The Red Sox 2006 season came to an end last night in the rain with rookie Devern Hansack pitching a five-inning rain-shortened no-hitter over Baltimore, 9-0. Of course, Hansack (I almost feel embarrassed saying his last name, as doesn't it almost sound dirty in some way?) won't get credit for it, as back in 1991, MLB, in their infinite wisdom, changed the rules on no-hitters, that they only count if the pitcher pitches nine complete innings. I always thought that was BS. Keep them in a special category, like they used to do.
The Red Sox concluded a disappointing season at 86-76, 11 games out, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They also finish in third place, as Toronto won yesterday. (Yep, the one day you want to see the Bronx Bastards win a game, they roll over like dogs. Figures. Go Tigers. Go Mets.) Over the next few days there will be post-mortems all over the place about what went wrong this season, and I will be putting my two cents in as well, here and over at Bornintoit.com later this week. We may have seen the finale of Trot Nixon in a Red Sox uniform yesterday. My latest column at Bornintoit.com is an appreciation of his years with the Sox. Thanks, Trottah.
In other baseball news, I finished fourth in two of my three fantasy league teams. I can't complain with either finish, as I didn't think I would make the playoffs in either league until fast finishes in both put me in.
I'll be paying attention to the Mets fortunes this October, hoping for the best for them, and doing my best to ignore the Yankees. The baseball regular season is over and that means winter's on its way.
The late, great Bart Giamatti was right when he said that the baseball season was designed to break your heart. It always does.
And now just four and a half months to go until pitchers and catchers report to Ft. Myers.
That makes me feel better.
4 comments:
Just think of all the extra free time we'll have this month though!
My spring training planning is already well under way. Best weekend of the year, bar none
Oh yes, WSF. Lots more time to do other things...
I've got to get my butt to FLA one of these Spring Trainings.
& when Bart Giamatti was NL President, in 1986, His Beloved Red Sox were in the World Series:
The problem was that the Red Sox were NOT in the National League;
The NY Mets were;
That Mets Team was so rowdy that they were broken up over a span of 2 Years;
Bart's Heart was Broken, especially over the '86 Red Sox.
I look forward to spring training all year. It's baseball at its most fun.
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