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ALCS Game 7: October 19, 2008 Rays 3 W: Matt Garza (2-0)H: Dan Wheeler (1)H: J.P. Howell (1)S: David Price (1) 4-3 Red Sox 1 L: Jon Lester (0-2) 3-4 Highlights: Garza had a kerfuffle with his own catcher, Dioner Navarro, back in June. His on-field implosion made SportsCenter and threatened to be the lasting image of his first season with Tampa Bay. But like any good modern father, Joe Maddon got his son a therapist. Ken Ravizza, a friend of Maddon’s and a professor in Cal State Fullerton’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, cured Garza of his temper tantrums and enabled the pitcher to become this year’s ALCS MVP. I miss them already. I didn’t want to have to have to miss them.Tomorrow I’m flying to Maui to celebrate my Dad’s 60th birthday. For weeks I had envisioned being with my family not only for the birthday but also to watch my favorite team repeat as World Champions.My parents visited me in July 2004 during the series against the Yankees. Since then Dad has adopted the Red Sox as his own team.The people of Maui have embraced the Phillies as their team even though it is over...
ALCS Game 6: October 18, 2008 Rays 2 L: James Shields (0-2) 3-3 Red Sox 4 W: Josh Beckett (1-0)H: Hideki Okajima (2)H: Justin Masterson (2)S: Jonathan Papelbon (2) 3-3 Highlights: Craig Sager could not help but attire himself in the bright blue jacket with a tie with a swirly blue and yellow pattern. I think he was trying to match Raymond and the Rays’ color scheme; last night for once Sager’s togs would correspond to something. As for mismatches, “Big Game” James Shields didn’t live up to his sobriquet. He was more like “Deici Game” Shields. Good thing TBS locked itself in with the MLB until 2013; last night’s router in issue in Atlanta left millions of fans scrambling for coverage. I logged into MLB’s internet feed to hear Joe Castiglione and Dale Arnold telling me that Coco Crisp had bunted to get on base. On the radio one doesn’t have to be visually exposed to ugliness such as Sager’s suits, Tropicana Field, “Frank TV” commercials, and Crisp being picked off.Whatever bedlam affecting the cable feed didn’t impact the internet feeds that powered TBS Hot Corner. I wish I had known about this sooner; the four split screens...
ALCS Game 5: October 16, 2008 Rays 7 BS: Dan Wheeler (2)L: J.P. Howell (0-1) 3-2 Red Sox 8 W: Justin Masterson (1-0) 2-3 Highlights: Not only does Japanese have a term for “come-from-behind victory” (逆転勝ち, gyakutengachi) but also one for “come-from-behind loss:” gyakutenmake. In fact, if you search the kanji for the latter term (逆転負け) in Google, the first result is an article about the Red Sox team’s stunning victory on Thursday night. *Pinches self for the thousandth time.* That really wasn’t a dream, then. I woke up Friday morning expecting it to be a delirious hallucination. Saturday morning I double-checked just to be sure: Craig Sager had clothed himself in earth tones rather his preferred palette of audacious shades of cochineal, chartreuse, or cobalt. He did have sequins on his orange and brown tie, but other than that he was garbed in a rather sedate beige jacket gridded with brown lines.That was just as if not more shocking than the home team overcoming a huge deficit with a mere nine outs remaining.Terry Francona still thought his team had a shot. He quickly yanked Manny Delcarmen from the mound in the top of the seventh after he walked...
ALCS Game 4: October 14, 2008 Rays 13 W: Andy Sonnanstine (1-0) 3-1 Red Sox 4 L: Tim Wakefield (0-1) 1-3 Highlights: In a music montage set to “Walk This Way,” Dustin Pedroia threw a glove at a television camera to cover up the lens from shooting the Red Sox dugout. If only someone could have done that for the cameras trained on the field or on Craig Sager (velvet Tyrian purple jacket, coordinating mauve tie with a paisley design, and a light lavender shirt with shiny stripes). That was not good. Time to turn the page Go Red Sox! A sibylline sign?Photo courtesy John Tlumacki/Boston Globe Staff...
ALCS Game 3: October 13, 2008 Rays 9 W: Matt Garza (1-0) 2-1 Red Sox 1 L: Jon Lester (0-1) 1-2 Highlights: Bad things tend to happen to the Red Sox in Game 3s of the ALCS. Of course you’ll remember the 19-8 debacle on October 16, 2004, no matter how much you’ve tried to forget it. Just last year Boston dropped the third game to the Cleveland Indians on October 15 to render the series 2-1 The best part of last night’s game was Craig Sager’s lecture on how the eye works. He talked about how light passes through the cornea, is then is cast upon the retina, which then sends this information through the optic nerve to be processed by the brain. His extensive knowledge on the subject is not surprising given his ability to best assault our peepers. His navy and blue striped blazer as rather sedate given his past ensembles. His tie had the appearance of oil on water; irisdescent swirls of blue surrounded lighter azure blotches.TBS televised Carl Beane’s announcements to introduce the lineups. Surprisingly there weren’t many catcalls during the visitors’ introduction. My friend said it was intentional, an indication of the disdain...
ALCS Game 1: October 10, 2008 Red Sox 2 W: Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-0)H: Hideki Okajima (1)H: Justin Masterson (1)S: Jonathan Papelbon (1) 1-0 Rays 0 L: James Shields (0-1) 0-1 Highlights: Could the glory of the game of baseball overcome the shoddy surroundings of Tropicana Field? Indeed it could, particularly with a performance like the one Matsuzaka had. After a rough first inning in which he walked the bases loaded, the visiting starter roared back to hold the Rays hitless for 18 outs. Matsuzaka struck out nine and walked four, and for once I was thankful that a national broadcast team covered the contest rather than sit through Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy’s griping about their least favorite hurler. Dustin Pedroia saved the no-hit bid in the sixth with a play on Carlos Peña’s sharp grounder into the shift. The infielder slid on the jinkōshiba (artificial turf) and pivoted to first to notch the second out of the inning. The Tampa Bay organization did their best with the opening game of the second playoff series in their young existence. They remembered to change the “D” to “C” in the ALCS logo on the field. The bunting looked a bit...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.