9/26 NYY (Montgomery) @ BOS (ERod)

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Love that film but I don’t remember that quote.

 

Gives you a good excuse to watch that great movie again.

[YastrzemskI]

That would be accurate if arbitrarily measured by the longest postseason drought.

 

But please note that this year the Red Sox have won 88 games with an Opening Day payroll of $182.5 million while the Seattle Mariners have won 86 games with an Opening Day payroll of $81.8 million.

 

The Mariners haven't finished with a better season record than the Red Sox since ... well, since last year.

 

Baseball America currently ranks the Seattle farm system No. 1 even though the Mariners have graduated seven former Top 100 prospects over the past two seasons.

 

Best wishes in the postseason.

 

Two or three playoff appearances since the 1970s. I don’t think they ever participated in a World Series. Ever talk to a Mariner fan? Misery.

[YastrzemskI]

Gives you a good excuse to watch that great movie again.

 

Unforgiven

The Searchers

Stagecoach

The Big Country

Rio Bravo

 

Just a few of my favorites. But yeah, Unforgiven is a classic.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Unforgiven

The Searchers

Stagecoach

The Big Country

Rio Bravo

 

Just a few of my favorites. But yeah, Unforgiven is a classic.

 

Great list. I would also add Pale Rider and Shane which are pretty much the same movie.

[moonslav59]

Like I asked in a 1 game would you want Cole against the Sox, , or Sale, or EO against the Yankees on how things are going now. I’ll take Cole against the Sox. Don’t care what they did in Apr, May, and June.

 

I'll take Sale. I'm a Sox fan.

 

We earned the April and May wins.

 

We've played better the last month.

 

Counting the last 3 games like they are gold is not something I ever do.

 

Am I worried about losing to the Yanks and Cole? Hell, yes, but I give us a 50-50 shot with Sale or Eovaldi on the mound.

 

We have shown we can get to Cole.

 

I'm hoping the Yanks need to use Cole vs the Rays at the nd of the season, and we can rest Sale on the last day.

 

[moonslav59]

Unforgiven

The Searchers

Stagecoach

The Big Country

Rio Bravo

 

Just a few of my favorites. But yeah, Unforgiven is a classic.

 

What? No movies with black actors as stars?

 

(Just kidding-- lol!)

[YastrzemskI]

Great list. I would also add Pale Rider and Shane which are pretty much the same movie.

 

Thanks for the rec. I have to see High Noon too. Never got around to it for some reason.

[Maxbialystock]

I’m partial to Red River. Great cast, great story, superb directing and photography. Black and white.

[YastrzemskI]

What? No movies with black actors as stars?

 

(Just kidding-- lol!)

 

Ha! I know ur joking but Morgan Freeman is in Unforgiven.

[moonslav59]

Ha! I know ur joking but Morgan Freeman is in Unforgiven.

 

Ahh, yes. That makes a bad joke even worse.

[YastrzemskI]

I’m partial to Red River. Great cast, great story, superb directing and photography. Black and white.

 

Excellent film. A classic! One of John Wayne’s best with a young Montgomery Clift.

[Tedballgame]

Coming from a Yankee fan I’m shocked at your take.

He is a Yankee fan when they are winning.

[YastrzemskI]

‘Night everyone.

 

GO SOX!

[bkzwhitestrican]

At least the Packers won Moon. That was an awesome ending.

[Maxbialystock]

Shane, the searchers,and high noon also very good. Some of America’s best directors have made westerns, including Fred zinneman. Howard hawks, not John Ford, directed red River.

[Old Red]

I'll take Sale. I'm a Sox fan.

 

We earned the April and May wins.

 

We've played better the last month.

 

Counting the last 3 games like they are gold is not something I ever do.

 

Am I worried about losing to the Yanks and Cole? Hell, yes, but I give us a 50-50 shot with Sale or Eovaldi on the mound.

 

We have shown we can get to Cole.

 

I'm hoping the Yanks need to use Cole vs the Rays at the nd of the season, and we can rest Sale on the last day.

 

 

I’m a Sox fan to for over 60 years, but Sale is only a 5 inn pitcher at best, and EO would be a better choice, but I would favor Cole in any matchup against the Sox. Like I keep saying head to head the Yankees have the Sox number right now.

[Maxbialystock]

If you mean that, I overstepped. I don’t hate the Yankees but recognize the legitimacy of that sentiment.

[a700hitter]

In the movie UNFORGIVEN, Gene Hackman said right before Clint Eastwood shot him "I don't deserve this."

Clint responded "sometimes you get what you don't deserve."

I thought Clint Eastwood’s William Muney said “Deserves has nothing to do with it.”

[a700hitter]

LOL! @ saying someone has a horseface is racist. People need to get a grip. Paging Mr. John “Horseface” Lackey. I miss that guy. Give him the ball in a clinching game and you clinched.

[a700hitter]

This game was a fiasco. I listened to John Sterling’s and Suzynn Waldman’s radio call. Everyone calls them Homers, but they brutalized Boone’s managing when he removed a dominating Holmes who k’d the side and has 30k’s and 1 walk as a Yankee. Boone got played like a fiddle by Cora and the Yankee announcers skewered him. And they roasted him for giving up an out by running Wade when Richards couldn’t throw a strike. They also called the 2 dropped popups “disgraceful “ and said that the Yankees didn’t deserve to win the game. They thought Dalbec should have caught the foul ball and they called the foul tip a strike out and said that the ball fell on the transfer. They get a bum rap as homers. They brutalized the Yankee D and managing tonight. Unfortunately, our guys didn’t want to accept the charity and gave the game back.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I’m partial to Red River. Great cast, great story, superb directing and photography. Black and white.

 

The ending of Red River ruined it for me.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I thought Clint Eastwood’s William Muney said “Deserves has nothing to do with it.”

 

 

 

 

My bad. You nailed it. You represent your avatar well.

Btw, "deserves has nothing to do with it" actually makes my point about the SOX even better.

Thanks for the correction.

Edited September 27, 2021 by SPLENDIDSPLINTER

[jacksonianmarch]

Coming from a Yankee fan I’m shocked at your take.

 

It’s not surprising. Sox are gonna add games the next three days over either the yanks or the jays.

[moonslav59]

I’m a Sox fan to for over 60 years, but Sale is only a 5 inn pitcher at best, and EO would be a better choice, but I would favor Cole in any matchup against the Sox. Like I keep saying head to head the Yankees have the Sox number right now.

 

Key words, "right now." I refuse to define any team by a 3 game series.

 

We have all seen the Yanks, Sox and Jays look unbeatable for pretty long stretches, then putrid for equally long stretches.

 

All of these team have major flaws. They all seemed to catch up to the Sox over the last 3 games, but we overcame them in the previous 7 games.

 

At times, it looked like the Yanks we doing their best to hand us back the gifts we gave them, but we lacked getting the big hit like they did.

 

I just wish we'd realize that the Yanks really only have two weapons: Judge & Stanton. We need to avoid walking guys ahead of them and maybe pitch around them or throw a few hard ones up and in.

 

I think Sale can go six or even 7, if he is on, by keeping his pitch count down. No way we can win, if our pen spazzes out like this weekend.

 

We still own our own destiny, and with 6 games to go versus weak opponents, we will only have ourselves to blame, if we blow this. I've pointed this out before, but I think it needs repeating. Having an easy last 6 games means we had a hardier first 156 games, so we earned our place in the wild card standings. The Yanks play the Jays for 3, and someone will lose 2-3 games. If we take care of business vs the O's, we'll lengthen our lead vs the Jays of possible be ahead of both the Jays and Yanks after the next 3 games. Then, we face a Nats team that traded away many of their best players and weren't all that good before the trades.

 

This weekend sucked, but we need to get over this whole recency effect when judging players and teams. If this season has proven one thing, it's that recent performance has no relation to what comes next. The ups and downs have been startling and plentiful. There is no reason to think that will change over the remaining 6 games.

 

If I had to bet on which team might lose 4, 5 or 6 of the next 6 games, I'd pick the Yanks or Jays- not the Sox. The schedule is but one factor.

 

No doubt, I'm bummed out like every other Sox fan, but this season has been exciting, surprising and fun to watch. It's not over, yet. Try to see the bright side.

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

 

We still own our own destiny, and with 6 games to go versus weak opponents, we will only have ourselves to blame, if we blow this. I've pointed this out before, but I think it needs repeating. Having an easy last 6 games means we had a hardier first 156 games, so we earned our place in the wild card standings. The Yanks play the Jays for 3, and someone will lose 2-3 games. If we take care of business vs the O's, we'll lengthen our lead vs the Jays of possible be ahead of both the Jays and Yanks after the next 3 games. Then, we face a Nats team that traded away many of their best players and weren't all that good before the trades.

 

This weekend sucked, but we need to get over this whole recency effect when judging players and teams. If this season has proven one thing, it's that recent performance has no relation to what comes next. The ups and downs have been startling and plentiful. There is no reason to think that will change over the remaining 6 games.

 

If I had to bet on which team might lose 4, 5 or 6 of the next 6 games, I'd pick the Yanks or Jays- not the Sox. The schedule is but one factor.

 

No doubt, I'm bummed out like every other Sox fan, but this season has been exciting, surprising and fun to watch. It's not over, yet. Try to see the bright side.

 

 

I do think the Dead Sox can bounce back and win as many as they lose in these last six games. But it won't be as easy as most think, because the current bullpen will still have to pitch to the OMs: Mullins, Mountcastle, Mancini and MHayes -- who have no pressure -- and then the MLB's best hitter in Juan Soto (with JD or Schwarber in LF, and the other probably on the bench in the NL park; though it shouldn't take an analytics dept. to remember that Schwarber set HR records in Washington this season, and that he's a better bet than the rookie Dalbec).

 

Yanks will go 4-2 minimum to lock up home field, but Jays will also go 4-2 (a lock to sweep the O's at home). If yellow-and-powder-blueless Boston can somehow manage to go 3-3, a playoff for a WC with Toronto looms...

[Old Red]

Key words, "right now." I refuse to define any team by a 3 game series.

 

We have all seen the Yanks, Sox and Jays look unbeatable for pretty long stretches, then putrid for equally long stretches.

 

All of these team have major flaws. They all seemed to catch up to the Sox over the last 3 games, but we overcame them in the previous 7 games.

 

At times, it looked like the Yanks we doing their best to hand us back the gifts we gave them, but we lacked getting the big hit like they did.

 

I just wish we'd realize that the Yanks really only have two weapons: Judge & Stanton. We need to avoid walking guys ahead of them and maybe pitch around them or throw a few hard ones up and in.

 

I think Sale can go six or even 7, if he is on, by keeping his pitch count down. No way we can win, if our pen spazzes out like this weekend.

 

We still own our own destiny, and with 6 games to go versus weak opponents, we will only have ourselves to blame, if we blow this. I've pointed this out before, but I think it needs repeating. Having an easy last 6 games means we had a hardier first 156 games, so we earned our place in the wild card standings. The Yanks play the Jays for 3, and someone will lose 2-3 games. If we take care of business vs the O's, we'll lengthen our lead vs the Jays of possible be ahead of both the Jays and Yanks after the next 3 games. Then, we face a Nats team that traded away many of their best players and weren't all that good before the trades.

 

This weekend sucked, but we need to get over this whole recency effect when judging players and teams. If this season has proven one thing, it's that recent performance has no relation to what comes next. The ups and downs have been startling and plentiful. There is no reason to think that will change over the remaining 6 games.

 

If I had to bet on which team might lose 4, 5 or 6 of the next 6 games, I'd pick the Yanks or Jays- not the Sox. The schedule is but one factor.

 

No doubt, I'm bummed out like every other Sox fan, but this season has been exciting, surprising and fun to watch. It's not over, yet. Try to see the bright side.

 

 

 

I’ll say the season has been surprising, but there has been some real bad baseball that was played this season. Bad pitching, bad defense, and bad base running, which was topped off last night by two teams that looked like little leaguers at times who couldn’t catch the ball, or knew how to run the bases. Lke I said earlier at this point I could care less if the Sox get on the plane to Baltimore.

[moonslav59]

At least the Packers won Moon. That was an awesome ending.

 

It's come to the point where you almost expect a comeback win.

 

37 seconds, this time.

[jung]

I’ll say the season has been surprising, but there has been some real bad baseball that was played this season. Bad pitching, bad defense, and bad base running, which was topped off last night by two teams that looked like little leaguers at times who couldn’t catch the ball, or knew how to run the bases. Lke I said earlier at this point I could care less if the Sox get on the plane to Baltimore.

 

It is actually getting hard to care about MLB at all the way it is being played currently. As both Splinter and I have commented in the past, there is simply not enough baseball talent out there to support this many franchises. There just isn't and we keep kidding ourselves that these guys are better ballplayers because they are on balance stronger ballplayers. I would refine that to be more muscular ballplayers, not necessarily stronger or more fit. The consequence is that the actual baseball being played suffers more and more as the years pass.

 

The most critical element is the pitching which is laughable now. Everything that happens on a baseball diamond starts with the ball in the hands of the pitcher. Hence as the quality of pitching declined it should have been obvious that the quality of the game itself would suffer. That has been exacerbated by the juiced baseball. While pitchers no longer challenge hitters nor back them off the plate, nor move the hitters feet in the batters box, pitchers do throw trash pitches right over the heart of the plate with predictable results. There are now three pitch types we see regularly:

- trash pitches right over the heart of the plate that are not efforts to challenge hitters....they are just crap pitches

- pitches designed to lure hitters into the one remaining trap the modern day pitcher has, a pitch designed to induce the hitter to swing at a pitch that is actually a ball

- Pitches that are so far off the plate that they cannot even induce a swing from a hitter

 

The cumulative result of bad pitching and the juiced baseball is a game where fielding no longer counts, base running no longer counts, hitters swing as hard as they can every swing regardless of the count and don't much care or can judge whether the pitch is worth a swing or not plus rosters filled with pitchers that might MIGHT give you 10-15 worthwhile pitches any given night before they turn into pumpkins. What has become "exciting" about today's game is whether a fielder can field a simple pop up, whetter he will throw to the right base or not and whether the base runners will have not f***ed it up so badly that it does not matter where the ball is thrown and OH of course, the distance and mph of some HR or another. The absurd current rules of baseball are in effect the last straw. None of what is passing for "interesting" baseball today is more than just barely watchable from my perspective.

[Old Red]

It is actually getting hard to care about MLB at all the way it is being played currently. As both Splinter and I have commented in the past, there is simply not enough baseball talent out there to support this many franchises. There just isn't and we keep kidding ourselves that these guys are better ballplayers because they are on balance stronger ballplayers. I would refine that to be more muscular ballplayers, not necessarily stronger or more fit. The consequence is that the actual baseball being played suffers more and more as the years pass.

 

The most critical element is the pitching which is laughable now. Everything that happens on a baseball diamond starts with the ball in the hands of the pitcher. Hence as the quality of pitching declined it should have been obvious that the quality of the game itself would suffer. That has been exacerbated by the juiced baseball. While pitchers no longer challenge hitters nor back them off the plate, nor move the hitters feet in the batters box, pitchers do throw trash pitches right over the heart of the plate with predictable results. There are now three pitch types we see regularly:

- trash pitches right over the heart of the plate that are not efforts to challenge hitters....they are just crap pitches

- pitches designed to lure hitters into the one remaining trap the modern day pitcher has, a pitch designed to induce the hitter to swing at a pitch that is actually a ball

- Pitches that are so far off the plate that they cannot even induce a swing from a hitter

 

The cumulative result of bad pitching and the juiced baseball is a game where fielding no longer counts, base running no longer counts, hitters swing as hard as they can every swing regardless of the count and don't much care or can judge whether the pitch is worth a swing or not plus rosters filled with pitchers that might MIGHT give you 10-15 worthwhile pitches any given night before they turn into pumpkins. What has become "exciting" about today's game is whether a fielder can field a simple pop up, whetter he will throw to the right base or not and whether the base runners will have not f***ed it up so badly that it does not matter where the ball is thrown and OH of course, the distance and mph of some HR or another. The absurd current rules of baseball are in effect the last straw. None of what is passing for "interesting" baseball today is more than just barely watchable from my perspective.

 

Excellent post. The quality of play is nothing compared to the 60’s, and 70’s. Maury Wills would have no place in today’s game, and like you said not enough good players to go around to fill all the teams. Just look at all the talent in the Sox bullpen, or lack of. Baltimore has been nothing more than a minor league team for years that hopefully the Sox can beat up on this week again.

[Bellhorn04]

Not really buying the 'good old days' stuff.

 

I've been watching since the mid-Sixties, and there were plenty of relatively s***** teams and players back then too LOL