I had the honor last night of finally meeting Bill Simmons, who readers of this blog might have gotten an inkling that I'm a big fan of. LilB and I went to his book-signing at the Borders near City Hall in Philly, and got to talk sports with Sports Guy for a couple minutes.
LilB asked if Ray King vs. David Ortiz in the 2004 Series was the fattest pitcher/batter matchup in World Series history, though Simmons said he remembered one involving La Marr Hoyt that may have busted the record, though I later looked it up and discovered Hoyt never played in a World Series. Then I asked Simmons about what's gonna happen with Manny Ramirez, and he talked about some rumors he'd heard about why Manny has to be traded so quickly- before predicting that the Sox will trade him right around Christmas, "just to ruin it for everybody." Bill said he'd seen my stuff on SportsByBrooks, which he has said before is one of only three sports blogs that he reads.
After the signing LilB and I headed down Broad Street for the Sixers' game against the Bucks. A very small and very dead crowd saw Iverson and Co. trail for the whole first half and lead for most of the second, until the Sixers blew it at the end. Samuel Dalembert was the goat- all in the final minute he committed a crucial foul, deflected an important rebound out of bounds, and missed both free-throws to cost Philly the game, as the crowd awoke from their game-long slumber just long enough to boo.
I'm going again on Monday when the Wolves are in town- it'll be my third NBA game of the season, but I've only seen three teams (the Sixers, Wolves, and Bucks).
Posted by Stephen Silver at December 8, 2005 06:16 PMI know it didn't happen, but what if Bobby Jenks had pitched to Roger Clemens in this year's World Series?
Posted by: Gib at December 9, 2005 09:27 AMI am glad you can admit your hero was wrong on the facts he blabbed to you.
Posted by: A at December 9, 2005 11:11 AM