Lupica works for a New York newspaper, so you'd think he'd be able to empathize with Yankee fans, report on the situation from a Yankee Fan point of view, or at least just report the cold, hard facts ... which tend to be pro-Yankee for the team that keeps winning 100 games and whatnot. Anything besides this tired act of rooting so hard for the other team.
Starting off this press release for his Favorite Li'l Underdogs is this reminder that, while the Red Sox haven't actually beat the Yankees recently, they keep trying hard:
"The Red Sox made a run at the Yankees in the regular season of 2003, finally got to within a game of first place in September. The Yankees won the American League East by six games.
Then the Red Sox came back hard at the Yankees after being down 3-2 in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees ended up winning Game 7.
This year the Red Sox came back from 10-1/2 games out in the middle of August, cut the Yankees' lead to 2-1/2 games. The Yankees held them off in September. And held them off in Game 1 of this ALCS after the Red Sox made their run after being down 8-0."
So what's the point? In his attempt to prove that the Red Sox could be successful in the ALCS because of their Never Say Die attitude, his evidence is a list of several recent instances where their comebacks have not been successful.
Mike Lupica has spent all summer (All summer? How about entire career?) attempting to scare Yankee fans into thinking their team wouldn't make the playoffs, wouldn't win the AL East, certainly couldn't beat the Red Sox in a short series. The Yankees have no lefty starters, for the Love of God!
Trust Lupica, don't believe your own eyes. The Yankees are actually losing all these games that the scoreboard says they're winning.
Now, just to remind you, the Red Sox were the favorites at the beginning of this series and also the favorites at the beginning of the season. Even after the Yankees signed ARod. Every poll, most expert predictions, even Ben Affleck still picked the Red Sox.
Patriot's Day represents typical Boston / Red Sox Nation insular stupidity. One city takes the day off from work, runs a marathon, plays professional baseball at 11:00 in the morning. This year, this disgrace occurred on April 19th. How do I know? Easy. I looked up the game recap on yahoo.
A little more research tells me that after taking 3 out of 4 from New York in that Patriot's Weekend series, the Red Sox record was 7 - 5 and the Yankees record was 6 - 8.
The Red Sox were already in first place. The Red Sox had Schilling and Foulke, the Yankees didn't have Pettitte nor Clemens because those two were sittin' in a tree in Houston k.i.s.s.i.n.g. El Duque wasn't even pitching, Lieber wasn't even pitching. ARod was 1-for-17 in the four-game series at Fenway.
It was still a week before the Sox swept the Yankees in New York, took a high-water 4 1/2 game lead, and the Yankee fans booed Jeter. But, on April 19th, Red Sox Nation was quite optimistic.
How does Lupica remember that day?:
"Tonight, the Boston Red Sox need Bronson Arroyo to be as good against Kevin Brown as he was on Patriots' Day, when nobody thought the Red Sox had a chance to beat the Yankees."
Is it a small deal for Lupica to rewrite history, to slightly misrepresent the facts?
Well, I don't think it's really a small deal. It speaks to Lupica's journalistic integrity and ... ha ha ha! ... sorry about that. I just implied that Mike Lupica has "journalistic integrity."
Forget that thought. Cleanse your palate. Do-over.
Let's just say that Mike Lupica has already decided on his storyline, and it's the Underdog Red Sox, damn it. Truth be damned. The Red Sox are tough and they're gritty and ... even though I told you 10,000 times that they'd beat the Yankees in a short series ... they're suddenly the Underdogs, and they always were.
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