Rivalry? What Rivalry

Greech



I’m not really sure, I haven’t done the math or anything yet, but if I were forced to guess I would say the magic number for the Sox is around 17? Maybe 18?. The Red Sox sit 10 games up in the AL East, and we are actually currently on a bad slide. Meanwhile, a little to the south of Boston the Yankees are sitting in the cellar, tied for last with the always formidable Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Even after taking two of three at Fenway this past weekend, the Yankees are still reeling. There ingenious singing of Roger Clemens has yet to work out as planned. Clemens was recently diagnosed with a “Fatigued Groin”, and I haven’t been reading any of the New York tabloids, but wasn’t that the same thing they said was wrong with ARod last week in Toronto? Simply put these Yankees are the Anti Red Sox. They don’t seem to get along with each other, they don’t even stay in the same hotels (see: ARod in Toronto), They don’t defend their teammates (see: Jeter after Arod’s “MINE!”), their fans are booing their future first ballot hall of fame Manager, and their Owner may of may not be dead (alright, John Henry might be dead too, so we have that in common). All in all these guys seem to hate coming to the park. I’m only sad that Sheffield isn’t still around to lecture his teammates with his racist rants after Abreu strikes out or Cano boots a ground ball…. “I got some buddies back in the hood who are TWICE the players these clowns are, but my boys.....they won’t let the man control em, so they get sent back to the hood, shits wack”. Think about it, with the combination of a crazy Sheffield, a half dead owner, a menstruating third baseman, and a few pissed off and insulted Latin players, we might have seen the first ever same team bench clearing brawl, I for one feel robbed.

The Sox on the other hand, are playing like a ($150 million) team of destiny. Our manger makes all the right decisions, our bench guys (like Cora and Hinske NOT Pena) are coming up big when we need them to and our bullpen is pitching great holding leads late in tight games. Our starting 9 is hitting the ball and playing great defense, and while guys like Drew and Lugo aren’t playing up to expectations, guys like Lowell and Pedroia are picking up the slack. The starting pitching has been incredible, even our number 5 Freddy Kruger has been throwing a great ball his past six outings. And as good as Tavarez has pitched, we have Lester getting closer and closer to making his return to Fenway. Not only will Lester provide a more reliable fifth starter, he can roll the ball to first base with far more accuracy than Tavarez can.

The other thing I’ve noticed about this team, something I haven’t seen since 2004, is the way these guys seem to genuinely get along and enjoy each others company. Other than the occasionally time here and there when it looks like Daisuke wants to karate chop Tavarez for too much close talking, these guys all seem to be having fun in the dugout and on the field.

Back are the 90 second hand shakes, the awkward male hugs, the facial hair growing contests, and everything else that made 2004 one of the best seasons to be a Sox fan. So usually people say “enjoy it while it lasts” well I’m not going to say that, because I’m not all that worried about the Orioles, and the Yankees? Well let’s just say the old “Yankees Suck” chant is quickly becoming outdated.












OK, I have to add this in real quick…First Ill say up front that I’m going to temporarily ignore what transpired on May 22nd, I’ll just say that there hasn’t been a bigger ping pong game since Gump played the Chinese. I was planning on writing something before it happened, but didn’t want to jinx us, then Danny and Hemi kept bringing it up, all but guaranteeing we were going to end up with the five pick, and wouldn’t you know what happened??? Let it be known, however, that I haven’t been that close to puking, crying, peeing my pants, and seaning myself all at once since I was probably 4. But after a week or so to let it marinate, I decided that I’m actually not even that mad, because Oden is probably going to die of old age in two or three years anyway and the way I figure it Durant is going to severely burn his shooting hand on a double Carmel Macchiato from Starbucks. Amway, I’m going to spend the upcoming weeks learning how to pronounce Yi Jianlian, feel free to join me.



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