Dan Gould

I hope you went during the day or after the evening chill is gone. When my wife and I got seats in 2005 it was so cold up there, my wife must have made four trips to get chowder. And metal tables get damn cold too - and this was in June! I'll move my answer to the hot stove thread ...

Speaking of did you see the awkward interactions between A-Rod and Varitek afterwards? Très awkward with Varitek kinda of eyeing A-Rod and then Alex asking him not to punch him. (And Tek got fat in his old age.) Clearly Boston ultimately got the right "Alex" on the team, 14 years later. He needs to win two more to exceed Tito though. As far as well-positioned I am not entirely sure just because of the starters. Sale may only be here two more years and hasn't really proven himself across an entire season and post-season, Price isn't quite all that and a bag of chips, you never know about Porcello and Eovaldi probably signs elsewhere now. The core of the team is so young though, and JD is signed for a while and I can't imagine him opting out anytime soon. That's the signing you should rib me about, I didn't like it one bit but he transformed the lineup.

I'm in charge of birthdays posts Paul. I know how dated you are - and what happens in about a week.

How do the 2018 Red Sox match up against the 1998 Yankees? Here's one evaluation: https://www.mlb.com/news/2018-red-sox-stack-up-to-1998-yankees/c-299967748

After Aaron Bleeping-Boone broke our hearts in 2003, if you had told me the "cursed" Red Sox would win four of the next 15 World Championships, with the last one going thru a 100 win Yankee team managed by that same Aaron Bleeping-Boone, I would have wondered which of your six heads I should punch out. Glad no one can predict the future.. As for Hill/Roberts, Hill said, "let's go batter to batter. Keep an eye on me." I don't think it's at all surprising Hill would assume when he sees his manager come out that he's getting the hook. He felt he was running on fumes, and had no internal fire (like, I don't know, Sale, Lester, Lackey, Schilling, all of whom would have barked at their manager that they "got this") to tell him he can finish.

Yeah I've done that for each of the clinching games not stopping now. But we have in-law guests thru tomorrow so my cursing will continue to be kept to a dull roar. Amusingly, I found out last night that my mother-in-law (not visiting) was insufferable watching Boston games. She managed to do it sans the cursing though.

Well we are back to the much more pleasant experience of "go to bed in my natural pessimistic state, wake up to happy news." And I went to bed the moment Vasquez's throw sailed into RF. If I had stuck around for the 3 run blast I would have really been aggravated. Anyway facing Kershaw with a margin for error is fine with me. And while I might have avoided it, the Dodgers young flame thrower is lined up for a game 7, my only consolation there was the suspicion that he might not be quite so dominant in actual October baseball weather.

There's no need to eat it. Puig was nowhere near 1B and Kinsler had at least half a second more to set and throw, more if he sets and rifles it: But did Kinsler need to be so hasty with the throw? Puig was 45 feet from first base when Kinsler threw the ball. At his seasonal sprint speed, Puig was 1.6 seconds away when the throw -- which traveled about 100 feet -- was made. Kinsler had around a half-second longer to set and make the throw, which translates to 14 feet of Puig running at the pace he was going. View image on Twitter And Betts has to get his act together. 0h fer freaking EIGHT? Some MVP. He is getting no elevation on line drives, he skies out or hits harmless groundballs. Awful, and for nearly the entire post-season.

Woke up to this epic disaster. I went to bed tied heading into the bottom of the 8th hoping that as in the past, they'll pull it out while I sleep. I think Cora is a fucking moron to have burned Eovaldi like this. Now unless something miraculous occurs, it's Sale vs Kershaw on the road, to decide who goes to Fenway with the lead. I do not even intend to watch Pomeranz embarrass himself and fuck his team over tonight. What a fucking disaster. And I want Kinsler GONE right now. What a fucking piece of shit. Worthless in every way. All he had to do was set his g-damn feet and the game is over in the 13th and it wouldn't matter if they have to start Pomeranz tonight.

I think Martinez' glove plays better in LF, such as it is. Benitendi does give you an all-purpose pinch hitter as he hits lefties well (and what's with the extreme shifts when he led the majors in opposite field hits?)

Well we can stop guessing - I didn't see until now that Cora ruled out Betts at 2B. And JD's ankle remains an issue so it's possible he's only a pinch hitter at least for game 4? Not good.

November 8 target date for pre-orders in the States. For some reason I thought this was a December ship date but I'll be happy to see this sooner.

Any thoughts on whether Cora should play Betts at 2B, dropping the ineffectual 2B options and keeping JBJ in CF while JD Martinez gets 4 ABs in the NL park?

Much more info here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/10/21/craig-kimbrel-red-sox-world-series-eric-gagne/1722160002/ Pull quotes: It turned out, Gagne detected, that Kimbrel’s glove was pulled tighter to his beard when he threw his breaking ball than his fastball. He was also turning his head toward home plate and picking up the catcher’s target earlier on the fastball than the breaking ball. ..... They moved Kimbrel’s hands towards his belt to start his delivery, and just like that, the Astros had no idea what was coming. “When he was warming up and he had his hands at the belt,” Cora said, “I looked at the [Houston] dugout and there was a lot of looking around. I was like, ‘yeah. All of a sudden they were taking fastballs right down the middle. They took some bad swings on sliders.

Yes I mentioned it above - "great" 2007 deadline acquisition Eric Gagne, who turned out to be terrible but they still won it all - got word to his good friend Alex Cora that he thought he was tipping his pitches. Kimbrel fixed it right before the uneventful (relatively) closing out of the ALCS. And he's been just fine in two appearances in the Series. The thing with him though is that tipping or not tipping, he goes back and forth between spotting unhittable fastballs and wipe out sliders to walking the park, often with pitches that end up in the empty batter's box across the way, or throwing upper 90s but in spots that hitters can handle (career high homers allowed this year). I hope he handles the Dodgers the rest of the way but I'll still be glad to see him go.

He still could have woodshedded in KC before coming to NY and joining the force. I never heard that he rehearsed compulsively after he made the big time, a la Trane or Rollins (at times).

Man if Bird had been a cop he could have gotten his junk off the people he busted, no more pawning his (and other people's) sax. That would have been sweet.

Marty! Haven't seen you here in forever. I presume you are rooting for the AL representative? As for whether this comes back to Boston, certainly Game 3 will go a long way toward telling the tale. For a sinkerballer, Porcello can be homer happy, and the Dodgers will get a bunch of lefty power hitters in the lineup from the start. The Sox need to keep the offensive pressure on. Worst case would be a close game in which Eovaldi is used again but the Dodgers win it (Cora says if they have a chance to go 3-0 they'll use him, and figure out Game 4 after). Then Game 4 could be Pomeranz or E-Rod starting and that could be a disaster and suddenly you've got best two of three, Sale vs Kershaw to start. I will say I am thrilled that Kimbrel seems to have regained his mojo. 1 inning/9 pitches/7 strikes. Still don't want him resigned but if he's locked in again I like our chances.

365 days after turning 61?

You don't think its reasonable or even possible that a person starting their career, dependent upon an "elder" would fall for it at least for a time? It's the power differential in action, leveraged to the hilt - if its all true.