From the past until completion

Bill:
You know, anytime we get beat it leaves me a little sour.

 

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Bill:
And getting beat by the Orioles, in particular an Orioles team that seems to totally have Okajima's numbah, is even more acerbic.

 

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Bill:
But somehow, seeing Kevin Millar out there smiling, enjoying himself, giving it his all, makes it easiah to take.

 

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Mike:
Seriously. I can't look at Millar without getting that warm overwash of pleasant memory and nostalgia …

 

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Bill:
The "Cowboy Up!" the shaved heads, the 8 in a row run …

 

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Mike:
The Octobah that changed everything.

 

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Bill:
Amen, guy, amen.

 

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Mike:
And as much as things have changed for the bettah for us, can you imagine the flip side?

 

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Mike:
I mean, sure, there are always going to be those mouth-breathahs who go to Red Sox sites and leave ALL-CAP comments like "Red Sux bewarz Yankees winnarz;" and such …

 

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Mike:
But for the rest of the Yankees fan base, they've been emotionally gutted by the events of the past coupla years.

 

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Bill:
You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices.

 

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Mike:
Seriously. I mean things have gotten so bad for the Yankees that even Baltimore fans are taking pity on them.

 

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Bill:
Good times, good times.

 

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Comments

[Bob]

I needed a pity-the-Skankees strip today. And I got it . Nicely done, H.B.

BTW, Oki-no-dokey against the birds. First time this year I've screamed at Tito. For God's sake, it seemed like every single pitch was up.

Get. Him. Out. Of. There!

[vermonter]

So true about Millar. My daughter (15yrs) last night said, "Dad, remember when Millar shaved off his mustache between innings?" Beautiful.

By the way, did anyone else catch Nick Cafardo last night before the game started talking about Junior hitting number 600 "without a whiff of taint...er, a whiff of taint, um...without it being tainted at all..."

Hhhhhhuuuu, hhhuuuuu...he said taint...

[Daubie]

My mantra this morning:

You can't win ALL the games at home.

At least the D-Rays lost.

It is impossible for me to have any sympathy for the MFY. Screw 'em.

[Matt Of CT]

Did anyone catch OB's comment after the Manny home run on how he "jacked that one off"?

[Steve in MD]

Oki's ERA is 13.50 against the Orioles, and 0.40 vs. everyone else. Now that is something that you would think the stat happy Boston brain trust would have noticed!

[yazbread]

Frankly, I am amazed that Millar has hung around so long. I would have thought his expiration date had come and gone.

[Colin]

That game had me proper pissed off at Oki and Tito.

I really hope, like with the Celtics after their playoff games, lessons will be learned on what to do and what not to do. Oki + Orioles = disaster.

Tito, are you writing this down?

[Kev]

That 0.40 against everyone else is misleading. Inherited runners anyone?

[rotesocken04]

If you approach Camden Yards via Conway Street, you will walk by the Old Otterbein United Methodist Church.
(The church sign is very clever and a great photo op every time)
I caught two games in Baltimore last September (a Matsuzaka meltdown and a crisp Beckett game). It truly is Fenway South. There is nothing weirder than hearing fans ecstatically erupt at the site of Paplebon coming out of the pen, than realizing, 'Holy Frig! I'm in Baltimore! This is an away game'! (They might as well hire a fat Baltimore cop to bump knuckles with Paps, just to maintain the facsimile Fenway experience).
This brings up the Hanky Steinbrenner nonsense about Sox Nation. Living in Austin, I try to attend every Sox-Rangers game up in Arlington (and Houston, this month). Every Sox-Rangers game is about 50-50 in fan attendence. Think about this for a second. Yes, there are bandwagoners and pink hats, but guess what, we DO have a national fan base, Hanky! And this is not just post-2004 bandwagoning. I lived in Georgia during the late 90's when the interleague gimmick brought the Sox to Atlanta. We didn't have the term "Red Sox Nation TM", but Turner Field was overwhelmed with Sox fans for every series, including exhibition games. This is 1998, we're talking. No bandwagon, no pink hats.
Every time I see a Sox hat on someone outside of New England, it's a conversation starter, a brotherhood, a knowing wink. A Yankees hat? Usually some idiot who doesn't follow baseball, or is just some douchebag making a fashion statement (apologies to my Yankee fan friends, who are actual baseball fans and can name their starting nine).

[RationalSoxFan]

Kev - absolutely right. His low era blies how many inherited runs he allowed. He had 2 excellent games against Baltimore (May 30 and 31) and 3 bad games. Oki has also been in 7 save situations, and only converted ONE of them. he is just not on his game this year. Francona has to have a shorter leash with him - when he's off, get him out quick.

rote - I was at the Dice-K meltdown in Baltimore last September too. I was the one in the Red Sox hat on the third base side! I had the best crab cake sandwich - so good it almost made up for watching the Sox lose (well, not almost).

[Kaz]

RED SUX BEWARZ YANKEES WINNARZ!

Well, somebody had to...

[sonomasox]

who introduced Okijima to EA Poe?

[Jason O.]

First things first. Second things never.
-Cicero

5 games back in the loss column.

[h.b]

//5 games back in the loss column.//

So?

The Yankees, for now, have lost their ability to intimidate.

It didn't happen suddenly, and it's not just this season. It's been a gradual process that started in '04 and has continued steadily.

And, oddly enough, even in seasons since when the Yankees have pulverized the Sox, e.g, 06 and the August Massacre, the result at the season's end was the Yankees ended up looking even weaker by getting bounced so easily from the playoffs.

The road to the pennant comes through Boston.

Deal with it.

[Daubie]

I too was at the Dice-K meltdown in Sept 07. The game was a b-day present from my wife. I was wearing the blue Sox shirt, sitting next to an obnoxious (!) O's fan. My nose was bleeding. I was also at the Fens in August during a series against the D-Rays. Another Dice-K meltdown. After the O's game, I began to wonder if I had something to do with his failures. I ate sushi with extra wasabi during Game 7 of the ALCS, and that appears to have done the trick. You're welcome.

Daubie (a non-card carrying member of the Nation since 1970, well before "it" existed)

[BB]

H.B. I'm amazed at how such an obviously intelligent guy can be wrong time and time again. Truly amazed.

The Yankees getting bounced early in the playoffs has nothing to do with the Red Sox - especially in years when we crushed you ('06, August Massacre, etc.). And if the Yankees looked weak during those early exits, all that means is that the SAWX couldn't beat a Yankee team that wasn't strong enough to get to/win the Series. In other words we were stronger than you during those seasons. The pennant only goes through BOSTON if you make it to the playoffs. Otherwise you just don't figure into the equation..

[Jason O.]

The road to the pennant goes through the cities that house the teams in the playoffs at September's conclusion.

Congrats on your team's recent past success...it has as much relevance to this season as does the airspeed velocity of an unladen European swallow.

An apt metaphor for the Red Sox, btw...

(Adjusts tie, Carson style...)

Ed: Hi-yo!!!

[Bob]

//Congrats on your team's recent past success...it has as much relevance to this season as does the airspeed velocity of an unladen European swallow.//

Agreed, JO. And yet, every Sox fan is subjected to the "26 championships" Skank mantra on a more-than-regular basis.

[Kaz]

Congrats on your team's recent past success...it has as much relevance to this season as does the airspeed velocity of an unladen European swallow.

Yeah, we hear that a lot from Yankees fans these days.

You can tell they're Yankees fans because they're usually wearing this shirt when they say it.

[h.b]

My statement is a purely subjective one -- The Yankees no longer intimidate.

Sure, they may beat us the next series. They made win the AL East this year (or next or whenver). They may win the WS this year (or next or whenver).

But they no longer intimidate.

They are just another team who will have good years and bad years and will beat us some days and lose to us on other days. No biggie.

You can disagree til you turn blue in the face, but, again, it's subjective. You can't make me feel intimidated when I'm not intimidated.

It's like you can't make me like peanut butter, if I don't like peanut butter.

It just is. And that is what has changed more than anything else in the past couple years.

And, as much as I hate to bring up what has now become a cliche, with all honestly the crack in the intimidation can be traced back a moment zero from which the loss of power to intimidate began -- the A-Rod sissy ball slap.

[h.b]

Oh, and all we heard last year in this same space from the same people was how the Yankees were going to rule the day etc. etc.

Well, how'd that work out for you?

One of these days, you know, you're actually going to have to win something before you expect people to take your bluster with any sort of seriousness.

When you beat the Sox and go on to win the WS, come back and talk.

I still won't be intimidated (don't think that'll ever happen again) but I'll accept your crowing about the vaunted Yankees as legit.

Until then, you've got nothing.

[NYSoxfan]

The MFYs are pitiable, especially when they try to throw their weight around for taxpayer subsidized muni bonds. Missing Rudy much? NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - The New York Yankees baseball team wants a city agency to sell $350 million of bonds for its new stadium or else it will not be able to complete the project, state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said on Tuesday.

[Natalie]

I hate peanut butter!

[therev]

hb. You nailed it- "the A-Rod sissy ball slap." Once you go bush league you can never come back as Afraud has shown us. Plus anytime the MFY do win a WS you know they will have spent the GDP of many small African nations to do it, thus making it a WS with an asterisks. I mean at least in my book.

[BB]

//Oh, and all we heard last year in this same space from the same people was how the Yankees were going to rule the day etc. etc.

Well, how'd that work out for you? //

We went to the playoffs and lost. I don't call that a horrible season and I don't call predicting the Yankees will win bluster.

//When you beat the Sox and go on to win the WS, come back and talk.//
Nice try H.B., but that dog don't hunt. The Yankees, in no way whatsoever, need to beat the SAWX on their way to a WS victory in order to thump their chest. Winning the WS is the thing. Whether the SAWX have anything to do with it matters not. at. all.

[rotesocken04]

BTW, that Yankees t-shirt is outdated and useless (tired and hackneyed, too).
There should be a 7th WS trophy for Boston. What made 2007 so sweet was it shot down every cliche thrown our wasy since 2004 (every dog his day in the sun...it'll be 86 years before you win another...we didn't need the Wild Card to win a World Series...etc). BB's argument is also spurious (too much kiddie porn in the dim light of his mom's basement has fused his synapses, thus I'm not surprised). Every team gets beaten badly by an inferior team over the course of 162 games. How many beatings did the likes of the Mariners, Royals, Devil Rays, Orioles, et all inflict on the Sox in 2004 and 2007? So what if the Yankees crushed us in 2006? I sat next to some mouthbreathers from da Bronx at a bar here in Austin last September during ACL Festival and watched the Paplebon meltdown game. Oh, I get it. Because we didn't meet the Yankees in the playoffs, they're still better than us. Damned Cleveland midges got in the way!
h.b.'s point is, we're not scared or intimidated. The sky is not falling. You are no longer the team to beat. The flaccid Ball Slap was a defining moment. Goliath is crest-fallen, his mantle usurped, he's been replaced by a blue-lipped, man-purse-swinging choke artist.

[h.b]

No longer intimidating.

That's all.

[pawsoxpop]

We went to the playoffs and lost. ... Winning the WS is the thing...

EXACTLY! Come back and crow when you win a world series in the 21st Century. Until then enjoy your series splits with the KC Royals AT HOME and your grainy reruns of Yankeeography.

[louclinton]

fuck all y'all yankees fans. your act is tiresome.

lovingly,

lc