Wierd fact

[Velcro]

Weird fact in case you missed it: The Celtics won their first championship against St. Louis (1957); the Bruins broke a 41-year Stanley Cup drought against St. Louis (1970); and the Patriots won their first Super Bowl against St. Louis (2002). Hey, I'm just the messenger.

[Apis Bull]

That's cool.  

[KnightsRule]

VG

You have really been going through the Simmons archive today. I have loved him getting the articles in early during the playoffs. Did you see this article: Some of the highlights.

Stadiums

Going down my "Things that make a stadium great" list, it's dead-even right until Category No. 53 on my list: "Meeting point before the game." Fenway has the Beerworks, the Cask and Flagon, the Baseball Tavern and Copperfields. Yankee Stadium doesn't have any bars that close, so you have to meet at the Babe's bat in front of the stadium, which carried enough homoerotic overtones even before Vito Spadafore was standing out there waiting for Meadow Soprano's boyfriend.

EDGE: RED SOX

Baserunning

Neither team steals many bases, but Jeter and A-Rod are superior baserunners to anyone on the Red Sox. And don't forget about the Dale Sveum Factor. It's like having Billy Joel as your third-base coach.

Bench-clearing brawls

These things always come down to the biggest guys on the team, plus two wild cards (the Mickey Rivers types) who sucker-punch guys when they're not looking (everyone else grabs on to someone their size and hope they don't get hurt). The Yanks are shorthanded here because A) Brown has a broken hand, and everyone will be afraid to go within 10 feet of Giambi. Also, they have a number of guys who look like they wouldn't want to get hit because they're heading out to a club that night (including Loaiza, Posada and Mussina).

Since we got a little taste in July during the aborted A-Rod-Varitek brawl, I'd break down the major players like this ...

Sox: Ortiz (biggest guy on the field); Kapler (the strongest); Nixon (although the bad back could hurt him); Cabrera (possible wild-card guy); Varitek, Millar and Schilling.

Yanks: A-Rod (0-1 this season); Bubba Crosby (for his name alone); Tanyon Sturtze (who suddenly throws 96-mph and had the inexplicable meltdown during the July brawl ... hmmmmm); Sheffield (if properly angered, could potentially take out everyone on the Sox like Swayze at the Double Deuce); Kenny Lofton (possible wild card); Jeter (would always defend his teammates). They clearly miss Don Zimmer here, the only guy with enough testicular fortitude to go after Pedro last October (although he did have a metal plate in his head at the time).

EDGE: RED SOXSLIGHT EDGE: YANKEES

Craziest Guy

The Yankees have Sheffield, once described by my buddy J-Bug like this: "If he didn't become a baseball player, he would have been the last face you saw if you owed more than 10 grand to a bookie and didn't have the cash."

The recent Sports Illustrated issue vaulted Sheff into the Crazy Athlete Pantheon: Him ******** about Barry Bonds like a little kid (my favorite was the story about the boxing match) ... the fact that he has a personal chef who travels with him ... how he wanted us to believe that he paid Balco $50,000 for some vitamins and scar cream ... the story about how he punched out the Brewers pitcher for complaining about his error ... the way he threatened Pedro's life ... I mean, it went on and on. What a wacko.

As for Boston, Manny would have been the representative as recently as two months ago. Then Pedro bought Eriq LaSalle's gheri-curl Afro from "Coming to America" on eBay, decided that the Yankees were his "Daddy" and started bringing a 30-inch Dominican midget to the clubhouse after games. Adding his over-the-top dugout antics on non-pitching days, there's at least a 50 percent chance that last year's Game 7 in the Bronx drove him insane. Ladies and gentlemen, our Game 2 starter.

EDGE: RED SOX

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/041012

[Velcro]

VG

You have really been going through the Simmons archive today.  

Hey, how did you know it was me with my mask on  

I never really read simmons' articles prior to this month... didn't even really know he existed.  Nice to see a reporter that has been going through all the same pain as us... for all these years.

[BULLO12]

September 11 1918 was when the Red Sox won their last World Series.  SEPTEMBER 11!!!

[BullWriter]

I've been reading Simmons, BostonDirtDogs, and SoSH for about three years now.

Simmons is an absolute MUST read for me every time he's published.  The guy is brilliant.

[KnightsRule]

I've been reading Simmons, BostonDirtDogs, and SoSH for about three years now.

Simmons is an absolute MUST read for me every time he's published.  The guy is brilliant.

I read all of the above also and simmons is the best. I am so glad he quit Kimmel as he was putting out an article a week.  I have applied to SOSH three times and have never gotten in yet. I do go in and read but it does suck when you cant respond.

[BullWriter]

I read all of the above also and simmons is the best. I am so glad he quit Kimmel as he was putting out an article a week.  I have applied to SOSH three times and have never gotten in yet. I do go in and read but it does suck when you cant respond.

Yeah it does.  Especially when rejects like "Guapo's Toenails" get accepted and you have to wait.

Still the best RSN board to lurk on, though.