Perhaps I'm putting the jinx on both teams by even mentioning this again, but the wild craziness that would be a Phillies-Red Sox World Series is still a possibility!

The Sox are in. All that remains to be seen at this point is whether we can take the A.L. East for the first time since '95 (and end the Yanker's 9 season streak.) The magic number right now is 3 for that honor, but if that doesn't work out, the wild card is Boston's.

Philly is still fighting. They are 2 games behind the Mets for the N.L. East, 1 game behind the Padres (still the dumbest name in all of professional sports) for the wild card. Philly is playing those lousy Braces, who weren't so lousy last night when they beat the Phils. The Mets lost last night, too.

So, with 4 or five games left for each of these teams, the plot thickens!



GO PHILS! GO SOX!

Even with the demise of the Red Sox large lead in the A.L. and the surge that the Yankers have been having, I'm still watching the Sox on MLB.tv and grimacing all the way. While I do so, most times I log onto TalkSox.com (TS) and make/read posts on the thread for that days game. I like the idea of being able to interact with other members of RSN, of which there are not many in my locale. But peppered in this forum are a handful of Yanker fans, and as much as I want to be magnanimous, I wish they would leave.

You see, I have never been one for either trashing someone's team, nor have I ever gotten much joy out of raving about my own team's successes and jamming them up the nose of people who don't like my favorite teams. My enjoyment has always come from reveling in the teams' successes with other fans and the camaraderie that comes with those successes as well as the losses we comfort each other through. That is why I go to TS.

The appearance of Yanker fans there sometimes makes for spirited debate about real baseball issues. Usually though, it degenerates into the discussion thread version of a shouting match. Not my style.

Many of the posters on TS assert that Yanker fans are welcome to post just for the debate and mention how it makes things more interesting. I can see their points, but I truly feel that the Yanker fans bring too little to the table to merit their detractions.

First, I really get annoyed at how quiet the Yanker fans are when the Yankers are losing. This is, of course, especially true when it is an actual game between the Red Sox and Yankers. One the Red Sox fall behind, or the Yankers surge ahead in their game, all of a sudden the Yanker posts grow exponentially. Couple that with the idea that while many exhibit a true wealth of baseball knowledge, their comments always come back to name calling and stock epithets about 26 rings and such.

What puzzles me the most is that a Yanker fan would want to spend so much time (some with thousands of posts since joining) on a Red Sox discussion forum. Aside from not understanding why they would not want to hang out and trade comments on a board set up for Yanker fans, it also seems to me that their mere presence would indicate less that honorable intentions. I mean, truly, why else would you step into enemy territory other than to pick a fight?

While I really can not stand the Yankers at all, I have no desire to explain to Yanker fans why. I feel no need to argue the virtues of my team or why I love them, mostly because they aren't easily explained reasons. As I have mentioned before, I believe your team chooses you, not the other way around.

I'm willing to make a deal. If you guys leave the Sox forums alone, I'll leave the Yankers forums alone. I'll even do you one better. I'll promise not to grow a cheesy moustache and shorten my name so that it ends in a "y".

Deal?

Labels: baseball, fan, obnoxious fans, Red Sox, Yankers

I feel like I've earned a little bit more of my membership in Red Sox Nation over the last three days while watching the series at the Fens with the Yankers. Unlike the previous series when we got swept, where each game was over almost before it began, the two losses this weekend were gut wrenching because we blew leads. Friday's 8th inning debacle left me literally nauseous when the Bronx Bobos scored 6 runs to take the 8-6 lead. Saturday's win left me almost high, having watched every pitch of the 10-1 drubbing. Then last night, again in the 8th inning, Jeter smacks one of only two bad pitches by Schilling onto the Monster for a 4-1 lead.

That would have been enough to leave me drained and sullen. But it was not all. In the ninth, against Mariano Rivera, who can't possibly like the Red Sox based on his luck against them, we load the bases with two out and Papi steps to the plate. I though I was going to explode. By this time the score was 4-3. He need not homer. He could slap a bloop single and all would be right in Bean Town (and where I was!) But even Papi can not prevail every time. His pop fly (to of all people, the grinning Jeter) ended the game.

As I have learned from various life long Sox fans, I have not begun to experience the true torture that being a Red Sox fan has held for countless faithful. What's more, I may never know. At least for now, the Sox still have a 4 1/2 game lead in the AL East with only about 12 games left. (As I typed this, I went to MLB.com to check the actual number and noticed in the process that while the Yankers are beating Baltimore 5-2, the Sox are losing to the Jays, 4-1!)

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

-Andy Dufresne

For the second time in the last month and the third time this season, the Phillies swept the Mets. This most recent drubbing of the NL East leading team by its close runner up was highlighted by some outstanding play, some horrid play, and some foul play.

The outstanding play was, of course, the Phillies. In all three games, the Phils came from behind to win out on the strength of their offense. The horrid play, at least in game three, came from the Mets middle infield, who recorded 5 error. The foul play cam in the stands at Shea, where during game two, wearing a Phillies gear landed numerous fans in fist throwing brawls with the disgruntled supporters of New York's second best baseball club.

While I can certainly not surprised by the acrimony that the visiting teams supporters experienced (New Yorkers are only known for their brotherly love immediately after tragedies), it still seems very out of place. The Mets have no true rivalry with the Phillies. This is the closest that the Phils have been to passing the Mets in years. And even with the sweep, the Phils are still 3 1/2 games behind the Mets. Rather than the emotions of the Met fans being based in any true fear of being overtaken, I believe that the reaction of those idiots who resorted to violence is instead the byproduct of the culture that surrounds New York sports fans. They simply don't know any better.

Isn't it funny how the Mets fans feel threatened while holding a 3 1/2 game lead, while the Yanker fans insist that their 4 1/2 game deficit is not at all insurmountable. I, for one, don't think Mets have any more chance of losing the NL East than the Yankers have of winning the AL East.

Labels: baseball, fan, Mets, Phillies, photoshop, stupid, Yankers

Labels: baseball, photoshop, wallpaper

I root for the Sox and the Phils on baseball. In football, I'm a Notre Dame fan for college and like the Eagles on Sundays. (None of this, by the way, makes me insanely popular among my friends.) With both those gridiron teams starting their respective seasons with losses (N.D. has lost to Gerogia Tech and Penn State, the Eagles lost on a last second field goal to Green Bay) you'd think I'd be in a funk. The truth is, I have barely noticed because I am so focused on MLB. I'm sort of putting my eggs in one basket, but it's not really a choice. As I've mentioned earlier, I'm obsessed.

Now that I paid for MLB.tv for the month of September, I'm able to watch the Sox on-line and the Phils on Comcast. I can see the Sox unless they are playing the Yankers, as I am considered within the Yanker market and those games are blacked out, as are Phillies, Mets, and Pirates games. Now, I can listen to the Sox/Yanker games on Gameday Live, and I get a choice of the home or away teams radio feed (like I'd listen to the Yanker hacks do play-by-play!). This won't be an issue this weekend, as it appears all three games are getting televised on either FOX or ESPN (but they get blacked out sometimes, too.

Someone asked me what I'm going to do if the Yankers sweep the Sox again. I didn't know how to reply. First, until that moment, I had not even considered it. Having that happen in two consecutive series is so unlikely as to be ludicrous. NY has no Clemens this round. The Sox (had better be) should be riled up after that decimation they endured the last go round. Plus, this one is at the Fens. But in the end, I really don't think that the Yankers will be within three games when the series begins. In any event, to answer the original question... I'd dive on my sword!

The bottom line is that I don't envision myself watching NFL action this Sunday when (if) the Sox and Yankers are on TV.

Labels: baseball, football, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankers

Labels: baseball, stupid, Yankers

Good grief, but those young newbies are hot as of late!

Here's some original wallpaper (1024 x 768) for all PhilSox readers.

Right-click and choose "Save Target As..."

Labels: baseball, Buchholz, Ellsbury, Pedroia, photoshop, Red Sox, wallpaper

"Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed on the Yankees. Apparently it angers them."
- Hall of Fame Pitcher Bob Feller

"Hating the Yankees isn't part of my act. It is one of those exquisite times when life and art are in perfect conjunction."
- White Sox Owner Bill Veeck

"The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he's going to be. You take a team with twenty-five assholes and I'll show you a pennant. I'll show you the New York Yankees."
- Pitcher Bill 'Spaceman' Lee

"All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life."
- John Cheever

"We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned."
- George Steinbrenner

"OK, he's a Yankees fan. Now I know why I don't like him."
- Dave Winer

"I heard doctors revived a man who had been dead for 4-1/2 minutes. When they asked him what it was like being dead, he said it was like listening to Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto during a rain delay."
- David Letterman

"Man, it was tough. The wind was blowing about 100 degrees."
- Mickey Rivers, referring the the weather during a game

"Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house in blackjack."
- Adam Morrow

Labels: baseball, quotes, Yankers