Ok, I admit, the last post was harsh. You have to understand, however, that it was posted as we were leaving the park (yes, we were among those who stayed until the end).
I suppose some credit should be given to Trot Nixon (why can't we have guys like that?), who knocked in the go-ahead run in the 11th. Little did we know at the time how terrible an inning that would be.
The Sox ended up allowing 7 runs in the top of the 11th. 7 RUNS. By the time the Sox came up to bat in the bottom half of an extra-innings game in the playoffs, a situation one expects would command a packed house, the place was already half empty. It got to the point where those of us who stuck it out were calculating who would represent the tying run and how each of the 8 batters would reach, making sure to throw in a catcher's interference and a drag bunt (why not?). It was comical....I guess we all have our defense mechanisms.
I had big hopes for Gagne (now pronounced Gag-ne around here). He was a fantasy baseball stud for me a few years ago, and I held out hope for him a lot longer than anyone I know. Not anymore. This man should never pitch on the mound at Fenway ever again, period.
Last night, for the first time, I went to a postseason game and didn't sit in the bleachers. After TLM won the opportunity to buy ALCS tickets we went online and got a couple of grandstand seats 3rd base side with the tag "possibly obstructed" affixed to them, though I figured we'd be fine once I saw that they were in row 3. Then we got there before the game and saw this:
Just when I thought we were the proud buyers of the worst seats in the house, I noticed someone settling into a seat in front of us - a seat directly behind the post. Unreal. That guy lasted all of two innings.
The Red Sox have absolutely no gripes about selling this ticket, and why should they? They'll gladly take your $95...they told you "possibly obstructed", didn't they? At least they gave you some warning, as opposed to building something new that wrecks the view you've had for 18 years without telling you. Wait...I've heard this story before.
The first inning or two was, as TLM put it, an "exercise in patience", and not just because of the (missing) view. I try to make it a point not to complain (that's a disclaimer), but just about everyone seated around us was tough to bear. My personal favorite was some guy behind us, pretending to be a Red Sox fan, who wouldn't stop talking about how Yankee Stadium is better than Shea and how his uncle loved the Whalers. I'm pretty sure TLM's favorite was this obnoxious kid who claimed to be related to Johnny Pesky and had a knack for standing up and blocking what precious little view we had (oh, and his real seat was 7 rows behind us, by the way).
Eventually, a few more innings passed, the Sox took a commanding lead, and these and a lot of the other fickle fans left, allowing TLM and I to upgrade our seats and watch the Red Sox win. I can't wait to get back to the bleachers tonight for Game 2 with some real fans.
Three games, three Sox victories. To use the phrase Angry Bill made famous in "Still We Believe", "it's ova, o-v-a, ova".
Fine with me. It'll be just fine to see Josh Beckett throw in game 1 of the ALCS, thank you. The Angels looked down coming into the game and looked completely flat after the back-to-back homers by Papi and Manny. So much for small ball.
As for the other ALDS, there seemed to be three general schools of thought: those that wanted to face the Yankees in the ALCS, those who didnt, and those that were intentionally and consciously neutral. Well, the argument has become moot as of last night, as the mighty Yankees were sent home after the first round of playoffs for the 4th consecutive year. Sorry fellas. Anybody need a manager?
What a night. As BostonDirtDogs so perfectly put it, it was "Manny being Papi". He (and everyone at Fenway and watching at home) knew it was gone right off the bat, and even after seeing lots of replays I'm still not sure where it went.
I'll tell you this, though: Manny spent so much time at home with his arms up in celebration, admiring his bomb over the wall, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he takes one in the ribs Sunday in Anaheim.
Obviously Daisuke wasn't on point last night, and I think credit is due Terry Francona for taking him out when he did. We often hear people call up sports radio to complain about some move the manager made (or didn't make), and I think Tito deserves a tip of the cap for how he handled his pitching staff yesterday.
J.D. Drew came up big in the 1st to drive in 2 runs early. Though finishing with only one hit on the night, he made it count. Finally.
Mike Lowell got the sacrifice fly in the 5th to tie it up. As usual, Lowell came up big for the Sox in a clutch situation, and I really hope to see him stay here next season.
One batter before Lowell in the 5th was Manny, who for all intents and purposes should have made the 2nd out in the inning on a foul pop fly first base side. One thing TLM and I didn't know about from where we were sitting in the bleachers was just how close (and subsequently pivotal) the play was. As the ball came down some guy behind us was yelling "Be a good fan. Be a good fan.", and in fact this kid (Danny Vinik) was. He JUST robbed Jeff Mathis of the catch.
That play happened just in front of Steven King. Spooky? No, coincidence, but still of note.
As Okajima was warming up on the mound, we all heard some dance song being played and it took us a bit to figure out what we were hearing. Eventually we heard something being spelled out and it wasn't long before we could figured out it was "O-K-A-J-I-M-A". That's right, Okajima has his own song. You can listen to it below, but be prepared, it gets stuck in your head for hours.
So I finally made it, and was happy to be present for TLM's very first playoff game. The Red Sox won last night, thanks to some timely hitting, a few stellar defensive plays, and an absolutely phenomenal pitching performance by Josh Beckett.
...and yes, we'll be watching the first game of the other ALDS series today. Though a Sox-Yankees ALCS would be nice, I will never, ever root for the Yankees, ever. So go Tribe!
TLM is at Fenway, and I'm sitting in my car in one of the worst traffic jams I've ever been in. Impatience on the part of drivers and incompetence on the part of the BPD trying to direct traffic have together combined for standstills, gridlock, and nightmarish backups for blocks in every direction.
There go the fly-by jets, indicating the end of the national anthem. Maybe someday I'll get there...maybe even by tomorrow if I'm lucky.
In anticipation of the upcoming (and hopefully very successful) 2007 Red Sox postseason run, I give you this video of the Standells performing "Dirty Water" (not sure where). At first I thought there was just bad camera work, as the first 30 seconds or so seemed overly focused on the drummer, smiling and mumbling the words along. Then I realized he was the lead singer...ah, the early days of lip-syncing.
Also of note: apparently the lyric "lovers, hookers, and thieves" was changed to "lovers, buggers, and thieves", complete with the drummer delivering a knowing smile after momentarily covering his mouth with his arm. Maybe it's the subsequent "ah, but they're cool people" [in possible reference to hookers] that turned the network execs off...or maybe they just really wanted to find a way to get the word "buggers" in there.
Well, it's hard to believe another year has passed since the last observation of the International "Talk Like a Pirate" Day (and our 100th post), but today's the day yet again, and though I'm not with the other landlubbers I work with today, I'm sure they're annoying whoever is around them with a fair amount of aye's, ye's, matey's, and the perennial yaaaaaaaaaaar's. Of course, no Talk Like a Pirate Day would be complete without the "Pirates Life for Me" song stuck in your head, so here you go:
To commemorate this year's version, I've embedded below something about Pirate Flags I made in an RIA called the workBench, put out by TRintuition (who happen to be giving away free accounts right now). It took me all of 10 minutes to make, and that's only because I went to the trouble of finding all the images etc. I'll guess that most people can generate basic, blog-ready content in much less time than that.
If you do sign up, tell them The Neoteric sent you!
No long or complicated diatribe here. It's been 6 years since that day we remember all too well. We have our own stories, complete with vividly detailed timelines, and have shared these with countless others since that day in 2001 and countless more to come.
Forget the politics and conspiracy theories, and just remember what happened, how you felt, and those people we lost whom you may have known on that, the scariest and saddest day in our generation's collective life thus far.
TLM and I are officially tying the knot. We spent a nice few days in Cape Cod and, after making sure to get the blessings of her parents, I found myself on bended knee Friday night, trying to get through something I had been preparing in my head all week. The good news is I did get the question out. The great news is that she said yes.
TLM and I got a very pleasant surprise Friday night (as did all of Red Sox Nation) as Clay Buchholz punched through 3 rotations of the Baltimore Orioles lineup without letting up a hit. That's right...in his second major league start ever (and TLM and I were lucky enough to be at the first), the kid threw a no-hitter.
Buchholz struck out 9 and walked 3 to became the 16th Red Sox player to officially throw a no-hitter, and the first rookie to do so (though I think one could make a case for Devern Hansack in 2006). The closest thing to a jam came in the 5th when he led off the inning with back to back walks to Millar and Huff, then got Moore to strike out swinging, House to ground into a fielder's choice, then Payton to fly out to right, stranding Millar at 3rd. At this point both TLM and I noted the lack of hits on the part of Buchholz, and the excitement grew exponentially every inning from then on.
Though some people were leaving their seats as late as the 8th inning (???) it seemed as though everyone there knew what was happening. The feeling in the stands was electric and the most intense I've experienced since 2004. Somewhere during the 9th there was a low-pitch roar that, though almost inaudible, hurt the ears of everyone in our section. At one point a few melonheads in short right field tried to start a "Yankees Suck" chant and were immediately silenced by everyone within earshot, testament to the collective understanding of the importance of what was taking place.
Content found on The Neoteric is of no particular genre, topic, or focus, other than it was all at some point, in some way, interesting enough to me to write about.
