Who Can Really Say?

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

The matchup Major League Baseball and Fox Sports have been hoping and praying for begins in a few hours -- the Yankees vs. the Red Sox for the American League Pennant. After last year's ALCS and the off-season Arod chronicles, it's nice to see everyone get what they wanted (except of course for the Angels and the Twins).

Anyway, here's the prediction I shared today with some friends at work and via an email:

Yankees in 7 games. Bernie Williams will come to bat in the 16th inning of the deciding game with the scored tied and the bases loaded, and less than 2 outs. He'll execute a perfect squeeze bunt, and from here on out it will not only be Bucky and Boone, but Bernie's Bunt as well that will haunt the Boston Beaneaters.

Not to be outdone, my email correspondent prognisticated otherwise:

I predict that numerous fights will break out (practically one every inning), and there will be so many injuries sustained both at the Stadium and in Boston, such that both teams will be decimated, and will have to call on former retired players to put on the uniform and finish the thing out. Further, Luis Tiant will be brought in to pitch in the 16th inning of the 7th game with Sox up by a run and one out, and Joe Pepitone representing the tieing run on third, with Clete Boyer on first. Horace Clark will come to bat, and will, true to form, ground feebly into a series-ending double play. Tiant will injure a hamstring on the very pitch by trying to duplicate his famous leg kick. (Members of the Rockettes will laugh about this pathetic leg kick later, ruefully, as they are all Yankees fans.)

After the World Series (which the Cards will win over the Bosox, with Bob Gibson pitching, as Yaz pops up for the final out), Bud Selig will put togther a blue-ribbon panel to conduct a symposium for both the Sox and the Yankees and their fans on how to get along better. It will be run by a team of Palestinians and Israelis, and will be facilitated by the LA police officers who beat up Rodney King.

Well, anything's possible, but I think my prediction is much much much more realistic.

For a more likely view of the possibilities, try Dave Pinto here and here, although he too takes a flight of fancy, Star Wars style.

The general consensus seems to be that the Sox have a somewhat stronger team than the Yanks and I can't argue with that. But were it the other way around, with the Yanks enjoying that paper edge, I'd take little solace from that fact. The teams remain closely matched by any standard, and their history suggests it will be a tight competitive series.

The Pinto links are courtesy of Daniel Drezner.

[Linked to the Beltway Traffic Jam.]

Posted by Peter at October 12, 2004 06:47 PM