Daily Archives: July 7, 2003

WHAT, ME WORRY?

I got a letter from reader Cliff Corcoran who found my general pessimissm surrounding the Sox series off-putting. Fair enough, but I should warn you, it ain’t likey to change anytime soon. I’m a nervous, jumpy fan by nature, so please, bear with me folks. I usually put my own team down, and then hope for the best. It’s not that I lack faith, it’s just that I’m very reserved about expressing it. Plus, I guess I like to out-fox the Sox fans in the gloom-and-doom department (fat chance, buddy), just to try and jinx ’em.

Maybe I just want to be a Red Sox fan. I sure sound like one often enough. I don’t know where I got this from. Perhaps it comes from growing up with the Yankees in the 80s. Or maybe it’s because I’m a Knicks fan and a Jets fan too.

Otherwise, I think I’m a well-adjusted adult. Honest.

THE ONLY SPLIT THAT FITS

So who should steal the headlines from the big boys today, but Curtis Pride, of course. Pride hit a slow grounder to second; Bill Mueller bobbled the ball and then threw the ball over Jason Varitek’s head, allowing Hideki Matsui to score the winning run. It took a full 20 seconds for “Mlb Gameday” to display what happened after they signaled that a pitch had been ‘hit into play.’ I thought my heart was going to pop out of my shirt.

I received the following e-mail from Ed Cossette when Ventura came to bat:

Bases loaded. No outs. By the time you get this it’ll all be over.

I don’t know how much longer I can take this. If I wasn’t stuck having to write for Fox, there is no chance I’d blog tomorrow.

Why didn’t my parents live in New York? Why God why?

The Yanks earn a split of the four game series, and once again lead Boston by four games. Hey Millar, yer evicted buddy.

ONIONS!

Mr. Kim showing he’s got some brass ones, comes back and whiffs Ventura.

OR…

Or Posada’s fat ass could get hit. Kim plunks Jorge to load the bases for Robin Ventura. Still nobody out.

RALLY…?

Matsui leads off the ninth with a single, and then Karim Garcia hits a single too. With Flaherty up, Posada must be pinch-hitting here. He can be a double-play machine…

POPPING OFF

Me and my big, fat mouth…Manny popped out to Jason Giambi to end the Boston ninth. Game is still tied. I am now in the process of chewing my entire hand, forget the nails. Who says we take this rivalry too seriously?

DOWN TO THE WIRE

So every Yankee fan feels confident that the Bombers will win this one, while every Sox fan feels that somehow the Sox will lose, right? (Or, almost right?)

I say Manny tags Mo in the ninth. Hope I’m very wrong.

STOP IT MAN, YER KILLIN ME

Mike Mussina issued a two-out walk to Bill Mueller and then struck out Jason Varitek for the third time of the day to end the Boston eigth. Byung-Hyun Kim has replaced Pedro. You think the Stadium is rocking?

I just got an e-mail from the Mr. Cossette. It appears his e-mail is acting screwy (a likely story). He put it bluntly:

This game is killing me. If Yanks win then it’s all shit. First two wins mean less than nothing.

NAIL BITING TIME

Pedro survived a lead off single and made it through the eighth. The game is still tied at one. I e-mailed Ed Cossette, who runs Bambino’s Curse but haven’t heard back from him yet. Superstitious sort.

STRETCH

Mussina made it through Nomar and Manny in the top of the seventh, and the Yanks are right where they want to be. Close against Pedro, late in the game. Whatever happens, at least they had a fighting chance. Once again, Martinez has brought out the best in Mussina. Pedro has thrown over 100 pitches. How long before they yank him? Or will he even come out for the seventh? Hmmm.

DANDY

After six innings, this game is turning out to be the dandy everyone expected. While Pedro might have seemed wild early, I guess we could call it ‘effectively wild.’ He has thrown 102 pitches, struck out ten and walked none thus far. He’s crazy like a fox that Pedro.

Enrique Wilson has two doubles off Martinez. Jason Giambi has two singles and that’s all the hits the Yanks have. Fortunately, Giambi drove Wilson home in the sixth to tie the game at one.

Mussina has k’d five and walked none through six.

EXTRA, EXTRA

Here is an e-mail I just received from a Sox fan detailing the game thus far:

Soriano should expect to get plunked quite a good number of times if he
continues to stand where he is standing.

Martinez threw a fastball that tailed up and in, Soriano did one of those
half-swing, half-get-me-the-fuck-outta-here! type moves, and the ball hit
the knob at the bottom of the bat along with his pinky finger. I’d expect
it’s fractured.

Basically, same deal with Jeter, except instead of hitting the knob it
caught him flush on the hand.

There’s no question Martinez was throwing up and in. Soriano standing where
he does in the batters box, and Jeter was diving into the plate with every
swing, so it was only a matter of time.

But Martinez doesn’t have the command he normally has today. Lots of his
fastballs have gone way out of the strike zone, up and in the a right handed
hitter. Looks like he’s also throwing harder than usual. Likely a bit
jiuced up for this one.

I don’t think Martinez was throwing at anyone. I also don’t think he much
cared whether balls he was throwing to back people off the plate hit someone
or two either.

On the plus side for Yankee fans, Mussina has had much better stuff than
Martinez. The one ‘double’ by Ramirez was a routine line out to RF that
Curtis Pride misplayed, and then threw to second instead of home, allowing a
run to score. Frankly, I’d be surprised if the Yanks didn’t win this one
with the kind of stuff Mussina has right now.

As much as I want to scream bloody murder at Pedro, the description above makes much sense. Although I still say the Sox stink if they can’t dominate the Yankee line up today.

FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT

No, that’s just how I’m feeling. It’s bad enough following the game on-line, but it turns out Soriano and Jeter have left the game early after both were hit in the hand by Martinez in the first inning. Todd Zeile has replaced Ventura at third; Robin is now at second, and Enrique is at short. Too bad Boomer isn’t pitching. We might have seen some real fireworks. The Sox have no excuse not to win this game now, while the Yanks have to hope to stay within a run or two by the seventh when Pedro inevitably turns things over to the pen.

PLUMPED UP

The Yankees offense just got plumper, as Enrique Wilson has replaced Soriano at second. Oy veh. Hang in there boys!

WHA HAPPEN?

Both pitchers enjoyed a 3 up, 3 down inning in the second, but Soriano has been lifted from the game. If anyone is watching, give me a shout and let me know what happened to him.

FROZEN

The Yankees had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the first. After striking out Soriano, Pedro was ahead of Jeter, but he plunked him on an inside pitch. Giambi singled, which brought up Ruben Ruben. I took a second to glance at the Yankees line up and saw that after Matsui, the Yanks have Karim Garcia, John Flaherty, Robin Ventura and then Curtis Pride. Not exactly a bomb squad vs. Pedro. Sierra lined out to right, and then Matsui couldn’t get the bat off his shoulder, and went down looking. This could be a long afternoon if Mussina doesn’t shape up quickly.

THAT SHOULD HOLD ‘EM

Manny Ramirez had an RBI double in the first off Moose. The Sox lead 1-0. Now if Mussina can make like Pettitte did yesterday and mow ’em down ’til the 8th, the Yanks’ll have a fighting chance against Prince P.

ON THE MONEY

Like many of us, Larry Mehnken tends to personalize wins and losses. When the Yanks lose, it can keep him up at night, and when they win, everything is fine with the world. What separates Mehnken from most of us, is that he can live and die with his team, yet still be able to write about them in an even-handed fashion. It doesn’t hurt that Mehnken is funny and insightful too. His coverage of the Sox-Yankee Serious has been excellent. Here are two recent pearls of wisdom which caught my eye:

These games are always magnified, and Yankees and Red Sox fans want to place more importance and significance on the result of one or two games than is really warranted. Anyone who thinks that the Red Sox, as great as their offense is, will score 20 runs versus David Wells and Roger Clemens on a regular basis is as foolish as someone who thinks that Andy Pettitte can regularly hold this offense down to a single run. None of these games has been fully representative of the true abilities of these teams, who are, in fact, very close to each other. Anyone who tries to use the result of one game or series to prove otherwise has an obvious agenda.

And this:

I think the defining trait of a Yankees fan, that separates them from fans of all other teams, is confidence. If you’re a Yankees fan, you know your team is going to win. Not necessarily today, not necessarily this year, but eventually. The Yankees lost the Series in 2001, they lost to the Angels last year, but d any of us really think that it’s the last time we’ll see our team have a shot to win? If you’re a Yankees fan, there is no sense of urgency to win now. The only frustration comes from the desire to win always.

Red Sox fans are different. Some are defeatist; they know that they’re going to lose in the end, so they never get their hopes up. Some are ignorant or indifferent, and don’t care about the last 85 years, and then there’s the elitists, who take a special pride in being fans of a team that hasn’t won since WWI. Most young fans are ignorant, most Primate Red Sox fans are indifferent, and most of the writers in New England are either defeatist or elitist. They all share an especial hatred of the Yankees.

And with good reason. It seems that whenever the Red Sox have a good team, the Yankees have a better team. I don’t think they’re really cursed, but it’s gotta be annoying.

BOMBS AWAY

The Red Sox came into Yankee Stadium on the fourth of July and provided all of the fireworks, walloping the Yanks 10-3. Boston hit seven dingers, five off of Boomer Wells. No team had ever hit more than six homers against New York. Not content with one beating, Boston torched Rocket Clemens on Saturday, and a new Boston Massacre was in the making. Former Yankee Ramiro Mendoza pitched well and the Yankees were humbled on national television.

Would you believe that David Ortiz hit two homers on Friday and Saturday (the first time a visting player has ever accomplished this feat in the Bronx)? Well, it happened.

I watched the first game with my friend Johnny Red Sox, over at his place on the Upper East Side. John was pretty hot when Soriano lead off the game with a pop fly homer, but his mood picked up in no time as the great Boston launching pad took off. The most memorable homer by far was a titanic shot off the bat of Washington Heights’ own Manny Ramirez. The ball landed in the left field upper deck. Awww, bacon.

John has HDTV, so at least I was able to see Boston murdalize the Yanks in high-tech clarity.

I missed Saturday’s game and it was just as well. The Yankees didn’t pitch well, they made errors, and left a ton of men on base. Emily and I visited my brother and his wife at our cousin’s summer house. When I went to check the score, I saw that Sterling Hitchcok was pitching, and quite frankly, that’s never an encouraging sign. I turned the damn thing off, and attempted to enjoy my weekend.

The Yanks bounced back on Sunday behind a strong performance by Andy Pettitte. Shows how much I know. I figured this would be the one game the Sox would have in the bag. But Pettitte has traditionally faired well against Boston, and after giving up an early homer to Bill Mueller, he settled down, eventually striking out ten. I also failed to consider that the Sox had John Burkett going for them.

The feel-good story of the day was when Curtis Pride, a deaf utility outfielder that the Yankees picked up early this year, started for the banged-up Raul Mondesi, and hit a home run. The Yankees left too many on base again, but Alfonso Soriano (who had three hits) had a big 2 RBI triple late in the game, which helped seal the win for the home team. What was especially encouraging about the at- bat was that Soriano characteristically fell behind 0-2, then worked the count full, before hitting a high-outside fastball into the right centerfield gap.

The series finale should be a good one this afternoon, with Pedro Martinez going against Mike Mussina. I won’t be able to watch it, since I’m working, but I will probably follow it on mlb gameday. That should make for a tense, distracting afternoon at the office, huh? The Yankees will feel great about themselves if they can even the series at two, beat Martinez, and maintain the four-game lead they had going into the weekend. The Sox will feel even better about themselves if they can leave New York trailing by only two games, taking three of four. (If the Sox win today they will even the season series with the Yankees at five games apiece.)

Most Red Sox fans will be happy to take three of four, pump their fists quietly, and move on. Kevin Millar, who would be playing in Japan if it wasn’t for the efforts of Theo Epstein, wasn’t so humble. He had a good time jawing with the Yankee fans before yesterday’s game:

“I wasn’t alive in (1918),” Millar said. “All I know is the last two days we’ve taken this house over. It’s our house.”

Those are the kind of comments that make Red Sox fans cringe. Do us a favor brother, wait until you stomp the Yankees in October before you get too carried away with yourself.

Still, even the most smug, and arrogant Yankee fans should realize this Red Sox team should not be taken lightly. If they can clean up their pitching a bit, they have a team full of ‘gamers’ who can make a legitimate run down the stretch.