The Sporting News has named Boston as the best sports city in America for the fourth time in seven years.
Interesting article by Jack Curry in The New York Times today about how the Red Sox knew the suicide squeeze attempt was coming last night. The Angels had tried it on Manny Delcarmen before…Tom Verducci says not to blame Mike Scioscia for the failure of the play. Gordon Edes has the Angels getting squeezed right out of the playoffs.
Here are a couple of relatively new blogs by local sportswriters, first there is Flynn’s Spin, by Douglas Flynn, who says that his intention is “going more for an opinion-based and hopefully occasionally humorous take on things, trying to come up with some offbeat ideas as well as insight and analysis rather than just posting who’s practicing or who’s in the starting lineup kind of thing.” It will have a Patriots and Bruins flavor, as those are the teams that Flynn covers the most, but he plans to weigh in on the Red Sox and Celtics as well.
Patriot Ledger football writer Eric McHugh has also launched the Ledger Pats Blog, which is naturally devoted to the Patriots, a team he can speak with authority about, as he covers them on a daily basis.
Here are the Turner-released Notes from TBS’ Coverage of yesterday’s games.
From those notes:
(Buck) Martinez on Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester playing in the World Series in his first outing after battling cancer: “Last year when (Lester) was given the start in game four of the Worlds Series everything was the first. His first game back, his first start, his first postseason start, his first opportunity. Now he’s a regular, now he’s a pitcher again. He’s more than a cancer survivor, he’s an ace on a very good staff.”
Does Martinez think that Lester’s World Series start last October was his first of the season?
Boston sports tickets are in demand.
Ken Rosenthal says that the BoSox are baseball’s consummate winners.
Mike Celizic says that Red Sox/Rays is going to add some juice to the postseason. Gerry Fraley says that the Red Sox are just another division foe to the Rays.
Tom E. Curran says that the Cowboys are missing some spine.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Speaking of TBS’s coverage, how about Chip Caray making fun of Red Sox fans last night when Hunter tied it up? Seemed a little unprofessional, sounded like he was cheering for the Angels.
I noticed that, Tiffany. I thought he was sneering. He may not have been, but I thought it sounded like he was biased at that moment.
I heard it too…..I don’t think it was because they had anything “against” the Red Sox….it seemed like they really wanted to broadcast a game 5…..who knows?….maybe it meant more money in their pocket
Whether or not he was sticking it to Sox fans or not, that was clearly unprofessional and not even an option for a national announcer, period. If that’s an interleague game between the Cubs and Red Sox (Caray does Cubs game during the year) I have no problem with his remark but that is totally uncalled for in a playoff game.
Whether Caray thinks the national audience is sick of watching Boston teams or whatever, you don’t say that on the air. Back in the ‘04 LCS I didn’t hear Joe Buck say that about Yankees fans, even if Schilling said it after that game.
Two notes:
1. I actually went to mute after Chip Caray went all Joe Buck on us with that totally obnoxious and damn-near vengeful call on Hunter’s hit. Clearly some deep-seated Sox hatred was unleashed there.
2. On the other hand, I think Martinez was making a very innocent point about how everything Lester did last year was framed against the cancer situation. It was a benign comment and like many of Martinez’s observations, it was accurate.
Chippy likes LAA. Spank the Monkey and all that rot.
By the way, on that Sporting News cover…I know the editorial decision was to focus on champions, but there’s really a gaping hole there. The city came as close to a clean sweep of the big three crowns as any city could, so if it were me running the thing, I would’ve gotten Brady’s handsome mug in there and just changed the headline to Almost Nobody Beats Boston.
I know I’m in the minority, but I think Martinez is really poor. He’s not Joe Morgan bad, or Tim McCarver bad, or even Ron Santo bad. But I lost track of the number of times he’d tell us a 2-0 fastball was coming and the pitcher threw a curve; or when he’d say there’s no way he’s got the green light on 3-0, only to have the batter swing away. You kinda lose credibility in the booth when you continue to guess wrong.
I don’t think Martinez was confused that it was Lester’s first start since coming back. I think he was trying to make the point that almost every time Lester took the mound last season, it was with the backdrop of “the first since…” This season, he hasn’t had to focus or deal with that.