Gamers?

It's been six full days since the last Yankee loss, and here at SMF we could have used even a few more days to recover from last weekend's drubbing at the hands of the merciless Indians. Last night's loss was perhaps equally deflating, and with two remaining games at the home grounds of the "Olde Towne Team", it's highly doubtful that fans will be granted any sort of respite this time. It's become a cliche, but these games, taut as they are with emotion, are replete with mini-dramas, some of them personal, that make baseball the great game that it is.

Here are SMF we downplay the emotional side of the game. In keeping with Sabremetric theory, we avoid subjective descriptions of ballplayers. You'll rarely hear us describe a player as "clutch", or as having "heart" or, one of our favorites, as a "gamer". Last night, though, made us consider, for a brief moment, that the Red Sox might possess those qualities in abundance. In the top of the 10th, the Yankees put two on against the mighty Papelbon, with Teixeira due up. A visit to the mound followed. As the powwow broke up, the camera lingered on the mound just long enough to show Youkilis turn back to his teammate and say something to the effect of "just fucking blow it by him". Papelbon, who had previously been so out of sorts that he allowed a sharp leadoff single to the meekest of the meek, Jose Molina, proceeded to do just that.

The moment probably meant nothing. There's no reason to believe that Papelbon threw any harder after Youkilis's exhortation. Or that Papelbon even heard him. Or that our lipreading skills are even any good. But while it's entirely believable that Youkilis would say something along those lines, could you ever imagine a Yankee player say something so raw and emotional? Do the Red Sox simply have, in addition to the smarest front office in the league, the most gamers as well? If so, the team is at even greater disadvantage that we'd previously thought.