Memes in Mudville

So now that the Rockies-win-streak story is deader than Viva Laughlin, what's the operative meme for this World Series?

1. Don't count your chickens. As Tom Boswell points out, "Three times a team has won Game 1 by 10 runs, the '59 White Sox, '82 Brewers and '96 Braves. All lost the Series."

2. When it's not the end of the world, it doesn't end. This is an offshoot of the Manny being Manny meme, and is perfectly and succinctly explained here.

3. AL = The Show, NL = AA. "Great pitching beats great hitting" should officially be retired in favor of "AL trumps NL" or "AL pwns NL."


4. 2004 Redux. Down by 3-0 in '04 against the Yankees, the Sox came back to win four straight and then swept the Series. Down by 3-1 in '07, the Sox come back and win three straight and now have a 2-0 lead in the Series. Nobody wants to say it out loud, so I won't. I figure the Rockies will take Game 3. But if they don't? There's only one meme left.

5. If the Red Sox can do it, how hard can it be? To which the only response is: if the Red Sox can do it twice, how special is that?

Smells Like Sox Spirit

I looked up "Statement" in the dictionary when I got to work this morning, and there was a picture of Dustin Pedroia hitting a home run in the first inning of last night's World Series game. So I'm guessing we're not going to hear a lot about how many games the Rockies have won in a row during tonight's game. Unless Tim McCarver says something like "You have to score runs to win games, and the Rockies know this." Or "It's the teams who come back to win, who win it all."
I don't know if it was the 8-day delay or what, but the Rockies looked totally out of their league, like a bunch of Revolutionary War soldiers with flintlocks suddenly coming face to face with a Thompson submachine gun. Every one of them had this dazed WTF/Get me out of here/This has gotta be a bad dream stare on his face. And meanwhile Beckett, chewing gum, chewed them up like they were grass and he was the lawnmower.


Because the Sox were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Impossible Year team, Carl Yastrzemski was at Fenway; he threw out the first pitch, which Fox only showed in a brief replay because they had to cram thirty minutes of commercials into the 40-minute pre-game show. Whenever I watch a Fox-broadcast baseball game, I think back to the 2004 World Series. A reporter asked Stephen King, "Why did you bring a book to a baseball game?" and King said, "Because it's on Fox. I'll have plenty of time to read."

And speaking of commercials? I'd totally take the lap dog if Dragon Tattoo girl was part of the deal: