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Sports before meatier

Friday 10/11/24

I will get to meatier matters soon. This will just be some sports notes.


Most people would probably like to see an NLCS of the Mets against the Dodgers--the team with the great story v. the big payroll team with the global superstar--but I'm pulling for the Padres tonight and the further burnishing of the Dodgers' reputation as a chronically underachieving team. I always root against a team that just tries to outspend everybody. Having said that, this will be a tough one for the Padres. They can do it, though.


The Yankees advanced last night. I believe Judge had a couple singles. If they're going to win it all, they'll have to get Judge-like production from him. He's been either poor or ineffectual over his career in the postseason. The sample size is getting large. I'm not talking singles, either, though the box score tells me Judge was good in this close-out game. It's not enough. I mean home runs, runs driven in.


On a hockey history forum, people were debating what the most iconic postseason series of all-time was. I'll apply the exercise to baseball. "Iconic" doesn't mean "best." For iconic, you need a big storyline with historical--so far as sports goes--implications. The series has to be symbolic of something bigger than itself. Yes, that's how to put it.


I'm tempted to say the 2004 ALCS in which the Red Sox came back from down 3-0, but I feel like this should be a World Series. If a series is going to be the most iconic ever, it ought to be for all of the marbles.


The 1975 World Series was the best in my view. It featured a game--in Game 6--that not only may be the best in the sport's history, but is a form of sports art, much like Game 2 of the 1987 Canada Cup. The Fisk home run is one of the iconic moments in baseball history, but for most iconic series, I'd pick either the 1960 World Series between the Yankees and Pirates or 1986 between the Mets and Red Sox. How do you improve on Game 7 of the 1960 affair? David takes down Goliath in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7. In a contest which featured no strikeouts. The action! Constant action!


But I would lean to 1986. No sporting event better encapsulates what is meant--or should I say modeled?--as the tragic in sports. There is no better symbolic representation of tragedy and triumph. Sports aren't actually tragic. But they can serve as a form of theatrical stand-ins for tragedy. They athletically bullet-point the idea. That was the most Shakespearean of baseball events. Baseball dramas.


The Bruins did a no-show in their season opener in Florida against the Panthers. They were out of the game almost immediately and surrendered six goals. They won last night's home opener against the Canadiens. Swayman gave up four goals on twenty-four shots in his season debut. Not so good, is it? Host of local TV sports program on NBC Sports Boston--where it's just one person after another with no particular talent at all saying uninformed, unintelligent things--described Swayman's 2023-24 season as "incredible."


Incredible. You think it was incredible? The 43 games played? Not even being the goalie with the most Vezina votes on his team? Or was it just good? If Swayman got a grade for last year, it would have been a B.


Anyway, that's ten goals against in ten games for the team. This could very well be Jim Montgomery's last year with the team, if he makes it through the year. I don't see them doing anything of note. You have a soft forward as your star, a fading Marchand, a complete fraud of "top" defenseman, not enough scoring depth. You can only go so far with what they got. Get into the playoffs. Win a round, maybe? Depending on the match-up?


Aaron Rodgers is a team killer. The Patriots may finish in front of the Jets. I'm being serious.


Drake Maye starts for the Patriots Sunday. What do I expect? Chaos. A few nice throws, a mess of mistakes, a mess. I guess people have a reason to watch other than just because it's a thing they automatically do in their unimaginative lives. Their plan was so dumb. If you're going to do the "sit the high draft pick quarterback" thing, you need to play a quarterback who isn't among the worst in the league and you can't just get drubbed every week and do nothing. Make no moves to get drubbed less. So they were going to have to play Maye--and earlier--when they made Brissett the starter. If you didn't want to play Maye, thus voiding your plan, you needed someone better than Jacoby Brissett, and that would have been just about anyone.


They look farcical. Now if Maye gets hurt? What then? I'll say it again: This team is going to be bad for a long time. I'm talking generation or generations.


Mayo won't get fired now, though he was a poor hire, but if you have anyone else, move on from this OC. What are you expecting this guy to do? What does he offer? How does he have this job? Why did you give it to him? Because another team was paying his salary? This franchise is now inept. Maybe the kicker will boot another long field goal, though.


I was working on a story the other night and put the TV on second before Lindor hit his grand slam. Doesn't that always feel weird? You think, "What are the chances I tuned in right before that happened? Did that actually just happen or is that a replay?" Huge hit. The hit of the postseason so far? I don't know about that--the Mets were still up in the series though trailing in the game. But it finished off the Phillies. They had a bit of time left, but you thought it was the death blow.


Biggest grand slam ever? Ortiz, Game 2 of the ALCS at Fenway against the Tigers. He doesn't hit that grand slam, Sox don't win the championship. Sox would have gone to Detroit down 2-0 with Verlander on the mound for the Tigers. 2013 Red Sox were more likable than the 2004 Red Sox.


Bob Costas has ramped himself up fully now, which means it's like this challenge of how much you can take to keep the sound on with him calling the game. It's a horrible broadcast product. He's pathetic. So needy. You're not some baseball expert. You're not an intellectual, you're not the sports version of one, you're not the smart guy in the room, you're not this well-read sophisticate, you don't elevate sports to a thinking person's level, you don't know baseball history, you sure as hell don't know how to tie baseball history together with what's happening in the game now. He comes off as such an entitled gas bag. Like it's other people's duty to indulge him and his desire to call these games.


You know how so many of these awful MFA writers drop in a reference to some book in a story of theirs to try and show that they're smart? It's so obvious and pathetic that that's what they're doing. That's how Costas calls a game. A Gabby Hartnett reference? Do you know how many people listening know who Gabby Hartnett is? It's pretty much only me. But it wasn't even a Gabby Hartnett reference with any basis. This guy wasn't making a point or providing insight. He just wanted to show people he knows this name they don't so they'll think he's smart. And really--and this is the big thing--so he can think he's smart. That's why I said pathetic. It's sad.






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