that he has the potential to be just another Bethel Johnson. Jackson appears to have more tools than Bethel though, and I read that Mel Kiper thinks he has the best hands in college football (perhaps a bit of an overstatement). Kiper had Jackson as the 15th best-valued player in the draft, so I'd say getting Big Play Chad in the second round was a steal. With the Maroney pick in the first round, the Pats' offense just got a hell of a lot younger and more talented.

Now, about Maroney... I think the Patriots probably should have addressed their LB/CB/K needs first, but after reading this quote from Mike Shannahan about Laurence Maroney in MMQB, maybe I'm willing to change my mind:

"I loved him," Shanahan said. "I think the Patriots got a steal. An absolute steal. I think he's going to be the best back in the league."

Mel Kiper gave the Pats a B overall, with this to summarize their draft:

Laurence Maroney gives the Patriots a security blanket at running back. Wide receiver Chad Jackson was a nice pick in the second round and could have gone in the middle of the first. Tight end Dave Thomas has excellent hands and Garret Mills might be more of a fullback. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski was a reach in the fourth round (I didn't think any kickers would get drafted). New England had a great first day and a good second second day.

Note that no team got higher than a B+ (49ers)

Now, as for the Gator free agent signings... Herring and Brown were among the team captains for the Gators, which already shows they will fill in well in Belichick's "Team First, Individuals Second, No TO-type figures" team.

I hated Randy Hand all last season, and I think the inept Gator O-line was one of the main reasons that UF's offense was so unsuccesful last year. So naturally, I don't think Randy Hand will contribute anything to the Patriots.

Andy Staples, the Gator beat writer down at the Tampa Trib, pretty much called the Patriots' interest in the Gators. See link: http://www.tbo.com/sports/MGB959PIFME.html

"Then another thought struck. One or more of those three guys is going to be a New England Patriot. My guess is that Mincey will get the call during this weekend's NFL draft, because it makes too much sense."


Sawx-Yanks tonight. Thank GOD Doug Mirabelli is back. Only a few more 2006 offseason moves for Theo to undo. Let's continue with getting rid of Rudy Seanez. Hopefully he is the PTBNL in the 'Belli trade.