Deja Vu All Over Again?

Wow.

A lot of the Sox fans out here in Seattle took over the Owl & Thistle last night for Game 6. We couldn't get the back room at our usual haunt (Spitfire) and the owner of the Owl & Thistle is a Sox fan, so it was the best available fallback option. It was a better backup option than TBS'. We turned on TBS expecting to see the pregame, only to find Bloopers and Practical Jokes, followed by the Steve Harvey Show. I had to call my Dad to make sure we were on the right channel. Then Mom called to keep me up to date with Crisp reaching and then getting picked off. Thankfully, a few people had their internet-enabled cell phones pointing at the mlb.com web site so we knew about Upton's home run before the TBS broadcast resumed.

My biggest hope for the game was to see Beckett channel Pedro back in Game 5 of the '99 ALDS, to just gut and guile it out without his best stuff. I figured if he could just keep the Rays at bay for five innings or so...maybe we could force a Game 7. I smiled as the TBS announcers made a comment about Pedro's performance in that playoff game later in the inning.

What the hell is going on with the TBS announcers, by the way? I know they're not technically Rays announcers, but it sure seems like it. Even the on screen graphics seem a bit slanted. When the Rays have a runner on first, we're treated to tidbits about the number of stolen bases by the Rays or that player. When the Red Sox have a runner on first, the graphics point out how many double plays the batter has hit into. When Beckett took the mound for the bottom of the third after Youuuuuuk's second RBI, TBS showed a graphic saying that Beckett had been given four leads so far in the playoffs and had given the lead back in the next half inning each time. I was half expecting a graphic when Francona was on camera saying that he didn't support the troops.

The only pitcher to cough up a lead last night was "Big Game" James Shields, and on the very first batter. I'm at a complete loss as to how he got his nickname. I even looked up Shields' stats, figuring that maybe he'd pitched with another team and had won a big game. Nope. He's now 0-2 in his the two biggest games of his career. Maybe someone with the Rays was a Lakers fan back in the 80's and tried to re-use James Worthy's nickname to build up Shields' confidence. That's the only possible explanation.

Speaking of someone who needed a confidence builder, how about 'Tek? I hope the Sox brass re-signs him for two years, that he gets his batting average back up over .260 and that the Sox manage to come up with a prospect to try to fill his shoes once he's ready to hang them up.

The Sox bullpen did quite the job, not giving up a hit for the next four innings. I'm still having trouble believing that Okajima got through two innings. I really expected Tito to go with Delcarmen for the seventh, especially the bottom of the Rays' lineup was due up that inning. Masterson looks great when he remembers to slow down, breathe and throw strikes. Papelbon sounds exhausted according to quotes in the Globe sports page, but the Rays' batters looked like the ones who were exhausted in the ninth.

And the Sox have forced another Game 7. Mercy.

I love a parade

I've said it before but...wow.

Tessie has been running through my head for the past twenty four hours. I'm overtired but smiling constantly and every once in a while wonder how everything fell into place. Then I picture Varitek leaping into Papelbon's arms and Tessie starts playing again.

It was great watching the games at a local bar here in Seattle that the Boston fans have taken over. The back room had about thirty or forty Red Sox fans by first pitch and there were about seventy in the room when the game ended. People even brought iPod/Zune/whatevers and plugged them into the sound system to play Take Me Out To The Ballgame and Sweet Caroline between innings of the game. After the game, we were treated to Dirty Water and Tessie.

A couple minutes after the game ended, I sat in one of the comfy couch seats, watching the players celebrate on the field while people who may or may not have met before high fived each other and bought celebratory champagne and shots.

I still wonder how the ball Jamey Carroll hit stayed in the park, or how Timlin continues to get people out or how the Red Sox bullpen down the stretch of the last two games continued to give the Colorado fans hope but Papelbon simply would not let the Rockies come back all the way. I sent countless text messages to a friend believing that Francona was overusing Okajima and Papelbon in the last two games, actually expecting those home runs before they happened, that Timlin was running on fumes and should not be allowed to come out to start the seventh inning in Game 3. I had conversations with other people near me at the bar between innings where we threw out ideas as to who should pitch which inning. Forgive me, but after Game 3, I even started thinking the Red Sox should bolster their bullpen like the Yankees did in the ALDS by putting Dice-K on the DL and replacing him with Tavarez just to have another reliever available.

And yet...the bullpen held on when it had to. We got an insurance run here or there. If Kielty isn't the only player to homer on the only pitch he's seen in the World Series, he's at the very least in select company. One pitch. 5.000 OPS. Nicely done. Papelbon started looking a little gassed, especially on Carroll's deep drive, but he held on.

Speaking of Papelbon, it's time for me to wrap up this post. I need to finish packing and head to the airport to get back to Boston in time for the parade. I'm taking United red eye with a connection in Chicago, just like I did in 2004. I remember having a two and a half hour layover, and getting to the terminal in Chicago two hours before the flight. Two other fans wearing Sox hats and/or shirts there already. Every few minutes, more people, some individuals, some couples, some families. We all had that "I still can't believe it" look in our eyes. By the time they started boarding, it was obvious that more than half the people on the plane were headed for the parade.

Of course it's different this time. This isn't as cathartic. There's no "They finally won in my lifetime. All this devotion wasn't simply a waste." But it's fresh enough that winning in 2007 stirs a lot of the emotions from 2004. And more importantly...

I keep remembering how it felt to sit in that comfy leather chair, watch the celebration on the field and the celebration around me, smile and think to myself "This never gets old."

Thoughts leading up to Game 3

We're up 2-0 in the series, but as a true Red Sox fan, I'm worried leading up to Game 3.

Playing Ortiz at first base worries me. If I were the Rockies, I'd drop a few bunts up the first base line to test him. Even if Ortiz handles them well, I worry about the wear and tear at first on his bad knee. I'd much rather have Papi pinch hit for the pitcher (or Lugo) in the late innings. The situation isn't a surprise to Fancona. Hopefully, he's talked to Ortiz, worked him out at first and has figured out that this is the right move for the ballclub.

Has someone been working with Dice-K to help him (and Varitek) understand how the thin air affects his breaking pitches? Does he get to use the special Coors Field humidor balls when he's warming up? Have they used the special Coors technology to apply an indicator to the balls that turns blue when they've reached the correct weight?

I'm hoping Schilling's thrown his last pitches of the season (for obvious reasons) and it was great to see him hold the Rockies down for five and a third. Schilling's no longer the pitcher he was, but I hope Theo has a talk with him after the season and makes an offer for an incentive laden contract. I think he's making the right adjustments at this point in his career and has another one or two 12W 8L 4.25ERA seasons left in him.

I'm not sure who deserves the credit for giving Okajima a breather down the stretch (Theo, Francona, Farrell, Timlin) but I'm convinced that rest was exactly what he needed in order to be dominant once more in the postseason.

Yes, it's goofy, but I'm glad that "Tacoby Bellsbury" is responsible for the free tacos for everyone.

It was great to see Game 2 be a tight game from the first pitch to the last. Of course, it was even better to see the Sox prevail. Truth be told, I didn't see the top of the ninth. I know, I know. Blasphemy. My bowling team was in the playoffs and I was worried that if I stayed 'til the end of the game, I would have gotten to bowling late. I'm OK with missing out on things like that unless it affects friends of mine. I even volunteered to drive one of the people on the team who doesn't have a car to force my own hand a bit. I did get back to the car before Papelbon threw the first pitch in the ninth and listened to the rest of the game on the drive to the bowling alley.

A group of fifty or sixty Red Sox fans have been watching the playoffs at a bar in Seattle. We take over the entire back room and the staff generally closes the doors between the back room and the rest of the place because, apparently, we're rather vocal. For Game 2, there was a private party in the back room so we had to find space in the main section, which was awful. No couches, it took forever to get a drink, etc.

I'm not sure if it was the change in the atmosphere at the bar or the other fans' attitudes about the series with the Rockies, but there was a lot less life in the fans. That's not quite right. Focus. That's it. There was much less focus on the game. Even late in the game when Okajima was working out of the jam in the sixth inning, it didn't feel like the Sox fans were hanging on every pitch. That actually bothered me. I was tempted to head home and watch the game there. I stayed because watching the game with other fans felt more social and because my place is further away from the bowling alley. Let's hope there's a little more passion at Game 3 tonight.

Speaking of which, time for me to publish this post, grab my BP jersey (older blue one, never liked the red ones) and get going.