Yes, but he is paired with me (from what da Bandit tells me)... so he may want to skip it!! I've only played 3 times this year due to work and injury (but I am not making any excuses). Plus, it may be distracting to him with my Red Sox World Series outfit. And, first birdie (if we get one) I may break into a Papelbon 'Lord of the Ring' dance!!
I really wish I could have planned for this... I was originally slated to be in Arizona for a trial, but it got pushed at the last minute... Sounds like you boys are going to have a lot of fun, most of it at Robbo's expsense.
Tex, I was just lucky enough to have a conference/exhibition in New Orleans during this weekend & Stevie V letting me play (and da Bandit for the invite)!! Of course, it was only recently that he told me I was paired with Robbo. It should make for an interesting first meeting!!
I will try to keep the harrassment to a minimum, especially with the implosion of that team from da Bronx!! From what I hear, though, Joe Torre is being mentioned for the LA Dodgers job!! I wonder if A-Rod will find employment that quick!!!???
Yeah, as a lifelong Dodger fan, I am real thrilled that their major offseason move may be to hire Torre - he died sooooo well as an N.L. manager previously. Oh well, maybe he can hit behind Nomar and in front of Kent. At least he probably has more home run power than those guys - and probably more speed too! Rupert Murdock was bad enough and now we got the skinflint Boston parking lot magnate ruining the franchise, thinking that a managerial change will solve things. The cheap bastard needs to pony up for A-Rod. I don't care if he chokes in October, I just want team playing in October. Hollywood may suit him well.
I would Steve, but I'm sure it would be destroyed in a matter of seconds!! Perhaps a small token of RSN...I'll put something in the bag!!
Bandit, easy on Boston...if it wasn't for us, the LA Dogs would only be fielding half a team and without a manager!!
A-Rod needs to be out of the limelight...perhaps KC, Arizona, or the Mexican professional league would be a nice fit!! I'm sick of talking about him already!!!
A-Rod is an idiot for letting Borass talk him into going on the market. The Yankees offered him good money near $30M to stay with a team that competes every year, unmatched tradition, and a national stage. So, he costs them $21M by opting out (Texas share) so he can get what...$30M, $31M? He will not get more than $1M or so more a year than the Yankees' offer best case. He either left because he cannot stand any criticism, share the stage, or he thinks he is bigger than the greatest sports franchise in professional sports history...all flaws that make hime less than desirable. I say goodbye to you and your asshole agent, I hoipe you choke on that $1M and enjoy playing for the Cubbies or Giants and getting into the playoffs once ot twice more in your career. Btter yet I hope this chemistry killer goes to the Red Sux, but Theo and the fans are much too smart to throw that kind of cash away even to yank the Yankees. You can sign a Beckett-type and a great middle-reliever, and a quality back 1B or OF for $30M. I am a Jeter believer, f*&^ the Ass-Rod
I find it fascinating that the excuse to go to New York used to be "because it gave the player the best chance to win a championship"... but now it is because they "compete every year." Yes, the paradigm shift has taken a firm hold.
The fact of the matter is that playing for the Yankees provides one with little more chance of winning a World Series than playing for the Diamondbacks, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals or White Sox... as all of those teams have won a title since the Yanks last put their greasy fingers on the trophy. Oh and of course, it offers a far less chance than playing for the Sox... the team that has 2 world series titles in the same time frame that the Yankees have not won a playoff series.
But anyway... have fun with that greatest unmatched tradition stuff. I may break that out this season with the Celtics!! I can't even describe how amusing we RSN people find that nonsense these days! Hell, I wish I could find Bucky Dent... I'd buy the little fucker a beer!
I agree Talon. I think A-Rod is truly a classless asshole!! One, he (well, Borasshole) makes the announcement during a clinching game 4 of the world series!! I guess he is above the game of baseball!! I certainly don't buy the lame-ass apology from Boras to say he made a big mistake by announcing it during the game! My ass...what bigger stage to make it than the World Series??!! Then, for A-Rod not to show up to collect the Hank Aaron Award because of "a previous engagement"??? I guess he must have known the Spankees wouldn't be playing weeks ago!!! Are you F-ing kiddin' me??!!
My hope is that NO TEAM signs A-Rod!!! But, that is just wishful thinking!!
P.S. I agree with you too Tex. Funny how it has gone from "greatest team ever" to "a team that is competitive every year"!!!
Yes, and at the risk of sounding like an AFraud supporter, I'd add this: Yankee fans are complete idiots for "criticizing" him... he is about to win his 2nd MVP in 2 years, and boy... did he deserve it this year! When the Sox were mounting what turned out to be an insurmountable (a post hoc, but accurate description) lead in April and May, AROD CARRIED THE YANKEE BUMS ON HIS BACK. That lead would have been 20+ without MayRod. The greatest franchise in sports history (I think Celtics, Packers and Montreal Canadiens fans may take issue with that, btw) would have been sitting out October if it wasn't for Afraud... rather than getting their now customary 4 games of playoff excitement.
The fact of the matter is simple... the Yankees were a slightly above average team this year, and they will be significantly worse with AFraud out of the lineup. Good luck replacing 50+ HR and 150+ RBI and a gold glove at the hot corner. I suppose Yankee Universe(commonly refered to as The Bronx)can take comfort in watching the most over-rated shortstop in baseball history, Mr. Weak Line Drive and No Range in the Field, go out and hit .320 with 12 HR and 80 RBI... and finish in 3rd place... they'll always have those memories.
Oh, and rumor has it that Posada is talking to the Mets. I can't tell you how much joy this is bringing RSN. The only thing the Stanks MIGHT have going for them... and that is a MIGHT... is that they have a couple unproven young arms (all of which seem to be very fragile, btw... Jaba as a starter? Hahaha... I almost couldn't type that)... so who is going to catch these guys? Is Girardi going to play/coach? Even if you don't miss Posada's offense, you can't replace that leadership behind the plate (Posada is one of the few Yankees I can actually "admire" as a sports fan). Maybe Giambi can just lay his fat ass down behind the plate and act like a backstop!!! With all the steroids floating through his veins, he's probably impervious to pain at this point.
It seems like only yesterday when Gorgeous George was dissing the well-mannered John Henry after the Yanks signed the highest-priced free agent on the market. I think it would be cool if Henry released the following statement on the current ARod spectacle: "We understand that GEORGE STEINBRENNER must be embarrassed, frustrated and disappointed by his failure in this transaction. Unlike the RED SOX, he chose not to go the extra distance for his fans in NEW YORK."
Also, recall that Georgie's little lapdog Cashman felt compelled to chime in with "We're a very aggressive, well-oiled machine." After the classless way they handled the Torre situation, it seems like there's leaked oil all over the Yankee garage.
Maybe they need to re-hire George Costanza to righten the ship!
DO I HAVE TOP PLAY WITH FUCKIN BIMMA? ET TU STEVO?
SOME OF HIS BOSTON PARAPHILIA MATERIAL MAY END UP IN PONDS OR TRASH HEAPS IN NAWLINS...
BTW, THIS WAS ONE OF THE WORST SERIES IN HISTORY - FRIGGIN BORING TO ANY REAL BASEBALL FAN...I WATCHED A TOTAL OF 4 INNINGS. OH THOSE ROCKIES SURE PUT UP A STRUGGLE, WHAT A PATHETIC ENDING.
NO TO NEXT YEAR: WILL THE SUX REPEAT AS ALCS CHAMPS? WILL THEY EVEN WIN THE DIVISION? BRING YOUR WAGERS, RSN, THATS ALL THAT MATTERS...
Oh... poor Robbo didn't like the Series. Did you like it when the Yankees destroyed the Padres? Was that an objectively good Series?
We're very sorry that the Sox were clearly the better team (all year)and they made it less fun to watch, even if there were two 1-run games. I think a true fan of baseball would have enjoyed the hell out of those two games. Plus, if you like dominating pitching performances and history, well, Game 1 seemed fun. The only game that was less interesting was Game 3, and even that one got close for a while. Wouldn't a true baseball fan have some interest in watching a starting pitcher drive in more runs in 1 at bat than ARod did in the last 3 post seasons, combined? I find that to be compelling...
Anyway, what a shock that a Yanks' fan only watched 4 innings of the most dominant performance (in terms of run differential, the only thing that matters when talking "dominant") in World Series History.
Now, onto an interesting psychological twist... Robbo is now looking to the future. Vic looks to the past. Why can't a Yankee fan actually live in the present? Oh wait... I know why... because the present sucks!
As for your wagers... that is a good question. I can't speak to why Vic and Shades are stiffing you. If you are looking for a wager on next year's Yanks/Sox team, get back to us in March... I'll be your Huckleberry. Just don't beg for odds/games/mercy/etc... a straight up "who wins more games" like the one you suckered Shades into would probably be appropriate. Oh, and you should thank me for pointing out that you needed to make that bet "who wins more games" not "who wins the East" as you guys originally had it...
So now that one's team isn't in the Series, that makes the Series boring? HA! A new low for MFY fans. We can't bash your team so we will bash the Series. As if that was Boston's fault too.
Yankee fans, keep living in the past and keep finding new ways to make not going to the world series someone else's fault.
Buzz's petulance is in lockstep with the new Giraldi era. Like him as a manager, but it will be interesting with the NY media and the vets and him.
My turn to jump on the pile (and show my age). You Sox fans are performing admirably; you never disappoint.
Dominance??? Try the 1963 series when the two-time defending champion Mantle/Maris Stanks put up a grand total of 4 runs as they got swept for the first time in franchise history. And 2 of the runs came on a meaningless 8th inning homer in Game 1 where Koufax struck out 15 of the bums. Some historical perspective:
World Series Teams With Less Than Ten (10) Runs Scored (Through 1963)
World Series Team League Runs 1954 World Series Cleveland Indians (A.L.) 9 1943 World Series St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.) 9 1938 World Series Chicago Cubs (N.L.) 9 1918 World Series Boston Red Sox (A.L.) 9 1939 World Series Cincinnati Reds (N.L.) 8 1920 World Series Brooklyn Dodgers (N.L.) 8 1914 World Series Philadelphia Athletics (A.L.) 6 1907 World Series Detroit Tigers (A.L.) 6 1950 World Series Philadelphia Phillies (N.L.) 5 1963 World Series New York Yankees (A.L.) 4 1905 World Series Philadelphia Athletics (A.L.) 3
They were lucky to hit a loud foul ball off Koufax, Drysdale, and Podres and the dead ball era of the late 60s had not started.
I love Robbo's classic Freudian slip "NO TO NEXT YEAR:" in his erratic rant. If I were a Yankmee fan, that would be my sentiment exactly! Maybe we should submit that to Steinbrenner The Elder and Steinbrenners The Younger as their marketing slogan for 2008.
First, for Buzz, I have already stated that I will be paying my bill to Voodoo since I have access to him during semester. Second, statistics are a wonderful thing and truely you can craft your own reality by blocking off the range to wherever the numbers will validate your hypothesis. For example, take Red Sox fan who is so infatuated with their recent success that they consider Major League Baseball to be a fresh, new sport starting in 2004. In doing this they declare anyone who opts to use a clearly contrived and subjective range of..OH..I don't know...all of baseball history as living in the past. However, I am not excluding the last few years or the present, I am more than willing to give the Red Sux their due for their great teams and World Championships and would venture to say an opportunity to add to that number for at least the next few seasons for sure. Contextually, they have a handful of titles compared to a team that not only won 26 WS Championships, but sadly lost 11, were in 25 WS in a 40 year span, winning 20. Sadly, if we lose sight of tradition (and Boston with wall and great fans and Rice, Yaz, Fisk) we become trapped in a mindset of individual players becoming larger than the team, disrespecting the game with steroids, and trading identity and standards for a "what have you done for me lately" and overlooking poor morals because he can drive in 120 runs a year. History matter, context matters, and a global view is required to honestly assess a team's place in baseball hierarchy. I have not excluded the present, you have excluded the past. As for being competitive vice winning chanpionships...again I say context. If I had said championships I would have been called out for being presumptuous and elitist and even unrealistic, but by stating the fact fairly and appropriately it is pulled out of context and used as a pseudo acceptance of weakness. A-Rod is a great player and finsihing two games behind the Sox and the best record in the MLB and making the 12th consecutive playoff appearance is a failure of sorts, but it is not that far from the top of the mountain. Look at ths statistics with a deliberate eye, an objective eye, and you will be forced to accept your team's statistical inferiority, it is as undeniable as measuring sixty feet and six inches.
I do agree that the initial comments on Torre were absolutely piss poor. The offer of a contract later was merely a face-saving measure to reintroduce class back into the mix. Torre was a goner and I have mixed emotions..he is solid, but they need to shake it up. It could have been handled much better, but Borasshole is taking his boy down a rabbit hole. Unbelieveable bat, good fielder, average teammate, lousy in the clutch more times than not. BTW, Celtics ARE the greatest NBA franchise of all time. Lot of lean years lately, but the greatest. The big three they put together on offense makes them top two in the East this year. ARe you really going to compare the Packers (3 Cahnpionships) or the Canadiens to the Yankees. Let me do the exact numbers for you in nanother blog, but it is astounding in the number of championships, number of championship series, ratio of seasons to championships, number of Hall of Famers, winning percentage...all against more teams across a wider range of years. You have got to be retarded to even throw out the friggin Packers and Canadiens in that comparison. Denial just a river in Egypt,apparently it flows into the Charles.
I'll be completely honest here... I didn't understand half of what you wrote. :-)
That said, I will concede as a statistical fact that the Yankees are, in terms of wins/losses/championships/HOFers/etc. the superior franchise to the Red Sox, over a 100-year period. My point is not to dismiss the history, but rather to point out that Yankee fans these days MUST live in the past to gain any enjoyment from their team. Further, I really believe there is an absolute nonsense to the constant toting around of "26 Championships" much like it would be nonsense for me to say the Sox have won 7. Although I do not know you well Vic, and I don't know how old you are, my guess is that you were not around in the 1920s for those wins... as such, you cannot experience any personal joy from them. If you can, well... yikes. When I think of my Celtics, the greatest franchise in NBA history (using the same standards as applied to the yankees), I don't think about titles won in the 60s. I was born in 1970. I appreciate the history, but I don't revel in it.
For me, what makes being a fan of sports incredibly fun are the moments that you get to "share", for lack of a better word, with the your team and fellow fans. Since no living member of my family was alive in 1903, I don't get a lot of joy in that Red Sox championship... nor do I yap about it. Rather, I simply enjoy these current teams, particularly because I had a significant (34 years, loosely speaking... 29 more accurately... i was 5 in '75 when the Sox lost to the Big Red Machine, and I have some faint memories of that year) amount of pain context. More importantly, we (me, and the rest of RSN) have had to put up with a virtual lifetime of harrasment from idiot yankee fans... now, you are not necessarily in that group. But you have to admit that a 30 year old guy touting the virtues of Mickey Mantle is pretty ridiculous, since he never saw him play other than on ESPN Classic. Sports fandom is about the moment, not about history lessons.
Further, masochistic stankee fans have always taken great pleasure in the rubbing our noses in events like Bucky Dent, the entire 78 collapse (how many times did I hear about that season THIS year?), Aaron Boone, etc. For the record, and I think I speak for most Sox fans... WE DON'T CARE anymore. Those little digs have no traction. I'd love to share a beer with Bucky Dent. Although I'd still like to clock Grady Little, so maybe some wounds are still too fresh... :-)
The big picture point (of the needle) is simple... Sox fans are simply living a better sports life right now than Yankees fans... and that is undeniable. To think that Sox fans are going to be quiet for at least another 19 years (the minimal amount of time to "equal" the Stanks success) is ridiculous. Maybe this is just our little historical blip... but for 86 years, the Yankees were the hammer to the Red Sox nail... and that is simply not the case anymore. At best, they are both hammers.
So, I'll say it again... I hope the Stanks take comfort in their history (at least the history which they actually remember... for most of my friends that is 6 championships, not 26) because their present is not very good.
I guess I need to discuss the concpt of aculturation. You do not have to live in the past to have the past be part of your culture...that is why we have spoke, written, and of course video/film histories, symbols etc... that pass on traditions and a sense of association and attachment. I grew up in the Brox and went to games at Yankee Stadium every Summer and played in the same NYPD Police Leagues that spwaned dozens of Yankees. I listened to stories on stoops from every age on their experience, seen the stadium plaques and statues and it became part of my history. I guess being an American for you New Tex only means what has occurred since your birth, or is the whole concept of America from the Revolution through the Greatest Generation not part of what makes you an American?
The world is officially coming to an end...Sage Rosenfels is the named starting quraterback for the Houston Texans.
P.S. On the Pats---Belichek (sp?) wasn't classless when he ran the score up on my Redskins, he just passed up the opportunity to show some class. Their job to score, Redskins job to stop them and the skins didn't do their job. He is a brutish, miserable, freakin genius.
Thanks for the lesson Vic... us youngins can learn a lot from old coots like you! I think one or both of us is probably not doing a great job of communicating, or we just don't see eye to eye.
I am not denying that you may feel some joy and whatnot from a Yankee past that existed before you did... I just find it extremely odd. Growing up, I was an avid Celtics fan, something that was surely passed on from my dad. However, I never had a sense then (or now) of Cousy, Russell, et al., and as such, I appreciated what they did... but it did not give me any great visceral joy. And isn't that what we are talking about? It certainly is what I've been talking about... it is the heart of the "dig" that I've had to go to great lengths to explain. Rather, I found my joy from watching MY Celtics teams play... Bird, Mchale, Parrish, Ainge, DJ...
Again, I am not trying to deny the history of the Stanks... they have undeniably had more success than any other baseball team. I just don't understand how someone could actually find some great amount of joy in the 1927 Yankees if they were born in 1955 (a wild guess). That doesn't mean it doesn't "count"... it just means I don't see how you can toss it in someone's face. Again, I live in Dallas... if the Celts lose to the Mavs in the NBA Finals (a realistic possibility this year) and Mavs fans get all worked up and in my face... I can't imagine having a comeback such as "yeah, well count the rings... we have 16 to your 1." That is nonsense.
Your American history analogy is a bit overblown... I am not going to dignify what it means to be a "Yankee fan" by what it means to be an American! Settle down man! A more fitting analogy (at least in terms of scale) would be to describe the Red Sox culture, 1900 ish to present. Did that affect my culture as a Sox fan? Of course! We have a history of losing!! That is what I was brought up in, and I heard the same kind of stories, albeit on the other end of the win/loss spectrum. But still, I can't have any sense of what it was like to lose to St. Louis in 1967, which for my dad was completely devestating (he learned of the Series outcome while floating on a Navy ship off the coast of Vietnam). I can watch Johnny Pesky fumble around with a ball hit to him in 1946 that may have cost the Sox the Series then, but I don't get physically upset. I can appreciate the academic debate over whether or not Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to play the game, but again, it doesn't get me worked up into fan frenzy to do so... I never saw the man play (although I did meet him... grumpy old bastard).
I do vividly remember the one-game playoff in 78 and all of the debacles that followed, and there was a time (pre 2004) that it would make me physically ill to see the Buckner play. If you mentioned Grady Little to me in the Winter of 2003/2004, there is a chance I might take a swing at you...
The belabored point is simply this... for me, the most important thing is your own personal history with a team... it's the reason why I find it funny that Yankee fans tout championships they never saw, and the reason why Red Sox "fans" of the 18 year old variety in 2004 irked the shit out of me. They had not suffered enough to get that kind of joy.
Anyway, on to other things... remember that fun "1918!" chant you bronx folks used to cheer at the Sox? I am trying to figure out a way to get a good "2000" chant ready for the Stanks. All I can come up with is something like "Year Two Thous-and... clap, clap, clapclapclap"... it doesn't really roll off the tongue though! I need to figure this out though, because if history is any predictor of the future, I may not get a chance to shout this very often!
BTW, classic move with Giriardi taking #27. I was reallllly hoping they'd go with Donny Baseball instead of him. The boy can manage... if he can find a way to deal with Young Steinbrenners, he'll be a good man at the helm.
RE: Belicheck... I wish I knew you were a Skins fan last week! As a fan, I am not exactly proud of the way he wants to keep the foot on the throat, but I agree with you... it is not his responsibility to keep his team out of the endzone. The collective fear is that he's going to have Brady or Moss in a 52-0 game and they are going to get hurt... that would suck bigtime.
I can see this blog is going to double as a Baseball Hot Stove and Ballbuster Blog this winter... and that's fine!
Having reread this thread, I am going to concede a point to you Vic... given your background, maybe it is OK for you to chest thump a bit... I am more annoyed by the younger guys (my age or younger) who do it, and I think that is reasonable. You can't possibly think a 27 year old Yankee fan (I work with one) has any kind of "right" as it were to talk about dynasties and whatnot... i mean, he's only been alive for 4/26 of the championships. What about some 18 year old kid walking around with a "Got Rings?" t-shirt? Clearly they have no right for this kind of nonsense, in much the say way as an 18 year old kid in 2004 has no real right to wear a "The Curse is Reversed" t-shirt. What the hell does some Red Sox fan born in 1987 know about Curses?
I'm actually quite intersted in your thoughts on this one...
I don't think we are disagreeing that calling upon past glory/history to stick it to someone is bad karma anyway you look at it. If used to defend against a stick from an opposing fan that just wants to "hate the Yankees for being the Yankees" then it is wholly legitimate. I choose only to bring up the record when Red Sox fans want to assault the organization and what it represents (mostly very good, sometimes bad...e.g. hiring/firing ot Martin, comments about Torre). I never try and discredit the Red Sox performance because I think that lessesns the rivalry, I think beating the best is better than beating the mediocre. So, it will be that much more meaningful when the teams collide again. Thusly, I embrace the rivalry more when the Sox are playing great ball and I pay due respect for the great players and victories in the past because it makes the clash of the Titans more meaningful. In that vein I am more than willing to defend the integrity of the Yankees well-earned status in the rivalry.
Yes, it is definitely a legitimate rivalry once again, and really for the first time in 25 years. In the mid/late 70s, the Sox and Yanks were both very good teams, with the Yanks always getting the upper hand. But through the 80s and early 90s, I really don't remember many good clashes... the Stanks went on an 18-yr World Series drought, and the Sox won a few division championships... hell, the Blue Jays were a much better team in those days (hat tip to Joel). When the Stanks were racking up their next 4 rings, the Sox were barely a factor, even in the 99 ALCS, which was a fluky kind of season for the Sox.
Let me apologize if I came across as pedantic w/my aculturation statement. I think it is importatnt to affirm that physiologically the brain will have better and more vivid memory with multiple, real-time sensory input (smell, sound, sight, feel) from actually attending events or even watching them live via the more active amygdola processing. However, other memories and associations can be formed through the more subliminal aculturation processes. These memories and associations can collectively be as strong as those you actually lived through. Hence, a Yankee fan's (or any other team) sense of Yankeeness and emotional/physiological/cognitive association is not limited to just "living it" though I agree those type of memories carry greater weight and intensity. I also absolutely agree with your previous comment about chest thumping. Since I never made it past AA and don't make my living playing for the Yanks, I am always wary of people who say "us" and "we". Those are the usual knuckleheads who end up taking their fandom too personally and come to blows. I think walking around with a t-shirt that says "got rings" is wrong based on my first point..they aren't playing and second, its an unnecessary eye poke. I think it IS appropriate to call scoreboard when you are defending against an attack or someone is using selective statistics to put down your favorite team, but to do so unprovoked is classless. BTW, this could be an unprecedented Year of the Chowder (YoC) with the Sox winning the WS, BC perhaps in the BCS title game, Celtics with a chance to compete for at least the East title if not the NBA Finals, and those damn Patriots who look utterly unstoppable...thank goodness the Bruins are playing like, well, the Bruins of late. I cannot remember any city/region with a chance to pull off that kind of major sport dominance...not ever in NY that I can recall. Brady and NE defense are on my first place fantasy football team at the office (your tax dollars at work), so I will be rooting for them and oddly for Joseph Addai whom I start at one of the RB positions. Though Belichik is a dick, he backs up his smugness with results.
Classic Vic, classic. You spell amygdala wrong, but I love that you brought it out. I'd take issue with your use of "subliminal" as well, but I still love that you brought it to the table!* I haven't thought this much about cognitive/phsysio psychology since 2003 when I last taught both classes... this may be the most dynamic blog in blog history!
So, you played AA baseball, played on the mini tours, and now find your funding through my tax dollars. You are my new hero!!!
As for Boston sports... it's really pretty sick right now. I just watched my first Celtics' game from start to finish in 15 years and it was a blast. I don't care much about BC, but if the city could get baseball, football and basketball... wow. I'd be thrilled with 2 out of 3 though.
* "subliminal" literally means "beneath conscious awareness" and is typically used in terms of the stimuli (e.g., presenting a word so briefly that you are not consciously aware of it, but it still affects your cognition... like flashing POPCORN during a movie to motivate movie goers to get up and buy that product). As such, any kind of aculteration (sp?) is clearly not "subliminal" as the person is aware of the stimuli (e.g., being told stories of Yankee teams in the past, seeing monuments, trips to the Stadium, etc). The process you describe is better characterized as implicit learning rather than subliminal memory.
Sorry, I couldn't let you get all the big words in on this post. Hahaha.
It's Friday night in New Orleans, and Robbo and Bimma have probably met... i wonder how that went...
My bad on the amygdala, as you can tell I don't spell check. No, subliminal is exactly what I meant. Do you really think that you are aware of your culturation as it occurs, especially when it starts in the womb? Perhaps, somewhere in young adulthood you may become aware of a percentage of it. There are a lot of people far brighter than I that work tirelessly to insure we are not aware of a good part of our aculturation. I would gladly debate that you are long gone before you ever reach adequate cognition. Of course, I just read a lot and have never had the advantage of the type of formal psychology education you have, so you may be in the camp that genetic predetermination allows drives the individual to interact and control their environment by self-selecting people/stimuli to actualize genetic characteristics...but I would say that is fairly unknown to the individual as well. And yes I am a two sport failure (made it through one season of winter ball and one full season before realizing my lack of ass doomed my best fastball to being a true major leaguer's off speed pitch. Hence, I am sucking on the teat of your taxes, twice over.
I was just busting your chops... that said though, it is important (?) to note that cognitive psychologists do not classify all unconscious processes as "subliminal". My point was a hair-splitting one... I agree that what you are talking about is surely not inside our conscious awareness, but it is not also "subliminal" as classicaly defined by cognitive psychology. My hair-split was on your label, not on your overall description, which was right on.
Speaking of failures, what is the over under on Team FPGP's score at the Monkey Hill? If this thing is a 4-man scramble, I am saying they'd be lucky to get below -6. Unless of course they flew JG in as a ringer...
I just checked the Vegas line and the O/U on FPGP at Monkey Hill Classic is -2, in that at least two will be unable to complete the round due to past or current inebriation. In some overseas books you can buy it down to one and one-half, the half means Robbo went down.
Florida State beats BC, perhaps the Chowder Dominance is in entropy.
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Yes, but he is paired with me (from what da Bandit tells me)... so he may want to skip it!! I've only played 3 times this year due to work and injury (but I am not making any excuses). Plus, it may be distracting to him with my Red Sox World Series outfit. And, first birdie (if we get one) I may break into a Papelbon 'Lord of the Ring' dance!!
I really wish I could have planned for this... I was originally slated to be in Arizona for a trial, but it got pushed at the last minute... Sounds like you boys are going to have a lot of fun, most of it at Robbo's expsense.
Tex, I was just lucky enough to have a conference/exhibition in New Orleans during this weekend & Stevie V letting me play (and da Bandit for the invite)!!
Of course, it was only recently that he told me I was paired with Robbo. It should make for an interesting first meeting!!
I will try to keep the harrassment to a minimum, especially with the implosion of that team from da Bronx!! From what I hear, though, Joe Torre is being mentioned for the LA Dodgers job!! I wonder if A-Rod will find employment that quick!!!???
Yeah, as a lifelong Dodger fan, I am real thrilled that their major offseason move may be to hire Torre - he died sooooo well as an N.L. manager previously. Oh well, maybe he can hit behind Nomar and in front of Kent. At least he probably has more home run power than those guys - and probably more speed too! Rupert Murdock was bad enough and now we got the skinflint Boston parking lot magnate ruining the franchise, thinking that a managerial change will solve things. The cheap bastard needs to pony up for A-Rod. I don't care if he chokes in October, I just want team playing in October. Hollywood may suit him well.
Bimma, you gotta bring Robbo a Red Sox "present" for the golf tourney --- please!
Torre going to the Boys in Blue would be sweet. Even da Bandit (a Dodger fan from Brooklyn days) may like this possibility.
I guess I was wrong!!!
I would Steve, but I'm sure it would be destroyed in a matter of seconds!! Perhaps a small token of RSN...I'll put something in the bag!!
Bandit, easy on Boston...if it wasn't for us, the LA Dogs would only be fielding half a team and without a manager!!
A-Rod needs to be out of the limelight...perhaps KC, Arizona, or the Mexican professional league would be a nice fit!! I'm sick of talking about him already!!!
Yep, sorry i couldn't make this one boys. Sandra will be in San Diego and I gotta do my fatherly duty and take care of the lil' Pea.
A-Rod is an idiot for letting Borass talk him into going on the market. The Yankees offered him good money near $30M to stay with a team that competes every year, unmatched tradition, and a national stage. So, he costs them $21M by opting out (Texas share) so he can get what...$30M, $31M? He will not get more than $1M or so more a year than the Yankees' offer best case. He either left because he cannot stand any criticism, share the stage, or he thinks he is bigger than the greatest sports franchise in professional sports history...all flaws that make hime less than desirable. I say goodbye to you and your asshole agent, I hoipe you choke on that $1M and enjoy playing for the Cubbies or Giants and getting into the playoffs once ot twice more in your career. Btter yet I hope this chemistry killer goes to the Red Sux, but Theo and the fans are much too smart to throw that kind of cash away even to yank the Yankees. You can sign a Beckett-type and a great middle-reliever, and a quality back 1B or OF for $30M. I am a Jeter believer, f*&^ the Ass-Rod
I find it fascinating that the excuse to go to New York used to be "because it gave the player the best chance to win a championship"... but now it is because they "compete every year." Yes, the paradigm shift has taken a firm hold.
The fact of the matter is that playing for the Yankees provides one with little more chance of winning a World Series than playing for the Diamondbacks, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals or White Sox... as all of those teams have won a title since the Yanks last put their greasy fingers on the trophy. Oh and of course, it offers a far less chance than playing for the Sox... the team that has 2 world series titles in the same time frame that the Yankees have not won a playoff series.
But anyway... have fun with that greatest unmatched tradition stuff. I may break that out this season with the Celtics!! I can't even describe how amusing we RSN people find that nonsense these days! Hell, I wish I could find Bucky Dent... I'd buy the little fucker a beer!
Bring back Scott Brosius. Maybe even O'Neil and Mattingley. Oh wait, now I sound like a Yankee's fan. Living in the past!
I agree Talon. I think A-Rod is truly a classless asshole!! One, he (well, Borasshole) makes the announcement during a clinching game 4 of the world series!! I guess he is above the game of baseball!! I certainly don't buy the lame-ass apology from Boras to say he made a big mistake by announcing it during the game! My ass...what bigger stage to make it than the World Series??!! Then, for A-Rod not to show up to collect the Hank Aaron Award because of "a previous engagement"??? I guess he must have known the Spankees wouldn't be playing weeks ago!!! Are you F-ing kiddin' me??!!
My hope is that NO TEAM signs A-Rod!!! But, that is just wishful thinking!!
P.S. I agree with you too Tex. Funny how it has gone from "greatest team ever" to "a team that is competitive every year"!!!
Yes, and at the risk of sounding like an AFraud supporter, I'd add this: Yankee fans are complete idiots for "criticizing" him... he is about to win his 2nd MVP in 2 years, and boy... did he deserve it this year! When the Sox were mounting what turned out to be an insurmountable (a post hoc, but accurate description) lead in April and May, AROD CARRIED THE YANKEE BUMS ON HIS BACK. That lead would have been 20+ without MayRod. The greatest franchise in sports history (I think Celtics, Packers and Montreal Canadiens fans may take issue with that, btw) would have been sitting out October if it wasn't for Afraud... rather than getting their now customary 4 games of playoff excitement.
The fact of the matter is simple... the Yankees were a slightly above average team this year, and they will be significantly worse with AFraud out of the lineup. Good luck replacing 50+ HR and 150+ RBI and a gold glove at the hot corner. I suppose Yankee Universe(commonly refered to as The Bronx)can take comfort in watching the most over-rated shortstop in baseball history, Mr. Weak Line Drive and No Range in the Field, go out and hit .320 with 12 HR and 80 RBI... and finish in 3rd place... they'll always have those memories.
Oh, and rumor has it that Posada is talking to the Mets. I can't tell you how much joy this is bringing RSN. The only thing the Stanks MIGHT have going for them... and that is a MIGHT... is that they have a couple unproven young arms (all of which seem to be very fragile, btw... Jaba as a starter? Hahaha... I almost couldn't type that)... so who is going to catch these guys? Is Girardi going to play/coach? Even if you don't miss Posada's offense, you can't replace that leadership behind the plate (Posada is one of the few Yankees I can actually "admire" as a sports fan). Maybe Giambi can just lay his fat ass down behind the plate and act like a backstop!!! With all the steroids floating through his veins, he's probably impervious to pain at this point.
And... scene.
Come on Bandit!!! Jump on the pile!!!
My, my, how the mighty have fallen!
It seems like only yesterday when Gorgeous George was dissing the well-mannered John Henry after the Yanks signed the highest-priced free agent on the market. I think it would be cool if Henry released the following statement on the current ARod spectacle:
"We understand that GEORGE STEINBRENNER must be embarrassed, frustrated and disappointed by his failure in this transaction. Unlike the RED SOX, he chose not to go the extra distance for his fans in NEW YORK."
Also, recall that Georgie's little lapdog Cashman felt compelled to chime in with "We're a very aggressive, well-oiled machine." After the classless way they handled the Torre situation, it seems like there's leaked oil all over the Yankee garage.
Maybe they need to re-hire George Costanza to righten the ship!
Yes... it will not be long before the battle cry from Yankee Universe is... SERENITY NOW!!
That's what they are missing....
Bring back the All-Cotton uniforms,
some calzones from Paisano's, and them sons-a-bitches from Houston! Classic...
We will all get a good laugh when Girardi and Co get buried beneath the rubble of the old stadium at the end of 2008!!!
I'll laugh harder when they play their last game in Yankee Stadium... to a crowd of 14,000.
Anyway, the new Yanks' hitting coach should help... here's a preview:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EUMQ410eVeM
DO I HAVE TOP PLAY WITH FUCKIN BIMMA? ET TU STEVO?
SOME OF HIS BOSTON PARAPHILIA MATERIAL MAY END UP IN PONDS OR TRASH HEAPS IN NAWLINS...
BTW, THIS WAS ONE OF THE WORST SERIES IN HISTORY - FRIGGIN BORING TO ANY REAL BASEBALL FAN...I WATCHED A TOTAL OF 4 INNINGS. OH THOSE ROCKIES SURE PUT UP A STRUGGLE, WHAT A PATHETIC ENDING.
NO TO NEXT YEAR: WILL THE SUX REPEAT AS ALCS CHAMPS? WILL THEY EVEN WIN THE DIVISION? BRING YOUR WAGERS, RSN, THATS ALL THAT MATTERS...
AND WHERE IS MY MONEY FROM SHADES? AND VIC?
Oh... poor Robbo didn't like the Series. Did you like it when the Yankees destroyed the Padres? Was that an objectively good Series?
We're very sorry that the Sox were clearly the better team (all year)and they made it less fun to watch, even if there were two 1-run games. I think a true fan of baseball would have enjoyed the hell out of those two games. Plus, if you like dominating pitching performances and history, well, Game 1 seemed fun. The only game that was less interesting was Game 3, and even that one got close for a while. Wouldn't a true baseball fan have some interest in watching a starting pitcher drive in more runs in 1 at bat than ARod did in the last 3 post seasons, combined? I find that to be compelling...
Anyway, what a shock that a Yanks' fan only watched 4 innings of the most dominant performance (in terms of run differential, the only thing that matters when talking "dominant") in World Series History.
Now, onto an interesting psychological twist... Robbo is now looking to the future. Vic looks to the past. Why can't a Yankee fan actually live in the present? Oh wait... I know why... because the present sucks!
As for your wagers... that is a good question. I can't speak to why Vic and Shades are stiffing you. If you are looking for a wager on next year's Yanks/Sox team, get back to us in March... I'll be your Huckleberry. Just don't beg for odds/games/mercy/etc... a straight up "who wins more games" like the one you suckered Shades into would probably be appropriate. Oh, and you should thank me for pointing out that you needed to make that bet "who wins more games" not "who wins the East" as you guys originally had it...
So now that one's team isn't in the Series, that makes the Series boring? HA! A new low for MFY fans. We can't bash your team so we will bash the Series. As if that was Boston's fault too.
Yankee fans, keep living in the past and keep finding new ways to make not going to the world series someone else's fault.
Buzz's petulance is in lockstep with the new Giraldi era. Like him as a manager, but it will be interesting with the NY media and the vets and him.
My turn to jump on the pile (and show my age). You Sox fans are performing admirably; you never disappoint.
Dominance??? Try the 1963 series when the two-time defending champion Mantle/Maris Stanks put up a grand total of 4 runs as they got swept for the first time in franchise history. And 2 of the runs came on a meaningless 8th inning homer in Game 1 where Koufax struck out 15 of the bums. Some historical perspective:
World Series Teams With Less Than Ten (10) Runs Scored (Through 1963)
World Series Team League Runs
1954 World Series Cleveland Indians (A.L.) 9
1943 World Series St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.) 9
1938 World Series Chicago Cubs (N.L.) 9
1918 World Series Boston Red Sox (A.L.) 9
1939 World Series Cincinnati Reds (N.L.) 8
1920 World Series Brooklyn Dodgers (N.L.) 8
1914 World Series Philadelphia Athletics (A.L.) 6
1907 World Series Detroit Tigers (A.L.) 6
1950 World Series Philadelphia Phillies (N.L.) 5
1963 World Series New York Yankees (A.L.) 4
1905 World Series Philadelphia Athletics (A.L.) 3
They were lucky to hit a loud foul ball off Koufax, Drysdale, and Podres and the dead ball era of the late 60s had not started.
I love Robbo's classic Freudian slip "NO TO NEXT YEAR:" in his erratic rant. If I were a Yankmee fan, that would be my sentiment exactly! Maybe we should submit that to Steinbrenner The Elder and Steinbrenners The Younger as their marketing slogan for 2008.
First, for Buzz, I have already stated that I will be paying my bill to Voodoo since I have access to him during semester. Second, statistics are a wonderful thing and truely you can craft your own reality by blocking off the range to wherever the numbers will validate your hypothesis. For example, take Red Sox fan who is so infatuated with their recent success that they consider Major League Baseball to be a fresh, new sport starting in 2004. In doing this they declare anyone who opts to use a clearly contrived and subjective range of..OH..I don't know...all of baseball history as living in the past. However, I am not excluding the last few years or the present, I am more than willing to give the Red Sux their due for their great teams and World Championships and would venture to say an opportunity to add to that number for at least the next few seasons for sure. Contextually, they have a handful of titles compared to a team that not only won 26 WS Championships, but sadly lost 11, were in 25 WS in a 40 year span, winning 20. Sadly, if we lose sight of tradition (and Boston with wall and great fans and Rice, Yaz, Fisk) we become trapped in a mindset of individual players becoming larger than the team, disrespecting the game with steroids, and trading identity and standards for a "what have you done for me lately" and overlooking poor morals because he can drive in 120 runs a year. History matter, context matters, and a global view is required to honestly assess a team's place in baseball hierarchy. I have not excluded the present, you have excluded the past. As for being competitive vice winning chanpionships...again I say context. If I had said championships I would have been called out for being presumptuous and elitist and even unrealistic, but by stating the fact fairly and appropriately it is pulled out of context and used as a pseudo acceptance of weakness. A-Rod is a great player and finsihing two games behind the Sox and the best record in the MLB and making the 12th consecutive playoff appearance is a failure of sorts, but it is not that far from the top of the mountain. Look at ths statistics with a deliberate eye, an objective eye, and you will be forced to accept your team's statistical inferiority, it is as undeniable as measuring sixty feet and six inches.
I do agree that the initial comments on Torre were absolutely piss poor. The offer of a contract later was merely a face-saving measure to reintroduce class back into the mix. Torre was a goner and I have mixed emotions..he is solid, but they need to shake it up. It could have been handled much better, but Borasshole is taking his boy down a rabbit hole. Unbelieveable bat, good fielder, average teammate, lousy in the clutch more times than not. BTW, Celtics ARE the greatest NBA franchise of all time. Lot of lean years lately, but the greatest. The big three they put together on offense makes them top two in the East this year. ARe you really going to compare the Packers (3 Cahnpionships) or the Canadiens to the Yankees. Let me do the exact numbers for you in nanother blog, but it is astounding in the number of championships, number of championship series, ratio of seasons to championships, number of Hall of Famers, winning percentage...all against more teams across a wider range of years. You have got to be retarded to even throw out the friggin Packers and Canadiens in that comparison. Denial just a river in Egypt,apparently it flows into the Charles.
I'll be completely honest here... I didn't understand half of what you wrote. :-)
That said, I will concede as a statistical fact that the Yankees are, in terms of wins/losses/championships/HOFers/etc. the superior franchise to the Red Sox, over a 100-year period. My point is not to dismiss the history, but rather to point out that Yankee fans these days MUST live in the past to gain any enjoyment from their team. Further, I really believe there is an absolute nonsense to the constant toting around of "26 Championships" much like it would be nonsense for me to say the Sox have won 7. Although I do not know you well Vic, and I don't know how old you are, my guess is that you were not around in the 1920s for those wins... as such, you cannot experience any personal joy from them. If you can, well... yikes. When I think of my Celtics, the greatest franchise in NBA history (using the same standards as applied to the yankees), I don't think about titles won in the 60s. I was born in 1970. I appreciate the history, but I don't revel in it.
For me, what makes being a fan of sports incredibly fun are the moments that you get to "share", for lack of a better word, with the your team and fellow fans. Since no living member of my family was alive in 1903, I don't get a lot of joy in that Red Sox championship... nor do I yap about it. Rather, I simply enjoy these current teams, particularly because I had a significant (34 years, loosely speaking... 29 more accurately... i was 5 in '75 when the Sox lost to the Big Red Machine, and I have some faint memories of that year) amount of pain context. More importantly, we (me, and the rest of RSN) have had to put up with a virtual lifetime of harrasment from idiot yankee fans... now, you are not necessarily in that group. But you have to admit that a 30 year old guy touting the virtues of Mickey Mantle is pretty ridiculous, since he never saw him play other than on ESPN Classic. Sports fandom is about the moment, not about history lessons.
Further, masochistic stankee fans have always taken great pleasure in the rubbing our noses in events like Bucky Dent, the entire 78 collapse (how many times did I hear about that season THIS year?), Aaron Boone, etc. For the record, and I think I speak for most Sox fans... WE DON'T CARE anymore. Those little digs have no traction. I'd love to share a beer with Bucky Dent. Although I'd still like to clock Grady Little, so maybe some wounds are still too fresh... :-)
The big picture point (of the needle) is simple... Sox fans are simply living a better sports life right now than Yankees fans... and that is undeniable. To think that Sox fans are going to be quiet for at least another 19 years (the minimal amount of time to "equal" the Stanks success) is ridiculous. Maybe this is just our little historical blip... but for 86 years, the Yankees were the hammer to the Red Sox nail... and that is simply not the case anymore. At best, they are both hammers.
So, I'll say it again... I hope the Stanks take comfort in their history (at least the history which they actually remember... for most of my friends that is 6 championships, not 26) because their present is not very good.
Oh, and Go Pats!
I guess I need to discuss the concpt of aculturation. You do not have to live in the past to have the past be part of your culture...that is why we have spoke, written, and of course video/film histories, symbols etc... that pass on traditions and a sense of association and attachment. I grew up in the Brox and went to games at Yankee Stadium every Summer and played in the same NYPD Police Leagues that spwaned dozens of Yankees. I listened to stories on stoops from every age on their experience, seen the stadium plaques and statues and it became part of my history. I guess being an American for you New Tex only means what has occurred since your birth, or is the whole concept of America from the Revolution through the Greatest Generation not part of what makes you an American?
The world is officially coming to an end...Sage Rosenfels is the named starting quraterback for the Houston Texans.
P.S. On the Pats---Belichek (sp?) wasn't classless when he ran the score up on my Redskins, he just passed up the opportunity to show some class. Their job to score, Redskins job to stop them and the skins didn't do their job. He is a brutish, miserable, freakin genius.
Thanks for the lesson Vic... us youngins can learn a lot from old coots like you! I think one or both of us is probably not doing a great job of communicating, or we just don't see eye to eye.
I am not denying that you may feel some joy and whatnot from a Yankee past that existed before you did... I just find it extremely odd. Growing up, I was an avid Celtics fan, something that was surely passed on from my dad. However, I never had a sense then (or now) of Cousy, Russell, et al., and as such, I appreciated what they did... but it did not give me any great visceral joy. And isn't that what we are talking about? It certainly is what I've been talking about... it is the heart of the "dig" that I've had to go to great lengths to explain. Rather, I found my joy from watching MY Celtics teams play... Bird, Mchale, Parrish, Ainge, DJ...
Again, I am not trying to deny the history of the Stanks... they have undeniably had more success than any other baseball team. I just don't understand how someone could actually find some great amount of joy in the 1927 Yankees if they were born in 1955 (a wild guess). That doesn't mean it doesn't "count"... it just means I don't see how you can toss it in someone's face. Again, I live in Dallas... if the Celts lose to the Mavs in the NBA Finals (a realistic possibility this year) and Mavs fans get all worked up and in my face... I can't imagine having a comeback such as "yeah, well count the rings... we have 16 to your 1." That is nonsense.
Your American history analogy is a bit overblown... I am not going to dignify what it means to be a "Yankee fan" by what it means to be an American! Settle down man! A more fitting analogy (at least in terms of scale) would be to describe the Red Sox culture, 1900 ish to present. Did that affect my culture as a Sox fan? Of course! We have a history of losing!! That is what I was brought up in, and I heard the same kind of stories, albeit on the other end of the win/loss spectrum. But still, I can't have any sense of what it was like to lose to St. Louis in 1967, which for my dad was completely devestating (he learned of the Series outcome while floating on a Navy ship off the coast of Vietnam). I can watch Johnny Pesky fumble around with a ball hit to him in 1946 that may have cost the Sox the Series then, but I don't get physically upset. I can appreciate the academic debate over whether or not Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to play the game, but again, it doesn't get me worked up into fan frenzy to do so... I never saw the man play (although I did meet him... grumpy old bastard).
I do vividly remember the one-game playoff in 78 and all of the debacles that followed, and there was a time (pre 2004) that it would make me physically ill to see the Buckner play. If you mentioned Grady Little to me in the Winter of 2003/2004, there is a chance I might take a swing at you...
The belabored point is simply this... for me, the most important thing is your own personal history with a team... it's the reason why I find it funny that Yankee fans tout championships they never saw, and the reason why Red Sox "fans" of the 18 year old variety in 2004 irked the shit out of me. They had not suffered enough to get that kind of joy.
Anyway, on to other things... remember that fun "1918!" chant you bronx folks used to cheer at the Sox? I am trying to figure out a way to get a good "2000" chant ready for the Stanks. All I can come up with is something like "Year Two Thous-and... clap, clap, clapclapclap"... it doesn't really roll off the tongue though! I need to figure this out though, because if history is any predictor of the future, I may not get a chance to shout this very often!
BTW, classic move with Giriardi taking #27. I was reallllly hoping they'd go with Donny Baseball instead of him. The boy can manage... if he can find a way to deal with Young Steinbrenners, he'll be a good man at the helm.
RE: Belicheck... I wish I knew you were a Skins fan last week! As a fan, I am not exactly proud of the way he wants to keep the foot on the throat, but I agree with you... it is not his responsibility to keep his team out of the endzone. The collective fear is that he's going to have Brady or Moss in a 52-0 game and they are going to get hurt... that would suck bigtime.
I can see this blog is going to double as a Baseball Hot Stove and Ballbuster Blog this winter... and that's fine!
Having reread this thread, I am going to concede a point to you Vic... given your background, maybe it is OK for you to chest thump a bit... I am more annoyed by the younger guys (my age or younger) who do it, and I think that is reasonable. You can't possibly think a 27 year old Yankee fan (I work with one) has any kind of "right" as it were to talk about dynasties and whatnot... i mean, he's only been alive for 4/26 of the championships. What about some 18 year old kid walking around with a "Got Rings?" t-shirt? Clearly they have no right for this kind of nonsense, in much the say way as an 18 year old kid in 2004 has no real right to wear a "The Curse is Reversed" t-shirt. What the hell does some Red Sox fan born in 1987 know about Curses?
I'm actually quite intersted in your thoughts on this one...
I don't think we are disagreeing that calling upon past glory/history to stick it to someone is bad karma anyway you look at it. If used to defend against a stick from an opposing fan that just wants to "hate the Yankees for being the Yankees" then it is wholly legitimate. I choose only to bring up the record when Red Sox fans want to assault the organization and what it represents (mostly very good, sometimes bad...e.g. hiring/firing ot Martin, comments about Torre). I never try and discredit the Red Sox performance because I think that lessesns the rivalry, I think beating the best is better than beating the mediocre. So, it will be that much more meaningful when the teams collide again. Thusly, I embrace the rivalry more when the Sox are playing great ball and I pay due respect for the great players and victories in the past because it makes the clash of the Titans more meaningful. In that vein I am more than willing to defend the integrity of the Yankees well-earned status in the rivalry.
Yes, it is definitely a legitimate rivalry once again, and really for the first time in 25 years. In the mid/late 70s, the Sox and Yanks were both very good teams, with the Yanks always getting the upper hand. But through the 80s and early 90s, I really don't remember many good clashes... the Stanks went on an 18-yr World Series drought, and the Sox won a few division championships... hell, the Blue Jays were a much better team in those days (hat tip to Joel). When the Stanks were racking up their next 4 rings, the Sox were barely a factor, even in the 99 ALCS, which was a fluky kind of season for the Sox.
Let me apologize if I came across as pedantic w/my aculturation statement. I think it is importatnt to affirm that physiologically the brain will have better and more vivid memory with multiple, real-time sensory input (smell, sound, sight, feel) from actually attending events or even watching them live via the more active amygdola processing. However, other memories and associations can be formed through the more subliminal aculturation processes. These memories and associations can collectively be as strong as those you actually lived through. Hence, a Yankee fan's (or any other team) sense of Yankeeness and emotional/physiological/cognitive association is not limited to just "living it" though I agree those type of memories carry greater weight and intensity. I also absolutely agree with your previous comment about chest thumping. Since I never made it past AA and don't make my living playing for the Yanks, I am always wary of people who say "us" and "we". Those are the usual knuckleheads who end up taking their fandom too personally and come to blows. I think walking around with a t-shirt that says "got rings" is wrong based on my first point..they aren't playing and second, its an unnecessary eye poke. I think it IS appropriate to call scoreboard when you are defending against an attack or someone is using selective statistics to put down your favorite team, but to do so unprovoked is classless. BTW, this could be an unprecedented Year of the Chowder (YoC) with the Sox winning the WS, BC perhaps in the BCS title game, Celtics with a chance to compete for at least the East title if not the NBA Finals, and those damn Patriots who look utterly unstoppable...thank goodness the Bruins are playing like, well, the Bruins of late. I cannot remember any city/region with a chance to pull off that kind of major sport dominance...not ever in NY that I can recall. Brady and NE defense are on my first place fantasy football team at the office (your tax dollars at work), so I will be rooting for them and oddly for Joseph Addai whom I start at one of the RB positions. Though Belichik is a dick, he backs up his smugness with results.
Classic Vic, classic. You spell amygdala wrong, but I love that you brought it out. I'd take issue with your use of "subliminal" as well, but I still love that you brought it to the table!* I haven't thought this much about cognitive/phsysio psychology since 2003 when I last taught both classes... this may be the most dynamic blog in blog history!
So, you played AA baseball, played on the mini tours, and now find your funding through my tax dollars. You are my new hero!!!
As for Boston sports... it's really pretty sick right now. I just watched my first Celtics' game from start to finish in 15 years and it was a blast. I don't care much about BC, but if the city could get baseball, football and basketball... wow. I'd be thrilled with 2 out of 3 though.
* "subliminal" literally means "beneath conscious awareness" and is typically used in terms of the stimuli (e.g., presenting a word so briefly that you are not consciously aware of it, but it still affects your cognition... like flashing POPCORN during a movie to motivate movie goers to get up and buy that product). As such, any kind of aculteration (sp?) is clearly not "subliminal" as the person is aware of the stimuli (e.g., being told stories of Yankee teams in the past, seeing monuments, trips to the Stadium, etc). The process you describe is better characterized as implicit learning rather than subliminal memory.
Sorry, I couldn't let you get all the big words in on this post. Hahaha.
It's Friday night in New Orleans, and Robbo and Bimma have probably met... i wonder how that went...
My bad on the amygdala, as you can tell I don't spell check. No, subliminal is exactly what I meant. Do you really think that you are aware of your culturation as it occurs, especially when it starts in the womb? Perhaps, somewhere in young adulthood you may become aware of a percentage of it. There are a lot of people far brighter than I that work tirelessly to insure we are not aware of a good part of our aculturation. I would gladly debate that you are long gone before you ever reach adequate cognition. Of course, I just read a lot and have never had the advantage of the type of formal psychology education you have, so you may be in the camp that genetic predetermination allows drives the individual to interact and control their environment by self-selecting people/stimuli to actualize genetic characteristics...but I would say that is fairly unknown to the individual as well. And yes I am a two sport failure (made it through one season of winter ball and one full season before realizing my lack of ass doomed my best fastball to being a true major leaguer's off speed pitch. Hence, I am sucking on the teat of your taxes, twice over.
I was just busting your chops... that said though, it is important (?) to note that cognitive psychologists do not classify all unconscious processes as "subliminal". My point was a hair-splitting one... I agree that what you are talking about is surely not inside our conscious awareness, but it is not also "subliminal" as classicaly defined by cognitive psychology. My hair-split was on your label, not on your overall description, which was right on.
Speaking of failures, what is the over under on Team FPGP's score at the Monkey Hill? If this thing is a 4-man scramble, I am saying they'd be lucky to get below -6. Unless of course they flew JG in as a ringer...
I just checked the Vegas line and the O/U on FPGP at Monkey Hill Classic is -2, in that at least two will be unable to complete the round due to past or current inebriation. In some overseas books you can buy it down to one and one-half, the half means Robbo went down.
Florida State beats BC, perhaps the Chowder Dominance is in entropy.
I think the real test of the Chowdah dominance is this afternoon... for the record, I see it
Pats 38
Colts 28
I can't see one area of the game that the Colts have an advantage.
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