now is the time

i now this is a coffee blog. but those of you who know me know that i am a die-hard boston red sox fan and have been since boyhood. i can see the connection betwixt the two. coffee is a drug. baseball players use drugs to enhance their home-run hitting prowess.

anyway, i was tempted to post something here when they clinched a playoff spot earlier, then when that playoff spot was not just a back door wild card spot but the a.l. east division title (for the first time in--what?--13 years?). then i was going to post something when they finished with the best record in baseball, securing home-field advantage through the world series (should they get that far, and courtesy of the all-star game's outcome).
i waited and waited and now i can't/won't wait any longer because in the cleveland indians (the sox' opponent for the right to represent the american league in the world series) the sox are facing a mighty nemesis that actually matches up quite well with my beloved sox. first is pitching. sabathia and carmona are as good a one-two punch as any in the league and that will be a difficult proposition for the sox hitters. but on our side we have the indomitable josh beckett, who crushed the angels last series, then curt schilling, who has the best playoff stats of any pitcher, ever. and then the "fall-off guy" is daisuke matsuzaka, who, believe me, is no slouch.

in the batter's box we could go down the lineups but i just want to say that david ortiz and manny ramirez are both so locked in right now for the sox that i cannot see anything the indians put up there at the plate rivaling that. a month ago when we were crying foul at manny for waiting out his injury we should've been thanking him in advance for getting nice and healthy so he could c.r.u.s.h. the ball in his series against the angels. that walk-off homer he hit to end game two...i'm not sure it has actually landed yet. advantage: red sox.

and the bullpen. yes, you've got some guns in the cleveland pen. but look at the cannons in the sox pen in timlin, delcarmen, okajima (japan's other great export this year), gagne and papelbon and you'll realize the advantage boston has in keeping either a lead safe or keeping the other team from running away with it. in the end, however, i think the series goes to the sox because of those intangibles like heart and drive. sure, cleveland has that in spades--which is why they actually tied boston this year for best record in baseball (though the advantage goes to boston because of their 5-2 head to head regular season record versus cleveland). but all you need to do is watch carefully the likes of lowell, pedroia, crisp, youkilis and you will see that boston will not be denied a second trip to the dance in three years. and maybe, just maybe, their second world series ring as well.

but that's another post for another day. meantime, because this is an eastern time zone series, let's enjoy a great series with some great coffees. maybe next time i'll post about which sox player best correlates to which great coffee of the world.