I like the thought of Yankee fans seeing Jeff Weaver winning the last game of a World Series. Yes, it's the same guy.

And the Cards move closer to the Yanks on that all-time championships list. You know, if that recent Yankee dynasty had been a Cardinals dynasty, it could be, like, 22-14 Yanks. That would've actually been pretty close. They'd have had to start thinking about calling the Cards the most famous franchise in sports history and all that crap.

Sorry, just rambling in the pre-Halloween Party hours. I'm about to dress up as a zombified Paris Hilton. I'm actually typing with nail polish on right now. A first in ARSFIPT history.

As we celebrate this greatest of days, October 27th, and move into year three of the current blessed era, I think I'll show you some stuff you've never seen.

I was at my parents' house that night--they were on vacation, to which I still say, "terrible scheduling job!" I had my video camera because I wanted to film the (greatest) lunar eclipse (of all time). I set up my camera on a tripod, pointed it at the moon, and let it roll while I watched the game, occasionally moving it slightly when the moon would drift off the screen. Remember, we didn't know the Red Sox would win the World Series that night. I'd planned to go with friends to the Riviera in NYC for a possible Game 5. But on this night, the plan was to go to parents' house, watch Game 4 by myself, and tape the moon.

As the night went on, I knew an historic moment was about to occur, so I turned the camera on myself. I remember walking around, holding it to my face, saying, "this is the last you'll see of the 'old' baseball me..." or something like that, when we were a few outs away. Here's the moment Doug Mientkiewicz jumps up after catching the toss from Foulke.

As you can see, I was down on my knees. What a moment. Much of that series lacked drama on the surface. Over those last few innings, and dare I say games, it was only a matter of time. The world had already changed when we beat the Yanks. In Game 7 of that ALCS, the tables had turned to the point where Yankee fans, for once, knew they'd lose. And even before Game 4 of that World Series, we Sox fans actually knew we'd win for a change. A total protonic reversal. So until that last inning, it was just a waiting game. But to see that last out, man... My mind still has a hard time grasping that that was a moment that did happen. One of the many people I talked to on the phone shortly after that moment was Pat, who said, "Do you believe it?" He really wanted to hear my answer, it wasn't a rhetorical question. I said, "I don't know!" He told me to believe it, because it just happened.

I had to work the next day, and I was an hour away from Danbury, where I worked at the time. So I got up really early. It hadn't been a dream, fortunately. I walked out of the guest bedroom to find myself bathed in light. I walked to the window. Hell hadn't frozen over, but heaven had indeed dawned:

So glad I had the video camera. As I started taping, this bird started flying around. My mom would say it was my Grandpa. My dad might say it was my Nana. Two Red Sox fans who had seen eight Red Sox championships between them, and saw this one from above. Ah, being spiritual when it's convenient--it really is the way to go!

They say every cloud has a silver lining. But a Red Sox World Series cloud has a GOLD lining, that goes on and on forever in both directions...

And closer.

And closer still.

Then it was on to work, before cruising on that same cloud to Boston for the Rolling Rally. As some of you know, I made a movie which featured my footage of that rally, along with some I shot when the team later brought the trophy to the New Haven Green. And, of course, sped-up shots I got of that wonderful, pink, ascending, eclipsing moon, just above and to the left of where the sun would soon rise over a happy Red Sox Nation. Click below to watch the movie.

Labels: movies

When I read that Buckner article, I learned that Preston Wilson is the son of Mookie Wilson. I seriously had no idea. And no idea how I didn't know that. So when I was writing about that Mets-Cards series, I missed a chance to talk about this. I did say how it could be cool in a way for the Mets fans to have to experience what we did in '86, by losing on an error or something. At least the Mets fans who are horrible people and deserve something like that. If I'd known, I'd have suggested Preston Wilson hitting a grounder that a Mets fielder had go through his legs, with the Mets one strike away, causing the Cards to win the series. Or on the other side, having Wilson make an error, making both Wilsons cause Mets fans delirium.

Now, in the World Series, Preston, playing for the NL champs, which the Mets were so close to being, gets a key hit, and Fox shows Mookie with a Cards hat on, cheering in the crowd! Was he at Shea with his Cards hat in the NLCS?? Did some poor Mets fan have to sit next to him at Game 7, and hear him root against the Mets?

We're not exactly even, but this gets me one step closer to being able to fully root for the Mets in October, so long as they're not playing the Red Sox.

Granderson up. I'm rooting for him after that embarrassing slip.

Hey, did you see before when a darker-skinned Cardinal in a home uniform wearing number 3 hit a one-hopper to the mound and the pitcher took a few steps toward first and tossed over for the out? On October twenty-almost-seventh? That was cool.

Granderson strikes out. We're tied after 7.5.

[Edit from like 5 seconds later. I titled this post, and immediately after that, an ad for a movie called Deja Vu came on. Weird. "Do you ever get deja vu?" "I can check with the kitchen..."]

Why do they still play that MLB commercial? The one that shows Chipper Jones, Ichiro, and Jeter highlights on weird hanging photos in some crazy room filmed with a stupid effect. Above Jeter is a picture of Nomar, not only in a Red Sox uniform, which he hasn't worn in two years, but in this...
...old BP jersey, which the Sox haven't worn in a long, long time.

Oh, right, maybe they still show it because no one would notice it but me.

I feel really bad for Curtis Granderson right now. That could end up being a play a lot of people don't ever forget.

Nothing makes a catcher look worse than when he's expecting one pitch is thrown another.

Nothing makes an announcer look worse than when the above happens right after he informs the audience that that catcher is the greatest defensive catcher in the history of the game.

From the New York Times, via Can't Stop the Bleeding, comes this quote from Derek Jeter (who just won the "the media told us who to vote for because they're spineless conformists who dare not say anything negative about a guy who's percieved as a saint but is really no less of an asshole on field and off than anyone else and who also hasn't met his goal in six years, and so are we" award) about whether or not A-Rod needs to clear the air with Joe Torre:

“I don’t have anything to do with that. From what I’ve heard, I haven’t heard there’s any air that needed to be cleared. I’m not speaking on his behalf or Mr. T’s behalf, but that’s not something I’ve heard.”

Now, how he brings Mr. T into this, I'll never know. But I can speak, fairly confidently, on the behalf of the former Rocky III star:

"I pity the fool who bats A-Rod eighth. That's only going to take away more of what little confidence he has left, making him more of a choker, and causing more grief for what's now a cursed organization. Cursed, I said. Cursed. Don't make me mad. Grrrrrr. Stay in school, kids."

When asked about George's plans for Mr T, Jeter said, "Those two are like peas in a pod":

Shortly after the Yankees decided it would be funny to sell an official T-shirt featuring a gravestone that pronounced the Red Sox dead, one of their own players killed himself and another guy by thinking he was a pilot.

Now karma has kicked the Yankees in the ass as they try to stumble to their proverbial feet.

Case against: marketing people.

In the Quiz I comments, AJM provided a link to a picture of Kevin Seitzer. That picture was taken during a three-game series in which the Royals were the visiting team. The next road series the Royals played that season was against a team that featured a player who Roger Clemens said he hated to face. Name him.

(Note: Not all quizzes will involve Kevin Seitzer. Nor will they all require the use of retrosheet.org.)

(New rule: Once you give an answer, you can't make another guess until at least one other person has taken a shot at it.)

I just read this article about Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner getting the Kekich and Peterson Award, or some such thing.

It's on mlb.com, and they claim it's a "slightly modified version" of a piece that originally appeared in a publication called SCOREBOOK. What was this modification? Did they take a pristine version and decide to turn it into one with awkward phrasing, unusual word choices, and factual errors? Look at this, for example:

The 1986 World Series was rich in images for both sides, but no moment so profoundly diagramed these teams, the mission-bound Mets simply refusing to go home and the star-crossed Red Sox who 12 times that inning were one strike from what would have been their first championship in nearly seven decades.

There seems to be a problem with that first sentence. The Mets simply did something, while the Red Sox, who did something else, did...what? Is that sentence awkward to anyone else?

That's nothing compared to the fact that the author claims we were one strike away from a championship 12 times. Lets' count: 1. The 0-2 pitch to Knight, which he singled on. 2. The first 2-2 pitch to Mookie, which he fouled off. 3. The second one, which he also fouled off. 4. The third, which was the wild pitch. At that point, the game was tied, so we were never again one strike away from a championship.

That's four. I guess when you "modify" "4," you get "12." Hey, the 1 and the 2 are pretty close to the 4 on a standard keyboard. He could of accidentally hit two incorrect keys in succession instead of the correct one once; it happens to the best of ugf. But I doubt it. He also said

With the count 2-2, Wilson fouled off three pitches

Use my little counting system to prove that one wrong as well.

So, once again, I'd like to say "terrible job" to all the (paid) people who mess up obvious things daily. Especially stuff that can easily be checked, without even lifting one's ass out of one's chair.

And if Bill Buckner's such a positive guy, why does he keep refusing to come to Boston, where he'd be met with one of history's most positive responses? It's ironic. He stayed away, for fear that the small percentage of fans who hated him would kill him or something. Pretty soon an even bigger percentage won't like him since he just doesn't seem to like us.

You know what I don't like? When people make a prediction that's the same as the prediction of almost everyone else, and then, when it's proven wrong, they have the nerve to say, "No one saw this coming..."

Uh, TJ. While you were assuming things, some people were thinking that the odds of any team beating any other team four games in a row, in a league with such parody, and in which anyone can beat anyone else on any given day, and in which that same momentum people said was gone at the end of the regular season and which came back in the first part of the playoffs could easily go away again because it all depends on that day's starting pitcher, are fairly high.

But anybody who picked the Tigers to not sweep, or even cra-a-azier, not win the series, won't get any credit, because the same people that assumed the Tigers couldn't possibly lose will assume that literally everone picked them to win.

Maybe that's one of the good things about baseball: not only that anything can happen in it, but that it has the power to make almost everyone forget that anything can happen.

I couldn't believe the pre-game tonight. Kevin Kennedy basically saying that it's okay to cheat, as long as you don't get caught. (And bringing up his highway habits.) Then Bud saying that as long as the opposing manager doesn't mind, you can do whatever you want.

Speaking of Bud, how long have they been playing the Budweiser Clydesdale Christmas commercial song during intros at Cardinals games? Did they do that in 2004? As I tried to think back to those games in St. Louis two years ago, I realized that I was numb that whole time. People say it a lot, and they're probably usually full of shit, but October 2004 was my numb time. Yet I felt everything. I can't explain it. But I certainly don't remember any horses.

I don't know anything about this film other than it's either out now or coming out soon, and that it's based on some dude's memoir. Okay, it's bad enough that this guy ripped off the name of the great Weird Al's 1999 album. I'm already mad about that. And, hey, maybe it's an awesome book. And the phrase "running with scissors" wasn't exactly coined by Al. But still, terrible job. But it's Even Worse (care to steal that one, too, Mr. James Frey Memoir McGee?) that the people that came up with the logo for the film essentially made it the same as Al's! See below.

The "with" in the middle with a line, the positioning of the words... Rip off.

Al will get through this with our support. And now matter how good that movie ends up being, the true RWS will prove superior in the end.

BSM used this pic once, and it gave me an idea.

The idea, in tangible form:

You'll either be really pissed about this, if you already dropped the $130 on it, or you'll be overjoyed by the incredible bargain price. [Update, 11/7/06: This was referring to the Red Sox 2004 12-DVD set. They had it for 40 bucks. Now it's back up to 90.]

Also, just a general statement: This blog is best viewed on a Mac. I've noticed that on my PC at work, the images in the links section look shitty, and many of the pics I've posted that are "a little dark" on my Mac look like black squares on a PC. TJ, PCs.

When Kenny Rogers is beating anyone but the Yankees, he's really annoying.

If you knew me in the nineties, you know I'm a big Nirvana fan. If you've met me recently, you either do or don't know that. That wacky e-mail address o' mine: a Cobain reference. Anyway, I here at ARSFIPS am happy to announce that Kurt has surpassed Elvis and John Lennon as the top-earning dead celebrity. In your face, slightly older generations! Teenage angst has indeed paid off well. Except he can't really do anything with the money. And so it goes.

The NBA will stop killing babies*!

A leather-less ball for the NBA. As a vegetarian, this makes me really happy. That's the one thing about baseball that could easily be changed as well, and I hope they notice that the NBA has done this. I know people want to keep the baseball and gloves made of animal skin, for tradition's sake. But give me a break. Would changing the ball--and I'm sure they could make one just like it is now, only with no animal products--make more of a difference than juicing the athletes did (does)? Besides, they've messed with the ball before. Here's a chance to make every ball be exactly alike, and exactly the way the league wants it, once and for all. As for the gloves, there's nothing like the feel of leather...until you make something else that feels exactly the same! Do it, Bud!

This is stuff you've heard before, but I really can't understand the whole "cute" vs. "non-cute or tasty" thing. People have cats and dogs. They consider them family. They but freakin' T-shirts for them and send them to spas. They seem to love these animals...as they eat chickens and cows daily. Would they eat dog for dinner? If you're a meat-eater like I was for 25 years, you may see this as "Here we go again"-style, "bein' a dick" talk. But I seriously don't understand it. You can be healthy without other creatures having to die. People give this "I just don't care" attitude about it, like saying that "chicken just tastes too good for me to stop eating it and I don't care." I can see that about booze or junk food, because consuming that stuff, while it may be unhealthy for you, doesn't necessitate the mass torture and slaughter, if not just "normal" killing, of animals.

Note: I do allow myself to associate and mingle with those who do eat meat.

(link found at Can't Stop the Bleeding.)

Wait, there's more. Some people will say, "it's just the way of the world, all animals eat other animals." Well, I saw a video of sharks gang-raping another shark, does that mean we should do that, too? If it's only natural for an animal to eat an animal, because that's what its brain and instincts are telling it to do, why isn't it natural for a human to choose not to eat animals because its brain has the ability to come up with that idea?

Wait, there's even more. I do eat eggs. So, am I a hypocrite? I guess so. I need to stop eating those fetal chicks, even though, technically, they're not a chicken until they're in the chicken phone book. But still, labeling someone a hypocrite doesn't make it any better that you support lots of killing compared to their support of a little bit of killing. Or something.


*animals that either are or recently were babies

Quiz season is underway. The current standings are shown at qwizz.blogspot.com. When you see a quiz, attempt to answer it in the comments section of that post. (Subject of quizzes will vary greatly!) There will be 24 quizzes. The 2 represents the 2 of 2004. The 4 represents the 004. They will be titled using Roman Numerals, in honor of the toppling of the empire in 2004. A total of 5 points will be awarded for each quiz. Partial credit will be given, so if you don't know it, take a guess. If you don't have a guess, tell me what a great guy I am. That one point you get for kissing up might win you the prize in the end.

First prize will be: A Rich Gedman Topps 1982 rookie card and a Rich Gedman 1982 Fleer rookie card AND your choice of an AUTOGRAPHED Marc Sullivan, Dave Stapleton, OR Bruce Hurst baseball card. You know, I gotta admit, the Hurst autograph looks pretty fake, like some kid did it. Just a warning. Also, a DVD of one or more of Jere's movies. (The ones I actually made, not any of the taped-off-TV clips.) Oh, and a special 1st place badge. Oh, and you know what else I just thought of? The banner at the top of my blog, minus the Gedman background. And minus the Halloween thing that's currently digitally there. You get that thing, too. Autographed by the artist.

Second prize will be also a Gedman '82 Topps rookie card. And a movie as mentioned above. And a "not quite good enough" badge. And some other artwork, signed by the artist, that I did for this blog at some point.

Good luck!

The 2006-2007 Quiz Season is brought to you by Coke Blak:

Labels: movies

This is from "Sports Network," via the New York Daily News, from the day of game one of the Tigers-Yanks' division series:

However, Derek Jeter, like he always seems to do, rose to the occasion and produced his finest season as a Yankee. He could very well be on his way to his first AL MVP award. The captain finished second in the AL batting race to Minnesota's Joe Mauer with a .344 average and was near the top in almost every other offensive category.

Let's get the minor mistakes out of the way first: He hit .343, not .344. Granted, he was percentage points away from .3435, which would be rounded up, but he wasn't, so let's not lie. His finest season as a Yankee? Debatable. And "seems" is a key word in this paragraph. He does seem to always rise to the occasion. He just doesn't really do it. Hence, you know, six years without a title.

Now, let's look at this line:

and was near the top in almost every other offensive category

Ready?

At Bats: 9th
Hits: T-3rd
Doubles: T-16th
Triples: T-32nd
Batting Average: 2nd
Home Runs: T-65th
RBI: 22nd
Total Bases: 13th
Walks: 17th
Stolen Bases: 7th
OBP: 4th
OPS: 15th
Slugging: 29th
Sac Flies: T-65th
Sac Hits: T-14th
Hit By Pitch: T-6th
Intentioanl Walks: T-36th
Extra base Hits: T-35th
Stolen Base Percentage: 3rd

I'm "near" the top of the Empire State Building when I'm on 34th Street, but the window washers would kick my ass if they heard me say that.

Now, maybe you can come up with a bunch of other stats, like average with RISP/2 out, RISP/at night/1 out, RNISP/in Ohio/after taking a dump, etc. And maybe he'd be truly near the top in all of them. But there are enough categories mentioned above in which he's not near the top to make the writer of the above article A LIAR. It's horrible how people will see things like that and just assume they must be true.

Derek Jeter is the MVP of the Yankees. What people forget is that there are 29 other teams.

The last Red Sox player to hit a grand slam while a Democrat was president of the U.S. made his major league debut eight years earlier. In his first game, the starting third baseman for his team's opponents was a dude who used to do what quirky thing with his uniform?

Also, Nelson de la Rosa has died.

Everyone keeps saying, "Terrible job by Eric Byrnes for rolling out of bed...," referring to his hair on the Fox pregame reports. I see it differently. Still a terrible job, but I say, "Terrible job by Eric Byrnes for spending $1000 dollars on that "looks like he just rolled out of bed" hairdo. I think we can all agree on one thing: Terrible job by Eric Byrnes in general. (Also, Eric, you have a microphone so that you don't have to yell.)

Can someone please tell Tim McCarver that "the kids today" are wearing their hats without a curved brim? So the fact that a player "irons" his brim isn't some quirky superstition, he's just trying to take the slight curve out of his MLB-licensed cap.

That Mellencamp song, the one from the commericals? I just found out that it's from his new album! And I thought it was from '85! Was I alone? I found this out because he just happened to be singing this song before the game. Wow, that really works out perfectly, since it's the theme song of the main sponsor of the World Series. What a happy coincidence. Are the groups that do "Come on baby lets' gooooo" and "you're gonna get what you need" gonna sing before Games 3 and 4? Because I really need to hear those songs AGAIN and AGAIN.

About towel-waving: First of all, terrible job to just break it out in the playoffs. If it's not your team's trademark, don't just suddenly start doing it. And it can't be every team's trademark, so, basically, unless you're a Twins fan in 1987 or a Steelers fan in the 70s, just don't wave stuff around. You might say, Well, they were handed to them at the door, what are they supposed to do? I don't know, wipe their snot with it and watch the game maybe? Go to an NBA game? Red Sox fans were offered "Sox Suppporters" (a red sock on a stick) in '88 and we just said no. Try it yourself.

Also, people talk about how loud the Metrodome was in those World Series' there. I always wondered how loud it would've been if the fans had put down those hankies and actually clapped.

Terrible job by wave-able objects.

These are from last Thursday-ish. Forgot to post.



You can see two dudes in that thing at the bottom. I took these from one block up, as to not get in the way of people who live in the building.

This World Series has what I call (since right now) the dual underdog syndrome. Or "Dub Sub Pup."

The Tigers are the underdog when you think in terms of the last few years, but had a better year than St. Louis this season.

The Redbirds are the underdog specifically in the series, but have been much better than the MC9 in recent seasons.

To me, the tie-breaker is that everyone is picking Detroit. That makes the Cards the official sub-pups. Because of that, I found myself rooting for them tonight, in their Game 1 win. A St. Louis sweep would really make the people who declared the series a joke in the Kitties' favor look like fools.

As I've said, though, I really don't care, and I'd be happy for the Thundercats if they win. It would be a victory for the American, or "real" League. And LaRussa would be sad, which is always fun. Maybe I just need the Michiganers to be down a couple of games before I feel comfy rooting for their roaring asses.

Great quote from former Sock/Sox Todd Jones before the series:

I know you guys wanted both New York teams. I’m sure the Fox guys wanted New York, too,” Tigers closer Todd Jones said. “We can’t really help that. If they wanted the Mets and the Yankees, maybe they should’ve spotted them a few runs, or a few games. But we won our series fair and square, and the Cardinals won their series fair and square.

“If people understand baseball, and people don’t get caught up in the fact there’s not Hall of Famers at every single position, and recognize good baseball, I think you’re going to see a good series.”