Wait ‘Til This Year

Charles Pierce has a nice, not to be missed piece on the Red Sox victory.

It’s over

Michael Bérubé sums it up pretty well:

And surely some of you must regard victory itself as a prize of dubious worth. Until tonight, your team was legendary, and their legend shaped and defined your self-identification as fans. If you win the World Series, you win the World Series– and you become kin to the 2002 Angels and the 1980 Phillies. You will be elated (and drunk!) for a couple of days, sure. But then the championship will begin to sink in, and while some of you will say, as did a New York Rangers fan in 1994, “now I can die in peace,” others among you will be plunged into existential crisis.

This was written before last night’s game.

The World Series resumes tonight

… with Game 3. Wouldn’t it be cool if the Red Sox win tonight to go up three games to none and then the Cardinals become the second team in history to come back from three games to none to win a series?

Good point

It has long been believed that the source of Boston’s sorrows is the legendary Curse of the Bambino, brought on by selling young Babe Ruth to the Yankees. This is untrue. Boston is actually cursed because the Red Sox took an unconscionably long time to get around to hiring any black players.

— Teresa Nielsen Hayden in explaining the context to a newcomer to the U.S.

The Red Sox were the last team to integrate; they did so in 1959.

The Babe

In five of his major league seasons Babe Ruth hit more home runs than any player did this year (48) or last (47) even though the current pitching mound is five inches lower, the bats better and the physical conditioning superior (far, far superior to Ruth’s conditioning).

World Serious (II)

22 franchises have won at least one World Series (which means 8 teams have not won any):

• Yankees 26 (in 39 appearances)

• Cardinals 9
• Athletics 9 (5 in Philadelphia, 4 in Oakland)
• Dodgers 6 (1 in Brooklyn, 5 in Los Angeles)
• Giants 5 (all in New York)
• Pirates 5
• Reds 5
• Red Sox 5
• Tigers 4
• Braves 3 (one each in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta)
• Orioles 3 (none as the St. Louis Browns)
• Twins 3 (two in Minnesota, one as the Washington Senators)
• Blue Jays, Cubs, Indians, Marlins, Mets, White Sox 2 each
• Angels, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Royals 1 each

Appeared in a Series, but haven’t won:

• Padres (twice)

• Brewers (once, while in American League)

Never been (and year began play):

• Astros (1962)

• Expos (1969)
• Devil Rays (1998)
• Mariners (1977)
• Rangers (1961)
• Rockies (1993)

World Serious

This is the 100th World Series. It began in 1903, but there was no Series in 1904 or 1994

In 1904 the National League Champion New York Giants refused to play the American League Champion Boston team (they didn’t take the name Red Sox until the 1908 season).

A strike eliminated the Series in 1994.

Players who’ve hit three home runs in one Series game:

• Babe Ruth 1926
• Babe Ruth 1928
• Reggie Jackson 1977

Only walk-off home runs to end Series:

• Bill Mazeroski Pirates 1960
• Joe Carter Blue Jays 1993

The thing about the Red Sox …

is now we have to look at those icky helmets for another four-to-seven games. What’s with that?

And they’re the Red Sox. If your team is named after hosiery, shouldn’t the hosiery show? Some of those guys have pants that actually hook under the heel of their shoe.

The Curse

With true grit the Red Sox have come from down 3-0 in games to take the Yankees to Game 7. It has never before been done in baseball.

So now, whatever the outcome tonight, can we quit yappin’ about The Curse?

More baseball

Only two three teams down 3-0 have ever managed to force even a Game Six — the 1998 Braves and 1999 Mets, each of whom forced a sixth game in the NLCS — and now the 2004 Red Sox, who have forced a sixth game in the ALCS.

Who’s your papi?

Don’t know about you but NewMexiKen is finding this baseball stuff kind of exciting.

The fans

If you stayed with the Yankees-Red Sox game until the walk-off home run by David Ortiz in the 12th, you must feel like NewMexiKen that Fox Sports showed us every single friggin’ freezing fan in the crowd. What’s with so many crowd shots? Can’t we just stick with ball players spitting like in the past?

Tim McCarver …

is 63 today. Do you suppose there’s any chance we’ll get lucky and he’ll retire from baseball announcing sometime soon?

Ode to baseball

Juanita has an sweet but fun essay on baseball —

Those of you who have been coming to the Beauty Shop for a while know that politics is not my first passion. Baseball is.

Go see what she has to say.

Chillin’

From Sideline Chatter —

Pitcher Pedro Martinez, it appears, will be the first Red Sox player in four decades to be featured on a Wheaties box.

Noted Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press: “Ironically, the last Boston baseball hero to have such an honor was Ted Williams, who, according to industry sources, can now be found in your grocer’s frozen-food section.”

Best line of the day, so far (sports edition)

“When [Barry] Bonds enters the batter’s box, he is in scoring position.”

John Kruk on ESPN as reported by Morning Briefing.

Prodigy

Story from Harvey Penick’s Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf:

Ben [Crenshaw] came to see me when he was about 8 years old. …

There was a green about 75 yards away. I asked Ben to tee up a ball and hit it onto the green. He did. Then I said, “Now, let’s go to the green and putt the ball into the hole.”

“If you wanted it in the hole, why didn’t you tell me the first time?” little Ben asked.

Trite, trite again

From Dwight Perry’s Sideline Chatter —

Psychologist Don Powell has written a book titled “Best Sports Clichés Ever!” — listing 1,771 of them in 87 categories — reports Brooks Melchior of sportsbybrooks.com.

As soon as our backs aren’t against the wall and there is a tomorrow, we plan to give this book the 110 percent it deserves — one cliché at a time.

Paper quips

From Sideline Chatter:

• Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, after Tony Siragusa, Fox Sports’ corpulent sideline reporter, called Lions QB Joey Harrington a “champagne and caviar” kind of guy: “Not that we’ve ever met him, but Tony looks like he might be a beer and pretzels, meat and potatoes, biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, turkey and dressing, surf and turf, pizza and pasta, nachos and wings, chips and dip, macaroni and cheese, cake and ice cream kind of guy.”

• CBS’s David Letterman, with a special announcement for Britney Spears fans: “There will be no wedding on Saturday. It’s a bye week.”

Riding Ivan

Now this is a wave! [Video]

Diamondbacks manager an ass

From William C. Rhoden in The New York Times:

[Bonds] was intentionally walked in the seventh inning in his last at-bat and finished the game with 201 [walks for the season]. There was nothing strategic about the decision. It had nothing to do with winning the game. [Diamondback's manager] Pedrique’s primary objective was saving face.

Bonds walked. And walked. And walked. After the game, Pedrique told reporters that he didn’t want Nos. 699 and 700 to happen on his watch.

“I’m going to be honest; I don’t want him to do it here at home,” Pedrique said. “I’m sorry for the fans. I’m sorry for baseball. But that’s the way it is.

“In this game, you have to have a lot of pride. And the way this year has gone for us, this would be the last thing that we need.”

Selig was as stunned by those remarks as I was. “That comment deserves further scrutiny,” he said.

On Sunday, Bonds hit his 699th homer, but only after reliever Mike Koplove shook off Pedrique, who ordered him not to throw Bonds a strike. Koplove threw a fastball that Bonds hit off the center-field scoreboard.

And guess what? The franchise is still standing, Pedrique is still the manager. Did Pedrique think he’d be run out of town because Bonds hit a home run “here at home”?

I’d be more inclined to fire him because he was timid. He insinuates that his team is fragile, but striking out Bonds would do more to lift the Diamondbacks’ confidence than a Bonds home run would do to ruin it.

Pitching around Bonds is smart in certain situations. Everyone knows that. But Arizona walked him six times in the series. At one point, the Diamondbacks walked him while trailing by six runs.

Whatever Bonds is taking or was taking, I want some. The home run mentioned above hit the scoreboard 460 feet from home plate and bounced back onto center-field.

Gibbs is back (dammit!)

The Sports Economist has an interesting little piece on Joe Gibbs, quoting from Thomas Boswell:.

[L]ast year’s Redskins had 124 penalties (including 17 in one game), as well as 43 sacks and 28 turnovers — a total of 195 conspicuous screw-ups or an average of a dozen a game. … In the opener the Redskins had three penalties, one turnover and no sacks.

Al Davis, pay attention.

The pet goat

Chris Dufresne on college football —

Last week: Rutgers opened the season with an upset victory against Michigan State. There was talk this was finally going to be the year for long-suffering Scarlet Knight fans.

This week: New Hampshire 35, Rutgers 24.

Last week: Rutgers was named team of the week by the Football Writers Assn. of America (FWAA).

This week: Rutgers nominated for goat-of-the-week honors by Future Farmers of America (FFA).

Once a Lions fan

“You know you’re a Lions fan if you look at the schedule, see the Thanksgiving Day game, and say, ‘At least we’ll win that one.’”

Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press

Kick off

Two immortal football coaches share this birthday.

Paul “Bear” Bryant was born on this date in 1913.

Tom Landry was born on this date in 1924.