Saturday, April 25, 2009

And so it begins

The first Sox-Yanks game of the year and NINE DOLLAR PBR WHAT!?!

What better day to emerge from my winter blogging coma than the one that follows the first Red Sox-Yankees game…and what a game it was.

Last night’s game had everything you could want from a Friday night Sox-Yanks game. We got Lester v. Joba, with Lester looking like he’s back on track with two straight solid starts. We also got the Red Sox hitting into a frustrating number of double plays yet still coming back to win the game. Could they have found another way to hit into another double play?

As often happens the Red Sox trailed, tied the game up at 2-2, and then proceeded to cough up two runs going into the ninth trailing 4-2. Then along came Jason Bay hitting a two run homer in maybe the most ridiculous spots in the entire park off of Mo Rivera to tie it in the ninth.

There’s nothing like watching games on MLB.tv on my laptop for moments like these. Of course the internet decided to lag mid pitch, then mid flight, wait did that go out, yes, no, yes, no, YEEESSSS!

Seriously nothing like jumping around your darkened apartment at 11pm trying to do your best Papelbon fist pump impression – note to self don’t put the laptop on your lap when watching a game. I almost destroyed my laptop I jumped up so high.

Luckily I repositioned before Youk won it with a walk off no doubter. Is there any play in baseball that evokes the feeling that a no doubter does. Whether your guy hits it or it gets hit off of your guy there is no play in spots that produces such opposite reactions in fans.

It was a great all around game, and I was saying this in the top of the ninth when I figured the Sox were going to lose, but it was a classic Sox-Yanks game. The whole game you felt like there was the distinct possibility someone would throw to close to someone and the benches would clear. Every Yankee hit was followed by God I hate that SOB. Every time Texieria (fuck it I don’t care, I’m not paying attention to spelling it) came up I was hoping for one of those embarrassing strikeouts where the guy nearly falls down because he’s so far ahead of the ball. Jeter hit a ball off the hands for a single…every fucking time with that guy…

The greatest part though, aside from Youk’s walk off homer, was actually being down two going into the ninth. That’s not a nightmare scenario any more thanks to Billy Mueller. I’d still say that Mo generally has the upper hand in a save situation but I always like the Sox chances when facing him, especially when some combo of Petey, Papi, Jason Bay and/or Mike Lowell are going to be facing him. Sorry JD Drew but the pitch that you strike out on all the time is the one pitch Mo throws. Doesn’t usually bode well for you pal.

Now a cynical fan would say they’ll probably go on to lose the next two but after last night’s game I have to say I psyched for the next two games. I have a feeling this is going to be a knock down drag out three game series, especially when you look at the pitching matchups. The only thing that’s disappointing is we don’t get to see what the Sox can do against CC.

One last thing about last night, I threw on ESPN this morning and they showed the obligatory historical montage with the grainy footage of Babe Ruth in a Sox uniform then him running around the bases in that weird 1920s sort of fast forward film speed like it’s a Charlie Chaplin movie and there’s a guy off screen wearing one of those barber shop quartet outfits with the cumber bun and silly hat playing piano…of course they throw in Bucky and Boone but it’s a lot more fun to watch now that it doesn’t end with Boone anymore.

I have to think that montage plays a role in how much people hate Bostonians. Sure we’re jerks and we’ve been able enjoy three super bowls, two world series, and an NBA title in the last 10 years but after like 2006 people really started to get fed up with the Sox-Yanks hype, which was fueled with those brightly colored log things from Back to the Future III thanks to ESPN.

After this offseason with the Yankees going ape shit and committing 400 million dollars to three players, including landing Tex after it looked like his arrival in Boston would be a sure thing, I think that the rivalry has been renewed for everyone that isn’t a Sox or Yanks fan. I think plenty of people still hate both teams but they are more interested in the game because of that hate, as opposed to the past couple of years when everyone was just sick of hearing about it.

Either way I’m excited. It’s going to be a very fun season to watch with the Sox, Yanks and Rays all vying for two playoff spots. Which intern will make all those midsummer losses to the Blue Jays that much more frustrating.

A couple of other things that I wanted to mention…

Youk is batting .433 right now. I don’t think Ted’s head should be too worried but I’ve been campaigning that Youk would win a batting title for three years running and I don’t want to jinx the guy but after watching his batting average steadily climb each of his five major league seasons I’m going to say it again this year. Youk’s going to win the batting title, might not be this year, but he’s going to win one before he’s done.

Oh yeah and if you haven’t visited his beard’s twitter you probably should. It’s quite a treat. Check it out @ http://twitter.com/beardoftruth

Speaking of twitter I wonder if that would be a good way to blog more if I started a red seat twitter…probably not…I should probably just blog more and play video games less…what can I say those chainsaw zombies in Resident Evil 5 are hard to kill.

I heard this via the email chain the other day…PBRs cost nine bucks at the new Yankees stadium…WHAT! Are you kidding me…nine dollars for one PBR? That is an outrage! Where are those high life guys when we really need them? You can’t serve PBR for nine dollars unless it is like a keg, or half a keg or something like that. Honestly how many places can you name off the top of your head that sell PBR for 2 dollars or less? Ten, twenty maybe? Never mind the insane ticket prices and the disgraceful fact that Yankee stadium isn’t sold out every night something needs to be done about this nine dollar PBR business.

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