6 posts tagged “red sox”

I've been pretty quiet here at Trifle for a couple of reasons. First off, work has been pretty hectic, as we try to get a version together for a BIG customer. While my company is very very good at resisting long, involved changes for the sake of one customer, when a multi-billion dollar company really really wants something that is on your upcoming feature list, you tend to do your best to deliver it early, right?

I've also become something of Twitter-holic, especially since I added unlimited text messaging to our cellphone plan. As I've mentioned before, I have even received some timely help via my twitter "neighborhood", which is a feedback loop that is hard to resist. I've stopped using TwitterFox though. For one thing, Firefox itself is slightly too unstable, as it tends to crash about twice a day, so I figure I need to cut back on my Addons. Secondly, typing gets very very very slow. Not sure what that is, besides a general Firefox slowdown, but it makes it impossible to use.

So I've been beta (maybe even alpha!) testing phpitter, a PHP(!) app. It took some work to get it installed, but the SVN version is reasonably solid at this point. I suppose I should look at twitux. Or maybe write my own, eh?

But anyway, a couple of short takes on my time wasting efforts, besides Twitter:

• I read Debatable Space by Philip Palmer. A pretty long science fiction novel, it tells the story of some space pirates who kidnap a VIP and then proceed to try and topple the current galactic overlords. A little too much internal dialog by the VIP, and not quite enough action, but the book postulates an interesting future of limitless resources and "travel" by avatar, as the light speed speed limit is still obeyed. If you like "hard" sci-fi, I think you'll like this book. Just skip over all the interminable Lena reflections and you won't miss a thing.
  

• I watched Michael Clayton onDemand and was decidedly underwhelmed. Originally, I had no interest in the movie. Who cares about battle lawyers? But the previews I saw on cable made it look pretty intense, so I used my free coupon to "rent" it. The beginning was cool, with a very startling event punctuating a quiet time, but then it rewound time (which I generally like in a movie) and got dull. I just never understood why George Clooney's Michael Clayton suddenly got attacked by a case of the guilts. Some whacko lawyer friend of his decides that defending big business is right and he somehow infects Clayton, whose conscience bothers him after years and years of protecting the big guy. I never got connected with him and so the last 2/3rds of the film just didn't resonate. Oh well.
  

• Fever Pitch became available online at Fancast (a Comcast site), so I watched that yet again while "working" yesterday. Man, the 2004 ALCS still brings a tear to me eye. I wonder if any but heartfelt Red Sox fans can really "get it". It's not as painful as Game Six, as it has a much better ending, but still...
  

Narrator: Ben became one of God's most pathetic creatures - a Red Sox fan.
Uncle Carl: Careful kid. They'll break your heart.

It has been quite the snowy December here in the Northeast US. Last year, we went into January before seeing any snow, but this year gave us snow early in December, which, even more surprisingly, has stuck around. And given the two solid snowstorms we've had over the past few days, there is over a foot of snow on the ground and with the temps in the 20s, it is frozen solid.

Which made for a very interesting New England Patriots game. As expected, the nor'easter made for a great equalizer, neutralizing the Pats passing attack. Also, Brady seemed to force things, trying to hit Moss for the big play when there were plenty of options underneath. At least one commentator talked about that prior to the game - even an offense as effective as the Patriots can't sustain long drives consistently, so you need to take away the big play. And also, the Patriots can get impatient when the big play is held at bay. Now, I don't think it was the Jets that contributed much to it. In prior games, it was a heavy pass rush that did it. But yesterday, it was more a pelting, freezing rain and high winds that kept the offense at bay.

But, like all great teams, they still found a way to win. An early pressure by Seymour forced the Jets QB into an ill-advise dying quail of a throw from his own end zone and forgotten man Eugene Wilson returned it for an early score. And special teams maven Kelley Washington blocked a punt, leading to the only offensive touchdown of the day by another man of mystery, Laurence Maroney, who had a solid game at running back. I still think he missed some opportunities to pop it outside, which he finally did in the fourth quarter.

But it is impossible to argue with 14-0, only the second team to ever start that way. And just think, the Patriots should have five more games, while the '72 Dolphins were finishing up their regular season after fourteen games. It has been a great season so far, and the future's so bright, we gotta wear shades!

On the fantasy front, my team somehow pulled out a win to move to the finals. We only scored 61 points, but my opponent just pulled down 42, probably the low score for both of us for the year. His QB is Tom Brady, so the season's worst performance by Brady couldn't have come at a better time for me. Of course, my team was continually mocked in the post game wrapup stories, as my main point getter, Brian Westbrook, was running untouched into the end zone at the end of the Dallas-Philadelphia game, when he sat down at the one, realizing that, without any timeouts, the Cowboys couldn't stop the clock and get the ball back if he didn't score. And all the post game shows chided Westbrook's fantasy owners for having conniptions at losing the 7 points. Glad it didn't decide the game for me!

So on to defending my league crown in the finals next week. And, like last year, it is against the team with "LT" (LaDainian Tomlinson). Like my win this week against a subpar Brady, last year I beat the LT team when he scored well under his usual average. But they are playing at home against a poor Denver running defense, so I'm going to have to hope for a big Favre game!

Finally, to wrap up sports Monday, I wanted to show my picture of the 2007 World Series trophy, taken a couple of weeks ago at the local town hall Christmas celebration. It's a really poor picture, taken with a bad cell phone camera in terrible light, but still, I was within a couple of feet of it. Pretty neat!

Wow, what a day! Sunday was sports sensory overload day, for this dyed in the wool New England sports family - first a day at the football stadium, followed by our second World Series triumph in four years. Very nice!

I have season tickets to the New England Patriots. Well, I don't have tickets all by myself, as I am part of a consortium of 10 who share 6 season tickets. We have been doing this since the early 90s, back when you could actually get tickets. These days, I guess there is a 50,000 strong wait list for them!

So one share gets me three pairs of tickets. Up until this year, I had two shares, so I could be sure to get four tickets to a single game during our annual selection. But I agreed to give up one share as long as we could arrange somehow for four tickets to a game if I didn't get one during the picks. Well, I didn't get them during the picks, but I bought another pair from a fellow shareholder so our family game this year was the 4pm game against the Redskins on October 28. I prefer 1pm games, and certainly earlier in the year, but we once again lucked out, as the weather was a spectacular Fall day - cool but sunny, with some wind.

But I messed up. I've been doing this for too many years to get sucked into the traffic hell that is Gillette Stadium, yet somehow, an hour before kickoff, we found ourselves stranded in traffic. I'm not sure what kind of brain cramp I had, as I have a perfectly serviceable side road to get there in no time, but I didn't take it. So we got to the parking lot only 30 minutes before game time, leaving us no time to fire up the grill and get into the tailgating, disappointing everyone.

But we got into the stadium and saw our New England Patriots kick some Washington ass from one side of the field to the other. Supposedly a team that promised to offer some competition, but instead all they did was whine about the Pats "running up the score", which is, of course, exactly what you are supposed to do in a professional football game - score points. If you don't like it, just stop them once or twice.

But the side effect of a lopsided victory was that, despite our usual exit after three quarters, the traffic was completely clogged. And to top it off, our usual side exit strategy from the lot was blocked off by cones, so we had to go into the traffic with everyone else, making for a two hour drive home, when it normally should only take about 45 minutes. A traffic disaster from the start, which definitely took the edge off the excitement. But the girls didn't seem to mind, as they got to scream all day, each plenty of junk food and in general have a great time. R called it "the best football game ever!" (our kids are prone to hyperbole...)

So we listened to the start of World Series Game Four, with our Red Sox going for their second straight four game Series sweep. This year, it was a much easier post season to watch. After all the heartache that was healed during the 2004 championship season, it was nice to just ride along with the team in a "baggage free" postseason. It was a likable, professional team, with some real shutdown pitchers and Jon Lester, who only a year ago was diagnosed with cancer, pitching the final game. Great story and great ending.

I was watching it on DVR but realized as the end of the game loomed that I had better fast forward or I might hear some celebrating going on. But I was only in the middle of the ninth inning when I heard some fireworks going off and I turned to my wife and said "Well, that answers that!"

We should have taken the girls out of school yesterday and gone down to the victory parade. It was another gorgeous fall afternoon and, as my sister said, what would they remember more, a day in school or a day cheering on the Red Sox? But the youngest stayed home due to a sore throat and my wife is completely against taking them voluntarily out of school, so we just watched on TV. According to the newspaper, it was probably a good thing, because I guess the subway was completely jammed for hours.

Posted to the Bosox mailing list, another poem to the Red Sox, as they open up the 2007 World Series tonight in the cool drizzle of Boston:

The Boys of Autumn
 
Home of the great green monster
The house that Ruth abandoned
Empty now as the Boys of Autumn
Fly to the mountains,
Trading Indian Summer for Early Winter
Game Three I see in my mind surreal
Twelve inches of fresh snow just plowed from the field
Papi looking like a jolly Santa in his red snowsuit uniform
Manny being Manny to the Colorado press
And Dice K again put to the test
Determined as hell
Tough as an Ipswich claim shell
Wearing his short sleeves and cotton cap despite the chill
Unruffled that the ghost of John Denver sang the National Anthem
The Rockies Organization claiming not to know
That Dice K's mom dated Denver when he was touring Japan
Years ago.
 
At Coors, the air is thin
Back at Fenway, the fog from Boston Harbor
Has moved in
While the Ghosts in the rafters
Wait for word of a win.
 -- Kate Troy

 

What a day in New England sports history yesterday! The undefeated Patriots rolled into Miami to face a winless and demoralized Dolphin team that aways gives them fits. And then on to Game 7 of the ALCS, where the winner of the Red Sox / Indians tilt gets to take on a redhot Colorado Rockies team, winner of 21 of their last 22 games.

First up was the Patriots absolutely destroying the minor league Miami team. They truly look like a team on a mission to not just win every game, but to demoralize their opponent every game. The two touchdown passes to Moss were simply amazing examples of what he can do. I'm just about ready to rescind my pre-season prediction of the "good" Randy Moss showing up for the first 6 games or so, then going off on his own and getting cut before the end of the season. The guy has simply been a model citizen and makes plays that no other wide receiver could.

I have to admit to some trepidation as they went in Miami. During their last Super Bowl run, the Patriots went into Miami to face a one win team, and they were 11-1 themselves, yet they lost 29-28. And then last year's fiasco, where they were shutout, 21-0. But not this year. The 49-28 can of whoop ass they opened up on the Dolphins wasn't nearly as close as even that wide margin would indicate. And as the near victory by the Texans, after being down 32-7 in the fourth quarter, showed, you just can't let up on an NFL team. And as Jason Taylor said, if you don't want them to run up the score, don't let them score! I loved Belichick's reaction when he was asked during the post-game press conference about "running up the score". He scoffed and couldn't have been more derisive when he said "C'mon, it was only the first half! Listen, I was at the same game as you."

Next week should be another good test before the Game of the Century in Indianapolis the week after that. We're going to see them play the Redskins, Sunday afternoon at 4. The Washington team is supposed to be among the cream of the NFC crop, admittedly week comparison. I hope for good weather!

And then it was the long wait until the first pitch of the Red Sox / Indians game 7. And then three straight inning ending double plays (each with a runner on third), meant the 3-0 lead felt shakier than it should have, especially with Dice-K pitching, who was described perfectly as a "power nibbler". But he seemed to have his stuff and despite a shakey fifth, left with the lead after five. Then the game entered the twilight zone, with bizarre plays on boths sides of the ball by both teams.  Dropped pop flies, runner getting held, collisions and other stange October goings on. But then the Toy Cannon (with apologies to Jimmy Wynn) went all medieval on the Indians, with a two run homer and a bases clearing double, so the goggles went on and the champagne was popped.

Wow, what a sports day! I know there are plenty of folks out there that just don't understand sports, but there just isn't another feeling like this, when "your" teams are rolling and the good times are here. My girls think the Red Sox go to the World Series (and win!) every year, while the Patriots are perennial Super Bowl champs. My, what a long strange journey it has been since I started rooting for them in the 70s. And my oldest asked if she could watch the World Series game, but given that the first pitch isn't until 8:30, I told her it was going to be too late, which is a real shame. I don't know how old they will be before they watch their first post-season game. They did see some of the opening round, because some games are in the afternoon, but they've never seen a World Series game.

A prayer to be said before tonight's big game against the Indians:

RED SOX PRAYER

Our Father, who art at Fenway
Baseball be thy game.
They Kingdom come,
Playoffs need to be won,
On Earth, then on to the Cask 'n' Flagon.

Give us this day, a perfect Papi,
And forgive us our losses,
As we forgive those,
Like Bill Buckner.
And lead us not, into desperation,
But deliver us from any losses.

For thine is the Power,
And the Glory,
To beat the Indians,
Forever and ever. The Yankees suck

A-men