Into the Head

The Phillies, having sent the Dodgers back where they belong, and being somehow treated by many observers as the underdogs in the series of games they are to play with New York, stifled all the excitement amongst the Gothamites last night and showed who really is the top team in town. Them. Heck, when the score was only 2-0 in the seventh inning the moneyed crowd we see in the expensive seats on games televised from NEW Yankee Stadium started heading out to the town cars waiting to take them home. The number of empty seats behind the dugouts when the score was 4-0 was shocking. Are they not baseball fans who should know that the Yankees have been a dangerous late inning team? Or did they attend because it was the city's "hot ticket?"

And the Phillies took their strolls to first, Jimmy Rollins stole second on a 3-0 count, and Raul Ibanez sent a grounder to right field and two Phillies scooted home. Oh and the Yankee pride was preserved by a run in the ninth to avoid a shut out. It was enough to warrant a wicked Chase Utley smirk.

The Phillies are a team that could easily fit into the AL East. They play AL East baseball and can score from home plate, run on the pitcher, throw, pitch, and stare down a pretender to their title as reigning champions. Last night they did all that and got into the heads of the Bronx boys.

Charlie Manuel sends Pedro Martinez to the mound tonight. A Yankee fan with any sense of history (not easy to find) has got to sense that not only do the Phillies not fear the Yankees and their "tradition" and in their new stadium, they don't mind slinging a little sarcasm at them too. Pedro was once the best of the yankee killers and doing it as a Red Sox made it worse. Pedro could dance in the dugout and jockey with the best in baseball. He laughed at Jose Posada, his ears, and the idea that the Yankees were invincible.

Yankee manager, Skeletor, sends the weird AJ Burnett to the mound tonight. This is it for the Yankees and AJ better perform with some relation to how he is paid. Problem is, the way the Phillies acted last night, there might be no player on the Yankees more likely to feel the pressure and, in the words of the former President, "mislocate" the strike zone and serve up a 2-0 series lead to the team they forgot had already proven they were champions of baseball.

Red Sox fans will enjoy this World Series.

Escape the Fate?

The Freeway Series that Sports Illustrated imagined last week looks unlikely now. But Sox fans know that Champions can be forged by facing down doomsday. It might start with just salvaging respect or it might be that fate is something different than what was written in the morning sports pages.

Today's doubleheader features two SoCal teams on the ropes. The Saturday night stabbing by ARod and the Yanks had to seep deep into the confidence of the Angels. Fans all across the country riveted to their television sets hoping to see the Angels get out of the Bronx with the series tied 1-1 were treated to a double dose of indigestion by Brian Fuentes and Maicer Izturis. So far the Angels have committed seven errors in two games (not counting the infield pop-up blunder in the first inning Friday night). Jered Weaver is the Angel with the job of reversing direction in Anaheim.

Later, the Monsters of Philly set out to club the Dodgers again. A Phillie-Yankee World Series sure seems like the only fair fight left in the playoffs. Joe Torre's playoff experience hasn't been the equal to the bats of Philadelphia and the pitching was, until last night, about equal. The only thing keeping this series from being closed out tonight is a Chase Utley throw to first. Randy Wolf has the job of keeping his club close while the Philly fans will likely treat the visitors from Mannywood like Championship Series roadkill.

There will be a Freeway Series of sorts. But it'll be of the interstate or turnpike type. Like those that link the cities of defending champions and the team that money built.

High and Tight

Sunshinesox thinks that it should be the Commissioner of Baseball. And GM of the Red Sox too. There is some precedent for odd conflict of interest interpretations under the Selig rules. The world would be a better place and all baseball fans happier. Oh, we here at Sunshinesox have ideas and opinions and much to say. The problem is getting anyone to listen. How can the world of baseball be made safe and sound for the fannation and the constituency that made the game a pastime for all of us in the world of sports? Welcome to Sunshinesox.com, the blog for promoting the ascension to power and influence of a simple baseball fan.

Yeah the Red Sox off season came too soon. Or didn't come soon enough. Sox ownership fielded a team that almost never could be counted on to come from behind and with no player who would step up to the plate and get that clutch hit. A team that just didn't show during a long (pre)season that it had that championship quality for the postseason. Watching the teams playing for a championship, it is fair to ask "Why not us?"

We'll have something to say often and some of it might even have some value. Always your comments will be welcome, especially those we agree with.