Three Games Left
This is it. 3 games left to decide the fate of both clubs. Huge, HUGE implications for the outcome of this weekend.
- The White Sox have clinched the AL Central so they will play Cleveland this weekend to set up their post season rotation. This means that Cleveland could win all three and clinch the Wild Card, which would make the loser from the Sox Yanks series this weekend playing golf on Monday.
- The Yanks are up by one game but that means almost nothing. I know technically the Sox have to take all three to win it out right, but this season has been as unpredictable as a season could be. Small and Chicon?? Huh?? Foulke not pitching? Curt has hurt feelings? Anything could happen this weekend.
- While I like my chances with the Yankees rotation, the Sox hitters, and playing at home, scare me more. David Ortiz should win the MVP. I hate to say this, but without ARod the Yankees might still be in contention. But without David Ortiz, the Sox would be 10 games out if not more. It’s plain and simple. David Ortiz has carried the Sox all year even though he makes one quarter of what Manny makes and doesn’t complain. I am a strong believer that the MVP should play the field but David Ortiz is so far in front of being the most valuable player on any one team that he should win it. Sorry ARod, you are the best player in baseball, but this year Ortiz gets my vote.
- Tonight. Tonight. It all comes down to tonight. Yanks win, it’s over. No way the Sox come out of it. If the Sox win, momentum and confidence are on their side. Taking 3 straight against the Yanks is not unheard of. The Yanks are 9-7 against the Sox this year so far, meaning nothing.
- If the Yanks lose and don’t make the playoffs, it will be like kicking an unconscious guy in the head. Losing last year knocked the mighty giant to the ground, not making the playoffs would bury him. Plain and simple. Steinbrenner would be snickered at during cocktail hour at his country club. It can’t happen. It won’t happen.
- If the Sox lose, this town will know pain like it has never known before. Birds will die in mid flight. Rivers will start to flow in the other direction. Blood will come out of water faucets. In the 8 years I have lived here, I have never seen the tension and anxiety like there is right now. It is desperation. It’s kind of like some drunk ignorant uneducated Somerville Red Sox fan taking his life savings (around 200 bucks) and letting it ride on roulette at Foxwoods so he can pay off his three-month-late rent and not get kicked out. I can see this fool sitting there as the wheel goes round and round. That is what it’s like around here. If the Sox do not make the playoffs after the huge expectations and incessant Yankee bashing all year, it will be failure beyond anything this town has known. There have been letdowns, like the Grady Little Pedro Martinez game 7 fiasco, but that team went farther than anyone expected. The baseball community in general had the Sox pegged to go back to the World Series. If they don’t even make the playoffs, it will be a long off season of finger pointing and player bashing. And Terry Francona will get fired. This is the outcome I hope for.
So this is it Yankee fans. This weekend. I will be glued to the TV with the radio playing slightly lower than the volume on the TV. I will be talking to my friend Uncle Billy, sending text messages to Jay and ignoring everything else around me. Every single pitch, every ground out, every foul ball, every routine play and every time the catcher runs to the pitcher to talk something over will be watched and scrutinized. I will either toss and turn all night after the game is over or sleep like the dead. I will also have my laptop in front of me to record each significant moment during the game so years from now I can relive it.
Peace out.