Sports Writing

What a great win today, following a frustrating series of losses. For once a great pitching performance from a Sox starter wasn’t wasted. Amazing work from Lester… sorry, Doc Halladay.

We’re No Angels featured a great director (Neil Jordan), two of the greatest actors around (De Niro and Penn) plus some of the best supporting actors (John C. Reilly, Wallace Shawn), and a great screenwriter (David Mamet). And it still fell flat on its face.

Great game, even if Timlin’s performance was nailbiting. I must say I can’t remember Javier Lopez ever pitching this well. But anyway, on SoSH there was some discussion about whether Delcarmen would qualify for a save (no), which moved on to discussion over whether parts (a) and (c) of the save rule were redundant:

What an awesome home opener. Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch was a nice touch (1986 was always McNamara’s fault), although I did like the poster on Boston Sports Media Watch who suggested that the correct thing to have done was for Buckner to come out and for McNamara to come out and replace him with Dave Stapleton…

Happy Lunar New Year! So much has happened in the past few months - gutted by the Patriots’ loss, somewhat pleased by the Santana talks’ outcome, and excited about the Sox coming to this part of the world (even if personal commitments mean I might not be able to see them, sadly). And now Schilling looks like he might be out. What a crazy year it looks ahead to be. The Lunar New Year always seems more in keeping with the rhythms of baseball - shortly after it starts, pitchers and catchers report, and life is whole again…

Pretty amazing, and certainly repaid Tito’s patience with him twice: first in April, after that cold start, and then in the playoffs.

Joy.

It NEVER gets old. Papelbon with 3 crucial saves in the series - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 4-game sweep so close. Sheer heart attack. And it seemed almost everyone on the 25-man roster contributed, even Bobby Kielty, the ginger ninja, with what proved to be the game-winning homer. (Sorry Kyle Snyder.)

Schilling gets the win, Papelbon gets the save, but Okajima was the Man. Balls to the wall, flat-out great relief pitching. And huge credit to Francona for bringing him in there. Right time, right man.

Featuring the first World Series matchup named after a historian. (Okay, perhaps not: for all I know there was an Arthur-Schlesinger matchup sometime in the early 1900s.) A record number of extra base hits. Lugo with 3 hits. The Sox were positively steamrolling the Rockies tonight. I only hope the Rockies didn’t get out all the rust with this one game. And maybe in a weird way it would’ve been better to use a pitcher other than Beckett here, since 13 runs gets anyone the win. But who was to know we would light up Francis? (Man, I’ve been waiting to use that Stripes line.)

I don’t think an 11-2 game has ever felt so close. Sheer heart attack. Dice-K started out looking good but I was getting afraid of that dreaded 4 2/3 inning hump. I’ll probably question Tito going to Okajima for the 8th (2+ innings?), but Francona gets the benefit of the doubt. And once again, Kenny Lofton is left grasping at straws. To be on the 2002 Giants, 2003 Cubs, 2004 Yankees, and the 2007 Indians is a pretty sad set of choking teams.

Since there are no famous authors named Schilling to make inappropriate allusions to, I shall have to reference Teutonic currencies. Which makes sense, since Schilling is money in the playoffs.

(Because hell, I’m pretentious enough to make Samuel Beckett references.) Josh Beckett should get the keys to the city of Boston when he lands in Logan. Brilliant performance. And despite the continued occasional squander (and the fact that Coco is essentially fried to a crisp), this was lots of fun to watch. And Manny is a bad, bad man. Screw Fox and all the handwringing over him not running out his single.

14 outs. 4 2/3 innings. Why can’t our starters get into the 5th inning? What’s annoying is that in the losses the Sox have made a credible comeback attempt, only to fall short.

What a game. Manny’s first walk-off homer since his Cleveland days, apparently, which astounds me for a Hall of Famer. That ball never landed. I think it’s in orbit now, blocking my GPS signal. “When you don’t feel good and you still get hits, that’s how you know you’re a bad man” - that’s the money quote. Manny is a bad ass. Long may he stay that way.

A random thought occurred to me: if not for Grady Little’s lack of a brain, the offensive machine that was the 2003 Red Sox would have faced Beckett in the World Series. I can’t tell if that makes me feel a little better about 2003, since you could argue that Beckett was so dominant that the Marlins would’ve beat the Sox any way, or worse, since that would have been a great matchup to watch.

Man. Talk about dealing. The Angels seemed to have only two choices in this game: swing quickly for an out, or wait for a strike for an out. Those pitches were a thing of beauty - Beckett could place them anywhere he wanted, and got such crazy movement on some of them it was this close to being Bugs Bunny, pitching.

One reason I think Terry Francona is a great manager for Boston is he knows how to work the media and give good quote (and shield his players in the process). I particularly liked his comments on Papelbon’s celebrations:

You know, from the moment Rivera put Millar on base in the 9th I knew the Orioles would come back. And so we have it folks, wire-to-wire (almost - I think), best team in the American League.

I got up this morning and decided to do some ironing while watching the Sox, for the first time ever. At this rate I’ll have some really crisp clothes.