That was obviously the feeling last night when they walked him to get to the 2nd most prolific post season home run hitter of all time.
[B]P.s.[/B] I heard that Manny homerun ball just landed about an hour ago in Northern Russia ;)
I was being good today as there is a known Yankee fan (possibly hungover) that "lurks" around here and I didn't want to hurt her feelings any more then I had to with us being up 2-0 and them being down 2-0....
....of course since [B]YOU[/B] brought baseball up Astro.....it is fair game! :)
Thanks for the nice pic! Going to add it to my collection.
Nice one! That is me! Crazy!!?
Must be Reggie Jackson up to bat back in the '78 1 game playoff for the division. I was in a bad mood that day so forgive me!;)
Here is my favorite picture of all time. I mean it is dearer to my heart then waterfalls, mountains, rainbows.....even LOLCATS!
[IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/1500810651_2ba0cd44ef.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]I'd add that one to my collection if that was Clemens! [/QUOTE]
We can only hope that Roger provides something good to be on the cover of the Daily News Monday so that you can have a keeper for your collection too.
I was kind of hoping the Yankees would make it to the ALCS so that Clemens could face Beckett and we could get the headline, "Roger Retirement Beck(ett)ons." -[I]Ok, that is really bad. Headlines are not my thing.[/I]
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][COLOR="DarkRed"]Eh hm..
Hungover? Me? Nahhhh.
In deep denial? Yesssss.
I can't get into this. It's my defense mechanism. I just go to my happy place and pretend the season ended on September 30th.
I've gotten so good at it. Six years of practice.
I'm sure the Red Sox will sweep LA today.[/COLOR][/FONT]
[QUOTE] Hungover? Me? Nahhhh.[/QUOTE]
I'd hope not. It has been a couple of days :D
[QUOTE] I've gotten so good at it. Six years of practice.[/QUOTE]
You guys have been in a rut for Yankee standards (which are high.)
[QUOTE]I'm sure the Red Sox will sweep LA today.[/QUOTE]
I hope so. A four way round 1 playoff sweep wouldn't hurt my feelings at all. Although, it would be better strategically for the Sox (assuming they are to advance) if Cleveland lost today and went back through their starting studs in games 4 & 5 (rather then sweeping) so they would not be available for games 1 & 2 of the ALCS. Of course.....hoping that the Yankees win anything is just against my DNA.
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][COLOR="DarkRed"]Welll.....
It sure wasn't a surprise... not to me anyway.
All I can hope for is a new manager and a new outlook for '08.
I am sick to death of the "respectable and respected" manager. Give me some youth and some fire.
I'm sure the Sox will have no problem with Sabathia and Carmona... Jake Westbrook's a non-factor.
I say Red Sox in 4.[/COLOR][/FONT]
[QUOTE] I am sick to death of the "respectable and respected" manager. Give me some youth and some fire. [/QUOTE]
It is time. I have always thought Joe was a "nice guy" but was never sure of his coaching prowess. How hard is it to win with a team that has had individual players who earn about as much as complete franchises? With the mega payroll I think I'd even have a chance at a few rings in 12 years as skipper.
[U][B]Extent of Managing Yankee's 1995-Present[/B][/U]
[B]Torre:[/B] My managerial advice is to hit the baseball, preferably over that fence out there.
[B]Jeter:[/B] Ok.
[B]--------[/B]
As for the Sox, I think it is going to be a good series, but I just have this gut feeling that we are the best team out there. I did not have a bead of sweat, during the entire series with the Angles, fall from my brow :)
I'd say the Indians have a better chance of beating them then any AAA 1/2 National League offering...
[QUOTE]They have assumed their place as America's Team, favorites to win the World Series, and the only legitimate television draw still active in baseball's Octoberfest.
Gone is the agita that walked hand in hand with the Red Sox in their 86-year quest to win a World Series. There's a sense of inevitability about their 2007 playoff march, demonstrated again last night in a methodical 10-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the first game of the American League Championship Series. Josh Beckett picked up the win with six innings of four-hit pitching and the Sox chased 19-game winner C.C. Sabathia (eight earned runs) in the fifth.
Like their brawny brothers in Foxborough, these Red Sox have a way of sucking the drama out of games before many fans settle into their seats. The Sox have won four consecutive playoff games by an aggregate count of 29-7.
Sox sluggers Manny Ramírez and David Ortiz look like high school seniors playing in the Little League World Series. The Dominican duo hit .533 with four homers and seven RBIs while reaching base 19 times in three games against the Angels in the AL Division Series. Last night they reached base 10 times in 10 plate appearances.
Ruth and Gehrig? Mays and McCovey? It's doubtful any duo ever reached base with more regularity (29 times in 36 combined postseason plate appearances). Ortiz and Ramírez are playing in a higher league.
"I've never seen anything like it," said third baseman Mike Lowell. "They're just both putting together tremendous at-bats. For them to get on base like they did today is a little bit ridiculous."
Going back to his last four games of the regular season, Ortiz over an eight-game stretch has reached base 29 times in 35 plate appearances. That means he has made only six outs in eight games. Ramírez in the playoffs has reached base 13 times in 18 trips to the plate.
"We are aware of it," Ortiz said when asked about the astronomical numbers. "We're seeing the ball good and we've got to keep it that way, especially in the playoffs."
Meanwhile, Beckett, emerging as a modern-day Bob Gibson, smothered the Tribe, striking out seven, walking none, and allowing two earned runs in a rocking-chair start. He allowed only one base runner in the first four innings.
"They got a lineup full of guys that can hit," allowed Beckett. "I'm just out there trying to execute pitches."
"He gave us just what we needed," said manager Terry Francona. "When you're facing a guy like C.C., you better have someone you believe in, and we do."
The Sox' lineup battered Sabathia, scoring five times in the first three innings as 36,986 shivered on the first cool night of autumn. It was 8-1 after Sabathia was driven from the mound in the fifth.
"He didn't have it tonight." Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "It was just one of those nights for C.C. He just wasn't able to get untracked. Sometimes his heart gets in the way and he tries to do a little too much."
The Sox hadn't played since last Sunday's champagne-soaked, 9-1 Division Series clincher in Orange County, Calif., but showed no signs of rust as they ran out to another early lead in the matchup of Cy Young candidates.
Seventeen-year-old Danny Vinik was accorded the honor of tossing out the first pitch (Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk must have been busy) before the game was turned over to Beckett. Son of a Red Sox limited partner (Jeffrey Vinik), Danny is the young man who snatched a Ramírez foul pop that would have been caught by Angels catcher Jeff Mathis in the dramatic second game of the ALDS eight days ago. At least one major league official expressed dismay with the Sox' selection of Vinik, and they should now be prepared for all future forms of fan participation.
It was 54 degrees with 21-mile-per-hour winds from the northwest when Beckett threw his first pitch. Cleveland designated hitter Travis Hafner took advantage of the gales of October, launching a wind-aided, solo homer over the visitors' bullpen wall to give the Tribe a 1-0 lead. The homer also snapped Beckett's postseason string of 18 scoreless innings, dating to Game 6 of the 2003 World Series.
The Sox got the run back almost immediately, cracking three straight singles to center off Sabathia in the bottom of the first. Kevin Youkilis strolled home on Ramírez's hard single to make it 1-1. Manny further endeared himself to the masses with a nice running catch of a Kenny Lofton liner in the second. He made another clutch catch in the eighth.
Fenway fans figured it was only a matter of time before the Sox broke it open, and their faith was rewarded in the third when the Sox batted around and scored four times to take a 5-1 lead. Ramírez drove home the first run with a bases-loaded walk (after Sabathia was ahead, 0 and 2), then Lowell hit a ground-rule double to right, scoring two. When Jason Varitek grounded to third to score Manny, the Red Sox led, 5-1.
Beckett, the only 20-game winner in the majors in the last two seasons, was not about to squander a four-run lead. The big righthander, who blanked the Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS, was never threatened. After throwing only 80 pitches, he turned the ball over to Mike Timlin in the seventh. Beckett has 15 strikeouts and zero walks in his two postseason games this year.
Curt Schilling, 9-2 in 16 career postseason starts, gets the ball for the Red Sox tonight. The Indians turn their sad eyes to Fausto Carmona, a 23-year-old righty who won 19 games this year.
Ortiz was asked if the Sox could play any better than they are right now.
"Come on, better than that?" he asked, smiling.
After a slight pause, he added, "Probably."[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/10/13/sox_put_a_chill_on_indians_in_opener?mode=PF[/url]
I feel bad for the Yankees. Actually, I feel bad for my boyfriend. lol He's a die hard Yankee fan. You should hear the obscenities spewing from his mouth at this very moment. Not pretty.
I, however, am a Cubbie girl. I couldn't be happier about my team. :)
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[quote=GoldenWarrior;30450]AND ANOTHER YEAR.....of my team not making the playoffs blah Wow though Tampa Bay really surprised me this year.[/quote]
Wooooooo TAMPA! [SIZE=1]
(ok just kidding; I'm not a Rays fan... I just live here. I don't even know how they did, although from your reaction, I'm assuming good...?)[/SIZE]
[quote=killer_tofu;30453]Wooooooo TAMPA!
[SIZE=1](ok just kidding; I'm not a Rays fan... I just live here. I don't even know how they did, although from your reaction, I'm assuming good...?)[/SIZE][/quote]
LOL They are the division leaders actually and I'm sure they appreciate your undying support :P And I don't feel bad for the Yankees at all but I dislike them with a passion so maybe I'm biased.
[quote=GoldenWarrior;30456]LOL They are the division leaders actually and I'm sure they appreciate your undying support :P And I don't feel bad for the Yankees at all but I dislike them with a passion so maybe I'm biased.[/quote]
The Yankees are like the Patriots...I am done watching them dominate! Move on over!
[quote=killer_tofu;30453]
I'm not a Rays fan... I just live here. I don't even know how they did, although from your reaction, I'm assuming good...?[/quote]
Don't worry KT as you are not alone in your disinterest, unlike in Boston where baseball can be convincingly said in the same breath as God and Country, most people in Tampa don't even know they have a baseball team...or at least that could be assumed from the empty stadium they play in each night (vs. the Sox nearly 500 game sellout streak.)
[quote=Bacchus;30469]Don't worry KT as you are not alone in your disinterest, unlike in Boston where baseball can be convincingly said in the same breath as God and Country, most people in Tampa don't even know they have a baseball team...or at least that could be assumed from the empty stadium they play in each night (vs. the Sox nearly 500 game sellout streak.)[/quote]
Hahaha thanks B... I don't feel so bad now...
[quote=Insider;31917]GO CUBS GO!!!
[SIZE=1][I]Posted via Mobile Device[/I][/SIZE][/quote]
You sad, sad creature. ;)
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[quote=Insider;31934]LMAO Bacchus. I know.. I know. As a Sox fan, you should understand where I'm coming from. You were once in my shoes. :([/quote]
October 17th, 2004 and [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/sports/baseball/28rhoden.html?pagewanted=all&position="]"The Steal."[/URL]
My life has not been the same since. :D
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