Papelbon is my hero (and I wish my boyfriend)

Okay so not really my boyfriend, but I love him as much as any heterosexual can love another heterosexual.

Dice isn't bad either, and Beckett is the ALCS MVP, and I wish Schilling was my biological father.

Red Sox are going to the World Series for the second time in four years. Papelbon (a MSU grad) got the save in game 7 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians and life couldn't be better. I pretty much have a crush on Jonathan, he's so goofy, so country, and such a damn fine game closer. He came in for a full six outs (for the first time this year) and he destroyed them, with noted help from our outfield (Coco Crisp and Jacoby "the Kid" Ellsbury).

Its funny how a sport I had nothing but disdain for is now my favorite sport to keep up with and by far evokes the most emotion. I yell, I clap, I curse, and I love it.

Back from a 3-1 deficit to win 3 games in a row to win the ALCS at home in front of the best fans in any sport in the best town in all sports (you want to argue that?? Red Sox, Patriots, BC, and the Celtics).

It's 11:30pm local time, I have class in the morning, I just cracked a beer, and am probably going to have a few more.

Long live baseball

Go Sox


*you like the pic? that's our dry erase board, home to all RedBullDawgSox sports

Currently Drinking: Samuel Adams Cream Stout

ALCS Game 5 live blog

• I am now a profound supporter of replay support for Major League Baseball. Manny hits a two run home run in the 3rd inning and its ruled A SINGLE!? -T
  
• Beckett comes after the bottom of the 3rd striking out two of three -T
  
• The ground rules for Jacobs field may say that hitting the yellow line is a homer, but seriously, all umpires present actually saw that little piece of material fly up? Yeh. Right. -H
• Okay, so maybe it hit the wall. Seems like different ground rules in different parks is something the commentators would do well to acknowledge. -T
• ...especially Tim "Fountain of all Baseball Knowledge" McCarver -H
• 10 GIDP in this series. That's pathetic. -T
• Beckett is settled. 40 pitches thru 4 -T
• For those of us in Mississippi tonight: local news, for the love of Allah, make the "Storm Weather Watch Forecast Team Radar Tracker 5" ticker about 20 font sizes smaller. -H
• And we've been watching Severe Weather News instead of the game for a whole inning. Well we've been watching Gameday on Horne's computer, going to try and Slingbox the game directly from Boston -T
• Had to watch our baseloaded out via Gameday. Trevor not happy. Titan angry! - T
• I love Beckett. Besides the actual one (Paps), Beck's is a bulldog and you better take him serious -T
• How many times are we going to have a missed play due to a glancing blow off the webbing? -T
  
• Here's a shoutout to my bro Will. Because of the numerous and timely Weather updates, we've got the computer out and watching my brother's Slingbox via the tv. You can't stop us, evil weather Gods!!! - H
• Beckett. Damn. -T
• YOUK! -T
• Do Grady's ladies like seeing his face in the dirt and no baseball in his glove, cus I do -T
• Sizemore does not = Crisp/Ellsbury -H
• Single most inconsistent ump. Ever. Of all-time. In the history of the world. -T
• 10 Ks -T
• 20-to-1 odds we see Papelbon this game. I'm just sayin. -H
• Perez "Hilton" throws the ball to right field instead of the short stop. E1 -T
• Lugo makes a perfect 3rd baseline bunt to advance the runners, and makes the single. Based Juiced -T
• Perez going back to bench "jail" Get it? Like Paris Hilton? -T
• PASSBALL. No DoublePlay. 5-1 (I think that's the first time we've actually said the score) -T
• 2 walks. Papi to bat with bases load...
• sac fly 7-1 -T
• If Beckett doesn't come back in the 9th, he has 11 Ks and was still hitting 96mph after 100 pitches -T
• Paps is lights out. 2 Wins Away.

I know it's not the most precise live blog ever, but hey we didn't have all night to just write, we had a game to watch.

Go Sox

ALDS Review

First up to bat, Red Sox and Angels. These two teams were pretty well matched in the regular season so a post season league division series should have proven to be quite the contested match up. However, this was not to be. Granted the other guys did not look as impressive as Beckett did in his 4 hit, complete game, shut out. Dice and Schill both brought their stuff and went deep in the game, both picking up the win. Actually Curt became the oldest pitcher in post season history to earn himself the W.
The second game seemed like it might was possibly going to maybe become kind of a close game, but then Manny being Manny hit his first ever post season walk off home run. A ball that soared a good 60 ft above the monster and continued to rocket over the freeway and possibly into the next state.
The third game with Weaver pitching for the Angels had some back story to it. Earlier in the year when Papi sent one sailing into right field, Weaver and his golden locks got all tied up in knots because, as he claims, Ortiz watched his homerun for too long before beginning his stroll around the bases. Next time he was to face Papi (G3) he would not forget that. Weaver made good on his promise to sitting down Ortiz, at his first at bat. Second at bat however, Papi again let loose his arm cannon (with broken knee attachment) and sent Weaver's pitch past Pesky's pole. I don't know if he stared at this one too long or not because following Ortiz, Manny showed Weaver the same respect and sent a ball past the fence and into the stands. And that was as close as the Angels came to winning a game. They are now 0 - 10 I believe, correct me if I am wrong, in post season games against the Red Sox.

The Yankees put up a good fight for game 3 of the their contest and took the series to 2-1 Indians. But the tribe would not be denied. After winning a game when their starting pitcher (Clemens) only lasted three innings, the Yanks pulled Wang after only 2+ innings and garnishing Moose's first ever relief appearance. In a true Moose's career slide performance, the Indians took it to the bottom of the ninth with a 8-5 lead. The Yankees, as they always do, tried to make some last of the game heroics with Abreu belting on into the third deck and bringing the Yanks within two.
Flashback, after game two Steinbrenner said that if Torre lost this series it very well could be his last. That coupled with A-rod's option to opt out and the likely hood that Posada, Rivera, Petite, and others would not be returning if Torre gets axed made for an important game aside from play off contention.
Back to the game, the last three outs by the Yanks were at the bats of Jeter, Posada, and A-rod. How does that sit with the Yankee fans. Apparently not too badly since the following day I see a girl in a Yankee Universe tshirt. I going to go ahead and say they day after you are eliminated from the play offs isn't the best day to flaunt your allegiance to what is now more than ever a dead dynasty.

He is, dare I say, "En Fuego!"

or do you prefer "Atsui Desune!" ? Okay, fine. Have it your way. Beckett was hot, like on fire hot. Just look at this screen capture of a recorded conversation between Mike Lowell (3B) and Josh Beckett (P) at last night's game one against the AL East division winning LA Angels
Lowell: "Dude, you curve ball is crazy awesome. How are you pulling the string that hard?"
Beckett: "What? Did you say something Mike? I can't hear you because my hands are on fire."
Lowell: "Oh Crap! No more high fives for you."

Seriously. These two are hands down the stars of the BoSox this year. Mike Lowell with his 120+ RBI season (most ever by a Red Sox 3B) and Beckett as the only 20 winner in the Majors. Both added to their glory last night in Beckett's full game, shut out, 4 hitter (with 8 K and 0 BB). Lowell tacked on another ribby to pad the Sox lead to 4-0. Beckett retired 19 straight after the Angels first hit, and Lowell was featured in the Top Ten plays for a defensive snag and throw out at first.

I think our seemingly near brush with division defeat at the hands of the Yanks was just a perfectly orchestrated maneuver to get all our boys back to health. Youk went yard at his first at bat, followed later by Ortiz smoking a two run shot around Pesky's. Ortiz and Manny both got on the bags all night. CoCo had a patented stretched out catch to continue Beckett's sit down numbers. The Sox looked untouchable last night.



The Angels looked like this deer at the hands of Beckett. Dead.






Quick recap of the other two games. Rockies fought off the Phills to take the series to Colorado with a 1-0 lead and the Cubs fell to the adder's bite as the D-backs gain the upper hand.

I love postseason. Except that it is on TBS, but that's a topic for another post. As for now, go Indians!

Last Night's Drink: Smithwick's. Found it at a gas station, go figure.


*To help our reader discern which of us writes which posts I am going to put my signature at the end of my posts

-M. Trevor Acy

There's only one Wednesday, there's only one OCTOBER

This might be the greatest piece of apparel ever created. I would sell a kidney to see a true yanks fan with one of these one at any point in the post season. I thought the yanks not making it to the post season would be the best thing ever but no, I was wrong; this is way better.

Updates have been shy I know. The two of us have been super busy with school and while that is no excuse, I'm using it anyway. We've made time to watch some football and of course never miss a sox game, but after that hiatus we don't have the time to sit down and write about it because we have to make up for the time spent watching. It's very confusing.

Quick football news, Mississippi State looked decent against South Carolina. I think our defense looked the worst it has all year, but I was starting like our community college transfer Riddle. So what happens? He tears his ACL, Henig starts practice this week, and we're faced to choose between Michael "I don't know which players our mine" Henig or a true red shirt freshman who has 4.2 seconds of playing time in the SEC. Personally, I'll go with Carroll. Our only two loses coming from a top 20 and top 5 team don't disappoint me too badly, but Riddle being our does. Honestly, I'm just praying that UAB doesn't upset us.

Baseball; It starts today. The last 160+ days have all been warm up and weed out. This post season is shaping up to be one of the best in a long long time.

• Red Sox win the division with the best lead in baseball with a very possible Cy Young winner in Beckett and even more than likely Rookie of the Year with Pedroia.
• The cast of teams is one of the best mixes in recent memory. Teams that haven't made it in years are all in.
• The Rookies winning 14 of 15 to force a play off game versus the Padres which was one of the most incredibly odd baseball games ever. A home run not called so and the walk off score not touching the bag all. Not too mention the all time leading saver Trevor Hoffman giving up the game.
• It is possible, though I'm not saying it will happen, to have a Red Sox / Cubs World Series. Holy Bejeezus
• D-Backs in it for the first time since the Unit and Schiller devastated the Yankess
• Phillies winning the division in the last regular season game, destroying the Mets after 159 games in the lead.
• While the AL MVP is probably locked up with Arod, the NL race is a tight one and should prove to make that league worth watching even before the WS

I could go on and on but I'll stop there. Make sure to leave comments with why you think this post season is one for the record books

Weekend Update with Norm Macdonald

2-1. That's the MSU Bulldogs' football record right now with the one loss coming from #2 LSU. Granted the wins have been over Tulane and Auburn but both are teams we have lost to in the past year. Maybe Croom is on to something this year. In each of the three games are defense has looked good and with each game our offense has looked better. Henig is out 4-6 weeks with a broken (fill in the blank). I'm okay with that because I'm not too hot on the guy. He looks scared in the pocket, has bad foot work, and more often than not makes very poor pass decisions. Our two little guys that filled in for him Saturday both looked more comfortable behind the line, although did show signs that they were indeed freshman. I am completely satisfied with the way our defense has been playing, especially versus Auburn. We look like we once did, and for what reason we became known as the bulldogs. Very agressive on the line with a hard hitting back.

Quick NFL side note. The Patriots rolled over the Chargers yesterday. Wasn't even that interesting to watch. Videos or not, the Pats are stacked. Now if we could just get the Chargers back into their baby blues and dress Belichick like a head coach instead of a bum trying to find half a hamburger in a refuse bin. The Bengals and Browns had a record breaking game though. Both QBs threw for 6 TDs in one of the highest score NFL games ever, if not the highest. I should probably look that up, but it's the NFL so I don't really care.

Painful three game series between the Red Sox and Yankees came to fruition yesterday. With the Yankees taking two of the games following two top of the eighth inning charges. Ironically enough a buddy of mine was over at the apartment for those two games but not the one Saturday in which the Sox won 10-1. So long story short, he's never invited over during Sox games again.


I love this kid. Jacoby Ellsbury is everything a minor league prospect call up is suppose to be and more. He is the fastest thing around the bases I have seen in a long time, steals bases so well that Reyes looks bland, can hit for yard, and uses those wheels effectively in the outfield. I repeat, I love this kid. Actually I love all our rookies. If the Sox can manage to hold on to all of them for a few years, we are going to be dynamite. Pedroia is nearly a shoe in for Rookie of the Year and Dice-K is still making an argument for a Cy Young if not Rookie of the Year. I think the Cy will go to our boy Beckett though, which is fine because he is on top of his game this year.

Notre Dame is 0-3. Ha ha ha. I wish Michigan would have lost though. Ole Miss drops the ball to Vandy. Florida and LSU aren't worth mentioning, we all know how they fared. And USC held up their end versus Nebraska.

Go Dawgs.

Don't be Sad Wally

Yeah, I don't know what happened either Wally.

Last night the Red Sox held a commanding five run lead over the Bronx Bombers until the top of the eighth. In retrospect I probably ran my mouth too much because usually getting into a bullpen battle with the Yanks can only end well for your team and we had Petite out by the sixth inning. None the less in true New York fashion the first eight batters reached for the Yanks in the top of the inning topping it off with the go ahead run which Boston was not able to redeem in the following two innings. Boston needs these wins badly, but not as badly as the Yankees want them. Two more nights, two more games. Tonight the two clubs' aces (Beckett, Wang) face off and tomorrow the old guys hit the mound in their first face off in six years (Schilling, Clemens).

For now, the magic number holds at 11.

Go Sox