Saturday, October 18, 2003

BoSox Lose, too

I guess the curse is complete. There is balance in the world. The Chicago Cubs lose an opportunity to get to the World Series. The Boston Red Sox--with their best pitcher on the mound--succumb to the Yankees. Now, if the Yankees beat the the Florida Marlins, then the status quo will have been maintained. Tradition will march on. And the world will continue...

Todays outcome lies directly on the manager, Grady Little. He is not very good. I mentioned this to my kids the other day. He doesn't know how to use his players, it seems. When Jeter doubled to right, I thought that Pedro had pitched a great game but he had to sit down. Williams comes up and singles Jeter home. Now, Pedro HAS to sit down, right? You have the tying run coming to the plate. Alright, so its the little Japanese boy, Matsui, but heck, Torre moved him up to the 5th spot cuz' he's hitting better than Giambi in the series. GIAMBI! Torre knew what he was doing. I wish Little knew what he was doing. He goes to the mound to talk to Pedr

"Hey, Pedro, how you feeling?"
"Cansado, un poco, pero I still got a little left."
"You think you can get this guy ChopSuey?"
"Como? Matsui? Yeah, no problemo."

And he leaves him in. Pedro is a fighter, a competitive son of a buck. What the freakin' else is he gonna say? No mas, no mas, take me out?!? Little blew it. They will question his decision throughout the winter. But don't feel sorry for Little. The guy you wanna feel sorry for is Steve Bartman, the guy who interfered with Moises Alou's attempt to catch a foul ball. The Sun Times published not only his face and name, but where he works and the neighborhood where he lives. What would happen if someone brought serious injury to him, or if he felt so bad that he would do something drastic, heaven forbid. Now, there are many who say, Hey, he did what anyone would do. Well, I'm not so sure it's that simple. As kids sitting on the sidelines at basketball and baseball games, we always got out of the way of balls heading our way for any potential play. So I don't know if its that clear cut. But this kind of reportage crosses the line. It places the Sun Times right with the journalistic traditions of the National Enquirer and the Globe...

What is this world coming to?

Now, the only thing I have left to look forward to is to see Clemens get a hard one high and tight when he has to bat in the National League stadium. But knowing the Yankees, they'll wuss out and have Clemens pitch in games only in Yankee Stadium where he doesn't have to bat.


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