Exhausted but Ecstatic on the East Coast
October 2, 2008
I didn’t wake up when my alarm went off this morning.
The “snooze” button on my cell phone didn’t even get hit because I flat out did not hear the indescribably obnoxious, trilling and vibrating hunk of plastic that lies beside my pillow when I sleep. Yet, for the extra hour of sleep I’m still exhausted. This week will feel like Finals in college: a number of ounces of coffee consumed that would even horrify bean growers in Colombia, and a number of hours of sleep a night that is fewer than the number of hours of baseball watched in a day. What I can take comfort in though, is that I know most--if not all--of you are feeling exactly the same way. The photo that K Dub posted captures the emotion well, except if that guy was a Red Sox fan he would be dozing with a big, doofy grin on his face.
You know what I’m talking about, don’t you.
After that game ended you dragged your butt to bed; crashed on a friend’s couch; or (in my case) skipped home from the bar; but no matter how you did it, you did it with a smile. It was a smile that was still on your face when you woke up or pretended to wake up this morning. Sawxheads: our boys from Boston took Game One on the road from the LA Angels and as DarkHalf wrote, it feels like we’re just getting started.
Even Dan Shaughnessy, Official Redheaded Negative Nancy of the Boston Globe, stepped up to the plate and wrote a piece today that didn’t make me want to throw him off the Hancock Tower. True, Shaughnessuck couldn’t resist his evil impulses entirely and had to bring up the fact that Manny Ramirez went yard for the Dodgers last night (how ugly was that homerun, by the way?) but it was to make the larger point that I will now eloquently paraphrase for you: Take that beautiful bat of yours, Manny, and sit on it—Jason Bay looked damn good in Red last night.
Let’s not forget Lester in all the long ball talk, though. While we Sox fans all mourned the loss of Beckett in that One (and perhaps Four) spot we never lost faith in our team. Certain sports writers however, were too reluctant to give credit to our absurdly resilient and reliable southpaw and too eager to say “No Beckett equals no chance.” First, I want them to take another look at this:
|
Boston
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
HR
|
ERA
|
|
Lester (W, 1-0)
|
7.0
|
6
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
7
|
0
|
0.00
|
Then I want them to think about the fact that Jon has pitched 210 regular season innings—compared to Beckett’s 174.1 and Matsuzaka’s 167.2—before this start. Now let me write a different equation out for these naysayers: [Game 1 – Josh Becket + Jon Lester = (Red Sox Win + Don’t You Feel Stupid) – Your Credibility]
Who says a girl with an English degree can’t do math?
So, Sawxheads. While we’re all in such great moods, I need to ask a favor of you: Catch up on sleep for me tonight, okay? It’s a night off for the BoSox, but it’s Thursday so I’ve got a night of Big East football and Dodgers v. Cubbies baseball to keep an eye on: A half-closed eye, sure--but that’s what caffeine is for, right? On that note, I'm off to get the loudest alarm clock money can buy and a cup of joe.
Who needs coffee?
-sportsgal
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