I've noticed a disturbing trend lately. I've now heard two people say that the Red Sox got into the playoffs simply becuase Cleveland choked.

This ridiculous yankee fan said it.

And Murray ChASS said it.

I'm confused. Didn't Cleveland's choke allow the yanks to make the playoffs as well? And do these people realize that had the Indians won a few more games, the Red Sox and yankees would have played a one-game playoff to determine the winner of the A.L. East?

It just doesn't make sense that these yankee fans would brag about anything knowing that the yanks and Sox finished with the exact same record.

And that the yanks only won the tie-breaker without a one-game playoff because Cleveland choked.

So, to me, and to anyone whose brain isn't made of dog or human excrement, the Cleveland choke benefitted the yanks the same as or more than it did the Red Sox. It's just funny how they're going around yelling "Cleveland choked," when that's actually what allowed their success.

Thanks to Joy of Sox for the chASS link.

Another thing that makes no sense to me is how in the first link above (and I realize I'm talking about a person who thinks George Steinbrenner is baseball's savior) the person says that if the Red Sox lose this year, they can't "hide" behind a curse.

Okay, beep beep beep, back up a second here. Were yankee fans under the impression that WE ever said anything about a curse? Were there signs at Fenway Park saying "Damn You, Curse!" when we'd lose in the past? Or that we'd all walk around consoling each other by saying "It's okay, we know there's been a terrible curse put upon our team. There's nothing they could have done"?

That's why these shirts that say "There was no curse...the Red Sox just sucked for 86 years" are so stupid. It totally implies that for all these years, WE were using the "curse" as an excuse for losing. (And, of course, by wearing it, a yankee fan is saying "I was a total ass hole for making Babe Ruth signs and bringing them to the Stadium. They didn't help when this crappy team beat my team in our own building in a way that no team had ever done before.")

In another yankee fan note, Chan was on the phone with another yankee fan friend of ours during their game the other night. Here's what I heard Chan say:

"Are you watching the game?...Come on...You didn't even know it was on?...The yankees!"

Classic.

I think this was right around the time Joe Morgan was repeatedly saying that the yanks have a "two-hundred thousand" dollar payroll.