Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thursday 09/11 A.M. Quickie:
Rays, Manny, USC, VY, More

Is it possible that last night's win was the Rays' best yet this season? Yes: In the rubber match of a series at Fenway (0-7 in '08 before the series began), up 4-1 in extra innings with the Red Sox up, no outs and bases loaded.

This was it: The moment the Rays would crack, triggering a season-ending fold and the end to the Cinderella season...

Not quite.

Instead, (SN column lead alert!) it was a stirring affirmation that this is one of Those Years -- the Rays won't be denied. (Now, they might not go anywhere in the AL playoffs, but that's besides the point.)

K-Rod: What's the over-under on his final saves total? I think that breaking the "60" barrier is reasonable. Don't think he'll get to 70. Very curious if we'll look back in 10 or 20 years and register this as an unbreakable record -- not quite "56," but up there...particularly for the "modern" era.

Meanwhile, I think I might be more intrigued about this weekend's Pats-Jets game than any regular-season NFL game in a long time. (See that post earlier this week about how the Pats have gone from a team I can't stand to a team oozing pathos.)

If Vince Young wants to pretend like there's nothing wrong, that's fine with me -- but it's not like we all don't know what's been happening this week.

Beanie Wells at 75 percent? Not good enough. This won't happen, but to have any chance this weekend, Tressel needs to lose his conservative stylings and unleash Terrelle Pryor -- make Pete Carroll remember Vince Young (back before VY was, y'know, "off.")

More later. Complete SN column here.

-- D.S.

UPDATE: Couldn't bring myself to put this in its own post. On 9/11 seven years ago, I was in Boston at business school. In the days following the tragedy, I wrote this column for the b-school newspaper. I linked to this a year ago; I read it every year to remind myself of where I was in the wake of the attacks. It isn't meant to be some sweeping perspective; it was specific to the context of the community. Continued condolences to all who lost family, friends or colleagues.

1 comment:

bird said...

This is the first year that I've read your 9/11 piece, and it's a really terrific column. Although I didn't lose anyone I knew in the attacks, afterward, I realized how my parents and their contemporaries must have felt after Pearl Harbor. I had lost my mother just one month before 9/11, and so maybe that also affects the sense of loss I feel every year at this time. At any rate, to honor those we lost on 9/11, I'd like to suggest that you run the link to that great piece you wrote every year on this date!