Webster’s Dictionary defines class as “high quality: elegance”.

I received an anonymous email from a grammatically challenged Yankee fan yesterday stating the following:

“The Red sox have a culture of losing -They are a perenially dirty , arrogant group of misfit losers that continually and historically underachieve. Their fans have the same mentality-Regardless if they advance or not- the Yankees are a much classier group of winners -GO YANKS!!!!”

Now I take anything a so-called Yankee fan says with a grain of salt. These are the biggest bunch of fair-weathered bandwagon jumpers you will find in all of sports. But I thought it was odd for someone to comment on a team being underachievers when they had just won their division a week before. Not to mention, when was the last time New York won the World Series? Shouldn’t $195 million guarantee a championship every year?

As far as the “dirty” comment, I admit that some of the Sox players are disheveled, with pine tar on their helmets and baggy pants. But I don’t think having pine tar on your helmets is any dirtier than having your all-star third baseman banging a stripper while his wife is at home taking care of their three-year-old daughter. But that’s just me.

On the subject of the Yankees being classier: Sure they look pretty in their pinstripes, with their perfectly coiffed hair and lack of facial stubble, but how classy is it when your owner tells the manager, right before one of the biggest games of the year, that he needs to win or he’s out. Joe Torre is dealing with enough pressure to turn his team around. He doesn’t need a whack job micro-manager on his case too. New York is more worried about what the package looks like on the outside than what the quality of the person is on the inside. When is the last time you’ve heard anything negative in the tabloids about the Red Sox ownership or players?

It’s not even worth getting into a debate with some Yankee fans. They have an “I’m better than you” attitude, and that’s never going to change.

But what do I know? I’m just a dirty, arrogant, underachieving, classless misfit loser. But I’m loyal, and I’ve never jumped on the winning bandwagon.

This whole thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth, like a bowl of rotten lemon Jell-o.

The Boston Red Sox are going to the American League Championship Series. Let’s enjoy this for a day or two, then I think it’s important to reflect on some good things and some bad things that need to be worked out before game one on Friday.

First of all, anytime you sweep a team it’s great, but we need to remember that Boston swept a very beat-up team. The Angels’ two best players were playing with one arm (Vlad Guerrero) and one eye (Garrett Anderson). Their best defensive centerfielder was out (Garry Matthews Jr.), and their only pitcher with playoff experience was left off the playoff roster (Bartolo Colon). Not to mention the Angels had John Lackey pitch at Fenway, which pretty much concedes a Boston victory. I don’t want to sound like “the glass is half empty,” but the point I want to make is that whoever Boston plays in the next round (Cleveland) is going to be healthier, hungrier, and more determined than the Angels were.

In order for Boston to advance to the World Series they are going to need a repeat performance from their pitching staff. Beckett, Schilling, and the bullpen were phenomenal. Francona managed aggressively. He had guys stealing, hitting and running, and going for the extra base. They also had some big hitting from Papi, Manny and Lowell.

One of the bad things I noticed was that it seemed like Boston left a ton of runners on base. As the World Series gets closer, every run is important. These guys can’t be stranded. It also seemed like Boston grounded into a bunch of double plays. They are going to need Drew, Pedroia, and Coco to be more consistent at the plate. They looked lost up there a few times.

Another thing, and I hope Terry Francona finally realizes this: Eric Gagne sucks. He blew Schilling’s hard earned shutout tonight. I was surprised that he was even put on the playoff roster. Gagne has not pitched one meaningful inning since his acquisition. He has been a bust. Theo Epstein needs to eat a little crow and admit he blew it on this one. I personally would have given that spot to Julian Tavarez. Tavarez is much more versatile. He can start, as well as be the long reliever if needed. He has done whatever the Sox have asked of him this year. He’s a goofball, but even when he rolls the ball to first base, it’s still better then when Gagne is out there.

The Red Sox have the players to get the job done and win the World Series, but they can’t count on always getting the clutch home run. Getting the little things right is what is going to take Boston to the next level.

I love the baseball playoffs. It really is the best time of the sports year. If you didn’t get excited watching either of the American League Division games last night, you might be a cyborg… or maybe J.D. Drew. Here are some of the things that caught my eye during these two games last night.

• Boston fans might want to reconsider A-Rod joining the Red Sox next season. This guy is 0 for 24 in the postseason with three more strikeouts last night. If the postseason started in May, he would be our guy.
• Fausto Carmona is the real deal. He will win a Cy Young within the next three seasons.
• Watching Joba Chamberlain pitch last night was a thing of beauty. The bugs flying around his head turned him into a shell of the pitcher he normally is. I’m surprised he was able to get anyone out the way he was affected. I bet if it were Snickers bars instead of bugs flying around his fat head he would have been ok.
• I may have given Dice K too much credit. He looked a little out of sorts. Not a terrible game, but I was expecting more from the #2 guy.
• Joe Torre aged 30 years over the last two games. He is now officially 112.
• For a while last night, I really thought Manny Ramirez was drunk. He played like he drank a bottle of Jack Daniels before the game, over-running a ball in the 2nd inning, turning a routine fly ball into a circus catch. He really looked lost. He needed that walk-off home run just to redeem himself.
• Anytime you get walked four times during a playoff game, you win the official title of Baddest Dude in Baseball. 2007 winner: David Ortiz.
• Kelvim Escobar deserved better. He really pitched well last night. With the exception of the first inning, he was excellent. I can’t remember a pitcher hitting the outside corner as often as Escobar did last night.
• Manny Ramirez will get beaned in game 3. After he hit his game winner, he admired that shot a little too long. You have to act like you’ve done it before, Manny. Enjoy the plunking. By the way, that blast was wicked awesome.
• I can now see why the Angels won their division. They are scary on the basepaths.
• The WTBS announcers are horrible. They regurgitated every fact that has been reported this season. Wow! Breaking news! Jonathan Papelbon was supposed to be a starting pitcher this year! That is top-rate reporting. Not to mention they both have faces for radio.
• Has anyone seen Derek Jeter this post season? Isn’t this guy supposed to be Captain Clutch?
• In a one-run game, Mike Scioscia let Scot Shields pitch. This guy’s ERA at Fenway is 17.65. He makes John Lackey look like Sandy Koufax.
• That was not a typo above. The Shields family opted to give their son only one “t” in his name.
• Roger Clemens is pitching his last game in the Major Leagues tomorrow. Four years too late.
• I know I am reaching on this one, but I really believe Boston and Cleveland will meet in the American League Championship Series.

The American League playoffs have been great so far and have really lived up to the hype.

Does anyone know when the National League Playoffs start???

Dear Yankee fans,

I wanted to write a quick note to you all during your time of need. I know how hard it must be to get destroyed by a team you usually have success against. A 12-3 loss in a playoff game must be devastating. I don’t know if you will ever be able recover from this.

To make matters worse, this is the fifth playoff game your beloved Yankees have lost in row. It is so sad to see this once proud franchise struggling. Here is what concerns me: I fear that this might be just the beginning of the Yankee demise. After backing into the playoffs, your team is on the verge of losing such notable players as Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada to free-agency. I don’t see how losing these players could possibly help your situation.

I do have one great idea. I would make every attempt to re-sign Roger Clemens. This guy has been a rock for your ballclub this year, worth every penny of his $28 million salary. Even with his 6-6 record and 4.18 ERA, re-signing this guy needs to be a priority. It doesn’t matter that he’s 58 years old. Age shouldn’t matter. What matters is that this guy is still willing to pimp himself out to the highest bidder, even if his best days are long over.

I know Yankee fans support their team through the good times and the bad, and would never jump off the bandwagon in the their time of need. And with the Mets sucking almost as bad as the Yankees, where could a New Yorker possibly turn to in this desperate hour?

Here at thefoulline.com, I want you to know that we are here for you during your time of need. Since a World Series title seems like such an impossibility any time in the future, I thought maybe you could take a walk down memory lane, and talk about the Yankees’ 26 rings. Even though none have come in this decade, I can appreciate how reliable this argument is for you as a crutch.

I hope that you find comfort in this letter, and know that in the past your franchise was once great. But the time has come to take a long look into the mirror and say those nine words that will ease your sorrows: “I should have been born a Red Sox fan.”

Take care, and enjoy your rapidly approaching offseason.

Dave
thefoulline.com

When a team is down one game to none in a five-game series, game two is a must-win. With the exception of the 2004 Red Sox, teams don’t come back from a 2-0 deficit.

That’s why tonight the Angels are going to put out their best lineup and leave it all out on the field. We’ll see Vlad playing right field. Mike Scioscia will have his guys trying to bunt for hits and steal bases, with a few hits and runs mixed in for fun. These are the things that got the Angels into the postseason. If they can’t do these things now, it will be what puts them into the off-season. You could say that this is the most important game for both teams to win.

Terry Francona knew the importance of this when he announced the starting rotation. Game one was a no-brainer. Cy Beckett was starting - easiest decision ever. For game two he had some options: Curt Schilling, Dice K, or Tim Wakefield. What we didn’t know at the time was that despite his solid final start of the season, Wakefield’s back was still hurting, so he was out. I think everyone assumed Schilling would start game two. After all, he’s pitched well during his last five starts, and is arguably one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time.

Dice K has looked good, not great this year pitching in the Major Leagues. Earlier in the season, he caught a lot of teams off guard with his array of off-speed pitches picking up some wins. The second time against these same teams, batters would force him to hit his spots, driving up his pitch count and frustrating Dice K at times. The key for Dice K is getting that first pitch for a strike and then nibbling the corners with his off-speed pitches. If he gets too cute with his pitches and can’t command his fastball it could be a rough outing.

What concerns me about Dice K is that he is a different pitcher when there are runners on base. I don’t know if he focuses too much on the baserunner, or he doesn’t get enough leg push pitching from the stretch, but with a team like the Angels, who can get on base and are disruptive on the base paths, I worry how Dice K will do. But this is a guy that had very little run support and was still able to win 15 games as a rookie, playing in the toughest division in baseball.

So what made Francona go with a rookie for the biggest game of the series? Everyone has heard the stories of Dice K throwing 250+ pitches in a high school playoff game, then going out and throwing a no-hitter in the final for only the second time in Japanese high school baseball history. He followed that up by dominating the competition during the World Baseball Classic, posting a 3-0 record and winning the MVP pitching against the best players on the planet. Some pitchers have the ability to take it up a notch when it matters. It’s like they have an extra gear.

So why would Tito Francona send out a 15-win rookie with the knack of pitching lights out in big games against a team that has never faced him?

Something tells me we’ll find out tonight.

The score for last night’s Red Sox/Angels game doesn’t do justice to just how badly the Angels were beaten. The score may have been 4-0, but it could have easily been 10-0.

Beckett dominated. There are not enough words to describe his performance. Complete game, 4 hits, no walks, no runs. This guy is a big game pitcher.

This game could have been so much uglier for the Angels if it weren’t for Crisp, Drew and Varitek hitting into inning-ending double plays. Or the second base umpire calling Lugo out on his steal attempt when he was safe by a mile. Or the home plate umpire calling strike 3 on Man-Ram when the ball was clearly 6 inches off the plate. Boston could have been in double digits by the 5th inning.

The Sox had their chances to put a big number on the scoreboard tonight but were unable to capitalize. A couple of days off before Game 1 may have cooled their bats a little, but fortunately there is no better batting practice pitcher around than John Lackey. I still can’t believe that Lackey won 19 games this year. Who exactly was he pitching against, the Oakland Little Leaguers of Santa Monica? What makes this even better is that if Boston is to lose one of the next two games, we get to see Beckett face John (S)Lackey again in Game 4. But I think it’s more likely we’ll just see him next season.

This was a good game for the Boston Red Sox. Great pitching, stellar defense, and decent hitting. The Sox played with a lot of confidence last night. I can only see them getting better as the playoffs continue.

The next Sox game is Friday night. This gives Red Sox fans the opportunity to become temporary Indians fans tonight. Let’s all hope A-Rod continues his post-season struggles, Chien Mien Wang gives up 15 runs, and Joba Chamberlain eats Derek Jeter before the game. Go Tribe!

As I am off celebrating my 10th anniversary with Mrs. TheFoulLine today, Dylan steps in with his assessment of Round 1, Sox vs. Angels. Enjoy.
-Dave

It’s here. October. Down here in the southern portion of Red Sox Nation you can feel the air beginning to slip into a crisp autumn 88 degrees, and you know that fall is upon us. Everything is the same, somewhere leaves are changing colors, that Robert Frost poem “Apple Picking” is being read, and the rest of the world forgets about baseball to a point to watch the NFL. Here it is, fall, playoff time for baseball.

Yet this year brings a new feeling for me, one I hope to share with the rest of Red Sox Nation, a feeling of, dare I say it, confidence? Could it be? I’ve felt this feeling before, granted it was with the Patriots and not the Sox, but I know the feeling when I feel it. I honestly have confidence in the Sox, at least against the Angels thus far, and we’ll cross the next bridge when we get to it.

Here is why I am confident going into this series. This is the best October team we’ve had. I’ll break down our second round when we figure out who the Sox second round victim will be, but for now we’ll break down the Angels series.

Josh Beckett vs. John Lackey. Beckett is firing right now. He is the AL Cy Young guy, he’s consistent, and he’s pitching in Fenway. While we send our ace to the hill, John Lackey is 1-5, 7.09 in Fenway Park. During the 2007 season, he made two starts in Fenway, losing both while allowing 20 hits in 9.2 innings, and sported a 8.38 ERA. If the series extends to five games, he might have to make two starts in Fenway.

Big Papi is on fire right now. Ortiz hit .404 for the month of September. The Dominican God of Designated Hitting enters October destroying the ball, getting 12 hits in his last 18 at-bats, including four doubles and three homers. And the Angels’ pitching staff doesn’t match up particularly well against him. Ortiz is back in his playoff form, and ready to show us why he is the new Mr. October.

Curt Schilling going in Game 3 instead of Game 2. I like this. I don’t even know really why I do, I just do. I like giving Curt the extra day of rest, and I like putting Schill in the position where he feels like he has something to prove. There will be speculation he’s injured worse then we think, etc., etc… And amongst the questioning of Curt, i.e. 2004, playoff Schilling will appear, the Schilling we have come to love. Also, the way the series is setting up, we will see Beckett come up once again if needed I believe in game 4, giving us the bullpen presence of Tim Wakefield. I like this set up a lot.

Finally, why I have so much confidence this year is that we mean business this year. This is not the cowboy-up team of ‘03 or the come-from-behind idiots of ‘04, this is a winning baseball team, that knows what is expected of them: Ortiz swinging the bat like he’s Roy Hobbs swinging Wonder Boy in the Natural. Manny, well, he’s Manny, but he’ll show up for the playoffs, and that helps. The Pitching staff dealing pretty well this season, and the right mix of youthfulness getting fired up and veterans leading the way.

This is the best October Red Sox we’ve ever had.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this Red Sox/Angels match-up? I really feel that Boston dodged a bullet by missing Cleveland in the first round, and being able to host the Angels. The Angels are a beat-up team right now. Vladamir Guerrero is stuck DH’ing due to a triceps injury. Which is good news for Sox fans. Keeping Vlad and his rocket arm out of rightfield will be a nice change of pace. Garry Matthews Jr. is also ailing with a knee injury. To make matters worse, Angels lead-off hitter Chone Figgins is in the midst of a 0-22 slump at the plate. Do you think facing Josh Beckett is going to help that number? Not to mention, John Lackey is pitching game one. This just proves that God is a Red Sox fan. Lackey has pitched at Fenway twice this year. He’s lasted 9.2 innings total, given up 20 hits and has a 8.38 ERA. Is this really the best Mike Scioscia could come up with?
People have been talking and writing about the Angels speed and aggressiveness on the bases. The key to this theory is actually getting on base.

Game one of the American League Divisional Series is scheduled to start on Wednesday. Everyone knows that the Boston Red Sox are going to win. The Fair or Foul question of the week is:

How many games is it going to take for the Red Sox to advance to the ALCS?