Friday, August 26, 2005
Well, that was fun!
No, really, I know what Schilling did for us last season. I know that we wouldn't have won it without him, and the toll it took on him to push on like he did. He's paying that toll right now.
86 years worth of Sox fans are thanking him for it.
Sure, a gloriously hypocritical majority of the rest of baseball dislikes the Sox now, or at least their fans, citing the classlessness, crudity, loud sarcasm, the annoying fanatical attachment to and obsession with the team, and hysterically overwrought rivalry with the Yankees... in short, all the things that were amusing and mildly endearing when we hadn't won anything in generations. These people hate Schilling more than I do, and I get mightily annoyed by some of the stuff he trots out these days. Sorry Beth.
I very much doubt that you could find a single real Red Sox fan who would give up Schilling, or the bloody sock games, or the World Series, or any of it, just to get back our lovable loser status.
So, yeah, we owe a fucking lot to Curt Schilling, and you've got to give the man his due.
But for fuck's sake, Curt! What was that? What! Was that!
I guess the plus side is that he threw 5 strikes in 5 innings. But it's not like he was just getting beat by Mike Sweeney, who I guess you can call a threat, or David DeJesus, who is probably better than you think. Denny Hocking? Paul Phillips? Angel Berroa? Paul Phillips??
Then again, the Royals were just coming off of a surprising dismantling of Oakland, to avoid the consecutive loss record. The very same Oakland that just now got done dismantling the Tigers, the very same Tigers who just recently dismantled the Sox. So by that token, I guess we were supposed to lose, right? Pardon me if that sounds like rationalization, I'm trying to find a way to make this series less surprising, and therefore less painful.
I was watching the end of the game with my friend Kate, who doesn't know a terrible lot about baseball. We watched Edgar neatly hit into an inning ending out, and she turned to me and said, "I heard that he does that a lot. Make the out that ends the inning."
I think I was in shock for a moment. I mean. Even the people who don't follow baseball have noticed? I know, I know, he's been doing loads better lately. Still. I'm not sure, but I'd go so far as to call that a breathtakingly bad sign.
Note on Kauffman: possibly it was mic location, but I actually think I heard a lot more 'Let's Go Royals!' chants than 'Let's go Red Sox' chants in the stands. Got to give the Blue fans some credit for showing up like that. Bet they were quite surprised to see their team show up as well.
I can't be the only person deeply disturbed by how much of our bullpen we had to waste in this series. These. Are. The Royals. Not the bloody St. Louis Cardinals! And we had to dig Arroyo out of the pen? And I know the idea was to put Papelbon out there in the 'pen, but it's still a bit nerve-wracking to think of two potential backup starters working in this disaster of a series.
Positives to this game? It is possible (possible) that Curt just pulled a Boomer here, came back a game too early, and will be able to be dominant from here on out.
Um. I think that's all I got.
Later today, the Tigers/Red Sox weekend begins. Expect photos. Expect me to lose my mind. Expect bright orange hats to be worn. Hey, SOMEone has to win, so at least this series will be soothing for me in that regard.
3:50 AM
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