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Angels-Red Sox Game 1 Chat
2007-10-03 10:08
1. After winning three World Series titles in a row, the roster of the overwhelmingly hirsute A’s was almost completely dismantled within a couple years, as if some secret and severe penalties for over-mustaching had been levied. 2. When Charlie Finley tried to hasten the dismemberment of his A's dynasty by selling two of his stars to the Boston Red Sox, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn disallowed the transaction, citing the damage it would do to competitive balance; however, I believe this justification was a screen to cover the real reason: Rudi and (especially) Fingers would have put the Red Sox, already fairly well-mustached, far over their facial hair allowance. Supporting this point is the fact that Rudi later came to the Red Sox anyway, sporting his modest gun-shop-cashier ’stache, while Fingers, the facial-hair-cap-wrecking A-Rod of the Mustache Years, had to spend some years with the smooth-cheeked Padres of Enzo Hernandez and Randy Jones until the apparent lifting of the Mustache Cap in the early 1980s allowed him to join the malodorous unshaven rabble known as the Milwaukee Brewers. 3. The California Angels and Boston Red Sox constantly shuttled similarly-mustached guys back and forth, as if the deals depended on the equal exchange of facial hair. The unremarkable mustaches of guys such as Jerry Remy and Joe Rudi came east, and the unremarkable mustaches of guys such as Dick Drago and Rick Burleson went west. Even when cleancut guys such as Denny Doyle passed between the two teams the transaction seemed to come with hidden “facial hair to be named later” clauses that impacted (and explained the seeming imbalance of) later trades whose principles, such as cleancut Butch Hobson and walrus-faced Carney Lansford, did not balance out on the facial hair ledger. I’m not quite sure how Rick Miller fits into all this, but when I was a kid he seemed to drift back and forth between the Angels and Red Sox like a Mustache Years version of a Cheshire cat. Because he was obscure to me in each place for different reasons (on the Angels because they were so far away and on the Red Sox because he was always buried on the outfield depth chart), I was never completely sure which of the two teams he was on at any given moment, and so there always seemed at least a shred of him in both places, a brown medium-sized mustache hanging in the clubhouse air, waiting for the rest of him to appear and collect a pinch hit or make a diving grab in the outfield just when you thought for sure he was on the other side of the continent. Anyway, Game 1 is still a few hours away (6:30 P.M. ET, TBS; Gameday info to come if I can figure it out; update: I can't figure out how quite to link to that Gameday box, but you can go to the MLB.com scoreboard and click on the Gameday option above the Red Sox-Angels line score), but I thought I'd open up the conversation about all things Red Sox and Angels a little early. I can't help it. I'm excited, and worried, and also excited, plus a little worried. Will the Red Sox be all right without My Favorite Red Sox, Tim Wakefield, to turn to in times of trouble? Why if there is no knuckleballer would we need Mirabelli and Cash? Will the Red Sox be bedeviled and undone by the speed and daring of the Angels on the basepaths? Will John Lackey’s lack of success at Fenway find its regression to the statistical mean at the worst possible time with him twirling a stunning shadow-aided three-hitter? And, most importantly, should I start growing a Rick Miller playoff mustache?
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1) Only if Aaron Boone stays home.
2) Mirabelli has clutchitudeyness?
3) Yes
4) Yes
5) Abso-fuckin-lutely
In other words, a fan in the Yankees/Cowboys/Lakers-fan vein.
But I've paid my dues, in spades. And ever since 2004 and the administration of the greatest in-your-face, outright humiliation in the history of human sport -- a black mark on the pinstriped soul that shall never, ever be cleansed -- there's nothing I enjoy more than swaggering onto the scene and proclaiming, "Okay then, it's go time. I'm here. The Sox are standing on the verge of gettin' it on. Let the ass-kicking begin.
It makes for a sweet October, when the Sox are at the party. Instead of cowering in fear of the inevitable lowering of the boom, I enjoy to lip-smacking fulsomeness (yes, in all the word's alternate meanings) every second of Sox progress toward the goal. And should they fall short, hey, you can't win 'em all. How nice it is to be relieved of all the baggage.
So, all that said,
1 To you, and Josh:
1) Hell yes. And Wake will have a spot in the next round.
2) Look for Mirabelli or Cash to pull a Gary Allenson.
3) Hulk not care. Hulk smash Angels.
4) When all is said and done, no guy named "lackey" will ever amount to anything but a bootblack. Somebody tell him to go get his shinebox.
5) Abso-fuckin-lutely.
I have a vague memory of Rick Miller being an outstanding center fielder.
I believe my brother is referring to one of the great unsung moments in baseball history, when Gary Allenson came up in the 9th inning of an early 1980s game against none other than the Angels with the bases loaded and two outs and the score tied. Because of the Red Sox awful bullpen, a late game tie at that time basically meant an inevitable loss, so it was all up to Gary Allenson, who in our wildest dreams we could not imagine getting a hit, ever, in any situation. He was for those who don't remember a stubby slow backup catcher who, as already mentioned, couldn't hit. But he won the game with a surprise (2-strike) bunt hit. When I get a moment I'm going to locate that game on baseball reference. Man, was it sweet. (It also got an echo a couple weeks ago when Melvin Mora gave the Red Sox the division by laying down a 2-out bases loaded bunt to beat the Yankees.)
7 : I found the Gary Allenson game-winning bunt game. Look who was intentionally walked to get to the runty .210-hitting catcher!:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198208280.shtml
The INT BB: auspicious!
Angels (94-68)
C. Figgins rf
O. Cabrera ss
V. Guerrero dh
G. Anderson lf
M. Izturis 3b
C. Kotchman 1b
H. Kendrick 2b
M. Napoli c
R. Willits cf
J. Lackey p
Red Sox (96-66)
D. Pedroia 2b
K. Youkilis 1b
D. Ortiz dh
M. Ramirez lf
M. Lowell 3b
J.D. Drew rf
J. Varitek c
C. Crisp cf
J. Lugo ss
J. Beckett p
I'm going to be incommunicado until a little after first pitch, in transit. Let's Go Red Sox!
Red Sox or Angels?
I would listen to Red Sox, just in case Rex Hudler is doing the Angels broadcast.
--barbershop quartet?
Really?
Barbershop quartet?
Did they flatulate on his pillow...?
vr, Xei
No one is beating Eric Byrnes in the leaving their feet contest.
And grits!
vr, Xei
I was in Wilmington, DE in May and saw the word "scrapple" for the first time at a little sub shop run by Greeks. They didn't speak very good English, and I thought they had misspelled "scramble".
:) vr, Xei
So many dirty jokes.
Should be an interesting mix.
I figured Josh would be all over the obscure Boston music reference.
17 I'm rooting for loooooots and lottttts of pitches. Maybe some 14 innings games. That kind of thing.
19 Castiglione. I like him, too, even though I'm a Yankee fan and he's a huge homer.
http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/
Blast the Sci-Fi channel for not renewing that show.
I hope Betemit does great and A-Rod "chokes" like no other.
Maybe I'm rooting for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California.
We Dodger fans that want "A-Rod Or Nothing."
We recognize that both choices are unlikely, because the Dodgers' general manager is Ned Colletti. Still, if we say it often enough, maybe it will come true.
Ahh, close enough.
Hm.
A difference of acronymic opinion. But I get the idea.
FLGCGARWHW
(For The Love of God, Cashman, Give A-Rod Whatever He Wants)
Lowell will definitely be overpaid next year.
99 - as well they should, lucky for the rest of us, the tabloids have yet to catch on.
Unfortunately, if he doesn't hit .500 over that fifteen minutes, Colletti will trade him for Kyle Lohse.
GOES? HEAVENS to betsy, learn the language. Jeez.
On a random note, I like symmetrical ball parks.
Not sure of the definition, but it seems to fit.
UCLA just signed up one of their coaches to a new 7-year deal, he will get 1.5 million this year and up to 2 million in 2014.
And fortunately, is initials are the first two letters of my screen name.
Still a bargain.
Interesting definition of "a lot"
122 Very cool, thanks for the tip! And who needs announcers anyway?
Angels getting shellackeyed.
Because he's really good at hitting.
Maybe there are such things as bad matchups for pitchers.
I just heard that Jerry Remy threw out the first pitch. Fitting for an Angels-Red Sox series, though Rick Miller would have been my personal pick.
http://ussmariner.com/2006/03/12/bugs-bunny-greatest-banned-player-ever/
Brilliant! And geeky as all get out.
"We are then introduced to the shabby state of both the grounds keeping and of stadium security at the Polo Grounds, as we see an angry rabbit (Bugs Bunny, RHP/UT) is able to heckle the visiting team from left field, where he has dug a fairly substantial hole, and is enjoying a carrot-dog and (it appears) has consumed a large bottle of wine through a straw."
Beckett is pitc...
Beckett looks very g...
No, I can't say it.
yeah, your probably right I'm just really surprised Lackey has such bad #'s against the BoSox but they DO have great hitting so I shouldn't be too surprised.
Then somebody decided he was underrated. This thought was repeated over and over again -- so often, in fact, that it became annoying.
Sabermetricians looked at his stats and did not agree that he was underrated, and because so many people were saying he was underrated, many stats followers said he was overrated.
So many stats fans said he was overrated that, in fact, he was underrated.
Then he started to suck, and now, it's a very confused situation.
Number of teams in the NL with an ERA under 4: 1.
Yeah, that's saying something alright. I'm just not sure what.
Okay, who are those annoying studio guys blathering on in the MLB/TBS Mosaic coverage?
The Flying Molinas, on the other hand, are all full brothers
"When the Angels don't get baserunners, they cannot play their game."
That's quality analysis, almost Steve Lyonesque.
It reminds me of an idiot I heard on ESPN radio today (didn't catch who it was, some ex-player). He was asked how he would play the Patriots if he was coaching against them. He said the best way is to get out in front and make them play from behind, because that way you could make them one-dimensional. So, the best plan, apparently, is to score a lot more points than they do, early.
For those not familiar to DodgerThoughts lingo, "old friend" refers to a former Dodger, usually of recent vintage.
On the Red Sox, in order of old friendliest, starting from least to best, Julio Lugo, J.D. Drew, Alex Cora and Eric Gagne.
It's true.
this thing, meaning the series, Beckett is just on tonight.
Meanwhile, back in the jungle.... Lackey, we wanna be able to shave in the shine tomorrow morning when you finish with Papi's cleats, y'heah now? Simply ... pwned.
If you are trailing by four runs, and have two runners on base, it is better to hit a two run double than a three run home run. This is because the pitcher is able to return to the wind up (thus getting more speed and potentially more movement on his pitches), and the defense need no longer account for the runner.
I will admit, I adhere to this philosophy to a certain extent. I prefer my home runs to come in three situations: tie game (giving my team the lead); tying the game; giving my team the lead.
Seriously?
If I'm down a lot of runs, I'll take the HRs anytime they come. Also, the rallykillers didn't hurt the Dodgers on 9/18/06 when they trailed by 4 runs in the 9th.
(joking, really, joking)
JL25and3 (a Bronx Banter regular) would have been all over that one.
Down a lot of runs is also different than being down a couple of runs. As far as th 9/18/06 game, two words: statistically improbable. But damn fun to watch.
You could have your pitcher balk him in, I guess. Seems like a mistake to me.
The only time this falls apart is if you're down by five or more in the ninth inning. You have so few outs remaining in the game that the numbers just kind of throw up their hands and say, "Double, homer, catcher's interference -- whatever, dude, just don't get out."
Although I do take a little offense to the Lyons shot... I think I liked it better when y'all thought I was Kevin Gross
They are both very fast. Ellsbury hasn't yet learned to take the best route to the ball -- though maybe that's partly because they've been sticking him in the corners? But he's going to hit so much better than Crisp that he'll easily win the job, and he certainly seems to have the physical talent to be a VG CF.
"It is high! It is far! It is.... caught!" Those who are watching the game as well as listening on the radio will often note that said play was usually just a popfly to short right field.
Some it looks like the only decision left is how long does Beckett pitch.
244 Sorry, it was an easy shot, no harm done I hope.
I'm speaking entirely from an offense stand point.
I feel the way you do. And (as I mentioned earlier) I like Joe Castiglione a lot, too, even though he has a very irritating voice. In fact that's part of the reason I like him.
They changed the film.
http://tinyurl.com/2rq9o9
This is a tenured professor, mind you.
I generally think of baseball as more, you know, zero-sum.
Okay, I'll stop now.
Yeah, I heard about that.
254 : Yeah, it would be nice to see Gagne rack up some outs in a lower-pressure spot.
246 : If you haven't seen it, Ellsbury's catch on September 21 was a beauty, reminiscent of Jeter's famous bloody charge into the seats against the Sox in '04. It's available to see on this site if you scroll down to the Sept. 21 games:
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/multimedia/tp_archive.jsp?c_id=bos
He will still throw 4 touchdowns.
There really is something... enchanting about players whose focus gets down so narrow that they think only about getting that dang ball, no thought of whether it's really important. That attitude somehow crystalizes some crucial feature of sports.
Many, many home runs.
We want Gagne!
Great catch by Ellsbury!
Well, impressive win for the BoSox. Maybe I'll drop in at Cub Town, too.
1975 Red Sox.....look at the gold glove winners!
Rick Miller (1 gold glove)
Fred Lynn (4 gg's)
Dwight Evans (8 gg's)
Yaz (7 gg's)
Juan Beniquez (1 gg)
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