Certainly, we as "Yankee fans" must always be ready to give our Bostonian homey bros the gentle and delightful ribbing they've come to expect, if not demand, when these warrior "rivals" collide on the battlefield.
Although it's our nature to be "loosey-goosey" outside the lines, but "stern competitors from gun-to-gun," the key to our special relationship is to avoid hurtful and angry words... you know, words such as... "wretched."
We can all have fun with our teams; isn't that what these games are all about? But under no circumstances would we ever rubbing sea salt into someone's festering facial acne.
It would be poor sportsmanship, and there is no excuse for poor sportsmanship. Certainly, the Redsock fans would never mock us after a loss. It's not in their DNA.
Besides - and I direct the following words to the juju gods, in case they somehow get the idea that I'm dancing on someone's grave...
It's still early August. Maybe the Redsock fans have turned to Brady and Belichick, but if Sale, Porcello and Price turn it around - not a far-fetched notion - we'll face them in October, and all bets will be off. When you're being chased by the bear, you don't have to outrun him; all you need to do is be faster than the slowest guy in your group. The Redsocks don't have to be better than us; they simply have to be better than Tampa and Oakland.
Today, we go to Baltimore, which has won six of its last 10, and two in a row. Boston hosts KC.
Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote that you can judge an AL pennant winner by the way it treats its tomato cans. Our season began with a loss to Baltimore. Let's not let it pivot on one, as well. And we can let the Fenway Nation speak for itself.
Their whining is like reading a a love letter. Almost embarrassing how sweet it is. And St. Botolph's town media is in full football mode now.
ReplyDeleteI think you may have paraphrased de Tocqueville a bit there.
The season is long. The '78 Yankees were 14 games back but went 41 and 11 down the stretch. (All hail the great Bob Lemon.) The Red Sox team they caught had ample starting pitching. These Yankees have (n)one. Mark my words, the Yankees will not make the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteFuck you Hal.
ReplyDeleteAs instructed, I am (book)marking your words......
I'm with you Winnie on being cautious. This is a bad time to peak. Two months is an eternity in baseball. While enjoying the ransacking of this past weekend, it's important to stay alert, stay focused, and stay the course. Our pitching is shoddy, at best.
ReplyDeleteSterling told a story last night about the then-manager of the Twins, whose name is lost in alcohol-burned brain cells. John was talking with him and they got onto the lousy pitching staff, and John said, "Well, maybe so-and-so and so-and-so will turn it around." And the manager said, "Why would they?"
ReplyDeleteThis was said as he and Suzyn discussed the Socks' rotation.
They aren't going to the playoffs at all this year. They won't even make the one-game crapshoot.
Good work, Warbler! We have to keep up the pessimism to ward off the JuJu furies.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, the 1978 Yankees were 14 back on July 19th. By August 5th, they had closed the gap to 8 1/2 games.
But as The Warbler astutely points out, that 1978 Red Sox team has a pretty fair starting staff: Eckersley, Tiant, Lee, Torrez, and Jim Wright. They also had Steamer Stanley, 15-2 that year, in the pen.
They didn't even really "collapse." Overall, they went 37-35 from July 19th to the end for the regular season.
When we blew a 5-0 lead in a bizarre, 17-inning game played out over 2 days against them on August 2-3—followed immediately by an 8-1 skunking—I figured we were done.
They even managed to increase their lead slightly, to 9 games, on August 13, when Earl "The Devil" Weaver managed to negate our 5-run seventh inning by not getting the tarp on the field on time. Game reverted to the last full inning, Orioles won, 3-0.
Then we had a bad trip out west, losing 2-3 to an awful Mariners team...On August 29th, the Sox lead was still 7 1/2 games.
Then, we tore off a 7-2 skein, and the lead was suddenly down to 4, just in time for our trip to Boston on Sept. 7...
Sox now would have to go 32-16—.667 ball—just to get to 91 wins...which might STILL not be enough for a Wild Card in the AL this year.
ReplyDeleteHAVING to play 2-out-of-3 ball is a very tough thing.
Apparently, the Sox' starters team ERA is 10.70 in this 8-game streak; Sale, Price, and Porcello are ALL on track for career-worst years.
Various calculating services (who ARE these guys, anyway?) put the Sox' chances of making the playoffs at 16 percent—or 3 percent.
Boston media and Sox blogs are already doing post mortems...
1978 Yankees had heart and guts. The 2019 Carmines have neither. They have the look in their eyes that they have given up. Not as bad as the Bobby Valentine/Popeye's chicken variety, but bad nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteMy very first Yankees/Carmine game was October 2, 1978. It will not recur this year.
Peaking early may be bad, but it allows healing of disabilities in the MASH triage center.
The biggest bump in the road I foresee is August 20-28 left coast trip. Hopefully they will be close to half strength by then.
A crusher would be Gleyber playing through a real injury, blowing up the rest of his season.
Fuck the Ketchups.
ReplyDeleteFuck Hall Steinbrenner.
The '78 Yankees also had the gift of Bob Lemon. Of, course the Yanks could have replaced Martin with a spare water cooler and still improved after his departure.
ReplyDeleteLove you, Winnie. I'm with you on this one. Keep dinking the vinegar for now, folks. The honey is way off in the distance.
ReplyDeleteTesticles are flapping over Fenway, though, at the moment.
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