Fastball Fans

Wow. What a game yesterday. Although the Red Sox whooped up on the Indians, 7-1, for me, the game will not be remembered for Boston’s victory, but for the Lofton-Beckett incident and the buffoonery of Many Ramirez.

Josh Beckett pitched 8 great innings of baseball, as he struck out 11. Meanwhile, the Indians were stymied by Beckett, and the only run scored by Cleveland was in the first inning.

Kevin Youkilis led the Sox barrage with a solo homer and an RBI-triple. David Ortiz drove in two as well, and Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew drove in runs.

The Sox are still down 3-2 to the Indians; however, they return home on Saturday and the pitching match up will be a repeat of game two as Curt Schilling counters with Fausto Carmona. Neither looked hot, as Schilling will look to send Boston to game seven, while Carmona will try to clinch the pennant for Cleveland.

Before I move on, there are two incidents that happened in last night’s game which boggled my mind.

The first incident dealt with Manny Ramirez. Manny hit a majestic shot over the head of Grady Sizemore that looked like it was out of the park; however, it bounced off the top of the wall and landed back in the playing field.

David Ortiz, who was on third, scored; while Manny stood on first in disbelief that the umpires did not call his shot a homer. In the time it took the ball to fly and when Sizemore retrieved it, if Manny walked to second, he’d be safe; if he hustled, he’d be on third.

What the he was he thinking? Does he not realize the significance of the game? Sorry, if I were Francona, I’d bench him. His “Manny Being Manny� routine may look cute, but his conduct is seriously unbecoming of a professional athlete.

The second incident dealt with Josh Beckett and ageless veteran, Kenny Lofton. Perhaps because of the importance of the game on both sides, both men lost their cool, as during the midpoint of the game, both men got into a shouting match as Lofton flipped his bat on the ground when a pitch he thought was ball foul; however, the umpire called it a strike.

Thereafter, Lofton popped up and Beckett had a few choice words.

Lofton walked towards the mound and shouted at Beckett; however, the home plate quickly and brilliantly diffused the incident before it blew up.

Everyone said their piece and the game resumed.

Of course, the drama in New York is taking center stage now; however one name that has been mentioned as Joe Torre’s replacement can be taken off the list.

According to ESPN, Trey Hillman was hired Friday as manager of the Royals.

As we all know, baseball has become suddenly huge in Denver. Over the past few days, we’ve heard “Rocktober� everywhere.

Now the Rockies want to trademark it.

From ESPN: “Rocktober,” the new shorthand for the Colorado Rockies’ amazing playoff run, is showing up everywhere from newspaper headlines to handmade ballpark signs. But now the team wants a trademark to keep anyone else from selling keepsakes bearing the word.

The Rockies filed applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 4 asking for exclusive rights to the name on stuffed animals, Christmas stockings, baby booties, T-shirts, bobble-head dolls and the like.

The filing came two days after Gov. Bill Ritter declared October would be known as “Rocktober” after the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in 13 innings to win the wild card.

The Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post both used the word in front-page headlines. It has also shown up in car commercials and department store ads.

Yikes. Too bad…