I have figured out the cure for what ails this team. Four words:
Kevin Millar, motivational speaker.
Or how about this: "Nothing is over until we decide it is!"
And just in case that isn’t enough, think of it this way. All the Red Sox have to do is win one game. Forget about the rest of the series. Forget about being down 3-1 going into game 5 of a best-of-7 series. What we have before us is a best-of-1 series. They need only to win one game, something they’ve done 100 times since spring training ended, so it’s really no big deal when you think about it. So put it all out there tonight. Which means, in case you’re listening Tito, hitting Jacoby Ellsbury in the leadoff spot. Please. I’m begging you.
Terry Francona was eviscerated on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan show yesterday morning. Some of it was the usual Tito-bashing that people engage in if he commits such egregious bungles as, say, ting his shoes wrong, but there was actually quite a bit of substantive critique, such as WHY THE HELL WASN’T BOBBY KIELTY IN THE LINEUP AGAINST PAUL BYRD IN GAME 4? Kielty’s career numbers against Byrd are reportedly slightly better than his numbers against C.C. Sabathia, against whom Francona played Kielty over J.D. Drew in game 1 and will presumably do so again tonight. And God knows we could have used more offense in game 4, with the pitching stumbling yet again.
But that was yesterday. The brunt of this morning’s D&C bitchfest appeared to be Theo Epstein for some of his less successful free agent signings (Drew topping a list that also includes Julio Lugo, Edgar Renteria, and Matt Clement). Cynics might also point to the Eric Gagné trade, except that everyone thought Gagné was a good pick-up at the time. Not that such historical fact isn’t subject to revision, and can’t you just see that trade being the baseball equivalent of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, with big mouths trampling each other to be the first to change their minds after the fact?
Hey, have you heard that game 5 is tonight? That’s right, people, we get another Beckett vs. Sabathia pitching matchup. I was thinking that Josh Beckett had never lost in the postseason, which had me a little nervous that the law of averages might decide to catch up with him at this most inopportune time. But I looked it up and was reminded that he actually lost game 3 against the Yankees in 2003 despite allowing only two runs in 7 1/3 innings pitched. He also had a lousy ended up winning 9-8. The moral of the story is that anything can happen. But I’m still banking on Beckett.
Over on ESPN.com, Jim Caple has a thought-provoking column about MLB’s elongated playoff schedule.
The intent is worthy — start the World Series in the middle of the week to increase ratings (which, after all, means more viewers). But the method is wrong. Rather than pushing up the playoffs by ending the regular season a few days earlier (which could be done by starting it a couple days earlier in warm-weather cities), baseball chose to extend the postseason by adding several off-days. That includes a layover between Games 4 and 5 of the ALCS even though the teams aren’t traveling.
And that’s not even to mention the two days off between the last game of the regular season and the first game of three of the divisional series (the fourth series started after a ridiculous three days off). Sure, you need an extra day if a tie-breaking playoff is needed, as was the case this year for the National League wild card, but that circumstance is an historical rarity and will continue to be so.
Here’s how I think they should do it: Take a day off after the last regular season game played, whenever that is. If you need a playoff on Monday, take Tuesday off and start the series on Wednesday. But let the games not involving the playoff teams start Tuesday. Then start the league championship series the second day after the last divisional series for that league ends. Then have one day off after the last league championship series ends before starting the World Series. And don’t schedule any days off that aren’t travel days. If there’s a rainout, push the rest of that series out a day.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? If they did it that way, the Indians and Red Sox would have already played game 5 last Saturday and the World Series would begin, at the latest, tomorrow night. Instead, we’re stuck waiting for another five days for the so-called Fall Classic. That means that if the Indians win tonight, the World Series won’t begin until we’ve had nine gameless days in the month of October. And even without a World Series rainout, game 7 will be played on November 1. NOVEMBER 1. That may be necessary in the unlikely event that a deadly earthquake or monumental terrorist attack forces major delays, but otherwise, it’s insane.
The problem was created, of course, by money. MLB wants the big postseason TV contract, so they defer to what the networks want. The networks want lots of viewers, so they insist on a schedule where there are virtually never two games going on simultaneously. Never mind that very few people actually care to watch all the games, and even if they wanted to, the schedule isn’t conducive to it (an afternoon game followed by an evening game, or an early evening game followed by a red-eye).
The baseball executives and the network big wigs might think they’ve won, but the rest of us are left twiddling our thumbs wondering why in the wide world we’re in the middle of October and there is not a postseason ball game to be found. And that translates into less interest, which in turn means—you’ve got it—fewer viewers. Which is, come to think of it, exactly what the greedy S.O.B.s deserve.
The Triumphant Red Sox Fan Forum 