the thing is, i'm more pissed off at myself for letting myself get "sucked in" to thinking they could really pull this off...after how many years?
See, it's like this... if the Cubs and the Red Sox were in the Series, one of them would have to win. They couldn't BOTH lose. So had to happen this way. The longest, drawn-outest, depressingest way for them to both lose.
[Deep sigh.]
Congrats Roberta, though.
84 years.
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Every year, even though we vow not to get sucked in, somehow the Sox manage to show us just enough promise to break our resistance, and in we go, only to be teased and toyed with and tortured, day after day, week after week, ever so slowly the knife goes in, and twists, and finds a spot it has not touched before, deeper and deeper it goes, but not too deep, because we need to be able to recover, to fully recover, by next spring, so we can go through it all again. It's like a perverse kind of baseball groundhog day, only it never ever ever ever ends!
What's that you say? "It's only baseball!"? Clearly, you just don't get it. It almost has nothing to do with baseball. It's about suffering and pain and getting sucked in and getting your hopes up, year after year after bleeping year, and then more suffering and more pain. Of course we'll never win the Series; if we did, the suffering would end, and that cannot happen. We simply could not handle it.
I'll bet very few non Sox fans know just how close we once came. I believe we are the only team in history to be not one game, not one out, but one strike, one single solitary strike away from the championship. No need to worry about sharp objects, though. Suffering with the Sox is part of our reality; why would we ever want to end it? How would we survive without the team ruining our Summah! and our Fall !
I wrote the last post after the Buckner thing.
Funny how it still applies.
Actually, not really funny at all.
I'm exhausted. And relieved. You're right, Angie, the teams were so evenly matched that neither was really the better team. And both played with lots of heart and guts. I'm sorry that your suffering will continue. The knife metaphor is painful and true. I understand. Although the two-team rivalry isn't there, the Rangers waited 54 years between Stanley Cups. And the Knicks. Fuggedaboudit. So I know about the pain of losing.
I did read what you said about salary caps and parity. And I agree with you. What I don't agree with is people who blame the Yankees for spending money they have. Who wouldn't? It's up to major league baseball to level the playing field, not individual teams.
Thanks, Soz, for the congrats. And thanks BillW for your kind remarks.
I'm pooped. Thrilled but pooped.
I'm a lifelong Yankees fan. So I won't complain about the playoffs this year. But, this is the first time I ever felt any respect for the Red Sox. They played their hearts out. Salute! I say.
i was impressed by the lack of extra-curricular activities last night. they all played like professionals in a pressure-packed, do-or-die atmosphere.
i can't recall a more compelling postseason -- awesome games! never before has sleep deprivation felt soooo good
I'm a lifelong Astro fan, and they haven't even come close - well maybe once, into the 12th or 13th inning against the Mets; but, oh well, there's always next year.........
Congratulations Roberta and edgar and all the rest for the 40th time out of the last 100 years. Wow, 100 years old and still growing
D'artagnan wrote:I'm with Angie re "old school" hoops. I sometimes watch women's games just to get a taste of how the game is played when slam dunks aren't the goal of every offensive series. I also like college hoops (men) because there's some variety in strategy. I used to love watching Princeton when they ran those backdoor plays all the time. Now that's poetry in motion!
[Perhaps we need a new thread on this topic...]
Phil Jackson's triangle offense is based on all plays being backdoor plays. Maybe that's Kobe's downfall
It was an amazing game. So evenly matched! Fox said this was the first game 7 - EVER! - matching up 2 Cy Young winners.
I think all other 7th games afterwards will be compared to this one. I'm sorry the Sox lost; it was truly heartbreaking. But I have to also say it was a perfect game. Drama, suspense, rallying, strategy, excitement.
Grady Little said they just have to win 1 more game next year. I respectfully disagree. I think they need to win 3 - 5 more games next year, preferably against the Yankees, in order to get home-field advantage in a situation like this. Because I think that helped make the difference. After all, everyone was sleep-deprived. There's just something about sleeping in your own bed, and playing in your own park. And it's this little intangible kind of a thing that makes a fastball go at 90 instead of 88, or turns a hit ball one degree left or right to make it fair instead of foul, or makes a fielder step a foot left or right to catch a fly ball for an out rather than let it drop for a base hit.
Clemens is gone next year. Burkett is gone. Isn't Wells a free agent? Wouldn't that be a kick - bringing David Wells to Boston. Think that'd work?
My comiserations to all Sox fans.
I watched about half the games in the latest series (on TV, while in the US)...having seen my only ever game of baseball at Fenway Park last summer...I can only guess at how down Mass. is feeling today...I've never seen so many people expressing their passion for a team before.
Big hugs to you all.
I have a T-shirt with the following on the back:
"I am a menace to my own destiny"
Someone in Boston commented that is should be a Sox-fans' slogan!!!
kitchenpete wrote:...I've never seen so many people expressing their passion for a team before...
Only surpassed by the Cubs fans, IMHO. Oh how I prayed for a Cubs/Sox series - maybe that was "the" mistake :sad: Should have been indifferent
Great game.
Great series.
I doubt the World Series will be as good.
I would have loved the Sox to win, but...
Little is little.
Babe Ruth is ruthless.
At some point, the "It was a great ride" mentality will kick in, but not yet.
Deep, deep hurt going on here right now.
These Sox players gave us everything they had, and they deserved better. I almost couldn't handle it when I saw Wakefield look into the camera and say "I'm sorry. I'm sorry".
Wake, this is not on you, nor is it on Pedro or any other member of this team. It's on one limited, inferior manager, a pathetic individual who has been making mistake after mistake after mistake all year, whose errors and inconsistencies clearly cost the team a minimum of ten games during the regular season, and whose utter stupidity and lack of cahones last night slowly ripped the hearts out of millions of Sox fans everywhere and cost this region our historic ephemeral moment in time.
Grady doesn't get it. He never will. He needs to go away.
Still grieving. Need time.
Yea, game 7...pedro vs. clemens...you can say how it was such a great ride.
But I really don't care about that. They had that game won. A little league coach would have known enough to take pedro out earlier. I can understand letting him start the 8th, but only up to the first hit given up....
Although we can't predict what would have happened with the bullpen, they've been lights out against the yankees all series. 110% Grady Gump's fault. Not Pedro, or Wake. They had the offense, the defense, and the pitching. That f*$knob and his fairy tale dream ending of a game blew the game.
I feel like my girlfriend dumped me, then took me back for a week, then kicked me in the balls.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/lighter_side/bubba_little/
These seven playoff games should have been the World Series. I can't imagine that the Series will be better. Two such evenly matched teams--both excellent. Two teams giving it all they had. Two teams with long baseball history. I was pleased and relieved to see that nothing controversial happened. No strange calls from the umpires. No fans determining the outcome of the game. Just baseball--pure and simple.
Angie, I agree with you that Brady should have taken Pedro out. But you can't know that the decision would have altered the outcome, although it would have changed the way it happened.
I've never believed in curses. I confess that I'm now beginning to wonder.
No, the only "curse" we have is that f'n moron manager.
I disagree with the "pure baseball" stuff. Actually, it was, up until Grady decided to watch Pedro get smacked around the field. That was THE controversial part. His stupidity is right up there with the ball going through Buckner's legs. In a way, worse. They had game 7 after that.
No, nobody knows what would have happened if Timilin or Embree came out for the 8th, or after Pedro gave up one hit. But the chances were ALOT better, considering his high pitch count, that they hit him hard in the 7th, and with Embree/Timlin/Williamson being so dominant in the playoffs.
That series was definitely bigger than the World Series will be. Nobody cares about Florida, and I think it's pretty safe to say everyone but Yankee fans(real ones, and most of them-bandwagon jumpers) is sick of seeing the Yankees win.
Also, I'm not convinced next year "will be the year." (I hate that saying...almost as much as I hate Fox and their glorifying the 'curse' crap).
This was THE team to do it. One of the best offensive lineups in history. A bullpen that woke up, came together, and was just nasty in the playoffs. I mean, they squeeked by the A's with the offense being carried by a couple guys, and they got through game 5 with the Yanks the same way. If they played well throughout the whole playoffs, they would have been unstoppable. They just started playing unreal overall for games 6 and 7.
I just can't see them being THAT good next year.
