Tossing batting practice….with my popcorn still ready, albeit a bit stale at this point……
Nothing quite soothes the sting of a typical Sox late game collapse in the playoffs quite like hanging damn near half a hundred on the Cowboys in Texas.
For all the whining and complaining the pansies in Dallas have for "running up the score" I have two points.
1. This is professional freakin sports, you don't want to see 48 on the board, do something about it, and don't go calling someone else's accomplishments a black mark and then expect them to take kind pity upon you when it's determined you are playing at the rookie level while we're playing at All-Madden.
2. If they were really trying to run it up, Brady would have dropped back to pass and get a sixth TD, instead they were trying to get a hard working guy at the bottom of the depth chart a touchdown, and a once in a lifetime memory, scoring a touchdown in Texas Stadium.
I see no problem with that.
So if the Pats annihilate the Colts, is Bill Polian going to institute some sort of handicap system for the competition committee to approve?
It can be like golf, where the Patriots are clearly at 0, while the rest of the league is right now at least a 17 handicap.
What's the early over/under for the Colts game? 90? 100? 120?
My favorite quote of the week so far has gone to Tim Floyd, while touting the virtues of O.J. Mayo especially his maturity. Somehow I think we'll be pointing to that in a few months and going "I knew it would go wrong right then and there two days after fall practice started…"
Almost 24,000 showed up for PRACTICE at Kentucky last week. (Allen Iverson likely not one of them) Just to watch a little dunk contest and a less than spirited scrimmage. I may be the vice president of the Billy Gillespie fan club, but even still the lavish praise cast upon him seems a bit much for a guy who's never made it out of the Sweet 16.
With that said, I can't help but see the comparisons to Beelzebub Pitino nearly two decades ago (wow?! I'm getting old).
Perhaps my favorite story of that whole Midnight madness thing was the fact that LSU's football team stayed in the hotel next door to Rupp that night, and could hear the noise all night long.
It sure looked like something affected them, as their vaunted defense gave up 44 points.
By the way is their any context in which you don't use vaunted as sarcasm?
I said Cal and LSU weren't going undefeated…..I just didn't think they'd lose the very next week.
It's old news that the system needs to be shaken up, but when it's clearly rewarding the three teams who went out of their way to schedule anyone who would play them, provided they finished the year before more than seven games below .500 it's time for a new idea.
The anti-John Calipari theory of scheduling…."Anytime, anywhere, any place…..as long as you suck."
I just can't help but feel at the present moment that this entire ALCS ended in the 11th inning on Saturday when the bullpen door swung open.
After getting shut down like they did the last five innings (and really outside of Manny Lowell and Ortiz the whole game) you just knew that Jake Westbrook was throwing a gem Monday night.
Until further notice, Papelbon is never ever allowed to be compared to Rivera again. I thought that’s why we babied him all year, was to have him as a weapon in the postseason.
With our bullpen empty, we needed one more inning out of him. It was the top of Cleveland’s order coming, if we had lost in 12 I would have said ok.
I think it's official Dustin Pedroia can't hit in cold weather. Maybe the Sox should send him to some kind of Winter Instructional League in Canada, or make him spend spring training practice with BC outdoors in February.
Tonight's game should have been determined carnival style. Bring both starting pitchers to a nearby school yard, place them 60 feet six inches from it, and give each pitcher 10 pitches.
Whoever can break the most windows with their pitches gives their team the win.
Wakefield gave you a typical Wakefield start, but we needed more tonight, and the fact he hasn’t pitched well since August didn’t make me like our chances too much.
Lastly…my thoughts on this series at the present moment go like this, and I’m a little bit worried that my father, who never agrees with anything I have to say when it comes to coaching thinks I’m right.
Coaching and playing in a short series is all about momentum, the Sox had it early, and basically had it all the way through until that fateful 11th inning. It was then that Cleveland breathed a giant exhale because they had gotten through Boston’s ace.
It’s always a boost when the ace/closer comes out of the game, and it proved to be for Cleveland.
In game 4 Francona had a chance to take the momentum back by putting the stopper back out on the hill. If they lose so be it, you went to the dance with who brung ya. But a win, and now Cleveland starts pressing because they know Beckett is looming in game 7 on full rest. It’s in their heads they have to win both games to have a chance, and that’s when bad things start to happen.
The Sox could have taken control back in this series, now Beckett could toss a perfect game Thursday, but it won’t matter because Cleveland knows that it can touch up the other two guys waiting next in line.
For them Thursday is a freebie, in an ideal world they would prefer not to go back to Boston, but if they do they do.
Cleveland is a young team with little postseason experience, they were going to thrive on momentum even more so than your average veteran team, it’s the old “their too stupid to know they should be nervous” axiom.
If Tito simply came out and said, “I remember what I did to Foulkie, and in my heart I knew I couldn’t do that to Paps or Beckett”, then I’ll respect his honesty. Otherwise there’s no real excuse.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Tossing Batting Practice…..while wondering what exactly Joe Torre's resume and cover letter will look like when it appears on Monster this week…
A happy Christmas in October to Sox fans around the region, I know I rushed down to open the presents that awaited me from the NY Daily News, the Post, Newsday, and even the Times.
It’s become an annual tradition, and one that I’ve grown very fond of in recent years.
It’s nice to see Mystique and Aura are still just dancers in a nightclub.
When the Stadium starts rocking, I always get nervous, but there’s no better feeling than seeing the life get sucked out of the joint when Captain Gasbag bounces into a rally-killing double play. Jeter deserves a lot of blame, but hell likely escape it.
I think A-Rod should opt out of the deal, but he’s enough of a student of the history of the game to want to stay and win with the Yanks.
Eric Wedge certainly had the Midas touch in this series, but leaving Perez in to face A-Rod could have turned out to be a disaster. I did call the meaningless middle inning home run, I just assumed it would be with the Yanks up 5-0, and a curtain call would be following.
If given the opportunity to bat 27 times with a runner on base, I guarantee I could muster one hit, and likely at least one RBI. I will not dispute this.
I hope Troy O’Leary and John Valentin have prominent roles in pregame activities in this series with the Indians, its too bad Denny Galehouse isn’t around anymore.
The really creepy looking girl that popped up in the ad space of his baseball reference page was extremely disconcerting.
After all the pain and suffering I went through with Circuit City over my giant TV, this summer and the fact it took so long to fix, I feel fortunate now. Because after shutting it down for two months it has been a clutch playoff performer this weekend, and will hopefully remain so the remainder of October.
Almost like giving Curt Schilling two months off in June and July and reaping the benefits in October.
It will go down as a dominating performance, but those seven shutout innings sure looked like smoke and mirrors for Schill, whose fastball looked like it couldn't break a pane of glass all afternoon, but had the Angels overmatched like the little leaguers who faced Danny Almonte.
I do not condone the pimping of homeruns, but Jered Weaver needs to win something before he can call out Ramirez and Ortiz for admiring their tee shots. He got what he deserved as far as I'm concerned.
So my Tivo listed 60 minutes as being on for an hour ad a half on Sunday, I was confused to say the least, feeling like I missed the first part of the "yo mamma's so stupid" joke.
I am from the Northeast so to me college football exists as something to watch on Saturday when there’s nothing else to do, and is not the life and death endeavor it is in other parts of the country, but with that said I saw plenty of it this weekend.
The Florida/LSU game was tremendous, I have decided I must attend a night game at LSU before I die. I have always loathed Florida going back to the Spurrier days, mainly because I was an FSU guy thanks to Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn being awesome in College Football’s National Championship for Sega, but with that said, I have a hard time rooting against Tim Tebow. I don’t know why, he seems kind of like an arrogant jerk, but he makes big plays. I guess it must be the left handed quarterback thing, I’m always a sucker for them.
Someone, please dear God beat Ohio St. twice, so I do not have to suffer watching the Big 10 on TV again this year. I made it through a grand total of 3 plays before vowing not to switch back.
Kudos to Jim Harbaugh for the upset win, but what the hell was up with Versus declaring the player of the game before it was over, while still in doubt. In case you weren’t aware they named a USC DB as the player of the game, only to see him get beat on the 4th and 20 and the game winning TD.
Whatever the opposite of pumped and jacked is, that’s me over the loss for USC, anytime Pete Carroll is prominently involved in the BCS I’m more excited to follow, but now we’re headed for a bunch of one loss teams campaigning for the two spots.
LSU isn’t going unbeaten and neither is Cal.
I laugh at the prospect of BC being unbeaten, and they’ll be summarily trounced in Blacksburg in two weeks, if they don’t gag away this weekend in South Bend.
I’m openly rooting for Cincinnati as this year’s Rutgers, watch out for them though, everywhere Brian Kelly has gone he’s been a winner. Two National Titles at D II, and then took a 1-10 team and made them MAC champions in less than three years. So it’s no surprise to those who have followed him that he’s winning now.
I did manage to watch a good portion of the Celtics preseason tilt with the Raptors Saturday night (yes I’m single and loving it at the moment) I'm excited for this team, but will reserve more judgement and analysis when baseball is over)
One highluight about the new fan interest was me and a diehard hoops friend disecting the Celtics potential offensive sets, with beer bottles, mugs, and shot glasses at a bar the other night.
Not much to say about the Pats I think Manny's "you know you're a bad man" speech sort of covers the 34-17 win just enough.
But I think Randall Gay may have pissed off Belichick in going for the TD in the last minute, especially after he went out of his way not to run the score up bu running it up the middle on fourth down.
I was a glistening 0-4 in my LDS predictions, and aim to keep that streak going for the Championship series round.
Indians in 6.
I think they are riding the team of destiny thing. They have a deep and relentless lineup that’s clearly not afraid to hit with two outs. Plus their pitching is solid too. I can’t see Manny and Ortiz being as hot as they were against Anaheim which means someone else has to step up, and who knows if anyone will.
Diamondbacks in 7.
The Rockies have been phenomenal, but they have to lose sometime right? The D-Backs hit like an American league team, and have decent pitching and a solid bullpen. I’m also very much not looking forward to the possibility of the Rox in the WS if the Sox get there, because their lefthanded pitching could really neutralize the Sox for an entire series.
A happy Christmas in October to Sox fans around the region, I know I rushed down to open the presents that awaited me from the NY Daily News, the Post, Newsday, and even the Times.
It’s become an annual tradition, and one that I’ve grown very fond of in recent years.
It’s nice to see Mystique and Aura are still just dancers in a nightclub.
When the Stadium starts rocking, I always get nervous, but there’s no better feeling than seeing the life get sucked out of the joint when Captain Gasbag bounces into a rally-killing double play. Jeter deserves a lot of blame, but hell likely escape it.
I think A-Rod should opt out of the deal, but he’s enough of a student of the history of the game to want to stay and win with the Yanks.
Eric Wedge certainly had the Midas touch in this series, but leaving Perez in to face A-Rod could have turned out to be a disaster. I did call the meaningless middle inning home run, I just assumed it would be with the Yanks up 5-0, and a curtain call would be following.
If given the opportunity to bat 27 times with a runner on base, I guarantee I could muster one hit, and likely at least one RBI. I will not dispute this.
I hope Troy O’Leary and John Valentin have prominent roles in pregame activities in this series with the Indians, its too bad Denny Galehouse isn’t around anymore.
The really creepy looking girl that popped up in the ad space of his baseball reference page was extremely disconcerting.
After all the pain and suffering I went through with Circuit City over my giant TV, this summer and the fact it took so long to fix, I feel fortunate now. Because after shutting it down for two months it has been a clutch playoff performer this weekend, and will hopefully remain so the remainder of October.
Almost like giving Curt Schilling two months off in June and July and reaping the benefits in October.
It will go down as a dominating performance, but those seven shutout innings sure looked like smoke and mirrors for Schill, whose fastball looked like it couldn't break a pane of glass all afternoon, but had the Angels overmatched like the little leaguers who faced Danny Almonte.
I do not condone the pimping of homeruns, but Jered Weaver needs to win something before he can call out Ramirez and Ortiz for admiring their tee shots. He got what he deserved as far as I'm concerned.
So my Tivo listed 60 minutes as being on for an hour ad a half on Sunday, I was confused to say the least, feeling like I missed the first part of the "yo mamma's so stupid" joke.
I am from the Northeast so to me college football exists as something to watch on Saturday when there’s nothing else to do, and is not the life and death endeavor it is in other parts of the country, but with that said I saw plenty of it this weekend.
The Florida/LSU game was tremendous, I have decided I must attend a night game at LSU before I die. I have always loathed Florida going back to the Spurrier days, mainly because I was an FSU guy thanks to Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn being awesome in College Football’s National Championship for Sega, but with that said, I have a hard time rooting against Tim Tebow. I don’t know why, he seems kind of like an arrogant jerk, but he makes big plays. I guess it must be the left handed quarterback thing, I’m always a sucker for them.
Someone, please dear God beat Ohio St. twice, so I do not have to suffer watching the Big 10 on TV again this year. I made it through a grand total of 3 plays before vowing not to switch back.
Kudos to Jim Harbaugh for the upset win, but what the hell was up with Versus declaring the player of the game before it was over, while still in doubt. In case you weren’t aware they named a USC DB as the player of the game, only to see him get beat on the 4th and 20 and the game winning TD.
Whatever the opposite of pumped and jacked is, that’s me over the loss for USC, anytime Pete Carroll is prominently involved in the BCS I’m more excited to follow, but now we’re headed for a bunch of one loss teams campaigning for the two spots.
LSU isn’t going unbeaten and neither is Cal.
I laugh at the prospect of BC being unbeaten, and they’ll be summarily trounced in Blacksburg in two weeks, if they don’t gag away this weekend in South Bend.
I’m openly rooting for Cincinnati as this year’s Rutgers, watch out for them though, everywhere Brian Kelly has gone he’s been a winner. Two National Titles at D II, and then took a 1-10 team and made them MAC champions in less than three years. So it’s no surprise to those who have followed him that he’s winning now.
I did manage to watch a good portion of the Celtics preseason tilt with the Raptors Saturday night (yes I’m single and loving it at the moment) I'm excited for this team, but will reserve more judgement and analysis when baseball is over)
One highluight about the new fan interest was me and a diehard hoops friend disecting the Celtics potential offensive sets, with beer bottles, mugs, and shot glasses at a bar the other night.
Not much to say about the Pats I think Manny's "you know you're a bad man" speech sort of covers the 34-17 win just enough.
But I think Randall Gay may have pissed off Belichick in going for the TD in the last minute, especially after he went out of his way not to run the score up bu running it up the middle on fourth down.
I was a glistening 0-4 in my LDS predictions, and aim to keep that streak going for the Championship series round.
Indians in 6.
I think they are riding the team of destiny thing. They have a deep and relentless lineup that’s clearly not afraid to hit with two outs. Plus their pitching is solid too. I can’t see Manny and Ortiz being as hot as they were against Anaheim which means someone else has to step up, and who knows if anyone will.
Diamondbacks in 7.
The Rockies have been phenomenal, but they have to lose sometime right? The D-Backs hit like an American league team, and have decent pitching and a solid bullpen. I’m also very much not looking forward to the possibility of the Rox in the WS if the Sox get there, because their lefthanded pitching could really neutralize the Sox for an entire series.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Tossing batting practice…While wondering what kind of 40 time is needed for the guy is in charge of the challenge flag for Marvin Lewis.
I don’t know how to explain it, but the Patriots are so good now I don’t really even cheer when they make a great play, I just cackle like an evil super villain. I have to say I kind of like it too, especially if non-Pats fans are in the room.
I hate the 16-0 talk by the media because you know they’re just trying to jinx us, but it is really fun to imagine what if….
I know that we desperately want home field advantage, but chew on this, our offense is probably more suited to be playing January football in warm or climate controlled weather, especially since by then Laurence Maroney will probably be in a wheelchair.
Explain to me why it’s imperative your ace has to start game 1? With the Sox choosing the eight day series, and their decision to pitch Dice-K in Fenway wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to go game one, and Beckett game two?
I’d rather have Beckett lined up to pitch the decisive fifth game, or possibly the opener of the LCS. The prospect of Dice-K pitching with our season on the line makes me nervous.
I know he has a reputation as a big time big game pitcher, and I hope that’s true, but the fact is we already have two guys on the staff with the reputation who have earned it on this side of the International Date Line.
It was nice to see the obligatory Orlando Cabrera story in the Globe that includes the “shrouded in mystery” reason he left. It’s aggravating that the media continues to bring it up, and then choose to go no further.
I have no problem with keeping it a secret, but don’t bring it up, either mention Cabrera and his wonderful efforts in the ’04 season, and take the organization to task.
It’s taunting journalism, “I know something you don’t know.” And to me its crap, because 98 percent of the region doesn’t know the story, so it just fuels the fire.
Cabrera, as near as I can tell never says anything beyond, “they didn’t make me an offer.” He never questions it, it’s as if he knows why, and is happy to have had the experience, and is happy to be able to move on with his good name in tact.
(Vulgarity alert)…Sometimes I just wish someone would piss on Cafardo, and simply state, “now that’s yellow journalism.”
There is nothing quite like reading a woe is us sports column from the San Diego papers. I haven’t laughed that hard, well probably since Moss’ TD Monday night, but still.
They couldn’t sell out Petco in their final homestand with a playoff berth on the line, they live in friggin paradise, so yeah, forgive me for enjoying their tribulations just a little bit more than most other places.
I love the story that is the Rockies, but their whole Jesus loving schtick just isn’t for me. Baseball is religion, not Baseball and religion.
In the name of the Father (Ted) the Son (Yaz) and Holy Ghost (Papi)
Amen
That final call in the playoff game was almost as if McClellan was processing the fact that if the Rockies lose, they’ll be blamed for the non-home run (which by the way hit that woman’s wheel chair I believe) and decided screw it, he’s safe.
I will be riding the Cubs and Phillies bandwagon through the NL playoffs, those two cities both deserve one more excruciating heart break.
Though a throwback World Series could be in order with D-Backs/Yankees.
Any chance the Indians take a game in their series? I say no. Yanks in two.
As for the rest, I’m a pessimist and always will be so I say Angels in 5 I just don’t see the Sox getting enough offense, and they can’t create it like the Angels do with their running game.
D-Backs in 4, Webb pitches twice, and Zambrano isn’t poised enough, but I hope I’m wrong.
Phillies in 5…that’s an American League offense, and its really fun to watch Philly fans anguish in torture, on a pitch by pitch basis.
I don’t know how to explain it, but the Patriots are so good now I don’t really even cheer when they make a great play, I just cackle like an evil super villain. I have to say I kind of like it too, especially if non-Pats fans are in the room.
I hate the 16-0 talk by the media because you know they’re just trying to jinx us, but it is really fun to imagine what if….
I know that we desperately want home field advantage, but chew on this, our offense is probably more suited to be playing January football in warm or climate controlled weather, especially since by then Laurence Maroney will probably be in a wheelchair.
Explain to me why it’s imperative your ace has to start game 1? With the Sox choosing the eight day series, and their decision to pitch Dice-K in Fenway wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to go game one, and Beckett game two?
I’d rather have Beckett lined up to pitch the decisive fifth game, or possibly the opener of the LCS. The prospect of Dice-K pitching with our season on the line makes me nervous.
I know he has a reputation as a big time big game pitcher, and I hope that’s true, but the fact is we already have two guys on the staff with the reputation who have earned it on this side of the International Date Line.
It was nice to see the obligatory Orlando Cabrera story in the Globe that includes the “shrouded in mystery” reason he left. It’s aggravating that the media continues to bring it up, and then choose to go no further.
I have no problem with keeping it a secret, but don’t bring it up, either mention Cabrera and his wonderful efforts in the ’04 season, and take the organization to task.
It’s taunting journalism, “I know something you don’t know.” And to me its crap, because 98 percent of the region doesn’t know the story, so it just fuels the fire.
Cabrera, as near as I can tell never says anything beyond, “they didn’t make me an offer.” He never questions it, it’s as if he knows why, and is happy to have had the experience, and is happy to be able to move on with his good name in tact.
(Vulgarity alert)…Sometimes I just wish someone would piss on Cafardo, and simply state, “now that’s yellow journalism.”
There is nothing quite like reading a woe is us sports column from the San Diego papers. I haven’t laughed that hard, well probably since Moss’ TD Monday night, but still.
They couldn’t sell out Petco in their final homestand with a playoff berth on the line, they live in friggin paradise, so yeah, forgive me for enjoying their tribulations just a little bit more than most other places.
I love the story that is the Rockies, but their whole Jesus loving schtick just isn’t for me. Baseball is religion, not Baseball and religion.
In the name of the Father (Ted) the Son (Yaz) and Holy Ghost (Papi)
Amen
That final call in the playoff game was almost as if McClellan was processing the fact that if the Rockies lose, they’ll be blamed for the non-home run (which by the way hit that woman’s wheel chair I believe) and decided screw it, he’s safe.
I will be riding the Cubs and Phillies bandwagon through the NL playoffs, those two cities both deserve one more excruciating heart break.
Though a throwback World Series could be in order with D-Backs/Yankees.
Any chance the Indians take a game in their series? I say no. Yanks in two.
As for the rest, I’m a pessimist and always will be so I say Angels in 5 I just don’t see the Sox getting enough offense, and they can’t create it like the Angels do with their running game.
D-Backs in 4, Webb pitches twice, and Zambrano isn’t poised enough, but I hope I’m wrong.
Phillies in 5…that’s an American League offense, and its really fun to watch Philly fans anguish in torture, on a pitch by pitch basis.