I still think it was the right move. Pedro is your ace. He took you this far, and he's gotten out of worse jams than that. Little asked him if he was ready, Pedro said yes. That's Pedro's call 100 times out of 100. The move backfired, but it was the right move. Doesn't ease the disappointment any, though.
John McNamara. Similar situation. Clemens was struggling a bit, seventh inning, so McNamara asked him if he wanted to stay in. Clemens said no, he had a paper cut. Came out.
Exactly, Clemens pussed out and pulled himself. And I for one am not playing the second guesing game. I was pissed when Pedro came out for the 8th period, not because of Posada or Matsui. I don't think he should have been out there AT ALL. Grady is a moron.
I respectfully disagree with you, GV. And there are several reasons: 1) Pedro of 2003 is not the same Pedro of 1999. The Sox have been very conscious in the last couple of seasons in watching his pitch count. Let's face it - Pedro's body cannot stand the constant rigor of throwing like he does. He is not a big man like Clemens or Nolan Ryan. That is why he always gets hurt every season. In the 7th inning, it was very apparent that he was running out of gas because he was missing his spots. He got lucky that only Giambi made him pay but it unraveled on him in the 8th inning. 2) The bullpen had been pitching lights out in this ALCS. Their era coming into that game was 1.01! Are you kidding me? You have Timlin, who only gave up ONE hit the entire ALCS, plus Embree and Williamson who also had been brilliant in this series. Grady's excuse of saying that "Pedro was the only guy we wanted out there instead of anyone who could come out of the bullpen" was bunk and also showed that the man could still not trust the pen and that he was scared of Pedro. Note to Grady - that is part of being a manager in that you have to make decisions that players don't like. It is like he turned into Rudy Tomjanovich at that moment and was more interested in staying friends with the team than winning the game. I have been doing a lot of reading and if you believe what you read, Grady's departure is imminent. One story said that he wanted a multi-year deal and if he didn't get it, he was going to leave, LOL. I honestly don't know what Henry, Lucchino, and Epstein think about him, but I do know that if they retain him, they will never hear the end of it. Hell, we will still talking about this for the rest of our lives, maybe letting up when Boston wins the World Series whenever that will be.
An article I read said that if Torre had been the Sox's manager, they would be in the world series. Not trying to rub it in Manny. But that is one of the great strengths of Torre. He manages a TEAM to win. He has no problem with this and neither do the players. Notice Roger did even blink when Torre pulled him in the 4th. Giambi had no problem being moved to the 7th hitter. The Yankees (for all the hate) know what team is. Now to give the Sox some props. This year I started to see them bond as a team (and that scared the hell out of me). This series could have gone either way.
Agreed, mc mark. I think I read the same article (I must have read about 20 or so). People like to think that all Joe Torre does is just sit in the dugout and do nothing; however, people who think that are clueless. Consider that he has to put up with a megalomaniac like Steinbrenner, it is amazing that the team has done as well as it has AND that Torre looks like he still has his wits about him! It is going to be an interesting off-season in Boston because so many key decisions have to be made: Do they bring Ortiz back? (No brainer on that one) What will happen with Todd Walker? (Looks like he won't be back) Mike Timlin and John Burkett are more than likely gone as well. What is the future for Byung-hyun Kim? What do they do about extensions regarding Nomar, Varitek, Lowe, Pedro, etc. But obviously the biggest is the future of the dim-witted one, Grady Little. I can't see them bringing him back next season, let alone agreeing to a multi-year deal, lol. But the bad thing is that all the players, it seems, really like Little. Their chemistry is what really got them as far as they went and unfortunately, Little was a big part of that. If the Sox can him, they risk having the same atmosphere that was there with Joe Kerrigan. But, you can't help but wonder if Epstein, Lucchino, and Henry are going to sit there and think in the back of their minds, every time they see Grady, "that's the #$^@&)! who cost us the World Series!" And having thoughts like that bottled up inside cannot last long. So, it is a tough situation, to say in the least.
All Yankee fans thank you for not making any predictions before game 7. With your badass record in this thread, I wouldn't go to Vegas anytime soon.
Gotta love Yankee fans talking smack After the Fact. Your team's day of reckoning will come soon enough and that day will be when Joe Torre walks away. So, enjoy it while you can.
Come on Pimp. It takes a special person to put with Steinbrenner's craziness and Torre is that person. Any other normal human would have cracked under that constant scrutiny. Why do you think that the Yankees never did anything under guys like Showalter, Clyde King, Gene Michael, Dallas Green, etc? It wasn't because they didn't have good players, so you can't use that excuse.
