The Village Idiot

In case anyone's curious what it was like tonight in the Big Apple: 7:10 PM: Sox fans gather at downtown Manhattan Sox/Pats/Celts/B's bar to watch game. 7:50 PM: A restaurant/bar proprieter who is a die-hard Sox fan arrives to watch game with gang; several other Sox fans follow suit. All order drinks. 8:50 PM: A Fenway season ticket holder/Tribeca resident arrives at the bar wearing a cowboy hat, plaid shirt, and doing the "hook em horns!" rally cry at every opportunity. She is often confused with Sandra Bullock but is not Sandra Bullock. Ongoing: Sox bar's bartenders make continual, predictable and unpredictable anti-Yankee, pro-Texas, pro-Texas music, eff the Yankees conversation throughout the duration of the game. 9:00 All's quiet, and relatively hitless, on the Western Front. 9:50 PM: MFY fans begin to show up. 9:55 PM: More MFY fans show up. Honestly, they really have no idea. 10:03 PM: I think to myself: 3,316 bars in Manhattan, and *******s decide to watch Game 6 of the ALCS at a downtown Manhattan RED SOX BAR? That's sort of like me taking the 6 train up to the South Bronx to watch the Sox in the playoffs at Stan's across from Yankee Stadium just for shits and giggles. I mean, I know I have issues and all, but this just MAKES NO f***ING SENSE. 10:16: My bourbon kicks in. 10:27: My bourbon REALLY kicks in. 10:30: Yankee fans around us realize that we're not Yankees fans. 10:31: My friend asks, "Gee? What could have tipped them off? Your Pats ski cap? Our friend M's cowboy hat? Our friend I's "Yankees Choke" t-shirt? Our constant renditions of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" at every commercial break? Our announcement, to every Yankees fan who expressed dismay when we cheered for TX that..."DOUCHEBAG, YOU'RE IN NYC IN ONE OF ABOUT 4 RED SOX BARS In A CITY OF 10 MILLION PEOPLE. WE WOULD TELL YOU TO GO ELSEWHERE, BUT THAT'S KIND OF LIKE TELLING GIRARDI TO get the braces you can't see. (f***ING OBVIOUS.) I've no idea what time it was at this point, but I do know this: A-Rod strikes out for the final out that gets the Rangers to their first World Series in franchise history! Sports really are God-like, in a nutshell. Mysterious, unpredictable, loving, cruel, theatrical, pure, merciful, ruthless and beautiful. Thanks, Texas. FTY.

I think it will be one of the least watched WS if the Phils make it, and one of the most popular in the past decade if the Giants make it in. I think the past decade has educated the American public that it's really something if the underdog wins. If the first-timers have their shot. If cities who can and will truly appreciate an LCS and/or WS championship are treated with the opportunity to be there. I know it's more than a cliche, but if it's Texas/Giants in the end, it's great for baseball. And that can only, only be a good thing. FTY.

Texas went out and won that series. Good for them. The Yankees had every reason to win, and TX had every reason to not make it through. Yet still, they stepped up in big moments, with phenomenal pitching, fortitude, clutch hitting, and poise under pressure. They reminded a big market team what it means to be a team and win, and how absolutely perfect that A-Rod struck out looking for the last out. Congratulations Nolan Ryan, the TX pitching staff, the TX lineup, and the TX (real) fans, and Ron Washington (oh brother), in that order. It's a huge achievement to bring a World Series advancement to a franchise that's never been there. And to go through the Yankees to get there? Ku-f***ing-dos. And by the way...thanks.

Tomorrow night's game is must see for anyone who gives a lick about sports. Lincecum/Halladay, with the freak having the chance to get his team to the World Series, and good God, win it for the first time since 1954? If that ain't a story line, what is? Go Giants.

Oswalt in relief makes no sense to me. Then again, I don't watch NL ball so what the f*** do I know.

Envisioning Werth in a Sox uniform....mmmph! He'd play the field in Fenway beautifully.

This is one hell of a game. Giants really battling. They're a gritty, emotional team. Fun to watch. Really hoping it's Texas/Giants at the dance in the end, and that polite, liberal, progressively democratic San Fran and the Bay Area (sans Oakland) beats up on all that is the state of Texas. The latter of which we of course love for at least the next 48 hours though, of course!

The relevant point here is that The New York Yankees' starting rotation is CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, Andy Pettitte and AJ Burnett, and the Texas Rangers' rotation is CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, Cliff Lee and Tommy Hunter. What I'm saying is that the Yankees coming back in the ALCS against this Rangers' pitching staff is less riveting and less of a story line than the Sox coming back while down 0-3 with their backs against the wall against El Duque who, again, held them practically scoreless in Game 4, and against Mike Mussina in Game 5, who was the Yankees' ace in '04, who (sorry) actually did get through 7 and held the Sox scoreless 6 of 7 innings in that game. Then the Sox were going up against Lieber, away, in Yankee Stadium, with Schilling pitching after having had f***ing surgery that morning. AND Lieber, like I said, held them scoreless for all but one of the innings he was out there. Sorry to beat a dead horse(face), but the point is simple and clear: If the Yanks come back against Texas this year, quite frankly, they pretty much should. Wasn't the case in '04 and will never be, which is a great part of what made the latter as special as it was and will always be for us.

If memory serves, the combination of Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber practically shut out the Red Sox in Games 1 and 2 in 2004, beating both Schilling and Pedro. No easy task at all--give your Yankees some credit there. In Game 3, Kevin Brown outlasted Bronson Arroyo in the 19-8 slugfest at Fenway, which I remember well since I was there. Game 4 was El Duque versus Derek Lowe, and although the Sox eventually pulled that one off, El Duque held the Sox scoreless through I think 6 of the 7 innings that he pitched. In Game 5, Mussina held the Sox scoreless for I think 6 of the 7 innings he pitched, but thanks to Pedro going deep in the game and the bullpen and Papi holding on, the Sox prevailed. Game 6 was another pitching duel extraordinaire. Jon Lieber and the other Yankee pitchers held the Sox scoreless for literally 8 of 9 innings. The Sox scored all 4 runs in one inning of game 6 (thank you, Mark Bellhorn). The only game of the 2004 ALCS that exposed a Yankees pitcher was Game 7 when Kevin Brown took the hill. And I remind you that the man who opposed him was Derek Lowe, who is not exactly Hall of Fame bound and who did not have a stellar season in 04, despite how much I love him (luvya, thank you forever, D-Lowe). This illusion, this hallucination, this utter fiction that the Red Sox pitching staff was leagues ahead or above and beyond the Yankees is utterly preposterous. The Sox starting rotation of Schilling, Pedro, Arroyo, Wakefield and D-Lowe in that series was certainly a far better pitching staff than the Sox had in 03 and in prior years, but the strength of the Yankees over the Sox from the mid-90s to the early part of this century's decade was largely a credit to the relative strength of the Yanks pitching staff surpassing that of the Sox in this same time period. For years during that stretch, Pedro was better than any pitcher on either staff--that's essentially irrefutable. But one pitcher a pitching staff does not make. For all of the above reasons, the Sox's comeback against their archrivals, with whom they were so closely matched in both offensive and in pitching talent, was the stuff of legend. And if the Yanks come back against the Texas Rangers? There is absolutely NO comparison between that and what the Sox did against the Yankees in 2004. Please, people, let's not rewrite history. The Sox comeback against the Yankees in 2004 was the greatest comeback in team sports ever. Ever.

OK now it's over. See you in Texas!

Kerry Wood is one of those guys who doesn't only look like a different guy without a beard versus with a beard...he looks like an entirely different species.

Vlad has NO plate discipline whatsoever. Zip. Nil. Nada. Nadie. Nunca. It's really incredible.

There are two innings left though. Anything can happen in two innings. Anything.

I sense an epic Mariano choke coming on this evening. If Texas can get out of this inning with no runs, I think Texas finds a way to take this. Also, it's October 20th. An important date in Yankee history.

I'm impressed with Texas that they've stayed in this game. It's a long game. It is far, far from over.

Teixeira blabbering on and on in his post-game interview in the locker room about the World Series, totally feeling sorry for himself, his body telling him it'd had enough (coming off of all his recovering from his injury stuff recently) and it just gave out....wow he's sounding like a Grade A pussy, like a white Slappy McBlue Lips. TO THE GLUE FACTORY!

AJ speaking about his performance: "I just wanted to come out and est. a strike zone and get our team knowing, 'AJ's alright.' It goes back to that one pitch, you know?" Yup. We know, Ajay. Incidentally, lots of drawings of dinosaurs and family pictures in his locker room cube at Da Terlet. Seems like a nice enough family man. But he's a MFY, so...eat s*** and die*! *I jest, I jest, of course.

It's hard to believe the Yankees won Game 1 in such dramatic comeback style the way they've played like dogshit these past three games. Just...wow. Also, happy October 20th, everyone. You may remember a certain significance to this date from just a few years back. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Watching Michael Kay and Paul O'Neill in the YES postgame. Kay looks constipated/food poisoned/like his dog died/hungover all at the same time. Hahahahahahaha!

Joe Girardi not sounding very "Tito-2004/2007-esque during the presser." He sounds like he wants to pick up a Chalupa XX on the way home, pop a 40 ounce and beat the dog. Good times!

Did you see that shot of Molina? Jesus Christ he is fat! How the hell do his knees hold up for 9 innings? (That's what she said!)

Watching Swish try to play 1st is funny. TBS. Very funny!