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World Series Game One

Josh Beckett striking out the side in the top of the first and Dustin Pedroia hitting a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first basically set the tone for game 1.  The Red Sox pounded the Rockies who looked a bit lost.

In case you didn't hear Fox broadcasters mention the fact the Rockies were coming off an 8 game lay-off, well they were coming off an 8 game lay-off.  I have no idea if that was the real reason nothing worked for them, but that certainly will be the theory.

I'm glad the Red Sox put this one in the books, but there is a ton of baseball left and they cannot expect Colorado to roll-over again.  Boston will have to work hard to make sure they stay focused.  We should all hope Terry Francona does his best Bill Belicheck impression and, no, not start using videotape, but convinces his players that they did make mistakes and that one game does not a World Series Champion make.

Notes:

One of the funniest conversations ever was when Fox had a microphone on Royce Clayton.  Clayton and Coco Crisp were talking about Taco Bell's promotion giving away free tacos if anyone stole a base in game one.  "I ain't got my taco."

Eric Gagne worked his 2nd consecutive "clean" inning.  Maybe keeping him on the roster was a good move despite his work coming in garbage time.

Fox broadcasters were questioning why Beckett pitched through 7 innings thinking Francona should have yanked him sooner.  I have to assume it was because he only ended up throwing 93 pitches and any chance you get to save the bullpen, you take.

As much talk about the Rockies winning their first 2 rounds so easily resulting in the 8 game lay-off and how it might impact their performance, we are now going to hear about how such an easy game 1 victory might impact the Red Sox later in the series.

Did you realize only 5 guys on the active roster were around when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series?  Mike Timlin, Jason Varitek, Curt Schilling, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.  Tim Wakefield was on the 2004 squad, but is inactive this round and Kevin Youkilis was on the team in 2004, but not on the active roster for the World Series.  When I heard that on Fox, it made me realize just how quickly a team can change.

Fox also showed a stat that the Red Sox set a record for largest game 1 margin of victory in a World Series.  The previous high was 11 and the winner of game 1 went on to lose the World Series in both instances.  It is stats like those that make you realize that it is just 1 game and no matter how big the margin of victory, it all gets left in that game with game 2 starting with a clean slate.  It is also Fox's way of sensationalizing everything.

Joe Buck went to lengths to tell us that Todd Helton has always been just as good a hitter on the road as he has at home in Coors.  Really?

Career numbers for Helton:

home: .367 avg, .465 obp, .663 slg, 1.128 OPS, 185 HRs

road: .295 avg, .394 obp, .502 slg, .896 OPS, 118 HRs.

Joe, does that look like the same production to you?  What a lame, lazy comment.

Thursday night is listed again as an 8:23pm start (Wednesday's game was listed as an 8:23pm start, but really got underway at about 8:35pm).  Curt Schilling vs. Ubaldo Jimenez.

Comments

The 8 day layoff was a function of them sweeping their series and the Sox going 7. Perhaps one of the 8 days could be attributed to TV scheduling. I am tired of hearing about the disadvantage of the 8 days.

Blmeanie, yeah, well get used to it.

I went on google and entered 'coco crisp royce clayton and taco bell' to try to find this sound bite or video and your article came up was the only thing that came up. I have to get my hands on that clip. It was so funny.

Come on guys, if it had been the Red Sox off for 8 days you would be complaining about it. There was obvioulsy nothing you could do about it this year, but in the future I hope baseball considers what the NBA Finals does and move up the start date of the World Series if both teams win the pennant early.

As for me, I am going to complain about the 8:35 start. Baseball really doesn't want those of us on the East Coast (outside of Boston) to watch these games, do they?

understood Peter but honestly the time off, 8 days isn't because of anything other than sweep vs. going 7.

Yes, I would complain about being rusty but not blame anyone.

I cannot stand the lateness of the games. Naturally there are more pitching changes with more on the line (although I am amazed at how long they kept Francis in the game) and the late start plus a 4 hour game is terrible.

8:00 start with an 8:10 first pitch would help

Peter, why are saying I would complain? Did I say I wouldn't have complained at some point?

All I said was that the 8 day lay-off was talked about constantly last night and that I didn't know if it was a really issue or not. Baseball people fell on both sides of the debate.

Let's just say it did play a part, is 1 game going to make that big a difference to them? Especially to their starters who have not pitched in longer than 8 days?

BL- That's not right. Even if the Red Sox-Indians series had gone 4 games, the World Series would not have started until last night. That is stupid in my mind, why not make it a "floating" date based on when the Championship Series end?

And a 8pm start would be fantastic.

Andy- I didn't want to single BL out so I said "guys". Plus you have a tendency to complain about everything ;-)

I don't understand your question. What do you mean by "1 game" and who are you referring to as "them"

both teams would have been in the same boat if the Sox swept the Indians, I agree.

It is wrong. I agree.

The layoff though is not caused by MLB or FOX in this case. Thats all.


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