kenjisan

Merry Christmas to you, too, jerk

Damon, Yankees reach agreement

I, um, don't have much to say but this: for a team that just ended an 87-year-curse, do we really want to be letting any player go over to the New York Yankees?! I mean, sure, this isn't a trade, but why tempt fate? The 2006 Red Sox are starting to look like a bunch of strangers. Where are the idiots? Where are the cowboys?

THECHAT

Rob Corddry is a funny man.

Fantasy Baseball

For anyone interested (and I mean anyone), I've created a second fantasy baseball league, open to the public. You should be able to join without an invitation, but if that doesn't work, click here:

League ID: 255317
League Password: public

It's a rotisserie style league in the standard 5 x 5 format with the addition of losses and errors. It's free and pretty casual.

Sad day in baseball

The D.C. Council passed legislation requiring half of the new baseball stadium's cost come from private funds. Major League Baseball responded. Not only did they reject the legislation, but they immediately put all business and promotional activities on hold and offered refunds for anyone who'd put a deposit on season tickets. They called it "wholly unacceptable."

I thought DC baseball was a sure thing. It was no longer an issue of hoping, it was an issue of when will the next season start. How could this happen?

Michael Wilbon wrote that while he believed that DC shouldn't be picking up the while tab and that private funding was a good idea, the timing was not.

The time to say no was before, not after. The time for Linda Cropp to ask for amendments and show the city how tough (not to mention ambitious) she is was before Mayor Anthony A. Williams and other city officials agreed to do it baseball's way. If you're that tough, that smart and so creative as to come up with these measures now, why wasn't that done two months ago? Why not 10 months ago? (Caught Between Cropp and a Hard Place (washingtonpost.com))

Wednesday, December 15, 2004, wasn't the best day for me as a baseball fan. The real kick to the crotch is that not only did DC lose its baseball team (almost), but Boston lost Pedro. Thanks Linda Cropp for being such a "savvy" negotiator. Thanks Pedro for being a dickhead. And thanks, MLB, for the tease. Nice. Real nice.

Special sale!

Thanks to Jess for forwarding this in an e-mail. Supposedly, "It’s a real sign from Route 1 in Houlton, Maine." Real or not, it's hilarious.

Somebody, pinch me...

It still hasn't sunk in. It still hasn't registered. Sitting in a bar full of fans chanting, "Let's go Red Sox," in the top of the 8th, I couldn't help but shake my head. Even with a 3-0 lead in both the game and the series. Even with the defeated Cardinals batters holding their hats, unable to get a ball out of the infield. How can these people hope? Haven't they learned?

I suppose old habits die hard.

I told Pat after he called me that it feels like New Year's Eve. The ball has dropped and there is universal jubilation across the land. People are calling one another, people are cheering. You walk down streets filled with people singing. Okay, so it's not quite like that, but you get the idea. I want to hug the guy next to me. I want to high five the waitress. I want to call everyone I know and scream "WE WON!" as loud as I can.

World Series Champions. Strange. I think I'll go to bed. Or wake up? Maybe tomorrow I'll find a million dollar bill on the sidewalk. Tonight has proven that anything is possible.

"The Curse"

I've been thinking about this ever since that amazing run the Sox had in mid-August, where they nearly took the AL East lead after being 10 and a half back. I'm not making any predictions here. I'm merely speculating, okay? Let's set jinxes and superstitions aside and ponder one thing: what if the Red Sox win the World Series?

In 1980, the Philidelphia Phillies won the World Series for the first time in their 97 year history. Before they won, not only were they the oldest franchise in baseball, but they were the team that hadn't won a championship. Talk about being cursed. After 1980, as some sports writer recently wrote, they became "just another baseball team." Is this the fate of the beloved Boston Red Sox?

Don't get me wrong. I want them to win. I want them to win so badly that I don't even want to think about the possibility. Rob Coddry puts it aptly when he says, "I'm a Sox fan. Failure is all I know." (video via kwc.org) I'm just wondering what the future may hold once I start rooting for a team that can win!

Then I remember that a championship is just a championship, a trophy awarded at the end of the year. The profound truth that we in Red Sox Nation have learned to love still rings true: there's always next year. The most storied rivalry in baseball (arguably) still remains, and the Red Sox and Yankees will continue to butt heads until Steinbrenner decides to go ahead and buy the Beantown team. There will still be that monumental struggle for the pennant and, I suppose, the championship. Boston will still be as rich in history as it ever was.

But with a win under their belt?

Ah, to dream. They still have five more games to screw it up.

Stumbling to success

Eight errors and two wins later, we go to Busch Stadium to challenge St. Louis's post-season undefeated record. Now this is the Red Sox that I've been watching all year long!

Borrowed Time

Last sports entry for at least the next few days, I promise.

After Saturday's loss, I had all but given up hope. No, that's not quite true; I had given up hope. I watched Game 4 just because it was on and was pleasantly surprised (shocked, even) when they tied it up in the 9th. Everyone knows the rest of the story. Maybe Ken really was on to something—the only hope is in no hope—as pessimistic as that is.

In any case, because I had all but written the season off as yet another agonizing failure, I've viewed each inning since that miraculous Game 4 come-from-behind victory as borrowed time. By all accounts, they should have lost. So now, heading into the World Series—a Series they shouldn't even be in—they have nothing to lose.

Right?

Game 7?!?

I know, right? I can't believe it either!

(And as for putting this picture in context... dude, nice try, but how can you argue that call?)

Hope check...

Keep hope alive. Dare to believe. Have faith. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche.

We're going to going to game six. You couldn't write better drama than this.

Do I still believe?

I believe. Then I can't believe. Then I can believe. Then I can't. This is the problem with being a Red Sox fan. This is the reason I have these chronic stomach issues right around the post-season. After the first three games against the Yankees, I had truly given up hope. I even knew that Boston would win at least one more, just to give the doubters a little hope. Just to make defeat hurt that much more.

Ken summed it up nicely in his latest entry "On being part of the Red Sox nation".

But you know what? I've been fooled. I've been sucked in. I practically went to bed last night with my rally cap perched on my head. Can they really do what no other team in the history of baseball has done, return from 0-3? Probably not. Am I going to hold my breath? Absolutely.

I'll be there at Mackey's today, 5 o'clock. All are welcome, either to cheer for the Sox, or cheer for an end to these posts.

Red Sox lose, 1-3

On paper, this should have been no contest. Leiber vs. Pedro? Who the heck is Leiber??? Apparently, someone that can shut down the highest scoring team in the AL. In innings 1-6 of both of these games, the Red Sox have a combined total of 1 hit and 1 walk, no runs. Incredible. Wait to go, guys.

Where's my baseball hat. It's rally time.

On being a Sox fan

Even fast-forwarding through the tough parts, last night's 7-10 loss was grueling to watch. Last night, Pat jokingly said that if the Red Sox make it to the World Series, I might have a heart attack, I might be dead before Game 7 rolls around. While there may be an inkling of truth to the statement, I say that if I'm going have that heart attack—or develop that ulcer—it's going to start here, in the ALCS.

Some sports reporter (from the Globe, no less) wrote a fairly poignant article that basically said, "Be careful what you wish for..." Many of us in Red Sox Nation have been wishing for exactly this: a rematch of last year's heartbreak, a chance for revenge for decades of second-places. Last night taught me that this revenge may not be so easy, and certainly isn't assured.

Still, would I want it any other way? I don't think so. I could probably go without all the drama, all the come-from-behind near misses, all the Game Six-must-wins and the Game Seven extra-innings. I wouldn't have been upset with a clean sweep, two in the Bronx, two in Fenway. But I don't think a World Series Championship would feel as satisfying had the most hated foes not been vanquished along the way. I guess I view this like I view the rest of my life: it's not really about the end results, the goals, the ultimate destinations... it's about the things that happen along the way, the heartbreaks, the heroism, the stories that are formed.

For that, then, I welcome all of this drama, even if I sometimes have to cover up my eyes, plug up my ears, and go to my happy place. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Boston v. New York

Nothing rivals this bitter feud (Boston.com)

Yes, I asked for it and here it is. I found myself in the strange position this weekend of both hating on the Yankees and secretly hoping they'd pull it through. I wanted satisfaction. I wanted vengeance. With the reality of a Yanks-Sox series, the post-season nerves can finally set in.

Red Sox win, 8-3

Second helping (Boston.com)

The score makes it seem like this game was a blowout. It was anything but with these two teams fighting neck-and-neck until Boston's 4-run 9th, sealing Anaheim's fate.

I stand by my predictions. I also wish that game didn't go until 2 in the morning, or that I could have gone to bed knowing that I'd wake up to a Boston win. It's not hard to remember that nothing is certain in Red Sox nation.

Play-offs, Day 1

Red Sox WIN! 9-3! So basing playoff predictions after one day of playoffs is akin to making them after two weeks of regular season play. Anything can happen, these are the playoffs, right? And if I had been on the money at the beginning of the season, we'd see a whole different set of teams now that we're in October (Cubs, Phillies, where are you guys?).

Of course, I'm going to make those predictions anyway. Here goes:
Boston over Anaheim
New York over Minnesotta (five games)
St. Louis over LA (sweep)
Houston over Atlanta

After that, Boston over New York (and a really upset stomach for me)
Houston over St. Louis (in the biggest upset of the playoffs, sorry Glynn!)

A wild card World Series! As for the outcome... well, I wouldn't want to jinx anything...

1-11

Boston, how could you?

Supporting baseball

I just spent nearly $300 on Orioles baseball tickets this afternoon, and all those tickets (18) only cover two days of games! Sorry Din, I hate to support that douche-bag Angelos as well, but this is what it's like to be part of the Red Sox Nation. I'm an addict, and it only gets worse going into October.

Red Sox in October?

Now that the Red Sox have cut the Yankee's lead to 4 1/2 games, my hopes have been revived. They play a series against the Orioles in October starting Friday the 1st and ending the following Sunday. Is anyone interested in going with me? I'm probably going to try to go to as many of these games as possible.

Let the annual acid reflux anxiety begin!

A good weekend for sports

The Boston Red Sox took two of three games from the Yankees (should have been three, but whatev). After the walk-off homerun by Bill Mueller Saturday afternoon/night, the accursed decided they liked hitting homeruns off Yankee pitchers and did it three more times yesterday. We're in post-Allstar Break baseball, now. This is when things get dicey. 7-and-a-half back, even a division crown isn't out of the question.

The OK Bees picked up their first win of the season against "some team in orange." 6-3 and highlighted by three goals from Hugh, this was a different team-in-yellow than the one two weeks ago. You can check our stats and standings at this "wonderful site", although be forewarned that in keeping with the preparedness we've seen so far in this league, the webpage is still "Coming soon..." (four weeks into the season).

And finally, there's that Lance Armstrong thing. I guess that's pretty cool, too.

Competition hurts

Wow. Achy. Yesterday's hockey game sure gave my muscles a jolt. That's all I'll say about last night, since I don't want to talk about the 0 to some-high-number loss, or the extent of damage a few months of inactivity can do to a team's dynamics, or the amount I sucked, or the confused thoughts I'm having on my opinion of recreational, competitive sports...

So let's just concentrate on my achy muscles and hope for the best in one week's time.