Category: Sports

Well, since you asked, Eric…

I stand by what I said. I am prouder of this team than I could possibly express. They gave me more than I ever expected. And I will die believing that the players on the field did not lose that game.

After all, I was right. Pedro pitched like he pitches when he needs to win. Clemens faltered, as I felt he would. The Red Sox remembered how to bat.

And Grady Little left Pedro in one batter too long. Then another batter too long. And another.

Tonight, Grady Little said this: “Pedro had gas in the tank… he was the man we all wanted in there on the mound.” And Pedro said this: “You want to point fingers, point them at me.” Little let his ace take the blame, and Pedro was too much of a man to blame Little. Do I have a single solitary reason to be unhappy with my team — not the manager, but the players I cherish so much?

I do not. And once again, I thank them.

Not Photoshopped.

And that brings us to a seventh game that has every excuse to be the best game seven ever.

After tonight’s game, I’m finally ready to echo a sentiment I’ve heard a few times this post-season. The Red Sox have now given me every bit as much of a season as I could have hoped. They have given me thrills, and hope, and joy, and I say this next without a hint of pessimism concerning tomorrow’s game: I won’t cry bitter tears if they lose tomorrow. I am satisfied. I am happy.

I think they will win tomorrow. I think Pedro will find the hard core of anger at his center that he uses to pitch his very best games. I think Roger will falter in the final game of his career, as perverse payback for 1986. I think the heart of the Red Sox batting order — a heart which is, make no mistake, nine men large — has remembered how to bat. I think we’ll see a classic, and I think that when the dust clears the Red Sox will stand in the midst of the enemy, victorious.

But if the worst happens, I know that I will still be telling stories of this season decades from now. The year I came back to Boston, the Red Sox wrote a story to remember. I thank them.

I dare say your local baseball fans aren’t building a replica of their ballpark in Iraq. What an amazingly goofy and magnificent idea. I’d like to see a picture of that. For that matter, they ought to see if they can find an Iraqi team.

By the by, this entry is courtesy of the Grand Coffee House in lovely Union Square, which has good free wireless. And couches.

Ted Sarandis spent a while this afternoon explaining how good the Yankees starting pitching was, and how the Red Sox shouldn’t get too optimistic. Talked to a couple of Yankees fans. Went on about how the Sox were missing two starters, as if Mirabelli hasn’t caught for Wakefield all year long — and Wakefield was 2-0 in Yankee Stadium this year.

Gotta love Boston sports media. Or ignore them, which seems to be working for the Red Sox. Onward, brave cowboys.

Since I think this piece may make the rounds, some deflating is in order.

John Lott purports to have proven that the media is biased in favor of black quarterbacks. He claims that his research means that Rush Limbaugh was right. However, his research (whether or not it’s sound) is completely irrelevant when judging what Limbaugh had to say about Donovan McNabb. Limbaugh made a very specific claim about one quarterback in particular. Straw man fallacy.

Above and beyond that, his research is kind of shaky. Problem one: he only considered newspaper data. Justification? “[T]his is measurable and it is not clear why newspapers would be so different from the rest of the media.” That’s assuming the conclusion. Good research tests assumptions like that.

Problem two: the data on which he bases his report is flawed.

“We also collected data by week for each of the first four weeks of the season on a host of other factors that help explain the rate at which a player is praised: the quarterback’s rating for each game; whether his team won; the points scored for and against the team; ESPN’s weekly rank for the quarterback’s team and the opponent; and whether it was a Monday night game. In addition, I accounted for average differences in media coverage both in the quarterback’s city and the opponent’s city as well as differences across weeks of the season.”

Points scored against a team generally aren’t seen as the quarterback’s fault. A better metric would be the points scored off a QB turnover. Why is it important that it’s a Monday night game? Why are all these elements weighted equally? Are they weighted equally? Lott’s not saying.

Not atypical of the man.

Hudson’s now admitting that he was in an “altercation” Friday night at Q. He says it was just a little shoving match, but the number of people who’ve said there was a fight is getting up there.

On a beautiful fall night in Boston, we grabbed the last table at the Cask and Flagon and watched the game. It went just about exactly like this.

Just a little more on the Hudson story before I hit the bars for tonight’s game:

ESPN picked up the story. No additional info, though.

However, a guy named Andrew just called into the Ted Nation show on WEEI, and claimed to have been present. He said that a Red Sox fan picked the fight with Hudson, and that Hudson was a complete gentleman up till that happened — signing autographs, and so on. “Zito tried to calm Hudson down.” He said someone (wasn’t clear, but I guess the club bouncers) kicked the Red Sox fan out and got Hudson off into another room to calm him down.

So there you go.

Boston Dirt Dogs has an email exclusive (will scroll off the front page after a day or so) on the Tim Hudson nightclub brawl. I’d be pretty pissed at Hudson if I were an Oakland fan.

Edit: David Pinto notes that the story is anonymously sourced. He’s got a point, but Boston Sports Media mentions that Steve Burton of WBZ’s Sports Final also reported the story Sunday night. The San Francisco Chronicle article ran on Monday and was not sourced by Steve Burton.

I believe they call this a developing rumor. Er, developing story. Yeah.