to the article and comments I referenced earlier. It makes for some kinda interesting reading, if you have s few minutes to spare:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2008/10/rays-players-fo.html#comments

this may not have been reported much outside the Tampa Bay area, but yesterday David Price introduced Barack Obama at a rally in Tampa, Fernando Perez did a spiel on early voting, and Carl Crawford and Jonny Gomes also showed up. Of course, this initiated some political commentary on the St. Pete Times baseball blog, with one obvious McFailin supporter and Rays backer alleging that because these guys showed up, that, of course, "they will make about 50% of the fans in the area like them less for doing this." I guess that says more about the criteria that folks use to make decisions about who is best qualified to run the country than anything else.

The Rays have Pena signed through 2011; Kazmir through 2012; Shields through 2014; and Longoria through 2016. I'm sure there will be some additional long-term deals announced before next season.

So Yankees, Red Sox -- you are going to have to draft your own star players, you're not going to be able to poach ours. At least not that quickly!

There's no point in getting into a money comparison with Tampa; one hopes that unlike their old ownership, the new one uses the revenue sharing money to sign those great players (and that their fans, like, show up on a regular basis). It's more worthwhile to point out that the Sox got there on home-grown talent too (of high-profile free agent signings, only Drew and Matsuzaka appeared in the playoffs).

The better team won, but the David vs. Goliath theme, tempting though it may be, doesn't really apply so well.

Aww, those poor Red Sox that can only try to buy a championship! "Home grown" doesn't really mean anything to teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, because they can actually afford to keep their superstars indefinitely, as long as they want them, no matter where they came from. Which makes all the difference! Yeah, Tampa may have attendance issues, but they've only existed for 10+ years, not 100+ years (with tons of people jumping on a massively hyped World Series bandwagon a couple of years ago, to boot..)

The Boston Red Sox basically *ARE* the New York Yankees, to fans of most other MLB teams, and have been for quite a few years now. There aren't many ways to defend that!

Good one, Jonathan... :-)

http://www.salon.com/sports/daily/feature/2008/10/20/alcs_letters/index.html

You're gonna love them as the 2010 Red Sox/Yankees!!

So Kelly plagiarizes. I stand by my error.

I was surprised at some of Francona's managing decisions-- why not pinch hit for Varitek and/or Kotsay in the 9th? And especially why not pinch run for Ortiz once he got on base with two outs in the 8th? He's the tying run, and by leaving him in you're guaranteeing there's no chance of his stealing a base or scoring from first. Why not pinch-run Ellsbury there?

It happens. Great game last night.

They couldn't score when they needed it most. Hell, they had only one HIT until the 7th inning, or what?

Even Lester couldn't overcome that problem.

Go Phils! (my good friend Atrios lives there...gotta have a reason, don't I?)

Regarding the mention of the Sox' $130 million payroll, it's worth pointing out a few things. Not merely that a majority of other teams have caught up to that neighborhood (did I hear that Milwaukee hit $90M?), but more importantly, that a significant chunk of that did not figure in this series:

Schilling: $8M

Lugo: $9M

Lowell: $12M

Manny: $20M

There's no point in getting into a money comparison with Tampa; one hopes that unlike their old ownership, the new one uses the revenue sharing money to sign those great players (and that their fans, like, show up on a regular basis). It's more worthwhile to point out that the Sox got there on home-grown talent too (of high-profile free agent signings, only Drew and Matsuzaka appeared in the playoffs).

The better team won, but the David vs. Goliath theme, tempting though it may be, doesn't really apply so well.

is tomorrow's starting pitcher.

That was Earl Weaver, not Tom Kelly.

I was sure the Bloodsox fix was in for maximal ESPY-Type drama in order to craft the 'correct' story for the Bloodsox. I was positive the Disneyfication of MLB was complete. So it's great to see an actual game come together like an actual game and not a glorified movie. And for what it's worth, if small market teams can't win then MLB is basically over and done. I mean what's the point if only huge teams can win in the post season? That's not a baseball I want to watch.

Former Twins manager Tom Kelly said that momentum is that day's starting pitcher. Pretty accurate.

Manny is gone and Ortiz, who never was much good without him is done. Ellsbury, Crisp, Lowrie all disappoint. Veritek is through; Bay is nothing special; Koysay is nothing at all. If Boston had played the entire season with this line-up they wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to post-season baseball. I know the Rays' line-up is first rate. We'll see just how good that pitching really is against the Phillies.

How does an otherwise well played 3-1 game take over 3-and-a-half hours to play?

It took 15 minutes for the umpire to get into all of the protective gear so he could work behind the plate.

There are two extra umps at all playoff games. They stand down each foul line and do absolutely nothing.

What exactly would you have them do, have an ump dressed in all of the gear waiting for that freak moment when the umpire behind the plate needs to leave after being hit by a ball?

Having watched thousands of games over the years, I've seen tha happen a handful of times and there's always a few minutes break. They give the pitchers as many extra throws as they need to warm up.

Blame TBS for the technical glitch and no reliable backup plan but the ump thing is a non issue.