It’s nice to WANT the division, yet not NEED it

"We don’t want to be complacent. We definitely want to win the division and we definitely want to have the best record. That doesn’t mean you should diminish something along the way. We want to celebrate one, two, three, four more times." – Mike Lowell

“…this is a good beginning. Now we start our work.” – David Ortiz

"To tell you the truth, winning the division is nice but the main thing is going to the playoffs," – Julio Lugo

“We want to get in, but our eyes are on the division.” – Tim Wakefield

"We spent six months earning our way to the top of this division and we want to win the division title" – Curt Schilling

"Everybody’s really happy about it but I think our mission is to finish in first place" – Eric Gagne

"Our goal is not finished yet, we definitely want to go out there and win this division and take that into the playoffs" – Jonathan Papelbon

"There are psychological reasons to want to win the division, and there are practical reasons to want to win the division. They’re not extreme reasons, it’s not a do-or-die thing but from a psychological standpoint, some people would argue these are very nominal, some would argue they’re very significant. I tend to focus more on the practical reasons. But the psychological reasons are: We haven’t done it since 1995 and we’ve been in front pretty much from the second week of the season on, so you feel in a sense like you’ve earned it. You’ve gone out… not a good thing to feel like you’ve earned something over 5 1/2 months and then give it away over two weeks. So from a psychological standpoint, we all want to win the division.

 

From a practical standpoint, winning the division does create some sort of home field advantage, and if you can win the division and stave off the Angels and the Indians, well, that gives you the choice in the first round, and home field throughout the playoffs, so again, home field isn’t the be all, end all in playoff baseball, far from it, but it is better to have home field, especially with our club. We score about a run per game more at home than we do on the road. That’s not insignificant." – Theo Epstein

"We’d really like to win the division. But [the balancing act], it’s really not that tough. Just do what’s right for the team." – Terry Francona

 

It didn’t take me long to compile these quotes.  A quick Google search and one viewing of post-game interviews from last night.  So someone tell me why Michael Kay was busting a nut on YES today about how the Red Sox "don’t care about the division" and how they’re "just happy being in the post-season!"?  Does this guy ever check anything before he says it or does he just talk to hear himself speak? (You’ll notice Lugo’s comment in red.  Which he made, not so incidentally, right after the Sox had their ninth inning come from behind win last night.)

He used resting Okajima and Youkilis as examples of this.  Yes, resting an excellent relief pitcher who has struggled lately, probably due to fatigue, is giving in.  Letting  a player who came very close to having his wrist broken, by a Yankee pitcher I might add, is throwing in the towel.  Michael Kay was shrieking during today’s Yankees game like Suzy Waldman when Clemens announced his return.  He then finished off by saying he used to hate the Wild Card and now he loves it.

That’s probably the most interesting part of all this.  The fellas at YES had a lengthy discussion about how great the Wild Card is.  Interesting how seemingly everyone out of New York spent years bashing the Wild Card, only to have to embrace it this year on the chance that’s how the Yankees get in.

Sox are losing, Yanks are winning.  If this all keeps up, the Yanks gain a game and the Sox are back to being 1 1/2 games up.  Not a perfect scenario for the Sox to win the division, but there are six games left to be played and, as they say, anything can happen.  It’s fun to see the Yankees and their minions have to admit that.