Game One: Big Deal

Game One wasn't pretty. When I turned on the game in the 4th and I saw 6-0 Yanks, I was shocked. But heartbroken? You're overdoing it a bit, Despiser. Take a chill.

After all, remember who won game 1 of the ALCS last year? Did it matter when all was said and done? I don't think so.

I had mixed emotions about the near-comeback. I had kinda given up at that point, and for the Sox to tempt me with a comeback and then not pull thru made it all the more painful. If they were gonna lose anyway, I don't care if you lose big. It's only one game.

Also, I didn't want to have to read about Mariano Rivera's heroics. Sure, I feel for the guy and what he and his family went through. As a human being, even as a Yankee-hater, you just have to. But his saving the game has turned into the most overblown baseball-human-interest warm-and-fuzzy talked-about-forever story since Frank Torre's heart surgery in '96. The media fetishizes this stuff and never lets it go. They tell you about it till you're nauseated. Had the game been 10-0 instead of 10-7, we wouldn't have had to deal with it.

But the close game was good in that it showed that even on a night where their ace is injured and Mike Mussina is pitching like Sandy Koufax for 6+ innings, these guys can still make it a ballgame. Most other teams can't do that.

Remember game 1 of the '96 World Series? 19 year-old Andruw Jones and Braves humiliated the Yanks at home, 12-1. The Yankee fans were like "it was nice to make it to the Series, but forget it. We're just not beating the Braves." And with Maddux and Glavine lined up for Games 2 & 3, they had reason to surrender. Yes, kiddies, long before George started drastically outspending other times and destroying baseball, Yankee fans were happy "just to make it" to the World Series (like the '98 Padres). Hard to believe.

Well, the Braves haven't won much of anything since.

And the Red Sox don't have Maddux and Glavine in their prime awaiting them. It's more like Jon Leiber and Kevin Brown not quite in his prime.

And if Schilling isn't healthy, it'll be tougher for the Sox to pull it out. But they will.