Sports Redux: Leaving New York Never Easy

Someone switched pages in the script.

The Red Sox were supposed to leave Yankee Stadium for the last time yesterday flying high, having crushed New York's spirit and set their sights firmly on catching and dispatching Tampa Bay. And it was headed that way, with Jon Lester cruising on a 2-0 lead going into the seventh.

But Lester gave up a double, Francona decided to trust in his bullpen, and before you could say "Seriously, what is up with Okajima?", Jason Giambi had homered into Co-Op City to tie the game. The ninth, when Justin Masterson loaded the bases and Giambi singled off Papelbon for the 3-2 Yankee win, seemed almost preordained. Almost like what we expected from 1923-2003. THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

As our friends at Gothamist reported, a Sox fan tried to take the time-honored "pee break in the seventh inning stretch" the other night, and wound up being manhandled and ejected by Stadium security. Seems the Steinbrenners don't want anyone getting up and moving during "God Bless America", even the eleven-minute Ronan Tynan version. We'd say the cops forcing people to listen to a patriotic song in the US seems ironic, but we have to run it by Alanis first. The NYCLU is rightly fired up, and anyone who thought the Yankees sucked a little less these days turns out to be wrong.

Now the Sox come home to face ALC-leading Chicago, and they'll do it without Josh Beckett, who's off to Alabama to visit that magical hotshot Alabama doctor.

We pick on Dan Shaughnessy a lot here, but the rumor mill is scaring us right now. The rumor is that Jay Marriotti, who was to Chicago what Dan is to Boston, but even more obnoxious, "contrarian", self-righteous and hated, might be on his way here. Our friends at Chicagoist won't miss him a bit, and Roger Ebert gave him a nice kick on his way out.

The Patriots and Giants snoozed through their final preseason game, in which the guys wearing NY uniforms beat the guys wearing NE uniforms 19-14. The last time the Pats went winless in the preseason was 1990, and they went 1-15 in the regular season, so clearly we're doomed. Seriously, though, if Tom Brady is really hurt, nothing we saw from any of his backups looked like...well, anything. Sure, 6-10 may be enough to win the AFC East, but let's not make Bill consider the A-11 offense, ok, guys?