Everyone on the outside is saying it, but do people around here really grasp it fully?
We've got a baseball team in the World Series, we may very well have a football team for the ages, we have the most talked-about NBA team of the off -(and exhibition) season and we even have a hockey team off to a 5-2 start with some exciting young players.
We also have a college football team ranked, however improperly, number 2.
So what say we send a sincere collective sympathy card to the folks in Cleveland? You know they're hurting, major big-time, today.
Before I turn my attention to the looming DH crisis, a few clean-up thoughts on the ALCS:
Have two 19-game winners ever come up so small in postseason play as did C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, who together submitted one half-decent outing (Sabathia in Game 5)? Two excellent strike-throwers couldn't throw the ball to their accustomed spots and they each paid a high price. Nerves? It's possible.
I want to give Paul Byrd the benefit of the doubt, but it's very difficult to do so. He won't confirm a timeline, he can't explain away HGH prescriptions from a dentist and he can't explain away dealing with the tainted Florida pharmacy. Once again, the lesson here is that it's the journeymen who were the most frequent clients of steroids and HGH. Guys just trying to hang on are often willing to do anything.
When I saw Okey-Dokey come out to start the 8th on Sunday night, all I could think of was, "Wow, this is the inning Eric Gagne was supposed to pitch." I was also thinking, "Does this mean Tito doesn't trust either Timlin or Manny Del?" I guess Game 7 is an entirely different creature.
Boy, weren't those some shots Papelbon gave up? The ball by Garko that ended the 8th, the Lofton liner Ellsbury caught in the ninth and the final out of the game off the bat of Blake were all viciously struck. Coco Crisp has had the best defensive year of any CFer in my 43 years here, and he reinforced that opinion with that great snatch to end the game. Who among us would have blamed him if he had taken a step back and let the damn thing drop, rather than risk injury with an 11-2 lead?
Speaking of Gagne, I sincerely hope the Red Sox players Do The Right Thing and vote Kason Gabbard at least a three-quarters share, and never mind with the traditional half-share stuff. That guy saved their life when Schilling was out.
I don't care if Kevin Youkilis isn't a 30 HR guy. When he's healthy, he's a major, major asset. His agent should have it written into his contract that he must bat second.
Let's hope Mike Lowell never forgets how much he benefits from Fenway Park. In a sane world, he asks for three years at, say, $30 mill. Yeah, I know I'm dreaming.
I am truly happy for the Japanese press corps. These guys have been going since the minute the Daisuke negotiations started. They've gone through a long siege while spending all this time halfway around the world away from home, and to have the season rest, in large measure, on their two guys had to make it at least partially worthwhile.
I'm calling Jon Lester for 15 Ws next year. I think he's done with all the nibbling.
So...what's going to happen when we get to Coors Field for Games 3, 4 and 5?
That stupid DH thing will be a humungous issue. Papi's going to play, and Youkilis is going to sit? Great. But what's the alternative, unless you sit Papi in game 5 when LHP Francis gets his second start?
I could accept to a degree the idea that the two leagues had different rules when there really two fully separate leagues. But there aren't. The respective league presidencies were abolished years ago. The umpires work both leagues. So what's the rationale for having different rules?
I think NL baseball is pure baseball, but not enough to cry about it if the DH were adopted universally. What remains preposterous is that the one time and place where we can all agree that a DH makes sense is the All-Star Game, and yet there is none. No one thinks this is crazy?
Send a Thank You to Ichiro (inside the parker), Carl Crawford (solo) and Victor Martinez (two-run job) for helping give the Red Sox home field advantage in the Series with their play in the All-Star Game. And did you forget that Josh Beckett was the winning pitcher and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless inning? I did.
Aporopos of nothing we've been talking about, do you know what Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is? He's a giant Doug Flutie. Did you see him fake a QB draw and flip a half-hook of a jump pass for a TD against Kentucky? I'm tellin' you, it's Flutie at 6-3 and 230 or whatever the hell he is. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a tape of the 1984 BC-Miami game at home.
Bob is an award-winning columnist for the Globe and the host of the new NESN show "The Globe 10.0"
