That was not a fun thing to come home to.
It turned out the worst thing about yesterday wasn't sitting in my fiancee's parents' house with no air conditioning, or the fact that I felt sick and tired and generally vacation-hangover-blah all day; nor was it the fact that even after driving for hours and hours and hours and hours over the past few days, we still had to drive another hour-plus to get home. The worst thing about yesterday was definitely that the Red Sox, playing in the ESPN (Way Too Late on) Sunday Night Baseball game, completely and utterly shat the bed for my listening pleasure the moment I was back in radio range of them.
Simply put, it was crap.
In case you were fortunate enough to miss the game yesterday, let me share the misery with you: Schilling went just five and gave up six runs on ten hits, three of them--THREE--on solo homers in the third, two of which were back-to-back and the other of which was hit with a broken effing bat. For whatever reason, he was still sent out for the fourth and fifth, meaning there should be some nice Tito flambe on the menu in the Boston papers this morning.
How many men did we leave on base? Felt like around 85.
Ah, but then there's the piece de resistance--also in that godforsaken third inning, Trot Nixon swung and missed at a Jon Lackey pitch so damn hard he hurt himself and had to be pulled for Wily Mo Pena in the middle of his at-bat with a 2-2 count. Wily Mo, for his part, proceeded to promptly deliver the inning-ending third strike with two men in scoring position.
Fuck.
Oh! And! The MFY drugged the Phillies' drinks and took off with Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle before they even knew what hit them, or at least I hope that's what happened, because if Phillies GM Pat Gillick actually agreed to let those guys go to the Yankees in exchange for four bottom-of-the-barrel minor league prospects while awake, sober and of sound mind, I'm hoping there's a class-action lawsuit filed this week by Philly season ticket holders. Isn't there a point, I am also seriously wondering, where MLB can step in on such a blatantly lopsided deal?
Meanwhile, let's see, what more bad news is there for the Nation? That so far the only deal the Sox have made is for right-handed reliever Bryan Corey, who had been DFA'd by Texas? That Keith Foulke couldn't make it through his warmup for a rehab appearance in Pawtucket? That David Wells is starting tonight?
This is a hell of a way to come back from vacation. That's all I can tell ya.
So...there are some silver linings I suppose I should find. At least, that's what my shrinks tell me. So, um, let's see...this series would have been a sweep were it not for more Big Papi heroics in Saturday's game. That's one thing. Manny has a 15-game hitting streak going. I guess you could look at that MFY / Philly deal as the Yankees continuing to mortgage the future to get high-priced free-agents, but that would mean you would have to somehow pretzel your mind into believing, then, that the four minor leaguers they sent over are in any way valuable prospects, and for that you might need some laughing gas.
Okay, so, positives. Right. Back to positives.
If I'm really going to be slap-happy, here, I could remind myself that Schilling's first loss at Fenway on the season and worst start of his career since 1997 was probably the exception, and not the rule. It also appears that Bronson Arroyo has regressed to the mean over in the National League, so at least we can stop torturing ourselves with that every time Wily Mo steps to the plate or, worse, takes his glove and heads for right field. And if whatsisass there from Texas is the only move the Sox make by 4 pm today, at least then we'll know that the priority lies in holding on to the kids and waiting till next year, and at least then there'll be some certainty.
I wish there was a way for MLB to step in on such lopsided deals...I would enjoy the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry a lot more if the RS didn't have Curt Schilling or Mark Loretta.
Posted by: tom yf | July 31, 2006 at 09:56
oh, shut up. :-)
Posted by: beth | July 31, 2006 at 09:58
MLB does step in and stop deals once in a while, remember...if they didn't then
A-Fraud would be getting booed in Boston, instead of Da Bronx. Sitting here crossing my fingers, toes and nose (is that possible?)that we get Andrew. What a 3-some back to back to back in the lineup. I'm quivering like a high school girl waiting for her first kiss. (not that I'd know -- i got no action in H.S. -- zilch!, do they quiver?)
Posted by: Sammy | July 31, 2006 at 16:14