Shut the Fat Man's Fat Mouth, Beat the Damn Sox!

So... What could possibly make me forget about that incredible game last night? The Devils scored 1 goal, and the Mets scored 8 runs, and guess which one won?

There were 85 shots in the game, both teams combined. Final score, Devils 1, Carolina Hurricanes 0. David Clarkson with the only goal. Martin Brodeur ties Patrick Roy's record with his 23rd Playoff shutout. The Devils go up 3-2 and need one more to move on to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, probably against the Philly-Pitt winner.

This is what Playoff hockey is all about. All 5 games so far have been decided by one goal, two of them in overtime and one, literally, at the last second of regulation. Whichever team wins this series, if they go on to win the Stanley Cup, will totally deserve it. Even if it is the rat-bastard Canes.

And yet, as we prepare for the first Yanks-Red Sox series of the 2009 season, David Ortiz said something that totally turned me from thrilled about the Devils' magnificent win to being completely pissed at the Sox. Big Papi thinks that Joba Chamberlain should be a nice guy, and not hit batters, especially that delicate Kevin Youkilis:

"None of that, man -- just play the game the way it's supposed to be, and that's about it," Ortiz said, as quoted by Wallace Matthews in the Murdoch Post. "This is a guy, as good as he is, the next step for him will be to earn respect from everybody in the league. He's not a bad guy, but when things like that happen, people get the wrong idea."

As Lisa Swan wrote in the New York baseball blog Subway Squawkers:

<< Perhaps Ortiz should have a talk with Josh Beckett about how to play the game the right way. If you'll remember, last week Beckett celebrated Easter Sunday last week by:

1) Taking forever in a Red Sox-Angels game to throw a pitch,

2) Getting irritated when Bobby Abreu called for time,

3) Throwing the ball inches above Abreu's head,

4) Storming off the mound and walking towards home plate to argue when the usually unflappable Abreu took offense,

5) Getting to stay in the game despite all this, when Angels who argued with him were thrown out,

6) Griping that anybody would read anything untoward into what he did,

7) Suggesting the Angels' angry reaction had to do with the death of Nick Adenhart,

8) Complaining over getting disciplined at all, even when his six-game suspension was reduced to five games.

Then again, I'm quite sure that Big Papi has had a stern talk with the Big Twit - Beckett - about just playing the game ''the way it's supposed to be," right? After all, "when things like that happen," like at that Easter Sunday game, "people get the wrong idea." >>

Well, I have to disagree with Lisa about one thing. Let us not call Beckett the Big Twit. I've already begun to call him Super Punk, and I like that better. (Just trying to add a little levity here.)

Where was the Boston Fat Man's outrage when Pedro Martinez was throwing 95+ MPH heaters at Yankees' heads? And hands? In back-to-back at-bats in a 2003 game -- Ortiz was already on the Sox, so this is not one of those Pedro the Punk moments he didn't see -- Pedro hit both Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter on the wrist. Put them both in the damn hospital. In some ways, Soriano has never been the same.

And where was Big Sloppy when Pedro grabbed a 72-year-old man, Don Zimmer, by the head and threw him to the ground? Where was Papi when Bronson Arroyo plunked Alex Rodriguez (who doesn't always deserve it), starting that fight when Jason Varitek cowardly left his mask at mitt on and sucker-punched A-Rod? (At least when Graig Nettles coldcocked Bill Lee in 1976, he was man enough to leave his face exposed.) Where was Ortiz for every other Sox plunking of batters, Yankee and otherwise?

That's it. It is time to stop pretending that David Ortiz is a good guy who happens to play for a team a lot of people hate. We can now officially lose all respect for him. If he rips Joba for doing much less than Super Punk Beckett, then he's not the good guy we grudgingly presumed him to be. He's just another Chowdahead, and if one of theirs throws at one of ours, then Ortiz is the obvious target -- even if he is a big fat shell of his former intimidating self.

They want to send a message, let's show enough spine to send one right back: We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take your crap anymore.

To think, the Mets and Rangers are both playing tonight, but, for the moment, I don't hate either of them as much as I hate the Red Sox.

Shred the cunty bastards.