California Here We Come!
Pennant Express Goes West as the Road to the World Series Goes Through Anaheim
Let's Hendu It!
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(The dejected Angels catcher above is Bob Boone, father of a former NY Yankees third baseman) |
"I have followed them on a pitch-by-pitch basis since Johnny Pesky was managing the team. I have seen them participate in sixty-eight playoff and World Series games in five different decades. I have seen them play in person at their last three World Series - '67, '75', and '86. I have seen them win 9 Series games and 19 playoff games. I have seen them come oh so very close.
You'd think that I'd become somewhat jaded over the years, but I am already pacing around like a young father, wringing my hands, waiting for the baby to be delivered. Five more days and my stomach, which is already in knots, will be like heavy water left over from the Manhattan Project.
Win. Just win, please! If the Pats, the joke franchise of all time, the freaking Pats - "Will Bob Gladeaux please report to the Patriots locker room?" - if they can become the model team in professional sports, then the Red Sox can certainly secure a championship sometime. There are no more Ghosts of Clive Rush, Ben Dreith, Chuck Sullivan, Rod Rust, and Victor Kiam. Instead, they have been replaced by two glistening Lombardi trophies on display in the lobby of Gillette Stadium.
I am sick of 1918, Jack Hamilton; the St. Louis Cardinals; Bob Gibson, ski slopes in Colorado; Jose Santiago's bum arm; Eddie "The Fox" Kasko; trading Sparky for Danny "Are You Kidding Me?" Cater; trading the most popular player in franchise history for all players named "Tatum"; Luis Aparicio's base-running skills; Yaz not looking up to see where the runner is in front of him; three-run homers - starting pitching - and Earl Weaver's tomato patch out in the bullpen; losing Septembers as the Birds do nothing but win in the end; trading Reggie Smith and getting Reggie Cleveland as one of the players in return; Vern "High and tight to Rice" Ruhle; rain delays which cost World Series games; Larry Barnett and Ed Armbrister; Rick Wise and his unlimited potential; Cecil "Mr. 1 for 18" Cooper; Bill "Let me do my Rip Sewell thing in the 7th game of a World Series game" Lee; Darrell Johnson taking out Jim Willoughby for a pinch-hitter; Jim Burton - "let's see how the kid does here"; Joe Morgan and his squirting fly ball; the wasted talent of Roger Moret; Fergie Jenkins on hash; Craig Nettles; Mickey Rivers' sucker punch; The Gerbil; no hurler to back up El Tiante; "You know, Ken, Tom House is going to be the next great closer"; losing to the Yankees twice on the last weekend of two successive seasons; trading away Bernie Carbo and ignoring Yankee killer Bill Lee; Bobby Sprowl, the poor kid - up yours, Zim; the Boston Massacre; Lou "Mr. Sun Glare" Pinella; Steamer and a hanging slider to Reggie; Yaz swinging at the first strike; the unjust firing of Martin and Woods; Luis Tiant and Boomer in Yankee uniforms; Jerry Reinsdorf - the most evil man since Harold Frazee; Haywood not dropping Pudge's contract in the mail before December 31st; the Major playing with dirt in front of the dugout; the New Gold Dust Twins - Reid Nichols and Shag Crawford; John McNamara and his pea-brain; Tom Seaver's bum knee; what the hell is Schiraldi doing out there?; My English neighbor on seeing who's coming in - "Not Bloody Stanley!"; Geddy's passed ball; "Son, this is the darkest day in this town since Jack Kennedy was shot"; why isn't Can pitching the final game? Al Nipper actually pitching in game 7 when it mattered - Al Nipper! Cokehead Strawberry taking five years to get around the bases.......etc., etc., etc."
Just win. Please. Please. With jimmies on top.
-- Shaun "jacklamabe65 on SOSH" Kelly
Sigh of Relief
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(AP Photo) |
"They're not called the Derek Red Sox. This isn't about me. We're in the playoffs. I pitched twice out of the bullpen last year. I just look forward to contributing."-- Derek "Feeling" Lowe
McCarty Sharp in Pen but Sox Drop Finale 3-2
Double Winner
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(AP Photo) |
OC goes deep, Kim gets a win, 7-5
Mientkiewicz triple breaks tie
""It [ticks] me off. Boston comes down here and kicks our [butts] and the whole stadium is cheering. It's sad, but it's one of those things you have to deal with. It's amazing how Boston fans can get 30,000 tickets."-- Baltimore starter Sidney Ponson
Arroyo ready to go, Damon drives more in, 7-5
"I feel good. I've been throwing the ball good, I feel healthy, I feel strong and rested."-- Bronson "Good to Go" Arroyo
Wake Sends Birds South
Tim tune-up OK, Johnny hits No. 20, 'Tiz bangs No. 41,
Sox blow out Baltimore 8-3
D-Lowe Out of Rotation
Struggling Free Agent Starter Scratched
Former Sox Cy Young candidate Derek Lowe will not be pitching in his regular start on Sunday which would have lined him up to start Friday or Saturday in Boston (BK Kim may start the final game of the season). Bronson Arroyo and Tim Wakefield are expected to be named Game 3 and Game 4 starters for the ALDS.
Not-so-Super Agent EmBorased
3-years/$27-million is gone.
So is D-Lowe when Sox run is done.
Thanks Beautiful!
No Show Nomar, Cubs Out of Playoffs
Deja Nomah
"I never turned down any money in Boston. So that's kind of funny they keep saying that."-- Nomar Garcialiar
"Even after that, Epstein said Monday, he told Tellem that if Garciaparra accepted the Sox' four-year, $48 million offer, the team would abandon its pursuit of Rodriguez. He conveyed the same message to Garciaparra in a phone conversation just before flying to New York to meet with Rodriguez, a meeting he told Garciaparra he was planning to have.
Garciaparra rejected that proposal, and in a telephone interview Monday night made it clear he was unwilling to accept a proposal so far below what the Sox had offered the previous spring.
Henry, asked if he understood why Garciaparra might have been offended, said: "Why would you be offended? I guess you could take offense. This spring we offered him $60 million again in a meeting with Arn. Granted, it wasn't all up front. A portion of it was deferred. I didn't think the deferrals were a big deal because the Red Sox would be there and the interest rates were low.
"We were trying to find a way to sign him. We never received a counteroffer to any of the proposals we made."-- Boston Globe, Gordon Edes
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(AP Photo) |
Bad News Bear Punts When Cubs Needed Touchdown
"He removed himself from the moment. How pathetic."
-- Former Nomar Rumpswab Bob Neumeier, WEEI
"When the Cubs traded for Nomar Garciaparra on July 31, Dusty Baker looked like a kid in a toothpick store. The options! Aramis Ramirez, Moises Alou, Derrek Lee, Sammy Sosa and here came Garciaparra. An embarrassment of riches. The riches have left the building, and the embarrassment has stuck around.
With one out and a man on first in the 12th inning, Garciaparra bunted. By itself, it wasn't a bad idea. The element of surprise might have gotten him a bunt single. One problem: He showed bunt on the first pitch, then pulled back. When he finally did bunt, the Reds were ready. The game went quietly after that." -- Rick Morrissey, Chicago Tribune
"...up to the plate came Nomar Garciaparra, who was acquired because of his slashing line drives and power. With one out, Garciaparra should have been swinging, not worrying about grounding into a double play. No one gave him the bunt sign, obviously, yet strangely, he decided to bunt anyway, successfully moving Macias to second base but reducing the Cubs' margin of error to one out. Please explain, superstar.
''The guy was playing back,'' Garciaparra said of third baseman Felipe Lopez. ''We needed baserunners at the time, especially with the guys coming up behind me. In the worst-case scenario, we do get a guy in scoring position. He made a great play.''
Someone asked him if he was trying to be cute. Translation: Why would an offensive force who once hit .372, who had 35 home runs and 122 RBI in a single season, choose this strange moment to move over a runner? Suddenly, Garciaparra was having a Boston flashback. The media were badgering him. Did it ever occur to him that he's The Curse, the link between the Red Sox and Cubs?
''I don't know why that would be cute,'' he said of the sacrifice. ''Did you expect me to bunt? I thought it was a great idea to put a guy in scoring position. I don't think anything was shocking there. It doesn't matter what kind of hitter I am in that situation. It matters what kind of team you have.''
The Cubs are not much of a team, as we learned many months ago. They are choke artists and babies, with one of the biggest whiners, Moises Alou, fittingly ending this latest dark episode in franchise infamy with a lazy fly out. ''We work on [bunting] all the time,'' an exhausted Baker said. ''We just came up short today.''
And Garciaparra's decision? ''He did that on his own,'' Baker confirmed." -- Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun Times
