Monday, August 10, 2009

How Sweep It Is!


With all due apologies to Jackie Gleason, the Yankees’ 5-2 victory over the Red Sox last night should go a long way toward erasing any psychological advantage the Bosox once held over the Bronx Bombers.

Those eight losses earlier in the year were experienced by a far different club, with several components either malfunctioning or missing. This weekend, the Yanks set their divisional rivals back on their heels with defense (love those rally-killing double plays!), consistent starting and relief pitching, small ball and long ball (including by their most wondrous off-season acquisition, to my point of view, in many a year: Mark Teixeira, in the image accompanying this post).

It’s the Bosox’ turn to feel…shall we say, woozy—after a four-game sweep. It’s the greatest reversal of fortune in the rivalry since what a work colleague refers to as “the unfortunate events” of October 2004.

It’s the Bosox’ turn to worry—not just about making up ground on the Bronx Bombers (an increasingly hard road to go when you’re 6½ games behind) but even staying ahead of Tampa Bay and Texas in the wild-card standings.

And let’s not forget Big Papi. The only thing that could have been worse than his dismal plate performance over the past lost weekend would have been the lack of Players’ Association representatives by his side to back his contention that he wasn’t juicing.

Hmmm…that I-thought-it was-over-the-counter supplements defense…that I-was-never-told-I failed claim…Too bad A-Rod didn’t think of these all-purpose, get-out-of-jail-cards when he faced similar questions in the spring.

Oh well, no need to begrudge the Red Sox on this point. After all, they still have to lead the league in something.

Otherwise, what would happen to their precious self-righteousness and street cred with the intelligentsia and powers that be? (I still like Senator John Kerry’s slip of the lip concerning his favorite player: “Manny Ortez”: a nice blending of the twin towers—now discredited—of the Sox long-delayed return to glory.)

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