The Good, Bad and Ugly of NY's Baseball Weekend

Rain couldn't spoil the fun of ruining Fenway's celebration

It will be a really long time before anyone forgets Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park, assuming, of course, that they stuck around long enough for Yankee thunder to get going.

You couldn't much blame anyone who gave up with the score 9-0 in favor of the Red Sox after five innings of play. It was the weekend, the weather was pleasant and there was plenty of stuff that seemed like a better way to spend time than watching the Red Sox get well by beating on the Yankees.

Those that stayed were well rewarded, however. Not just by the 15 Yankee runs, although watching the Yankees spin around the base paths thanks to the torrid bats of Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira was certainly an enjoyable way to spend a couple of innings.

No, the reward was getting to watch the entire Red Sox nation convulse, spasm and scream in unison. The Sox have key injuries, a horrid bullpen, a thin rotation, a manager who is at odds with his players and a fan base that hates every last bit of it. 

They made that abundantly clear with their booing of Valentine during his every trip to the mound to replace another rancid reliever on Saturday, as if Bobby V were the one who put together that mess of a roster, and they chanted for Terry Francona's return. 

That's a tasty slice of irony since the last Red Sox fan meltdown, just last September, was targeted squarely at a manager whose negatives have been conveniently forgotten.

Yankees fans have been there and done that, although that makes them no more sympathetic to the plight of their Sox brethren. It was a weekend of glee for Yankee fans and the perfect way to celebrate 100 years of Red Sox baseball.

There was a lot of talk about Fenway Park, magical fans, the special nature of that franchise and all the other emotionally overwrought things that the Red Sox seem to bring out of otherwise sane people. And then the Yankees thumped them twice.

Just as it should be. Now, to the rest of the good, bad and ugly from the baseball weekend.

GOOD: The Post's headline on Saturday morning is one of the best in the long, wonderful history of Post headlines. It perfectly fit what we described above and encapsulated the rivalry with succinct perfection.

BAD: The ninth inning of Saturday's Mets win over the Giants looked like something out of the "Bad News Bears" instead of something from two major league baseball teams. The Mets blew a lead when Kirk Nieuwenhuis (who really needs a nickname) overran a popup, but rallied to win because the Giants played Aubrey Huff at second base for the first time in his career and Buster Posey made a throwing error.

UGLY: Freddy Garcia is making life very easy on the Yankees. He's absolutely impossible to watch, but at least it will be easy to figure out who gets sent packing when Andy Pettitte is ready to pitch.

UGLY: If only the Mets had a veteran lefty ready to step in for Frank Francisco, who has been charged with six earned runs in his last three appearances. Paging John Franco!

GOOD: Eight innings of one-run ball from Mike Pelfrey on Saturday certainly qualifies as a good thing. Hoping that it is the start of a trend feels like you're asking to get kicked in the groin, but it's hard not to hope when the big fella brings his A-game.

GOOD: Ivan Nova has moments in every game where it seems like everything is going to unravel and his pitches are going to wind up hurting the Yankees more than helping them. And then he dodges danger and winds up winning, just as he did on Friday in Boston.

BAD: Philip Humber's perfect game is certainly a great thing for both him and for baseball, but it is a bad thing when viewed through our limited prism. Humber is now the seventh ex-Met to throw a no-hitter since leaving the team while the Mets remain stuck at zero.

GOOD: Mets and Yankees fans can reach a rare point of agreement. Thank goodness we aren't Red Sox fans.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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