2008 ALCS

I hate Jonny Gomes.

Sterling Pingree

Monkey see, monkey.....You're a monkey!!!!

I was planning on writing this, I really was. I have just been handed though an urgent and more substantial reason to write this column. I am a lot of things, long winded, wordy, verbose, never truncated, gregarious and ever the raconteur. However, above all else, I am one thing and that is competitive. So when I saw my compatriot Aaron Jackson wrote a recent column (which I didn't read, but I've heard it's quite good) I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I had to release one as well. Without further adu, here are my thoughts heading into the American League Championship Series tomorrow night, written however, under the influence of the Phillies-Dodgers NLCS.

(First a tangent, which I just mentioned to my buddy Sam while watching Game 1. I am predicting the Phillies beat the Dodgers in this series, I'll say six games and it'll be over. The reason for this is that the Phillies are starting to remind me of the Rockies from last season, a seemingly tough line up, but only at home, and their rotation is built around the left hander that seems to be on a run right now. Playing the Rays, I think this Phillies team could win the World Series, playing the Red Sox, I don't see it happening. Perhaps that's why I'm picking them, atleast I'm honest about it.)

~ I feel very strangely at ease with Daisuke going in game one tomorrow night. It won't be easy, it will be down right tough to watch I can guarantee you that, but he seems to win those games. (Speaking of tough, the last two season's I've had to listen to Daisuke's game 2 starts of the ALDS the last two season. Forget the 4 minute mile or Wilt's 100 point game, this might be the most difficult thing in sports.) He will get a lead, he will threaten to give up the lead, his pitch count will rise as will my blood pressure during every home half of the inning, but he will escape and when he departs after 5 or 6 inning the Red Sox will be holding a lead. I keep thinking that Daisuke isn't a very good postseason pitcher, but off the top of my head I can only remember one playoff game that the Red Sox have lost in which Matsuzaka started. That's for good reason, as it's only happened once, to Cleveland in last year's ALCS. The loss was also perhaps the best game that Daisuke pitched in his playoff career.

~ I full expect James Shields to be tough tomorrow night, but also very pumped up. The people that said all season that the Rays would cave in the second half, (me included) are the same people that are saying the Rays will cave underneath the pressure of the postseason. One thing that they definitely have in their favor is that they have home field advantage and get to start the series at home where they have been the best in baseball.

~ Going in the Angels series, I was on the Moneyball Bandwagon that said you have to match up your starting pitchers if you're the Red Sox so that you have your best home/road pitchers pitching where they have their best record. Matsuzaka is lights out on the road, Lester is lights out at Fenway and Josh Beckett has to be one of the top two starters and he has actually be better this season on the road than at home. Well going into this ALCS the Red Sox have their starters set up in just such a way, mostly because this year's Jim Lonborg (Jon Lester in case you couldn't figure it out fromt he next few words) had to pitch an extra game and best the Angels in the clinching game 3 Monday night. Even having to play the extra game in the first round (look at the Red Sox recent playoff history and playing more than 3 games in the ALDS hasn't happened since 2003, so I consider anything more than 3 extra) the Sox still have their proverbial ducks in a row and ready to take Tampa by storm starting tomorrow night.

(Side note from the NLCS: it's amazing in the NL and more specifically being personified by the Dodgers right now, that on these teams there is one guy on good teams that strikes fear in the other team. Right now Manny Ramirez is doing that at the scale that few have ever seen before. So when Manny (yes we're still on a first name basis since he left) lined out to Pedro Feliz moments ago in a one run game, the crowd cheered like Chase Utley had been rescued from cannibals. They know they just dodged a bases empty bullet, because a solo shot from Manny right now is happening more frequently than some people's bodily functions. Scary comparison, but its playoff time and all of the drug advertisement's are telling me that people are missing things and using too many restrooms or not enough restrooms. They all sort of run together, I can never really tell anymore.)

~ The bullpens will probably be the deciding factor in this series. There is a formula to the playoffs, there won' t be many if any blow outs in this series, but there will be a blown save, there will be a tide turning error at some point and somebody is going to get blamed for a loss and as always a hero will emerge. The Red Sox already saw these things happen, THIS YEAR!! (Talk about playoff experience, they're buying it in bulk now apparently.) Against the Angels, all of the aforementioned things happened, K-Rod blew a tied game at home, the tide turning error was the botched squeeze play that shifted all of the momentum of the series and Vlad will be the player blamed for the loss in game one, which is strange because I feel Erick Aybar should get much more credit for losing the series. Without a doubt the hero that emerged in the series was from Boston and to me Jed Lowrie should get more credit than he does as should JD Drew, but Jason Bay was Mr. First Week of October.

Look, I'm a complete homer and I know this. So if you're looking for objectivity, you won't find it here when talking about the remaining playoff games this year. If you want objectivity, read Aaron Jackson talk about politics. Whoops! That might be the one person and one topic that is less objective than me about the Sox.

~Sterling Pingree

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkkkk...

Following the path of the greats is never easy, but I'm certainly going to try. I will be attempting a feat only the greatest of the greats attempt, including Michael Jordan and Brett Favre. That's right, I am un-retiring from the blogosphere. Now you might be saying to yourselves, "but Aaron, you never retired in the first place!". That is true. But in order to make a dramatic comeback you have to have an ending before it, and retiring sounds a lot better than me just being lazy. So here it is, my first post as an un-retired blogger. Print it, send it to me with a check for 25 bucks and I will sign it for you if you want.

So what could I possibly talk about that would match the brilliance of my comeback? Quite simply, Boston, the best sports city in the world. It's pretty clear that with the Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, BC and even the Revolution are WILDLY successful. You can't have that many sports team be successful and not be the best sports city in the world, because in order to be that good you have to beat the other city's teams. When I break it down like that it seems simple, doesn't it.

Lets delve a little further though. There have always been individual dynasties (Lakers, Celtics, Cowboys, Yankees) and there will always be certain teams that are good year in and year out (Red Wings, Steelers, Braves, Yankees) but never has there been a combination of the two quite like what we have. We have the dynasties that we expect to win it all (Patriots, Sox), the always good teams that you can expect to contend (Celtics, Revolution) and even have the teams that are intriguing (Bruins, BC).

So now lets go into why these teams are so good. It's really a combination of two things. On one end is management; these teams front offices are committed to winning, and are willing to admit they need help to do it. Furthermore, they oftentimes think like fans, but know when to think like management. Take the Red Sox. You can tell they are passionate about the team, but they also occasionally make the decision (letting Pedro and Damon go, trading Nomar) that fans would never make. Management is also willing to spend money and take on additional payroll when needed. Now here is where the second reason comes in.

The fans. Boston fans are the best in the country. They have the passion of fans from Philly, but they have the smarts of fans from, well, Boston. There is not a fan base smarter than Boston's. Sure, you get the occasional drunken idiot that is jobless, listens to EEI all day and gets into fights constantly, but for every one of him/her there are 10 intelligent fans that love sports while staying on the right side of the line between sane and crazy. And when you have intelligent fans you have a fan base that is successful in their lives outside of their fandom. They have good jobs, they have happy lives, which means they have money to spend. And it shows. It's a give and take situation. We have some of the highest ticket prices in the country, which means the teams make more money and in turn, spend that money towards the on the field product. And while we can complain about ticket prices (trust me, I do) we set the market for them. There is such a high demand in the market that these teams can set the prices high and know they will still sell out. The day the Sox put all their tickets up for auction is the day we see your average ticket price at 150 dollars. That's just through the Sox, not including the mark ups you would see on Stubhub and other scalping sites.

So there it is. I hope my return from retirement was as good for you as it was for me. I feel invigorated. Until next time everyone...

~Aaron Jackson

His final bow?

He got out of an 8th inning jam, just like a couple hundred times before. He walked off the mound to about as much fanfare as there is for the 162nd game of the season with nothing postseason oriented on the line. As he strode off the mound he stared at the ground the entire way, almost embarrassed almost shy, but he's been there more than any right hander in baseball history. He finished his inning with a strike out, low and out of the zone, just where the catcher called for it.
The Great John Updike once wrote that "Gods don't answer letters", apparently he was right. Because when Mike Timlin left tonight's regular season finale where he faced the New York Yankees, he might have also faced his own baseball mortality. For a guy with 4 World Series championships there isn't a lot out there left to prove besides maybe breaking the all-time appearances record. This might be the end to one of the best career's by a middle reliever since the role has become defined, because there is no guarantee that he makes the playoff roster this year and next season is never promised when you hit the age of 40.
So when Mike Timlin made his way off the Fenway Park mound tonight, I took in the moment and savored it what might be, his final bow.

Sterling Pingree

Come, Labor On Red Sox-Angels Round 3

Oh, it's been a while. Between being engulfed in the pennant race and having no time to talk about it, I haven't posted a new column in weeks. It actually feels like years, so much has happened but nothing has changed, except now it's official. The Rays have won the division and the Red Sox finished second, but captured the Wild Card. It seems fitting that the last post is the longest running headline in the history of the website, because that was the night that if hope wasn't lost, it was evident that hope had taken a few wrong turns. It became official late last night that the Rays would by default of David Pauley, win their first division title and make their first appearance in the postseason. The Rays seem to have Boston's number, the Angels are 8-1 against Boston this year (I was at the one game that Boston won, the starting pitcher in that game? You guessed it, David Pauley.) The Twins are leading the Central by a half game over the White Sox. The Red Sox had some battles with the Twins this season in their few games against each other. The White Sox on the other hand held a decent record against Boston, but I don't see how they match up against this Boston team well at all. The Angels are on tap again for the Red Sox to kick off the first round, so here's the break down.
The pitching: The old saying's go, a good running game and good defense wins in the NFL, defense and an inside game wins in the NBA and pitching wins in the playoffs. There is a stark contrast right off the bat between the Red Sox and these Angels. During the season a deep rotation should in theory get you the best record because you are throwing 4 and 5 pitchers out there, that in theory are better than the other team's 4th and 5th starters. In the playoffs that goes out the window, because maybe two starts are going to be made by those number 4 guys and that's it. The Red Sox have arguably the two best pitchers in this series. Josh Beckett being the predominant postseason starter in baseball now and then you can argue that Jon Lester is throwing better than John Lackey and if I wanted to get crazy and get a lot of e-mails I could say that at 18-2 before today's start, Dice-K is better than Lackey and he would be Boston's number 3. Saunders is solid and has pitched well against Boston, Weaver is owned by Ortiz and most of the Boston line up. Ervin Santana hasn't faced the Red Sox much and has had a very up and down season and right now is trending downward.
The bullpens right now favor the Angels, but they don't have a lot of play off experience in the pen besides K-Rod and Scot Shields and Boston has had Shields number his entire career. Papelbon at the end of the game has been almost as lights out as K-Rod and right now Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson have been very tough and Hideki Okakima looks like he is back to where he was last season using his curve ball more than ever and more effectively.

Be sure to check back soon for the offensive break downs of the Red Sox and Angels heading into the ALDS.

Sterling Pingree