Schadenfreude, Yankees Edition

This was the reaction shot TBS showed when Jeter's long fly ball landed in Don Kelly's glove instead of going out of the park to end the 8th inning. The moment I saw it I knew I had to share it so thank you MLBN for showing it this morning and allowing me to grab it. (It goes well with the score underneath them too!)

For many people I know, including myself, 2011 has been a pretty lousy year.  For a few hours a day, baseball is supposed to make you feel better when things stink.  September didn’t make any Red Sox fans feel better and Terry Francona leaving was the cherry on the sucky sundae.  So when KellyO tweeted to me last night “I really needed them to not win this year.” I absolutely knew what she meant.  And for whatever reasons, the baseball gods decided to give Red Sox fans one thing, one, this season.  And since beggars can’t be choosers, I’ll take it.

The last three innings of that game were the most stressful I’ve endured in a game that didn’t include the Red Sox in quite a long time.  When Jeter hit that ball and I thought we were witnessing a two-run home run that was going to change the entire game I almost shut the television off. (That I didn’t shut it off when Joaquin Benoit loaded the bases and then walked in a run in the 7th inning still amazes me.)  Jose Valverde had a 3-2 lead with Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez coming up in the ninth and used 11 pitches (only one of them on Cano) to finish the Yankees off.  As soon as Slappy struck out, the Internet exploded.

It was pretty damn sweet.

No team from the American League East will be in the ALCS…this makes the process of watching the rest of the playoffs much less painful.  So for that I thank the Texas Rangers and especially the Detroit Tigers.  I don’t care how hokey this sounds, and I know it doesn’t change the woes of the Red Sox, but last night was the first step for me in the process of my baseball heart healing.  Bring on the hotstove.

But for now…

Not Dead Yet

Have to get this off  my chest: I want to go back and delete every entry or tweet that I’ve written defending John Lackey in any way.  I won’t get into why (you can Google it and find out for yourself) because I hate feeding into the gossip mongers, but if the story is true in my mind there is NO defense for him and, really, I couldn’t care less what happens to him from here on out.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

But about that game…(not that first one which we will not speak of but that second one)

Holy cow.

When Mark Teixeira doubled in two runs and then scored on a bad throw in the first inning I yelled, out loud for the baseball gods to hear me, “I’m done!  I’m SO done with this!” and stormed out of the room with the television.  I paced around until the next inning began and then sat myself down in front of the television and kept watching until the very end.  Apparently I wasn’t “done” but I needed to finally let the frustration out.

And I’m glad I didn’t give up because the way the game was won, while more than a bit painful at times, was beautiful.  (Beautiful as in “That baby is butt ugly but his mother thinks he’s beautiful”, beautiful.)

Still More Baseball

Unless I’m going to that day’s game, which hasn’t happened in a while, Sundays are a tough day for me to actually sit and watch an entire Red Sox game.  It’s probably the busiest day of my week so I’m either running around and peeking on scores or I’m home with the television on the game while I catch up on things around the house that I need to do.  Usually the only Sunday game that has my complete attention is the 8pm ESPN game.

But, oddly enough, today, on this Sunday, I’m fairly certain that I’ll be able to watch both games in their entirety.  I’m hoping this is a good thing.

Something that is getting lost in all the panic about the horrid September the Red Sox are having is if they, in fact, DON’T make it to the playoffs, we’re watching the last few games where we will see them until February.  The end of the regular season, regardless of where the Red Sox are in the standings, is always a bit of a sad time for me. I hate to see baseball go.  And while the playoffs seem to last forever the schedule is so different from the regular season that you can really feel the loss.  Now if I’m bummed about the end of the season, how do the fans of 22 teams that won’t make the playoffs  feel? (I’m still of the mind that the Red Sox will be playing in October.)

Let’s not think about that today.  Today let’s focus on Yankee Stadium and the Red Sox finally ripping themselves out of this slump and taking these two games today.

Big Talk

Do I really care about Russell Martin’s comments yesterday about the Red Sox?

“I hate the Red Sox,’’ he said. “They are fun to play against because they have a quality team and they’re gritty and they play hard and stuff. But I’d love to see them lose.’’

No, I really don’t.

I mean, I suppose I get why Red Sox fans will get up in arms and say things about Martin’s mother or his manhood in response to his comments, but do we care that a player on our team’s rival came out and said he hates our team?  It’s playoffs time and he’s pandering to his fan base.  Why is this such a big deal?  Haven’t there been Red Sox players who have mentioned their dislike for the Yankees?  I’m actually kind of tickled that he has vocalized his “hatred” for the Red Sox.  Bring some hard feelings between the teams and amp up the rivalry, why not?  I just think it was a little wussy of him to only relay this opinion once the Yankees had clinched the division.  That’s a bit punky.  If you don’t have the guts to vocalize this opinion during the season and wait until the final days you really don’t have much in the way of integrity.  It’s easy to kick a team when you’re sitting on top, Russell.  Show a little backbone next time. (You realize there is a teeny part of me that won’t mind him taking one to the numbers this weekend, yes?)

I’m not worried about this weekend.  The way I see it, if the Red Sox continue to lose, that’s a huge red flag telling us that they won’t be ready for the playoffs.  If they begin to win again, they’re getting into the playoffs.  So either way I’ll be satisfied with this season.  Team played tremendously for the majority of the season.  The beginning of the year and the month of September were (and are) painful but this is certainly a sign to me that things are going to work out the way they need to.  Of course, after writing all of that it’s important for me to state that I REALLY (really really) want them to be in the playoffs.

Today’s front page of the Boston Herald reads:

“It’s crunch time, Sox….Give us what we paid for – Starting tonight”

What “we” paid for?  So either the Herald thinks it represents all of us or it has become a silent partner in the Red Sox organization.  Let me say this, I’ve supported the Red Sox this year financially as well as just in spirit and I’ve already received what I paid for.  All any fan can ask for is their team to be competitive all season long.  The Red Sox have been exactly that.  Anything a baseball fan gets past the end of September is a gift.  (And, as I’ve mentioned, I really want that gift.)

As I posted on Twitter this morning, my first baseball thought today was that no one can say “this team always lets us down” after 2004 and 2007.  Have you had fun, thus far?  I sure have.  I also have a great feeling that more fun is to be had by the Red Sox and their fans and look forward with great excitement to the series beginning tonight.

The Red Sox are 2 games ahead of the Rays and 3 games ahead of the Angels in the Wild Card race.  Let’s remember that the Red Sox are LEADING right now.  This is a good thing, folks.

Last Night

Now this guy is a fan! In his worn Cesar Crespo jersey he stayed for all nine innings and cheered the team the whole night. Made me happy.

Last night at Fenway was, as surprising as many of you might find it, actually quite enjoyable.  Thanks to a generous friend, we sat in great seats, the weather was perfect (I can’t remember the last time I was at a game this late in September and didn’t need a sweatshirt or something else to keep me warm) and, heck, even the clam chowder vendor didn’t almost kill me (thanks, I believe, to the weather and the fact no one around us ordered it so he only came by twice).  The fans were vocal and cheering and there really wasn’t much in the way of negative energy (except for a few yahoos behind us heckling Vladamir Guerrero with “Retire!” which made absolutely no sense to me) until the absolute end of the game when a large part of the Fenway Faithful booed the hometown team for losing.

Enough Already

So are there really people who believe that the reason the Red Sox are losing is because they a) have no heart or b) just don’t care?  Really?  How does that work?  They come back from a horrendous start to the season to stay neck and neck with the Yankees for first place in the division all season long just to say “Screw it, we don’t want to go to the playoffs anyway!”?

Having this discussion via email with a friend who was at Fenway yesterday and she wrote this about how she felt about the fans at the game who felt the team wasn’t putting their heart into it:

They weren’t even bad people, necessarily–just completely unaware of both a) how athletes feel about the game they’ve devoted their lives to, and b) the limitations of any individual’s capacity to observe everything about the game as a spectator.

As usual, Kelly O’Connor nails it and is much more rational than I.  We now return you to my rant:

“…it’s the Yankees I hate”

I don’t think anyone comes here looking for September 11th remembrances so I will spare you those.  What I will do is give you my opinion on the idea that the attacks on September 11th turned the New York Yankees into “America’s Team”.

I love New York.  As a child of the 70s I watched the movie “Godspell” and so wanted to go there to frolic in the fountain.  I read any book I could about the city and watched the “I Love New York” commercials (especially the ones featuring the Broadway musicals) like they were television shows.  As a teen in the 80s, I decided I should move to Greenwich Village.  I didn’t know what I was going to do once I got there, but I knew I wanted to go.  I never moved to the Village but I loved it from afar in Boston.  As I stated, I love New York.  I can’t adequately explain how I feel when I go to New York but I can tell you it feels like I’m at a second home and I get very sad when it’s time to leave.

Having written all that…

Goodbye Yankees

You're up, Andrew. (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)

People last night were virtually fist-pumping about how great Jon Lester was as he left the game (“virtually” as in, “doing it on the Internet). I’ll just say this about Crabby: He goes a more acceptable amount of innings for an “ace” pitcher, and it’s more than possible the Red Sox win last night’s game. Five innings for him and five pitchers total for the Red Sox in a game the pitchers only ended up giving four runs…the Red Sox needed him to pitch like the ace he wants to be and he didn’t. Aces don’t have to leave the game after five innings.

Having written all that…was last night that horrible?  I mean, sure, I always want the Red Sox to hammer the Yankees and any time a game goes the way last night did (both Bard and Aceves not pitching the way we have come to expect them to pitch and the Red Sox getting to Mariano Rivera AGAIN and not being able to capitalize on it) it’s a disappointment, but the Red Sox are still in first place, still have plenty of games to go to pick up MORE games on the Yankees and entertain us in the process.

Andew Miller, Érik Bédard and John Lackey will be leading the way against the Rangers this weekend and Friday’s (MLBN) and Sunday’s (TBS) will be on the (hopefully) non-annoying national broadcasts.

Here’s hoping everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!

The Longer the Better

Screen grab lifted from Nate at Thin Line Between Clever and Stupid and used without permission.

I will never tire of watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees…especially when it’s as much of a slugfest as last night’s game turned out to be. 18 hits and 14 runs in this game. That, to me, is baseball. And guess what? When you get a total of 18 hits and 14 runs in a game, that takes a little while to play. Someone should tell that to Mark Teixeira*.

“It’s brutal,” said Teixeira, the Yankees’ first baseman. “I can’t stand playing a nine-inning game in four hours. It’s not baseball. I don’t even know how to describe it. If I was a fan, why would I want to come watch people sitting around and talking back and forth, going to the mound, 2-0 sliders in the dirt? Four-hour games can’t be fun for a fan, either.”

If I’m being fair (or at least honest) I can sympathize with the players who have to play the marathon games that Red Sox/Yankees games almost always turn into (although I don’t consider a four-hour game THAT much of a marathon).  And the fans who attend the games, they get my understanding if they start to watch the clock while they’re at the park.  (I’m a pedestrian who often relies on public transportation and/or a cab to get me home after a game.  The idea of fighting off hoards of people in Kenmore Square for a cab or a spot on the subway platform any time past 11pm doesn’t appeal to me at all.)

But what I don’t get, what I will never get, is the average person who claims to be a huge baseball fan complaining that baseball goes on too long.  (I also don’t get people who make money off of baseball complaining that there is too much of it.)  I love baseball.  As I’ve often mentioned, even though I live in the Red Sox market, I get the Extra Innings package through Comcast because I genuinely enjoy watching the game, Red Sox or not, and spend a lot of my free time in the summer doing so.  I have been one of those people sitting in Fenway at 10:30 and eyeing the scoreboard and the clock wondering if I’ll be able to get my bus or if I’m going to have to scrap that plan and take a cab home (as a matter of fact, transportation home is one of the reasons I haven’t been to many games this year.  Many generous people have offered but if the game DOES go long and I have to take a cab it can get a bit expensive and I’m not in a position right now to pull that off very often).  But I’ve never been at a game where I honestly thought “Gee, I wish this game was shorter” just on general principle.  If you are a baseball fan, and I’m guessing you are if you’re reading me, you already know what kind of game baseball is.   You’ve decided to patronize a game with no clock…I find complaining about how long it takes to play ridiculous.

And it’s annoying when it’s the running commentary through an entire series.  It seems more writers complain than fans but a lot of the fans are joining in as well and I don’t understand it.  Most networks block off three hours for a game…is a four hour game really that big a difference?  When I’m watching a Yankees/Red Sox game, I block off the four hours, not expecting the game to end any earlier than 11pm (when it’s a 7pm start).  If you’re enjoying what you watch, why do you want it to end sooner?

For the record, last night’s game lasted 3 hours and sixteen minutes.

Ultimately, here’s my problem with people who complain about how long the game lasts…give me an alternative.  Are you saying that you don’t want the batters to get a lot of hits?  Are you saying that patient hitters taking walks isn’t part of your game?  Do you not want to watch batters foul off pitch after pitch in an attempt to frustrate the pitcher into making a mistake that turns into a hit or a walk?  Teixeira complains about trips to the mound and people sitting around talking back and forth (huh?)…in my opinion it is the commercial breaks that suck the life out of the timing of a baseball game, not the actual action on the field.

The Red Sox and Yankees games will always go on long because the Yankees and the Red Sox are very good teams.  Asking for shorter games is asking for games that aren’t as good as most of these games are.  There are so many things people can genuinely complain about when it comes to Major League Baseball…I see no reason to complain that there is too much baseball.

*I reluctantly link to Tyler Kepner.  The idea that he writes for the New York Times yet  tweets things like  this:

Home run onto Landsdowne St., fastball to the back. Stay classy.

astounds me and shows me how unprofessional a professional can be.

So we look to Josh Beckett…

Whenever the complaints about Fenway Park or Red Sox fans start coming at me from Yankees fans I remember that I took this photo in the new Yankee Stadium. (And that there was a "Make Some Noise" sign as well.)

There’s this:

“I was definitely not trying to hit him,” he [Lackey] said. “I was trying to knock him down for sure. You can see where he stands in the box. You’ve got to knock him off the plate a little. I threw a 3-1 pitch that he hit out. I was definitely not trying to hit him, but I was trying to move him back. You definitely don’t want to put a base-runner on in a two-run ballgame.”

and there’s this:

“I’ve been fined twice for hitting guys this year, and I’ve paid them because they were right,” he [Lackey] said. “But this one, I’m not afraid to tell you if I’m trying to hit somebody. I would’ve told him to his face.”

I totally buy it. While I get that Lackey has a history of letting his emotions come out at inappropriate times on the field and that it must have been frustrating to give up a bomb to the likes of Francisco Cervelli and then watch him celebrate at home plate as if he was Aaron Boone, the game was still close when Cervelli got hit and with the way things were going I have a difficult time believing Lackey purposely put a guy on base just because the guy was a jackass who hit a home run off of  him.  I’ll say this, though, I won’t be sad if before the series is over we have multiple photos of Jarrod Saltalamacchia holding Cervelli in a headlock.