Haters in the House

Posted by Adam Hart October 7, 2008 at 5:31 pm

As you can imagine, all that winning has Boston sports in the dog house nationwide. Jealousy is a stinky cologne. Take a wiff. We’ll rank the hate on a scale of hearts, four being the most hate…

♥♥♥♥ The LAAofA still think they’re the better team, despite losing 3 of 4, including 2 at home to the Red Sox. I can totally see their logic, thanks to the LA Times and John Lackey:

“We lost to a team that’s not better than us,” growled pitcher John Lackey, who gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings. “We are a better team than they are. The last two days, we shouldn’t have given up anything.”

“[Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke,” Lackey said, referring to Ellsbury’s pop that fell between center fielder Torii Hunter and second baseman Howie Kendrick in Game 3.

“[Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he’s fist-pumping on second base like he did something great.”

Asked to describe his feelings, Lackey said, “Like I want to throw somebody through a wall.”

That’s a healthy way to deal with losing. Just deny the fact that your team stinks, and try to injure a wall. Better luck next year, LAAofA. Four hearts, because Lackey displayed all ranges of hatred — including denial.

♥♥ More from that LA Times article, this time Torii Hunter does the hating:

“I’m [ticked], I’m upset, this one’s going to be with me for a while,” Hunter said. “It doesn’t feel good, because we’re a better team than they are. But they’re moving on.”

Only two hearts for Hunter, because he’s riding on the coattails of Lackey. At least Hunter didn’t blame the score keeper for giving Ellsbury a hit on that pop up RBI. I mean, it was a catchable ball. And the Angels defense was not as good as Boston’s. Defense counts as part of the game, too, Mr. Lackey. Why do you think everyone was lauding Mark Kotsay’s play in Game 4? He took away scoring chances. The Angels defense provided scoring chances. That is all.

♥♥♥ Raiders owner Al Davis threw out some made up allegations last week about the Patriots tampering with Randy Moss before acquiring him via trade. The NFL wasn’t all that happy with Davis, according to National Football Post:

The NFL League Office has sent Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis a letter informing him that he was in violation of NFL league rules when he falsely accused the New England Patriots of tampering with then Raider wide receiver Randy Moss. This violation of NFL team policy and guidelines will certainly come with a hefty fine.

Three hearts for Davis on this one. Sure, he made up allegations. But he’s old and potentially senile. You can’t get angry at a crazy old grandpa. At least not four hearts angry. Even if his people dress like followers of Satan.

♥ So the Celtics will have trouble repeating as Champions? That, according to an article by Charlie Rosen of Foxsports.com. He believes injuries are of concern for the aging C’s:

But with James Posey elsewhere, Darius Miles — that would be the soft, rusty, immature, and defenseless Darius Miles — is currently the only quasi-viable substitute if Paul Pierce (31) gets hurt.

Rosen eventually says that the Celtics should be able to repeat, barring any road blocks. So the hate meter only registers one mocking heart.

ZERO HEARTS Go to this post by RJ Anderson of the DRaysBay blog. It is a breakdown of the Sox roster from a Tampa Bay perspective. This is the only real problem I have:

Mark Kotsay (.276): For whatever reason the Sox insist on playing Kotsay at first over Sean Casey. I have no idea why because Kotsay is nowhere near the player he was seasons ago. Consider that Kotsay is going out of the zone about 27% of the time this year while his career average is 21.74%.

The reason they insist on Kotsay at first is because of the plays he made in Game 4 of the ALDS. He is, as Buck Martinez said over and over, a great athlete. He is more than capable at first base and has more pop/mobility than Casey offensively. No hearts, because I’ve written worse about the Rays lineup. But check it out, it’s a fair assessment otherwise. I’m pumped for this series to get started.

Okay, that’s your hater fix for today. Lackey is the clear cut winner. We’ll see if the hate meter goes up in Tampa after the better team loses in the ALCS.