When the ALCS returns to Boston, I certainly hope the umpires' strike zone stops moving all over the place

Josh Beckett is a real ace. Too bad they can't use him every day.

I didn't see last nights game but the ESPN highlights were pretty enlightening.
The Indians better hope that botched CF catch doesn't haunt them by letting Boston back into the series.

from Reuters--

Torre: I was insulted by Yankees contract incentives

By Larry Fine

RYE BROOK, New York (Reuters) - Joe Torre says he was insulted by the incentives attached to the New York Yankees contract offer he rejected this week, thereby ending his 12-year spell as manager.

"The incentives I took as an insult," the 67-year-old told a packed news conference at a hotel near his New York home on Friday.

Torre sneered at the implicit suggestion the team needed further motivation to succeed once they had advanced to the playoffs.

He had been offered a one-year contract to stay, with a basic pay of $5 million and a $1 million bonus for each level of playoffs reached.

Torre steered the Yankees to the playoffs in each of his 12 seasons at the helm. His teams won four World Series but had not claimed the championship since 2000.

He was paid $7.5 million last season, the final year of a three-year deal.

"A two-year deal would have opened the door for further discussions but it never happened," added Torre.

"Five million is a lot of money. I'm not going to sneeze at that but the fact somebody's reducing your salary is telling me they're not satisfied with what you're doing."

Torre, who was unsure about his future and said he would wait to see what options may be available, added that he was probably a victim of his own early success when the Yankees won four World Series in his first five years.

"You are constantly driving because you know that is the standard you set for yourself," he said.

Torre also said he wished owner George Steinbrenner could have appreciated New York's success more in recent years.

The 67-year-old posted a 1,173-767 win-loss record, the second highest tally of victories by a Yankees manager after Joe McCarthy's 1,460.

I wish someone would insult me to the tune of $5 mil a year. I'm sure that's more than I'll earn in my entire lifetime.

I find it interesting that the Yankees managed to bungle this change of managers so badly that Torre says he will not set foot inside Yankee Stadium again ala Yogi Berra after the 1985 season.

Torre has been the face of the 90's Yankees for over 12 years with all those pennants and championships but in the end they manage to "insult" him by leaving him twisting in the wind ( and embarrassing him publicly during the AL Playoffs).

Not good considering he will be a "Hall Of Fame" manager and should have been looked on as a modern Yankee icon like McCarthy and Stengel.

Just plain ugly and we will see if this haunts them next year as well as the opening of a new Stadium in just over a year from now.

The Boss has some major apologizing to do.

Game 7 tonight. Nothing finer than that in baseball. That its in Boston makes even better.

The Red Sox FINALLY got some production from the bottom of their line-up in Game 6. Julio Lugo had a pretty good season, but seems to have psyched himself out during the playoffs. Every time this series that he has gotten two strikes on him, he's folded like a lawn chair. And in only six games, the Sox already have set a new record for hitting into double plays in a LCS.

I predict Dice-K will show the good form tonight that earned him such a lucrative contract, and won 15 regular-season games. I'd love to see Okajima set up Papelbon for the save. And Big Papi will have a HUGE game! Let's go Red Sox!!

The Indians 3rd base coach should've been fired between innings last night. You hold up the tying run in the 7th inning of Game 7? Idiot.

I have to agree, If Joe is so special and so passionate about winning, take the contract, win the WS and then leave. He's lost the fire to win.

2004 - we all know what happened here, any manager with a lesser track record gets the axe after the worst collapse in sports history.

2005 - lose in 5 to the Angels - ok it happens, Give Joe another shot.

2006 - lose in 4 to Detroit - this was bad, some players were clearly too tight or not motivated.

2007 - lose to Cle in 4, same story as 2006.

to play hard and lose to a better team is one thing ('01 D-backs, '97 Indians) but a pattern of underachieving is developing.

how much longer should this continue? All of a sudden the media declares that the playoffs are a 'crap shoot' and anything can happen in a short series (that clearly wasn't the case from 96 to 03) if it was then Torre was one lucky SOB and not such a great manager after all.

sure you can't win it every year, but you can try, and the Yanks have lost that drive, they were following in the Braves footsteps, a couple more years getting knocked off in the 1st round with no repercussions to the core of the team, then missing the playoffs alltogether.

Torre's not totally to blame, since 2001 the yanks have signed more and more players who are concerned with their statistics than with winning and it shows. Someone new is needed to either motivate these guys or weed them out.

Wow...I'm tired! The game 7 last night was much, much closer than the final score would suggest. Now it's going to be some more long nights. I'm too old to be staying up so far past my bed time!

Seems to me that baseball fans take losing harder than the players do. While it galled me to see the Red Sox celebrate another comeback to reach the Series, the Yankees are all off enjoying their millions.

I'll have to root for the Rockies, but I suspect they're in for a rude awakening against the Sox. The Cards' sweep last year nonwithstanding, the AL is just a better league these days.

It just depends on which Sox show up...the team that pounded Sabathia and Carmona or the team that let Westbrook (first time) and Byrd make them look utterly toothless.

The one utterly distinct disadvantage that AL teams have in a series like this is the lack of a DH in NL ballparks. It's easier to take a relatively potent bat off of an NL bench and make them a DH than it is to take AL pitchers and make them hit. Furthermore, although Ortiz has done a relatively good job fielding his position in the past, the AL teams lose a DH that they're used to. In the case of the Red Sox, it means sitting either Ortiz, Lowell or Youkilis in NL parks and all three of them are important bats.

All this aside, I still think that the Red Sox are going to give the Rockies a little better competition than they've been getting. If Beckett continues to be as lights out as he's been, he'll be tough to beat, even though he had a rough start against the Rockies back in June.

I'm pulling for the Rockies, but I wonder if the long layoff has cooled them off. If the Rockies can steal game one, they might just do it - but if the Sox win it could be the blow that brings Colorado back to Earth.

Congratulations to the %@#* Red Sox.

I think game 1 is huge, much more important than Game 1's usually are. The Rockies must prove they haven't lost the magic, and beating Beckett would be a giant step. He has been awesome.
Of course, this is baseball, and Colorado may lose Game 1 and then sweep the rest.

As for Torre, I agree with Steve G. After going back and forth with this, I think it was time for a change. Torre was rewarded with a 3 year deal after 04, getting him to $7 million this year. That was probably more than he should have been paid. If the Yankees felt they weren't getting the bang for their buck, than they have every right and obligation to change the deal.I know they wasted millions on players who've done nothing, but I don't think that's relevant here.

I don't know if the New England area is unique in this pursuit, but New Englanders are far too interested in celebrating the anniversaries of athletic glories of the past, particularly when they're not enjoying the present.

This year, there's been a lot of talk about the "Impossible Dream Team", the 1967 Red Sox. It's been talking about constantly all year. Keep in mind that this team LOST the World Series. Now I didn't live in this area at the time, but I'm sure there's some significance to this bunch besides losing the World Series, but still, it's just another celebrated anniversary.

Now...they're celebrating the "1967 Impossible Dream Team" again tonight, where members of that team are making appearances and Yaz is throwing out the first pitch. Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that they're going into a World Series celebrating a famous World Series losing team?

Well, it is the 40th anniversary--people like nice, round numbers.

The NY Times (which, incongruously, is a part owner of the Red Sox) had a recent article about a Sox marketing campaign that based on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, but on a much grander scale. Supposedly, A-Rod and Jeter and in here someplace, but Bucky Dent was considered beyond the pale.

Pay-Rod and Jeter...top row right...along with Mo!

BTW, I saw the sports parody movie The Comebacks last Friday. Somehow, they actually got Bill Buckner to reenact his famous 1986 misplay in the opening skit. I thought he was still really touchy about that.

I would guess after tonight its safe to say that Josh Beckett is the premier big game pitcher in baseball. He gives Boston a tremendous advantage.

And that curse is over.

JOSH BECKETT IS GOD

The Rocks got a severe dose of reality last night. I think the long layoff gave them time to think "w'ere in the World Series--what are we doing here?" I hope they can get it together.

Thanks to Fox TV and their 8:30-8:45 first pitches, I feel no obligation to watch these games 'til completion. I'll catch the highlights on Sportscenter in the morning.

Josh Beckett truly deserves this year's AL Cy Young Award. Even though the votes were cast at the end of the regular season, his playoff performances have underscored the fact that he was indeed the best in the AL this season.