How 'bout those Red Sox

[k4kyv]

I was actually relieved, even a bit glad they finally won in 2004.

That's the year hell froze over.  If the Sox win again this year, maybe the inmates will at least enjoy having a cool front pass through.

[KA1ZGC]

Thom, it's hard to believe you're looking at this objectively with the comparisons you make. Like, the Yankees didn't lose to the freakin Marlins! (for peetsake), they "folded like lawn chairs".

In response to the assertion that money alone buys the championship, yes, I did say that. Go back and read it again.

IIRC, the Yankees still beat out every other team in their league that year for he right to play in the championship - including the Red Sox.

...and somehow all that money lost to all that poverty. Go back and read what I was responding to. Nevermind, easier to take it out of context.

Or: the Yankees spend money, the Red Sox "buy Talent". Suddenly the Red Sox are doing pretty much exactly what the Yankees did successfully for decades, yet it's different somehow. Very objective.

Go back and read it again. What I said was the Yankees bought based on ticket sales, the Red Sox bought based on talent.

Did they spend some money? Yes. Shame on them! How un-american!

Same thing about either team buying players just to keep the other team from getting them. Red Sox, no more. Yankees, still doing it. What about Ruth, Clemens, and so many others? Did the Yankees force their sale somehow? Considering the prices paid these days, I'd sure like to see some proof of that beyond opinion, if you choose to state it so certainly.

Go back and read it again. Those were different owners, Todd. My point was that the current ownership isn't pulling that crap anymore, your rebuttal is to pull up stuff that had nothing to do with the current ownership in response to an out-of-context mis-quote.

'Hey George, let's go spend 50 mil on players we don't really want or need, just so Boston can't have 'em'. 

Scoff all you want, it has happened.

They are two very different teams. That's why one is playing baseball tonight, and the other is watching baseball tonight

No differently than the many more times the shoe was on the other foot and the Red Sox, for 86 years, were doing the watching.

That's the whole point, Todd.

After all that, somehow the Red Sox merely bought their way into the World Series, and did nothing to earn it? Please.

Then they pulled the stunt with the rings, waiting until they played the Yankees to have the award ceremony - like they were gonna show them a thing or two!

Nice try, Todd, but that was their first home game. When did you want them to have the ring ceremony? August?

No "stunt" there, Todd. You can't deny history.

But it did more or less fit with the 'wait 'til next year' whinge, and the constant marginalizing of the Yankee's far superior record.

Name one time I marginalized the Yankees' record. Just one.

Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't deny history. Unless you're a Red Sox fan, perhaps?

Appearently not, Todd. There seems to be a lot of that going around.

So in my experience, the Red Sox 'haters' are more along the lines of folks getting some satisfaction from seeing the loudmouth/crybaby/whiner types get theirs. In reality, the Sox are just another team playing the All-American pastime and trying to come out on top. The difference seems to be, when they do win it's soooo much better than anything any other team has ever done. Pay no attention to the historical record, recent or otherwise. 

Victory is much sweeter for Boston because of history! Don't you get it? Why is it good for every team to celebrate making it to the World Series except for the Boston Red Sox? Why is it when the Yankees make the world series, they're a great team, but when the Red Sox make it to the world series, they just bought their way in?

You call that objective?

Do you have a point to any of this, or are you just trying to make yourself feel better by assuming some moral high ground?

No matter what anyone says to you guys, the response is that the Red Sox got where they are simply by spending money. If beleiving that is what it takes for you to feel good about yourself, fine.

I don't need to cast aspersions on others to make myself feel good, so I'm not going to keep beating this horse. You guys enjoy your little spite-fest, I'll be enjoying baseball.

Sheesh...

--Thom
...whatever.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Spend, spend and spend, until you buy a championship. This is what baseball has become. No wonder the NFL is kicking its butt.

[k4kyv]

I'd rather spend my money and time with other pursuits, including radio. My wife watches the  games, and she is rooting for the Sox because she and her whole family are from the Boston area.  I stop by occasionally and watch a few minutes at a time, but it would be tedious for me to sit in front of the tube for hours and watch the entire game.

I'm perfectly happy just to look at the newspaper the next morning to see who won.

Baseball is a better "radio" game than a "TV" game anyway.  When I was a kid I used to listen to the games over AFRS on shortwave.  That was back when they had the legendary announcers like Red Barber and Mel Allen.They delayed the broadcast for a couple of hours, and by that time they had edited out the commercials and long periods of dead air, and condensed the play-by-play to a two-hour time block.

I think I could still can get more into a BB game by listening over the radio than by watching on TV, but 90% of a radio game lies in the skill and personality of the announcers.  But I have not heard a play-by-play over the  radio in years.  I'm not even sure they still do it.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Spend, spend and spend, until you buy a championship. This is what baseball has become. No wonder the NFL is kicking its butt.

Exactly. And they lost a large chunk of fans with their little strike a few years back, which took them years and steroid-assisted records to get back to this level of interest.

And look at how much College football has risen in the last decade or so. People really do enjoy a good match up without all the crap.

Thom, my point is merely this: you/other Sox fans praise Boston for doing exactly what you poo-poo the Yankees for: doing what they need to in order to win. But you do it in a way that clearly shows it's not the method, it's how you can spin it to favor your team/viewpoint/etc. Perhaps if you'd added the Red Sox historical penchant for choking in the latter half of the season in there somewhere with the 'lawn chair' and other analogies, it would've seemed more objective and balanced? 

Regardless, it's still a game, albeit a pricey one between salaries, TV deals, and getting your mug on the Wheaties box. At the end of the series, some fans will be elated, others will feel cheated or let down, and they'll do it all again next year.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I agree with you Don, baseball on TV sux. It's better on radio and even better at the park, complete with the smell of the grass, freshly cooked popcorn and some faint cigar smoke!

Just remember fan is just short for fanatic.

[WA1GFZ]

Steve, At least football is exciting every couple minutes. I can't remember the last full baseball game I watched. Then there is travel ball.
Compare soccer to baseball is like comparing drag racing to checkers.

[Ed KB1HVS]

Thom... 03 lose to Yankees. Curse. 04 Beat Yankees go on to win 1st WS in 86 years. Curse broken. Others say fluke. 05 Limp into playoffs,die a quick death. See. It was just a fluke. 06 crapout early. Yanks crush us and we never recover. Wait another 86 years I guess. 07......Lead the AL practically from day one. Blowout Angels, Play a tough Cleveland team and comeback to win. Now 2 games up in the WS. No fluke No curse. And   not a copy of the Yankees! Sox just STRAP! 

[KA1ZGC]

Baseball is a better "radio" game than a "TV" game anyway.

Agreed!

I think I could still can get more into a BB game by listening over the radio than by watching on TV, but 90% of a radio game lies in the skill and personality of the announcers.  But I have not heard a play-by-play over the  radio in years.  I'm not even sure they still do it.

Yes, they do.

Oddly enough, even though ESPN has the World Series radio rights, they're appearently not exclusive rights. WRKO (680 kHz) and WEEI (850 kHz) are still doing their own broadcasts (WEEI on Wednesdays, WRKO otherwise). They no longer outcue as the "Red Sox radio network", only the station call letters, which suggests to me that everyone else carrying World Series coverage is stuck with ESPN.

Radio coverage of the Red Sox is what got me back into baseball.

When I was at WTOS, I picked up extra hours by working for the three sister stations (WSKW, WCTB, and then-WHQO). I had totally lost interest in the Red Sox after the blown World Series in 1986 (ten years earlier), but there were Sox broadcasts that needed producers, so I picked them up.

One of the things that impressed me right off the bat was WEEI's production. It was absolutely flawless. When there was a local avail, the format called for 90 seconds of silence from the sattelite, and exactly 90 seconds of silence was what you got. NBC, CBS, ABC, and ESPN were all over the road, couldn't follow their own format, and usually left the local producer pulling his hair out and cursing sportscasts in general. WEEI's broadcast was such a breath of fresh air!

In 1996, the announcers were Jerry Trupiano and Joe Castiglione. They did a great job painting you a verbal picture of what was happening on the field. Jerry moved on last year, but Joe's still there, flanked by either Glen Geffner or Dave O'Brien (though I suspect Dave is currently doing the ESPN coverage of the World Series).

It was a very relaxing way to make a few hours' pay. There were nine regular local avails during the game, plus two for pitching changes. The rest of the time you got to just sit back, kick up your feet, and enjoy the game.

In fact, the broadcast was so easy to manage, if I ever got scheduled to do a Sox game during one of my WTOS airshifts, I simply ran both broadcasts from the WTOS studio. The station was wired such that I could feed the WTOS programming on the WTOS board's program bus, and any of the other stations on the audition bus. Worked slick.

To this day, I listen to far more games than I watch. I'll be listening tonight for as long as WRKO's signal holds up, then I'll have to give up and flip on the tube.

So radio coverage is not only alive and well, it's the reason I wear this jacket.

--Thom
Kilowatt Amplifier One Zero Grid Current

[KA1ZGC]

Thom, my point is merely this: you/other Sox fans praise Boston for doing exactly what you poo-poo the Yankees for: doing what they need to in order to win.

Go back and read it again. I never once poo-pood the Yankees for trying to win. I pointed out a difference in tactics.

Your presumption was otherwise, and was incorrect. It made a nice excuse to lump me in with a totally different crowd and twist my words into a different meaning, but that doesn't make your mis-interpretation any more valid.

Read what I wrote, not what you assume is my point of view.

But you do it in a way that clearly shows it's not the method, it's how you can spin it to favor your team/viewpoint/etc.

Like your complaint about the ring ceremony "stunt"?

People who live in stucco houses should not throw quiche.

Perhaps if you'd added the Red Sox historical penchant for choking in the latter half of the season in there somewhere with the 'lawn chair' and other analogies, it would've seemed more objective and balanced? 

Perhaps if it had been relevant at that moment, I might have? Remember, I was responding to one statement with a few examples of why that statement wasn't necessarily true. You guys took that as some all-encompassing analysis of baseball.

Go back and read it again. Seriously. Not just parts of it, either.

Perhaps if you'd read what I wrote without assuming the outcome before you started reading, it would've seemed more objective and balanced? To the phoenix, everything tastes like ashes.

Shed your presumptions, go back, and read it again.

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zipper Got Caught

[W8EJO]

Baseball is a better "radio" game than a "TV" game anyway.

Agreed!

Which brings to mind some of the great announcers from the past: Detroit's Ernie Harwell, Pittsburgh's Bob Prince, St. Louis' Jack Buck, Cubs Harry Caray, NY's Red Barber & Mel Allen  & some current greats like the Red's Marty Brenneman.

These guys painted a beautiful mental image.

[K1ETP]

Man, what a crap storm I started.  Hey, how 'bout those Patriots!  Undefeated!

[WA1GFZ]

coming from CT I think the owner is an AH but the team is like a machine.
They will go all the way this year.
How about those Giants!

[AJ1G]

How about those UCONN Huskies knocking off USF this afternoon, and as of the bottom of the fourth tonight, the Red Sox are already strapping the Rockies 6-0!!!  Life is good....

[KB1OKL]

The Sox win another one. This team has heart like the 04 team, that is something you can't buy. 

[W4EWH]

I have now seen the Kahdiak Kids go the distance for the second time.

Twice in one lifetime should be enough for any real Red Sox fan.   

Bill

[K6JEK]

My son is going to school in Boston.   He sent me a picture from outside a bar called The Fenway or Fenways,  something like that.   Cops, cops and more cops.   He said he'd never seen so many cops.    Let's hope the euphoria doesn't turn to mayhem.

BTW.  He sent me the coolest T shirt.   It reads simply except with better typography  i.e math symbols etc:

         E/c^2  sqrt(-1)  PV/nR

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

From one of those 'anyone but the Red Sox' fans, congrats to Boston fans on a HUGE series sweep and overall great season. Your team is the best, proven by their abilities and tenacity this year.

And since the Sox have so capably mastered the Yankees formula for success, it seems fitting to borrow the previous century's Red Sox mantra:

Wait 'til next year!!!

[Jim KF2SY]

Congrats to the Sox and their fans, they truly strapped everybody.

Wait til next year...

Some interesting artcile from a few weeks ago on RS Nation.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7323070