Second Place is the First Loser
That makes the Red Sox second-place loser.
In the bottom of the fifth Curtis Granderson’s grounder took a freak hop and strafed Mike Lowell’s temple, causing the infielder to drop to the turf. The savage mob mocked Lowell, who was drafted by the Yankees in 1995. It will be the Boston who honors Lowell’s retirement with a ceremony at Fenway Park on October 2.
One would think that the breaking of the Yankees’ championship drought and the passing of its führer would mellow Yankee fans, but they were as ginned up as ever. Chants of “Boston sucks,” frenzied organ playing, and bombastic snippets of insipid songs permeated Nouveau Stade Fasciste as the Bronx Bromides clobbered their way back into the game with a season-high six home runs.
The same crowd showing so much animus towards the Red Sox shied away when confronted by an opposing player in the flesh. Adrian Beltre reached into and over a cluster of fans to glove Lance Berkman’s pop-up. The third baseman disrupted the first-row fans pawing their iPads and towered over their feeble reach to nab the first out of the eighth inning.
Ironically one of the most arrogant and brash fanbases of any team are up in arms over the ostentatious memorial to George Steinbrenner in Monument Park. By Steinbrenner standards it’s actually rather restrained. I appreciate how it pays simultaneous homage to both the Yankee patriarch and Han Solo suspended in carbonite. That’s a double threat cenotaph.
| Game 153: September 24, 2010 | ||
 Red Sox85-68 | 10 | W: Josh Beckett (6-5) H: Daniel Bard (31) S: Jonathan Papelbon (37) |
| 2B: David Ortiz (35), Darnell McDonald (17) HR: Jed Lowrie (7), Bill Hall (18) | ||
| Yankees 92-62 | 8 | L: Andy Pettitte (11-3) |
| HR: Curtis Granderson (22), Mark Teixeira – 2 (32), Alex Rodriguez – 2 (27), Nick Swisher (28) | ||
