Boston Red Sox!?! (Portland, Brunswick, Caribou: professionals, radio, rating)

[ogre]

Okay, those who have followed this thread from the start know that I made a post a while back where I quoted myself from some jabs I took at MFY in a thread at the sports forum. Here's another one I've posted at the sports forum, which I think Sox fans might enjoy. The topic of that thread is "What are the 'evil empires' of American sports?" So, here are one Sox fan's thoughts on that subject:

There is really only one true Evil Empire. There's nothing tricky about my opinion. I'm talking about the obvious choice: By far the most championships of any team in American professional sports. True dynasties that dominated two entire decades--the '20's and the '50's--along with runs of several championships in the '30's, '70's, and '90's, so that every generation in the past 80-plus years has been subjected to the spectacle of this team feasting on the other clubs in its sport. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE CHAMPIONSHIPS BOUGHT! Club management through the generations that has run the operation with the cold efficiency of a Fortune 500 behemoth, and flaunted the club's success with putrid garishness, a gaudy display that plays to boorish fans who never seem to tire of their orgy of gloating about each new bought-and-paid-for championship.

Yes, there's only one true Evil Empire in American sports. The other teams people say they love to hate are really just temporarily-unpopular fiefdoms.

[big daryle]

Jim Rice should make the Hall Of Fame next year, which is great, because he deserved it a long time ago!!

[elston]

My grand daughter loves the sea dogs and goes to their games with her daddy and uncle. She knows the players names and last winter made a sea dog snowman. The Seadogs are still very much loved in Portland! She has already enlisted me to go to the games when I get there, and warned me that I will hear her cheering all over the stadium.

[elston]

My son used to have a neighbor in Saco who had painted her picket fence the Sox's colors and had the names of her favs on the pickets. She had emblems and the green machine on her house--all you had to do was say, Do you know where the Red Sox house is....and cab drivers or anyone knew exactly where you meant. She has since past on to that great baseball diamond in the sky, and the kids painted the house! Better but still not the same......

[ogre]

Yes, quite a night at Fenway. No-hitter by Jon Lester. What a story after what that kid has been through.

Don't know about the team this year. Tonight's performance notwithstanding, so far this year they haven't gotten the kind of pitching from top to bottom that they had last year. If the pitching were up to that level, with the team of postition players the've put together, they'd likely be staging a runaway. The pitching doesn't seem to be there, though. We'll see what develops with that

But tonight . . . really nice. Congratulations to Jon Lester. Nice to see.

[BacktoNE]

I got to see the 9th inning because ESPN linked to NESN. What a great night for Jon Lester, and especially given all that he has overcome.


As an aside, it sure was nice to hear Shawn & Jerry calling a game again even if I only got to hear half an inning.

[7th generation]

Yep, what an ace. It's all about getting ahead of the batter in the count. His control was amazing and toward the latter part of the game, he was shaking off a lot of Jason's calls, which worried me since the Captain probably has the best knowledge of opposing batters.....ahhh baseball, America's sport and a rite of spring.

[mollysmiles]

Ogre it's great to see you!! I'm wondering about the pitching too....but haven't gotten to watch/listen to many games yet this year to really compare. I'm reading, but it's not quite the same! So glad that you pulled this thread out of the mothballs!!!

[ogre]

To those interested, if you haven't already voted for the All-star game, you have until 11:59 tonight to do your bit in stuffing the ballot box, er, voting for the best players. You can vote up to 25 times. You can find the ballot either at the Sox' website or the MLB website.

Truth be told, despite what I said about stuffing the ballot box, I actually felt that it was an honest vote to pick Sox players for most positions. Not that every one of them stands by himself as obviously the best choice, but at most positions the Sox player is among the top few, any one of whom would be a legitimate pick. I used my full quota of 25 votes. For two positions, I did vote for other teams' players on most ballots, though on several ballots I admit that I did do some ballot box stuffing and voted an all-Sox ticket.

There is also a write-in option. Something I discovered is that you can write in a player and also pick a player for the same position from those on the ballot. The Sox outfielders on the ballot are Manny, Drew, and Coco Puff. Once I discovered that you could write in a player and still pick a player for the same postition from the ballot, I submitted ballots that had those three Sox outfielders listed on the ballot, with Ellsbury added as a write-in. Shameless, I know, but really, they are all legitimate picks . . . in my highly unbiased opinion.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by K-Luv

This may expose me as the outsider that I am, but can someone please explain to me the fascination that Mainers have for the Red Sox?

I could understand if they were called, maybe the New England Red Sox, but c'mon-Boston is in a completely different state.

I think it's that the Red Sox are the closest professional baseball team to Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, so the Red Sox are the main baseball team everywhere in New England (except for the part of Connecticut that is suburban NYC).