YankeesRedSox.com

at some point the Sox fans have to cry foul...no Andy posts to rally the troups...

I am with you Peter. I hope Girardi plays this one to win. Hoping Andy brings his A game and uses a nasty cutter in the mix. A sweep, by any other name, would still be just as sweet (or something like that). Hey if Michael Kay can say things like "A long night's journey into day" to millions after A-Rod's walkoff dinger, I too can brutalize some poetry for an (albeit smaller) audience.

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Completely random post follows: my apologies to Peter ...

OK, sports fans, here's an interesting discussion to have someday soon while sitting with a friend or friends over a nice cold one, or even several cold ones:

which MLB team is more dinged up right now, the (blank) or the (blank).

Buddy of mine, who (please forgive him) is a Mutts fan (that's Mets for those of you that didn't grow up in our old neighborhood) was REALLY whining up a storm last night about the Mutts - so I brought up the Sox (not really the word that I used, but that's neither here nor there).

Mets or Sox? Who's hurting more.

PS - By the second round, you can also dig back into history.

it isn't the number of bodies that count towards how dinged up you are, it is how dinged up you are relative to where you could/should finish in the standings.

I.e. the Mets weren't going to outpace the Phils, BUT, the Sox were going to have a battle to the end with the Yankees, we have been robbed of that I believe.

BTW - nice one Mitchell, get your two hated franchise rivals fighting woe is me, pretty smart for a yankee fan :)

to clarify my post at the top, my "Andy" posts wasn't meant to mean Andy Pettitte but Andy, Sox Andy of this site.

While Peter files post after post rallying the Yankee posters with confidence and insight, Andy is eating more than his share of Maine lobster...nice.

"Where have you gone Andy, Red Sox fan? The Nation turns its lonely eyes to you..."

Mitchell-

Not even close, it's the Mets. The Red Sox have lost some guys for sure, but the Mets lost three of their four biggest offensive players and they currently have 10! players on the DL.

in case you missed it, the Mets were not going to win the division anyway. I agree they have lost more quality player days than the Sox but it took them out of trying to get the wildcard, trying being the operative word.

BL- Why do you think that? Apart from two-straight epic collapses in September, the Mets have been better than the Phillies for about 150 games in each of the last two seasons.

Going into 2009 a rotation of Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, Perez and Hernandez backed up by a pen with a 1-2 punch of K-Rod and Putz seemed pretty good. And Reyes-Beltran-Wright-Delgado was about as tough a core of the lineup as any team in the NL.

The Red Sox have some injuries, but it seems to me like it's more about the hitters not hitting and the pitchers brought in to bring depth (remember how you chided me about Penny being better than Burnett?) not providing it.

If you would like, I can put one of my dazed neighbors on the blog and he can discuss this better than I can. Let's just say that it's been a rough summer for a portion of NYC.

Peter - in your original post above I think your math on the winning percentage the Sox would have to do to get back even with the Yankees if they win tonight is incorrect. .087 more seemed to big a difference from the .125 or about 7.5 more wins than the Yankees the rest of the way. (they still play each other 7 times, right?)

The .125 is essentially correct. If the Sox win tonight and go to 4.5 back (4 in the loss column) then they would need to play about .105 better than the Yankees, or about 6 wins better than the Yankees the balance of the way.

to answer why I feel about the Mets, I guess I was pulling from recent years that I never have been impressed with the Mets and their makeup. Besides, signing Sheff almost guarantees that they will not be a big winner, right?

apology for post above, bad formula in spreadsheet gave me bad answer, you are correct, lol, out thought myself.

Seems like a bigger gap though than it should between .125 and .087 for a one game differential (tonight)

BL- My math is bad a lot and I think you are right, but I will check later.

mine is usually good (do math all day long for a living) and this time it failed me.

BL? I have a best friend that I drag to Fenway every once in a while so that I can at least have some company and someone watching my back. He's a, shall we say, fairly large, mean looking fellow (ahem) who is quite soft spoken for having grown up in NYC.

Best line he ever uttered?

The story: I was given 2 tickets to sit in a coprorate suite at Fenway for the entire 5 game homestand against the Yankees in August 2006. Yeah, that homestand.

Now - I don't wear any Yankee symbols when I go to Fenway - hey, I'm a fan, not a suicidal idiot - nor does my buddy. But I do get a little twitchy when the Yankees are spraying balls all over Fenway and I'm smiling so big that my face is starting to hurt by the fourth game. Well, the other guys sitting in the suite are being polite (or trying to be) considering we're in a corporate suite and they want my business but by the 4th game you can tell that they are getting a little tired not only of me but also tired of watching the Sox getting beat. And the beers tend to bend the rules of politeness after a few ...

One guy comes over (stumbles would be more accurate), looms large over me, looks me right in the eye and says to my friend, "don't tell me you're also a (bleeping) Yankees fan, 'cause I can't stand the thought of having to suite with two of his (bleeping) type."

My friend looks up at him, shrugs and says, "Nah, I hate the (bleeping) Yankees, always have, always will".

"Good !!!" is the reply - and the entire suite starts clapping loudly at the remark and the final put down of me. "So, you're a Sox fan I take it?".

Standard/full two second vaudeville pause followed by, "Nah, Mets".

Could have heard a pin drop at that point for about 4 or 5 full seconds then, for some reason, I started laughing my butt off at the look on the guy's face - as did everyone else. We all had a blast the next few hours ... true story.

The best friend was the guy whining to me about the Mutts - and our conclusion was that the Mutts are more dinged up than the Sox - Sox have guys still on the roster who are just playing really lousy ball right now. But hey, that's just two guys' opinion.

BL? I have a best friend that I drag to Fenway every once in a while so that I can at least have some company and someone watching my back. He's a, shall we say, fairly large, mean looking fellow (ahem) who is quite soft spoken for having grown up in NYC.

Best line he ever uttered?

The story: I was given 2 tickets to sit in a coprorate suite at Fenway for the entire 5 game homestand against the Yankees in August 2006. Yeah, that homestand.

Now - I don't wear any Yankee symbols when I go to Fenway - hey, I'm a fan, not a suicidal idiot - nor does my buddy. But I do get a little twitchy when the Yankees are spraying balls all over Fenway and I'm smiling so big that my face is starting to hurt by the fourth game. Well, the other guys sitting in the suite are being polite (or trying to be) considering we're in a corporate suite and they want my business but by the 4th game you can tell that they are getting a little tired not only of me but also tired of watching the Sox getting beat. And the beers tend to bend the rules of politeness after a few ...

One guy comes over (stumbles would be more accurate), looms large over me, looks me right in the eye and says to my friend, "don't tell me you're also a (bleeping) Yankees fan, 'cause I can't stand the thought of having to suite with two of his (bleeping) type."

My friend looks up at him, shrugs and says, "Nah, I hate the (bleeping) Yankees, always have, always will".

"Good !!!" is the reply - and the entire suite starts clapping loudly at the remark and the final put down of me. "So, you're a Sox fan I take it?".

Standard/full two second vaudeville pause followed by, "Nah, Mets".

Could have heard a pin drop at that point for about 4 or 5 full seconds then, for some reason, I started laughing my butt off at the look on the guy's face - as did everyone else. We all had a blast the next few hours ... true story.

The best friend was the guy whining to me about the Mutts - and our conclusion was that the Mutts are more dinged up than the Sox - yeah, the Sox do have a few guys on the DL but mostly they have guys still on the roster who are just playing really lousy ball right now. But hey, that's just two guys' opinion.

Yanks are 18-5 since the break and 11-1 against the AL East. Stay healthy, please.