on the topic of inexplicably losing it

Hahaha that's terribly funny.

yikes! I didn't know that about Dale. one time i caught one of his BP home runs at Fulton County Stadium. He was the All-American Boy if there ever was one.

Dale Murphy = Portland, Oregon!

tracer did you ever eat murphy's mint ice cream?

No huh uh. I love mint ice cream though. Is it surrounded by a mediocre package and finally does it languish in a little-travelled spot in the back of the freezer?

Mackey Sasser wishes he had that problem ...

Quotes re: Mariano's 5-run skidmark (compilation & comments courtesy of Baseball Prospectus):

"After everything he's done for this team in this ballpark. I was shocked."
--Yankees pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, on Mariano Rivera getting booed after blowing a save against Boston (New York Post)

"There are always about 20,000 Red Sox fans here when we play them. Maybe it was only Sox fans who were booing."
--Mariano Rivera, explaining the boos

"It's inconceivable to me if he was getting booed by Yankees fans. They wouldn't be champing at the bit to get in here if it wasn't for him."
--Yankees manager Joe Torre, on the booing fans

"If he gets booed you really have to question the fans, after what he's done [throughout his Yankees career]. You hope there aren't boos."
--Yankees announcer Michael Kay, after fans booed Rivera as he walked off the field (New York Daily News)

"I'm totally flabbergasted that the fans booed Mariano Rivera. Would you boo Sinatra because he hit a bad note? I'm shocked!"
--Kay

"Nobody is immune [to being booed]. I heard them boo Mickey Mantle. I was in Philadelphia when Mike Schmidt, who was voted the greatest Phillie ever, got booed more than anybody. ... Mariano realizes it's not personal. It's that he didn't do the job. That's the natural thing that comes out in boos. ... Where much is given, much is expected."
--Kay’s partner Jim Kaat

"New York is going to be the place where free agents don't want to come again. People are going to look at each other and say, 'Wait a minute, Mariano Rivera got booed. I'll take a million dollars less and go play someplace where I'm not going to get booed.'"
--Kay, jumping to the farthest possible conclusion

well, re: philly...i think that speaks more to the legendary rowdiness of the philly fan. the apocryphal story is how philly fans booed santa claus during halftime of a rough game at the vet.

The best part about Kay's grandstanding is that, according to a NY sports column quoted by Can't Stop The Bleeding (THE dot-com place to go for gossip & all the sports news that's fit to shit on), Kay was on a call-in show railing on Mariano's craptacular performance. (I might be paraphrasing poorly, BTW.)

The BEST part of all this crap re: "oh, the Sox pwn Mariano" - out of the last 4 blown saves he's had against the Sox (the 2 last October, the 2 last week), it's pretty fair to say he only pitched POORLY in that 5-run debacle. One ALCS "blown save" involved him coming in w/ a guy on 3rd & giving up the run on a sac fly. Doomsayers can offer up anecdotal wankery about the Old Mariano shutting the door like an angry teenager, but I imagine even the hardest throwing sumbitch would have trouble not getting scored on in that situation.

(I cribbed my last paragraph from analysis offered by the BP posse.)

On the flipside they're pretty good at cheering debilitating injuries and excessive violence.

2xpost

Yankee fans booed Mattingly, Pettite, they boo Bernie now, they hated Maris the year he hit 61... that's just part of playing in New York.
"What have you done for me lately" mentality.

You could argue both sides of the Sox pwnage of Mo. He would have gotten out of the 5-run innning with the save (despite loading the bases) if A-rod picked the ball cleanly at third. He probably couldn't have started a double play, but if he'd come home with it for the force and Ortiz grounded out to first, the game is over and Mo gets the save.

BUT he did load the bases in the first place, and he did it by staying away from lefties, which is not his game. He hasn't been able to get the cutter in far enough, and Varitek was able to crush one for a homer in the first blown save. If you watched the second game, you could see he was tentative as soon as he came in, kind of afraid of the strike zone, nibbling at the corners, going deep into counts.

He still has incredible stuff, hasn't lost any velocity or anything, but Armando Benitez has great stuff too, and he is not a great closer. Mo's lost some of his moxy at the moment, especially against the Sox.

Yeah, I saw the 2nd game - he was all over the place, throwing instead of pitching. As for the grounder to Mr. Rodriguez, I don't think there would've been a play @ the plate even if he had fielded it cleanly (but, hi, I'm a Sox fan, I'm kind of silly that way). & yeah "if Ortiz grounded out", & "if Eckersley threw a different pitch to Gibson", & "if Schiraldi didn't throw that wild pitch (or Stanley) (or whomever)" etc etc.

Regardless of whether the Sox pwn Mo or not (&, ha, I remember when Mo + Sox = 1-2-3 in 10 pitches or less) (glory be to patient count-working hitters), I thought he was recovering from some arm troubles, tho, during the off-season (or spring training).

Guys: Brad Lidge. Who cares about Rivera anymore.

Also, did anyone notice that Gagne (DL) got thrown out of a Dodger game last week for arguing balls and strikes from the bullpen?

gagne is in trouble. i think his run might be at its end.

going back to yanks fans real quick, i was at an o's/yanks game during luis matos's rookie year in which the yanks fans in attendance (an appallingly high amoutn of the total paid attendance) actually applauded when hurt himself crashing in to the wall. pathetic.

You're kidding. You sure it wasn't a "get well soon" cheer when he was getting taken off the field?