the reason why spell check alone is not enough

So I log onto mlb.com to check some stats during our 7-3 BEATDOWN of the Yanks today(I'm willing to bet the division cellar probably feels comfy by now), and I was greated with this. Sometimes, you just need someone to look it over before you hit "OK."

Yuup. Exactly.

At any rate, GO SOX! Best record in April!

Currently Drinking: Water(lame, I know, but I'm paying the price for last night)

the Monster vs. Godzilla

You know it's a great week when it starts off with your team sweeping their most hated rivals at home for the first time in 17 years. I guess merely stating that they swept doesn't even do them justice.

The Red Sox beat the Yankees by coming back in 3 straight games, games in which the Yankees gained the lead TWICE in each. The Red Sox beat the Yankees by absolutely mauling Mariano Rivera's cut fastball that hung way too along over the plate, skyrocketing his ERA and keeping him save-less for the year. The Red Sox beat the Yankees behind Dice-K's ability to pitch inside to A-Rod, effectively cooling him down for the time being. The Red Sox beat the Yankees with an earth shattering, record-breaking display of back-to-back-to-back-to-back homeruns which sent Chase Wright into the depths of minor league ball for the forseeable future. And it can't go without saying that the Red Sox were victorious this past weekend because of their phenomenal bullpen. Yup, that very same one that was supposed to be the "weakness" of this otherwise talented club(talking to you, Steve Phillips).

Maybe it's the fact that the Sox are 3 games ahead of the 2nd place team(Toronto) in the AL East, or that the Yankees have lost 6 straight and are chillin' in the bottom of the division, but I'm GREATLY looking forward to this weekend's rematch in the Bronx. This comes as a drastic change from years prior when I would worry about just comint out of The Stadium with one victory out of three. Not any more. Our pitching is solid(although the big 3 won't be up this weekend), but our bullpen has carried us, and our bats are just now starting to heat up. But there is yet another reason I look forward to the series this weekend, more specifically, the game tomorrow.

One hails from the Seibu Lions, the other from the Yomiuri Giants, but both are certified Mega-Stars in Japan. Of course, I'm talking about Dice-K Matsuzaka and Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui. I really am intrigued, as well as anxious, to see how this matchup plays out. Matsui did not play in the Fenway beatdown last weekend due to injury, but rest assured he'll be in the Bombers' lineup when things kick off at 7:00pm.

You thought Japan stood still for the Ichiro/Matsuzaka epic a few weeks ago? Well, the whole island may explode after tomorrow night. It will be Dice-K dazzling assortment of damaging dishes against the quick bat, powerful pull, and Matsui's knack for really hurting Red Sox pitching over the years. I won't be able to help the fact that every time they meet tomorrow I will have Duel of Fates ringing in my head. In Japan Dice-K was known as The Monster, while Matsui was often called Godzilla. Appropriate titles for such an epic matchup in the Bronx, don't you think?

The Monster will face off against Godzilla tomorrow night.

Currently Drinking: Water(gotta start hydrating the body for the weekend activities)

Intra-Division Rule 2.04b

Friday will have Boston swinging the bats in the unholiest of unholies and Dice-K making his Bronx debut (hopefully bringing back his ever popular plug A-rod and Jeter pitch). So what do you do when there are five days in between the continuation of the Sox-Yanks series? You keep up with the differences in games, watch the Sox pull 2 out of 4 games, and obviously root for who ever is playing the Yanks.

While keeping up with the Tampa Bay-Yanks games this week I realized that I always want Tampa Bay to beat anyone in our division since they are never a playoff threat. The Rays are always about 76.3 games behind (when they have a good year) by the end of the season and therefore it is always beneficial for them to beat anyone else in the division; mainly the Yanks. It is a bit ironic since if I really wanted them to win every time Tampa played the other teams in the AL East then they would indeed be a playoff threat, but don't boggle your mind with that kind of thinking.

It didn't take long for me to figure out what was really going on though. I just want the Yankees to lose. Right now they are battling it out with Tampa Bay for last in the division and are playing a series with Toronto. Now, logically you would want the team further back in the division to win to keep both teams as far as possible from you in the lead, but not here. I don't care if Toronto stays just as many games behind the Sox. I want the Yankees to be embarrassed (and yes, losing 6 in a row is embarrassing to The Boss, believe me). I'll take my chances with playing the Jays or Orioles in the ALCS just to have New York not even make the wild-card (in fact that would be almost as good as winning another World Series... almost).

Needless to say, this week has been great. Sure the Sox lost two, but they won 5 of their last 7. The Yankees however have not won a game since stepping foot in Fenway this year. I don't care how great of a year A-rod is having as long as his team is still losing. What does that say about the collective team when one of their players is having (as much as I hate to say it) one of the greatest months in the history of the game and they can not win. The series this weekend is sure to be a heated one and I plan on watching it with a microscope.

Quick shout out to Willy Mo Pena. I swear this kid is the mixed up love child of Big Papi and the Great Bambino. He has got such an Ortiz presence at the plate and just like the Babe there are only two outcomes to one of his at bats; K or HR. Tonight he played awesome (both offensively and defensively) but his big at bat game in the eighth with the Sox down 2-1. Baltimore brings in their closer Ray who subsequently loads the bases and pitches a meatball of a slider to Pena and he makes contact. As stated, contact = grand slam. If he could get his swing under control he could easily be one of the best hitters in the game.

Currently drinking: Natural Light (I like a little bit of class every now and then)

Japanese Rookie Saves the Day

Nope, not Matsuzaka. Hideki Okajima comes in for the ninth to pitch to the meat of the Yankee lineup. Jeter, Abreu, & A-rod. And he gets the save.

I don't have the patience to sit at my computer right now and type out the game to you. I'm sure Horne will have a detailed post later or at least a link to a good one. Sure A-rod had a good game (2 HR) and Schilling had some ER against him, but down 6-2 in the 8th doesn't mean jack with this team. I'm going to have to toot my own horn a little bit. I called the mess out of this game. Varitek had a great game with 3RBI and a HR which I didn't call but at dinner I said that Crisp was going to come out of his hitting slump (that's been almost a year since his broken finger) and sure enough he hit the gap just when he needed too. Also Cora is easily the best unsung utility hero. Comes in for Pedroia and gets the hit we need and makes two key plays in the 9th.

I love this feud. Every game feels like post season play. It's only the first of 18 games versus the Yanks and we were standing, pacing, screaming, and cussing for three and a half solid hours. We didn't have to bring Paps in (he has pitched two straight nights), Okajima proved he has good stuff (retiring A-rod for the first time tonight), and my favorite moment being Rivera blowing the save. I am not scared of "the best closer of all-time" anymore. Actually haven't been in, oh I don't know, about three years (2004 if you can't do the math). I'll let Horne fill you in on all the details. Make sure to watch the highlights. Late inning heroics at its best tonight. Dammit I wish the game got picked up tomorrow.

Go Sox!

Currently Drinking: Sam Adams Honey Porter

thoughts and notes

I don't really have one topic in particular to talk about, so I'm just going to do the whole stream-of-consciousness thing.

• Dice-K got another loss today, but man he did he look good when he was on: 10 K's, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB. He had that loss of control in the 4th, but other than that, he was dealing. Our offense just couldn't get much going agains Gustavo "I'm the Joker" Chacin.

• I take that back. Wily Mo hit an absolute BOMB against Chacin in the top of the 3rd. This thing hit the TOP of the glass(the old restaurant) in straight center field at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. They said it was 442', but really, how do they measure those? Anyways, it's one of the longest homeruns I have ever seen. Incredible.

• Is it just me, or is the whole idea of not having a shootout in the NHL playoffs an awesome idea? The first night of the playoffs showcased a FOUR overtime thriller between Dallas and Vancouver. How exciting that must have been for those people there. That's over twice the value for their money.

• So ESPN has this great channel, ESPN Classic, but the only damn thing they EVER show is boxing. Seriously, who actually gets excited about watching a boxing match from decades gone by? I am willing to bet that many more people would be interested(me included) in watching the horde of classic games from the sports of tennis, football, soccer, baseball, and hockey from over the years. Until they change something, I'm going to reference that channel as ESPN Boxing.

• Just noticed moments ago that ESPN picked up Friday night's Sox/Yanks game featuring Schiller against Pettite. If FOX will show the Sox game on Saturday(instead of Cards/Cubs...how exciting), then the whole series will be viewable from my living room. As it stands now, Beckett gets the call on Saturday against *insert A-AAA Yankee player here*, and Dice-K gets to shine on Sunday Night Baseball against Chase Wright, who got the W tonight for the Yanks(and has never pitched above AA).

• Speaking of the Yanks, I'll admit it...A-Rod is going to have me nervous every time he comes up to bat this weekend. He's on an absolute roll, and that's not good. Their offense is ridiculous, so I just hope that while their rotation is in shambles we can gain some ground. Of course, this assumes we can actually beat the Blue Jays the next few days.

• Over the past few weeks I have noticed this one guy in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first time I noticed him he had a Cubs hat on. A few days pass, and he has donned a Royals hat. Okay, two different leagues, but I still don't approve. THEN, mere days later, he walks in with a Cardinals hat on. So he has hats from two teams in the SAME division in baseball! WTF. The icing on the cake was when he came in today with a Mets hat on. Seriously...what the hell.

• With that in mind......Trevor and I have been talking about this for some time, and we're going to start posting excerpts from our future #1 bestseller book on what it takes to be a Fan for your team. This INCLUDES rules about what kind of hat you wear for your team. So keep your eye out for those posts in the near future. They should be informative as well as entertaining.

• And the whole Tim Duncan thing is just retarded. I hate the NBA.

• It was announced today that Vince Young will grace the cover of Madden NFL 08. Shall we begin now to count how many days it takes for him to sustain a season ending injury?
  

Currently Drinking: orange juice(I'm on the tail end of recovery from strepp throat)

"Fans" and Their Hats

For this semester I have taken it upon myself to be the newsfeed for my Japanese class on Daisuke Matsuzaka. My teacher (井田先生) is full-blooded Japanese and is actually quite interested in baseball. So today I announced that for Dice-K's Fenway opener, he will be pitching against Ichiro Suzuki.

To my surprise, a guy in class had on a Mariners hat. You have to understand that in a Japanese class, someone besides me liking sports would be like one of them not liking anime. Anyway, I find out that this might actually be legit. The guy is from Seattle and has only been living in MS for a few years. Kudos to him for sticking by his team my man, kudos indeed. Nonetheless, things take a turn for the worse. I ask him if he'll be watching the game tonight since it'll be Matsuzaka versus Ichiro. His response, "What is that, soccer?"


...



Let that sink in. Here's a guy, from Seattle, with a Mariners hat on and he didn't recognize the name Ichiro. I'll give him Dice-K because I guess it would be possible to not know him yet, very unlikely but possible. However, not knowing Ichiro is completely deplorable if you are hailing as a Mariner fan. The guy is easily one of the greatest imports to the sport of all time with a life-time batting average somewhere around .890, a rocket cannon for a throwing arm, and is the fastest thing out of the batter's box since that big wheeled robot from Base Wars for NES.

He has received six consecutive gold gloves and shows no signs of stopping that trend this year. He has got one of the quickest swings in all of baseball. He was the second guy to ever be named League MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year (Fred Lynn did it first). He has had over 200 hits in each of his six seasons, which is just stupid crazy. He was the first player to have a 50-hit month (August 2004). If this isn't convincing enough that you should definitely know this guy, continuing reading accounts of his incredible record breaking career here.

In no manner am I down playing Matsuzaka's ability but he has some enormous shoes to fill before he can come anywhere close to being the best Japanese player in the MLB.





I seem to get my post on in the AM, guess I'm going to have to change that so I can fulfill the what I'm drinking section. Instead of currently, I'll give you this.

Last Night's Drink: Horne senior's homebrew

Sox Tonight

Sox on TV tonight at 7:00pm (8:00 Eastern) on ESPN for Sunday Night Baseball. I hate Joe Morgran and the K-Zone is one of the single most inaccurate things to ever grace a sporting event, but none the less it is Boston. Sadly I'm probably going to be missing the game Wed. night so everyone watch and tell me how it goes.

Go Sox.