RE: All-Stars, Writin' Red Sox, Flaws

Phew--I was starting to worry Doug was internetless or computerless or some combination of the two. It seems our overall posts this week was kinda lower than average, but now we're catching up. Still I wonder if anyone's gotten around to reading this (the latest excuse I hear from friends is they have no time. My recommendation: make this your homepage)...

After just reading Doug's two excellent posts, I felt the need to justify some things I wrote about.

• I definetely agree with Doug's assessment of my All-Stars OF picks in both the AL and NL not being one RF, CF, and LF. Actually, I sometimes forget off the top of my head where in the OF some of these guys play (in fact some of them move ie: Ichiro who I keep thinking is in RF still but is actually in CF). But it is a good point because I would rather vote for the starting LF, RF, and CF and since MLB is too lazy to list it on the ballot, I'm too lazy to look it up to cast my vote.

• I realized a few weeks ago that I only wrote about the Yankees on here and I decided recently that I'd start watching (other than watching the Yankees) and paying more attention to the Red Sox. But there are a few reasons for not doing it:

1. One is the resident expert on the Red Sox who writes on here knows more than I do about their history and current news. Honestly, I read his stuff and that's how I catch up. But I'm going to try to change that.
2. Starting this blog in early May after the Yankees had a mediocre April and then were horrible in May focused more of my attention on their situation. Plus the Red Sox were so good (and still are) and my main duty on here is to give the critical Yankee view on my team. There hasn't been much to be critical of for the Red Sox and again, Doug does a better job than I on that.
3. Do I not care about the Red Sox? If I said yes to that, why are we doing this blog? I think the common Yankee fan pays attention to the standings in respect to how the Yankees and Red Sox are doing, but focus more on our team and that's it. But when the Red Sox start losing against teams other than us, most Yankee fans get giddy and are happy they are losing--and that's it. I want to look more into what the Sox are doing this year from the Yankee perspective, whatever that means (it won't mean being a typical ignorant Yankee fan and being beligerant).

So expect more of something written about the Sox from my Yankee view, I'll suprise Doug and Red Sox Nation when I do (as I did yesterday).

• Yankees/Red Sox flaws. I haven't read the SI article, but I don't think there's a superpower team this year--not the Red Sox. In the AL Cleveland and the Angels have been just as good and will probably win their divisions. Remember when we wrote about Milwaukee last month? It was a hot start. The NL West is very close and the Mets are showing their flaws this month. The Yankees and Red Sox flaws have been well documented here--and that includes off-field stuff too. So whoever wrote the SI article either has lower expectations of what a superpower is or hasn't been watching the Red Sox as closely as Doug.

I'll be back for Hindsight and Foresight tomorrow!