We must not allow a mine-shaft gap!

Mike:
Why-oh-why can't Francona evah use the bullpen when are tied or behind but still very much in the game?

 

---

Al:
Well, look at this way. Now the bullpen will be totally rested for that all-important weekend series with the Orioles. Heh.

 

---

Mike:
Yeah, well, I'm not even sure of that. Something tells me they'll be getting worked today aftah the Yankees tee off early and often on Schilling's 88mph fastball.

 

---

Doug:
Holy crap, will you two just listen to yourselves? Chill, dudes.

 

---

Doug:
The way I see it is this — Being many games ahead in the standings is like having nuclear weapons. What good are they if you're not willing to toss a few?

 

---

Mike:
That's a creepy metaphor … a really twisted form of optimism.

 

---

Al:
Can you even call that optimism? It's more like a complacent fatalism.

 

---

Doug:
Hey, don't you judge me. I'm coping just fine ovah heah unlike you two Nervous Nellies.

 

---

Comments

[Merloni]

Two nights in a row Tito it's like having a Porshe and leaving it in the Garage. We are supposed to have the best pen in Baseball use it!!!

[louclinton]

I'm with stupid ovah heah.

Reasons I don't care:

1. 2004
2. Lucchino
3. Nancy
4. $chill
5. Coco
6. Geffner
7. Mike Sexton of the World Poker Tour
8. That guy who violates the 2 day rule 4 times a game
9. 2004

It's fine just relax.

lc

[Youk Rules]

I woke up thinking, "Dammit, this sucks worse than a cow's balls." I was really down in the dumps.

And then I read Kaz's retort last night to Pinstripe's stuffed shirt paean to Roger Clemens and felt a whole lot better.

People, if Schilling pulls a "Roger" and wins tonight, we're all still living in fat city. If not, no "biggie."

These games were an opportunity to bury the opposition, yes, but they were not the most important games. Those come in October.

After today, I'll be glad not to see the Yanks for two weeks and that, when I do see them again, it will be in my own house.

[Bob]

I just hope we get a halfway decent Schill today. I was at the Angels game when he pitched, and while we won 10-5, even the outs he got were of the sharp-line-drive variety. It was frightening to watch.

That said, Schilling has proven he can rise to the occasion.

Hopefully not like our toilet-tapping friend, but still.

[ParkerStPete]

Speaking of our toilet-tapping friend, check out Slate's kind-of-strange video re-enactment: http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1155290759
All feet, fingers, and eyes... plus the infamous "wide stance."

[Jason O.]

hb, I have only this to say re: today's title:

http://www.moviemarket.co.uk/Photos/C310155_B73258.html

[CuracaoSox]

Right on HB. That's two days in a row that Tito saved his bullpen just to see his starter give up the eventual winning run in his last inning...both on homers.

[h.b.]

Great photo, J.O.! You're the champ too at catching the title references.

[Jason O.]

That's the point when Gen. Turgidson recommends a first strike on the USSR to preempt their retaliation:

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

[BamaSoxFan]

Skankee fan at work waiting as I walked through the door: "So? Are you on suicide watch, yet? Huh? Huh?"

I replied, very calmly, "Not really. We're six games up. You're tied for the wildcard. Have fun the rest of the season." And that's the difference between this year and ages passed . . .

BTW, I nominate Kaz's evisceration of Pinstripe last night as one of my favorite moments of this season . . . on or off the field. Every word of retort was perfect. If y'all missed it, you owe it to yourselves to check it out.

Kudos, KAZ.

[louclinton]

In re: Kaz:

I agree heartily. My only reservation is that taking on PT is like asking Paris Hilton if she wants to blow you. Way too easy.

respectfully,

lc

[Follower of Tito]

Every once in a while, I forget/don't believe baseball axioms...never underestimate home ball park advantage...Tito, are you listening? If we're close, stop the bleeding, take out the starter, and USE THE BULL PEN!

Anyway, I am very comfortable with the lead in the AL East. It's just that it's the Stankees. If we were playing Seattle and losing while the Stankees were playing Cleveland and winning it would not anywhere near as aggravating.

[Bob]

Heh. Check out this ad commentary (it's the one for the Bank of America/Yankees ad, currently at the top of tha page).

Keep in mind that "Copyranter" is a New Yorker, and it's even funnier:

http://copyranter.blogspot.com/

[Kaz]

I've had it up to my eyeballs with most Yankee fans. I took it out on PT yesterday night because he was exemplifying exactly why I'm fed up with them AND we lost again...this time with an undermanned dugout and a still underused bullpen (both falling squarely on managerial shoulders...I know I'm not the only one seeing this, but why aren't any of the big media guns aiming at Tito right now?).

So back to why I'm sick of most Yankee fans. Sure, it's a rivalry, but seriously, we're playing these games more to see if we can keep you out of the wild-card than to hold our division lead. There are only 4 more Sox-Yankees games this year and that's less than the division lead. We're going to do better against all of the weak cruft left to play in our schedule (mostly home) than the Yankees will do on the road against better teams than our remaining schedule. I think we lost last night but because it's one game closer to the end of the season, we actually improved our likelihood of winning the AL East. That's how pig-headed it is to keep acting like you're gaining a ton of ground on the division...and yet, every win isn't treated like a well-played rivalry that has wild-card implications.

Yankee fans keep acting like every win and every run brings them closer to some sort of inevitable toppling of Boston, as if the past 120 games are meaningless and this is exactly what they expected coming into the season, let alone the current series. Instead, they *should* be praying that they make the wild-card. If roles were reversed (and trust me for the past few years, we all know they have been), we'd be secretly praying that these past two nights might mean some sort of comeback the likes of which wouldn't have been seen since "0-3 in a best of 7", but Sox fans would be talking about how we just gained ground on Seattle and how badly we got handled by Detroit letting them get a few games behind us now in the WC race.

Sorry that this is a bit long-winded, but this completely unearned bravado is supremely annoying. It's like this significant chunk of Yankees fans (and even a few Yankees) have a collective Superiority Complex. The curtain calls for scoring a run, the standing ovations...with 0 outs in the inning, the snide comments I see in some of the game-time forums I read, etc.

I've had it. It's one thing to deal with this sort of attitude when you're the one looking up at #1. It's what super-smug Yankee fans are famous for. It's a new world this year that the Yankees haven't seen in quite a while and it's like they're either in denial or just completely unfamiliar with the idea that they may not make the playoffs so they act in the microcosm of each single game as if this is how they've always dominated the division and yesterday was just another example of that. It's just not the case and that set me off last night (and still has me grumbling today).

It also really doesn't help that we can't just "put them away" (even though we really already have due to their exceptionally poor season start and remaining schedule) with a win or two.

[buckner was framed]

so, uh, Kaz- How do you *really* feel?

(well played, sir)

[Merloni]

Today's Line Up

1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Coco Crisp, CF
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Eric Hinske, LF
9. Alex Cora, SS
P -- Curt Schilling

Gee I bet that will strike fear into Torre

[Youk Rules]

Brother Kaz is absolutely right, especially his point about each game being a "microcosm" for Yankees fans' historical approach to dominating the standings.

I see this on some of the NYY boards: some turd says "OK, everybody, the season starts tonight" or some such bullshit, usually after a bad loss (e.g. 16-0).

[h.b.]

Well-said, Kaz.

[Jason O.]

youk, you mean like getting crushed 19-8 and being down 0-3, and still believing?

That kind of bullshit? Hope springs eternal.

[h.b.]

There's a good Simmons' recent piece that I think relates somewhat to this discussion.

Simmons discusses how post-2004 there are a lot more bandwagon fans in RSN just like their have been for the Yankees, i.e., success attracts these folks.

And Simmons suggests, correctly I think, that the bandwagon fans, from either camp, tend to be the most annoying.

It's more likely I think, too, that the Yankees fans who are ignoring the reality and are getting smug and trash talking right now are of that bandwagon sort.

And, Jason, there's a big difference between not giving up as a fan and still believing than the kind of fan behavior Kaz was saying annoys him and the rest of us.

[Jason O.]

final thought: I'm a little partial to Schilling, because like him I support BusHitlerCheneyHalliburtonwarforoilRoveGlobalWarming

[louclinton]

Game on.

By the way. Something occurred to me last night, which struck me as sort of an inflection point in the whole Sawk/Yanx thing.

I heard a "Red Sox Suck" chant in the crowd several times. I honestly don't ever remember hearing that at Yankee $tadium before.

Although I am never wrong, only misunderstood, I wonder if anyone else hade the same reaction.

lc

[pinstripe thunder]

OK, gang, let it rest. I've self-exiled for awhile, self-censored, self-medicated, all that good stuff. If I were as trollish as some of you claim, I would be gleeful at dominating the discussion even in absentia. I'm not. Just play ball.

I said last night that I thought we had a 10% chance to win the division and a 50% chance of taking the wild card. Not exactly a claim that we are moving inexorably toward an inevitable conclusion. I have said repeatedly that you guys seem to have the better team this year. All I said last night, perhaps a little too boisterously, was that Clemens did the job we paid him, to do... I don't care if your line-up was filled with cocktail waitresses. Anyway, it's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I admire Kaz's fire and passion. But my own nomination for best comment goes to Jason O., for his pitch perfect reply just now. Well put.

Bye for now.

[Youk Rules]

JO, you're making a faulty comparison.

Yes, it would be very much the same if Sox fans had a perception of "World Series Entitlement," much like Yankees fans have today and have had for the past several decades.

But, you see, Sox fans do not have such a feeling of entitlement. Why? They're the perennial underdogs in the playoffs. Compounded with the litany of heartbreaking playoff boggles and World Series blunders, which I will not recite for your benefit, it's basically impossible for Sox fans to have a belief that they are "entitled" to advance to the playoffs and bring home another WS title each year.

A comment like "the season starts tonight" is the attempt of a desperate Yankee fan to pretend that the luster of history will triumph over the dun of reality.

[lc]

Holy Fuck, that PT dude doesn't even remotely get it.

lc

[pinstripe thunder]

AND... how many other Yankee fans post tributes to Tony Conigliaro on the 40th anniversary of his beaning on your web site (see 8/8/07)? That's what I thought. I probably cherish the rivalry as much as my own team.

Since I've been told to find my journalistic edification elsewhere, off to read the cover story of NEWSWEEK (He's Still Out There)... I think they mean either E.T. or Bin Laden. Talk about Captain Obvious. And then the cover story of TIME -- Mother Theresa's Secret Life. Sounds promising.

May you get your wish and live in a world with neither Yankees nor Yankee fans. Enjoy that Blue Jay rivalry.

OK, really done now.

[Merloni]

Hey PT Grow Up

[louclinton]

Not to be rude, but who give a fuck what you posted, or what I posted on one day or any day?

My posts are worth less that what spins clockwise in the porcelain pantheon each morning with clockwork. I just write this shit because I'm bored.

With all due respect,

lc

[Follower of Tito]

Listening to game streaming online at work. I did not know MLB was cracking down managers who don't wear uni tops. Man, wonder if Lou Pinella got it started in TB when you used to roll out of the dugout untucked, unshaven looking like one of the bums on the Commons. Tito doesn't like tucking in his uniform tops due to being anticoagulated with Coumadin for his history of deep venous thrombi. Anticoagulated patients frequently complain of bruising from tight clothing.

C'mon MLB, Juice-ambi gets a walk for using 'roids, but you roust Tito for wearing a sweatshirt!

[bg]

Happy Birthday Thumper wherever you are!

Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams#Career_Batting_Statistics

[Kaz]

FoTito, fo' sho'.

I can understand at least wanting the manager in team colors or MLB-made gear, but "must wear a jersey"? Gimme a break. And to invade the dugout mid-game to make your complaint be known to the manager? Geddafuckout! Who in their right mind would do that?

[Bukowski]

Did you see that f'ing call? AROD reaching for Youk?

Bullshit!

[Natalie]

Joining in the cranky-fest:

I hate J.D. Drew.

Oh, and speaking of Page 2 articles on Red Sox fans, shut it Jim Caple.

That's all.

[buckner was framed]

yeah, if Nancy gets a f*ing hit, it doesn't matter where Youk was running

[Deepsub]

Yeah, Jim Caple is pretty much an idiot.

Hey, is Kevin Millar available? I mean really, there isn't anyone on the team that can give a rah-rah speech? And don't tell me it doesn't matter because it does. This team doesn't seem to have any heart. Ok, I'm done bitching.

[buckner was framed]

gotta hand it to the Yanks- for as great as the Sox starters have been this year, they got outpitched every one of these games- and once again we couldn't come up with the timely hit. The Bedard-less O's are coming along just in time

[Devine]

*deep sigh*

About the series, mind you, not the season. It's just so typical.

[COD]

Red Sox teams in the past always made it interesting. Even if they went into the 9th inning down 8-0, they usually loaded the bases and at least added some drama to the eventual loss. At home, no lead was ever safe.

This season, if the Red Sox are behind after 7 innings you might as well find something else to do. They don't come from behind.

I suspect that does not bode well for the playoffs.

[ParkerStPete]

Looking at ESPN gamecast. Anyone know why Chamberlain was ejected?

[louclinton]

ok, that sucked

lc

[Bob]

Hmm. Two hits. Wonderful.

Frank from Thunder will be calling any minute now.

[Devine]

PSP, he threw at Youk's head (that's not where Posada set up) on two pitches in a row.

[COD]

Up by 5 in the 9th inning of a 3 game sweep, and he throws at the batter? WTF kind of bush league move it that?

[Kaz]

Abysmal. Everyone but the starting pitchers was abysmal. We had guys give it their all on the mound and hold the hottest hitting team in baseball to an average of 4.66 runs per game (some of those runs came off of relievers...like Oki's 3 today). That's pretty decent pitching. You're going to win very few ballgames scoring 2 runs on average per game (3, 3, 0). Bad managing cost us extra runs on starters. Bad managing had Hinske playing LF for 2+ games. Bad hitting (13 hits in 3 games, half from the first game alone!?!) from about half the lineup was compounded by good pitching from NY at the same time.

What makes it feel a tad worse is coming off of the White Sox drubbing, but at least we have the Orioles coming up to regain our confidence.

[Youk Rules]

Criminy, I'm just glad that's over.

I'm not bothered by the lead -- 5 games can become 6 or 7 in no time, just as we've seen 4 turn to 8 and back -- it's the God. Damn. Yankees fans I can't f-ing stand.

I want to line up that whole damn fanbase and bitch slap each and every goddamn one of them. I'll just go right down the line, slap, slap, slap, slap...

[soxdownunder]

Jesus wept.
And no wonder by Christ.

- Stephen Dedalus.

[pudge]

I am, honestly, more upset for my "hometown" (I've only lived here four years, and I'll never be a fan) Mariners than I am for Boston.

Although, we drop one or two more, watch me start my garment-rending.

[joe Bow]

They just posted the 9th innning no-hitter on yuotube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-aUY8AyBoc