Playing out the string

Mike:
Ah, fuck, you know, anothah weekend, another ass sweeping.

 

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Bill:
Massarotti speaks for wondahs if the club has just given up.

 

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Mike:
Yeah, the Red Sox need to be reminded what it means to have integrity.

 

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Bill:
I'm feeling like a faded beauty queen myself, maybe it's time to call it a year?

 

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Mike:
It's times like this when you've got to pity the baseball bloggahs.

 

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Bill:
What the fuck for?

 

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Mike:
Well, while the non-blogging fan can just step back from the season, start looking toward Foxboro and put the Red Sox on the back burnah, we bloggahs still have to to get up and address the dire situation game aftah game aftah game.

 

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Bill:
Yeah, well, nothing stopping you guys from quitting, you know.

 

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Mike:
Are you kidding me? Once you get your lips suckling on that ad revenue teat, it's not so easy.

 

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Bill:
Ah, jeez, you're really breaking my haht ovah heah.

 

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Comments

[SoxontheBeach]

I'm still here for the ride. Just don't ask me for any freaking optimism.

[Bob]

Did you guys know that slitting your wrists wiht a Mach 3 is next to impossible?

[Jason O.]

Hold on a second...Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus is freaking me out.

Last week he predicted that both the Red Sox and the Yankees would go 2-4 on their west coast swing...

...cue the twilight zone music.

[Son of Hamulack]

The highlight of my weekend. Middle aged guy with a faded Sox cap on walks past a booth with snickering teens in Yankees caps. After he passes, one of them calls out "sweep"... he stopped, turned around, stood at their table and unleashed calmly the following tirade... roughly...

"You swept a team that got swept by the Royals. You're 1 and 4 on your west coast road trip. You send Detroit enough money in salary tax to pay for their whole rotation and your ace starter is Chen Ming Wong. See you next year."

[louclinton]

Just a bunch of stinkin' quitters

[Rob in CT]

Sound a bit harsh, Lou. I'm with Beach - not enough optimism to share with the class, but I'm not ready to get off the ride. hb, I feel your pain...

[Jason O.]

SoHamulack, You mean next year when NYY has Zito (ERA+ of 129) and World Baseball Classic MVP Daisuke Matsuzaka? With Phil Hughes not too far behind?

I agree with you that those guys were punks in that I come from the JoePa school, i.e., Act like you've been there before, but:

Be careful what you wish for...

[blade87]

Times to try men's souls...and find them guilty, guilty guilty!

Guilty of being true downbeats. What the hell can be done at this point? Fish and cut bait.

The season will play itself out, the Sox will get some decent pitching and yes, next year will be a better one. That's our mantra, and I'm sticking to it.

Fry 'em sunny side up.

My metaphoric race is run.

[tessie]

We're still here with you h.b.

The Browns beat the Bills Saturday night!

[Natalie]

My father's response to me and my brother as young children whenever he had to deny us something we wanted desperately: "You know, these are the trials and tribulations that are all part of life's rich pageantry."

Applied to the Sox of late, I understand the trials and tribulations part; but where's the g*dd*amn pageantry?

I am yet not willing to write off the season, but I am only watching with one jaundiced eye. h.b., thanks for stickin' it out with us and providing some needed humor and perspective.

[Rob in CT]

Tessie - Not to rain on your parade, but PS 32 and the Little Sisters of Mercy Flag footbal team also beat the Bills in pre-season. I don't think using excalamation points is probably warranted...

:-D

[Jay]

Swept by the Royals AND the Mariners, I'm hanging on to my hope, if it can still be called that, by the weakest of threads.

[harwich rich]

Inside every cloud there's a silver lining...it's just so damn dark in here I can't see it :)

[jon in medford]

it finally sounds like pre-04' man those were good times

[Aaron]

As someone who watched this weekend's series in person, let me tell you it was even more horrific than it looked on tv. It's one thing to listen to taunts from MFY fans: after all, they do have the hardware to back up their mouths. But when you're listening to catcalls and taunts from freakin' Seattle Mariners fans - man, it doesn't get any more depressing than that. On Friday night, there were more Sox fans in the stadium than M's fans. By Sunday, red B's were few and far between.

I waited all summah for this?

[COD]

Interesting 04 comment Jon. I was just thinking that the last three games were the first time since the pre-04 days that I fully expected them to lose. I wasn't even surprised by what I saw on ESPN in the mornings.

[Kaz]

Big Papi is back in Boston undergoing scans and tests on his irregular heartbeat.

Good Christ, Red Sox! Your horrible play is breaking Papi's heart!!!

[eve]

Watching tonight's game (live-on-tv, for a change)I was so, so, disheartened. I mean, Lopez?? He was freaking out. And then to put in Corey?? All I could think was what it was like to play a H.S. sport and then be suddenly in a game with kids from college. Anyway. I still have hope, after all, what else is there?

[Ghengis Ortiz]

It will always be part-and-parcel of the Boston media to rip player and coaches - good, bad, mediocre - to shreds, but all this ragging on Manny is getting really annoying.

For all you that remember when Gorman couldn't pull the trigger and get Joe Carter from SD - let's really lobby to get rid of Manny and bring Jack Clark back to bat third. Now there's a 'real winner'.

What is going to happen if Manny gets back in the outfield, smiles and looks like he's having fun - is CHB going to say he was 'lazing around in the outfield, just yukking it up'?

A recurring nightmare I have is that he really hurt his knee in 2004 doing his half-slide-catch in the World Series, and he couldn't play another game. That's what normally happened to the Sox. But it didn't, and we won. That's why I still watch replays of the series and playoffs.

It is tough being a true Sox fan. But that's part of the fun. Maybe if they really tank next year, some of the pink-hatted quasi-fans will give up and open up seats for the rest of us, and our kids. I don't want the Sox to suck it up again, but having a really rough year certainly 'separates the wheat from the chaff'

I am rooting for Grady Little to get a Series ring. Grady might not be the brightest bulb on the tree, but it seems he's one of 'the good guys'. I was as pissed off and perplexed when he left Pedro in too, but the treatment he received after - after winning over 90 games two years in a row - well, it was fucking rude. Sorry but that's the truth.

I scalped tickets and was sitting next to the Pesky Pole in '90, about 10 yards away when Tom Brunansky almost slid into the wall on the last play of the game, catching Ozzie Guillen's line drive. It was an awesome moment, and even though the Sox had no chance to beat the A's, we still celebrated like we won it all.

Regrets for the late-summer sentimentality, but there's always more good than bad. Especially after having lived through '78 and '86 (and 2004).