9/27 -

Ouch.

The Sox got swept in the Baby Boss Crib; allowing the Pinstripes to clinch the division all up in their faces. You may not think this series matters. You and Tito. Well, both of you are wrong. This set may mean more than we will know until late in October.

The Boys of B needed to take one in the Bronx just to show they could. And they didn’t. Baseball is more than Bill James and the third number after the decimal. It turns on instinct as much as it does on percentages. The glory of Moneyball was/is that it reconfigured the understanding of the relationship between guts and stats. Theo rode that reconfiguration like a miner’s mule all the way to WS gold, and it was good.

BUT.

Gut didn’t disappear amidst the spreadsheet trickery. Baseball remains a sport built on, and beloved for, it’s superstitions and quirks. It is a game where confidence will always play into the equation, where the imperceptible is manifest daily. And in the post this goes triple. Ask Billy Beane. Read Moneyball. Kneeling before this year’s Abstract might get you to the post, but once you are there no geek with a 3G connection in his pocket will do you any good.

The Sox got swept by the Yanks in the Bronx, they lost the season series after an eight game head start, and they’ll carry that extra weight like an underfed jockey into the ALCS, should they make it that far.

Isn’t a 40-70 million payroll advantage every year enough of a handicap?

We’re just sayin’

Yours in baseball.

Dante & Todd Bisson

Categories: 2009 Season
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9/26 -

With tonight’s 9-5 bummer in the books, there is more than a knee-capped John Lester to be concerned with. For the first time in a while, we have to seriously question a Tito move. The Sox came into tonight’s game playing some solid ball with genuine mo heading towards the finish line of the regular season. More often than not, mo maters, and it doesn’t just happen. You need to feed it. To nudge it. At the very least you don’t put a chair at the bottom of the stairs it’s about to come racing down.

Jason Veritek is that chair and Terry Francona put him there. Behind the plate of a very important game. In the house that the boss built.

The Red Sox captain, hero of years gone by, the man who mushed A-Rod’s face, sparking some truly magical mo back in ‘04, is yesterday’s man. He still calls a great game but that is it. Seriously. He can’t hit, he can’t throw, and he is having more and more trouble blocking balls in the dirt. When you face the best offense in baseball in their crib, you put your best offensive line-up out. If Lowell can’t play, you move Youk over and put the Kotch on the one. You put second half MVP Victor “Vickie Mart” Martinez behind the plate, and you mash the Yanks and their troll boy Joba ’til they sees stars.

That did not happen and we are worried about what Tito will do going forward. The Yankees ran, they took advantage of a passed ball, they snuffed no-out rallies with runners on second and third, all because Tek got the start.

We all adore the Captain. His legend will live on long after his playing days end, but right now, with the Yankees looking to establishing major dominance over the Sox, and the fleet foxes of Anaheim edging off the bag, there is no way Jason Veritek should do anything more than mop up duty until they play truly meaningless games against Toronto and Cleveland next week.

And come playoff time, it’s Vickie-Mart behind the dish every night until the commissioner hands over the trophy. With seriously tough competition waiting in the ALDS, ALCS, and WS, and newly sprouted question marks at the two spot in the starting five, the Red Sox can’t afford any chairs at the bottom of stairs…

Yours in baseball,

Dante & Todd Bisson

Categories: 2009 Season
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9/25 - KC splitter, NY preview, & post season thoughts. D + T like what they see!

 

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Categories: 2009 Season
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