Manny Magic

Dugout Love 1, originally uploaded by ConfessionalPoet.

Bask with me in the loving insanity that is Dustin Pedroia and Manny Ramirez together in front of a camera in the dugout.

The first time I saw this, I literally shrieked out loud. I could not believe the way they suddenly seemed to break through the TV barrier and wave hi to us at home, and then to see the cuddling...? It was too much all at once. Seriously.

'Too much' is a great description for Manny right now, and I'm sure Mike Mussina would agree. Manny's first homer last night was a decent shot, especially to straightaway center in that ballpark. But the second, two-run jimmy-jack? I immediately received the following voicemail from my father, who, let's remember, does not like Manny all that much: "That was a serious, SERIOUS home run, that second one that Manny hit. Are you kidding me? He CRUSHED that ball right off the bat. Hope you saw it. See ya."

Crushed is one way to describe it. Here are a few more:

• Mammoth blast
• Titanic moon shot
• Absolute bomb
• Monstrous homer

Manny can also be said to have:

• Nailed it
• Tattooed it
• Hit the cover off the ball
• Lost one
• Teed off

I'm sure you can add plenty more of your own...and yet I feel like with a home run like that, words don't really do it justice. It's hard to find the right string of sufficiently expressive adjectives--you just have to see this homer, if you haven't already, and watch the impressive angle at which it comes off the bat, register the approximate half-second it takes to carom off the facade of the far left-field bleachers, and gauge its several-hundred-foot cruising altitude.

Meanwhile, the pitching equivalent to Manny's badassery was delivered for the Sox by Josh Beckett, who gave the Sox eight solid innings of pitching to contact, economical pitch selection, and consistent readings of 96 on the radar gun. My favorite specific moment from Josh was when he struck the hell out of Giambi in the fourth inning on three pitches; his last sidewinding heater, which earned a swing and a miss, was like something out of the 2007 ALCS Game 5 highlight reel. And eight innings out of a starter were precisely what the doctor ordered--Josh seemed to drop his mighty need to blow 99 mph past hitters, as he had in Toronto, and earned a number of ground balls and flyouts this time around, the better to go the distance.

While it was, of course, much more pleasant for Sox fans this time around, it still seemed like another one of those blowouts. Until suddenly by the late innings it reversed course into more of a barn-burner. The Yankees came back to within two runs after touching up Beckett for three and Jonathan Papelbon (not a misprint) for two, meaning he came in with a non-save situation and apparently created one for himself just so he'd feel more comfortable. Or, at least, that's what I'm going to pretend to myself right about now.

P.S. Alex over at Bronx Banter has been posting some nice Red Sox reading, on a Yankees blog no less.

Comments

[Sam]

Oh. Em. Gee.

[maxwell horse]

When Farnsworth threw behind Manny's head and the morons in the stadium all cheered... I would've paid good money if Manny could've then hit his third home run of the night. I yearned for this to happen. I've had fantasies since last night, watching in my mind's eye Manny purposely do an extra slow trot around the bases while Farnsworth fumes. My alternate scenario for this fantasy would be to have Manny proceed to smack a line drive right at Farnsworth's nuts. Nothing to seriously hurt him, but just to shatter his cup and humiliate him in front of the stadium.

[Devine]

Bonus cute--the Casey smile in the background of the snuggle pictures (that's who it is, right?--doesn't hurt that he's played well, either).

And thanks for the regularity of the writing, Beth. It's great to get your thoughts.

[beth]

thanks, devine. yes, that is casey, and i had the same thought!

[Jessica]

When was the cuddling? I missed it and I must find it. Please, help!