While we didn’t make it back to the Series this year, we put up a good fight and never gave up. Maybe not the finale we all hoped for, but a good year nonetheless, and we’ll be back and in the competitive thick of it next year.

Great question - although I didn’t see it I think I would/could give him a free pass for doing it once. Please alert redsox nation and myself if you see it happen again.

Thanks.

Merrill

Since he was caught live on national TV reading a book during a Red Sox pennant championship game, does Stephen King get a dishonorable discharge from Red Sox Nation?

Remember I am a Dodger fan and we are always shamed for coming late and leaving early.

To para phase the words of Tom Hanks’ Jimmy Dugan - “There is no reading during baseball games”.

BASEBALL PLAYOFF ANALYSIS
Red Sox’ Shrewd Moves on Display

By JACK CURRY
Published: October 7, 2008
BOSTON — Another Red Sox Champagne celebration was over and the clubhouse attendants dutifully put 48 empty bottles of Korbel into four cardboard boxes. Those bottles represented the residue of a celebration after the Red Sox tamed the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2, and won their division series on Monday night.

The many reasons the Red Sox were able to celebrate again were scattered throughout Fenway Park. Whether it was Jed Lowrie getting the game-winning hit, Jason Bay diving home with the decisive run or Manny Delcarmen helping stifle a squeeze play, the Red Sox received valuable contributions from homegrown players and recently acquired ones.

As the Red Sox reviewed how they subdued the flawed Angels again, they know there could be even more reasons for future celebrations. The Red Sox made shrewd decisions building their team, decisions that should make them formidable for a while. If the Yankees studied their fiercest rivals honestly, they would realize they trail them in more than victories these days.

When the Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of the American League Championship Series on Friday night, they will be eight victories away from winning back-to-back championships for the first time since 1916. If the Red Sox win it all, it would be their third title in the last five seasons. If that happens, Boston will creep into sacred territory.

The last team to have such a dynastic run was the Yankees, who won four titles from 1996 to 2000. The Yankees used their own homegrown core of Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte and supplemented them with smart additions and pricey free agents to rule baseball. Now the Red Sox are beating the Yankees and trying to be like the old Yankees.

“I’m the one who gets to stand here on nights like this and talk,” Manager Terry Francona said after halting the Angels. “But I hope we do this as an organization because it’s an exciting time for the Red Sox.”

The excitement peaked when Lowrie slapped Scot Shields’s first pitch to right field for a memorable run-scoring single. Lowrie was drafted in 2005. So was Jacoby Ellsbury, who knocked in Boston’s first run. Dustin Pedroia, who was drafted a year before them, doubled in the second run. The Red Sox won a tense game in dramatic fashion, just as Joe Torre’s Yankees often did in October.

General Manager Theo Epstein believes in developing a stable of reliable youngsters who can serve as a talent pipeline to the major leagues. Since young players usually remain healthier, have more room to improve and do not earn as much money, they are vital assets. Lowrie took over at shortstop after Julio Lugo injured his calf, and his smooth play has essentially made the $36 million Lugo expendable.

Epstein, who joined in the Champagne spraying Monday, explained the Red Sox’ philosophy earlier this season. He said the team was trying to build a long-term foundation around young, homegrown players “who have been immersed in the Red Sox way.” Epstein noted how it was cost-effective and could be more reliable than signing free agents.
“The organization, we’ve brought some kids up and they have done such a phenomenal job of competing,” Francona said. “I think our organization should be proud.”

In addition to intelligent drafting, the Red Sox acquired the dependable Bay from the Pirates in a three-way trade that jettisoned Manny Ramírez to the Dodgers. While Boston’s priority was to dump Ramírez, the team was savvy enough to get Bay, a younger, cheaper left fielder. Bay doubled off Shields to start the winning rally. Mark Kotsay, who was claimed off waivers from the Braves, made two nifty plays at first and singled to start a two-run rally off John Lackey.

Before Epstein became the general manager in 2002, the Red Sox had drafted Jon Lester and Delcarmen. Delcarmen recalled how the Angels victimized him with a squeeze bunt last season, and he prevented them from repeating it this time around. Lester, a talented, homegrown pitcher, tossed seven scoreless innings in Game 4 after not allowing an earned run in winning Game 1. He replaced Josh Beckett (strained oblique muscle) as the ace and pitched the way Beckett usually does in the playoffs.
“He’s been awesome all year,” Pedroia said. “He’s going to be pitching like this for a long time.”

The notion of Lester’s pitching brilliantly for a long time should make the Yankees and other A.L. teams feel queasy.

In a season where the Yankees did not get a win from Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy and watched Robinson Canó and Melky Cabrera regress, the Red Sox made Lowrie their shortstop, saw Lester win 16 games and watched Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis surge into candidates for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

Second baseman Pedroia, one of the five homegrown Red Sox players who started Monday, clutched a bottle of Champagne while discussing his brief, successful career. He recalled what resonated with him from a rookie development clinic in 2004, the same year the Red Sox ended their 86-year-old title drought.

“They prepared us for what the Red Sox are and what the Red Sox want to be,” Pedroia said. “It’s winning.”

Oct 7, 2:57 AM (ET)

By JIMMY GOLEN

BOSTON (AP) -The Boston Red Sox brushed aside the 100-win Angels in four games, dismissing their best-in-baseball regular season as last month’s news.

When it turns to October, no one dominates like Boston.

Jason Bay scored with a headfirst slide on Jed Lowrie’s two-out single in the ninth inning and the defending World Series champions took advantage of a botched suicide squeeze, beating Los Angeles 3-2 Monday night to win their first-round playoff series in four games.

Boston, which also won it all in 2004, will have a chance at a third title in five years if it can get past the Rays in the best-of-seven AL championship series that starts Friday night at Tampa Bay.

“That’s what this team is about, especially the last few years,” said Lowrie, a rookie who was called up as a midseason replacement when shortstop Julio Lugo was injured. “It’s October, they’ve won a lot of games, and to be a part of that is awesome.”

The AL’s youngest team, Tampa Bay had never finished better than fourth in the division and posted the worst record in baseball last year while Boston, one of the league’s charter members, was winning its seventh championship. But in just 11 years, the Rays and Red Sox have become fierce rivals, with the latest bench-clearing brawl coming at Fenway Park in June.

“I can’t wait to get it going,” pitcher Josh Beckett said. “But we’ve got a few days off to enjoy this.”

Los Angeles was able to force the series to a fourth game with an extra-inning victory Sunday night that snapped an 11-game playoff losing streak against Boston.

As it turned out, that gave the Angels less than an 24 extra hours.

“Those guys have certainly, in the last three series that we’ve been involved with them, they’ve beaten us,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “I thought we played much better this series than going back to ‘04 or ‘07 against them. It’s naturally disappointing. But we’re going to have to keep trying to get better. That’s all we can do.”

Jon Lester held the Angels to four hits in seven shutout innings but lost his chance at a second victory in the series when they scored twice in the eighth to tie it 2-all. Los Angeles had a chance to go ahead in the ninth before Erick Aybar, whose 12th-inning single was the winner in Game 3, missed on a squeeze attempt.

In the bottom half, Bay lofted a fly ball down the right-field line that Reggie Willits pursued and dove for before it one-hopped into the stands for a ground-rule double. First baseman Mark Teixeira made a diving catch of Mark Kotsay’s line drive for the second out.

Again, it was only a temporary save.

Lowrie grounded a single into right, and Bay raced around third and slid headfirst ahead of the throw while his teammates poured out of the dugout to celebrate.

It’s been a common sight in Boston, but one Bay had never taken part in before he was acquired from Pittsburgh when the Red Sox unloaded Manny Ramirez at the July 31 trade deadline.

“The only thing I’m thinking is, ‘Get a good jump and don’t fall down around third,”‘ Bay said. “I can’t imagine that it’ll get more intense than this, but it will.”

Manny Delcarmen got two outs in the ninth for the win, squelching the Angels’ chances to take the lead by getting Aybar to whiff on a bunt try with one out and a runner on third. Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, whose passed ball helped Los Angeles tie the game in the eighth, pursued pinch-runner Willits back toward third and made the diving tag a step before the bag.

Varitek lost the ball as he hit the ground, but third base umpire Tim Welke ruled that he had already applied the tag. Scioscia argued, but replays showed that the out was recorded before the ball came loose.

Scot Shields took the loss, allowing two hits and a run while striking out three in 1 2-3 innings.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are frustrated right now,” Scioscia said. “Can’t tell you how proud we are of the way our guys played through the whole summer, and it’s unfortunate the way this series turned out.”

Lester and John Lackey, who also faced each other in Boston’s Game 1 victory, matched scoreless innings through four before Kotsay and Varitek singled, Jacoby Ellsbury drove in a run with a groundout and Dustin Pedroia added an RBI double. An AL MVP candidate who was hitless in his first 15 at-bats of the playoffs, Pedroia pulled up one step before second base to bang his hands together in celebration.

But the Angels tied it in the eighth when Teixeira drew a two-out walk from Hideki Okajima, then Justin Masterson walked Vladimir Guerrero. The runners moved up as Masterson and Varitek got crossed up on a passed ball, which proved costly when they scored on Torii Hunter’s single to right.

Pedroia’s confidence never wavered during the slump, as he showed when he popped out of the dugout for pregame batting practice and said, “You can’t keep a good man down.”

Or a good team.

The Red Sox may have missed a chance to sweep with Sunday’s 5-4, 12-inning loss, but they saved themselves a trip back to Anaheim, Calif., for a winner-take-all Game 5. ^

Notes:

Lackey was rescued from a second loss in the series when the Angels tied it in the eighth. He allowed two runs and seven hits, giving up four runs in 13 2-3 innings during the series. He was outpitched by Lester both times. … Hunter was 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The rest of the Angels had three hits combined. … Pedroia was hitless in 19 postseason at-bats dating to the 2007 World Series.

And even more trouble:

Mariano Rivera is likely to have surgery to remove bone spurs from his shoulder, The Journal News reports.

It’s not a procedure likely to impact his 2009 season, but it does make Joe Girardi’s comments about his closer simply having a “cranky” body look even worse.

According to the New York Daily News, Jason Giambi is unlikely to re-sign with the Yankees after the season.

Giambi is finishing up a seven-year, $120 million contract that’s seen him hit .261/.405/.523 while playing an average of 128 games per year. That’s certainly very nice production, but Giambi hit .333/.476/.647 and .347/.477/.660 in his final two seasons with the A’s before signing the deal.

I am still smiling! Thanks for sharing his comments.
Merrill

Curt Schilling calls New York sports fans ’bitter’

By Associated Press

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 -

BOSTON - A shoulder injury has kept Red Sox [team stats] pitcher Curt Schilling [stats] sidelined all season, but his mouth is in good enough shape to take on all of New York.

Schilling blasted New York sports fans, calling them “bitter and mad and miserable” for their apparent glee over New England Patriots [team stats] quarterback Tom Brady [stats]’s season-ending knee injury.

Schilling talked about Brady’s injury on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on WEEI radio.

“The euphoria in New York is palpable,” he said. “I mean, the Yankees suck this year. And they’re bitter and mad and they’re making excuses over that. And now, you know, now they got Tom going down, so, you know, New York’s excited.”

He later added: “They want us to be as bitter and mad and miserable and they are. And, unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. The sad part is going to be when (the Patriots) beat the Jets next week.”

Schilling has taken shots at New York in the past, and on Tuesday acknowledged he’s not a favorite there. But he said that’s fine with him, recalling Boston’s rally from three games back to beat New York in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Schilling famously forced a seventh game, pitching as blood seeped through his sock from a suture on his ankle.

“I was front row and center when their quote/unquote dynasty ended, so I’m OK with that,” Schilling said.

Joba Chamberlain slated to return Tuesday

According to manager Joe Girardi, Joba Chamberlain (shoulder) is expected to come off the disabled list Tuesday.

Out since August 6, he’ll work out of the bullpen with an eye toward potentially making a few starts later this month. “Whatever they need me to do, I’m up for it,” Chamberlain said. “I feel good and ready to help in any way possible.”

Sep. 1 - 11:40 am et