ALCS 2004 Game 2 And The Debate

It's a dilemma.

In the top of the first, ths Sox go down in order for Lieber. In the bottom half, Martinez walks Jeter on four pitches and steals second. The throw is on the mark, but Bellhorn has to reach behind Jeter and can't get the handle on it. The chants of "Who's your daddy?" start up (in reaction to Martinez's comments a few weeks ago). Rodriguez is hit by a pitch, and Sheffield singles to center, scoring Jeter. 1 - 0 Yanks. Then Pedro seems to get into the groove, with consecutive strikeouts of Matsui and Williams and a weak grounder to second by Posada.

So, what's the dilemma? Debate tonight. Political junkie and Yankee fan. No Tivo. Sure, we do have a VCR, but that's soooo last century! Do I watch the game and tape the debate, or tape the game and watch the debate? The debate won't change my mind about Kerry or Bush. The game won't change my mind about the Yankees or Red Sox. The hightlights of both will be replayed many times tomorrow. Which will be more entertaining in real-time? I need to make my decision within 14 minutes.

Bottom of the 2nd (five minutes to decision time!), Cairo walks with one out. and Lofton singles to center, bringing up Jeter. Jeter flies out to deep center, advancing Cairo to third. I had a thought: why not tune in the mlb.tv webcast of the game on my laptop while watching the debate? Duh! Postseason games are broadcast nationally, so the whole freakin' country is blacked out. If only I had lied about my address when I signed up for the webcast service! (That, by the way, is how I manage to follow the Yanks from up here in New Hampshire these days. Back when the Yankees were on WPIX and my local cable system happened to carry it, I was very happy... but the cable dropped PIX many years ago, and the Yankees have moved to their own cable network, which is -- not surprisingly -- not carried here, so I'm left with watching the webcasts when the game isn't against the Red Sox or carried on a national network). Martinez gets out of the jam by striking out A-Rod, and the debate has started.

Time to channel surf a bit.

Surfed to the debate a bit, now I'm back. Third inning, two outs, Bellhorn up, man on third? What happened. At least the mlb,com Gameday service isn't blacked out. Cabrera singled and advanced to third on consecutive ground outs. Bellhorn flied out to center. Back to the debate!

I had caught the first question and part of the second. I think I caught Bush in a flat out lie on the first, but I'm going to have to check on that later. Of course, if it's nearly as blatant as I believe it is, I'm sure I won't bethe only one to be checking on it. The third question is about taxes and the economy. Nothing new in the discussion. Fourth question is about jobs and outsourcing. This should be good. Bush going first... He skirts the question. He's moving the question to education. Giving people the opportunity to "start their career with a diploma". That's no help to senior workers who have their diplomas but don't have jobs any more. Kerry is calling him out for having changed the subject, and he's calling him out for having actually cut the very education programs that he just talked about! He talked about the fact that the job creation Bush takes credit for, which is still a net loss since the beginning of his administration, is overwhelmingly lower-paying jobs than the ones that have been lost. Of course, Kerry said nothing about how he'd deal with outsourcing either.

Gameday indicates that the Yanks went down quietly in the bottom of the 3rd.

In the debate, they are calling each other liars, though not in so many words. Bush is saying that he increased Pell grants by a million students. The post-debate analysis on this is going to be interesting. Bush is calling Ted Kennedy "the conservative Senator from Massachusetts". The "Liberal" card is being played full force now.

The Sox went down quietly in the fourth.

Next question: gay marriage amendment, the biggest non-issue of the year, if not all time. No new ground for Bush. He's for protecting the institution of marriage. Kerry is playing the "Dick Cheney's daughter" card. No follow-up on this question.

Now, the Catholic versus pro-choice question to Kerry. The Supreme Court is one of the most important issues in the election, but there will be no new ground on this question, either. Surfing to the game.

Posada is on first in the bottom of the 4th, with two outs. Lofton strikes out. Back to the debate!

No follow-up on the abortion question, so no opportunity for Kerry to respond to Bush on late term abortion the way I want him to. Haven't two Circuit Courts already ruled the law that Kerry voted against unconstitutional for the very same reasons that Kerry said he was voting against it? Got to check on that.

Health care next. W. is talking about electronic medical records. Yeah, right. That will cut huge amounts of cost from the health care system. Not! Kerry, on the other hand, is talking about importing drugs from Canada, which won't work in the large scale for more than a few months. Bush's rebuttal is about Kerry's "lack of a record". Kerry, in somewhat more polite words, calls Bush a liar.

Looks like the Sox went quietly in the 5th. The game is going quickly. Pitcher's duel.

The fact-checkers are going to have a lot of work tonight. Bush has apparently boned up on his numbers. He's getting very specific about things like VA funding, which Kerry says he has cut, and Bush says he has increased by $22 billion.

Social Security is next. Kerry is calling Bush's plan for Social Security "a disaster", and quoting Congressional Budget Office figures to back it up. The moderator's follow-up is about Greenspan's comments that Social Security benefits will have to be cut. Kerry is responding by linking the issue back to the deficit, the tax cut, and jobs. Bush is responding with the (false) linkage of Kerry's tax plan to small businesses. I'm an S-corporation, co-owner, so I know that I'd only be hit with Kerry's tax increase if my co-owner and I have a net profit, after expenses and after salaries of employees, of more than $200,000 each. Bush wants everyone to think that the tax increase would apply to any small business with $200,000 or more in revenue, and that's simply not true. Kerry is responding with something that I haven't heard before: take-home pay is at it's lowest for the middle class since 1929, whereas for the richest Americans it's at the highest point since 1928. That's surely one for the fact-checkers.

Minimum wage is next. Time to surf.

The Yanks went mostly quietly in the 5th. Rodriguez beat out an infield single, but went nowhere from there. Matsui struck out to end the inning. He's 0 for 3 today. Guess he used up more than his share of hits yesterday.

Lieber is still looking strong in the 6th. He's held the Sox to just one hit so far. But after Millar popped out, Damon is taking Lieber to the mat. Full count, and 135 pitches so far. What's Lieber's pitch count? Damon lines the 16th pitch to Williams in centerfield. Gameday indicates that Lieber's pitch count is now 108. Lieber gets Bellhorn on strikes to end the inning.

Back at the debate... looks like gun control is the topic now, specifically the assault weapons ban. Kerry is accusing Bush of a failure of leadership on the issue. Bush claimed to support the ban, but he did nothing to push it on the congressional agenda, so it died. Kerry is also pointing out that terrorists will now be able to buy assault weapons right here in the US.

Back to the game. I just have a feeling that it's about to get interesting. Williams took Pedro Martinez to a full count, but flew out to Damon in center. Fox just flashed an interesting comparison of Pedro to Sandy Koufax. Interesting comparison. The biggest difference in numbers is in complete games, but any decent starting pitcher from the 1950s and 1960s is going to have a lot more complete games than any decent contemporary starting pitcher -- and that's despite the use of the designated hitter in the American League. The game is played differently today, and the average starting pitcher has a longer career as a result of the increased use of relievers. Or so they say. What did I say about having a feeling!!? Posada walked and Olerud took Martinez to the short porch in right field! 3 - 0 Yankees. I know I'm kidding myself, but it really seems like these "feelings" I occasionally get during baseball games really do turn out to be accurate way more often than random chance would predict. I had a "feeling" about Aaron Boone last year. Then again, I didn't have any "feeling" about Bucky Dent in '78. Pedro closed out the inning. Now back to the debate.

Not sure what the topic is. Seems to be about partisanship. And now the final question. It's a fluff question. What's the most important thing you've learned from your wife. Good answer from Bush: "To listen to her!" How's Kerry going to follow that? Also a good answer, segueing over to his mother.

Closing statements now. Boring. Back to the game, just in time for the seventh inning stretch. The Sox got their second hit, but a double play erased the runner. Wow! A baritone singing God Bless America. That's something you don't hear all that often, and not boring :-) Timlin started the 7th for the Sox. Sheffield singled with two outs, and Embree came in and got Williams to fly out to right. Embree looked pretty strong last night, and yes... this is how the game is played these days, but I'm definitely not a fan of the way managers shuffle relief pitchers in and out. It slows down the game, and I don't think it's good for the relievers or the teams in the long run.

Nixon opens the 8th with a single, and that's all for Lieber, after 134 pitches. Tom Gordon is in to pitch for the Yanks. Torre isn't going to leave his starter in too long like he did last night, that's for sure. The Yankee relievers, apart from Rivera, were not sharp last night. After the starter but before Rivera just may be where the Sox have to get their advantage in the series. Varitek hit a double to the gap in right, but Nixon had to hold at third. Rivera's up in the bullpen, but will Torre actually bring him in with no outs in the eighth? Cabrera grounds out, scoring Nixon but leaving Varitek at second, bringing up Mueller. I wonder why the Sox didn't have Cabrera didn't squeeze to insure that Varitek would get to third with just one out? Not many managers would do that, but I think you have to do the unexpected sometimes, and if Cabrera beat it out, wouldn't that be something? Miller moves Varitek to third with a ground out to the right side, but there are two outs. Gordon's done, and here comes Rivera to pitch to Damon. Damon starts out in an open stance and then steps in with the pitch. That's not a good way to deal with Rivera's cutter. Not that I could do better, of course. Rivera struck out Damon to end the inning. 3 -1 Yankees. The game might be over in time for me to catch a decent amount of the post-debate analysis :-)

Bottom of the 8th, and Posada opens with a single. Olerud flies to deep center, and that's all for Embree. The Red Sox Reliever Shuffle continues, with Foulke coming in. That's two nights in a row that the Sox are bringing in their closer while behind. Tomorrow is a day off, however, and I approve of going against conventional wisdom with relievers. Foulke hit Posada with a pitch, moving Posada to second. He walked Jeter to load the bases after striking out Lofton for the second out, bringing up Rodriguez, who flies to right to end the inning.

Top of the ninth, and Ramirez doubles to the gap in left with one out, bringing up Ortiz representing the tying run, and one of the few major leaguers with a successful history against Rivera, but Rivera strikes him out and it's up to Kevin Millar to hold off the singing fat lady. A ball, two strikes and one splintered-bat foul ball later, Rivera blows the third strike past Millar to wrap it up. 3 - 1 Yankees, final. The game ended just in time to tune in NightLine to hear what the pundits are saying about the debate.