I genuinely forgot to post yesterday. I thought I did and last night before the game realized I didn’t. How do you forget to post the day after the Red Sox beat the Yankees? Who knows? But that’s what I did.
No matter, apparently, since the Baseball Gods gave us a beauty of a night. Â Aside from having to listen to Buck and McCarver (unless you were smart enough to put the radio on instead), we got a gem from Josh Beckett, we got a walk, a hit, a run scored and even an RBI from Jason Varitek, (as a matter of fact, Papi was the only Red Sox starter Saturday night without a hit), we even got drama in the Yankees dugout. Â A win all around!
First the schadenfreude: Â I wanted the Red Sox to pound the Yankees and they did! Â All six (earned!) runs came off of CC Sabathia (who still managed to strike out six before he left the game); not one of our guys looked remotely intimidated by him. Â I enjoyed that greatly. Â I also enjoyed Josh striking out nine and only giving up four hits and two walks in his six innings. Â (The pitching all-around was great with Matt Albers and Rich Hill giving up a combined three hits, no runs and four strike outs) Adrian Gonzalez with a three-run homer was beautiful sight as well. Â Everything was clicking and since I already asked the Baseball Gods just for the Sox to win the series – which they have thank you – I feel greedy asking for a sweep. Â But, man, I would love to see that. Â (Just throwing it out there!)
Brian Cashman decided yesterday that the way to deal with a veteran player who asked out of the lineup because he’s having a difficult time dealing with aging, his diminishing skills and the way the team is treating him because of these things, was by going to Ken Rosenthal early on in the game (and after Ken holding an impromptu presser DURING the game) and airing dirty laundry. Â The Yankee-hating gal in me says “Woo-hoo! Unrest in the Bronx. Â Bring more on please!”, because, really, I can’t get enough of that stuff. Â I want to watch my team’s rival unravel on national television. Â Go at it.
But because I have a soul somewhere under there, I couldn’t help but feel genuinely sorry for Posada and totally annoyed by Brian Cashman. Â When it all first started, I thought there was a good chance Jorge was going to retire and that made me a little sad. Â I’m not the biggest Posada fan, but he’s also, in my mind, one of the least bothersome of the “true” Yankees and the idea that someone I’d been watching for so long that I didn’t totally hate was going to retire bummed me out. Â When we discovered that probably wasn’t the case, I just couldn’t get over the total assholiness of Brian Cashman. Â How unprofessional are you that you gather the media together, and make sure you get on national television DURING the game, to tell them that the guy asked out of the game that night? Isn’t that something the manager deals with? Â Isn’t that something the team should deal with out of the spotlight? Â The only reason you do something like that is because you want the world to know that you think your player is a jerk. Â We aren’t the bad guys, we didn’t bench him! He took himself out of the lineup and isn’t even hurt! I used to have a little respect for Brian Cashman. Â Last night took what little I had completely away.
That isn’t to say I think Posada did the right thing, I just think it is something he and his manager could have dealt with after the game and that bringing it up at a time Posada couldn’t respond to it was a crappy thing to do. Â (I also can understand what Posada is dealing with and cut the guy a little slack for being human.)
Yet again, I am extremely happy that our General Manager is Theo Epstein.
Going to Live Chat tonight’s game which starts at 8 o’clock on ESPN. Â Be here if you’re around!