Thursday, October 21, 2004

...JOY IN MUDVILLE...*

"It was actually happening. The nerd was kissing the homecoming queen. Paper was beating scissors; scissors were beating rock. Charlie Brown was kicking the football. The Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the American League pennant."

Hoorah! The Yankees lose!

For those not in the know, the Yankees are the Manchester United, Arsenal and Collingwood of baseball all rolled into one. You love 'em or completely and utterly loathe them. Good reasons to loathe: the megalomaniac owner, money to burn to buy victory, smug fans, overpaid all-star players, ubiquitous baseball caps worn by idiots who know nothing of the game or the Yankees history. The only reason to love: Joe Torre, their nice guy manager.

Also for those not in the know, Wednesday night was the final game in the American League Championship series to decide which team goes forward to the World Series (and I will not entertain comments about the "so-called World Series": World Series it is).

After the weekend, Boston's perpetual bridesmaid Red Sox trailed 3 game to love in the best of 7 games series. The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, whilst not quite Rangers-Celtic, is pretty tense. To add further needle, the Yanks beat Boston in 7 games last year after facing elimination in game 6.

The Sox got back to 3-2. On Tuesday, Curt Schilling pitched brilliantly despite having tendons in his right leg sutured together to level the series.

Last night, Boston blew away the Yankees to become the first team in baseball to come from 3-0 down in a best of 7 games series.

Ha!


* - from the final stanza of the classic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" - "But there is no joy in Mudville - Mighty Casey has struck out!"

:: Posted by pete @ 12:30