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joe sheehan of baseball prospectus was doing a webchat during game 7 of the alcs ([img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]). i came across the following:

Kyle Boddy (Seattle): How big of a choke job is this ALCS for the Indians?

Joe Sheehan: I really hate that we put so much weight on the order of events. The Red Sox and Indians were most likely to go 4-3/3-4 in seven games. That's what happened. That it happened WLLLWWW...that's really not as important as we perceive it to be.

It's not like there was ever a strike point in the last three games where they had a hold on a game and lost it. For that matter, only Game Two really had that kind of tension.

I refuse to buy into the mythology. That makes me a weirdo, I know.

Kyle Boddy (Seattle): Joe, I don't care about the order of things. I care that two 19-game winners, two aces on any pitching staff in baseball, put together four combined terrible starts against the Boston Red Sox and left it up to the lineup and Westbrook/Byrd to get it done (which they did, to a point). That's really bad.

Joe Sheehan: That's not "choking," however, a word that carries all kinds of connotations about the character of a person.

They failed. Be frustrated by that as a fan, be angry, as long as you don't jump from a failure of performance to a failure of character.

I wonder if the Rockies show up for the pressers Tuesday with "Hi, My Name Is..." stickers. It's been a while...

at least we know he's alive!