MVP race

Remarkably, the second post of the day, albeit a short one.

Jerry Crasnick goes through the numbers and cases for the main 5 AL MVP candidates, and of course two of them are from the Red Sox; Youkilis and Pedroia.

Bitter grapes you say? I don't care, I still find it ironic that the Red Sox best shot at an AL MVP for several years is after Manny's departure...

However, I still find it wrong that MVP votes are affected by whether the team or not makes the playoffs - it shouldn't, and without Cliff Lee the Indians would have struggled to beat AAA teams.

Class act..and not

So, the Rays faltered, yet again, ever-so close to their ultimate dream and the first ever AL East title. With three games left, the Red Sox need to sweep the Yankees while the Tigers do the same to the Rays. Stranger things have happened (see Nationals vs Mets, Sept 2007), but I doubt it. Especially as Tito is setting up the team for the playoffs, holding Lester to an 85 pitch count last night.

I told him that was the first time I've ever rooted against him. The only way you're going to see something like that, it would've had to have been a group effort.

When Lester had gone through 5 innings without allowing a single hit, the Red Sox found themselves in the strange situation of wanting a hit for the Indians to break it up, so that Lester could have a short and nice 86 pitch outing instead of another essentially meaningless 130+ pitch bid for his second no-hitter of the season. (The first one was magic - trust me, I was there!). His forced departure after 6 innings also allowed Sox fans the comfort of actually watching three innings of 1-2-3 pitching by Masterson, Okajima and Pap. I think Masterson will turn out to be the ace in the hole for an intermittently shaky 2008 bullpen in the playoffs.

And although I didn't make it to the final in my fantasy team, I had the pleasure to ride Lester and Dice-K's arms all season...

On another note, and the reason for today's post title, away from the Yankees, their unceremoniously ejected former leader Joe Torre is enjoying another trip to the playoffs - and despite his statements to the contrary, I suspect it deep down inside Torre might be even moreso as his former team is looking forward to golf rounds in early October for the first time since 1993.

Although there are members of the Yankees that I do not care for, I've always respected some of them; Torre and Jeter comes to mind. In Stephen A. Smith's column on ESPN, Torre takes the high road, which is understandable considering his close ties to several of the Yankees players and current manager.

Still, whilst I rate Torre very highly - his post game press outings were always a smidgen more open and honest than you normally hear, although one of Torre's strengths was handling the rabid NYC media very well - as a Red Sox fan enduring Ramirez complete abandon of his duties and responsibilities until he got what he wanted (unbelievable that you can throw your toys out of the pram to such a degree when you're loved by the fans and paid $20m per year) it's a bit annoying that the ultimate reason the Dodgers made the playoffs was because of the arrival of a certain Manuel Aristide Ramirez.

Whilst I loved watching one of the best hitters of all time torment Red Sox opposing pitchers, his "Manny being Manny" act was tiresome, but somewhat manageable.

However, as Bill Simmons points out in his current ESPN The Mag column, we shouldn't perhaps focus the blame for Manny's transition from annoying yet affable to downright tanking and manipulative on Manny himself. Let's be honest, if he didn't have the best eye of the strike zone and pitches since the nineteenhundreds, his most common frase would most likely be "Do you want to supersize that?". Sharpest tool in the box he is not.

We must never forget that Scott Boras is the greediest, most manipulative agent in sports history.

How true that is. And to think I was considering a career in the sports agency business once upon a time....I only hope that GM's realise both sides to the Manny coin and do not fall for the sudden "resurgence" and give him the $25m per year, 4 year contract he wants. As soon as Manny gets it, he'll be back to "Manny being Manny".

Finally, it's worrying to see that more and more young Red Sox players are tempted by the dark side of the force...

Image from Soxnation.net.

Pesky Shirt

Despite the Sox win last night, the Rays improbable comeback from an 0-6 hole against the O's means that the Rays magic number for the Division title is now 1.

With 4 games to play.

I think it's safe to say that Tito will now turn his attention to the upcoming Halos of Southern California series starting either Wednesday or Thursday next week. The start date is up to the Halos - as the holders of the best record in the AL, they get to choose if they want to play a 7 or 8 day ALDS. The questions surrounding the playoff roster are many and could heavily affect the Sox chances. With two semi-healthy position players in Lowell and Drew, can Tito risk a recurrance of their injuries? John Tomase goes through many of these issues in today's Boston Herald.

Although I'm normally somewhat hesitant of retiring numbers in sport - for me it's the ultimate honour and possibly even carries more weight than the HOF - for Johnny Pesky I am willing to make an exception. In my limited lifespan as a Red Sox fan, I have never encountered a player that was so loyal to the team and followed them with a fervour so, so long after his playing days were over. It warms my heart to see that no.6 will be retired on Friday.

Finally, Steve Buckley goes through D-Ped's sensational season for the Sox. Honestly, I think he should be a very, very serious candidate for AL MVP. I'll go through the contenders later to see how he measures up stat by stat.

Insomnia time again...

After a lot of near misses in the last week or so, the Red Sox finally clinched a play off spot last night after taking 22 game winner and possible AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee of the Indians to the cleaners in an eventful 5th inning.

However, despite the Yankees missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993 (Buster Olney at ESPN has an interesting look at the pillaging the Yankees did to its own farm system over the last money-laden, drug-binging years), the Red Sox still look unlikely to clinch the AL East like it did in 2007. Those Icarus like Rays have a 3 game lead over the Sox in the division, and despite ending the regular season on the road, one final game against the O's followed by 4 games at Tiger Stadium makes it unlikely they'll lose the grip on the division.

The Red Sox finish with two more games at home to the Indians before a three game series at Fenway against a demoralised Yankees. Despite the Yanks being out of it, there are several factors coming into play.

Will Tito go all out for the title in an attempt to avoid an away ALDS series against the Angels in Anahem and try to get a home series against the ChiSox/Twins, or will he instead rest players and adjust the rotation for the playoffs. I suspect everything hangs on tonight's games.

(Check out ESPN's Hunt for October for all the possibilities)

As usual, the NL is a mess, with teams falling over each other in an attempt to fall out of the playoffs....

As DC said, there's only one Soxtober..

Love/hate relationship

Being a relative newcomer to baseball (7 years) and as a Red Sox fan (almost 6 years), plus not being a Boston native, I have yet to develop the “standard” love/hate relationship to the Red Sox that many long time fans seem to have. At least those who became fans prior to 2004.

When I started following the Sox in 2002/2003, the general atmosphere was one of extreme loyalty, but also combined with the somewhat fatalistic view honed by decades of nearly-rans.

Sure, the Sox are great in June-July, but come September they’ll slump.

As I was not following baseball during most of the horrible 86 years between 1918 and 2004, (apart from witnessing my own obvious horror show hosted by Aaron Boone at 5am one October morning in 2003) I have had to understand history by reading many a book on baseball and the Red Sox. It is painfully obvious that being a Red Sox fan prior to 2004 was like being a sucker for punishment. Every opening day was filled with new belief, but also a little bit of trepidation of the inevitable letdown that will come at some point. You would love the Sox, but they would also break your heart every year.

Personally, the City of Boston nowadays holds a similar emotion in my psyche. Boston is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. One snowy February night 5 ½ years ago I proposed to my then girlfriend there, and for years that amplified my attraction and love for Boston. Finding out years later that some horrible things affecting me personally had happened in the very same city shattered my love for Boston. I struggled very much just watching my beloved Sox on television, knowing what Boston now represented for me, looking in the crowd on the TV feed for people I loathed, and loathing even more that people I hated with a passion were also supposedly Red Sox fans.

How could I reconcile these conflicting feelings in my head? How could I love the Sox while having such a love/hate relationship with the concept of Boston itself. Only then did I realise a little what the long time Sox fans had been going through. Falling in love with the Sox, only to have your heart shattered. I truly felt like a “proper” Red Sox fan….

Today the atmosphere is very different. I returned to Boston, found love again, not only for the city, but also for people there. Like my love returned and healed my heart, Bostonians now encounter different emotions for the Sox than before.

8 games behind the AL East top? Doesn’t matter, we can catch them!

As strange as it might seem, there are young Red Sox fans who think that the team always wins in the end. There are new “fans” that came to the Nation after the 2004 glorious (yet for me personally with hindsight very difficult) win, certain people without any baseball interest paying fortunes for World Series tickets so that they can say “I was there”. Whilst I’m of course happy that people flock to the gorgeous temple that is Fenway, like with any other successful team there will be bandwagon jumpers (see: Manchester United). Although I do not feel that the pink B caps are an abomination like Kristen does in her great Basegirl blog, (in fact I got my girlfriend a pink cap – sorry…), I feel more annoyance towards the bandwagon fans who think the Sox will do no wrong.

Similar to my personal life where I am now a little bit guarded, I follow the Red Sox with a smidgen of concern, knowing how fragile a team ultimately is. A season ending injury (god forbid) to Lester or Beckett would have serious effects on any post season chances.

However, I still find myself opening up and allowing old battle scars to fade, knowing that life will go on even if the Sox lose, but life will be just that little bit better if they do win.