 Opportunity Wasted
The Yankees and Red Sox had me on an emotional roller coaster for the past half hour or so. I'm on a quasi-working vacation in Mass. for the week, so I was watching the Yanks on my computer, and the Sox on local TV. The Sox nearly came back to win against the D-Rays. The yanks followed a miracle comeback up with a gut-wrenching loss.
You can't complain when the opposing team beats your best, and Mo is our best. At least we can take solace in the choke-job Manny Ramirez pulled in Boston. Al Reyes struck him out with the tying run on second on his 33rd pitch of the inning. I'm feeling optimistic, so I'm going to take this as a lucky break, not a missed opportunity. Phil Hughes didn't have his best stuff today, but it looked to me like he was getting squeezed by the home plate ump. I can point to at least five pitches, at critical junctures, which were called balls for Hughes. Bedard was getting those calls. I guess it sucks to be a rookie. Even with the bad calls, Hughes wasn't as sharp as we in his last start. Missing from his repertoire seems to be the straight change he was using to get lefties out earlier in the season. I don't know if he lost confidence in it, or maybe he just doesn't have the feel for it, but he needs it. Even without his good stuff, if not for a costly error (by Hughes himself) he would've only given up one run. Them's the breaks. Speaking of rookies, Edwar Ramirez's return to the Bronx today was triumphant. The Urkel look-a-like went 2.1 innings allowing 1 hit (on a bunt by Jay Payton), while striking out three. His change was devastating, to say the least. The Oriole hitters looked relieved to see Mariano come in for the 10th. Player of The Game: Shelley Duncan, 2 for 4, 1 run, 3 RBI, 1 HR. Also a great throw from right field to bail Hughes out early in the game.
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Glass half full...
Yankees didn't lose any ground. If they had to pick a night to lose, this was a good night.
Off topic, but a recent poster, Eric from Milwaukee, brought up about how people automatically associate Milwaukee with evil emperor Selig and thus hate the team. Really, it's not a fair hatred when you think of it... the players can't choose their owners.
But it made me think about teams you hate. In order to hate a team, they must have the ability to hurt your team, don't they? And there's no sense hating a dog...to hate another team, they have to be competitive and capable of beating you.
That said, would you consider the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry to be the most intense in all of sports? What other rivalries compare?
Good question JJ.
For me, the Sox/Yanks is the most intense (much more so since 2004, before that the sox were a joke). But I think that's probably only true if you're a Sox or Yankee fan.
The most heated rivalry I've seen firsthand is Cal/Stanford. Those guys go nuts for the "Big Game" every year. In college you also have Michigan/Ohio State. I think college lends itself to rivalries much more than pro sports.
In professional sports, the Giants/Dodgers is probably just as intense as Yanks/Sox, when both teams are good.
In football, for me the rivalry extends to all the teams in the NFC East, but there's a pecking order
1. Giants (geography)
2. Cowboys (dominance in the early 90s)
3. Redskins (just because)
They key ingredient in a rivalry is that the games mean something. Sixers/Celtics used to be a good rivalry, but neither team has been in the playoffs for a couple of years now, so it's lost its bite.