Responding to Adam Felber

I’ve been good friends with Emmy nominated writer, NPR personality and author Adam Felber for well over a decade now.

We’ve worked on projects together, done comedy together, our wives have become friends, our kids play together and our siblings are all friends as well.

We get along about as well as any friend I have… with one exception. Our lone true tensions have arisen during Red Sox/Yankees match ups.

As you all know, I am an obnoxious Red Sox fan.
And Adam is a cocky Yankees fan.

While I have preached goodwill between Sox and Yankee fans, I can’t claim I’ve always PRACTICED what I preached.

And when we both lived in New York, no matter how good our will was, it sometimes caused some tension, apologetic e mails after nasty passive aggressive taunts and some moments where we both wished the match up would just be over with.

Adam is a lifelong Yankee fan who went to college in the Boston area… and lived among Red Sox fans and saw us at our worst.

I am a lifelong Red Sox fan who went to college and lived 15 years in Manhattan… and I have always wondered why Yankee fans consider themselves to be classy.

In a recent e mail exchange, Mr. Felber tried to get me fired up about the upcoming clash between the Red Sox and Yankees.

I couldn’t take the bait. Earlier in the year, I compared a lifeless Red Sox/Yankees series with Superman IV.

All the players were there, but it just seemed tired.

Well with the decimation of the Red Sox this season, I have a hard time getting pumped for this series. No Youk, No Pedroia, possibly no Lester and nearly a week behind in the standings…

It’s worse than Superman IV.

It’s like Caddyshack II.

There are too many replacement Red Sox to give me any real hope for making up six games in the loss column.

I wrote to Adam “This Year is Lost for the Sox.”

I guess this was NOT what Adam had in mind.

“What are you talking about? With a sweep the Red Sox could be 2.5 games behind the best record in baseball. There are 4 teams in all of baseball with more wins than the Sox right now. And the Yankees have been kind of sucking this week. If the Sox win a couple this weekend, talk sh*t and rub it in! Make me hate Boston fans all over again. What’s the matter with you?”

He then tried needling me comparing the Sox with the 1980s era Yankees and talking about how if this were a small market team this close, people would be pumped.

But alas in order for the Sox to really make any headroom, they would have to sweep. And in case you missed it, they couldn’t even WIN a series against Seattle nor Cleveland, 2 of the 4 worst teams in the American League.

I’d love to see them back in it and when they slapped around the Angels and the
Tigers I thought “Oooo, maybe they’re making a run at it.”

However Youk’s injury and Lester looking hurt may just be the final white flag.

But hey, the morons who said we Red Sox fans were going to miss “The Curse” are
proven wrong again. If I were still waiting for the Series win, this year would
be agonizing. After seeing them win a few titles, I can be a little less frantic and more practical.

That being said… there is one constant to the world of Red Sox and Yankees… the pleasure felt by seeing our team win can only be rivaled by the sick joy of watching the other team squirm.

That’s why Yankee fans were so happy all those years.
That’s why we Sox fans were so nuts in 2004.

In 2009, I had to sit through the Lakers and the Yankees each winning a title.
This year I had the gut punch of the Lakers beating the Celtics… I can’t deal with a Yankee repeat.

Chances are the Yankees and the Rays are both going to the post season. And one of them will probably have to face Cliff Lee and the Rangers in a Best of Five series.

And with the Yankees shaky starting staff, uncertain bullpen and the implosion of Joba Chamberlain, a team like the Rangers could certainly steal a game from the Yankees and throw Cliff Lee at them in games 1 and 5.

And if the Yankees are the Wild Card team, they’d be facing Lee on the road.

And if that is the case, there would be a damn good chance that the Yankees would lose, Derek Jeter would have his 1,000 yard stare and Yankee fans would be sad.

And that’s a GOOD thing!

So one way to help set up that match up that would NOT favor the Yankees is to WIN THE SERIES!

That’s it!
I got all the motivation I need to get pumped for this series!

Schadenfreude is a powerful muse.

OK, Felber… it is ON!

My Red Sox may not win this year, but I’ll be damned if YOU feel any joy this October!

Let’s Go Sox!
Suck on it Felber!

(And we should get out families together soon.)

Sully

Only idiots are against instant replay in baseball

Yup.
It has come to this.

Name calling.

I’ve written about Instant Replay several times and it isn’t worth rehashing EVERYTHING. But tonight’s travesty just got me fired up again.

The Marlins won the game tonight beating the Phillies in the 9th.

Except they didn’t because of a blown call reversed a walk off hit.

It’s kind of like how the Giants won a game a few weeks ago… except that they didn’t because of the blown call on the final play.

In a year with so many tight races in the National League, a game could be all that keeps the Giants out of the playoffs.

Or maybe the Phillies sneak in by a game.

Exactly what is it going to take for the anti Instant Replay dolts to come around?

We’ve had a perfect game taken away from a pitcher.

We’ve had blown calls left and right in the 2009 post season.

Will it take a walk off hit in the post season being taken away?

Seriously, opponents of Instant Replay, what would have happened if tonight’s grotesque call by Bob Davidson had taken place in the Division Series… or the NLCS… or the World Series?

Is that what it will take to get some sort of replay system in place?

And as always the whole “it will slow down the pace of the game” argument is not only nonsense and asinine, but is untrue.

The replay showed that Davidson’s call was dead wrong while Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez was still on the field arguing.

So time WAS wasted on the call… and it was truly wasted because nothing was done or could be done.

Davidson can only arrogantly shake his head no, dead certain that he got the call right… only to have every single replay showing over and over again that Davidson’s confidence is unfounded.

Once again, the rest of the planet has access to the undeniable truth that the call was blown except the one person who could use the information to… and please brace yourself for this outlandish idea… GET THE CALL RIGHT!

I am DYING to hear a valid argument against instant replay.

I am guessing I’m not going to hear them.

Can the Orioles go 47-7 the rest of the way?

The Orioles only have 54 more games… and all season they have been staring at a 100 loss season or worse. For a while it looked like they were going to be one of the worst teams in the franchise history, dating back to their days as the St. Louis Browns.

But a strange thing has happened to the Orioles since Buck Showalter took over:

They are winning.

Granted it is only 3 games… but the lowly Orioles seem like they just eliminated the three time defending division champion Angels tonight.

And maybe Buck Showalter has scared them into relevance.

The Orioles have put a winning product on the field since losing the 1997 ALCS to the Indians.

Well what if THESE Orioles went 47-7 the rest of the way?

They’d finish 82-80 and join the rest of their division as a winning team.

Far fetched? Sure.

But so far Showalter has them on that pace.