I figure whichever team comes out of the AL (I am still fully expecting it will be the Red Sox ) will beat the NL team (likely Rockies).
Unless, of course, the Rockies close it down in 4 or 5 and the AL series goes a full seven and the AL winner doesn't have a chance to set up its rotation & bullpen. Even that scenario might put the WS on a more even footing.
In the AL, the Indians win another and go up 2-1. I'm guessing Boston didn't pay Matsusaka all the cash to give up a 2 run bomb to Kenny Lofton I didn't stutter either... Kenny Lofton
Boston should have won the game but their offense could never get going.
Now Wakefield has to go out and win them a big game if not then it looks ugly.
I have to say, though, Cleveland is starting to annoy me. My brothers and I were talking about how their standards for what merits curtain calls appeared to be even lower than New York's (going ahead by two runs in the second inning isn't that big a deal).
And what's the deal with the fans signaling that they want to surrender when their pitchers go to a two-strike count?
I said to my 17-year old son (who is a Yankee fan, BTW!), what is up with these teams whose fans have these various props at the ballpark...towels (Cleveland, et al), tomahawks (Braves), thundersticks/what-have-you (Angels), etc.
I know a lot of people can't stand Yankees/Red Sox, but at least the fans don't "resort" to these rather manufactured forms of cheering on their teams.
I wonder how those things got started...and get started at a particular ballpark?
My son shrugged and said he doesn't see what's wrong with it. I answered that all those people should be sitting down and keeping score!
It's part of the ADD/dumbing down age of sports. Bull blimps at Chicago basketball games, Jumbotron cues on when to "Get loud", thunder sticks, etc.; all carefully choreographed by sports marketing firms to manufacture a unity that should be allowed to grow naturally. Contrast this with "Sweet Caroline" at Fenway, which arose from a spontaneous song choice by the PA manager, or the "DEREK JETER (clap clap clap)" roll call of the players on the Yankees. That stuff is real. It's no surprise that the first time "Wally the Green Monster" appeared at Fenway, he was pelted with debris from the stands. Tradition is tradition, and it wasn't until Jerry Remy embraced the little guy that the fans even began to tolerate him (I still get pissed if some clown blocks my view to get a picture with that thing. I mean it looks like throw rug wearing a jersey).
The worst is Tampa. Not only do they have a full sized mascot, they have a Jr. sized one too, and they both tool around on quads ripping up the infield dirt. Plus, they annoy the fans to no end. The last thing I need at a ball game is some sweaty loser in a hairy suit sidling up to me for a photo op. I also don't need the exhaust fumes from a recreational vehicle wafting through a domed stadium.
Kinda like the Mariner's Moose who almost cost Coco Crisp his season/career?! :rolleyes
I'm really reacting to the "It's the Tribe's Time" (or whatever) towel nonsense. To see nearly everyone in the stands doing the same thing (waving the towels in a circular motion) at certain times is kinda spooky and robotic. It just doesn't seem real.
Maybe it's only because I'm not use to seeing it. I do, however, remember thinking that the Tomahawk chop in Atlanta was always kinda weird. That's been around awhile, I guess.
Eh, I don't see the point of looking down on other people too much for how they have fun at the ballpark; it's a short road to old fogey-dom from there. I joke about the towel thing because, hey, it's people waving a white flag, but them all doing it together is kind of awesome. Half the point of being a fan of a team is being part of this bigger community.
Hey, let's not act like our shit doesn't stink. As much as "Sweet Caroline" was initially fun for being spontaneous (although I remember it as being a side-effect of an even lamer promotion), having it show up, "sponsored by Jordan's Furniture", in the eighth every game has more or less caused it to lose whatever credit it might have had in that department.
Doh! When did this start? I haven't been to a game this year so I didn't know. Damn Barry and Elliot for selling out. Their faces are on more shit since they sold the company than back when they owned it.
Just for this crap, I'm pelting Wally the next game I go to.
Well, it's been exclusively in the eighth for a while (although I have vague memories of it not being played when the Sox were on their way to receiving a thorough ass-kicking), enough so that at least a couple of years ago I would look forward to how a person at his/her first Sox game would react at that bit of silliness. The sponsorship has been going on all year, at least.
Oh I know it's been in the 8th for a while, I was talking about the sponsorship. I believe the 8th inning stuff started in 2002, but if I remember the story right, the woman who does the music started it sometime before that and became superstitious about playing it only when they were ahead. The crowd picked up on it and took it from there.
I was watching a game near the end of the season and heard the remnants of Sweet Caroline as the broadcast re-started from a between-inning break...and it wasn't at Fenway Park.
The scary thing is, it's not a long road. My younger brother yells at neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. I feel like he's lapped me by about twenty years.
Still, it's worth fighting it. Getting upset about people not enjoying things for the same reasons you do... It just leads to getting upset about things that should give you pleasure. Bah. It's baseball/movies/TV/music/whatever, I'm not going to choose not to enjoy it.