Baseball

Am I the only one that has felt compelled to keep an eye on the Red socks since John Henry and gang arrived at Anfield?
Now first off let me say that it is THE most boring game in the universe to watch in real time, so I can only watch it on the sky plus with finger hovering over the FF button. 18 at bats per game with the networks drooling over the amount of advert time they have to play with. You get ads (5-6 minutes) after every at bat, which if the pitcher gets lucky can take about 2 minutes. All that aside, the Red Socks capitulation has been nothing short of Newcastle-esque.
They count their league in Wins and Losses and at the start of Sept had a 9 game lead over the next team (The Rays), with only 21 games to go.
Last night they had to match the Rays result to force a playoff with the Rays to get into the playoffs.
With one batter to get rid of left they led the game by 1 run, and managed to lose the game. Meanwhile the Rays came from 7 runs down with 2 at bats left and forced the Yankees to extra innings, where Evan Longorian (yer one out of Desperate housewives brother) hit a home run to beat the Red socks out of the play offs and claim a spot for the Rays.

They call the Red Socks the dream team and have players there on money that would make football players gasp. 4 of them on $150 M contracts the rest on silly money too. Manager of 8 years and 2 world series looks like getting the chop. Looks like the owners will have to focus on them for a while. Which will hopefully mean they just leave a blank chequebook at Anfield and say work away .

 

yes

 

Must be a Carlow thing for having an affinity with baseball bats, but I was watching it down in the pub way too late for a Wednesday night.

Can't begrudge the Rays after that comeback though.

I've watched worse sports for a rake of wings and pints. Curling comes to mind.

 

Been following baseball a few years now since I went to a game in Chicago, and have been to a few games since. Much better when you are at the game then watching on the tv. My wifes cousin, who lives in Georgia, is a massive red sox fans so he keeps me informed

 

I am a baseball and Yankees fan. Can't help thinking that the Rays winning streak against the Yankees in the final three games might not have been entirely due to the Rays superiority. It suited the Yankees to have the Red Sox out of the post season competition.

 

Yeah that thought had occurred to me too. Especially when you saw the Yankees line up at the end of the game last night, not exactly their first string.

 

Had the unfortunate pleasure of watching a live game last year honestly the worse and most boring game of my life all the Americans do is go to the bar and drink dirt at extreme proves thank god we left early 5 hours I was there and it was still going on.

 

One of the best nights of sports ever the other night.Last game of the season with the wild card place up for grabs.
Rays were down 7 runs to 0 against the Yankees and a homer with the last hit of the game won it for them.
Red Sox blew it against Baltimore and the so called dream team failed to get a place in the play off's.

 

The sox had 162 games to put the Rays away and why would the Yanks risk Mo Riveria considering the playoffs start so soon.

Seriously awful pitching by the Sox down the stretch.

Delighted for the Rays.

 

Oh not trying to claim a conspiracy by the Yankees at all, they did their job and were dead right to make sure their no 1 line up were fit and rested for the play offs.
If it were Liverpool say that played a weakened team in a game that meant nothing to them, minding the lads for a champions league semi or the like, we'd be 100% behind the decision. Conversely if we played a full strength team in the aforementioned meaningless game and lost 3 lads to injuries we'd lose the plot and be demanding to know what the heck was going on.

Havent seen much of the Yankees, is Alex Rodriguez still playing for them? I take it that the Yankees are favourites now for the "World Series"?

 

Yanks gone last night.Tigers eliminated them,with an amazing pitcher playing for them.
Been a very good playoffs so far.

 

I have only started to follow baseball properly this year. The new CBA was just announced so signing free agents and possible trades are all about to happen. The Red Sox are looking for a new manager after a horrible finish to last season.

I was in America for the summer and lived beside wrigley field. I follow both the cubs and the red sox. The cubs have hired Theo Epstein who was the guy John Henry brought in to move toward the ideology of 'Moneyball' and sabermetrics. I think this is relevant to Liverpool as this is who Damien Comolli essentially is.

 

Went to a Yankees game in July when I was in NY it was great night out the Rays beat the 5-0 haven't followed it since mind you...##Raven I must commend your in depth knowledge of all sports American, fair play.

 

I can see me and you have plenty of heated discussions about sabretemetrics and moneyball if you compare Theo to Comolli etc

Sox have hired Bobby Valentine as new manager and he sure aint sabremetrics type

 

Baseball is such great fun to watch...beer,food,more food and also a baseball game happens at the same time.

Now batting for the Yankees,number 2,Derek Jeter....its a great experience to watch and the Yankees are very good this season.

 

i tried to watch a few games last year but i couldn't understand what was happening so i haven't watched one since

 

I was in Killarney at the weekend and met a Red Sox fan from Boston.
It is fair to say that he was not an admirer of John W.
He reckoned that since Henry has got his new play thing in the UK he no longer cares what happens at Fenway! He also went on to say that there was a big sway of opinion against Henry at the moment and that most wanted him out!

I never bothered to ask him, but after that i presumed he was a Chelski fan as well.

 

Thats what happens when your team is on a shocking bad run,you sack the manager that won you your only 2 world series in 90 years and then put out a story that he had a problem with pain medication.Then you allow the genius behind it all your gm theo epstein walk away to a rival over disagreements over players.
Then you have the 100 anniversary of Fenway and the Yankees come in and spank you.The third highest payroll in all of Baseball and they are on an awful run since last season,at one point since late last season to now they were 11-30(11wins to 30 losses in 41 games)
That after you promised the Miami fans a new stadium when you owned that team and failed to do it and bought the red sox.

Yeah Henry isnt exactly admired in Boston right now