What Is Freedom?

When I woke up Saturday morning, my lingering feeling was this: Freedom.

On Thursday night, the most tense events Boston has seen in decades began to unfold in the city’s surrounding suburbs. Police had been investigating the Monday bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line all week, and on Thursday, they finally released footage of who they deemed to be the suspects.

The tape was grainy, the photos not exactly clear, but it was enough to know that if anyone had seen these two guys — who looked to be no more than local college students — they would quickly be caught.

Still, in a week that had been one big, long chunk of mourning and disbelief, no one was ready for anything to happen. Things had unfolded so slowly, and even those who watched the video three or four times before heading to bed Thursday night figured the pieces would begin to come together slowly, here and there, before an arrest was made.

Instead, the suspects shot a police officer at the MIT campus in Cambridge, carjacked an SUV, and drove into the night, leading police on a chase that wound through local neighborhoods until it devolved into a bomb-throwing firefight in Watertown in the middle of darkness.

On Friday morning, residents of Boston, Cambridge, Watertown and several surrounding suburbs woke to the news that one suspect had been killed by police, but the other had escaped — driving over the other suspect, his older brother, in his haste — and was somewhere in the area. Residents of those towns were told to stay indoors — no, commanded to — as Boston, for the first time in history save for extreme weather situations, told its citizens that they were not to step foot outside. A manhunt was on. The city had been shut down. Everyone was to stay put while the cops did their jobs.

The locals were only too happy to obey. While a typical Massachusetts resident will forge ahead through 12 inches of snow, danger is something else, and Monday showed just how dangerous these two were. With the police clearly on edge about the entire situation, and with them having already chased the culprits for some eight hours, there was no question everyone would stay home.

But as Friday wore on, it became difficult. While people can plan ahead for a snowstorm, packing away food and such, an impromptu day in the apartment gets old fast. While the news was coming in rapidly for hours, with more details surfacing about the suspects, that soon slowed. Cabin fever set in, with questions: If they haven’t caught him by now, could they?

Around 6 p.m., the lockdown order was lifted by a downcast police chief, and that was where the fear that had eased away earlier in the day came back. They were admitting they didn’t have him but telling everyone to go back on the streets. If it wasn’t safe before, why would it be now? Everyone was fine being brave and returning to their regular lives on Monday and Tuesday, but that’s because the bombs had gone off, the victims rushed to hospital, and the debris cleared. This danger was still in process.

I decided to take a walk. I wanted to do something, and I especially wanted to do something where I could come back and find that maybe something had changed. I knew my neighborhood was safe, but my feet and eyes needed to help. A quick swing around a few blocks confirmed it: People were out, and music was playing. It was quiet and eerie, a few stray raindrops falling and a storm coming in, but it was safe. Even the wail of sirens across the river, and the many red and blue lights, didn’t shake me. The entire police population of Massachusetts was here. They just had to keep working.

But I did wonder what we do now. If this kid was still out there with his guns and bombs, what do you do? It’s brave to go out after an attack and just keep living, but it’s foolhardy to charge into an area where danger hasn’t yet been contained. I felt complete confidence where I was, but I was already thinking of what areas I would avoid, and how many days it would take before we turned grumpy on the cops and asked them why they hadn’t nabbed this guy right away.

By the time I returned home, however, I learned that the recent batch of sirens I heard were fresh for a reason — shots had been fired in Watertown, and they had found the suspect again. Within three hours, which flew past like minutes, they had him in custody. Danger averted. Life restored. Heroes praised. Celebration commenced.

I did another swing around the neighborhood then, this time to see the people light on their feet and smiling. Crowds bubbled up around Boston — huge, cheering gaggles of people. Bars were packed; impromptu parades were held for the cops as they drove home.

That was it. They did it — we did it. The story had ended the way it should. All the cliches about Boston proved true, and our officers were truly the finest.

One of my roommates turned to me in this and asked about the patriotism showing up on the TV. She asked why this was a victory for America, and whether people were right to be waving flags and saying the usual pro-U.S. things they say at a time like this.

I tried to explain that this is a victory for America because the point of terrorism is to paralyze life, and to alter regular, everyday democracy. She was concerned that this kind of patriotism is what gets people so mad at us in the first place, and I concurred, but I said that stopping it in the face of something like this would be wrong. For all the cheesiness — and, let’s admit it, misguided or cheap patriotism — at such a time, people have the essence of it right. People who attack America and its ideals are attacking the ability to be free — to create laws, to spread good, to have democracy, to glutton ourselves, to spend hours of our days watching sports, to defend our amendments, to be uber-American, all the time.

It’s hard for me to explain how I grasped the American-ness of this moment, and why it was right to celebrate the U.S., but let me just say this: When September 11 happened, and everyone talked about what terrorists were trying to do and how you counter that by going back to normal life, I didn’t really get it. I lived through September 11, at an age where I comprehended what was going on, and I read news and analysis every year after. It was only that to me, though — test cases, and information.

But on Friday, I lived the threat of terrorism, and I lived the American response. Fear and danger are not tolerated in this country. Our law enforcement is geared to go crazy when terror tries to dominate us, and to take it down. They aren’t just defending our homeland, and the ideals and values of this country. They’re also protecting us — little, insignificant us, the ones who want to hop on a train or walk down the street without fear. I still believe America is that place because of what I saw this week. The people who protect us do not mess around.

I discovered freedom in the most real way Saturday morning, when I went to the corner store and bought The Boston Globe and a Coke and then walked down my street, through a park, across a busy road (I jaywalked!), and next to the Charles River. I looked across the river and watched dozens of cars zooming down Interstate 90 and Storrow Drive, and I glanced behind me and saw the newly rebuilt Boston University bridge, and the beautiful Prudential Center Tower (it casts it shadow over Copley Square) in the distance.

No one in Boston had to think to himself or herself, “I’m going to go out today and be brave so the terrorists don’t win.” We’re from Boston. We’re workers. How many days have I come home tired and stressed and thought, “I just want to lay down, or cry, or read,” and instead, I move on to the next thing and just keep working? That is Boston. That is a distinctly Northeast spirit. We don’t work to make a statement. We work because there’s things to do, and we’re Americans, and we’re going to keep doing them until the job is done. That’s why we were back at work on Tuesday, and those are the people I saw driving Saturday. It’s less a gigantic statement we’re all struggling to make and more the way of life that we will not let die.

I don’t know what’s behind terrorism or what people are thinking or what America is or what they’re trying to do to it. I don’t know how our patriotism plays into the terrorism equation. I also don’t know that it matters.

But I do know that Saturday morning, I was super-patriotic. I wanted to give out high-fives and talk about it and jump around and shout. I knew what had challenged us Friday, and I knew what had been done to overcome it. All this stuff I read for years — I understand that on a firsthand level now. I got this crazy sense of what it means to be an American, and why that’s not bad. I was smiling. I was ready to go again.

I was free.

Awesome archives

One of the best things newspapers have to offer these days is their incredible wealth of knowledge, information, and ability to capture and explain history.

The reason we still have journalism is because you can't just report the news -- you also have to give it context. Two of the best ways to do this are through exceptional photography and superior analysis, which is why I've always been a fan of the New York Times.

Now, paywall-free, the Times is offering a look at a bunch of its archive photos. Not only are the photos incredible, but the captions offer enough of a context that you can tell there's a whole different world out there.

The Boston Globe has jumped on board with its own archive series.

Clean energy? Ehh... Clean politics? Hmm!

This Boston Globe article today explores a special way to raise political funds that is currently being used in Maine. Basically, if the candidates can collect enough $5 donations, they get to use public money and don't have to worry about raising tons of cash, which eliminates the rich companies and individuals that try to sway political races each year. Great article; great idea.

Strange advertising

Anyone else wondering why there's a Metro ad in the Boston Globe?

Olympic conundrum

A lot of people have been squawking about not being able to see some Olympic events as they are happening (since NBC has delayed them for a prime-time package), and as the New York Times writes today, this has led to ESPN's bid for the next round of the Games including plans to go live with most events if it is awarded the contract.

Many of the concerns about when to air events centers around the problems of NBC being in the "network" category (which, in the up-to-the-minute current world, seems to be more and more of an albatross) while ESPN is a niche, sports-only area where you'd expect constant access.

But the key to venerable media institutions keeping their ground while the world speeds toward vast, changing, niche markets is exactly what NBC is doing. They're not just showing the Olympic games; they're creating a package. Sit down in front of your TV for the two weeks of the Olympic Games, and you will be treated each night with a thought-out plan of the day's best events, complete with solid interviews and interesting stories.

(As a side note, I don't read the Boston Globe's Olympic coverage to know what happened; I read it for its reporting, photos, and good columns. Thus is the role of established, large media.)

I can easily see ESPN botching this: You go home after work and flip on the TV, only to see that you're not going to get the ski event from earlier in the day, because you were expected to watch it when it was on at 11 a.m. Then ESPN cuts from curling, or speed skating, or whatever, to show you the winner, but you don't get to see the full event and all of its suspense (and nationalities, which will be the first thing to go if we're just satisfying consumers' desires). Instead, it just feeds the "I need to constantly know what's going on and watch every minute!" gusto at the expense of getting the cream of the crop. And as the Times article writes, the advertising dollars may go, too.

Yes, NBC has botched some of the coverage this year (ahem, USA vs. Canada hockey), but its approach to the Games is the best way to go: An overall view of a magnificent event, exciting to watch in full even if you already know what's going to happen. (And for goodness' sake, just don't get on the Internet if you don't want to know who won the two-woman bobsled preliminary round in the morning.)

Fear of the shuttle bus

How do they not catch these people?

Most people who fire a shotgun three times, "accidentally" killing their brother in the meanwhile, then are investigated 10 years later for sending a bomb to a professor (as well as regularly cursing out the neighbors' kids for being too loud) would be stymied by somebody. But that's not what happened with the Alabama professor who killed three of her colleagues, as a Boston Globe story reports.

She had been denied tenure and was afraid of what happened next; she said she didn't want to end up like someone else she knew who didn't get tenure and was reduced to driving a shuttle bus.

How do they not catch these people?

Shades of Brown

When I first moved to Boston, I wondered if would ever understand the area: How these people thought, where their convictions lay, and why they supported what they did.

Sixteen months later, I think I can say I do understand quite a bit, and that's why I want to comment on the Scott Brown election.

The election of a Republican to "the seat of Ted Kennedy," in "the bluest of blue states," has jolted the nation, and many are saying it's the end of the Democrat's upswing and a new surge of support for Republicans.

But, as with most political issue, this is not red or blue. There are shades of purple, or in this case, Brown, here.

A proper understanding of the state will help with realizing what really happened when Brown won, and it will aid anyone looking to make definition assertions for elections in the future.

First of all, understand that Massachusetts is still as Democratic as ever, and this vote does not mean that Bay Staters don't want health care or don't support Democratic ideals. That's the last thing you can draw from this election. Instead, consider this: Democrats outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts three to one, meaning that you can count on a 75% blue vote to 25% red. So, in order to even that up, all you need is one-third of Democrats to jump ship (not the entire state) to even up an election...and that's not even counting independents.

Furthermore, Democrats and Republicans in New England run in varying stripes. Yes, Massachusetts has been electing Republican governors like crazy in the last half-century (as duly noted by all the fast-breathing media voices). But those are extremely moderate Republicans, and it's because even Massholes know that they need some kind of balance in government (or so my Democratic friends tell me).

So, it's not like this attention was once-in-a-lifetime. Statistically, it could happen. And the main reasons it did, and the ones that should be scrutinized going into future elections where Republicans hope to pull upsets, are two-fold:

1. Bay Staters are liberal, but they're not blind.

Massachusetts-dwellers have seen the mess that's been happening in Washington as the Democrats try to push health care through, and they're not happy. The senator from Nebraska got free Medicare for his state, and the Maine senators have been courted more in a week in Washington than they were in all of high school (reference Google images). It's corruption, and although Boston love corruption as much as the next sin city, this corruption hasn't resulted in much good for anyone. The bill that has been produced is a mess; it's not very likely to help people; most people oppose it; it's super-expensive.

Forget Ted Kennedy's legacy; I think most Bay Staters were happy they had a chance to shoot
down this albatross. This isn't what Ted wanted, some think.

On top of that, NEWS FLASH: Massachusetts already has universal health care. So, this is not a vote against liberal ideology; it's a message that this form of liberal ideology isn't sufficient.

If the current health bill passes, Massachusetts residents would see their health care costs increase, and, worse yet, they'd have to start shelling out money to welfare-ize the tobacco-chewing, french fry-eating other (read: Southern) states whose governments are so conservative that it's going to take serious money to get health care plans going.

It's simple math, and Massachusetts voters didn't see why they should have to pay for having the foresight to do this idea a few years ago.

[Side note: The Massachusetts plan has yet to be financially profitable, much less balance out. That's a bit of a harbinger.]

[Another side note for red-staters: You know who the governor of Massachusetts was when his administration pushed health care through? Mitt Romney. That's right, as in I'm-running-in-2012-and-likely-speaking-against-ObamaCare-as-the-crux-of-my-campaign Mitt Romney. I'm telling you, Massachusetts politics isn't as clear-cut as you think.]

2. Martha Coakley blew it.

Now, my red-state friends have been saying, "It doesn't matter if Massachusetts was voting against Coakley; they were still voting for someone!"

Well, yeah, but let me explain the concept of "the lesser of two evils" here.

Martha Coakley led by 30 points in the polls one month before the election. Martha Coakley blew three other decent senatorial candidates away in the Democratic primary months before the special election and had the majority of observers wondering why she was still campaigning at all. Martha Coakley was to Ted Kennedy what Cape Cod is to...well, cod. Martha Coakley was endorsed by Ted Kennedy's widow, a blemishless figure in the Massachusetts lexicon whose last public appearances before the endorsement included her standing outside all day thanking the thousands who came to Ted's wake.

They're not calling her "Chokely" around here for nothing.

How could she blow it so bad? Just think of the worst possible things you could do in a campaign, and she probably did them.

Falsely accuse your opponent of not helping rape victims? Check. Suggest that Curt Schilling, the man who bled through his sock to lead the Red Sox back from a 3-0 deficit against the New York Yankees and break an 86-year curse, was a Yankees fan? Check. Go Beacon Street on everyone, looking down your nose at your hard-campaigning opponent and ask, "What am I supposed to do? Stand outside Fenway Park? Shake hands? In the cold?"

Yes, Martha, that's what you were supposed to do.

Completely out of touch. She also suggested that there are no terrorists left in Afghanistan.

I don't care if you hate George W. Bush, if you think the wars over there are a mistake, if you're anti-Cheney, anti-Palin, anti-involvement. You're still scared about America being threatened by terrorists, especially after somebody tries to bomb the country on Christmas and the woman who's running for your Senate seat is taking the day off (and assuming Afghanistan is full of poor, lovely, peaceful poppie farmers).

In summary: Massachusetts is more purple than you think; Bay Staters are still liberal but want sane liberalism; and Martha's campaign is now the biggest choke job in New England's history, supplanting even that game against the Giants in 2007 (I won't utter the words).

The lesson I take from all this, though, is that as much as I want to explain this race and say what effect it will have on future voting, we can't really know until those races come up. There's a lot of time until then. Sure, the Democrats have ticked off enough people to get a backswing.

But isn't that what always happens?

Here's my point: Instead of Karl Rove saying there's going to be a Republican majority forever (2000ish) or pundits saying the Democrats are in charge for a while (uh, 12 months ago?), why aren't people focusing on what the people are actually saying?

The election of Scott Brown was not a mandate for right-wing Republican policies. The guy is an environmentalist and supports Roe v. Wade. Yeah, that's right.

(Although his quickness to shout about the availability of his young daughters does make me think of several Christian college campuses where I have lived.)

The election of Scott Brown was a message from a liberal state that the Democrats had gone too far, overplayed their hands a little bit.

I think it was the same with the 2008 election: People were sick of the Republicans doing whatever they wanted and forcing their way on people.

What do people really want? It's in the middle, of course...a shade of purple. And instead of declaring Republican mandates and Democratic mandates, let's back away from swinging from one side to the other and let the balance stick sit for a minute, waiting to see where the bubble slides to. On some issues, the American people may prefer a more liberal approach. On others, it will be conservative issues.

(It's safe to say most Americans are not happy about health care, but many Americans also want a liberal-like equality when it comes to controlling the financial sector. Purple.)

Finally, I want to take a shot at the national psychos who have been trying to pigeonhole the Massachusetts election: Get your facts straight.

I think the Boston Globe did a great job of covering its home turf well, and much of what it reported lined up with what I was hearing from my friends (a mix of conservatives, Republicans, and "I vote for whomever has the less annoying adds").

But the national media (here's pointing at you, Fox News and MSNBC) once again played partisan and blew it out of proportion. And unfortunately, many people I consider level-headed took the bait.

It's not red state versus blue. There are layers here, and it's worth the time to look at the layers.

[I will note the Time magazine article especially, which was mostly correct and had a great headline ("Mass Mutiny") but incorrectly reported that Brown's daughter was a four-year starter on the Boston College basketball team (she still is, not was) and engaged in hyperbole when talking about some voters drawing Brown's nickname in a snowbank in a photo caption. Oh, and they acted as if Brown's early advertisements comparing himself to John F. Kennedy were a good idea when anyone within a 200-mile radius of Boston will tell you they most certainly were not taken well, and were stopped a month before election day.]

Scott Brown's win was a big one, and it had big implications. But in a world of Roves, Palins, Pelosis, and Reids, the sane people cannot lose sight of the other 300 million people who don't necessarily want to dump their lives into the farce that is politics, of all its manipulation and bargaining and half-accomplishments. They just want their actual concerns to be heard among those with the power and the money.

Brown kept saying it was the "people's seat," not Kennedy's. What I'm interested in is how this new senator will help the Bay Stater I have recently become.

We're a state, and a nation, not of red and blue. What will Brown do for the purple?

Good sports Web sites

The Associated Press Sports Editors has released its first list of top sports Web sites after years of honoring sports sections and sports writing.

Two of my favorite sites, the Boston Globe's Boston.com and USAToday.com, were in the top 10 (the Globe was first).

See the entire list here.

(And what a great Boston.com headline for Jason Bay's departure to the New York Mets: "Bay State No More.")

Patriots death knells?

I've refrained from writing about the Patriots this season, mostly because of lack of time but also because of some raising and dashing of hopes. The most recent loss, however, seems to have pushed some sportswriters over the edge, and I link to their comments here.

The Boston Globe's Christopher L. Gasper thinks Friar Bill has lost control of his locker room. (Surprisingly no references to Mr. Eric Mangini, though.)

Boston.com's Tony Massarotti says Adalius Thomas's time in New England is short, plus other good insights on the Boston sports scene (and Tiger Woods). Check out the Adrian Beltre comment, too.

Home of the Red Sox, voice for the Yankees

Check out the front page of the Boston Globe. And enjoy the voicemail on the Globe score line, recorded by your's truly.

It's time

Just before the seventh, and FOX is showing great World Series moments. The ball dribbles through Bill Buckner's legs, and a laugh bursts out of my mouth as I move past the TV.

Problem is, I'm at the Boston Globe. And for those of you short on baseball history, that error was one of the worst moments in Boston Red Sox history, a play where the Sox had it all wrapped up until Buckner prolonged the 86-year curse.

The Sox have been done playing for a while now, of course. Worse yet, their archnemesis, New York, is leading the World Series three games to two.

I am forced to watch at the Boston Globe, where every laugh at Buckner gets a dirty look, and every Hideki Matsui RBI gets a groan.

Ah, yes, Matsui. That's where this story begins, right? The story of Game 6 and Championship #27.

The great storyline going into the game, of course, was that this contest offered a matchup between two players deep within Yankees-Red Sox lore. New York brought Andy Pettitte, who holds the record for most postseason games with 19. He's won four championships and was the pitcher who clinched the American League Division Series and American League Championship for the Yankees this year.

On the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies was Pedro Martinez, the same Pedro who slew the Yankees en route to the 2004 championship by the Sox. Martinez is best known for admitting, before he had learned how to get past New York, that the Yankees were his "daddy."

So they there were, the great Yankees-killer versus the great Yankees playoff pitcher, ready for a duel that made even New York fans who were sick over the series stretching to six games pleased as the great matchup.

Martinez buzzed through the first inning, as did Pettitte, then Martinez opened up the second frame with a leadoff walk. (You have to wonder who Pedro's Little League coach was, and if he spoke enough Spanish to teach little Pedro to never walk the leadoff man.)

Alex Rodriguez trotted to first, and the Matsui show began. Matsui battled Pedro in an eight-pitch battle that saw Godzilla (Matsui's nickname in his native Japan) hit a few Japanese home runs, towering blasts landing in the right-field seats that would once have been counted as homers in Japanese baseball.

Finally, Matsui straightened one out and went just as deep, and five batters into the game, the Yankees were ahead 2-1.

It was a lead New York would never relinquish.

Pettitte, although pitching on merelythree days of rest, looked decent early, humming through the Phillies lineup. He allowed a triple (that could have been a double if not for a strange bounce), then the runner scored on a sacrifice fly.

Pedro, on the other hand, hit some more trouble in the very next inning. Derek Jeter hit a one-out single, then Martinez walked Johnny Damon after a seven-pitch at-bat. Next up was Mark Teixeira, who has had a measley two hits this World Series and would probably be more comfortable hiding in a locker. But Pedro bailed him out, plunking him to load the bases.

Rodriguez stepped to the plate with another chance to continue writing his magical playoff story, but Pedro struck him out.

Next up: Matsui. The Yankees already led 2-1, with the designated hitter having done his job. Matsui seemed eager, though, to make up for time lost in Philadelphia, where he rode the pine for three games (with no DH).

Matsui ripped a beautiful RBI single up the middle with two outs and the bases loaded, boosting New York's margin to 4-1.

By the time the fifth came around, Pedro was gone, chased after just four innings. The vaunted pitching matchup had fallen to Japanese pressure, and the bats would now decide the game.

Jeter came out with no care for who was on the mound, lacing a leadoff double to keep the Phillies on their heels. After Jeter was sacrificed over to third, Teixeira finally came through, singling Jeter home to put the Yankees up 5-1. It was the only RBI the Yankees would get that wasn't by Matsui.

Yes, Matsui again. After A-Rod got plunked one more time (the fourth time this series), Matsui the Phillies-killer did as he knew best, doubling the runners home for a 7-1 New York lead.

Apparently, after being rested for three games, Matsui thought he'd compensate with three games' worth of stats in one amazing evening.

Matsui's 6 RBI tied a record for the most RBI in a World Series game.

In the top half of the innings, by the way, Pettitte was still mowing them down, pitching a nearly flawless game. He allowed just two hits through five innings, which is just what the Yankees needed after their poor pitching destroyed their six-run effort the night before.

As Pettitte moved into the sixth, the camera cut to the bullpen, capturing a shot of someone tossing a ball at Joba Chamberlain, who totally missed it and saw it fly by his head.

Stomach ulcers, commence. Yankees fans are already nervous enough about ever having to use the bullpen (especially Chamberlain), so that's the last thing we want to see.

Pettitte gave up a walk, a two-run homer, and a double, and it was time to summon Chamberlain. The real test began. But surprisingly, Chamberlain got his outs.

In the top of the seventh, Chase Utley came to the plate with two guys on, with the chance to pull the Phils within one with one swing. But the man who has foiled the Yankees so far this Series, who even dared to tie Mr. October Reggie Jackson's home record, was struck out by Damaso Marte.

It was then that you realized that it was time. This could be it. It could really be happening.

Rodriguez came to the plate, and the Phillies threw at his head again. But what were they doing? Getting A-Rod uncomfortable seemed to be Philadelphia's last, desperate ploy to keep some kind of hold on the Series.

But the Yankees have been winning with just moderate production from A-Rod. And the pitching showed up tonight. And they were holding fast; no meltdowns, no worries, nothing.

Phillies MVP Ryan Howard came to the plate and struck out again, the 13th time this series (that's a record). People say that if you're a power hitter, you're going to strike out a lot as well as hit home runs. Well, Howard has hit one home run and struck out 13 times. Yeah, I think New York has this one.

Enter Sandman. Five outs, game over. Did this just happen?

The New York Yankees are world champions. !!!!!

The New York Yankees are world champions!
The New York Yankees are world champions!
The New York Yankees are world champions!

Other Yankees Posts
Game Recap

World Series preview II

I can't help but crow about the lunacy at the Boston Globe, where, a day before the Yankees enter their 40th World Series, the Globe decided to run a full-photo cover story about how the Red Sox finally won the World Series after 86 years last year. Really? That's all you got, Boston?

Other Yankees Posts

Crazy Boston drivers

Apparently bad Boston driving started early.

In the Boston Globe

The Globe copy editors did a number on me, but it's still a byline: Jen Slothower, correspondent to the Boston Globe, reporting on Duxbury-Hanover.

The New York way

2-0, third inning.

The Yankees are sinking, and sinking fast. CC Sabathia is breaking down in the playoffs once again; A-Rod won't be getting a hit tonight; Derek Jeter is too old for playoff heroics. The tired Twinsies have already gotten themselves on the board, and they're in for the long haul. Game over, sweep's up; Minnesota's in the American League Championship Series.

At about 6:30 tonight, that was the word on the street (especially at the Boston Globe sports desk, where I have the pleasure of watching tonight's game). Everyone was saying, "Wouldn't it be great if the Twins swept the Yankees? A-Rod's gonna choke again tonight."

Bite your tongue, kids, because it's the bottom of the eighth, and New York is up 7-2.

Old man Jeter is for 2-for-2, with a single to lead off the series and a two-run homer to even it up. Sabathia got over the two-run bump in the third and whiffed eight batters, going deep into the seventh inning. And Alex Not-In-The-Clutch Rodriguez is a crazy-.500 2-for-4 with two big runs batted in.

In fact, every Yankee batter except million-dollar-man Mark Texeira and phenom Robinson Cano have notched hits tonight. Phil Hughes, Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain have combined to keep Minnesota off the board since.

Needless to say, reports of the Yankees' death are highly exaggerated.

Other Yankees Posts

It smells like Heaven, and old sandwiches

Tonight was my first full shift at the Boston Globe sports desk, a night filled with taking high school scores, fetching page printouts, and losing a battle against the encroachment of crumbs on the "Hawk" desk.

But it was the greatest night ever.

After my shift finished around 2 a.m., I walked past the amazing pictures of Boston life hanging on the newsroom walls, down the escalator surrounded by snapshots of the old typesetting process, out the doors emblazoned with the gothic "Boston Globe" flag in white and into a night that is too cold for summer. As I walked around the front of the building, I looked up and saw the printing presses humming away inside, behind the two-story glass windows. I stopped.

For five minutes, I watched the newspapers fly through the press, going from giant white rolls to line-smeared beauties, in and out and under and over and ahhhh. It was so beautiful.

I don't know what is going to happen to print, or to all those forest-green-and-gold Boston Globe delivery trucks that pack the left side of the parking lot, but I do know that I've reached the point of no return. I'm no longer the fan of newspapers, I'm part of one — a big one, a proud one. Sure, half of the Globe's main floor is full of empty cubicles where many workers once sat. Yes, the newsroom is dingy, and there's a terrible creak on the part of the floor I have to traverse every time I take the page printouts to the slot editor.

But it's a paper! It has a guy called the "slot" editor! It has photos of Babe Ruth in its sports area! It has the U.S. Open on TV at night! It has crazy old men calling in at 1 a.m. to find out who won the Sox game! It has proofers and reporters and editors and girls who come up from the pressroom around midnight to deliver the first edition, all smudged up and pretty, with its full buffet of the day's news.

A buffet — that's what newspapers were always supposed to be — a one-stop place to find out a little bit of everything going on in life. But today, with specialized sites and up-to-the-minute news, the buffet seems old and outdated.

Think about it: who wants to read a huge, easily crinkled sheet smudged with ink? And who wants to work in a newsroom with a college kid's bylined story from six years ago taped to the side of a computer monitor? Why does it matter what some sports writer says about how Fed won tonight? And does anyone except those drunks from Southie care what the Red Sox score is, enough to not watch the game but then call the sports desk to hear whether Boston won?

I don't know, and I can no longer try to answer those questions, for I am partial to newspapers now. But I do know that I love this buffet of a newspaper. It smells like old sandwiches at the Globe, but to me, it smells like Heaven, too.

I'm not sure whether everyone else would love that hole like I do now, with its old file cabinets full of media guides for every single college and professional team, with its wide-open newsroom that has cubicles and reporters' heads for as far as you can see, with people like Cheryl sitting on the sports copy desk, telling the new "night hawk" (their name for my position) how it is (that people aren't going to stop reading the paper or cancel their subscriptions because the new girl's recording on the Globe's score phone line (617-265-6600, call on Thursdays) sounded dumb to herself), with a proofing printer that the editors hope would have a completion percentage near Tom Brady's, but is actually more like Rex Grossman's (40% — my observation) in spewing out full-page prints of the next day's paper on time.

I'm a fan. I'll take the Globe as it is, from its fight to stay what it used to be to its place on my doorstep every morning. I'll take the cold weather, the actual frost on my windshield on an early September night.

I'll take Boston's mess of roads that still aren't finished, and the cops using my tax dollars by sitting on those roads at two in the morning while some blue-collar guy tacks on a street sign. I'll take the drive home, the way 93 whips you around and shoots you into the city, under the buildings with blinding lights.

They don't even need to pay me. I can't wait to go back.

No joke...a newspaper that is still put together by hand

No joke...there's at least one newspaper left in the world that is put together by hand: The San Diego Union-Tribune. I stumbled upon this article, about the obsolete pagination techniques, when looking into Platinum Equity, the company that owns the Union-Tribune and is looking into buying the Boston Globe.

Everyone at the Globe is worried that Platinum will bring deep cuts similar to the ones at the San Diego paper (hundreds were laid off the day after it was bought), but seeing as the paper was still in 1970s-era layout and pagination, I'd say the Union-Tribune had plenty of reason to take those cuts.

A great Ted Kennedy package

The Globe ran a very strong series on the life of Ted Kennedy earlier this year, with this multimedia package online to go with it. This is the way newspapers should cover everything; it's excellent.

These letters from the Kennedy mother are especially funny.

Massarotti, on the ball

Tony Massarotti's column about how the Yankees and Red Sox pursue their respective players is spot-on.

Globe Disappointments

I'm a loyal Boston Globe reader, and a subscriber, but I've been considering ditching my daily reading with the paper's recent price hikes.

Today, two Globe stories made me roll my eyes and gag at the poor level of journalism at the paper — which only helps me part with the broadsheet sooner rather than later.

First, the Globe chose what I considered a shoddy story for front-page prominence. Two photos, a 24-point (I approximate) headline and a deck — plus a good six six inches of copy — informed the Greater Boston area of the sad loss of Freddy the Turkey.

I'm not joking.

The bird was shot after stopping traffic and being aggressive toward some people, "but many are unconvinced and say the bird deserved better...his untimely departure has struck a wistful chord."

Apparently, local residents were very attached to this bird. I'll withhold judgment on them, but the Globe — ?

The other story I object to is also an animal story. Animal articles don't bother me, but I'd like to see some sort of relevance, especially if a story bunps a war or a massive fire off the front page of the Metro section, which today's "Deciphering the message in Fido's bark" did (the latter, that is).

The article talked about researchers analyzing a dog's bark and the reason for it, which I found mildly interesting until outrage hit at paragraph seven.

The quote, from some sort of expert: "They (dogs) are occupying such an important role in our lives. If you're trying to stop a dog barking, it makes a difference if you think it's barking because it wants to talk to you or because it's frightened and wants to call your assistance."

Can someone please tell Captain Obvious that we're aware that it's important to figure out whether we need to let the dog out or grab a shotgun to fight off a robber, but that doesn't mean we need a scientific analysis of a dog's bark?

Please tell me there wasn't public funding for this research. I'm pretty sure if you can't figure out why your dog is barking, you're not going to be reading a psychological finding on animal research of a dog's bark.

This had the potential to be an OK article, but that quote sunk it quick.

[A couple reader comments on this article were funny; check out MedfordMickey's and blahblah234's.]