Gloriously Dirty Water: Sox and Pats Talk With the Thunderstick

dcat's back, and charged up for one of the great periods on the sporting calendar. September and October offer baseball pennant races, the first half of the NFL season, and the bulk of college football's glorious march to its fraudulent conclusion (Watch out for Boston College, which could easily be 6-0 heading into the Catholic death match with Notre Dame, which BC has fairly dominated over the last decade and change). Golf even gave us the Fed Ex Cup (I love the idea, do not so much love the execution, even if the outcome was clearly the right one) and for some of you, the NASCAR Chase for the Cup (Hint: Go straight, turn left. Piss in your racing uniform when need be, inexplicably hate the best guy of the last fifteen years, and repeat several hundred times and one of you will win.)

From here on out, Sox Talk With the Thunderstick will be "Sox and Pats Talk With the Thunderstick." You love it and you know it. Here we go:

Thunderstick: First off, the Sox: Strangely I feel better about the Sox than I did about 10-14 days ago. I know they lost 2 of 3 to the Yanks, but I was actually encouraged by what I saw. It was a bummer to see Okie and Pap blow things on Friday night, but we can't expect them to always win and we can't get off their bandwagon because of this. Rivera's safe conversion percetage against the Sox is like 75%--but do we expect the Sox to beat him every time he comes out? Of course not, so I'm willing to write off the bullpen meltdown on Friday night as a case of one of those things that happens when the Sox and Yanks play from time to time. What I did like this weekend is that Beckett looked awesome. Schill looked great through 7 innings and never should have pitched to Jeter (better for Francona to learn that lesson now than in the playoffs) and Dice, while throwing a lot of pitches, showed some spunk in getting through as many innings as he did. And with one win this weekend and the lead at 4.5 (we'll assume it's 4 since the Yanks have one more game to play than the Sox) with only 12 games left, I think it's just a matter of time before it's sewn up--especially since those 12 games I believe break down as 3 against TB, 3 against Bal, 2 against Oakland and 4 against Minny. I don't even worry about the offense because Manny is supposed to be back on Wed and that'll help things a lot. We need to wrap things up here quickly and get some of these arms some rest through. That's priority #1.

As for the Pats--damn! That's all we can really say. That was an asskicking from kickoff to final gun and it couldn't have felt better. As you texted last night, the simple message for this team is that they are really good. I mean, there's not a weak spot on the field. And they not only beat, but they dismantled what is supposed to be one of the top 3 teams in football and they did it during a week of distractions and with Seymour and Harrison out. We're not even at full strength. This team is ridiculous and while I don't think the Colts have been as impressive, that's the only team that can stop us. I'd like to think the Pats won't trip up somewhere, but I'm sure they will. But at this point, I'm looking at one thing--that Pats/Colts game and
who is going to get homefield advantage.

Couple other points from this game though--obviously the taping thing brought this team together. Was listening to Mike and Mike in the morning this morning and Greenberg (who I really like) said this morning that by Belichick not addressing this to the media and stonewalling it, he's left the players holding the bag and they should be livid at him for doing things that call into the question the validity of their dominance. I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know is true is that after the game it was clear that the players love this coach (suck it Tom Jackson and your whole "the new England Patriots hate their coach" even if it is 5 years old now). They outpouring of happiness for him after that game and the comments made to the media showed that they weren't mad at him and that they had his back. And as we talked about last week and that the national media picked up on later in the week, it was going to be tough for this team to find something to give them the "us against the world" mentality but they found it and because this video deal will linger for a while, it's going to be easy to keep summoning it up. And I think if I'm a player on an opposing team, after what I saw last night, I just shut the fuck up about the whole thing. All those guys on the Chargers better shut their yap and those guys on the Steelers running their mouths and McNabb and his whole "maybe we can get our rings back" thing (yeah McNabb--first off you never had a ring to get back and second, maybe you would have if you could have controlled your on field vomiting when the game was on the line)-they had their week of fun, they got to take their shots and now they should realize, best not give any bulletin board material.

God I love this team.

dcat: Sox: While I loathe losing to the Yankees (and have lost yet another bet to Holmes, who managed to avoid bets early in the season but has taken it to me the last couple of series) the reality is that we will clinch this thing within a week or so, which will give us time to get the rotation set, rest some guys, but still play trough the finish. It was a great series and the Yankees showed why they will be dangerous. That ninth inning last night brought my first stomach churning of 2007, so I know that the postseason is nigh and I think we can expect that we will run into the Yankees again.

The key is to avoid a letdown. We have twelve games left. Go 9-3 and we do not have to worry about New York. Anything less and we are looking over our shoulders. Tonight in Toronto will be big. Flying there late will probably effect us, but this is a pennant race. Got to deal with what we got.

Pats: I feel that my argument about them has been consistent for a week, no matter how much some might brand me an apologist: They broke the rules. They got caught. They paid a stiff penalty. It's disappointing. But the overwrought hand wringing is just really annoying. We have allegations from two games, one in Green Bay last year and one in New York this year, which was caught well before we opened up the floodgates on them. The idea that this all somehow goes back to the Super Bowl years simply baffles the imagination. That is quite an intuitive leap. And if it is true, aren't folks like Mangini implicated anyway? As Sean Salisbury has said, anyone who tries to make this more than it is to discredit the run this team has had is simply an idiot. It was probably worth a week's coverage. It should be done now. It won't be, but it should be.

Why should it be? because it is evident that the last week's activities proved much more of a distraction to San Diego than to the Pats. The fact that they spent all sorts of time hermetically sealing themselves off from the rest of the world to avoid Patriot spies was great news for the Pats. And then when all the talk was done (well, the Chargers barked all game), when the rubber met the road and the cleats hit the turf, the Patriots absolutely dominated what by all accounts is a team that has realistic Super Bowl aspirations. What's your excuse now, Chargers? What excuse are you going to give for getting crushed on Sunday night on national television after not only a week of chatter but after an entire offseason? Shut. The. Hell. Up. Oh -- and play better.

Right now the Patriots look like the dominant force in the NFL, though as we always say: defending champs hold the reins until someone knocks them off. So I am happy to let the Colts be the number one team in football -- they've earned it -- and to hear our footsteps. Looking at the schedule, I don't see many games we should not win, but the NFL always throws challenges at even the best teams. We may stumble. But I think last night should reveal once and for all that when the whistle blows, the Pats are going to be there. As you say, the rest of the league has made what appears to be a huge mistake. They fueled the us-against-the-world mentality that has served New England so well. The Bills are in trouble this weekend. And the rest of the league should really just pipe down.

Oh -- and on December 16 the Patriots play the Jets at home. That one is going to be a bloodbath. Thank you, Eric Mangini.