October 13, 2003 [LINK]
Red Sox even the score
Yesterday's rain in Boston was fortuitous, allowing the poisonous fallout from Sunday's brawls to settle. Pedro was fined 50 grand for shoving elderly coach Don Zimmer, whose sobbing apology must have been more painful than his $5K fine. (Manny Ramirez and Yankee pitcher Karim Garica were fined as well, and criminal charges are pending.) Zimmer's gesture, plus pitcher Tim Wakefield's pregame public service fan advisory to be good sports, set the appropriate conciliatory tone for tonight's game. Owners and honchos from both teams, however, were behaving worse than some of the players, seeming to justify hooliganism. Thomas Boswell writes in today's Washington Post,
Nowhere on any elementary school playground in America has the fine art of finger-pointing, telling-the-teacher and spinning the facts been lifted to a higher -- no, make that lower -- level than by the front offices of the Red Sox and Yankees.
Anyway, Boston won 3-2, thanks largely to Wakefield's baffling knuckleballs. I hope that the Red Sox's clutch win soothes Bostonians' raw nerves so that the rest of the series will rise to a higher level of play and provide plenty of proud memories for both sides.