Final Score: New York Yankees 6, Boston Red Sox 5 (Game 7~~~ Live Thread)

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[Alberta's Child]

You said it, Sam. There were at least three managerial moves by Little that baffled the hell out of me: 1) leaving Martinez in for so long, 2) wasting a relief pitcher (Embree) by bringing someone in just to issue an intentional walk to Sierra, and 3) using a pinch-runner for Ortiz late in the game, thereby taking Boston's best bat out of the lineup for later innings.

What a game -- this one will be on ESPN Classic about 25 times. And that's just next week!

[Conservative til I die]

And of course, one could point to the other teams that made it to the postseason: Oakland, Minnesota, Florida (big market but they don't spend the dough), and the Cubs (young, homegrown talent).

[Mr. Mojo]

And btw, you were right on in a post you wrote earlier about Yankee fans being conservatives. I know lots of Yankee fans (as I'm sure you do), and nearly every last one of them is a conservative. ......even ones who live in liberal neighborhoods.

[Mr. Mojo]

Precisely. The Minnesota Twins won two WS in the 80's with a downright anemic payroll. It's about pitching, defense, character, and chemistry.

[NYCVirago]

Regarding liberals rooting for the Red Sox -- this was in Newsweek:

Seventy-two-year-old Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer was slammed to the turf during a bench-clearing brawl with the Boston Red Sox. You may not think this has anything to do with the liberal renaissance, but Zimmer’s Yankees represent the evils of unregulated, unrepentant capitalism, and the team’s cockiness often reaches Bush administration levels. To see him slammed to the turf was admittedly appalling, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it.

Gersh Kuntzman

[Mr. Mojo]

LOLOL.......Unbelievable.

Actually, all too believable.

[nopardons]

You're absolutely correct! The Yankees and their fans ARE a class act.

And that guff about George " buying " the win is a pathetic, LIBERAL, whinge that should NOT even ever see the light of day/night on FR. EVERY team " buys " players. Some have more money than others, some have a better farm system than others, but NO baseball team is always an 100% farm team group, which is also an EXPENSE!

The Red Sox are under the " CURSE OF THE BAMBINO ", because their owner was more interested in producing " NO,NO,NANNETTE", than keeping/paying Ruth. So, in efect, the owner SOLD his best assest, for M-O-N-E-Y...only to allow the owner of the Yankees to " buy " him and the rest of that great dynasty.

There's something sick, about supposed Conservatives to be yowling about the free market/business! ;^)

[Conservative til I die]

Oakland has the best young rotation in baseball. If they leave for free agency, than the A's need to have more young arms in the pike. Teams have to find their own strategy to attain success. Play to your strengths. For the Yankees, name value, money, and the chance to win make it prime for free agents. Oakland as a small market team need to play to its strengths, good scouting, good drafts, and good minor league development.

[nopardons]

This is a FACT and has ALWAYS been so; even when they were just the HIGHLANDERS. Every New Yorker/ex-New Yorker knows this. Unfortunately, the whingers here not only don't know much about the Yankees, except for their stupid, viceral hatred of them and their fans, nor the factual history.

And don't forget the members of the team...almost ALL of them HATED, REVILED, ABHORED Clinton! They should be made honorary members of FR, at the very least; not vilified.

[Mr. Mojo]

The Yankees main strength is having the best farm system in baseball, not their ability to nab prime free agents (although that's a close second). As I said in an earlier post, the vast majority of their best players were farm system guys. They use free agents to fill weak spots rather than to build a team.

Lost in (some) Red Sox fans' whining about the Yankee payroll is the fact that Boston itself has the 3rd highest payroll in the league.

[nopardons]

If it has to be explained, and fully, the term is senseless;not to mention silly. It doesn't imply any of what you suggest it does. FR's " EAGLES UP " makes far more sense and is also far more understandable and logical.

To use the image of a cowboy, for a Boston team, is beyond silly/inexplicable/oxymoronic.But thank you very much, for your side of the explination.

Just keep right on imagining the " next year " thingie...if it helps you any. It just is NOT going to come true.

[Alberta's Child]

I don't get why he didn't use Williamson before Wakefield. If it's still tied after 11-12, you at least held them off with your best arm. Nothing against Wakefield, but he shouldn't have been the A option if Williamson was available.

Good point. The problem is that this scenario is a common dilemma for visiting managers in games that run into extra innings. Because the home team will always have a chance to tie or win the game in the bottom of an inning even if the visiting team scores the go-ahead run in the top of the inning, a visiting manager will often save his closer in extra innings just in case the team scores the go-ahead run and needs the closer to get three outs in the bottom of the inning.

Ironically (and this is a scary thought for Yankee fans), the ideal pitcher in a long extra-inning game was sitting right in the Yankee bullpen -- Jeff Weaver. As a regular-season starter who hasn't been used at all, he would have been able to pitch as many as six or seven innings if needed. It would have been amazing for this game to come down to this: an inconsistent, often-inept pitcher like Weaver against a dwindling group of Red Sox pitchers running out of gas.

[Mr. Mojo]

I saw a bunch of doofuses in Fenway wearing cowboy hats ......needless to say, it didn't suit them...lol.

Well, I'm off to read the online sports section of the Boston Globe and then to sleep.

26 World Series rings, soon to be 27 :)

[JURB]

If Little runs a race on one set of tires, Dusty Baker would run an entire SEASON on one set. He didn't trust his bullpen and it cost him when he left Wood in too long.

Yep, you are dead right. Dusty Baker blew both games (6 and 7) by keeping his starters in too long. Ironic, how both the Cubs and Red Sox lost because their managers refused to go to the pen.

And now we have a Yankess/Marlins World Series. Who in the hell cares about that? I'm sure FOX execs are banging on their heads on their desks after missing out on a glorious opportunity to feature either the Cubs or Red Sox.

As far as I'm concerned, the baseball season is over with. I won't watch watch a single pitch of the World Series. Instead, its college football from here on out.

[Alberta's Child]

What makes the Yankee payroll an issue is not their ability to sign big-name free agents (they don't sign many of these), but their ability to maintain the kind of depth that most teams can only dream of. Imagine being in Joe Torre's position throughout this year, when he had to select five starters from a group of seven that the Yankees had on their roster at any given time (Mussina, Pettitte, Clemens, Wells, Weaver, Hitchcock, and Contreras). Very few teams in baseball can keep that many quality spare parts on their rosters.

I'm not using this as an excuse (in fact, I'm a Yankee fan) -- I'm simply pointing out the honest truth here.

[litany_of_lies]

I understand the visiting-team problem. It may also be that Williamson doesn't pitch as well with the game tied compared to when he's ahead (this seemed to be the case in Cincy, but he was injured so much it was hard to know if the injuries were hampering him or if he just sucked).

But I also know that the vast majority of extra inning games are over by the 12th inning (I would guess 95%), so why not have your A pitcher in during that time?