Imagine: last Friday, I thought the playoffs were getting boring. 2-0 leads in both series, no reason to think that either underdog had much of a chance. When driving to the restaurant on Saturday, the Red Sox had taken a lead, so I was starting to perk up, but by the time the meal was over, they’d given up 13 runs, with more to come. (The dinner was at the excellent Shiki Sushi, which we went to for the first time. I’m not sure the sushi is quite as good as that at Sushitomi, but that’s a very high standard, and the non-sushi parts of the menu are much more varied. With monthly specials that, this month, included three matsutake mushroom specials and a monkfish liver special. Very friendly staff, nice ambience. It won’t replace Sushitomi as our Japanese restaurant of choice, but if they were both equally far away from our house, we’d probably go to both equally often.)
And then Sunday looked like more of the same – the Red Sox took a lead, the Yankees took the lead back, and that was that. Except it wasn’t that – the Red Sox tied it against Rivera in the ninth, and won in the twelfth. But I still wasn’t convinced; at work on Monday, I saw (well, “saw” – I just was watching icons on a Java applet) the Red Sox take the lead, I saw the Red Sox lose the lead, I thought it was probably over. But then, just as I was leaving work, the Red Sox tied it up; by this time, I was starting to learn my lesson, and was looking forward to listening to them win on my ride home.
The game did not, however, finish on my ride home, or even two hours after my ride home. I won’t go through the blow-by-blow, except to say that Tim Wakefield is one of my favorite Red Sox. The thing is, though, that apparently wasn’t even the best game played yesterday – by all accounts, the Astros / Cardinals game, which basically started and finished while the Red Sox and Yankees were in extra innings, was an absolute classic. Great pitching, of course, great defense (I had no idea Carlos Beltran was such a good fielder), and as dramatic a finish as one could hope for.
And, as I type this, the Red Sox just forced game 7. I never ever expected Curt Shilling to appear again in the postseason; and what an appearance! Nice to see the umps get calls right, too – I actually kind of expected them to get the home run call right, but I’m really impressed that they got the other play right, where Alex Rodriguez knocked the ball out of Arroyo’s hand. I can’t wait until tomorrow…
Side note: I’m really glad baseball switched to an unbalanced schedule last year. The AL West ended in as exciting a manner as possible, with Texas, Anaheim, and Oakland slugging it out (though I would have preferred a different outcome, of course), and, as I learned on the radio today, the Red Sox and Yankees’ game today was their 51st meeting in the last two years. (Splitting the previous fifty meetings equally.) That’s the way it should be.
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Though to be fair, one reason you like the unbalanced schedule is that your team doesn’t have to play the Yankees and Red Sox 38 times a year the way the Orioles do. Though I think we’ve consistently played the Red Sox very tough, and we split our September games 3-3 with the Yankees this year. Indeed, I’m going to go ahead and take credit for the Red Sox pennant, on the grounds that “Red Sox win game 7 because Kevin Brown was bad” and “Kevin Brown was bad because he broke his hand last month” and “Kevin Brown broke his hand last month because he was frustrated after getting knocked around by the Orioles.”
10/22/2004 @ 8:31 am
If by “my team” you mean the Indians, then of course you are right: the AL Central is a weak division, and I certainly hope the Indians take advantage of that next year. If by “my team” you mean the A’s, then you’re crazy: the AL West in recent years has always had at least two good teams, and this year there were three good teams slogging it out with only one lousy team. Whereas the AL East has had two good teams, one decent team, and two lousy teams. I’m not sure it’s easier being in the East than in the West recently, but I don’t think it’s any harder.
Hmm: at least that’s what memory says – let’s look at standings. The top three teams in each divison for the last five years, with winning percentages:
2004 West: Anaheim .568, Oakland .562, Texas .549.
2004 East: NY .623, Boston .605, Baltimore .481.
2004 Wildcard: East.
2003 West: Oakland .593, Seattle .574, Anaheim .475.
2003 East: New York .623, Boston .586, Toronto .531.
2003 Wildcard: East.
2002 West: Oakland .636, Anaheim .611, Seattle .574.
2002 East: New York .640, Boston .574, Toronto .481.
2002 Wildcard: West.
2001 West: Seattle .716, Oakland .630, Anaheim .463.
2001 East: New York .594, Boston .509, Toronto .494.
2001 Wildcard: West.
2000 West: Oakland .565, Seattle .562, Anaheim .506.
2000 East: New York .540, Boston .525, Toronto .512.
2000 Wildcard: West.
Looks pretty even to me. The main difference, of course, is that in the East you always have the same two teams at the top, while in the West Oakland, Seattle, and Anaheim have all been competitive for some of those five years (and I’m certainly not counting out Texas for next year). But just because you’re always in the shadow of the Red Sox and Yankees doesn’t mean that those two teams are better than what the West has to offer: just look at those 2001 numbers again.
Either way, props to the Orioles for causing Kevin Brown to break his hand, and for their improvement this year. Who knows – maybe the Yankees will implode next year and the O’s will make it into the playoffs!
10/22/2004 @ 9:09 am
Oh, I was totally referring to the Indians. I agree that the West is just as hard. Have you actually started to switch your primary allegiance?
Happily for me, we are moving to a National League town (assuming you consider Madison in the orbit of Milwaukee) so I should be able to smoothly adopt the Brewers as my NL team of choice without any cognitive dissonance.
My hope for the Orioles is that Steinbrenner will go nuts, decide his expensive free agents are all losers, and give us Javier Vazquez at a deep discount. Who knows, maybe he’ll fire Rodriguez too; but since the Orioles have arguably the best 3B-SS combo in the league already, we’d probably pass; could the Indians or A’s need a shortstop?
10/25/2004 @ 11:02 am
I guess I am starting to switch my allegiance to the A’s, yes. Though when they start losing and the Indians start winning, I’ll be happy to switch back! Seriously, though, I like both teams, but it’s a lot easier to follow the A’s than the Indians out here, and I’ve set down enough roots here that changing allegiances isn’t so unreasonable.
I was really anti-Brewers a couple of years ago, largely because of Bud Selig but partly because they had a crappy GM. I seem to vaguely recall hearing that they’re fixing both of those issues, though, which means that they’ll switch categories into the mass of NL Central teams that I don’t have strong feelings about one way or another.
The Yankees firing Vazquez is a not-hopelessly-implausible happy scenario, now that you bring it up. The A’s couldn’t afford A-Rod, and in any even their current SS, Bobby Crosby, is the Rookie of the Year favorite, so he’s not going anywhere. He would make a nice upgrade for the Indians over Omar Vizquel, though… (Not that I think the Indians would pay that kind of money either.)
I was going to protest your claiming that the Orioles had the best 3B-SS combo in the league – what about the Yankees (despite Jeter’s overratedness), or even the A’s (though that’s a stretch, but wait for Bobby Crosby to get a couple of years older)? But then I looked at the numbers, and I do believe you are correct. (Hmm: going from an OPS in the 700’s to an OPS in the 900’s in the age 31/32 seasons. That’s pretty unusual.)
10/25/2004 @ 11:35 am