So, I was thinking about the Yankees no longer selling Cracker Jacks and how absurd the whole thing was. Lee, a guy at work, thinks that this is the start of a new curse on them. He says we’ll look back years later at a string of losses and it will all point back to this. I think he’s right. I also think that the person who made the call is secretly a Red Sox fan. It’s too good a conspiracy theory to pass up.

Anyway, I got to thinkig about what they’ll sing during the seventh inning stretch and how they have to take out Cracker Jacks. So, I figured, why not rewrite the entire song…

We must take out the Red Sox
We must not ever lose
We’ll buy a new team to ensure a win
Larry boy just won’t know what hit him
So it’s root, root, root for the Yankees
If they don’t win, George will lay blame
And he’ll buy up a whole new team
to win the ball game!

Page 2 – Don’t hand out the rings just yet

Absolutely. Exactly. What he said.

The Miami Herald | 10/18/2003 | It’s the Marlins against the world

The word is ”arrogant.” Yankees fans believe their team should win the World Series every single year, because the Yankees have a Great Winning Tradition, defined as ”a really rich owner.” That would be George Steinwhacker, who overcame the handicap of being born wealthy to become even more wealthy, and who buys all the best players from other teams. Sometimes he buys them during actual games, dropping cash on opposing players from his helicopter until they change into Yankees uniforms right on the field.

I had written a very long and emotionally laden Red Sox post but I managed to obliterate it before it got posted. And I just can’t bring myself to write it again right now. So, here’s a link to Bill Simmon’s article at ESPN.com. It expressed everything I am feeling perfectly.

I’m very sad that the Cubs lost. I think that Red Sox fans understand the Cubs more than anybody else (except, of course, Cubs fans). A Cubs/Red Sox World Series would have been something incredible. I can’t think of anything more boring than a Yankees/Marlins World Series. Everyone I’ve spoken to, to a person, who is not a Yankee fan speaks of how sick they are of the Yankees. And who honestly cares about the Marlins?

On the flip side, the Red Sox live to fight another day and Nomar seems to have figured out how to use a bat again, so there’s still hope. Ann forgot the game was on this afternoon and turned it on. Right when she turned it on, the Yankees got two runs to move up to 3 runs to the Red Sox 4. She immediately turned it off.

When I got home, I turned it on and saw that we were losing. So I turned it off.

Next time we turned it on, they were ahead and we turned it right off again.

Next time we turned it on, a Yankee got walked.

Clearly, the secret this time is for us not to be watching the game.

So, we didn’t watch and we won. I tried to watch the last two outs of the 9th inning but Ann nearly killed me getting the remote out of my hands to turn it off.

So… Pedro vs. Clemens. As Kevin Millar correctly pointed out during the A’s series “Do you honestly thing Pedro is going to lose twice in the same series?” I amend that to say “Do you honestly think Clemens isn’t going to have one of his psychotic episodes and blow the game?” Knock on wood. The World Series may yet be worth watching…

Having posted all of that, here’s an alternative view: Boston.com / Sports / Baseball / Red Sox / Martinez’s reign should end

In binarytoybox: Red Sox and the Playoffs, jfournier describes the Red Sox as looking like “a bunch of spoiled brats looking for a fight.” I gotta say, I really don’t feel very much like Saturday was much the Sox fault.

Sure, Pedro did hit Garcia with that pitch. As a number of sports writers have pointed out, beaning batters is and always has been part of the game. (I’m still not convinced he was aiming for him. I think he was really rattled by the last few set of runs he gave up and simply over-threw the ball, but even if he was aiming, it’s not a capital crime in baseball. Hell, the other pitcher with that reputation is Clemens who was also in the game.) Anyway, Garcie is the one who slid hard into Walker saying that he had to get back at the Sox for beaning him.

Huh? I’m sorry, but in baseball there’s a specific code. If a player is hit, it’s up to his pitcher to exact revenge. That’s also the way it’s always been. I’ve never heard of a player taking it upon himself to go all vigilante on the basepaths specifically for that reason. And, yes, sliding hard is part of the game, especially if you are trying to break up a double play but not to get revenge for being hit. If he had truly hit Walker, it’s quite easy to imagine Walker being seriously injured.

So, after that happened, we saw a large number of shots of the Yankee dugout where people were shouting out at Pedro. Especially Posada and Zimmer. That’s inciteful too.

So, with that setup, Clemens goes up and in on Manny. Sure, it wasn’t that in but if you watch the replay, Manny turned his head away and did not see how close it wasn’t. All he thought was that it was too close and he reacted based on that. Did he overreact? Sure he did. But tempers were already flaring from all that had just happened. Next thing you know Zimmer is charging Pedro and Pedro defended himself.

Now, I am not saying that the Red Sox are saints here. Not by a longshot. I think they have a lot to be embarassed about. But I certainly am not going to say that this was the Sox fault. I think the Yankees went a long ways towards making that situation happen and for ratcheting up the tempers. Especially Garcia and Zimmer.

In the end, it’s a black-eye for baseball but I think both teams get the blame for this one. Not just the Red Sox.

I just hope that we can get back to regular baseball and that we can get ourselves to what everyone in baseball except New York fans really want: a Rex Sox/Cubs world series. Talk about incredible…

I have been notably silent on the whole Red Sox thing lately. Yes, I, too, am superstitious. I don’t want to say a damn thing to jinx anything.

Ann and I watched all three games sitting in the exact same places. I, on the floor usually with my hands on my head as if I am trying to keep my head from flying apart. Ann, on the couch huddled under a red blanket. I never took my Red Sox cap off during the games.

How do I feel? How did I feel? This article (ESPN.com – Page2 – Hold the nervous breakdown for ALCS) sums it up perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.

As we near the seventh inning stretch of the season (which I am defining to be sometime after I post this so the “as we near” part makes sense), here are some Red Sox links for your amusement:

* The Remy Report: Jerry Remy, our favorite color commentator and former Sox 2nd Baseman has a fun website. He single-handedly made Wally something fun instead of stupid. Who knew that was even possible?
* Musings from Red Sox Nation: talk about a detailed weblog. Statistical analysis and more…
* The Red Sox Rag: Another Sox weblog.

We’re facing the reality that we will not make it to Fenway Park this year. We’ve looked into getting tickets for the game on Ann’s birthday but being that it’s a Yankees game, the tickets sold out sometime in the 19th century. So, maybe we’ll hit a Pawtucket game when we’re up there. AAA is often more fun anyway. We can play the “Who’s gonna get called up on Sept 1st” game.

Kevin Millar just hit the 10,000th home run in Fenway Park. And we won the game.