Sunday, September 07, 2003
"Like, ohmigod, I totally dreamed the Red Sox whipped the Yankees again!"
Ohmigod, no way!
Way.
After falling to Roger Clemens last Sunday in his final regular-season appearance at Fenway, the Sox got revenge by pounding him for seven runs in only 3 1/3 innings en route to a stunning 11-0 rout.
The pasting evened the season series at 9 with one game remaining and cut the Yankees' ever-dwindling lead in the American League East to 1 1/2 games(Horrigan, Herald).
Are you believing this?
And leave it to Shaughnessy (and when he of the seeming bipolar writing disorder is in a good mood can leave you smiling) to crank out the appropriate historicity:
New England church bells are ringing, the skies are crisp and blue, and all the water tastes like wine. It is early September and the Red Sox have the Yankees on the run.…
The symmetry is downright scary. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first day of the four-game Boston Massacre of 1978. On that fateful weekend, the Yankees came to Fenway trailing the Red Sox by four games in the American League East. Four days later, after sweeping by an aggregate count of 42-9, the Yanks left Boston tied for first. It was the centerpiece of the cataclysmic Sox collapse of '78, the colossal fall against which all others are measured (Shaughnessy, Globe).
And Horrigan notes another verifiable bit from the past that'll put a little more blue in your sky:
The Sox are 5-0 in September, which is a feat they last accomplished in 1995 and '86. They went on to win their division each time (Notebook).
Even the NY writers are pointing to a possible cosmic shift.
In the past, the Yanks could count on the Red Sox, at this time of year, remembering they are the Red Sox. But this Boston team may just prove it is not only better in body, but tougher in mind than these Yankees.… we may be witnessing The New York Blackout - when a power surge from Boston wiped out the last of the Yanks' flickering energy (Sherman, NY Post).
Do you think the baseball gods will deem me greedy and worthy of a smackdown if I dare dream of Boston doing it again today? And what about the game after that? And the game after that? Please don't let this be another instance of bringing us to the gates of paradise only to cast us away in the end.
