It?s been 2 days since the Yankees beat the Sox in game 7 of the ALCS and I haven?t posted any more than a quick comment on it. The reason, in all honesty, is that I am still in shock. I still can?t believe what happened. Friday morning I woke up and felt like I narrowly missed being in a really bad car accident. As a Yankee fan, I walked around in a daze and kept saying ?did that really happen?? Even this morning (Saturday), I still couldn?t believe it happened. 85 years of having the upper hand in a Sox Yanks argument, and having a huge upper hand for the last 8 years, was all coming to an end. If the Sox beat the Yanks for a shot at a World Series title, any argument I had would end up with me walking away, shoulders slumped, head down, mumbling to myself. I would lose just like Sox fans lose now.
If you think I am over reacting, or exaggerating, try being a huge baseball fan, a big Yankee fan, pretty opinionated, and living in Boston since 1998 (midst of a great Yankee run). I live and breathe sports in this town and feel like I have my finger on the Red Sox pulse from a media and fan point of view. I know Red Sox fans. I am friends with a ton of Sox fans and have spent hours, hours and hours over beers debating the whole Sox/Yanks thing. What happened Thursday night is about as hugely disappointing to Sox fans as 86 and Buckner. It has to be. Image playing the same lotto numbers every day for years, and then one day decide, for no real reason, to play different numbers. And image that on that day you played different numbers, your original numbers came in. That is about 1/10th of what Sox fans were feeling after Thursday night.
If Grady went with Embree against Matsui, and then Timlin and Williamson for the other 4 outs, there is not a doubt in my mind the Sox would be playing in the 2003 World Series. The Yankees were done Thursday night. They were not hitting and were about to meet the Lights OUT bullpen (awful during the year, great during the playoffs) of the Red Sox. The formula was working!! Get 7 stunning innings from Pedro and go with the bullpen crew for the 8th and 9th. No brainer. But for some inexplicable reason, he did not do that. Even my wife, who is not a sports fan but was watching every pitch of the game with me said (after Pedro gave up a hit to Bernie) ?Why are they leaving him in? He is giving up hits?? Let me add that she is a Red Sox fan and really wanted them to be in the WS. I was sure they were going with Embree to face Matsui. But didn?t. Then I was sure they would take him out after Matsui?s double. And I was SHOCKED when Grady left him in. At that point, I knew more than anything else that the Yankees were going to come back. I KNEW it. Grady Little blew it. He blew their chance by leaving Pedro in to struggle with the heart of the Yankees? order. After that, we all know what happened. Mariano gave 3 innings of heroic relief and the most unlikely guy hit a game winning home run.
Who knows what Grady was thinking? Can?t really blame Pedro because what makes him so good is his ego and desire to be the equivalent of a pitching Tiger Woods. His desire to want to stay in the game is what makes him so great. Guarantee that Clemens wanted to stay in the game in the 4th but Torre knew his time was up. It was just over. Nothing wrong with it, especially for Pedro who gave the Sox a great performance, but 100+ pitches is about it. I will never truly know why Grady did what everyone else knew was wrong. Heck, even my 17 month old daughter, when she woke up Friday morning, said to me ?Daddy, why didn?t Grady take Pedro out in the 8th?? Who knows? For me, who cares? The Yanks are competing for ring 27, the Sox probably blew their best chance in 16 years to win a World Series title (Florida is good, but much lesser teams can beat them), might not have this good of a group of guys in some time (will Mueller bat 320+ again, where will Nomar, Manny and Pedro be in the next couple of years, will Nixon have another good year) and there are millions of red and teary eyed Red Sox fans. I won?t bring up anything about a stupid curse or any nonsense like that, but it just seems like this group of classless morons got what they deserved. For the Sox fans, they are neither classless nor morons, and all joking aside, I feel bad for them this year. The Sox had them 5 outs from a World Series and they will have to fall back on ?At least the Patriots won a Super Bowl recently? argument.
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