GregoryEtc
10-09-2005, 09:41 AM
Mike Lupica on The Sports Reporters on ESPN this morning:
"A friend of mine sent me an email early friday evening, the subject line said, 'Reason to watch baseball.' When I opened it, the message was simply: 'El Duque in the sixth.' If you watched the last White Sox-Red Sox game, you know exactly what he meant. El Duque says he's 35 years old - yeah - most people think he's closer to 40. And there was a time behind his high leg kick with all his spin and mystery he brings to his pitches when he was one of the great October pitchers the Yankees ever had. The White Sox finally sent him to the bullpen this season. He came out of that bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out, in the bottom of the 6th Friday in a one-run game. He got two popouts and a strikeout and retired 9 of the 10 batters he faced. He did it the way he always has... coming out of that motion that makes him look like a kid peaking around a corner. It was everything he knows about games like this, everything he's ever been. And he got even with Fenway Park in the process. Last year he was the starter in game 4 in the ALCS when the Yankees were all set up to sweep the Red Sox. You know what happened after that. But on Friday in one of those moments that baseball never forgets, El Duque finally got his sweep at Fenway Park."
"A friend of mine sent me an email early friday evening, the subject line said, 'Reason to watch baseball.' When I opened it, the message was simply: 'El Duque in the sixth.' If you watched the last White Sox-Red Sox game, you know exactly what he meant. El Duque says he's 35 years old - yeah - most people think he's closer to 40. And there was a time behind his high leg kick with all his spin and mystery he brings to his pitches when he was one of the great October pitchers the Yankees ever had. The White Sox finally sent him to the bullpen this season. He came out of that bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out, in the bottom of the 6th Friday in a one-run game. He got two popouts and a strikeout and retired 9 of the 10 batters he faced. He did it the way he always has... coming out of that motion that makes him look like a kid peaking around a corner. It was everything he knows about games like this, everything he's ever been. And he got even with Fenway Park in the process. Last year he was the starter in game 4 in the ALCS when the Yankees were all set up to sweep the Red Sox. You know what happened after that. But on Friday in one of those moments that baseball never forgets, El Duque finally got his sweep at Fenway Park."