Daily Archives: September 9, 2003

Larry Mahnken has been doing an impressive job covering the Yanks this season. He has a good critical eye and he’s a passionate screwjob too. It’s been fun to read his column and watch how he tries to balance his emotions vs. his intellect.

Think the Yankees series against the Tigers is critical? Mahnken does:

If there ever was a team this season that needed a three game series at home against the Detroit Tigers, it’s the Yankees right now.

And if there ever was a team this season that you felt nervous about going into a three game series against the Detroit Tigers, it’s the Yankees right now.

…The Red Sox got back into the race on merit, by playing .800 ball against great teams for two weeks. But if they finish the comeback and overtake the Yankees for the AL East title, it’ll be because the Yankees gave it to them. There are only three games left on the schedule against a team that offers a serious challenge to the Yankees, and that’s not until the very end of the season, where hopefully it won’t matter. The Red Sox are good, but they’re not so good that they can expect to keep winning 80% of their games against even the weakest competition. If the Yankees win 2/3 of their games like they should expect to, it would take a miracle for Boston to win the division–a miracle that seems even more unlikely after last night’s collapse. But if it were to happen that way, I don’t think you can blame the Yankees for blowing the East (they’d be in the playoffs anyway), you’d have to give the Sox the credit they deserve.

But I don’t want to give the Sox any credit, and I don’t want to give them any chances. The Yanks have to win these games.

Edward Cossette, author of the fine Red Sox blog, Bambino’s Curse has an especially good post today. Ed and I are kindred spirits. Even though he’s a stinkin’ Sox fan and I root for the lousy Yankees, we share similar sensibilities about art, music, and literature, which of course, effects how we write about baseball.

Today Ed writes about the literary tendecies of Red Sox Nation (check out the linked articles by Simmons and Boswell too):

I’d love to teach a survey course called “English 1918: The Red Sox as Tragic Hero.” A sample essay question on the midterm might be: “Which of the following literary characters best exemplifies the Red Sox fan experience. Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey; Joe Christmas from Faulkner’s A Light in August; Ned in Cheever’s short story The Swimmer.”

The “Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus would be required reading of course.

I want to offer my bestestest wishes to Mike C at Baseball Rants. His wife had a baby girl last Friday. That’s a beautiful thing.

The Yankees got just what the doctor ordered on Monday as their dormant offense exploded for 16 hits and nine runs in an afternoon game against the Blue Jays. Derek Jeter had three hits, Jason Giambi added a couple of his own (to go with a couple of walks), and Hideki Matsui went 3-5 with 3 RBI on Godzilla bobblehead doll day at the Stadium. Mike Mussina wasn’t in top form, but he was good enough, and the Bombers cruised to a 9-3 win. Nice way to break the tension fellas. Thanks.

Jay Jaffe, the Futility Infielder was at the game, so stop by his site later today for his write-up. While you are at it, check out Jay’s piece about Sunday’s game, and his celebrity sighting of note.

The Red Sox offense didn’t skip a beat either, pounding out ten runs of their own against the O’s. But their pitching and defense let them down in a rather royal way and Baltimore escaped with a 13-10 win. B.Y Kim took the loss, and there were a couple of crucial calls that went against the Sox too.

The Yankee lead in the AL East is 3 1/2 games (4 in the loss column). Jose Contreras will start against the Tigers in the Bronx this evening.