Bambino's Curse

Sci-fi Wasabi

Writing in this morning's Boston Globe, Michael Holley captured the feelings I had yesterday, after Pedro's loss to the Yankees, perfectly:

In New England, losses to the New Yorkers cause most fans to conduct an all-consuming inventory. It's the same thing some people do when they go through a midlife crisis. They question everything and sometimes come to the conclusion that nothing - even the good stuff - is satisfactory. So it didn't matter that the Sox held and still hold the best pitching statistics in the AL. It didn't matter that Nomo entered the game as the toughest man in baseball to hit and improved that number (batters hit .163 against him) with his one-hitter.

And it isn't as if those sentiments, those feelings of doom, are not warranted by those in Red Sox Nation. Not only have we seen the agony of defeat so many times in the past, but this season alone has had its share of frustrations:

. . . the Sox don't hit when it's needed most. They're a disreputable 4-8 in one-run games and lose a disproportionate number of low scoring games ... Boston's run differential defies mathematics. As a complex formula goes, the Sox should be about 12 games over .500. This speaks to a team that's had its miseries in the clutch, like, say, an 0-for-24 pinch-hitting record.

. . . The reason the Sox haven't made much noise in October for the past two decades has nothing to do with ghosts. Boston hasn't won a playoff game where it's scored fewer than nine (!!) runs since Game 5 of the 1986 World Series.(Gee, The Boston Herald).

All I can say is thank goodness they didn't find a way to lose last night despite the 1 hit pitching dominance of Hideo Nomo. Everything seems better again, and this is good considering it's only 50 degrees in steady rain this first day of the Memorial Weekend.

L20

I knew there would be days like this when I took it upon myself to start this weblog chronicling each day of the the Red Sox 162 game season. Martinez pitches brilliantly but there is no offense to support him; worse, there are bad defensive plays and runners stranded in scoring position.

These losses hurt. They hurt deep down in a way that is embarrassing to admit to. Yes, you tell yourself it's only a game. Right. It's only a game that reminds you of every defeat you've ever had in your own personal life. It's only a game that reminds you of all the times you came in second best, an also ran, but you felt you were the best. It's only a game that makes you question why you are so competitive in the first place. It's only a game that makes you wonder what kind of a life you're leading and what is wrong with your head that you even let this game get to you.

It's only a game.

OK. I can deal.

The loss last night to the Yankees really doesn't hurt. Cone looked good, and the Yankees really can hit. This is not to say I'm all of a sudden adopting a rose colored glasses view of the world. No, indeed, for if Pedro gets roughed up (Heaven forbid) today, I'll be miserable and full of foreboding.

Speaking of today's game, we are looking at a 1pm start. That means, of course, that I can listen to the entire thing at work (barring interruptions for meetings etc.) I can't think of anything better than being able to work and work productively, no slacking here, all while listening to the Red Sox via the MLB webcast.

Kudos to ESPN

As I've written before, the MLB games on ESPN feature the best camera work and commentary, but last night they really impressed me with their decision to not break for a commercial between the top and bottom half of the first. This gave us all a chance to see Cone take the mound at Yankee Stadium and hear the crowd's reaction to seeing him in a Red Sox uniform. The crowd gave a very warm reception. Yankees fans have class. (Yep. You read that correctly. Let's face it, Yankees fans and Red Sox fans are cut from the same cloth. And at the risk of blasphemy to those in Red Sox Nation, I honestly believe that if the Red Sox didn't exist, we'd all be Yankees fans. And that's why there is the rivalry. We are like feuding blood brothers and blood sisters.)

On a negative note regarding ESPN's coverage last night, it was embarrassing to hear Joe Morgan feel the need (pressure from the network?) to try and explain away the fact that Yankee Stadium was barely half-full at the start of the game. I know that ESPN loves to hype the rivalry and all that and there is no doubt that the site of so many empty seats contradicts the intensity of the BOS/NY rivalry. However, that is no reason to spin yarns such as "They sold 50,000 tickets last night but it was rained out, and all 50, 000 thought they'd be seeing David Cone last night." What a joke. There isn't a serious fan for either team who didn't know that Wakefield was scheduled to start the game on Tuesday. The fact is the seats were empty because it was raining and fans weren't sure if the game would be called off or not.(Morgan, to his credit, did say as such a bit later in the telecast.) You'd think Joe Morgan has enough experience covering games to realize this. Indeed, I'm sure he does. So now I wonder how many of his other comments are made merely to help spin ratings for the network?

Mr. Tambourine Man

Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan, who turns 60 today. I mention it here because, for whatever reason, the song Mr. Tambourine Man always makes me think of baseball, and more specifically, a pitcher on the mound at Fenway. Perhaps I heard this song a lot as a kid while playing Little League or taking trips to Fenway? I can't discern the connection between the two. However a close reading of the lines does tickle the imagination.

For instance, consider the following lines:

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Certainly this is a thought many Red Sox fans carry around with them. "Wait 'til next year" is one of our mantras.

David Cone

The rain out last night means David Cone will be the first one to take the mound for the Red Sox in this important, though early, series with the Yankees. As a Red Sox (or Yankees) fan, you've just got to love the drama of all of this.

The more I read about David Cone, the more I like the guy and the more I feel that it was worth the risk to add him to the Sox roster even though he had a horrible season last year with the Yankees. As Shaughnessy says in his column today in The Boston Globe, "Think about it, Sox fans. Whom would you rather have pitching the second game of the ALCS: Hideo Nomo or David Cone?"

Speaking of Cone, legendary baseball writer Roger Angell has a new book out called A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone. I haven't read it yet, but I'm certainly putting it near the top of my reading list. (If it turns out that Cone's comeback is a disaster, I may not have the stomach to read the book. I've got enough heartache already.) Both NPR and The Washington Post have given it positive reviews.

In other news, I'm fighting some sort of cold/allergy thing, and I feel like crap. I mention it because it reminds me how weak I am compared to a major league ball player. Pedro Martinez has the flu and he goes out to the mound and puts up 13 Ks. And you know Ripken and Gherig must have felt really ill on many occasions while setting records for consecutive games started. Meanwhile, here I am sitting behind a computer moaning and groaning because I don't feel 100%.

Red Sox fans (otra vez)

You've got to expect in blog with the tag line "Diary of a Red Sox Fan" that I'm going to be very biased. But it isn't just me. Check out this excerpt from Rob Neyer's forthcoming book Feeding the Green Monster at SportsJones:

It struck me that day that what people say about Red Sox fans, that they know more about the game than fans anywhere else, is true. As I looked around at my fellow spectators when something important was happening or might happen, I saw ninety-five percent of them staring at the field. They were not eating, nor drinking, nor talking to their neighbor about their kids or their stock portfolios. If they were talking about anything at all -- and most apparently cold’t be bothered for something so trivial as conversation -- it was why Jimy Williams didn’t use a pinch-hitter for Darren Lewis, or whether Pedro Martinez is better than Roger Clemens.

How knowledgeable are Red Sox fans? Here’s one example, from my second game at Fenway last September: In the bottom of the ninth inning, Orioles manager Ray Miller summoned forty-two-year-old Jesse Orosco from the bullpen. Orosco, by most accounts a decent-enough fellow, was nonetheless greeted by a medium-sized chorus of boos. Why? Because in 1986, then pitching for the New York Mets, he saved Game 7 of the World Series. Against the Red Sox. You tell me, where else in America (or Canada) will the fans boo somebody for something that happened thirteen years ago?

How true it is. I know when I was living in Corpus Christi, Texas and I'd fly up tothe Ballpark at Arlington to watch the Red Sox against the Rangers, I was stunned by how naive the fans were regarding baseball ("Why do they keep changing pitchers? "). Worse than that, though, was how generally uninterested in the game the fans seemed to be. This was a real shock to me, as up until that point had only seen major league baseball in Fenway and had assumed that fans were similar in any city. In Arlington, the "dot races" on the Jumbtron between innings held far more fascination for the majority of fans. They'd hoot and hollar and cheer for their "dot." Meanwhile, during the game, they couldn't care less what was going on in the field. No wonder the Rangers suck year in and year out. In many ways it just doesn't make sense, as so many great ballplayers grew up in Texas and the state always produces top notch high school and college teams.

Well, enough of the bad-mouthing of other teams' fans. They can't help it if they grew up outside of New England. Hell, maybe in their ignorance they are the truly fortunate ones. No heartache. No wait 'til next year.

Red Sox are in the Bronx tonight. This is a defining series.

Jimy dot bomb?

The rumors that Red Sox manager Jimy Williams is on borrowed time despite the team's first place standing, seem to be getting louder. Peter Gammons writing in his weekly ESPN column says,

There are reverberations around the halls on Yawkey Way that Duquette doesn't want this team to cry "early" too late, and that Williams is one bad series in Yankee Stadium from forcing his general manager's hand.

I've got nothing against Jimy Williams, but I don't think I'd give it a second thought if he gets the pink slip. His lineups have been whacky. On the other hand, he really deals well with the pressure of the Boston fans and media.

Getting Ready

The Sox are off today (well, not exactly as the team is traveling to Trenton to play the AA Thunder) in preparation to face the Yankees in the Bronx. If you want to get a dose of good feeling, ESPN Classic has Pedro Martinez vs.Roger Clemens from 2000 at 9pm. (It's the game the Sox won, 2-0, on Trot
Nixon's two-run homer in the ninth.)

I've added some bits and pieces to the blog, as you may have noticed on the right nav. Beware of typos and grammatical errors, as I haven't, so far, done a good job of proofing and editing any of the content. One of the things I've realized with blogging (and with publishing web content in general) is that it's often best to get the words out there first and worry about tidying things up afterward; indeed, for me at least, having the work live with some errors is far more of an incentive to fix/edit the errors ASAP than it is if I have the content somewhere on my hard drive awaiting final edit. It's too easy to keep putting it off that way. Don't get me wrong, though, I do strive for perfection. I'm not one of those who believes that publishing to the web medium is an excuse to abandon the rigor of standard written English.

Big Bats

Sox really tore the cover off the ball in yesterday's 10-3 win over the Royals. Veritek became the first catcher in Red Sox history to hit 3 HR in a game.

I love the offense, but these big, home run laden routs always make me a bit antsy, and leave me wishing that there were a way to save some of that offense for when we really need it, like those one run games the Red Sox are notorious for losing.

Slow Sunday

It's a rainy Sunday. Good day to listen to the game and work a bit on adding some additional features to the Curse blog.

Meanwhile both the Herald and the Globe have columns focused on the struggling Yankees. I don't get too excited, as the Yankees are never a team to take lightly. Weren't they struggling in the summer of '78 when the Red Sox had an 14 game lead in July but ended up losing the AL penant to the Yankees come October? Yep.