Five hours, ten hours? Who knows how long it lasted? In many respects, I'm still trapped there. The game will go forever.
We have been told that Yankee-Redsock games run too long, because both teams "grind" each at bat. Not true. The problem is not the Yankees. Boston is a glacier of a team.
Yesterday, Josh Beckett, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon delivered a game for the ages, literally. It took an age to end. Especially Papelbon. He should be banned from the game for the good of baseball.
With Bautista up and runners on base, Papelbon looked in, set himself, started, stopped, started, stopped, looked in, changed the sign - then an infielder ran in to discuss something - then he looked in, started, stopped, Bautista stepped out -- the home fans even booed -- then he looked in, started, stopped, faked a throw to second, then went through the signs again, looked in, set, started, stopped, and finally threw the frickin pitch. Low. Outside. Ball two. Yeeech. He finally walked Bautista on a 3-2 count, loading the bases - part of me is still sitting there, watching. A half inning took about 35 minutes - and nobody even frickin scored.
The Pooh Bahs have talked about establishing rules to speed up baseball, and they always point to the Yankees/Redsocks as the reason.
We should promote such a change.
If the league ever moves, it will fall harder on Boston.
I am so glad you posted this! I flipped over to that game after the yanks won yesterday and was going nuts watching Papelbong with Teahan before and Bautista...It was so quiet, nothing was happening, he was taking FOREVER between pitches!! I'm just glad to see I'm not alone in this. It was ridiculas!! It also didn't help that every Toronto batter was swinging for the fences when all they needed was a single!!
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