Recap: Red Sox vs. Yankees September 16, 2007

Blah, I wanted to write this yesterday but I was tired and then the horrible loss to Toronto depressed me so I couldn't bring myself to do it. But I don't want too much time to pass....
Let's go Sox, it's the top of the 1st in the second game against Toronto. Ellsbury just got a single and now Papi is up with one out. We NEED this win. NEED it. Ohhhh Ellsbury just stole second and the ball was overthrown and he is now on third...this is what I like to see.

Let me preface this game recap by saying even though we lost 4-3 it was a GOOD game. I, of course, really wanted the Sox to win (I NEVER want the Yankees to win) but I wasn't upset about the loss because it was a great effort all-around.

We got to Fenway around 3:30 hoping to get a tour before the game, but they were all sold out. We headed over to Beerworks to kill some time until 6:00 when the park was open. I hadn't seen much batting practice this year and I thought this was the perfect game to get some in. As you can see from the pictures, we were over on the "Yankees" side but it was cool to see them up close and personal too.

A-Fraud


Giambi, Jeter, Joba, Duncan and Peter Gammons (in the suit)


Shelly Duncan - THE JERK*more about this later


Giambi, Jeter, Posada and Joba behind Gammons


Matsui, Duncan and Damon


Damon, Manny and Papi


Torre


"Tonights Pitchers, Clemens vs Schilling"


The Original Fat Bastard, Roger Clemens


Roooogggg-eeeerrrrrr


Natalie Jacobson shaking off the catcher - haha


Jacoby Ellsbury in Left Field


Johnny Demon in Left Field

1st Inning
The game started off great - Schill only gave up one hit and things seemed off to a fantastic start when Damon dropped a routine fly ball to get Ellsbury on base (and he eventually scored). Oh the heckling he got, you wouldn't believe it. At one point when the yelling died down I yelled "That a girl, Johnny!" which even got some chuckles from the stupid Yankee fans around us. I have to admit I stole that line from my cousin but she didn't yell it loud enough for him to hear - I did. Mientkiewicz made an amazing play against Varitek to end the first. I swear, he never did anything so good for us. It was the best defensive play of the game.

3rd Inning
Nothing but good pitching until Jeter made a great catch to get Hinske out. This was definitely the second best defensive play of the game.

Innings 5 through 8
So yeah, we all know this is where things went downhill. Schilling started out the 5th giving up a solo homer to Cano (to tie the game) before retiring the next three batters.

I have to admit I was shocked when Roger didn't come out in the seventh inning, but instead we got a chance to see Joba Chamberlain and tell him what we thought of him.

Schilling came out to pitch the 8th, he only had 70 pitches and he really wanted the win. He retired 9 batters in a row after Cano's homer so ok...here's your chance Curt. He struck out Melky Cabrera to start off the inning. He then gave up a single to Mientkiewicz and a wall ball double to 'roid boy himself, Giambi. At this point, my Uncle Tom said out loud "He (Schilling) is too old to be pitching past 10:00!" - It was 10:28PM. At this point I think we were ALL wondering why Tito didn't come out and stop the insanity.

He retired Damon for the second out in the inning and got two strikes on Derek Jeter. People were on their feet, the crowd was going crazy and I turned to Rick, the guy who sits to the right of me at the games, and said "If he EVEN shakes off Tek and gives up a hit right now I'm leaving..." But no, he didn't shake off Tek and he didn't give up a hit, he gave up a BOMB and three runs!

The saving grace of the 8th inning - what made it all worth it? Mike Lowells response homerun over the Monster. Joba the Hut's FIRST earned run.

9th Inning
Gotta admit, I was a little scared when Gagne** came out for the 9th but he got it done retiring the side in order with one strikeout.

Mo (Mariano Rivera) came in to shut out the game for the Evil Empire but he did NOT have an easy time doing it. He walked Tek before getting out both Hinske and Crisp. Lugo got a double and the little glimmer of hope that we COULD win this game came back. We were through the bottom of our order!! Mo hit Ellsbury (BOOOO!) and then walked Pedroia to load the bases and Whose turn was it to bat? BIG PAPI! He worked the at-bat to a full count and then....popped up on what was possibly ball four to end the game. *sigh* We left 9 men on base and lost by one run.

Like I said, at least it was a good game, save for the loss and a few other things.

1. For the most part Yankees fans ARE rude and ARE stupid. I'm sorry to generalize but let me point out three examples.

• While we were watching batting practice I was next to a loud-mouth woman in a Yankees Jersey who was going on and on about how cool it was we were so close to the players and "you could never get this close in the Bronx" - I said "well I'm glad you're having a good Fenway experience" to which she responded "It will be even better when we kick your ass" - Hello. Uncalled for.
  
• There was some ghetto girl sitting in front of us with a Yankees shirt (F'n ARod!) and hat on. The hat had the words "Pretty Dirt" embroidered on it? Huh? What the hell does that mean. She played solitare on her blackberry the ENTIRE game...except when the Yankees scored...and she left in the 8th inning. She was NOT worthy of a ticket to this game.
  
• After the game we were filing out of the park and some Yankees fan idiot (in a Jersey covered with Mustard on the back of it. Wonder how that happened? Hahaha) was mouthing off about how "his" team was only 3 1/2 games behind. Hello Asshat, you were 4 1/2 games behind.

2. It's not just the Yankees fans who are rude. In this past week alone I have witnessed one and read another account of a Yankees PLAYER being rude to a Red Sox fan.

• *First I read over on The Mighty Quinn Media Machine about Duncan signing an autograph for a 10 year old Sox fan that said "Red Sox Suck - Shelly Duncan" - now had he done this to an adult it would have been funny. But to a 10 year old kid? Give me a break. Seriously. That is just wrong. And seriously, who is Shelly Duncan? Read more about it here: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1031894
  
• Then there was this incident I witnessed with Derek Jeter. YES! Captain Derek Jeter, who I have always thought to be a classy guy. While I was standing next to the Yankees lady who was RUDE, there was a kid in a Red Sox fan standing in front of us yelling "DEREK PLEASE! SIGN MY BALL! JORGE! SHELLY! DEREK! JASON! PLEASE SIGN MY BALL!" and he wouldn't stop. He was annoying, but an obvious baseball fan. But Jeter stops his exercises, looks up and goes "Hey Buddy we have work to do, leave us alone" and I couldn't believe it! But what is worse! He gets up, walks over and signs an autograph for a kid in a Yankees shirt!
  

3. OK, I cannot stress this enough. THERE SHOULD BE SOME SORT OF TEST YOU NEED TO PASS BEFORE YOU ARE ALLOWED TO ATTEND A RED SOX GAME ON THE HALLOWED GROUND OF FENWAY PARK, ESPECIALLY DURING A YANKEES SERIES!!!!!!! I am sickened by the number of non-fans (not only of the Red Sox, but of BASEBALL) that are at Red Sox games on a regular basis. Whether its the pink hats, or the girls in stilettos or the whining little brats....I can't deal! There are so many TRUE fans (of BASEBALL) out there who would LOVE to have that ticket and can't get it. This game was no exception. There was the "Pretty Dirt" Yankees fan I talked about earlier, but there was also the group of people who sat behind us. First there was a girl who must have been 5 years old who whined during the whole first inning that she was cold - so I very graciously let her borrow the blanket I had brought. Then here dad had to leave with her in the second inning because she wanted to go meet Wally at the team store (HELLO YOU ARE LEAVING A RED SOX YANKEES GAME?!?!) When they came back she was whining about wanting cotton candy, and being tickled and blah blah blah. Finally the dad called the mom and told her to come pick the ungracious brat up. But that wasn't it. There was a father-son who were there with these people. The son didn't know what a foul pole was, he thought the "hole" for a homerun in right field was bigger than the "whole" in left field (Huh?!) and wanted to know how you steal a goal and if we ended up getting any points. PLEASE GO BACK TO CANADA AND LEAVE THE TICKETS FOR FANS!!!! Phew....

I wanted to talk about the ran who ran on the field in the 7th inning as well, but I realize that needs its own blog post.

And on that note, I am going to end this LONG blog post and report that it is the 5th inning and the Sox are beating Toronto 2-1. LETS GO SOX!!!!!!!

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