I officially retract the “Frickin’ Red Sox” blog entry from a few days past.
I wasn’t wild about Ramirez’s pointing at the A’s dugout after the home run, no matter what the provocation. The gods of karma apparently took note if we can judge by the subsequent outfield collision that had me flashing back to the end of “Jerry McGuire” (yeah, I know, it was football. I mean the whole thing with the guy lying there flat and then they cut to commercials. I was picturing his poor family at home freaking out watching.)
But, oh man. With the game teetering on the edge, they reached deep and pulled it out. I loved the quick cuts back to Jillians to watch the Red Sox fans living and dying with every batter.
The odds are the Yankees will annihilate them, but hey…at this point, I wouldn’t make bets either way.
Happy belated Yom Kippur, by the way.
UPDATEI’m a bit confused now. It appeared to me that Ramirez was pointing in the direction of the first base dugout, which is traditionally the home team’s place. But the AOL newsfeed states he was pointing toward the Sox dugout. Anyone know for sure? Either way it was showboating, but it’s marginally better if he was pointing toward his own guys.
PAD
• 
He was pointing at his mates. No harm there.
Cowboy up!!!!!
That sure was an exciting final fifth game!
As the entire Red Sox fan population of Boston undergoes CPR after that last inning…like I’ve written, if the Sox keep playing like this, they’ll win the Series…but their entire fanbase will be dead from heart attacks or strokes.
Wonder if the Yankees will make their rotation such that Clemens doesn’t pitch in Fenway?
The magic number for Armageddeon stands at 8; 4 Cubs plus 4 Sox wins = the End-of-the-World Series.
How ’bout them Sox? Wow. What a game. What a series. After the A’s went up 2 – 0, I sure didn’t see Boston coming back to win this thing. Not with Pedro being their only great pitcher. But Hudson gets hurt in Game 4 and here we are.
Gotta feel bad for the A’s, though. Getting knocked out of the playoffs again in the first round for, what, the 3rd straight year? The fourth? They had a helluva season and a great second half, but I guess the Red Sox just wanted it more.
How about this ALCS we got coming up, huh? Red Sox/Yankees. Oy vey. Those two cities are gonna be insane the next week or so. What I wouldn’t give to be in Fenway for one of the games.
The Red Sox/Cubs World Series is still a possibility. The end of the world is near. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Yeah; it was his own guys. The pointing wasn’t the rude bit; it was the “slowly walk a few steps to watch it go out” bit that was disrespectful.
Still–he knew it was going out, he knew it was, in a pitchers’ duel, likely to be the winning run, and he’d had a serious drought in the series, let alone the razzing he’d taken during the season for not being the easiest-to-get-along-with Red Sock.
I agree that it was disrespectful, but to hear the television announcers talking, you’d have thought he’d thrown the Bush twins down on the first-base-line, got out a jar of vaseline and an assortment of produce, and went to town.
A question: As heartening it was to see Damon wave to the crowd as he was being trundled off into the ambulance, shouldn’t his arms have been strapped down, since he was put in a neck brace and strapped to the immobilization board?
Well, the Red Sox are now officially my third favorite team (see post #24 in ‘Friggin Red Sox’)
As a Mariner fan, I got a perverse joy out of watching the As bite the dust.
I just went to espn.com for their take on the game, and discovered that in Monday Night Football — which I promise you not a blessed soul here in Boston even remembered was on — the Colts were down 21 points with four minutes to go, and came back to tie, forcing overtime, which they finally won by a field goal with 3:47 left in OT. (Over Super Bowl champs Tampa Bay, too.)
Any other day, that would have been considered a big deal.
An addendum: The coverage I just looked at showewd that the A’s weren’t so much upset by Ramirez’s walking as they were by what they construed as obscene gestures by Derek Lowe after he got the last strikeout of the game.
Now, to me as I watched, it just looked as if Lowe went swing-arm crazy, sort of doing a two-gun sharp-shooting kind of thing–but many A’s saw it as pelvic thrusts and finger motions directed at them. Tejada, crying, was screaming that Lowe would “pay for this,” that his daughter was in the stands, and whatnot.
Lowe apologized for whatever he may have done as soon as he heard, but it doesn’t seem to have mollified the A’s much.
Considering that the motto has been cowboy up and that’s what lowe was doing i think that the a’s are just over reacting. The fact they just totally cemented a reputation as chokers..
As for tejada’s daughters if she can handle seeing her dad scratch his groin.. i think she’ll get over that.
it’s just complaints from a bitter bitter team
*Still–he knew it was going out, he knew it was, in a pitchers’ duel, likely to be the winning run, and he’d had a serious drought in the series, let alone the razzing he’d taken during the season for not being the easiest-to-get-along-with Red Sock.*
This kind of bad sportsmanship has bled over from basketball. Some players have no class.
*I agree that it was disrespectful, but to hear the television announcers talking, you’d have thought he’d thrown the Bush twins down on the first-base-line, got out a jar of vaseline and an assortment of produce, and went to town.*
Well, they’d probably enjoy that more than we do considering what their daddy is doin’ to the country.
I don’t know where the standing at the plate and watching the ball go out got started, you NEVER see it on the Classic Games shown on cable.
Tonight, for example, Mantle singles in a couple of runs in the Seventh Game of the World Series and you can’t tell, from his expression, if he’d even gotten a hit.
Great game too. I’m glad I found the channel right after the Sox-A’s game. I was flippin’ the channels when I caught this line from the announcer, “Mize singles to center! The Duke fires it into Robinson.”
That sure was an exciting final fifth game!
***Yep, whole series was great baseball. Glad to see the Sox win.
The A’s worried me in a series against the Yanks. The Red Sox? They’ll be the ‘possum on the highway facing an 18 wheeler.***
It
The Red Sox? They’ll be the ‘possum on the highway facing an 18 wheeler.***
Yeah… but 18 wheelers sometimes jack knife without warning and that lucky ‘possum gets to live another day.
The home team in baseball has the choice of which dugout they occupy.
If memory serves, when growing up and attending both Orioles and Phillies games, one team’s home dugout was on teh first base side and the other’s was on the third base side. (Can’t remember which is which, it was a long time ago.)
“I don’t know where the standing at the plate and watching the ball go out got started, you NEVER see it on the Classic Games shown on cable.”
I read a column on this subject a couple of years back. The author suggested that this is a big reason why there are fewer and fewer triples in baseball.
The scenario: The batter takes his time leaving the plate, thinking he hit a home run — but it’s actually just a long hit. By the time he decides to really start running, he’s gonna be held at second. If he’d been hustling from the start, he could’ve made it to third…
Yeah, true…it really does require someone to be going full board out of the box. Even for many doubles. Look at Game 4, Millar hits a single, decides half way down the first base line to try and make it a double and is out at second as the second baseman is holding the ball, kicking back, having a beer waiting for him. True, Millar won’t win any Olympic races, but if he had have been running full from the get-go he might have had it.
It should be a good ALCS. The Red Sox should do much better at the plate. They match up much better with the Yanks, partly because they see them more often, know the pitchers very well, but also because the A’s truly do have such a great pitching staff.
In regards to Manny, no matter what, it still it was tasteless. Whatever the reason….he was happy about finally hitting something, he was trying to show up the A’s…whatever, it still boils down to the fact that he believes he’s more important than the game. To me…that’s the saddest part and what is wrong with many sports “superstars”.
Anyways, for the Sox to truly break the curse….they would have to beat the Yanks. Now they’ll have their chance. And if they win, and the Cubs win….I’m pretty sure hëll will be frozen over by then.
Growing up in Chicago, I believed that the dugout was always on the third base side–as they are in Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park. There is no rule–it is soley up to the team.
PAD,
I didn’t see the game in question, but your comment about how the Sox reached deep and pulled it out reminded me of the Tigers’ penultimate game this season. I was there because my Dad threw out the ceremonial first pitch. For the first part of the game, it looked like the Tigers were doomed to tie the 1962 Mets for worst record in modern baseball with 120 games lost (the worst record ever was the late 19th century Cleveland Spiders with 134 games lost). It wasn’t until the bottom of the 5th ending that the Tigers scored a run, and by then the Twins had 8 runs.
But then things started to turn around. In the later innings, the Twins pitchers started walking a lot of Tiger players, with loaded bases resulting more than once. No grand slams, unfortunately, but the Tigers kept scoring RBIs, and by the 9th inning, the score was tied at 8. A Tiger player (I don’t pay enough attention to the players’ names to remember them, sorry) got a walk, subsequently stole second and third; and then, when the player at the plate struck out and the catcher dropped (or missed entirely, I’m not sure which) the ball, the guy on third ran home, and the Tigers won 9-8. Ironically, my parents had left in the 5th inning and missed all this excitement. To me, it felt like we’d won the World Series, even though the team still finished the season with 119 losses. Sounds like the Sox fans had a similar reaction.
Of course, the Sox, unlike the Tigers, are actually contenders for the World Series, but it’s the idea of your team coming back from behind to win the game.
For the record, I’d root for the Cubs, but only because I once lived in Chicago. I don’t really pay that much attention to sports (and don’t even remember who played in last year’s World Series), and only paid marginal attention to the Tigers this year. Kind of ironic, then, that my first post on this board would be about baseball. Oh well, violate expectations, as my girlfriend says.
To some degree, I figured the A’s-Red Sox series was a matchup of troubled franchises, the guys who find new ways to lose and the guys who can’t find ways to win. Since the Red Sox are not the same team than was on the field in ’75, ’78, ’86, etc., they had the advantage. Of course, I also think that BeaneBall is overrated, given that Beane himself admits he builds teams to get into the playoffs and not to win them. Say what you will about Steinbrenner, but he and his minions are all about winning everything, not just the division.
Yankees-Red Sox. Cubs-Marlins. Baseball in the three oldest and most beloved parks in the game. Clemens. Pedro. Sosa. Dontrelle. Dusty. McKeon. Torre. Ghosts of Harry Caray and Mel Allen and Red Barber. Ghosts of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Memories of the ’97 Marlins and the ’75 Sox and the 26 Yankees titles. And millions of long-suffering Cubs and Red Sox fans, loathing the expansion club that bought a title in 1997 and the richest kid on the block buying championships like they were back issues in the 50 cent bin.
Should be fun. (Certainly should help us New York sports fans forget the Giants and Jets and Rangers and Knicks for a while.)
This is totally off-topic, but I think it’s vitally important at least one actual comic book writer see this:
http://www.anglegrinderman.com/
PAD, next time you set a story in London,maybe this guy could show up? Though he’d be more at home in the Tick, probably.
“Happy” Yom Kippur???
I thought Ramirez was pointing at the Sox’ dugout as well, but I do agree that it was an unclassy and unsportsmanlike move to just hover around home plate and start strolling towards first as if he couldn’t be bothered to do a full trot. That impression of him as an overpaid snot was borne out after the following at-bat where he argued the called third strike.
Looking forward to the Yankees/Sox series. If the Cubs win I’m rooting for the Sox; otherwise I’ll be rooting for the NY team, as usual.
No update yet on Johnny Damon’s concussion . At Highland Hospital for 5-6 hours yesterday, don’t know if he was kept overnight, test results were normal and a neurologist will examine him today. That’s all I was able to find out.
I’m not generally a big baseball follower, but I’m getting more and more into the idea of a Cubs-Sox series … so I loved last night’s game to pieces.
(Of course, teaching in the Bay Area, I see a lot of students and colleagues grumbling this morning. Ah, well.)
Agreed with Tom: it seems only fitting that the only way for the Sox to break the curse is to get past the Yankees. Even the transplanted New Yorker in me thinks that’s entirely appropriate.
My other hope: Not only should the Series be Cubs-Sox, but it should (a) go seven games, and (b) be the highest-rated World Series in the last few decades. Everyone’s gonna want to see history here. (And besides, that just makes it all the more interesting when Peter’s stray meteor comes by…)
TWL
About stray meteors….apparently there was one, on 9/27, that come from within Earth’s orbit and passed as close as 55,000 miles. Talk about a pitch to the hitter strategy…..
Folks, it’s crazy here today. Unbelievable good will to all on the streets, such that people were politley waving each other through an intersection with a broken light this morning on my way to work. To quote the SNL skit: “Ohmigod, Tommy, please tell me you got that on tape…”
I honestly don’t know how much more of this we’ll all be able to take before just exploding or jumping into the sea.
(I do wish, though, that we–and this goes for American sports fans everywhere in the last few years, I think–could see our way clear to celebrating without turning over cars, lighting them on fire, and starting fights. How profoundly stupid can you get? I really fault the major sports franchises for not taking a stronger stance against this kind of stuff–they can help set a better example.)
As a side note, I’ve already started seeing speculation on just how much tickets to a Cubs-Sox World Series game would go for. Particularly considering that Fenway’s the smallest park in the majors, and MLB takes around 10,000 tickets out of play for sponsors and press and the like, there’s talk that a ticket in Fenway might be scalpable for $10,000.
Dugouts are on the side that the home team chooses.
As was mentioned, home dugout is on the third base side at Wrigley and Comisky.
First base side in Coors Field here in Denver, etc.
shouldn’t his arms have been strapped down, since he was put in a neck brace and strapped to the immobilization board?
I’m guessing that they didn’t see the need to do that.
I’ve been strapped to those boards a couple of times myself (and man does it suck), but, since I wasn’t bleeding profusely out my chest or anything, my arms weren’t strapped down.
Yes, in Oakland the first base dugout is the visitor’s dugout. I figure Ramirez was pointing either to his teammates, or to a heckling fan, or to cheering Boston fans (that side is traditionally filled with Sox fans in Oakland when the Sox are in town).
The A’s dugout is on the third base side.
This is the opposite of Fenway Park’s configuration.
I was sitting on the third base side – second deck, just beyond third base – for Game 1. I was very nearly the only Sox fan within three sections (and sitting right in front of what must have been the loudest A’s fan in the stadium), and man-o-man was it ever lonely. Fortunately, there were some nice A’s fans around me as well, and my friend and I always get into a few good conversations since we’re both extremely knowledgable about the game and have some very wacky and esoteric discussions whenever we go to a game together. It’s fun! 🙂
Oh, and concerning Ramirez’ “point”: I didn’t really think it was out of line. He wasn’t taunting the opposing team, and short of doing that I don’t really have a problem with him making that particular gesture to whoever he was making it to. I don’t think players need to act like cold fish in an emotionally changed game like that.
No Derek Lowe’s supposed gesture to the A’s dugout after the final out of the game, that was out of line! Shee.
I’m not a big basevall fan, but I watched last night’s game and got rather into it by the bottom of the 9th – literally on the edge of my seat. I’m really glad the Sox won.
It’s true that the Res Sox will likely get ground into pulp by the Yankees, but I would like to see them prevail over the overpaid showboat bìŧçhëš.
I’m sure it’s REALLY hard for the highest-paid team in baseball to also be the “best”. :\
Well, given that the Yankees haven’t won the World Series in a couple years, it does seem a bit more difficult to be the ‘best’ than just having the highest payroll.
They still get paid far too much. *shrugs*
$180 million? *vomits on Steinbrenner*
No Derek Lowe’s supposed gesture to the A’s dugout after the final out of the game, that was out of line! Shee.
And that is, of course, the problem of the matter: the *supposed* gesture.
I didn’t see anything bad about it, and I saw it live.
I think the A’s just need something to whine about for blowing it.
Maybe they should worry about the stupidity of their own fans and what the fans were doing next time.
No Derek Lowe’s supposed gesture to the A’s dugout after the final out of the game, that was out of line! Shee.
Oh, everyone needs to just step the frag off on this….
The man had just pitched the two best pitches of the game–possibly of his life–in the bottom of the 9th with bases loaded in the last, do-or-die moment of the series, and knew he had an uncousious teamate in a nearby hospital. (Whose collision and injury was applauded by more than a few A’s fans, no less.)
Lowe brought it home, and then did the following: he pumped his fist twice, and slapped his thigh with his glove once. No more, no less. What some idiots quoted in the media today have called his “pelvic thrusting” at the time this was all going on was a man screaming his lungs out and bending at the knees, as one does while screaming one’s lungs out in joy. If anyone seriously thinks that’s “obscene” or “out of line,” he or she might want to switch to watching quilting competitions.
Sheesh. There’s more than enough actual bad sportsmanship in professional sports (and elsewhere) today that we don’t need to go making things up….
Alright Peter, I finished Gods Above about a week ago, and I would really like to know when Stone and Anvil is to be realeased?
Spoilers:
Peter, is the Mc Henery being a demigod a perminant thing, or is that going to be another story?
Cam –
If he told you, then there’d be no point to buying the book, would there?
It’d be akin to Stephen King saying “Well, Roland gets to the Tower, Susannah dies giving birth to the spawn of the demon that impregnated her in the Speaking Ring, and Oy is killed by Eddie. Roland’s last act is killing himself after sacraficing Jake to the Crimson King”
…
😛
I’d really like to see the Sox put the Yankees out in four straight. Then a Sox-Cubs WS going seven games. The only problem… it’s a dámņ shame someone has to lose.
Manny did point to his own dugout, but I still found the slow strut away from homeplate to be extremely tactless.
I have very little patience for showboating in baseball. Particularly as I tend to prefer the pitching, defense and small ball aspects of the game, that sort of thing irks me a lot.
I had no issue with Derek Lowe’s behavior. Being excited (and doing nothing that struck me as even remotely obscene) is a far cry from showing up a pitcher who’s already proven that he can make you look like a fool.
I’m hoping for the Cubs to win it all anyway, but now I’m hoping for Manny to take a 95 mph fastball between the shoulder blades every time he steps to the plate.
I’m hoping for the Cubs to win it all anyway, but now I’m hoping for Manny to take a 95 mph fastball between the shoulder blades every time he steps to the plate.
You know, a couple of weeks ago, a Cardinals pitcher made the comment to the effect that he hoped Mark Prior would take a line drive to the head.
Nothing like bad sportsmanship to indicate how much you really want somebody’s career to abruptly end, if not their life, eh?
Your comment was just as tactless, if not more so. Your comment was, in fact, rather sad, because you desire injury upon somebody.
Congrats.
Elayne,
Back you up on that. “Happy” Yom Kippur? PAD, Although I respect (not to be confused with “admire”) your choice to go see a movie on Rosh Hashanah, this greeting indicates that you’ve lost touch with your Judaism. Yom Kippur is a solemn day with much soul-searching and no food, drink, sexual intimacy, bathing, make-up, wearing of leather, etc. — much self-sacrifice to intensify the focus on introspecting one’s soul. “Happy” isn’t quite the right word for that. “Meaningful”, that’s good. Or “Hope you had an easy fast.” But not “Happy”.
Disappointedly yours,
Methinks Peter was being less than serious about the happy thing.
MAybe I should hit my next Ask Wednsday Mass (I’m Catholic) and go “Yo! Happy Ashday!”
So I’m curious, Saul: Will my meaning be clear in telling you to go to Hëll, or will it engender a discussion on different beliefs as to what happens after death?
Yes, happy Yom Kippur. At the reform synagogue family service I attend, Yom Kippur is a positive, upbeat time. It is a time to acknowledge what you’ve done wrong and pledge to be a better person. It is a time of optimism as you aspire to improvement. It is a time of appreciation of family and trying to do better by them. It’s an attitude I abide by and appreciate. It’s a shame you don’t, and by the way, in all the insults that have been hurled at me since I opened this board, yours is the most personal and most vile yet.
And by the way, I did not go see Underworld on Rosh Hashanah. The New Year didn’t start until sundown Saturday night; I went at one in the afternoon. And yeah, it was Shabbas. I go out on Shabbas. I drive, I turn on lights, and by the way, I eat cheeseburgers, except on Yom Kippur, when I fast. You know what I don’t do? Sit in judgment on other Jews over the quality or zealousness of their beliefs.
Whatever personal introspection for improving yourself you might have done, apparently it was insufficient.
PAD
<
Your comment was just as tactless, if not more so. Your comment was, in fact, rather sad, because you desire injury upon somebody.
Congrats.>>
Um, okay.
If I were wishing injury on him, I’d have wished the 95 mph fastball to hit his head. Or maybe, if I were being nice, the hand.
A fastball in the back is classic baseball retaliation. Nothing more, nothing less.
A fastball in the back is classic baseball retaliation. Nothing more, nothing less.
For showboating?
You know, they give penalties in football for excessive celebration, but this isn’t football.
It’s the playoffs, it’s celebrating.
Or maybe McGwire should’ve taken a fastball in the head for his 62nd home run.
Maybe Ripkin Jr needs a broken hand because of his achievement in being the Iron Man in baseball.
Or maybe it’s just that you need to get over the players you don’t like, and realize that either everybody gets to have their fun, or nobody.
Wow do I apologize.
Peter,
I am truly, truly sorry to have offended you so. And I am very sorry that I did it in a public forum.
At times in my life, I have observed Judaism as a Reform Jew, as a Conservative Jew, and as an Orthodox Jew. I have gone to at least eight different synagogues for the High Holydays, some of each of these flavors. In particular, three different ones were Reform.
In each of them, “it is a time to acknowledge what you’ve done wrong and pledge to be a better person. It is a time of optimism as you aspire to improvement. It is a time of appreciation of family and trying to do better by them.” Absolutely. And yet, I have never heard it before described as a happy time. Never. And I figured, with so much variety in my experience, I had enough of an understanding of the various different viewpoints.
I was wrong.
I am sorry.
Two of the Reform synagogues I went to also observe only one day of Rosh Hashanah, but it was always on the first day (of the more orthodox 2-day celebration), which was Friday sundown to Saturday sundown this year. I thought, based on that, that they all did.
I was wrong.
I am sorry.
Based on all of this, I made a terrible leap of judgment. I assumed you were totally non-practicing. And whether you are or are not (and clearly you are not non-practicing) is none of my business.
I was wrong.
I am sorry.
Perhaps most importantly, I said all I did in a public forum, when you supply ample opportunities to contact you privately. This was wrong, and this cannot be forgiven.
Someday, I would like to attend services with your congregation. I think I would learn a lot, and it would open me to new levels of spirituality.
Andrew
Spoilers:
I don’t want to know what exactly is going to happen in the story. I am just curious if Mc Henery is gone for good or is he going to keep comming back? I understand that he left the possibility of Mc Henery’s return open at the end of Gods Above, but I would like to know wheather or not he plans to use that story in the future.
Maybe I draw a strange line between celebrating, which is fine (see my first post’s comments regarding Derek Lowe), and showboating.
A few friends and I debated Manny’s HR afterwards. 2 of 3 thought he was showboating, 2 of 3 think showboating is bad, and as I was the only one who fit into both categories, I thought his actions were not in the best form.
I readily admit it’s a bias. It bugs me. Celebrating an accomplishment, which McGwire and Ripken did, is wonderful. I encourage it. I’ve don’t recall ever seeing either of those two doing anything less than classy on a ball field.
Pointing to his teammates, pumping his fist, jumping on the plate, giving high fives- I don’t care, go for it, Manny.
I, personally, find standing at homeplate admiring home runs distasteful. I hate when Bonds does it too. It has nothing to do with who either of them are. I know nothing about Manny Ramirez. He could be a saint off the field for all I know.
I just found that one act obnoxious.
Clearly you did not.
And despite it all, while I wouldn’t mind seeing him get plunked once, I would like Manny to have a decent ALCS, because I’m just sick of the Yankees 🙂
Now can we at least agree that I’m not asking for anybody to get injured. That insinuation is starting to get insulting.
The first time, maybe the context was bad, but I think I answered that charge already.
If you want to debate what constitutes showboating farther, you can email me. I think we’re far enough off subjet.
One last note, I’m watching the Cubs, just cut to a highlight of Manny hitting a home run.
He was running out of the box.
Good for him.