Sox-Yanks part 2
I'll probably wrap this up soon unless something catastrophic or bizarre happens in the late innings, which of course you can't rule out. For one thing, the game's completely one-sided, for another, CMLL wrestling is on. Mistico and Safari just completed a stirring victory over Hooligan and Dr. Equis, which prompted a long celebration, which in turn prompted Ultimo Guerrero to come out and issue some sort of challenge.
BTW, can someone explain Gabe Kapler's popularity to me? OK, he hustles, and that counts for something, and he's a good fielder. But he's a .220 hitter and was in Japan earlier this season for a reason.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that Roger Clemens hasn't won a game since his non-steroid non-suspension: 0-3 in his past six starts, all of which were Astros losses.
Either way, Curt Schilling's performance today has been exactly what the Sox needed. He's been getting better and better with each start. The past two months we've basically been watching Schilling go through his injury rehab process on a major-league roster, and he seems to be rounding into shape. Today, though, was the first time all season we saw the swaggering Curt, the one who had the audacity to make a commercial saying he's coming to Boston to end an 86-year curse, then actually made it happen. The sort of performance that makes you look the other way when he does things like wearing Steelers gear on TV interviews, then put on a Tom Brady shirt when he's on the field in Foxboro, or how he waits until he knows the camera is on him before pulling his Jesus necklace out and talking to it. He was absolutely masterful for six innings and tired a bit in the seventh but still got out without any damage. If Curt is indeed getting things together in mid-September, after what happened last year, he just might be ready to add another chapter to what's already one of the most amazing legacies ever for a Boston athlete.
Lord, do we have an awful main event lined up for CMLL today. Guerrero and Rey Bucanero are teaming with Universo 2000 to face off against El Hijo de Perro Aguayo, Canek, and Canek Jr. First off, U2000 is so old that when he first got the name, it seemed futuristic. Secondly, teaming him with Guerrero and Bucanero would have been like matching Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson with Baron Von Raschke in the mid-1980s. Now as for the opposition, Canek makes U2000 look young. Here's a Mexican wrestling history lesson you never asked for: Canek was the big up-and-coming star in the 1970s. He got fed up with low pay from CMLL (then known as EMLL, but we'll get to that some other time), and he and fellow star Mil Mascaras formed the UWA. UWA had a huge two-decade run, but fell apart because Canek insisted on keeping himself the champ long after the public got sick of him, so UWA ultimately died a brutal death. Now Canek is 194 years old and and back in CMLL still lousing up six-man main events, and dragging his son into the mix as well.
*Uh-oh, I've angered Dave's World reader North Shore Benjamin, whose two favorite teams are the Boston Lobsters and the 1973 NBA champion New York Knicks:
Do you NOT remember Game 5 Eastern Conference First Round at Boston Garden when Maurice Cheeks played 48 minutes, Patrick Ewing hit his first career 3 pointer and the Knicks beat LARRY BIRD and the C's three games to two after being down 2-0.
Oh, and then there was Martin Luther King Day in 1987 when Louis Orr hit a half court shot at the buzzer to beat Larry Bird and the C's (I was there).
And the best one ever, Christmas Day 1985 (my first NBA game as a 10 year old)!!! Knicks down 25 in the first half, rally to win in double OT -- the shining moment of Ewing's rookie year -- against Larry Bird's Celtics.
You got me, Ben ... three wins in a decade or so. Unfortunately, David Stern could only rig the draft lottery and not who went to the Finals, back then.
OK, first three batters of the eighth reach. Thanks for the effort today Curt, but time to take a seat.
And hey ... Fox's trivia question asked who was the last A.L. MVP that didn't come out of the West division. The answer was Mo Vaughn in 1995. A decade of West MVPs. Remember that the next time you hear someone whine about East Coast bias.
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