Three outs from a pennant. Three outs from a pennant with the best closer in postseason history on the mound. Three outs from a pennant with the bottom of the order due to bat. Three outs from a pennant via a four game sweep of their bitter rivals, one which they could celebrate on said …
Let’s face it: the Red Sox have Kevin Brown’s number in Fenway Park. For the second start in a row, on Saturday night they made short work of the 39-year-old Yankee starter in their domicile, roughing him up for four runs and knocking him out after two innings. It was yet another sign that the …
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, which is why the Boston Red Sox are now down 2-0 in the best-of-seven ALCS against the Yankees. As well as Pedro Martinez battled for his first 100 pitches to Yankee hitters, and as documented as his tendency is to run out of steam past …
It was too good to be true. Through six innings of the American League Championship Series opener, the Yankees, cast in the unfamiliar role of underdogs, led the Red Sox 8-0. Not only had the vaunted Sox offense, the best in the majors for the second season in a row, been held in check, no …
If your pop-psychology take on why I’ve spent my time since Saturday mostly writing about the demise of the 2004 Dodgers instead of the impending Yankees-Red Sox heavyweight bout is because I’m afraid of what the outcome might be, I won’t argue with you. Two weeks of double duty, absorbed in rooting for teams on …
“You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat. Losing after great striving is the story of man, who was born to sorrow, whose sweetest songs tell of saddest thought, and who, if he is a hero, does nothing in life as becomingly as leaving it.” — …
In which Double-Duty Jaffe returns to his East Coast bias… After the rollercoaster Game Two of the Yankees-Twins Divisional Series, I voiced the sentiment that Yankee haters might be getting tired of such seemingly scripted October heroics. Following Saturday’s ballgame, the response from anyone answering my rhetorical query might echo a certain pinstriped sage: “It’s …
In which Double-Duty Jaffe places a single Dodger postseason victory ahead of a Yankee clincher… After watching eleven gut-wrenching but ultimately rewarding innings of Saturday’s Yankees-Twins game chez Alex Belth (which I’ll get to in my next post), we kept the party going a bit longer as the Fox Annoy-o-vision broadcast switched over to the …
Continue reading ‘Forget the Yankees, It’s Lima Time, Baby!’ »
Once upon a time, nearly half of the baseball games I watched were played on synthetic turf. Houston, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal all played on the stuff and won plenty, those teams taking turns winning 15 pennants, 10 World Championships and oodles of division titles from 1975-1993. The high …
Unless my work schedule changes in the next few hours, I’m not likely to get a chance to catch up with Thursday night’s Dodger debacle in a timely, detailed manner. I’m disappointed withGame Two‘s result, of course, and hold myself to blame for years of trash-talking Cardinals catcher Mike Matheny (career OPS .629), who drove …