Sports

Cautious Optimism

Shahms E. King — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:13:00 GMT

That's all I can muster right now. Well, all I feel safe with. The Cardinals are now down 3 games and while that was once thought to be an insurmountable lead, it's the Red Sox and the World Series. Admittedly, the odds of the same nearly impossible event happening twice, back-to-back, are astronomical, but if anyone can lose a 3-0 lead in the World Series it's my beloved Sox. Derek Lowe is pitching tomorrow night and as well as he pitched against the Yankees, I'm hopeful for good things, but his pitching during the regular season was . . . less than stellar. We'll see. Up three games is a good place for the Red Sox, and if Manny and Mueller can keep from dropping the fucking ball, we should win. But those Cardinals are crafty and I'm just waiting for their unbelievable offense to kick in. It's almost as though they've been asleep for these first three games. Let's just hope they don't wake up until Thursday...

Good Triumphs Over Evil!

Shahms E. King — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 21:58:00 GMT

There's hope for November yet. . . .

The Red Sox managed to win a record breaking series. Never, in the history of baseball, has a team come back from 3-0 in a post-season series to either force a game 7 or, and this is far more important, win the championship!

Every single player managed to pull it out in the last four games to overcome insurmountable odds and win. Lowe, who's had a . . . less than spectacular year pitched an amazing game. Menkewietcz, Bellhorn, and Damon were having a miserable series, but finally managed to own the Yankees pitchers.. Being alive for an amazing series of statistical anomalies is a great feeling. To recount:

Longest back-to-back games (4 and 5)
Longest post-series game (game 4).
Longest post-series game (game 5)
Only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit and force a game 7
Only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win the League Championship
Only team to beat the Yankees in back-to-back extra-innings games.

I'm sure there are more that I just don't know about, probably including most Yankee pitchers hammered, and most amazing game by a seriously injured pitcher....

Update: It's a stretch, but the series gives me hope for November; if the Sox can beat the Yankees, Kerry might be able to beat Bush. If Good can defeat Evil once, there's hope that it can happen again...

Yankees Break Another Record

Shahms E. King — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 13:46:00 GMT

Yesterday, the New York Yankees managed to break the franchise record for worst loss in history. They also managed to tie for the worst loss since 1900 (the other being the Cubs in 1975; poor Cubbies). Out of four pitchers, the fewest earned runs was 3 in 1 2/3 innings for a stunning 22 - 0 loss. 22 - 0 is an embarassing loss in football (ESPN noted that the Browns scored 22 points only 3 times in 2003). Wathing the Yankees lose is good. Watching them completely embarassed, at home, by the Indians is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, it only counts as one loss, meaning the Red Sox are still 3.5 games behind in the AL East. At the moment, the Sox are pulling ahead of the pack in the Wild Card race and might have a shot at winning their division; something that was completely unthinkable just over a week ago when they were 10.5 games out of first.