Random Fandom

The AL switched places yesterday.  Up until the 7th inning, Game 3 of the Anaheim-Boston series looked like it was going to continue along its Boston Conquers All path.  And then, with one swing of the bat, Vlad changed it.  You could hear the silence even out here in Arizona.  (Well, not really, but you know what I mean.)  All of a sudden, it was that series had swapped bodies with the other series.  That is, until Mike Scioscia swapped bodies with... Bob Brenly and Francona.  It's one thing to bring in a starting pitcher to pitch in relief as Brenly did in Game 7 in 2001 (Randy Johnson, top of the 9th) or Francona did with Lowe in the top half of the 10th.  It's another to bring a starting pitcher to pitch in relief in the middle of an inning.  One pitch, boom, a David Ortiz shot off Washburn and Boston has to be the favorite against whichever team it faces... One cool thing about listening to the game on the radio -- it was easy to hear the Boston fans going absolutely nuts for, what, about 10 minutes?  On TV, the sound probably wouldn't have been so pronounced, and they'd've broken away for commercial.

Completing the swapped bodies theme, the New York-Minnesota series took a turn for the uncompetitive as, unfortunately for us Twins fans, Kevin Brown decided to pitch like the Kevin Brown of old, and the Twins played like, well, the Diamondbacks.  Another blowout (at least the losing team scored 4 runs instead of three).  C'mon, Johan, send this one back to the Bronx.

I suppose it doesn't matter so much if the Yankees go on to win -- there's not an ace on that staff, but even if Minnesota wins now, their rotation's so messed up heading into the next series that Boston would have to be a huge favorite, with 3 starts from Schilling if necessary.

And on, now, to what might be the best sports day of the year so far.  Three playoff baseball games, Texas-OU (Hook 'Em, Horns!... please?), USC-Cal, Florida-Georgia football.