It’s a horrible irony that the Sox used Nomah as trade-bait for A-Rod (that twat), got stuffed by the Yanks on that transaction, and broke poor Nomah’s spirit such that he pretty much wanted out after that (clearly demonstrated in his heartless playing before the injury). If our infield, esp. Cabrera, underperforms in the World Series, we may rue the day we let Nomahhhh go. A New Curse?
:eek:
I’d ask what U. Maryland’s mascot is, but I am in trepidation of what the answer might be… 
(and a :smack: for good measure – for my spelling). Oh wait, it’s a terrapin, isn’t it?
BTW - which rules are played in each game of the WS (NL / AL)?
I’m hoping to catch Sunday’s (afternoon) game on TV – if there’s a cable/sat station here carrying it. As for the rest of the series – Oh, how frustrating it was going to sleep 2 hours before gametime and waking up after it was all over! (I’m in Israel – that’s currently 6 hours ahead of the East Coast, so 8:00 EDT is 2:00 AM for me. And IIRC, and the US is going back on Standard Time over the weekend, it’ll only get worse)
I must say though that following “The North-East Conflict” has been a lot more fun than following my own day-to-day Mid-East one… 
And the good guys won, too!
Anyone else think that a final reversal of The Curse (ciao, ciao, Bambino…) is “in the Cards”?
Dani
Oh, I almost forgot:
Go Sox!!!
Whichever park it’s in. NL parks have NL rules, AL parks have AL rules.
I always wondered, isn’t that a slight advantage to the NL? At least their pitchers are vaguely familiar with batting. They don’t get traded between leages often enough to make it equal.
Since they went to the World Series exactly zero times with Saint Nomar, and have now reached the World Series immediately upon dumping him, I’m not sure there would be much to that curse.
This statement shocked me, so I did a little research. You know what, RickJay is right. Derek Jeter really is not that great defensively. And to think, all these years I had this image in my mind of him being one of the top 5 best defensive shortstops in the league! Weird.
Not just any terrapin…Testudo!
Go Terps!
It’s probably the most common misconception in baseball. The thing is that
Jeter is a legitimately good PLAYER, overall. He’s a terrific hitter and if he isn’t the best baserunner in the league, I don’t know who is. When someone is a great player you tend to think of him as being good at everything,
Jeter is worshipped by the media, and
All shortstops are good defensive players.
To explain #3 - relative to other major league shortstops, Jeter is just plain bad. He looks elegant, but his reactions aren’t very quick and he tends to dive quickly, which robs him of lateral movement - but that’s relative to other MLB shortstops.
The set of regular shortstops in the major leagues comprises the best defensive infielders in the world - for the most part they’re not only better shortstops than anyone else, but they’re more versatile, skilled infielders than all the guys playing the other infield positions. Jeter may be the AL’s worst shortstop, but he’s obviously a much more talented fielder than Eric Hinske or Omar Infante. Jeter’s bad at short; Eric Hinske would be laughed off the field if he attempted to play shortstop. He can get by just 90 feet away at third base, but if he tried to play shortstop he’d be thirty runs worse than Jeter, at least. Jeter in the grand scheme of things is better than 99.99% of all infielders - it’s just that the other regular shortstops are better than 99.995%. You can’t see that .005%.
So, basically, ALL shortstops look good.
Going by the OPS numbers, it kind of makes you wonder why the Yanks, pre-season, didn’t move Jeter to 2B, keep A-Rod at SS, and go after a good 3B!?
BTW, RickJay, just out of curiosity, who are your Top 5 Defensive SS (ML) picks?
To be honest I always thought they should have A-Rod - a Gold Glove winner, and a deserving one - at short, too. But I suppose there’s an element of ego involved. Perhaps A-rod was willing to switch positions and Jeter was not.
Picking FIVE top guys out of just 25 or so (not everyone has a regular SS) tough, and I haven’t seen the 2004 numbers, but Cristian Guzman is really good, as is Miguel Tejada. Orlando Cabrera has always been great.
I can’t get this thread title out of my head! It’s driving me crazy!!! Aaauugghh…
See what happens when a kid gets brought in a fundie christian household, hits middle age and discovers SDMB? 
Nah, it evens out. Most NL teams don’t have a guy that could legitimately be called a DH. So while the BoSox get to trot out Ortiz as a DH, the Cards are stuck with John Mabry. Which would you rather have?
No curse. It’s the Ewing Theory.
Sox win Game One 11-9!!! Most runs in an opener ever, to boot. Second time the BoSox have made history this week.
Man, what a nailbiter. Of course, the Sox with a seven point lead in the last game against the Yanks was a nailbiter; such is the damage done to my psyche by famous Red Sox meltdowns of yore.
I can see this is going to be a stressful series. Great game, though. The Cards played well.
Well, actually, now that I think about it, it was kind of a sloppy game. Lots of errors and whatnot, esp. various screwups by Ramirez. Wtf, Manny?
Yeah, I agree. I’d be jumping down his throat if we didn’t win anyway. Shape up, Manny. I could alomest forgive the defense fumbles, if it wasn’t for the hotdogging during his shoulda-been-a double. When you hit the ball, but it stays in the park, RUN!
Yeah, and neither starting pitcher had a very good night. None of the Cards except Walker showed what they could really do, they way they did in the NLCS. I wonder how much of all of this can be blamed on the wind and cold.
Dunno. You gotta understand: I made that first post while still on a bit of a vicory high. A cold analysis reveas a lot of dumb errors, wild pitching, and overall lackluster defense.
Cold may have been a factor. What happened to Wakefield, if not hypothermia? And howsabout a warm shirt for you, Mr. Arroyo? Maybe his brain was a little chilled when he made that inexplicable toss to…who, one of the spectators? A special fan over there you want to indulge with a Word Series ball, Bronson? Y’know, you could have just walked over to 2nd for all the good that play did. And maybe Ramirez needs to practice walking as much as his eleborate handshakes in the dugout. That near-face-plant would have been funny if the score wasn’t so tight.
Well, despite themselves, they won. I wonder what was going through the Cards’ minds after that. “How did we…?”
I was at the game last night (and will be tonight, and next weekend as well, if it goes that far.) It got pretty tense for a while in the stands what with all the goofball defense going on. When Marky B hit that 2 run jack in the 8th, everyone in my section (all strangers to each other) were all hugging each other like we personally hit the ball. It was a great feeling.
Hopefully the defense will tighten up tonight.
Yes, the best example of it in recent years.
4 fielding errors per game? If my boys keep playing like this they’re going to get killed in St. Louis. The Cards are the best team in the game, and you just can’t keep giving them opportunities like that. It’s a lot easier to hold baserunners in Fenway than it is in Busch Stadium.
Damn, now I’m worried.