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ALCS game 1 (liveblogging 9, 9th inning)
Top 9th: You've got to feel dumb when you put in a pinch-hitter and he strikes out. Oooh, and I loves me some Kenny Lofton. That was a base hit, and my man took a double. Welcome home, Kenny. :-) Way to hustle even when (let's be honest) there's not really much point. And now they walk the bases loaded. Didn't anybody ever teach the Red Sox that it's not nice to play with your food? (Wow, the people of Boston hate this pitcher, y'all.) (Until he throws three strikes in a row.)
Um, color commentators, two things: first, how was the 3-4 combination of Ortiz and Ramirez "lethal" this evening - they didn't do a damn thing. Ortiz hit some stuff, but Manny, he walked. Are they lethal walkers? And second, Manny Ramirez is not the DH. That guy with his shirt untucked is Ortiz. Come on, you're professionals. :-P
Some time in the late 80's, after Field of Dreams had come out -- have I talked about this here in the past couple of weeks? -- there was an editorial cartoon in the Plain Dealer that showed a man standing on the pitcher's mound in the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, looking up to see where the voice was coming from that was whispering to him, "PLANT CORN HERE."
I would love, LOVE, a copy of that cartoon. The Indians are not sucking out loud these days way they were then, of course, when in Muny Stadium, with a capacity of something like 80K, the record low attendance was just over one thousand. But all the same, while Red Sox Nation were accustomed during the long years of their unhappiness to their boys almost getting there and then not quite managing to close the deal, in Cleveland we are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as always, always, always the underdog. The movie Major League was not quite a documentary, but it couldn't have been made about any other team. I mean, look at the ALDS -- the Indians had the best record in baseball[1], and the Yankees were the wild card, and if the Yankees weren't favored to win that thing, it's news to me. The TV commentators were calling it an upset when the Indians won it in four games. I believe there is a general sense that the modern Cleveland Indians should be able to defeat teams that are really no good, like -- well, like Baltimore and Cincinnati and anyone from Florida, for a start -- but against teams that can really play, they've got their work cut out for them.
So in this ALCS, it's not that we don't think the Indians can win. It's that we have nothing like any confidence that they will. All of which is to say I think I am a great deal less disappointed in the loss of game 1 than any Red Sox fan would have been if the Indians had won it. It will be a couple of generations of non-shitty baseball, I think, before the people of Cleveland get used to thinking of our baseball team as much other than nine guys knocking a ball around in what should have been a cornfield.
[1] Oh, the footnote. Yeah - so the Indians and the Red Sox had the same win-loss record, and the Red Sox beat the Indians head-to-head, so I'm not sure how the Indians count as having the best record, but that's what the commentators said. (I'm aware that they had the best record in the American League outside of the East and that's why they got the Yankees in the first round - that's not what I'm talking about.) Of course, commentators have been idiotic and wrong before; if it turns out they were mistaken, please read above "the Indians were tied for the best record in baseball". Thank you.
Um, color commentators, two things: first, how was the 3-4 combination of Ortiz and Ramirez "lethal" this evening - they didn't do a damn thing. Ortiz hit some stuff, but Manny, he walked. Are they lethal walkers? And second, Manny Ramirez is not the DH. That guy with his shirt untucked is Ortiz. Come on, you're professionals. :-P
Some time in the late 80's, after Field of Dreams had come out -- have I talked about this here in the past couple of weeks? -- there was an editorial cartoon in the Plain Dealer that showed a man standing on the pitcher's mound in the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, looking up to see where the voice was coming from that was whispering to him, "PLANT CORN HERE."
I would love, LOVE, a copy of that cartoon. The Indians are not sucking out loud these days way they were then, of course, when in Muny Stadium, with a capacity of something like 80K, the record low attendance was just over one thousand. But all the same, while Red Sox Nation were accustomed during the long years of their unhappiness to their boys almost getting there and then not quite managing to close the deal, in Cleveland we are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as always, always, always the underdog. The movie Major League was not quite a documentary, but it couldn't have been made about any other team. I mean, look at the ALDS -- the Indians had the best record in baseball[1], and the Yankees were the wild card, and if the Yankees weren't favored to win that thing, it's news to me. The TV commentators were calling it an upset when the Indians won it in four games. I believe there is a general sense that the modern Cleveland Indians should be able to defeat teams that are really no good, like -- well, like Baltimore and Cincinnati and anyone from Florida, for a start -- but against teams that can really play, they've got their work cut out for them.
So in this ALCS, it's not that we don't think the Indians can win. It's that we have nothing like any confidence that they will. All of which is to say I think I am a great deal less disappointed in the loss of game 1 than any Red Sox fan would have been if the Indians had won it. It will be a couple of generations of non-shitty baseball, I think, before the people of Cleveland get used to thinking of our baseball team as much other than nine guys knocking a ball around in what should have been a cornfield.
[1] Oh, the footnote. Yeah - so the Indians and the Red Sox had the same win-loss record, and the Red Sox beat the Indians head-to-head, so I'm not sure how the Indians count as having the best record, but that's what the commentators said. (I'm aware that they had the best record in the American League outside of the East and that's why they got the Yankees in the first round - that's not what I'm talking about.) Of course, commentators have been idiotic and wrong before; if it turns out they were mistaken, please read above "the Indians were tied for the best record in baseball". Thank you.