Baseball season started!

[Dan Gould]

Hey, want to see the dumbest, stoopidist "article" ever posted on espn about baseball???? I saw this last night, should have posted it earlier. These same "Experts" had both series over a few days ago...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...second/guessing

Yeah, and frankly, this scares me:

Royce: As for Game 7? That's easy. Sox win. I mean, isn't that why we've come this far? If this series were going to be about dashed hopes in Red Sox Nation, it would have ended already. I don't believe in momentum in baseball &

David: And I would suggest neither team has momentum. After all, momentum is only as good your next day's starting pitcher.

Royce: .. but the way the Sox are going to knock the ball around the yard tomorrow night may make me a believer. The Yankees are just looking for a tent to fold.

Eric: All right, here it is: Sox. Big.

David: Big, huh, E? Ortiz goes yard a couple times? Manny knocks in his first runs of the series? Damon actually gets the ball out the infield?

Eric: Big. It's settled by the fourth or fifth.

David: How can anything be settled when the Sox have no pitching left? Odds are, realistically, considering Lowe really wasn't any good this year, and neither was Wakefield, that it's Yankee big.

Eric: Lowe gives them three solid (I mean shaky, but solid), Wake pitches the rest of the way, giving up four runs, but it doesn't matter because the Sox have scored 11.

Royce: It will resemble Game 7 of the 1985 World Series. Someone on the Yankees' side will get thrown out of the game. Tim McCarver will use the word "remarkable" more than Fox shows Bruno Kirby -- I mean, Terry Francona -- in the Sox dugout.

David: Realistically, I think they start Lowe and hope for four or five innings. Wakefield is a wild card; if they thought he could go more than a couple innings, he'd be the starter. So maybe he has two innings in him. That leaves two from Timlin and then Foulke comes on and strikes out Jeter with two on to preserve a 6-5 win.

Eric: Yeah, Dave, like "realistically" has anything to do with this series.

[Brad]

I don't think Arod did it intentionally. I just think it was instinct: do whatever you can to do to get on base. I really don't think he realized he did it. At any rate, he would have been called out because he ran outside the base line.

On a game like this, I don't think you can predict what's going to happen. It's too crazy. Pedro won't pitch. He's a starter who just can't go back and forth. If it goes extra innings and long into the night, then, yes, maybe. All I know is that whoever loses is going to be one unhappy camper. The Red Sox can't afford to lose having come this far back and if the Yankees make history tonight, that would be unacceptable to them as well.

All I know is that I'm enjoying hearing the Yankees fans on the radio about ready to jump off. To see them brought down to earth even if only for a day is enjoyable beyond compare. As the ad goes, "priceless."

[ghost of miles]

Amazing.  And I don't even like baseball.

But you have posted at least....where is Ghost, and Dan, and bluesForBartok??? Are they all passed out from shock???

Just heard that Shilling had his ankle sutured before the start!!!!

I've been on vacation and haven't been on the Internet much... oh, agony! A conservative poster on Atrios recently wrote, "I wouldn't mind Kerry winning so much... what I don't think I could take would be Atrios crowing about it for the next 4 years."

Well, Dan, you may be crowing away come this evening.

I also wouldn't mind the Yanks getting beat by the Bosox... but I would mind like hell their being the first team ever to blow a 3-0 lead. Lord, can you imagine what Steinbrenner will do if that comes to pass?

Speaking of Atrios, he started a thread when St. Louis was up 2-0 and NY was up 3-0 saying, "Please spare us a Boston-Houston series," for the sole reason that it would spawn tons of baseball metaphors in articles about the presidential race (Bush=Houston, Kerry=Boston). At the time he said, "Not that there's too much chance of that happening."

It's another reason why I love baseball so much. What a crazy series! And I thought last year's was over the top...

[BERIGAN]

Oh, that OTHER game is starting now....IF Boston wins(I will keeps saying the Yanks will win everynight, and hope the same amazed look comes across my face tonight as well) hope for Houston, not only for the Rocket/Redsox fun, but for the fact the Astros are just not as good as the cards....but, as the 1982 Cards, and 1988 Dodgers proved, the best team does not always win!!! Like GOM said, gotta love this!!! But, after two games a day, then one, we have to go months without any!

[Free For All]

One thing I was wondering was why did the ump called Rodriguez "safe" when he hadn't even touched the bag yet?

[Big Wheel]

It was pretty clear that his view of the whole play was obscured by Mankewiecz. I guess he saw the ball flying out of the glove and made the ruling based on that, assuming Rodriguez had touched the bag.

[Big Wheel]

Off topic, but does anyone know who's playing that New Orleans-type music in that Mastercard commercial they keep playing during the telecast?

[Tim McG]

So!

Don't believe in the Curse of the Bambino?

Now we wait and see...Game 7, folks.

[sheldonm]

...big slam by Damon.....it's early in the game but the Yankees are down by a touchdown! Go Sox!

[Big Wheel]

3 1/3 innings and the Yankees are already on their third pitcher. I'm still not relaxing just yet.

[Chalupa]

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4fyng/index.html

[BERIGAN]

Off topic, but does anyone know who's playing that New Orleans-type music in that Mastercard commercial they keep playing during the telecast?

I can't remember what company it was(Don't think it was Mastercard though) that has had Maxine Sullivan with John Kirby doing Blue Skies.

[Big Wheel]

No, not that one. I'm talking about the one where they ask Sox fans what they'd give up for World Series tickets. Maybe that commercial is only airing in the New England area?

[Tjazz]

Good thing Pedro was only in there for 1 inning.

[Jim Alfredson]

Wow.

Wow.

That was incredible. They'd better win the World Series now, after all that.

[bluesForBartok]

We may never see a comeback like that in our lifetime again.

I'm speechless.

[BERIGAN]

What can you say???? I thought when Pedro went in, and gave up a few runs, I thought to myself, there is no way Red Sox fans could put up with this big of loss, it would dwarf last year. No one could even think about baseball next year in New England...couldn't believe Lowe was taken out...but this year is truly different. Balls bounced in the stands that would have put the Yankees up. Umpires correct mistakes they have made against the Sox....3 wild pitches, and the no one scores...Last year, I angrily said, the Red Sox should not even call themselves rivals to the Yankees, they NEVER win. They were the Washington Generals. They have kicked the butts of the Yankees, in their park! Now, the Yankees have a taste of what the Red Sox have had to deal with year after year. Someone must have made a peace offering to the spirit of Babe Ruth. Ruth has gone back to being a Sox fan!!!!

[medjuck]

Hey I just looked at the thread where somone polled us about the game. More than 70% predicted the Sox would win! I knew this was a smart group.

[BruceW]

As far as the Sox go, I think its a smart move to start with Lowe, who's pitching with the most amount of rest, and see how long he can last, then let Wake come in.  If we get him a lead and Wake has the same knuckler he showed in Monday's game, this can be over very quick.

Well, well, well...

It looks like.... Lowe did his job!

Boston Red Sox

Jazz is alive too....

[Dan Gould]

Like my friend Mr. Blues, I too am speechless.

I know now we "have to" win it all, but you know what? Nothing can take this feeling away, ever. It washes away all of the hurt/heartbreak/pain of so many bitter defeats, and paid the Yankees back a hundredfold for what they've done to us in the past.

Why Yankee fans (present company excluded) deserve all the pain and anguish.

From the NY Times:

  Down at St. Marks Ale House in the East Village, Jonny Kaloudis, 25, said: "The worst would be losing to Boston fans because they're such ignorant, bitter people. They're so used to losing, all they have is hate. There's no humility. That's what we want to see. We want to see humility."

This from the most arrogant sons of bitches on the planet? Choke on it, buddy!

Have to give some props to my man Harold/Dave, who correctly foresaw that the Yankee pitching options wouldn't get it done (unlike his namesake, who always picks the Yanks, and then after the game, all of a sudden he's giving his expert commentary on why the Sox won. Why didn't he know they'd win beforehand?).

But who knew that Derek Lowe, on two day's rest, would pitch such a remarkable game? Almost as gutty as Schilling, in his own way. Critical, certainly, was the early runs, which got the Yankees out there ripping away. How many times did Lowe go strike, groundball out; strike, groundball out? Four pitches, two outs-you can go far, pitching like that.

And what about Johnny Damon?

"Roundin' third

and headin for home

it's a brown eyed handsome man"

The one big Second Guess is Pedro coming in in the seventh. Made no sense whatsoever, with a big lead, looking at Game 1 Saturday in Boston, when Pedro can pitch on regular rest, why even have him warm up? I could understand (just a bit) if the game were closer, but it was seven runs. Let Leskanic go in the seventh, and go batter to batter. Or use Wakefield to get to Timlin (or was Wake really not available? I can't imagine that was the case. )

Plus, it got the crowd back into the game, and when Matsui ripped the double, I was pissed. I still knew it was over (my wife was sitting tensely on the couch until the final groundout, while I was cheerfully chatting on the phone without a worry (at least, after Bellhorn's homer and Timlin's 1-2-3 8th inning).

GO RED SOX!!!

[brownie]

Hey Dan, congratulations for your favorite team.

Like a true European, I don't understand anything about baseball but I can grasp this was a milestone victory!

So, Go Red Sox!!!

[brownie]

I can't remember what company it was(Don't think it was Mastercard though) that has had Maxine Sullivan with John Kirby doing Blue Skies.

I've seen that commercial. Can't remember which company it was for. But I thought this was Mildred Bailey singing 'Blue Skies' rather than Maxime Sullivan

Cheech, two posts in one day in the baseball thread I usually keep away from...

[Jim Dye]

I have to find one of those "DAMON is my homeboy" T-Shirts.

[Big Al]

Wow! WoW!! WOW!!!

Nice to be alive when history's bein' made. Congratulations RED SOX!!!!

Perhaps the best part of all of this, from the perspective of a Ranger fan, is knowing A-Rod turned the Sox down because he wanted to be on a championship team. Yeah. Like Dan said, CHOKE ON IT, BUDDY!!!!

Also, I was absolutely GIDDY that Kevin Brown went down in flames. I’ve hated that guy since he was on the Rangers. He’s a whiny, overpaid, tantrum-throwing washout who never had that much on the ball to begin with. He alienated a lot of folks around here, none of us were sad to see him go, and this just ices the cake! I love it!!!

If the Astros win tonight, it’s gonna be tough to choose who to root for. In the end I’ll likely root for the ‘stros, being a Texan & all that, & they’ve never been to the Series, much less won one. But I certainly won’t be unhappy to see the Sox go all the way.

However, if the Cards win tonight, it’s SOX all the way for me, baby. For the Sox, and for the Cubs!

[Dave James]

Well, Dan, congratulations. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. In retrospect, I'm thinking that 19-8 win in Beantown last Saturday night might have been the worst thing that could have happened. At that point, the Yanks may have thought they had this in the bag and they took their foot off the pedal. Problem is you can't let a team that's as good as the Red Sox up off the mat and that's exactly what they did. Three outs from a sweep with the most dominant and reliable closer in the history of the game on the hill and now we're goin' home. Say it ain't so, Joe.

I'll tell you one person I would not want to be today and that's Brian Cashman. While no one couldn't predicted how bad Brown and Vasquez would be in the second half of the season, I'm not sure The Boss is going to see it that way. They need to take some of that money they've earmarked for Carlos Beltran and get themselves some reliable arms. The futility of their starting rotation and the resulting overuse of Quantrill, Gordon and Rivera during the regular season is a big part of what happened over these past few days.

When I was getting grumpy at home last night, my SO, who thinks sports of any kind are a complete waste of time, asked me why this mattered so much. That's a tough question to answer, especially when the someone who's asking doesn't care. But I guess that's what being a fan is all about. She'll never understand why this matters, but it does.

Oh well. To coin a phrase, "it's better to have won and lost than to have never won at all," See you next year.

This is Harold, signing off.