Steve Lombardi wrote:
Not for me. Gotta be an eye for an eye. That’s the only thing to square the ledger.
Even if we do it to them the way they do it to us, that will never square the ledger. It still happened and we still lived through it and we were still the first baseball team to ever blow an 3-0 series lead. The cat is out of the bag on that one and that’s that. No erasing history, even if we do it to them (and worse) 10 times in a row.

Obviously to each his own but the way I see it…

Steve Lombardi wrote:

ken wrote:
, if we can be down 0-3, losing in game 4, and then come back and win 4 straight then that would surely ‘avenge’ ‘04. Does anything less than that do the trick?
Not for me. Gotta be an eye for an eye. That’s the only thing to square the ledger.

Steve: I’m with you. A black mark that will likely forever tarnish our relationship with the team we love.

ken wrote:

, if we can be down 0-3, losing in game 4, and then come back and win 4 straight then that would surely ‘avenge’ ‘04. Does anything less than that do the trick?

Not for me. Gotta be an eye for an eye. That’s the only thing to square the ledger.

@ ken:
No event can ever truly be avenged. The Red Sox could beat the Mets in the World Series fifty times and it would never undo the heartbreak of ’86. As such, there will never be true revenge for the ’04 ALCS.

Having said that, simply beating the Red Sox in this year’s ALCS — assuming we even get that far — would be revenge enough for me. I don’t sit around crying about ’04. I’m over it. I just want to beat Boston in the playoffs because it would be great fun.

MJ wrote:

I don’t really mind facing Boston in the ALCS because I truly believe in this team. The fact that we could avenge our 2004 defeat 5 years later would be priceless.

That brings up an interesting point: would a “routine series win” really avenge the loss in ’04? Suppose we play well, they play OK, and NY comfortably wins the series 4-1 or 4-2? Does that wipe out the atrocity of 2004? I’m not sure.

As Steve alluded in another thread, if we can be down 0-3, losing in game 4, and then come back and win 4 straight then that would surely ‘avenge’ ’04. Does anything less than that do the trick?

ken wrote:

Regardless, I see us getting through the ALDS. The big challenge is a possible NY-BOS ACLS. There will be huge pressure on the Yanks to win that series.

I seriously hope you’re right. It would be nice to get through the ALDS (for a change). I don’t really mind facing Boston in the ALCS because I truly believe in this team. The fact that we could avenge our 2004 defeat 5 years later would be priceless.

IMO there’s no doubt: AJ starts game 2. As you said, Steve, AJ is better at home and Pettitte better on the road. More importantly, assuming either a split in the first 2 or an 0-2 start, I prefer Pettitte to start a critical game 3 on the road.

Regardless, I see us getting through the ALDS. The big challenge is a possible NY-BOS ACLS. There will be huge pressure on the Yanks to win that series.

Watching how lefty batters “add excitment” in the NYS, I’d probably go CC & Andy at home and then AJ for # 3. That will keep more RHB in the opposition’s line up and Andy has done a great job of keeping the ball in the yard (a real plus in NYS). One other comment… Perhaps we should not think in terms of Joba for game, but in terms of Joba/Ace. I’m okay with that couplet going in game 4 of a 7 game series if we are up 2-1 or 3-0. Less eager to see that in a 5 game set.

the bright side is, if you lose the first 2 games, you at least have the yankee stopper in the 3rd. i’d prob do CC -> AJ – > Andy myself.