All hail Helen!!

All hail Helen!!
Helen Carmona and your humble blogger

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Does deadbeat fan know where he is?

I could be like most bloggers, and get on here today and talk about Chien-Ming Wang (briliiant), Jose Molina (better every game), Jason Giambi (finally!), Alberto Gonzalez (slick), Hideki Matsui (Matsui means Mr. Consistent in Japanese), or any number of things from last night's series-opening win in that cesspool called Fenway Park. But I'm not here to talk about all that..... yet.

I'm here to ask a question: What is up with that stiff who sits right behind home plate at every Red Sox home game?

You know the guy I'm talking about. He combs his hair like Robert Redford and sits there, unsmiling, unmoved, (dead?) no matter what's happening. I once saw this guy sprint for the exits not half a second after some play ended a Yanks-Sox game in Boston's favor.... and it wasn't any ordinary play. I forget whether it was a home run or a strike out. The crowd exploded like it was the seventh game of the World Series, but not this mannequin-faced wet blanket. He turned tail and hauled ass up the steps as if the parking fees were about to triple at midnight.

Last night, as Wang was blowing through Sox hitters like Lindsay Lohan going through a crack buffet, I noticed this guy, again, sitting there, stern-faced and frozen, as if he couldn't enjoy himself because of Wang's mesmerizing performance. But then I realized it: I've never seen this mope enjoy himself.

And I know what some will say: What do you care, Wolf? And you'd be right. I'm being a complete 12-year-old in worrying about how this guy passes the time at a baseball game. But here's the point: if you scored season tickets to the prime seat in the house, and you made the effort to be at the game every night -- or even worse, only when the Yankees were in town -- wouldn't you show a little spirit now and then? Wouldn't you act like you were actually at a Sox-Yanks game?

Ugh! The guy just annoys me! Anyway.....

Wang means king in Mandarin

Screw being called an ace. Wang is the king of the hill as far as Yankee pitching is concerned. To try to apply superlatives to last night's outing would be pointless. Sometimes, the numbers just have to speak for themselves: 9.0/2/1/1/0/3.

To be fair, that hits number should probably be a three, not a deuce. A-Rod should have that error expunged from his fielding record. Hopefully, Boston's official scorer will rectify that decision, which was made in defense of the no-hitter possibility.

And to be even more fair, Wang got away with some really dangerous fly balls in the fifth inning. He's lucky only J.D. Drew's drive left the park. As great a performance as it was, it didn't fit the Wang template of ground ball-outing teams to death. Ten fly outs, two pop outs, and two line outs made it a decidedly un-Wang-like game. No one's arguing with the results, but all the deep flies and the sinking line drives gave this game a definite "fate" feeling, as if it didn't matter what Wang did wrong, every ball put in play was going to find a glove somewhere.

Don't hurry back, Jorge

That line is made only half in jest. There are two good reasons why there's no need for Jorge Posada to rush to get back behind the plate: 1) he's 37 years old, and at that age he's better off taking all the time he needs to heal; and 2) we're doing just fine with Jose Molina back there.

With a pair of deep doubles Friday night, Molina is now tied for the American League lead in two-base hits, with six. Read that again: a Molina brother is tied for the league lead in doubles. While doubles aren't triples, this is Jose Molina. The guy has been terrific, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that, with his offensive output and his steady plate presence on defense, he's been the Yankees' most valuable everyday player this season.

He'll need a break soon, however, which means Jorge either has to come back and catch a game, or we all have to get ready to see a slide in Molina's numbers as the toll of catching so many games catches up to him.

But even if his numbers dive next week, so what. He's been heroic thus far.

A persistent problem

While Wang was terrific last night, he was forced to walk a bit of a tightrope because the Yankee offense failed to put the Red Sox away, and the offense had plenty of chances.

The Yankees are now 15-for-82 with runners in scoring position. That's an anemic .183 average. If they were just 16-for-82, with another hit last night, the game would have been over long before the ninth inning.

2 comments:

J-Boogie said...

Dude, I think the same thing about that guy every time the Sox are on TV. I know exactly who you're talking about. At first glance I thought it was Redford. I've been wondering about that guy for years. He annoys me too.

J-Boogie

http://boogiedownbaseball.blogspot.com

Wolf Williams said...

It turns our he's apparently a nice guy. His name is Dennis Drinkwater, and he's the owner of some company called Giant Glass, an automobile glass replacement service. Apparently, he donates a lot of his tickets to charity auctions and so forth.

God bless him for his philanthropy, but can he show some life? For half of Sunday's game, he sat shrouded under a hood that made him look like a Trappist monk on a ski vacation. Are you telling me a Sox-Yanks game doesn't keep your blood warm?

Sheesh....