Saturday, August 17, 2002

Ozymandias

Where did the Red Sox go? When did it start to go wrong?

This year's team is only 3 games better at the same point in the season as last year's aberration that got Jimy Williams fired?

The team with a healthy Pedro, a Cy Young looking Derek Lowe, a healthy Nomar, a healthy Varitek, a newly added Johnny Damon is only 3 games better than last year's club and sinking fast?

How can this be?

The cruel hand of fate? Or is it something else?

All is not lost yet, but the desert winds are blowing this way. Speak to me Percy Bysshe Shelley

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Half sunk, a potent offense lies, a colossal wreck … it's said ol' Ozymandias had one hell of an April and May, too. But look what it got him!

Friday, August 16, 2002

6 6 6

Team W L PCT GB
NY Yankees 75 44 .630 ---
Boston 69 50 .580 6

Damn, 6 games back for some reason seems like 1000 times worse than 5 games back.

Is the 6 games back prophetic, a sign or our impending fall from grace?

And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth. And there fell a sore and grievous wound upon men who had the character of the beast: and upon them that adored the image thereof (Apocalypse Chapter Chapter 16:2).

Sayeth I: Yankees get thee behind me!

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Awake! Awake!

Despite the game being on ESPN2 last night, I just couldn't stay awake for it. It was as if someone had slipped me a roofie*, nodding off as I was between pitches. I staggered into bed with the score 2-0 Mariners.

This morning, then, I approached booting up the computer to get the score with extreme trepidation. I recalled how in April and May on those occasions when I couldn't follow the entire game, it didn't seem to matter much if the Red Sox were losing; whenever I'd check the score again, be it later in the game or the next morning, they'd have found a way to pull it out.

The feeling of waking up to find that the Red Sox have won when you feared otherwise is a wicked good one. It reminds me exactly of how it felt as a kid in NH waking up to find 14 inches of snow on the ground and the radio announcing that school is closed for the day.

Alas, last night it seems no one slipped any Rohypnol to the Red Sox hitters:

Four home runs, including Trot Nixon posting his second two-homer game in 12 days, erased a 3-0 deficit against Jamie Moyer and provided Lowe (17-5) with a comfortable lead that was nearly impossible to relinquish. The outburst marked the fifth time Lowe was provided double-digit offensive support, the seventh time with nine-or-more runs and the 11th time in 24 starts with at least seven runs (Horrigan, The Boston Herald).

That's the offense I remember from May and June. And that's the offense that is going to carry us into October or have us wearing hair shirts for another winter to remind us of our pain and mortal destiny as Red Sox fans.

[*Note: True story. Back when I was living in Corpus in the mid-90s, I knew a rather mischievous young lady who, on a regular basis and at least once a week, would slip a roofie into her serious (from his perspective at least) and live in boyfriend's drink in the evening. This would put him completely into a stupor at which point she'd go out clubbing and cavorting into the wee hours of the morning. Then she'd return to her boyfriend, and crawl into bed next to him as if nothing had happened. Totally friggin' amazing. For all I know, they are married now and she's still giving him a little rope a dope on the side.]

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Untitled Document

Here you come again

August 30th is the date the players have set to strike according to knowledgeable sources.

No one will say for sure whether setting the date is good (i.e., gets talks moving more quickly toward resolution) or bad (i.e., a hardening of positions). What you can surmise though is that the more likely a strike is, the more likely it is that the Red Sox will be in the midst of a hot streak. Conversely, if the players and owners settle this thing soon and there is no stop in play, well, I think we'll see more nights like last night.

The beating the Seattle Mariners inflicted on John Burkett last night once again showed the world that the Red Sox starting rotation has become as top heavy as Dolly Parton (Horrigan, The Boston Herald).

Physical veneer aside, the Red Sox would count themselves among the luck if they could have half the success Dolly Parton has had.

And if things don't go as planned this year, we'll need a little of Dolly's Hush-A-Bye Hard Times to get us through.

So, hush a bye baby don't cry no more
Your mama can't give you what you're crying for
There's a wolf at the door with an angry
Cold hungry stare, he keeps howling of hard times
And the cupboard is bare

It ain't over 'til Dolly sings.

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Waiting for tonight

We should get some indication tonight if the recent good play by the Red Sox is the real deal or just an anomaly.

Meanwhile, this guy Kevin Hench can write! Check it out:

... There is no gallbladder-like organ to process the pain that goes with being a Red Sox fan, so it justs sits there, waiting to be inflamed by the latest calamity.  Does it hurt more to break your foot than to stub your toe?  Sure.  But Sox fans are forever stubbing an already broken foot.  Every metatarsal has been shattered in the last 84 years and still we can't seem to avoid banging this foot against the legs of the dresser.

Well said. (Now if only the DirtDogs site where Hench's column is posted wasn't so tough on the eyes, not too mention the half dozen script errors I get every day when I visit. Less is more boy and girls.)

Monday, August 12, 2002

Happy 100th Mr. Wakefield!

Tim Wakefield,who has been in a Red Sox uniform longer than anyone else on the current roster, got his 100th career win yesterday, and things are looking bright.

The victory over the Twins represented very real forward progress.

Wakefield (6-4) joined Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe as the third starter to win a game on the homestand, a most significant achievement considering that since the All-Star break Martinez and Lowe are 9-1, while the rest of the staff is just 7-14 (Silverman, The Boston Herald).

And what celebration is complete without a haiku?

A knuckleball flitted by.
Swing! I surely did.
But I was undone.

Heh heh heh … You know we should all be polishing, or dusting off our haikus in preparation for Ichiro and the Mariners. Know your enemy and all that. Time to be turning Japanese. (I really think so.)