TUES 10/12

Subject: Re: Tomorrow?
12:43 am
To: Andrea
i think we'll be watching the entire LCS in our living room. we could fuck around with the division series and even the world series. but playoffs against the yankees? i think it's something meaghan and I need to face alone. unless we take a 3-0 lead, then it's open season.

speaking of which, have you been to sonny mclean's in santa monica? absolutely INSANE. it's a boston sports bar and it was ridiculous for game 3. like, UPN and fox sports were there taping the fans. felt like the cask 'n flagon or something.

The first of several Red Sox posts, then a break
10:09 am
I had a dream last night that Schilling took a 5-4 lead into the eighth against the Yankees, then they tied it up. Then John Olerud got on first, and someone knocked him home on a double. We were down and I stopped paying attention and soon we were down 20-5. The inning ended when Manny made a great catch (in right field). Then Mariano closed it out, showing no ill effects. The dream ended — no joke — with me blogging. My dream blog:

There’s been so much emphasis put on Schilling’s value that if the Sox lose Game 1, the media will go berserk and say momentum has shifted. Nope. A Game 1 loss by the Sox will not be crushing or pivotal. We can lose three games and still win this thing. Given Pedro’s sneer in the ALDS, I think people who take that “the Yankees are my daddy” quote seriously do so at their own risk.

Revenge
10:17 am
Last time, the bad guys stole a cheap victory, in part because of some stupid mistakes we made. We were better and most people acknowledged it, but they still won, just like they always seem to. But this year, we’ve been looking better, sharper, better than the other guy. This is not like last time. This time it looks like we know how to finish the job. And still, so many people are predicting victory for the bad guys. I think we can prevail.

Am I talking about the Red Sox facing the Yankees or the Democratic candidate facing Bush? Exactly my point. Go Kerry Sox!

Missing the point
10:25 am
Please understand: the goal of the Red Sox is to win a World Series. Yes, we hate the Yankees. And lately, we’ve REALLY hated them. But aside from Bucky Dent, we’d never faced them in the post-season until 1999. Thirteen games ever. Yes, we hate the Yankees, and yes they screwed us royally last year (beyond how we screwed ourselves). But they have not traditionally been what has stood in our way.

This is not about beating the Yankees. This is about winning the World Series.

If we beat the Yankees, they just point to their 26 championships and boost their payroll to $250 million. Sometimes when you beat up the bully, he says “You’re all right, Larusso.” Other times, he feels so humiliated that he stabs you in the lunchroom. You really think one ALCS loss is going to make Steinbrenner and New York give us respect? They’re already prepapring the Rivera’s family/Brown’s hand/Sheffield’s shoulder excuses.

But if we win the World Series, all the idiotic coverage of the [non-existant] “curse,” all the chants of 1918, all the moronic searching for Babe Ruth’s piano, all the everything goes away. I’ve heard the boneheaded theory floated that if the Sox win, fans will hate it because they like being losers, that it’s their identity. Uh, no, the MEDIA will hate it, because that’s their angle. We’ll be happy to be rid of it. We just want to be another team that contends every year and has great fans. Wouldn’t it nice to be the Braves, except with soul?

I suspect a lot of the people saying this is all about the Yankees got into the Sox during or since the Cowboy Up campaign. (Well, them and the fucking media.) Nothing wrong with that — welcome, new fans. Just understand that just because our recent history has been incredibly Yankee-centric doesn’t mean it’s always been like that. Don’t forget, the Yankees missed the playoffs every year from 1982-1994.

The goal is to be the last team standing. Given last year, it makes a better story to go through the Yankees. But don’t lose sight of what this is really about: winning the World Series.

Enough already
10:53 am
Okay, sorry about all the Sox posting. Not really sorry, but I’ll move on to other topics. So, how about that new TV season? Haven’t watched any of the shows. Any of them any good? For me, it’s all about the “Office” special on BBC 10/21.

Subject: Re: got 'em!!!
11:58 am
To: Doorman X
wow, talk about the belly of the beast. that's awesome, although I don't know if i could handle all those fans celebrating anything good that happened to the yanks. but that place sounds ELECTRIC. can't wait to read your reports on it.

The time warp
5:30 pm
It’s been nearly a half hour since Fox began their overhyped broadcast of Yankees-Red Sox and I’m not watching. I’m waiting for Meaghan, and then we’ll watch the TiVo’d version. If she got home now, we’d be caught up to reality by the third or fourth inning or so.

Joe Suck
9:09 pm
Back in high school, I remember a senior talking about having to sit next to two particularly loserish guys during graduation rehearsal. His words were that “They were having a contest to see who could be a bigger idiot.”

Usually during the baseball playoffs, Joe Buck and Tim MCarver compete like that and usually McCarver wins, but tonight’s special guets Al Leiter won easily. One of the things I hate most about Joe Buck is that he announces things before they happen. Every time someone scored, he announced the new score while the player halfway between third and home. NO! Who are you trying to scoop, the guy to your right?

The salvage
9:16 pm
A loss, yes. A demoralizing start for Schilling, definitely. But you can’t count these guys out, as Meaghan and I almost started to.

Putting up seven runs in two innings to shift the Yankees from delusions of a perfect game to getting within a run and making their closer come in to preserve things. In four post-season games, we’ve score 8, 9, 8, 7. That’s going to be enough to win four games, even against the mighty Yankees.

Hope springs in eternal. As for all these “daddy” comments, underestimate Pedro Martinez at your own risk.

Where credit is due
9:19 pm
Meaghan referred to Joe Buck on her blog as Joe Dumb Fuck, which is what inpired me to call him Joe Suck. Meaghan’s funny.

Pre-game strategy session
10:04 am
TORRE: Hey, A-Rod, get over here.
A-ROD: Yes, Mr. Torre?
TORRE: When you go up to bat against Schilling and his bad ankle, sweep the leg.
A-ROD: What? Skipper, I can take this guy.
TORRE: Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Rodriguez?
A-ROD: N-n-no, skipper.
TORRE: No mercy.
A-ROD: Yes, skipper.

Subject: RE: today, the price was right
10:40 am
To: Cornhiolo'keefe
nothing is as cool as david ortiz, especially after last night.

Subject: Re: my fellow jackasses
10:45 am
To: Gara
ortiz smiles a lot more than mo vaughn did. and if you remember, the first ALCS we went to since 1986 was the year after mo left us. if I was bill belicheck, i'd be watching this ortiz very closely. he has the capacity to supersede him as the #1 guy in new england... although that could end pretty quickly today or tomorrow.

Lies I always believe
11:16 am
- I’ll call you back
- I could go either way
- I think this is the Red Sox’s year
- I’m sure you have nothing to worry about
- Enlarge now without pills or creams!

The 2004 Red Sox — THE MOVIE
11:27 am
The story so far:

The Red Sox, crushed by the Yankees last year because of managerial ineptitude, battle back to face the Yankees again. Now favorites, they lose the opener when their Boston-breathing ace hurts his ankle. The team wilts after that and even though their beleagured co-ace puts in a gutty performance, the hitters don’t have fire in their eyes and they lose again. Game 3, which could have been their turning point becomes a sad rout and they face being swept, something no team has ever climbed back from.

But then in Game 4, they come back against the best closer of all time, and their rotund slugger wins it in extra innings. The next day, they beat the same closer and use the same hitter to win in even extra-er innings. Now they return to New York and their hurt ace, held together with tape, heads to the mound for redemption.



If this was a movie, Schilling pitches through pain but does great and lasts eight innings to save the bullpen, and the Red Sox win it 3-2 on a seventh-inning 2-run double by slumping Johnny Damon. Game 7 we trail in the 9th, down 5-4, with Orlando Cabrera on first… Manny Ramirez hits a home run for his only RBI’s of the postseason. Keith Foulke records two outs, then hurts his hand and has to come out. So Pedro Martinez, long taunted by Yankees fans, comes in with the bases loaded and strikes out A-Rod swinging to send the Boston Red Sox to the World Series in the most amazing comeback in sports history.

That’s a script that wins you Oscars. However, I don’t think that’s quite what we’re going to see…

Not to get ahead of myself
7:17 pm
But if by some crazy miracle the Red Sox hang on and force a Game 7, is there any better path to have gotten there than being the first team in Major League history to fall behind 3-0 and force a Game 7?

I hope I didn’t personally jinx it.

I still haven’t recovered
9:24 pm
When Foulke struck out Tony Clark, Meaghan was screaming, but I held my face in my hands and let out a gigantic sigh that had built inside me since the 8th. I predicted a 3-2 win after a Schilling performance for the ages, and I was only off by a run (although my guess on how we’d get the runs couldn’t have been wronger).

So we’ve made history pushing it to 7. And the series that I gave up on in Game 3 I now think we have a real strong shot at winning. I will be trying very hard to think about other things in the coming days… but I doubt I’ll be able to.

What I said to Meaghan last night
9:32 am
“Let’s try something. The Red Sox had a great season and we’ve battled back from depths nobody expected. If we lose Game 7, let’s just be really excited about that other stuff. The Yankees look bad either way and we’ve tired them out so much they won’t win the World Series.”

She didn’t buy it and neither did I. Neither of us could sleep well last night with Ortiz on the brain, and no doubt our hearts will be on our sleeves tonight and we’ll live and die a little with every pitch.

I’ve heard rumors the National League is still playing, too.

The futility of the effort
9:59 am
During these last baseball games, Meaghan, Justin, and I have been doing a weird triangle of blogging and commenting. It mostly flows between the two of them, but I haven’t missed any of their posts yet in the history of their blogs. Some of this reaidng and commenting goes on during the game. They’re smart and funny and good writers and they know breathe baseball and so I like to see what they’re saying, even if Meaghan is writing hers three feet away from me.

But last night via the occasionally too brutal Boston Dirt Dogs site, I ended up at some random other sports blogs. Bad writers, not smart insights, and I realized that I just can’t say anything about the Sox that 4500 other fans haven’t alreaqdy said or thought. I’m not capable of silencing all the Sox thoughts in my head, but I can ackowlegde right here and now that I probably won’t be offering insight you couldn’t read on half a dozen other sites.

Subject: Re: you
12:59 pm
To: Doorman X
before this series beagn, meaghan said, "Well, it can't end any worse than last year." right now i think it has the capacity to end much worse than last year. i feel like we'll win, but the possibility of crushing disaster looms large.

those tickets are going to run you $500+

Disappointed
1:00 pm
On ebay, some idiot is currently bidding $535 on two World Series tickets for Game 1 at Yankees Stadium. Bleacher seats! If that game is played in Fenway Park he’s going to be able to return them for about $50, for a net loss of $500 (including shipping). It’s that kind of reckless confidence that makes you understand why most of America will be pulling for the Olde Towne Teame tonight.

Maybe I should take it back
1:05 pm
Just did an ebay search for Red Sox tickets and I found three people bidding over $2000 for World Series tickets, including one bid of $3,406. Different motivation, but at least as crazy.

Okay, the prediction
1:30 pm
There’s a certain feeling I can remember while looking at a pitching performance from another planet. I saw it last year when I went to the bathroom at a Chinese restaurant and saw Josh Beckett winning the World Series we were boycotting. I saw it when I was a kid who wasn’t yet into baseball and Orel Hershisher was spinning a classic in the Series. I think I saw it when Mussina struck out 14 Indians in the ‘98 LCS. And I definitely saw it when Pedro came in from the bullpen in ‘99 against the Indians to no-hit them for six innings to win the Division Series. The pitcher has a weird, bemused, almost entranced look on his face and their stuff is just magical.

That’s what I see tonight. It’s going to be Derek Lowe, or Bronson Arroyo, or Pedro for three innings. Or all of them plus Foulke. There’s a chance Javier Vazquez will have the game of his life, but he doesn’t have the demeanor to have that bemused look. Too many demons, too much scowl. That’s fine — Clemens, Johnson, and even Schilling couldn’t do that. D-Lowe could.

NESN was predicting a high-scoring affair. I think it will be about 2-1. And I don’t feel too strongly about this, but I think the last team standing, finally, will be the Boston Red Sox. I will not be blogging throughout this game. Instead, I will be drinking. Heavily.

Last post before it all goes down
5:26 pm
No idea what to say, so I’ll say nothing. Except GO SOX. Go.

YES OH FUCKING YES!!!!
9:42 pm

Really isn’t overstating the case — biggest comeback in the history of baseball, very possibly in the history of sports. We’ve been fielding phone calls since it ended and we’re not likely to stop smiling for a week.

Could there have been a better way for the Red Sox to have gotten to the World Series? Beating the Yankees, after they go up 3-0, after they rout us, to win two in extra innings on the lats at-bat, to send out our hobbled ace to pitch a gem, and then to send out our deposed starter to pitch brilliantly and then win in a bit of a rout of our own to become the first team ever in baseball history to win after falling behind 0-3?

Run-on sentences be damned! The Red Sox win the pennant!

I called it
9:53 pm
I said that Lowe would be brilliant. I called Johnny to break out of his slump a game early. But MAN. As my future father-in-law said to me tonight, “If you had written this, I would have said, ‘I don’t believe that, that’s kind of hackneyed.’”

Only makes it better.

What did I say on the way there?
9:56 pm

Game 1: A loss, yes. A demoralizing start for Schilling, definitely. But you can’t count these guys out, as Meaghan and I almost started to.

Game 2: Today I hate the Red Sox. Yesterday, Schilling was injured and Mussina threw a great game. Tonight the Red Sox just sucked. They should have been able to beat Lieber, and they should have scored for Pedro. One measly run?…

Oh, and THIS is why I didn’t want to face the Yankees, folks.

Game 3: I’d watch Game 6 of the ALCS, but Games 4 and 5 don’t interest me. After this flurry of posts and three wasted evenings, I’ll be devoting my time elsewhere. Unless there’s a Game 6, in which I’m game for more punishment.

I expect I’m in the clear.

Game 4: Watching the Sox knock out Mariano Rivera and win in the bottom of the 12th on yet another David Ortiz walk-offhome run, I thought of Curt Schilling’s rallying cry on Sons of Sam Horn before the playoffs began: Why not us? So no baseball team’s ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in a 7-game series. But why couldn’t we? Usually the team going falling behind like that fell behind because they were significantly worse. Not us. If we have the fire, and they’re tired and disappointed and a little scared, and their starting pitching wears out like everyone expected it would, and our hitting catches life, and our pitching settles down, and Schilling’s okay to throw again…

Yeah, a whole lot of ifs. But why not us?

Game 5: Do you believe in David Ortiz?
You should believe in David Ortiz. He did it AGAIN. Three game-winning walkoff hits in this post-season, including 100% of all ALCS wins so far. I’m spent…

Welcome back, boys. Prepare for a Curt Schilling performance that will only add to his legend.

Game 6: If this was a movie, Schilling pitches through pain but does great and lasts eight innings to save the bullpen, and the Red Sox win it 3-2 on a seventh-inning 2-run double by slumping Johnny Damon.

That’s a script that wins you Oscars. However, I don’t think that’s quite what we’re going to see…

Game 7: There’s a certain feeling I can remember while looking at a pitching performance from another planet…. The pitcher has a weird, bemused, almost entranced look on his face and their stuff is just magical.

That’s what I see tonight. It’s going to be Derek Lowe, or Bronson Arroyo, or Pedro for three innings. Or all of them plus Foulke…

And I don’t feel too strongly about this, but I think the last team standing, finally, will be the Boston Red Sox.

Are you tired of me talking about the Red Sox?
10:13 pm
Take it up with Derek Lowe, David Ortiz, and Johnny Damon because they just changed the complexion of this blog over the next week+.

My new quest
10:30 pm
If you know where I can buy a “Why Not Us?” T-Shirt, I have yet to find a place (except for crappy knockoffs on ebay).

My conversation with the Yankees fan
11:56 pm
ME: I thought it was appopriate that the Red Sox watched “Miracle” tonight, because nobody remembers that the win against the USSR only got them to the finals. There was still the gold medal game.

HIM: Yeah, don’t go and lose to Finland.

The first day of spring
9:32 am
In Boston, the winter lasts seven months, and it’s a horrible, biting cold. It’s tough, it dampens your spirit, and after a while you start to forget that New England has any other kind of weather. But then, one day, it breaks. One day the air is tolerable, warm even, the sun glistens, and the world is a different place. You get on the train and suddenly everyone’s better-looking, no longer wearing bulky clothes, smiling for the first time in months. It’s so beautiful you just can’t believe how great it is to be alive, and how you forgot that something as great as this was coming. But of course had to suffer through that horrible winter to recognize how magical the first day of spring really is.

David Ortiz. Johnny Damon. Derek Lowe. Today is the first day of spring and it’s better than I ever imagined.

Quel ironie
10:04 am
Being up 3-0, with your dominating closer three outs away from finishing the sweep, and then going on to become the first team in Major League history to lose the series after being 3-0…

That is what you could only call a “Red-Sox-like collapse.”

And did I mention?
???
The Yankees were never even in this one. The definition of a dominating victory.

I’m trying so hard
10:09 am
I’d like to blog about something other than baseball, but that would require me to THINK about something other than baseball…

Imagination
11:08 am
It’s dumb, but I have a particular affection for players I had on my fantasy team, especially those I picked up before they became awesome. I’ve had Pujols the last three years and he only gets better — the first year I drafted him maybe 50th overall, then 15th, then 2nd. This year, my team was pretty much set by my 16th pick (162nd overall), so I wanted another Sox player. I asked Meaghan if I should take David Ortiz or Pokey Reese. I already had two first basemen, but I took her advice. At the end of the season, Ortiz was ranked 11th among hitters and the second among first baseman… trailing only his fantasy teammate Albert Pujols. Which is to say that I worshipped at the altar of David Ortiz way before we even made the playoffs. Now I think I’m actually in love with him.

Subject: Re: Dan, Paul has invited you to open a Google mail account
11:29 am
To: Paul H
do you think DavidOrtiz@gmail.com is already taken?

i am still quivering from last night. what a great time to be a boston sports fan.

Subject: Re: win
11:31 am
To: Doorman X
yeah, i really did think it was all about the world series but now I realize that history will treat this like the 1980 men's hockey team -- the gold medal game was really an afterthought to the impossible victory over the unbeatable bad guys. fine by me.

i can't believe someone isn't selling those "why not us?" shirts. they would make a MINT. if/when i find them, i'll be sure to let you know.

is NYC a dark and angry place today?

Subject: Re: State of Bliss - Tufts Red Sox Nation West
11:37 am
To: Jenn
i didn't have the stomach to watch the games with anyone but meaghan. for the second ALCS Game 7 in as many years, we had a vicious fight during it (centering on how we were reacting to the game). emotions run high and at least for us, this series had to be a solitary thing. of course, the second it ended, the phone was ringing off the hook.

anyway, the world series is something we want to share. we were talking about having people over for a game or two, but i have no idea which game we'll do that for. but i'm definitely up for some game watching.

i'm still quivering from last night...

Subject: Re: Fwd: Coming soon: World Series Ticket Opportunity
11:45 am
To: Jack Graham
meaghan and i couldn't sleep last night, and when we did we dreamt about the red sox. i still haven't fully grasped it. this is bigger than i even know what to do with. it almost makes last year's debacle worth it to help set up the current euphoria. (i haven't decided yet.)

Further proof
11:47 am
Just tried to read The Sports Guy’s column on the Red Sox win and I couldn’t get through it. It really irritates me that such a mediocre writer has, for a lot of sports fans, become the official face of Red Sox fandom. I’m sorry, the guy writes like I did in college. Being cutesy and dropping obvious pop culture references with tales about stuff about “just me and the guys!” is forgiveable when you’re 20. We deserve better now.

Like Bob Ryan in today’s Globe. Like anything my friend John Tomase writes in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune. Like Peter Gammons and, until I had to pay for it, Rob Neyer. Like the blogs I’ve already pointed you to.

The Sports Guy deserves to be the face of Red Sox fans as much as Ben Affleck; to borrow a line from the next President of the United States, we can do better.

Subject: Re: Fwd: Coming soon: World Series Ticket Opportunity
12:15 pm
To: Jack Graham
i'm jealous that you're in boston. that whole city has to be electric today.

Subject: Re: shhhhhhhh......don't tell Grizzlor
1:18 pm
To: Erin
first off, RED SOX!!!!!

Subject: Re: win
2:36 pm
To: Doorman X
no, of course the curse isn't lifted. but man are things brighter than they've ever been. if you buy into the curse mythology (which i think is stupid) everything started with babe ruth going to the yankees. so i get their involvement.

1. Giambi wasn't a help once he got off the 'roids
2. Rivera in the 2nd? that would probably be the only thing that got Torre fired
3. Using Pedro was stupid -- Tito was trying to exorcise some ghosts and YOU DON'T FUCK AROUND IN A GAME 7, especially given our history
4. i think Steinbrenner will fire half the organization.
5. gosh, Clemens a traitor?
6. they didn't notice that at the beginning of the year?
7. look for carlos beltran, randy johnson, and 2-3 small market teams' closers to be wearing pinstripes next year.
8. i could see them keeping brown
9. i never wanted a-rod... and that's when i loved nomar and hated manny
10. boston sucks because we beat them.

i got an email from a blogger which was nice but basically saying yankees fans are classy and sox fans are jerks. after i picked my jaw off the ground i pointed out thet the yankees had bucky dent throw out the first pitch and that their fans delight in our suffering ("1918" chants?) and our fans didn't require settling down by riot police.

7 wins down, 4 to go. i don't know which team i'd rather face, but yeah, the clemens vs boston angle would be the best of the remaining storylines, not to mention a team that never made the world series facing one definied by their inability to win one in almost a century. although if it's the cardinals, you really have the best team in each league in the world series, which is pretty awesome, too.

i think i'd rather face cardinals pitching.

Subject: Re: Red Sox!!!
2:38
To: Lori and others
this is like the 1980 mens hockey team -- nobody remembers that the USSR game just got them to the gold medal round. now we have to wait to see which NL team will be our finland.

Subject: Re: The greatest photoshop job ever
3:59 pm
To: Meaghan
you MUST add that to your blog, like so:
<img src="http://www.e11even.ca/dump/ArodPurse.jpg" width=500>

Subject: Re: Go Sox!
4:24 pm
To: rigmor
i know, massachusetts vs, texas, right? although the parallels for the yankees series were even stronger -- last time we had the better team and somehow lost. then we came back from the edge of oblivion to avenge the loss and beat the supremely rich and evil bully and give hope to millions who'd lived through years of darkness.

Schilling on Letterman
12:18 am
Most are standard-issue lame, but one secret to the Red Sox comeback tickled me:

7. We asked Pokey Reese to be a little less pokey.

A couple more Sox thoughts, then a break
12:40 am
I’ll try to spend Friday NOT blogging about the Sox. That said, let me get a few things out of my system:

- Jeter had a lame quote last night about how “the best team doesn’t always win” and suddenly today, it’s VERY hard to find his classless quote online. Interesting.

- Some people wanted to face Clemens, but I’m glad he won’t make the World Series. Yankees fans think he’s a traitor? Finally some common ground.

- Also glad the Presidential metaphor of Texas vs. Massachusetts won’t happen. I couldn’t deal a Sox loss compounded by more Bush smirkage.

- I fear Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen, but they should fear Manny, Ortiz, and Varitek. St. Louis has no Schilling or Pedro. And they have the 2001 A’s closer, we have the 2003 A’s closer. I say we win it in 6 or 7. No, 7 because we’re the Red Sox.

- I have an added desire to see the Red Sox to win: I stand to gain $25 on a bet I placed in Las Vegas. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes! And that would maybe pay for one shoe!

Subject: don't hate me
12:51 pm
To: Jay
in all seriousness, depending on what happens in Game 6 of the world series, i may not be able to make the party.