The NEW "Stretch Run/Postseason" Baseball Thread

[davepeck]

Originally posted by Drew_Kingsley
World Series: St. Louis defeats Boston in 6.  Sorry, the Cardinals hit EVERYBODY...

you know, it\'s a little annoying to know that the 2 best teams in baseball played last week... the cards could have at least showed up for this series.. that was just an embarassment.

congrats botox fans.

[Wolfman]

This is for all the people who have spent their lives hoping for a miracle, knowing that all the pain would pay off in the greatest victory of them all.  This is for the former Red Sox who have had their very souls chained to poles of inferiority despite their years of efforts.  This is for all the friends who spent this night together.  I drove up to Boston for the game and it was unbelievable, I\'m so glad I spent it with my friends up there.  This is for all the people who sold out every game at Fenway Park this year for the first season ever.  This is for all the people who endured the wait but didn\'t quite make it to this point, including my dad and his dad, who together brought me to my first baseball game at Fenway Park in 1986.  This is for all the families and friends who have attended games together over the years, and called each other if for no other reason than to talk about the local 9.  On that note this goes out to my mom, who had never watched a baseball game in her life before I turned her into a Red Sox fan by bringing her to the Patriot\'s Day game 6 years in a row when I was a kid.  We went to the game this year on Mother\'s Day.  

Given everything that happened this year both on the field and in my life, I have to say to all Yankee fans, thanks for being our enemy.  Great rivalries make for great winners.  I love Yankee fans and put up with a lot of their stuff this year while living in Manhattan.  We are less without you, you are less without us.  The Yankees will always be the greatest sports franchise ever, but Yankee fans will never know what this is like, no matter how many times they win.  See you on opening day!

I\'ve talked to and seen so many people in the last week who I don\'t always get to talk to, and it all revolves around this.  The Boston Red Sox, a group that not only plays baseball, but is a cornerstone of the social framework that is being a Bostonian.  Thank you to the team for providing us with this experience, and to all the people in my life and in Boston last night who make the experience what it truly is.

[ChrisPitch]

But seriously...

As I stated on this forum following last year\'s postseason, the only curse is having inferior pitching. The Red Sox not only had superior pitching to St. Louis, which made up for the defensive gaffes the first two games, they made the Cardinals once-mighty bats look meager.

I was wrong. The Nomar trade worked. The Red Sox were the best team in baseball this year and proved it beyond a doubt. They deserved it and earned it and accomplished two things as remarkable as the title itself (beating the Yankees four straight and winning eight straight postseason games). The Red Sox are not a floundering franchise. They are World Champions.

Just remember, if you\'re a Sox fan and didn\'t believe in the deep recesses of your heart that they could win the World Series the entire time, including down 3-0 to the Yankees, then you\'re not a true fan and should feel no absolutely no validation in their subsequent championship. If you know for a fact that you believed the Sox could come back, then Congratulations for enduring and suffering and believing.

2005 World Series: Cubs over Red Sox

[Wolfman]

Originally posted by ChrisPitch
Just remember, if you\'re a Sox fan and didn\'t believe in the deep recesses of your heart that they could win the World Series the entire time, including down 3-0 to the Yankees, then you\'re not a true fan and should feel no absolutely no validation in their subsequent championship. If you know for a fact that you believed the Sox could come back, then Congratulations for enduring and suffering and believing.

Pitch, you\'re a great sports fan, but you don\'t know what it is to be a Red Sox fan.  You can\'t.  You\'re not one.  You couldn\'t tell anyone what it is to be female or African-American either.  What you just said is the most utterly erroneous comment I\'ve ever heard from you.  Let me explain it to you once, and then don\'t go telling anyone what it is to be a Sox fan ever again, and you certainly won\'t find me telling anyone how to be a Mets fan.

You don\'t have to be some psychotic yahoo who sat there after game 3 against the Yankees saying "Oh, we\'re definitely going to win it all now" to be a Red Sox fan.  That would mean there are about 3 Red Sox fans in the world.  Do you really think there are only 3 Red Sox fans in the world?  I guess there are no fans of the 1980 Olympic hockey team either.  Being a Sox fan is about waiting for the moment when they finally shocked you and pulled it out.  It\'s about expecting to fail, knowing that doom was always around the corner and expecting it, but hoping that somehow it would be vanquished to your great surprise.  Nobody I know believed that they could win after game 3, and I know plenty of the greatest Sox fans in the world.  Telling everyone out there that they are not a Sox fan because they did not expect the team to emerge from the most hopeless situation they have never been faced with completely compromises your integrity as a sports expert.  A true fan watched game 3, and all of games 4 and 5 deep into the night, and game 6 and 7 in New York, facing yet another devastating heartbreak at any moment, but watching nonetheless.  It doesn\'t matter what they thought, it matters that they were there.

[ChrisPitch]

Sorry Seth that you fall into the category of non-believer. Better luck next year.

[leith]

Gotta go w/ Pitch on this. Believer or non believer only 2 catagories that count in fandom. If you believe U r a fan. U doubt GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Drew_Kingsley]

On October 7th, when the Sox were up on the Angels...

Originally posted by leith
:sigh:     Pls let there be no broom smilie created. One game leads to 2....

Today...

Originally posted by leith
Gotta go w/ Pitch on this. Believer or non believer only 2 catagories that count in fandom. If you believe U r a fan. U doubt GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So leith, are you an Angels fan or what?

[Mark]

As sad as it was to watch a truly great team look like nothing the past 4 games, the following really sums up what the Cardinals are all about. I don\'t think there is anything out there that matches this sentiment.

I don\'t know about you, but I saw nothing but $$$ in Pedro\'s eyes last night. Bye Bye.

[jocelyn]

:point:

[ChrisPitch]

There\'s no questioning the dedication of Cardinals fans. Who else would cheer Rick Ankiel after that five-wild-pitch performance against the Mets in Game 2 of the 2000 NCLS? The Cardinals actually came back to tie that game before the Mets won in extra innings. So today is obviously a bitter pill for followers of the Redbirds, but you have to appreciate any owner who builds the ballpark with their own $$$.

But I guess, based on my previous posts today, that you\'re not a true Cardinals fan if you didn\'t think they could come back and win, even as late as when Foulke fielded Renteria\'s grounder.

Hey, if you\'re gonna be an asshole, be a consistent one.

One of my favorite threads.

Pitch

[skalnbyc]

Originally posted by Wolfman
This is for all the people who endured the wait but didn\'t quite make it to this point, including my dad and his dad, who together brought me to my first baseball game at Fenway Park in 1986.  

My first game (of the two under my belt) was also in 1986.

[leith]

Originally posted by Drew_Kingsley
On October 7th, when the Sox were up on the Angels...

 

Today...

 

So leith, are you an Angels fan or what?

Did u read the whole post ? one game leads to 2.... seems like i was still believing huh? Even to the last out. Sometimes u gotta plead to your higher up to help out no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

[skalnbyc]

Originally posted by Mark

I don\'t know about you, but I saw nothing but $$$ in Pedro\'s eyes last night. Bye Bye.

Since I am not quite the baseball fan that most Boston people are, I can be objective and say that Pedro does only care about money.  He was the one complaining about being underpaid last spring.  Shut up and throw boy.  $20 million or whatever he is making seems good enough.  Curt Schilling makes much less from what I remember.  He has a better attitude and threw better.

[jocelyn]

Originally posted by Mark
I don\'t know about you, but I saw nothing but $$$ in Pedro\'s eyes last night. Bye Bye.

Nah I don\'t think so. Everyone\'s going crazy after what he said after Game 3 about potentially leaving Boston. "I can\'t believe he was talking about that!" .... Well, the REPORTERS brought it up. Which I think was inappropriate timing.

Watching Pedro last night put a smile on my face. Haven\'t seen him smile like that in a while. He was jumping around, grinning, pumping his fists all the way through the game. If that was all because he was excited by the propspect of big(ger) bucks next year, well, then he is a fabulous actor.

[skalnbyc]

I guess it would be hard for anyone not to enjoy the moment last night.  

Great night!