A Lame Effort

(October 1)  

Short take:  Glad to help brighten NYC

If Jerry Manuel has changed his mind about not wanting to make up the six games lost while baseball mourned the September 11 terrorist attacks, it wasn't apparent amongst the team he fielded Monday night at Yankee Stadium.  The Sox were embarrassed as much as they ever been this season, falling behind by five runs and never mounting a serious comeback effort.  A pathetic evening of corpseball inside baseball's most-famous shrine, 8-1 the final.

If you can't get up for a game at Yankee Stadium...

The season can't end quick enough for Kip Wells.  Of all the Sox starters, nobody has had their chain pulled harder or more frequently.  He began the year in Triple-A Charlotte and has yo-yoed back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen ever since.  Jerry Manuel seems to have no clue what to do with him.  Tonight he got the start against the world champions and immediately wilted under the pressure.  He didn't even need to get hit by a ball to have his confidence crash.

Thanks to Wells' clueless pitching the Sox gave up six runs the first three innings.  The Yankees had scored three runs in third when Manuel finally came out and grabbed his head-case youngster.  Wells' line on the night, 2.0 innings pitched, six earned runs on five hits, four walks against three strikeouts.  Reliever Matt Ginter prevented any further embarrassment to Wells and the team, getting the next three batters out to finally retire the side.  

Meanwhile Sox hitters were clueless against Sterling Hitchcock.  The heart of the Sox line up (Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko, Jose Canseco, Carlos Lee, and Herbert Perry) failed to reach base all night long.  The lone Sox run of the night came on a Ray Durham sacrifice to score Royce Clayton.  The Sox managed four hits all night.

What does the term "corpseball" mean to you?

The Sox aren't a playoff team and its nights like tonight that Sox Fans are thankful they aren't.  We've got no business scheduling these guys if we aren't going to play them straight up.  

1967 -- The Improbable Nightmare!

Hey Sox Fans, check out WSI's new retrospective on the season the Sox came closest to scratching our 42 year pennant itch.  Written by Dan Helpingstine, author of "Through Hope and Despair", here's the first chapter to his new book.

1967 -- As Close as They've Come  

Another WSI Exclusive!