Superweek '09

The final week of February is one of the biggest there is in terms of important dates in multiple sports. MLB Spring Training games begin this week. Many college and high school basketball conferences conclude the regular season. And the NHL and NBA are done with their All-Star breaks, and into their stretch runs. Therefore, there is no single week of the year more fitting of the title "Superweek" than this week. (With no disrespect to Chris Thompson's "Christober," celebrated annually from October 1st-5th. Read his blog here.)

Starting in 2009, I will truly celebrate Superweek, and I encourage you to do the same. Here is my schedule for Superweek '09:

Mon 2/23: Women's College BB: Fairleigh Dickinson at Quinnipiac, Hamden, CT

Tue 2/24: NHL: Florida Panthers at Boston Bruins, Boston, MA

Wed 2/25: Red Sox and Mets' first spring training games

Thu 2/26: Men's College BB: Wagner at Quinnipiac, Hamden, CT

Fri 2/27: RI Boys' High School Basketball (tentative): Mt. Hope at Westerly, The Fed

Sat 2/28: Women's College BB: CCSU at Quinnipiac, Hamden, CT

Sat 2/28: Men's College BB: CCSU at Quinnipiac, Hamden, CT

Celebrate Superweek. Or Justin Rutty will dunk on you.

--MTM

Monday morning quarterbacking (a day late)

Well, it's not Monday. It's late on Tuesday morning. Yesterday was my first day of classes down here in Connecticut at Quinnipiac University, so needless to say, it was a hectic day. So, a day late, here is this week's edition of "Monday Morning Quarterbacking":

• Could this "Last regular season Red Sox-Yankees series at Yankee Stadium" be any more overpublicized? I'm kinda tired of hearing about it, and not only because the Sox are 200 games under .500 at the Stadium. I also love the words "regular season" being thrown into it. So many things would have to happen for these two teams to both make the playoffs, including the Rays imploding, along with the Twins and/or White Sox. It just doesn't seem very likely.
• New York's other team, the Mets, open up a short two game set tonight in Philly. The Phils are only a half-game back of New York, a 7:05 start at Citizens Bank Park. Pedro Martinez goes up against the ageless wonder, Jamie Moyer.
• A.J. Pierzynski's acting job in the 10th inning of Sunday's White Sox-Rays game is up there in my top 10 bush league plays of the decade. Caught in a rundown, Pierzynski stuck his arm out to initiate contact with Tampa Bay's Willie Aybar, and the arm contact somehow knocked the well-built Pierzynski to the ground. After a long discussion, Pierzynski was awarded third (despite being on his way back to second), and scored the winning run later in the inning. There's a reason this guy is one of the least-liked around baseball.
• An Angels win and Mariners loss tonight will eliminate the Mariners from division contention. On August 26th. There goes my pick for the AL West.

Playoff spot far from a guarantee for Red Sox

While enjoying my first few days down here in Connecticut at Quinnipiac University, I haven't had much of an opportunity to follow the exciting playoff races going on throughout Major League Baseball. One of those races, the AL Wild Card, is essentially a two team race, between the Red Sox and who ever is the second place team in the AL Central, seeing as the Twins and White Sox seem to flip-flop on a daily basis.

I wouldn't say it's time to hit the panic button, Red Sox fans, but this wild card spot in the AL is a far cry from a guarantee. Entering this afternoon's action, the Red Sox are one-half game up on Chicago, and even in the loss column.

The Rays-White Sox series this weekend in the Windy City is quite complex, as a Rays win hurts the Red Sox in the division race (Tampa Bay currently leads the East by 5.5 games), while a Chicago win keeps the Wild Card lead at a point where there is no room for error on the part of the Red Sox.

The Red Sox finish their series against Toronto today, with Daisuke Matsuzaka looking to improve to 16-2, before an off day and a three game set in the Bronx. Chicago finishes their series in Tampa Bay before heading to Baltimore, where they will complete a suspended game originally played in Chicago before opening a three game set. Then next weekend, the Sox and Sox square off in Boston for what may be their most pivotal series since the 2005 ALDS. Red Sox fans definitely hope the result is not the same.

A little about me

If you're reading this first post, I'm guessing you probably already know me. But if not, I'll tell you a little about me. My name is Miles, and I am a freshman broadcast journalism major at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Well, I will be in 3 days. Writing a blog had always been something I considered starting in high school, but never had the time. I hope to find the time to do it in college.

As the title says, this blog is about the "Sox, Mets, and More." I was raised a Red Sox fan in Rhode Island, suffering through years of frustration and heartbreak with the generations of my family who had followed the Red Sox ever since my great-grandfather spent a September afternoon at Fenway Park for Game 6 of the 1918 World Series.

The Andersens, Herzogs, and eventually a McQuiggan, suffered through 86 years of a championship drought. My great-grandfather stated in his later years that he would "live to see the Red Sox win another World Series." He passed away in 1992, his guarantee not fulfilled.

But, while many Red Sox fans remember the game where Jason Varitek beat the crap out of Alex Rodriguez, or Dave Roberts clutch steal in Game 4 of the ALCS as the turning point in the Red Sox' run as lovable losers, it is a different moment in that 2004 season for me. On May 8th, 2004, the Red Sox played a Saturday matinee against the pitiful Kansas City Royals. I watched the game, not from Fenway Park, but from a room in Kent County Hospital with my two uncles, aunt, mom, and brother. My grandmother, by far the biggest Red Sox fan in our entire family, was lying in the hospital bed, hours before she passed away at the far-too-early age of 75.

In the 5th inning, Pokey Reese, the light-hitting shortstop, ripped a ball down the right-field line. It was at that point when the quirky dimensions of Fenway Park, coupled with possibly a little help from above, turned what normally would have been a double at best into some Fenway magic. Pokey hit second. Then he kept going. Hit third, and headed for home, in there with an inside-the-park home run.

The rest of that 2004 season is unforgettable not only to Sox fans, but to anyone who follows the game of baseball. As Doug Mientkiewicz closed his glove and leaped into the air, I fell right out of my chair. And I cried. My grandmother, the reason I was a Red Sox fan, had missed a Red Sox world championship by 5 months. Or maybe she hadn't.