TGI Tirades

Before I get insomnia-inspired rant, Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, wrote an interesting column on what it means to be a fan these days. Pretty good read.

I'm really trying to look at the glass as half full these days. On one hand, it's never a good thing to lose two of three to the Mariners. But thanks to Wang and Johnson's extended work Wednesday and Thursday, we didn't have to use Mo, Farnsworth or Proctor for three days. Rest, they desperately needed after the Boston series. With an off-day Monday, you can use them for all three games of the Anaheim series starting tonight.

Yeah, you lost a game in the standings and losing to Washburn sucks. I have no idea why a team that destroys left-handed pitching scuffles against a stiff like this. But with Manny banged up and the pitching situation still iffy, it's going to be hard for Boston to go on an extended winning streak. While we have the back of our rotation going, it's not as Lackey, Saunders and Santana are Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz. We should be able to score runs against them. And with all hands on deck in the bullpen, I see no reason why we can't take two out of three in this series.

Some housecleaning...it looks like my nemesis ,Metstradamus, took issue with my post where I say that he and his brood are obsessed with all things Yankee. Here's what he wrote...

This is why I hate you

(I know you love it when I lead off my comments with that.)

First off, you certainly mention the Mets A LOT for someone who "doesn't care". And if you don't believe me, check your own archives.

And as usual, Darth Marc, you seemed to have completely ignored what I actually wrote and instead read every fifth word and inserted your own interpretation of what I wrote.

I didn't get on Carlin for injecting Derek Jeter's name for MVP consideration. Because the fact is, he SHOULD be considered and I always thought so. And he's more in the forefront after the five game sweep.

Read the Carlin quote again. He is arguing that there should have been an outcry that Jeter should have won an MVP BEFORE this season. This of course, is the kind of revisionist history that HBO basically used to award them the 2001 World Series with their documentary, and it will run rampant when Jeter retires.

Carlin completely ignores the fact that Jeter never had an MVP worthy season with his numbers, and that 2006 is probably his best statistical season by far.

Because people can't talk about Jeter in the here and now. They have to go completely over the top with him like those boobs at FOX basically devoting their whole pre-game show to him with this Chris Myers interview when they had TWO MVP candidates playing that day. But of course with FOX, it's all about Jeter, all the time...even BEFORE his clutch hit against Paplebon.

So yes, it makes me sick. Sue me.

For that reason, there's no way shape or form that Jeter will finish any worse than second for this season's MVP. First if the Red Sox miss the playoffs. And that's fine. It will piss me off but it would be legit. But let's not act like Jeter has ever been "robbed".

(But your NL MVP rankings are on the button.)

I did read what you wrote, Metstra. Maybe I should have been more specific in addressing Fatboy Carlin's remarks. But what I was trying to say in a general way was that Carlin's remarks were said to spark the sort of outrage that you expressed in your post...and to fall for it, much less address it...is a waste of time and space.

Jeter has been a very good to great player for the the better part of a decade. But I can't think of any year where he's been robbed of the MVP. There has always been someone who has clearly been better and more deserving.

Besides, he doesn't put up the type of power numbers that attract voters. To overcome his lack of power production, he'd have to hit over .350 with 220 plus hits, win a batting title, steal over 50 bases and score 120 plus runs. In other words, be Ichiro in 2001. Plus he'd have to hope that there wasn't a big-bopper on a contending team that had eye-popping stats. Like Ichiro in 2001. His principle competition was Jason Giambi and Mariners teammate Bret Boone. But the fact that Seattle won 116 games that year and the fact that Giambi won it in 2000, probably helped Suzuki pull it out.

Jeter career averages; .316 BA, 18 homers, 83 RBIs, 207 hits, 123 runs scored and an .849 career OPS...puts him in Cooperstown as one of the great table-setters of his generation. But it doesn't win him an MVP or even give him cause to whine about it.

Carlin (an admitted Yankee-hater) is trying to make a name for himself, so he throws the Jeter thing out there to get buzz. My point is that smart baseball people should be smart enough to see through that and let it go. Instead, he get you mooks, hook, line and sinker.

Hope Chris enjoys Mook-fish for supper.

This little whine-fest after The Empire's destruction of Castle Grayskull killed. It's courtesy of the deluded infidel who calls himself Fenwayparked....

Well,
I was kind of surprised to find you alone with your thoughts as I visit today. Here to take my lumps as it were hoping at the same time I might find a sliver of light that might perhaps guide me to a true, intelligent discourse on the grand old game.
I was also wondering if this is how Yankee fans felt after Game 7 in the '04 ALCS. You remember that don't you?
The acknowledged except for here perhaps the greatest comeback in sports history.
I also want to note that there was not one reference to the Red Sox injury situation in you musings. When the Yankees were something of a MASH unit it was a topic often discussed here.
Manny pulling a "No Mas?" I heard he had dinner reservations w/ Mussina and his sore little groin.
Boy, I'm starting to sound small here. The one thing that did surprise me as game 5 ended was the reaction in the dugout.I've always felt Joe Torre was a class act. Celebrating like that? I expect it out of Bowa the classless little runt, but not Joe.
And read up about the Boston Massacre will you? The British won the day but not the war. The Bostonians were Patriots standing up to another "evil empire."

First off, 2004 is history...you won, we lost. It's over and done with. I asked Infidel Nation in 2005...let's see you do it again. I'm still waiting for an answer. Not only did you fail to win the division last year, you got swept in the first round. On top of that, you have to be talked off the ledge after Damon and company ran through you like Sherman through Atlanta. Manny goes No-Mas and leaves the reservation. Epstein being burned in effigy. Fun times.

And then you have the gall to whine about Torre's celebration in the dugout after the sweep. Please. There was nothing over the top about what he and the Yankees did Monday. It was a long exhausting series and he was happy that it was over. Managers aren't allowed to smile or pump a fist after a win? I've seen a lot worse and from members of his fraternity.

If you want to whine about something Fenway, whine about why your front office did nothing to improve a team with more holes than John Karr's story. Not a manager, who rarely shows emotion, who has the audacity to smile and enjoy a huge series win.

This isn't the American Revolution, and you idiots aren't the resistance. It's been 88 years and you're still under our thumb. 2004 didn't change a thing. The French aren't going to save you, either. They play soccer, not baseball.