AL, Sweet AL
And just like that, 2009 Interleague play is done. Not with a bang, but with a whimper – as the Sox take the series from the Braves down in ATL, but lose the final game of the stand. It seems to have been the patented approach this season: go to an NL park, win the first two games, drop the third. No matter, the Sox walk away with an 11-7 record against the National League – and that ain’t bad at all.
I know a lot of folks, including some in the Red Sox clubhouse, don’t particularly enjoy the extended slate of interleague games that teams must navigate. I, however, am not going to complain- for one simple reason:
Pitchers batting.
More specifically, AL pitchers batting. It’s a funny novelty, like a wind-up monkey banging the cymbals, or a tank of sea monkeys. Watching Tim Wakefield take hacks at the plate is some of the most entertaining TV I’ve watched all year… and watching Josh Beckett vindictively (if not outright maliciously) pound out a tater ranks right up there as “Must See TV”.
But we’re all done with that until (cross fingers!) perhaps required again in the postseason. Now, we can turn back and devote our full attention to crushing the spirits of fellow AL teams. At least until the All Star Game distracts us again. Or until Inside Track finds a new and different Red Sox player to try and hook Heidi Watney up with.
Well, I was having too much love for my Greenie. Something had to take it away. :(
P.S. Isn’t the premise behind “The Box” an old Twilight Zone plot???
I don’t remember who said it, but here’s my position on interleague: It’d be really cool to see a game between the Red Sox and the PawSox, but since they’re in different leagues, should the games really count in the standings?
Agree 100% re: AL pitchers at the plate. Great TV.
Heidi and Green, eh? interesting. Was there truth to the Tek/Heidi rumor?
Nick Green and Heidi Watney ?
Wakey smiling and laughing when he was batting was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
@Twinkie: I agree. he was very cute batting.
I like IL play for really only 1 reason….my wife loves the Braves and we often play them. The series at Fenway was a great way to get her to go along for a couple games and 2 years ago we saw them play down in Hotlanta. Being close to Philly & DC, I wish I was could have gotten tix for those series as well…but they package the Sox games in multi-game sets and I don’t live that close to either city to be able to attend 4 or 5 games in a row.
BTW, Ramirez was the most pitiful display of a pitcher hitting that I’ve ever seen. Looked like Little League. Stepped out of the box with his front foot on the first two that were right down the middle and then whiffed with a swing that looked like a little girl catching butterflies on a pitch that I expected to hear Bob Uecker comment on.
@Seamus: Ramirez wasn’t great, but I don’t think anything can beat Bartolo Colon swinging so hard his helmet fell off and landing on the DL for the rest of the season.
Ah ya got me! I’d forgotten that….thanks :)
Aw, Nicky was just blinded by Heidi’s blondey blondeness. Like a deer in headlights.
And I would pay money just to see Wakey smile and bat. Or smile and do something else remarkably entertaining…like breathe.
@fc: I’d pay money for that, too, and so would my mom. How much do you think would be enough?
Green and Heidi? Ick. Eww. I say Lugo totally started that rumor. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
And…I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching the AL pitchers behind the plate. It is a comedy of errors. The funniest one to me because it is just chuck full of pathetic….is Jonny Les. He either just sits there and watches the balls fly by him…or he swings and then the funny truly starts.
Let’s hope we get to see some more of this merriment in October. GO SOX!!
@Twinkie: Probably just a modest donation to the Space Coast Early Intervention Center, and a big helping of potato salad.
While I LOVE watching AL pitchers bat, I’m glad IL is over because every time one of our beloved pitches went up to bat, all I could think was Chien Ming Wang landing on the DL after batting and having to run home on a play. Unless they all pound taters like Joshie, then I have no problem with that …
Nick Greene and Heidi Watney? Seriously? Maybe Tito should have a talk with Nicky, all Derek Jeter-Mariah Carey like. If the rumors are true that Heidi was the cause of Tek’s divorce and his poor season last year, then someone needs to point that out to Nicky. Lest Julio Lugo be waiting to take his job …
Honestly? I have to wonder if we lost on Sunday because our boys had utterly melted by that point. I was at the Friday and Sunday games and the heat was brutal. On Saturday it was in the upper 90s, which is more than my body can handle for any length of time, so even though it broke my heart, Bethie and I stayed at the hotel and watched the game on TV. During the two games I did get to, my trusty binoculars revealed a bunch of miserable-looking Sox, so given the heat I find myself thankful that they were able to take the first two games.
And Heidi and Nicky? Do not want. :::glares:::
there go the inside track ladies again, startin up rumors…
isn’t she Tek’s girl? I thought there was a cardinal rule that you don’t date the captain’s girl!
and Nicky Green just seems too shy to even talk to girls…he can’t even look up when he speaks.
Nick don’t go near her, remember what she did to Tek’s year after those rumors? Yeah, it wasn’t good. Stay Away!