 |
| Larry David and Bill Buckner |
First up is Tyler Kepner of The New York Times who explains the whole apocalyptic series of events in language that a non baseball fan can understand.
Next up is the perspective of Michael Newman a self described 'annoying Red Sox fan' who was at the Sox Baltimore game at Camden Yards (sitting directly behind Christopher Hitchens).
I thought I would shift gears here and give you the great Nate Silver's amazing blog post on the statistical improbability of last night events complete with charts and diagrams. Nate claims that the rot set in for the Red Sox when Bill Buckner appeared on a hilarious episode of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm (David is a Yankees fan).
This link is to the Duk blogger on Yahoo Sports who gives us the exact moment where Dan Shaughnessy jinxed the Red Sox by promising the fans that the Red Sox could not fail to make the post season. They're already calling Shaughnessy the most hated man in Boston this morning.
Finally I thought I'd link to the always interesting Pete Abraham, late of the Lohud Yankees Blog, who goes against the grain of easy criticism of Carl Crawford by talking about how he at least took responsibility for his actions and answered questions like a man.
Have I been reading baseball stories all day instead of working on my new novel whose deadline is looming ever closer? Uhm...
28 comments:
If you are working on the Cold, Cold Ground you better get back on it.
I'm not totally heartless, though. I just mentioned this post on another baseball friend's blog and I hope he checks in here because I think he'd like it.
I won't pretend I have anything else that is relevant here.
Seana
Come on! I dont need your nagging as well as my editor's, my agent's and the voices in my head! Not fair. And besides this story is just too good not to savour.
You're right, but it's yours to work on, not to savor. Uh, savour.
Seana
Is it savor? I'm thoroughly confused. I know rumours has a u in British English, but I've forgotten all the rest.
Even the greats falter. I was listening to the audiobook of Hitch 22 last night and I was somwhat staggered to hear Hitchens say boo-ed when reading the word buoyed.
As I've mentioned before this is recent change...in Thoreau's Journey Down the Merrimack Thoreau cracks a joke about shooting buoys which can only make sense if he pronounced the word boy.
Oh, it's both. The British like that u and Americans find it a waste of time.
I have to say that in my head I always call them boys, even though when someone says boo-ee, I know that they are right.
Or am I? Here's a pronunciation page I found. I think it may be both.
Seana
According to that page the plural can only be bouys as in boys which I dont think is quite right in American English.
Yes, I think you're right. They left out the American. I'm getting more confused, though, because I think Americans say 'boyed' my spirits, not 'boo-eed' my spirits. Although probably rarely do they say either.
Best night of baseball I've ever seen. As if all the baseball stuff wan't enough, the Red Sox-Orioles had a rain delay, pushing it's end back to only three minutes before the Rays won. Someone put that in a novel and no one would publish it.
The Division Series are kind of anticlimactic now.
Dana
It seems to have brought out the best in the writers too. That Nate Silver post is goofily brilliant.
Dark days for sure here in Boston. Headline in the paper I get was THE BIG CHOKE
Sean
Check out the Pete Abraham piece on Extra Bases, it's a nice bit of reasoning amid the hysteria.
As a Baltimoron I take an odd pride in being the spoiler, probably because it was Boston.
Dem O's are playing a hell of a lot better at the end of the season then at the start. I've said it before and I'll say it again, being an O's fan is like being in an abusive relationship.
Of course I also believe that they are cursed and have even named it to try and get ahead of the generational curve so in the coming decades when people start saying that they are cursed I will have gotten there first. In case anyone is wondering it's The Curse of the Cooler.
My remote is still hot from switching stations. Great baseball night, rooting for the Sox, against the Braves, and then rooting for the Yankees!?!-I'm a San Francisco Giants fan, but my heart belongs in Boston. Oh, and I have Falling Glass to read, so savo(u)r away.
I just struggled through this ESPN doc on Steve Bartman (available on Youtube) and the overwhelming thoughts I'm left with are 1) Bartman is a stand-up guy, and 2) holy cow, Red Sox fans always think it's about them.
I miss Abraham on the LoHud blog. Hard to believe it's just about 2 years to the day since he left for the Boston Globe.
(I'm the baseball friend Seana brought along)
Best baseball-watching experience I've ever had as well. The epic battles between the Yanks and Red Sox in 2004 will probably be the most memorable games I've ever watched, but the anticipation going into this night with a quartet of simultaneous do-or-die games and the wild ups and downs that ensued....unreal.
At one point I tried to take on a creatively paranoid perspective on it all, imagining that it was all staged (mind you, I just finished reading a great book about the Black Sox fixing the World Series). Then I thought: even in that twisted alternate reality scenario, they STILL couldn't quite pull this off.
Dan Johnson, batting .108 (lowest of any hitter in the major leagues) down to his final strike smashes a homerun that barely sneaks past the foul pole? The Rays escaping a first-and-third, no-out scenario with no runs allowed?
Not to mention, like someone said, the rain delay in Baltimore pushing the two games into a whirlwind dance of improbability.
And, of course, all of it being one densely amazing microcosm of the unprecedented September collapses.
As Evan Longoria repeated when asked about his homerun, "it just didn't seem real."
Brian
Well I've always liked Showalter and if anyone can turn around the O's its him. Its an amazingly tough division for Baltimore now and its going to be difficult to see how they can compete in the same league as the Sox and Yankees.
Still lets enjoy the moment eh?
Lil
I was switching channels on MLB.com and I'm pretty sure I almost fried the computer. It was a crazy twenty minutes or so at the end there.
Matt
Pete called it yesterday when he said that Francona was out. Francona is out and it looks like a big mistake to me.
Saying that though, compare the fortunes of the two teams since Pete switched from the Lohud News to the Boston Globe...the curse of Abraham?
PQ
It is crying out to be a movie isn't it?
Maybe HBO could pull it off, explaining the character and the drama for the non baseball fan.
I also like how it isnt all about the World Series. It used to be that the Pennant races mattered just as much and yesterday it was like someone had turned the clock back to the 1950s.
oh dear you cannot piss off the mighty Jinx like this...
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Photo-An-unfortunate-moment-in-Boston-bus-adver;_ylt=AkISC5zLU6P3ajcZLEztwXoRvLYF?urn=mlb-wp21679
I watched the ends of the AL games in my blissfully quiet local, knowing the Braves were already out. It did occur to me that this was, indeed, one of the greatest nights in the history of baseball.
I especially enjoyed Joe Maddon's thanks to the Orioles and Buck Showalter for their professionalism and dedication to the game. Anyone who writes Tweets that use complete sentences, real words, and English punctuation is all right with me.
Trivia: Last year's Bouchercon was in San Francisco, when the Phillies were playing the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series. This year, on the heels of Bouchercon in St. Louis, the Phillies will play the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round. So, the 2012 World Series will have to match the Phillies and the Cleveland Indians.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
I dont see how the Phillies can lose this year. They are by far the best team in baseball and any commentator who says differently is just trying to make it interesting. I've been a student of the Yankees rotation since March and I'm not confident at all that they can get through even the ALDS.
As a Red Sox fan, with all due respect, and nothing personal, but you should all get bent.
McGee poured three fingers of Boodles and swirled the glass, the ice cracking in the evening silence. "He's a mutt Meyer, he's just a mutt!. Thinks he's a iconic character and believes his books outsell mine".
Meyer took a swallow of Chardonney from the half empty bottle. "Don't worry Travis, he's a cliche. Lew Archer is a cliche. He's nobody, and now he's reduced to sniffing around McKinty's blog looking for some attention".
Bright Wind from Mountain
Lew
It was a mistake to get rid of Tito.
Bright Wind
Well maybe its just me but I still really can't get my head around playing baseball in Florida. Spring training yes, but MLB...
Adrian,
I think he wanted out, and I don't blame him.
Post a Comment