I flipped my calendar over to the month of October, and got excited.  I don’t even own a Red Sox calendar, and yet the month of October still excites me.  This isn’t something I will always be excited for…but for the year of 2008, the month of October is a big deal.

In 2007, I was fortunate enough to watch the Red Sox play the Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS at Fenway Park.  This year, I’m watching the game at home in my parents house.  And yet, I’m still excited.  Being a college student, I’d much rather watch the game at an apartment, or go to the dorms with my friends.  Does that mean I’m not excited for tonight’s game?

Please.

I don’t care where I’m watching the next few games.  The fact remains that it’s October and the Red Sox are playing for another World Championship.  And it’s even more exciting this year because we don’t know what’s going to happen.  We aren’t the same team this year, just as the Angels aren’t the same team.  We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re about to find out in less than an hour.  Although I’m not looking forward to waking up at 6:00AM tomorrow for class, the next few hours are going to be quite an experience.

Continue reading "Soxtober"

So far so good.

I was a little annoyed when TBS didn’t broadcast the pregame stuff where the players were introduced.  Oh well.  It made me a little happier when I got to watch Mike Socia’s reactions to every ball or strike call that he didn’t agree with.  He never gets up and argues, but the look on his face is always priceless. 

Anyway, now the real stuff.

Game 1:  Lester absolutely dominated the Angels lineup.  Sure, he ran into a few jams, but he was always able to get out of them.  I think it has helped in both games that the Angels have been leaving lots of runners on base.  They left nine men on base, five of which were in scoring position. 

Although we started off being down by a run, we got the lead for the first time all night after a Jason Bay two run shot (could that have been planned any better?) making the score 2-1. 

Continue reading "ALDS – Games 1 and 2"

Pats, I love you guys...but today is a baseball day. 

Honestly, I have so much trouble watching football in October.  Right now the New England Patriots are losing at half time, and I haven't even watched a kickoff.  That's because when I flip my calendar to October, it's baseball time.  If the Sox aren't in it, well then, I certainly won't object to watching football.  But today is a baseball day.  I was very happy to see the Phillies advance to the NLCS.  I personally don't want Manny Ramirez anywhere near another championship ring, so we'll see how that goes. 

As far as our own boys are concerned, Lowell is back in the lineup, but Friday night's hero JD Drew is not.  Here's what we got: 

1)  Jacoby Ellsbury RF

Continue reading "Can't stop thinkin' about the Sox"

Tom Caron just said that a little while ago on the Carlson and Mackenzie show.  He couldn’t be more right.  Although last night’s game was long, frustrating, and exhausting, now things are getting exciting.  We’re one game away from advancing, yet this isn’t something we can take for granted.  And to be quite honest, we should have had last night’s game.  So now I’m writing at 8:00am, a little more tired than I would have liked to be.  A five hour game is something we usually don’t see unless we’re playing the Yankees in the Championship Series (yeah that made me laugh a little too). And with all that being said, I'm a little frustrated after last night.  

First off, I don’t know if Beckett isn’t healthy or just had too much time off, but he didn’t look good at all last night.  He probably shouldn’t have pitched past the third inning last night.  He never really looked good, and every time it looked like he was getting into a groove, he’d give up a base hit or a home run.  If Beckett ends up getting another start, Red Sox Nation won’t exactly be breathing sighs of relief. 

Continue reading ""We got ourselves a series""

It’s exciting again.

We didn’t sweep, and we still made it.  We won in the 9th inning by the heroics of Jason Bay and Jed Lowrie.  It don’t get much better than this!

I think every single one of us threw something, or screamed some obscenity when Masterson gave up that 2 RBI single to Hunter.  Then we all screamed again in unison once Bay slide safely into home plate.  It was close, but not too close.  I myself was expecting a much closer play, and could not have felt any better when seeing number 44 glide across the plate.  Wow. 

And now that’s over.  We’re starting a new series.  I disagree with all the talk about Tampa Bay being a terrible team that we’re going to sweep easily.  They might have one of the worst ballparks in baseball, but they certainly have a good team.  With our injuries and okay pitching rotation, it’s going to take a lot of work to win another AL Pennant. 

Continue reading "ALCS Here we come..."

Good morning all.  Yes, it is still morning for those of us who stayed up last night to watch the Sox loose in extras. 

But let’s go back.  We actually won a game on Friday night, which seems like forever ago because last night’s game was so long.  But we did play on Friday, and we played quite a ball game.  We’ll start with Dice K….Dice-K….I don’t even know what to say.  You walk the bases loaded in the first, yet do not surrender a hit until the 7th inning (Thanks for jinxing it, TBS).  This guy is quite something, and I like him.  I love close

ball games, so Game 1 was pretty fun to watch. 

Does anyone else love it when Jed Lowrie drives in Jason Bay?  This happened on August 1, The Bay State man’s debut, when Lowrie drove in Bay on an infield single in the 12th.  Then it happened again in Game 3 when Lowrie’s single scored Bay from second to win the ALDS.  And what better way to score the first run of the ALCS than a sacrifice fly from Jed Lowrie to score Bay?  Gotta love having Lowrie hitting behind Bay.  Great combo. 

Continue reading "ALCS - Best of times...and the worst"

If Game 3 was a disaster, I don’t even know what to call Game 4.  Unfortunately, I was there to witness the whole thing.  What we had to hoped to be a great evening turned out to be one of the worst Sox games I ever sat through.

Although I payed over face value for my bleacher seats, we got upgraded to infield grandstand (thanks to higstickets.com).  My friend and I couldn’t believe it and headed over to the ballpark, all smiles.  We got in and caught a ball at batting practice, making our smiles even bigger.  We headed towards home plate to watch the beautiful Heidi Watney do her pregame report for NESN (she is not any less attractive in person, for those of you who are wondering).  We went out on Yawkey Way where we actually were shown on NESN briefly.  There my buddy was lucky enough to get Remdawg to sign his ticket.  We had such a great time before the game, why on earth wouldn’t we have a great time during the game??

Continue reading "Sitting under the dark clouds at Fenway"

To all you fans that left early…wow.  Normally I’d say, “Well, that’s what happens when you leave a Sox game early.”  But at the same time, that was such a great game, I feel bad for you. 

But that’s what happens when you leave a Sox game early.

Although it’s been a few days, I can honestly say I have not felt this kind of excitement since 2004.  When I watched Big Papi hit the walkoff in Game 4, I was watching it in my living room at home, by myself.  It was 1:00 AM, and I had to go to school in the morning.  Now I’m a college student, watching David Ortiz hit a homer to put the Sox back into it with a bunch of friends on a Friday night.  I gotta tell you, they’re two different situations, but it’s exciting nonetheless. 

Continue reading "And when you think it’s all over….it’s not over"

Tonight’s line up:

1) Coco Crisp CF

2) Dustin Pedroia 2B

3) David Ortiz DH

4) Kevin Youkilis 1B

5) JD Drew RF

6) Jason Bay LF

7) Mark Kotsay 1B

8) Jed Lowrie SS

9) Jason Varitek C

As much as I like having Bay hit in the 5 spot, sliding him down to the 6th and having Drew hit 5th really switches it up so that it goes righty-lefty all the way down (including switch hitters).  Although it might not seem like much, it forces Maddon to think about whether or not it’s worth it to bring in more than one left handed pitcher just to pitch to one batter.  I like it. Good job Tito. 

The reason I want to post this line up is because these nine men have a huge responsibility on their shoulders tonight.  Boston’s pitching has been less than productive.  It’s up to these 9 men to get some offense going early enough in the game so that we’re not forced to get 15 runs with only 6 ours left…okay that’s an exaggeration.  And okay, it’s so much more exciting when we do make a big come back late in the game.  But striking early in ball games helps win ball games. 

Continue reading "Game 6 Preview"

There’s a reason we always says “Believe!” and “Keep the Faith!”  It’s because our boys can do it.  Being a college student, the Sox remind me of how we like to do things:  We procrastinate until the last minute, and then pull an all nighter so we can get our work done.  So even though the Sox have been coming back from behind, they sure have been getting their work done.  That being said, we still have more work to do tonight, but the fact that we’re “caught up” makes a whole lot of difference.

I think the thing we were most impressed about last night was Beckett.  Who would have guessed with his recent struggles that he would have gone five innings and only given up 2 runs?  This may not have been the Beckett we saw a year ago, but we’ll sure take it.  On top of that, Okajima, Masterson, and Papelbon were lights out.  They went for a combined 4.0 IP giving up just a walk, and

Continue reading "Game 7 – Can You Believe it?"

Dear Red Sox Nation,

Thank you.  This isn’t how we wanted things to end, but we’ve had some good times.  I don’t wanna say “We’ll get ‘em next year” because it kills me to hear that.  We’ll say that in April.  Not not. 

It’s a weird feeling that I’m having right now, Red Sox Nation.  I’m upset, frustrated, but not angry.  At the same time, I’m dreading tomorrow.  It’s a burden, being a die hard fan.  Everyone is going to come up to us tomorrow saying “Hey, the Red Sox lost! That really sucks! You must be feeling awful….”  All of us know this is not what we want to hear.  Instead we’d rather go up to our fellow die-hards, shake their hand, and acknowledge what happened tonight. 

Continue reading "Thank you"