With Grady Little out of the picture in Boston, the braintrust is looking for the perfect manager to work with stat geek Bill James while still knowing how to run a baseball game on the highest level and then supervise a clubhouse full of multimillionaires for good measure.

The names kicked around to succeed Little are interesting to say the least.

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If you like the underdog you
must be the happiest person
on earth today a day after
the Florida Marlins took the
Yankees in 6 games in the
2003 World Series.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Josh Beckett did what Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Greg Maddux, Andy Pettitte, Pedro Martinez, Barry Zito, and Tim Hudson couldn’t.

Beckett threw a complete game shut out, dominating the opposition in his team’s biggest game of the year.

Oh, by the way, he did it in NY, in the world series, pitching on three days rest and never missed a pitch.

Young power pitchers in October, they are worth their weight in gold. Beckett is special and he delivered, leading his team to the championship. I can’t say enough about the 96 MPH fastballs he threw right past the best October hitters in the world or the 78 MPH curves that froze Bernie Williams all night. Give the Yankees an opening and they will take it. Beckett put a stop to the Yankee mystique in the House that Ruth Built.

The Yankees didn’t help themselves on defense. Pettitte inexplicably threw to second base with an easy out at third waiting on Derek Lee’s poorly placed sacrifice bunt attempt with the game still hanging in the balance.

Karim Garcia missed on a throw from medium rightfield allowing Alex Gonzalez to make one of the greatest slides I have ever seen avoiding Jorge Posada’s sweeping tag (Ah, Jeremy, I hope you were watching) giving the Marlins the only run they needed in this game.

No one faster in the game on the pivot or getting rid of the ball, than Luis Castillo and Alex Gonzalez, Miami’s middle defense.

The Marlins won two games in the Stadium as I predicted last Saturday when this series started. It wasn’t easy, but Brad Penny and Josh Beckett carried this team to the world series title.

Penny should get more play because he set the tone in game one with a dominating performance for 5 2/3 innings and then repeated it in game five Thursday night in Miami. The Marlins don’t win without Penny’s pitching either.

In my book, Penny and Beckett are co-mvp’s just like Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson were in 2001.

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It took a few days for the story of the 2003 World Series to take shape. The Marlins, a decisive 2-1 underdog, can finish off the mighty Yankees in the stadium if things go right for them tonight.

The story of 2003? I say Jack McKeon and his cool attitude on the biggest baseball stage of his career.

McKeon has kept his sense of humor when others in his position would have been tighter than a drum (Check St. Louis for instance).

His decision to start Josh Beckett on three days rest is a good one.

Beckett is a power pitcher and power pitchers in October are special. Beckett’s fastball can carry him even if his slider or curve are not available. He only threw 108 pitches in his last start. He has impeccable control and doesn’t waste pitches.

Perhaps the biggest factor is he insists on being the pitcher tonight.

Will it be easy? No way.

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While waiting for rain to slacken up one’s thoughts turn first to Soriano who is having what is probably the worst post season any player has had in recent or not so recent memory. At this point he has struck out twenty two times. He has absolutely no clue. He is behind the count 0 and 2 or 1 and 2 on every occasion he is called upon to bat. When he falls behind in the count you know that a strike out is coming up. He hasn’t hit a ball to the outfield,it seems, in his last twenty or so appearances. [Read more →]

Andy Pettitte came within one out of his first world series shutout, as the Yankees evened the series 1-1 heading into game three Tuesday night.

Game three is always a key in any playoff series and 2003 is no exception. With Mike Mussina going against Josh Beckett, it could be a preview to a game seven matchup as well if the teams keep trading wins.

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I’m sure the Yankees woke up this morning quoting the famous line from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” about the posse that chased them all over the Southwest. Looking back and asking who those guys are who keep following us?

The Marlins are a fine baseball team that very rarely beats itself and has a legitimate leader who is having an enormous postseason, Pudge Rodriguez.

Combine all that with some little seen speed these days at the top of the order and some clutch relief pitching (you tell me, will Ugueth Urbina last for three more games) and you’ve got a team that now has the Yankees attention.

My feeling yesterday was that the Marlins needed a split in NY this weekend to have a chance at winning this thing and guess what, if they win tonight the Yanks might be in bigger trouble than anyone in NY will admit.

David Wells pitched a terrific game in the opener, the Yanks let him down with some sloppy play on the bases and in the field.

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After watching three champagne celebrations starting with the end of the regular season, moving on to the division series, and finally the league championship series, I’m not sure I want to see another inane clubhouse party coupled with more senseless interviews.

But, I AM ready to see more baseball in what should be an excellent world series.

I have felt throughout this season that the Yankee pitching is older than normal for them, and waiting to be exposed in the playoffs.

The Twins didn’t have the hitting to do it, falling in four games 3-1. The Red Sox had the power, but not the discipline to truly hit the Yankees all over the lot, but they did hit them enough to win, and other than Grady Little’s refusal to go to his all of a sudden powerful bullpen to seal the deal, they would be in the series today.

The Marlins are young and fresh and they swing the bat. They have survived the gauntlet of the four Cub righthanded starters. The Marlins hit lefties very well. Remember the angst the Giants went through deciding if Kirk Reuter should pitch in Miami or San Francisco.

The Marlins will see David Wells and Andy Pettitte three, maybe four times, if the series goes seven games. This is the best news for the Marlins who were 27-11 against lefties during 2003.

The Marlins can hit the Yankees. The Marlins can do to the NY staff what the Angels did to it in five games last fall.

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The New York Yankees with all
the history in the world, the
most recognized team on the
face of the earth will face a
team that is ten years old
and has one World Series.
To go against the Yankees
here is suicide. But remember,
this is baseball.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

I feel badly for every Boston Red Sox fan today.

Pedro Martinez gave them the game they had been waiting for seven innings in the most significant start of his career in Yankee Stadium, no less. He held the Yankees down and looked like a hero, wiping away any memory of Saturday’s fiasco in Fenway.

I’ve watched baseball for a long time. We all have become baseball managers watching the playoffs this year. We all know about pitch counts. The announcers are forever lecturing the listeners about the matchups.

But we have two eyes and can see plainly when the pitcher has lost his stuff at the critical part of the game and must be replaced.

That is all of us except Grady Little. I wrote it yesterday that Little has been slow on his pitching decisions during the postseason, almost costing his team game six when he let John Burkett get pounded in a game he couldn’t afford to lose.

To the chagrin of the Red Sox nation he continued that horrid trend Thursday night, robbing the Sox of their chance to go to the world series.

Pedro was cooked before Bernie Williams ripped his hit in the eighth. Alan Embree was ready and willing, throwing 95 plus in every appearance in the series. Mike Timlin had been perfect before allowing one hit yesterday. Scott Williamson had been lights out too. What a menu to choose from.

Little didn’t see it that way. Unbelievably he let Pedro talk him out of removing him from the game. Frankly, watching Pedro when Little came to the mound, the righty didn’t seem to say much, I think he knew he was done, but was just being a warrior, saying he could continue.

Matsui doubled, pulling the ball like a power hitter, which he isn’t. You just sensed bigger trouble ahead.

Posada’s flair was the last straw, tying the game and for all intents and purposes this game was over at that juncture because Mariano Rivera was coming in.

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