Incommunicado

After my recent burst, I guess the month long sleep deprivation and the emotions of the World Series put a brief moratorium on my posting, with not a single post during the entire WS!?!

Like the feeling I had after the Beckett win in game 5 of the ALCS, I think I had a strange sense of calm. Sure, there were question remaining whether Dice-K could regain his form, whether Schilling would last past 60 pitches, whether a long season would snuff the magic from Pap's lazerlike pitches. Somehow I wasn't worried. (And yes, I do realise it's a hell of a lot easier to write this now, the night after raising the trophy)

(Photo from Reuters)

BTW, I wonder who makes a killing on those swim (champagne) goggles...

I "knew" Beckett would be very, very difficult to beat, so in a 7 game series that means at least 2 wins, if not three, and despite previous showings in the autumn, I still had faith in Dice-K - and did he come through? YES!

Now comes the long winter of discontent. I have a feeling that the Hot Stove will not be so hot for the Red Sox. They seem to have most pieces in place for a continual assault on the championship for years to come....

Now to watch the horrible mess that is the 49ers...

Sports Guy jr.

As an homage to one of my favourite sports writers, Bill Simmons, I will too keep a running log of the game tonight. Of course the twist being I'm in the UK, so it will highlight the madness of watching baseball across the pond.

01.55: V-Tek hits a double off the Green Monster to lead off the 2nd...damn the double play in to end the 1st...

02.06: Dice-K is getting ahead of every pitcher, compared to his previous start, where he went deep in almost every at bat. Good sign. Could this be the pre All-Star Matzusaka returning?

Note; honestly, how old is Kenny Lofton?? He can't be far off Julio Franco. I just wish I'll be even remotely as active when I hit his age...

02.15: I think the ump hosed Dice-K on that breaking pitch to Sizemore. Inning should be over now....And it is! Waist high fastball to strike out Sizemore. Boston 2 Indians 0, bottom 3rd.

02.21 Indians bullpen warming up, as Westbrook allows the third leadoff batter to get on base, Youk being 2 for 2, opening the inning with a double. And yet again the Fox commentators come with the They're not booing, they're saying "Yoouk" . Honestly, who doesn't know that by now??

02.28 Lowell hits a sac fly to right to score Youk, Boston 3 Indians 0. You have to wonder how long Westbrook stays in the game. TV picture shows Beckett sitting with the normal relievers in the bullpen clearly feeling like the odd man out..

[Somewhere around 2.45 I was flagging badly, and "watched" the rest of the game in bed without my laptop. How the hell does Simmons do it? Oh yes, he's 5 hours behind in time....]

Further notes from the game;

Looking back, I was surprised how long Westbrook stayed in, but alas it wasn't enough anyway. Although it would take until the non-DH games of the World Series for Tito to take my advice with the batting order, Ellsbury clearly gave the top of the order an additional spark (not like it really needed it with D-Po and Youk), and boy does the kid have wheels.

Dustin Pedroia, who to use a term from american football, has a non-stop "engine" clearly is playing at a level he shouldn't, based on his experience. He's scary. All "our" kids, including Youk (who of course looks older than I do) are scary. Truly the next generation. A generation that could be perennial contenders.

A week late, but at least I finished the post...Pap takes over from a flawless Okie, gets the last 5 outs and suddenly the Red Sox are in the World Series.

It's strange, somehow I wasn't worried. Don't know why.

"I want Vaughn..."

Is it just me, or is Schill turning into (despite the obvious reverse uniform issue) Eddie Harris?

Gone are the days of mid 90s fastballs, although I did see a few at 91 last night, so I guess he was up for it. Is he too resorting Crisco, Bardol and Vargisil, or is he, like Eddie, just "throwing any kind of junk he can think of at them?"

Of course that makes Pap Rick Vaughn, but with better control....

Bloody sock redux? (...and lineup musings)

With Drew (shock horror) and Coco struggling, will we see Jacoby Ellsbury starting for the first time in the post season in the outfield for the Red Sox tonight? I for one would love to see if he can continue his regular season performance. Not only being an above average defender, he also batted .353 in 33 regular season games since his call up with 11 extrabase hits including 3 home runs in 41 hits. Clearly the boy also has wheels, as indicated by his 9 stolen bases without getting caught once.

The question would be, who would he replace? Drew or Coco? JD, for all of his maligned regular season is batting .259 in the postseason after going on a tear and batting .371 in his last ten regular season games, while poor Coco, who finished the season batting .219 in his last 10 regular season games (.268 reg season avg) and has gone downhill, batting 5-for-31 (.161) in the post season. Thus, as even Tito has acknowledged, Coco's struggling, so Jacoby might get his first start. (Also, he's never played RF in the Majors, although I must admit I haven't looked up if he's done so in the minors - still RF at Fenway takes some adjusting to, so perhaps not the best game to do so in)

Question is where would he bat?

The most common line-up recently has been:

Pedroia
Youk
Big Papi
Manny
Lowell
Drew
Varitek
Crisp
Lugo

A straight swap would see him bat 8th, but perhaps Tito has some balls to change it around, and Ellsbury's .394 OBP would indicate he could be a great table setter, with power at the top of the order.

I would like to see

1. Pedroia
2. Ellsbury
3. Big Papi
4. Manny
5. Lowell
6. Youk
7. Drew
8. Tek
9. Lugo

If Jacoby can bat like he has in regular season (and he actually has a 10 point higher average against lefties, as Carmona's on the mound tonight), with Pedroia finding his groove again in game 5, that's a very strong 1-6 lineup, with potential from 7 as well.

Gehrig38

So, it's game 6 of the ALCS again, bloody sock redux, and the intimidation factor of Schilling and Fenway returns. Can you imagine what would go through the heads of the Tribe if the Red Sox actually pull out a win tonight? Will they be the lame ducks in game 7 that the Yankees were in 2004? So many intriguing threads, so many, many stories to follow. Dane is perhaps right, there is only one Actober.

...although, despite being a Dane Cook fan I must admit the SNL parody is pretty fun too...

All fun and games, now to stick with the vow of not staying up until 6am to watch it...

Mea Culpa pt II

I forgot in this morning's post to add another round of Mea Culpa's towards Joshua.

Honestly, although I think he'll go on to win 200+ games in the majors, he's almost ensuring his HOF status on his post season play alone.

5-2 with 1.75 ERA with one complete game shut out in 9 games in the post season at the age of 27?? 73 K's in in 65.2 innings pitched with a almost tauntingly low 13 walks. The guy's a machine.

His at bat against Cabrera on Thursday is a prime example. One 97mph fastball for a strike to lead off, then four vicious curveballs, the last one at 77, but looking like it travelled at 87 for a strike out looking. He's taken his game to a whole other level this year.

So Joshy boy, can you recover from your 109 pitch outing to come out in relief on Sunday to bridge it between Dice-K and Pap? If we could get the Dice-K from before the All Star game to return (and yes, I know that Dice-K is sadly conspicious in his absence), that must simply be one of the worst pitching lineups an opponent could imagine...

Tito, do me one favour though. Send Gagne, or as my blogging friend Iain aptly named him, Perdu, home to Canada for the rest of the season. I was very happy when I heard that the Sox had traded for him, but now that horrible feeling of pitchers and 'roids keep popping into my head when I see his fastball having lost so, so much.

I know, he's had a horrible injury period, but when a changeup is your outpitch, it works wonders if your fastball is mid-high 90s, not when your fastball is 88 and your changeup is 83. When that happens, you outpitch becomes a batting practice pitch....

Sadly, it doesn't matter if you look like the next coming of Rick Vaughn, when you toss meatballs and niggle the corners, we simply struggle to trust your ability. Please Eric, show us doubters the old Eric, and go 1-2-3 in the 7th with the game on the line, and we''ll love you as much as we love Youk....well ok, not quite, but we'll still like you!

Honestly, doesn't Youk just embody everything the RSN is about? Every at-bat like it's your last, every ball dug out of the dirt like it's the final out of a winning World Series, every baserun like it's the tying run in a 9th inning comeback.

My family is going to kill me, but I think I need to get yet another Red Sox shirt

Too much?

W ow, never thought I'd get to this point...

Liverpool-Everton derby today, England-South Africa World Cup final tonight and then in the wee hours of the morning ALCS game 6, Schilling v Carmona at Fenway....

I need sleep.

BTW, why does MLB have no consideration for anyone outside the US West Coast? No, I'm not referring to Europe, in fact in this case even the baseball hotbed of the East Coast is mistreated. If MLB did care, why would playoff games start at 8 so they are almost guaranteed to go on past midnight??

Thank god for my parents. I managed a layover on a business trip, and for the first time in a month I managed to get to bed before midnight, with almost 8 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Only another 30 odd hours to catch up then...

Which brings us back to the sport. How can someone consume this much in one day, on so many different time zones?

I know it is almost sacrilege, but I have actually decided not to watch the ALCS live. Instead I will get my father to start the MLB.tv feed for me tomorrow morning (as the major flaw in their webdesign is that there is no way you can load the feed without finding out the score...), and as I'm in the baseball equivalent of Siberia here in Sweden I fear not making it through the morning without finding out the score. So, "as-live" it is...

Egg chasers....

After a completely abysmal group stage, England managed to find their star player, their bottle, their team spirit and tackling ability to surprise not only Australia but also France, and now have a chance to avenge the 36-0 drubbing by the South Africans in the group stage. Lets not beat around the bush, as much as try rugby is fantastic, the success of England in this game relies on the play of Mr.Wilkinson, the most prolific point scorer in English history (and world cup history if my memory serves me right). You can all help by giving support at http://www.blesstheboot.com/, a very amusing page.

You'll never walk alone...

So, Liverpool host the Blues for the mid-day game today, and Stevie G must show that his less than stellar performance for the joke that is the England national team (or more accurately the joke that is their coach McIdiot) was a blip and not something indicative of his normal performance. New boy Torres does indeed seem to be the real thing, as shown by his 7 goals so far this season. Bring on the blues, most likely bottom feeders this year, but always dangerous in a derby. I wonder what lineup Rafa will produce, but even despite not having the most hawkeyed of attention the last few weeks, I would suspect it will be something along the lines of Reina-Finnan, Agger/Hyypia, Carra, Arbeloa - Pennant, Gerrard, Mascherano, Babel - Torres, Kuyt. Voronin/Crouch, Riise and perhaps even Kewell should come from the bench.

There's only one Actober...

Thankfully there's only one this year, but dear Dane, I think you'll find there's one every year...and sadly, unless the batting line-up and defense help out Schilling in the way they've helped out Beckett, then the RSN might have to look at next Actober. However, few people thrive on games on the line as Gehrig38, and even though his body is giving up on him a little, his transformation from a power pitcher to a finesse pitcher with one of the best splitters in baseball has been amazing to see. Prediction 5-3 to the Red Sox with Manny being Manny, and everything on the line for yet another sleep deprived Sunday and game 7.

...I so need to get another good nights sleep tonight...

Mea Culpa Joshua...

I hold my hand up.

I was one of the doubters.

When you had blister problems, yet again, in 2006, all while Lowell was struggling and the players who'd gone the other way, Photo from ESPN.com
Ramirez and Sanches fared...well, how should I put this...extremely well.

Hanley's Rookie of the Year season in a position the Red Sox have struggled to fill, sacrificing offense for a string of defensive wizards, all while Sanchez does what - a friggin perfect game??

But oh, what a difference a year makes. Lowell's probably the most underrated player in the league, a clear MVP lock if it wasn't for that guy in NY, while you have taken over from your idol to become the undisputed ace of the Red Sox rotation. Most wins in the AL, and a clear Cy Young favourite.

Joshua, I doubt no more. A nation now can comfortably rely upon you to bring your A-game every time you take the ball. Mea Culpa.

So, in one of the most anticipated duels of recent playoff history, a young 20 game winner against another young 19 game winner; Beckett v Sabathia, power-pitching galore, both being able to reach the upper echelons on the radar gun, while still displaying amazing control.

Midnight in the UK, sit down to watch a 1-0 Red Sox win...or so I thought....

Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
J Beckett (W, 1-0) 6.0 4 2 2 0 7 1 80-53 3.00
C Sabathia (L, 0-1) 4.1 7 8 8 5 3 0 85-44 16.62

16.62 CC? Ouch! Then again, it can't be fun to face the Red Sox lineup right now, but no team will win if they allow the opposition's 2 through 5 batters to go 7-for-11 with 7 walks and 6 RBI.

Indians never got Manny or Big Papi out. Yes out, as in they reached base on every at bat...not a good recipy.

What has happened to CC? 19-7 in regular season, 0-2 in the post season....pressure too much, or simply a possibly too large body having 220+ innings catching up with it?

The one thing we knew about Beckett from his 2003 heroics with the Marlins was that as long as we got him to the playoffs, he'd have the mental makeup to perform there. Now we know we can rely on him to get us there too.

Tonight can see the Red Sox take a strangle hold on the series if Schilling continues against an admittely red hot Fausto....

....I love baseball in the autumn...

(Who needs sleep...)

Return to the motherland

With trepidation I got on the Amtrak at Penn Station, heading north to the city that had created so much emotions within - the horror of 2003, the enormity of 2004, and the subsequent struggles on so many levels...

Will Boston be the same? Will the good emotions win? As I get in the cab at Back Bay Station, lazy as I am with my bag filled with the bounties from Fifth Ave (and so much more to come from The Souvenir Store later..) and head for the brownstone B&B, the glorious weather takes over, and the prospect of witnessing first hand that very night when the Red Sox win their first AL East title since 1995 scatters any gloomy thoughts....

Dice-K was back on form, fanning 8, allowing only 2 runs, and the rookies continuined to perform, with both Pedroia and Ellsbury showing why they will be mainstays in the Red Sox lineup for years. Heck, even Drew is batting .375 for the last few weeks!

Fenway in the autumn, is there any place better? (Yes, I am English, so I say autumn, fall is a physical action someone takes - see Mets fall from the first place).

Friday night is just one of those magical nights, beer, dog, my old worn Red Sox cap, the crowd is completely behind the team, nobody asking "Why are they booing him" when Youkilis comes up to bat. Perfect weather, tight score until Big Papi (who else) put it away, more or less, with a solo HR in the 8th. (BP went 3-4 with a 2B and a HR, I guess he is really wearing down...:)

We watch the Yankees on the big screen, and by the end of the night, Papelbon is dancing in the infield, and the champagne is spraying as the Yankees lose to give the Red Sox the AL East title...

I spend Saturday with the thoughts if this is really a new mettle of Red Sox? Is this the team with the strength to stand up? Not the Cowboy Up self-proclaimed idiots of 2004, but the next evolution. The team that can grind out the ugly wins, a team where players like Youk, Lowell and Pedroia lift the team when Big Papi and Manny are playing below their own high standards.

With Beckett solving his blister problems and as the only 20 game winner in the majors surpassing even the standards he set as a Yankee Killer in 2003, combined with Okajima and Paps (ok, so I have selective memory recalls, I am for the sake of my own thoughts ignoring Okie's last month and the subsequent shoulder shutdown.) the Red Sox are as close as you can get to a guaranteed 2 wins in a 5 win series, and even possibly 3 starts from Beckett in a 7 game series.

However, unlike Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks, the Red Sox have other options behind Beckett; A 15 game winner in Dice-K, one of the best post-season pitchers of the modern era in Schilling, which both allows the ultimate team pitcher - Wakefield to move to shore up the bullpen. BTW, the interesting stat nugget of the day comes from Wake's post season record. In his first year in the majors, with the Pirates in 1992, he pitched two complete game wins, allowing 6 runs over 18 innings, at the age of 25. Despite this, the Pirates lost the NLDS...

Sunday, and we decide to see if we can get a standing room only tickets, so we get to Landsdowne Road by gate E, and when I get there, on the dot 2 hours before game start (which is when the game day tickets are released), the queue is about 60-70yrds long. After about an hour, with the line stopping a few times, we finally get up to the booth, and I ask "I presume you only have standing room tickets, right?". The ticket seller looks at me and says, "no we have RF boxes, Grand Stand and...

....the Green Monster seats too...

Before my heart (and my bank manager's heart) slowly regains the beat, we're in what essentially is tantamount to heaven....

This is simpy the best seat in sports, an amazing intimacy whilst still giving a widescreen view of the entire playing field at Fenway. I saw every pitch Tavarez pitched, Lugo's fantastic stab and jump throw (a play that would have made Jeter green with envy) and Ellsbury's sliding catch in CF.

Sadly, I have now been corrupted and spoiled. Never again will "normal" seats at Fenway be as good as the experience I had on the Green Monster....oh well, I'll live.