AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 23
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Rockies in six … No, wait. Sox in five
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m walking a couple blocks from Boston’s Kenmore Station to Fenway Park after riding in from Waltham, Mass., on the “T”, on an a unseasonably warm New England October afternoon — is there such a concept as unseasonably warm anymore?
Saw a gym with a hand-written sign in the window that said, “Wear the Sox ‘B’ and work out free.” And a government building of some sort with a Red Sox flag flying beneath the American flag.
Saw cars and houses adorned with “Go Sox” sentiments for miles and miles along the Green Line. Saw boys and girls, men and women everywhere wearing ballcaps with the familar “B.”
Now approaching the grandest old ballpark in the world, I’m looking down Landsdowne Street, behind the Green Monster in left field, and it takes me a moment to grasp the fact that there are more than a dozen tents on the sidewalk.
Folks have camped out for a couple days, waiting to buy a very limited number of seats for Wednesday’s World Series Game 1 between their beloved Sawx and the upstart Colorado Rockies. The Red Sox sell those last tix two hours before gametime.
I’ve seen this queing up and camping out thing plenty of times in college basketball; it happened before every big game at my alma mater, the University of Kansas.
But this isn’t college hoops. And these seats aren’t cheap. Far from cheap. And there middle-aged folks in some of those tents, folks who presumably have jobs. Folks you don’t expect to see sleeping on urban sidewalks.
It’s not like the Red Sox are new to this World Series thing, having won it in 2004 to shake their curse and all that. And it’s not like there are no diversions here in Boston, which is the anti-Atlanta in terms of current championship-caliber sports teams (even my Celtics have finally surrounded Paul Pierce with the talent to make a serious run).
But there they are, all disheveled and waiting for a chance to pay big dollars for the opportunity to watch the Red Sox.
Gotta love it.
Unless you’re the Rockies, perhaps.
Just took my seat in a very cramped Fenway pressbox. I’m listening to Rockies being interviewed while I watch Red Sox working out on the field.
And now, I’d like to waffle on my World Series pick before I’ve even officially made it.
I’ll confess: I was going to pick the Rockies to win in six games. Now, I’m going to pick the Red Sox to win in five. Yes, that’s serious waffling.
Don’t know how exactly to explain the change in my pick, other than the look in some Colorado players’ eyes and the tone of their statements, which have quite a bit of awe and don’t-know-how-we-did-it.
(Before I forget, I stopped at a large corporate blue-and-yellow electronics store on the way here today, to pick up new CDs by Neil Young and Shooter Jennings. Much as I prefer to give my business to my man Don at his indie record store in Toco Hills in Atlanta, it’s hard to pass up those loss-leader prices on just-released CDs at the huge chain stores — damn them, he says, shaking his fist.)
And for a musical transition … I’m hoping the Red Sox will have the Irish-American rock band Dropkick Murphys play again at some point in the World Series, like they did when they played before Game 7 of the ALCS, on the field on the dirt cutout warning-track corner in right-center field.
Some folks said once the Dropkick Murphys played a rousing couple of songs before that game, complete with accompanying Irish step-dancers, the Indians didn’t stand a chance. The place was charged up beyond belief.
OK, back to the Rockies.
Folks, as much as I’d like to see the Senior Circuit pick up its second consecutive World Series championship, I’m afraid the spectacularly surging Rockies are in a whole different theatre here, and I’ve got a feeling their 21-1 run is about to end abruptly at the hands of Josh Beckett, Big Papi, Manny (and his incessant Being Manny) and the Red Sox before their passionate fans at the Fens.
The Rockies will face Beckett and Schilling in Games 1-2 with passionate Red Sox fans breathing down their backs, and the Rockies had best not expect another of their miraculous comebacks if they want to get out of here without being down 2-0 in the series.
Yes, the Rockies won two of three here at Fenway in June. But that was June.
Jeff Francis, their baby-faced and well-spoken ace pitcher, described what it was like pulling into Fenway on the team bus Tuesday and seeing the plethora of satellite dishes and TV trucks, not to mention all the fans mulling around outside on a workout day that wasn’t even open to the public.
There were hundreds of microphone and notepad-wielding reporters at the park when the Rockies arrived in the early afternoon.
“I’m sure the Red Sox are used to this every day, but we’ve never seen anything like this,” Francis said.
None of us have seen anything quite like this run the Rockies are on. From a fourth-place, near-.500 team in mid-September, to 21 wins in 22 games, including sweeps in each of their first two postseason series.
But how many of you believe they can keep it going through the World Series? It’d be a remarkable story, one that I believe most of us who aren’t denizens of Red Sox Nation would probably like to see reach a new climax.
But can they pick up where they left off after eight days of watching and waiting for the World Series to begin? Maybe they were too good for their own good in the NLCS, when they convinced seemingly everyone but Arizona’s Eric Byrnes that they were the better team (Uh, Byrnesy, they were the better team. Oh, and stop wearing skin-tight red undershirts that go to your wrists with matching red tights if you’re going to pull your pants up to the knees. That’s just wrong).
“If you would have told us we had to win 13 out of 14 to get in [the postseason], we probably would have thought it was impossible,” Francis said.
If they keep that run going after more than a week of rest, they should get super-sized World Series rings. All that time off, and now the Red Sox go up against Beckett, who’s 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA in this postseason. Tough task, lads.
By the way, Francis will be pitching on 12 days rest, Beckett on five (one more than normal).
While I’m thinking about it: You’ll hear and read more about it later, but if you haven’t heard already: Red Sox knucklerballer Tim Wakefield (sore shoulder) isn’t going to be on the World Series roster.
Terry Francona said he’ll start Beckett, then Schilling and Dice-K in Games 2 & 3. Hasn’t committed to a Game 4 starter, but I’m betting it’s Beckett if the Sox are either behind in the series or have a chance to close it out.
Rockies plan to start Francis in the opener, followed by rookie Ubaldo Jimenez (rookie facing Schilling in the World Series at Fenway — yikes), then Josh Fogg (what’s gotten into him, by the way?) and — here’s a bit of a surprise — Aaron Cook in Game 4.
Cook, the opening day starter who hasn’t pitched since Aug. 10 because of an oblique strain.
Rosters don’t have to be set until Wednesday morning, and that’s when both teams will make their final choices known.
Oh, and for all those Hahira- and Valdosta-based Red Sox fans: South Georgia favorite son (and former Brave) J.D. Drew, coming off his grand slam and five RBIs in game 7 of the ALCS, will get the start in right field Wednesday the lefty Francis. Drew didn’t play against many lefties down the stretch.
The mother of all late-season surges: Remember when the Braves beat the Rockies in back-to-back games Aug. 4-5 at Turner Field? No? They did. Trust us.
That began a road skid that saw the Rockies post a 5-10 record in 15 road games through Sept. 10.
Since Sept. 11, the Rockies are 12-1 on the road, holding opponents to two runs or fewer in eight of them.
They hit .296 and scored 60 runs while posting a 3.18 ERA during their 8-1 road stretch to finish the regular season, and they are 4-0 despite a .234 batting average in postseason road games. Their pitchers have a 2.13 road ERA in the postseason, in two road wins apiece against the Phillies and Diamondbacks.
But now they get the Red Sox, and something has to give. Boston has hit .323 and scored 49 runs in six postseason games at Fenway, including six or more runs in five games and 10 or more in three.
They outscored the Indians 23-4 in the last two games of the ALCS at Fenway.
One last thing: The Oxford American is a really good magazine to begin with. But the annual music issue (and accompanying CD) alone is worth the price of a subscription.
I’m telling you, I eagerly await this thing in my mailbox every year, and this year’s might be the best they’ve done. It’s 26 songs that span generations and every genre imaginable, all by performers with Southern roots.
This rich, eclectic set ranges from country and rock to folk and blues, from Eldridge Holmes’ beautiful R&B cover of “If I Were a Carpenter” to Dwight Yoakam’s “Yet to Succeed” and Zakary Thaks’ garage-rock “Bad Girl,” from Thelonious Monk’s sublime “Trinkle, Tinkle” to Iris Dement’s “Sweet is the Melody.”
You can get it on the newsstands.
I lied. Still one more thing: Anyone wonder if it’s total coincidence that Chipper Jones complained loudly this summer about the Braves having to play Boston every year in interleague play, and now, for the first time since interleague play began, the Braves don’t play the Red Sox in 2008?
Instead, the Phillies will face the Red Sox in interleague play in ’08. For his next act, Hoss should address the starting times of Braves home games. Then maybe the playoff schedule.
“COLD COLD HEART” by Hank Williams
I tried so hard my dear to show that you’re my every dream.
Yet you’re afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart
Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn’t do
In anger unkind words are said that make the teardrops start
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart
You’ll never know how much it hurts to see you sit and cry
You know you need and want my love yet you’re afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life, to try it just ain’t smart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart
There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart
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