Friday, October 17, 2008
I don't believe what I just saw.
I cannot believe that game. I just... wow. My voice is GONE. People were leaving in the 6th inning; we moved down to the loge box where my cousins have season tickets because the people who share the box with them left early. I can't even imagine how it would feel to have left that game early.
There have been articles about how complacent Red Sox Nation is getting. How blasé. And there is some truth to that; after all, there were those seats emptying in the 6th inning of a playoff game. You wouldn't have seen that in 2004. Heck, you probably wouldn't have seen that in 2007.
But that 7th inning. I am not sure I can coherently express it. The David Ortiz three-run homer brought people to their feet in a way that would make even the most die-hard 2004-vintage fan proud. The screaming. The stomping. The jumping around and, and, and.... the continued screaming. How could we NOT? It was David Ortiz, our Big Papi, who had been struggling SO HARD, who had been wishing for EXACTLY THIS HIT for SO LONG, with all of us wishing for exactly the same thing right behind him.... and he GOT IT, he got the EXACT HIT he'd been waiting for, and Fenway just exploded.
We were still down 7-4! But from that point on, we did not sit down. We did not stop making noise. The last three Rays pitchers all had names that lent themselves wonderfully to taunting chants: "Baaaaaalllll-foooouuuurrrrr!" "Wheeeeee-lllleeerrrrrrr!" "Hoooowwwww-eeelllllll!" And oh, how we chanted. ESPECIALLY for Balfour and Wheeler, who seemed to actually become more rattled and uncertain as the crowd's volume increased.
There were Rays family members sitting in the section next to my cousin's seats. She was irate because, around the 6th inning, Fenway security came over and was talking to the Rays people about protocol when it came to running onto the field and celebrating, how they could get on there to party with their family members, and so on. "RED SOX security!" my cousin said, outraged. "Can you believe that?"
It did seem unbelievable. Even down by 7... these are the Red Sox! Have we learned nothing? I know that it was something those people had to be told at some point, but AT LEAST wait until the 8th inning, jeez.
Then of course the comeback began. The unbelievable comeback. I really cannot properly express how intense it was. On our feet, screaming and clapping and chanting and hopping and living and dying with every pitch. Practically hyperventilating. I honestly felt like I was going to throw up several times, or pass out, or SOMETHING.
It has been a while since I was last at a Red Sox game where every single moment hung you out on tenterhooks like that, but there was no denying the feeling: it was that good old 2004 feeling, where you WANT every out for every Red Sox pitcher so badly that you almost feel like you're throwing the balls yourself, where you WANT every base for every Red Sox hitter so badly your hands twitch like you're holding a bat.
I'm still obviously pretty verklempt from this game and I'm not being very coherent. But holy cats. Holy freakin' cats, that GAME. This TEAM.
Even if we go on to lose the series, it will not take away from what the team did in this game. It will not take away the fact that the Red Sox looked at the Rays and said: no. Not in Fenway. Not in our house.
Down 7-0, came back to win 8-7.
I don't believe what I just saw.Labels: ALCS, baseball, Devil Rays, Red Sox, win
1:29 AM
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Forward down the field,
A charging team that will not yield.
And when the Blue and Silver wave,
Stand and cheer the brave.
Rah, Rah, Rah.
Go hard, win the game.
With honor you will keep your fame.
Down the field and gain,
A Lion victory!
Well, THAT was a pleasant and unexpected occurrence!
My brain is starting to get scrambled. The Tigers were down by 7 runs-- 13 to 6-- and when the announcer said this I thought, "Oh, 7 points, that shouldn't be too hard to make up." I was thinking in FOOTBALL terms, see, instead of baseball terms. Eeesh.
None of this is helped by the fact that the Lions played in Oakland today, where the Athletics' infield is still clearly visible, even though they've expanded the field and painted the hash marks across it and ritualistically excised the actual bases.
The first Lions drive ended with an interception in the endzone. This was so typical, so purely LIONS that I found myself almost happy. It reconfirmed everything that is Lions football. We're back, baby.
The hilarity of this is the opposing quarterback, Josh McCown, who was of course on the Lions last year, and who got used in strange Lions-ish ways, for instance as a back-up receiver in a couple of games. He actually had a couple of receptions. The pass he threw in the 3rd quarter for an interception (which was tipped and then picked from the air) looked like a high effort pass. It didn't look like it came out of his hand easily; it looked like the ball weighed a hundred pounds. He also fell over as he was throwing it, possibly due to that aforementioned baseball grass. Somehow all of this is, again, familiarly bumping and Lions-esque, but for once not directed at the Lions themselves.
Roy Williams calls Calvin Johnson "Megatron", and he said, of him: "He'll have a touchdown today, one or two." Turns out that, for once, Roy Williams was 100% right.
I'm not sure what to say. There were completions-- real actual completions on the football field, by the players in Honolulu blue and silver. There were turnovers that actually went the way of the Lions. Jason Hanson was perfect, as always. It was a win... a GOOD win. A LIONS win. It is crazy and I do not know what to do with myself.
Dominic Raiola and Dan Orlovsky came up after the game to greet McCown. Raiola gave him a great big hug and McCown ruffled his hair. It was very 'awww'.
Unrelatedly, Pedro Martinez hit a double today off of Roy Oswalt. I don't think Boston fans will ever fail to care about Pedro, and Pedro hitting will never fail to be funny.Labels: football, Josh McCown, Lions, NFL, win
3:13 PM
Monday, June 04, 2007
They won!!
Michigan baseball! They won Regionals!
I know nobody who reads this cares, but eeeeeeee! First time since 1989! They had to beat NUMBER ONE RANKED Vanderbilt.... twice! And, goodness, they did! They lost the middle game, but it was unlikely that they were going to make it out of this round, because, you know... Vanderbilt! Ranked number one in the country! And Michigan DID make it out of the round, they're on to the Super Regionals, and Vanderbilt... now they've fallen to THE WOLVERINES!
I saw that the game was tied 3-3 in the 9th, but I couldn't watch the little online stat-tracker thing because I was a) too nervous and b) afraid of jinxing it. I know, I KNOW how irrational that is, but the one game I tried to follow on the stat tracker was the one they lost, so. No more checking. It was all I could do to restrict myself to that small glance in the 9th. And just now I thought that surely the game must be over, it should be safe to check again, and it was over, and we'd won!
For those of you who don't follow NCAA baseball, Michigan "won" the Big 10 regular season, coming out of it with the best record. They lost the Big 10 Championship to Ohio State, though, and thus were not assured a spot in the NCAA tourney. They received an at-large bid, though, which was right and proper because they had been the highest-ranked Big 10 team on the national boards throughout the year (in fact, they might have been the only Big 10 team to be nationally ranked... but don't quote me on that, I think Minnesota might have been on there too).
Michigan fans were grateful to see them in the tourney at all. Anything beyond that was assumed to be gravy.
They were matched up against Memphis first, which seemed a tough battle because the tourney is in Tennessee and Memphis then should have a home field advantage. No such luck, though, and Michigan beat them only to suddenly find themselves scheduled to face an even more fearsome opponent in Vanderbilt.
Whom they defeated! The middle game, which Michigan lost, even that wasn't some kind of insane Vandy blowout, like one would maybe expect from the nominally best team in the nation. It was a 10-7 score, and Michigan had come back from a 6-2 deficit, I believe. But the Wolverines won the first game, and they just now won the last game in extra innings, sending me into a series of overwhelmingly happy squees.
SQUEE!
Opponents to be announced for the Super Regionals... I guess we have to wait to see who wins the other games and whatnot before we know who Michigan plays next. In any event, the team's already done more than most people expected them to do, and it is nothing short of painfully exciting.Labels: baseball, college baseball, NCAA, win, Wolverines
10:53 PM
Friday, April 20, 2007
Hideki Okajima: talk about an IN-FREAKIN-SANE introduction to the rivalry. Yeeeeesh. Could that have BEEN more dramatic? I posit that it could not.
Welcome to the Nation, Hideki-san.Labels: Hideki Okajima, rivalry, save, win
11:34 PM
Monday, November 06, 2006
That Patroits game was supremely frustrating. My hatred of Peyton Manning and his pantheon of advertisements grows daily. Plus it was painful for my brain to handle all of the former-Wolverine-on-former-Wolverine action when Tom Brady went up against Cato June. Oh, and seeing Adam Vinatieri in that blue and white was a great deal more agonizing than I had thought it was going to be. So let's move on.
First off:
Forward down the field,
A charging team that will not yield,
And when the Blue and Silver wave,
Stand and cheer the brave!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Go hard, win the game.
With honor you will keep your fame.
Down the field and gain
A Lions Victory!
GOOOOOOO LIONS!
Don't get to write THAT very often.
This was especially enjoyable, given the fact that the last time I had seen the Lions play the Falcons was Thanksgiving of last season, where Michael Vick ran all over the field, dancing here, trotting there, hither and indeed yon, making out with Jim Mora Jr. on the sidelines, doing whatsoever he pleased, so on and so forth. So it was very, very, VERY nice to see the Lions manage to come out on top. All you need to win is a team that has a passable defense and some small modicum of belief in their ability to play football, and a coach whose head is not actually encased within the humid confines of his own lower large intestine while on the field. Who knew?
And so I am proud of the Blue Cats. I am proud of Jon Kitna for playing with what looked like a giant red slug eating his face (and I have no idea when he sustained that; I was dropping my friend off at the airport for part of the game, but I happily DID get to hear the vaguely uncomfortable comments by the announcers about how 'welt-y' it looked near the end). I am proud of the defense for stepping it up and holding on even without their best player. I am proud of Kevin Jones for trying to be a little bit more like Mike Hart every day. I am proud of Mike Furrey for EXISISTING-- in fact, this is a whole separate future entry on its own.
I am not proud of Dre Bly for still insisting on trying to make tackles by slapping at opposing players with his open palms instead of, you know, actually throwing his body at them.
My ire is really reserved for a perhaps unlikely target. I know he's a good player; I know he has potential to be an Amazingly Great Football Player Who Catches the Football Amazingly Well with His Amazing Good Hands. I know he's only 24. I know his arm socks give him extra ball-catching p0w3rzzZZZz and Attitude Points (disclaimer: not an actual stat).
But GODDAMMIT Roy Williams, STOP CELEBRATING AFTER FIRST DOWNS.
You score a touchdown, FINE. You're young, you're exciteable, the Lions are not exactly the biggest offensive powerhouse out there. A touchdown is a time for celebration, within reason. But a first down is (supposed to be) a commonplace occurrence in this game which you are playing, you know, American football, with American football rules, where first downs happen all the time, YOU KNOW THIS ROY.
So when you make a first down, stand up, PULL AN IMAGINARY ARROW FROM AN IMAGINARY HOLSTER ON YOUR BACK, AND FIRE IT DOWN THE FIELD FROM AN IMAGINARY BOW, you are saying one of two things.
Roy Williams' intended message possibility #1:
My team is so freakin' pathetic that we have to sarcastically celebrate first downs, because we will have no other occasions to celebrate during this game. We are barely even a real football team.
Roy Williams' intended message possibility #2:
Hey opposing team, I am showing you up after this relatively low-impact play, because I am an immature cloacaface. Eat my Honolulu Blue and Silver jock.
Quite frankly, neither one of these are messages that Roy should want to be conveying. And this is not first time he's celebrated after a first down either... this time it was just even MORE worth bringing up because he went so far as to FIRE AN IMAGINARY ARROW DOWN THE FIELD. Holy FREAKIN' cats, Roy. Chad Johnson watched you do that, shook his head, and said to himself, "Damn, that kid's a little too excited out there."
That pissed me off at the time, and the more I think about it, the worse it looks. I really don't know why the refs haven't hit him up for excessive celebration already, except I guess it's possible he's catching even the refs off guard... who expects excessive celebration after a first down conversion? Maybe they're too busy laughing at how pathetic it is.
Still. The Falcons aren't a nothing of a team. It's not like we beat the Cardinals (also known as the only team in football worse than the Lions are right now), or even a team keeping badness pace with us, like the Steelers (HA!). And we HAVE had a lot of near-miss games, although that's a little misleading, since usually the games turn into near-misses because the Lions manage to shoot themselves in the paw before the end.
The surprising part about this win was not so much that the Lions played well; it was more the fact that the Lions DIDN'T forget that they have to play all 4 quarters somewhat cleanly.
Anyways. Two-and-six. The season of dreams is NOW!Labels: football, Lions, NFL, rant, Roy Williams, win
12:28 PM
Monday, October 16, 2006
Shock! Awe! Amazement! Seriously, what?
The Lions, uh, won. Uh.
In the grand scheme of apocalyptic football happenings this is not even that far up there. There are probably those who would say that the Lions had to win at some point. The thing is, no they did not. There is no law in the NFL stating that any given team has to have at least one win on their record by the end of the season and the Lions are masters at finding ways to lose. The announcers on Sunday even referred to this in a roundabout way; they called it "Jon Kitna's disappointing 4th quarter numbers so far".
The players say that they care, and at the start of the season it certainly seemed like they cared more than they have in previous years, now that they are free from the soft, lip-tremblingly emo tyranny that apparently was Joey Harrington, but they were still FUNDAMENTALLY the Lions and, therefore, finding ways to lose.
Take last week. I was watching the game with my roommate's boyfriend, Derek. The Lions were lined up, I guess probably in the 4th quarter, and Derek says, "Watch, this one'll be intercepted." Lo and behold, Kitna throws an interception. We both groan, and Derek basks momentarily in his play-calling abilities. BUT WAIT. A flag! "Maybe it'll get overturned," Derek says, in that horrible state of mock-hopefulness in which all Lions fans must dwell in order to remain sane.
"Nah," I say. "Just you wait, it'll be offensive holding on us."
Lo and behold.
That's how bad the Lions are. It is getting so that fans can ACTUALLY PREDICT, play-by-play, ways in which they are going to conspire to lose the game.
So this game, this win, was a surprise. Not necessarily the fact that they were up early, or that they looked like a Real Football Team in the first few quarters. The shocking bit came from the fact that the Bills closed the gap to 3 points... and the Lions held on for the win. If there was one thing that the season thus far had taught us it was that this was impossible. Not just impossible, but unpossible, so impossible that it wasn't even a real word. "The Lions" and "holding onto a lead" were just incompatible ideas. They were oil and water. They were gametes from different species. They just did not go together.
But now the Lions have won a game, and they have won it despite the opposing team feinting in the direction of a late-game comeback. The gametes from different species have mixed and we have our mule. It may be sterile, but by god, it's alive and walking around and eating hay.
I don't know. The universe is a different place today. The Tigers are going to the World Series, Michigan is undefeated, and the Lions have won a game. The only thing I know for sure is, if you're the Buffalo Bills, you're feeling real shitty right about now.
Ah, and I guess I didn't post this, but I was of course at the Michigan/Michigan State game, and the photos from that are all right here. Highlights include shameless Zoltan photography, a cameo by Mike Wallace, and the return of the giant inflatable penis. Good times, good times.Labels: football, Lions, NFL, win
8:17 PM
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Hail! to the Victors Valiant!
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes!
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the leaders and best!
Hail! to the Victors Valiant!
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes!
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the Champions of the West!
GO BLUE!
Mario Manningham! MARIO FREAKIN' MANNINGHAM. <3 Mike Hart! Chad Henne! The defense, O, the defense!
I was watching Big Ten Ticket before the game, and they had Bo Schembechler on. He said many things; I wish I'd been taking notes because damn does that dude still give a great quote. But one of the things he said that I did remember was that he thought the offenses were comparable, and it was the team with the best defense that was going to win the game today.
So Bo said, and so it was.
Brady Quinn with the ball squirting out of his hand for no readily discernible reason. LaMarr Woodley chugging downfield with that fumble recovery, looking like he was about to have a heart attack and fall over. Mike Hart with his arms wrapped securely around the ball, chewing up the minutes. Shawn Crable HOLDING LLOYD CARR'S HAND to keep him in place while the celebratory water bucket was readied. MARIO FREAKIN' MANNINGHAM.
So, so many "Fuck-the-I-rish" and "O-ver-rated" chants going on outside right now. And we're here in Ann Arbor, not even out in South Bend.
And the Red Sox, against all odds and reason, won their morning game. Everything that I was dreading about this weekend, turned around and turned to wins. (Of course I still have obscene amounts of work to do, the Red Sox have three more [!!] games this weekend, the Tigers still need to win badly, and there are the Lions tomorrow. BUT WE'VE MADE A DENT IN IT.)Labels: Bo Schembechler, football, Mario Manningham, Michigan, NCAA, Notre Dame, win, Wolverines
7:52 PM
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