Wednesday, October 21, 2009

El Beisbol

I guess baseball season is over.

Tuesday night we settled in to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (who dreams up these monikers???) even up their American League Championship Series with those NastY Yankees. Being true Red Sox fans, of course we favor the Angels. Long story short---didn't happen. The Yankees won 10-1 taking a 3-1 lead in a best 4 of 7 series. If their opponent were the Red Sox, there might be hope. But the Angels?? Let's give them some applause for finally ending the dominance of the Red Sox over their West Coast patsies---the Sox have owned the Angels in the post season going back to 1987.

Back to Tuesday---I understand if Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo of NESN, the Red Sox flagship t v station, shill for the team and are not at all objective in assessing the skills of the Beantown Boyz. I even suffer thru the Fox Sports Southwest fools who laud the Texas Rangers when I watch that station to see my beloved Sox. It's only natural for t v announcers to favor the home market team. But is it too much to ask for some objectivity from national announcers like Joe Buck and Tim (the terrible) McCarver on Fox's national coverage of the playoffs??? The first Yankee run came on a play with Alex Rodriguez scoring from third base. There was a grounder to second, the Angel defender was a little too deep and the throw home was high.

Well to hear Tim McCarver's analysis, A-roid (A-rod after steroids---ever look at his earlobes---hi-def is sometimes too much information) is the greatest thing since sliced bread, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Reggie Jackson all embodied in him. Honestly, I think I could have scored on that grounder, replacement right knee and arthritic left knee and all. Now A-roid is number 8 on the all-time homer list. Of course, given the steroid and drug era, so what?? He's up there with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire---the Jacked-up Three. The 'Roid got the bulk of his homers with such play-off denizens as the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers. When he finally got to play post-season, he was basically 0-for-October until this year. And McCarver makes him sound like Jeter, for god's sake!!!! Sorry, A-roid doesn't belong in the same sentence as the Yankee captain. I hate the Yankees and love the Red Sox, but I can respect Derek Jeter as a class act. He's the only one of the Skankees I'd like to see move north to Fenway.

So no more ALCS, unless the Angels have a Red Sox miracle up their sleeves. And we'll take solace in the fact that even if the Yankees win the World Series, Los Soquitos Rojos will still have won twice as many world championships this century.

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