Dead puppies
Dead puppies
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
They don’t come when you call
They don’t chase squirrels at all
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
My puppy died late last this fall
He’s still rotting in the hall
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
Mom says puppy’s days are through
She’s gonna throw him in the stew
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
Dead puppies
Dead puppies
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
Dead puppies
Dead puppies
Dead puppies aren’t much fun
Dead puppies
Dead puppies
– Ogden Edsel
I’ve always preferred kittens. :-P
damn sf….that is depressing…look, you guys aren’t done yet…probably lame of me to bring up the comeback against the yankees, but it’s doable against these indians too, especially now that you’re back to beckett for the next game…what i’d be afraid of is that the indians, like the rockies by the way, seem to have something magical [you know i’m not on board with the whole concept of luck, so i’ll call it magic] about the way they’ve won some of these games…goofy bounces, line drives finding gloves somehow, you know, quirky stuff…
Magic shmagic: they have starters who can get out of the fifth inning.
Nothing magical, just simple execution. They are, based on all visible evidence (and that’s what I go on), the best team in the AL.
Then let’s hope the Red Sox are the luckiest team in the AL!
With the way things are looking right now the ALCS is just a battle to see who gets swept by Colorado in the WS.
Small silver lining, I know.
“shmagic”?
;)
look, all i’m saying is that the worm could turn…not like this is the first time your starters have struggled…but they bounce back too…if you lose, you lose, so what, i just wouldn’t give it up just yet, that’s all…
let me add that it’s the rockies that seem to have most of the post-season “shmagic”…gimme a break…that bubble will burst, but when exactly?…
Our site’s gonna be hacked by PETA.
So was pitching Wakefield last night smart? Would Beckett and our good bullpen have given up 3 runs or less?
It’s times like these where I really miss Kevin Millar. We seem to be lacking the one guy who is going to lean back in his chair, crack open a Bud Light and reassuringly tell the team: “We’ve got Beckett on the mound tomorrow and the final two games in Boston. What is everyone worried about? We’ve got this shit taken care of. We have the Indians right where we want them.”
cowboy up is gone
It’s complete 20/20 hindsight, but in retrospect Tito should have left Wakefield in. He might have gotten out of the inning and settled back down. In any case, he can’t have done worse than MDC… If either Wakefield or Little Manny had stopped the bleeding at 3, that could have been an extra-innings game.
Woulda coulda shoulda. Meanwhile, where are the runs? And why isn’t Ellsbury getting any at-bats?
(Yeah, we’re missing a Millahhh… and also a Cabby… and, hate to say it, Caveman Damon.)
what is the likelihood that drew sits tomorrow? will kielty get the start against sabathia again?
Kielty’s numbers against Byrd were amazing, he should have played last night.
i didn’t realize that kielty had success against byrd. ouch.
maybe drew will come up big. i was telling people here at work that he would be the hero of the postseason for the sox. (glad i didn’t put any money on that… for now…)
YFIB, I think all of us were assuming that Drew has sucked all season because he’s been saving up all of the Awesome for the playoffs. And who knows, he might do that starting tonight.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said “Okay Drew, if you get a big hit HERE then all is forgiven”
it just seemed that way, didn’t it atheose?
if someone could have guaranteed last winter that jd drew would be healthy and in the lineup all season, most sox fans would have been really excited.
The sad thing is that Drew has been healthy. He’s played in 140 games, which is actually more than Pedroia.
And wow, he actually has the 2nd most walks on the team with 79.
Drew has been a big disappointment this year.
If Trot moves on to the World Series, it will be some poetic justice/bitter irony/fill-in-the-twist-of-fate blank.
I knew the Indians pitching would be tough (though not this tough), but I’ve been really impressed by the depth of their lineup. 1-9 they are capable of getting things started, or carrying things on. We on the other hand only have 1-5.
I think we all knew the Indians pitching would be good, but not in this manner. We shelled both Sabathia and Carmona, and yet get our lunch money stolen from Westbrook and Byrd.
At least we know we have a chance of hitting their big 2 starters hard in the next two games.
re: drew’s walks
i haven’t watched every sox game this year, so this is admittedly based on a relatively small sample and perhaps it has already been discussed here, but it seemed to me that drew took a lot of pitches this season. balls. strikes. didn’t seem to matter.
maybe he just needs to be more aggressive at the dish.
maybe i’m just making this all up, too. i just seem to remember saying, “he hasn’t swung at a pitch yet” when the count was full or 2-2 pretty often this season. is that accurate?
Oh, and we haven’t even had our 1-5 hitting well–just 2-4. Youk, Ortiz and Manny are all on fire, but Pedroia is batting .188 in the ALCS, while Lowell is hitting .250. Lowell at least has 6 RBI though.
If we’re going to win this series we need our leadoff hitter, as well as Coco and Lugo, to get on base much more.
You’re part right, YFIB. Half the time he seems to go an entire at-bat without lifting the lumber off his shoulder, but the other half he seems to pop-up or ground-out on the first pitch. He has sucked at being aggressive and sucked at being patient.
people on the train this morning were arguing about the lineup. (i love this town.) the argument to start ellsbury over coco sure seems solid. you’d still have a set of legs off the bench (coco), too.
fair enough, atheose. i guess when the choice between making an out on the first pitch or taking a bunch of pitches, at least taking them provides an opportunity to walk…
File under: putting the cart WAYYYY before the horse, but I actually like — I said like, not love — the chances of the Sox taking the next two and getting this thing to a Game 7.
And the thing that scares me in that instance is the prospect of the mental wreck formerly knows as Dice-K taking the mound. Yesterday ESPN was reporting that following his Game 3 performance, he sat in his locker, completely silent and motionless, for over an hour. (Contemplating sepukku, perhaps?)
What the hell’s wrong with that guy? And we thought Derek Lowe was a basket case. Yeesh.
My desire to see the Sox lose only slightly trumps my potential disgust at seeing Kenny Lofton AND Trot Nixon get to the WS. If that does happen, go Colorado.
I don’t know that saying Wakefield should’ve stayed in is purely 20/20 hindsight. It looks like it because of what happened next, but to me it seemed contradictory to the stated reasoning for putting him in in the first place. The Sox had his back up through game time, but then didn’t give him a chance to work out of the jam. I just don’t get it.
And even as it pertains to Wake, the offense really bit it. If the score is only 3-2, 2 outs, I very much doubt that Wake gets pulled. The decision to pull him is still Francona’s fault of course, but if the offense had shown some modicum of success, then they save Francona from making that mistake.
Maybe that is pure hindsight, since I couldn’t see it live. But the big show of confidence in Wakefield clashes with the short leash he was given. It isn’t like he was being killed out there, at least by his standards.
I don’t know, Iron Horse, that whole Jesus-is-the-reason-we’ve-won-20-out-of-21-games thing just might get me to pull for the Tribe. I’ll leave the room when Lofton is at bat. Oh wait, what am I saying? Like I’m gonna watch an Indians-Rockies World Series.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IzH0k5dD8MI&mode=related&search=
Just found this online. An Indians pitcher throws ARod a Euphus pitch, clocked at 37 mph. Hilarious.
Kevin Millar was spotted in the visitor’s club house last night. Here is a transcript of his conversation.
Drew: Series’ over, man. The Indians dropped the big one on us.
Millar: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Lowell: Germans?
Veritek: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Millar: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…
…
…
the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!
[Millar briefly runs out of the clubhouse and then returns]
Millar: What the fuck happened to the Red Sox I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? “Ooh, we’re afraid to go with you Kevin, we might get in trouble.” Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. And I don’t even play for this team! Lofton, he’s a dead man! Paralta, dead! Sebathia…
Lowell: Dead! Kevin’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional baseball but that could take solid hitting from the top to the botom of our lineup. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.
Millar: We’re just the guys to do it.
Ortiz: Let’s do it.
Pedroia: LET’S DO IT!
GO Sox! If the Indians can win 3 straight, then so can we.
I love it that Sox fans call Yankee fans fair weather fans. I haven’t seen any YF on this site say Joe Torre sucks, or the Yankes sucks and aren’t trying, or say they’re going to quit watching for a week.
But we’re still the fair weather fans.
Joe Torre sucks. I quit watching for three or four games back in May.
But guys, WTF:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8341/papelgrabee0.png
What the hell is wrong with Jonathan Papelbon?
i publicly declared the yankees dead after their series with the angels late in the season. (i kept watching, but i had given up hope entirely.)
Ohhh, now with the “no Yankee fans have bashed Joe Torre”? That’s ridiculous, but let’s not restart the arguments of last night.
anon, I don’t understand the point of your comment. It has nothing to do with this thread, and generalizations such as yours debase the entire flow of discussion and are not warranted.
Now that I have lost my cool and am up on a soapbox, let me say that most every Sox fan here was incredibly magnanimous and courteous during the Yanks/Tribe series game threads, a couple of degenerate trolls aside. I hope that the Yankee fans that choose to chime in on the Sox/Tribe gamer threads are as respectful of what is actually happening _in the game_ while remembering what the purpose of this forum truly is, and choose to offer some insight and/or humor as opposed to degrading their contribution to a mud-slinging affair. And before someone goes back and scours the archives for one-off comments from either side to cut/paste something from 4 months ago just to be able to scream “hypocrisy!”, know that many people are entirely sick of this “he said/she said” crap. Move past it already; there are better things to talk about.
He’s just making sure Manny is wearing his cup. Manny has the mind of a 10-year old; you have to remind him to brush his teeth, wear his cup, and look both ways before crossing the street.
Does anyone here read The Dugout?
From what I saw last night, most of the Yankee Fans were courteous. There were a few exceptions, but that happens on both sides no matter what we’re talking about. Not a big deal.
Gerbs nailed it, saving me from having to go back and compile all the “Torre sucks” comments from YFs…
Re. Manny:
I prefer a player who daydreams at the plate about his next bowl of Fruit Loops while hitting a ton (including the postseason) than one who recites wordy mantras about “accelerated bat speed” and while hitting a ton (not including the postseason).
Speaking of which… Does Coco Crisp, after all these years, really need to go through that ridiculous chin-tucking routine for every pitch? It is seriously annoying, especially since it doesn’t seem to be doing him much good.
If you pretend that Manny is a 10 year old, his actions which are normally annoying as hell suddenly become amusing. Superman hands after every homerun? Intercepting a Johnny Damon cutoff? Hilarious.
http://dugout.progressiveboink.com/archive/b93.html
This comic always makes me laugh.
the jazz hands annoy me. i thought that the pause before running was as annoying as it could get.
my wife heard a string of filthy language in the other room last night. she asks, “what did manny do?”
They aren’t jazz hands… they’re superman/airplane hands! Manny likes to pretend he’s an airplane.
http://dugout.progressiveboink.com/archive/jon71.html
That’s a pretty funny one too. Manny is afraid to run on the elliptical machine because he thinks it looks like the man on the Quaker Oatmeal box.
Atheose: AH’LL BE JOUR KING AN J00’L BE MAH CASTLE
Of course there are Dugout readers here.
OK, I hate to take on the Manny thing, because it’s really not a great avenue for deep philosophical discussion, but what the hell. Here goes:
I hate defensive backs who make big hits after a wide receiver has caught a pass for like 37 years and stand over the receiver staring, like they just did something special. I hate curtain calls in general, not just Yankee curtain calls, though Yankee curtain calls really make my blood boil because they are done so frequently that they are devalued, and I don’t buy the “they are for the fans” thing, if anything they are all about the fans, making the fans into the showboats that they protest about. I hate pompous celebrations for accomplishments of little import, like a homer in a 7-0 game giving a team an 8-0 lead.
That being said, Manny is a hard nut to crack. I haven’t ever gotten the sense that Manny stares at his homers because he’s starving for attention (though he IS a professional athlete, and perhaps this is part of it). I haven’t ever sensed that Manny stares at his homers because he wants to make the pitcher feel bad (though maybe, not to be naive, he HAS done that). And I haven’t ever sensed that Manny stares at his homers because he thinks he’s the Sun, and that the world revolves around him. I think Manny stares at his homers because he loves hitting homers, and every one is something cool. There were some players, like Jeffrey “Hac-Man” Reynolds, who after hitting homers, had showboat routines done ONLY to shower attention on themselves. To me, that’s different from Manny.
So when Manny hits a homer down five runs, I agree that it would be better if he just put his head down and ran, no doubt. It looks stupid when he stares at the ball and just stands there looking all self-congratulatory, having pulled his team within a grand slam. But I have never (and yes, I am a Sox fan so there are admitted biases) thought that Manny was a mean-spirited guy, and hence his staredowns have a different connotation to me. I honestly don’t get the absolute hatred that Manny brings out of some of our readership. He’s no Barry Bonds. He’s no Jeff Kent. He’s no misanthrope playing baseball with a chip on his shoulder. It’s easier to forgive a guy like this, at least for me. So when Manny raised his arms in the 9th inning against the Angels after nailing that K-Rod pitch onto the Pike, he looked like a fan. Check the pictures — everyone in the stadium was in the same pose. I think that’s kind of cool.
Last night, not so much. But the bad (if not mean) comes with the good.
doug YF, the ARod parts of The Dugout were some of my favorites. Them, Manny and Farnsworth.
Oh, and SteakGrowsonDmitri. “What ta fuck is Jackie Robinson?”
Also, I agree about 75% with what SF is saying. I think Manny has a lot of inner-child in him, and he lets it out. Like when he was waving to Julio Lugo from 1st base after knocking in 2 RBI’s during the 1st game of the series.
sf, i also doubt that manny’s actions are done with malicious intent. they still get to me though. i hate it when rodriguez watches his HRs, too (#500 for instance), but manny seems to hot dog it more frequently and with a little more sass than i can recall anybody else doing.
perhaps this is because i live in boston, where i am more likely to see replays of these things. i admit that i am often easily annoyed by pet peeves and tend to lack patience for “offenders” of these personal rules of conduct from time to time.
i also respect the fact that he is one of the greats playing today, and is having fun, but it still really annoys me.
I used to absolutely _hate it_ when Manny admired home runs, and hated him for it, but now I try and just ignore it because there is not a damn thing in the world that will change it. No one is going to drill him, (and I am _not_ suggesting that someone should), the commish isn’t going to write some completely un-enforcable and pointless “unnecessary celebration” monetary fine system. When all is said and done, it really doesn’t matter. It’s a moment of profound annoyance, awkwardness and bad grace that dissapates in a few moments: basically, it is a fart.
I think there are a few factors effecting the “hated” for Manny. First of all he’s an amazing player that results from unreal natural talent and very hard work. This frustrates opposing team fans and the showboating makes for an easy avenue for criticizing him. Its nice to dump on your rivals best players (see: Jeter and Arod) when there is a chance.
Second, in the case of YFs at least, we hear all the time how Arod lacks class or so and so doesnt play the game right. When Manny does what he does, YFs will tend to point out such actions vigorously to illustrate that “classlessness” is not present only one team. Its hard to justify calling A-Rod or anyone else classless when someone on your team does what Manny did last night. Weather there is ill intent in his actions or no, I dont think they could be defended by anyone as “classy” whatever that means.
Third, I think that the whole oh “thats just Manny being Manny” rational is kinda trying and frustrates some fans. I dont believe that a players should be held to different standards in such a fashion. This creates a backlash against the player from people like me.
Come to think of it, that will be a fun thing to write in a gamer … “Manny hits a 2-1 hanging change wayyyy over the monster and farts, scoring Pedroia.
Manny hits a 2-1 hanging change wayyyy over the monster and farts, scoring Pedroia.
If anyone could find a way to collect an RBI by farting, it would be Manny.
> If anyone could find a way to collect an RBI by farting, it would be Manny
It’s only 90 feet from third. If Dusty got caught in a strong breeze..
If it were loud enough, he might be able to induce a bases loaded ball four!
we hear all the time how Arod lacks class or so and so doesnt play the game right.
And I think this is way too reductive. For me, the issue with A-Rod isn’t that he “doesnt’ play the game right”. He absolutely plays the game right: he works his ass off, he doesn’t seem to take anything for granted, he clearly practices and practices to hone his craft. And I don’t think A-Rod lacks class, either. I think that’s actually a pretty weak criticism. Someone like Terrell Owens is classless. I think A-Rod is a serially insecure narcissist (which Owens may be as well), but that has nothing to do with baseball, to be honest, and it rarely, though famously, has manifested itself on the field. For the most part, I have zero issues with A-Rod.
SF, I know better than to say that you whould have such issues with A-Rod but over the course of this year and previous ones many other SFs (not many of the regulars on this site but some) have derided A-Rod for some of his on-field moments. For example, criticism of Manny last night was immediately responded to with A-Rod is less classy…
For example, criticism of Manny last night was immediately responded to with A-Rod is less classy
I think this is the equivalent of “I know you are but what am I”.
I do know one thing: A-Rod thinks his farts smell like sandalwood and citrus. Or was that Jeter’s cologne?
coincidently (or perhaps not), that describes both, sf.
No doubt bored out of his mind, Abraham posted some stuff on his blog that made me chuckle a bit. My favorite was Carl Pavano day, where everyone gets $8 million and goes home.
This was just on the radio:
What can you buy with 14 million dollars?
A. Grady Sizemore, Johnny Peralta, Fousto Carmona, Rafael Betancourt, Ryan Garko, Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, Kelly Shoppach, Casey Blake, and a Honda Accord.
B. JD Drew.
That’s pretty funny, and a huge dose of reality to the two teams that partake in the discussions here.
I checked, and really, you could probably get a much better car with the left over money in the first deal; settling for an Accord is just silly.
I’m intrigued by the Honda Accord. Any chance we can pry him away from Cleveland in the offseason?
Speaking of class, EEI is running a doozie of a commercial that pokes a terrible form of fun Steibrenner right now. It has him very hard to understand, senile, not understanding what’s going on, talking about having someone dress/undress him to come to the meetings, and such…
it really is the epitome of jackassish.
Yeah, I heard he’s reliable and efficient if nothing else. ha.
beware japanese imports.
(the kei igawa is a lemon.)
that is about what i would expect from EEI.
> What can you buy with 14 million dollars?
58 innings from Roger Clemens (don’t even need to go to Pavano with this one)
And what will all those guys cost when they are at the same point in their career as JD Drew? I imagine a lot more than $14M. That’s a superficial way of looking at things, in my opinion. Funny, maybe, and somewhat interesting, but in the end not really that substantive.
14 mil also buys us:
-Jonathan Papelbon
-Jon Lester
-Dustin Pedroia
-Clay Buchholz
-Manny Delcarmen
-Kevin Youkilis
-Jacoby Ellsbury
-Tim Wakefield
And a good deal more, since the sum of all of the wages above is less than 7 mil.
It’s definitely funny.
jeez, guys. It’s a joke. I’m a Red Sox fan, and a real one, not just pretending to be one.
I know Brad – I wasn’t digging on you. I was just trying to add a layer to the discussion.
yeah, I i know. I’d say less Carmona and Sizemore, the rest of those guys are long gone, and probably on one of our two teams within a couple years. ha.
A little more Manny being Manny…(from the NYTimes BATS blog)
“We’re not going to give up,” Ramirez said. “We’re just going to go, play the game and move on. If it doesn’t happen, so who cares? It’s always next year. It’s not like the end of the world.”
Yeah who cares? Only millions of fans. Nice to see his heart is in it.
OK, I’ll wade back into the “Manny is a showboat” vs. “ARod has no class” argument:
(1.) The argument against Manny is that he gloats when he does something good. I’d first of all note that Yankee fans here have selectively zeroed in on his home run in a losing game (which did not win the game, but was “special” in that it was the 3rd home run in a row) — as opposed to his game-winner against the Angels, which he absolutely crushed, and was a walk-off. If there was any situation in which to admire your accomplishment, it was that one: a colossal smash at a crucial moment. I point this out mainly to show that the YFs who bash Manny are not being fully honest in their criticism.
(2.) The argument against A-Rod is the opposite: Not that he showboats when he does something good, but that he does ugly things when he fails. The Arroyo slap and the “mine!” shouting incident vs. Toronto are two prime examples.
Re. these first two points: I’m a biased Sox fan, I admit. But I have much less of a problem with any player who shows occasional pride in an accomplishment than with un-classy behavior when you’ve floppped. The first is celebratory, if somewhat grating to the opposing team; the second is just dishonorable.
(3.) Finally, there is the issue of authenticity. Whatever you think of Manny Ramirez, no one has ever accused him of being phony. He’s a goofball who happens to work very, very hard and delivers results. He doesn’t try to work the media, knowing his own limitations. ARod is the opposite: Pretty much everyone agrees that in spite of his great gifts on the field, there is nothing authentic about his attitude. He spins everything he says in the most painfully transparent way, and is rightly scorned for it. Some of the criticism of ARod is unfair, based solely on jealously of his earnings. But unlike Manny, he makes the situation much worse by his forced, parsed and scripted interactions with the public.
Verdict: I hope the Sox don’t pursue ARod, and keep Manny for the rest of his career. Much as the Sox need a great shortstop, I couldn’t root for Rodriguez.
The Globe interview which Sam-YF cited negatively above also contained this quote — not mentioned by YFs:
“Man, I’m just happy to do something special like that,” Ramírez said. “I’m not trying to show up anybody out there. I’m just trying to go have fun. If somebody strikes me out and shows me up, that’s part of the game. I love it. I like that. I like to compete, and when people strike me out or whatever and they show me up, it’s all good. There’s no hard feelings. I’m not trying to show anybody up.”
The Globe article notes that Manny does the same superfriends hand gesture in *batting practice*, when there’s no one to show up (and few to witness his prowess).
Sam, that’s a bit of a stretch. I think you can imagine just how Manny said those lines, they don’t necessarily come off in print the way they might have been spoken. He’s got perspective, and that’s how most athletes can continue to function: if they treated every contest like us fans do they’d have a psychological shelf life of like three weeks.
Guess so, I see why he doesnt talk to the press though. If it doesnt bother you guys it doesnt bother me.
not sure why manny’s quirks continue to generate so much attention…it’s not news at this point, and nothing really surprises anybody any more…i actually believe him that he wasn’t trying to show anybody up…as good as he is, he just strikes me as someone who forgets where he is once in awhile, gets distracted, and does something goofy…i got no problem with sox fans defending him…loyalty is cool, and he has earned it…
“The Arroyo slap and the “mine!” shouting incident vs. Toronto are two prime examples.”
How was he ‘failing’, at all, in the Toronto incident? He was on second, and it was a pop-up by Posada, I think. I’ll give you that he sometimes can be a bit awkward, but you make it out to be like A-Rod doesn’t know how to deal with failure, which is pretty abjectly false.
This ‘ugly when fails’ point is pretty stupid, and I guarantee you no one but Sox fans and John Gibbons (who, by the way, is a prime example of ‘ugly when fails’) think it to be true.
Also:
“But I have much less of a problem with any player who shows occasional pride in an accomplishment than with un-classy behavior when you’ve floppped.”
I wonder how you can root for David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Josh Beckett, or Kevin Youkilis? You’re right on one thing: you’re really, really biased.
To lighten the mook a little, a headline on mlb.com is “Manny unfazed by pressure of being 3-1” which kind of cracked me up. Is there anyone that has ever heard of Manny Ramirez that was wondering if he was stressed out?