Hey everybody, Alan Siegel here. Filling in for Bill Burt tonight.
Sox-Yankees, Round 1 will start in about 45 minutes.
Leading up to today, David Ortiz’s comments about Joba Chamberlain was the big story.
“None of that, man — just play the game the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s about it,” Ortiz told the New York Post. “This is a guy, as good as he is, the next step for him will be to earn respect from everybody in the league. He’s not a bad guy, but when things like that happen, people get the wrong idea.”
Basically stop head hunting. Leave Kevin Youkilis alone.
Really, were Big Papi’s words that inflammatory?
Terry Francona doesn’t think so.
“I don’t know that the whole answer was printed. I saw the whole quote,” Tito said. “If somebody asks you a question, you answer it. I actually thought he was pretty diplomatic.”
So there you have it. No crazy lineup changes to note here. This series just doesn’t have the juice of a Sox-Yankees clash in August, September or October. That’s just the way it is. There’s no A-Rod to bash, only Mark Teixeira (more on him later).
Francona was his typically wry self in the pregame. When somebody asked him the best rivalry he was part of before he was a part of Red Sox-Yankees, the former minor league skipper answered:
“Birmingham-Huntsville.”
Awesome.
