2004 ALCS Thoughts - Games 3 & 4
Six hours. That’s how much sleep I got, combined, between Saturday and Sunday night. These are the things that I do for my team. Sacrificing my own health and sanity, I watch every game, every out, every pitch. Sometimes it hurts.
Saturday, it hurt. Sunday, for the first 8+ innings, it hurt. But then, well…
Saturday night, I happened to be just north of Boston for a contract job that ran for most of the day. Friends from home had planned to be in town for the game that night, so we decided to meet up at “Who’s on First”. I’m not sure how I’d never been to this bar before, since it is directly across Yawkey Way from Fenway Park, but I hadn’t. I parked my car in Brighton (a function of the fact that every Red Sox fan in greater New England ventured into Boston on Saturday night, tickets be damned), and caught a bus to Kenmore Square.
The Cask & Flagon had a line that, no word of a lie, stretched over the Mass Pike bridge (about 2 Boston blocks, for those not familiar with the area). After reaching the bar, I met my friends, and the game, and the drinking, commenced.
Somewhere around the top of the third inning (or the 16th beer, if you wish to measure time in the only really meaningful way), I realized that the Sox weren’t winning this game. Yes, Boston tied the score in the bottom of the third, but that was only for show. No way in hell would the Sox hold game 3. Personally, I turned my back and focused on standing up straight for the next couple of hours, an area that really needed my full attention if I was going to drive home 4+ hours later (don’t worry, I was fine by that time. Water and an upset stomach made sure of that…)
We left in the 7th inning, rather abruptly I might add, only to walk the two miles to the car, then to a pizza joint for a bite and to watch the last inning or so. Driving to my friend Jay’s apartment, it suddenly dawned on me that these Red Sox had lost their carefree, happy-go-lucky, “just a bunch of idiots playin’ ball” mentality. They were beaten, physically and mentally, and I didn’t think they had what it took to avoid potentially the most devastating sweep in Boston sports history.
Then came Sunday. Ah, glorious Sunday. Is it any coincidence that the first day of a new week offered a look at what might have been for this team? A series reborn with the new intensity of a fresh seven-day stretch full of endless possibilities.
If I’m babbling, excuse me. These are the things that happen when you sleep for three hours Saturday night, wake up, drive an hour home, watch football for eight hours, then stay up until 2:00 AM watching baseball and post-game coverage, only to get back up at 5AM for work on Monday morning. Hell, I even got to work EARLY today so I could leave early and catch Game 5. That’s what yesterday’s game has done to this entire area. The Nation is in a frenzy, and we’re still down 3-1! Hell, my friend Tim is ecstatic that the Sox are now 7-0 in home games he attends (I recommended he scalp tickets to tonight’s game, just to be safe).
I love being a Red Sox fan. I love knowing that no matter what happens – 3-0 deficits, Cy Young candidates tearing tendons, reliance on a manager who sits in a dugout reenacting scenes of “Rainman” – this team is just never finished until that last out hits the glove. I love watching a game, and honestly not having any CLUE as to what is going to happen with the next pitch.
With some teams, their games are so predictable that it’s almost like they’re playing from a script. But this Sox team – I mean the only thing that we expect, or predict, is that they don’t just roll over and play dead. They fight back, they keep grinding, and they do all the little things that make teams winners rather than the “also-rans” in a sweep. (Again, I apologize – I realize I’m speaking entirely in sports cliché, it’ll get better by Thursday).
Twenty-five teams have gone down 3-0 in an LCS, before yesterday, 3 had forced game five, 2 had played six, and none had gotten to 7, let alone won.
There’s a first time for everything. Let’s just hope this is the first time.
Quick Fantasy Football update: Once again, a far superior team EMBARRASSED The Kids Table. Demo Team, the Table’s opponents this week, had averaged 100 points a week, while the Table had yet to reach a high of better than 87. So naturally, the Table hung a solid 63-point outburst, while Demo set what I think is a new Ashford FFL single-game record of 138 points.
The Table immediately claimed a moral victory, citing that not every player on the Demo Team scored in double digits – Andre Johnson managed only 6 while Donald Driver and his 23 sat on the bench. Of course, the Table had David Carr starting, so it might have helped had Johnson had a better game. No way we were winning this week, but in the overall standings, a few more points would have helped.
Next year, along with the standard baseball and football leagues, I am proposing that we have “reverse leagues” – points leagues based on how poorly everyday players perform. For example, you would gain points for a fumble, but lose points for a TD. Or in baseball, if your players struck out, that’d be good. But if they score runs, that’s bad (Imagine how useful Mark Bellhorn would become then…).
And for those of you reading this who are not in that league, well, um, yeah, I apologize.
Before I close this article, I need to pass along a little something from a friend’s AIM profile. As you will shortly see, he’s not a big fan of the Yankees:
"Of all the American Teams you could have chosen to put on your Baseball Cap, you chose NY... May god have mercy on your ignorant soul"
-T. Resmini '01
"I'd sooner support the Cuban National team, than that NY Squadron"
-T. Resmini 03' BSC speech class,
"Yeah nice hat. You may as well wear one with a Swastika on it if you are going to Cheer on the NY team"
-T. Resmini 04' Stardust Gaming Room
Picking fights with strangers... Dangerous
Bringing up the 3rd Reich... Blasphemous
Hating the Yankees in several Time Zones...Priceless
Game 5 just started, so I'll see you again later this week...
posted by Big D @ 12:00 AM
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